Introductory Design Studio 3 + 4 – „FROM IMAGINED STRUCTURES TO POLYVALENT SPACES“

The design studio “From Imagined Structures to Polyvalent Spaces” is conceived as a two-part process that translates an experimental method into a concrete, site-specific project. Its central premise is that spatial quality, atmosphere, and architectural expression should not be applied as an additional layer, but can emerge from a clear structural logic. Understanding the relationship between design intent and structural idea is fundamental to the further design process. The studio therefore links analog material studies, model-based testing, and digital translation into one continuous workflow—from part to whole, from rule to spatial reality.

In the first part, students sharpen fundamental design skills. Work begins with a simple base element defined by specific material (coffee sticks) and geometric properties. Through repetition, joining, and variation, this element grows into spatial aggregations. Aggregation is treated as an elementary design method: a constructive principle capable of producing density, porosity, stability, light modulation, and spatial differentiation and characters. Students learn to understand the relationship between individual parts and the resulting whole (part-to-whole relationships) and to deliberately apply these relationships in the development of their designs. The aim is to move beyond intuition by identifying and naming emerging qualities precisely, and by formulating them as an explicit rule set. Sketches, diagrams,3d modelling, drawings, and physical models are used to make these logics visible and communicable; digital tools support variant testing and the refinement of ideas.

In the second part, the developed rules are applied to a real site: the forecourt of the Faculty of Architecture at TU Campus Innsbruck, particularly the area around the sculptures by Josef Lackner. This space becomes a test field for installative, spatially effective interventions—sculptural structures, shading devices, canopies, filters (sound,light,pollution, nutritions…), seating and stay zones, or other elements that enhance the space and enable different uses. The aim is to create a polyvalent space that allows for a variety of spatial uses.

At the core of the second part (major part) lies the translation from analog to digital. The rule set is developed into an operative system and refined in relation to scale, context, and use. Projects are conceived as prototypes and elaborated through architectural standards of precision: plans and sections, a consistent 3D model, and physical models at meaningful scales. The alternation between digital precision and analog verification remains essential to test and demonstrate light/shadow, porosity/density, stability, and spatial impact.

The studio is closely connected to the institute’s overarching theme “Polyvalence.” The concept of polyvalence was established in architectural discourse by Herman Hertzberger. In contrast to flexibility (the ability to change and adapt), polyvalence describes the capacity of a specific spatial structure to accommodate different uses and forms of appropriation without itself having to be altered. Architecture is therefore neither neutral nor unambiguous. A space can be precisely designed, possess a distinct character, and yet remain open in terms of how it is used.

This semester, we understand polyvalence as a design attitude: specific, but not absolute. Open, but not arbitrary. We are looking for spaces that contain more possibilities than their program initially demands.