The Guest Professor Studio ‘Space & Technique’ offers an advanced master course in architectural design. In the spring semester 2018 the guest professor in the studio will be English architect Peter St John, from London and Zürich based office Caruso St John Architects. Peter taught at the University of North London, visiting Professor at the University of Bath and ETH in Zürich, visiting critic at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He has been teaching at London Metropolitan University. 
https://www.carusostjohn.com/

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The project would have a general title like “Living in the City_The Metropolitan Façade”.
To design a mixed use building of medium scale in the centre of the city, of apartments, with another use on the ground floor (shop/café/restaurant?) and (possibly) city offices. The site in Oslo would be special, in an older densely developed central part of the city, in a district of high value, where new buildings are quite unusual. The site should also be in a prominent position, for example a corner on a junction or roundabout, or facing a park or small square. In other words a place in which students would never expect to be able to intervene. The new building would replace an existing building (ideally) of lesser value than its neighbours, with some justification for replacement. Students would work within one particular quarter of the city, and have a choice of sites, so their projects collectively would be a comment on possible changes to the quarter. Ideally there would several sites within view of each other, for example around a city junction. This would have a more interesting spatial effect, but may not be realistic. The new building would be a bit larger (taller) than the existing buildings around it. The project is not about being polite or too contextual. Its about confidence and quality, giving a charge to the place, while still respecting the quality of the place. The sites would not be too large, for example between 1 and 4 decent sized apartments per floor, so that the proportion of the building is vertical and figural. But not towers (because then the façade is a different thing altogether. The shaping of the top is important. 
The main product of the work is a large coloured model at the scale 1.50, plus the design of one apartment (a special apartment, not a utilitarian one), and the detailed design of one façade. The project is not about solving problems or drawing every plan level.
The students work on the project in stages, first on the form of the building on the site, then the character of one apartment and the implications of its organisation the façade, and finally resolve the whole with a detailed model. The project is about how the character of a city is made by the quality of its buildings, especially the facades within a dense city with streets. How facades in the city give a charge to the space in front of them and make public (metropolitan) space. And how an interesting city façade is designed with priorities both from the outside and the inside, for instance, Brussels and Paris 1900-1920, Milan 1920-1960, Hamburg 1930, and Zurich now. Muzio, Hoger, Gaudi, Lasdun and Siza (berlin).
The model is very important because the project should not be a block. It’s a figure with a profile and a form, seen from a number of different directions (crudely, like a statue with a front back and side profile)