Workshop on the Architecture of Tadao Ando
Half-day architecture workshop for art inclination courses of the upper secondary schools of Baden-Württemberg

Reducing the elements of architecture and restoring it to its most primary forms is nothing more than a way of creating an archetypical space, that is, a space possessing purity and hence power. (Tadao Ando (1))

The Conference Pavilion by Tadao Ando, constructed in 1993 on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, was his first building outside of Japan. Beginning in spring 2009, the upcoming round of student workshops offers profound insights into Ando’s mode of construction and allows participants to discover how architects work.

The architecture of Tadao Ando is characterized by reduction, geometry, light and harmony with nature. Although the building in Weil am Rhein might come across as austere with its restricted palette of materials and clarity of forms, the rooms exude a meditative calm, poetry and concentration. A distinguishing feature of the architecture is the sinking of the pavilion into the ground, which Ando describes as a way to “preserve the memory of that place” (2).

Following a dialogue-oriented guided tour of the Vitra Design Museum by Frank Gehry that will introduce a few basic architectural terms and concepts, we will turn our attention to the structure by Tadao Ando. The students will experience, explore and describe the Conference Pavilion. Experienced workshop leaders will encourage the participants to employ visual, tactile and acoustic perception, and explain the structural engineering and art historical aspects.

The practical assignment in the second part of the workshop deals with the themes of scale and floor plan. The goal of this exercise is to learn how to measure distances, work with a triangular scale and translate the floor plan of a building onto a two-dimensional surface. The assignment encompasses precise drawing as well as creative re-design of the given spatial layout.

For further information and registration, please contact:
workshops@design-museum.de

(1), (2): Werner Blaser: Bauen in die Erde. Tadao Ando, Sunken Courts. Zurich: Verlag Niggli AG, 2007, page 6


Workshops on the architecture of Frank Gehry
Half-day architecture workshop for art inclination courses of the upper secondary schools of Baden-Württemberg

Starting in the 2005/2006 school year, the work of American architect Frank Gehry is being treated as a main discussion topic in upper secondary school art classes. Of particular interest is the Vitra Design Museum, which was erected in 1989 in Weil am Rhein as Gehry’s first building in Europe and which has held a central position in the work of the architect up to the present.

To enable students to pursue an intensive investigation the building, Vitra Design Museum is putting on a series of half-day workshops on the topic. A dialogue-oriented guided tour will elucidate aesthetic, art historical and structural aspects. The viewing of the Vitra Design Museum will be followed by a walk across the grounds featuring the production hall likewise designed by Gehry as well as further outstanding examples of modern architecture. While the buildings by Tadao Ando, Nicolas Grimshaw and Alvaro Siza will only be briefly addressed due to time limitations, the students will be called on to conduct a more in-depth exploration of the Fire Station by Zaha Hadid, another exponent of Deconstructivism. The building also contains an exhibition of pieces from the chair collection of the Vitra Design Museum. These include several works by Gehry, who is also active as a designer.

Following a midpoint discussion session in which course participants are provided with further information on Gehry’s overall body of work, students will be asked to probe the museum building through drawing. The intention is to explore the collage of towers, cubes and ramps, to depict the interpenetration of volumes, to address the relationship between interior and exterior space, to follow the distribution of light. The focus is not on producing an overall rendering of the building but rather to intensively grapple with individual aspects and structural details. At the end of the workshop, the sketches will be joined into a collage that will reveal each drawer’s personal explorations of Gehry’s architecture.

The workshop will begin at ca. 9:00 a.m. and is expected to last until around 1:00 p.m. The programme is aimed at basic and advanced courses in the subject of art. 

Drawing boards and easels will be provided while participants have to bring their own drawing material (paper, pencils, charcoal, sketching graphite or crayons).