Etagère vivante - the fullness of life
THE BUILDING IS NOT AN OBJECT - IT IS A CONTINUOUS PROCESS!
Team name: MINET & ZEIDLER
Authors: Paulina Minet, Robin Zeidler, Mitarbeit: Lana Birkholz-Notter, Germany
What identity and needs does Stuttgart have? What face does the new building in the heart of the city center have? Let's take a look back before we look to the future.
Back to the 1960s. The automobile was omnipresent. Whether as the preferred means of transportation for the young family, as the main player in the city's infrastructure - in the form of parking spaces on today's market square - or as the strongest employer in the region. Stuttgart was a car city!
It should be clear by now that Stuttgart is much more than that. Institutions such as the Staatsgalerie, Stadtpalais or library and events such as the Jazz Open convey a different character - culturally, artistically, urban. This is also reflected in the results of the surveys from the past two years and conveys the interests, needs and wishes of the city's population. Stuttgart as a forward-looking, climate-adapted and people-oriented city with a diverse community.
A change in just 70 years that will become even faster due to technological developments and makes us realize how unclear the future is. Many of the buildings are already outdated shortly after completion and can no longer withstand the ongoing changes.
The “ÉTAGÈRE VIVANTE” is a spatial structure that allows for change and thus responds to people's changing needs. It is based on Wilcoxon's definition of the megastructure - dividing architecture into structure and infill.
The “ÉTAGÈRE” is a robust, static load-bearing and supply structure and extends across the entire A3 construction site. “VIVANTE” describes the ongoing participatory process of filling the space, which is flexible and changeable. A concept of people's participation that continues the principle of Stuttgart Rosenstein. For example, the distribution of use is determined at regular intervals through surveys and is implemented in the form of a temporary lease.
An attitude that takes up the participation and individual freedom of the individual and society, based on the convictions of the French architect and urban planner Yona Friedmann. He saw architecture as having a responsibility to create adaptable spaces for the diversity of people. He once said: “It is the responsibility of architects to design structures that can be inhibited for the widest range of individuals and purposes”.
In the heart of Stuttgart, the “ÉTAGÈRE VIVANTE” is a place for society and people. The building is not an object - it is a continuous process!