AP-3. Borders & Territories

This research group focuses on the study of complex spatial mechanisms and systems within contemporary cities and territories, as they constitute the contextual basis of architectural interventions. These urban and territorial conditions are considered the prime forces of influence for contemporary architectural reflection and production. An understanding of the underlying philosophical, cultural, political and aesthetic value systems that influence the production of architectural form is considered of vital importance.

The “Borders & Territories” research group aims to chart this “field” in order to establish the rules for and the reasons behind architectural conjectures in the context of the emerging territory and the spatial conditions around borders and within territories. In “Borders & Territories,” the specific, at times emergent, spatial conditions found in contemporary cities and territories are considered to be a rich field in need of exploration and ultimately comprehension.

Metropolitan city-regions as well as specific urban border conditions will be investigated in order to determine the rule, or minimal preconditions, underlying their construction, which is simultaneously considered essential for an informed operation of design practices in this context. Within the contemporary built environment, the architectural object does not stand in isolation nor has it solely emerged out of architectural considerations. Fundamentally, architecture operates in an ‘in-between’ field that is unstable, complex, fragmented and non-hierarchical.

The particular field of study in “Borders & Territories” deals specifically with spatial boundaries and fields of operation within a framework that relates theory to practice and research to design. This framing of architectural operations is investigated in four distinctive ways:
(1) Discussion of architectural space and form within a multi- and trans-disciplinary framework (discussing the similarities and differences among disciplines, such as urbanism, geography, art, technology, and philosophy, to mention a few.);
(2) Development of architectural form as an object situated within the spatial conditions of the (urban) territory;
(3) Employment and testing of different, trans-disciplinary means in order to conduct experimentation in architectural design;
(4) Development of specific methodologies and instruments informing the architectural project.