Materials Science | Max Bell, Carina Daiber, Jana Ebner, Meltem Ergen & Rubina Scherlitz | 1st semester | winter semester 2020/21
He was an architect, inspirational thinker, and influential critic: the American Michael Sorkin. In March 2020, the most important contrarian voice of the New York architectural and urban planning scene passed away as a result of COVID-19. In 2019, he wrote the list "250 Things Architects Should Know". This served as the basis of the student's 1st semester architecture assignment.
The assignment is – quite corona-conform – a plea to think interdisciplinary and to look at the urban everyday life. How heavy is a paving stone? What is the route of native songbirds? Are freaks necessary? How far can you hear a scream? The spectrum of Sorkin's thought is far-reaching and encompasses human existence in space.
The students worked on material-related aspects of their choice and answered Sorkin's questions with text and images. The results are visually powerful, imaginative and well-founded analyses. The results show that the task combines in an outstanding way different disciplines that are intertwined in architecture: The perception of the built environment and the effect of material. In the action space of the task, the students were able to try out and experience themselves in real situations. Supported by a weekly advisory service and accompanying lectures, they "designed" their first small project and went through all stages of the design process from research to documentation.
The works were supervised by Prof. Lutz Dickmann.
