A workshop by Michel Melenhorst, University of Applied Science, Detmolder school of architecture and interior architecture Detmold, Germany and Eric de Leeuw.
To understand the fundamental element of (a) space, we can use the technique to first reduce it to its (arbitrary) elementary, essential characteristics and second displace it from its original context
These steps of reduction and displacement are essential to grasp, sense, know and feel a space.
We do this in three steps
- The path of displacement starts with a mimetic rebuilding of an interior space, part of the space is built on a 1:1 scale
- The built space or parts of it are ´displaced´ to a public space
- The space will be adapted to a point that is regathers the same spatial qualities as it had before step one.
Central and permanent to our special experiences is our body; it is the one constant factor in all our encounters in changing contexts. To become aware of this, of our body and of our body in space, the workshops start with an exercise in displacement of the body using basic aikido techniques
Through Isolation and mimesis of a space, a new space is created.
What does it need to grasp the essential qualities of a space and recreate it with minimal means and elements? Which choices do you make, and why? What is the role of a window in a space when what is behind it is unknown, is it essential, do you replace it? And how does this affect the space
The space is loose from its context and will be (dis)placed in a new ´social´ spatial context in the public domain. What techniques do you use in defining it´s new location: Drawing, 1:1 test trial and error? Can you deduce directions from the spatial intrinsic values of the spaceHow should the new surroundings and perhaps also the given space be adapted to make it inhabitable? We place and perhaps rebuild or adapt the 1:1 model in a new surrounding
To define the Inhabitable we also use Hans van der Laan´s ideas:
Space in nature is boundless, formless, and measureless. When we build—when we make architecture—we tame a boundless, formless, and measureless space: we make a space we can inhabit, perceive, and measure. Our body can inhabit the space because it feels at home in it. Our eyes and our senses can perceive the space that is no longer boundless. And our intellect or awareness can appreciate the composition of the space because we can distinguish the measures of its components.