School Of
Architecture

Rethink the Courtyard Test Drive in Brno

Project URL
2023
Adéla Šoborová, Szymon Rozwalka, Jaroslav Sedlák
Other authors: Sevince Bayrak (SO?), Oral Goktas (SO?), Elif Özge Çilkoparan, Hilal Koca, Illiass Chamane, Ivan Bojanić, Jacek Czudak, Mikuláš Nalepa, Ondřej Skalický, Radovan Séleš, Romana Longauerová, Saša Šimečková, Slaven Cvijanović, Utku Kan

RETHINK THE COURTYARD
The workshop for finding new ideas for the faculty courtyard.
How to combine the small needs of today with the challenges of the future. How to solve individual fragments of space, individual functional demands with today‘s and upcoming conditions of architectural discourse?
The aim of the workshop is to find a new perspective of looking at the faculty courtyard and to propose first interventions within this space. Interventions that respond to current demands and which we aspire to realize later this year.

TEST DRIVE IN BRNO
From the smallest scale to the largest, we encounter crisis everywhere, in every moment. It is now almost part of every kind of practice to propose alternative ways to deal with the crisis. Can we redefine architecture to respond to the ongoing economic, political, and sociological crisis? Can we rethink our priorities while designing a space by using the courtyard as a case study?
For the Turkish Pavilion in the Biennale di Architettura this year, we are proposing a new theory to start a discussion about this fundamental change in our practice: The Carrier Bag Theory of Architecture. Our theory, inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin, suggests questioning our ossified perceptions of beauty and functionality. What if we listen to and understand the stories of the neglected and the overlooked rather than successful examples?
We would like to make a test drive for our theory, with Brno Faculty of Architecture, by using the courtyard as a case study. Is there a way of rethinking the courtyard by questioning the established habits, rituals, and spatial aspects? What is the ossified perception in this case, and are there any artifacts, groups (human or non-human), or activities that are neglected or overlooked and waiting to be discovered in the courtyard? By starting this discussion, the workshop aims to develop design questions and possible answers for the future of the courtyard.

ABOUT
The Workshop is organized in cooperation with the Faculty of Architecture – Brno University of Technology, VI PER Gallery, LINA platform and architecture studio SO?. The workshop will be divided into several parts: a kick-off discussion, a lecture by Sevince Bayrak and Oral Goktas (SO?) and three days workshop. The event is open to all architecture students. The maximum capacity is 20 students. The workshop will be loosely followed by a summer school, where some of the designs will be realized.

TUTORS
Sevince Bayrak (SO?), Oral Goktas (SO?), Szymon Rozwalka, Jaroslav Sedlák, Adéla Šoborová