Elena Schütz: On Architecture Without Building
In Focus: Berlin
The era of exploitation and waste has ended, and it is up to our generation to make good use of what is already here. We have entered the era of non-building. Now the quality of our lives will be determined decisively by how well we can not build and how creatively we can use what already exists.
The lecture appeals to the power of usage. Something Fantastic, which considers itself the protagonist of the post-building era, where the quality of life depends on how well one utilizes what is already here, explores what can be achieved through inventing, defining, and managing ways of use. The lecture will illustrate this conceptual shift based on projects from the last ten years, as well as the different methods by which it is executed: from a fashion show informally conceived in a museum to urban design supporting more flexible uses of public space to the renovation of a 200,000 m2 conference center catering to approximately 100 tenants. As the process is in no way complete, the lecture serves more as a report on the state providing a personal insight into the challenges, findings, and achievements so far rather than some final statement.
Elena Schütz co-founded Something Fantastic right after graduating from the Berlin University of the Arts, based on the conviction that architecture relates to everything around us: the resulting social, ecological, and political responsibility thus requires a different practice. The work of this “undisciplinary” office includes not only the conceptualization of books, exhibitions, furniture, buildings, and urbanism but also research and education. In 2016, the studio was responsible for the design of the German Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale of Architecture titled Making Heimat: Germany Arrival Country. Elena Schütz taught urbanism at ETH Zurich, and since 2019 has been co-head of the Department of Space at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. As Villa Massimo fellows in Rome, they established Something Fantastic in 2022 together with Erika Mayr, a gardening company called Lascia Vivere.
The lecture appeals to the power of usage. Something Fantastic, which considers itself the protagonist of the post-building era, where the quality of life depends on how well one utilizes what is already here, explores what can be achieved through inventing, defining, and managing ways of use. The lecture will illustrate this conceptual shift based on projects from the last ten years, as well as the different methods by which it is executed: from a fashion show informally conceived in a museum to urban design supporting more flexible uses of public space to the renovation of a 200,000 m2 conference center catering to approximately 100 tenants. As the process is in no way complete, the lecture serves more as a report on the state providing a personal insight into the challenges, findings, and achievements so far rather than some final statement.
Elena Schütz co-founded Something Fantastic right after graduating from the Berlin University of the Arts, based on the conviction that architecture relates to everything around us: the resulting social, ecological, and political responsibility thus requires a different practice. The work of this “undisciplinary” office includes not only the conceptualization of books, exhibitions, furniture, buildings, and urbanism but also research and education. In 2016, the studio was responsible for the design of the German Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale of Architecture titled Making Heimat: Germany Arrival Country. Elena Schütz taught urbanism at ETH Zurich, and since 2019 has been co-head of the Department of Space at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. As Villa Massimo fellows in Rome, they established Something Fantastic in 2022 together with Erika Mayr, a gardening company called Lascia Vivere.
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