Angaben zur Professur

Lehrstuhl 

Professur A. Holtrop

Typ 

Professur für Architektur und Entwurf

Standort 

RIA

Webseite 

www.holtrop.arch.ethz.ch

Assistierende 

Stephan Lando, Yuiko Shigeta

Kontakt E-Mail 

shigeta@arch.ethz.ch

Angaben zur Entwurfsklasse

Typ 

Entwurf V-IX

Thema 

MATERIAL GESTURE: TEXITILE

Beschreibung
des Entwurfs-programmes 

In times of constant and unpredictable change, we look at textile as one of the most adaptive and comforting materials. Adolf Loos, resonating Gottfried Semper, wrote, ‘The architect’s general task is to provide a warm and liveable space. Carpets are warm and liveable. He decides, for this reason, to spread one carpet on the floor and to hang up four to form the four walls.’ With textiles in architecture, the tents used by nomadic tribes come first to mind. Nomads have no conception of dwelling as a thing of permanence, and their tents do not erect a clear boundary between inside and outside. These are ideals that in our highly mobile lives are embraced (until recently), but in which we have adopted few of the tools from the nomads. Within the nomads’ possessions – almost all containers, from the bags to the tent, along with the mats, rugs, and cushions – are made of textiles. The last revival of an all-over textile presence in architecture was probably in the 70s in the form of tented interiors. The hero of these interiors is Renzo Mongiardino, who designed for people like Marella Agnelli and Lee Radziwill, who weren’t exactly embracing Hans Wegner or Pierre Paulin for their houses, but instead chose to exorbitantly furnish their interiors with pattern-rich textiles. Adolf Loos pointed out in his text ‘The Principle of Cladding’, that the problem with building a house out of carpets alone. He argued that a structural frame is necessary to hold the tapestries in the correct place: ‘to invent this frame is the architect’s second task’. ‘It was in this sequence that mankind learned how to build. (…) Man sought shelter from inclement weather and protection and warmth while he slept. The covering is the oldest architectural detail.’ The ‘covering’ in architecture was rediscovered during modernism, as new construction methods became possible, such as steel skeletons, and other non-load-bearing alternatives for façades could be explored. In a charcoal drawing of Mies’ Glass Skyscraper, the façade proposed in glass has a curtain-like expression, which hangs loosely around its inner structure. The separation of structure and space defining walls is especially interesting for us in relation to textiles. With the focus on textile, we can study space as an adaptive environment, from rugs and tents that can be travelled with, to technologically advanced woven fabrics that can adapt to changing conditions, such as climate or acoustics. Or we can use textiles that express our personal and cultural identities and lifestyles, or those we wish to connect with. In all possibilities, textile will be our main space-defining material for the architecture we will work on in this semester.

Thematische und methodische Schwerpunkte 

Entwurf, Modellbau, Visualisierungen

Lernziele 

When we take all aspects of the material into consideration – the geology, the sourcing, the industry, the different properties, the craftsmanship, the specialised techniques and the cultural significance – we can deploy the full potential of the inherent qualities of the material itself and our way of working it in what we call MATERIAL GESTURE. In this design studio, you will define your gestures of making and working with material(s) through research and experiment, and in response to the topic of the studio. You are required to produce an architecture that results from your specific engagement with the material and the spatial condition you construct with it. The architecture that results from this approach does not reference or represent something, but simply attempts to exist as a physical spatial reality in its own right. Your research should be supported by the knowledge made available by our studio, and engaged through you with the use of available resources and facilities at departments of the ETH and from external specialists. Throughout the whole semester, and for your final presentation, we require that you work with physical (fragment) models of your building in the actual material(s). It is important, in this design studio, not to make a complete building, but to show and support the found values of the material engagement in a spatial way, based on the full potential of the inherent qualities of the material itself and your way of working it.

LV-Nr. des Entwurfs 

052-1134-21

Zusätzliche integrierte Disziplin(en) 

Unterrichts-sprache 

English

Arbeitsweise 

Individual work only

Daten Zwischenkritiken 

20 and 21 April 2021

Datum Schlusskritik 

1 and 2 June 2021

Einführungs-veranstaltung 

23 and 24 February 2021, 9 -18 h, Zoom

Zusätzliche Kosten 

CHF 100 (Schätzung, ohne allfällige Seminarwochenkosten)

Verfügbare Plätze 

24

Plakat des Entwurfs-programmes 

Plakat ansehen (PDF Datei)

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