Bauhaus SummerSchool

»SPATIAL POETRY« A PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH

Angel-fair, Walhalla's charms displaying, Fairer than all mortal youths was he; Mild his look, as May-day sunbeams straying Gently o'er the blue and glassy sea.

And his kisses!--what ecstatic feeling! Like two flames that lovingly entwine, Like the harp's soft tones together stealing Into one sweet harmony divine,--

Soul and soul embraced, commingled, blended, Lips and cheeks with trembling passion burned, Heaven and earth, in pristine chaos ended, Round the blissful lovers madly turn'd.

He is gone--and, ah! with bitter anguish Vainly now I breathe my mournful sighs; He is gone--in hopeless grief I languish Earthly joys I ne'er again can prize!

Friedrich Schiller

In this hands-on course students will investigate and experiment with architectural space in its most archaic form. By weaving shapes, relations, proportions, and light, architecture can elevate new spatial experiences and phenomena, which is the theoretical foundation this course is built upon. In this context working with physical models has proved to be one of the most fundamental methods to produce, assess and refine space – especially in our increasingly digitalised world. This course is a testing field for experimenting with space and the methods to evaluate it.

Spatial Narratives – From Text to Space

As a trigger we will use text passages from canonical German novels and their hints and insinuations of spatial poetry within. We will interpret them, and carve out their inscribed spatial narratives and subtexts and transform them into models. The texts will therefore serve as vehicles, which allow us to translate textual atmospheres and phenomena into architectural space. Moreover this process will further strengthen and train the students’ ability for abstraction, interpretation and reinterpretation. The language in the texts is seen as a generator that triggers the spatial experiments and phenomenological tests throughout the course.

Go Big - Models and Drawings

By intensively using large scale caster models and over-sized charcoal drawings, the course seeks to familiarise the participants with the capacity to meaningfully evaluate the models and carve out the relevance of shapes, relations, proportions and light. On the basis of handcrafted plaster models and charcoal drawings, students will learn to both experiment with spatial ideas and meaningfully use the architectural model in this process.

The course features an array of thematically aligned lectures, such as technical inputs on building molds, as well as theoretical lectures on phenomenological approaches in architecture with examples and case studies. In Addition to this we will visit particularly shaped landscapes and environments as a visual and thematic inspiration.

As the final event the group will organize an exhibition with all the models and drawings produced throughout the course.