Angaben zur Professur

Lehrstuhl 

Professur A. Holtrop

Typ 

Professur für Architektur und Entwurf

Standort 

RIA

Webseite 

www.holtrop.arch.ethz.ch

Assistierende 

Yuiko Shigeta, Arturo López Ayala, Philip Stöcker, Stephan Lando, Grace Prince

Kontakt E-Mail 

shigeta@arch.ethz.ch

Angaben zur Entwurfsklasse

Typ 

Entwurf V-IX

Thema 

MATERIAL GESTURE: GRAVITY

Beschreibung
des Entwurfs-programmes 

The basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida wrote: from space, with its brother time under the persistent pull of gravity, feeling matter as a slower space, I ask myself, with wonder, what I do not know. Chillida, in one sentence, joins together what I believe are also the fundamentals of architecture: space, time, and matter, all under the persistent pull of gravity. In this semester we will focus on the fundamental of the fundamentals, that binds building and ground: gravitation. Chillida continues: … but what I really dream about is gravity. I am becoming more and more conditioned by gravity, by gravitation, - by this ideal line that runs from top to bottom, and naturally, from bottom to top. It was my preoccupation with gravity that led me to worry about matter. It’s not that I worry about matter, because I like iron, concrete, or stone, no. It’s that all works must be embodied in something: if not, then they are nothing, which presupposes a greater or lesser condition by that force, by gravity. All matter from the earth to the atoms are under the influence of gravity. To human perception, the transmissions of the forces and motions caused by gravity, seem to come from contact. The way a building transfers its loads through slabs and columns is eventually brought to its foundations, which in turn rest on the ground. At an atomic level, though, it is known that bodies in apparent contact, in fact, do not touch each other. There is always an empty space between them. Chillida adds to this, as he sees matter and space as inseparable, due to the fact that either space is very fast matter or matter is very slow space. And from this, he questions the boundary limit, not only between densities but also between speeds. I am interested in the processes all things undergo, the transitions from one state to another. How molten glass can set and solidify. Or how in Michael Heizer’s Vertical Displacement works, he proposed, for example, Appenzell, to frost crack a gigantic solid piece of rock and let it slide down the slope, leaving all its marks by its enormous mass. Transitions and processes that always include the presence of gravity. In this semester we will with gravity influence space with matter and influence matter with space.

Thematische und methodische Schwerpunkte 

Entwurf, Handwerk, 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. There is no given program for the space. This can be chosen at any time in the development of your project and should support the spatial and material conditions that you have set out. For the final presentation, you are required to make a physical model of your work, or a fragment of it. The model should show the material and the gestures (the ways of making) and the specific spatial conditions it constructs. This is the key element of your presentation, along with samples of the material research and test models. You are required to display the material gesture research, drawings of the project and photos of the model alongside your model on portrait A2 sheets. The A2 material will be collected in print and digitally in PDF format for the material gesture archive. From a selection of a maximum of three projects, the models and material research will be archived for future exhibitions.

LV-Nr. des Entwurfs 

052-1133-19

Zusätzliche integrierte Disziplin(en) 

Unterrichts-sprache 

English

Arbeitsweise 

Group work only

Daten Zwischenkritiken 

14 November, 2023

Datum Schlusskritik 

19 or 20 December, 2023

Einführungs-veranstaltung 

19 and 20 September, 2023, 9 -18 h

Zusätzliche Kosten 

CHF 100 (Schätzung, ohne allfällige Seminarwochenkosten)

Verfügbare Plätze 

24

Plakat des Entwurfs-programmes 

Plakat ansehen (PDF Datei)

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