Kontakte – Das Jahrbuch der KIT-Fakultät für Architektur 2023

The Form of Circularity
& The Superpower of
Outdated Infrastructures
The studios extend circular strategies in architecture
beyond the realm of just proper material
use. They engage in architecture’s capacity to express
cultural meaning: we show spatial implications
of circular thinking in form. In the recompositing
of existing building stock we start to
distinguish forms of regenerative architecture,
for example: Invisible Circularity, Circular Hacking,
Circular Collage, and Circular Montrage. In
each studio project we find designs that express
one or more examples of unconventional circular
design strategies.
In the second studio regenerative architecture
is combined with regenerative landscaping.
The notion that the loss of biodiversity in our culture
is alarming calls for – again – new design
strategies. Our building environment should not
just house humans, but also need to be a place
to live for non-humans: insects, mammals, birds,
and reptiles. In this studio we try to find new
modes of co-habitation of people and other sentient
beings. To accelerate the design process,
we use the Social Condenser, a concept that originated
in Soviet Constructivism in the 1920’s.
The image shown on the right is a section of
a project of Aline Lang & Amélie Giraud in the design
studio The Superpower of Outdated Infrastructures.
In this studio an iconic brutalist parking
garage in the inner city of Amsterdam is
transformed into a housing project for 50% humans
and 50% non-humans. No material is taken
away from the site and all materials that have
been added are biobased. The section shows the
re-use of the concrete elements of the parking
combined with the integration of landscape.
Entwurf Design
MA
Wintersemester 2022/23
Prof. Peter van Assche
Prof.’in Katja Hogenboom
Aline Lang & Amélie Giraud
A Querschnitt
408 van Assche, Hogenboom