E1 Bachelor Design Course – „POLYVALENT* LIVING: New forms of living between the specific and the open“

Main Objective
The studio investigates polyvalence as a design approach and asks how architecture can develop specific spatial identities without definitively determining their use. Responding to changing forms of living, we seek structures that can accommodate different uses and forms of inhabitation without requiring constant adaptation. On the site at Mariahilfstraße (Innsbruck), we explore this across scales: from mass and void and the courtyard as a collective room, to the articulation of spaces, thresholds, niches and openings. What if the courtyard itself becomes a place for living, circulation a place to meet, or the facade a space to inhabit?

Brief
The way we live is constantly changing. We live alone, together, temporarily, permanently; we share spaces, work from home, study, cook, meet and retreat.
Concepts such as shared living, co-living and micro-living reflect these changes and raise questions about how space could be designed to allow different activities, degrees of privacy and forms of living to coexist. Living has been organised through a clear relationship between space and function. A bedroom is designed for sleeping, a kitchen for cooking, a corridor for circulation. The way we actually inhabit space is much less defined.
Herman Hertzberger proposed a different understanding of this relationship through the concept of polyvalence. In contrast to flexibility (which refers to changeability and adaptation) polyvalence describes the capacity of a spatial structure to enable different uses without itself having to change. A space can be precisely designed, possess a distinct character, and still remain open to different forms of use and inhabitation.
This Semester, we understand polyvalence as a design approach: specific, but not absolute. Open, but not arbitrary. We are looking for spaces that contain more possibilities than their initial program demands.

In this Design Studio, we investigate these questions through new forms of living. Instead of defining living through a fixed program, we begin with space and its possibilities. A second public or communal use becomes part of each project, involving activities such as eating, making, learning, exhibiting, performing, caring, playing or other forms of collective life.
We are interested in how living and public life can share space. Where do different uses meet? What is the role of circulation? How can a kitchen or a courtyard become a space for both?
The limited area of the site makes this question particularly relevant: not every use needs its own dedicated space.

Site
The site on Mariahilfstraße occupies a distinctive point of transition within Innsbruck. Located directly on the northern bank of the Inn and opposite the Old Town, the historic row of houses along Mariahilf meets the residential buildings of Mariahilfpark from the 1970s, designed by Franz Kotek. Between them lies a small, still undeveloped green space – situated between different building heights and periods of construction, and between urban life and the riverbank.
A hybrid form of living is to be developed on this site, complemented by a self-defined public or communal use.
A universal spatial program is provided as a design framework. The specific form of living and the complementary program will be developed over the course of the design process through engagement with the site, space, and the concept of polyvalence.

Methods
The studio follows a continuous design process across three scales: Urban, Organisation and Facade. A digital 3D model serves as the central working medium throughout the semester. The project is developed through iteration, not replacement: each step introduces a specific architectural question and transforms what has been designed in the step before.