Message from the workshop with Birger Sevaldson at FUA TUL

Birger Sevaldson explaining ZIP-analysis (photo: M. Davidová, 2016)

As part of the institutional collaboration project between the Faculty of Art and Architecture at the Technical University of Liberec (FUA TUL) and the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO), Systemic Approach to Architectural Performance, a workshop and public lecture by Birger Sevaldson was held at FUA TUL with the assistance of Marie Davidová. The joint project of both schools aims to connect the methodology of Systems Oriented Design with the increasingly relevant direction in architecture, or design in general, Performance Oriented Architecture/Design. This project was supported by EHP and Norwegian Funds.
Birger began the workshop with an introductory lecture explaining the methodology. Then Marie Davidová presented her case study in the field of Performance Oriented Architecture, Wood as a Primary Medium to Architectural Performance, concerning wood. Davidová, along with colleagues and students, has built two summer pavilions from solid wood that respond to weather and have become a platform for summer festivals in Prague. The workshop, among other things, focused particularly on the complex potential of the relationship between the pavilion and its environment from the perspective of socio-ecological-economic aspects, through so-called GIGA-maps.
GIGA-maps are used for diagramming complex interdisciplinary relationships. The connection between different topics is crucial for understanding the system.

Final result of GIGA-mapping (photo: Martin Málek)

Birger presented the coding of connections based on their properties, intensity, and repetitiveness.

Detail of GIGA-map showing coding in marking relationships (photo: Marie Davidová)

He further explained the technique of so-called ZIP-analysis, which searches for certain aspects of the project suitable for intervention or innovation:
“Z: Zoom is used to mark areas or places on your map that need further research. It is your alert that you are missing information and an initiator for further maps zooming into this area.
P: P represents potential, problems, issues, pain points. If there is an evident problem, it is a potential for improvement. Some refer to them as pain points, but using the term potential is more neutral. Large potentials can also