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Focus At The Architekturzentrum Wien PRESS RELEASE With the exhibition “Un jardin d'hiver*, présente(´) "Bottom up. Building for a better World" 9 Projects for Johannesburg” and the 14th Vienna Architecture Congress “Bottom up. Building for a Better World”, the Architekturzentrum Wien is once again focussing on the subject of aesthetic and social engagement as an essential issue in architecture training and practise. At the 14th Vienna Architecture Congress, sustainable planning and building in a context of the relevant social, economic, environmental and political background is discussed with a series of illustrious speakers. Post-colonial aspects of problems involved in a proactive orientation in design and planning are addressed in the exhibition. We are looking forward to an exciting and complex discussion that picks up on the social issues in architecture. EXHIBITION Un Jardin d'Hiver*, presente(´) "Bottom up. Building for a better world" 9 Projects for Johannesburg 16.11.2006 – 05.02.2007 Opening: Wednesday 15.11.2006, 7pm Press conference: 15.11.2006, 11am, in the exhibition CONGRESS 14th Vienna Architecture Congress Bottom up. Building For A Better World 17 – 19.11.2006 Starting times: Friday 17.11: 6pm / Saturday 18.11: 2pm / Sunday 19.11: 2pm PUBLICATION Hintergrund 32 The collection of images and texts in the exhibition is being published concurrently in the journal “Hintergrund”, the Az W periodica. Available at the Az W and online: E-Shop AESTHETICS AND SOCIALE ENGAGEMENT With the exhibition “Un jardin d'hiver*, présente(´) "Bottom Up. Building for a Better World" 9 Projects for Johannesburg”, the autumn programme at the Architekturzentrum Wien is once again focussing on the theme of aesthetic and social engagement as one of the essential considerations in architecture education and practise. The 2003 exhibition “Just Build It!” on Samuel Mockbee's now legendary Rural Studio in Alabama was a pioneering achievement by the Architekturzentrum Wien, presenting academic approaches to a socially and aesthetically responsible architectural practice for the first time in Europe. Inspired by this show, the Vienna University of Technology completed a project with students at Orange Farm in Johannesburg that was subsequently documented in the exhibition “Jo'burg Now!” at the Az W in 2004. In 2005 there was another presentation of a participatory student project in the small show “The Roof (in Mexico)”. The aim was always for architecture students to develop social projects in collaboration with the prospective users, and then to build them themselves. This exhibition covers the further development of this movement, and on show are the nine projects realised to date by the architecture faculties at the Universities of Technology in Innsbruck, Graz and Vienna, the RWTH Aachen, the Institut für Raum und Design, Architektur, at the Kunstuniversität Linz and the Fachhochschule Kuchl. These were planned between 2004–2006, and successfully completed on the outskirts of Johannesburg (Orange Farm, Weilers Farm, Kliprivier). Curator + project coordination: Johannes Porsch S2ARCH SOCIAL SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE S2arch is the coordinator, backer and organising body for this project, a non-profit organisation founded by Christoph Chorherr in 2004. Since its founding S2arch has been building-up an international network between municipal offices, local public institutions, foundations, private non-profit organisations, sponsors in South Africa and architecture faculties in Austria and Germany. Students at these architecture faculties design projects in their courses that are then built in situ in collaboration with the indigenous population. The focus of the initiative is on educational and integrative facilities: schools, libraries, clinics, facilities for the socially disadvantaged. The motto “build together learn together” encapsulates the guiding principle for the organisation. The aim is “a mutual learning process” designed to appeal to both sides with a non-hierarchic exchange of knowledge beyond any geo-political social differences – between “students at European universities” and the population of the townships. UN JARDIN D'HIVER (OBJET-SUJET) – A CONSERVATORY (OBJECT-IMAGE) The title of the exhibition, summarising the project, draws on an unrealised exhibition project by Marcel Broodthaers in 1974 that has survived only in the form of a collection of slides, “Un jardin d'hiver (Objet-Sujet)”. “Un jardin d'hiver” stands for a popular place among the middle-classes in the 19th century, the conservatory. In the conservatory, where exotic plants and objects are cultivated and displayed, the foreign is considered threatening and sinister, feared as the vanishing point of the yearning for a naturalness, a native quality that is immediate and pure. The “framing” of the presentation of the projects by the idea of “Un jardin d'hiver” addresses the direction of the gaze, which then results from the privileged position of the European universities on the location of what is then built. The protected territory of the university – as the place where the plans are drawn-up – initially generates fictional images and needs of an ideational “foreigner” and then has to find itself in reality – as the site – in different realities. A series of posters containing text and images supplements the presentation of the projects. These include: and many more. “Un jardin d'hiver, présente.” appropriates aspects of Marcel Broodthaers' work, developing the display system for the exhibition from it, while also transferring the theme of Broodthaers' collection of images onto the connected arena of architecture for the specific themes of the projects in the presentation. 14TH VIENNA ARCHITECTURE CONGRESS BOTTOM UP. BUILDING FOR A BETTER WORLD The 14th Vienna Architecture Congress places sustainable planning and building in its social, economic environmental and political context as a basis for discussion. The projects presented and the practices fall into two basic groups: university education-related where, in addition to the abstract academic curriculum, students are confronted with practical problems involved in the realisation of projects; and architectural initiatives, networks and offices concerned with participatory, sustainable and democratic planning and building processes for social situations in a context of development aid or catastrophe support. Where no official support is available for the building of infrastructure, local and international initiatives and educational programmes are formed that aim to close this gap and draw on the local population to spontaneously erect necessary individual buildings. Individual architects’ offices deliberately employ a two-track approach, developing new concepts for social housing developments alongside their prize-winning individual buildings – such as Alejandro Aravena in Chile. The way he improved the structures in a crisis-ridden city with the help of "urban acupuncture” is described by Jaime Lerner, the mayor of and town planner in Curitiba, Brazil. S2arch, Social and Sustainable Architecture is an Austrian educational programme whose buildings are on show in an exhibition running parallel to the symposium, and does not regard itself as a development aid project. Instead, they place an explicit focus on the participatory and practice-orientated aspects of educational work under the motto ’build together learn together’, a motto which 5 universities and a technical college followed, and built infrastructure and school buildings in townships in South Africa. The buildings of the individual student workgroups are presented in brief lectures and subsequently discussed in various rounds of talks. What happens in the cultural transfer of design concepts by European architecture schools in the context of a practical building programme? Can hegemonic relationships as discussed under the heading ’Postcolonial Studies’ be excluded from the architecture debate, and what are the key instruments and categories in teaching students the significance of social and sustainable architecture? Organisation: Isabella Marte |
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Press page Current events Past events Gallery: Images for the Press: Bottom Up The Exhibition Dates: Un Jardin d'Hiver presents. Bottom up. 14th Vienna Architecture Congress Downloads: Press Release: Bottom Up. Building for a better world Information: Ines Purtauf Tel.: +43 (1) 522 31 15 - 25 Fax: +43 (1) 522 31 17 Email: purtauf@azw.at |
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