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Students are able to master integrative design and planning tasks. They can independently and reflectively formulate an architectural concept, connect it with the discourse and implement it on different scales. They have specific methodological knowledge and skills for the integration of aesthetic, functional, programmatic, urban, typological, technical and environmental aspects.

Volumetric Typologies for Encounters between Science and the Public

In the coming year, we will design a “House of Science” that focuses on the transdisciplinary exchange between society and research and gives it a place in the center of Innsbruck. Innsbruck is a university town with a long history, but in comparison to other cities it does not have a public central location for science communication. The numerous transdisciplinary activities of the individual researchers and the diverse collections of the institutes are fragmented across many locations, without the possibility of creating “gravity” and an urban presence.

There is no “classic” typology for a house of science, so we will look at spaces of science and learn from their characteristics and their relationship to public space (from the laboratory, the conference room, the studio, the depot, the study hall, the anatomy theater, the lecture hall, the archive, the ivory tower,...). To this end, we will develop new typologies and spatial concepts and investigate the various facets and potentials of “volumetric” design: spatial complexity and entanglement, ambiguity of spaces, spatial plan and spatial sequence, multisensory and “deep” surfaces, hybrid functionalities, multi-materiality, high-resolution and gradual structures, performative or adaptive constructions,... you name it. At the beginning of the semester, students will articulate personal focuses and interests within “volumetric design” and implement these in a complex building design.

Volumetric design not only means that building designs are spatially complex and permeated. Above all, it also describes a design method that is being researched by i.sd and makes full use of the volumetric possibilities of digital tools. From scans of the environment, the integration of three-dimensional climate data to volumetric sketching with 3D point clouds, we will look at different possibilities in joint workshops and apply them in design studies. Volumetric thinking will allow us to look at our designs in a completely new way: as with X-ray vision, we can develop the interior and its structure simultaneously with the external formation. Decisions in the smallest detail can have repercussions on the whole and vice versa.

Structure of the studio

Task 1: Volumetric Design (5 weeks)

In individual projects, students develop a volumetric spatial concept, which is articulated in a physical “chunk model”. In preparation for this, students analyze architectural references and derive volumetric properties from them. The necessary digital methods are taught in workshops. (Previous knowledge of Rhino/GH and Houdini is not necessary).

Task 2: Volumetric Site Analysis and Typology Research (4 weeks)

In parallel workshops, volumetric methods of site analysis are taught on the one hand and possible typologies for a House of Science are analyzed and discussed on the other. In groups, students develop a digital model of the environment with sketches of the urban idea and a volumetric diagram for an initial concept.

Task 3: House of Science - Building Design (6 weeks)

The building ideas and volumetric concepts are further developed; spatial program, circulation, concepts for public space and exhibition design are integrated. At the end of this phase, students present a building design that will be further developed and refined in the following semester. The aim is to develop high-resolution and detailed buildings by the end of the Bachelor's thesis and to present their innovative typology in terms of their use and curatorial display as well as their structural, material or climatic effects. The aim is for the students to set their own priorities and define the direction of the development at the beginning of the second semester.

The studio is part of a “Vertical Studio” at the i.sd. This means that the topic “House of Science” is dealt with in all design studios; however, each studio has its own focus. The focus of this studio is on the development of detailed and complex designs in the center of Innsbruck. Overarching studio activities are also planned, such as input lectures by scientists and curators, visits to reference projects and cross-reviews between the studios.

Course examination according to § 6, statute section on "study-law regulations".

Will be discussed in the first lesson.

The registration takes place via a preference system.

Information on registering for the Entwerfen courses can be found at: https://www.uibk.ac.at/fakultaeten-servicestelle/standorte/technikerstrasse/studium.html/

The Entwerfen subject presentations (PDF's, links, videos, etc.) will be posted on the faculty website https://www.uibk.ac.at/de/architektur/studium/entwerfen-2024w/ and in OLAT.

For the associated subjects, "SE Konzept und Methoden des Entwurfs" and "SE Vertiefter Entwurf", no separate registration is necessary, this is done automatically.