ARCH+ 47: Alexander Roemer
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Roemer, Alexander
Few contemporary practitioners rival Assemble Studio in their dedication to overcoming disciplinary limitations, cutting through the fragmentation of modernism, and changing daily life through community-oriented design – for this very reason, they were recently awarded the prestigious Turner Prize. After her lecture, Amica Dall of Assemble will discuss the social role of architects and architecture as well as the relation between craftsmanship, production and the city together with Alexander Römer of constructLab, and Jürgen Patzak-Poor of BARarchitekten. The lecture and discussion will be held in English. Introduction by Rainer Hehl Moderated by Philipp Oswalt and Anh-Linh Ngo
 Yeah, good evening and thanks a lot for the invitation. I have now a five minute statement and I tried to make it really five minute. I was quite frustrated by going through the projects and choosing pictures because I always want to show more and more and more so I had to put off and off and off. But I also thought that I would maybe dig a bit in the project box of ours to say a little high to assemble and start with a project back in 2008 in London and the thing with the discussion of what is the role of the architect. We transformed it in our projects often in something I would call the architect take over a role. For instance here we became lifeguards which is quite a simple role overtaking. We have been invited to this architecture festival in London where we were asked to make a hub in the south of London. For a few days we found this place in 100 Union Street where a big building was on a little bit before and eight weeks after the developer wanted to build a bigger building of course. So we had a gap of eight weeks. We thought we would take three weeks to build, three weeks to be on and two weeks to dismantle. So the two days for which we were asked for which is very temporary. We extended it to three weeks which is still temporary. The lifeguard made a Lido, a temporary swimming pool where we then set three weeks and lived on site in the neighborhood where we had probably too frustration of some of the people who heard there will be a new Lido. Only a 20 meter long pool in one direction and then this two meter deep diving pool. We had some facilities and we had a lot of people different ages and different social background I guess from the neighbors to the architecture scene of London during day and during night of course. And that is one image of this Lido while activated. We had to negotiate very hard with the land owner in this first intervention and to sign of the land owner the developer, the owner is known. We had to sign several times the contracts and during the three week opening he kind of changed his mind maybe because financial crisis struck him or maybe he found interesting to keep on with such interventions which he did for the next year. So we had ourselves some projects on it, I don't go into it, five minutes not enough. Other collectives have been intervening on. Nicholas my dear colleague of Exist still lived on the site until some months I think. I saw in Facebook the closing party going by so that was a very nice kind of temporary project goes into long term experience project. And on the other hand we also had very nice and dear colleagues by the time volunteers on the site. 2008 one was Maria from assembled from to become assembled actually. We had Paloma letters from practice architect from to become practice architecture. We had only rain right who's now writing in the garden so it was kind of an interesting hub by the time. And it was a piece of a left over or piece of private land which we turned into a public space by taking this role of the lifeguard here another project in London and Dorsenburg we've been invited the year after for five weeks experience where we is a little bit extended this idea of taking a role over towards a certain uncertainty. We decided to become Miller and of course nobody knew how that goes technically we knew so we built this mill and then while being Miller we also installed the bakery and there even less knowledge on our side. So the first thing was of course to encounter the people who knew how to make and how to bake and that was what happened actually people would take the place over slowly during this five weeks after we agreed on we had to dismantle but on site there was a certain community and power which then went to the Hackney council and claimed for continuity. So from this Dorsen mill where we've been five weeks in 2009 a project came up which is still there which called Eastern Curve Garden maybe some of you know it and we had the honor to be invited again to make a temporary not a temporary several years long temporary shelter which was this roof which is the Dorsen Barn. So again this time a leftover which became public space this project here was further down in the south in Madrid where we've been invited for one night intervention where we said also here one night is maybe not enough for us to initiate something so let's try to push it which was a big negotiation with the sponsors but we had the collective basorama behind us who invited us and we proposed right in the middle of La Latina in Madrid where this building also just was turned down the swimming pool public swimming pool and then afterwards developer plans got bankrupt or corrupt whatever so there was this huge left over this huge empty space empty plot in the middle of the city which we then filled with such a wooden structure a city island we called it it was a sort of a rainforest thing five weeks it was open and then we went through several conflicts I don't want to describe it deeper but this idea of a conflict you can sometimes generate in such a situation where then suddenly people would not only be there to consume but to somehow have to bring themselves into the situation to have to engage came here in this project really to a strong movement of neighborhood and architecture collectives and this place is still open it's called now a Campo de Cebada and this may be also known from some of you in Madrid as Aline was saying often in our practice it is about the workshop the construction this idea of bringing together the moment of thinking and designing of a project conceiving it and building it just some images of different construction sites on our projects sometimes like this one 2012 we invite people to join and then we open it up and people would join just by curiosity of what we are actually doing for three weeks building was for a capital of culture in itself a temporary event we knew that it will stay nine months we used 40 cubic meters of wooden boards we had 50 people on board more or less and that was what we don't what we didn't tell to the creators we had in mind to dismantle after the nine months and to use the wood for another project either us or the people who participated and that happened then Casa Duvapual is born 2013 one year later we went down to the south and built up in a very interesting territory of informal settlements this kind of little incubator of ideas that the Casa Duvapual which is a steamy structure without any predefined content and which would stay there one month one summer and fill through our activations and the interest and the participation of the people with content such as this skateboard ramp you see here that was a initiative for French artists who thought that it would be very interesting for the local kids who then rather play chess in front of it and the artist themselves used it but on the other side the library which is was in this very small room upstairs and which is still existing now in another project and which also got a new child a new library so in the area two libraries came out of this and still a lot of projects we are we are continuing to go to who's behind all this it's not only me of course this is a moment photo of image of what Anlim was mentioning when we've been by the time in Venice in 2006 everybody had these yellow shirts it was a common thing everybody has a lot of arms which is kind of represented for the way we're seeing this collective idea of working together you have the arms you know you bring in your skills in my case it's carpentry but we have the graphic designers we have the cook we have the clean peep cleaning people the DJ etc etc and the other arms is hard to help the others that is an image of this project we did which was also a temporary project due to the fact that be another three months long but afterwards people would come to us and ask us if they could reuse material and then by being interested in where this material would go to and why they ask we discovered that they do this quite frequently and that that the idea of reusing material became after the next beyond two years later the movement is called a rebion other which is still also ongoing so can design change society this would be a question for our rough Seraphine who was 74 when he died and he was the oldest member of our collective and he would ask he would answer rather that society shouldn't change the designer thanks a lot
 Yeah, good evening and thanks a lot for the invitation.  I have now a five minute statement and I tried to make it really five minute.  I was quite frustrated by going through the projects and choosing pictures because I always  want to show more and more and more so I had to put off and off and off.  But I also thought that I would maybe dig a bit in the project box of ours to say a  little high to assemble and start with a project back in 2008 in London and the thing with  the discussion of what is the role of the architect.  We transformed it in our projects often in something I would call the architect take  over a role.  For instance here we became lifeguards which is quite a simple role overtaking.  We have been invited to this architecture festival in London where we were asked to  make a hub in the south of London.  For a few days we found this place in 100 Union Street where a big building was on a  little bit before and eight weeks after the developer wanted to build a bigger building  of course.  So we had a gap of eight weeks.  We thought we would take three weeks to build, three weeks to be on and two weeks to dismantle.  So the two days for which we were asked for which is very temporary.  We extended it to three weeks which is still temporary.  The lifeguard made a Lido, a temporary swimming pool where we then set three weeks and lived  on site in the neighborhood where we had probably too frustration of some of the people who  heard there will be a new Lido.  Only a 20 meter long pool in one direction and then this two meter deep diving pool.  We had some facilities and we had a lot of people different ages and different social  background I guess from the neighbors to the architecture scene of London during day and  during night of course.  And that is one image of this Lido while activated.  We had to negotiate very hard with the land owner in this first intervention and to sign  of the land owner the developer, the owner is known.  We had to sign several times the contracts and during the three week opening he kind  of changed his mind maybe because financial crisis struck him or maybe he found interesting  to keep on with such interventions which he did for the next year.  So we had ourselves some projects on it, I don't go into it, five minutes not enough.  Other collectives have been intervening on.  Nicholas my dear colleague of Exist still lived on the site until some months I think.  I saw in Facebook the closing party going by so that was a very nice kind of temporary  project goes into long term experience project.  And on the other hand we also had very nice and dear colleagues by the time volunteers  on the site.  2008 one was Maria from assembled from to become assembled actually.  We had Paloma letters from practice architect from to become practice architecture.  We had only rain right who's now writing in the garden so it was kind of an interesting  hub by the time.  And it was a piece of a left over or piece of private land which we turned into a public  space by taking this role of the lifeguard here another project in London and Dorsenburg  we've been invited the year after for five weeks experience where we is a little bit  extended this idea of taking a role over towards a certain uncertainty.  We decided to become Miller and of course nobody knew how that goes technically we knew so  we built this mill and then while being Miller we also installed the bakery and there even  less knowledge on our side.  So the first thing was of course to encounter the people who knew how to make and how to  bake and that was what happened actually people would take the place over slowly during this  five weeks after we agreed on we had to dismantle but on site there was a certain community  and power which then went to the Hackney council and claimed for continuity.  So from this Dorsen mill where we've been five weeks in 2009 a project came up which  is still there which called Eastern Curve Garden maybe some of you know it and we had  the honor to be invited again to make a temporary not a temporary several years long temporary  shelter which was this roof which is the Dorsen Barn.  So again this time a leftover which became public space this project here was further  down in the south in Madrid where we've been invited for one night intervention where we  said also here one night is maybe not enough for us to initiate something so let's try  to push it which was a big negotiation with the sponsors but we had the collective basorama  behind us who invited us and we proposed right in the middle of La Latina in Madrid where  this building also just was turned down the swimming pool public swimming pool and then  afterwards developer plans got bankrupt or corrupt whatever so there was this huge left  over this huge empty space empty plot in the middle of the city which we then filled with  such a wooden structure a city island we called it it was a sort of a rainforest thing five  weeks it was open and then we went through several conflicts I don't want to describe  it deeper but this idea of a conflict you can sometimes generate in such a situation  where then suddenly people would not only be there to consume but to somehow have to  bring themselves into the situation to have to engage came here in this project really  to a strong movement of neighborhood and architecture collectives and this place is still open it's  called now a Campo de Cebada and this may be also known from some of you in Madrid as  Aline was saying often in our practice it is about the workshop the construction this  idea of bringing together the moment of thinking and designing of a project conceiving it and  building it just some images of different construction sites on our projects sometimes  like this one 2012 we invite people to join and then we open it up and people would join  just by curiosity of what we are actually doing for three weeks building was for a  capital of culture in itself a temporary event we knew that it will stay nine months we used  40 cubic meters of wooden boards we had 50 people on board more or less and that was what we  don't what we didn't tell to the creators we had in mind to dismantle after the nine months  and to use the wood for another project either us or the people who participated and that  happened then Casa Duvapual is born 2013 one year later we went down to the south and built up  in a very interesting territory of informal settlements this kind of little incubator  of ideas that the Casa Duvapual which is a steamy structure without any predefined content and  which would stay there one month one summer and fill through our activations and the interest  and the participation of the people with content such as this skateboard ramp you see here that  was a initiative for French artists who thought that it would be very interesting for the local  kids who then rather play chess in front of it and the artist themselves used it but on the other  side the library which is was in this very small room upstairs and which is still existing now in  another project and which also got a new child a new library so in the area two libraries came  out of this and still a lot of projects we are we are continuing to go to who's behind all this  it's not only me of course this is a moment photo of image of what Anlim was mentioning when we've  been by the time in Venice in 2006 everybody had these yellow shirts it was a common thing  everybody has a lot of arms which is kind of represented for the way we're seeing this collective  idea of working together you have the arms you know you bring in your skills in my case it's  carpentry but we have the graphic designers we have the cook we have the clean peep cleaning  people the DJ etc etc and the other arms is hard to help the others that is an image of this project  we did which was also a temporary project due to the fact that be another three months long but  afterwards people would come to us and ask us if they could reuse material and then by being  interested in where this material would go to and why they ask we discovered that they do this  quite frequently and that that the idea of reusing material became after the next beyond  two years later the movement is called a rebion other which is still also ongoing so can design  change society this would be a question for our rough Seraphine who was 74 when he died and he  was the oldest member of our collective and he would ask he would answer rather that society  shouldn't change the designer thanks a lot
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