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- Van Toorn, Roemer, 1960-
(author)
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Worldmaking : Article based on speech held at Master’s Graduation 4th of June, 2021
- 2021
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Without setting foot on site, due to covid 19, the master thesis students of 2020/21 have been able to do amazing and relevant work. They worked extremely hard, and with extra efforts. And, we should not forget the extra ordinary efforts of the studio tutors and the UMA staff; what they have made possible, creating the infrastructure and possibility to focus and do our work during covid 19. We also should not forget the many guests, reviewers, and what our new faculty members, who joined us in this complicated year, have been able to contribute. Truly impressive!Education on online, working at home – we all experienced its disadvantages, anxiety, and limits, but it brought a whole new set of skills and opportunities as well, overcoming physical borders, allowing us to create and have transnational discourses and expertise input, to be more concentrated and informed while being at the kitchen table, bedroom, on the road, or in the garden. Furthermore, it brought less pollution due to no travelling and often a better balance between work and private life.We as examiners were inspired by how the students work became operational within the different studio’s research frameworks. We enjoyed their presentations, learned from their work and what is at stake in different conditions in the world, seemingly in the margin, out of sight, but in fact very much belonging to our global society as a whole.The students showed that research is very much part of architecture. That research, collaborating and interdisciplinarity is needed to confront the fastness of our ignorance when we initiate a project. As UMA students they worked all over the world, confronted fantastic cultural and technical complexities and addressed many crises. The students have shown that architecture is as much about ideas as well as about construction, is about programming life, form, aesthetics, about humanity and critical care for the environment, creating sustainable and ethical spaces with the support of the own zone of competence we call architecture. Students learned that architecture is all about transforming abstractions into real spatial qualities, is about creating spatial milieus for its inhabitants and ecological environments in each condition and scale anew. Even in its most small contributions we observed – that their architecture is all about worldmaking, projecting a better future, different from what they have found when they started to investigate a site and its culture.The different master theses were wide of scope, potential and relevantly contributing to an idea of architecture; thinking outside of the box, also very much outside the borders of academia, to have a positive and real impact in this world. What we observed, nurturing such tendencies at the Umeå School of Architecture from the beginning; is that there has been a huge change, what one might depict as societal awareness becoming apparent among architecture students. Students no longer ‘escape’ in Design, or a criticality without proposition. In that sense the students are part of a new generation – political aware, responsible; addressing the world and its many crises, empowering the one’s and who have no voice, or that which has no voice yet, but deserves and needs to be addressed, even though it can be difficult.It is very unfortunate that Peter Kjaer, the founding dean of UMA, (giving UMA its name!), passed away last March. Peter understood as no other that architecture is more than an administrative or technical profession. Architecture for Peter is foremost and first an artistic, political, and cultural practice. “And that is good news!” observed Esperanza: ‘we won’t be replaced by robots and algorithms in the future, creativity counts! With Peter’s vision, great enthusiasm, and his heart for society and its people, he started to create a culture and place at UMA of many voices, a transnational culture of teachers, lecturers, students from all over the world, with projects in Umeå, Egypt and India moving away from ‘only’ a Western, colonial curriculum perspective.We should not forget that thinking out of the box started with Peter, that his spirit is very much among us and alive. Peter Kjaer made the beginning of what we celebrate and share today at the Umeå School of Architecture, fostering inner development and growth of students, faculty, and staff, creating an inspiring, pleasant, and friendly work environment. Peter would be very proud of what UMA is today, how UMA as transnational community embedded in the North of Sweden, its teachers, researchers, students, management, staff, are full on, back on track, blossoming thanks to the open, engaging, and prosperous culture of professionalism, innovation, and experiment, with not to forget a devoted believe and enjoyment doing architecture.We can’t wait to hear what the students take on next and we hope this publication edited and designed by Sara Zetterlund, Erik Persson, Sangram Shirke, Karina Gataulina, with the input of the tutors and students, provides a rewarding memory to what has been achieved. We hope external readers will find insight to the world that UMA is and inspiration from the wonderful work done by our students.Roemer van Toorn, Examiner UMA 5 with Esperanza Campana (Examiner UMA 5) and Sofia Dona (Invited critic), Spring 2021
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