Applications are now being accepted for the Berlage's fall 2014 design master class, entitled "Architecture without Architects…Architects without Architecture," to be led by renown Dutch architect Ben van Berkel.

Students and professionals are invited to apply to the "Architecture without Architects…Architects without Architecture" design master class led by Ben van Berkel. The master class takes place from Thursday, November 13 to Friday, November 21. Ben van Berkel's design master class will promote a design-driven discourse on the changing role of the architect in order to define new fields and conditions of architectural work. See below for more information.

The master class is open to a maximum of 10 external participants. Costs for participation are €250 for students and €500 for professionals. The program consists of a series of complementary lectures and other activities. The full program will be announced at the end of July.

Interested applicants should send a CV and portfolio to [email protected] before October 1, 2014.

About the master class

Recent developments in our economic, technological, and social climate have redefined contemporary conditions for work in terms of communication, collaboration, and production and have created the potential for both extensive participation and diversity. 

At the same time however, conditions of convolution and complexity have also resulted. Open-source thinking seems to favor bottom-up strategies, while unconventional visionary leadership promotes the most flamboyant innovations. Consequently, for architects there are also challenges to be identified that may contain the potential to redefine assumed distinct roles. Therefore, in order to challenge the conventional understanding of what an architect expects to do, we polemically reverse Bernard Rudofsky’s inquiry of “Architecture without Architects” (1964) into a question of “Architects without Architecture?”

Beyond the reading of linear project processes and often-hierarchical client relationships, the master class will embrace the discussion of design and participation, initiatives and ideas of authorship. On the one hand, we will investigate methods of collaboration, sharing, group intelligence, inter- and transdisciplinary networks, and self-organization; and on the other hand, creative leadership and inventive entrepreneurship. Together these topics mark the arrival of a significant renewal of working practices and their environments alongside the design of innovative business and collaboration-models.

> via theberlage.nl