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Design Method
In the Middle of Things – Experiments with a Design Approach
Essay by Robert Saat and Nina Vollbracht
In the background, two women are talking and pointing at a person doing gardening work in the foreground.

The initial implementation of a design process is usually based on previous analyses that are either made by the designers themselves or drawn from outside sources. In this experiment, we questioned this process and investigated a different approach to specific places, actors and environments in the form of an activist act based on designing objects, repairing existing structures or even demolishing them from a position in the middle of things, not objectively, not impartially, and above all not at a distance.

The authors of this article were also interviewed by Eva-Maria Ciesla and Hannah Strothmann for the thematic issue „Architecture as Intervention” about the design studio and the possibilities for transferring the learnings into architectural practice. See also: Vollbracht, N. & Saat, R. (2024). Interview: Hybrid Internship. Dimensions. Journal of Architectural Knowledge, 4(7), 171-178. https://doi.org/10.14361/dak-2024-0714
From “the Primacy of Presence” to: “Design First, Ask Later”
Article by Julian Feriduni, Florian Fischer, Hannah Nowak, Thilo Preuß, Robert Saat, Nora Schlöder, Clemens Urban and Nina Vollbracht
A bed stands in the centre of the room.

How should architects enter the spaces they work in and intend to transform? It seems obvious that they would align their actions with paradigms of appropriateness and attentive observation. But do they really? Given our responsibility toward the looming ecological catastrophe and escalating social issues, shouldn't architects instead approach the field with friendly and good-humored impositions? Isn’t this precisely how they can help initiate the sometimes disruptive processes of change? This might seem presumptuous in an age that continues to criticize past episodes of architectural history – especially modernism – for such behavior. Yet, this is exactly why the following method blends well-measured activism, scientific methods, and an optimistic approach to ‘designing out into the world.’ It aims to test our willingness to make concrete changes.

This article was first published under the German title „‚Vom Primat der Anwesenheit‘ zu: ‚Erst Ent- werfen, dann Fragen‘” in issue no. 11 on the subject of ”Angemessenheit’. For the German version see: Feriduni, J. Fischer, F. Nowak, H., Preuß, T. Saat, R. Schlöder, N. Urban, C. & Vollbracht, N. (2024). Vom „Primat der Anwesenheit“ zu: „Erst entwerfen, dann fragen“. Archimaera. architektur. kultur. kontext. online 11, 87-99. https://doi.org/10.60857/archimaera.11.87-99. This version was translated into English and graphically revised for wohnbau.site.