DESIGN STUDIO, WS 2015/2016
Prof. Dr. Philipp Misselwitz, Hannes Langguth
Studio Rural+
Chinese Villages Revisited
Today, urbanisation has become a key driver of societal transformation on a planetary scale never before seen in human history. This implies fundamental economic, political and environmental changes across places, territories and scales. Especially in China, material conditions, life-styles, economies and ecologies alike have been deeply affected. Architects and urban researchers alike have been focusing on China’s rapidly expanding mega cities. Studio Rural+ will instead look the territory beyond the vast urban concentrations – the formerly rural countryside whose population were mostly rural farmers cultivating collectively owned land only thirty years ago. Today a completely new and increasingly complex spatial logic is at work here: Expanding industrial parks are situated next to shrinking villages, farming land next to new tower blocks, or informal settlements next to golf courses.
Studio Rural+ will visit and investigate the beautiful yet partly abandoned Wuyantou Village and its surrounding territory in Zhejiang Province south of Shanghai. Through a joint workshop with Master Degree Students from Tongji University we will analyse the contradictory dynamics of urbanisation processes at work, actor networks, local-global challenges and transformation potentials. Back in Germany, we will develop design proposals for the exemplary study area, which can range from specific architectural interventions, direct actions or re-use, concepts to reshape local economies to planning concepts and development strategies on a broader scale. Based on a new understanding of urbanised post-rural territories, the proposals will explore how architects and planners can trigger change processes through strategic interventions and the design of actor-based processes.
The studio is accompanied by several external guest inputs and comprehensive workshop sessions. An integrated PIV is offered by Tongji University. The trip to China will be subsidized with a travel grant from the Institute of Architecture as well as the DAAD PROMOS Program.
Design Studio, 15 ECTS
MA Arch: Arch M E. 03
MA UD: PJ 1-3 EP
MA SRP: PJ 1-3
Teaching day
Friday, 10 am - 2 pm, A 202
First meeting
October 16, 2015, 10 am, A 202
Open Studio
October 6, 2015, 5.30 pm, A 202
February 12, 2016
2 – 6 pm, Studio A 205
Guest Critics: Diane Barbe (Fellow, Habitat Unit), Josefine Fokdal (Senior Researcher, University of Stuttgart), Valentina Karga (Artist & Architect), Eduard Kögel (Architect), Áine Ryan (Researcher, ANCB Berlin), Andreas Willisch (Thünen-Institut für Regionalentwicklung)
Institute for Architecture, TU Berlin
Strasse des 17. Juni 152
10623 Berlin
Hannes Langguth
hannes.langguth@tu-berlin.de
Room A 621
T + 49 – 30 – 314 – 21830
F + 49 – 30 – 314 – 21907