OISTAT Architecture Commission / Business Meeting
Minutes of Meeting in Seville on 21 October 2016
1.0 ATTENDANCE
1.1 The following were present:
Tim Foster United Kingdom (chair)
Torsten Nobling Sweden (vice-chair)
Martien van Goor Netherlands (vice-chair)
Reinhold Daberto Germany (vice-chair)
Jerome Maeckelbergh Belgium
Hilda Cuba Spain
Greg Cook USA
Randy Earle USA
Antoni Ramon Spain
Guillem Aloy Spain
Bri Newesely Germany
Dorita Hannah Australia
Louis Janssen Netherlands
Ivo Kersmaekers Belgium
Faiz Zahir Bangladesh
Nora Patricia Kovacs Hungary
Palfy Sandor Hungary
David Wilmore United Kingdom
Kevin Rigdon USA
Franziska Ritter Germany
Michaela Buriankova Czech Republic
Markéta Fantová Czech Republic
Jose M Castanheira Spain
Maaike Westinga Netherlands
José Luis Ferrera Spain
Szuyun Yu Taiwan/OISTAT
1.2 A paper was circulated to record those present and their contact details (see above), which will be added to the OISTAT circulation list for the Architecture Commission. Anyone wishing to be added to this list or to update their details can email OISTAT HQ with a request. If any addresses above are incorrect please inform Tim Foster. (*Headquarters decided to delete all the e-mails when uploading on the website)
2.0 ELECTIONS
2.1 Louis Janssen, president of OISTAT, took the chair to conduct the election. Based on a show of hands, Tim Foster was elected unopposed for a second term as chair of the Architecture Commission. Torsten Nobling, Martien van Goor and Reinhold Daberto were elected to serve as vice-chairs.
3.0 PREVIOUS MINUTES
3.1 Minutes of the previous Business Meeting of the AC, held in Berlin on 10 June 2015 were read out and agreed.
4.0 THEATRE ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION
4.1 TF reported on plans for the 10th TAC to be held in Taiwan in 2017. In the past the competition has been organised every four years to coincide with the Prague Quadrennial. However in 2015 it was decided to move the competition away from Prague to Berlin, at the invitation of the DTHG, the German OISTAT centre. It was then decided that in future the competition should move to World Stage Design, which is an OISTAT event. As a result the next competition was taking place only two years after the previous one and will be exhibited for the first time at World Stage Design 2017 in Taipei, Taiwan, the home of OISTAT Headquarters.
4.2 TF said that with the help of head office a site had been selected for the competition, which he had visited in April, and had subsequently prepared a brief. Issue of the brief had been delayed however as the principal sponsor of the competition, Hsinchu City in Taiwan, had requested that the site should be located in their city. Difficulty in selecting a new site and uncertainty about funding had prevented the issue of the brief and TF was concerned it was now very late to be issuing the brief and this could affect the viability of the competition. This represented a financial risk to OISTAT if the number of entries fell significantly with the resultant loss of revenue from entry fees. It was agreed that the chair and vice-chairs would meet separately with Wanjung Wei to discuss and agree a way forward.
5 ARCHITECTURE AT PQ19
5.1 Markéta Fantová, the director of PQ19, gave a summary of the history of architecture exhibits at recent PQs. She was aware that architecture had had a diminishing profile at recent PQs and expressed her desire to re-engage with architecture as an integral part of the exhibit. Views were expressed that there should be a combination of cutting-edge curated exhibits, funded by PQ, and national exhibits, funded by nations. It is much more likely that national exhibits can be funded from national sources, rather than individual projects or studios, which are less likely to attract funding. Further discussion is needed to understand what brings architects to PQ.
6 FUTURE MEETINGS
The Architecture Commission aims to meet at least once a year to provide an opportunity for anyone with an interest in theatre buildings to meet, to visit theatre buildings and to hold meetings and seminars with local practitioners. Forthcoming Meetings are being planned for:
2017 Taipei, Taiwan (July) to coincide with World Stage Design
TF is discussing the possibility of organizing an architectural tour of new theatres in Taiwan, following World Stage Design
2018 Chicago, USA (October) to coincide with ‘Open House’
Greg Cooke of the USITT gave a presentation on Chicago and its attractions and early plans for the meeting. These were welcomed and he agreed to continue to develop the proposal and report again to the meeting in Taiwan in July 2017
2019 Prague, Czech Republic (June) to coincide with PQ19
further work is needed but the aim will be to organise an architectural tour of theatres in the region during or immediately after PQ.
7 RECENT WORK BY AC MEMBERS
7.1 As is customary there was also an opportunity for members of the Architecture Commission to share and discuss recent work, at which Torsten Nobling, Martien van Goor, Nora Patricia Kovacs, Sandor Palfy, Reinhold Daberto and Tim Foster showed projects.
8 SEVILLE MEETING
8.1 TF expressed his thanks to José Luis Ferrera and his enthusiastic team from OISTAT España for their organization of 3 days of conference, events and theatre visits, which was attended by several OISTAT commissions. Following 2 days of meetings of the Executive Committee, The Governing Board and several commissions there was a conference on ‘Theatres of Andalucia’ interspersed with visits to see local theatres and the magnificent Maestranza of Sevilla Bullring. On the final day there was a tour to see the Roman Theatre at Merida. Sadly the adjoining Museum of Roman Art was not open on a Monday.
Tim Foster
Chair of OISTAT Architecture Commission
