Institute of Architecture, Sliver Gallery 1^st of May 2014 – 16^th of May 2014

Exhibition Opening 30^th of April 7pm 2014

In connection with this year’s Sliver lecture series, the Institute of Architecture at the University of Applied Arts has invited recent alumni who have continued to experiment with digital modes of design and production and are bridging the gap between academic speculation and professional praxis.

Advanced fabrication technologies, pioneered at first by other disciplines, are now being utilized as a major design tool by not only academic and research institutions, but are also becoming integral to contemporary architectural practice.

Research within the realm of architecture is no longer exclusive to the academic environment, both by having been domesticated by practitioners and by gaining prominence as an intellectual project within its own right. Rapid prototyping and CNC based technologies permeate between industry, academia and practice. Simultaneously, smart geometry groups act as both internal specialists and external consultants; meanwhile software developers/​designers, have become an integral component in transforming the landscape of architectural activity. The discipline of architecture is reaching out more than ever to the fields of art and design; recently there has been even stronger correlation towards various engineering industries, implementing collaboration at an early stage in the design process to overcome the challenges of intricate architectural problems. Architects have become ​“hybrid practitioners” and the complex production process is a cloud of mixed expertise which work together to push the boundaries of the discipline.

In this lecture series we want to emphasize our attention and curiosity on formal engineering challenges under the title ​“Digital Craft Fabricating the Virtual in the 21^st Century” inviting practitioners, engineers, theoreticians, and artist who work in their networks and meander between different disciplines to exchange knowledge, discuss, invent, and most importantly, produce

The ambition of this exhibition is to present projects which operate within this contemporary framework towards the design and production of non-standard objects and architecture.

Contributing Architects:

- Mirko Daneluzzo, DISGUINCIO & CO (Mirco Bianchini, Mirko Daneluzzo)

www​.disguincio800​.com

- Matias del Campo, SPAN (Matias del Campo, Sandra Manninger)

www​.span​.vox​.com

- Julia Körner

www​.juliakoerner​.com

- Johannes Mücke, WIDESHOT (Johannes Mücke, Oliver Bertram)

www​.wideshot​.at

- Birgit Marie Schmidt, SMITH/GREY (Sofus Graae, Birgit Marie Schmidt)

www​.smithgrey​.co​.uk

- Hannes Stiefel, Stiefel & Compnay Architects (Hannes Stiefel and Patrick Krähenbühl), LAAC Architects & artist Christoph Grüner

www​.stiefelandcompany​.com

- Stefan Rutzinger, Kristina Schinegger, Martin Oberascher, SOMA ARCHITECTURE (Stefan Rutzinger, Kristina Schinegger, Martin Oberascher, Günther Weber)

www​.soma​-architecture​.com

- Judith Reitz, Daniel Baerlecken, BFR LAB
(Judith Reitz, Daniel Baerlecken, Matthias Frei)

www​.bfrlab​.com