Angaben zur Professur

Lehrstuhl 

Professur A. Holtrop

Typ 

Professur für Architektur und Entwurf

Standort 

RIA

Webseite 

www.holtrop.arch.ethz.ch

Assistierende 

Yuiko Shigeta, Stephan Lando, Jonas Kissling, Arturo López Ayala, Grace Prince

Kontakt E-Mail 

shigeta@arch.ethz.ch

Angaben zur Entwurfsklasse

Typ 

Entwurf V-IX

Thema 

MATERIAL GESTURE: Glass

Beschreibung
des Entwurfs-programmes 

Any work of architecture which does not express serenity is a mistake.
That is why it has been an error to replace the protection of walls with today’s intemperate use of enormous glass windows.”
— Luis Barragán in The Architecture of Luis Barragán, 1976 Glass is the miraculous material that allows sunlight and the surrounding environment into space. Thanks to the technological advancements in modern steel and concrete construction, this material has continuously acquired presence and relevance in the buildings we inhabit. Being very malleable in its viscous state, its properties can be strongly manipulated and its intrinsic fragility has become questionable as it can also be an insulating and load-bearing element. The float glass process is responsible for 90% of today’s flat glass production, but other techniques such as blowing, casting, thermoforming and stretching into fibres, offer endless possibilities. We will approach the historic evolution of glass with a wide lens, from the first evidence of use dated 1.5 million years ago, as blades formed from naturally occurring volcanic Obsidian glass. We will go on to study its cultural origins in Syria and Egypt, and its import to Europe and beyond. Glass moved into the discussion of architecture during the modernist period, seen as a symbol of purity and renewal, and has only grown in architectural curiosity since. From an artisanal perspective, we will study its range of chemical compositions when melted, and the techniques used to deliver colour, pattern and texture when manipulated into form; working to discover new material gestures of glass in architecture. The focus of this semester is to challenge the possibility of glass as a building material, questioning its predominant architectural use as a pictorial frame. Miesian architecture can be understood as the merging of the modernist constructional logic of the frame with the romantic pictorial instrument of framing; expanding the gaze on the exterior site and allowing a connection to the landscape. This speaks in stark contrast to the writings of Beatriz Colomina on Adolf Loos, where she details his aversion to transparency, believing instead that the purpose of a window is purely to let light in. This semester, we will study the dialectics surrounding glass transparency, the frame, and site to reimagine what can be gained and achieved with glass as a space-defining material.

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 

052-1133-22

Zusätzliche integrierte Disziplin(en) 

Seminar Week by Chair Holtrop is a temporary glass workshop alongside artisans and artists bound to this Design Studio. It is highly recommended to students in the chair to take part, and they will ha

Unterrichts-sprache 

English

Arbeitsweise 

Individual and group work, thereof 5 or more weeks group work

Daten Zwischenkritiken 

Datum Schlusskritik 

20 and 21 December, 2022

Einführungs-veranstaltung 

22 and 21 September, 2022 at RIA and in Basel

Zusätzliche Kosten 

CHF 0 (Schätzung, ohne allfällige Kosten für Modellbau und Seminarwoche)

Verfügbare Plätze 

36

Plakat des Entwurfs-programmes 

Plakat ansehen (PDF Datei)

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