Our tagline is ‘Creative duo from Berlin’. The phrase formed itself naturally when we questioned ourselves who we are. It might seem trivial and redundant at first but it expresses the core of our design philosophy: we don’t want to limit ourselves to anything specific beforehand but rather oscillate between a variety of disciplines. If we call ourselves architects for instance we won’t be recognized as graphic designers so the term has to be broader. However, if we call ourselves designers, which could be an architect or a graphic designer, we wouldn’t be recognized as artists. Zooming out in this manner and therefor broadening our view we realized that the term best fitting to describe our vast field of interest is the opposite of repetition: creation. We value the opportunities of transdisciplinary inspiration from this way of working higher than the risk of becoming generalists that aren’t really good at anything.
Both of us independently from another developed a strong interest in arts and design during our adolescence. Hilaria became passionate at drawing early on spending many hours in her mother’s studio who is a painter. After she finished school Hilaria visited a friend in the architecture studio of her university. The creative and chaotic space in which 50 to 60 people worked tirelessly on their design projects immediately inspired her. The concentrated creators, these endless materials stuffed in a 30 m long shelf, the atmosphere of the fully focused students made her want to come back. Nikita discovered his curiosity for drawing and creating through graffiti culture and repeated visits to local exhibitions like the decennial Skulptur Projekte Münster or the annual Rundgang Kunstakademie Münster. A family friend then introduced him to architecture.
To define a topic for our diploma we asked ourselves one simple question: What did we enjoy most during our architecture studies? The answer was Aufgabe Null. Like other design schools the Institute of Architecture of TU Berlin where we studied had a ‘task zero’ (German ‘Aufgabe Null’) as part of their curriculum in order to kick off each semester with an inspiring exercise. More often than not we found ourselves more excited about this trigger than for the rest of the term. Therefor we decided to investigate this fundamental part of idea generation of encountering new fields as inspiration and were mesmerized how one discovered theme opened the door to ten others. Our supervisor Prof. Matthias Ballestrem was of great significance for the project. First of all because he had the courage to give us a go for the self initiated diploma and secondly because his expertise in spatial design theory and writing were invaluable for our progress. In retrospect the most remarkable realization for us personally was to understand that architecture can be expressed and recognized in so many other forms than only building or city planning. How does a family come together at a table? What role did the internet play in the build up of the Arab Spring and the crisis that followed? We now believe that every human action has spatial consequences. And architecture after all is mankinds predominant art of managing space. You can be a politician and pass a law that restricts building heights in a neighborhood or you can share an article on social media that informs your peers about your countries income inequality. Both of these actions inform the future design of our world even though their impact differs significantly in strength. Realizing the interconnectedness between everything and the space we inhabit gave us a new sensitivity for seemingly unrelated processes and therefor does and will continue to have a decent impact on our lives and work.
Founding a studio and getting started is very exciting and often challenging in a positive way. Therefor the experiences in the sense of encountering something new come by the dozen. One thing in particular we find worth mentioning though is that despite people saying “the creative scene in Berlin is like a shark pool” we seem to be lucky enough to continuously swim into the few amazing dolphins out there. Honestly, we’ve always been given unconditional support even by strangers that technically should be our competitors. We are truly grateful for all the positivity that so many people in Berlin embrace and we’re proud and happy to hopefully be able to contribute our share to this vibe.
I guess you could say our studio is dependent on ebb and flow. We prefer things tidy but since we work a lot with prototypes, models, test print outs and experimentation in general we periodically find ourselves flooded in these things until we can’t stand the mess anymore and force ourselves to clear up. Another important aspect of our studio is that we believe walking our dog is kind of an extension to the work space. The clarity we find walking in a forest or on Tempelhofer Feld often helps us progress. This method to draw conclusions from research for example works if one of us is out by themselves and even better together because the bilateral iteration of ideas in this case is immediate.
Design stimulates our minds whether we make or appreciate it. That said it’s a mentally vitalizing part of our life and we wouldn’t want to miss it.
A Book (Magazine): “Simply the best. Real Review is Europe’s foremost contemporary culture magazine.” Oddly this quote actually stems from the Real Review itself. But, hands down, we agree.
A Person: There is not really a person that we would call our master of architecture with confidence. However, there is countless inspiring people whose work we admire. We get the greatest thrill from following our peers developments at the moment among which there are Atelier Fanelsa, Form Follows You, Siebeneck, Studio Loes and others.
A Building: We find the dialogue of a massive brutalist building and it’s various very sensitive programmatic uses as a fine art gallery, a yoga studio or a forum for talks and public discussions as it is practiced in St. Agnes in Kreuzberg quite intriguing. However, this is just an example to illustrate that we find it fascinating when a building comes to life in unexpected ways. When people conquer a strong space with good intentions the factors seem to multiply another and an electrifying atmosphere can develop.
Probably everything that is wrong in our neoliberal socio-economic culture is also problematic within the architecture and design industry. We’re not at all complaining or depressed about this but it’s the reality we have to face. Because only once the deficits are framed you can also start doing something about them. We actually have the impression that the awareness and willingness to oppose such issues rises which gives us hope.
Design stimulates our minds whether we make or appreciate it. That said it’s a mentally vitalizing part of our life and we wouldn’t want to miss it.
A Book (Magazine): “Simply the best. Real Review is Europe’s foremost contemporary culture magazine.” Oddly this quote actually stems from the Real Review itself. But, hands down, we agree.
A Person: There is not really a person that we would call our master of architecture with confidence. However, there is countless inspiring people whose work we admire. We get the greatest thrill from following our peers developments at the moment among which there are Atelier Fanelsa, Form Follows You, Siebeneck, Studio Loes and others.
A Building: We find the dialogue of a massive brutalist building and it’s various very sensitive programmatic uses as a fine art gallery, a yoga studio or a forum for talks and public discussions as it is practiced in St. Agnes in Kreuzberg quite intriguing. However, this is just an example to illustrate that we find it fascinating when a building comes to life in unexpected ways. When people conquer a strong space with good intentions the factors seem to multiply another and an electrifying atmosphere can develop.
Probably everything that is wrong in our neoliberal socio-economic culture is also problematic within the architecture and design industry. We’re not at all complaining or depressed about this but it’s the reality we have to face. Because only once the deficits are framed you can also start doing something about them. We actually have the impression that the awareness and willingness to oppose such issues rises which gives us hope.
Design stimulates our minds whether we make or appreciate it. That said it’s a mentally vitalizing part of our life and we wouldn’t want to miss it.
A Book (Magazine): “Simply the best. Real Review is Europe’s foremost contemporary culture magazine.” Oddly this quote actually stems from the Real Review itself. But, hands down, we agree.
A Person: There is not really a person that we would call our master of architecture with confidence. However, there is countless inspiring people whose work we admire. We get the greatest thrill from following our peers developments at the moment among which there are Atelier Fanelsa, Form Follows You, Siebeneck, Studio Loes and others.
A Building: We find the dialogue of a massive brutalist building and it’s various very sensitive programmatic uses as a fine art gallery, a yoga studio or a forum for talks and public discussions as it is practiced in St. Agnes in Kreuzberg quite intriguing. However, this is just an example to illustrate that we find it fascinating when a building comes to life in unexpected ways. When people conquer a strong space with good intentions the factors seem to multiply another and an electrifying atmosphere can develop.
Probably everything that is wrong in our neoliberal socio-economic culture is also problematic within the architecture and design industry. We’re not at all complaining or depressed about this but it’s the reality we have to face. Because only once the deficits are framed you can also start doing something about them. We actually have the impression that the awareness and willingness to oppose such issues rises which gives us hope.
Project
Looking at our personal cosmos of inspiration we realized that it expands far beyond our field of study. Driven by curiosity we started researching the principle of Aufgabe Null at the Institute of Architecture at TU Berlin to find out what was so exciting for us about transdisciplinary inspiration and how we could channel ideas deriving from it into spatial proposals. The result is a personal epistemology within and around architecture which helped us developing our own holistic working method. In “Was bedeuten all diese Dinge räumlich?” we showcase studies of this method that ever since is part of our design strategy: We combine a classic research of the existing, deepen the gained knowledge in conversations with colleagues that work in creating domains and summarize our findings in spatial artefacts in order to feed them back into the cycle of public discussion and interpretation. The book contains transcripts of conversations we had with four colleagues from different creative fields. We’re truly thankful for having gotten the opportunity to speak to each of them. Once again, after élevé, we have been reminded of how much we can learn and how much inspiration we can take from simply talking to likeminded individuals. We spoke to Christoph Haupt, Jack Self, Eike König and !Mediengruppe Bitnik.
Project
Looking at our personal cosmos of inspiration we realized that it expands far beyond our field of study. Driven by curiosity we started researching the principle of Aufgabe Null at the Institute of Architecture at TU Berlin to find out what was so exciting for us about transdisciplinary inspiration and how we could channel ideas deriving from it into spatial proposals. The result is a personal epistemology within and around architecture which helped us developing our own holistic working method. In “Was bedeuten all diese Dinge räumlich?” we showcase studies of this method that ever since is part of our design strategy: We combine a classic research of the existing, deepen the gained knowledge in conversations with colleagues that work in creating domains and summarize our findings in spatial artefacts in order to feed them back into the cycle of public discussion and interpretation. The book contains transcripts of conversations we had with four colleagues from different creative fields. We’re truly thankful for having gotten the opportunity to speak to each of them. Once again, after élevé, we have been reminded of how much we can learn and how much inspiration we can take from simply talking to likeminded individuals. We spoke to Christoph Haupt, Jack Self, Eike König and !Mediengruppe Bitnik.
Prolog (Auszug aus »Was bedeuten all diese Dinge räumlich?«)
Aufgabe Null
Hilaria von Saldern & Nikita Suerhoff
1. Ute Hörner, Mathias Antlfinger: Hans Ulrich Obrist: E-Mail-Interview. In: Ars Viva. Kunst und Wissenschaft, 2000, 00/01, S. 8.
2. Jack Self: From the editor. In: Real Review, Sommer 2016, Heft 1, S. 108.
Prolog (Auszug aus »Was bedeuten all diese Dinge räumlich?«)
Aufgabe Null
Hilaria von Saldern & Nikita Suerhoff
1. Ute Hörner, Mathias Antlfinger: Hans Ulrich Obrist: E-Mail-Interview. In: Ars Viva. Kunst und Wissenschaft, 2000, 00/01, S. 8.
2. Jack Self: From the editor. In: Real Review, Sommer 2016, Heft 1, S. 108.
Further Work
Further Work