Observatorium: Open Air University This is the shadow site for search engines. Open the site for humans here

This is the shadow site for search engines. Open the site for humans here
Open Air University


Open Air University
Observatorium teaches Public Art and Place Making at many universities and academies in Europe and the USA, preferably outdoors. Observing, researching, philosophying and constructing go hand in hand. Students of universities and academies can also leave their premises and join Observatorium for an intense and challenging workshop on and around the Halde Norddeutschland spoil tip. So far (landscape) architecture students from Eindhoven, Wuppertal and Hannover joined the OAU, working on this one task: to settle yourself on the spoil toip, bearing in mind that private dwelling or garden should add tot the public domain. Recent workshops were held at: Headlands Center for the Arts - San Francisco, Art Academy - Ljubljana, TU Delft, Leibniz University - Hannover, Akademie der Bildenden Künste - München, TU Eindhoven, Willem de Kooning Akademie - Rotterdam and Designacademy - Eindhoven

Workshop Observatorium/ Rotterdam - Zanfi/ Milano
26th to 30th September 2011 MIAW-Milan International Architectural Workshop
At the Politecnico in Milano buildings are for humans, gardens for trees. Gardens are places to look at and to avoid walking in. How can a garden and its trees become a classroom or a place for studying? How do humans and trees live together in a garden? How can a garden become a more attractive and pleasurable space students are allowed to use, as if it were a big room? How much can we take from a garden without amputating it? To find equilibrium in the old dichotomy of nature/culture will be the task of the students this design workshop. How to make a garden productive for the mind?
The students lack space for studying and relaxing, although there are some sites on the ground of the Politecnico where this could be realized. In fact the lawns and streets are already in use, but there is a need for shelter and places to sit. During this workshop it is our aim to create architecture without walls. How can we create comfortable seating in the gardens by installing wooden decks? Can we create a sense of place by just making a floor? How can the simplest of architectural forms enhance the qualities of the garden? The task of the students is to design and construct wooden deck for the trees in a garden that invite the students to study and congegrate outside.
See: http://www.miaw2.polimi.it/MIAW.2/MIAW.2.html

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