Known for its prominence among Austrian lakes, 83% of Wörthersee’s shores are closed off by private developments. One of the remaining plots with potential public access to the lake is the Vienna Boys‘ Choir campus located in Sekirn. The 8 hectare plot is used by the choir in the summers and remains unused for the rest of the year. Their ambition is to keep the plot for future generations of the choir as well as to open it up to the general public for all-year-round cultural activities. Its slowly deteriorating existing buildings and diverse landscape offer a case study for reuse strategies of local resources and material waste streams for its future development.
How can we live – and create – on a damaged planet? If, as the philosopher Baptiste Morizot describes, the ecological crisis is also a crisis of sensitivity, how can we feel, understand and weave new relationships with respect to the territory and the matter of the objects that constitute our own daily life and the more-than-human life that surrounds us? How can the architect take the role of the mediator and help foster these connections? Which tools, methodologies and (knowledge) collaborators do we need and which architectural possibilities spring from this framework?
The design studio, with focus on a 10-day hands-on workshop in Sekirn, will explore experimental regenerative design practices using locally-specific materials found on site and in the region of Wörthersee. It offers the possibility of opening a parenthesis for reflection on global questions on a local level, offering a polysemic vision of the territory where matter is the key element that creates a sensitive link between the different scales and actors. We will map local material streams directly on the territory and in regional proximity to Sekirn to trace industrial and natural resources for our workshop. Throughout excursions to different sites such as local natural stone quarries and waste recycling facilities, we will collect the raw material for material testing and experimentations.
By use of building methods with soil and mineral waste, we will experiment with techniques such as rammed earth, hempcrete, and terrazzo. The material outcome of the workshop will be a series of samples that speculate on a local material palette and point towards concrete directions for further development of selected materials and their application on the campus. The design and material research of this workshop will be documented in the form of a library for local material recipes.
The course is part of ‚Culture in Residency‘, a series of design studios by TU Wien that contribute to the ongoing development of the UNISONO campus: a long-term transformation of the Vienna Boys‘ Choir campus into a testing ground for interdisciplinary research, production and education on circular economic practices in the Alpe-Adria bioregion.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtuXZCmXDVg
Kick-Off: Thursday 2.3.2023, 15:00-17:00, HS17
Public lecture: Thursday 2.3.2023, 18:00-20:00, HS17
Site Visit Sekirn: 3.-4.3.2023
Regular meetings: Thursdays 15:00-19:00
Excursion to Atelier LUMA (Arles, FR): 27.-29.3.2023
10-day hands-on Workshop in Sekirn: 22.-31.5.2023
Presentation Publication: Thursday 29.6.2023 (tbc)
The design studio is part of the European Architecture Platform LINA (co-funded by the European Union) and will be led by LINA fellows Charly Blödel and Estelle Jullian, together with Thomas Amann (TU Wien).
