Leonid Slonimskiy & Artem Kitaev (KOSMOS) AAD Arguments

We have one of our own presenting today, Leonid Slanimski, who is your professor and is also a graduate of this program and um I'm personally so happy to welcome you back. Um it's really inspiring to see you after all that long um time develop such influential work in the world. So uh thank you so much for uh for joining us and um Shiaoshi Chen will introduce you properly. Thank you. >> Hello. >> Hi everyone. So today we are thrilled to welcome our team Katav and Leonitiski co-founders of Cosmos Architects to the AED arguments at Columbia Gap. Of course, as Lydia has mentioned, we extend a special welcome to Leonid, who is an alumnest of the program, class of 2011. Since establishing their practice in 2012, Cosmos has emerged as one of the most exciting and relevant voices in contemporary architectural practice. Their expanding body of work spans urban design, buildings, object design, research, and art installations, declaring a practice that is resolutely contemporary in its theft and necessary translations across scales, geographies, and disciplines. With offices based in Zurich, Gratz and collaborating virtually across borders, they join a cohort of young offices who are engaged in an architectural activism rooted within the specificities of disciplinary expertise while advocating for the inclusion of spatial and material productive possibilities of allied disciplines, including climate data, media technologies, and ecologies. through their design, research, and pedagogical work. Cosmos proposes architecture as an entity that can intervene directly on the construction industry against a linear logic of demolition and new construction to choreograph new styles, new cycles of material reuse and valuation, staking their position in some of the most urgent debates in architectural discourse today. Their faith and optimism in the proximity to the discipline is evident in their recent publication of temporary texture structures of necessity published by Burkehouser in 2025. Read as a practical love letter to temporary structures. How do I love these scaffolding? Let me count all the ways. These are the transitory systems of critical support that encloses, embraces, and protects architectural bodies, enabling the making of the built environment as we more commonly recognize it across multiple histories and cultures. To this end, Cosmos wrangles figures of the western architectural lore to their cause. Some may call this the canon. Betuvius, Alberti, Loier are invoked in order to be refuted, subverted or complicated. New protagonists are proposed as the agents in the making of contemporary life of standback stereotomies, a rural barn painted in the mathematical precision of a Renaissance facade or a fumigation tent masquerading as a primitive hut. Through these temporary structures, architecture is situated always in the state of transition for futurities, possibilities, or the yet to come. Knowing that we do indeed live in the inherited wreckages of extractive systems of land, people, and ecologies, can we find ways to possibly salvage our cause? What are the specific ways that the over pedigreed architect can sincerely offer as methods or processes in response to these conditions? Trained in the lexicon of the technodderernist efficiency of capitalism despite the best efforts otherwise. Is there still an efficacy in our disciplinary expertise through the understanding of scale, structural systems, construction details, regulations, zoning rights, R values, so on so forth, can technical knowledge be positioned as a form of precisely attuned advocacy rather than an aesthetic or end to itself? Through their assiduous devotion to buildings and building systems, Cosmos explores these urgent disciplinary questions to actionize architecture in activating the latent material and spatial agencies along multi-temporal frameworks in redefining notions of value, use, and necessity. In preparing for the session, I'm enthused to see that this ethos provides a technical grounding for their recent research on force reuse, rethinking building conventions through crisis. Developed with Jill Martan, at the University of Art and Design in Geneva, the project expands contemporary discussions around reuse to articulate that reuse is not merely a set of mechanistic formal maneuvers based on market metrics. Rather, it is inextricably imshed in the fluxes of political crisis, state violence, economic procarity, and displacement. Their ongoing research engages contexts ranging from rent unrecognized beduin villages, interstitial domestic spaces in Havana to repurpose buses in the former USSR. For their contributions, Cosmos have been widely published and celebrated. Their work has been shown at the Venice Architecture Bianali, Trinali de Milano, Sa Paulo Bianal, and the Swiss Architecture Museum. Their many accolades include the Pred Janeive for experimental architecture, pro heavia prize, and a nomination for the Swiss Art and Design Awards. Alongside their design practice, Leonid and our team are professors of design at the Technical University of Vienna and the University of Art and Design in Geneva. This summer, we are especially welcome them to welcome them to the AAD program where they lead an advanced design studio to work with students in developing the ongoing project entitled Never Permanent, which is also the title of today's lecture. Please join me in welcoming Leoni Samoski and our team Katav. >> So as I uh we have named it as CC said the same way how we named our um studio in order to underline the argument which we will deliver today and throughout the studio. Uh first I would like to say that I'm speaking to you not only from me or from Artum who you see here but from um many people who are our studio Cosmos through architects who collaborate with us on our projects and we are not doing it u alone and speaking about our practice our practice is as CC very correctly mentioned uh works in a variety of scales geographical locations typologies of buildings and uh We work uh on projects starting from uh small ephemeral artistic installations to master plan projects um big buildings uh such as airports or sports centers but also um renovations and reconstructions of existing structures. This diversity allows us to experiment with construction techniques, materials uh with the meanings. But what was always important in our practice is uh rethinking the existing materials and building elements and at the same time um exploring the relationship between temporality and architecture in different scales in the scale of several days or even several hours to the scale of um decades and centuries when we speak about uh reconstructions of some historical buildings. And today we have decided as we are here with Artum divided by uh by the ocean and by zoom. So we have decided to break uh up our lecture in two parts. Uh one is called um temporary permanent and the second one is called permanently temporary. And I will present you the work which speaks rather about temporary uh smaller scale uh projects and Arto will speak about rather bigger scale u built work um reconstructions and uh projects which tackle the same topic but from another standpoint and I would like to start with a book which we have we were asked to uh to share from our practice. It's called temporary texture and it is um a book which is dedicated to it's a small atlas of um the architecture which always inspired us since we were students. Um and um through many years more than 10 years we collected knowledge about it and the name of the book comes from the fact that uh we cross out in the word architecture the ary which means in Greek the chief the main and uh we keep it dedicated to temporary anonymous infrastructural buildings which we see all around our buildings and which often bypass um unnoticed both by architects and uh by the society. And there's uh even like in New York you are all surrounded by scaffoldings and there's some reasons why scaffoldings are are put here but basically they are not considered even though some of them stay in the city for decades they're not considered part of the city architecture and they um constantly ignored and what started as rather a visual obsession with the structures which we collected since we were students for more than 10 years slowly uh came to a more um research and more um theoretical um exploration of what are the meanings and what are the principles which these constructions have in common and what can we as architects learn from them and sometimes as I said they can look very decorative but uh each part of their decor of their bright colors has a function sometimes their appearance is seems random like this uh huge scaffoldings in um New York but it's it follows the logic of economy and society the insurance companies liabilities and um what's interesting is again how they stay completely unnoticed in the city. Uh exploring the fake uh realities that these buildings create. We have questioned ourselves how much actually do we need architecture when structures like this can replace huge historical buildings for years. Well, they are reduced basically to a couple of millimeters of vinyl film uh representing in an urban scale a whole sometimes a whole uh neighborhood. And uh somehow we came also to the conclusion uh that uh these structures are inher inherently vernacular in the sense that they are actually representing uh the local construction techniques. And here for instance you can see uh quite a generic skyscraper in Hong Kong which is covered with bamboo scaffolding which is a unique technology uh with locally sourced materials designed for disassembly. And all of these um all of these principles um uh allowed us to speak about the principles and allowed us to create some kind of a manifesto for these anonymous structures and come up with the latest and maybe we can discuss it later in the arguments part uh with the the principles of the new order which these buildings uh which these temporary structures create. And uh we ar we argue that we as architects can learn a lot in terms of ecology in terms of construction techniques in terms of economy of means from these structures. And uh in the first part I would like to present you several alto together we'll present you today nine projects uh a couple of projects which um where we uh show how what we could what we learned from these structures and uh what can we bring in our practice. So the first project um is called offseason pavilion. It's a pavilion designed for concentric festival in Lrono. Lrono is a very beautiful part of Spain, very famous for its agriculture and wine making. So a huge amount of good Spanish wine comes from this province of Rioa. You probably know this wine. And uh the question which we raised when we were invited to do a pavilion there was how can we reveal the infrastructure of bringing of uh bringing up grapes and of wine culture which is behind this touristic cliche image of the psudi historical town with this beautiful old taverns because the reality of production of wine and of agriculture is actually um sometimes invisible. And this is for instance an image for of one of the huge warehouses where they store as you see ready bottles of wine thousands and thousands of them. And uh when visiting the site we have thought that this there is a certain beauty and u quality of which we can show uh from this backside of the wine production. And uh while visiting one of the uh bodegas, we have found out a local invention which is called halon deino which is humongous metal cage which can contain up to several hundreds of bottles of wine. And we have contacted a local production company which was uh purely producing this very technical equipment to store this uh the bottles. But what was interesting is that during the time when we were there, it was in winter, there were uh hundreds if not thousands of idling containers uh stored always in the backyards of these bodegas where they had this frontal facade with the historical letters with these old wooden barrels. Um but we thought that it would be smart and interesting to uh utilize these containers for the temporary infrastructure of the concentric festival. The thing is that the festival uh lasts not very much and due to the it's a very temporary event and we decided that if we use these containers and organized them in a architectural space. So we we have created basically a very simple plan and created a pavilion which is uh purely made out of these containers and even uses the same logic of their storage uh but creates a little basilica next uh to uh a historical cathedral in this city. And this space which was uh purely ephemeral and used exactly the technique uh which uh which they used to store the wine created um basically its only purpose was to create a public space a shadow and basically to become an ephemeral small place for people to join during this festival. This festival is a very it's actually happening right now in Spain. So if anyone of you would like to go I really recommend it. And um this space became a place for people uh like a small little um for the for the town but also a place for people together um to to speak to take ps from the heat and from the sun. And it was really created this little small brother of this cathedral as a temporary social space together. But what was also important for us is that also to the people who created these containers themselves, they kind of realized when they build it uh that their the thing with which we they work, this construction technique, this material has a a quality. And uh they came there with their families and were taking photos of their own containers which they were always almost embarrassingly putting in the back in the backyard. And also uh as you can see uh they have all different colors and I have asked them what was the reason for these uh very beautiful colors and it's basically just a process of um anodization of metal in order that it doesn't rust. So the most beautiful qualities were coming from the most practical um decisions made and it was very important for them to to show and to reveal these materials. And what was also important uh that these materials was basically they were fully disassembled and later went back uh to the place where they were stored. And uh in terms of uh means of construction uh when we calculated the the budget of this project uh was purely uh the budget of transportation and construction work and if all these materials would be bought and new or acquired uh the construction uh budget will be up to 100,000 euro when the actual budget was a couple of thousands which were purely distributed through uh given to local economy and uh the question which we ask ourselves in a Um is it actually can architecture is architecture is a temporary storage of uh materials of construction materials or can we see in this case that a temporary storage of these materials becomes a space and architecture and a similar question we raised in a project developed for Barcelona model festival. We did it in collaboration with our friends and colleagues from Basel Parabaza architects, Spanish Swiss office. And we started with the premise uh of the festival which spoke about um construction and its relationship to the cities. And as we all know the construction is um inherently um uh inherently deals with excavation and with using constantly of new resources. And when visiting Barcelona city during this festival, we realized how actually cities are also could be considered as constantly transforming construction sites and urban mines. And um while walking in Barcelona city, we saw hundreds of these uh construction sites which was never finished and never uh let's say uh in their final state. uh which contained lots of quite new materials and in we organized together with a curators who was Eva Frank and with the city of Barcelona and we were allowed to go to the periphery of Barcelona and to see the municipal stoages of different materials. Some of them were purely uh new stone and tiles and metal sheets. In one place we found we found the place where uh on a field there were around 2,000 concrete jerseys st standing uh for no reason and this was the consequence of COVID when they used these jerseys to um to bring people in lines. There were huge piles of unused asphalt which was also not uh clearly had not clear purpose in further um there were all types of materials including huge uh water barrels and even uh we had the contact with a construction company which made a uh underground tunnel. Uh there was some problems with this underground tunnel. As you can see this is just one circle of this tunnel. So they had thousands of these pieces of concrete which were wrongly calculated and they were just standing in the field thousands of them and like maybe the highlight of this visit was also a storage of municipal statues from different fountains from cemeteries uh from squares of different epoches which were also idling there and not having a purpose. So after uh observing all of them we have cataloged them and we tried to come up with a strategy that uh despite typical lightweight idea of a temporary pavilion we wanted to underline that actually it's the materials in transition and they don't need to be obligatory lightweight. It shouldn't be just made out of light pieces of wood. So we purposefully have selected series of let's say heavy materials which are not usually associated with temporary architecture and have created a pavilion in the park which was an entry space to the park where um purposefully heavy materials of different uh qualities of different pokes um were um giving us the entry to the to the garden marking with the statue um another entry from the park uh creating a temporary storage for um the citizens which could exchange the materials and so on. And um we covered this with a construction net uh looking like as if it was just a collection of these elements and creating a space a shadowed space in the park which will let the people pass and basically observe and this exhibited um potentiality of the city and of the city resources which is already there. All of these materials they were just idling uh in the city um before. And here you can see the entry to this park and um the statue which marked uh the park side which was used as a column. Uh the middle part was uh supported with a uh containers filled with water and in the middle uh not only the shadowed space was created but also stands which explained the whole process and all these uh urban minds let's say present in the cities and the the citizens were also uh given a possibility to to exchange materials to experiment to make workshops uh on materials reuse and what was uh And here we can see the kind of the dialogue between the the ephemeral and the so-called uh permanent parts of the building which also served as a night as a uh lighthouse. But what's what was very important for us is to show the possibility of uh creative reinterpretation of the materials and to activate the latent potential of an object uh through configuration for which it was never intended. And in this way the statue working as a column was a quite important uh symbolic thing for us that the statue which has usually decorative function works as a structural element. The water container becomes uh the highest point which is also has structural reason. uh the sphere was placed in a way that it just held under the tension the the textile and this was also part of the project that uh nothing was welded together or glued together. So the whole uh equally to log project the whole project was able to be easily um deconstructed in one day and as you can see it was working on the tension. So the the textile was rolled in a in a very thick its own roll and there was no hooks and it it all uh was functioning under the tension and even the pieces of asphalt became um small urban furniture like uh with leashes which you could move around the patza and u after the the festival was over and it served both as this place to for people to to study about these materials and to be together. Uh it went back to again idle in these um material stoages all around the cities. And here I would like to to speak not about the only the materials but also about the spaces uh and the re reinterpretation of the spaces and to present you the project Emma space which was on one of our first uh projects which was a transformation of an abandoned medical equipment factory. And uh when we came to the site, it looked like this like a typical um uh mix of brick buildings uh of industrial purpose from different um times. And uh the quality which we saw was not actually the buildings themselves but the spaces between them. And the idea was to temporary activate for one year this old factory into a cultural center and art center. And um our first intention was this little sketch which showed that the buildings were not actually the focus of our uh project but the spaces between them uh were and uh the idea was to create this artistic cluster in between the buildings while leaving the interiors of the buildings intact. And we have created this physical model uh for the presentation showing basically excluding the volumes of the buildings around and showing that we activate multiple courtyards between the buildings with different means and there the main social activities theater performances, raves uh concerts will take place while the buildings will be uh quite intact and here you can see the the volumes the volutry of these buildings and um the budget was not very big and we started to think how to to to to create this atmosphere which will uh give a new quality to the space. And we came up with the idea of wrapping the whole space with a material which you probably all know the insulation foil which was also used to isolate the facade in several places. And uh we have created this this detail with the construction workers. But then due to the construction imperfections, it also created this like very uneven uh lines which at first we were uh super um upset about. But then we realized that there's a certain quality in this kind of handmade uh let's say uh pseudo futuristic um aesthetics of it. And in order to liberate the these courtyards which were the main these voids were the main value for us in order to later be filled with people we have used the wires where different um lights and reflectors and also musical sound equipment were suspended. And um the last but quite important element uh was this disc which activated the main courtyard. And here again like we thought about the economy of means because uh we had to uh we had to separate the space of this um let's say new artistic cluster from the offices buildings behind them. Uh but obviously in order to to create a clear division and to create more like intimate uh outside space but obviously we couldn't build like a wall or create a building. So we thought that concentrating it in one uh quite theatrical and almost like uh abstract element would would make uh this division very clear. So here as you can see in the long perimeter there's one punctual element and it really makes this job. And in order to also underline this a bit theatrical and almost fake v visual of this uh disc, it was painted by reflective paint used for a street construction. So that on the photos it appears almost as a Photoshop collage rather than a real space and then later with a projection it activated the courtyards and created a space for people to hang out. But also strategically then inside we literally didn't do anything and left the interiors as they were giving them to the to the bar to the musical uh to the musicians um just basically cleaning it up and giving the majority of the um of the means in order to activate this exterior spaces. This is the transition space between the untouched inside to the courtyard and even the people in the space uh using this blankets became part of this total installation. And um the last project in this first chapter is an airbox. It's um sportive structure which uh we have made for the it's a competition which we won for the um world championship of football which now takes place in the United States and in a couple of other countries but back then it took place in Moscow and um the idea was to create uh so Nike and the Gorki Park and u has created a program to create a youth uh football center in the one of the biggest central parks in order to bring public there to be the center for for this uh for this championship for different athletes. Uh and we started with a question how can we create an infrastructure which will over uh although the the pavilion was supposed to be temporary but still we thought about it as a potentially that it will stay longer uh than just a couple of months of the football uh championship and how to create a space which can be um later appropriated for different uses. And as one of the first inspirations was back then we uh used to live in Bangkok when we won this competition uh was a a billboard like this type of uh billboard without without a sign which uh shows that it it's a very minimal structure which can be adapted to any new use and we used it as a reference for the project creating basically a three-dimensional um lettuce which works as a billboard as a canopy as an access to the roof uh which activates the building in four directions in the park and activates different types of users. It creates a shade shadow for the runners. It creates a uh this um basically the score. It shows the score to the football side and it can be used as a vertical gym uh and as a vertical billboard. So uh the quite simple program of the building was wrapped with this new skin uh which as you can see here serves as a sign of this building in the park and as a canopy for the runners and on the other side this part was used to put the score for the football uh game which happened on the left and uh this inclined surface was an access to the roof but also worked as a so-called 3D gym where people could stretch and climb um on top of it. And here you can see the the place where the running club of the park was meeting. And as you can see it was um it is a temporary it was designed as a temporary structure and therefore the trees were kind of integrated in the building. And what in order to create an additional sun protection, this lettuce um uh was equipped outside of the uh glazing. But it also created an interesting play of shadows which basically the building has multiple layers. The internal um the internal heat uh climatized layer, the second layer of the facade creating shadow and then the shadow itself and then also the landscaping. Um and uh one more important part of the building was its kind of naked quality. So we the building was be behind the facade completely glazed. So here you can see that we exposed to the outside the storage of the gy gym equipment the lockers and even the technical room with all the let's say the guts of the um ventilation electricity and so on. And this idea of transparency was followed by plan. As you can see here the there are two clear exits which bring you from uh this space either to outdoor gym to football to basketball to the running and the uh the only place where um and that's the place where the uh this the athletes uh are put in this long corridor and kind of getting prepared for the for the match for the game and and uh this kind of access activated the building into different places as you can see Here there is uh uh one field, the second one, third space and the place where the runners would go further. And the only kind of uh very uh intense and completely enclosed space was um the the lockers with the toilets in the middle. And uh the building had this multi-functional hall which was uh able to open and activated uh not only for sportive activities but also for the events of the uh football championship and uh later uh it was also used for presentations of books and conferences and didn't we like we didn't know at this moment despite the fact that this building was built with a very low foundation uh and following all the legal rules to be uh completely dismantled and to to be a per temporary building. It stayed and overlived much longer uh the football championship and um we remember this building like this but later uh in the next 8 years that passed since its uh inauguration, we have seen there all the possible uh functional scenarios. So it stopped being a sports space. It became a cinema book presentation space. They made uh pumpkin carving workshops there. They made workshops to make um textiles and uh anything and the building functioned as really like it was a gambling space then it was sold to some IT company then it was sold to some artistic uh to some wedding things. So it really worked as this billboard like we this is not obviously our project but it was work worked really like we wanted this kind of empty billboard representing any new function and that brings us also to the topic which many students have already seen during the presentation but the topic of the chief curator of space that we as architects have to consider that buildings uh coming from extraction of the architectural material and building an object which somehow is destined to future demolition is actually a vessel of functions of curated spaces or material resourcy in time and uh that we have to reconsider our role from a chief builder to chief curator of space and materials and time and uh with this uh slide I would like to pass um the microphone the virtual microphone to Artum Kitive. Thank you very much and for the invitation and I would like to continue this discussion about temporality in architecture and this relationship indeed concerns us a lot in um in almost all our projects because uh time is such an important extent in architecture. architecture even though appear to be static and solid actually defined by fluid processes uh inside and outside surrounded and uh it's interesting that even when the project the object the the building stays intact it changes nevertheless because the context around changes so the same uh even intact object appears differently if the context is different so I would like to continue this presentation with this uh permanent ly temporary condition and discuss how actually we could address these changes in design of the biggest structures of let's so-called imagined permanent buildings and uh I would like to start this presentation with a project which called hoteli in surik and uh it's the concept of hardware and software I believe some of you already familiar with the this design principles and uh startly It's a um uh it's a it's a transformation of three identical uh dormatory buildings for the hospital staff in Sururik. And these buildings uh have been built in 1972. Uh and during the construction of these structures uh it has been used quite a progressive construction technique back then. Uh it's a prefabricated loadbearing masonry wall. uh and uh these structures they uh these walls they separated all the units of the dormatory building. Um so separated these individual cells uh which you can see along the facads with a core circulation core in the middle and also the wet zones all concentrated in the middle. So uh the private individual units they even didn't have any bathrooms or showers or toilets. And that's interesting that even though the building is in absolutely perfect uh shape and conditions was very well maintained and uh constructed with a high quality. So you could see this perfect exposed concrete and fully aberating bathrooms with running water. It was considered uh for demolition because of uh lack of vision for transformation of it. So to us it was very interesting to propose then the vision how actually such a structure can be transformed and transformed in such a way that could change over the time according to evolving needs uh primarily housing needs. So we discussed this adaptability this uh resistance to uh change uh in time as a combination of durability structural durability and adaptability. So it's a strategic combination of long-term and easily adjustable solutions. And um here we decided to introduce this concept which called hardware and software in architecture where we see from the beginning architecture is a combination of a long-term uh loadbearing structure hardware and use specific interventions uh but easy to adjust something what we can introduce uh according to specific use requirements but also the same easy can change them adjust adapt or introduce new uh new type of software within this uh building according to evolving use requirements and starting this discussion about the hardware. We looked at the existing structure and to us was important to transform the structure from enclosed and separated system into one open structure. So we have reconnected the existing rooms through the system of openings uh into one open structure. So such a structure system of interconnected spaces which could be used either independently or is one or according to one strategy for the entire floor was the basics for our uh was was became our hardware. So the basic for our software interventions. Uh so uh it's an open structure and open structure is a structure which is available open for interpretation. So it could be reinterpreted to different uses and demands. And speaking about the use uh we also reflected on the temporality of different use requirements. So the there are some things some demands which you have only on a very which are demanded only for a very short period uh and some of them they are longer and so we discussed also how we could respond to them with different uh material or let's say construction means. So we develop uh uh changes based on daily, month or yearly cycles and for each of them we introduce different um tools. So, so for the days we introduce furniture, movable furniture, months is adjustable temporary construction and for the years we already can envision uh possible interventions with a long term so with a with a structure with a loadbearing structure and u uh through these tools we illustrated how uh the same hardware could be differently adapted uh to diverse needs like only rearranged only organized with the furniture or The for the month scenarios you can see the temporary structures uh on the outside and for the years scenarios one can already see uh for example double height spaces introduced uh through in between different floors. Here here we can see how in the interior the furniture can redefine completely the same uh hardware by for example interconnected uh connecting all the spaces or in the months one can see the uh temporary structures which provide uh required outdoor facilities like balconies but also circulation perhaps uh and for the years we can see this uh different um spatial configuration so all the interventions into the structure and what is interesting. Uh all of these scenarios they even manifest themselves on the facade and through this project we have illustrated how three identical buildings, three identical hardares uh could be transformed in a very different way according to different temporal uh uh according to different uh temporal requirements of different functions. So you can see on the left years in the middle months and on the right days scenarios of use uh and uh not only large urban structures require strategies for long-term adaptations sometimes it's even uh it's small things or even one family houses and uh here we discuss I would like to show you the project which called house located in Vienna in Austria and um when one speaks about Vienna. Uh you probably imagine big parks, cathedrals, castles and uh very dense urban environment defined by these Alba structures. But on the in some districts you actually have uh quite a big diversity of small houses for several families and also with greenery and private gardens and which are primarily have been built uh in 50s, 60s or 70s. And uh exactly one of these typical examples of 70s villa had been purchased by the client who has approached us with a um with the idea to transform it into um as a as a new house for potentially three families. So we have looked at uh this house and the thing is it's um quite a typical condition uh in terms of very complicated plan uh spaces which are not really aligned to certain uh logic. Sometimes they are connected or or not separated or without uh clear we have circulation use. they also sometimes uh lock in really uh spatial qualities and also for example with the access of light only from one side and 11 meters deep and also with a very low ceiling. So to us it was a challenge how actually to transform such a structure into uh one living uh contemporary living environment for contemporary for three contemporary families. So we looked at this building and which has this kind of distinct uh 70s chalet inspired design and um which actually um was questionable by the client if it's at all worth to preserve. Uh but to us it's always very interesting to look at the complicated context. So uh context to us is is always a limitation, a resource but also inspiration. So we look at this uh building and we try to understand what is specific about this vlab and uh obviously one of the dominating themes here it's the roof. So we decided to address to use the roof as one dominating um theme approach but also infrastructural uh element which would house under one roof different living installations and providing also diverse um spatial and clatical conditions uh open for interpretation by the tenants by different tenants of this um uh of this house. And when we start the discussion uh about uh the design so we looked at the plan and we try to understand how we can read it, how we can understand what we can learn from this plane or plan what is already in there. And um uh one of the things that actually if you remove non-loadbearing walls the loadbearing walls forms like three clear parts of the building which are actually uh works very well with our demand for the living constellation for three families. And on the other hand uh to us was important to create such a system which would interconnect the spaces uh transforming them in one living configuration. at the same time uh providing possibility to separate from from each other but also reconnect them with the nature. Uh so we decided to create such an open structure which would allow air and light to uh to flow in uh into the building but at the same time also provide connection through the building which nevertheless can be controlled by the tenants according to their uh privacy preferences. Uh we also tried to um um uh to actually intervene as as less as possible and our main thing was the strategic uh openings which we introduced. So this yellow color it marks what was demolished and the red one is um the new elements. So we try to keep it as uh minimal as possible in terms of our interventions and transform uh the entire uh floor in one uh in one living environment which as I said earlier nevertheless can be uh separated on the private uh in the individual units and uh as one of the tools was uh inspired by Gordon Mate Clark this uh openings which actually helps to reconnect uh different parts of the building reconnected from through with the uh to the uh outside. So kind of bringing in the greenery into the uh into the inner spaces of the building and also reconnecting different floors also uh experimented with different new spatial configurations and again creating new spaces spaces of uh in meaning. So it's uh something in between indoor and outdoor with a uh also relieved from very rigid programmatic definition something what could be as I was saying through the use of the house reinterpreted and changed according to the preference of the tenants. Uh all of this uh also the building has three floors which again matches quite well the requirement of installation for three families and to was also interesting to uh create outdoor facilities. So the terraces for the uh for these three groups also um separated from each other. So in the lowest floor the terrace is uh open directly to the garden while on the uh middle floor we can see the terrace which is uh a bit recessed within the building volume and partially covered by the roof but with a big opening which still makes it looks like a room. And on the uh uh upper floor the terrace is oriented to the other side. So to us it's always important to think about scenarios how on one hand create a common space where everyone can meet greet and communicate on the other on the other hand provide enough privacy in order to keep uh tenants um enough isolated from each other and to provide them enough independency for their uh uh for their uh routine events. Uh what's interesting that one of these uh terraces the roof terrace uh it's something what appeared in the perspective of the room of the room of the street as a um as a almost like a landmark gesture and was the only uh opening the only actually design intervention in this otherwise uh very simple roof and uh also the transparency and uh the ability to see through the building was very important to us. So you literally can see from one side into the other side of the site and also through this you could reconnect with the interior and interior is reconnected to the uh with the greenery. So that was one of the important strategies how to transform the low ceiling space and actually something uh very open filled with light and also easier for circulation. And um uh because we speak about Vienna, it was also important to us to reflect on uh this um tradition Viene architectural tradition and uh is also one of them probably the most famous uh representative of like Venise architect Otagna and for example his uh Vagna Grun. So this green color which used by Vagna in majority of his uh public infrastructure for city of Vienna. We decided also to use some traditional uh let's say popular materials like for example in this interior by adult law where he um used um this lacquered wood and also the green color. So all these combinations they really inspired us. So we have decided also to uh use um uh the combination of traditional material, traditional colors, traditional techniques with a bit of uh contemporary touch. So it's a combination of traditional uh parquette. Uh so this fishbone uh parquette uh green lacquered u so wood locker green lacquered surfaces and uh metal. Um what was important to us that uh this combination actually helps to balance the identity of the building but also uh brings a bit of contemporary touch which is not only stistical uh solution but also it's actually was the tool to bring in the light in this very deep building. So you can see how this reflective metal brings inside the interior more light and makes even the darkest corners of this very deep building uh filled with the light. And um as I was saying uh earlier this um the spaces without defined meaning without defined um um use uh also with this spaces of interim meaning something in between indoor and outdoor was very important to us. And uh for example like this room which um uh which is a terrace but also partially covered with a uh with a roof. It's almost perceived as a room but at the same time part of the outdoor space and um that's one of the principles which is very important to us whenever we design a building. uh one of the parts of its adaptability and oriented to time to future to changes uh in this future it's the um we try to provide um maximum diversity of different configurations so spatial configurations and also uh climatic configurations. So we have cold spaces, we have deep spaces, we have dark spaces or bright spaces, we have cold spaces covered from the rain or warm spaces and uh that's what we call gradient of environments which slightly blurs uh this kind of otherwise rigid bording between indoor and outdoor. And this gradient of environments uh it's a diversity of spatial and climatic conditions for interpretation by use in this project is used as one of the strategies for uh uh for transformation without really transforming the uh physical uh elements of the building just by interpretation it for different use purposes. And I will continue this discussion on adaptive reuse by the project temple bar uh barn. [clears throat] It is a community center for uh one community in the uh east of Georgia. So this community of uh happy and funny people uh who actually decided to organize alternative uh settlement once uh contacted us and uh they've asked if we could design a community center for them and we said yes sure great and they said but we already bought an industrial shed. We said okay uh but um what actually would it look like? So they say well we have the frame and now comes the the cladding and we said okay what kind of cladding they said it will be a corrugated metal. We said okay but what can we change? Uh what can we actually choose? They say you can choose the color and we say okay what are the colors? They say green and red. We say okay let it be red. U and we receive the next photo. So we start to think okay um again what can we learn from this structure how we can reinterpret for different purpose. So we looked at this shed and like okay what is it what is it and we said oh but actually it's a basilica so it looks like it's the main the tallest central nef and also two nef on the sides. So we decided to foster this comparison by introducing this circular window in the middle which would provide this strong interior atmosphere. Uh and then we continue to discuss okay if basilica but what is basilica? So one can speculate that basilica is actually very practical uh in the medieval time lobearing structure. So it's a structure of brick uh beautifificated ornamentalized by by marble. Uh so um we have discussed that perhaps that's actually the strategy we have to follow. So we already have the efficient contemporary loadbearing structure. So steel frame with a corrugated metal and now we have to find a way to oramentalize it and uh marble wasn't really affordable within the budget of the project. Uh so we have decided to uh just paint the ornament right at top of the corrugated metal and proposed such an uh ornamentalization for already erected uh corrugated metal uh structure. Uh, and it was interesting how um um uh it transformed this industrial shape uh barn in um slightly absurd but uh probably very symbolic community center. And um um [clears throat] it was interesting how much you can do with a actually with a paint with this bucket of paint like a Tom Sy who invited friends to uh to paint a fence. uh it was al it also became a community project. So the entire community was participating in painting this barn and also it was kind of a team bonding community bonding event and soon the community center has opened its doors and it was actively used for different type of events for as a workshop uh but also as a some important social space for different social activities indoor but also outdoor um and um it was also used for different formal dinners and um at the same time it's still surprised uh the pass buyers uh by its contrast to the surrounding and very unexpected uh look and [snorts] even more even sharpening this contrast over the winter where the bright colors contrast so much with the fresh snow and dark trunks of the trees and Um the other project which I would like to show it's a tin castle it's a little uh shelter uh with a minimal budget also for the same community and it's not uh exactly adaptive reuse but it's interesting to speak about resources here and uh whenever uh so when we uh did one of the photos of this uh this area where this community is actually located and uh when one appears in such a beautiful surroundings. Um, one also would like probably to to work with only sustainable materials and imagine perhaps something very eological, wood, clay and um at the same time sustainable it's not always uh purely ecological in nature. It's also something what perhaps just available on the site. And uh in our case we decided to uh make a tour to study actually what is available but also study the markets. So the main material on the site it's uh it's a corrugated metal. So uh it was interesting it used almost for any type of the construction. At the same time there are also interesting construction techniques also strongly related to reuse and again accessible resources on the site. So for example, reused car tires which are used as a framework for the foundation. Uh and uh on the other hand some tricks like for example placing stones on top of the roof which actually uh prevents uh protects uses from the strong wings and um also makes the structure cheaper and easier. Uh so here we study uh different types of corrugated metal all of the same kind apparently. Um and uh also discuss how uh the building can be constructed in a way that would be executed not by the most professional uh uh team. also just played a bit around uh at the market with anything what could be found around and proposed a very simple design which actually combines uh local construction practices and purely done out of materials which one can actually uh find in the closer surrounding without delivering them from 400 kilometers like from uh pissi it's almost 4 hours derived from the place where community is. Um and um the the entire structure was uh assembled as a like designed as a very simple uh uh as a very simple uh structure with the manual how it could be assembled and um again many members of the community even not the most uh professional workers have been participating in this protest. And uh again it became important community moment when everyone builds this module and uh when the uh module was finished. It was surprising uh how actually it got like inserted in this uh look like uh apparently contrasting environment but actually through its reflective surfaces and uh perhaps very simple design it got uh integrated in this forest and uh appeared to be uh very organic within this setting and it's also become certain cinematograph setting for cinematography and the photo shooting. But what is important to us that um all the solutions in there they actually all follow the logic of very simple construction elements which can be reinterpreted slightly differently. So for example, even the window uh it's just the simplest and cheapest window you can get on the construction market, but just rotated 45 degree. Uh and here you can see how one can uh try to look in the window. Um and uh what's also was interesting uh how it appeared in the uh snow providing enough uh heated space uh for the uh for the one who need to rest uh under the snow in the quiet winter. And uh the last project which I would like to show today uh it's a wolf a it's a project in Basel in Switzerland uh and it's a very recent project and this project deals with several very important ostopics it's designed for disassembly for so when we build the structure in such a way that it could be adapted and modified afterwards with a minimal uh damage of the to the materials so the materials can be uh disassm assembled and reused again and on the other hand it's reuse itself. So we try to uh design the entire building from the uh reused materials but also in such a way that can be uh disassembled and re reused. So um um here you can see the area of uh Wolf and uh instead of this it used to be industrial area uh also logistic area in the outskirts of city of Basil and now the entire area would be transformed into the living district and all of the buildings which you can see on the photo I mean on the foreground of the photo will be dismantled and um exactly them uh should be used as uh as a source uh for materials for the new construction. So we have identified all the buildings and also identified materials possible for reuse. Uh it was actually very interesting process because you go through the site and you technically also think okay this and that can be reused how actually uh this can be uh also uh incorporated into new construction. And um it's interesting because you never yet know what actually you need and sometimes uh you look for something you have uh what could serve particular purpose. Uh so you know like you need a column or you need you know a beam and sometimes the other way around you see something very uh valuable and then you drive actually your design through from the accessibility of the material you see that this is very robust and good element. So definitely from here it should come into the new construction. So let's see how we can modify our design in order um that this element would actually serve certain structural or purpose in the new uh building. So we have uh create a catalog with uh all the elements which we uh were about to reuse uh also calculating the number and also number of them and also their structural let's say physical uh properties uh and um assembled them in the composition which uh was defined again by availability of the material because we had a limited uh number of different materials of different kind which didn't allow us to introduce one system for the entire building. So we have decided to uh divide the building in three uh parts and each part would have uh its own major material. Um so uh here we indicate how different materials where different materials and different um construction elements um how they actually informed and formed our design and it's uh again interesting how sometimes you can see the frame and uh you see it's very robust frame and a good in good condition uh like here 6 m frame and then this frame starts to uh define the architecture. texture. So here for example you could see uh these frames on the facade and they also introduced uh particular uh space spaces or spatial conditions within the building. And um what's also interesting that when you work with existing elements they're not always actually um um correspond to your actual needs. So you al often in order to bring them to certain height or to certain spend you need to slightly extend them or shorten them but also sometimes you need to introduce connectors which would connect different elements which were never mean to work together and also the design of these connectors uh became like important element uh in our in our project. What's also interesting that sometimes we try not to separate everything in smaller pieces but the other way around the bigger thing you reuse the LS actually you disassemble and this and in this case it becomes more sustainable and even cheaper. So some elements we reuse like this uh roof structures exactly as they are uh making them elements for example for outdoor facade which carry uh the balconies. So uh you can see that they're not only practical but they also provide very specific architecture to all three towers. It's from the other side of the building oriented to the uh courtyard. So what we did we uh technically took the roofs uh roof structures and just rotated them 90 degree and applied them on the facade uh and uh they became also each of them uh became distinct architectural feature of each of the towers. So uh you can see that uh how again accessibility of the material availability of the material defines the entire contextual thinking but also the final outcome and it's very interesting to to discover uh actually uh what is available and how could be reinterpreted for uh new purposes. It's also interesting how then these reused elements they actually uh inform and they going inside into the private spaces and here we for example see this part of the like this eel tower uh curve which is uh part of this roof structure and which forms this kind of uh balcony atmosphere uh and to us was uh very important even though the structure is was very dense and rationally assembled but to provide also large uh diversity of the living units large in scale but also large in atmosphere. So this big diversity of uh of living configurations of different kinds. We nevertheless uh even though the building was very deep, we also tried to find this uh layout solutions which would allow to bring the light as deep as possible inside the building but also sometimes to especially oriented to unfavor unfavorable uh parts like highway uh northern side where we had to keep all the windows closed because of acoustic reasons. We also try to transform this unfavorable spaces into uh favorable into um by for example introducing double height spaces which also bring in this normal housing combination this loft conditions and at the same time to us was very important to still incorporate the strategies for uh adaptation of the building that uh actually tenants would be able to adapt to transform to change the structures, their own living environment as they would uh prefer to provide them possibility for individualization that will craft it exactly as it works for them or for their uh families and um uh also we also propose strategies for reuse. So you how one can also uh adapt this building using and incorporating here different reuse elements. So here I probably would try to in a way summarize what's very important uh to our practice. So well we speak about time temporality in relationship to built environment and also resources how these two parameters time and resources accessibility of resources can actually uh forms actually the architecture. So what we try to do we always think about what will happen in the future. So we think about how one can disassemble our structure. How whatever we build could be then disassembled and used somewhere further. So we think we just we try only to borrow these resources and then returning them undamaged or or with minimal damages keeping them still available for future interpretation and use. At the same time it's also very important to us to work with existing structures. So any existing structure we try to read it, understand it and try to activate its Latin potential uh through uh different interventions or interventions of different kind but to see how actually any existing structure could be uh reused for new purposes and when this uh act of reusing actually give its new meaning, new quality uh new architectural quality but also what even more important through this act we don't think about the only the uh the use which is demanded by the program but we also try to incorate incorporate strategies which would allow to reuse the structure afterwards to re reuse. So it's very important that any act could serve as a opportunity to prepare the structures to new cycles, new iterations of adaptation. And the third it's very important to us and interesting to think with m to work with materials which actually have been never intended for the construction purposes. So to uh integrate new materials uh materials which are not in demand which are not in use to uh to address the potential the structural potential the physical potential like for example they could be used as insulation material or is a protection material. uh and uh try to experiment with materials which uh normally would wouldn't be used in the construction as a construction material bringing new sources new resources into the uh construction um and at this point I would like to thank you for your attention and uh let's start the argument.