Lecture
Series

2024/2025
Applied Imaginaries

The Series is curated by: Camille Breuil, Anna Gulinska, Maja Ozvaldic, Giacomo Pala, Galo Moncayo.

Imaginaries have a formative power; they can be probable, plausible, possible, or preferable. They conceive meanings for individuals, communities, societies and relations with the "other". They are activated by real or mediated worlds. They operate as structure, interface or as simulations. They challenge established knowledge systems and expand our ways of knowing. Imaginaries wide and strange.

In what ways do imaginaries operate as tools that propel propositions to the following questions: “What is the role of architecture in regards to contemporary cultures and societies, urbanization processes, identity policies, migration, climate change, environmental challenges, and disruptive technologies? How do we want to live and co-exist? What will our future look like, and how will that be manifested spatially, physically, and virtually? What role do digital developments and technology play in this? What is the role of architecture in tackling questions on aesthetics and radical beauty?” [1]

Philosopher and social critic Cornelius Castoriadis saw radical imagination as a creative force that shapes our perception of reality and our capacity to envision new possibilities. On a larger scale, his social imaginary represents the imagination of society, expressed in the “way of living, seeing, and making its own existence”. [2] In the context of design education, the series rests upon Nigel Cross´s claim of “designerly ways of knowing.”[3], and the human ability to meaningfully transform the world we are within and evolving design (and architecture) as a discipline of possibilities.

Therefore, this lecture series called Applied Imaginaries, is curated as an atlas of projects, practices, and strategies that turn imaginaries into design endeavors, some brought into the world and others manifested as speculations yet to be fully formed or actualized.

[1] https://ioa.angewandte.at/

[2] C. Castoriadis, The Imaginary Institutions of Society, Cambridge, The M.I.T. Press, 1987

[3]N. Cross, Designerly Ways of Knowing, Design Studies 3:4, 1982

2023/2024
Tempor(E)alities

I oA Sliver Lecture Series is curated by Maja Ozvaldic

As interesting as the times we live in may be, there are undoubtedly unprecedented temporal pressures at work within architecture and design. From real-time to deep time, this I oA Lecture Series is an open-ended collection of creative acts situated in and propelling the so-called Tempor(E)alities.Thinking about temporalizing orders, logic, and notions in planning and design, the I oA Sliver Lecture Series is set to reflect on spatio-temporal entanglements in its broadest sense and aims to present various time perspectives through the lens of architecture and design.

2022/2023
Architecting Matter(s)

I oA Sliver Lecture Series is curated by Maja Ozvaldic and Kaiho Yu.

Architecting Matter(s)

matter (n.)
From c. 1200 as "a subject of a literary work, content of what is written, main theme;" sense of "narrative, tale, story" is from c. 1300. Meaning "physical substance generally" is from mid-14c.; that of "substance of which some specific object is or may be composed" is attested from late 14c. Meaning "piece of business, affair, activity, situation; subject of debate or controversy, question under discussion" is from late 14c. In law, "something which is to be tried or proved," 1530s.

matters (n.)
"events, affairs of a particular sort," 1560s, from plural of matter (n.).

matter (v.)
"to be of importance or consequence," 1580s

Architecture structures matter. In parallel, architecture engages with scales of social and cultural matters, and today our living environments are increasingly augmented by digital processes, platforms, and social media. Ultimately matter and matters reveal the health of our planet (1), observable by current technologies that allow for an unprecedented spectrum of data gathered at nano or planetary scales. Hence, our notion of matter(s) encompasses physical scales and processes beyond the visible, including the digital realm's immaterial building blocks and operations.

Interested in cultural complexities and architecture's operations within it, the Sliver Lecture Series 2022/23, titled Architecting Matter(s), presents material entanglements intertwined with networks of living things. As (architectural) design activities or investigations, these engage with matter and matters simultaneously and beyond the borders of disciplinary thinking. From actionable idealism of global operations to landscaping across vast territories, through the digital atoms of worldbuilding and back to physical translations foregrounding spatial affairs, the series touches on what is the matter of/with ideas and realities we produce.

(1) Seetal Solanki: Why Materials Matter: Responsible Design for a Better World


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2022
Research Cultures

What are we talking about when we refer to research in architecture? What is the relationship between design and research? How is research situated and what is its role within professional practice, academic institution, or a design project itself? Is research a prelude to design, and is design only an illustration of research? What are the ways, means, and tactics of performing research through the medium of design?1 Moreover, what do we mean when we talk about design research and research by design, and how do these notions relate to disciplinary knowledge production? We aim to discuss these questions by presenting a range of disparate positions in the upcoming Sliver Lecture Series titled: Research Cultures.

For some time now, experimental approaches in the field of architecture have gained visibility and relevance in both practice and discourse. Artists, architects, and designers have increasingly associated themselves with researchers or have begun to perform research through their own (artistic) practices. On the one hand, architectural offices have created divisions inside their structures that focus on performing research-based practices beyond a specific building project - according to David Wang and Linda Groat, a far more recent phenomenon than project-specific research.2 On the other hand, the ongoing proliferation of labs, research-themed conferences, and research studios in academia question the relationship between learning, teaching, and research. The latter opens critical questions concerning architectural pedagogy: Should the classroom be a site for pre-professional training as well as knowledge production? If so, are students equipped enough to be able to perform “good” research?3

Since 1947 The Journal of Architectural Education has been revisiting and offering various positions on the nuanced relationships between design and research in architecture. Design and research are no longer considered as occupying opposite poles or as “equivalent domains of activity.”4 In his essay on Experimental Cultures, David Salomon compiles academic positions on both activities. He situates design swinging between being “a rational problem-solving technique or an intuitive aesthetic act.” While research unfolds as a “systematic inquiry or as a close study of something” oriented towards knowledge production. Accordingly, design revolves around problems, while research is carried forward by questions. While both notions (research and design) have a shared purpose that is projective in nature, research by design is one of the ways in which design can engage with the production of knowledge.5 Salomon insists that “both modes of experimentation are necessary whenever we seek to combine research and design successfully.”6

In addition, Jeremy Till observes the fast-growing maturity of design-driven research over the past decade manifested as practice-led, practice-informed, and practice-based methods. “It is necessary for design research to accord with the basic tenets of research in terms of rigor, originality, significance, and communicability. However, it should not be shoehorned into the methods of other disciplines.”7 In support of multiplicity of research methods, which elevate research beyond the scientific method, Bruno Latour argues that design and research are open, flexible and timely concepts, composed out of “objective truths and personal fictions.”8

We invite all guest-speakers to unpack a specific project or a body of work by showing its relationship to research and design as an interconnected affair, as well as its methods and contribution to the production of disciplinary and cross-disciplinary knowledge.

I oA Sliver Lecture Series is curated by Maja Ozvaldic and Kaiho Yu.

1 Moloney, Jules., Jan Smitheram, and Simon Twose. Perspectives On Architectural Design Research: What Matters - Who Cares - How. (2015), p.10

2 Wang, David, and Linda N. Groat. Architectural Research Methods: David Wang, Linda N. Groat. Second Edition (2013), p.7

3 For the discussion on the agreed research criteria see David Salomon´s "Experimental Cultures: On the "End" of the Design Thesis and the Rise of the Research Studio." JAE (1984-) 65, no. 1 (2011). In short: research must be systematic and self-conscious of the method it uses. It must be original and significant in order to advance the current state of knowledge.

4 Wang, David, and Linda N. Groat. Architectural Research Methods: David Wang, Linda N. Groat. Second Edition (2013), p.21

5 Hensel, Michael. Design Innovation for the Built Environment – Research by Design and the Renovation of Practice (2012), p.?

6 Salomon, David. "Experimental Cultures: Onthe "End"of the Design Thesisand the Riseofthe Research Studio."Journal of Architectural Education (1984-)65,no. 1(2011), p. 3

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2021/22
Research Cultures

What are we talking about when we refer to research in architecture? What is the relationship between design and research? How is research situated and what is its role within professional practice, academic institution, or a design project itself? Is research a prelude to design, and is design only an illustration of research? What are the ways, means, and tactics of performing research through the medium of design?1 Moreover, what do we mean when we talk about design research and research by design, and how do these notions relate to disciplinary knowledge production? We aim to discuss these questions by presenting a range of disparate positions in the upcoming Sliver Lecture Series titled: Research Cultures.

For some time now, experimental approaches in the field of architecture have gained visibility and relevance in both practice and discourse. Artists, architects, and designers have increasingly associated themselves with researchers or have begun to perform research through their own (artistic) practices. On the one hand, architectural offices have created divisions inside their structures that focus on performing research-based practices beyond a specific building project - according to David Wang and Linda Groat, a far more recent phenomenon than project-specific research.2 On the other hand, the ongoing proliferation of labs, research-themed conferences, and research studios in academia question the relationship between learning, teaching, and research. The latter opens critical questions concerning architectural pedagogy: Should the classroom be a site for pre-professional training as well as knowledge production? If so, are students equipped enough to be able to perform “good” research?3

Since 1947 The Journal of Architectural Education has been revisiting and offering various positions on the nuanced relationships between design and research in architecture. Design and research are no longer considered as occupying opposite poles or as “equivalent domains of activity.”4 In his essay on Experimental Cultures, David Salomon compiles academic positions on both activities. He situates design swinging between being “a rational problem-solving technique or an intuitive aesthetic act.” While research unfolds as a “systematic inquiry or as a close study of something” oriented towards knowledge production. Accordingly, design revolves around problems, while research is carried forward by questions. While both notions (research and design) have a shared purpose that is projective in nature, research by design is one of the ways in which design can engage with the production of knowledge.5 Salomon insists that “both modes of experimentation are necessary whenever we seek to combine research and design successfully.”6

In addition, Jeremy Till observes the fast-growing maturity of design-driven research over the past decade manifested as practice-led, practice-informed, and practice-based methods. “It is necessary for design research to accord with the basic tenets of research in terms of rigor, originality, significance, and communicability. However, it should not be shoehorned into the methods of other disciplines.”7 In support of multiplicity of research methods, which elevate research beyond the scientific method, Bruno Latour argues that design and research are open, flexible and timely concepts, composed out of “objective truths and personal fictions.”8

We invite all guest-speakers to unpack a specific project or a body of work by showing its relationship to research and design as an interconnected affair, as well as its methods and contribution to the production of disciplinary and cross-disciplinary knowledge.

I oA Sliver Lecture Series is curated by Maja Ozvaldic and Kaiho Yu.

1 Moloney, Jules., Jan Smitheram, and Simon Twose. Perspectives On Architectural Design Research: What Matters - Who Cares - How. (2015), p.10

2 Wang, David, and Linda N. Groat. Architectural Research Methods: David Wang, Linda N. Groat. Second Edition (2013), p.7

3 For the discussion on the agreed research criteria see David Salomon´s "Experimental Cultures: On the "End" of the Design Thesis and the Rise of the Research Studio." JAE (1984-) 65, no. 1 (2011). In short: research must be systematic and self-conscious of the method it uses. It must be original and significant in order to advance the current state of knowledge.

4 Wang, David, and Linda N. Groat. Architectural Research Methods: David Wang, Linda N. Groat. Second Edition (2013), p.21

5 Hensel, Michael. Design Innovation for the Built Environment – Research by Design and the Renovation of Practice (2012), p.?

6 Salomon, David. "Experimental Cultures: Onthe "End"of the Design Thesisand the Riseofthe Research Studio."Journal of Architectural Education (1984-)65,no. 1(2011), p. 3

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2021
Mixtape

This academic year SLIVER is presenting a „Mixtape“ compiled by members of our faculty who contributed with their professional interests and pedagogical objectives. The summer term is as well a collection of architects, artists, and theoreticians whose work is circulating through the IoA in form of theoretical underpinnings, built references, and research ambitions.


Due to Covid 19 restrictions, all lectures will take place via Zoom during the summer term.

www.zoom.us/j/93351608617


Sliver Team:
Curated by Maja Ozvaldic and Kaiho Yu
Graphic Design: Sara Ozvaldic
PR by Roswitha Janowski-Fritsch
Supported by Sabine Peternell, Leonard Kern and Emma Sanson.

2020/21
Mixtape

This academic year SLIVER is presenting a “Mixtape” compiled by members of our faculty who contributed with their professional interests and pedagogical objectives. The winter term is a collection of architects, artists, and theoreticians whose work is circulating through the IoA in form of theoretical underpinnings, built references, and research ambitions.

Due to Covid 19 restrictions, all lectures will take place via Zoom during the winter term.https://zoom.us/j/97404905241

Sliver Team:
Curated by Maja Ozvaldic and Kaiho Yu; PR by Roswitha Janowski-Fritsch; Supported by Sabine Peternell and Leonard Kern; Graphic Design: Sara Ozvaldic

2019/20
Greater Futures

Almost all challenges societies around the globe face today are complex, interconnected and placed in a rapidly changing environment. The rhetoric about what is to come is swinging between utopia and dystopia, between nostalgia and techno-utopias. The only fact about the future is that it is inevitable.

The grandfathers of futurism, the Italian Futurists, showed that the future is not only a domain of time but also of ideology. Subsequently the fathers of futures studies developed principles on how to study the future. Hence, according to futures studies scholar Jim Dator: "The future cannot be 'predicted' but alternative futures can be 'forecasted' and preferred futures 'envisioned' and 'invented'- continuously." (Dator, 1996)

Yet, the world as it is has its own impact on the future and according to another futures studies scholar Ziauddin Sardar the relevance of futures studies resides within the present. According to Sardar the value of change in people's perceptions and motivations, channeled into an evolution of present values and immediate action, can only be judged within its present or immediate future.

Looking at design proposing bigger technological and cultural innovations/changes the lecture series gathers thoughts and approaches inspiring for the discipline of architecture, aiming for a greater world after tomorrow.


All lectures are free of charge and open to the public!
Due to COVID-19 all lectures in the summer term 2020 will happen via zoom.

Sliver Team:
Curated by Maja Ozvaldic in collaboration with Andrea Börner; PR by Roswitha Janowski-Fritsch; supported by Sabine Peternell, Leonard Kern and Julian Heinen; Graphic Design: Sara Ozvaldic

2018/19
In Theory…

“In Theory,...” considering architecture as an inherently cross-disciplinary affair, SLIVER seeks to present positions from a scattered theoretical discourse with the aim to expand and nurture architectural thought. Drawing from theoretical frameworks of diverse backgrounds and performed by theoreticians and practitioners alike, the lecture series is set to open up a Wunderkammer of current thoughts.

Art & Architecture have been subjected to exemplify all sorts of theoretical thinking, hence being influenced by and to borrow from other discourses has been architecture´s common practice. The digital turn and the current post- conditions propelled an additional wave of needs, agendas, opportunities, and investigations into the field of architecture as well as to the cosmos of thought. Nurtured by the rapid proliferation of technoculture: ubiquitous computing and AI, new ways of production, materiality, and representation; information and communication networks of planetary scale; the environmental crisis; the emergence of new economies of reality; new ways of organization and governance; novel approaches towards spatiality,... SLIVER is collecting “bodies of knowledge and research” which address aspects of this complex ecology.

SLIVER is interested in the relationships between theory and practice and maybe even in new methods within both in relation to production and performance of knowledge. At the same time we would like to expose the discourses between theory and culture which might (for now) impact architecture only on its peripheries, but are important in understanding cultural developments and might be of relevance to contextualize our own doing as well as empower to imagine possible evolutions of the architectural.

All lectures are open to the public!

Sliver Team:
Curated by Maja Ozvaldic in collaboration with Andrea Börner; supported by Roswitha Janowski-Fritsch, Sabine Peternell, Leonard Kern and Julian Heinen; Graphic Design: Sara Ozvaldic

2017/18
Positions

The Unfolding of Architectural endeavors

Die Angewandte is celebrating 150 years of innovation and creativity within the field of art, architecture, and design. The industrial revolution and its profound changes on society propelled the necessity for design education in the middle of the 19th century. Die Angewandte, founded as the Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule back in 1867, was the first school, which offered a specialized architectural education in the Austrian Empire.

The institution was highly instrumental in promoting ideas of modernity (in terms of art & craft) and under the direction of Josef Hoffmann the school of architecture was aiming towards the notion of a transdisciplinary Gesamtkunstwerk. This strong modern direction of the school was amplified by the faculty of other departments, such as Kolo Moser (painting) and Arthur Strasser (sculpture). The school of architecture hosted important leaders of the modern movement: Josef Hoffmann, Josef Frank, Oskar Strnad, Heinrich Tessenow and others. Those architects and educators were not only deeply embedded in the Viennese local discourse and defining the Austrian building and design culture at large, but were transcending geographic boundaries and therefore gained influence and respect worldwide.

This line continued and evolved ever since, starting with post-modern figures like Johannes Spalt, Wilhelm Holzbauer, Zvi Hecker and Hans Hollein - a generation of educators who worked “globally” and were able to involve the Viennese school with the international architectural scene. Followed by Wolf D. Prix, Klaus Bollinger, Zaha Hadid & Patrik Schumacher, Greg Lynn, Hani Rashid, Kazuyo Sejima and its multi-cultural body of teachers, students and external critics, the school continues its tradition of operating across geographic and cultural borders, expanding the notion of architecture and push the boundaries of the building industry.

(Matthias Boeckl, Baukunst aus Reformgeist, 2016)

Just like the Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule (dieAngewandte) challenged the education and scope of the design profession and promoted an autonomous architectural discipline back at the turn of the 20th century, today the faculty along with their students and the school’s graduates try to respond to the complex cultural, social, environmental and technological challenges of our contemporary, globally connected condition through the apparatus of architecture. After 150 years of outstanding activity, die Angewandte and its architectural school created a network of innovative thinkers, designers, and architects who inspire generations of architects all over the world.

In order to reflect on the past, present and the future, the SLIVER Lecture Series: POSITIONS is happy to invite its alumni’s back in order to exchange and discuss.

We want to examine the various experiences our alumni’s had while defining and working on their own practice. We want to expose the various directions their work took. We want to discuss how the architectural landscape, in Austria and abroad, is evolving in the context of profound cultural changes and what are the new challenges for our profession younger generations will face. But we also want to stress more fundamental questions about the scope of architecture in the future? What is the role of an educational institution today and their relation to practice/profession? Who do we educate and for Whom?

All lectures are followed by an open reception!

IoA Sliver Lecture Series "Positions" 2017/18

Sliver Team:
Currated by Maja Ozvaldic, Bence Pap, Indre Umbrasaite supported by Andrea Tenpenny, Marion Waid, Dimytro Isaiev, Dieter Fellner; Graphic Design: Atelier Dreibholz

2016/17
Architecture & Technology

“Technology is the answer ... but what was the question?”
(Cedric Price, 1966)

The Greek term téchne, is a term which up until today particularly in European philosophy, coined the notion of Art, Science, and Craft. The histories of technology with all of its branches could also be looked at as the history of inventions in form of tools and techniques. Those are again closely connected to other historical developments such as science, economics, political and social agendas – a history of the very human condition itself. Whether viewed through the topic of energy, information, productivity, tools, or social development, today most of the world is accommodating a “technically civilized life” to some extent.

“It is the moral, economic, and political choices we make, not the machines we use”, Lewis Mumford argues, “that have produced a capitalist industrialized machine-oriented economy, whose imperfect fruits serve the majority so imperfectly.” (Mumford: Technics and Civilisation, 1934)

Technological changes stand in a reciprocal relation to cultural traditions of a society. Deleuze describes the relation between technology and structures of power as following:

“One can of course see how each kind of society corresponds to a particular kind of machine: with simple mechanical machines corresponding to sovereign societies, thermodynamic machines to disciplinary societies, cybernetic machines and computers to control societies. But the machines don't explain anything, you have to analyze the collective arrangements of which the machines are just one component.” (Deleuze, 1995)

Technology as a popular cultural phenomenon began after the initiation of the space program in the 1950´s. The same program represents the advent of digital technologies and the rise of the information society. Since then, digital technologies in particular infiltrated into all of the domains of our contemporary life: agriculture, work, education, entertainment, leisure, sciences, communication, intelligent machines, domestic and urban environments.

This SLIVER lecture series is gathering professionals to present versatile notions of technology and its impact on the discipline of Art and Architecture. The invited lecturers will present their take on technology and reflect on the potentials which it bears or what conventions it questions and how to approach those creatively/artistically.


Sliver Team:
Curated by Maja Ozvaldic, Bence Pap, Indre Umbrasaite supported by Andrea Tenpenny, Minho Hong, Dima Isaiev, and Andrej Strieženec; Graphic Design: Atelier Dreibholz

2016
Architecture or Revolution

“It is a question of building which is at the root of the social unrest of today: architecture or revolution” - Le Corbusier / Vers un Architecture 1923

This year’s SLIVER lecture series “Architecture or Revolution” depicts positions to the instantiated power structures inherent to the discipline of architecture and its potentials, or its inability to respond to the ongoing global oppositional ideological developments and resulting humanitarian crisis, shifting frontiers and crisis which expresses itself within our immediate built environments.

At the beginning of the 20th century with the rise of modernism, architects were led by the optimistic belief that it was their mandate to build a better life for all humankind. In 1922 Le Corbusier wrote in “Vers un Architecture” one must invent and build an environment to prevent social and global unrest: Architecture or Revolution. Today nearly a hundred years later we must ask if the discipline has failed to engage in its power structures, and has given way to becoming a mere cog in the service industry at large. Has architecture given up on its ideological potentials for change? At the tip of global unrests, opposing ideologies, humanitarian crises, shifting frontiers we must ask what the role of the architect can be, what positions in the future we must take - in relation to the unsettled terrain of social and political domains and within the multiplicity of today’s cultural contexts.

This term sliver lecture series seeks to explore the instrumental power structure of architecture in relation to the increasingly moribund myths of the modernist instrumentalist optimism that used to drive it. In the light of recent global “revolutions” and impending catastrophes, architecture has no choice but take a position, to intervene and to act. What instruments and modalities are available to the architect to seize the right to influence the social and political sphere? Is this even a desired or legitimate goal at all? What are the links, either existing or to be invented, between the architect’s instruments and her politics? Has architecture ever been, and can it now become revolutionary at all?


Sliver Team:
Curated by Robert Neumayr, Maja Ozvaldic, Bence Pap, Reiner Zettl supported by Andrea Tenpenny; Graphic Design: Atelier Dreibholz

2015/16
Art and Architecture_In Conversation

Art and Architecture have always been in conversation throughout the history. Buildings used to be adorned by artistically sculpted objects or manipulated by extraordinary paintings, facades have been composed by musicians and since the digital revolution space escaped the dominant control of the architect, hence becoming the playground for diverse agencies. The 21st century´s notion of surface architecture made the building´s surfaces even more accessible and attractive to artists and designers and today the work of artists has penetrated into the field of architecture by scale and condition. We still talk about art and architecture as distinct spheres, but looking at their artistic/architectural production we see the boundaries between the two being blurred for decades especially by the notion of transgression and multidisciplinarity and today we are caught between building-sized artworks and artistic buildings.

Hani Rashid & Erwin Wurm
May 5, 2015, 7pm

Zaha Hadid & Peter Noever
June 19, 2015, 8pm

Kazuyo Sejima
October 2, 2015, 7pm

Greg Lynn & Sanford Kwinter
November 20, 2015, 7pm

Tomás Saraceno & Sanford Kwinter
December 17, 2015, 7pm

Antony Gormley & Sven-Olov Wallenstein
January 1, 2016, 8pm

© Atelier Dreibholz

This year’s SLIVER lecture series Art & Architecture _In Conversation is conceived as dialogs between architects and designers, artists, theoreticians, hosted by Sanford Kwinter and Reiner Zettl, with the aim to discuss correlations, opposed opinions and mutual inspirations within an interdisciplinary discourse.

Sliver Team:
Sophie Luger, Robert Neumayr, Maja Ozvaldic, Bence Pap, supported by Andrea Tenpenny and Reiner Zettl; Graphic Design: Atelier Dreibholz

2013/14
Digital Craft

Fabricating the Virtual in the 21st Century

Advanced fabrication technologies, once dominated by other disciplines, are now not only a major component in architectural schools and related research labs all around the world, but have now become an integral part of a contemporary architectural practice.

Michael Hansmeyer
November 7, 2013

Fabian Scheurer
November 28, 2013

Jesse Reiser
December 12, 2013

Robert Stuart-Smith,
March 28, 2014

Philippe Block
June 3, 2014

Mario Carpo
June 5, 2014

Cristiana Ceccato
June 12, 2014

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 upcoming lecture series we want to emphasize our attention and curiosity on formal engineering challenges under the title "Digital Craft Fabricating the Virtual in the 21st 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.


Sliver Team:
Sophie Luger, Robert Neumayr, Maja Ozvaldic, Bence Pap, supported by Diana Geisler and Reiner Zettl; Graphic Design: Atelier Dreibholz

2012/13
No Reservations

Current debate on contemporary architecture is pigeonholed into its direct relationship to market forces and its pragmatic perception in the cultural sphere. It is important to remember that architecture as a medium has its fundamental principles that it can resort to, independent from its direct outputs in a market oriented and checklist saturated built environment of now. We more than ever need imagination, inter-disciplinary thinking and experimentationto be the central focus of the profession.

Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu
November 22, 2012

Michael Hensel
December 11, 2012

Bart Hess
December 13, 2012

Neri Oxman
January 17, 2013

Wiel Arets
March 4, 2013

Marc Forness
March 5, 2013

Preston Scott Cohen

Chris Bangle
April 22, 2013

Achim Menges
April 23, 2013

Mark Foster Gage
June 6, 2013

”No Reservations” intends to open up the horizons of the field by force, surprise and imagines a new found joy in architecture.

2011/12
Architecture = Culture

Architecture must strive for more elasticity in its practices and openness in its discourse to achieve broader cultural efficacy. While architecture publicly fuses cultural values, aesthetics and technology, it does not do so alone.

Fiona Raby
December 13, 2011

Seungkoo Jo
January 11, 2012

Christohp Thun-Hohenstein
January 12, 2012

Ma Yansong
March 6, 2012

Joseph Giovannini
March 15, 2012

John McMorrough
March 28, 2012

Matias del Campo
April 17, 2012

Thomas Auer
April 19, 2012

Andrew Watts
April 26, 2012

Jeffrey Kipnis
May 10, 2012

Louise Lemoine + ILA Beka Living Architectures
May 16, 2012

Ben van Berkel
May 22, 2012

Francesca von Habsburg
June 5, 2012

The 2011/12 SLIVER Lecture Series at the University of Applied Arts Vienna highlights this wider spectrum of fields that inform architectural production. The lecturers from diverse backgrounds bring distinct expertise and sensibilities that influence their respective points of departure, and consequently inform a collective design culture. Thus, they thrive on the profuse sharing of ideas, exchange of techniques and incursions through increasingly
porous disciplinary borders.

2010/11
Friends and Enemies: Massive Attack

The Fall Spring 2010/11 IoA SLIVER lecture series within the Institute of Architecture emphasizes the enormous impact and reach that a network within a single institution can have. The many tenuous relationships that are built, designed, modified, and extinguished throughout a long journey are of particular interest.

The invitations were extended to selected friends and enemies working as architects, designers, artists, curators, and critics, both near and far. They are critical agents within a broader innovative system. While the selected guests do not share a common technique, working method or genre, they all challenge convention. The resulting spectrum of work ranges from innovative buildings, detailed aliens, bloated sculptures, scripted worlds, and atmospheric islands.

The focus of this series is not to explicitly distinguish between, “Who are the enemies?” and “Who are the friends?”, but rather to assert that both are critical elements within the discourse and necessary to generate productive discussions. the lecturers decisively thrust their force in opposing directions, creating dynamic and counter ideas. Provocative forces wrinkle many collars and rustle many feathers, but they unanimously solicit responses that define and create trajectories.

The selected lecturers perform within the realm of the non-standard, at the extremities of their respective fields and view points. They approach their work with a religious zeal that is contagious, persuasive, and makes them critical both inside and outside networks.

2009/10
(Kaleidoscopic) Networks

The 2009 Winter/ 2010 Spring Sliver Lecture series highlights architects and designers working within intricate networks and hyper connected systems. The work is tenuously settled at the interface of classical and emerging disciplines. Synonymous with fabrics or structures comprised of individual elements, networks are continuously evolving. They imply both infiniteness and rigor, while oscillating between controlled and uncontrolled elegance.

Mark Lee
November 24, 2009

Florencia Pita
November 26, 2009

Brent Sherwood
December 3, 2009

Sanford Kwinter
January 14, 2010

Marcelo Spina
March 24, 2010

Christian Moeller
May 4, 2010

Andrew Zago
May 6, 2010

Wolf D. Prix
May 17, 2010

While the term network has a multitude of meanings, all networks can branch, connect, disconnect, expand, and contract, continually evolving and perpetually in a dynamic state. As architects, artists, and designers, we are continually fascinated by the prospect of maneuvering in a net-like system that gradates from fibrous tissue to rigid structures, from infinitely thin to unimaginably massive, all while associating with a deep underlying system. This common element of evolutionary thinking, establishes new forms of experimental design and novel processes.

The lecturers are all seeking a complex resolution of space, information and data, resulting in elaborate structures containing and participating in an intricate network of parts. The series lies at the intersection of architecture, art, design and the critics and thinkers that move between them.

2009
Voluminous

The 2009 Sliver Lecture series highlights architects and designers in search of the voluminous. Voluminous designs are characterized by a sophisticated use of fullness and volume to generate complex spatial atmospheres that challenge the flat, autonomous surface.

davidclovers
March 17, 2009

Jan/Tim Edler
May 7, 2009

Hitoshi Abe
May 26, 2009

Richard Sweeney
May 28, 2009

Petra Blaisse
June 4, 2009

A recent desire for greater spatial effect and variation has lead architects and designers to synthesize massing, skin and structure while simultaneously amplifying the intricate distinctions between them. This exploration has produced an intriguing body of voluminous design notable for its use of volumetric depth on scales both subtle and grand. Undulation, bulging, folding, creasing and laminated, layered masses are only a few techniques deployed in recent designs.

This shift to the voluminous is clearly note-worthy; each lecturer in the series explores a unique region of techniques and design logic giving rise to voluminous environments or conditions.

2008
Information Obsession

The 2008 Sliver Lecture series combines emerging topics of information deployment and generation. The series samples from the myriad of artists and architects engaging in the processes of Advanced Technologies, Computational Techniques, Algorithmic Codes and Digital Fabrication.

Ranulph Glanville
April 7, 2008

Casey Reas
April 10, 2008

Jalal El-Ali
June 12, 2008

Ben Aranda, Chris Lasch

Jesse Seppi
October 30, 2008

Francois Roche
November 6, 2008

David Ruy
December 11, 2008

Greg Lynn
December 18, 2008

The manipulation and layering of information contributes to the demystification and transparency of the design process. No longer simply a tool, computational modes are the new digital medium shaping the contemporary environment. The boundaries between neighboring disciplines have eroded, merging technical culture and pop culture to create a highly refined set of exchanges that are available to a broad audience. Overlapping fields have created intriguing hybrids that simultaneously tackle issues of architecture, visual design, and art.

Each lecturer deals with the concept of interface and operates with a range of scales and materials. In various ways, they incorporate pattern, organization, assembly, repetition, precision, transformation, and visualization into their work.

2007
Special Effects

The 2007 SLIVER Lecture Series at the Angewandte speculates about atmospheres and effects – a contemporary interest that extends from film and video to art, design and architecture.

Generally conceived as a set of filmic techniques, special effects intensify an on-screen environment through illusion and spectacle. Nevertheless, special effects originate in the constructed environment - through forced perspective and labyrinthine spaces, for instance. Contemporary lighting, color, translucent and reflective materials, pyrotechnics, and even dynamic structures infuse products, installations and buildings with ever greater atmospheric and emotional intensity.

Each lecturer works at different scales in different mediums with different agendas, but their work contains an emotional intention specific to a contemporary sensibility rather than a modernist one.

Each one is an expert producer of special effects.