What would your dream art studio look like?
Perhaps an architectural studio of 20-30 people with different specialized skills. A few people specialized in ecological design, the other interior design, a few urban planners, two to three resident artists with mixed media background, a few digital artists, and a backbone of architects. A mix of people with different skills coming together with different interests in mind, tension in design ideas, but ultimately with the ability to get projects done in time. And with interesting results, not necessarily successful ones. Ideally, the failure from one could kickstart great ideas on another. But overall, a practice run with pragmatic, industry standards must always be met.
Declaring such a studio as this is much easier said than it will perhaps be done.
Yet there are those that have done so.
In the face of underfunding from the government, mediated by commercial and international forces, and in the face of a cultural art infrastructure due to colonialism, there is a practice in South Africa that has done so.
There is an e-flux Architecture article, written by Bhavisha Panchia, Carly Whitaker, and Chad Cordeiro, that tells the story of Covalence Studio. An experimental studio born inspired by the self-reliance of art studios in South Africa during the 1970s such as FUBA and Thupelo Workshops. It was thought of as an online space where members could seek out individual and collective projects. Where sharing knowledge and resources would be commonplace.
It was interesting to see that the idea came from an observation within molecular science, the nature of covalent bonds. An idea that involved something known as the measure of “combining capacity” or how many more electrons it needed to obtain a stable electron configuration. In short, it was a safety net of artists and a good resource pool within the city for creativity.
As of now, it exists as a proposition, but it was quite interesting to see the kind of thought experiments and structure that it proposed for collaboration. It seemed the only way for this article to respond to the model theorized in the article was by putting on a hypothetical plan of the authors in future reference for a creative project.
Using, for instance, the hypothetical use of an experimental building material to illustrate the required people for collaboration touches an understanding of the kind of possibility that the proposition could hold. What could be expanded upon are not only how a person would be treated in collaborative practice, as the article brilliantly illustrates by asking several artists in a survey, but the logistics of it all. This could range from the methods of communications or accessibility considerations as a next step to really planning out an actual collaborative practice. A model such as this is the perfect foundation, but it is within logistics that the challenges would be fully fleshed out.
Assemble
A group of people from the age of 26 to 29 with no full qualifications as architects or a qualification far different from architecture. They are an interdisciplinary practice that has chosen to create architecture for the public by choosing projects with little profit. The absolute antithesis of the modern-day architecture that continues to build projects for high value clients.
In a piece on Assembly by Rowan Moore for the Guardian, there is an emphasis for their uniqueness as a collaborative practice to not create material and/or spatial innovations, although it could be argued that they have in more ways than one, but rather take steps and actions they gather materials and create spaces taking into account the local context and sense of community.
Their practice is a proposal to an alternative of the heavy, corporate structure of typical architectural firms. 28 projects since starting with their first in 2010 to the article’s date 2015, no permanent buildings had been built by them. It is a celebration of smaller scale projects, temporary ones and unrecognized forms of architecture.
As wishy-washy as it is made to sound, that reality is only evidenced by the fact that their practice puts MAKING into the forefront.
This idea from making is best exemplified with a project in Granby, Liverpool. Their collaboration with the neighbourhood has long resulted in a series of projects of different architectural programs. One of the projects in focus for this article comes from an example in 2015 that started from a rebuild of the surrounding neighbourhood. There is a keyword thrown in the description when described in Assembly’s website, designer-led manufacturing. An idea that ensures every piece of architectural detail is crafted in the workshop. With it comes the challenges of having that extra step of figuring manufacturing materials. However, the true potential is what the site describes as having that element of randomness to production, so that each product is known on a personal level.
How far could you get with these kinds of practices?
Creativity could be stretched far more in part to the different ways of thinking that different artists bring in a collaborative practice. While the pay to these kinds of practices would be a statement on non-profitability, creating a successful one like Assembly could bring about massive changes for a community, as an example. In learning the Covalence model, creating a community of artists given the digital space of the modern era makes it more likely for collaboration to take place. The only thing to do now is to figure out the sort of practice that any who read this would want to build.
References
Moore, R. (2015) Assemble: the unfashionable art of making a difference. 29th of November.
The Guardian. [Online] [Accessed on 29th of June 2023]
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/nov/29/assemble-architecture-collective
-london-turner-prize.
Panchia, B. Whitake, C. Cordeiro, C. (2022) The Studio as a Shared Collaborative Space:
Notes on a Prototype. 22nd of October. e-flux. [Online] [Accessed on 22nd of June 2023]
https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/interdependence/500032/the-studio-as-a-shared-col
aborative-space-notes-on-a-prototype/.
Image References
Assemble Studio (2015) ‘all-products.’ Material collection. In:Assemble Studio. (2015)
assemblestudio.co.uk [Online] [Accessed on 29th of July 2023].
Assemble Studio (2015) ‘bathroom.’ Ceramic tile on bathroom. In:Assemble Studio. (2015)
assemblestudio.co.uk [Online] [Accessed on 29th of July 2023].
Covalence. (2022) Covalence Model Diagram. [Online image] [Accessed on 22nd July 2023] https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/interdependence/500032/the-studio-as-a-shared-collaborative-space-notes-on-a-prototype/
