Architectural Design 3

Studio Jacob

Head: Univ.-Prof. Sam Jacob
Studio Jacob explores architecture as representation. For architecture, representation is simultaneously a technical, cultural and political question. It raises questions about: 1. Who is represented (publics, communities, civicness etc.) 2. What is represented (narratives, symbolism, histories, content etc) and 3. How things are represented (techniques, material, construction methods etc).
We are interested in the medium of architecture itself. We think making is a good way to think  and use working through design processes as ways of developing ideas and proposals. We  understand ways of drawing, for example, are not only ways to depict the world, but systems that themselves organise the world.
We like drawings and models, we like materials and different ways of making, we like to organise space. We like combinations: History and speculation, the everyday and the fantastical, figures and abstraction.  
We are interested in the kind of architectural meanings these combinations and processes might create. What kind of social proposals might they generate. What kinds of ecologies they might manifest. What kind of cultures they might address.
Through this we explore how architecture can be relevant and imaginative, responsive to culture and context, ideas that are also things (and vice versa).
Studio Jacob acts as a framework that supports ideas developing into projects, finding ways to turn progressive architectural ideas into propositions.  
 
Sam Jacob is principal of Sam Jacob Studio for architecture and design, a practice whose work ranges from urban design through architecture, design, art to curation.
 
Sam is interested in how architecture and design makes ideas real as socially, formally and materially. From nightclubs to social housing, from community centres to exhibitions, his projects are striking yet also are full of familiar references, creating places and spaces with character and surprising beauty. Inspired by context, his projects try to embody stories, sensations and feelings in space, form and materials.
 
His work has been shown at institutions including the Art Institute Chicago, the MAK, the V&A, and the Venice Biennale where he was co-curator of the British Pavilion in 2016. He has worked with museums including Design Museum, the Science Museum, Tate and MK Gallery, and has contributed to events including the London Design Festival, the Chicago Architecture Biennial and the Lisbon Triennale.
 
Sam was professor of architecture at UIC and also taught at the University of Hong Kong, Yale, Karlsruhe HfG, ABK Stuttgart, TU VIenna and the AA. He was a columnist for the Architects Journal and Dezeen and resurrected Reyner Banham’s Shape of Things column for Art Review.
 
Previously, Sam was a director of FAT Architecture.
Contact

Location
2nd floor
Oskar-Kokoschka-Platz 2
A-1010 Wien
1th floor
Oskar-Kokoschka-Platz 2
A-1010 Wien
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