KOGAA Lab is an academia platform run by KOGAA architecture studio. The platform applies executive knowledge related with QOL (quality of life in the city) topics as adaptive re-use, adaptation to climatic change or positive impact on communities and localities.
Lab's pilot project was a collaboration with the Technical University of Liberec, Czech Republic. During summer semester we led student atelier whose main topic was the reactivation of an industrial building located in Liberec.
Regional
Czechia
With the cooperation of the City of Liberec, the Office of Architecture of the City of Liberec, the Liberec Region and the Faculty of Art and Architecture of the Technical University of Liberec, the Linserka premises were provided for this educational project, led by KOGAA studio, which we named Linserka Creative Playground.
The project for the adaptation of the Linserka factory, which is an industrial heritage, into a creative and cultural centre was initiated by the City of Liberec and is related to other major projects of the city, such as the announcement of an architectural competition for the future shape of Paper Square as a modern cultural and creative district or Liberec's candidacy for the European Capital of Culture in 2028.
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): KOGAA Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Tomáš Last name of representative: Kozelský Gender: Male Nationality: Czechia Function: Co-founder and design director Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Kluchova 366/48 Town: Brno Postal code: 60200 Country: Czechia Direct Tel:+420 603 219 290 E-mail:administration@kogaa.eu Website:http://kogaa.eu
KOGAA LAB 2022 was established thanks to a pilot educational project we named Linserka Creative Playground. Thanks to the cooperation of 4 institutions our architecture studio temporarily acquired a historic Christian Linser's factory, (which is to become a cultural and creative center) to create a one-semester course for students from the Technical University of Liberec. (The cooperation of the the Faculty of Arts and Architecture in Liberec, the City of Liberec, the Office of Architecture of the City of Liberec and the Liberec Region.)
The uniqueness of our approach to leading the students atelier was in working on a real project, which resulted in the realisation made by students themselves. At the same time, we led a group of students to work together as if they were part of one architectural company. Those principles were innovative in many ways; for example, students are normally guided to work on individual projects for most of their studies, and working in a team where everyone has a role was something new to them. At the same time, students were encouraged to realise their design, with their own hands, we call it hands-on education and we strongly believe in this approach, where the team is in direct contact with the construction and learns the tooling. Respecting and understanding the physical work results in smarter, more efficient, and innovative design solutions, while also teaching the importance of planning, and on-site responsibilities. At the end students were led to plan a formal presentation and open the realisation to the public. Those are uncommon occurrences - most student work remaining on paper, but the aim of our Lab was to show the students all aspects of their project, from the idea to the final touches of implementation and subsequent promotion and programme creation.
Students designed three interventions to activate the object, and they have realised one of it which was the functional bar facilities.
adaptive re-use
team spirit
hands-on education
innovative approach
inclusive space planning
Sustainability in terms of urban planning and ecology:
The objective of the studio is an improvement of the quality of life in the city. The Linserka foundry contains fantastic potential of infusing the urban space
with socially attractive content. A pin, that can validate and preserve the current vibe in the area. Using an adaptive reuse model can prolong a building's life, by retaining all or most of the building system, including the structure, the shell and even the interior materials. From the urban point of view the adaptive reuse can be effective way of reducing urban sprawl and environmental impact.
Sustainability in terms of materials and their use.
Most important fact is that we intent an actuall construction of the proposal. The budget was limited as well as the construction experience of the students, who participated in the construction process. Therefore we were working with simple-geometry small scale intervention, that was feasible within the frame of the studio. We already have a lot of experience working with various available materials, from which we were able to design temporary as well as long-term solutions for buildings, interiors or exhibitions. All used materials were designed in such a way that their variable use is possible if the intervention needs to be changed.
We presented all these principles that we have previously used in our projects to the students as inspiration for possible solutions in their project.
Our tool was to create interventions. Intervention is the easiest way to restart the hibernating building. Students created a new engine that become an attractor initiating the change within the neighbourhood.
For the Linserka building, the students proposed three different potential interventions that lead to the revival of this building. All students were given the opportunity for creativity, their aim was to create an interesting, beautiful intervention that would become an attractor at first sight, but at the same time it was necessary to think in the context of the architecture of the original building and the legacy of the neighborhood. It was therefore important to have a historical harmony with a modern element.
Using examples from our previous projects (the Brno Design Days design festival, the multicultural centre The Distillery or the mobile installation Air Square), we showed the students the importance of working with natural and artificial light, which we continued to place great emphasis on. We showed them the different possibilities of light-transmitting materials and how they can be used to achieve beautiful effects within the design of a building.
The project of Linserka Creative Playground atelier is inclusive for us on many levels:
Firstly, the very announcement of this study programme among students. We have announced the course as international and conducted in English, which has opened the possibility of enrolling in the course to many foreign students (for example, the Technical University of Liberec has provided studies to 16 students from Belarus who have fled the country for political reasons and cannot return).
Secondly, the duration of the curse, when students were encouraged to work individually at first, gradually they had the task of forming smaller teams working on specific parts of the project, and finally they all worked together as in a real architectural studio.
Thirdly project culminated in an open public event - Linserka Opening. The event consisted the opening of an exhibition and presentation of the work to an evaluation committee, the media and the public. An informal part of the event followed with music, drinks and a barbecue, all provided by the students.
And of course it is the Linserka project itself, which is to become a cultural and creative centre and the heart of the Paper Square in Liberec. The centre will bring together and support specialists from the cultural and creative industries, who will find here facilities for sharing their experience, presenting their work and studying.
The project of Linserka Creative Playground is perfect example of a project that benefits the citizens. The factory building will become a creative cultural centre of the city, but before the city can make it fully functional, there is a lot of administrative work, tendering for the contract, creating the project documentation in several stages, the standard time for the authorities to comment, etc., etc., we are talking about months - years.
What the students did during our programme is a great example of how to activate a building immediately through temporary interventions. This created a facility in the building that is now used by the citizens of the city for other cultural events.
Thanks to an exhibition with a presentation of the works, the citizens had the opportunity to see what is being planned in the Linserka building. People were informed about the activities and future of their town in a very transparent and personal way. The opening of Linserka was immediately followed by other events, exhibitions and meetings.
The city of Liberec has a very well functioning City Architecture Office and so these two institutions can jointly address the development of the city. Thanks to the candidacy for the European Capital of Culture in 2028, a competition for the new design of Paper Square was planned and it was approved to preserve the Linserek building and create a cultural and creative centre there.
Thanks to the friendly links between our studio and the people at the Faculty of Arts and Architecture at the Technical University, we proposed the possibility of being hosted at the university for a semester to run an adaptive re-use course that would involve the revitalisation of the Linserka.
The last part was to raise the funds needed for the purchase of materials, construction and promotion of the event. Support was provided by the school, the City of Liberec and the Liberec Region.
We ran the course as a dialogue and invited a number of experts with whom students could consult their work.
Tomáš Kozelský, co-founder and design director of KOGAA prepared the curriculum and guided the students through the design and concept stages. Alexandra Georgescu, co-founder and PR manager of KOGAA led the communication with the students and also showed them online tools suitable for presenting their work. Viktor Odstrčilík, co-founder and project manager of KOGAA, communicated with institutions, secured funding and helped students with the final implementation of the project on site. Ilina Cvetkova, KOGAA's architect, attended the student presentations and consulted on their ideas, while other team members attended the final presentations.
For the half semester presentation we invited the architects of JUNG studio, the interior designer of POSTROP studio Josef Řehák, the evaluation committee at the final presentation was architect Ondřej Hojda, graphic designer Tomas Q Prochazka and a representative from the Office of Architecture of the City of Liberec Zuzana Koňasová.
Our aim was to guide the students in the way they would work in a regular architectural studio.
1) It was important for us that they learn all the processes and go through from the initial sketch to the implementation of the project. We did not forget the other tasks that accompany an architectural studio and that is promoting one's own work, organizing the final presentation of the project, securing the finances for the implementation, and so on. Essential for gaining this experience was the project of Linserka, which the city wanted to implement anyway. The students realistically designed and implemented something that now serves the city. They also proposed other interventions that the city can use in the next phases to activate more parts of the building.
Unfortunately, most of the student projects remain just on paper, even though they usually deal with really problematic sites and find very good solutions for them. Which is a waste of their potential. That's why we designed solutions with the students that would not only be implemented, but more importantly would be implemented by the students themselves, so that they could really experience the whole process and get a taste of the work of all the professions involved.
2)The second important aspect and inherently innovative approach was the fact that the students did not work on their own project, but their goal was to work as a team and gradually select one project from many ideas and finally develop and implement it.
Normally students work independently, occasionally in pairs or small groups. At the beginning, students had a big problem just to present ideas that did not come directly from them but from someone else in their team. So far no one had guided them to work as a team. The approach, which is commonplace for any architecture studio, was something new for the students. We are glad that we came across this issue we didnt know before.
We truly believe that all elements of this project are transferable. A premise for fulfilling these conditions is the maintenance of good relations and connections between educational institutions, the city and architects. Also the important aspect is that the city of Liberec has its office of the city architect and we would recommend this to all the cities. This institution can focus on the development of the city and its real estate, it has an overview of the possibilities and its task should be to communicate with institutions such as the university. Thanks to this, students can work on existing projects.
The very way of leading students - i.e. working in one team and participating in the construction of the project - is only about the approach of the lector of the curse, we believe that we have thus set the direction in which the lectors can now go.
During the course we used the principles that we apply in our daily work in our studio.
Hands-on education: We strongly believe in the hands-on approach, where the team is in direct contact with the construction and learns the tooling. Respecting and understanding the physical work results in smarter, more efficient, and innovative design solutions, while also teaching the importance of planning, and on-site responsibilities.
Reuse as a method: We reuse in everything we do, it is a way of thinking, and behaving, holistically. Our office interior, for instance, was designed based on materials and structures we preserved and stored in time from our events and projects. Solving where to store material, and what to do with it in the designing phase is crucial for efficient sustainability. Same approach were apply during the Linserka Creative Playground programme.
Cross-education: Creating diversified platforms to educate clients, team, and contractors is a fundamental element of KOGAA. Tooling as 'Pin-ups' where all projects are presented on a weekly base, support exchanges of creative and technical knowledge, and where all voices are heard. Partnerships with research institutes, governmental bodies, and universities. And finally networking and inspiring events we have established: annual Brno Design Days connects local creatives, universities, companies and international players to enrich the City for the four days of the festival, and beyond. Our self-started Social Reactor project provides a platform for our community to support collaborations and exchange of ideas, such as the REACT event.
Important aspects that can be applied anywhere and that have made our project a success:
- The active approach of the University in searching for young professionals to invite them for leading students, of course, the positive response of these addressed professionals.
- The openness of the University and its willingness to help students from all over the world, which enabled us to support the University by creating a course in an international language (English) so that students who do not yet have sufficient knowledge of the local language could attend.
- The very existence of the City Architecture Office and its active involvement in the education of local students, thanks to which the students were provided with a historic factory building for their project that matched the city's brief for the future use of the building.
- A clear goal in the form of implementation - In the architectural field we talk about long-term processes. Professionals sometimes wait a very long time for their first realisation and it can be demotivating. Encouraging the students to be excited about the finished work was one of our goals. The functional intervention now in the building serves all the people in the area, the students did a great job to be proud of.
- Division of roles and teamwork - In normal practice, everyone has a slightly different role. Everyone has a different specialism or excels at something else. We tried to find this in the students and then give them specific responsibilities within one team. It's important if those young people realise their strengths and can use them in future employment.
Contributing to the education of architecture, design and interior design students is very important to us, we offer student internships in our studio and our chartered architects regularly visit local universities. Creating a semester course was new to us and we decided to go big and called it KOGAA LAB. Linserka Creative Playground was the first project and hopefully not the last.
We can only evaluate based on the reactions we have had from students, people from the institutions involved and from the public. It was unanimously agreed that the course was different from the norm and that with the students created something new that other courses could now take from and build on. Which is definitely positive feedback.
There was a contradictory perception of the students' teamwork, mainly in terms of the committee members who were supposed to award points to each student but could not relate their work. This situation was resolved by giving each student individual time to speak to the committee to describe what they had contributed in the project. From our point of view it was an important finding for us, because we believe that it is important to teach young people to work in a team, because that is what awaits them in every architecture studio.
Only one of the three interventions (the bar with facility, the roof atractor with terase, the split-out zone with tribune for summer activities), was applied within the course. The city now has the documentation available, and if they could get some minor funding based on these materials, it would be possible to build another part of the project. Such a thing would be a complete success in terms of project evaluation.
As part of the design of the interventions, we showed the students available materials that do not burden the environment and are reusable - wood, chipboards, scaffolding, polycarbonate sheets. At the same time, we showed them possible constructions from these materials using existing examples, which can be easily disassembled and re-applied in other projects.
During the initial presentation of the historic building restoration project, we introduced the students to the positive effects on the environment that building adaptations can have. Whether it is the elimination of construction waste or reducing urban sprawl. However, we also explain with examples where the preservation of buildings can have the opposite effect and therefore may not always be a sustainable way. This is important to keep in mind, that nothing is just black and white and there needs to be analyses done firstly before the decisions are made.
