2017 Høst

Start semester

2017 Høst

80 310 OCCAS: Piranesei and the modern age

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

OCCAS: Piranesei and the modern age

Credits:

Course code:

80 310

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2017 Autumn

Assessment semester:

2017 Autumn

Language of instruction:

English

Year:

2017

Maximum number of students:

Person in charge

Victor Plahte Tschudi

Required prerequisite knowledge

No specific previous knowledge is required.

Course content

The elective course Piranesi and the modern age only takes as a point of departure the enigmatic visions of the architect, archaeologist, designer and engraver Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-78). The course does not focus on Piranesi directly, but on the rediscovery of him from 1900 onwards, across fields that include film, photography, painting, architecture, urbanism, literature and psychology. Together we shall explore each of these topics systematically and chart how our own period – to this very day – interprets Piranesi to formulate its novelty. The course invites you to participate on a ground-braking scholarly mission to uncover the strategies not of Piranesi, but of the modern age that exploits him; our weekly seminars investigate the works of pioneers such as Pablo Picasso, Sigmund Freud, the film director Sergei Eisenstein and architects ranging from Alessandro Limongelli and Aldo Rossi to Rem Koolhaas and Peter Eisenman. Through a combination of lectures, discussions, and concrete assignments, we ambitiously aim to redraw the map of contemporary culture itself – and the surprise might be how much of it harks back to an 18th century Venetian etcher.

Learning outcome

The learning outcome is both academic and practical: Firstly, the course teaches you about Giovanni Battista Piranesi as well as the history of modernism and its various media, such as early modern photography, avant-garde film theory, cubism in painting, deconstructivism in architecture, and post war city planning. Secondly, the course offers you the possibility to explore any technique and expression related to these themes in the effort to interpret Piranesi’s visions yourself. In other words, your assignment will be rooted in a historical material but take the form of, for example, a text, drawing, painting, installation, architectural models, film sequence, photograph – or any other medium that we might find relevant.

Working and learning activities

The course is organized as weekly seminars taking place every Tuesday 9-12 am. The seminars consist of lectures, text presentations, film screenings, discussions as well as supervision. Visits to museum collections in Oslo are also on the agenda.

Curriculum

A short, poignant reading list accompanies the weekly seminars and will be presented in due time.

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Project assignment	Individual	Pass / fail	The evaluation is based on 2-3 brief oral presentations of text throughout the term. It is also based on a final project assignment. For the assignment you are asked to work on and interpret one or several prints by Piranesi in a medium and format of your own choice, such as for example a text, model, installation, film sequence, drawing, painting etc.

Workload activity	Comment
Attendance	Attendance and participation in lectures is expected, and absence may result in a lower grade.

Start semester

2017 Høst

80 309 Architecture in the Welfare State

Credits:

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

Arkitektur i velferdstaten

Course code:

80 309

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2017 Autumn

Assessment semester:

2017 Autumn

Language of instruction:

English

Year:

2017

Maximum number of students:

Person in charge

Guttorm Ruud

Course content

In the postwar period between 1945 and 1975, architecture and urban planning were central instruments in the realization of the universalist welfare state policies known as the Nordic Model, built on the idea that welfare should be distributed to everyone. Armed with new rational planning ideas and using modern technology, architects and planners created satellite towns with mass-produced housing, modern urban infrastructure, and new institutions and social centers, transforming city and society.

The satellite towns have been criticized for being poor living environments that foster social problems, while residents say they thrive. Some critics think that this type of post-war urban development was a gigantic social mistake, and that we today fortunately know better. Others mourn a past where collective concerns and needs was the foundation for state politics and urban developments, and see the same post-war urban developments as great achievements by heroic architects. In the course, we will look at the satellite towns in a historical perspective in order to understand past and ongoing relationships between architecture, politics and society.

Learning outcome

The students will gain knowledge of the history of relationship between welfare state and architecture in the post-war period. They will acquire competence in understand historical specificity of planning and architectural design as a result of changing political, economic and social conditions. Trough writing an essay the students will develop skills in critical writing with presentation of evidence, argument and conclusion.

Working and learning activities

The course is built up with foundational lectures on the subject, as well as thematic lectures and workshops to discuss approaches and research questions for project assignments. Students will work with and get feedback on their project in parallel with lectures throughout the semester.

Curriculum

Curriculum will be decided later.

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Project assignment	Individual	Pass / fail	The assessment will be based on a project assignment is the form of an scientific essay (3-4000 words) to be handed in at the end of the semester. A passed course requires that the student in the project assignment shows knowledge about the themes that has been presented in lectures and curriculum in use of references, critical reflection over the themes in the selection and development of a research question and arguments, and good skills in structuring and presenting this in writing.

Workload activity	Comment
Lectures	Presence at foundational lectures Presence at thematic lectures
Curriculum	Reading curriculum of foundational texts Participation in discussions on curriculum (books and articles)
Written assignments	Participation in writing training

Start semester

70 302 Design Mangagement

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

Design Management.

Credits:

Course code:

70 302

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2017 Autumn

Assessment semester:

2017 Autumn

Language of instruction:

Norwegian / English

Person in charge

Berit Lindquister

Rachel Troye

Required prerequisite knowledge

Passed 6 semesters Foundation Level

Course content

Design management gives the students an insight into the field of design management as a practical and theoretical field dealing with various issues that arise at the intersection between design and management. The course will give a short introduction to the history of design management and then mainly focus upon several dimensions of design management and design leadership. The Course gives the students insight into how they can use a designerly approach to solve new challenges, also in collaboration with other disciplines. The course places design in larger cultural and social setting. Communication around the field is focused upon. The course gives insight into: Operational design management   Managing the design process and project (from design brief and project management, to coordinating interdisciplinary design teams to meet business goals). Here several methods and tools are taught. Brand management   Branding and brand management; the process of developing a new brand (a product or service), from analysis to concept development, to implementation. Management and maintenance of existing brands. Strategic design management Using design processes and design thinking for innovation. How can design help an organizations achieve their strategic goals and face future challenges?.

Learning outcome

Knowledge: The students shall gain knowledge and an understanding of the relationship between design and management. The students will have training in academic research and communicating this to a broader audience. They will also develope new ways of presenting / visualizing theoretical material. The students will gain theoretical insight to the field of design management and how it relates to practical design cases. Skills: The students will gain practical experience and skills through relevant tasks and cross disciplinary workshops. General competence: Verbal and visual communication around the field is important. The students will learn to reflect upon and discuss verbally and in writing issues related to design management.

Working and learning activities

A series of lectures in part from external lecturers from a broad range of backgrounds related to design management. The lectures will be followed by discussion seminars and workshops, as well as cross disciplinary collaboration. A workshop and project with business and entrepreneurship students will give the design students insight into business and innovation culture, methods, processes and language. The students will prepare a “Peer learning” presentation based on lectures / workshop,reading material and their own research.

Mandatory coursework	Courseworks required	Presence required	Comment
Presence required		Required	Participation in class at lectures and discussion seminars, the cross disciplinary workshop and tutoring is obligatory. 80% participation is required in order to pass.

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe)	-	Pass / fail	Active participation in classes and the ability to communicate and reflect on the subject. The peer-to-peer presentation, participation and final presentation of the external business project.

Workload activity	Comment
Attendance	Participation in class at lectures and discussion seminars, the cross disciplinary workshop and tutoring is obligatory. (80% participation is required in order to pass).
Group work	Students are expected to take advantage of the time allotted for self study and to read the given and recommended literature within their chosen or given area of design management.

Start semester

70 303 Digital production technology

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

Digital produksjon teknologi

Credits:

Course code:

70 303

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2017 Autumn

Assessment semester:

2017 Autumn

Language of instruction:

English

Year:

2017

Person in charge

Steinar Killi

Required prerequisite knowledge

Completed foundation education. Basic prior knowledge in CAD tools such as Rhino, Solidworks, Alias, Blender etc. is required.

Course content

Informed descicionmaking for 3D printing aims at informing and giving in-depth insight into. It seeks to teach master students at AHO the various possibilities that lay in the various 3D printing technologies that are available. The Oslo School of Architecture and Design boasts of state-of-the-art Additive Manufacturing facilities. The ‘3D Print Verkstedet’ today acts as a service provider for students to realize complex, physical objects. 3D printing is an additive process, able to create physical objects in a wide foray of materials. There are today many different technologies available. What they all have in common is the possibility of creating freeform, tangible items that are based on a digital blueprint. The workshops at AHO have traditionally been run by specialists, while the global evolution and maturation of the technology has led to a democratization of its uses. The course has a theoretical and practical approach to 3D technology, introducing the student to essensial digital and physical tools. The course involves case work.

Learning outcome

Knowledge: With the completed studies the student will be able to descripe all the relevant processes involved in the 3D printing process: from generation of digital formats, to post-processing of physical models. In addition the student will be equipped with the knowledge of which processes are most relevant in order to achieve desired results. “3D Print Verkstedet” is today equipped with 4 different 3D printing technologies: FDM, SLS, SLA and 3DP. The various technologies have unique use areas, utlilizing different material- and construction processes. The students will after completed course be able to make informed decicions on how best make use of different processes.

Skills: With the completed studies the student will be better equipped in utilizing the latent potentials of the technology in the setting of product-/interaction- and architectural design. The student will obtain first-hand knowledge of the operation of a variety of technologies available at AHO: powderbased, extrusionbased and light-polymerizing 3D printers. The student will possess the neccessary knowledge involved in preparation and pre-processing of digital CAD files. General competence 3D printing is increasingly involved in design and architectural processes, as a tool for prototyping and construction. The course is meant for design- and architectural students at masters level, that seek a deeper insight on the utilization of 3D printing, in their studies and elsewhere. The student should be able to explain the choice of methods for realizing the tangible object, and why.

Working and learning activities

As with other elective courses the course will consist of weekly learning activities, leactures, material exploration and use of available 3D printing recources. Each course day will be introduced with a lecture in subjects such as ‘model building with 3D printers’, ‘The 3D printer as a democatizing tool’, ‘The Technology in a historical perspective’, etc. During the elective course week at the end of the semester, a larger project is to be conducted and presented for the rest of the group. A goal for the course is to exhibit these projects, as a way of informing others on how 3D printing technology can best be utilized at AHO, and in other creative settings.

Curriculum

Anderson, C. (2012). Makers: the new industrial revolution. Random House.

Hopkinson, N., Hague, R., & Dickens, P. (2006). Rapid Manufacturing: An Industrial Revolution for the Digital Age. John Wiley & Sons.

Thompson, R. (2007). Manufacturing processes for design professionals. Thames & Hudson.

Mandatory coursework	Courseworks required	Presence required	Comment
Presence required		Required	Mandatory 80% attendance at all classes.

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Other assessment method, define in comment field	Individual	Pass / fail	The students must deliver a physical artifact at the end of the term. This end delivery will be graded Pass/Fail.

Start semester

2017 Høst

80 312 OCCAS: The Art of Collecting Architecture

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

OCCAS: The Art of Collecting Architecture

Credits:

Course code:

80 312

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2017 Autumn

Assessment semester:

2017 Autumn

Language of instruction:

Norwegian / English

Year:

2017

Maximum number of students:

Person in charge

Mari Lending

Course content

An old dairy at Blaker north of Oslo is the home of the artist Guttorm Guttormsgaard’s collection of art, crafts, books as well as thinkable and unthinkable miscellanea. Guttormsgaard’s archive has over the last decade been activated in a comprehensive series of exhibitions and an elegant website, itself an archive of sorts. Categories such as vernacular antiquities, mountain passes, photography/film, toys, maps, posters, postcards, Russia, textiles, typography/calligraphy hints at the scope of this cornucopia.

Guttormsgaard’s archive contains amounts of Norwegian and international architecture publications: Books, journals, magazines, leaflets, etc. This material spans from rare books and full sets of exquisite journals, to curiosities and ephemera from across the world, as well as printing presses, xylographical blocks and other print technologies. As part of OCCAS’ international research project Printing the Past. Architecture, Print Culture, and Uses of the Past in Modern Europe (PriArc) a small group of MA and PhD students are invited to explore and curate the architecture collection at Blaker in the Fall 2017.

Learning outcome

The students will develop and present curatorial concepts for the exhibition, and mount and open it in November. The group will produce a little catalogue describing the collection and the exhibition. Preparing the catalogue will provide training in theoretical and historical thinking and academic essay writing.

Working and learning activities

The seminar is practical in scope, and we will spend a lot of time at Blaker working hands-on with the architecture collection, and partly help registering it on the website. In the form of seminars in school the students will be introduced to architectural publications since the invention of print, by lectures and readings, focusing on texts, images, printing, and circulation of architecture, on paper

The Art of Collecting Architecture welcomes energetic students that can work individually and as a team, and who enjoys dealing with an intriguing corpus of architectural text and images, exhibition making and essay writing.

Mandatory coursework	Courseworks required	Presence required	Comment
Presence required		Required

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Other assessment method, define in comment field	Individual	Pass / fail	Participation, essay writing and exhibition project.

Workload activity	Comment
Attendance
Written assignments

Start semester

70 505 Design studio

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

Design studio:

Credits:

Course code:

70 505

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2017 Autumn

Assessment semester:

2017 Autumn

Language of instruction:

English

Year:

2017

Person in charge

Harald Skulberg

Håkan Edeholt

Mosse Sjaastad

Natalia Lucia Agudelo Alvarez

Einar Sneve Martinussen

Kjetil Nordby

Required prerequisite knowledge

A third semester Master course (only available for students in their final year). Open for all design fields, but students are required to follow up and go in depth within their previous chosen specialisation/field in which they can document advanced design skills.

This course builds on the design skills and methods learnt across the previous Foundation and Master courses. In “Design Studio:” students and teachers integrate and push these skills and mindsets to create rich projects with a high degree of professionally. For students who want to take part in “Design Studio:” a strong sense of curiosity, experimental outlooks, and independence are therefore required. “Design Studio:” allows students to tailor their own personal development as a designer in preparation for their diploma.

We recommend “Design Studio:” as an option for students who feel that they are ready for an ambitions course that expects a large degree of self-driven progress.

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 are exploration and professionalism – meaning that the course encourages the development of reflection, criticality, and new knowledge about emerging fields, but also has 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, professionalism, and specialisation. 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 specializations that the projects take up: interaction design, industrial design, service design or a hybrid combination of these. Each track supervisor will be responsible for the students that choose to follow his or her track. The track may consist of one long project or several projects.

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-disciplinary 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 some shared lectures and presentations etc, are important. The students will be required to make and present one topic specific “lecture” to the whole “design Studio:”

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.

Mandatory coursework	Courseworks required	Presence required	Comment
Supervision talks		Not required

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Project assignment	Individual	Pass / fail	Students accepted to the different tracks must define their own learning outcome together with the track responsible, after deciding their focus area. The assessment method, how to make sure the desired learning outcome defined can be met, is to be decided by the track responsible in dialog with the student.

Workload activity	Comment
Attendance
Workshops
Evaluation (mid term)

Start semester

60 307 Geographic knowledge: from technology to practice

Credits:

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

Geografiske kunnskaper: fra teknologi til praksisformer

Course code:

60 307

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2017 Autumn

Assessment semester:

2017 Autumn

Language of instruction:

Norwegian / English

Year:

2017

Person in charge

Espen Aukrust Hauglin

Required prerequisite knowledge

The course requires general computer skills.

Course content

The course provides an introduction to the use of geographic information systems (GIS) as a tool to understand and interpret the built environment and landscapes. The student will be introduced to the subject through exercises, current practices and theoretical discussions. The course emphasize techniques and data sources, interpretation and presentation, as well as the theoretical knowledge of the geographical role in architecture and planning.

Learning outcome

A wide range of professions require geographic data and spatial oriented information to visualize existing urban environments and as basis for visualizing new projects. The course aims to develop skills in the use of GIS which enable the student to analyze a site and its spatial relations, and develop new knowledge based on processed data. The student learns to communicate any findings through graphic and cartographic visualizations.

Working and learning activities

Each student will work with and explore a subject of geographic relevance during the semester. The work will require collection / organisations of geographic data, interpretation and analysis, as well as visual presentation. In the semester, the student will regularly present the subject for the teacher and fellow students for input and feedback. At the end of the semester the result will be exhibited in a given format. The examination is based on how the subject is visually displayed and orally presented, as well as processed and developed through the semester.

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Other assessment method, define in comment field	Individual	Pass / fail	In the semester, the student will regularly present the subject for the teacher and fellow students for input and feedback. At the end of the semester the result will be exhibited in a given format. The examination is based on how the subject is visually displayed and orally presented, as well as processed and developed through the semester.

Start semester

2017 Høst

60 518 Fjord Allmenningen

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

Fjord Almenningen

Credits:

Course code:

60 518

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2017 Autumn

Assessment semester:

2017 Autumn

Language of instruction:

English

Year:

2017

Maximum number of students:

Person in charge

Required prerequisite knowledge

Open for students in Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Mandatory first semester course for Master of Landscape Architecture.

Basic knowledge in architecture, urbanism and landscape.

Course content

The harbor area of Oslo has during the last year’s has gone through a strong phase of transformation. This includes all from important infrastructural changes as the E18, that was put in tunnel, to new building projects as Aker Brygge, Tjuvholmen, Barcode, Sørenga, the Opera etc. These projects have taken form in a relatively short period of time in respect to the city’s history and in the municipalities plan for “the Fjord City” there are still remaining several parts to be realized.

In this course we are going to work with area between the Central station, Kvadraturen, the Fjord, the Opera and Barcode /Bjørvika . Fjord Almenningen

The challenges lies in the creation of a place specific project that links Oslo with its waterfront. The goal is to create a landscape park that establishes a continuous and linked open, high quality space structure. As the new center park and plaza in Oslo

The project includes several temporalities from temporal interventions to more long-term design of the landscape. The interaction between the temporal and the constant in the urban environment is part of the project.

The course is divided into three main parts:

Definition of the open space structure is fundamental, in order to link the existing urban tissue and the new areas as well as to integrate the harbor promenade.
Definition of program and planning of temporal functions and activities. How is it possible to create maximal functionality by a minimum investment, and a clever use of what is already to be found on site?
Definition of the long-term landscape project is one of the main focuses of the course.

The projects that the students develop are meant to take part in the public debate and show; which are the qualities that are important in a sustainable city? The course will include how to create a strategic document that will be able to communicate to the towns’ technicians, politicians and users. Therefore it is of importance that the material produced in the course is of high quality.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

The course will provide the students with the experience of working on the edge, where the city meets the sea, close to the fjord and discover and achieve proficiency in establishing promenades and parks in an urban structure. The course will work with the man-made and nature, in order to provide the city with a sustainable and recreational dimension. The aim is to design the city where water and land meet and analyze it´s trace deep in the city, as well as far out in the bay.

Skills:

The course is project based and will provide the student with a spatial understanding of the work of several scales, from scale 1: 10,000 to 1: 1. In the transition between water and landscape, both design and materiality will be a part of the work. Once completed the course the student should have acquired a working-method and a projecting experience in a landscape based project.

General competence:

Understanding for the climatic circumstances in this case at the waterfront in Oslo and how that informs the design of a park-project.

A basic knowledge of vegetation and an understanding of the logics of the landscape and its changes through the different seasons.

Working and learning activities

The course is introduced with a fieldwork where the students make a mapping and create a common knowledge base.
A strategy for an open space structure will be then established. This work is made in groups.
Workshops are organized thematically in order to highlight important phases of the project. In the first workshop the theme is the temporal urban space.
The design of the long-term landscape project is the course's main focus. The course is structured as a continuous projecting process where different phases are thematically defined and emphasized with theoretical lectures in order to contribute to the development of the project.
Working models are essential for this course

-The Landscape project will respond to the seasonal variations and show how it changes over time.

-The experience from working with the site will be contrasted to analysis of international reference projects. What should a park landscape provide to the city? What can it offer to its users?

-Within the course, study trips are arranged in the Oslo area as well as internationally.

Mandatory coursework	Courseworks required	Presence required	Comment
Supervision talks		Not required	Regular project reviews, with the teachers.
Excursions		Not required	Barcelona or Sydney

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Project assignment	Group	Pass / fail	The main projects will be worked out in small teams (2-3 persons). Shorter exercises are to be developed individually. The considerations for the marking is: -The idea basis of the project. -The realization of the project from idea to form. -The communication of the project.

Workload activity	Comment
Attendance	It is recommended that all work be done in the studio on a daily basis.
Lectures	It is recommended that all work be done in the studio on a daily basis.
Workshops	It is recommended that all work be done in the studio on a daily basis.
Individual supervision	Regular project reviews, with the teachers.
Evaluation (mid term)	Presentation in public

Start semester

65 501 Blå-grønn-hvit infrastruktur

Credits:

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

Blå-grønn-hvit infrastruktur

Course code:

65 501

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2017 Autumn

Assessment semester:

2017 Autumn

Language of instruction:

English

Year:

2017

Required prerequisite knowledge

Admission to Master of Landscape Architecture program or master's level Architecture.

Recommended previous knowledge: working knowledge of Adobe InDesign/Illustrator/Photoshop, CAD (Civil 3D). Basic 3D modelling, drawing/sketching an advantage

Course content

Elemental Concepts for the Subarctic City 2017, 1st. year master, Tromsø

Blue-green-white infrastructure

The studio will investigate how to develop an understanding of nature as infrastructure in the urban context of Tromsø. 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.

Links to previous studio blogs from the Tromsø Academy:

http://northernfindings.blogspot.no

http://www.focalpointb.blogspot.no

http://arcticcities.wix.com/tasiilaq#!studio/c1han

http://urbanecologies.blogspot.no/

http://www.designresearch.no/projects/future-‐north-‐2/news

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 be involved in on-site field investigations at localities in Tromsø and will be required to extensively walk the site. This field-work will also include collaboration with stormwater experts in the municipality as well as scientists at the University of Tromsø.

Field trip: Oulu or Kiruna

Other modules:

August: 10 days Finnmark county traverse: landscapes, biological laboratories, settlements and cities

Workshops:

Applied climate knowledge
Urban stormwater/ecology
Model/illustration/visualisation techniques

Mandatory coursework	Courseworks required	Presence required	Comment
Presence required		Required	Lectures, tutorials, workshops and group reviews have mandatory attendance at 90%.
Exercise		Not required	Mandatory hand in of all designated deliverables.

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Project assignment	-	Pass / fail	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

2017 Høst

40 512 Body and Space Morphologies : Catharsis IV - Acting and the Collective IV

Credits:

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

Body and Space Morphologies : Catharsis IV - Acting and the Collective IV

Course code:

40 512

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2017 Autumn

Assessment semester:

2017 Autumn

Language of instruction:

Norwegian / English

Year:

2017

Maximum number of students:

Person in charge

Rolf Gerstlauer

Required prerequisite knowledge

Passed foundation level or bachelor in architecture, the previous or simultaneous participation in the Architecture & Film elective course and a desire to conduct your own experimental artistic research

Course content

Body and Space Morphologies is a research based teaching program that offers master studios (Catharsis, 24ect) and elective courses (Architecture & Film, 6ect) in explorative architectural design, sensing and thinking. We aim at, prepare for and enable students to conduct their own architectural investigation as an artistic parallel to scholarly research.

Based on performativity theories, performance studies, neurodiversity studies as well as phenomenology and perception theories, the Catharsis studio works and investigates primal pre- architectural material/processes/phenomena/conditions and develops or performs a series of experienced distinct objects that behave relational, that inspire imagination, that provide new knowledge, architectural interests and/or architectural identities. Instead of mediating architecture through a thought process that works with abstraction, illustration and representation, and that is intentional and argumentative involving the use or development of concepts, ideas and strategies, our design process focuses on the acting, sensing and thinking with objects, and the craft of your hands in the making of them.

Students individually study the performance of and with materials of their choice. The studio emphasizes reiterated acting with a material body and gains experience and confidence in the making as a “becoming architecture”. Lectures critically reflect theories and research related to perception, behavior, performativity and performance in architecture.

Learning outcome

You learn to develop strong initiatives for an explorative working process that acts on impulse and that creates visual/haptic experience that again stimulates towards new architectural content. As a student in the Catharsis studio you learn how to submit to performativity as the instance in which to act a real material or event. You will experience issues of optical or haptic visuality from which it is possible to construct or perform artifacts with unique architectural identities.

Knowledge of:

phenomenology of architecture (vs. architectural phenomenology)
performativity, performance and performance studies
body & space morphologies
foundational preparations for an advanced haptic visual and experimental artistic research
the role of acting with and through a material (vs. the making of a product or proposal) in an experimental artistic research that shall lead to unique architectural content and/or identities

Skills:

Manufacturing physical works and the craft(s) deployed in the making of these artifacts
Narrative drawings and other works or media that bring out, construct and/or perform clear haptic visual identities
Performativity in speech and action
In the making and exploring of independent and new visual material

Competence:

In acting on impulse with material, objects, environments and/or events
In developing distinct initiatives and choosing the craft in which to act or work them
To conceive of and present/communicate unique architectural content/research through a visual material and the phenomena or conditions experienced in it
To present own haptic visual material together with verbal and written reflections on process and/or performance

For students in their sequel Catharsis studio:

Knowledge of the relevance artistic research keeps to perform unique architectural content and/or identities
Expertise in the making and exploring of independent and new visual material
Competence to enter a discursive space in architecture on the basis of your own work and research on relational objects

Working and learning activities

The main activity is a semester long individual artistic research work that studies the performance of and with materials or events
Mandatory reading is handed out on the respective course days, a recommended reading list is available online
Weekly 2-3 lectures
Weekly table talks / supervision
Weekly summing up w/ student driven content
Fieldtrip with workshop in Lista (Object Relations)
Study trip to New York (Fall 2017) and Japan (Spring 2018) with the focus on architectural and/or artistic necessities
4 public reviews
2 sessions with individual reviews (not public)
Final public review with external censors
Preparations for a final exhibition with written detailed resume
Publication (for students in their sequel Catharsis studio)

Curriculum

Catharsis IV - Acting and The Collective IV

The topic is CATHARSIS; an inspiration to “Act The Collective” or to “Act Because Of The Collective” either as the architectural “relief from strong or repressed emotions” or, as the subversive antonym to it, “causing repression and/or strong emotions”. How to free and architecturally act a desire driven emotive collective, or how to conceive architecture in response to such a collective, is the task for these semesters. Students are to develop their own personal architectural program in relation to a social construct, a built autonomous construct and a desired connection to nature/environment. The studio works on the subthemes of “expression, language and the inexpressible”.

Semester Task

Spatially to release your necessity to make something because of something. To act, react or enact the collective (a chosen group of individuals; e.g. spectators, visitors, dwellers, workers, travellers, onlookers, mourners, guests, ill, suppressed, free, animals, people etc.) through a distinct architecture / architectural awareness. To experience, reflect upon and describe the necessity/necessities made.

Body and Space Morphology - a syllabus

Body and space morphology is about the relationship between body and space. 

How it manifests itself to be human in a room; outdoors, indoor, outside and inside, and within the manmade room. Alone or together, as one amongst the thousand, or as the thousand above the one.

Body and space morphology is about your body and the room you have within. 

How it manifests itself to be human in architecture; what it inspires us to, and what it inspires as an architecture, towards an architecture. Seeing the offer that lies in architecture, the perversion of it, the infrastructure, the poesy, the container, the gate, darkness or light from darkness.

Body and space morphology is about meeting the wall. 

How it manifests itself being human between the walls; knowing or not knowing the self, loneliness, longings and all that is imaginable. Seeing change, insights and outlooks, transparency and visibility, hideouts in an omnipresence of the stage. Seeing light come and go, seeing chairs and mirrors shrink and grow. Seeing how all things inhabit and capture the room. Beining between and at the walls. Looking at how they swallow and devour the things. Seeing how the walls become.

Body and space morphology is about the problem of body. 

How it manifests itself to face the unknown; what presents itself as new or what just became in front of you. That which yet not has a name, although it shows itself, can be touched, heard, smelled and felt. That which stands sound and nevertheless can leave, that which can or cannot be moved; moves us.

Body and space morphology is about the distance in space. 

How it manifests itself to stand still; moving just a little, approaching things nevertheless, every thing, to jump, penetrate, going into things, turning around, looking up and down, taking on the things, looking back and keep moving on.

Body and space morphology is about what we do not know and approach anyway. 

Without a map there are only lines and without a compass directions just get more, then the word world is exploded before recognition has become, and it is resemblance and closeness that which implodes us astray. This you might endure and as you wish.

Body and space morphology is about “to act necessities”;

wanton and radically so, using your hands, using the other, using your head but not meaning a thing, acting abstract, acting the figure, autonomous it is and dirty it will get, serious too; ridiculous and radically so.

Recommended Literature

Abraham, A. A new nature: 9 architectural conditions between liquid and solid

Allen, S. Points and Lines

Arendt, H. The Human Condition

Arendt, H. On Violence

Barthes, R. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography

Barthes, R. Empire of signs

Barthes, R, & Heath, S. Image, music, text

Benjamin, W. The work of art in the age of its technological reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media

Benjamin, W. Walter Benjamin’s archive: Images, texts and Signs

Benjamin, W. On Hashish Berger, John. About Looking

Berger, J. Why Look at Animals?

Berger, J; with Dibb, M., Blomberg, S., Fox, C. & Hollis, R. Ways of Seeing

Borges, J. L. Labyrinths

Calvino, I. Invisible cities

Deleuze, G. Francis Bacon: the logic of sensation

Deligny, F. The Arachnean and other texts

Descola ,P. Beyond Nature and Culture

Descola, P. The Ecology of Others

Derrida, J. The truth in painting

De Toledo, S. A. Cartes et lignes d’erre / Maps and wander lines: Traces du réseau de Fernand Deligny

Druot, F., Lacaton, A. & Vassal, J-P. Plus

Ellis, B. E. American Psycho: A novel

Fehn, S. The poetry of the straight line_Den rette linjes poesi

Fjeld, P. O.. Sverre Fehn. The pattern of thoughts

Flusser, V. Towards a Philosophy of Photography

Frampton, K. Labour, work and architecture: collected essays on architecture and design

Gissen, D. Territory: architecture beyond environment

Godard, J-L, & Ishaghpour, Y. How video made the history of cinema possible

Hays, M. K. Architecture theory since 1968

Hejduk, J. Architectures in Love. Sketchbook Notes

Hustvedt, S. The blazing world: A novel

Hustvedt, S. What I loved: A novel

Kittler, F. Optical Media

Kittler, F. & others. ReMembering the Body: Body and Movement in the 20th Century

Koestler, A. The Roots Of Coincidence. An Excursion Into Parapsychology

Koestler, A. The Act of Creation, a Study of the Conscious and Unconscious in Science and Art

Koestler, A. The Ghost In The Machine: The Urge To Self-Destruction

Kracauer, S. Theory of Film: the Redemption of Physical Reality

Krauss, R. & Bois, Y. A. Formless – A Users guide

Kwinter, S. Architectures of time: toward a theory of the event in modernist culture

Leatherbarrow, D. Uncommon ground: architecture, technology, and topography

Merleau-Ponty, M. Phenomenology of PerceptionM umford, Lewis. The transformations of man

Kolhaas, R. & Obrist, H. U. Project Japan: Metabolism Talks

Richter, G., & Friedel, H. Gerhard Richter: ATLAS

Scarry, E. The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World

Serres, M., Malfeance: appropriation through pollution

Skinner, B. F. Walden Two

Sontag, S. Regarding the Pain of Others

Sontag, S. On Photography

Stein, E. On the Problem of Empathy

Stein, E. Potency and Act, studies toward a philosophy of being

Stein, E. Finite and Eternal Being: an Attempt at an Ascent to the Meaning of Being

Thoreau, H. D. Walden, Or, Life in the Woods

Vesely, D. Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation. Question of Creativity ...

Viola, B. Reasons for knocking at an empty house: writings 1973- 1994

Woolf, V. Kew Gardens

Mandatory coursework	Courseworks required	Presence required	Comment
Presence required		Required	Attendance & participation in the studio: 20 weeks fulltime study (except for the attendance in the elective course that runs parallel to the master studio). The work has to be conducted and performed in the studio - the material is present at any time. Mandatory attendance during the studio work and the talks, lectures and studio discussions/reviews/workshop/fieldtrip/final exhibition and final crit. Attendance & participation at reviews: 4 public mid-term reviews, 2 individual reviews and the final public review with external examiner Professor Anders Abraham (Kadk Copenhagen - not confirmed yet).

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe)	Individual	Pass / fail	Exercises (practical and theoretical), Project (individual presentation and submission) and Text/essay: For each of the reviews, assignments are announced on the moodle platform and the students hand in visuals and textual works which is complementary to the actual physical work made available and presented in the reviews. The final exhibition includes visual haptic material and a final essay ca 5-10000 words

Workload activity	Comment
Excursion	The fall 2017 semester includes a study trip to New York (approx. 10-12 days, not mandatory) and a 3 days field-trip to the Lista environment (south-west coast of Norway)

Mandatory coursework:	Presence required
Courseworks required:
Presence required:	Required
Comment:	Participation in class at lectures and discussion seminars, the cross disciplinary workshop and tutoring is obligatory. 80% participation is required in order to pass.

Form of assessment:	Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe)
Grouping:	-
Grading scale:	Pass / fail
Comment:	Active participation in classes and the ability to communicate and reflect on the subject. The peer-to-peer presentation, participation and final presentation of the external business project.

Mandatory coursework:	Presence required
Courseworks required:
Presence required:	Required
Comment:	Mandatory 80% attendance at all classes.

Mandatory coursework:	Presence required
Courseworks required:
Presence required:	Required
Comment:

Mandatory coursework:	Supervision talks
Courseworks required:
Presence required:	Not required
Comment:

Languages

2017 Høst

Start semester

80 310 OCCAS: Piranesei and the modern age

Start semester

80 309 Architecture in the Welfare State

Start semester

70 302 Design Mangagement

Start semester

70 303 Digital production technology

Start semester

80 312 OCCAS: The Art of Collecting Architecture

Start semester

70 505 Design studio

Start semester

60 307 Geographic knowledge: from technology to practice

Start semester

60 518 Fjord Allmenningen

Start semester

65 501 Blå-grønn-hvit infrastruktur

Start semester

40 512 Body and Space Morphologies : Catharsis IV - Acting and the Collective IV

Pages

Workload activity:	Attendance
Comment:	Attendance and participation in lectures is expected, and absence may result in a lower grade.