Our
own university, the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, is planning to build
a top-class research and technology centre at its site in Köthen and is asking
architecture students from the DIA to develop ideas for it. The campus consists
of two parts: First, an Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Sustainable Food
Production (InFonaL) and, secondly, the Central German Algae Research Centre
(MAZ). Food production and nutrition issues are urgent worldwide. Every ninth
person in the world goes hungry, although the world´s agriculture produces a
surplus of 33% in total. Apart from the imbalance between different regions,
one of the reasons is the inefficient use of resources in production and
processing technologies. Nutrition is changing significantly. Food should
become more valuable and healthier, of the highest quality and meet individual
needs such as "vegetarian" or "vegan". The fight against
climate change requires that current production, recycling and packaging
technologies be made more resource-, CO2- and energy-efficient. The
InFonal research centre is dealing with these enormous tasks for the future.
The Central German Algae Centre is also making a contribution to this, because
algae can play a significant role in feeding the world in the future. But the
field of application for algae is far wider. In construction, they are used as
algae facades to generate energy. They are natural resources for new materials
that can replace plastics. In the chemical, medical and cosmetics industries,
they replace chemical raw materials with natural ones. A breathtaking field of
research. The theme of the studio is how such high-tech research can find adequate
expression in the architecture of the building. How does the building correlate
with its contents? Conservation of resources, the avoidance of waste, the
saving of CO2 emissions, the use of renwable energies and materials
are topics just as much in food production as in the architecture of our time.
Another focus of the studio is the question of how architecture can support
interdisciplinary research. Today, new ideas and inventions are no longer
created in the study room of a brilliant scientist, but in the cooperation of
different disciplines. This requires an open architecture that stimulates
exchange of ideas and information. How to develop distinctive architecture for the
future in the interplay of functional and technical requirements and exciting
new ideas will be the challenge of this studio. It is about strategies and
methods to develop narratives, to trigger associations. It is about spatial
constellations and material. It is about the holistic consideration of
architecture in relation to its content.
- Trainer/in HSA: Niebergall, Ralf