Urban Imprints – Rural Processes

Deutsch

Two architectural collectives – asphalt and circa. – transform the HDA into an open laboratory. Positioned between documentation, archive and spatial staging, a collaborative space for thought and discourse emerges, making visible their interest in working with the existing fabric and in establishing a new culture of preservation. Based on precise field research into routines, material flows, traces and infrastructures, they open up two complementary perspectives on new narratives of (re)building in both urban and rural contexts. The approaches and working methods of both collectives are brought together at the HDA and made immediately perceptible. A multifaceted accompanying programme of talks, a symposium and workshops with students – beginning as part of the Architecture Days 2026 – deepens these perspectives, develops them further and brings them into the public realm through shared discourse.

The laboratory connects two perspectives on everyday infrastructures: while asphalt directs its gaze towards the countryside, circa. investigates the often overlooked spaces of the city. Together, they form a layered picture of a lived culture of transformation.

Rural Processes. Poetics and Potentials of Infrastructure

The collective asphalt examines municipal depots and waste collection centres in rural areas. Often overlooked everyday infrastructures, these sites exist between states of exception, logistics and poetry. Through multimedia portraits, the potentials of these easily accessible and publicly accessible infrastructures for practices of reuse are made visible. Within the framework of the laboratory, asphalt develops cartographic mappings of these depots, rendering their spatial structures comparable and identifiable as a distinct typology. Complementing this, student work produced as part of a co-taught course at the Institute for Architectural Technology is presented, making experimental and research-based approaches to component reuse visible. Building on the project Umbauhof, for which a book will be published by Birkhäuser in May, the spatial qualities and atmospheric particularities of these infrastructures are revealed: the improvised, the raw and the construction-like, yet at the same time highly organised.

Urban Imprints. Translations and Practices of Building Within the Existing Fabric

The collective circa. focuses on those often overlooked urban spaces that constitute the shared infrastructure of everyday life – transitional zones, residual spaces and places taken for granted. These “infra-ordinary” environments quietly and enduringly shape social and spatial experience. For circa., the close observation, analysis and representation of these structures is an act of recognition, forming a basis for care, continuation and preservation. Over the course of the laboratory, circa. develops and continuously expands an atlas of memories, fleeting narratives, lost places and transformed structures. The resulting urban imprints are presented at the House of Architecture. Between imprint, archive and exhibition, a space emerges in which the city is remembered, read and reimagined.

The Laboratory at the HDA. Between Documentation, Archive and Spatial Staging

At the House of Architecture, the approaches and working methods of both collectives are brought together in an open laboratory and made directly legible. What is presented is not a finished exhibition, but a discourse in the making – one that continuously evolves and deepens. Through a range of media, it becomes visible which traces are left by the existing fabric in the city and how processes of building are organised in rural contexts. Over several weeks, a layered image of a lived culture of tansformation and repair unfolds within the exhibition space of the HDA. Urban Imprints – Rural Processes understands transformation and resource conservation not as exceptions, but as intrinsic elements of architecture. A successful shift in building culture lies not only in the deployment of new technologies, but in the engagement with what already exists – with infrastructures, routines and material cycles. Within the laboratory, city and countryside are re-read: as archives, as resources and as points of departure for an architecture that continues to build.

An accompanying programme of workshops, talks and a symposium forms an integral part of the laboratory, presenting voices from architecture, research and practice. Over the course of several weeks, a format unfolds that connects research, mediation and public debate.

Accompanying Programme

Documenting Everyday Infrastructures
asphalt visits, investigates, and documents municipal depots and waste collection centres across Styria.
Date: 16–17 April 2026

Kick-off during Architekturtage 2026 / Workshop Storage / Architekturtage Festival
Alongside collected building materials and resources, the collectives asphalt and circa. will present initial insights into the upcoming programme as part of the HDA Summer Festival.
Date: 30 May 2026

Exhibition Setup
The foundation for the evolving, process-based exhibition will be laid together with architecture students from Graz University of Technology. asphalt, in collaboration with students from the Institute of Architectural Technology, will construct mock-ups from salvaged materials. circa. will work with students from the Institute of Building Theory to assemble exhibition furniture and initial exhibits.
Date: 2–3 June 2026

Student Workshops
Together with students, circa. will explore selected sites in Graz. Plans, texts, drawings, photography, as well as screen and embossing print techniques will serve as tools for translating urban situations.
Dates: 8–9 June and 15–16 June 2026

Open Workshops
Visitors to the HDA are invited to engage with circa. and try out the presented techniques themselves. No registration required.
Dates: 10–11 June and 17–18 June 2026

Workshop Talks, Midissage, and Book Presentation
Findings and outcomes from the exhibition and workshops will be discussed in an open format—combining short inputs with collective discussion—by the two collectives together with invited external guests. The event critically reflects on our use of (existing) resources and sheds light on the logistical processes of everyday infrastructures.
In addition, the book “Umbauhof – A Place for the Reuse of Building Components”, published by Birkhäuser at the end of May 2026, will be presented.
This discussion marks the conclusion of the laboratory phase at the House of Architecture and the beginning of the completed exhibition.
Date: 19 June 2026

This project was submitted to the OpenCall 2025 and further developed in collaboration with the HDA.