thomas
deckker
architect
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education
Oxford Summer Courses
Radcliffe Camera, Oxford [photo by Thomas Deckker]
Architecture Summer Course 2019-20
The University of Westminster
Economist Plaza, London [photo by Thomas Deckker]
Research Committee 2015 - 2017
King's College London
Praça do Tres Poderes, Brasília
Visiting Researcher 2014 -
The University of Dundee
Dundee Waterfront 2012
Fellow, Geddes Institute of Urban Research 2013 -
The University of Dundee
Tay Bridge, Dundee from the 'Red' Series
Visiting Fellow 2007 - 2013
Universität Liechtenstein
Universität Liechtenstein photograph © Thomas Deckker 2005
Workshops 1996-2003:
EuropaForum
Sarajevo Workshop: 1997
Workshop in Sarajevo 1997
The University of East London
The Atelier Project in Teaching
The Atelier Project in Teaching
The University of East London
UEL Unit G 97/98 Unit Trip
Degree Unit G 1991-1999
The University of East London
Visual Studies, First Year 1991-1994
Visual Studies, First Year 1991-1994
Architectural Association
AA Diploma 11 1988-89: End of Year Exhibition
Tutor, Diploma School 1988-1989
Universität Liechtenstein Workshop: 1997
Universität Liechtenstein 1996/97
Workshop in the Spörryfabrik

Universität Liechtenstein
Workshop: 1996/97

The first workshop in the Spörryfabrik - an abandoned textile factory in Liechtenstein - using textiles to create personal 'places' within the interior landscape 'space'.
Universität Liechtenstein Workshop: 1997
Universität Liechtenstein 1996/97
Workshop in the Spörryfabrik

The Spörryfabrik

It was serendipity of the most benign kind whch gave me this building for my first workshop with Universität Liechtenstein. The even grid of columns, and the even north light, gave the space an extraordinary neutral character, which, in its isolation for the city outside, gave it a magical feeling. Did it matter that an architectural space was used as an analog for a landscape space? Not in the slightest. First, it was interesting to swap the conceptual categories, and second, it leant itself towards a positive learning experience.
Universität Liechtenstein Workshop: 1997
Universität Liechtenstein Workshop: 1997
Universität Liechtenstein 1996/97
Workshop in the Spörryfabrik

Process

The design of personal 'places' within the interior landscape 'space' was necessarily speculative and iterative. To support this a working process was established of recording the various stages of the work in Polaroid prints. The formal recording of each stage was a kind of rite of passage which could be subject to a critical appreciation.

The Polaroid prints were suspended on a line to allow a sequential reading of the development of each project.
Universität Liechtenstein Workshop: 1997
Universität Liechtenstein Workshop: 1997
Universität Liechtenstein 1996/97
Workshop in the Spörryfabrik

Space

The design of personal 'places' moved from quite simple forms of created by linking columns together to more complex shapes. It was an essential outcome that forms would be created as a dynamic counterpoint to the isomorphic landscape space.
Universität Liechtenstein Workshop: 1997
Universität Liechtenstein 1996/97
Workshop in the Spörryfabrik

Eating Together

It is always a profound experience to share food, symbolic of shared values and enterpise. It is an act that I have always cultivated as a teacher. I was moved by the students' spontaneous barbecue in the yard of the Spörryfabrik at which I was a guest.
Universität Liechtenstein Workshop: 1997
Universität Liechtenstein 1996/97
Workshop in the Spörryfabrik

Results

At the final review, Architekt Hansjörg Hilti, the Head of the School of Architecture, found his own special place in the Spörryfabrik.