M1 Project: Hoogcruts as epistemic space

Since 2019, the Department of Architectural Theory and Research has been cooperating with the Het Limburgs Landschap Foundation, owner of the former Hoogcruts monastery complex near the Dutch municipality of Gulpen and the border triangle. We support the foundation in the conversion process of the former monastery into an euregional future workshop for building culture. In the coming winter semester, we would like to include the euregional architecture schools (FH Aachen, Uni Hasselt, Uni Maastricht) as well as the Academy of the Chamber of Crafts Aachen in our existing cooperation. The first ARCHIREG symposium entitled “Sustainable Euregio – Care, Ecology, Recycling” will kick off this extended cooperation on 22. and 23. of October 2021 in Hoogcruts. The symposium also marks the launch of the M1 project “Hoogcruts as epistemic space”.
Workshops are epistemic spaces. In them, craft and technical practice is combined with reflection processes in such a way that it can be continually oriented towards new goals. Epistemic spaces form the framework for experimental set-ups of scientific as well as creative experiments. Risky attempts are as much a part of epistemic spaces as the possibility of failure. Epistemic spaces are social spaces. They establish learning communities as well as the transmission of practical knowledge.
The aim of the project proposed here is to design a workshop space in the former Hoogcruts monastery complex. The project uses the knowledge gained from the previous projects on clay and bamboo constructions. After detailed discussion of design variants, supporting structure and key details, the most important joining points will be identified and verified in the form of experimental models and mock-ups before the construction process can begin.

Lecturer: Prof. Axel Sowa

First meeting: 12 October, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., in the Department of Architectural Theory 2nd floor, Templergraben 49