Form Finding, Form Shaping, Designing Architecture

Location: Mendrisio, Switzerland
Conference Date: 10-11 October 2013
CFP Deadline: 28 April 2013

http://www.arc.usi.ch/en/aam_ris_ist_isa_call_for_apers_en_it.pdf

CFP: International Conference: Form Finding, Form Shaping, Designing Architecture (Mendrisio, Switzerland, 10 – 11 Oct 13)

Istituto di storia e teoria dell'arte e architettura (ISA) - Accademia di architettura - Università della Svizzera italiana /
Institute of History and Theory of Art and Architecture, Accademia di architettura, Università della Svizzera italiana, Mendrisio, Switzerland, October 10 – 11, 2013
Deadline: April 28, 2013

International Conference: Form Finding, Form Shaping, Designing Architecture. Experimental, aesthetical and ethical approaches to form in recent and postwar architecture
Call for Papers
International Conference
Mendrisio, Switzerland, October 10 – 11, 2013

Architect Frei Otto introduced the concept of “form finding” in opposition to the shaping of forms which in his opinion can only result in a deformation. He instead wanted to find, to explore and to optimize form. Today, methods of light construction are being optimized by means of adaptive structural systems into an ultra light construction. In this way, geometries developed using the principles of form finding demonstrate high structural performance together with high material efficiency. Concurrently, there has been an emergence of seemingly or factually arbitrary forms in contemporary architecture. How free, how accidental should or may architectural form be? Which processes lead to form? Which considerations influence the process of design? What role does the ‘design tool’ play? Are there aesthetic and ethical criteria, which can be influential to form?

“We almost only recognize the makers or the avoiders of form. The searchers of form are very rare,” stated Frei Otto in a 1977 interview with Heinrich Klotz who added: “Similarly contradictory is our architecture which, on one hand, demonstrates an almost unsurpassable degree of functional fidelity while on the other hand, an almost unsurpassable exoticism in the bewildering freedom of form.” Is the architecture of the twenty-first century still oscillating between poles like this?

We would like to discuss this complex of themes in the framework of an International Conference in October. Host of the event will be the Istituto di Storia e Teoria dell'Arte e dell'Architettura (ISA), Accademia di architettura, Università della Svizzera italiana in Mendrisio, Switzerland. Co-operation partner is the Chair of Structural Design, ETH Zürich, Prof. Dr. Joseph Schwarz and Dr. Toni Kotnik. We are aiming to attract participants from various fields. In order to promote an ‘exploratory’ character, the workshop will draw from established as well as young and emerging researchers in their fields. A publication of the conference contributions is planned.

We will help participants with travel and accommodation expenses.

Please submit no later than April 28, 2013 via email to Elisabeth.Bergmann@usi.ch the following:

- proposal of no more than 2.000 characters for a 20 minute presentation in English or Italian (both in the body of the email and in an attached document)
- name, professional affiliation (if applicable), address,
telephone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses
- a current one-page CV
- a list of connected publications

Information and Contact:
Dr. Elisabeth Bergmann
Elisabeth.Bergmann@usi.ch, +41 (0)58 666 57 57

Prof. Dr. Sonja Hildebrand
Sonja. Hildebrand@usi.ch