2016 Høst

Start semester

2016 Høst

Behind the hill, into the wild

Emnenavn på Norwegian Bokmål:

Behind the hill, into the wild

Credits:

Course code:

60 514

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2016 Autumn

Language of instruction:

English

Required prerequisite knowledge

Course is open to to architecture and landscape architecture students.

Course content

The landscapes of the cold high-altitude Andes and the Norwegian mountains have been described with superlatives about dramatic geography, extreme beauty, abundance of water resources and ecosystems that respond to altitudinal variations. In the case of the Andes these landscapes also force us to reconsider the cliches traditionally employed to describe the specific aesthetics of the tropics.
Astonishingly comparisons went as far as when Swedish geographer Erik Ljungner, suggested in 1940’s to name the Swedish part of the mountain range, the “Scandes” mountains based in his fascination for the Andes after returning from his expeditions in South America.

The expeditions:
The studio will venture out in two expeditions, the first one in Norway and the second to the high altitude tropical Andes in Colombia.
In the Colombian case these are landscapes that just recently became accessible for foreigners, landscapes that are in constant and growing pressure from extraction practices, torn by war and in some cases extreme scarcity, on the other hand theses landscapes also present the extreme beauty of some of the most bio-diverse ecosystems of the world. Mountainous landscapes that like in Norway and the Alps, it’s artistic descriptions are always full of superlatives and romanticism.

After traveling in Norway the expedition to Colombia will expose the students to a topography that in many ways will look familiar, but at every turn of the road will present some of the most extreme forms of urbanization, from churches in the middle of the Pan-American road, to markets in steep slopes, or Spanish plazas completely deformed by topography. By performing these two trips within short time interval students will be pushed to employ geographic and territorial analogies to understand particular processes of urbanization. Perhaps a familiar perspective for many students, the landscapes will be exotic and to some extent uncharted.

Context:
Colombia ́s enduring war has reached a pivotal moment as the Oslo (and later Havana ) peace dialogues mark a turning point for the mediation of land redistribution.1 Five million hectares of rural land will be redistributed in the next 20 years. Within a diversity of climatic and geophysical attributes, for the first time a young generation perhaps aspires to move from the city to the countryside. How might theoretical and practical design tools enable new ecologies and livelihoods able to sustain this transition? Understanding that the redistribution of land should go beyond the paradigm of agro-industrial models of mono-cropping, the visualization of new rural narratives will be foundational to the re-formulation of policies, resource allocation, and re-settlement planning, amidst the impending urban-rural exodus.
Cases:
Beyond geologic features, rugged terrains, abundance of water and beautiful views, Nordic and Andean landscapes also share the fact that both have been the driving force behind unique processes of urbanization. From a historic perspective we will learn from the comparison between Andean capitals, villages located in between high altitude valleys and small towns in Norway. From a more contemporary angle this graphic comparison is intended to reinforce the idea that the distinctions between urban and non urban as dictated by population agglomeration are outdated and not useful for designing in extreme geographies.

Design:
A wild child of Branzi’s Agronica with the deformed grids of the Idias plans. In a place where flatness is an exception rather than the rule.

This second phase of the studio will focus on the design of a collective spatial mat of at least 10 Hectares (shared by the whole studio) and interventions of multiple scale that will invite the public to visit and enjoy these previously inaccessible landscapes. The position of the mat will coincide with as close to a topographic replica in Norway that we can find. After the trips we will keep verifying scale and position in a real test site in Norway. Climate and atmosphere will become fiction and the ground just an abstract reference system.
For projecting the mat we will revisit the relentless horizontality of Branzi’s Agronica. As model we will test it against extremely steep slopes and a convoluted vegetal cover. What for Branzi, Archizoom, et al were voids, for us will be thick, rich, and in some instant impassable landscape features. What for Branzi was industrial agriculture for us will be churches, schools and other basic building blocks for an Andean catholic small town. The basic building blocks of a post-conflict remote city.

To be able to have morphological features at the forefront of design and North-South comparisons, students will take part in two photography workshops in Norway and Colombia. This will help us transcend the limitations of landscape photography as document to collect exotic landscapes. The technique will also facilitate the incorporation of this information into the design phase and the production of video based documents for final exhibition.
By employing the same techniques, same equipment, old and new, analog and digital, students will discover and expose precise differences in the manifestation of color palette, light, textures covering similar topographies.

Final exhibition will be held at AHO and the films and large format photographs will be presented at the 2017 Bordeaux biennial “Agora” where the outcome of the studio will engage curatorial questions about national identity through the representation of the landscape, and more importantly expose new ways to look at a part of the tropical Andes that has just been opened up to the public.

.1 With the second largest population of internal displacement in the world, the 2015 UNHCR Profile for Colombia calculates that 80%
.2 Andrea Branzi’s Agronica, illustrates the relentlessly horizontal spread of capital across thinly settled territory, and the resulting “weak urbanization” that neo-liberal economics has enabled. Commissioned by Philips Electronics, and created in association with the Domus Academy — a research institute Branzi cofounded in the ’80s — Agronica explores the potential relationships among agricultural and energy production, new versions of post-Fordist industrialism, and the cultures of consumption they produce.

Learning outcome

1. Students will learn about the complexities and particularities of landscape and architecture interventions in tropical contexts. As the knowledge acquired will be also tested against similar topographies in Norway, the students will experiment and perhaps discover unexpected overlaps that makes these methods appropriate beyond tropical geographies.

2. Using contemporary methods ranging from photography, video and other forms of survey, students will produce original representations of the high altitude andean landscape. As some of these landscapes have been closed to the public for a number of decades the drawings and photographs produced in the course will be considered as true expeditionary material. After a couple hundred years of landscape depictions by explorers and artists, the production of artistic representation of part of the Colombian Andes were interrupted over the past fifty years. Students taking part of the course will have the pleasure (and responsibility) of been pioneers.

3. Students will test the relevance of experimental urban theories and design methods in the context of a post-conflict escenario. More precisely Andrea Branzi’s “Weak urbanization”.
The immediacy of the pressing situation perhaps will push students to resolve visible problems, however the need for new visions for the future of these landscapes will require a certain dose of fiction and speculative realism. Students will learn how to balance these seemingly opposed design approaches.

4. Students will learn how to present the finding to an audience outside academia.

Working and learning activities

Studio format. Individual and collective pinups. Monthly lectures. Field trips to Colombia and within Norway.

Studio trip:
One week in September 2016. Precise dates to be announced.

Special equipment:
4k capable video drone, large format camera, full frame digital camera. All available for studio trip. Only one for the whole studio.

Curriculum

Partial bibliography:

Baweja, Vandana. 2008. A pre-history of Green Architecture: Otto Koenigsberger and Tropical Architecture, from Princely Mysore to post-colonial

London. Ann Arbor, Mich: UMI.

Beck, Ulrich. 2014. How Climate Change Might Save The World: Metamorphosis. Harvard Design Magazine No.39. Wet Matter. Edt. Pierre Belanger. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Belanger, Pierre. 2015. Pamphlet architecture 35. Going live. from states to systems. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Brenner, Neil. 2014. Implosions/explosions: towards a study of planetary urbanization.

Branzi, Andrea. 2006. Weak and diffuse modernity: the world of projects at the beginning of the 21st century. Milan, Italy: Skira.

Ciplet, David, J. Timmons Roberts, and Mizanur Rahman Khan. 2015. Power in a warming world: the new global politics of climate change and the remaking of environmental inequality.

Davis, D.E. 2014. "Modernist Planning and the Foundations of Urban Violence in Latin America". Built Environment. 40 (3): 376-393.

Fry, Maxwell, and Jane Drew. 1976. Architecture and the environment. London: Allen & Unwin.

Fry, Maxwell. 1945. Town planning scheme for Freetown. Freetown: Govt. Printer, Sierra Leone. https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/17547.

Fry, Edwin Maxwell, and Jane Beverly Drew. 1982. Tropical architecture in the dry and humid zones. Malabar, Fla: Krieger.

Haswell, Margaret Rosary. 1973. Tropical farming economics. [Harlow]: Longman.

Jackson, Iain, and Jessica Holland. 2014. The architecture of Edwin Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew: twentieth century architecture, pioneer modernism and the tropics. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

le Roux, Hannah. 2003. "The networks of tropical architecture". The Journal of Architecture. 8 (3): 337-354.

Koenigsberger, Otto H. 1952. "New towns in India". Town Planning Review, July 1952, Vol. 23:2, P. [94]-131; with Maps, Plans, Tables. Koenigsberger, Otto. 1979. "Teaching methods for settlement planners and builders".Habitat International. 4 (1): 149-154. Koenigsberger, Otto H. 1983. "The role of the planner in a poor (and in a not quite so poor) country". Habitat.
Mathur, Anuradha, and Dilip da Cunha. 2009. Soak: Mumbai in an estuary. New Delhi: Rupa & Co.

Mora C., Frazier A.G., Longman R.J., Sanchez J.J., Kaiser L.R., et al. 2013. "The projected timing of climate departure from recent variability". Nature. 502 (7470): 183-187.

Mumford, Eric Paul. 2009. Defining urban design: CIAM architects and the formation of a discipline, 1937-69. New Haven: Yale University Press. Robbins, Peter. 2003. Stolen fruit: the tropical commodities disaster. London: Zed Books.

Sachs, Jeffrey D. 2001. Tropical underdevelopment. Cambridge MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.

Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. 2005. Friction: an ethnography of global connection. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Wainwright, Joel. 2008. Decolonizing development: colonial power and the Maya. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.

Waldheim, Charles. 2006. The landscape urbanism reader. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
Waldheim, Charles. “A General Theory” Lecture, Olmsted Lecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA, September 8, 2015.

Uduku, Ola. 2006. "Modernist architecture and ‘the tropical’ in West Africa: The tropical architecture movement in West Africa, 1948-1970". Habitat International. 30 (3): 396-411.

Daniels, Mary F., and Ines Zalduendo. 2003. Shaping and reshaping Latin American cities: Josep Lluis Sert and Town Planning Associates. ReVista (Cambridge, Mass).

Edwards, Paul N. 2010. A vast machine computer models, climate data, and the politics of global warming. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Scheidegger, Ernst, Maristella Casciato, and Stanislaus von Moos. 2010. Chandigarh 1956: Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Jane B. Drew, E.

Maxwell Fry. Zürich: Scheidegger & Spiess

Sert, Josep LLuis. 1944. Can our cities survive?: an ABC of urban problems, their analysis, their solutions : based on the proposals formulated by the C.I.A.M. Cambridge, MA [etc.]: Harvard University Press.

Archives of Interest

- Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry Collection, RIBA’s Library Archives 2

- Josep Lluis Sert Collection, GSD’s Frances Loeb Design Library 3

- Financial Times Historical Archive 1888 – 2015

- Otto Koenigsberger Collection, Architectural Association 4

- USGS Landsat Archive 1972 - 2015

Presence required
Not required

Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
-	Pass / fail	Mid and final term review. Exhibition format with oral and graphic presentation

Start semester

Pre-Diplom Landskapsarkitektur

Emnenavn på Norwegian Bokmål:

Pre-Diplom Landskapsarkitektur

Credits:

Course code:

60 701

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2016 Autumn

Language of instruction:

Norwegian / English

Required prerequisite knowledge

Successful completion of 60 credits. Last Semester before diploma. The course is open to students of architecture and landscape architecture. The course is open to students attending the Urban Design Studio.

Course content

The pre-diploma semester at AHO is an independent research task on a theme chosen by the candidate. In consultation with the course teacher, fellow students and a chosen advisor, the candidate is to produce a report that details a topic to be studied, an approach or methodology, a spatial program and a plan of work. This report is the foundation of the diploma work.

Learning outcome

At the end of the course, the students will have acquired the necessary knowledge to proceed with the independent diploma assignment:
∙ An understanding of the complexity of a chosen urban or landscape site and topic
∙ An ability to frame artistic and scientific research
∙ An understanding of the given natural, social, cultural and technological conditions that govern urban or landscape design work
∙ An awareness of the topic’s historical, societal, theoretical and methodological ramifications
∙ An ability to communicate ideas and plan work
∙ An understanding of one’s own individual position with the discipline

Working and learning activities

The course is an individual research assignment with group discussions and interim presentations of the different research components. It concludes with a pre-diploma report containing the following elements:
- Topic description
- Site presentation
- Maps of selected issues
- Reviews and discussions of relevant literature
- Summaries and discussions of interviews with experts
- Reference projects presentations and discussions

Presence required
Not required

Start semester

Pre-Diploma Landscape Architecture (Tromsø)

Emnenavn på Norwegian Bokmål:

Pre-Diploma Landscape Architecture (Tromsø)

Credits:

Course code:

65 701

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2016 Autumn

Language of instruction:

Norwegian / English

Required prerequisite knowledge

Successful completion of 60 credits. Last Semester before diploma.

Course content

Learning outcome

∙ An understanding of the complexity of a chosen urban or landscape site and topic
∙ An ability to frame artistic and scientific research
∙ An understanding of the given natural, social, cultural and technological conditions that govern urban or landscape design work
∙ An awareness of the topic’s historical, societal, theoretical and methodological ramifications
∙ An ability to communicate ideas and plan work
∙ An understanding of one’s own individual position with the discipline

Working and learning activities

Presence required
Not required

Start semester

GK 3 Arkitekturhistorie 2

Emnenavn på Norwegian Bokmål:

GK 3 Arkitekturhistorie 2

Credits:

Course code:

80 131

Level of study:

Bachelor

Teaching semester:

2016 Autumn

Language of instruction:

Norwegian

Person in charge

Mari Hvattum

Required prerequisite knowledge

The course is mandatory for all architecture students in GK3, and builds on the course Architectural history 1 (GK2)

Course content

Architectural History 2 gives an introduction to European and North-American architectural history from around 1900 until today. We study buildings and their contexts, placing particular emphasis on the origins and development of Modernism. Through a series of close readings of selected works, the course explores Modernist design practices as well as its theoretical and ideological ideals. The course is structured as a lecture series.

Learning outcome

The course gives historical knowledge as well as training in understanding and analysing buildings. At the end of the course, the students will be able to analyse architectural form in a critical, contextual, and historically conscious manner.

Working and learning activities

The course is structured as a lecture series with some short excursions to buildings.

The lectures are compulsory. Students are expected to read course literature ahead of each lecture.

Presence required
Not required

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Written Exam	-	A-F	Eksamensform: Skoleeksamen

Start semester

2016 Høst

SNOWSPACE: investigating spatial potential for the subarctic city

Emnenavn på Norwegian Bokmål:

SNOWSPACE: investigating spatial potential for the subarctic city

Credits:

Course code:

65 503

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2016 Autumn

Language of instruction:

English

Required prerequisite knowledge

Bachelor in landscape architecture/architecture

Course content

The studio will investigate how to develop an understanding of nature as infrastructure in the Northern urban context. How can the need for management of urban storm water, sea level rise, waterways and snow storage become spatial resources for city life in the Subarctic city. What is the potential for this to become a multi-layered infrastructure and an integral part of the Subarctic city enhancing its identity? The pressure for densification of urban areas to minimize transport and exploitation of unbuilt land, accentuates the challenges related to water/snow and the studio seeks to challenge this by investigating how the need for snowspace can release opportunities for the subarctic city.
While the programme takes the Arctic as its laboratory, the knowledge and know-how it produces aims to have valuable transference value to a more general range of landscapes facing climate and industrial change that affects the urban settlements.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:
The studio aims to give the students knowledge about landscape ecology, climate and hydrology in an urban context, with special focus on sub-arctic conditions included the northern social and political context for the practise of landscape architecture. Local knowledge and site-specific project work will provide and produce knowledge especially on water and snow in relation to spatial conditions in the city.

Skills:
The studio seeks to develop the students’ ability to harvest knowledge and develop their sensitivity to input from site, science and culture as well as the specific social and urban context. The studio aims at training the skill to make this knowledge instrumental to the development of strong concepts and design proposals with artistic quality. The studio will work with drawing/sketching, digital tools, physical models and presentation/communication of ideas/designs.

General competence:
The students are expected to learn how to use their knowledge and skills to conceptualize, coordinate and execute integral designs rooted in the specific local context and the knowledge of human-made and natural systems with special awareness of water and snow as spatial agents in the subarctic urban context. The studio aims to develop an awareness and critical reflection on topics that contribute to the general professional and public discourse and to position their work in relation to this.

Working and learning activities

The students will work with chosen localities in Tromsø in relation to the themes described above. The studio will work with models, mapping, visualization tools and design development. The students will also be involved in on-site field investigations at localities in Tromsø. This field-work will also include collaboration with stormwater experts in the municipality as well as scientists at the University of Tromsø.

Lectures, tutorials, workshops and group reviews have mandatory attendance at 90%.
Mandatory hand in of all designated deliverables.
Mandatory attendance to oral examination with external sensors.

Field trip: Oulu
Other modules:
August: 10 days Finnmark county traverse: landscapes, biological laboratories, settlements and cities
Workshops:
• Applied climate knowledge
• Urban stormwater

Mandatory coursework	Presence required	Comment
Presence required	Not required	Lectures, tutorials, workshops and group reviews have mandatory attendance at 90%. Mandatory hand in of all designated deliverables. Mandatory attendance to oral examination with external sensors.

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe)	-	-	Final studio work is presented in group review evaluated by external sensors. Details on deliverables will be provided with the detailed studio plan but normally includes digital presentation and exhibition of model work together with printed posters/boards

Start semester

Intervals of neglect: Industrial Heritage in the Arctic

Emnenavn på Norwegian Bokmål:

Intervals of neglect: Industrial Heritage in the Arctic

Credits:

Course code:

65 504

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2016 Autumn

Language of instruction:

English

Required prerequisite knowledge

A completed Bachelor in Landscape Architecture or Architecture from university or university college.
Study place Tromsø the whole semester.

Course content

The course will introduce students to the topic of industrial heritage from an Arctic perspective through case studies specifically chosen for the studio. The sites under investigation will allow students to engage with traces of past activity whilst exploring how landscape interventions can shape their future. It embraces design for an unpredictable future where responses may be richly speculative but informed. The sites will share past histories concerning extractive industries, such as coal mining, copper mining and ice extraction from lakes and glaciers. Engagement with the material, historic and cultural qualities of these sites will raise questions about their vulnerabilities in an Arctic context. Excursions will include visits to a site on Tromsøya, Kåfjord and Bjørnøya/ Svalbard.

The overall objectives of the studio are as follows:

• General theory on heritage – introduction to the criteria for how sites/objects gain heritage status. The theory will embrace the subject of time and reinforce the interconnectedness of past, present and future.
• the consequences of climate change on heritage sites in the Arctic- thawing permafrost, coastal erosion, geo-hazards, rising sea levels, changing ecologies etc. are just some of the physical threats endangering heritage sites in the Arctic today.
• Consequences of tourism on Arctic heritage sites - considerations relating to management plans, accessibility, protection etc. will be introduced.
• Examine the different approaches of contemporary landscape architecture to heritage sites. Here, research is incorporated into the design process to further understand landscape practice and heritage, in addition to developing a critique of methods that have been implemented by landscape architects.

Learning outcome

a. Knowledge:
• The students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the process of sites gaining heritage status in the Arctic – they will learn the procedures adopted by local, regional, national and international bodies.
• An awareness of the threats and vulnerabilities to Arctic heritage sites, both environmental and social, will be addressed.
• Extensive knowledge of how landscape architects take different approaches to heritage sites with a view to understanding the different outcomes of diverse interventions

b. Skills:
• Students will learn of the various considerations to be addressed when approaching the study of a heritage site such as sourcing, recording and documenting of information.
• Ability to illustrate information pertaining to specific sites through the development of site plans and sections of varying scales; incorporation of archaeological, ecological, geological, climatic data etc.
• Ability to work independently and in groups throughout the studio.
• Develop competencies on how to adopt appropriate methods, covered in theory, to specific sites. It is expected to be an experimental and exploratory exercise in transferring theoretical knowledge to practical studio work.

c. General competence:
• A good and well-informed knowledge of Arctic heritage with the ability to be critical of approaches adopted by different professionals/stakeholders of multiple perspectives.
• A working knowledge of the basic tools and skills needed to analyse, appraise and implement appropriate measures to Arctic heritage sites.
• Abilities to refine large quantities of research information into concise and appropriate means.
• Communicate studio work effectively, through visual and oral presentations, to both landscape architects and other professionals related to heritage.

Working and learning activities

• Lectures including those from external sources e.g. UiT, Polar Institute input
• Studio work – individual and group work
• Study trip at the start of the semester

Presence required	Comment
Not required	This course is assessed as Passed/Failed based on at least 80% participation Project evaluation. Project will be developed in the course of the studio, and presented in written and visual form. Final evaluation by an external examiner.

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Project assignment	-	-	This course is assessed as Passed/Failed based on at least 80% participation Project evaluation. Project will be developed in the course of the studio, and presented in written and visual form. Final evaluation by an external examiner.

Start semester

2016 Høst

Experience of a Nordic Space

Emnenavn på Norwegian Bokmål:

Experience of a Nordic Space

Credits:

Course code:

40 511

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2016 Autumn

Language of instruction:

Norwegian / English

Person in charge

Neven Fuchs-Mikac

Required prerequisite knowledge

Passed 6 semesters

Course content

The Guest Professor Studio ‘Space & Technique’ offers an advanced master course in architectural design. In the autumn semester 2016 the guest professor in the studio will be Swiss architect Christian Kerez arch ETH, professor at ETHZ, with the architectural practice in Zürich.
http://www.kerez.arch.ethz.ch/
www.kerez.ch
www.christiankerez.tumblr.com

+
The studio will operate on the base of two working groups, with12 students in each. The group 1 will be working with an architectural research “Experience of a Nordic Space” where students will be producing pictures and texts on the theme of Nordic Space, but not traditional architectural projects. Christian Kerez will be teaching this group. The group 2 will be working with a kind of research-oriented project proposal with the same theme, based on the set of individually chosen criteria developed in collaboration with the students from the group 1. The division into two groups, a research and a project group, will be done on the base individual portfolios and interviews, conducted during the first semester week. The idea of collaboration aims to strengthen the architectural discussion and synergy between both groups with slightly different architectural focuses. Precise details about the work and how we imagine it to be conducted and presented will be given the students at the beginning of the studio. We hope that this elementary starting point could generate an interesting frame for development of architecturally engaging work in the studio.

+
“A building is not like an experiment in science, because the experience of the architectonic space is something you cannot separate from the space itself. The quality of architecture can only be verified within the experience of the building itself. The plan is only a tool, models are only an approach; they cannot replace architectonic space.

I am nonetheless interested in making models, and sketches as pictures and showing them in exhibitions, because by reducing the experience of space they can help to focus on individual aspects of architecture. Every kind of medium translates space into something else that can be put into a book or an exhibition, carried around, or sent by email. This change, this crucial experience of the architectural space can provide an awareness of certain individual aspects of architecture…..”

“…. A sea of pictures from our pages on Facebook, Tumblr, and homepage reflect on singular, fragmented aspects of architecture, on impressions that pass by without any clear statement. Some pictures are merely raw material which may, one day, become a starting point of an idea or just help to clarify a singular question in an ongoing design process…..Other pictures taken on different journeys and shown at lectures try only to memorize and describe the experience of the real, absent architecture. All these pictures show a never-ending field of possibilities for a project, a starting point full of incertitude. Only in a project will these streams of pictures eventually meet and find some evidence hidden in its conceptual logic.”
Christian Kerez;

Learning outcome

formulating the independent and prejudice-less thinking about architecture and about working with its constituent material
- stimulating the individual awareness of todays positions in architecture
- stimulating the awareness of one's own architectural position and one's own attitude toward the work with architecture

+
After finishing the course, the student should:
- be able to discover and sharpen his/her own working method
- be able to develop principles for structuring of both basic and complex
architectural material and develop it into a final project
- be able to develop and structure the architectural knowledge on the base of specific project themes chosen to work with during the studio
- be able to learn how to creatively use architectural research in the work with architecture.
- be able to present and communicate his/her architectural ideas and his/her final project through the appropriate forms of representation, with drawings, models, diagrams, photos, 3Ds, etc.
- benefit from the work with a foreign guest-teacher and from the confrontation with his architectural thinking, knowledge, experience and imagination.

Working and learning activities

The focus of the studio will be two-folded:
- an investigation to define the architectonic space of experience of the Nordic and its possible design principles,
- an attempt will be made to describe it in specific and precise architectural terms.

The main aims of the teaching will be:
- to create motivation to the analytical thinking and the causal architectural expression
- to stimulate, cultivate and articulate personal discussions with teachers, as well as open public discussions within the studio, on the development of the projects

The work during the semester will be conducted in 4 steps. The duration of each step will be approximately 1 month, ending with a public presentation and discussion/critique of the individual work within the both groups.
The focus of the studio will be two-folded:
- an investigation to define the architectonic space of experience of the Nordic and its possible design principles,
- an attempt will be made to describe it in specific and precise architectural terms.

Work load:
- texts, drawings and models in different scale, photographs and 3D illustrations
- the prepared public discussions and reviews of the individual work
- the digital- and hand-production of models in different scale
- the final project will be presented with the pictures, texts, drawings and models and 3D renders

Mandatory coursework	Presence required	Comment
Excursions	Not required	The teaching will consist of the work in the studio, the individual discussions and desk crits, case studies, public discussions, seminaries, films and lectures structured in-between 3 public reviews. The study of Nordic architecture, particularly the work of Sten Eileer Rasmussen, Kai Fisker, Gunnar Asplund, Sigurd Lewerentz, Peter Celsing, Sverre Fehn etc. After the first working phase there will be organized a study-trip to Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Project assignment	-	Pass / fail	the active presence and work in the studio during the whole semester - the assessment will focus on: a. student’s architectural sensibility and awareness of architectural problems, b. the clarity of argumentation, built-up during the process c. the ability to evaluate the quality of the project idea, d. the strength of “conversion” of idea into an architectural project, e. the evaluation of the intellectual and architectural capacity to confront the creative risk involved in the project - the developed presentation material and presence at 3 public reviews during the semester - the delivered complete project material for the exhibition AHO Works and for the final review 04.06.2016. The studio-work is evaluated with Passed or Not Passed, jf. Regulation for Master Studies at AHO‚ pt. 6-14.

Start semester

Positions: Architecture and the production of presence

Emnenavn på Norwegian Bokmål:

Positions: Architecture and the production of presence

Credits:

Course code:

40 513

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2016 Autumn

Language of instruction:

Norwegian / English

Person in charge

Lisbeth Funck

Required prerequisite knowledge

Passed level bachelor in architecture

Course content

The studio offers 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, with the purpose to learn how to use a spatial structure as a tool to investigate architectural issues/questions.

In the fall 2016 the course will continue to investigate the relationships between the architectural categories; structure, space and material and buildings interaction with people and context.

Positions, is a spatial term that indicate movement and change of position, facilitating a different viewpoint. The semester is organized in several faces, where the material of each face is understood and completed but at the same time, the start for the next level/face. After each face the work will be confronted with a new “program”, new information, which is to be implied on the project from previous face.

The main task is to study the relation between the architectural categories structure, space and material; the ever shifting hierarchy between them. The ambiguity created by the changing hierarchies, and in the pulsating change of measurable, independent, optical, visible or not properties, opens up for question as what things are and how things appears in the world.

The task is to be examined by different standpoints/positions through practice-based investigations: text, photography, physical models and drawings. The project is finally to be confronted with accessibility, movement, and activity and placed on a real site.

Parallel to the main task, and equally important, the students are asked to do:
1. A writing assignment and a photographic documentation related to selected buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright. Key words: Measurable properties and perceptible, sensible properties.

2. Produce a “log” or a “scrapbook” of whatever inspires during the course.

Learning outcome

• Experimental architectural design(towards an architecture)

Discussions on:
• Geometric ordering, the immanent potential in the matter, relations of building entities,
forces and appearances. Transformation, the new and the residual.
• Increased knowledge and skills in:
• Investigation methods – not problem solving
• Architecture programming

Architectural properties
• Visual and written argumentation

Working and learning activities

The course will offer:
• A series of lecturers from various disciplines that presents both different positions in relation to the creative process, and reflects on the sensual experience of artworks - art understood as painting, sculpture, architecture, music, literature etc.
• Discussions on relevant projects and theories in art, architecture, literature and philosophy.
• Joint reviews and lectures with studio SPA, Nils Ole Brandtzæg
• A study-trip to Chicago in collaboration with studio SPA, Nils Ole Brandtzæg. We will visit selected building by Frank Lloyd Wright
• A short study trip in Norway

Collaborators:
• Architect Nils Ole Brandzæg (AHO)
• Professor Anders Abraham, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture in Copenhagen.
• Architect Matthew Anderson/Arkitekturkollektivet, part-time teacher

Presence required
Not required

Start semester

Design studio

Emnenavn på Norwegian Bokmål:

Design studio

Credits:

Course code:

70 505

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2016 Autumn

Language of instruction:

English

Required prerequisite knowledge

A third semester Master course (only available for students in their final year). For all design fields, but students are expected to follow up their specialisation/field in the projects chosen in the course.

Course content

‘Design studio’ is a Master course where the projects are in the centre. During the course students will develop one or more projects across themes and partners curated by the Institute of Design. These can be connected to research projects, external partners or emerging problematics within the field of design. The ambition for this course is to develop stand-out projects where students go in depth into the issues they chose to work with, and create high level outcomes. The core values of the course is exploration and professionalisation - meaning that the course encourages the development of reflection, criticality, and new knowledge about emerging fields, but also have the ambition of developing high quality deliveries and communication.

In this course students will have a large degree of freedom and responsibility as to how their projects are developed. ‘Design studio’ is a place for students to integrate the knowledge they have gained throughout their education and work towards exploration, professionalisation, and specialisation or hybridisation. A central part of the studio course is to develop project-experience and knowledge about how different forms of larger design projects can be structured and executed.

Students work individually or in small groups. Each project will be followed throughout the semester by a supervisor and, typically, a partner. Partners and supervisors depend on the specialisations that the projects take up: interaction design, industrial design or service design. The main teaching structure is mentoring on project level, and the ongoing evaluation of progress. There is a common structure for milestones and core-deliverables throughout the course (development of project descriptions and plans, documentation and deliverables, and main presentations). Co-learning is central across the projects and students will be involved in developing research, lectures and course-materials for the whole group.

Projects will come out of curated themes and partners developed by the Institute of design or from research topics across the institute’s research projects. It is also possible for students to suggest their own themes. Projects can both be done as specialisations towards specific fields, or in inter-discpiloinary groups where students from industrial-design, service-design and interaction-design work together.

Learning outcome

a. Knowledge:
The core knowledge outcome of the course is to integrate and mature the processes and methods learnt across the Master of design. Further, students are expected to develop domain-specific knowledge across their projects, as well as knowledge about how large design projects can be structured and organised.

b. Skills:
In ‘Design studio’ students develop core project-handling skills. Including scoping, research, project-description, time-management and communication.

c. General competence:
Across ‘Design studio’ the goal is to develop the maturity of the students’ design competence. This is done by both focusing on exploration and professionality on a project-level.

Working and learning activities

The main activities of the course will be project- and specialisation-specific. Across the course there will be a focus on learning project planning, developing and scoping. The course is run in a studio setting, and co-learning across the projects, with shared presentations etc, are important.

Work effort:
Students need to present and submit all projects, documentations and presentations in order to be assessed for the course. There is an 80% attendance rate required for all presentations, lectures and workshops etc. Students also need to schedule their own mentoring sessions. Non attendances below 90% need to be accompanied by a doctors certificate.

Presence required
Not required

Start semester

2016 Høst

S P A - Studio for Potential Architecture

Emnenavn på Norwegian Bokmål:

S P A - Studio for Potential Architecture

Credits:

Course code:

80 507

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2016 Autumn

Language of instruction:

Norwegian / English

Required prerequisite knowledge

Det kreves ingen forkunnskaper utover opptakskrav i studieprogrammet.

Course content

Historical references are an essential aspect of the work as an architect. The ambition of the studio is to develop a personal methodology and architecture based on the analysis of selected examples from the history of architecture.

The semester will be divided into two parts where the first 5 weeks consists of an individual analysis of a selected historical project. For the rest of the semester the student will develop a new architectural project in another context in which the analysis of the first part shall form the basis.

Phase 1:
List of projects to analyze will be handed out at the beginning of the semester and may be projects from both near and distant history.
The individual analysis will focus on identifying the architectural qualities within the selected project. This will contain both measurable and immeasurable qualities, as for instance; spatial configurations, movement, light, structure, materiality, dimensions, relationship to context, etc. Themes to be investigated will be defined as short weekly assignments.

Phase 1 ends in one or more summary models and drawings. The level of abstraction must have a precision that allows for further personal development in phase 2.

Phase 2:
The student will choose their own site and program for the architectural project in Phase 2, but only according to specific criteria given out after phase 1 is completed. These criteria will define parts of the program, and a limited geographical area from where to find the site.

The qualities from the analysis in phase 1 will then need to be redefined and developed in the meeting with a new context and a new program..

The architectural project shall be established and developed until it is considered complete in a relevant scale. There will be special emphasis on working in model and sectional drawings to study and understand spatial relationships and qualities.

Learning outcome

Upon completion of the course the student will gain increased knowledge about:
- Design methodology, programming and building design
- Using architectural analysis in the development of own projects
- Develop a critical attitude and awareness towards architectural quality
- Architectural representation in the form of drawing, illustration and model work.

Working and learning activities

Teaching will be conducted through discussions in the studio, reviews with invited critics and lectures on relevant topics. The studio will collaborate with Studio Positions/Lisbeth Funck on joint reviews, lectures, study trip etc.

The studio is planning a study trip to Chicago where the aim, among other things will be to see the projects to be analyzed in phase 1. Destination is not finally decided.

Presence required
Not required

Grouping:	-
Grading scale:	Pass / fail
Comment:	Mid and final term review. Exhibition format with oral and graphic presentation

Form of assessment:	Written Exam
Grouping:	-
Grading scale:	A-F
Comment:	Eksamensform: Skoleeksamen

Form of assessment:	Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe)
Grouping:	-
Grading scale:	-
Comment:	Final studio work is presented in group review evaluated by external sensors. Details on deliverables will be provided with the detailed studio plan but normally includes digital presentation and exhibition of model work together with printed posters/boards

Form of assessment:	Project assignment
Grouping:	-
Grading scale:	-
Comment:	This course is assessed as Passed/Failed based on at least 80% participation Project evaluation. Project will be developed in the course of the studio, and presented in written and visual form. Final evaluation by an external examiner.

Form of assessment:	Project assignment
Grouping:	-
Grading scale:	Pass / fail
Comment:	the active presence and work in the studio during the whole semester - the assessment will focus on: a. student’s architectural sensibility and awareness of architectural problems, b. the clarity of argumentation, built-up during the process c. the ability to evaluate the quality of the project idea, d. the strength of “conversion” of idea into an architectural project, e. the evaluation of the intellectual and architectural capacity to confront the creative risk involved in the project - the developed presentation material and presence at 3 public reviews during the semester - the delivered complete project material for the exhibition AHO Works and for the final review 04.06.2016. The studio-work is evaluated with Passed or Not Passed, jf. Regulation for Master Studies at AHO‚ pt. 6-14.

Languages

2016 Høst

Start semester

Behind the hill, into the wild

Start semester

Pre-Diplom Landskapsarkitektur

Start semester

Pre-Diploma Landscape Architecture (Tromsø)

Start semester

GK 3 Arkitekturhistorie 2

Start semester

SNOWSPACE: investigating spatial potential for the subarctic city

Start semester

Intervals of neglect: Industrial Heritage in the Arctic

Start semester

Experience of a Nordic Space

Start semester

Positions: Architecture and the production of presence

Start semester

Design studio

Start semester

S P A - Studio for Potential Architecture

Pages

Mandatory coursework:	Presence required
Presence required:	Not required
Comment:	Lectures, tutorials, workshops and group reviews have mandatory attendance at 90%. Mandatory hand in of all designated deliverables. Mandatory attendance to oral examination with external sensors.