March 18, 2010, Innsbruck
Identity is a construction; it serves as the demarcation between individuals and groups. These borders are flexible and hence are often contested. The conflicts of the construction of identity and the hegemony of different cultural codes are staged in space. Not only on the battlefields of military conflicts but also in spatial planning, urban construction and architecture. The construction of cultural identity is a spatial production, especially if in times of global migration and mobility the group that identifies itself as a community does not only concentrate in coherent historical rooms, but holds spread and parallel contact and connection worldwide. (raumtaktik)
bad architects group (Ursula Faix, Paul Burgstaller): Prishtina-Connection
Due to the declaration of independence in February 2008 Kosovo/a became an independent state and Prishtina a capital. In this time of change new identities, potentials, regularities and also problems are shaped. While Kosovo/a is searching for its identity, Kosovo-Albanian expatriates spread old Kosovo-Albanian traditions all over the world. Via skype, facebook and twitter they overcome the physical distance to their families and at the same time try to integrate into a different society.
Some repatriates who were successful and who cared for their families at home by transferrals for many years, move back home as „voluntary prisoners“. They want to work locally and actively help to rebuild the country. Through this they bring conventions from London, New York and Johannesburg, which again influence the lifestyle of the locals.
Especially in Prishtina this social change indirectly influences the built environment. The appearance of Prishtina is coined by numerous unrendered, generic brick buildings with pitched roofs that could be interpreted as land appropriation and (colonisation) informal enlargements of roofs.
In this mutual influenced circulation bad architects group researches for mutations of Kosovan identity. How long would it take until it is possible to talk about a „Kosovian architecture“ . Or how would a Kosovian architecture pavillon, which in a way is a built expatriate and ambassador of kosovian identity, at the biennale look like,? Which image would it imply? Which cultural remittances would it bring to Prishtina and could it ever return as repatriate to Kosovo?
bad architects group
ursula faix b. 1968; studied architecture, TU Wien and Rhode Island School of Design (USA); 1996 - 99 assistance with M. Fuksas, Vienna and Rome; since 2004 ac. Assistance, Institute for urban space and spatial planning, Universität Innsbruck; since 2007 guest professorship for "City Planning", University for Business and Technology in Prishtina, Kosovo/a
paul burgstaller b. 1976; studied architecture, Universität Innsbruck; worked with u.a. Behnisch & Partner, West8 and OMA (Rem Koolhaas); since 2007 guest professorship for "City Planning", University for Business and Technology in Prishtina, Kosovo/a;since 2008 guest lecturer, Institut für Gestaltung and professorship in theory of architecture at University Innsbruck.
2006 foundation of bad architects group; beside classical architecture production they work on thematic work about effects of media representation of cities and their influence on architecture (together with bad architects network); Projects u. a. "DE-tro-IT" (Shrinking Cities), "The POWER of the UNESCO World Heritage" (3rd Architecture Biennale Rotterdam), "Urban Debris" (Triennale Oslo); 2009 publishing of the publication "Prishtina Capital", UBT, Prishtina Kosovo/a
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