Yes, We Can! Workshop
Can we Make more than a Cinema?
The workshop explored how the Art House Cinema can achieve a new function and integration in both urban public space and community space. The design workshop was an occasion for a discourse on the importance of the cinema in the neighbourhood. It prompted suggestions and developed strategies for the reactivation of this neglected cultural platform.
The ‘Yes, We Can!’ workshop also dealt primarily with the complexity and contradictions of current architectural competitions. Competition demands become more extensive and architects are forced to come up with more representative solutions. The workshop explored if these extensive requirements could lead to a more creative solution, or if the opposite was true. What happens if we push demands to a more pressuring scale? What happens to the role of the architect when all competition demands just cannot be met?
Can you make our building? Is the classical quest to the architect. Of course, we reply, we can. Recently this question has been followed up by an extra question. Can you make it iconic? And we reply, yes, we can. And it continues. Can you make it green? Yes, we can. Can you make it without energy? Yes, we can. Can you make it representative? Yes, we can. Can you make it connect with the urban environment? Yes, of course. Can you make it socially good? Yes, we can make that. Can you make it cheap? Yes, we can. Can you make it invisible? Yes, we can.
We are part of an ‘and’ generation, where the all-inclusive is simply a given. What has caused this culture? What kind of architecture can come out of this? Does it lead to new beauties? Or is it killing?
Tutors
Luis Berriós-Negron (guest tutor), Jeronimo Mejia, Ania Molenda
Students
Imre van der Gaag, Kate Griffin, Anna Llonch Sentis, Martijn van Mier, Anouk Sweringa, Ilkka Ala-Fossi, Roland Freymond, Belen Gomez Llobell, Natalia Kozyra, Francis Liesting, Gary Pitsaki, Eva Ponsati, María José Ramos Mira, Revathi Pillai, Jonathan Telkamp
Guest Critics
Winy Maas, Christophe Barlieb, Christian Berg, Lukas Feireiss, Kristin Feireiss, Francesca Fergusson, Hans-Jürgen Commerell, Nina Lakeberg, Reiner Nagel, Anh-Linh Ngo, Florian Riegel
Collaborators
AEDES Network Campus Berlin, Berlinale goes Kiez