Archis.org
Volumeproject.org
| Interventions |
RSVP: Shelter
Date and Place T.B.D
| Interventions |
Naples - February 2008
In a globalized world Europe is often seen as a homogonous block. Yet within the continent there are amazingly large contrasts and differences. Moreover, this is not just true regarding the newcomers to the ‘European family’. Worlds of difference exist even among the oldest occupants of the European house. Take Naples, Italy’s […]
| Interventions |
Kabul - November 2007
When cities are threatened by violence the prevalent anwser is urban militarization, barb wire and barricades. The aim is to protect but the result is enclosure, fear and even more violence. Protectionism itself becomes a threat to public space, to justice and to the freedom of movement.
Are there other more sustainable means to provide protection against aggression? Can design help to enable security, mutual trust and fair use of space? Can designer help to overcome the vacuum of governance?
An event on design of trust and dialogue in public space. In collaboration with Ole Bouman (NAi) and Partizan Publik.
| Interventions |
Beirut, Lebanon - 15-19 November 2006
After destruction through war or any other inhumane deployment of technology, capital and energy, we are left with sites, minds and societies unbuilt. Leveled to the ground. Making room for denial, doubt and a divided society. Understandable but unacceptable. This condition needs those who dare to envision perspectives beyond the ruins…
| Interventions |
Prishtina, Kosovo - November 2006
The illegal building activities after the war seriously affected the city structure of Prishtina heavily and raised social, infrastructural, and security problems. Because of the specific political situation and the lack of in its responsibility clearly differentiated institutional structures, the local administration as well as the responsible department of the United Nations (UN-HABITAT) are at the moment not able to establish necessary standards in the building process. There is also no public awareness of the fundamental problems of illegal settlement. In this situation the project will mediate between the interests of the private developers and the necessary regulation by the state in regard to the needs of the community. The project Archis Interventions starts in Prishtina will develop solution strategies. The specific problems of regulating illegal building activities in post conflict situations will be theoretically discussed and brought into the international urbanistic debate.
| Interventions |
Shanghai/ Beijing, China - May 2005
Communism is a theory of the future. Capitalism is a practice of the present. Traditionalism is a longing for the past. We are used to make a choice between these three concepts, according to character and personal interest. But what if it all happens at one place, at one moment? What if we stand still and think about it in contemporary China?
| Interventions |
From Vienna, Austria to Bratislava, Czech Republic,
From Ljubljana, Slovenia to Zagreb, Croatia and
From Vilnius, Estonia to Moscow, Russia
- November 2004
Something of a profound change is going on in this world. Capital, resources, talent and markets are shifting eastwards. China, India and Russia are new tigers on the block. Europe is moving east as well, but not too far. The new borders are stronger than ever. How does it feel to physically cross these borders? What is happening at the edges of the New Europe? Are we facing the new challenges, and further, are we interfacing them?
| Interventions |
Amman, Jordan / Ramallah, Palestine - October 2004
New and old social antagonisms between individuals and civilizations
reorganize our territories. Houses, cities, countries and continents are
reshaped by strategies of fear and protection. People are in a constant
process of adaptation to the ‘new circumstances’.
Unless they move. But where can we go? To the desert? Not in the Middle East.
If the desert is most commonly a symbol of desolation and solitude, the
Middle East has literally become a surveillance-ridden landscape marked by
borders and mental paralysis.
Is there any chance for the desert to become once again a pivot point for
revelation and cultivation? Can we overcome our paranoia at the new
frontier?
| Interventions |
Athens, Greece / Istanbul, Turkey - July 2004
It is not difficult to find evidence for the existence of a perverse age. Psychological self-absorption, internal wrangling, unquestioned wealth, pollution and depletion of natural resources, erosion of the public domain, a lack of historical awareness, pointless regulation, excessive policy-making, cultural incest, torture as pornography…
Whatever it is, it can be defined as a ‘liberating’ era. The question is, is there anything more to liberate? Bring your ideas to the cradle of civilization. An event about perversity and your innocence.
| Interventions |
New York, U.S.A. - May 2004
We have always thought that design was driven by growth. New programmes, new tasks, building bigger, higher, denser. Growth is the hidden agenda of our entire society, it’s the vector of our thinking. But suppose we are heading towards an era of shrinking programmes in shrinking cities inhabited by shrinking minds. Or can smaller be smarter?
| Interventions |
Brussels, Belgium - March 2004
Does Europe really exist? Does it correspond to the area that bears that name? Or is it a mental concept? Is there a European identity? Does a strong Europe automatically lead to diminishing diversity? Whatever the answers, a different outer limit can be drawn for every definition and it is this vagueness that gives rise to the never-ending uncertainty surrounding European integration. The difficulty of attempting to express Europe through its architecture is particularly obvious in Brussels and perhaps exemplifies the difficulty of determining European identities.
| Interventions |
Berlin, Germany - January 2004
Most of what we say and write about architecture is determined by key concepts that appear to have outlived their meaning.Everyone talks about architecture as if it is clear exactly what it is. Where it begins and where it ends. What you need to know and what not. What it is made of.
But in fact the world is pinned down by formulas and clichés that allow for orderly debate, but limit our ability to renew our insights.
| Interventions |
Berlin, Germany - January 2004
We are for ever talking about globalization and connectivity, but meanwhile we are busy dividing the world up into semi-autonomous zones.
Swamped by good intentions and strategies of fear, the spatial interweave of programme and meaning is being picked apart, divided up, separated into distinct areas. Military islands, refugee islands, floating islands - the list is endless. Zones named according to their function.
This thematization of space is leading to a spatial apartheid, a universal archipelago of ’scripted spaces’ separated by hard boundaries and strict checkpoints.
