WINTER SEMESTER 20/21

The Hugenottenhaus is a historic building with an enchanting garden that has been developed as an art district since 2019 by artists Silvia and Lutz Freyer, in collaboration with Udo Wendland. There is a vacant lot facing Fünffensterstraße with a footprint of 250 m². Brainstorming is currently underway regarding the further development of this site, and we are participating in this process as innovative idea generators within the framework of the studio.

Over the course of the semester, we have gradually approached this task. We were taught to use both analog and digital tools to develop and visualize ideas. We conducted research, analyzed data, took measurements, identified potential on-site, and learned from exemplary cases.

Each step stood on its own yet contributed to designing a building that expands the site’s spatial and programmatic possibilities.

What if architecture were conceived from a child’s perspective? In St. Pölten, Austria, a representative venue for art and culture for children is to be created through a competition. The Children’s Art Lab is intended to become a new, innovative institution for experiencing and teaching art and cultural literacy to children.

It is intended to serve as a catalyst for high-quality art and cultural education for children, as well as a central information, contact, and counseling center for children’s programs in St. Pölten.

The Children’s Art Lab is intended to become the most radically child-centered space in Europe where children ages 0 to 12 can encounter art and artists.

Contemporary artistic content reflects current social developments and phenomena, subjective perspectives, and aesthetic expressions. These elements should also be evident in the architecture.

We are looking for architectural designs that tell stories and in which children can rediscover their relationship to their surroundings.

The focus is on “working with all means”—using algorithms and straws, analog and digital tools, as well as their transformation from one medium to another—to design spatial concepts.

In the 2020–2021 winter semester, part of the tour will once again take place digitally in the cleanroom.

In the seminar, we will focus on exhibition design and the placement of the studio projects within the cleanroom space.

No new spaces will be modeled this semester; instead, we will exclusively develop and implement concepts for presenting the semester projects in collaboration with the studios.

The exhibits will be implemented and placed in the virtual space using the “Unity game engine.” Seminar participants will learn the necessary digital skills to work with the “Unity game engine” during a short workshop.

The semester is structured into three intensive seminar units:

1. Getting Acquainted_ Introduction to Reinraum’s existing exhibition formats.
2. Collaborative Development_ Starting in the middle of the semester, communication with the participating studios begins. Together, the spaces are selected, and exhibition formats are developed for the studios’ content.
3. Exhibition: In the final step, the virtual spaces will be populated with content from the participating studios from the Summer Semester 2020/21.

With this seminar, we are giving all projects the opportunity to become more involved in the development and implementation of the virtual exhibition.

The overarching annual theme of the FG EuG this year is Body and Space. We focus on and explore the performative qualities of space that become visible through the interplay between body and space.

“Architecture is not simply about space and form, but also about event, action, and what happens in space.” Bernhard Tschumi—“The Manhattan Transcripts,” 1976–81

In this seminar, groundbreaking (unrealized) projects in architecture and society will be analyzed, contextualized, and digitally reconstructed. During the seminar’s introduction, selected projects will be presented for analysis; however, students are also welcome to propose relevant projects of their own. The 3D-modeled project is imported into the Unity game engine, making it virtually navigable for the first time to facilitate further investigation of the building’s structure.

We are interested in how content is translated spatially and programmatically, and which concepts, parameters, and spatial strategies underlie them. We will engage with the protagonists’ ways of thinking and draw on key aspects of their thinking to develop our own projects in the Spring 2021 semester.

The seminar will be led by Dr. Alla Vronskaya, Professor of Architectural History.

Prerequisites include knowledge of Rhino and an interest in deepening digital skills. A workshop on Unity will be held as part of the seminar.

Inclusive architecture places life and the people who live and move within it at the center. Observing, listening, and sensing help create vibrant and attractive spaces that offer users with diverse needs room to thrive.

The seminar therefore addresses the following questions, among others:

How can a space be designed so that people with different abilities can use it effectively and navigate it intuitively?

What (simple) design measures can be used to (temporarily) adapt a space to specific individual needs?

How can necessary information be presented in different sensory modes (tactile, visual, verbal)?

How can control elements be arranged so that they are accessible to users of different heights and reach lengths?