Lebbeus Woods in Vico Morcote







	"Together in our closed up world with our closed up minds we are travelers, travelers speeding across a landscape of a different kind."-- a passenger, from the tape I recorded during my skit. Charles Hellwig (Albequerque, USA)



	This instrument paints a map based on the magnitude and direction of the train's motion. It measures and creates a graphic record of the shape of the space the train travels through. Linda May Martin (Denmark)



	The sensation of motion through and across the landscape is like a ripple started by a stone meeting water at high speed; then on and on as long as breath holds; as wide as the heart beats, as deep as love goes, and as strong as our thoughts meet. For me, the people that came together for this trip were the most amazing thing that happened, more than time; more than motion. Aviva Wagner (Israel)


	volume5 study abroad Postcard from Rob Gardner

	Kudos for RIEA Vico: A student's perspective I am a 3rd year master of architecture student at SCI-Arc. Last year I had the privilege of studying under Lebbeus Woods in Vico Morcote Switzerland (before the program succeeded from SCI-Arc). The program was an intense, intimate, rewarding experience that I highly recommend. The school is a monastery for architecture. In fact, the large villa that houses all aspects of the school (living, eating, classes, etc.) is a converted monastery located in a small medieval village in the Alps on the gorgeous Lake Lugano bordering Italy. The student is consumed by the atmosphere. I feel that the intimacy and personal contact paired with the caliper of education is unparalleled in architectural education. I can not emphasize this point enough. Here in LA, I have access to many incredible minds and the program is fantastic, but I am one of many. It is the informal education that happened over the cuisine at the restaurant in the Villa, or sitting in front of the fireplace that made the place of Vico the highlight of my architectural career. Unlike many other studio abroad experiences, our studio was complimented by world-class seminar classes and lectures. Because of the size of the school Lebbeus was able to direct each seminar to support the studio and vice versa (all students took all classes). This allowed for abilities to test the questions raised in one class in the context of another. This research basin was an intense laboratory for accelerated learning and created proximaties and situations (real or simulated) previously unconsidered in the realm of design to be conceived, tested, and evaluated quickly. Below I will try to touch on the major aspects of the program, however I encourage you to email me at the below address should you have any interest in the school, as the following is only a brief summary of our experiences. Seminars Photography and Video: Taught by world renowned photo artist and Arte Paris' art director and producer Luciano Rigolini. This class was an extremely intense study of photographic and film media as an art form. We studied all aspects of the media including history, technical use, artistic approach, etc. Our work (and artistic "problematic") was critically scrutinized by Luciano and pushed to its limits. The semester concluded with the production of professional quality works by each student. Building Technology: Taught by displaced American residing in Como, Italy - architect and boat designer Mike Dolinsky. The class involved taking a previous project of ours and putting it through the design development process. We also designed and created prototype lamps. Several field trips in southern Switzerland and northern Italy demonstrated the use of materials and systems in practical settings.

Cybernetic Theory:
Taught by Lebbeus this class covered the unconventional science of cybernetics. This theory throws into question the foundations of modern science, language, thought, and control. Limitations and possibilities of communication and constructive reality were explored in readings and individual and group projects. This class directly supported studio and the formation of the final project.

Performing Architecture in History:
Taught by architectural historian / theoretician Jos Bosman (Columbia professor who recently wrote the forward to Tschumi's book). This class evaluated architecture and its progression through the current century against issues brought up through the writings of Gideon, Deluze theory, Johnson's image schemata, sculptural analysis, and more. The semester project involved a case study analysis and a graphic matrix presentation of relationships and comparative illustrations.

Model making seminar:
Lebbeus flew his master craftsman model maker, Dwayne Oyler, in from New York to teach a charrette-based seminar on constructing "plastic" forms from styrene. In this week and a half seminar we mastered the technique through the production of abstracted circus performances in an architectural installation in the vaulted ceiling of our restaurant.

Drawing seminar:
Twice during the semester we had the incredible opportunity to witness the
creation of Lebbeus' landscapes from start to finish - one in pen and one in colored pencils. The work was projected live to TV monitors that we used to watch the process in detail. This was the opportunity to ask every question that you've always wanted to ask Lebbeus about his work while watching the image gel before you. The conversation was informal, and Lebbeus was surprisingly open as the questions pried deeper and deeper into the origins and purpose of his personal work.

Lectures:
The lecture series "Circus Acts" was also geared specifically to the subject of our studio. Several young architects and artists from around the world came in to discuss how they are progressing the fields of art and architecture through their realized and unrealized experimental works.
Lebbeus also participated in the series. (Realize that Vico is in the heart
of the Swiss Rationalists, watching the reaction of the community was almost as entertaining as the lectures!) Of course even the lectures are done "Vico style" with the lecturer staying in the villa eating and living with us and participating in impromptu debates and critiques freshening the discussion of our studio discourse.

Studio:
There is no way that I could cover the breadth of our studio and the issues that were uncovered in the process in this writing. In BRIEF summary - The theme was "Cybernetic Circus". Each student was randomly assigned a "performer" of everyday life at our site. The site was the Graben, a bustling pedestrian street full of elite retail shops in front of Vienna's premier attraction - the Stefansdom in the absolute center of Vienna. The performers were the shopper, the tourist, the businessman, the priest, the prostitute, the thief, the cop, the street musician, and the architect. We studied each performer's space including the physical and conceptual limits, and considered the prospects of taking that performance to the edge and how that would be achieved. Our project completely changed and evolved (in true cybernetic fashion) over the course of the semester. We originally intended to create superimposed models of performance spaces on a group site model, but we ended up constructing 1 to 1 real projects constructed in Vico and then shipped them to the real Graben to be "displayed". In actuality they were not objects on display, but were functioning realizations - non-trivial machines that were analogous models of the performer's spaces in which they inhabited, a self referencing cybernetic circus. The roles of observer and performer were blurred bringing the sum performance of all participants to a new level; the observation of each changed the performance of each. Our projects were witnessed and reviewed by several key members of the Viennese design community (Coop Himelb(l)au
et al). Our performance was reassembled in a gallery space for a long-term
exhibit before we returned home.

Travel:
In addition to the two trips to Vienna that were necessary for the project, other organized trips included Barcelona and Bilbao in Spain and LaTourette in France. These trips were in addition to the bulk of travel done in the previous semester (Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany) and that done during breaks.

Etc.
The resources that Lebbeus has brought to the school are fantastic. His competent and talented partners Ekkehard Rehfeld and Guy LaFranchi helped us extensively during our term. Their only motivation was the passion for architectural progression (they were not members of SCI-Arc faculty), yet they invested staggering amounts of time in the program. Additionally, Lebbeus' is able to use his distinction and connections in the European and American design field to enhance the program.

The focus of all seminars and of the studio was to produce real work. As Lebbeus put it "We are not preparing to practice, but practicing." Knowing the nature of Lebbeus' work, I was surprised to see how accountable he held us to the consequences of our design. Although the projects were extremely experimental and theoretical, I learned more about "real design" in that semester than I did in six years of professional practice.

The school is intense, and you can not escape it. There is no "going home". And when you do finish and return it will never leave you. This school is not for everyone. However, if this sounds like an environment that you could progress yourself, you should not let this opportunity go.

Please contact me if you want to know more about this program from a student's perspective.

Rob Gardner
3gardners@compuserve.com

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