Start semester
40 634 Positions: Co-existence
Credits:
24
Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:
Positions: Co-existence
Course code:
40 634
Level of study:
Master
Teaching semester:
2020 Spring
Assessment semester:
2020 Spring
Language of instruction:
English
Year:
2020
Maximum number of students:
24
Person in charge
Lisbeth Funck
Matthew Anderson
Required prerequisite knowledge
Passed level bachelor in architecture
Course content
Co-existence is the state or fact of living or existing at the same time or in the same place, related to a specific place and (all of) its inhabitants.
In the spring semester 2020 Studio Positions continues to discuss Coexistence related to architecture and culture. We have borrowed the title of the semester task from the 17th International Architecture exhibition: How will we live together?
Learning from the city of Venice including its cultural, sociological, economical history and its building tradition, the task for the spring semester 2020 is to develop a structure that critically discusses “Otherness”. Through an architectural project the students are asked to investigate the relation of the whole and it´s parts, and between public and private space in terms of ownership.
An individual architectural program is to be developed, framed by each student’s findings/interests in situ in Venice. Relevant topics to be discussed throughout the semester will be; the ghetto, autonomy and community, heterogeneity and homogeneity, to alter, to renew, to remain, to repeat, to substitute, originality, autonomy and novelty, recurrence, recombination.
The main aim is to critically discuss Co-existence through an architectural construction related to the given topic - informed by the extraordinary historical and architectural complexity of Venice.
Architecture & Culture_Studio Positions:
Studio Positions offers in depth studies of the structures that make up architecture and how these structures relate to their environment. The studio aims at investigating new approaches to the making of architecture by change of position, facilitating movement and different viewpoints, as the spatial term position indicates. The studio draws on established knowledge but also challenges our understanding and knowledge of existing buildings and the environment. We are preoccupied with not only how architecture is made but also the presence of architecture and the affect (aesthetic experience) it produces.
1. Making as culture: architecture and the production of presence - Architecture as autonomous structures
2. Architecture as culture: Architecture understood related to contemporary and historical culture: architecture, sociology, philosophy, literature, and art. - Architecture as carrier of traditions and architecture as challenger of the established culture.
Learning outcome
Increased knowledge and skills in:
- Research based design practice: Investigation methods – not problem solving
- Architectural properties: Geometric ordering, the immanent potential in the matter, relations of building entities
- Architecture programming
- Visual and written argumentation
- A deeper understanding of the fundamentals of architecture
Discussions on:
- Relevant topic related to the semester task
- Architecture and culture:
The relation between architecture and culture has always been reflected in the arts and architecture and as we today face fast progressing climate changes the relevance of the topic is reflected in the effort put into research. New knowledge brought forward through more technical based research will inform the development of buildings to come. The artistic challenge is to consider the knowledge as input and not as the result in itself and to challenge how we conventionally look upon nature – as its superiors. The studio will question
Working and learning activities
Pedagogy: Research based design practice
Studio Positions provides an arena for students to concentrate and develop their own position in relation to architecture, inspiring them to delve into the social and cultural challenges that mark our time, and reflect on how these challenges have influenced our relationship to architectural space and how we use it.
The studio has a research-based teaching, were the student is encouraged to
- develop an individual formal/architectural language through both a research-informed and sensuous approach, and through different media investigate architectural issues/questions based on the given topic and
- to place/position their project within a the larger cultural context, and to develop a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of architecture
Evaluation
Form of examination:
Architectural design. Individual investigation. 20 weeks semester task
Written assignment
Large physical structures
Minimum attendance (80%) at reviews and announced studio meetings
| Form of assessment | Grouping | Grading scale | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project assignment | Individual | Pass / fail |