Adaptive City

How can active materials participate in imagining of urban scenarios?

Urban environment is becoming embedded with digital technologies, but it does not physically adapt to our fast changing lives. What would happen if the physical urban environment was adaptable. Which forces would guide its transformation: individual citizens, groups, government, weather, geology? What conflicts and negotiations would emerge from such material transformation? How could people inhabit and appropriate such public spaces? In this course we imagine the ways in which this could make our urban life richer, more welcoming and transformative with a strong sense of belonging. Or quiet the other extreme.

We will investigate how novel materials with inherently active properties can shape our ideas and designs of future urban environments. The novel materials we work with, make the activity of matter inevitably obvious and present during the design process. Thus, they allow us to immediately tackle the future in which material world is endowed with the qualities of adaptability and transformation.

Teachers: Karmen Franinovic and Roman Kirschner 

Schedule 2018

WEEK 1

23.10 Tuesday 5.K10 

Morning : Kick-off, lectures "Overview", "Introduction to important terms: adaptation, etc.", "architectural utopias" (Karmen, Roman)
Afternoon: Preparation of 1 of the 8 discussion topics in groups of two
15.00 Student Presentation 

24.10 Wednesday 5.D02 
Morning: Alternative reality of a city - e.g. how would a city look like today if cement was not invented? Development of scenarios/sketches/stories
Afternoon: Discussion of Projects from last year,  Student presentation of Alternative reality assignment, New assignment (define groups, ideas and materials)

25.10 Thursday Projektraum
Morning: mentoring 
Afternoon: mentoring 

26.10 Friday 3.D21
Morning: mentoring 
Afternoon:  Presentation of groups, ideas and material experiments


WEEK 2 : Gallery 1, Gallery 2 

30.10 Tuesday
Morning: mentoring on request (Karmen)
Afternoon: mentoring on request (Karmen)

31.10 Wednesday 
Morning: free work 
Afternoon: mentoring on request (Karmen)

1.11 Thursday 
Morning: mentoring on request (Roman)
Afternoon: mentoring on request (Karmen)

2.11 Friday 
Morning: mentoring on request (Roman)
11.30 Exhibition Planning (Roman and Karmen) 
Afternoon: mentoring on request (Karmen)

WEEK 3 Gallery 1, Gallery 2 

6.11 Free work / mentoring on request 
7.11 Free work / mentoring on request 

8.11 Thursday
Morning: Exhibition setup in Gallery 1 and Gallery 2 
Afternoon: Vernissage (with Apero)

9.11 Friday
Morning:  10.00 Final presentation in Gallery 1 and Gallery 2 
Afternoon: 13.00 feedback, take exhibition down, documentation