Weltgebraus-What-We-Do.Pdf
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WELTGEBRAUS MAIN PROJECTS Andreas Kofler and Marcello Tavone founded Weltgebraus in 2013, a Paris (and initially also Tokyo) based office, centered on urbanism and architecture. Being accustomed to working in multidisciplinary contexts, we decided to label our Year Project Client/publisher work – whether in the form of projects or graphics, writing or curating – ‘Welt|gebraus’, a 2016 The book of Repossi**, Paris OMA/AMO for Repossi German compound word describing the (incessant) roaring of the world. With no direct 2015 Cartier Skywalker** Soixante circuits for Cartier translation in the English language (as it is the case for words such as Sehnsucht or 2015 Epiphenomena FAMagazine Schadenfreude), even its use in German is rare and may be even exclusive to the motto 2015 Resiliance, Stavanger* Europan Norway “Steh fest mein Haus im Weltgebraus” (Stand steady, my house, amidst the roaring of 2015 Miyajimaguchi, Hiroshima* Hatsukaichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture the world) by lyricist Richard Dehmel. A sort of Godspeed that Peter Behrens decided to 2015 Elsewhere, Paris It’s Great Design Gallery take over and inscribe on the facade of his house on the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt, 2015 Salon de la Pâtisserie, Paris Food & Beverage Studio wishing it may be “vaccinated” against the altering conditions evolving around it. 2015 Of Houses Daniel Tudor Munteanu 2015 Informal Market Worlds – Atlas P. Mörtenböck, H. Mooshammer Yet Weltgebraus doesn’t necessarily imply a scale, form, or intensity through which 2015 The Guckenheim*, Helsinki The Next Helsinki (competition) the roaring of the world is broadcasted. In fact, we like to imagine it rather as tinnitus, 2014 D-Transect ENSP Versailles or an effervescent sound—much like an aspirin pill dissolving in a glass of water. And 2014 World of Matter , Dortmund/NY/etc. P. Mörtenböck, H. Mooshammer while the term Zeitgeist may still be specific to peculiarities found in particular periods 2014 Arte in Barriera*, Turin Urban Barriera (competition) of time or geographies, Weltgebraus is much more an overlay of basically everything: *competition modernism, Internet, crises—a synonym for multidisciplinarity. **ongoing (therefor confidential) projets are not part of this portfolio The decision to dedicate our office to the observation of these “sounds” may indirectly also put under scrutiny Behrens’s hope that his house may survive its context without any adaptation. His venture puts his house unmanned “at sea,” hoping it will not collide with anything and waves won’t break into its keel. We, in contrast to him, want to know what this sea consists of and aim to create projects that are not necessarily made to withstand these storms but are and keep being the result of the awareness and recog- nition of their own context: you have to change to stay the same. 2 3 EUROPAN 13: STAVANGER Competition with Annabelle Blin (Etablissement), Stavanger (Norway), 2015 We may not know yet what the post-oil city will velopment. Forus itself is subject to the latter or could be. We know that oil burns fast, and – indubitably the next decades will redefine its that the economies derived from it do like- landscape, demography, infrastructure and us- wise. Unavoidably what comes after has to be ages. But how precisely? slow(er), prudent, reflected, waiting “for the good moment” to arrive. While we can’t predict the future, we can still evaluate the ambitions trying to shape it. We While the response of architecture to the 1973 tried to address this uncertainty with both oil crisis was to mainly bury itself, this mo- objectivity and prudent optimism, enabling the ment in time may require a radical reboot. If site to become a display of possibilities able to the city was the end-consumer of the burned irrigate the territory hosting it with new identi- resources, it now appears compelling that it ties, typologies and programs. may become the ultimate laboratory for testing alternatives. While the oil-economy is based on increase and growth, we imagined a project that can also But what if this response takes the form of resist expansion: stall, diminish, adapt, retreat, abstinence? deflate… A project that is not retroactively por- tioned into a budget-determined phasing, but We tried to imagine a resilient project, taking ultimately emerges as the result of an inces- the form of constant negotiation and (re)de- sant dialogue with its context. 4 5 PROJECT TITLE type, country, year 6 7 8 9 EPIPHENOMENA 6th edition of FAMagazine (guest-edited by Andreas Kofler), Italy, 2015 Side effects are well known in medicine as a sec- which more neutrally implies a causal relationship ondary result of, for example, surgery, a specific between the secondary (epi-, in addition to) and medication or—as is generally known—stimulant primary phenomena. drugs. Although they are commonly associated with undesired and adverse effects, they can also be The epiphenomena found in the contributions of Job beneficial, to such an extent that certain therapies Floris (NL), Philip Stessens (B) and Annabelle Blin or drugs may be described because of their actual (FR), Marcello Tavone (IT), Mei Lun Xue (US) and An- Job Floris BROADER THAN BROADWAY The anomalies within the grid therapeutic side effects. dreas Kofler (IT), describe situations that have been initiated in parallel, led elsewhere and subsequently As a common noun, our contributions to this emancipated as partially autonomous or even self- FAMagazine‘s edition focus on both types of and sufficient. unbiased understanding of collateral events, par- ticularly in the context of urbanism and architec- Job Floris investigates wedge-shaped buildings in ture. The latter being either a side effect of another city grids – an epiphenomenon of regularization. dynamic or involuntarily or consciously initiated by a Philip Stessens and Annabelle Blin examine the supplemental phenomenon. physics of the bioclimatic urban environment – an epiphenomenon of urbanization. Marcello Tavone While we initially labeled these as “collateral” analyzes the topography of Belgium’s terrils (spoil Philip Stessens, Annabelle Blin WATER AND THE CITY Unintentional Urbanism events, this term proved too derogatory (collateral tips) – an epiphenomenon of industrialization. Mei- damages) and compliant in nature. Research on the Lun Xue explores the impact of textile production consequences of water management on city plan- in Prato – an epiphenomenon of economic activ- ning, initiated by Philip Stessens and Annabelle Blin ity. Andreas Kofler studies Japanese convenience for this occasion, evoked a more balanced nomen- stores as urban revelators – an epiphenomenon of clature: the one of epiphenomena [it: epifenomeno], oversaturated franchising activity. Marcello Tavone COLLATERAL GEOGRAPHIES Dizziness and disturbances of the memory Mei Lun Xue FACTORY/CITY A Study in Unexpected Prosperity Andreas Kofler NON-STOP CITY Convenience as urban fertilizer 10 11 MIYAJIMAGUCHI URBAN PLANNING COMPETITION Competition, Miyajimaguchi (Hiroshima, Japan), 2015 (100/230 finalists) We visited Miyajimaguchi on a glorious On such days Miyajimaguchi appears morning in May. The train had been empty sleepy, a bit dreamy, but far from being on enough to catch the last two (reversible) the verge of an infrastructural collapse seats, elderly ladies greeted us out of when 25.000 visitors per day may try to their stores along the main street, we visit Itsukushima. On the approximately spotted an already sun-faded poster of 15 peak days per year – on which traffic the “International Urban Planning Com- congestion is either significant or serious petition for Miyajimaguchi Area” on the – the over-filled parking must indirectly windows of a restaurant, observed the work like a joint sealant, connecting the busy gardeners meticulously trimming archipelago of residential and commer- the trees on the roundabout in front of cial islands with each other. the ferry terminal, a hipsterish shop sold But what happens on the other 350 other us a coffee for the crossover to Miyajima, days per year? Let’s imagine, kind of al- came back a few hours later to the main- legorically, Miyajimaguchi awakening on land with a dozens of selfies taken with a foggy morning in late November. Miya- the charming deers of the island, and fi- jima is gone. Like on the photographs of nally started our exploration of the park- Hiroshi Sugimoto, there’s only the calm ing and residentially defined hinterland seascape and its misty air lying in front of of the main street. the shore. 12 13 14 15 ELSEWHERE Exhibition (project selection, curatorial concept), Great Design Gallery, Paris 6/2015 Over the course of time, mirrors have Mirrored objects are doubled and trans- persistently allegorised questions on ferred elsewhere — a space that exists identity, duality and vanity. But ironically, without existing. “Elsewhere” is also the among everyday objects, they may also be title of the current exhibition at Great those with the most subjective visibility. Design Gallery, curated by Weltgebraus, Either camouflaged and relativized by which presents the work of the French silently acquiring the image of their sur- designer Claire Lavabre and the Japa- roundings or, whenever they are interpel- nese architect Tetsuo Kondo, respectively lated, relentless portraying and framing examining the possible gradient between their vis-à-vis. Ultimately, the principles opacity and reflection. Two reinterpreta- of reflection are versatile and may also be tions and alterations of the principles generated