An Introduction: the Need of a Space for Experimentation

Nobile, Maria Luna1 1Umeå School of Architecture / Umeå University, Sweden https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8958-2999 [email protected] Citation: Nobile, M.L. (2021). An Introduction: the Need of a Space for Experimentation. UOU scientific journal #01, 14-21. ISSN: 2697-1518. https://doi.org/10.14198/UOU.2021.1.02 This document is under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) #01 COMMONS UOU scientific journal 15

We are living in times of moving, testing and designing Indeed, looking at what is UOU, urgency. a curriculum towards another our mind goes immediately future for the academia to the ILAUD founded by In the current year, we have and looking forward to a Giancarlo De Carlo in the been forced to translate and professional environment that 70’s. The main intentions of discover new values, both in will be slightly different from the ILAUD highlighted by Giancarlo Education and Research in one that we already know. De Carlo (ILAUD Yearbook Architecture. While we have 1977), have been to create had to rethink the space of the As stated in the concept of an international network of room and the boundaries of our the project, UNIVERSITY students and professors individual space in between of Universities (UOU) was among different Universities four walls, a floor and a ceiling, founded in July 2020 as an in Europe, to experiment and the world outside, other experimental Architecture with new methodologies and typologies of spaces have Programme in the Design techniques for the architectural been imagined and -all of a Studio for the academic year design, to provide the space sudden- this hybrid space 2020/21 in the different schools for researchers and teachers between the physical and the of architecture involved. It is in in the academia to have the digital space became a reality. the intention of moving beyond opportunity to compare their Therefore, in this context, the virtual lectures, crits and didactic approaches, and the notion of Commons, in its tutorials, in search of new opening a channel for inter- wide acceptation, has been exercises that not only re-define cultural exchange between helping us to define a new the pedagogical approach to universities. At ILAUD, students typology of space, starting from the discipline, but also gives us were invited from different the space of the classroom. the opportunity of re-defining schools of Architecture in The notion of space has the basis of a new Programme Europe2, English was chosen been changing immediately in the Architectural Education. as a common language of because of the pandemic, (UOU Project, 2020) communication, and a yearbook forcing us to consider the virtual has been the tool both to collect dimension as a new possibility UNIVERSITY of Universities is an open and collective space, the reflections that occurred to interweave the private, and as way of communicating public and common aspects where the rules are defined by the community of students and outside what happened inside of our lives and interconnect the classroom. them in the definition of teachers involved in it. It is an a Common Place. This open and democratic network The different backgrounds of immediately changed the notion that occupies a space that has students, coming from a highly of relationships, underlining no boundaries and that does diverse range of geographic the value of the notion of not belong to a specific country and cultural contexts, resulted community and exchange, or city. in different approaches and removing the existing As the ILAUD1 Residential methods, and the evidence of boundaries and bringing us into Course in Architecture and the importance of opening a the future. Urbanism - established by debate on the new role of the architects at that time (ILAUD In this Common Place, Giancarlo De Carlo in Urbino in September 1976 - was Yearbook 1977). UNIVERSITY of Universities has been designed with the conceived as an itinerant In order to achieve this aim, idea of sharing an international and open alternative to the the school provided specific staff of academics with their traditional education of the tools for developing a critical own background knowledge young architects, so UOU can consciousness. Magazines, for and research with students be seen as a powerful machine instance, were considered by coming from different to underline the potential of De Carlo a fundamental tool to countries, improving the the “laboratory” as the space appreciate different approaches internationalization, opening (material or immaterial) where to the architectural debate. the borders, travelling without this energy can be produced. What we have definitely learned 16 EDITORIAL AN INTRODUCTION MARIA LUNA NOBILE from this experience, after exchange between cultures definition of “Architecture as the more than 40 years, is the and empowering education Art of Building Communities”3. necessity of an intercultural in architecture thanks to the His point of view, which led way of learning and the endless opportunity of sharing the same to a more radical way of possibilities that this way of common space over enormous considering the role of the thinking is opening for future distance and different time architect in society, can be architects. But what are the zones. The reflection on the considered as the heritage common values that can be notion of commons from from the main intention shared enhanced and adapted to the now on will be enriched by by Team 10 during the CIAM needs of current society? How the experience of pushing in 1959 in Otterlo with Aldo can we fix and transmit what we the limits of time and space van Eyck, Giancarlo De Carlo, have learned and experienced and rethinking the notion of José Antonio Coderch - above during this academic year? values in an innovative and the others - while introducing unprejudiced way. the notion of Democratic The UOU scientific journal Architecture and Architecture of was born in Sweden in An ATLAS of possibilities, both Participation. November 2020 in the here and now. framework of a research With the escalation of the seminar on the topic of The UOU scientific journal climate crisis at the present International Research hosted includes researchers’ and time, social inequities and by the Umeå School of practitioners’ contributions political divergence, the Architecture. This addressed in the form of Articles, that general concern about access the need for providing a place are the core of this Journal, to natural and common for all the research from and a reflection on education resources, including space, the enormous production of including student’s contributions all this is leading architects reflections and experiments that in the form of Projects in the and planners to reconsider the section ATLAS. The call for this notion of values in claiming were part of the UOU project during the autumn semester first issue of the journal opened their collective role towards with a reflection on the work of the definition of a new right to involving a team of academics 4 from all over Europe. The two architects that have been the city . The pandemic has Journal has been designed as an inspiration for this work, and opened a new scenario in a space to host reflection on their texts that are currently on which the notion of communing topics linked to contemporary my desk: Giancarlo De Carlo and sharing is assuming a new debates in Architecture as the author of Architecture value and defining new spaces. that are at the center of the of Participation, and Ralph How can architecture respond discourse on the education Erskine as the author of to social challenges and climate of future architects, made Democratic Architecture, with crisis? Where is the limit of possible by the opportunities the intention of reflecting on the architecture as a discipline in that have emerged from the connections between their lives facing the human condition experience of exchange and researches and looking at in relation to the scale of the between the European the impact of their way of using impact on nature? What is the Universities on the question practice as a tool for testing role of architects in response to of the Internationalization the theoretical approach to the social and spatial inequalities? of Teaching Architecture in discipline, as well as the idea of What impact can the notion a time of pandemic. In this trusting in collaborations. of Commons have on the transformation of cities? And sense, the research is a tool to THE CALL: UOU reinforce the education, and the what agency must designers education acts as a testing tool SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL have in contributing to such and space for experimentation. ISSUE N.1 / COMMONS a transition in the current condition of Urgency? This experiment gave us the In 1982 the English-Swedish possibility of enhancing the architect Ralph Erskine, opened In this framework Commons, value of the international a lecture by reflecting on the the first Issue of the UOU #01 COMMONS UOU scientific journal 17 The Call: Commons* *The use of the term Commons might be inappropriate to whom reading this journal is not ready for adventures. scientific journal, aims to known as ‘improvement’. essential to the survival of the redefine the notion of values Improvement was inextricably peasant and small farmer with in relation to material and linked to capitalism, which was ‘rights of common’ to graze innovative practices from an becoming entrenched and its their cows and sheep. Although unprejudiced aspect. grip extensive. Typically, the this more scientific approach In England, the word main landowners of a parish to farming might appear to “commons” is generally would pursue enclosure be a logical extension of past associated with the Enclosure of common land through a changes, it was in reality a Acts of the late 18th and early particular Act of Parliament quasi-legalized land grab by 19th centuries. Commons and, if passed, commissioners landowning classes over the had existed in the countryside would be appointed to carry it rights of the common people.5 out. Parliament was dominated since time immemorial – open For the reader of this Journal grassland, wide roadside by landowning aristocracy and the church, and commissioners the notion of Commons verges and heathland on which translated in our urban (and small farmers and peasants were big landowners and farmers from outside the digital) environments is to be had the right to graze their conceived more as collective animals. Enclosure was village who were engaged to turn the commons into fields, production of resources and associated with the rise of spaces in general - material or modern science in the Age of which were then acquired by large landowners. Access to immaterial - rather than with Enlightenment which impacted the resources themselves. on farming by what became commons, and woods was 18 EDITORIAL AN INTRODUCTION MARIA LUNA NOBILE

This opens a reflection on the its atmosphere. Can the Hybrids process of spatial organization perception of the users allow us in the relations between to understand and experience Architecture, open and production, ownership and the unique characteristics of a expansive in nature, has access to these resources, with specific place? The ‘agency’ of explored unlikely interactions an open eye on the effect of the the map, is that which exploits and projected hybrids with unpredictable results. The Pandemic. the research to identify, decode 9 and create the potential of notion of bigamy for example, This call for articles aims possibilities for a specific place is based on the evidence at exploring the notion of and to define the foundation that multiple elements that Commons in the field of for a future transformation7. apparently don’t fit together can research in architecture and If mapping is understood, not be merged together to create a urbanism along three axes of as a process of representing new creation or genre. We have investigation. geographies or ideas, but as a the possibility of building the world that we want to inhabit. AGENCY: PRACTICES tool for research and translating into action, how can we as This is a positioning that will AND GEOGRAPHIES architects effect the way these allow us to experiment with OF COMMON PLACES geographies and ideas are new parameters in architecture, manipulated? opening the path to new Practices ideas that previously seemed One of the urgent questions in HYPERSPACE: impossible or unknown. In this architecture is: are we building TECTONICS AND sense, the notion of commons or making places? This call intersects with the definition HYBRIDS OF COMMON of hybridity in the discovery of invites the authors to reflect ELEMENTS on the possibilities for a place innovative and unprejudiced to become the scenario of Tectonics techniques and materials for new and inventive practices defining new kinds of common that generate architectural Cities are often judged by material and immaterial spaces processes of value. their relationships within and explorations. What are society. Under these novel the disciplines involved in this This means to consider circumstances, what the interaction? How can common the territory as a whole, experts are looking for is data and digital commons drive highlighting initiatives both in a necessary change in the material explorations in the social and political realm architecture more than to architecture? that embody a certain spirit of architects themselves. Without experimentation and with the a doubt, it is time to question COSMOS: MEANING infinite possibilities related to the single authorship of the AND VALUES OF the specificity of architecture future of Architecture: more COMMON ECOLOGIES itself: quality of spaces, than ever, as a discipline, it relation to context, adaptability, cannot continue being taught Meanings flexibility, openness. An Atlas singularly, nor on a local level. The architect is a storyteller. of pioneering places6 that How can the Tectonic as a What would architecture be explore and experiment through without a story? We suggest collective processes the notion representation of authorship in architecture recapture its it would not be architecture. of building communities in a But to tell a story we need specific context and place. link to the social context and common values? How can a language in which to Geographies the fundamental elements8 communicate and we need incorporate and translate the to specify the actors and their The process of mapping needs for a radical change in movement in the space. What extends and enriches our the definition of a new role for does it mean to imagine and, interaction with the specific the architect in a future society? indeed, experience a space conditions of a site and without seeing it? What is the #01 COMMONS UOU scientific journal 19 common language that enables languages. As a result, the scenery of multiple interactions architecture to be perceived, first call for articles of the UOU between people and places, in terms of knowledge and Scientific Journal has seen opening a reflection on possible interaction, within the place contributions from researchers kind of architectures, where itself? How can imaginaries10 and practitioners bringing their typologies are replaced by be conceived and built by own original research and “Prototypes” that experiment the living inhabitants through projects aiming to interpret with new materials and actions. the definitions of common the notion of Commons as This is the case of Marie values overcoming the cultural a way of understanding the Roels’ proposal for the Rhodo identities and boundaries? value of an architecture which Workhome, an experimental is no longer hiding behind the project in collaboration with KU Values definition of authorship that Louvain and the city of Ghent, The city and, at a micro scale, has distinguished the role of offering new possible meanings the building can be explored the architect for decades. The and functions. This echoes the as a mosaic of spaces defined introduction by the coordinator work of Maria José Marcos with by the patterns of events which of the UOU Project, Javier her Portable Ecologies recently we experience in it11. The Sánchez Merina, is leading exhibited in the Spanish pandemic offered us a chance us to an unpredictable path, Pavilion at the 17th Architecture of enhancing new values, not which from July 2020 has Biennale of Venice, which only in terms of relationship been a continuous process of works with traditional functions between human beings, but discovery towards new possible but innovative responses enabling us to discover and explorations. The contribution to the urgent need to adapt redefine the notion of inception shared from Joaquín Alvado existing spaces to the current spaces, undetermined spaces, started from a conversation condition - rethinking the third places, and to determine within the members of the spaces for education - as in the the importance of nature in editorial board, and was project by Bruna Sigillo for the the design of our everyday enriched by the contribution Coccapani Planetary Garden, life spaces. But not only this: of Mike Devereux and Maria winner of the competition Next for in a sense the traditional Hadjisoteriou on the future Landmark 2020 launched by notion of common ecology of education and practice in Iris Ceramiche and Floornature. disrupts the basic values of architecture. The contribution of dwelling, a room, an apartment, It is more and more evident that TAM Associati, with the a city. What is the role of the we are facing new possibilities experimental project H2OS undetermined spaces in the in the of way of conceiving anti-desertification eco-village city, both in terms of nature and architecture, overcoming the in Senegal, includes one of dwellings? Can architecture boundaries of the disciplines the reflections on the vision of be open to the unplanned, and learning from the specificity architecture that the founders, and highlight the value of the of our cities and cultural Simone Sfriso, Raoul Pantaleo inhabitants’ role in defining a values where the discipline of and Massimo Lepore have flexible notion of dwelling? architecture needs to recapture been testing through their ECHOES: its political role. extensive work. In this project, ARCHITECTURE AND the architecture is conceived The section “Interpretations” as a device that serves the COMMONS, TOWARDS bring us onto a journey that community, with the proposition A NEW ROLE FOR THE uses the existing literature on of Taking care of people ARCHITECTS OF THE the topic of Urban Commons and places, principles and FUTURE. as a way to reflect upon new resources, as expressed in an paths of research. In this, the The potential of an international exemplary way in the Italian author Francesco Caneschi Pavilion in the 15th Architecture call for articles lies mainly in its introduces the notion of possibility of it being interpreted Biennale of Venice, curated by temporariness as a material for TAM Associati on the topic of by many different voices and an architecture of becoming the 20 EDITORIAL AN INTRODUCTION MARIA LUNA NOBILE

Common good in Architecture. Giulio and Mario Galterisi of urgency of generating new the Department of Architecture ideas we, as architects, are While these contributions of the University of Naples finding our places for new are re-defining the agency of Federico II, this involved opportunities, claiming our architecture, the contribution rethinking the neighborhood place, acting in the common included in the section of Poplar in East London, sphere and reinforcing the “Experiments” by Emma specifically questioning the boundaries of our discipline, Davies, compares the approach notion of authorship and values while dealing with the need of of two European countries in the Robin Hood Gardens continuously connecting with to tradition and the value of housing project. Similarly, the other fields of research and Self Build construction as a contribution from Eskişehir studies. possibility for an architecture of Technical University, by the future in specific contexts Nuran Özaslan, Fatma Kolsal REFERENCES and in the framework of a and Sevgin Aysu Balkan, 1. ILAUD – De Carlo specific field of research. examines the role of Nature 2. Escuela Técnica Superior And on the same path, in the interpretation of the the contribution by Marcin de Arquitectura of Barcelona, the new commons through three Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven, Kolakowski, based on his experimental Design Studios. the Massachusetts Institute of comprehensive experience Technology, the Oslo School of in research and education of A special place in our ATLAS Architecture, The University of Urbino Low-Tech, opens the section is given to the contributions and the Eidgenossische Technische related to “Interferences” with of a selection of works from Hochescule of Zurich. other disciplines, in this case the two week workshop held 3. R.Erskine, Democratic where Psychoanalysis is used during the UOU Fall Semester Architecture, the Univeral and Useful Art, in: RSA Journal, September 1982, as a key to understand and 2020. These include a reflection London. translate architectural concepts on reactivation of abandoned dealing with the idea of values places and focusing primarily 4. H.Lefebrve, Le Droit à la Ville, Points, Paris 1968. and meaning of common on a new understanding of the ecologies. The Peruvian case role of architects in a future 5. A paragraph on the meaning of the concept “Commons” has been presented by Bruno Chichizola society, dealing more and more added to the Call for articles by Trevor conducts us through a reflection with participatory design tools Garnham, our Editor proof-reader that upon the actual impact of and with the reuse of existing has been a valuable contributor to the the pandemic on the use of buildings and interpreting work of this Journal. public/private spaces in the the notion of social and 6. Encore Hereux, Infinite Places urban environment, using the environmental sustainability. A (Lieux Infinis) - Constructing Buildings ethnographic method as a window was opened towards Or Places?, Publisher Editions B42, way to understand and test the future where the imaginary 2018. the theoretical framework on landscapes developed by our 7. J.Corner, The Agency of cosmopolitism. students - and by the students Mapping. Speculations, Critiques and Inventions, 2011. who have answered the call Reflection on the research - with unexpected results of 8. R.Koolhaas, AMO, Harvard GSD, into pedagogy in architecture Elements of Architecture, Tashen, reflections shared in this short 2018. is expressed through the Workshop lead by Marie Kraft contribution from other Schools and myself and accompanied 9. Byarke Ingels Group, Yes is of Architecture who have more. An Archicomic on Architectural by our UOU colleagues. In Evolution, Tashen, 2018. shared their pedagogical this section, the projects of the 10. R.Barthes, Le Degré zéro de practices and experiences students are to be considered with us, through analyses l’écriture suivi de Nouveaux essais as a test bed for our work and critiques, Editions du Seuil, Paris of the notion of Commons reflections as researchers, 1977. in the contemporary city. In practitioners and educators. the case of a group including 11. C.Alexander, The timeless way of building, New York, Oxford Orfina Fatigato, Viviana Saitto, We are living in times of University Press, 1979 Gennaro Finale, Vittoria di urgency. And it is with this #01 COMMONS UOU scientific journal 21

Fig. 1 Diagram Exploring the contents of the First Issue of UOU scientific journal, M.L.N, 2021