Summer School Announcement

Summer School 2018. Atrium Behaviorology

The atrium has been a common space to meet and exchange thinking among inhabitants and guests in Roman times. A fountain at the center gave the place the sense of nature and stood functionally and spiritually as a symbol for the sustainability of space and community. Over time, the use and meaning of the atrium has been transformed, yet remains present in the global architectural production in particular so in Hamburg‘s HafenCity area. These spaces are wide, open and empty. Their potential is hidden behind their representative function.
The summer school will focus on the observation of behaviour in and around various atriums in the HafenCity area. People´s behaviour will be related to the architectural typology of the atrium, its socio-economic functions, environmental aspects of heat, water and light (etc.) and other pertinent actors. Praticipants will use these concealed resources to emphasise the spatial potentials of the atrium. How can we inhabit these kinds of urban spaces?
The summer school‘s programme will be a forum to discuss and a testbed to enact modes of realising new forms of inhabiting urban conditions. By focussing on specific urban spaces like the atrium general questions will be addressed by formulating and staging approaches and situations. We imagine the school as a discursive workshop where new forms of inhabiting are imagined, enacted in 1:1 scale as intervention, play or mock-up to put it into propositions for future forms of urban practice.

HCU Visiting Professorship describes a teaching and dialogue format established at the HafenCity University in 2009. With support of Max Hoffmann GmbH & Co.KG the master class follow the idea to convince a renowned personality from the fields built environment and metropolitan development working with students, discussing new perspectives, sharing knowledge and producing new insights. The Masterclass is accompanied with public events with the Visiting Professor, as the HCU always seeks an exchange with an interested general public to give insights to work and knowledge from its core areas. The HCU is proud to announce that the Visiting Professorship 2018 will be held by Momoyo Kaijima, Atelier Bow-Wow, Tokyo.

Atelier Bow-Wow has built a repertoire of catalogues representing an observatory perspective towards urban practice. They have introduced ‘noise’ to what elsewhere merely is materialistic descriptions. “And the behaviour of people is also noise. Construction drawings are obviously important, but they represent a moment when the producer governs everything. So, the power is on the side of the producer or provider. But drawings can integrate many different things, many different times, and many different actors, which all perform in the building around the building. And this relativizes or equalizes the power balance among the different elements that relate to the existence of the building.” 1

Visiting Professor: Momoyo Kaijima, Atelier Bow-Wow
Host and supporting Teaching staff: Bernd Kniess (Urban Design), Christoph Heinemann (Architecture + City), Marieke Behne, Dominique Peck and Anna Kreuzer, HafenCity Universität Hamburg
Sponsored by: Max Hoffmann Limited Company, Schenefeld

Atelier Bow-Wow is a Tokyo-based firm founded in 1992 by Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima. Their practice is based on the theory of “behaviorology”. The practice has designed and built houses and public spaces in Japan, Europe, and the United States. Tsukamoto is professor of architecture at Tokyo Institute of Technology; Kaijima is associate professor of architecture at ETH, Zürich, and Tsukuba University.

Max Hoffmann Limited Company. Since the foundation in 1908, Max Hoffmann Construction Services has continuously contributed to the varied image of Hamburg‘s districts with interesting and high-quality buildings. Yesterday, as today, the company is concerned both with the sustainable consolidation of urban areas and the realisation of overall urban planning in the Hamburg metropolitan region. The modernisation of existing building structures, inner city and suburban housing units and the restoration of historic buildings round off the extensive range of services offered by the Altona-based family business. In addition to a large number of sophisticated residential, commercial and special buildings, Max Hoffmann Construction Services has also realised numerous public buildings since its foundation.

Schedule:
Public Lecture and program of the Visiting Professorship 2018: June 27th
Masterclass: August 20th-24th
Deadline Application: July 2nd
Deadline for submission of documentation: September 28th
Exhibition and public Talk: mid October
Exam achievements: active participation and documentation, 2,5 and 5 CP options available

Who can apply for participation?
Emboddied skills, know-how and know-why in all stages of architecture and urban design processes are welcome. The summer school will be held in English, German and languages the organisation identifies as common amongst participants.

When is the deadline and how do I apply?
Applications can be submitted until July 2nd, noon (UTC+1). Please give your name, address, field of studies/training and any information that outlines how the summer school would benefit from your partaking. All this must fit into an email attachment no larger than 10MB and be sent to ud-master@hcu-hamburg.de. Travel details and further necessary information will be collected upon acceptance. All participants will be informed about their state of application one week later via email.
How do I get there and where can I stay?
Participants must organize their stay and travel at their own expense. However, we are happy to assist wherever possible. There is a limited amount of homestay capacities with students residing in reasonable distance to the summer school location. Please state in your application email whether you will organize your stay on your own or would prefer to use student homestay capacities. Please note, that we cannot guarantee homestay capacities for all applicants.

Is there compensation?
To earn credits students must actively participate in the activities on site and hand in a documentation of their work. We ask international students to provide us with all necessary paperwork so we can transfer credit points within the ECTS system.

  1. Hays, M., Atelier Bow-Wow (2017) Architectural Ethnography. Berlin, Sternberg PrHays, M., Atelier Bow-Wow (2017) Architectural Ethnography. Berlin, Sternberg Press, p. 53.