I oA Sliver Lecture Series 2024/25
Applied Imaginaries
I oA - Institute of Architecture
The I oA Sliver Lecture Series 24/25, Applied Imaginaries, is curated as an atlas of projects, practices, and strategies
that turn imaginaries into design endeavors, some brought into the world and others manifested as speculations yet to be fully
formed or actualized. https://ioa.angewandte.at/sliver. March 21st, 6PM, I oA Square
Carla Ferrando & Pablo
Garrido Arnaiz / PARABASE
Imaginaries have a formative power; they can be probable, plausible, possible, or preferable.
They conceive meanings for individuals, communities, societies and relations with the other. They are activated by real or
mediated worlds. They operate as structure, interface or as simulations. They challenge established knowledge systems and
expand our ways of knowing. Imaginaries wide and strange.
In what ways do imaginaries operate as tools that propel
propositions to the following questions: “What is the role of architecture in regards to contemporary cultures and societies,
urbanization processes, identity policies, migration, climate change, environmental challenges, and disruptive technologies?
How do we want to live and co-exist? What will our future look like, and how will that be manifested spatially, physically,
and virtually? What role do digital developments and technology play in this? What is the role of architecture in tackling
questions on aesthetics and radical beauty?”
Philosopher and social critic Cornelius Castoriadis saw radical imagination
as a creative force that shapes our perception of reality and our capacity to envision new possibilities.
On a
bigger scale, his notion of a social imaginary represents the imagination of a society, manifested in its way of living, seeing,
and making its own existence.
In the context of design cognition and design education, imagination is vital to
what Nigel Cross describes as the “designerly ways of knowing,” fostering the human ability to meaningfully compose the world
we are within and evolve design and architecture as a discipline of possibilities.
Therefore, this lecture series,
Applied Imaginaries, is curated as an atlas of projects, practices, and strategies that turn imaginaries into design endeavors,
some brought into the world and others manifested as speculations yet to be fully formed or actualized.
Curated
by: Camille Breuil, Anna Gulinska, Maja Ozvaldic, Giacomo Pala, Galo Moncayo.
PARABASE (bio)
PARABASE is an entity registered by Carla Ferrando and Pablo Garrido Arnaiz in 2021, after working for offices such
as Herzog & de Meuron, Foster & Partners, Diener & Diener and Miller & Maranta. PARABASE combines the development
and construction of architectural projects with research and teaching, previously at the Universities of Architecture in Bern
and Mendrisio in Switzerland, and currently as Professors at the Bauhaus University in Weimar.
PARABASE has been
invited to participate in juries and lecturers at various institutions, among others: ETH Zurich, AAM Mendrisio, FHNW Basel,
HEAD Genève, Porto Academy, BFH Bern, Harvard GSD, SCI-Arc, Cornell AAP, TU München, TU Wien, KIT Karlsruhe, Aarhus School
of Architecture, Royal Academy Copenhagen, Polimi Milano, IUAV Venice, ETSAM Madrid and FAU Santiago de Chile. PARABASE’s
work has received diverse international awards and his work has been selected for the 15th and the 19th Venice Architecture
Biennale and the 4th Lisbon Triennale. PARABASE is currently working on projects of different scales in Spain, Mexico and
Switzerland.
