12 13 1 1 2 3 # 0 8 # 0 9 Brutal and banal with a hint of floral By Celeste Tellarini Much of human social thinking operates through highly rigid and clear oppositions: something is good or bad, right or wrong, a success or a failure. This way of thinking trough binary oppositions - old asWestern culture - helps us classify, understand and thus control what surrounds us. The disciplines of the built environment clearly align to this scheme andwork through recognisable sets of binary pairswhichwe use in our everyday language. We will challenge this forma mentis, we will explore and interpret what exists between strongly recognisable urban facts, we will allow unclear and unspecified places to become the fundamental starting point of a critical reinterpretation of pockets and slices of Antwerp. Looking for spatial, formal and material features that do not comply with binary logics, we will apprehend a new language and react to new ways of doing, seeing and inhabiting. Giving up dichotomies and oppositions, we will discover, analyse, document and understand ‘scapes’ of Antwerp (unused sealed surfaces, forgotten spaces between properties, outdated infrastructures, unexploited rooftops). We will structure a set of strategies aiming to reinterpret the selected scapes, both domesticating and enhancing them. Leaving margin to experimentation through different mediums and ways of communication, the participants will produce a series of artefacts (booklets, photographic series, drawings, Reels, texts, models, performances, installations) through which the enhancing strategies will be conveyed. The notion of ‘scape’ clearly derives from ‘landscape’, yet it enacts a first critical move: the term ‘landscape’ comes from the old Dutch and originally referred to a portion of the territory that can be grasped with the gaze. It is nowevident how long-established categories do not fit the reality we live any longer and our disciplines sometimes struggle to address a reality which is eccentric to the reassuring margins of a rigid - that is binary – definition. I propose ‘—scape’ as a mean to redefine the matter of what we grasp outside of accepted wisdom. per [bymeans of] FORM [shape; figure; mode; semblance] By Susie Brand-de Groot As designers we often design from a strong vision. By the conscious use of form in designs and the way we perform our designs to our audience, we can strengthen that vision. In Antwerp a lot of different cultures live apart together. The city is a lively and colourful melting pot of all kind of people. But… do they feel connected? Do they interact? Is everyone involved? Just like in every city there are social issues and frictions. I’mconvinced that we as designers can make the world a bit better, more social, more inclusive and save. But how can we use FORM to achieve that intention? What is the meaning of form and how can we use form as a design tool to make the world a bit better? Based on form research and design, students will try to achieve more cohesion in the Antwerp society. I’m convinced that the differences in study background will add value to the assignment, the design process, and the final designs. Students will co-create in small groups. In the end of the week, they ‘perform’ [present; show] their outcomes together to see if they can make Antwerp as one inclusive city.
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