Angaben zur Professur

Lehrstuhl 

Professur A. Brandlhuber

Typ 

Professur für Architektur und Entwurf

Standort 

HIL

Webseite 

www.brandlhuber.arch.ethz.ch

Assistierende 

Severin Bärenbold, Marta Fernandez, Olaf Grawert, Iris Hilton, Roberta Jurcic

Kontakt E-Mail 

fernandez@arch.ethz.ch

Angaben zur Entwurfsklasse

Typ 

Entwurf V-IX

Thema 

HOUSING THE NON—HUMAN

Beschreibung
des Entwurfs-programmes 

Today, we are confronted with a new reality, characterized by a radical change that is happening — now. Five years ago, maybe even two, the consequences of climate change seemed distanced enough to not care. Too abstract, too blurry, too far away, to actually change our behavior and architectural practice. But how do we, as individuals and a profession, face the challenges of the current environmental crisis within the “given” economical, political and social system? How to manage climate change and take care of landscape and nature while our cities are still growing? Firstly, we have to refocus our views. The ongoing environmental discussion, popularly summed up under the term “Anthropocene” —the age of man-made climate and environment— has a blind eye on the existence of a whole non-market driven sphere: from humans to non-humans. Other than the term suggests, it was neither whole humanity that polluted, wasted and exploited our planet, nor is it the only part of humanity that we should focus on. In the end, it is about survival and the question becomes: how can we —humans, animals, plants— not only co-exist but co-inhabit our planet in a resourceful and circular manner. Taking care of those who have no mandate in our seemingly inevitable system. Supporting multi-species co-habitation as a new form of living together. A post-humanist perspective, as intrinsically entangled, opens the human-centric view to a multiplicity of possibilities, experiences, and concrete models. If we decenter the human from the design practice and juxtapose other agents —from animals to plants to matter itself— it can help us to develop new architectural models: from small to big scale, from legal form to the built environment, from building details over typologies to operating systems. Models, which re-think and re-define our current understanding of punch-words such as “sustainability” or “resilience” and fill them with meaning. Meaning, in the sense of telling the story behind an architectural design and showing the conflicts and solutions that lead to this proposal communicated through the medium of video. How to architect arguments for co-habitation?

Thematische und methodische Schwerpunkte 

Entwurf, Staedtebau, Landschaftsarchitektur, Visualisierungen, Cultural Studies

Lernziele 

We start with the intention to design a space for 24 humans (=number of students) to co-inhabit a natural site in the city of Zurich. This site, a piece of green-land is currently unarable because of its variety of species, and climatic / environmental characteristics. The semester is focused on rethinking the relation between the built and nature, by implementing a system that constantly negotiates the differents loose endings: technology, ecology, politics of material economies, and the role of the architect as an agent of care. In a first step we will use video as a tool to investigate, re-focus, de-center and document the existing (species) and reflect on the individual conflicts between human and non-human agencies: this can range from a river, over the wind to an animal or plant. Starting from this relational research on the subsystems of a specific habitat, we will secondly develop a resilient self-regulatory system, aimed at bringing together the different stand-points and interests. Together we will negotiate, in groups, how these interests can be translated into architectural solutions: from building details, over typologies to operating systems. From there on, we will collectively design a space to co-inhabit the site. The design process will be driven by continuous feedback within the group —from both students and teachers— aimed at reducing uncertainty and complexity.

LV-Nr. des Entwurfs 

052-1120-20

Zusätzliche integrierte Disziplin(en) 

Unterrichts-sprache 

English, Deutsch

Arbeitsweise 

Einzel- und Gruppenarbeit, davon 3 bis 4 Wochen Gruppenarbeit

Daten Zwischenkritiken 

11.03, 01.04., (tbd)

Datum Schlusskritik 

27.5. or 28.5.

Einführungs-veranstaltung 

18.5.

Zusätzliche Kosten 

CHF 100 (Schätzung, ohne allfällige Seminarwochenkosten)

Verfügbare Plätze 

24

Plakat des Entwurfs-programmes 

Noch nicht hochgeladen

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