The Changing Shape of Architecture

Further Cases of Integrating Research and Design in Practice

Michael U. Hensel, Fredrik Nilsson, Michael U. Hensel, Fredrik Nilsson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781315284071
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture Essays & Monographs

The discipline of architecture is currently undergoing a significant change as professional practice and academia seem to be transforming one another specifically through succinct research undertakings. This book continues the discussion started in The Changing Shape of Practice – Integrating Research and Design in Architecture on architectural offices' modes of research and lines of inquiry in architecture and how it reshapes practice. The book aims to contribute to the mapping and discussion on research in architectural practice and its transformational impact and gives input to the discussions on where the architectural profession is heading.

In this second volume, various research initiatives and modes in architectural practices are portrayed. The book also includes contributions that broaden the scope and put the developments into larger contexts, and present an overview of developments from different regional perspectives and of various social aspects of architecture. It also relates the developments in practice to educational efforts and to initiatives where the more traditional role of architects is challenged.

The contributions include chapters by Walter Unterrainer, Anthony Burke, Renée Cheng and Andrea J. Johnson, and Michael U. Hensel, and on the practices atelier d'architecture autogérée, Helen & Hard, MVRDV and The Why Factory, NADAAA & Nader Tehrani, Nordic – Office of Architecture, Schmidt Hammer Lassen, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Void, Sarah Wigglesworth Architects, and Älvstranden Utveckling.

CHAPTER 1
Current changes in conditions and contexts for architectural research and practice

A brief introduction

Michael U. Hensel and Fredrik Nilsson

THE CHANGING SHAPE OF PRACTICE PROJECT

When we initiated the Changing Shape of Practice (CSoP) research project in 2010 we did not anticipate the momentum and response that would arise from this effort. At that time, we had the hunch from our different perspectives that something significant was going on in architectural practice and research and it soon became apparent that professional practice and academia were transforming one another in ways that yielded emerging, perhaps almost paradigmatic shifts.

The aim of CSoP is to examine why and how different practices incorporate explicit research into their work and their business models, and what this research entails in terms of themes and modes of inquiry. Our key objective was to establish a research framework that analyses the growing element of research in architectural practice, to define objectives, modes and modalities of practice-based and practice-oriented research, as well as developing new collaborative research platforms with practice. As architectural practices worldwide have to deal with increasingly complex design requirements, a number of questions arise. How do practices acquire the ability to do so? What kinds and forms of knowledge are needed and produced in different types of practices? How are results, new knowledge and competences documented, shared and disseminated internally as well as externally? Is research itself now used as a strategic tool by architectural offices? How do research and practice in architecture mutually shape one another?

The project commenced in 2010. Now, 8 years later, the second book is out and a third one in production. Four symposia, four seminars and one exhibition have taken place and another five symposia are in planning. Together with this development, a number of spin-offs emerged and the overall project now has global, regional and local perspectives and impact.

Following a preparatory research period, parallel activities commenced in 2013 and established a multi-perspective approach to the matter at hand. These activities began with a start-up seminar (CSoP0) in Holmsbu, Norway, in Spring 2013 with a focus on the question as to what constitutes knowledge and how knowledge arises from inquiry in the field of architecture. The seminar was organized and financed by the Research Center for Architecture and Tectonics (RCAT) at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO). Participants from Europe, the Americas and Australia included Prof. Mark Burry (RMIT University), Prof. Dr. Peter Carl (London Metropolitan University), Helen Castle (AD Wiley), Prof. Dr. Michael U. Hensel (OCEAN, RCAT), Prof. Dr. David Jolly Monge (Escuela de Arquitectura y Diseño PUCV), Prof. Dr. David Leatherbarrow (University of Pennsylvania), Prof. Dr. Birger Sevaldson (OCEAN, AHO), Research Fellow Defne Sunguroğlu Hensel (OCEAN, RCAT), Associate Prof. Inger-Lise Syversen (Chalmers University), and Senior Lecturer Jeffrey P. Turko (OCEAN, University of Bath). The 3-day seminar resulted in a number of key questions that helped frame the CSoP project in a more detailed manner around themes of directed inquiry and knowledge production in architecture.

In September 2013 the first symposium (CSoP1) took place at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. The symposium was co-organized by Chalmers University of Technology, the Swedish Association of Architects, the Research Centre for Architecture and Tectonics at AHO, and OCEAN Design Research Association. The symposium and connected research received funding from the Swedish Research Council, Formas as part of the national research programme ‘Architecture in the Making — Architecture as a Making Discipline and Material Practice’, which had the aim to develop theories and methods from the perspective of architectural practice. The objective of the symposium was to address the perceived need of the Swedish Association of Architects to generate more research capacity in Swedish practices, to enhance their ability to address increasingly complex design problems, as well as furthering their national and international competitiveness. Presenters included Francis Aish (Foster + Partners), Billie Faircloth (Kieran Timberlake), Kasper Guldager Jensen (3xN/GxN), Reinhard Kropf (Helen & Hard), and Marja Lundgren and Fredrik Nilsson (White).

This first symposium was accompanied by a seminar (CSoP1.1) with the representatives of the invited practices to discuss in greater detail their approaches and internal structures for research and how the series of events could be developed so as to be productive for various audiences and stakeholders, as well as for the presenting practices. The resulting insight was that open discussion between practices and the related exchange of experience is one of the key elements for further development of research in practice.

The first book, completed in 2016, portrayed 15 practices of different sizes and from different locations and their approaches to the question of research in practice.¹ The participating practices included AECOM, Perkins + Will, White, Woods Bagot, UN Studio, SHoP Architects, PLP Architecture, Kieran Timberlake, 3xN/GxN, Thomas Herzog + Partners, Herreros Architectos, AZPML, ONL, Spacescape, and the OCEAN Design Research Association. The book was launched in the autumn of 2016 as part of the second symposium (CSoP2), which took place at AHO in Oslo, Norway. The event was part of the Oslo Architectural Triennial 2016 and was co-organized by RCAT at AHO, the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture (DogA), Chalmers University of Technology, and OCEAN Design Research Association. The objective was to generate and strengthen collaboration between practice and universities in research activities. The event consisted of a 1-day symposium with conjunction with a thematically related 1-day PhD seminar. PhD candidates were selected whose research related thematically to the research presented by the practices. This resulted in a close exchange between researchers in practice and academia on themes and methods of inquiry of shared interest. In addition, the event was accompanied by an exhibition of selected works of the participating practices and the launch of the first book. Presenters included Billie Faircloth (Kieran Timberlake), Moritz Groba (Helen & Hard), Eli Synnvåg, Kristian Edwards and Julia Schlegel (Snøhetta), Gregg Pasquarelli (SHoP Architects), Bjørn Gunnar Staal and Joakim Wiig Hoen (Void), and Jonas Runberger (White).

Figure 1.1 Speakers at the first Changing Shape of Practice Symposium in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2013. From left to right: Michael U. Hensel (OCEAN), Billie Faircloth (Kieran Timberlake), Francis Aish (Foster + Partners), Fredrik Nilsson (White), Reinhard Kropf (Helen & Hard), Kasper Guldager Jensen (3xN GxN).

The second symposium was accompanied by a seminar (CSoP2.1) hosted by the Design and Architecture Norway (DogA), a governmental agency, which provided an interface for dialogue about interdisciplinary and collaborative research in practice involving architects and designers. Participants included all speakers of the 2-day event and invited architecture and design practices from Oslo. While this was initially an add-on to the main events it became the kernel of a key spin-off: a series of round-table discussions with the aim to support the development of research in architectural and design practices in the Oslo region. The round-table discussions took place in the autumn of 2017 and spring of 2018.

Figure 1.2 Speakers at the second Changing Shape of Practice Symposium and International PhD Seminar in Oslo, Norway, in 2016. From left to right: Michael U. Hensel (OCEAN), Julia Schlegel (Snøhetta), Kristian Edwards (Snøhetta), Eli Synevåg (Snøhetta), Gregg Pasqualrelli (SHoP Architects), Moritz Groba (Helen & Hard), Billie Faircloth (Kieran Timberlake), Bjørn Gunnat Staal (Void), Jonas Runberger (White), Joakim Wiig Hoen (Void), Sareh Saeidi (AHO), Ute Groba (AHO).

Figure 1.3 Left: Poster of the second Changing Shape of Practice Symposium, International PhD Seminar, and Exhibition in 2016 in Oslo, Norway, as part of the Oslo Architectural Triennial 2016. Right: Poster of the third Changing Shape of Practice Conference in 2017 in Aarhus, Denmark, as part of the Aarhus European Cultural Capital and Rising Architecture Week events.

The third event (CSoP3) was held in the format of an international conference and took place in the autumn of 2017 in Aarhus, Denmark, as part of the Aarhus Cultural Capital 2017 events and the Rising Architecture Week in 2017. This event was co-organized by Walter Unterrainer (Aarhus School of Architecture), Michael U. Hensel (OCEAN, RCAT), and Fredrik Nilsson (Chalmers University of Technology). Expanding the remit of the CSoP project two themes were explored: research in practice and emergent practices/ unsolicited architecture. Presenters included Billie Faircloth (Kieran Timberlake), Kasper Guldager Jensen (GxN), Eli Synnvåg, Julia Schlegel and Kristian Edwards (Snøhetta), Stefan Holst (Transolar), Fredrik Nilsson (Älvstranden), Siv Stangeland (Helen & Hard), Doina Petrescu and Constantin Petcou (atelier d’architecture autogérée), Peter Nageler and Roland Gruber (NONconform), Christof Maier (Raumlabor), Anton Ryslinge (Architects without Borders), Prof. Dr. Murray Frazer (University College London), Prof. Renée Cheng (University of Minnesota), Prof. Walter Unterrainer (Aarhus School of Architecture), and Michael U. Hensel (OCEAN, RCAT).

The fourth symposium (CSoP4) entitled Transformations in Architectural Profession and Education took place in spring 2018 at the Technical University in Munich as part of the Munich Creative Business Week 2017. The symposium was co-organized by Christos Chantzaras and Martin Luce (TUM), as well as Michael U. Hensel (OCEAN, TU Vienna). Presenters included Julia Schlegel (Snøhetta), Christos Chantzaras (TUM) and Michael U. Hensel (OCEAN, TU Vienna).

Figure 1.4 Proceedings of the third Changing Shape of Practice Conference in 2017 in Aarhus, Denmark, edited by Walter Unterrainer, 2018.

The fifth symposium will take place at DogA Design and Architecture Norway. The event will present the discussions and findings of the round-table discussions organized by Michael U. Hensel and DogA that were attended by representatives of leading architecture and design practices in Oslo. The round-tables focused on discussing three key aspects: research themes in practice, research needs in practice, and recommendations for actions addressed to government, government agencies and professional bodies, universities and independent research organizations, to support the development of research in architecture. Participating design offices included Bleed, Designit, Eggs, Halogen, and IXDA. Participating architectural practices included Helen & Hard, Nordic, MMW, Ctrl+N / Kontur and Snøhetta. Further symposia are planned in collaboration with Columbia University, TU Vienna, and TU Munich.

The third book edited by Michael U. Hensel and Walter Unterrainer will portray one of the strong emerging strategies in which architects respond to societal and professional challenges and seek to build new forms of resilient practice. This strategy focuses on architecture without clients: unsolicited architecture. The field of architecture without clients encompasses a broad variety of different approaches, types and scales of activities. This development is rapidly gaining ground in practice in various fields of employment and on all scales, and finds its equivalent in universities in an increasing number of design and build programmes.

Figure 1.5 Speakers at th...