This semester we once again offer the studio "Do What You Want." This studio has existed for several years to promote and explore experimental ideas and working methods, encourage students to build confidence in their research abilities, and foster their own creative and critical thinking.

Everyone should develop their own radical idea: starting from sharing your project proposals during the first meeting we then support each other as a group to elaborate them throughout the semester.

At the end of last semester, students at the Berlin University of the Arts founded the Bildung Braucht Budget initiative to protest against the threatening situation caused by massive state budget cuts in education. Through these cuts, I quote "numerous spaces that are essential for a free and democratic society are being erased." (https://www.udk-berlin.de/startseite/news/mitteilung-der-studierendeninitiative-bildung-braucht-budget-der-universitaet-der-kuenste-berlin-zur-verhuellung-der-fassade/)

The title of this semester's edition comes from a quote by Antonio Gramsci, translated from the French by the Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar: "The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters."

Among many interpretations, we like to think of it as a critique of our time, where different eras and worlds, old and new, come to collide and overlap, unable to give birth to a real transformation. And this is where we would like to place ourselves during this semester: in the time AFTER the monsters. We want to imagine possible just futures, to visualize a transformation towards a better society, and we want to do it during this summer semester, intended to be a semester of exchange, collaboration, and solidarity between all chairs of the architecture program under the common theme of "Freiraum" (free space).

"Do What You Want" is both radically individualistic and rooted in collaboration and solidarity. Everyone plays a role in shaping the dynamics of the class, everyone contributes. This means: This semester we are combining individual projects with a collective critical engagement with the overall theme of "Free Space."

On each studio day, we dedicate ourselves to colloquium-like meetings, quick pin-ups, and extended presentations to establish and maintain a forum for discussing individual projects and negotiating the collective studio process. Through these engaged practices, we foster a studio culture based on collaboration and mutual support.

Discursive dinners and other forms of hospitality are an integral part of our course to foster discussions.

The overlapping efforts of the three student groups—Space Group, Documentation Group, Communication Group—are an important part of this class. They help us build relationships beyond individual design tasks and serve as stewards of the shared environment of a co-produced space for learning and exchange, this semester with the special task of expanding communication beyond the studio and promoting and shaping exchange with students from other courses.

We recommend attending the seminar from the Department of Architectural History and Architectural Theory: "DIE KINDER FRESSEN IHRE REVOLUTION. Mit Lucius Burckhardt gegen den Strom" (THE CHILDREN DEVOUR THEIR REVOLUTION. With Lucius Burckhardt Against the Current), conceived and led by Lilith Unverzagt specifically for this special semester.

The participation is limited to 12 students.

We meet every Tuesday afternoon from 2:00 to 6:00 PM in Studio 401.

The first meeting for a quick review of your project proposals to develop during the semester is this Wednesday at 3:00 PM in Studio 401.
A further first meeting is on the 22nd from 10am in the Aula (Room 201).

Applications through Moodle.