MA&DE PUBLIC - seminar 2

"The Interior as a Background for Life".
Florian Beigel : La Congiunta House for Sculptures.
Tuesday, the 19th of February.
Studio North (E105, on the first floor)
6:30pm. (not 6:00 pm as printed on the posters!)

This week Florian Beigel will discuss a building project called 'La Congiunta House for Sculptures' in Giornico, Switzerland designed by Peter Märkli.

The description will focus on the architect's role as Baukunstler (building artist). In ancient architecture, building art was considered the highest form of art. The proposition of the talk is that we need architects today who base their work on the idea of a continuity of architectural knowledge. La Congiunta is a marriage of art and architecture. It is a well-tempered house for the works of the Swiss sculptor Hans Josephsohn, a close friend and mentor of Peter Märkli.

After his introduction Florian Beigel will enter into a public dialogue with John Glew and Raphael Pennekamp. (Martina Geccelli won't be able to attend this week). A number of students made contributions to last week's discussion, which we would very much like to encourage this week as well!

If you missed last weeks session or want to refresh your memory, please see below for a review written by Anna Page (Unit 1):

The first in a series of 'ASD Public Seminars' conceived by Raphael Pennekamp to encourage open academic exchange in the department was held on Tuesday 12th February. The contemporary photographer Martina Gecceli was the first of four guests to present a selection of her work to prompt the discussion. Gecceli's selection of six photographs included a streetscape in New York, a post 9/11 interior in the world trade centre, objects on a table in her studio, a row of books with the spines concealed. In each instance, the artist was concerned with describing the spaces 'simply as they are', quite aside from any personal or political readings. Both interior or exterior, composed or found themes, were examined using similar questions: what are the provisional and temporary objects? How do the objects relate to one another in space? Where is the foreground? Where is the centre line? The following debate that arose between ASD students, guest architects Professor Florian Beigal, John Glew and chair Raphael Pennekamp centered on what was useful about these ideas for architects. The possibility of creating monumentality for objects that are physically light and ideas about changing scale using Gecceli's way of looking at the world were discussed. Students also questioned whether it is possible or even desirable to separate objects in space from their political or personal context. This first public seminar provided the beginnings of a much needed open forum for academic dialogue in the department. Next week's seminar on Tuesday 19th February will be prompted by Professor Florian Beigel's presentation on Peter Markli's La Congiunta .