Michele Albanelli: Cornerology

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The Günter Bock Prize 2008 went to Michele Albanelli for his project on the formation of corners and the corner condition in architecture. Michele's work during the year went under the general title, 'Cornerology' , and Michele pursued his research theme with a zealous focus in the various exercises and experiments that he conducted. The jury panel was impressed with both the discipline in and the quality of the work. This Michele presented in a clear and thought-provoking manner.

Michele's presentation was broken into a series of chapters, dealing with the horizon, relational rotation of bodies in space and, of course, the corner condition. Different studies provided the basis for his building up to the last part, which was presented as an architectural speculation.

Michele observed that with the rise of rounded forms, the corner has become less important in contemporary architecture. In light of this, he held that the corner can be seen to be proliferated in a virtual sense, as virtual control points of space. He asked: "The conventional definition of the corner is a place or angle where two or more sides or edges meet. What if this hierarchy is inverted, rethinking the role of corners in the configuration of the space? The corner, considered as a linear element, would be the director of the "Orchestra of Space", and its articulation would affect and control the spacial qualities of the surroundings (such as directionalities, concavity, convexity, and inside-outside relationships)."

Michele's studies included a series of physical models that explored space frames as foldable structures whose transitional volumes were triggered by manipulating select control points. In a series of digital models, he explored the configuration of multiple bodies related to the same "corner point" as well as relational rotation of multiple volumes.

His architectural speculation, which was presented last and will form the springboard for his further studies in the second year, revolved around the corner condition as a virtual, control entity for the spatial organization of related bodies. This part of the work was presented with brief comparative observations about the relationship between the corner and the column in a series of seminal, historical instances. For Michele, Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau, which Michele and his colleagues analyzed in the summer semester, presented an ultimate synthesis of spatial and formal conditions related to the corner. The Merzbau assimilated and interiorized the spatial conditions that the corner otherwise would generate as external effects.