EUROPEAN FORUM FOR ARCHITECTURAL POLICIESFORUM EUROPÉEN DES POLITIQUES ARCHITECTURALES

platform for european architecture

Organizers

This work programme has been funded with support from European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible of any use which may be made of the information coutained therein.

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WORKSHOP 1 Vienna / AT 30 november 2011

Participants

Underconstructions co-organisers

Yvette Masson-Zanussi: EFAP - manager

Marco Stathopoulos: EFAP - project manager

Marie-Hélène Contal: Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine/Paris - directeur adjoint

Margaux Minier, Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine - project coordinator

Hannes Schreckensberger: wonderland, platform for european architecture - project manager

Célia Picard: wonderland, platform for european architecture - project manager

Underconstructions partners

Jana Revedin: LOCUS foundation president - Global Awards for Sustainable Architecture

Hans Ibelings: Architectural critic and historian, editor of A10 new european architecture

Carl Zillich: Bundesstiftung Baukultur, Germany - Head of research

Underconstrcutions experts

Silvia Forlati: wonderland board member, platform for european architecture, share architects, editor of the wonderland manual for

emerging architects

Barbara Holub: urban matters - Artist, architect, founder member of Transparadiso, research fellow at the Institute for Art and

Design, Faculty of Architecture, Vienna

Tatjana Schneider: Spatial Agency - Lecturer at the School of Architecture, University of Sheffield, where she teaches design studio,

history and theory

Contactwww.underconstructions.eu

underconstructionsefap.wordpress.com

send@underconstructions.eu

Yvette Masson-Zanussi, who moderated the workshop, reminded in

the opening address what is Underconstructions, its objectives and its

specificity.

The first workshop was set in July 2011 aimed to define innovation,

and how it could impact the architectural policies for better architectu-

ral and urban quality. After this launch meeting, Wonderland, orga-

nised a call for projects. In less than one month more than a hundred

examples of innovative processes across Europe have been submitted.

The workshop in Vienna occurs at this point of the process.

Its aim is to analyse through the submitted processes the recurring

questionings and needs they give response to.

Wonderland gave an overview of the call for projects. More than 100

submitted projects from around Europe provided the basis for the

opening discussion about the observatory. These projects are of all

kinds: we have social housing, alternative legal and financial plans,

self-construction, cultural and social proposals; educational….They

also came mostly from architects, but also inhabitants, professionals

or local authorities. This confirms the general interest for architectural

solutions and processes, as well as the political dimension of the topic.

Among the projects that have been submitted we notice that there are

some recurring questionings: cultural and social dimension, access to

nature in the city, ecology, access to decent housing.... This indicates

that processes for answering these matters are worth being put in

common. Among these questionings, some are recurring, highlighting

similar problems at European scale. The objective of the workshop was

to identify and categorize these tendencies.

Notably, the submitted innovative processes came from all over

Europe. This indicates that the local experiments identified by the

observatory can have relevance on a European scale.

Workshop

SUBMITTED PROJECTS Austria Zwischenwasser Sustainable Development of town centre / Zweillernumbauwerkstatt / LinzCommons come to Liezen / Liezenteens open space / EferdingParlife Lehen / SalzburgExperimentday 01.Wien / Viennaika - The Venice Projects LinzThe Illusiontank Institut Dreher Haus / Vienna - SchwechartLCT ONE = LifeCycle Tower One / DornbirnLifeCycle Tower - multi-story buildings in timber / BregenzArchitecture for Astronauts / ViennaMy Home My Bed My Mango Tree / ViennaApartement complex Wagramerstrasse / ViennaEightplus / ViennaNHK - Niderösterreich Haus / KremsMobile Dome House IZM - Illwerke Center Montafon / GaschurnSleep Kit for astronauts / ViennaIn the Mist / ViennaFast Forward City / ViennaRegional Vocational School Graz / Graz Belgium Youth centre JOC Rabot / GentLa ville en imaginaire / Brussel Bosnia Limits as inspiration / Sarajevo Czerch Republic Floating office / Praha DenmarkPrammen / Skanderborg Finland Low2No / HelsinkiTouching water - floating housing system / Kotka FrancePetite Urbanités libres / ParisUn plus un, habitat collectif en autoconstruction / Parisdémarche HQAC - programme TRANS305 / Ivry-sur-SeineREC, les serres / BagnoletPlace au changement / Saint EtienneMaison des Projets des Courtillières / PantinLe Caillou / NantesLa fôret interactive Le Germoir / Bezonsle lieu d’Herbes / Manneville la Pipard

Urban Foam / Parisecosphère / NantesLa fumée du Paquebot / St NazaireMaison Dupré-Vitramo / StrasbourgCité République / AubervilliersJeu de Ville / ParisTower City Towers / MarseilleMarbre d’ici / Ivry-sur-Seine Germany public office for architecture / StuttgartThe Knot / BerlinQuerkräfte. Urban Futures of TXL Airport / BerlinNexthamburg / Hamburginverted theater / GiessenWorld Contemoprary Sites Institute / BerlinKAP 686 / Colognesonic sofa / Nürnberg Greece Pxathens / Athense_co_llectiva / AthensNomadic instllations / Athens Hungary M4 Fovam ter underground station / Budapest

IrelandVillage Plan & Village Handbook for implementation / Waterfoot

Italy MHC - Modular Habitat Community / L’AquilaOutside (from) Milan - Urbanslow - Analogical Observatory / MilanUn mega post it publico / TerniGreen Island / MilanoNabito Sensational Garden / Frosinone

Luxembourg LUX - Stahlhof Belval-Ouest / Esch-sur-AlzetteDIM - Deux Immeubles Mixtes / Luxembourg Montenegro Magnifiers of Natural and Technological Elements / Mratinje Netherlandthe Making Of Greencitynetwork / NijmegenUrban infrastructure / Amsterdam PolandThe Art of Shaping Library Space / Warshaw Portugal Building-Manifesto / Lisbon

Romanialimes / TransylvaniaTranscentral Urban Bucharest / BucharestCOOP pe Strada / Cluj-NapocaBringing vitality in the hart of our city / Targu Secuiesc Russia Be in sunshine / Moscow SerbiaBelgrade Wool Mill Reconstruction / BelgradeEcka Industrial Living / Belo Blato Slovakia Power Plant Piestany - hands-on-science center / Piestanystadlnova / BratislavaNove Vajnory - Old Airport / Bratislavaeco capsula / BratislavaExtraterrestrial / Slovensky GrobSPA pool Grand / Trencianske Teplice Slovenia Affordable Lofts / Ljubljana Spain Guerilla Bench / Madridestonoesunsolar / ZaragozaHandmade Urbanism / Madrid#coloreatubarrio / MadridUrban Solid Waste (RUS) All on wheels Urban Attributes / Andalucia0+ Posative Void / AndaluciaArquikids BarcelonaMems Database / VigoVertical Garden Las Cigarreras / AlecantePalmaret-Alboraya subway Station / ValenciaFloating by maio / BarcelonaTrekking Tower / BarcelonaEnvironmental Department of Zaragoza City Council / ZaragozaNew Urban Worms / MadridFad Door Barcelona Sweden Materials of low embodied energy / Stockholm UkraineDnieper River Park / Kiev United Kingdom The Urban Island Project / LondonRe-imagining Portland Works / SheffieldWe heart the Suburbs / Southend-on-SeaCSLCoEPS+CC / London

After the overview on the call for projects, Tatjana Schneider and Bar-

bara Holub presented their respective research work:

www.spatialagency.net

www.urban-matters.org.

Hans Ibelings gave his point of view as a critic and with Silvia Forlati

talked about the actual European architecture scene. Carl Zillig pre-

sented the Bundestifftung Baukultur approach. All these presentations

showed different points of view on innovative spatial processes.

A debate with the participants followed these presentations, stressing

among others the following points:

• When analysing architecture the risk is to fall into consi-

derations related to fashion. In searching innovative projects Under-

constructions analyses processes, not solutions, and not the building

forms. It is therefore not about how the project is, which is indeed

subject to fashion, but about what has made it possible: its tools, its

economic, social, environmental and legal or juridical framework. Many

of them work in bottom-up processes.

• Times related to the projects are also very important. Inno-

vation must be at the core of a long term process to be effective.

• In parallel, the image of the architect designing solutions is

a recent European point of view and it is changing. Innovation, as the

call for projects has shown, comes also from the interactions between

people that have made the project possible.

• Ethics are also an important dimension of innovation,

because innovation follows a political and social view. Innovation arises

when conventional processes lead to solutions that do not match with

our expectations towards society. This reminds us that innovation often

needs courage; but it also shows that we need tools to adapt policies

to reality. Underconstructions is about reproducing processes, not solu-

tions. It is therefore a tool for capitalizing on local resources, serving the

diversity of European cities.

It is important to always keep in mind that Underconstructions is not a

competition. It is an open process. The objective of Underconstructions

is that today’s innovations become tomorrow’s standards, and that

such a process is kept open. Underconstructions, through its functio-

ning, must contribute to ensuring that architecture in Europe remains

an evolving discipline.

www.spatialagency.net

www.urban-matters.org

Conclusions

The objective was to identify common needs in Europe that are worth

sharing experience for creating tools that can be used in similar situa-

tions. Now that recurrent needs have been identified, the next step

will be to analyse the processes for answering these needs in order to

build the tools. These tools will then also be used as a precious basis

for adapting policies to urban reality.

Most of he observed processes have in common the fact that they

have been created in a difficult context, because they are on the edge

of legal and normative framework. This reminds us that innovation often

needs courage, to be daring; but it also shows that we need tools

to adapt policies to reality. Underconstructions is about reproducing

processes, not solutions. It is therefore a tool for capitalizing on local

resources, serving the diversity of European cities.