IntraMuros 2009

(mk) On the occasion of the "Material and profession" symposium held in the Winter semester 2009/2010 at the PBSA, the department's traditional IntraMuros project week in November 2009 was given a meta-level topic for the first time. More than a dozen workshops invited the students to occupy themselves with materials that do not usually belong to the traditional repertoire of architectural design. The students of Prof. Dierk van den Hövel thus investigated possible ways of using textiles in architecture in the "Finely woven" workshop. "In view of the fact that clothing also has an architectural function as bodily cover, the question concerned how to make use of textile structures in buildings", is how Prof. van den Hövel explains the background to the project. The different methods of approach, yet also common design features, were taught by an architect, Wolfgang Esser (Dipl.-Ing.), and a textile designer, Barbara Esser (Dipl.-Des.). This opened up fully new perspectives for the students involved, as the student Aysun Gözcü enthusiastically sums up: "Combining textiles with architecture and linking these in the true sense of the word was a completely new experience for me, as well as being an absolute enrichment".

"Getting to grips with gypsum"
is the motto of Prof. Walter Schöller's group. Although architects generally only meet this material in the form of simple plasterboard, it was given new, even artistic honour by the group. They designed gypsum lamps, for instance, yet also drafted free, organic structures and turned empty water bottles and fruit into works of art almost reminiscent of sculptures.
Somewhat larger sculptures occupied students on the Master course Design Science taught by Prof. Oliver Kruse. Starting from the architectural form of the pavilion from the aspect of an art history, the students subsequently constructed their own pavilion as a walk-through monument. Composed of thirteen wooden boards 2.50 metres high, its design is based on a plug connection and will later have a total height of around three metres. Another group took on the task of livening up one of the inner courtyards in the spread of buildings on Georg-Glock-Strasse with an unusual means of construction: "Knotted ropes create a network structure, which opens the view for a creative use of light space fabric in architecture", believes Prof. Kruse.
Students under the supervision of Prof. Manfred Morlock likewise got to grips with unusual combinations. For example, parts of bicycle tyres were used as elements to link wooden boards or golf balls fastened with screws became ball-joints. The fact that this was not just meant for fun was demonstrated by student Joost Wilms: " We constructed a large spiral from the boards linked by these ball-joints which can serve as a throughway, although also as walked as a linkage".
Together with guest lecturer Prof. Lisa Schmitz, who teaches at Moscow's renowned Institute for Architecture MARCHI, the students of Prof. Robert Niess finally came up with proposals for a new "skin" for the Ministry of Innovation in Düsseldorf. This could consist of interlaced metal or stretch material which, as "active breathing" substances, would be able to assume important insulation and energy functions, something quite necessary for the buildings dating from the 1960s and 1970s.