A raised ground plane creates elongated public realm and pool areas Photography: Iwan Baan

Review:Narelle Yabuka

A three-year process of self-assessment and intensified ‘knowledge gathering’ resulted in the public launch of a new organisational structure for UNStudio in 2013. On the practice’s website and in lectures presented by co-founders Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, a new co-creative, knowledge-based approach to practice, together with a studio structure of knowledge platforms, are discussed at length.

The proposition is that the unique knowledge developed through building practice is the new core value of architecture – that rather than being marginalised by an expanding pool of consultants and an adversity to risk, the architect can increase the scale of participation (and hence control) in projects, by expanding the profession and innovating through the combining of layers of knowledge.

Image courtesy: Pontiac Land Group

Four knowledge platforms have developed within the studio amid the complexity of the diverse information that can be found in today’s practice environment. In essence, the platforms are linked knowledge communities focused on specific topics: sustainability, organisation, materials and parametrics. The aim is to distil knowledge from the practice of architecture, to share it within the studio and to expand the range of co-creation with collaborators in order to propel design thinking and innovation.

In broad terms, this new approach represents a progression from the use of technology in the 2000s as a means of producing work more quickly and effectively, to the use of it to distribute knowledge, co-create and innovate – to prototype and test the invisible. It is an approach that has been developing in the studio’s work for some years....Continue Reading

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