CONFERENCE CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE / DAS WISSEN DER ARCHITEKTUR

Aachen, November 5 and 6, 2009

An international conference organized by the Department of
Architecture Theory, Faculty of Architecture, RWTH Aachen University,
on the occasion of the launch of Candide. Journal for Architectural
Knowledge.

Venue: Sparkassenforum des SuperC, RWTH, Templergraben 57, Aachen

Conference language: English

Detailed information and registration: www.candidejournal.net

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PROGRAM

Thursday, 5 November 2009

8:30-9:00 Coffee and Registration

9:00-9:15 Welcoming Remarks

9:15-12:45 SESSION I:
WHAT IS ARCHITECTURAL KNOWLEDGE?

Chair: Sophie Houdart, CNRS Paris

Respondent: Michael Guggenheim, Universität Zurich

Eva Maria Froschauer, Berlin / BTU Cottbus

Stefan Kurath, Zürich / Hamburg

Jonathan Phillips, Istanbul

Oliver Schetter, Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst, Maputo

Cesare Birignani, Columbia University, New York

12:45-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:00 POSTER SESSION

15:00-18:30 SESSION II:

DO WE SEARCH FOR OR GENERATE ARCHITECTURAL KNOWLEDGE?

Chair: Ingeborg Rocker, Harvard University, Cambridge/USA
Respondent: Susanne Hauser, UdK Berlin

Volker Kleinekort & Josef Rott, TU München
Henrik Hilbig, Bottmingen / Schweiz
Lara Schrijver, TU Delft
Andrew Witt, Director of Research, Gehry Technologies, Paris;
Nicole Stöcklmayr, Universität für angewandte Kunst, Wien

20:00-21:00 KEYNOTE LECTURE

Mario Carpo, Georgia Tech, Atlanta:
Architectural Knowledge, Authorship,
and the Digital Public.
The digital turn after the end of the "end of history"

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Friday, 6 November 2009

9:00 Coffee

9:15-12:45 SESSION III: WHY SHOULD ARCHITECTS WRITE WHEN WHAT
THEY DO BEST IS DESIGN?

Chair: Pier Vittorio Aureli, Berlage Institute, Rotterdam

Respondent: Angelika Schnell, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Wien

Maria Lathouri, Architectural Association, London

Justin Fowler, Harvard University, Cambridge / MA

Elâ Kaçel, Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul

Antje Naujokat, Professor, FH Aachen

Roberto Zancan & Matteo D'Ambros, Montreal / Venice

12:45-14:00 Lunch

14:00-14:30 SCREENING

Joanna Zawieja, Copenhagen:
Imagine a House

14:30-18:00 SESSION IV: ARCHITECTURE, FICTION AND OTHER STORIES

Chair: Jane Rendell, UCL / The Bartlett, London

Respondent: Eva Maria Kraus, Galerie Stinle Contemporary, Munich

Amy Catania Kulper, University of Michigan

Ishraq Zahra Khan, Architectural Association, London

Raúl Castellanos Gómez, Polytechnic University Valencia

Jimenez Lai, University of Illinois, Chicago

Susana Oliveira, Technical University Lisbon

18:00-18:30 Closing Remarks

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The conference Constructing Knowledge / Das Wissen der Architektur has
two main goals:

First, Constructing Knowledge will discuss the types of knowledge
specific to architecture. What is architectural knowledge? How is it
generated or how is it found, evaluated and passed on? What is the
relationship between implicit (and not easily articulated) and
explicit (and readily quantifiable) knowledge? An underlying goal of
the conference is to address a pressing issue in architecture academia
today: if research is the process by which new knowledge is generated,
what methods are acceptable? Need they be “scientific” or might
fictional practices be just as meaningful to architecture?

Second, the conference will test the hypothesis that different formats
are necessary to access and communicate the spectrum of knowledge
being generated in architecture. Accordingly, Constructing Knowledge
seeks examples of ways to generate and write about, represent and
communicate architectural knowledge. Besides historic forms of
treatises and handbooks, various forms of print- and online media,
frequently making use of fictional genres, are staking out a claim to
generating architectural knowledge.

Constructing Knowledge aims to bridge the divide between the
observation-based knowledge of architecture generated in the social
sciences, and the practice-based knowledge specific to the disciplines
of architecture and planning. The conference therefore actively seeks
to involve practitioners and academics of all related fields.