Top_Down/Bottom_Up

DICTIONARY OF WAR  

Dictionary of war is a collaborative platform for creating concepts on the topic of “war”, to be invented, arranged and presented at a public, two-day event. The aim is to introduce a series of concepts that either play an important role in the contemporary discourse of war, have so far been neglected, or have yet to be created.

At each edition, 25 concepts are presented in 30 minutes time slots, in alphabetical order and without a break; they are video recorded by several cameras, live mixed, encoded in real-time and published on the internet.There are no restrictions with regard to format and each person invited to create a concept is free to decide about the title, genre, medium in which the concept will be produced.

“At least, when we create concepts, we are doing something.” The idea of Dictionary of War, is loosely based on the theory of concepts proposed by Deleuze and Guattari: Concepts must be invented, created, produced; concepts refer to problems without which they would be meaningless. It is not about definitions or limiting meaning, anecdotes, original opinions or entertainment, but rather about developing the tools with which to attain new ideas.

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http://dictionaryofwar.org

Time/Bank  

On a practical level, our time/bank is a platform where artists, curators, writers and other people in our field, can exchange time and skills—help each other get things done without using money. In a more idealistic way, the time/bank can become a place where certain types of actions and ideas, that seem to have no value in our market-driven society, can gain a sense of worth.

Through Time/Bank, we hope to create an immaterial currency and a parallel micro-economy for the cultural community, one that is not geographically bound, and that will create a sense of worth for many of the exchanges that already take place within our field—particularly those that do not produce commodities and often escape the structures that validate only certain forms of exchange as significant or profitable.

Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle

http://www.e-flux.com/timebank

conway+young  

We are a design collaboration based in Leeds. We are interested in the intersection between design and other disciplines and are motivated by an interest in the social, political and environmental conditions of where we live.
Our work combines education, art and community engagement, and we choose to work within local areas, engaging with creativity and art in many forms and contexts.

http://www.conwayandyoung.com/

Soft Architecture Machines  

This book is an offspring of Negroponte’s The Architecture Machine, published by The MIT Press in 1970. As is usually the case where computer systems are involved, the new generation is several orders of magnitude more powerful than even its remarkably mind-extending parent. The last few years have represented a “passing from an idiom to a reality, following (not necessarily consciously) notions set down in The Architecture Machine with an uncanny precision. The prognostications of hardware enumerated in wanton fantasy have been achieved and even superseded in the actual Architecture Machine of 1972.”

The general assumption of this new book is that the architect is an unnecessary and even detrimental middleman between individual, continuously changing needs and the continuous incorporation of those needs into the built environment. The book proposes a new kind of architecture without architects, and even without surrogate architects.

The first chapter sets forth generally what is involved in learning to understand both the makings of intelligence and the making of architecture. It reveals polarities in attitudes toward thinking about thinking, and it appraises techniques—real and potential—that lead to meaningful thought about the process.

A more direct analysis of architectural design activities is presented in the second chapter. Its goal is to achieve a closer coupling between man and machine, and it proposes sidestepping the traditional division of labor in which man and machine are assigned tasks that they are supposed to be respectively better at. Instead, a joint venture model is suggested: man and machine are treated as equal partners, even as candid good friends.

The third chapter moves beyond the architect—beyond the need for an outside designer’s intervention between our needs and their fulfillment. It asserts that each individual can be the best architect for his own needs and does not require a paternalistic human or mechanical architect to dictate his final decisions.

The last chapter—furthest out of all—looks toward a distant future not only beyond the architect but beyond architecture as we know it. Here architecture machines are not simply used as aids in the design of buildings—they serve as buildings in themselves. Man will live in living, intelligent machines or cognitive physical environments that can immediately respond to his needs or wishes or whims. The possibilities are unlimited and a challenge to any imagination.

THE OFFICE  

THE OFFICE seeks to create, facilitate and produce projects of contemporary culture. Based in Berlin, THE OFFICE does not dispose of a permanent location – neither in the city itself nor does it limit its activities to a particular place.
Rather, it occupies empty spaces throughout Berlin that it uses for some months or possibly only a week.
THE OFFICE wants flexibility and reacts to the city’s changes and development, each project’s specific necessities and, simply, uses opportunities to moor for a while. The goal is to re-discover the city, to channel and transmit information, and provide space for discursive thinking in constantly changing settings.

THE OFFICE explores a model of collaboration and experimentation for artists, curators, writers and other cultural producers. It is a network for receiving and developing projects, inventing and testing formats, while surrendering to the risk of failure as part of any creative process. Responding to a curatorial field that is increasingly preoccupied with institutional self-administration and maintaining bureaucratic structures,
THE OFFICE insists on independency while gathering forces to work together on temporary ventures into the arts.

Other than that, THE OFFICE also functions as a communication device for the projects made of each of its members out of THE OFFICE.

THE OFFICE are
Ellen Blumenstein
Katharina Fichtner
Maribel López
Kathrin Meyer

http://www.theoffice.li/

BAVO  

BAVO’s core activities are three-fold. In the first place, BAVO carries out fundamental research into the political dimension of architecture, urban planning and art. Research subjects from recent years include the restructuring of problem districts, the imbedded role of artists and architects in urban developments, the new engagement within architecture, the hype around the creative city and the neo-liberalisation of town planning in the EU. In the second place BAVO communicates the results of its research within specialised circles and organises debates and symposiums about them. And finally BAVO also takes part in the public debate about social developments and its are of interest. Through these interventions, it attempts to redefine the traditional role of the theoretician.

BAVO is an independent bureau. It initiates projects itself and it also works together with public and private institutions. In 2004 and 2005 BAVO worked out of the offices of the Theory Department of the interdisciplinary research institute of the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. Through the years BAVO enjoyed project-based financial support of Fonds BKVB (Amsterdam), the Netherlands Architecture Fund, the Mondriaan Foundation and the Flemish Authorities.

http://bavo.biz/

Bruder Klaus Chapel  

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The field chapel dedicated to Swiss Saint Nicholas von der Flüe (1417–1487), known as Brother Klaus, was commissioned by farmer Hermann-Josef Scheidtweiler and his wife Trudel and largely constructed by them, with the help of friends, acquaintances and craftsmen on one of their fields above the village. Photos above and below by Pietro Savorelli.

The interior of the chapel room was formed out of 112 tree trunks, which were configured like a tent. In twenty-four working days, layer after layer of concrete, each layer 50 cm thick, was poured and rammed around the tent-like structure.

In the autumn of 2006, a special smouldering fire was kept burning for three weeks inside the log tent, after which time the tree trunks were dry and could easily be removed from the concrete shell.

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http://www.dezeen.com

Matrix: A Feminist Design Collective  

In 1978, a Feminist design collective called Matrix was established in London. Matrix consisted of a number of women architects who were trying to challenge the ‘man-made environment’, which they saw as a physical manifestation of patriarchy.  According to one member of the group:

The Feminist Design Collective, a group of about twenty women was started in 1978. Its title was consciously assembled: the use of the word “feminist” was contentious; no architectural practice in Britain had previously stated their political position so overtly. The use of “design collective”, rather than “architectural practice”, indicated the group’s intention to value non-architects as highly as architects and was influenced by contemporary critiques of professionalism and of architects’ professional institutions by groups such as NAM.’