HYPER: ARCHITECTURE AND (OVER)VALUE

Workshop within the framework of the "Ethics and Architecture" project at
the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut

Organized by Hana Gründler and Brigitte Sölch

From hypertrophic construction projects such as the Tower of Babel or
building speculations and megalomaniacal utopias of the Baroque to
hyper-architectures and hyper-realities of the present - that wide is the
range of undertakings that raise the issue of the value of "overvalue" and
the criteria by which it is measured. Within this context, the concept of
value can be understood as an economic category as well as an ethical one
whose relationship to aesthetics is the focus of this workshop.

"Hyper" stands for intensification, for the fathoming of the feasible, and
thus for a perception and constitution of a "reality" above and beyond the
present. The aesthetics of production and reception are therefore
addressed, as is the matter of scale. While miniature and game worlds can
lend their vis-à-vis new magnitude, hypertrophic architectures or,
say, labyrinthine constructs embody the no-longer-manageable. The utopian
dimension comes into play here as well, referring, as it does, to the
possibility of transcending the limitations of human existence. At the same
time, the implicit relationship to totalitarianism also comes to light.

These correlations permit us to analyse the following questions, among
others: How can "hyper" be defined, described and differentiated on a
formal-aesthetic level? How can its aesthetic and ethical (added) value be
determined? What role does "hyper" play in architectonic practice
(cathedrals, mega construction sites and mega cities, film and stage
architectures, etc.) and in discussions about architecture? What positions
are cited to substantiate critique of precisely such architectures, and to
what extent might they trigger ethical/moral standpoints to begin with?


Program

Thursday, 4 December 2014

13.30–14.00
Alessandro Nova:
Welcome

Hana Gründler and Brigitte Sölch:
Introduction

TRANSGRESSION OF LIMITS
Chair: Eva-Maria Troelenberg

14.00–14.45
Stefan Bürger:
Der Himmel ist nicht genug. Übersteigerungen in der spätgotischen
Bau- und Bildkunst

14.45–15.30
Anette Creutzburg:
Burj Khalifa – Der Himmelsturm von Dubai. Architektur ohne Grenzen im
Über-Morgenland?


(IN)VISIBILITY AND MEGALOMANY
Chair: Hana Gründler

15.30–16.15
Xenia Vytuleva:
"The Hyper of Invisible". Soviet Secret Cities in Transition

16.15–17.00
Berthold Hub:
Hyper-St. Peter: "Rome is no longer in Rome, Rome is at Yamoussoukro"

17.00–17.30
Break

UTOPIC VISIONS
Chair: Costanza Caraffa

17.30–18.15
Francesco Benelli:
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger's new Vitruvian-Imperial Idea of Pantheon
in the Medicean Rome

18.15–19.00
Marc Bonner:
Scale the Colossal: Hypertrophic Architecture as Spatial Challenge and its
System of Meaning in Computer Games


EVENING LECTURE
Introduction: Alessandro Nova

19.00–20.00
Thomas Mical:
Hypermodern Ultrathin Architecture


Friday, 5 December 2014

DETACHMENT AND EXPANSION
Chair: Michael Tymkiw

09.30–10.15
Mascha Bisping:
Take off (of) the City – die bodenlose Stadt

10.15–11.00
Scott Budzynski:
The Project of Expansion in the Modern Italian City


11.00–11.30
Break

ARCHITECTURE VERSUS NATURE
Chair: Brigitte Sölch

11.30–12.15
Daniel Grünkranz:
Ecological hyper-architecture and the ambiguity in terms of value

12.15–13.00
Giusy Petruzzelli:
Ipernatura, metarchitettura

13.00––13.45
Carolin Höfler:
Vom Wolkenkratzer zur Wolke: Cloud Cities als Modelle globaler
medientechnologischer Vernetzung

Location
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut
Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai
Via dei Servi 51
50122 Firenze

Contact
Hana Gründler
E-mail: gruendlerkhi.fi.it

Brigitte Sölch
E-mail: soelchkhi.fi.it

Christine Klöckner
E-mail: kloecknerkhi.fi.it