CTRL_CE documents the journey of sixteen European architects to the post-professional program at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation of Columbia University in New York (GSAPP). The documentation – travelling to various other European venues – brings together what they have collectively produced, heard, discussed, and read throughout this journey while attempting to question what is implied by the term “European architects”.
The members of the CTRL_CE group embody the intersection of two entities: Europe and GSAPP. For some, “European-ness” is related to one country. For others, it is a varied continent, or merely an idea. However different the individual interpretations may be, the members of CTRL_CE share a body of ideas, thoughts, and debates about the spatial, chronological, and conceptual relations that are evoked by this combination. Thus, the common ground – architecture – becomes the device through which movement between these two worlds is facilitated. Travel from one to the other is not merely physical, but serves as an impetus to reassess one’s identity at the threshold of architectural exploration.
The exhibition’s ambition is to relate these two entities, Europe and the GSAPP, at a time that has been declared as a period of transformation for both. It wishes to do so understanding that what is actually taking place is the opposite; namely, not a transformation but, rather, a forced break in order to evaluate, assess, and name newly recognizable tendencies in both. This break is also seen as the opportunity for new questions and doubt.
Organized by the DESTE Foundation in collaboration with Columbia University, New York
Sponsored by Alianz and Varangis Avepe S.A.
