Halfforms

Research


Halfforms - Halfway

midpoint exhibition (2023 - 2025)



Hosted by the Institute for Experimental Architecture Building Design and Construction Schmidbaur Group at the University of Innsbruck, the exhibition showcases work developed within the arts-based research project Halfforms, led by Prof. Karolin Schmidbaur and funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) — PEEK Programme, as well as teaching work carried out at the Institute.

Opening Event – Wednesday, December 3

Venue: Ortner & Stanger, Fürstenweg 66, 6020 Innsbruck
Entrance via courtyard / parking

18:00 — Keynote Lecture: Marc Leschelier
19:00 — Opening of Halfforms – Halfways
Spatial installations, prototypes, and research documentation

Exhibition Opening Hours

The exhibition is also open every Friday of December 2025 and January 2026.
from 14:00 to 16:00, except on December 19, December 26, and January 2.

About the Research

Halfforms investigates how architecture can emerge from the intrinsic behaviors of materials rather than from predetermined forms. At the center of this inquiry is vulcanized fiber—a cellulose-based biopolymer whose natural deformation during drying generates unique, self-formed geometries. Strong, lightweight, and ecologically promising, the material enables new construction logics in which digital methods mediate the designer's intentions and the material behavior. The project proposes an architectural methodology rooted in material intelligence, hybrid production, and the co-authorship between designers and matter.
Funded through the FWF PEEK Programme, this research advances an arts-based understanding of how material agency can reshape architectural thinking and making.

Keynote Speaker — Marc Leschelier (https://www.marcleschelier.com/)

Marc Leschelier is a French architect whose practice builds “architectures without function”—raw, immediate, and unmediated forms situated beyond regulatory and disciplinary confines. Drawing from performance art, vernacular construction, and industrial abstraction, his pre-architecture challenges habitual notions of authorship and resonates directly with the experimental ethos of Halfforms.

Exhibition team:

 Karolin Schmidbaur
 Lukas Allner
 Gonzalo Vaíllo
 Gilbert Sommer

Assistants:

 Dario Lantschner
 Elias Geser
 Anna d’Eredita
 Klara Gassner
 Jonas Klett
 Luca Lazzari
 Linus Memmel
 Richard Schneider
 Greta Süß