Prozesse reflexiven Entwerfens – Entwerfen und Forschen in Architektur und Landschaft

5 | Qin Yufen: Untitled, 2018
Especially the title of the park as a ‘Garden of Memories’, very close to the new synagog
of Duisburg, indicates that the idea very evidently drew on what already existed. Even if
this work by Dani Karavan appears too loaded and too obvious linguistically, it impresses
with its design presence in this location. It is an impressive example of what potential the
location and the task harbor for the generation of ideas. One must tap into this source.
A NEW VIEW OF THE FAMILIAR Designing architecture is often
understood as a search for new forms. This makes sense but is often misleading. The
new form emerges at the end of a process and not at the beginning. Furthermore, the
new – which can be closely associated with a moment of surprise – is gained from the
turning around of accustomed and familiar perspectives. The new gains its meaning by
setting itself in relation to the familiar and placing it in a new context. It can lead to
new qualities, to contradicting the generally expected, to countering conventional with
a deeper understanding of the respective situations, as well as to triggering new sensory
stimuli. What may appear very odd or even far-fetched can evoke new perspectives for
the design, as well as a new attitude towards life.
The artist Qin Yufen pursues this with a wide range of approaches (fig. 5-6). 9 It surrounds
the themes of her artistic work. Her preferred medium is mostly large-scale
spatial installations with familiar, often simple everyday daily items. These include
clothes horses, barbed wire, bamboo, fabrics.
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The work I am alluding to here has been shown in various surroundings, giving the installation
a constantly changing spatial impression. The respective space is densely filled
in an unorderly manner with identical unfolded white clothes horses, which are available
cheaply from hardware stores. White and slightly transparent cloths of the same size