What will be? - Thoughts on the architecture of the future

QUESTION CATALOG

WORKING METHOD
How is your office set up? Do you have a classic office structure with owners and employees who form fixed project teams depending on the task, possibly supplemented by specialists? Or do you work in changing constellations with external offices, even under different names?

Until recently, I ran my architectural practice as a sole proprietorship without employees. The projects were developed alone or in cooperation with other architects. After winning the competition for the new LEE building at ETH Zurich at the end of last year, I am currently expanding my office. Based on my personal experience as an employee in other offices, I am aiming for a clearly organized office structure.

Above a certain level of complexity, the involvement of specialists for the processing of projects is a matter of course. In the case of the new LEE building, a larger team of specialists is involved in the planning. The aim is to continue to view and work on the project holistically.

I would like to continue my project-related collaboration with other offices in the future. As my field of activity is not limited to Switzerland, this idea includes foreign architecture firms in particular.

How is a project created? Which means are used when and how? Is there a well-rehearsed work process, an actual design method? What does it look like?

The starting point of my architectural exploration is the place. Every place already exists. In this respect, every building project means building on a place, taking into account the parameters that determine and characterize the place. Linked to this is the question of the building itself. This is the result of a morphological process that expresses the project-relevant factors - in addition to the location, these are mainly the program, the construction and the material. Depending on the task at hand, these factors contribute to the design of the building to varying degrees.

The design process begins with ideas and is then continued in a condensed form using sketches and studies. The framework conditions are analyzed over a longer period of time, but at the same time repeatedly questioned. In addition, a catalog of references is compiled that have a meaningful connection to the project and can therefore be incorporated into the design process. If possible, I visit the building site several times and try to internalize it. Models and CAD are used to further condense the design process, whereby the tools listed are usually used in parallel, but are weighted differently depending on the project. One constant is the numerous sketches that are created throughout the entire design process. The process described is not necessarily linear, but rather iterative.

In order to reflect on my own work, I occasionally put this up for debate with my colleagues in workshops. The resulting dialog requires a precise description of the previous path, while at the same time enabling me to question it and ultimately formulate the next steps. As part of the ETH project, the intention is to institutionalize this dialogue.

TOPICS
What are the topics that concern you? Which will become topical in the future, both internal and external to architecture? Which ones would you like to address in the future?

In my work to date, I have developed a strong interest in mostly public building projects in an urban context. The corresponding programs generate a high degree of challenging complexity in relation to the city. The project for the new LEE building is exemplary for me.

In addition to dealing with the city, I see the periphery as a further field of activity to which I would like to devote more time in the future. This includes, in particular, large-scale urban planning tasks. As part of a study trip lasting several months, for example, I comparatively examined the way in which the rural exodus is dealt with on the basis of officially planned satellite cities in Cairo and illegally emerging urban extensions in Istanbul. In this context, I see the opportunity and interest to make a contribution.

I am also very interested in the classification of typologies. A differentiation of actual basic types in this respect supports my analytical understanding of a place on the one hand, and on the other hand this differentiation enables a methodical design process to some extent.

In my professional work, I have established a direct relationship with architectural history. I borrow from it what I need in an adapted and transformed form for my projects. In this respect, I believe in continuity within architecture and see my work as an integral part of it. For example, Jorn Utzon's approach to the plinth and terrain served as a reference for the school extension currently under construction in Bolzano.

This phenomenological and at the same time referential understanding of architecture is strongly influenced by my time as a student of Hans Kollhoff at ETH Zurich.

What new challenges will there be? Where are there points of contact with your work?

I think that in future, the aspect of resource conservation and, in the course of current global construction activity, the question of identity and independence will increasingly shape architecture. As part of the project for the ETH, the appropriate use of resources is an elementary component of the project. How far my professional activity will develop internationally remains to be seen.

ARCHITECTURE
How do you transform these themes into architecture? Do you work on architectural investigations, as it were, research project by project?

The design process is usually intuitive, with thought and production processes merging and ultimately leading to the finished project. With the expansion of my office and the associated integration of employees into the design process, I am now striving to systematize these processes to a greater extent. Nevertheless, architecture is and remains strongly subjective for me.

Basically, I see each project as actual research work in which specific topics are investigated. Taken as a whole, this work serves to put my own thoughts into perspective and manifest them. In addition, I have formulated thematically structured research projects that I would like to pursue in my office in the future. One of these concerns daylight and is primarily based on Louis Kahn's approach to it. Another research project is based on the early works of Hans Hollein and deals with the aspect of scale.

During my studies and professional career to date, I have lived and worked in various cities - including Rotterdam, Berlin, New York and Vienna - and before founding my own office, I undertook a study trip to Iran, Egypt and Turkey lasting several months as part of a Grand Tour. The first concrete building project, the extension of the Fagen school center in Bolzano, is currently being realized. For me, this exploration of other countries and cities represents a continuous research activity that is not limited by time or geography.

What interests you about architecture? How would you describe your architecture? What do you want to achieve with your architecture?

With my architecture, I try to shape places by building on them. This is associated with the search for structures whose physicality and permanence emerge as a direct expression of the underlying conditions and intentions.

SELF-ASSESSMENT
How do you see your role as architects in society? What skills and responsibilities do you think architects have? Which ones do you recognize and which ones do you insist on?

As architects shape the world through their buildings, they bear a corresponding responsibility towards society. His buildings are both contemporary witnesses and legacies. This responsibility is evident in the project for the new ETH building in an urban location and in the immediate vicinity of buildings by Gottfried Semper, Gustav Gull and Otto Rudolf Salvisberg. I see it as my duty as an architect to take this responsibility seriously.

INSPIRATION
What inspires your work? What are your favorite buildings, your favorite film, your favorite book? What would be your favorite building project?

For me, everything is fundamentally inspiring, which is added to my personal wealth of experience in the sense of sedimentation and is ultimately reflected in the architecture. The difficulty lies in developing the necessary sensitivity for this.

Instead of listing my favorite building, film and book, I would like to introduce my favorite place. It is Ebenalp, which is located in Appenzellerland and is part of the Alpstein massif. It can be reached from Wasserauen by cable car. Once at the top, a short hike from the mountain station takes you through the Wildkirchli cave, past St. Michael's Chapel to the Aescher restaurant. From the open landscape to the cave eroded into the rock to the house built against the rock, there is an immediacy of nature and architecture here that I find unique in its spatial and atmospheric intensity.

The current project for the new LEE building at ETH Zurich is currently my favorite project. A freely selectable task could hardly be more exciting for me.

Fawad Kazi, What will be? - Thoughts on the Architecture of the Future, exhibition catalog, ed. Architekturforum Zürich, 2008, pp. 67-72