Strange Objects

This is the keynote lecture following the M.Arch Jury for the Architecture and Urbanism (DRL) Postgraduate Programme

The lecture will discuss how the “strange” and “massive” relates to the notion of the Sublime as used Edmund Burke and his notion of terror and fear being the basis of “awe” for the sublime beauty, going beyond the merely aesthetic, rational understanding of beauty. This quality is found in the the prototyping phase [rather than the physical representational model]. Described here as Protobodies or Thing-Shapes touches on the idea of becoming, approximating, and therefore occupying this territory between idea and space, exactly where “ego and the external world” are not yet sharply differentiated or defined. This thing –shape is not yet “inhabited” or inhibited”, decipherable by habit or felt “at home” with, which causes the sense of uncanniness, the sensation of “almost ugly”, aimed to create or investigate the object gaining identity or character.

Winka Dubbeldam is the founder and partner of the WBE certified firm Archi-Tectonics NYC LLC. widely known for their award-winning work, recognised as much for its design excellence as for its use of smart building systems, and innovative structures. Archi-Tectonics recently won the THA Hospitality award for the Inscape Meditation Studio (2019), RTF Futures Award for the 512GW Townhouse and the A+ Award for the Asian Games 2022 Masterplan and stadiums. Their 4th book “Strange Objects, New Solids, and Massive Things” was launched this Fall 2021 [Actar, Spain]. Winka is also the Chair and Miller Professor of Weitzman Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, where she has gathered an international network of innovative research and design professionals, and she is the Director of the Advanced Research and Innovation lab [ARI].

The book “Strange Objects, New Solids, and Massive Things” is being sold for a special price of £40 at the AA Bookshop.