ALICE
Techne can be understood as a craft or art, a learned skill inscribed in the body that is then applied or activated to mediate our relation to nature. It is a knowledge that is destined to create what nature cannot achieve.
By means of this term, ALICE looks at the architectural project as a form of knowledge centered around the idea of « making », there where the process of conception and manufacture feed each other to translate a thought or a concept into a concrete physical entity.
This understanding of the possibilities of the physical world through the act of making is made possible through the use of different tools. Tools that need to be learnt and considered in their assemblage with the body, in its gestures and the possibilities that connection opens up. Techne describes a form of action that goes beyond the practical to implicate the cognitive into a transformative practice.
Within this framework, several lines of work where design, research and teaching interact are developed. They formed a Techne Geography. For instance, through an analysis of Tectonic Innovation, we develop sustainable working methods and processes in the context of our built environment. It generates interactions between researchers from different disciplines. Through the idea of Docta Manus, we focus on how to generate new knowledge through iterative processes of making with the body at its centre. Through these different activities, Techne seeks to open a common ground for action and experience in between the body, nature and technology.
