Building An Evolutionary City In 24 Hrs In A Room

Building An Evolutionary City In 24 Hrs In One Room

PRESS RELEASE

New Zealand Architect / Urbanist Chris Moller of S333 Architecture+Urbanism based in the Netherlands launches the [CITY IN A ROOM] 'thought experiment' to explore alternative ideas about how we could think about cities.

Exploring evolutionary architecture techniques in a 24 hr pressure-cooker with John Frazer

WHAT: [City in a room]- Cooking with John Frazer

Building an evolutionary city in 24 hrs in one room.

In a 24 hr multimedia Jam shifts of multi-disciplinary teams are invited to think, build and translate; together seeking to express Frazers thought experiment, computing without computers in real time, engaging all senses. In this steaming pot we collect ingredients for an evolutionary city which are passed by Chinese whispers; and then stirred to taste. This experiment doesn’t aim for an utopian image; it seeks to bring together the dynamic powers that are at work in cities and reflect on the unpredictable outcome The process aims to built a city in which, to speak with Frazer ‘… the symbiotic behaviour and metabolic balance that are characteristic of the natural environment …’are at work. This [city in a room] is to be built, live and vanish within 24 hrs.

WHY

Why is it today that cities continue to get stuck in formal planning processes that so often fail? They dont seem able to tap into so many available alternative or informal resources of the people or place for whom they are intended? Is it not time to think outside convention, to think sideways, to tap the energy and creativity that this could offer? [City in a Room] is an event intended to do just this, to explore new creative tools beyond convention, to engage in spontaneous ways of imagining cities. To discover clues that such a multi-media jam might reveal.

WHERE:

Pavlov medialab

Pudding factory

Viaductstraat 3A

9725 BG Groningen

WHEN

Saturday November 1st at 18.00 in shifts across 24 hrs until 18.00 Sunday 2nd

WHO

Prof. John Frazer has been a pioneer in the development of intelligent and evolutionary design computation for over 30 years, at the AA in London, Cambridge University, University of Ulster and, most recently, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He will lead the experiment supported by teams of artists, thinkers, builders, musicians, architects, inventors, chefs, scientists&neighbours, friends&.

This project is being developed and funded through the joint initiative of 3 independent Art- and Architecture studios including Pavlov Medialab (Groningen), S333 Architecture + Urbanism (Amsterdam), and Onix Architecten (Groningen), with additional support from Platform GRAS (Groningen Architecture Center) en Peter de Kan Grafisch ontwerp

NOTES TO T HE EDITOR

For more information about [city in a room] or photos you can contact Chris Moller

CHRIS MOLLER

S333 Architecture+Urbanism
Overtoom 197
1054HT Amsterdam
The Netherlands
mob. 31(0)613158441
christophermoller@s333.org
www.s333.org

Of course you are welcome to visit the project in Groningen.

MORE INFORMATION

Bibliography _ Prof. Frazer

John Frazer has been a pioneer in the development of intelligent and interactive building design systems and evolutionary design computation for over thirty years. His research in this field has been developed at the Architectural Association in London, Cambridge University, the University of Ulster where he was awarded a personal Chair, and most recently the Hong Kong Polytechnic University where he was Head of School and also Chair Professor. He is also an honorary Professor at four other Chinese Universities. His work has been presented worldwide in conferences, and extensively published in journals and books, including the seminal An Evolutionary Architecture.(1995)

Philosophies of the three initiators

Pavlov Media www.pavlov.nl

We think new media is far too often seen and presented as a new technology. That is why we want to present other aspects that are just as essential to us: new media as a mass communication device, new media as a way of thinking.

One thing is clear: new media is not just about technology but every bit as much about common (mass) culture in the public domain. New media artists are not as much craftsmen as they are thinkers and manipulators of the (mass) conscience. Actually, we could just as easily talk of communication art .

As media artists we would not like to restrict ourselves to the research of aesthetics and techniques of new media. We would also like to bring to light the effect of new media on our culture and force mutations of the consciousness with the intention to open new roads and perspectives. We feel socially engaged without taking up an explicit ideological position.

That's why we demonstrate our work in public spaces and every day life, and also make contact with the government, industry and social institutions in our work. Projects include multimedia shows in public space, digital film, music and urban adventures. Projects include Requiem for a cityhall (1994), Mobile, an urban adventure (2001) and This is not Kings Cross (2003)

S333 Architecture + Urbanism www.s333.org

It could be said that the critical question for architecture today is precisely the question of practice. S333 finds itself moving more and more away from merely representing the world in its work to forming architectural and urban strategies that operate within the world. This pushes the design possibilities of architectural work, encouraging the invention of new forms, new modalities and new ways of thinking about the converging relationships between architecture, urbanism and landscape.

In this sense, S333s projects and research are experimental and explorative, seeking an investigation of higher forms of organization and combinations, rediscovering architecture and the city within contemporary cultural conditions. This approach to design is strengthened through a collaborative and interdisciplinary working method, resulting in projects achieving greater levels of expectation.

S333 architecture + urbanism officially opened its office in 1997 in Amsterdam the Netherlands. Composed of a multi-national team of architects and urban designers led by four partners: Burton Hamfelt (Canada), Christopher Moller (New Zealand), Dominic Papa (England) and Jonathan Woodroffe (England). The office has been awarded a number of projects in the Nether-lands, New Zealand, United Kingdom and France. Most recently completed are Schots 1+2, two innercity blocks, Groningen NL (short listed for the Mies van de Rohe Award), 56 houses, Vijfhuizen NL, 50 innercity cliff + row dwellings Beaumont Quarter Auckland NZ (completion 2004).

Onix Architecten www.onix.nl

The design attitude at Onix can be characterised as a continuous search. A search between old and new, between change and improvement, between neutral and specific, between the obvious and alienation, and between the generic and the architects signature. During this search borders are crossed, so that the assignment can be stretched and new possibilities arise as to the requested programme. By responding to the changing reality during the design process, the designers are being challenged to improvise and to get the most out of their design. This design attitude works as a mechanism to resist the obvious and create something one-off. A work in progress in which any penchant for the past and the future is rejected. Thus architecture becomes a product of the present. Projects include elderly homes in Eelde, realisation of 25 elderly homes ,a biological farm in Haren and the Vensterschool in the Oosterparkwijk (Winner Scholenbouwprijs 2000)

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