Cultivating Surface Conditions
Decay & Decoration looks at how buildings weather, and asks whether architecture might work with that process rather than against it. Ornament is the starting point: on older buildings, carved surfaces at cornices and joints were where weather, water, and time left their mark most visibly.
Stone and similar porous materials attract biofilms, crusts, lichen, and plants. These are usually treated as dirt to be removed. This project asks what happens if we take them seriously instead: as something with aesthetic, material, and cultural value.
The idea is to design surfaces that invite life rather than repel it, working across architecture, conservation, and cultural studies to imagine buildings where stone and living things exist together.
Contact: Andreas Körner
Project lead: Andreas Körner
Project partners: Isabel Kranz, Katharina Fuchs
Funding: PORT 2026