The relation between society and architecture has always existed. Societal transformations have
inspired architectural interventions to house our rituals, norms, and cultural patterns: architecture
mirrors back to us our collective values. However, the rate of transformation undergone by society
and architecture are no longer in-sync, leading parts of contemporary life to be misaligned with the
spaces it occupies. Other times, architecture has been instrumentalized in perpetuating and
embedding inequalities into our built environment. In all of this, we could end up living in spaces
framed by societal values that no longer represent a shared vision of who we are.
Borasi, Giovanna (2021): „Cuddling Rooms, Body Banks, and Collab
Houses“. https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/articles/issues/29/a-social-reset/77993/cuddling-rooms-body-banks-and-collab-house
(last accessed 24.09.2024)
In a contribution to the year-long study Catching Up with Life at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Giovanna Borasi discusses the possibility that we could find ourselves in outdated spaces, shaped by values that no longer represent our collective selves. Most recently, the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montrèal, the Architecture Foundation in London, the Luxembourg Center for Architecture, the Goethe-Institut in Lissabon, the EPFL in Lausanne, the Università Iuav di Venezia, the Basque Country Architecture Institute in San Sebastian together with arc en rêve centre d'architecture in Bordeaux, the Brussels based architecture practice Dogma together with the Flanders Architecture Institute as well as the city of Hamburg have produced films, organised summer schools, lecture series and symposia, launched awards, curated exhibitions and held competitions to approach the Wohnungsfrage and to question the need for social and collective housing. The seminar examines and documents current cultural and academic formats related to architectural practice in housing with the aim of identifying model projects and their architects/actors at various places in Europe and then ideally traveling to them. It is part of a one-year teaching research project that will be continued in the summer semester of 2025 in the form of a design and/or thesis studio. Continuous participation during both semesters is desired, but not a prerequisite for participation in the seminar. |
