Architekturfestival TURN ON

The geopolitical events of last year shook the world to its foundations. As a result, many areas of life have to be rethought. Society is at a "turning point" – with eminent consequences also for architecture.

At this turning point, already familiar themes become more relevant and inevitable: ecologisation, regionalisation, alternative energy systems, but also recycling up to and including cradle to cradle. On another level, it becomes increasingly a matter of densifying building structures, reusing and transforming them instead of building new ones; on yet another level, it is a matter of innovative functional and spatial typologies. At the same time, constants in the development of building cultures such as space, construction, light, materiality and atmosphere are relevant and represent a common thread of the festival over the years.

The programme of TURN ON 2023 will revolve around and illuminate these and other themes from a wide variety of perspectives. The festival, which celebrates its 21st anniversary this year, will once again offer a top-class programme with numerous speakers from Austria and abroad.

The opening speech will be given by Margit Ulama, founder and director of the festival. As is tradition, Veronica Kaup-Hasler, Vienna's City Councillor for Culture and Science, will give the welcome address on Friday, and Christian Kühn, long-standing chairman of the Austrian Architecture Foundation, will give the welcome address on Saturday.

The keynote speech 2023 on Friday morning will be given by Walter Angonese under the title: "The Construction of the Idea". In his designs, the South Tyrolean architect Walter Angonese embodies a trenchant, independent attitude, just as the programme on Saturday brings together in the most diverse forms. He combines them with philosophical reflection and bases them on his work as director of the renowned Accademia di architettura, USI, in Mendrisio, Switzerland.

The TURN ON architecture festival is listed as an official continuing education event by the Architects' Council of Europe (ACE) and can be credited as continuing education by numerous architectural associations.

The lectures on Thursday and Friday are about cooperation between different disciplines, in most cases between companies from the business world and architects. The focus is on dialogue as well as very specific topics of the building process and innovative solutions within this framework. In each lecture, the perspectives from different areas complement each other, and the specific issues are illustrated by means of selected reference examples.

What does "turning point" mean for the design strategies of architects? What perspectives arise in our time of upheaval? Housing traditionally opens the long round and shows itself to be more diverse than ever before. The typology of housing is interpreted spatially, aesthetically and in terms of content in completely new and highly contrasting ways – radiating from Vienna to Spain and Europe as a whole.

In the second part of the lectures, the further development or conversion of an existing building structure plays a central role. Here, too, the context is broad, ranging from South Tyrol and Vorarlberg to prominent buildings in Vienna. How can new ecosystems be brought into harmony with contemporary leisure landscapes? Current examples in China will be presented. The day will conclude with selected lectures by TURN ON STUDIO reflecting on the "turn of thinking" in the context of students' design work.

Thursday, 2 March 2023: 14.30-18.00.
Friday, 3 March 2023: 10.30-18.35.
Saturday, 4 March 2023: 13.00-22.00.

Free admission.

© Architonic

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