Art & Architecture
Summer semester task 2019 "Living for Singles and Families"
The architect Peter Zumthor describes in his book "Atmospheres" a special moment: "The right density of people. A flower market, sun. Eleven o'clock. The opposite wall of space in the shade. Pleasantly bluish. Wonderful sounds. Close talks, footsteps, stone. Birds, light murmurs of the crowd, no cars, no engine noise, distant building noise now and then. ..." .
Architecture is transmitter - allows receiver special moment.
For Felix Schwake (architect and lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Applied Sciences Dortmund) this description of a special moment was inspiration for this year's task of his "design 2 -course": to stage a beautiful / special moment architecturally. Based on this university task, an architecture competition for "single and family living in Lüdenscheid (Germany)" was held on 05.08.2019.
Due to the high social relevance of producing "beautiful living", Lüdenscheider Wohngesellschaft AG (LüWo AG) provided 5,000 euros for this competition.
In addition to Mr. Christoph Loos (CEO), Ms. Susanne Mewes (Deputy Chairman) and architects Sutjahjono Hartani and Marco Höllmann (former architecture student of FH Dortmund) represented Lüwo AG in the jury. As a representative of the FH Dortmund, architect Prof. Diana Reichle, designer and artist Achim Lohse and architect Felix Schwake completed the jury.
The 4 best works were awarded a cash prize and in addition from 14.10. until 18.10.2019 publicly exhibited in the foyer of the town hall of the city Lüdenscheid.
The jury awarded First Place to Lena Sandeck with the theme "Discover". Their buildings shine between idyllic landscaped gardens like candles on the birthday cake and take up the urban concept of the "City of Lights Lüdenscheid".
Second place went to Maike Wiemann. She staged the special moment of a family ritual with the whole family on Friday afternoons to come together for "mashed potatoes". Their room arrangement is designed so that all ways of living in the large communal kitchen open.
Third place went to Svenja Dupont and Maximilian Nelle. Ms. Dupont developed a living concept that combines single living and family living, but still allows the privacy of the individual. Mr. Nelle, who is active in landscape conservation alongside his studies with his own herd of goats, has developed a consistently sustainable concept that includes the selection of materials used and the possibilities of flexible use of space on each floor.
The competition was based on the three-part semester assignment of the "Design 2 Course" by Felix Schwake and demanded:
1. Verbalization of a special moment in rhyme, verse or prose
2. Materialization of the special moment from 1. into a "work of art" with means of the fine arts
3. Emergence from 1. + 2. in architecture: "single and family living in Lüdenscheid / Grünewalder Strasse".
Felix Schwake conducted the events with Achim Lohse, an artist and designer from Dortmund. The teachers and their students visited the Zero Foundation, the Kunstpalast and other museums, among other things, to analyze various visual arts in their way of communicating.
In addition, the students learned in exercises and lectures about artists like Monet, Serra, Pollock, Ücker, ... about designers like Alexander McQueen and Marcel Breuer ... and about architects like Vitruv, Paladio and Gropius ... how they nonverbally help their special moments communicate their works.
Umberto Eco answers the question to the question posed at the outset, what constitutes "beauty" with: "Beautiful is what makes you happy" (History of Beauty).
Whether the students have created "beautiful, special moments" of which everyone can convince themselves. The public exhibition of the competition can be seen until 23.08.2019 in the foyer of the Department of Architecture in Emil-Figge-Str.40.
Photos: Gabriele Marl www.gammafoto.de