Probably one of the better historical examples illustrating Barbieri’s claimed possibility that a particular “border condition” can produce “an architectural language” is Exodus, or The Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture, also known as Rem Koolhaas’s graduation project at the Architectural Association in London in 1972. It constitutes an intriguing example of an architectural project in which the characteristics of an architectural element (in this case “the wall”) are conceptualized as a spatial condition, thus influencing, if not determining, the basic idea of an architectural project. Influenced by his 1971 visit to the Berlin Wall, Koolhaas projected a large wall-system, Superstudio style, onto contemporary (yet exaggerated) London, in order to play a dialectic game of good and bad, of inclusion and exclusion, imprisonment and freedom, and so on. As a result the benefits, blessings, and heroisms of architecture are on full display in an experiential retreat of spatial incarceration. [...]@en

As architecture is considered a projective discipline, its underlying intents are always geared towards acting in and on the world. In other words, even if its discursive actions(evaluations, assessments, critiques, theorizations) are mostly reflexive, architecture aims to transform ‘reality’ both spatially and materially. In order to understand these spatial and material conditions of reality, the ‘field trip’ is considered of vital importance for students of architecture as it allows them to gain insight into the specificities of local spatial conditions and the way these conditions are generated, formed, used, experienced and responded to by local populations. Students being immersed in these local conditions provide the necessary know-how when developing their architectural design intervention proposals. In this paper, we will present our experiences from teaching remotely the Borders & Territories (B&T) MSc2 design studio at TU Delft Faculty of Architecture in the 2020 Spring semester. Particularly, we will emphasize the clear distinction between the primordial intent of a studio set in Belgrade before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ultimate results achieved using innovative ‘remote’ research and pedagogical methods imposed by the circumstances. We will then conclude with some reflections on the current state of technology with respect to the virtual field trip, and furthermore sketch future scholarship in the relation to our DRIFT research project whose aim is to develop a digital learning environment in which the architectural field trip can be carried out remotely, while it is also aided by digital tools, allowing the user to access information data-bases and archives remotely and simultaneously.@en

This book explores the notion of mapping in architectural discourse. First locating, positioning and theorizing mapping, it then makes explicit the relationship between research and design in architecture through cartography and spatial analysis. It proposes three distinct modalities: tool, operation and concept, showing how these methods lead to discursive aspects of architectural work and highlighting mapping as an instrument in developing architectural form. It emphasizes the importance of place and time as fundamental terms with which to understand the role of mapping. An investigation into architectural discourse, this book will appeal to academics and researchers within the discipline with a particular interest in theory, history and cartography.@en

This article presents the mapping of the Moon Walk as part of an ongoing research project of the Borders & Territories research group in which a number of walks that have changed the course of the history of mankind are investigated and mapped@en

Conflict, when dislodged from its conventional understanding as a process and system of war and destruction exclusively, may be apprehended as an experimental method for analysis and synthesis, as a potent resource for pedagogy, for disruptive design and for the production of theory. In this sense, conflict produces more than the eradication of (the possibility of) life and its supporting structures: conflict produces transitional spaces at different scales, of differentiated material ecologies and site-specific meanings in relation to their global position. Conflicts are both locations and explanations of often ‘seductive’ images of destruction offered by popular (and other) media: ruined architectures, dead (or barely alive) bodies, forced migratory movements, impermanent infrastructures and settlements, as well as the tracing and construction of borders, real-estate driven post-war reconstruction processes, etc.@en

Various forms of violence and conflict continue to shape our habitats. What historically has been straightforward and even obvious two-way dependency, in recent years took more subtle and covert form due to sophisticated technological advancements in the fields of media, surveillance and armament. Recognising the detrimental effects of these new developments on the way we experience, conceptualise and build our environments, Footprint27 proposes artistic reflections, cross-media inquiry and counter-tactics as new powerful tools to rethink the complex relationship between conflict, space and mediation. On one hand, the aim of this issue is to deepen and expand theoretical considerations that substantiate investigations of spatial conflicts by making them truly interdisciplinary. On the other, it seeks to empower architects and artists in their pursuit of exposing, critiquing and fighting spatial violence by reclaiming/unlocking the enormous potential of media tools.@en

Footprint 19 focuses on the more recent roles of architecture in the contemporary spaces of conflict. Departing from a spatial understanding of geopolitical, climatological and economical conflicts, the various contributions highlight the large scale and phenomenal transitions in the physical world and in society by extrapolating, through examples, the abundance of relations that can be traced between conflict, territory and architecture. Conflict areas often prove to be fertile grounds for innovation and for the emergence of new spatial forms. The issue reports on the state of perpetual global unrest in architecture through a series of articles and case studies that highlight the consequences of conflicts in the places and spaces that we inhabit. In the introduction, these are discussed as an interlinked global reality rather than as isolated incidents. In doing so, the contemporary spaces of conflict are positioned in the context of emerging global trends, conditions, and discourses in the attempt to address their indicative symptoms while reflecting on their underlying causes.@en