psychogeography
1:1
extended construction
social layer

Imaginary House Tours©
Performative installation on the site
with an urban/sociological integrative approach
along side the ground-breaking ceremony
of the "Villa Up and Down" - Pro Juventute
Arnfels - Austria
Realization: 2007


In the course of the ground-breaking ceremony of the "Villa Up and Down", a House for 13 neglected children, "Imaginary House Tours" took place, which already planted the imagination of the building in the mind of the visitors. The intervention of the architecture planning team and the 'Fairy God mother' was conceived as a priming for the building on site.

On the flattened site, the ground floor plan including the root garden was painted on with chalk in 1:1 scale. A professional house tour guide - Clown Jako - was engaged and made guided tours through the house. With at least 3 "Imaginary House Tours" with the Clown, spaces were created through his narrations, which had not been there in reality, yet. Yes, he even joined the visitors on the first floor. Consumption was usurped by an active and creative "building process" in the imagination. Finally, every visitor could finish building the new house, in his fantasy by himself. ...............

Between 12:00 and 14:00 tours for children took place. The town school classes were specially invited. The school children did not only become familiar with "another" possibility of experiencing architecture, it also took place a first encounter with the children's house and the beginning of a 'Social Plastic'- creation (i.e. intended to attend remembering Joseph Beuys).