A Hybrid Practice
Does contemporary architecture’s shift towards pragmatism reflect a broader cultural pivot away from the excesses of the digital age, favoring economic and efficient design? As society grapples with inflation, resource scarcity, and socio-political unrest, architecture increasingly addresses its role in mitigating existential threats like environmental collapse by intersecting theory and practice. Although architecture comprises only a very limited fraction of the building industry, its influence on societal development is significant, necessitating a nuanced understanding of its multifaceted and complex nature and ecologies.
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Fig. Diagram of building, teaching and researching architecture as related but also distinct field of different practices. Drawings play a crucial role in the intersecting practices of designing, teaching, and researching. Drawing serves as a central element, medium, and activity in the multifaceted and hybrid practice of architecture, with various but related roles, interactions, and contributions to the discipline.
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Posters for Andreas’ talk on “Counterintuitive Typologies” combining his practice (corner), teaching (12 master’s theses) and research interests at the intersection of typolgies, adaptive reuse and continual building, 2022.
“But if there is a sense of reality, and no one will doubt that it has its justification for existing, then there must also be something we can call a sense of possibility.
Whoever has it does not say, for instance: Here this or that has happened, will happen, must happen; but he invents: Here this or that might, could, or ought to happen If he is told that something is the way it is, he will think: Well, it could probably just as well be otherwise.”
― Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities (1930)
︎︎︎ Research statement
Does contemporary architecture’s shift towards pragmatism reflect a broader cultural pivot away from the excesses of the digital age, favoring economic and efficient design? As society grapples with inflation, resource scarcity, and socio-political unrest, architecture increasingly addresses its role in mitigating existential threats like environmental collapse by intersecting theory and practice. Although architecture comprises only a very limited fraction of the building industry, its influence on societal development is significant, necessitating a nuanced understanding of its multifaceted and complex nature and ecologies.
Fig. Diagram of building, teaching and researching architecture as related but also distinct field of different practices. Drawings play a crucial role in the intersecting practices of designing, teaching, and researching. Drawing serves as a central element, medium, and activity in the multifaceted and hybrid practice of architecture, with various but related roles, interactions, and contributions to the discipline.
Posters for Andreas’ talk on “Counterintuitive Typologies” combining his practice (corner), teaching (12 master’s theses) and research interests at the intersection of typolgies, adaptive reuse and continual building, 2022.
To fully acknowledge and adapt to the intricate and context-dependent nature of architectural production, it is essential to integrate research and design that confronts its hybrid essence. This critical integration is achieved through research respectively research-driven teaching, which blend design with the exploration of adaptive reuse and building typology, i.e. “history”. This initiative uncovers the crucial role of drawings, which act as a unique form of knowledge within the architectural process. Their significance lies in their inherent ambiguity and their diverse roles as instrumental, representational, and speculative tools, which facilitate thinking about spatial relationships in architectural production.
As a comprehensive discipline, Architecture extends beyond mere design and construction. It encompasses theory, history, technology, and the societal impact of the built environment. Building, teaching, and researching are distinct yet interconnected practices within the architectural field, each contributing uniquely to our understanding and advancement of architecture.
In a critical practice – i.e. acting at both the level of architectural idelologies and the level of projects – it is drawings that prominently bridge the gap(s) between architectural production and theory. Drawings enable us to map the more or less convincing ecological interconnections of architecture, renovation, and adaptive reuse (or landscape and urbanism for that matter). This process, while often blurring the lines between “landscape,” “architecture,” “materiality,” and “life,” provides profound insights into the hybrid nature of architectural practices and their roles in exploring and shaping the built environment.
Further reading: Caroline Voet, Eireen Schreurs, Helen Thomas, eds. The Hybrid Practitioner: Building, Teaching, Researching Architecture, Leuven University Press 2022
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DOI 10.11116/9789461664556
https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/58068
(Open Access)
As a comprehensive discipline, Architecture extends beyond mere design and construction. It encompasses theory, history, technology, and the societal impact of the built environment. Building, teaching, and researching are distinct yet interconnected practices within the architectural field, each contributing uniquely to our understanding and advancement of architecture.
In a critical practice – i.e. acting at both the level of architectural idelologies and the level of projects – it is drawings that prominently bridge the gap(s) between architectural production and theory. Drawings enable us to map the more or less convincing ecological interconnections of architecture, renovation, and adaptive reuse (or landscape and urbanism for that matter). This process, while often blurring the lines between “landscape,” “architecture,” “materiality,” and “life,” provides profound insights into the hybrid nature of architectural practices and their roles in exploring and shaping the built environment.
Further reading: Caroline Voet, Eireen Schreurs, Helen Thomas, eds. The Hybrid Practitioner: Building, Teaching, Researching Architecture, Leuven University Press 2022
DOI 10.11116/9789461664556
https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/58068
(Open Access)
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Unless otherwise stated, all materials on this website and the ideas incorporated herein, as an instrument of professional service, are protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights belonging to Andreas Lechner, its affiliates or its licensors and all such rights are hereby asserted and reserved. No part of this website may be copied, reproduced, republished, posted, transmitted or distributed in any way for commercial purposes. Any modification or use of the information contained on this website for any purpose not explicitly permitted without prior written consent is a violation of the author’s intellectual property rights and is strictly prohibited.
︎︎︎Site Map, Imprint & DSGVO