Alicia Velzquez Getting Ex-specialized alicia@in-transition.net www.in-transition.

net Article published in Wonderland Manual for emerging architects

GETTING EX-SPECIALIZED
(Stepping beyond as the way to specialize)
Architecture is not any more only about buildings, as building is not just about architecture. We need to invert the process of specialization. Rather than getting more specific inside the discipline, we should step out of its center. Enough to be able to understand and face the complexity of the reality we need to work with. And the complexity of our own desires, preparation, background and influences. We need to take a new status within the profession, breaking free of the limits implied by the discipline. Borrowing the term created by `ex-designer Mart Guix and `ex-architect Carel Weeber, the architect now should not be specialized, but EX-specialized. `Ex symbolizing the step beyond and embracing of decontextualization. Manual for EX-specialization 1. SEARCH: questioning is a goal. Question yourself, your tools and processes, and trigger questions. In general, evolution does not appear in the centre of an eco-system, but rather at the edges. The same applies for architecture, say Stealth.unlimited, a practice that spans urban research, spatial intervention and cultural activism. Stepping beyond is important as it exposes you to what is going on at the edge of the discipline, where it intertwines with other fields; that may give significant insights or offer intriguing tools or approaches to what you are doing. The fringe offers a position to reflect, giving us the distance to question why, what and how we work. Peter Lang, active member in several urban research groups in Europe, including Stalker/ON, points out: the education of the architect must stretch well beyond the usual tropes. I dont see much choice in this new worlds dis-order. To take a step beyond implies reflecting on the effects (and affects) of the tools we work and worked with. Alexander Vollebrecht, program director at Spacelab and Urban Body in TU Delft, a cross cultural platform aimed at generating urban sensibility through inter-professional engagements, affirms: We cannot solve problems with the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. If the tools and language of the past sufficed, our urban areas would all be prosperous and blooming. 2. MOVE IN UNSTABLE FIELDS: work from and with the unpredictable. Architecture can operate as a dynamic tool, where interaction, collision and uncertainty may arise opportunities to act and react to a dynamic reality. It is only by jumping into the unknown that you are able to transcend your learned discipline and knowledge. For Stealth.unlimited, stepping beyond offers the possibility to experiment, to take positions that are hard to enter if you act purely within the perceived borders of what architecture is to be. It allows you to take more risk, and drives new concepts or tools into your practice. You push the development of your practice from the borders inwards. It opens new perspectives and offers you new approaches.

3. CONNECT and get exposed. The influence of other disciplines may trigger new ways of approaching ones professional challenges. It will help to rethink our role within society and the city, redefine our tools and language, and the relationships in teams or with clients. In our practice, says Aether Architecture, who creates projects in peer collaboration with others, our main focus is to develop systems, technologies, spaces that carry cultural qualities and are exploring the possibilities in todays networked societies. I like the ability to swing between subjective and objective methods, and have a strong cultural standpoint, yet create complex systems. 4. GET SURPRISED, also about yourself. Architects may behave as well like dynamic bodies, embracing in themselves multidisciplinarity, change, conflict and fluidity. I don't fit within standard definitions, I'm a little bit of all and none of it really, says Megla, a multiskilled cross-disciplinary mainly designer. I am simply pursuing projects and my personal interests. For In Transition, collaborative practice using the emotional power of architectural tools, traditional (values of) architecture were not satisfactory: too static, too far from the human experience, too long in time to grasp. We had to find new relationships. 5. BE PREPARED TO FAIL. Although some, like Aether, assure is all fantastic, stepping beyond may pose a difficult reality at times. It demands a high time investment, and the result is uncertain. Working from experimentation and questioning, although challenging and rich, is not always efficient. As Megla affirms, it will take you more time, and possibly the result will not be superb. Changing background and teams, as in the experience of Stealth.unlimited may demand a lot of effort and time to understand the specifics of a different context or develop a common language between different disciplines. Projects financing is not always linear and available. As Peter Lang knows, projects need a leap of faith, well before funding. And it requires an incredible amount of preparedness. Working relationships and processes need to be redefined. You may produce the project first, and find the client and money second. And often the two come from separate entities. Ex-specialization is based on diversity. Even if the intentions are clear, the tools and language go beyond the ones used by architects traditionally. People from the outside may not understand what you are doing or where you are heading, say Stealth.unlimited. Working 'beyond' borders arises confusion. Although you will find out you are not alone, references are not always available to help build your own practice. You work on a trial/error basis, stepping over preconceived ideas and experience. You need to counter your own realizations, affirms Modulorbeat, a practice of ambitious urbanists and planners. And in the processes of Megla, she found out to run very quickly into the borders of your own skill and know-how. How to define (and therefore communicate) the undefined? The market asks for answers, and you work with conflict and doubts. Ultimately, as Megla knows, you can never explain in 1 minute what is that you do. Contributors to this article: Aether Architecture> http://www.aether.hu/ Modulorbeat> http://www.modulorbeat.de Stealth.unlimited> http://www.stealth.ultd.net/stealth/ Megla> http://www.megla.org Alexander Vollebregt> www.spacelab.tudelft.nl > www.urbanbody.org Peter Lang> http://www.petertlang.net/

In Transition> http://www.in-transition.net