Antwerp, Belgium 28-29 May 2015 session 3 the empathic turn Design takes a central role in the creation, comprehension and development of architecture. The designed artefact acts as an epistemic object, embodying various kinds of knowledge. Through spatial structure and expression, the designed building mirrors and constructs society and culture. The act of designing provokes a future oriented state of mind, an inquiry based mental mode of imagination and creation, resulting in spatial articulation, aiming at anticipating and influencing societal change. Empathy: The quality or power of projecting one's personality into or mentally identifying oneself with an object of contemplation, and so fully understanding or appreciating it. (Oxford English Dictionary) The ARENA DR_SoM group has invited through an open call 15 architectural design researchers to share with peers their experiences regarding their empathic relationship, through design, with the conceived/real world. This will not be done in a theoretical way, but instead based on the presentation of own design work of current research. In addition, six keynote speakers, academics and practitioners, strongly engaged with the theme, will explore and frame the empathic turn in architectural design research from different perspectives. Participation is free. For the individual research presentations and the round table discussions, the number of places is limited. Therefore registration is required. Register at http://www.uantwerpen.be/arena dr som/. Registration for attending the keynotes only can also be found there.
keynotes Alessandro Ayuso Eeva Liisa Pelkonen Petra Pferdmenges (University of Westminster) (Yale School of Architecture) (Alive Architecture, Brussels) Body Agents: Empathic figures in design. Architecture and Empathy in the 20th Century Community based Architecture Julian Lewis Ruth Morrow Pieter Versteegh (EAST, London) (Queen s University Belfast) (Psyche ESA, Paris) City Relationships Respectively Yours Derrigaray, Rahab, Care
seminar 28 May 40' presentations 11:00 11:40 emmanuelle roberties GERPHAU Architectural Shape, Shape in shaping 11:40 12:20 Nafiseh Mousavian GERPHAU Visual thinking 1 as my empathic way 12:20 13:00 Ferencz Judit Bartlett visualising Robin Hood Gardens: reworking a layering technique of Hungarian monument protection through illustration 14:00 14:40 Gillian Horn Sheffield The Taste for Neo-Vernacular Housing 14:40 15:20 Andelka Cirovic Belgrado Drawing research: Partition of the living space in architectural drawing 15:40 16:10 Catherine Willems HoGent Future footware 15' presentations 16:10 16:25 Hélène Aarts TUEindhoven imagining space; how to experience space through drawing? 16:25 16:40 Alexander Kostic WIT Ireland Human characters - spatial definitions 16:40 16:55? Nadia Casabella ULB, La Cambre- Horta A Design Research Aimed at Engaging in the World 29 May 40' presentations 11:00 11:40 Wayne Forster Cardiff empathy with site 11:40 12:20 Nerea Amoros Bartlett Early-childhood stimulation in refugee camps in east Africa 12:20 13:00 Kilian Doherty Barlett Post-development' design practice(s); the Reconstitution of identities within Rwanda Nouveau 15' presentations 14:00 14:15 Litao Zho Sheffield Architecture of Alterity: Start from Agents of Embedded Bodily Spatial Practices 14:15 14:30 Sven Mouton Cru-Belgium community earth and bamboo constructions in Camburi- Brazil 14:30 14:45? Steven Schenk FOW Presence and empathy time schedule from till 28 May 2015 from till 29 May 2015 8:45 9:15 welcome coffee 9:15 9:30 introduction Johan De Walsche 9:00 9:40 keynote Petra Pferdmenges 9:30 10:10 keynote Alessandro Ayuso 9:40 10:10 keynote Julian Lewis 10:10 10:50 keynote Pieter Versteegh 10:10 10:50 keynote Ruth Morrow 0:20 coffee 0:10 coffee 11:00 13:00 presentations 11:00 13:00 presentations lunch lunch 14:00 15:20 presentations 14:00 15:00 presentations 0:20 coffee 15:00 15:30 plenary coffee sesssion 15:40 16:50 presentations 0:10 break 17:00 18:00 keynote Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen 19:30 dinner
about the Antwerp session In design research, designerly thinking meets embedded knowledge. This mode is generating new insights and bringing forth new possibilities which could not be thought of otherwise. However, if the artefact is embodying knowledge, what does it know? What does the designer attribute the artefact to know? And if the design proposal of the designing researcher mirrors society and culture, what then can (s)he see, once becoming part of the imaginary world of the looking glass, which (s)he created. Design is a future oriented state of mind, aiming towards change. Thereby, it is the means to induce change which is designed, not the change in itself. However, can the act of design also reveal the desire for change to which it hopes to lead? The Antwerp session of the DR_SoM series focusses on paradigmatic and methodological affinities between architectural design research and qualitative research, to be found for instance in its inductive character and the lateral position of theory, its emphasis on visual analysis, its interpretative nature, its attention to social processes, and its inescapable cultural and ethical normative framing. More precisely, the Antwerp session will focus on those moments in which the architectural designing researcher is deliberately adopting the act of designing to induce and reach an empathic stance towards his object of study. Given the multi and transdisciplinary nature of architectural design, the seminar is an occasion and invitation for cross links and knowledge exchange on methodology between disciplines and research communities. Therefore, researchers from other disciplines, focusing on the topic of this session, are welcome to attend the sessions and join the debate. about the project Design research, a large umbrella In design research the research process is highly typified by the role and position of the act of designing, by the design proposal (an object, a building, an urban project, a landscape), by the specific capacities and fascinations of the researcher, by the profile of stakeholders, by the audience, by the research environment, by contextual references, and by the mutual interaction of these factors. As a result, architectural design research acts as a large umbrella, covering multiple approaches and addressing distinct audiences. Design Research, Series on Method After some decades of experimentation and ontological dissent, design research has come of age. At the same time, due to the amount of parameters, paradigms and perspectives that directs its conduct, design research is a multiple concept, a catch all term in need of clarification and discrimination. Design Research, Series on Method (DR_SOM) consists of a series of research seminars and workshops, based on the rationale that discerning common and distinctive features in the broad scope of approaches covered by the epithet design research, will contribute to a better understanding of its specific capacities. The identification of particularities and coherence between themes, tools, strategies and discourse will be helpful to be more precise in writing research proposals, to allow for identifying appropriate peers, resulting in a more accurate assessment of the outcome, and, eventually, to inspire for future endeavours. At last, a better comprehension of design research as an academic field and culture will contribute to a better communication, interaction and exchange with other research disciplines and communities. It will reveal its capability for inter and trans disciplinary research, and its capacity for offering new approaches to pending issues. The seminars In each meeting, DR_SOM sequentially focuses on a specific approach, and looks for common ground and distinctive qualities and conditions. It is a two day event consisting of workshops where early stage PhD design researchers, selected on either representativeness or originality in approach towards the theme, interact with a panel of senior researchers and an audience of peers. There are no parallel sessions, the number of participants is limited to 30 persons, discussing 10 to 15 projects.
Proposals, registration, publication The DR_SoM seminar will take place on Thursday 28 and Friday 29 May 2015. There are no parallel sessions. There is no registration fee; however, the number of participants will be limited to 40, of whom 15 researchers will present their research, either in a concise presentation of about 15 minutes, or in a more extensive presentation with a timeslot of 40 minutes, providing plenty of time for presentation and discussion. Discussions will be held as a round table debate. Full papers were not required as we recognize work in progress. On the contrary, participants are invited to write a paper afterwards, for publication in a booklet dedicated to this DR_SoM session. Coffee and a light lunch are offered by the organization. All participants are invited for dinner on Thursday. Registration for dinner at 40. Next to the oral presentations, the possibility for exhibiting graphic work is provided. Further information can be found at http://www.arena architecture.eu/news/dr_som antwerp 2015 may 28 29/ and at http://www.uantwerpen.be/arena dr som/. venue Faculty of Design Sciences, Campus Mutsaard Mutsaardstraat 31, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium please check the website http://www.uantwerpen.be/arena dr som/ enquiries For enquiries on the seminar, submission and participation, please e mail johan.dewalsche@uantwerpen.be For enquiries on the venue, please e mail nina.peeten@uantwerpen.be DR_SoM scientific committee Oya Atalay Franck, ZHAW Winterthur Roberto Cavallo, TUDelft; Johan De Walsche, UAntwerpen (projectleader); Murray Fraser, UCL Bartlett; Flora Samuel, SSoA Sheffield; João Sequeira, ECATI/ULHT Lisbon; Johan Verbeke, KULeuven/Luca/Aarhus; Pieter Versteegh, ESA PSYCHE