The overall is a loose-fitting single piece of clothing made from dark blue fabric. The back features a printed text in big white letters which reads “working on transformation”. Initially it only existed in the sizes M and L, which caused some students to create a size “S”. The overalls are to be worn over your own clothes, covering them completely.

Description

The primary purpose of these specific overalls is to perform or present an idea and engage with an environment through play and experimentation. The reference to work gear and the explicit motto “working on transformation”, allows one to temporarily leave one’s own personal identity and professional position behind and to slip into a role and become active.

There are different possible purposes for the overall. When used in collective sessions, it can indicate the group facilitators or mediators, clarifying their role to the rest of the group. When used in real life situations, for example in public space, the overall can help to clarify that one is in a designed or scripted situation, offering a sense of safety. When people address you, you can point at the overall and use it to clarify that you are performing an experiment or test, also indicating that you could take it off if people want you to temporarily stop the experiment to provide them with explanation and context. This shifting in and out of your role will give you more leeway to navigate and mitigate possible tensions.

In combination with other tools and props, overalls can help actors in an urban transformation process to perform various roles and portray a story as well as communicate information about the spatial, political and other aspects of a given context or environment. For example, when used in public space the overall starts to communicate the idea that a simple movement or gesture – like moving a potted plant or cleaning a wall – is part of a larger effort to transform that environment. People wearing the overall are both representing and enacting a certain change.

However, the overall – or the idea of the uniform – can also become a source of tension. For some people it might seem that you are “depersonalizing” yourself or that you are appropriating work wear. In such a situation one could refer to the notion of “working on transformation” and to the idea of performing an experiment and to shifting roles. Alternatively, one can also pose the question why someone dislikes the overall. The answer can provide valuable insights in the perception of people regarding their own position and that of the person wearing the uniform.

How to Use

Credits

The Overall

Body Statistics is a playful exercise where participants position themselves regarding to specific questions or themes and in relation to each other. These exercises relate to the concept of Sociometry by Jakob L. Moreno (1889-1974). Relating to the latin terms of, 

 meaning measure, Moreno defined sociometry as "the inquiry into the evolution and organization of groups and the position of individuals within them."

The only thing one needs for this is enough space, a couple of humans and someone instructing the group. Based on the questions asked, everyone positions along the respective axis in space. For example: “How old are you? Position yourself between 0 and 100.” Or: “What scale do you like to work on? Position yourself between a global scale and a door handle.” Or create a spatial reference point and exercise orientation. “If the center of the space it the building we are in, where did you grow up” Position yourself in the room, geographically relating to the celestial points (north-south-west-east from there) and to each other.” Focus on details in the way you ask questions: “How many semester did you study already?” or “How many semesters did you study architecture already” The questions vary according to the topic the group is engaged in.

Body Statistics help to analyze the individual position(s) and by that support self-awareness of the participants and their potential role within a group. The format supports a light way of exchange and helps to create an informal atmosphere, leading towards a collective and expanded understanding of the group composition. It may happen that every individual stands out from the group once, even if for completely different reasons. The Individual thus remains visible in the group and their differences become the complementary strength of the collective.

Purpose

We use Body Statistics a lot to lay the foundations for collaboration by getting to know each other better. Similarly, it can serve as an “active break” by moving through space collectively. It can help to form groups or to approach someone regarding a specific topic at the very beginning of a course. By repeatedly positioning oneself in physical proximity to others one mostly ends up next to someone new, growing social bonds beyond purely “professional” relations. The movement activates both body and brain and the simplicity of the task helps to overcome potential initial uncertainties. Body Statistics can  increase the  awareness regarding the size of the space and location one is in and general orientation competences in space.  

Context

[Studio Piraeus Team] Michiel van Iersel, Lukas Fink, Freek Persyn, Charlotte Schaeben

[LUS Lecture] Perspectives on Lanscape and Urban Transformation, Michiel van Iersel, Lukas Fink, Freek Persyn, Charlotte Schaeben

[Place] Design in Dialogue Lab & Fokushalle, ONA

Urban Practice

Tool

Changing a Culture

Collective Learning

Body Statistics

Collectivity

Play

Positioning

School

The physical space of the Chair of Architecture & Urban Transformation, the Design in Dialogue Lab, is located inside the ONA building, a repurposed industrial building on the border of the neighborhoods of Seebach & Oerlikon in Zürich, Switzerland. The building is currently shared by a range of smaller companies and several institutes of ETH Zürich’s Department of Architecture.

As a versatile work and dialogue setting, it offers a variety of configurations that allow us to come together, test new ideas and practices and to reflect, share and relax. Combining theatrical elements with tools for co-production, the Lab offers the conditions for a variety of work sessions, informal gatherings, small presentations, collective cooking and public events.

In the context of the Open Public Structures (OPS) programme the NEWROPE chair wants to gradually open up the Design in Dialogue Lab to the wider neighbourhood and transform it temporarily into an open public space, a convivial place, where students and staff members of ETH Zürich can meet and mingle with a mix of local residents, entrepreneurs and others.

Imagine it as a laboratory or incubator for the development of concepts and formats for similar open structures around Zurich and other European cities, or as an Open Neighbourhood Atelier. We see the Open Neighbourhood Atelier as an experiment on openness and publicness. A gesture from a big academic institution toward the neighbourhood where it is placed. And an invitation to all to re-imagine and re-define notions of collectivity and community in a time of forced isolation.

During this test phase the NEWROPE chair will use the Design in Dialogue approach to bring different stakeholders and (other) potential users together to collectively define the aims and constraints of this shared effort to open up the ONA building. During a series of Design in Dialogue workshops representatives of various communities will help to write a programme for a number of open spaces and public activities in and around the ONA building. In parallel, ETH Zürich students and experts from various fields (architecture, sociology, ecology, anthropology), will develop temporary (spatial) interventions that can be used to test certain ideas and formats.

Questions that will be addressed include: How open can a university (building) be towards the neighbourhood and the city? How public can and should it be? What type of interactions can be enabled? How to balance the interests of primary and secondary users of a space? And how do you make sure that such spaces become and remain open and accessible to different users and activities?

Simultaneously, the NEWROPE chair is involved in similar attempts to create new open public structures and learning environments across the campus of ETH Zürich and in other European cities. Slowly these experiments will create a growing network of Open Public Structures.The first (design) phase of this project will take place in the spring and summer of 2021. Please let us know if you have questions or want to get involved in this experiment by contacting Charlotte Schaeben schaeben@arch.ethz.ch or Panayotis Antoniadis antoniadis@arch.ethz.ch

Opening up ONA

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