Learning from the Ordinary
A four-week long journey into (re)discovering ordinary spaces, materials, and low-tech construction methods.
Bartosz Bukowski and Dr. Federico Bertagna, researchers at the Chair of Structural Design at the Institute of Technology in Architecture, in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Shuaizhong Wang (Chinese University of Hong Kong) and Dr. Yue Zhao (Southeast University, Nanjing), recently led a four-week summer school hosted by Nanjing University, China.
The summer school focused on those spaces, materials, and elements that belong to the “ordinary” and as such are often overlooked. After a systematic analysis concerning the very notion of “ordinary”, 12 architecture students from NJU and CUHK engaged in a series of design explorations that resulted in the construction of a 700m2 canopy made of bamboo and red woven geotextile. Located at the Northern edge of Xiangtang village, the canopy floats above a peach grove framing a series of new spaces and perspectives. The use of low-tech construction systems and local materials widely available on site allowed completing the entire construction in less than 5 days without any external support. Moreover, the extremely limited transformation of the materials used for the construction allowed villagers to effectively reuse parts of it after the disassembly.
The workshop took place between Nanjing and the village of Xiangtang from June 24th to July 19th 2024. The results were presented in an exhibition curated by Dr. Yue Zhao held in Xiangtang Community Center.