Wonderland Manual for Emerging Architects: How to Establish and Run an Architecture Practice in Europe

345 Pages·2012·5.714 MB·English

by  Wonderland, Silvia Forlati, Anne Isopp

SpringerWienNewYork
wonderland
MANUAL
FOR
EMERGING
ARCHITECTS
Edited by
wonderland platform for european architecture
Silvia Forlati and Anne Isopp
with Astrid Piber
SpringerWienNewYork
editorial
This manual is a collection of expert contributions, firsthand accounts from practices, and a se-
ries of five poll-based surveys on how to conceive, establish, develop and run an architectural
practice today. Since 2006, when we started to work on these issues, however, the economic
situation has changed, and conditions for architect practices have become even tougher. It is
clear that the situation will continue to evolve. How dramatic this will be and in which direc-
tion it will go we cannot say. This manual does not, and cannot, offer definitive answers for
now or for the future. Instead, our intention is to provide the specific information needed to
get a picture of the situation that we find ourselves in. We hope that this will help emerging
architects to find their own way into the realm of planning and building and to make informed
career decisions; also, we hope this manual will encourage new questions and finding new an-
swers about the possible role of architects in the coming future.
www.wonderland.cx
5
prologue Silvia Forlati, Anne Isopp
and Astrid Piber,
the initiators and editors
of this volume, talk with
Dutch architectural critic Hans Ibelings
about changing conditions
for emerging architects in Europe
and about the role
that wonderland and the
Are we producing Wonderland Manual for
Emerging Architects
play within that world.
old-fashioned professionals
for new conditions?
Isopp: Wonderland started in 2002, now it is almost Ibelings: You can say that you were in the forefront,
a decade later. What has changed for young architects but maybe it’s also true that you were isolated in a way
over this long period? from common professional practice. I once read some-
thing which really struck me about all those avant-garde
Forlati:
If I go back to think of how the idea of the magazines of the 1920s and ’30s which all had interna-
magazine developed out of the Wonderland project, tionalism as a declared goal, but at the same time had
there was a feeling that the information and the role no audience at home. So that’s why they were so proud
models that were around at that time were not really of having contact with van Doesburg and all these con-
matching. We had the feeling there were new attitudes, nections. I don’t want to be negative, but I sometimes
new ways of doing things, new visions of what Europe suspect that Wonderland consists of a group of offices,
was about, and we were in a position to document it, so of people who are all, somehow, disconnected, and
we said, let’s do it. that’s why they are crossing borders. So you can see it in
a positive way, as a glamorous lifestyle, but maybe only
Isopp:
It was all about the profession. When we got in hindsight.
to know each other in the course of the Wonderland ex-
Forlati:
hibition tour, the architects never talked about design or I think it’s a mix: Wonderland was helpful
materials. They mostly talked about how they got commis- for teams to get started, and that’s why there is a gen-
sions, how they managed to survive, and these things were eration change going on now. It’s true, you need time
much more important at this stage of their career than the to be a part of Wonderland, but time is what you usually
things you talk about at the university. have at the beginning.
Ibelings: Piber:
But in a way, talking practice always has What distinguishes the first generation of
this tendency. It’s interesting to see that when this gen- Wonderland from others is that they see more value in
eration started to think about their role and their posi- establishing a network than in simply presenting their
tion the role of architect started to change. work, which is also a kind of insecurity about the direc-
tion in which to develop their work.
Forlati:
Maybe it’s true that everybody who starts
does it, but we still had the feeling that we were a bit in
the forefront at that time of change, and that what had
been there before did no longer apply.
6
Forlati:
There’s a whole bunch of small practices out ground and therefore connects back to its home base.
there. That’s also where the question of survival is going Traditionally, a strong local base always was a key-factor
to be increasingly relevant. How to keep a high profile? for a successful business, and not having this always
How to survive in an increasing globalized economy? meant that architects had to struggle a lot more to build
Now, in the crisis, we are all confronted with what has a portfolio. Also naturally, young architects fresh from
changed in the construction industry. It’s all about how the university do not expect their own businesses to be
small practices can survive in new and harsher conditions. profitable right away and are more open to taking risks –
and to do that you need of course quite some enthusi-
Ibelings:
For me, one issue also is that with archi- asm or naiveté.
tects this professionalization never took place the way
Isopp:
it did in other professions; and architects somehow con- When Wonderland started there were a lot of
tinued to be like artists in their ateliers. If you go to a young teams who did a lot of work, voluntarily, without
lawyer, the first thing you have to do is pay a retainer, payment. Okay, they were in their beginnings and had
and then he starts working for you; but if you go to an the time to do that; but what I hear now from Wonder-
architect, you get the design almost for free. land as well as from other architectural organizations, is
that they have problems to get young teams being inter-
Isopp:
This is a general problem in the creative indus- ested in participating because they don’t want to spend
tries ... their free time on it. Maybe it is because the course
of studies in architecture has changed. It has become
Forlati:
There is a general question if the role of ar- shorter and more school-like.
chitects is going to be in technology …
Ibelings:
They have a kind of consumerist approach,
Ibelings:
But to return to the start of Wonderland, they are consuming education ...
what always impressed me, was the enthusiasm of most
Isopp:
of the teams involved and the kind of feeling of shared, And maybe their work attitude has changed
let’s say, shared experience, your shared realization of as well.
what your position is, and so I always thought it was re-
Piber:
ally nice. So some of them may have used Wonderland as It surely has to do with the whole situation:
a kind of springboard to move on afterwards, but there being among the first generation of Wonderland teams
is still this group which is involved and available for vol- certainly had some engaging entrepreneurial charm, so
unteer work, whatever it is, and that’s quite nice. And teams were willing to spend more of their own energy
maybe that is also a characteristic of this generation, be- and probably got out more from it than teams that join a
cause every generation has a different attitude; there is well-established association at some later point.
a difference between architects who started to work in
Forlati:
the 1980s or ’90s and those who started around the be- A lot of teams we analyzed have this capa-
ginning of this century. From the outside position of the bility of moving in this in-between area, between build-
critic, I see how they are struggling to get their foot in ing up identities, getting work and concepts outside
the door, and it’s very strange that this previous genera- the traditional field, or of combining traditional fields
tion got all the big commissions, and now the situation with other things and know-how in other fields and in
is changing so much that you start asking yourself what part trying to find a market for this. Such special know-
will be left for the young generation to achieve. how also develops from personal interests and personal
involvement, but doesn’t yield an immediate return on
Piber:
If I am not mistaken, you once called this investment. As I see it, architectural education is still
generation of architects that came out in the 1990s the based on an old idea of what the role of the architect is.
‘easyJet generation’. Maybe this explains on one hand So I am wondering how this system is supposed to work
the striking attitude of sharing knowledge, of wanting because it keeps churning out old-fashioned profession-
to get to know more and being more flexible to work als into new conditions. And maybe that’s where the
with one another, but on the other hand it also refers Wonderland message still holds a vision or something
for me to the fact that this generation more easily loses to pass on to the next generation. This morning, I was
7
Ibelings:
thinking about the manual: it’s a snapshot of a status It would be quite difficult to find young
quo. Maybe we can show the struggle. practices outside Europe that can develop an approach
to architecture which is similar to what you see here in
Isopp:
We don’t have a solution, there are many pos- this Wonderland community.
sible ways, and you have to find your own way for your-
Piber:
self. The Wonderland teams have developed gen-
eration-specific knowledge because of their European
Forlati:
That’s true, but there should be an in- upbringing and education, but I am not so sure if they
creased awareness of what it is going to happen. I re- are confined to Europe. With the economic turmoil,
member talking to my father-in-law some months ago China has taken a different view of public spaces, public
and saying: “I’m not sure about that whole architectural programs and social infrastructure. It may still take some
profession, I think there will be problems. I am think- time until these projects will be recognized as signifi-
ing about the Asian practices coming into Europe and cant contributions to architectural practice, but there
offering service at prices far below what we could ever definitely is a demand for expertise that Western-edu-
be able to do.” And he said: “Yes, after all, small grocery cated architects could bring to this development if they
shop owners first didn’t make too much of the big super- are willing to work for less money in less time.
markets, either, but now they are all gone.” We still are
Forlati:
the small grocery shops here, some of them will survive There is no role readily cut out for archi-
as specialty stores, but in the architectural profession, tects. The manual has something to offer, in that it docu-
the Wal-Marts are moving in. And architects are putting ments sources to draw on. We should try to contribute
their head in the sand. to the definition of our future role. And that takes real
increased awareness. It’s a question how to build this up
Ibelings:
Absolutely. This comparison between gro- and fight it through. We definitely have very important
cery shops and supermarkets really hits the mark, and contributions to make. I see it in our office: sometimes
for me there also is another metaphor roughly from the clients are not able to actually imagine what they want,
same era, it’s coal mining. It was inconceivable for peo- and architects do have ideas ready, but they don’t have
ple that, as long there was coal and need for energy, the the professional background to position and market
mines could ever be closed down. But it happened, in themselves as the ones who can help in these conceptual
Germany, in the Netherlands, within a few years’ time, phases.
it all was gone. There are many industries which are like
Isopp:
coal mining today and they might disappear just like For me, the manual also stands for this Euro-
that, whether it’s newspapers, book publishing, or ar- pean vision, which may be changing. If we had started it
chitecture. ten years later, maybe it would not be a European vision
anymore, but an international or a Chinese-European
Forlati:
This might happen very quickly. one.
Ibelings: Ibelings:
To be replaced by something else. You’re right. That was something, I thought,
which is specific to this generation, it’s a gene rat ion which
Piber:
I don’t think architecture as such will disap- grew up with this optimism of an expanding Europe with
pear, but the profession will undergo further change, Erasmus programs, with more international contacts, with
and maybe the products that architects deliver will not a former Eastern Bloc which became part of our world
only be buildings; maybe it will be design process man- again. So maybe this optimism was then combined with
agement or smaller stuff in our designed world. Never- the idea of struggling to find a place in life for oneself.
theless, the world population is about to grow to 7 bil- But you can see now that it was at the very end of that
lion this year, and while the world is shrinking in Europe, development, and in 2008, things started to change, and
it is expanding in Asia. Maybe architectural practice in from that moment, the whole perspective changed. So
different parts of the world will have gone in entirely you can say you were at the forefront, but it also marked
different directions a few decades from now. the very last stage of a development which had started
in the late 1980s.
8
Forlati: Forlati:
How did the perspective change? If one of your children decides to be an ar-
chitect, what would be your advice to them? Sorry if this
Ibelings:
For one thing, there’s much less enthusi- question is too personal …
asm for Europe today. Just think of the Euro crisis or the
Ibelings:
xenophobia that is rampant in many countries. No, in fact it is a moment to rethink where
the creativity of architecture lies. And for, say, two cen-
Forlati:
The notion of what borders are about is still turies now, creativity in architecture was seen to reside
present. But in our generation at least, I don’t see peo- in the object, meaning that the highest thing you could
ple thinking national anymore. achieve was building an outstanding object.
Isopp: Forlati:
There are teams which are very successful at Usual architectural publications are about
the European level, but they always have difficulties the product. Our manual is about the process. This pro-
getting recognition in their own country. cess and this vision should obviously be extended to the
whole construction process. And that’s where the pos-
Ibelings:
That’s what I was saying, that absence of sibilities of architects are.
an interested public at home. And what I have come to
Ibelings:
realize, which also relates to this new definition of the Then you can say, if you return to this
role of an architect, is that Europe is the only continent whole manual, that it is a cross-section of alternative
where architecture is perceived as the profession that positions, of how to position yourself, that’s the value
gives physical shape to society. This public role of archi- of it.
tecture is not the same in other parts of the world. That
Forlati:
whole infrastructure of public buildings which we have, Maybe not that radical, not yet going for a
the attention to public space, the awareness of this pub- radical change.
lic or collective quality, is something very European.
Ibelings:
Many Wonderland teams are interested in this social No, but it already reflects a changing
dimension of architecture, which by definition will con- perspective. And some people say, “Yes, it looks a bit
fine their work to Europe. You cannot have this attitude like how architects were discussing things back in the
elsewhere, because building has a different significance 1970s”, but I think it’s different. The book is much more
outside Europe. a reflection of the recent past …
Forlati: Forlati:
It’s interesting that you say that this social A kind of snapshot?
role maybe will survive in Europe, but within limited
Ibelings:
scope; on the other hand, it is one possible direction Yeah, a snapshot of the recent past, in-
that architects can take. The alternative is technology, stead of a manual for the next ten or fifteen years.
but for that we might not be prepared well enough …
Isopp:
It is a snapshot. It is not a fixed vision of a pro-
Ibelings:
It also links to something else: it is esti- fession, but the portrayed teams in this book show that
mated that there are about one billion buildings in the you can make it, if you have the right attitude, if you are
world, and 95 percent of those were built without an ar- aware of your own skills and if you have this openness
chitect. And of the remaining five percent, you can say to changing conditions, also with respect to your own
that maybe a small portion is built with cultural inten- national borders.
tions, and the rest with pragmatic intentions. So what
Forlati:
we are talking about here is just the tiniest group of ar- On the other hand, everybody is a small fish
chitects. And given this very limited influence, I wonder swimming in the pond of architecture. I am sure the Wal-
why so many architects believe that their responsibility Marts are going to move in fast. So maybe the manual is
is no less than the whole built environment. about raising awareness, about creating the chance for a
swarm. But if we don’t have a swarm effect, we are go-
ing to have a problem.
9
prologue
6
#1
getting started
12
where to go
what to do
how to keep up
d
e
art
#2making mistakes ng st
74 etti
where things can go wrong g
why make mistakes
what to do when things go wrong
es
k
a
#3 mist
going public ng
136 ki
a
why go public m
how to go public
where to go public
c
#4 bli
u
getting specialized p
198 ng
oi
why specialize g
what to specialize in
how to specialize
d
e
z
ali
ci
e
#5 p
making competitions g s
n
268 etti
why make competitions g
how to make competitions
what happens next
ns
o
epilogue 330 etiti
p
m
Table of contents 348 g co
n
ki
a
m
getting started
where
to go
what
to do
how to
keep up
Follow the white rabbit ...