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40 513 Positions
Passed level bachelor in architecture
Studio Positions offers in depth studies of the fundamental structures that make up architecture and how these structures relate to an architectural program. The studio draws on established knowledge but also challenges our understanding of historical and existing buildings. What we know about things is not always corresponding to what we perceive and experience. We are preoccupied with not only how architecture is made but also the presence of architecture and the affect (aesthetic experience) it produces.
Title of course: Studio Positions_Distant Mandate
In the fall semester 2017 the studio will continue to investigate the relationships between the four fundamental architectural categories; substructure, structure, space and material. Starting out from a historical building reference, the palace of Alhambra in Spain, the focus of the discussion will be on 1. How ideas of structural and material assembly, are inseparable from the formation of spaces with character / spatial qualities and 2. Learning from history – how we position ourselves as architects relative to the history of architecture.
Architects have always sought inspiration and knowledge from other cultures and from the history of architecture, be it Sverre Fehn, influenced by his travels in Morocco, Ferdinand Poullion’s strong connections to Algeria, Corbusier’s travels in Greece that had a decisive influence on his future work, or Frank Lloyd Wright’s strong affinity to Japanese building traditions. In this way places and time influence and enrich architecture, opening new insight into our present condition or situation.
The palace of Alhambra is said to be founded about 1250 on the ruins of a roman fortress. The building complex consists of several structures and gardens erected over a period of hundreds of years. The experience of the richness of the palace structures, materiality, surface ornament and spaces will serve both as an immediate inspiration and as a case study to be analyzed according to the categories substructure, structure, space and material.
The semester task will be to develop a series of autonomous structures that together form a whole.
Parallel to the main task the students will produce a reflecting text.
Pedagogy:
The studio has a research-based teaching, with focus on in-depth individual research into a given topic. The student is encouraged to develop an individual formal language, and through different medias investigate fundamental architectural issues/questions. With a practice-based research and a sensual approach to technical challenges, we aim at a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of architecture and thus position oneself in the continuous architectural discourse.
Knowledge:
- Practice based research
- Awareness and ability to gain knowledge from own sensual experience of existing buildings and use this subjective experience in the making of architecture.
- Knowledge and reflection on architecture fundamental elements; substructure, structure, material and space, and how they are assembled. Abstract geometry versus individual and intuitive design decisions.
- Historical layers. What to continue and what to leave behind?
Skills:
- Ability to deal with issues of construction and thematic intent
- Increased knowledge and skills in: Investigation methods, architecture programming, architectural properties
- Revisit history of architecture – by being inspired by, interpret anew, to further develop by clarification.
Competence:
- Ability to reflect on own work verbally and in writing
- To develop an architectural position
- Architectural design. Individual investigation. 20 weeks semester task including individual written assignment and group reviews.
Recommended readings:
Anders Abraham, A New Nature
David Leatherbarrow, Architecture oriented Otherwize
Kenneth Frampton, A Genealogy of Modern Architecture: A Comparative Critical Analyses of Built Form
Kenneth Frampton, Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Constructions in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture
Adam Caruso, The Feeling of Things
Adam Caruso and Maria Conen, Rudolf Schwartz and the Monumental Order of Things
Adam Caruso and Helen Thomas, Asagno and Vender and the Construction of Modern Milan
Adam Caruso and Helen Thomas, The Stones of Ferdinand Pouillon: An Alternative Modernism in French Architecture
Koji Taki
, Kazunari Sakamoto: House - Poetics in the Ordinary
Anne Lacaton, Lacaton & Vassal
Stones Against Diamonds, Lina Bo Bardi
Peter Zumthor, Thinking Architecture
Junichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows
Hiroshi Nakao, 4 Critic (ed. Nobuaki Ishimaru)
| Mandatory coursework | Courseworks required | Presence required | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presence required | Required | Attendance and participation in reviews, lectures and announced meetings is mandatory. | |
| Excursions | Not required | Participation recommended |
| Form of assessment | Grouping | Grading scale | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project assignment | Individual | Pass / fail |