10th FORUM Architectural Science: Re/Production Conditions of Architecture – Revisited.

The 10th FORUM Architectural Science, set to take place from October 24 to 26, 2024, at the historic Bauhaus Dessau, commemorates its anniversary by revisiting the theme of the inaugural forum. This event will update, expand, and critically explore the topic “Production Conditions of Architecture: Between Autonomy and Heteronomy” (2014) from diverse perspectives.
We examine both architectural practice and its theoretical reflection. Beyond its societal impact and the creative nature of architectural design, the professional lives of architects are deeply influenced by systemic dependencies, technical requirements, and functional constraints. In response to the crises of our times, several critical questions arise: What new or utopian perspectives, critical approaches, alternative models, and self-concepts are emerging in contemporary architectural practice? What innovative strategies, practices, and roles are being developed? How are knowledge, skills, relationships, responsibilities, authorship, and aesthetics evolving? Finally, what power dynamics, limitations, and areas of ignorance hinder the progression of architectural practice?
To delve deeper into the re/production conditions of architecture, the anniversary forum is organised around three thematic areas. These themes are intended to unite all participants across various formats and encourage productive exchange:

In the first thematic area, “Dynamics of Work,” we explore systemic dependencies within the field of architecture, focusing particularly on human labour throughout the processes of design, construction, utilisation, and the education and training of architects. Participants in architectural production function within a complex network of roles: as labourers in offices and on construction sites, as educators in universities, and as owners of land, buildings, and construction firms, as well as profit-driven investors. These roles create both visible and invisible value chains involving people, objects, and spaces.
We pose several critical questions:
(1) What are the fundamental economic, ecological, and social conditions that influence the re/production of the ‘Architecture System’ as both a workplace and a training environment?
(2) How do economic and social challenges impact the dynamics of work, including different work forms, within the field of architecture?
(3) In what ways does the ecological crisis modify these work dynamics, such as material cycles, in architecture?

In the second thematic area, “Promises of Digitalization,” we explore the cultural, social, and technical effects of digitalization, particularly the impact of AI systems, on the re/production conditions within architectural firms, construction sites, universities, and other innovative spaces such as makerspaces. Digitalization promises to transform production conditions by enhancing efficiency, accelerating processes, and improving safety in planning. However, it is also evident that it can perpetuate societal disadvantages and biases, including entrenched prejudices and representational distortions.
We pose several important questions:
(1) Which aspects of architectural production are impacted by digitalization, and in what ways, such as in designing, building, logistics, and communication? How are the cultural techniques of architecture evolving in the digital era, and what biases are embedded within these techniques?
(2) How does the everyday professional life of architects transform in data-rich environments, and how is this shift related to the climate crisis?
(3) What connections exist between the aesthetic expressions of the digital world and the various forms of digital collaboration?

In the third thematic area, “Expansion of Care,” we examine how various care practices are integral to the re/production of architecture, particularly in the context of the ecological crisis and global inequalities. Architecture is often viewed as a form of built care work, requiring reciprocal care in return. The concept of care encompasses values such as participation, justice, diversity, relationships, and the sustenance of livable ecosystems. It is crucial to discuss the extent to which practices of care, maintenance, and repair can serve as a programmatic foundation for what is termed the "construction turnaround," while also identifying the boundaries of these practices.
We pose several probing questions:
(1) Whose voices and needs are recognized and addressed? How is care enacted and for whom, and what is being repaired and how?
(2) What transformations accompany care and maintenance practices? What characteristics define regenerative architectural production?
(3) Could practices of care introduce a new form of agency or even establish a corrective paradigm for the production and reproduction of architecture?

Program:

Thursday, 24. October | Opening and Introduction

11:00 Guided City Tour Dessau – Heiko Gerdes
»Space and identity in Dessau: city-defining personalities, lost places and ideas to revitalise the city centre«

For participation, please register at anmeldungarchitekturwissenschaft.net

13:00 Network meeting (NAW-members only)

15:30 Opening (Bauhaus-Aula)
Greetings Bauhaus Foundation DESSAU, Regina Bittner, Head of the Academy and Deputy Director
10-YEARS-Anniversary Memories, Eva Maria Froschauer, Founder Member of NAW
THEMATIC INTRODUCTION FORUM10-TEAM

16:00
Felipe Aravena
»Technical knowledge and productivity mechanisms towards self-builder’s self-management: Operación 20.000/70 – Chile 1969-1971«

Sarah Maâfi
»Redefining architectural practice through the potentials of artificial intelligence and prefabrication«

Nadine Dajanović and Semjon Nicola Fehr
»Being on-site – Grasping our responsibility as architects«

Questions and discussion
17:15 Break (30 min.)

17:45 KEY NOTE: Douglas Spencer
»Re/Production(s) of the architect« (via Zoom)

19:00 Celebration

Friday, 25. October | Dynamics of Work

10:30 Approximations/Review (Aula)

10:40
Julian Franke
»Resilience for architects«

Sandra Schuster
»How to Organize Working Hours: Challenges and Opportunities in the Architecture Industry«

Marlen Kärcher
»Human-centred architecture production through new work«

Ramona Kraxner
»Talking about something that isn’t there? Questioning the responsibility in contemporary architecture«

Questions and discussion
12:30 Lunch break (60 min.)

13:30
Hannah Schönicke
»Dear diary«

Leonie Link
»Parallel worlds«

Victoria Kraft, Olivia/Zeno Mocanu, Julia Nuler, Ana Tiripa, Blanca Diaz Cruz and Mona Swiczinsky
»Redefining structures«

Elke Beyer, Anke Hagemann, Lucas Elsner, David Bauer, Paul Strobel and Abhinav Thakar
»Supply chain architectures. A conversation on learning and caring about material relations«

Questions and discussion
14:45 Break (30 min.)

Friday, 25. October | Promises of Digitalization

15:15
Tilo Amhoff
»The promise of rationalisation – The impact of computing on architecture office work in West Germany in the 1970s and 1980s«

Joshua Silver
»The ‘Frankenstein PC’: Preserving, erasing and archiving the digital in architecture«

Questions and discussion
16:10 Break (30 min.)

16:40
Kadambari Baxi, Klaus Platzgummer and Lennart Wolff
»Render Labor«

Felix Lowin
»Interaction of changing information models in architecture – Influence of AI-based image generators on design decision systems«

Stefano Corbo
»The cloud, the orchid and the milking robot – Data infrastructure in post-human environments«

Questions and discussion
18:10 Break
19:30 Dinner

Saturday, 26. October | Expansion of Care

8:45 Bauhaus gymnastics and Get-together
9:15 Break (15 min.)
9:30 Approximations and review

9:40
Indrawan Prabaharyaka
»Growing space: how ‘Baubotanik’ refigures the core activity of architecture«

Hira Rasool
»Thinking, knowing and being with land and water«
Questions and discussion

Lorene Blanche
»The restorative promise of garden commons in spaces of transformation«

11:00 Break with Lorene Blanche (30 min.)
»Seeds of Change – Readings with Lorene Blanche«

11:30
Kim Förster
»Metabolism reconsidered: the recultivated quarry as a conceptual basis for atmospheric care«

Anne Keiffenheim and Sarah Bauer
»Caring city: establishing new narratives in architectural and urban practices«

Lía Duarte Rodríguez, Natacha Quintera Gonzáles
»Domestic peripheries: spatialities of invisibilized reproductive work«

Questions and discussion
12:30 Break (60 min.)

13:30
Architekt:innengewerkschaft – Helena Rafalsky
»Why do we need an architects’ union in Germany?«

Women in Architecture (WIA) – Elke Duda
»The (un-)finite necessity of a Women in Architecture (WIA) festival (history, aim, necessity)«

Architects for Future (A4F) – Eva Dietrich and Isabel Dietsch
»How to architect the future?«

Questions and discussion
15:10 Surprise
15:30–16:00 Forum 10 – Conclusion(s)

Exhibition (Mensa)
Leonhard Clemens
»Men·Machines«, Projection, 1 min., 2021–2024

Mireille van der Moga
»Plattenland«, Projection, 5 min., 2021

Franziska Heidecker, Philipp Eckel (FHAO)
»A Circular Mindset«, Projection, 5 min., 2024

Participation in the event can be recognised as an advanced training event by the Brandenburg and Berlin Chambers of Architects. We ask all interested parties and guests to register by 15 October 2024, stating the days of attendance, interest in acknowledgement for the Chambers of Architects or participation at the guided city tour Dessau: anmeldungarchitekturwissenschaft.net