→ Architecture in Itself
Architecture is the physical presence of the principle of Cause and Effect. It transforms social processes into aesthetic values and bridges the gap between history and now.Architecture is the spatial framework and designed context in which actions and events take place, thereby architecture will effect a certain use and quality for the appropriation of space.
Architecture is not just like kicking a ball, it is always embedded in a political, social, economical and ecological context. It is the formed background where the differences between needs and wants are spatially negotiated.
Architecture is a way of thinking and a reflection of the surrounding material world. Knowledge and imagination are essential for the everyday practice of architectural design.
Dialectics of large and small, abstract and real, theory and practice describes the field in which we move as architects: Space in all its manifestations, starting with the disposition and characteristics of cities and landscapes to the architectural context of form and construction.
Improvisation is a crucial method and practice for experimental and situative design. It means the ability of reacting, making and creating in the response to the stimulus of an immediate spatial and programmatic environment.
Improvisation can result in the invention of new structures, new forms, new practices or parameters, and new ways towards unusual aesthetics. The experimental method of situative designing explores the great potentials of what is already there. Our natural ressources are limited thus we have to take care of the materials and structures which are yet at our disposal.
Contemporary sustainability means to develop concepts which modify, revaluate, reuse, recycle or reorganise urban and architectural spaces in order to uncover, intensify and activate the specific qualities and charecteristics of a tangible spatial situation.
The concept of improvisation incorporates literally the idea of any possible improvement and also its connection to the fields of visual cultures.
Christian M. Dengler Dipl.-Ing. Architect
Christian M. Dengler is an architect, educator, and urbanist whose work investigates architecture as a spatial and material manifestation of social, political, economic, and ecological processes. His approach understands architecture not as an autonomous aesthetic object, but as a constructed framework in which actions, events, and forms of appropriation become possible.
For Dengler, architecture operates between cause and effect: it translates complex social processes into spatial and aesthetic conditions, while simultaneously shaping the ways in which space can be inhabited, used, and transformed. Architecture therefore becomes a field of negotiation between needs and desires, individual and collective interests, permanence and change. It provides the physical background against which differences are spatially articulated and negotiated.
Born in Hamm, Germany, Dengler studied architecture at ETH Zurich, Graz University of Technology, and the Moscow Architectural Institute. His professional experience includes work with internationally active architectural and urban design practices such as Roos & Schregenberger, Behnisch & Partner, Volker Giencke, Klaus Kada, and Agence Ter in Paris.
He has taught architecture and design at Graz University of Technology and Vienna University of Technology. In 2005, he founded DENGLAB, a studio for experimental urban architecture in Graz and Berlin. Since 2008, he has been Adjunct Professor of Architecture Design and, since 2013, Director of CityLAB:Berlin at Norwich University School of Architecture and Art. In 2014–15, he was Visiting Professor of Urban Design at OTH Regensburg.
His teaching, research, and design practice are concerned with the reciprocal relationship between spatial form and social action, and with architecture as an instrument for negotiating contemporary urban conditions. His work has received numerous prizes and awards, including the Friedrich Zotter Prize for Experimental Architecture and the Otto Wagner Städtebaupreis.
Collaborators
Anaïs Charton, Zach Cohen, Marion Combas, Colin Comfort, Taylor Davidson, Michael DiBenedetto, Eva Dietrich, Sophie Gallus, Toru Higuchi, Elisabeth Krammer, Carla Llaudó Torres, Barbara Schmelzer-Ziringer, Holger Schwarz, Lydia WissaCollaboration with
Gregor Langenbrinck, Marie Neumüllers - urbanizers / Thomas Willemeit - graft / Silke Riechert / Christian Bauer (Courtyard M8), Timo Herrmann - BBZ / Elisabeth Krammer (Music Hall St. Margareten) / Barbara Schmelzer-Ziringer (Apartment M405) / Thomas Bendel (ZDF Aspekte) / Holger Schwarz (tokyobike + OMA + House F2) / Walter Kletzl, Thomas Proksch (Technology Parc Villach), Bernd Vlay (Technology Parc Villach and Vienna hospital)
Clients include
HKW, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (house of world cultures), Berlin / Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), Berlin / Other Music Academy (OMA), Weimar / City of Weimar, Weimar / City Council of Villach, Villach (Austria) / tokyobike company, Tokyo (Japan) / City council of Vienna, Vienna (Austria) / Nordic Embassies Berlin, Berlin / private clientsContact
DENGLABoffice@denglab.com
Related links
123buero.com / pixelpolizei.de / tokyobike.dehkw.de / yiddishsummer.eu / othermusic.eu
zdf.de / thomasbendel.de / tokyobike.de
urbanizers.de / agenceter.com / bbz.la
derhausfreund.info / park.co.at / gpl.at
mareikelee.com / transbanana.com
parkhausprojects.tk / michaelsontag.de
daniel-diederich.de / stanhema.com
muenz8.de / pony-pedro.de / studiovlay.at
joostmeuwissen.nl
Imprint
Responsible: DENGLABArchitect Christian M. Dengler
Concept&Design: Timo Gaessner
Programming: Reingard Ebner, pixelpolizei