Erlenmattplatz
David Christian Biedermann
/Anne Bochard
/Juliette Denise Marie Chantraine
/Theo Franco Remi Kurz
/Matilda Poretti
Erlenmattplatz
David Christian Biedermann /
Anne Bochard /
Juliette Denise Marie Chantraine /
Theo Franco Remi Kurz /
Matilda Poretti
The studio Baukunst at EPFL is conceived as an investigation into the archetypical elements of architecture in light of the challenges of our present age. By imbricating the contemporary and the fundamental a framework is set up in which a critical reflection on what architecture might be today can take shape. Research is envisaged as a project and the project is envisaged as research. Establishing a critical viewpoint is therefore regarded as the primary act of building an architectural proposal. Stemming from the overarching approach of Vitruvius’s Ten Books, the studio addresses a different theme each academic year. After Performative Objects in 19/20, Elements of Climate in 20/21 and Umwelt in 21/22, Firmitas in 22/23, in 23/24 the theme of Aetas will be dealt with. Aetas i.e. lifetime or lifespan addresses the often supressed fourth dimension of building, understood here more as a verb than a noun, investigates how time can be utilized in the making of architectural projects. The studios are always split up in two parts of different character, each semester another aspect of the overarching theme is addressed.
The second part of the semester attempted to tackle a common task in a somewhat uncommon manner. While given sites (in Basel) and programs will be nothing unusual, the projects were inserted in an active temporal matrix, developing two radically different temporalities for each site. Obsolescence, incompleteness, and impermanence won’t be considered adversarial forces, they will assume agency in the development of the projects. As a certain precarity of means spreads in the building sector a different approach to architecture might come about and it might entail the utilization of time as a compensation strategy for the increasing lack of material, energetic, programmatic, and financial stability. Architecture will cease to appear immutable and invariable; it will be put in motion.