The Osthang Project Summer School in Darmstadt was a great experience for me, and for sure, for the other participants, too. It was conceptualized as an Experimental Building Workshop, curated by Jan Liesegang (raumlaborberlin), but it also opened a discussion about what a community is nowadays and how we can live together.
The
social experiment of Living Together (“in a bubble”) was quite
successful. I was really surprised that unknown people could contact so easily and become so close in days. It might be because of the lack of internet connection in the beginning, so that
everybody could talk with and get to know everybody. The second very important reason was that (almost) all daily activities were concentrated in one place and there was no need to go out of the construction and living site. All basic facilities were there and moreover, we were building and improving them day by day. The hard weather circumstances in the beginning made us even more determined to collaborate with each other so that the work could go on in the best possible way.
The line between tutors and participants was completely blurred because of the same task we were realizing and because of the opportunity given by the tutors to get involved in the design of the projects. The relationship tutor-participant got really personal and everybody could share their own concerns about the discussed and not discussed topics.
The organization of this 3-week workshop was quite good, I can imagine how difficult it is to work with so many agents, including 60 participants from all over the world. All the small problems that appeared were solved quickly, the whole organization team was really nice and engaged with the whole process the Osthang Summer School is.
Projects
Osthang Area is a symbolic area for the people of Darmstadt, because it is located amid the historically significant ensemble of the former artist colony Mathildenhöhe. Now the Osthang is an underused space, full of blackberry bushes and wild vegetation, where kids are the main explorers of this "secret garden".
Masterplan (atelier le balto)
The first sketches of intervention were done by the Berlin-based landscape planning collective atelier le balto. They developed a masterplan and later on, built the garden at the Osthang area to host all the projects that were coming up. The main idea was to preserve the wilderness of the space, having an organic puzzle of vegetation and buildings. Therefore, they defined with knee-high wooden fence the pathways and the open spaces and covered the soil with wooden pieces.
more info and great pictures at: http://www.lebalto-leblog.eu/atelier-le-balto-in-darmstadt/
Worked within the Precycling Princple - material is borrowed for building and after the deconstruction/ disassembling it is given back to the owner unharmed.
There were no
final plans or result to be achieved, but it was on the participants
and tutors´ decision. A special thought of temporary connection between elements had to emerge
during the process of building, as normally we are taught that architecture is
done for long years ahead (a lifetime). That is why there were a lot of tests of connections between the objects, as they could not be modified nor perforated.
One afternoon I could take part in this project. It was hard for me to get involved immediately, as I didn´t know what the team was up to. I helped the small group dealing with the possible structure of the bridge. We tested several possible solutions with the available materials and there were some debates with other tutors. At the end we tried to have a complex structure out of a wooden beam of a small section together with the industrial metal shelves. Although there were some problems, that were solved the next day, my experience was awesome. It was like the book of Structural Mechanics on real - elements, connections, loads, supports, deformations...
In the next days, the bridge was built and some elements improved. On both sides of the bridge, where the shelves are, is an exhibition. A great richness of forms, textures and temporary connections. A real pleasure to see what is achieved, releasing the imagination.
Slogan for the T-shirts: “Do it again!”
Workshop
House (Martin Kaltwasser)
It will be used for debates and work groups during the International Summer Course for New Music - a free interior space and walls for projection were needed. The main idea was to contrast the construction materials with others, that are not supposed to be. But, in fact, there was a very subtle question asked by the use of disassembled car pieces - don´t we actually live in cars, spending so many hours per day in them?
A basic structure was designed beforehand and during the first 7-10 days the participants were building it. The great difficulty was to work in mud as it was constantly raining during the making of the foundations, the building up the wooden frames and the roof of the workshop house.
Then the 5 cars arrived. They had to be disassembled and then, their pieces placed as facades, details or as attractive points after the participants design criteria. The metal-cut looked quite a dangerous task for me, but at the end, it seemed that the team had a lot of fun trying out new things and getting to know each other.
A basic structure was designed beforehand and during the first 7-10 days the participants were building it. The great difficulty was to work in mud as it was constantly raining during the making of the foundations, the building up the wooden frames and the roof of the workshop house.
Then the 5 cars arrived. They had to be disassembled and then, their pieces placed as facades, details or as attractive points after the participants design criteria. The metal-cut looked quite a dangerous task for me, but at the end, it seemed that the team had a lot of fun trying out new things and getting to know each other.
Main
Hall (Atelier Bow-Wow + ConstructLab)
A small Events Hall and public square are planned as a central communications area. During the Summer School the hall will be host to communal dining, as well as speeches and workshops, daily discussions, presentations, concerts and film screenings. The design is made by the Japanese studio Bow-Wow and the main tutors during the building of the hall are the great people from ConstructLab.
As much as it was known, the Main Hall was the only building that would stay longer than the duration of the OP Summer School.
When we arrived the main structure was already built and there was a rooftop. The participants were organized in different sub-teams – graphic design,
cladding and furniture design. The people were experimenting more
with the materials than with the design (except in the chair design).
The
cladding team was covering the whole building with polycarbonate sheets using special pieces for a proper fixing. The
graphic design team was working on the small details that everyone
was noticing and that gave a common representation of the space, although it was defined by different projects. Gonzague
and his assistants prepared a lot of graphic materials such as
posters, stickers and T-shirts, investigated the typical graphic
elements of the Mathildenhöhe.
The
furniture design team tutored by Johanna prepared a lot of chairs.
The design was made by every member of the Main Hall Team and they
could experiment with the wood and its bending, kindly presented by the workers
of Thonet. The participants bend the wood pieces by
themselves, saw the imperfection after the procedure and tried to adjust
their designs. They were also experimenting with the textile ribbon when covering the seats of the chairs.
The
Cabins (Orizzontale)
The Cabins/ Bedrooms are the representation of a special sort of appropriation of the site. The project is composed of several living spaces for artists´
residency, where the artists could sleep and present their work. The
cabins are 2-storey pieces and their second floor - where the bedrooms
are - is connected with a corridor and 2 staircases.
The
role of the participants was to build up the project, as it was already
designed and to help in the cladding definition. The cladding depended
on the materials found in the city recycling spot, but it was known
that they should be different for the 3 dwelling volumes.
There
were some problems in the beginning as the cutting machines were not as precise as the plans are, but later on these were solved. What characterizes the work of Orizzontale is the preciseness - everything should be done more than fine. The
main experience for the participants were the work with the wood and the machines, the construction/ cladding possibilities of other materials, the resolution of the details.
The tasks of the team were to build up the kitchen area and to cook lunch and dinner for everybody at Osthang. This was the team I was taking part in. The team was divided in 4 smaller groups, composed of 1 to 3 tutors and 3-4 students and we were rotating of 2 days of building, 1 day of cooking and 1 day off. This system was functioning quite well.
The day off was used to plan what the next 2 days is going to be built and there were conversations with the teams that were building, so that we could continue the project in a coherent conceptual way. But as there were things changing during the construction day, the drawn plans were not valid and the next day we had to re-plan the spaces. This day was the only moment that we had to draw, normally it was not needed, except of some explanation or details.
Building 2 days meant designing everything, but the structural wooden frame of 2,40 x 2,40 x 2,40 m, that was the first to be built. We had to discuss the height of the floor, facilities, uses, stairs, facades, details, roofs... and every day we were adjusting it to the current needs.
When we had to cook for so many people, the worse was that you have to wash all the pots, pans, bowls... afterward, considering that everyone washed their plates and forks before. All the dishes were super delicious and I don´t know how we had such an imagination for 20 days of different types of dishes, twice per day.
For more pictures of the Kitchen Area, realized together with Collectif Etc, please have a look at my exclusive post about it - Osthang with Collectif Etc .
The Final Videos of the Osthang Project in Vimeo
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