Instant was founded by Dirk Hebel and Joerg Stollmann in 2002. Both partners are currently teaching at the ETH Zurich. Dirk Hebel studied at the ETH Zurich and Princeton University. He has been working for Diller+Scofidio, New York. Joerg Stollmann studied at the University of the Arts Berlin, ETH Zurich and Princeton University. He has been working for Axel Schultes, Berlin, and Atelier Seraji, Paris. He has been teaching at Princeton University, UdK Berlin and TU Berlin. Instant, Instant Architekten, Instant Architects, Architekten, Architecture, Architects, Dirk Hebel, Jörg Stollmann, Tobias Klauser, Sascha Delz, Roman Loretan, Martin Lüthy, Leonard Kocan, Bettina Baumberger, Haus_Blick, Open_House, Stadt_Abstrich, Eth Zürich, Eth, Zürich, Berlin, Dirk, Jörg, Hebel, Stollmann Instant, Instant Architekten, Instant Architects, Architekten, Architecture, Architects, Dirk Hebel, Jörg Stollmann, Tobias Klauser, Sascha Delz, Roman Loretan, Martin Lüthy, Leonard Kocan, Bettina Baumberger, Haus_Blick, Open_House, Stadt_Abstrich, Eth Zürich, Eth, Zürich, Berlin, Dirk, Jörg, Hebel, Stollmann Instant, Instant Architekten, Instant Architects, Architekten, Architecture, Architects, Dirk Hebel, Jörg Stollmann, Tobias Klauser, Sascha Delz, Roman Loretan, Martin Lüthy, Leonard Kocan, Bettina Baumberger, Haus_Blick, Open_House, Stadt_Abstrich, Eth Zürich, Eth, Zürich, Berlin, Dirk, Jörg, Hebel, Stollmann Instant, Instant Architekten, Instant Architects, Architekten, Architecture, Architects, Dirk Hebel, Jörg Stollmann, Tobias Klauser, Sascha Delz, Roman Loretan, Martin Lüthy, Leonard Kocan, Bettina Baumberger, Haus_Blick, Open_House, Stadt_Abstrich, Eth Zürich, Eth, Zürich, Berlin, Dirk, Jörg, Hebel, Stollmann Instant, Instant Architekten, Instant Architects, Architekten, Architecture, Architects, Dirk Hebel, Jörg Stollmann, Tobias Klauser, Sascha Delz, Roman Loretan, Martin Lüthy, Leonard Kocan, Bettina Baumberger, Haus_Blick, Open_House, Stadt_Abstrich, Eth Zürich, Eth, Zürich, Berlin, Dirk, Jörg, Hebel, Stollmann
texte webpage STADT_ABSTRICHE CITY_SMEAR TESTS IS A PERFORMANCE RECORDING ZURICHS URBAN CONTAMMINATION AND EXPORTING IT TO BERLIN. A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON ZURICHS “CLEANLINESS AND SECURITY” CAMPAIGN AND THE UP-TO-DATENESS OF THE “BROKEN WINDOW THEORY”. EXHIBITION “BITLABS”, BGF MITTE PRODUKTIONSLABORATORIUM; BERLIN 2003 Each summer in the past couple of years, the city of Zurich starts the campaign “Cleanliness and Security ­ For a Cleaner Image of the City” with billboards and hand-outs city proclaiming the basic rules for urban behavior under the headline “All is permitted that does not disturb”. City_Smear Tests wants to highlight a political rhetoric on urban space that identifies the aesthetically non-pleasing with the criminal. Using an adhesive dust-roller as research tool, we produced smear tests of the facades and pavements of the banks around Bahnhofstrasse. These critical sections were displayed in the exhibition space “BGF Mitte” in Berlin and the cautionary billboards distributed all over the historical center around the gallery. The gallery’s picture window became a big notice board with pasted political quotes and related art projects like Gordon Matta Clark’s “Window Blow Out”. The next morning, all billboards had disappeared from where we had glued them. SICK_SPACE IS A WORKSHOP FOCUSSING ON RE-EVALUATION OF SICKNESS IN MODERN ARCHITECTURE. STUDENTS BUILD 1:1 INSTALLATIONS USING SICKNESS SYNDORMES AS SPACE GENERATING AGEENCY. BUILDING OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE, ETH ZURICH, 2002. The fully air conditioned building of the ETHZ Architecture Department is a model study case for both the ideology and the failure of late modernism: the building as perfectly healing climatic shell that protects the human body to such an extent that it finally turns into a pathogen environment (known as Sick Building Syndrome). Instead of further proclaiming the curative powers of architecture, the workshop wants to, following a thesis of Georges Canguilhem, accept sickness as an integral part of a strong healthy body and thus generate spaces that highlight and aesthetically use the buildings pathogen syndromes. Students: AIR_SCAPE IS AN INSTALLATION ON THE OCCASION OF THE CONFERENCE “EMERGENCY DESIGN”. AN EMERGENCY EXIT FIGURE TRANSFORMING INTO A MARTIAL MAN. INFLATABLE DEVELOPED WITH LUFT & LAUNE, ZURICH. HGK ZURICH 2006. When approached for taking part in the symposium “Emergency Design” at the HGK Zürich, Instant was also asked to do an installation that would deal with states of emergency. A couple of atmospheric transformations heightening the spatial perception were proposed, like artificial raining, flooding, snowing or storming in the entranceway, until it became obvious that any kind of disturbance, not to mention an emergency, was the last thing the clients were looking for. We agreed on a symbolic emergency exit figure inflated to fit exactly under the entry’s roof. Expelled from this position, it finally transformed into a martial man turning back against the building. Strangely enough, after the conference was done, martial man escaped and was not found again. RITUAL & HYGIENE IS A RESEARCH DESIGN STUDIO GENERATING NEW SPATIAL VISIONS FOR DOMESTIC ENVIRONMENTS FROM QUESTIONING THE NORMATIVE OF THE BATHROOM. IN COLLABORATION WITH DORNBRACHT ISERLOHN AND ARCHITONIC ZURICH. CHAIR OF MARC ANGELIL, ETH ZURICH 2004. PUBLICATION “BATHROOM UNPLUGGED. ARCHITECTURE AND INTIMACY”, BIRKHÄUSER, 2005. Starting from the Mark Wigley’s thesis that architecture not in the first place houses our body, but through its organization of spaces and surfaces shows us a legible contemporary picture of this body, the idea of the research studio “Ritual & Hygiene” developed. In three steps, students worked on 1:1 installations that helped them understand our contemporary concepts of bodily hygiene and how they figure in space. The bathroom was considered an obsolete, actually restrictive spatial model of hygiene. Finally, each student came up with a vision for a domestic environment integrating the groups’ findings. As the group tried to keep the process as traceable as possible, we decided on considering the design work “performative research”, an argument put forth and argued for in the publication “Bathroom Unplugged. Architecture and Intimacy.” ADD_ON 1 IS THE EXTENSION OF A SINGLE FAMILY HOME. A VERY ECONOMIC, PARTICIPATORY PROJECT, THE CLIENTS WILL RE-USE THE EXISTING WINDOWS AND CLADDING TO ADD A GARAGE, A TEENAGE BEDROOM AND A LIVING ROOM. KARLSRUHE, 2006. INVENTIONEERING ARCHITECTURE IS A TRAVELING EXHIBITION ON THE EDUCATIONAL LANDSCAPE OF FOUR SWISS SCHOOLS OF ARCHITECTURE: GENEVA, LAUSANNE, MENDRISIO AND ZURICH, COMMISSIONED BY THE ETH ZURICH. EXHIBITION DESIGN AND CATALOGUE BY INSTANT. A COLLABORATION WITH CAAD.DESIGNTOPRODUCTION, ETH ZURICH, AND BACH HEIDEN AG, HEIDEN. REALIZED 2005, ONGOING. CATALOGUE “INVENTIONEERING ARCHITECTURE”, GTA PUBLISHERS; 2005. Traveling throughout the world, from San Francisco to Boston, Berlin, Dubai and finally Shanghai, this exhibition about Swiss architecture education should allude to Swiss qualities but deal with clichés carefully. Thus, a topographical map from a chocolate box was the ideal starting point to develop a topographic exhibition platform to represent a section through the Swiss educational landscape. Each detail, from the 1000 individually milled beams, the models’ suspension, to the panoramic illustrated charts orienting the visitors, followed the concept of the 3-dimensional trail. ON_AIR IS A TEMPORARY INSTALLATION DEFINING THE ENTRANCE TO KUNST WERKE BERLIN, A SPACE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART. PNEUMATIC STRUCTURE DEVELOPED WITH AIRLIGHT, MAURO PEDRETTI, BIASCA, AND INFLATE, LONDON. REALIZED 2005. The competition asked for a temporary definition of the entrance area to the exhibition space KW Berlin, allowing for a stronger visibility of the institution in the urban context. ON-AIR reacts to the most difficult part of this brief, as the protected historic building should not be harmed or touched by a single nail or screw! With Infalte and Airlight, Instant developed a pneumatic Tensairity structure cantilevering a balcony over the out over the street. Entering the balcony, the appearing visitor becomes the temporary representation of the institution. Unfortunately, he structure was rigid enough to withstand the loads but not its aggressive social urban context. As much as it was successful as a catalyst during the day, it was repeatedly vandalized during the night. HAUS_BLICK IS THE RENOVATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF A SINGLE-FAMILY MODEL HOME, BUILT FOR A 1930 BUILDING EXPOSITION IN DUESSELDORF, GERMANY. WITH MICA HUENTEMANN, DUESSELDORF. STRUCTURAL ENGINEER FEUERSTACK & BEYEN, DUESSELDORF. 2004 - 2005. Buying a model home from 1930, the clients differed in their expectation concerning their future home. While he was fully contempt with moving into a classical pitched roof house, she had been rather dreaming of a bungalow, if not a fully glazed pavilion. Thus, both models were merged by introducing a pavilion structure inside that punches through the roof to open up the view onto the fantastic urban landscape of the river Rhein. Throughout the whole design, schizophrenic detailing became crucial, especially where the two systems - the old house renovated and the inserted pavilion - meet. A fine example is the rain gutter suspended in front of the main picture window. As negotiated with the local authorities, only the rain gutter enabled us to do the picture window, as it ensures the continuity of the eaves. A specially designed support highlights this otherwise banal building feature. OPEN_HOUSE IS A TEMPORARY INSTALLATION FOR THE 150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE ETH ZURICH, COMMISSIONED BY ARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENTS. AN INTERACTIVE SPACE FOR LECTURES, WORKSHOPS AND PERFORMANCES. PNEUMATIC STRUCTURE DEVELOPED WITH AIRLIGHT, BIASCA. MEDIA AND SCREENING IN COLLABORATION WITH DAVIDE LEGITTIMO AND TOBIAS KLAUSER. COMPETITION, 2nd PRICE, 2004. ON_AIR is an inflatable Tensairity structure that is both an iconic reference to the two departments as well as an interactive space for events and discussion. In front of the Gottfried Semper building, overlooking the city of Zurich, a white platform is rested on hydro-pneumatic truck shock absorbers. Attached to it, a helium inflated single-family house is floating in the air. The whole structure is in constant movement, depending on the weather, the time of day, the visitor’s movement on the platform and the events taking place. For example, for lectures during the day, the inflate rests over the platform providing a more intimate setting, while it is lifted up for film screening in the evenings and floats high above the ETH while illuminated for parties at night. ON_AIR’s default setting is a video and sound installation reacting to the visitors’ movements on the platform. A webpage is informing the citizens about the scheduled events and the actual condition of ON_AIR: HIGH_EXPOSURE HOUSE Rueschberg, Germany, 1999-2001 IS A HOUSE FOR TWO INHABITANTS IN A REMOTE VALLEY IN SOUTHWEST GERMANY. WHILE PROTECTING THE INHABITANTS FROM THEIR IMPORTUNATE NEIGHBORS, IT ALLOWS FOR THE ACOUSTIC, VISUAL AND SENSUAL CONTACT WITH THE LANDSCPAE OUTSIDE. WITH KATHY KIM AND ... COMPLETED 2001. Rueschberg is a small rural community in a remote Hunsrueck Valley in Southwest Germany. Here, the landscape resembles a model railway setting. The small houses’ generic architecture with its double pitch roofs creates a sense of sameness that seems not to allow for any deviation. Homogeneity and assimilation are the maxims of private live and private building. The interiors are dark, the activitues in the exterior gardes controlled by neighbors. The clients, old-established citizens of the community, decided differently for their new home. They wanted to be in direct contact with the outside world, the weather and the view, while still enjoying their privacy inside their home ­ which made them the prototypical modern clients. HE_House had to make the landscape literally traversing the domestic interior. HE_House is situated on a hillside overlooking the Reichenbachtal. Engaging with its neighboring homes by use of the same materiality, white plaster finish and sheet-metal roof, it does state its difference with its inverted roof and the secretive street façade. On entering, the interior is structured by the huge picture windows framing the far-distance views in three directions and opening the interior onto the surrounding terrace. Additionally, a skylight and an interior courtyard allow the weather to intrude ­ remotely controlled by the inhabitants. While only the bathrooms have doors, different zones of intimacy and publicity are organized by free standing walls and windows. Vertically and horizontally, HE_House is a controlled envelope customized for its two inhabitants and allowing them the acoustic, sensual and visual contact with the landscape outside.