Start semester
40 656 Climate Form - NOW
Admission to AHO and successful completion of three years bachelor level studies (180 ECTS).
Part of course series: Climate Form
The course is open to students from: Architecture
Description of the studio series
The Climate Form studio aims to equip the student with a knowledge platform where architecture is examined within a context of environmental sustainability. The studio curriculum and associated assignments will revolve around strategies for climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation and actively seek to integrate the understanding of these in form-finding processes and critical evaluation.
Deep knowledge of effects upon climate and ecology as a result of the practice of construction and the procurement of materials that forms and reshapes our physical environment is overdue as a fundamental driver for design in the Anthropocene. Resultant change in the prerequisites for design have duly created a demand for distinct changes in formal expression, a revivification of the architectural language of climate-adaptive existence. Examined through three proponents of change: Climate, Materials and Behavior, the studio seeks to engender future scenario thinking as multidimensional context to decode, integrate and react upon.
Description of studio assignments
The studio’s approach method is projective prototyping – examining typology, function, materiality and form as a result of contemporary understanding of climate change implications both regionally and globally. The main theme spring 2023 is circular design practice; reducing the environmental footprint from building materials seen in a lifecycle perspective. The material in focus; up-cycled plastics from marine industry.
The final architectural result will be a built pavilion, floating on the water by Langkaia in Bjørvika, Oslo, designed and constructed by the studio students, teachers and collaborative partners.
The pavilion will host activities revolving around the environmental collective Nordic Ocean Watch (NOW), an organization working with public outreach to increase society’s knowledge and efforts on marine plastic waste. NOW facilitate for groups and school classes to come and participate in plastic waste sorting, as well as letting the general public have access outside of manned hours.
The project is funded by Oslo Municipality, Bymiljøetaten (BYM) and is a forerunner for a larger permanent knowledge hub in Lohavn. Communication regarding environmental challenges and societal and technical solutions to marine ocean waste will extend to become part of the architectural design itself, including studies of material properties and environmental impacts, reversible construction principals and passive climatization strategies.
The studio will collaborate with Institute of design (GK4/Stein Killi) on the actual prototyping of plastic building elements and have involved several industrial partners to participate in the process with the aim to give AHO a role as a laboratory; a testbed for architectural explorations that can further inform our industry. NOW is involved in a network of organizations with similar initiatives both nationally and internationally, and has the ambition is to establish knowledge hubs in several locations along the Nordic coastlines.
Knowledge:
- Knowledge on the political agenda in relation to climate mitigation and adaption – nationally and internationally.
- Knowledge on climate mitigation design strategies to lower up-front carbon emissions, assessment of material properties and environmental impacts, circular design strategies and use of lifecycle methodology as a design tool (LCAs).
- Knowledge on external climate design strategies, including scenario-based visualization representing the present state in relation to projected futures, weather situations, risks and opportunities.
- Knowledge on Internal climate design strategies, including passive heating, cooling, ventilation and daylight.
Skills:
- Assessing environmentally sound design results, learning to integrate in-depth materials investigations and big-data climate studies as parameters in the form-finding process.
General competence:
- Conceptual models and drawings, physical models to scale, 3D models, 2D drawing 1:200 – 1:20, 1:1 construction drawings and building process.
The teacher team running the course are practice oriented, represents architects and engineers and cover a broad approach to the topic of sustainable architecture. The studio set-up is based on involvement with external collaborators, both with initiative takers, the municipality and relevant industry partners as active partners.
Lecture series:
- Materials - LCA
- Climate - External and Internal
- Behavior – Context and Program
- Additional guest lecturers (4 pr semester)
The teaching resources will conduct lecture series running throughout the full semester accompanied by tasks and tutorials for the use of tools/methods to validate design results. Preparation material for both lecture series in the form of literature, reports, reference projects etc is made available up-front. This to help the student group to actively participate and discuss.
Design assignments:
The semester is subdivided into several design tasks where the students actively integrate the conveyed information into design response. Tasks are both individual and group based. All sub-assignments build up to a project assignment, in this case a common project for the full group of students executed full scale.
There will be bi-weekly pin-ups in plenum, weekly individual and group supervision, student-to-student feedback session. Internal and external examiner will be present at midterm and final review. An individual report on a focused topic and associated tool/method will be part of the final review.
Excursions:
There will be excursions to relevant industrial collaborators as well as abroad to see/meet competence hubs within the field of circular design.
Course literature will be available in Leganto.
| Form of assessment | Grouping | Grading scale | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project assignment | - | Pass / fail |
| Workload activity | Comment |
|---|---|
| Attendance | Participation and attendance in lectures, supervision at the desks in the studio, seminars and workshops is expected. |
| Excursion | Those who do not have the opportunity to participate in an excursion will be given an assignment/a project that replaces this. |