Lecturers Info: Entering the Evacuated Field
Time is getting closer to the launch of the symposium “Entering the Evacuated field” which will be held September 29th here at Zollverein School of management and design. as promised here are some more detailed information about the lecturers and their topics:
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Ole Bouman, editor in chief of the architectural magazine ARCHIS and coordinator of the project VOLUME, will open the symposium with a challenging lecture: Evacuating the field ‘myself…’, goes the title of his keynote, will address three provocative questions:
- how to escape the cheap commitment with global issues.
- how to overcome the navel-gazing of the aesthetic disciplines.
- how to fight lies.Considering that VOLUME is a project launched by Archis, Rem Koolhaas’ think tank AMO and the C-lab as a new global idea platform to voice architecture anyway, anywhere, anytime, we are sure he will present some astonishing insights about the planning disciplines. VOLUME describes itself as “an instrument of cultural invention and re-invention. It is dedicated to experimentation and the production of new forms of architectural discourse.” The symposium “Entering the Evacuated Field” will give plenty of opportunity to join this discourse in an authentic ambiance, since the Zollverein School itself was born in the context of “cultural re-invention”.
- Furthermore you will have the chance to listen to Momoyo Kaijima from the atelier bow-wow. Mrs. Kaijima is visiting professor at the famous ETH Zurich. She will talk about social space from micro public space.
Atelier bow-wow are Yoshiharu Tsukamoto (*1965) and Momoyo Kaijima (*1969), who have their architectural office in Tokyo. The practice is renowned for its varied urban research: They have scoured Tokyo for hybrid architecture – buildings that serve multiple, often absurd mixed-uses (e.g. car-park with driving school) on the one hand, and also analyzing small-scale architecture, customized and individualized to fit the limited spaces of Tokyo city. Taking these buildings and documenting them, they establish an entirely different way of seeing the city of Tokyo. Documenting their research they have published many books, amongst which: “Made in Tokyo” (Kajima Institute Publishing, 2001) and “Pet Architecture”. Some examples are exhibited in the ENTRY exhibition Talking Cities.
- “Wasteland as a brand” is the title of Boris Sievert’s lecture. He will ask, why the potential of the industrial heritage of the Ruhr Area is not yet used efficiently. Might it be an idea to develop a hype to market this area by simply giving it away? What kind of aspirations could be raised by such a strategy? How would such a strategy affect the identity of the Ruhr Area?
Boris Sieverts initiated the project “Land for Free” together with the architects and urbanists from orange.edge and RE.FLEX. “Land for Free” is an utopian concept for a city in and between the existing cities of the Ruhr area, a city that comprises the realization of individual dreams, made possible by the annexation of vacant lots in the Ruhr area. Land for Free aims to attract settlers from all over Europe for their project as part of „Essen for the Ruhr – European Capital of Culture 2010”.
- “Like a Phoenix from the ashes“ describes Fritz Straub the history, status and chances of the brand of „Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau“. In 1992, “Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau”, until the second world war the leading brand in interior architecture, interior decoration and furniture production were sold by “Treuhandanstalt” via MBI. The Brand was famous in the GDR public as best furniture maker in the country, in the west the image of the company was blurred and existed only as reminiscence on a garden city and good furniture in parent’s houses.
His lecture elaborates the strategy which has been followed by the management to revive the brand and to withstand the temptation to exploit the brand too early.
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Muck Petzet, will talk about Architectonic Transformations, concerning the way, how society deals with resources. An example of his work was shown in the in the German contribution Deutschlandschaft at the Architectural Biennale in Venice 2004.
In shrinking societies, Petzet claims, recycling the architectonic heritage of the past will be the future of the architectural profession. Despite the fact that refurbishment has already overhauled new building by volume and investment there is – outside of monument protection - no methodology and very little theory of refurbishment available. Muck Petzet’s statement will begin to fill this gap by analyzing recycling methodology and giving an insight into the development of several transformation projects.
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Alfredo Brillembourg & Hubert Klumpner just contributed to the Architectural Biennale in Venice with their research about Caracas. They will emphasize in their lecture that in a rapidly globalizing world, in a place where gasoline is cheaper than drinking water the architecture of a city, how people move, live, work and play, has taken on new meaning as the subject of research, investigation and political intervention.
With their urban-think-tank Brillembourg & Klumpner can refer to practical experience, which proves that it is city architecture which really shapes people’s lives. Providing well-designed and managed public buildings has reduced crime by 40% in some areas. The creation of a vertical gym and a cultural center at the heart of a slum dignified the existence of disenfranchised communities, transforming people’s lives as much as the provision of social welfare and food.
In case you should be as thrilled as we are about the roster of speakers you should definitively download the flyer and register for the symposium . See you in a couple of days at Zollverein School!