Contemporary Architecture Videos

Rural Studio is based in the architectural facility of Auburn University in Alabama, USA, which champions socially-driven accessible architecture for all and which practises what it preaches by designing and building community schemes in deprived areas.

Andrew Freear: In contrast to the rest of the other architects that are in the exhibit, we are not a practice of architecture. We are a programme of a school of architecture at Auburn University and we take the students away from the university campus to west Alabama and that programme allows students to design and build public projects from charity homes, community centres, fire stations, parks ... Architects shouldn' t just be the playthings of the rich. Architects, I would suggest, can have a bigger vision for society that the environment we live in is so important in shaping who we are and the way we think. We believe that architects can play a bigger role in the way the world is.

Over the last three years we' ve been looking at a material ... it' s the thinnings out of a managed forest. What we' re looking to try and do is to imagine building with this material.

AF in Porter Gallery, V& A: We had hoped that you would find it short and then a pitched site, so you weren' t quite sure what was the other side. But it was also about making a tall narrow space against that wall.

We are deliberately trying to make a piece that celebrates one material, that it does delight just because it is this notion of taking one material and rigorously exploring that one material, figuring out how to connect it, how to make a habitable space with it. It' s a very simple, almost primitive form. It' s a mono pitch shed and we' re trying to do that mono pitch shed really well, not tricked out, not with fancy gizmos. There' s a statement in there somehow.

Danny Wicke: The building is essentially extruded building. It' s quite simple, right. You draw this one time and then you multiply it by 49 and that' s the building. The brief was a laboratory shed. It' s the simplest form. We went through a lot of stages of designs in the process in agreement with the traditional shed and we just amplified the pitch of the roof to be able to make it a little more dramatic.

The building is really a low tech approach to building and it takes really traditional techniques of wood construction used for centuries as well as treatment techniques. For this to exist in nature, the exterior would need to be charred in order to keep from rotting and keep bugs from eating it, whereas the interior, which is protected, is something that can be much more precious and you get a much different experience when you enter the building.

It' s going to be really interesting to see how the project changes over the course of the exhibit because the material will shrink roughly 15 cms over the course of the exhibit. The project is designed specifically so you can accommodate that.

Each individual bent which is 15 cm x 15 cm is then drilled and compressed by this threaded rod. That threaded rod runs the length of the structure and combines the entire structure together. So as the structure shrinks, as the wood begins to dry out, then the structure can be tightened down and compressed further.

Through the research at the Studio, we hope that we can come up with an alternative way of low cost and local housing.

I' m building this light picture - it' s a vine. I think it' s going to be really nice. It basically starts from the root, from the bottom and then as the light grows it branches off and then the lights become the blossoms. We think it' s going to be really lovely with something that' s pretty utilitarian and simple ... just sort of in the same vein as the project, we hope.

SOU FUJIMOTO: This is Tokyo nature and Tokyo architecture. Tokyo nature, Tokyo architecture and Tokyo sky.

My practice is based in Tokyo and the staff is sixteen and ten more interns, so around thirty people are working in my office. I like to have a good collaboration with staff so the office is a good workshop to create new architecture. In the process of studying architecture, I discovered Japanese tradition is really important for me. Not just following Japanese culture but to find and discover something new.

My principle of architecture is of course based on the simplicity of Japanese culture but at the same time I like to create something very complex. It’s kind of a good combination of nature and artificial things together because nature is really complex and artificial things are based on simplicity so I like to create something very complex in an artificial way.

My site is in front of the architecture gallery. The theme is inside and outside and they are really exciting key words for me. I proposed a transparent tree shape but the tree is not a tree but a void of tree. A long time ago of course and in the future, a tree is one of the best expressions for people to create something.

The concept is a very clear transparent tree shape and inside outside shape but how to realize is a very big problem because transparent tree shapes are very complex things.

REINHARD KROPF: We are quite a diverse group of people; we are sixteen employees and eight different nationalities. We don’t have a particular style but we have certain methods and values we are occupied about. All our projects are about sustainability, in a way. A lot of projects are timber projects. Our point of departure was the memories when we played in the trees in the forest and these kinds of mingled play places where you can do a lot of things and have a lot of fun.

DAG STRASS: Here’s our first candidate. As you can see many of them are really old and really large so we figure we couldn’t handle those but this one we think is perfect. It has a nice top and nice shapes for our cutting.

REINHARD KROPF: The Pavillion exists of ten ash trees, which are standing creating an elliptical space. We assemble the parts of the trees, weaving a roof on top with the branches and then the branches are not too high up so it is good for climbing. The intention is really to trigger a lot of joyful and playful interactions. This kind of stimulation of the five senses but also of your fantasy and imagination has been our goal.

The form of the trees will help us to design the pavilion because every tree is different and gives different possibilities for the cutting and for the reassembling.

REINHARD KROPF: How was it to cut the tree, was it difficult?

TREE SURGEON: Yes, very difficult.

REINHARD KROPF: It destroyed your chain saw!

TREE SURGEON: (laughing) I know.

DAGUR EGGERTSSON: Rintala Eggertsson started two and a half years ago in Norway. I think there is a Scandinavian element in our work definitely. We conceive our ideas from our existence.

Bodø is the main town North of Norway is far above the Arctic Circle so there is no sunlight for two months but it’s very close to nature and it’s really a fantastic place to visit and an inspiration.

It’s the book store and the library on the second floor, so we wanted to connect those two parts of the museum with a book tower so that you could read the continuity from the stored books to the books that are sold and become eventually a part of every people’s life out there.

The tower is a bookcase in itself, the first thing you meet is the white backside of the books and they don’t reveal themselves until you get to the inside where you get the spine of the book. I think it is important for us to show that architecture is not a mystical thing but it’s about putting one stick on top of the other like every small child does in the beginning of their life.

MICHAEL ANSTASSIADES: One evening we walked out of the studio and Bijoy said to me I’m going to show you something. We walked through this narrow slither, which was basically sandwiched between the outside wall of a warehouse and the boundary wall of a property and in there was a series of dwellings. The light was very low and the lights inside those dwellings were on and it was an amazing experience.

BIJOY JAIN: We sort of define them as unauthorized structures that exist within the city and 50% of Mumbai consists of these buildings. They’re made of found materials from wood, metal sheets, plywood, so these are dredged materials from the city and they are quite noble in their quality for example their entire floor would be made out of marble inside and though the space might be a few meters by a few meters, they have a richness and a dignity I would say within them.

What’s critical actually is we are taking the natural light coming from the roof, which is really how these spaces work also because they are so tight and constricted that they need to draw the light in from above.

MICHAEL ANSTASSIADES: We decided to present these as an architectural study and the outside walls as a plaster cast and the idea is to camouflage this building and create it as an exhibit in its own right.

ABRAHAM THOMAS: … and as you say the façade of the building’s going to be the same colour as this cast?

BIJOY JAIN: Yes, pretty much the colour of this cast.

BIJOY JAIN: When we had the brief we had this idea of refuge, shelter, a place for contemplation, a place for worship and in many ways these dwellings have that quality where they have all these sort of built in.

CARLOS M TEIXEIRA: I am from Brazil, I studied architecture there. It’s very divided amongst traditions. One is called “Carioca school”; the school from Rio De Janeiro: it’s very plastic and formalist and the other one is the “Paolista school”; it’s very rational, very rigorous. I’m not part of any of these schools.

I wrote a book ten years ago, History Of The Void and the book was about how important the void spaces are in urban planning and how these void spaces were invented by architecture because of lack of planning.

I had an opportunity to work with very clear continuation of the text of this book when a theatre group invited me to imagine where they could present their next play. We chose a void space between concrete pillars; it is underneath some residential buildings in the city.

The first idea I had was a kind of spiral staircase with some booths along the stairs. The idea was to use the visitors themselves as the performance. They are going to be squeezed together because of the dimension of the architecture. I had in mind to use architecture as a way to invent spontaneous performance amongst the visitors. I am curious to know what Rural Studio is going to build in the Porter Gallery. I am told their object is quite horizontal and mine is kind of a vertical box so I am curious to see what is going to happen.

TERUNOBU FUJIMORI (sub-titled translation): The recurring theme which I play with in my work is the relationship with the natural world and what human beings have created. I go about this by using natural materials, such as trees and soil in the building of my homes and also by using plants within the buildings.

The focus of my work relates back to architecture before civilisation. How people originally lived, in their natural environment, which is a key subject of my architectural works. I’ve visited Stonehenge many times and other Neolithic sites, walking around and looking at them.

ABRAHAM THOMAS: … so this is where the structure will be, pretty much where that bench is. Very close to the Morlaix Staircase.

TERUNOBU FUJIMORI (sub-titled translation): I want to create a space that we can enjoy away from our everyday lives, a space with a small fire where people can enjoy tea.

There are seven architects taking part in this project, I know just one of them, the Japanese architect Fujimoto. I know Fujimoto very well. I’m really looking forward to seeing the works by the other five.