Christian Gänshirt

Christian Gänshirt
Presenting a lecture at Tsinghua University, Beijng, May 2014
Born	Christian Martin Gänshirt Germany
Nationality	German
Alma mater	Universität Karlsruhe (TH) EPF Lausanne
Occupation	Architect

Christian Martin Gänshirt is a German architect, writer, and an Associate Professor of Architectural Theory at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China.^[1] Gänshirt studied at Karlsruhe University and at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.^[2] He is mostly known for his writings on design theory, contemporary architecture and urbanism.^[3]

Biography

Gänshirt studied architecture, urban design and landscape architecture at Karlsruhe University under Fritz Haller, Karlhans Hirschmann, Gunnar Martinsson and Ottokar Uhl. He continued his studies under Luigi Snozzi at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and did an internship with José Paulo dos Santos in Porto, where he met architects like Fernando Távora, Álvaro Siza Vieira, and Eduardo Souto de Moura. Having concluded his architecture studies at Karlsruhe University, Gänshirt went to Porto, Portugal, where he worked with José Paulo dos Santos and Álvaro Siza Vieira.^[4] He was in charge of buildings for Swiss furniture manufacturer Vitra,^[5] Portuguese ceramics manufacturer Revigrés^[6] and a restaurant overlooking Siza's Quinta da Malagueira housing development in Évora.^[7]

In 1994 Gänshirt moved to Berlin, Germany, where he set up an architectural practice and started writing on Portuguese architecture. He worked as a site manager in a BAL team taking care of the transformation of the Former Reichsbank building into the headquarters of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, a project overseen by Hans Kollhoff & Helga Timmermann.^[8] From 1998 to 2004 he taught at the Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus, Germany. In 2008, Philipp Oswalt invited him to teach architectural theory and design at Kassel University. Gänshirt was appointed Associate Professor of Architecture at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in 2011.^[9] Since fall 2013 he is as an Associate Professor of Architectural Theory and Design at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, a Sino-British university located in Suzhou Dushu Lake Higher Education Town, China.^[10]

Research

Gänshirt's early research explored contemporary Portuguese architecture and urbanism with a focus on the work of Álvaro Siza and other architects from the School of Porto.^[11] These studies resulted in a book on the Swimming Pool on the Beach at Leça da Palmeira,^[12] various grey literature textbooks on Portuguese architecture and a series of articles published in architecture magazines and national newspapers. He held lectures and seminars on these topics and guided architecture tours to Portugal and Spain.

His research focus shifted then to the theory and history of architectural design, particularly exploring the role of the different media used for this purpose. Inspired by Vilém Flusser's phenomenological approach to media studies^[13] and writings by Otl Aicher,^[14] Gänshirt examines the means used for design, how they facilitate, but also influence the thinking, expression and perception of architectural ideas. Referring to Donald A. Schön's theory of reflective practice, he proposes the concept of the design cycle as a recurrent time pattern^[15] to describe the reflective and repetitive structure of design processes.^[16] Gänshirt explains design cycles as circular time structures which may start with the thinking of an idea, then expressing it by the use of visual and/or verbal means of communication (design tools), the sharing and perceiving of the expressed idea, and starting a new cycle with the critical rethinking of the perceived idea. Jane Anderson points out that this concept emphasizes the importance of the means of expression, which at the same time are means of perception of any design ideas, allowing and structuring visual and verbal design thinking.^[17] Thomas Wortmann has argued that Gänshirt’s design cycle and Schön’s reflection-in-action are descriptive models that integrate designing as a spontaneous act and designing as an explicit process.^[18] The main outcome of this research was the design theory book Tools for Ideas.^[19]

Writings

Books

• Tools for Ideas. An Introduction to Architectural Design, translated by Michael Robinson, Basel, Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-7643-7577-5 (2007 English edition), ISBN 978-3-7643-7576-8 (2007 German edition),^[20] ISBN 978-3-0346-0704-9 (2011 German edition ), ISBN 978-7-1121-2565-4 (2011 Chinese edition) ^[21][22][23]
• Swimming Pool on the Beach at Leça de Palmeira, Álvaro Siza 1959-73. Lisboa: Editorial Blau, 2004, ISBN 972-8311-10-9
• with Friederike Schneider (Main Editor), Oliver Heckmann, Bettina Vismann (Editors.): Floor Plan Manual Housing / Grundrissatlas Wohnungsbau. Third, revised and extended Edition. Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser Verlag, 2004^[24]
• with Ulrich Conrads, Eduard Führ (Editors): Zur Sprache bringen. Kritik der Architekturkritik. [Grasping Architecture. A Critique of Architecture Criticism], Theoretische Untersuchungen zur Architektur, Vol. 4, Münster, New York: Waxmann, 2003, ISBN 978-3-8309-1304-7^[25]
• (Editor): Portugal 2000 - O futuro do passado. Contemporary Architecture in Portugal. Cottbus: Brandenburg University of Technology, 2000, 2003 (grey literature, see GND dataset)

Articles (selected)

• Casa da Música, Porto, Portugal. Rem Koolhaas/OMA, Rotterdam, in: L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, No. 361, Nov./Déc. 2005, pp. 38–47
• Architekturkritik und das Elend der Welt [Architecture Criticism and the Misery of the World]: Das Parkhaus 1111 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach von Herzog & de Meuron, in: Archithese, International thematic review for architecture, Nr. 4.2011, Architekturkritik – Criticism / 40 Jahre Archithese, Zürich: Niggli, pp. 52–57
• University Library (IKMZ) Cottbus, Germany, in: L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui No. 358, Mai/Juin 2005, pp. 100–105
• Serralves Museum: Natural Beauty and Art Theory, in: José Manuel das Neves (Ed.): Serralves. Porto: ASA, 2002, pp. 107–115
• Vitra Furniture Factory, in: Álvaro Siza, 1986–1995, Ed. Luiz Trigueiros. Editorial Blau, Lisbon, 1995, pp. 182–190
• Revision des Generalplans - Neubau der Universität Aveiro, [Revising the Masterplan - New Construction at Aveiro University], Portugal, in: Bauwelt No. 28/29, 1994, pp. 1568–1587

Online texts

• Mit dem Zufall entwerfen (in German, from Archithese 6.2010)
• Architekturkritik und das Elend der Welt (in German, from Archithese 4.2011)
• Tools for Ideas. An Introduction to Architectural Design (e-book)

References

Footnotes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Christian Gänshirt.

• Official Webpage at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University