(um)formen

From Detail to Built Space

FH OÖ Campus Linz, AT

The “(um)formen” design studio explores how architecture can emerge directly from materials, tools, and the manufacturing process. The outdoor space on the FH OÖ Linz campus serves as a testing ground for a process that begins with working directly with materials and tools: from material to structure, from detail to space, and from idea to built reality.
During the summer semester of 2026, students explored how materials can be cut, bent, folded, and joined through model-making, material testing, and intensive workshop work with clay, wood, and metal. The manufacturing principles tested in this process became design strategies in their own right. In this context, “forming” refers not only to the physical transformation of a material, but also to an open, iterative design process in which models are built, modified, discarded, and reassembled.
Based on detailed conceptual models, the students developed ten independent designs. In these, they explored different ways of spatially integrating landscape, roof structure, and use. The focus was on how material properties can be made visible not only through technical application but also in terms of construction, space, and atmosphere.

From among these ten projects, Milena Pleesz’s design “Höhenschichten” was selected for further development and refined from the final design through to the structural engineering phase. Construction is scheduled for the following semester, specifically at the start of spring. This will bring the design process to a 1:1 scale and continue the journey from experimental detail to built space.