Face the Context

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Lecture Series
University of Applied Sciences Liechtenstein
Vaduz, 2004-2005

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When Rem Koolhaas uttered his famous “F... the context” it was a more than welcome strike against the hypocritical adoration of place by post-modernism and its undercurrent revisionist politics against the modern project. But given globalisation as overarching trope of the present, context imposes itself to be defined yet again. It seems clear that globalisation does not necessarily make the world “all the same” all over the place. Rather we more than often witness contexts which are incompatible with each other and which produce serious friction when they happen to be adjacent conditions. What defines place today? Does it still exist as a singular concept? If so, how can architecture localise at a given place? And how does place change by the interventions of architecture? Is there a kind of locality reaching beyond the physical site of a building to include as well the very network of places with which it communicates? To answer these and other questions, Ilka & Andreas Ruby have invited architects from five European countries.

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19 oct 2004 Ilka & Andreas Ruby, textbild, Cologne, D
02 nov 2004 François Roche, R&Sie..., Paris, F
23 nov 2004 Peter Swinnen, 51N4E Space Prod., Brussels, B
14 dec 2004 Nathalie de Vries, MVRDV, Rotterdam, NL
18 jan 2005 Bostjan Vuga, Sadar Vuga Arhitekti, Ljubljana, SLO
01 feb 2005 Adam Caruso, Caruso St. John Arch., London, GB