The Curatorial Design: A space between

Curatorial Design brings together two distinct spheres, that of curating and that of design in its wider significance, in order to define an area of mutually productive impact. Curatorial indicates an in-be- tween space that does not belong to any particular disciplinethe practice of producing knowledge by selecting and relating what already exists in a novel way. Design, on the other hand, which derives from the Italian disegno, points to the conception of architecture that emerged with the Renaissance, when the architect became a figure autonomous from the builder, a generalist intellectual in charge of the process of construction at all scales. Design practice today is undergoing an accelerated process of fragmentation into separate disciplines and skills, undermining the political and intellectual agency of the architect. The Curatorial Design project will address the inevitable tendency towards professionalizationa consequence of techno- logical progress within a market logic that calls for specialized and efficient consultantsand ask how it is possible for the architect to claim a new space of political relevance in lieu of the former self-con- ception as a generalist. Observing how its neighbouring field of art has undergone profound shifts in its practices, the project will take the practice of curatingwhich is based on re-assembling knowledge and being at the center of a complex network of relationshipsas indicating a possible way forward. Curatorial Design does not advocate a nostalgic vision of the architect as a generalist intellectual; rath- er, it proposes the practice of re-assembling knowledge from diverse fields of expertise as a non-disci- pline. The project proposesin a three-year periodto set up a new research unit within the Institute for Contemporary Art (IZK) at the Graz University of Technology, dedicated to investigating the meaning and implications of what it means to design curatorially. The Curatorial Design unit will use rigorous, cross-disciplinary research and discussion to establish a ground for a curatorial mode of thinking in relation to architecture and to define novel spatial strategies. The Curatorial Design research will rely on an international network to set up a program of roundtables and events taking place at different institutions over the course of three years. Archival research will be carried out in collaboration with the CCA Montréal, while the recently founded Academic Program Spaces of the Curatorial at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore will be an academic partner. Public dissemination and critical exchange will be pursued by presenting the ideas, research findings, and students fieldwork during two public conferences at HKW in Berlin and at the Generali Foundation Study Center/Museum der Moderne in Salzburg. The final results will be presented in a publication in 2020.

"Curatorial Design: A Place Between" hosted by the Institute for Contemporary Art at the Faculty of Architecture, Graz University of Technology (2017-2022), develops as a methodology and practice reshaping processes of contemporary designing. Curatorial is understood an in-between space that does not belong to any particular discipline and designing is understood as an activity. By bringing a curatorial mode of thinking in relation to architecture the project defines novel spatial strategies. Curatorial Design sets up the following spaces as the project outcomes: 1. Öffentliche Bauschule [Public School for Architecture]; 2. Public Platform-an ongoing digital publication; 3. Curatorial Design Curricula (varying forms for the university, other institutions, public). The project considers architectural practice as a public matter. It asks and proposes how architects can establish different relations with the environment. Curatorial Design claims spaces of political relevance and responsibility through new forms of authoring, commissioning, and use. It instigates dialogues among practitioners from different fields and various publics, while using workshops to bring them together. The workshops are aimed at transforming those who are part of the processes and for generating new knowledges. In the time frame of the project, the project team organized four large and numerous series of small workshops. These took place in-person and online and with more than sixty international collaborators across various disciplines (including but not limited to artists, art historians, architects, curators, climate engineers, civil engineers, conservationists, biologists, architectural educators, activists, commissioners, publics, and practitioners within and outside institutions public and private). The constellation of people, topics, themes, and outcomes varied with each workshop. Through public and collective activities, Curatorial Design begins generating shifts and transformations in designing practices and design education-not exclusively for architecture students in university. A curatorial approach to designing expands the understanding of the arts-based research field in architecture and increases its visibility in design institutions. Given the complexity of the human-environment processes we are confronted with today, the project brings into view the type of critical work-in theory and praxes-necessary and possible in developing pedagogy, publics, institutions, use of technology and practices for collective futures. Based on the relationships and discourse successfully cultivated and sustained over the years, with architecture as a public matter, the project has opened up new possibilities and strategies for a different and more inclusive spatial design.