Carte Blanche XXI: VOGT at Architekturforum Zurich

Layers of impressions, information, and conditions accumulate, shift, and overlap, gradually shaping the project — much like a geological process.

This approach reflects VOGT’s working method: collecting, mapping, and reinterpreting sites, materials, and phenomena. Drawings, models, and digital tools are not only means of representation but instruments of reflection and communication — forming a precise and layered understanding of landscape.

Our aim is to record and filter the information that landscapes provide. In this context, pigments serve as imprints of place. On any site, materials such as sand, stones, and plants can be gathered and, with the right knowledge, transformed into pigments and dyes for use in drawings, analyses, and models. Because of varying geological processes and material properties, not every collected substance retains its original color or is suitable for pigment or dye making.

The event is meant as a source of inspiration and insight into how pigments and dyes are created and used. It begins with an introduction to basic color theory and an overview of pigment and dye groups, outlining their origins. The talk focuses on the extraction of pigments and dyes from natural mineral, earth, and plant sources, and their application in our work at VOGT.

The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is crucial for the analysis and organization of spatial data and the detailed analysis of a location. It enables informed decision-making and forms the basis for location-based, innovative, and sustainable planning and design. Using their own drones, VOGT creates comprehensive site analyses, precise mapping, and visual documentation of entire landscapes. The integration of 3D scanning technologies enables the precise recording of everything from small individual objects to large-scale topographies and buildings. Through 3D modelling, VOGT develops complex and detailed representations of landscapes (point clouds) and uses them for a seamless integration into the design process. Parametric modelling enables the manipulation of complex design elements and leads to adaptive and responsive concepts that can be tested and communicated in simulations and visualizations.

These simulations help us to answer complex questions regarding sustainability, climate, movement flows, utilization, and design in various scenarios.

Through objects, spatial interventions, and alternative building materials, their work questions linear models of use and extraction, proposing new material narratives that emphasize reuse and the evolving life cycles of matter. 

During an ongoing residency in Egypt, the studio extends this inquiry into the region’s architectural ethos and millennia-old building practices. By engaging directly with extraction sites, mineral flows, and vernacular construction, the research traces how material cycles shape both landscape and culture. Within this expanded ecology, Studio Eidola develops a relational aesthetics of overlooked matter, tracing how cycles of use and abandonment give rise to new material constellations and temporalities within the built world.