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Roger Riewe (Ed.)

spaceconditionInternational Architecture Symposium

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� �7 PREFACERoger Riewe

11 WELCOME ADDRESS Erich Hödl (Rector Graz University of Technology)

Peter Oswald (Director steirischer herbst art festival)

Roger Riewe

17 TOPICRoger Riewe with

Bart Lootsma, Neil Leachin location A

Michael Speaks, Aaron Betsky, Kari Jormakka, Xavier Costain location B

INTERVIEWS 135 Zaha Hadid

(Zaha Hadid Architects)37 Elisabeth Nöst-Kahlen in conversation with

Hani Rashid (Asymptote)41 Heywon Seo in conversation with

Mark Goulthorpe (dECOi)45 Eva Grubbauer in conversation with

Marie Therese Harnoncourt andErnst J. Fuchs (the next ENTERprise)

49 TOPICContinuation

53 SPACE CONDITION – PART 1Kari Jormakka withPatrik Schumacher (Zaha Hadid Architects),Greg Lynn (Greg Lynn FORM), Tom Verebes(ocean D), Marie Therese Harnoncourt(the next ENTERprise)in location A

Bart Lootsma withHani Rashid (Asymptote), Kivi Sotamaa andMichael Hensel (ocean NORTH), Christoph Pichlerand Hannes Traupmann (Pichler & Traupmann),Oliver Salway (Softroom)in location B

INTERVIEWS 267 Eva Grubbauer in conversation with

Greg Lynn (Greg Lynn FORM)71 Elisabeth Nöst-Kahlen in conversation with

Christoph Pichler and Hannes Traupmann (Pichler & Traupmann)

75 Eva Grubbauer in conversation withFarshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera Polo(Foreign Office Architects)

81 SPACE CONDITION PART 1Continuation

INTERVIEWS 399 Heywon Seo in conversation with

kabru (propeller z)103 Anja Jonkhans in conversation with

Chris Bagot and Oliver Salway (Softroom)109 Anja Jonkhans in conversation with

Mascha Veech-Kosmatschof and Stuart Veech(veech.media.architecture)

Content

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113 SPACE CONDITION PART 1Continuation

115 SPACE CONDITION PART 2Aaron Betsky withJacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries (MVRDV)Nigel Coates (branson coates architecture)Philipp Tschofen (propeller z)in location A

Xavier Costa withBen van Berkel (UN Studio), Ross Lovegrove, Nick Bax (The Designers Republic in collaborationwith Sadar Vuga Arhitekti), Bostjan Vuga (SadarVuga Arhitekti), Reto Pfenninger (agps architecture),Stuart Veech (veech.media.architecture)in location B

133 SPACE CONDITION PART 3Michael Speaks withZaha Hadid (Zaha Hadid Architects),Bill Mac Donald and Sulan Kolatan (Kolatan / Mac Donald Studio), Brett Steelein location A

Neil Leach withMark Goulthorpe (dECOi), Farshid Moussavi andAlejandro Zaera Polo (Foreign Office Architects),David Erdmann, Marcelyn Gow, Ulrika Karlssonand Chris Perry (servo), Tobi Schneidler (interactiveinstitute in collaboration with servo)in location B

159 GLEANINGS Roger Riewe

163 BIOGRAPHIES

175 IMPRINT

PREFACE

All over the world, architectural projects,whether built or not-implemented, are published inglossy brochures and monographs and are therebypresented to an interested specialist audience. Anydiscussion of this published material only takesplace indirectly (if at all) in that, through newprojects, there is an element of reaction to thosepublished. However, there is rarely an immediatediscussion. Although it would be very important, asit would clarify and sharpen up both positions andattitudes. This non-discussion surely cannot be putdown to laziness or a ‘keep-out’ attitude in an ivory

tower, but might rather be caused by the attitude ofthe print media. They are either too slow and inertor do not have enough space to give room to andsupport highly complex architectural discussions.Therefore, in a time of new media and real-timecommunication, it becomes clear that face to facemeetings are of paramount importance, not onlyfor reasons of getting to know each other butmainly for reasons of a direct and immediate

�7SPACE CONDITION – INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE SYMPOSIUMPREFACE ROGER RIEWE

exchange, offering the chance to react toparticipants and to what was said, so that thediscussion can be deeper and more thorough. Theseface to face meetings seem to be the only chance todeal with complex architectural questions properly.Therefore, symposia, especially the ones that have acertain structure in terms of contents and topic, areenormously important.

PrefaceRoger Riewe

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After the “Latent Utopias” exhibition,organised by steirischer herbst, had been given afixed date, upon agreement with Peter Oswald, thedirector of steirischer herbst, and the exhibitioncurators Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher, Iembarked on the organisation of the symposium inparallel with the exhibition. My principal approachfor the symposium was neither to have the teamsexhibited in “Latent Utopias” being presented andexplained by theorists, nor to oblige the exhibitedteams to make statements of principle andpositioning. Rather, we wanted theorists ofarchitecture and critics to point out and discusstopical themes of contemporary architecture in around-table discussion. Thus the exhibitionmentioned would be embedded in a wider context,and implicit topics would be rendered accessible tothe interested specialist audience through thepresent publication.

SPACE CONDITION

ARCHITECTURE CONDITIONS SPACE.

Space, public space in particular, is subject tocontinuous change. What is the role of architecturein this context? Can architecture co-determine thischange or is it limited to mere reaction? Will therebe a final competition between everyday and one-offevents, even though they depend on one another?

Architectural conditioning of public spacecontributes to an increase of cultural values. Canindividual projects such as Guggenheim Bilbao

change a region? Is it new strategies or changes ofparadigms that will contribute to the conditioningof space? In the coming age of mass customisation,the architectural symposium “space condition” wassupposed to embark on the search for newarchitectures.

To what extent are space-conditioning aspectsdependent on time, or should they rather be seen aslocation-specific? What synergies can we expectbetween global themes and local, everydayimpressions? Global versus local, or is there indeeda glocal?

Architecture in a time in which bothideologies and manifestos are missing, in a time of“political correctness”: what can we expect of thearchitecture of the future? New strategies, or even anew kind of radicalism?

Does the approach of utopia not, at the sametime, hold a certain degree of failure? Hence therewere numerous questions that were supposed to beaddressed within “space condition”. The clarifyingprocess promised to be thrilling, especially with thefocus on the group of those who had been exhibitedin “Latent Utopias”.

Thus the question was raised as to whichtheorists and critics of architecture should beinvited for the discussion of the complex of topicswith the exhibited teams.

After extended reflections and agreements as faras contents and dates were concerned, the circle ofcritics was fixed with Bart Lootsma (NL), Neil Leach(GB), Aaron Betsky (NL), Kari Jormakka (FIN),Xavier Costa (ESP) and Michael Speaks (USA), who

SPACE CONDITION – INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE SYMPOSIUMPREFACE ROGER RIEWE8

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on one single day (this is how much time we gaveourselves) should discuss the above-mentionedtopics with AA-Design research Lab (GB), angèligraham pfenninger scholl architecture (CH),Asymptote (USA), branson coates architecture(GB), dECOi (F), Foreign Office Architects (GB),Greg Lynn FORM (USA), Zaha Hadid Architects(GB), Kolatan / Mac Donald Studio (USA), RossLovegrove (GB), MVRDV (NL), ocean D (GB),ocean NORTH (FIN), Pichler & Traupmann (A),propeller z (A), Sadar Vugar Arhitekti/TheDesigners Republic (SL/GB), servo (S/USA),Softroom (GB), the next ENTERprise (A), UNStudio (NL) and veech.media.architecture (A).

Graz University of Technology made the venueavailable. As we were expecting a large number ofvisitors, the symposium was housed in threedifferent locations within the university, which werevery close to each other. Location A was the Aula,location B Lecture Hall 2 and location C LectureHall 1. With this spatial layout, we made a virtue ofnecessity, by occupying a panel in each location Aand B which would simultaneously communicatevia video conference. The whole discussion could befollowed in all three locations. Thereby it waspossible to give all invited guests the floor in theshort time available, with the “Latent Utopias”exhibition opening on the same day, and there wasenough room for the audience too.

The substantial support given by steirischerherbst and the Graz University of Technology madethis symposium possible. However, I was also verylucky to be able to work with an excellent team, inparticular the staff of my institute.

Due to the fact that we do not continuouslyorganise symposia, especially of this kind, we wereall very excited.

Guests were invited, flights booked andrebooked, hotel rooms reserved, the frameworkprogramme had to be agreed with steirischerherbst, audio-visual technology conceived.Invitations printed, a homepage installed, cateringplus tent ordered. So one question remained, howmany guests would come and could we handle it ifa lot of people turned up?

The first guests arrived on the evening ofOctober 24th, 2002. Several busses from Sloveniaand excursions from Vienna registered.

On the morning of October 25th, 2002, at8:30 am the first people started arriving at GrazUniversity of Technology. The stream of visitorsbecame denser and denser. The invited architectsand critics turned up, one after another.

At 9:00 am not all of the panel participantshad been spotted.

9:15, 15 minutes late: raise the curtain!

SPACE CONDITION – INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE SYMPOSIUMPREFACE ROGER RIEWE 9

Welcome AddressErich HödlPeter Oswald Roger Riewe

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ERICH HÖDLLadies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Graz

University of Technology. We are very proud tohave this important symposium on space conditionhere at our institution. A special welcome to allexperts in architecture and architectural theory,who come from many countries and who, I wouldsay, are among the most prominent architects of theworld. They are part of the avant-garde. It isevident, that such an international symposium isbeyond the means of the university alone, thereforeI would like to warmly thank the director of thesteirischer herbst, Peter Oswald, for the excellentcooperation which has already become a traditionin the last few years. As you know, there is today acorrelated exhibition on “Latent Utopias”, whichwill be opened tonight, I think this is a very stronglink to this symposium.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the subject of thissymposium is undoubtedly an important one. Inthese rapidly changing times, the space in which welive our worldly lives is intimately linked to thequality of life, the space conditions many aspects ofour quality of life. The public space in particular, isan important aspect of the space question. I wouldsay, it is of foremost importance. We no longer havesome fixed and overall accepted ideology inarchitecture nor do we have manifestos which areaccepted.

This proves again, that we live in a postmodern time and for this reason, we must have anopen discussion concerning many aspects of oursociety, but certainly including architecture. Forthis reason, I think the discussion has to beorganised very openly and I’d like to take this

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Erich Hödl

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opportunity to thank Roger Riewe, who hasorganised this conference as a real forum, adiscussion forum where you, the participant, canchoose the theme and also the individuals withwhom you want to discuss openly and havepersonal contact with. I think, to have thisorganisation in several rooms here is also a kindof space organisation in itself. I would say, this isan experimental discussion and experimentaldiscussions are needed if you no longer have anideology or a manifesto, which had tradition inarchitecture. This symposium is organised in aninstitution, which has quite a long tradition inarchitecture and I say that we also have manyprominent architects, at least in the Germanspeaking countries, coming out of the GrazUniversity of Technology. We, as an institution,have several faculties in engineering and naturalscience and I say, that architecture is one of thediamonds at this university. A year ago we had aninternational peer review evaluation of our facultyof architecture and the results were very inspiring,the results had also given some push to rethinkingthe organisation, concerning learning, teachingand research. We are on a good path to advancingthis faculty in a tradition, which has beenaccepted here for a long time and has also led tothe reputation of this faculty. We have about1,700 students at the faculty and this makes it oneof the largest faculties at our university. Therestructuring of a faculty and in this case ofarchitecture is also bound to the new universitylaw in Austria. We are going into a period of moreautonomy and more responsibility to develop ourprofile and I think, the faculty of architecture has

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Peter Oswald

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been doing quite well since last year, especiallyafter this evaluation. I therefore thank the entirestaff of the architectural faculty and again RogerRiewe for having organised this conference. I hopethat this conference is also input for ourrethinking at the university but certainly it goesbeyond our institution, and as we have so manyinternational participants I think this is anopportunity to include our institution in aninternational discussion on space. But as space is avery general theme, many aspects of architectureare involved in this subject. For this conference Iwish you fruitful discussions, especially creativediscussions and I think, it should also be in such aspirit that the openness of universities isdemonstrated, because architecture and manyother disciplines are closely linked to society as awhole and giving a positive input to thedevelopment and the betterment of society mustalso be an aim of architecture. Thank you forcoming and I wish you a good symposium. Thankyou.

PETER OSWALDThank you Erich Hödl. Ladies and

Gentlemen. Our festival steirischer herbst 2002focuses on radical experiment withincontemporary architecture. The exhibition“Latent Utopias” presents current architecturalexperiments with radically new concepts ofspace. This exhibition is curated by Zaha Hadidand Patrik Schumacher and welcome to BrigitteFelderer, who brought the three of us togetheryears ago and I am very happy about thiscoincidence. Yah, the visitors will be able to

move through a series of unfamiliar spaces.There is a great diversity of experiences,installations range from abstract, threedimensional compositions to models of ongoingprojects, from unfamiliar furniture to semi-abstract inhabitable environments, that allude toanother everyday life. In this context I am very,very happy, that the Graz University ofTechnology took the decision in coproductionwith our festival to organise this symposium,curated and organized by Roger Riewe with hisincredible energy under the title space condition.Spaces, particularly public spaces, are constantlychanging faster and faster. What role doesarchitecture play in this context? Canarchitecture still act or is it doomed to react?The obvious prevalence of the everyday seems todisplace the unique, also both are mutuallydependent and this is a tremendously importantissue, one of the most important currentarchitecture debates, an issue that architecturemust face. What would current architecturecontribute to society? Globalism versuslocalism? What synergies can we expect fromglobal issues and local everydayness? Isauthor–architecture a trail blazer or thecombination of architectural conditioning ofpublic space? Is it conceivable, that author-architecture not only includes the determined,but also provides space for the undetermined?What can we, what must we demand? Newstrategies or even a new radicalism? Welcome tospace condition and welcome to steirischerherbst. I wish you a strong and tremendousconditioning of space. Thank you.

SPACE CONDITION – INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE SYMPOSIUMWELCOME ADDRESS ERICH HÖDL / PETER OSWALD 14

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ROGER RIEWEThank you very much Erich Hödl. Thank you

Peter Oswald for the intros. Yesterday, in adiscussion we had, preparing this symposium,actually the final discussion after the very manywe’d already, but the first one with the moderatorson the panels today, we noticed that there is anincredible potential in the space today. People whocome here, architects who are here, architecturalcritics who are here in the audience in a situationwhich is not really comparable at the momentshould make use of the situation today to putforward certain topics, as you expressed alreadybefore, in terms of conditioning space, especiallypublic space. But also the moderators we’ve invitedhere, would like to focus on very special topics in

this sphere of space conditioning, so that’s why wereshuffled the whole organisation a little bit, pleaseexcuse me for that. Things just tend to happen likethis but we think it is a very positive aspect, to haveone hour of discussion between the moderators tofocus on the topic of the day and then go into theseparate groups, having their individual discussions.Also excuse me for having begun a little bit late, butI think this is due to the fantastic opening last nightof the steirischer herbst, with an incredible concertfrom Brenda Fassie – congratulations Peter Oswaldfor this great show and I hope, we can live up tothat, because the steps you set yesterday are quitehard and quite high.

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