Diptych Dialogue with OFFICE and Christ & Gantenbein

Debating process, materiality, concepts, and pedagogy, Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein spoke with Kersten Geers and David Van Severen of OFFICE for this year’s Harvard Graduate School of Architecture’s Kenzo Tange Lecture, moderated by Jeannette Kuo. Using a diptych presentation to put their projects into dialogue, Kuo prompted a lively discussion, which often highlighted the different approaches to architectural practice taken by each firm. In one example, Christ emphasized the importance of a final, built design, stating, “it’s not so much about the process it’s about the result,” which he said derives from an ideal image of “an almost perfect architecture.” In contrast, Geers and Van Severen approach materializing a project by “sampling practices” and are interested in the “confrontation” between the model and the final, built design. After an hour and a half of discussion, what both firms could agree on is the difficulty in talking about the process of architecture at all. “It’s always to be explained, but the explanation changes,” said Christ. “We try to…