PHOTO:
Orizzontale, Kristof Lemp, Serena Cerillo
YEAR:
2014
LOCATION:
Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt, Germania
LINKS:
Can you tell me about the space cabins project?
Another project from our formative years and the period of seeking affirmation for our studio of which we are particularly fond: a delightful adventure, undertaken with many other people in an atmosphere of continuous exchange and collaboration. This is the Osthang Project, the international Summer School that took place in Darmstadt, Germany in the summer of 2014.
We were invited to participate by the curator Jan Liesegang of raumlaborberlin together with atelier le balto, Constructlab, Atelier Bow-wow, Collectif Etc, Martin Kaltwasser, Umschichten and m7red. For three weeks Osthang was transformed into a temporary campus inhabited by architects, artists and students who came from all over the world to build the structures that subsequently hosted the “Thinking together” philosophy festival, and still host events and initiatives of the inhabitants and local associations. In this context, we confronted the theme of the residence and we did it starting from the observation of the nearby colony of Matildenhohe, which had hosted a group of Jugendstil artists in the early twentieth century. Matildenhohe’s artists had beautiful houses that they used only in moments of rest: the days were spent in the ateliers and laboratories, places dedicated to creative work.
The starting idea was to subvert this dichotomy, letting our cabins allow unexpected uses and promote different levels of sociability. The residences consist of hexagonal plan elements, superimposed and specular to each other, connected by aerial walkways between the trees. The upper part of each is covered with a different material, recovered from the city of Darmstadt and readapted by the students. If the top part was the one dedicated to rest, more intimate and reserved, the area below was a public space in all respects, where you could walk, stop and meet.
