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Short abstract:

This paper presents the seminar "Material Stories," including its outline, methodologies informed by STS and ANT, and results. It will offer insights into this specific teaching format and discuss how it can contribute to a shift towards more just and sustainable architectural production.

Long abstract:

The history of architecture is marked by heroic figures. Canonized and divided into epochs, they are passed down through generations. In her essay "The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction" (1989), American author Ursula K. Le Guin advocates for a shift from hero-centered narratives to stories about everyday people and things. Le Guin emphasizes the importance of these often-overlooked stories for community cohesion and the creation of awareness and responsibility.

In the "Material Stories" seminar, we focus on the everyday materials we use for building. Through research and storytelling, we illuminate the diverse social and ecological entanglements of building materials, both locally and globally, within the Earth's system. Based on empirical research, students write short observation reports and tell stories from various life stages of a selected material. These ethnographic reports are then expanded into small, scientifically sound narratives through extensive research. Our focus is on the complex entanglements and dependencies within the "German" construction industry, which relies on many other actors that often remain invisible to us as architects. The best students results are published on the accompanying "Material Networks" web platform: https://blogs.hoou.de/materialnetworks/.

This paper will focus on the seminar`s outline, methodologies, and results, and discuss how STS sensibilities can contribute to a shift towards a more just and sustainable architectural production by following the socio-ecological entanglements from the inside.