Talking House

Talking House is PhD research that explores the building of architectural models as an artistic process. I build situations and spaces for gatherings between two people (myself and invited guests or stranger into existing apartments or studios. As an architect, I operate at the intersection between crafts, live installation, and performance. In architecture, models are typically used as tools to represent ideas in three-dimensional form. Needed in a relatively short phase in planning a building that doesn't yet exist, they serve to make an idea physically tangible, assessable, and executable. In Talking House, architectural models take on a different, more central role. These models are of light, changeable, and provisional nature. The buildings I construct from wood survive their assigned limited purpose within traditional architectural practice and develop a life cycle of their own. In a three-step process, I produce a sequence of self-made architectural models that translate inner and outer processes: 1. Site model: A 1:10 scale-model built on site. It makes elements and structures tangible that are not visible behind the surface and allow to experience the crafting process by reenacting the building process. 2. Proxemic model: A walkable, 1:1-scale-model that is used to sit on, gather, be together. 3. Plug-in-model: A 1:10 scale-model of the proxemic model. The latter is replicated, scaled down, and inserted into the site model. For SAR Trondheim, I will present my latest work Der Nächste, which focuses on the function of models and modelling as forms of artistic research. Together with the audience, I’d like to discuss how the building of models can allow us to perceive, sense, and understand an environment, as well as the phenomenon of proximity as a space between two persons.