Students from 6 nations develop concepts for a top floor at Campus Weinberg
The six working groups were not only interdisciplinary, but also international.
The 12 international students come from Canada, Peru, Spain, Belgium and Turkey. The other 12 participants are studying architecture at the HAWK Faculty of Building and Conservation or interior design at the Faculty of Design. Working together across different disciplines and with linguistic and cultural differences presented the prospective architects and interior designers with a number of challenges. “We had to learn to communicate thoroughly and explain things precisely,” reports Hans Senger. He is studying architecture at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) and worked on a design together with Samara Klassen (interior design, BCIT), Anna Hoffmann (architecture, HAWK) and Zofia Zadrzynska (interior design, HAWK). Anna Hoffmann confirms his experiences. “The language was the biggest challenge.” Experiencing this in a project was particularly helpful for her, as she is planning a semester abroad in Canada herself.
Samara Klassen was particularly struck by the different learning cultures in Canada and Germany. In her studies at BCIT, there are often many small projects that have to be completed in a short period of time. With the project in the “International Studio”, which they worked on over the entire semester, they had much more freedom in the timetable. “But that can also be a challenge.”
But challenges often offer the best opportunities to learn. The group noticed this in the collaboration between the different disciplines. “As architects, there are so many details in interiors that we don't pay attention to. For example, finding colours that work well together or simply the size of a chair,” describes Senger. As an interior designer, on the other hand, she first had to learn what to look out for in a building structure, Zadrzynska says with a smile. “I learned from Hans that you can't just install something into a building.”
Prof. Katja Scholz-Bürig, HAWK Vice President for Studies and Teaching, emphasizes that precisely these learning effects are the value of these cooperations, that bring together different faculties and nationalities. “In principle, here is lived what we stand for as a university and what our vision for the future is.” She had come to the final presentation of the International Studio to see the student groups' designs. And they were extremely diverse: from architectural changes such as raising the roof, installing dormers, glass cubes and skylights to sophisticated lighting and colour concepts and carefully coordinated furniture and textiles, the future architects and interior designers had developed detailed plans for the unused attic. The ideas included a large net under the roof that serves as a lounging area, a tunnel that separates a play area from a learning area, a café in a large glass cube and a huge table for eating together and working on projects.
The project presented the teams with a number of obstacles to overcome, according to Prof. Günter Weber. He teaches at the Faculty of Design in the field of Interior Architecture and runs the “International Studio” seminar together with Dipl. Ing. Pia Danner and Dipl. Ing. Thomas Kauertz from the Faculty of Building and Conservation and Martin Kuhlenkamp from the Faculty of Design's workshop for spatial and model development. “For example, the students had to extend a staircase directly under the sloping roof and deal with two large ventilation systems,” says Weber.
However, Danner agrees that all participants mastered the task well. “Working together in a different language with different disciplines is not easy. But they managed to let go of their own ideas and pull together as a team.”
