Fields of study
Architecture and Design
Studio City | Marcel Braun, Johannes Dunke, Mona Edelmann, Nursen Karaman, Lucie Kruse & Yannik Zelenka | 2nd semester | winter semester 2020/21
While from a classical, architectural point of view objects are mostly in the focus of our spatial perception, the free-spatial structures are often less clearly perceived. However, architecture means both, not only house but also space. As a practical study, each student has designed a model, conceptual urban sculpture of an urban city block for Stuttgart's Diakonissenplatz, which does not, however, represent the structural, positive volume, but the negative interior space. A design for the open space of the block's interior.
The work was supervised by Prof. Gunther Laux.
"Space is not only created within buildings, but buildings also generate different spatial situations through their arrangement in the urban fabric. In the case study >Inside Out<, the inner courtyard situation of a perimeter block development was examined more detailed. The facade rhythm is decisive for the resulting space. The model shows the negative imprint of the inner courtyard and thus exposes the otherwise hidden private façade. The block consists of a ground floor zone with special uses facing the city and the courtyard. The six upper floors are reserved for purely residential use. The smooth inner courtyard façade with additive balconies and loggias, which is common in the west of Stuttgart, is transformed in the residential floors by oriels flared out at 45 degrees and lined up in rows. The shifted stacking of these elements generates open spaces with wide viewing angles, which are not visible from the directly adjacent apartments. Visually extended and expansive living spaces are created in the confines of the city's most densely built neighborhood."
Johannes Dunke
"During your studies of architecture, you are mostly concerned with the construction and the shell of buildings. It can quickly happen that you neglect the space itself. And yet it is at least as important. That's why, for once, in this project we solely dealt with the negative space of a self-designed city block. This way of designing gives us the opportunity to get to know >city< anew and to discover exciting new aspects."
Mona Edelmann
"As a practical study, a model conceptual structural sculpture and urban formulation was developed for the area at Diakonissenplatz in Stuttgart. However, in this case positive volumes weren´t represented and designed, but the negative interior space, the open space. A set of design rules was not prescribed for this, as the demands and characteristics are too diverse. Rather, case studies on site followed with the means of research, investigation and documentation.
The positive volume, i.e. the building mass, was constructed with polystyrene and the resulting interior space was cast with casting slip. This creates a single body that, like its positive volume, can be imagined as a building mass."
Nursen Karaman
The design is characterised by its introversion. The all-round development of the inner courtyard by means of vertical arms at the corners is one of these features. In the southeast, this is again reinforced and emphasised by a widening on the ground floor. The interior space in the middle is divided by an incision from the north, which forms two differently sized squares. The larger one in the west and the smaller one in the east. The horizontal swords on the upper floors are also oriented inwards and join the squares.
Yannik Zelenka
