Angaben zur Professur

Lehrstuhl 

Professur F. Persyn

Typ 

Professur für Architektur und Städtebau

Standort 

ONA

Webseite 

www.persyn.arch.ethz.ch

Assistierende 

Juan Barcia Mas, Seppe de Blust, Sophia Garner, Jitse Massant

Kontakt E-Mail 

garner@arch.ethz.ch

Angaben zur Entwurfsklasse

Typ 

Entwurf V-IX

Thema 

Studio Brussels: Paradox of Practice

Beschreibung
des Entwurfs-programmes 

Cities are sites for the extraction of profit and wealth, where capitalist delusions of grandeur materialize in the most delirious ways. Real estate, at times in collaboration with city authorities, continues to project newer and bigger developments on top of existing lived realities. In the process of enacting their fantasies, entire neighborhoods and communities are violently wiped out. Many of these processes remain ongoing, even though the wounds of past events are not yet healed. This is the case for Brussels North, a district deeply affected by trauma. The city’s economic optimism that followed the 1958 World Fair, and the establishment of the first European institutions that same year, prompted the conceptualisation of the Manhattan Plan. This urban, modernist master plan, euphorically oriented towards its American namesake, envisioned the Northern district as a business hub connected to an immense highway network. The plan was never fully realized; only two of the originally eight planned World Trade Center towers were erected, causing, however, the demolition of an entire neighbourhood and the eviction of its inhabitants. Enthusiasm fainted, forcing the city administration itself to enter some of the buildings. Such aggressive strategies of urban renewal have inevitably forced cities to become places of resistance and emancipatory struggle. Massive protests that followed the Manhattan Plan prevented authorities from pursuing further demolitions of the old city fabric. Today, Brussels North District is being reinvested in once more, with renewed optimism. How to deal with trauma? In this dramatically monofunctional district, investors and planning authorities have recently agreed on a 10% public utility within every new construction and renovation. We will use this as an entry point to question and rethink the notion of the public, as well as its mirror, the counterpublics. Being densely inhabited environments, cities carry the immanent potential of radical change due to the continuous collective reinterpretation of urban culture. Through carefully listening, observing and collaborating with a variety of local positions, we will gain a deep understanding of the complexities at play. We will become active and intervene as designers while being aware of the paradoxes of practice. Sometimes making something sets unforeseen processes in motion. We will identify underlying risks, such as gentrification, commercialization and displacement, to prevent another chapter of trauma for Brussels North. Further, we will ask ourselves: How to relate to utopian visions of the past? How to deal with the decaying and failed structures of burgeoning times? Even more so, within an overbuilt world facing ecological collapse? The studio‘s endeavour is threefold: to strengthen the students' literacy with critical spatial theory, to articulate individual positions and to test alternative architecture practices and doing so by engaging and learning with and from artistic practices. The design studio will be tightly knit with a diverse group of local actors. We will cultivate a reading club, propose interventions in Brussels and Zurich, host a symposium and curate an exhibition.

Thematische und methodische Schwerpunkte 

Entwurf, Staedtebau, Landschaftsarchitektur, Handwerk, Critical Spatial Theory, Alternative Design Practices, Artistic Research

Lernziele 

Develop an understanding of complex processes of urban transformation and the implications they have for human and non-human entities. Engage with a given site through a 1:1 approach. First person research, which consists of carefully listening and understanding a set of actors that are relevant for a given ecosystem. Acquire critical thinking tools and an understanding of current critical discourses concerning issues such as gentrification and urban renewal, ecology, communal public space, gender and postcolonial theory. Develop language and communication tools that allow for precise argumentation and positioning. Develop design tools and strategies to articulate agency, intervene within the entanglement of urban spaces and relations, and trigger change. Find powerful, clear and adequate means of representing the work through different media. Curate and present the outcome in a meaningful way, so that it acquires an agency of its own. Contribute to establishing a vivid and stimulating collaborative studio culture. Learn how to take part and communicate in collective debates and discussions. Bring forward ideas, suggestions and inputs to the group. Take responsibility for organizing collective studio endeavors, such as the final exhibition. PHASE 1: Trauma I-IV PHASE 2: Paradox of Practice PHASE 3: Curation FIELDTRIP TO BRUSSELS 10 - 11.10.2023

LV-Nr. des Entwurfs 

052-1121-23

Zusätzliche integrierte Disziplin(en) 

Unterrichts-sprache 

English

Arbeitsweise 

Nur Gruppenarbeit

Daten Zwischenkritiken 

10.10.2023 / 28.11.2023

Datum Schlusskritik 

20.12.2023

Einführungs-veranstaltung 

19.9.2023, 9:00

Zusätzliche Kosten 

CHF 200 (Schätzung, ohne allfällige Seminarwochenkosten)

Verfügbare Plätze 

24

Plakat des Entwurfs-programmes 

Plakat ansehen (PDF Datei)

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