04 May 2019 11:00 am - Mousonturm, Frankfurt
WELCOME TO SAC!
THE STÄDELSCHULE ARCHITECTURE CLASS (SAC) OFFERS A TWO-YEAR POSTGRADUATE MASTER OF ARTS IN ARCHITECTURE PROGRAMME WITH AN EXCLUSIVE FOCUS ON ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN THROUGH RESEARCH AND INNOVATIVE EXPERIMENTS.
Benefitting from its unique setting in the art academy, Städelschule, SAC sees its experimental and speculative approach to architecture both as a privilege and disciplinary obligation. In its disciplinary pursuit, the programme situates architecture in a wider social and political context while problematising contemporary cultural problems. SAC’s master programme is highly international, reflected in both faculty and student profiles, and exclusively conducted in English. Over the last three years, more than sixty students from about 20 different countries have at any time pursued their studies in the two-year programme.
Based on the artistic platform supplied by the Städelschule and the rigorous methodology structuring contemporary architectural design, the programme is formulated as a new and innovative approach to the practice of architecture. Work at SAC pursues design problems within a small sub-set of thematic contexts which at any time are defined by the Master Thesis Studios. Each Master Thesis Studio is led by an appointed professor, guest professor or thesis advisor. Reflecting the overall programme of the school, these studios operate autonomously but reflect the culture of the art academy and SAC’s disciplinary concerns. The respective academic and experimental agendas of the Master Thesis Studios complement one another and contribute to a vital and dynamic educational programme. The complementarity of the studio programmes engenders a productive in-house exchange and discourse for the benefit of the students and the development of the experiments and projects undertaken.
While deeply rooted in the discipline of architecture, SAC benefits from the arts’ profound commitment to critical speculation and innovation. Drawing on the small school’s distinct qualities and dynamics, SAC is situated at the cusp between the critical and innovative forces of art and architecture. Through its experimental research and the excellence of its students and graduates, the programme continuously explores disciplinary specific problems and the status of architecture within contemporary society.
SAC PROGRAMME & FacultY line-up 2018-19
SAC proudly announces its faculty line-up for the academic year 2018-19. The three Master Thesis Studios are led by: Peter Trummer - Architecture and Urban Design; Theodore Spyropoulos of Minimaforms - Advanced Architectural Design; and Johan Bettum - Architecture and Aesthetic Practice.
Yara Feghali has joined SAC as studio teacher and researcher. Yara leads the studio for the group of first semester students, and her design studio will be accompanied by techncial workshops and theory seminars. She also joins Bettum to teach in Architecture and Aesthetic Practice.
Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley return to teach history and theory for first year students, and Daniel Birnbaum offers seminars in theory and philosophy.
Hélène Frichot also returns to Frankfurt. While being Professor at the KTH School of Architecture, Stockholm, Hélène offers a series of seminars to students in the Master Thesis Studios and will guide them towards the completion of their written submission for their final degree.
During the winter semester, SAC also hosts a small number of visitors who will give lectures and/or seminars on select topics. First ones out before the seasonal break in December are the partners, Devyn Weiser and Peter Testa, who will entertain Master Thesis students for four days. Shortly after, Daniel Norell returns to offer a workshop to the First Semester Group after having been at SAC last year to give a guest lecture and participate in reviews. For the complete visitors programme during the winter semester, see here.
SAC Journal
The SAC Journal is a periodical that documents and critically reviews projects and theoretical discussions within contemporary, architectural design culture. The projects and texts published relate to the ongoing interests and ambitions of SAC. The publication series attempts to contribute to the discipline of architecture on a critical and discursive level. Read More
News
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AAD's study trip to London
16 April 2019AAD travelled to London with Professor Theodore Spyropoulos where they visited various cultural institutions and architectural site visits. The class discussed advanced design research with diverse practices within architecture, theatre and experimental design. The group visited renowned offices such as Zaha Hadid, Thomas Heatherwick and Richard Rogers where they were presented with various working methodologies on seminal projects that included the Shanghai Expo, Centre Pompidou, and Serpentine Gallery. The class visited the archive of Richard Rogers RSHP looking at original drawings of the Centre Pompidou and London Lloyds Building. The also visited experimental practices such as Studio Ini and stage designer Chole Lamford. The class had an intensive modelling workshop at the AADRL and presentations of the work of the studio Minimaforms located at Somerset House were Professor Spyropoulos is a resident artist.
Götz Stockmann - Erosion of Spatial Border
09 April 2019Götz Stöckmann is a SAC alumni (1981) and has studied with professor Günter Bock. He is a graduate (with honours) of the Architectural Association in London and has been working as an architect and artist with a transdisciplinary conceptual approach to art and architecture. Since 1984 he has been in partnership with Gabriela Seifert in the group formalhaut. Their residential building living room in the medieval town of Gelnhausen has been widely published and exhibited. A book trilogy titled "dim diary - the erosion of boundary" follows this artistic research work. In his lecture he will present past and current work. Photo: Formaloskop © formalhaut
LUCIA MELLONI - PERCEIVING: ON HOW WE CONSTRUCT REALITY
02 April 2019Lucia Melloni is a research group leader at the Max Planck for Empirical Aesthetics and an assistant professor at NYU school of medicine. In her research she uses a combination of neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and behavior to dissect the neural circuits that give rise to perception and cognition in humans. Her research primarily focuses on questions 1) consciousness – what make us to have an experience – and 2) language – how do we communicate infinite number of ideas with a limited set of string. Her approach aims at revealing the elementary computations and neural mechanisms of those processes, and to develop a novel framework to study the physiology of uniquely human cognitive processes.
© Photo credits: Courtesy of Lucia Melloni
WOLFGANG GOLLWITZER - DESIGN TO BUILD
28 March 2019Wolfgang Gollwitzer is a registered architect and the CEO of the studioGA. He studied in
Kaiserslautern, TU Munich and ETH Zurich. After his diploma at TUM he received a DAAD
scholarship for Columbia University and graduated with a master degree. During his stay at
Columbia University it was the leading school for digital design at the time of Dean Berhard
Tschumi and Program Director Stan Allen. Wolfgang Gollwitzer studied with Hani Rashid,
Greg Lynn and Jesse Reiser and was educated by Jeff Kipnis, David Ruy, Sanford Kwinter
and Manuel Delanda.
Prior to becoming CEO of the studioGA, he worked at Studio Daniel Libeskind in Berlin, Reiser+Umemoto RUR Architecture PC in New York and was part of the UnitedArchitects design team for the World Trade Center competition in New York City. He worked on projects like Denver Art Museum, Aeon Dubai, Eyebeam Museum New York and Shakhtar Training Center in the Ukraine.
He is a member of the American Institute of Architecture (AIA), the Architects Chamber (Architektų rūmai) of Lithuania and licensed in Germany.
Wolfgang Gollwitzer was teaching assistant at Princeton University and guest critic at Angewandte in Vienna, Städelschule, Princeton University and TU München.
Happy 101st birthday Günter Bock
05 March 2019Today Günter Bock would have been 101 years old. SAC wants to honour and remember its former professor who changed SAC significantly in the late 70's.
Originally from Danzig in Poland, Günter Bock (1918-2002) completed his architectural studies in Salzburg in 1940. After the war he set up his own practice in 1956. He became acquainted with various artists, including Joseph Beuys, and developed an interest in the relationship between art and architecture. This interest informed his subsequent work and teaching for the rest of his life.
In 1970 Bock became the programme director of SAC and introduced its postgraduate programme ‘Conceptual Design’ in 1978. The latter became the basis for SAC’s later transformation into an accredited postgraduate Master of Arts degree programme. Bock received the prize, Grand Prix de l'architecture de l'urbanisme, in 1969 and, upon retiring from the Städelschule in 1984, was a visiting professor at MIT in 1990.
Almost a quarter of a century after Bock left Städelschule, the Günter Bock Prize promotes excellence among SAC's students, celebrates high quality research and personal development within the academic context of the school and provides, of course, a financial encouragement and support in what is unavoidably an economically demanding student life.
Since 2018 the Günter Bock prize is generously supported by the Frankfurt-based Nassauische Heimstätte/Wohnstadt.
SAC Semester Break
25 February 2019As of February 25 SAC takes its semester break. The summer semester commences on March 25 and ends with final thesis reviews from June 17-27.
SAC Rundgang in Feuilleton Frankfurt
19 February 2019Check out Petra Kammann's article about SAC's Rundgang:
http://www.feuilletonfrankfurt.de/2019/02/16/rundgang-staedelschule-neue-welten-und-architektur-die-ueber-das-bauen-von-haeusern-hinausgeht/
Photo Credit: Yara Feghali
Check out the SAC YouTube account
14 February 2019Check out our SAC YouTube account to see our latest lectures updated from Fall and Spring 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/user/StaedelArchitecture/