Berlin: Cutting-edge Contemporary Architecture and Public Art
This elective studio will lead students on a ten-day study tour of Berlin, the capital of Germany, and provide opportunity for cross-disciplinary, collaborative, projectbased learning. Study emphasis will be placed on recent developments in architecture and public art following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The educational theme will particularly stress sustainable architecture and design, because there is substantial new development that showcases best practices, and the most advanced work in sustainability is occurring in Europe. The Berlin program will consist of three main components:- Visit and study important sites of contemporary architecture, public art, and planning
- Meet with professionals in the fields of public art and architecture
- Create a hands-on, interdisciplinary, collaborative art project
Since the reunification of Germany in 1990, the city of Berlin, Germany, has seen immense public and private investment. The city’s reunification and the reinstatement of Berlin as the main seat of government triggered an unprecedented wave of building activity, rivaled only by the rebuilding after World War II and carried out on a scale unprecedented in Europe. The architectural elite are deigning the new Berlin, and the sites in the city center that stood empty until 1990 are being filled with new buildings and public places at a fast pace. Student will learn about contemporary international public art and architecture; study best practices in architecture and public art relative to people, community and place-making; and will engage with the local professional community in architecture, public art, fabrication, materials, artist studios, and sustainability. Our experience may also include a trip to the world-renowned Bauhaus in Dessau. Facilities were recently restored and the art and architecture college was reopened.
Faculty
- Christina Lanzl
- Christina Lanzl is Project Manager at the UrbanArts Institute at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a visual artist. A native German speaker, she. She visited Berlin in fall 2006 and in 2001, where she conducted research and documented contemporary developments in public art, design and architecture. Her artwork and public art projects have been featured in solo and group exhibitions throughout the U.S. and Germany, including Frankfurter Kunstverein, Literaturarchiv Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Kunstverein Weiden, and Neues Rathaus Leipzig. Christina Lanzl’s expertise of the arts and culture is complemented by twenty years of experience in working with design teams and professionals in the creative sector, and people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities. An expert in communications and artistic processes, she has completed more than fifty projects working with public and private sector clients, cultural institutions and grassroots community initiatives. Recent initiatives at UrbanArts – www.urbanartsinstitute.org - include the MassArt Sustainable Sculpture project (with Patricia Seitz); the Concord River Greenway in Lowell, MA; and ArtRocks, artist-designed rocking chairs at Logan International Airport in Boston. Christina Lanzl received her Diploma in art history and information science from FHB Stuttgart, Germany, and holds a MA in art history from Boston University.
- Patricia Seitz
- Coordinator of the Architecture Program
- Patricia Seitz, Professor in Architecture at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, is a graduate of MIT, and Washington University and holds professional, baccalaureate and masters degrees in Architecture, and a masters degree in Asian Studies with a focus on Japan and China respectively. As a registered Architect with 25 years of professional experience, Patricia Seitz is the founding principal of Seitz Architects, Inc., formed in 1989, and partner with Seitz-Reisen Architects. Works include a variety of project types focusing on aspects of sustainable buildings: day care centers and schools, religious centers, multifamily housing complexes, and single-family residences, as well as projects including retail and storefront renovations, showrooms and offices. All projects are either new buildings or adaptive reuse including extensive design of furniture, lighting, graphics and exhibits. Many of these projects have been for highly visible organizations that have received national press coverage with projects published in Harvard Business Journal, Boston Globe, and Wired, among others. Current projects include a new administrative building for Rosie’s Place, a nonprofit organization in the City of Boston which provides food and shelter to women, an adult day care center in Lynn, and a sustainable house in Cambridge which will incorporate native planted green roofs, recycled materials, alternative energy production and energy use reduction.
- While running a full-time practice, she also coordinates the graduate and undergraduate architecture program as a Professor of Architecture at Massachusetts College of Art. Several of these professional projects - both with the firm and through MassArt - have included partnerships with renowned artists. Firm projects include working with Annette Lemieux. In 1998-1999 her senior class in Architectural Design worked on architectural buildings supporting a Master Plan for the City of Brockton designed by international public artist Patricia Johanson.Patricia Seitz has traveled extensively throughout the world including Germany, Spain, France, England and Italy, Syria in the Middle East, and Japan, China, Taiwan in the Far East. She has also received travel and research grants for architectural projects in Poland; England; and Spain. Professor Seitz is Coordinator of the Architecture Program at MassArt and sustainable design advocate, teaches sustainable design. She is principal of Seitz Architects Inc.