2018 Vår

Start semester

2018 Vår

65 402 Powers of ten: Representing a Territory in Transition

Credits:

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

Powers of ten: Representing a territory in transition

Course code:

65 402

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2018 Spring

Assessment semester:

2018 Spring

Language of instruction:

English

Year:

2018

Required prerequisite knowledge

Basic hand drawing skills
Skills in the use of Adobe CS/CC
Skills in the use of QGIS
A willingness to experiment

Course content

This elective course in advanced drawing takes inspiration from the experimental documentary film Powers of Ten: A Film Dealing with the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding Another Zero (1977) directed by Charles and Ray Eames. As suggested by the title, this film addresses the effects of scale concerning the representation of our physical environment highlighting the relative size of things.

In the course, the same methodology – adding another zero – will be used in a series of drawings ranging in scale from 1:1 to 1:100.000 to represent elements and material conditions which are evidence of a territory in transition. The core brief is to investigate how numerous changes on a micro level might give shape to more substantial transformations on a macro level and vice versa. The focus will be on spatial and material condition addressing the aesthetic dimension of the changes and transformations.

The primary learning objective is to gain confidence in using drawings as a means of investigation emphasizing the relevance of working across various scales of representation. Additionally, the course will provide the students with an insight into the natural and human forces shaping a territory in the high North. Students are expected to experiment with different drawing technics. The course will finish with an exhibition.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

Knowledge about natural and human forces shaping a territory
Knowledge about advanced drawing techniques
Knowledge about scale and power of representation

Skills:

Skills in advanced drawing and representation

General competence:

The ability to use drawings as a means of an investigation
The ability to represent a territory in transition

Working and learning activities

The course is structured around a weekly session where each student will present her/his work.

The course will start with a small excursion and end with a collective exhibition.

Curriculum

Recommended reading: Denis Cosgrove: Mappings, Reaction Books. London 1999

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Oral Exam	Individual	Pass / fail

Workload activity	Comment
Attendance	All activities are mandatory. Students are expected to work on their drawings on a weekly basis.
Excursion	Students are expected to organize independent excursion in a pre-selected area to gain information on spatial and material conditions.

Start semester

80 603 S P A - Studio for Potential Architecture

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

S P A - Studio for Potensiell Arkitektur

Credits:

Course code:

80 603

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2018 Spring

Assessment semester:

2018 Spring

Language of instruction:

English

Year:

2018

Maximum number of students:

Person in charge

Beate Hølmebakk

Required prerequisite knowledge

It is recommended that the students have experience in building design.

Course content

The main objective for Studio for Potential Architecture is to produce projects where the instrumental framework for development of architectural form is investigated and explored.

The brief will be a church for a congregation on an urban site. At the beginning of the semester the students will be presented with a brief and a choice of two sites. Initial studies of the relationship between church inventory and church space will establish the ground for the individual design project that is to be developed until it reaches completion in a relevant scale.

Learning outcome

At the end of the studio the student will have aquired knowledge on design methodology, building design and techtonics.

The student will have improved his/her skills in conceptual design development and architectural representation.

Working and learning activities

Teaching will be in the form of studio tutoring, reviews, lectures and seminars.

Curriculum

There will be an initial task that requires study of texts by and about chosen practising architects.

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

Workload activity	Comment
Individual problem solving	SPA requires full time studies and the work load is expected to be substantial.
Attendance	SPA requires full time studies and the work load is expected to be substantial.

Start semester

80 608 Re-store Municipal Monuments

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

Re-Store Municipal Monuments

Credits:

Course code:

80 608

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2018 Spring

Assessment semester:

2018 Spring

Language of instruction:

English

Year:

2018

Maximum number of students:

Person in charge

Amandine Kastler

Course content

“Architecture involves some detective work. You look at things, you look under and through things because they are a source or knowledge, signs of momentary resourcefulness.” Irénée Scalbert

In 1963, the municipality of Asker erected a building of radical international style in a rural field situated twenty-five kilometres to the west of Oslo. Rising above the surrounding agricultural landscape, Asker Town Hall and a string of other modernist town halls constructed across the country, herald a new era of municipal authority. The town halls epitomise a paradigm change in the way Norway is governed through the architecture of its newly built institutions.

This semester the Re Store studio will focus on the preservation and maintenance of regional town halls. Working with Asker town hall as a case study, our initial emphasis will be on the existing – a process of surveying container and contained to appreciate how the building functions both as a symbol of local identity and an instrument calibrating the ebb and flow of everyday life. It will be our brief first to observe, record and evaluate the existing infrastructure, and only then subvert and transform our latently propositional findings into design proposals.

The studio is concerned with three distinct scales: the territory of the municipality, the town hall as its nucleus, and the citizens and bureaucrats that operate within it.

Municipality

Empowered by the 1965 Building and Planning Act, Norwegian municipalities became key agents of local democracy. As part of the effort to build a social democratic welfare state in Norway after the war, municipalities were given new responsibilities previously handled at a national level, such as education, healthcare and planning. The municipality assumed the role as conductor of national policy into the provinces with the town hall acting as their monumental manifestation.

Municipal territories originated from the informal boundaries of the church parish. Subsequently modern infrastructure connected areas previously separated by topography, sea and natural barriers. Distances shortened, and municipal mergers took place. Current governmental reforms aim to reduce over four-hundred local municipalities to around one-hundred. The reformation and consolidation will leave many town halls no longer fit for purpose or obsolete. These monumental pieces of municipal architecture stand in stark contrast with their context as isolated instances of international modernism dotted throughout the Norwegian countryside.

Town Hall

A microcosm of the municipality, the town hall is the civic centre, where processes of governance have a direct casual effect on the territory that surrounds it. Asker will merge with two neighbouring municipalities as a part of the national municipal reform. Whilst the Town Hall continues to represent and serve the local municipality, the impending growth of its administration means it will soon cease to be fully fit for purpose.

Oddly perched on a hill overlooking the town below, the seven-storey tower flanked by two low-rise podium buildings form a classical modernist ensemble. Set against the backdrop of rolling hills and pine forest, the tower marks its importance in the landscape. The low podium grounds the building and welcomes visitors in from below.

An early example of the work of Lund & Slaatto, the building is uncompromising and consistent in its construction. However, like many modernist icons, it has reached the threshold of its material obsolesce and requires costly maintenance and restoration.

The studio will challenge the understanding of the Town Hall as a ‘complete architectural object’ by exploring it as an ensemble of elements embodied with their own meaning. By tracing the patterns of use from the residues of human occupation, students will develop an understanding of what has been used and how. This work will grow out of the translations between observing, drawing and making - to discover possibilities in what already exists.

Bureaucrat and Citizen

In a political climate that celebrates corporate prowess, the image of the public-sector worker in popular culture is one of dullness and inefficiency. In this narrative, the interaction between local governance and the public plays out in slow motion through the hatch in the wall of a grey room. From their offices bureaucrats write the policies that affect the strategic planning of their local municipality. The choreography of policy-making and its implementation has a distinct spatial dimension. Following complicated routines full of checks and balances their decisions control many facets of everyday life.

Although Asker town hall is today appreciated and in many ways considered exemplary, the public reception of the building was varied. Town halls built in the post war era were frequently associated with bureaucratic inadequacy and criticized for being insensitive to their surrounding context. The studio will challenge the stereotypes of the past, to understand how technology and infrastructure can enable new forms of public interface, while centralisation aims to limit bureaucratic inefficiency.

Through a series of workshops, the studio will work closely with actors in the local municipality to develop strategies that address issues such as changing municipal requirements, future governmental consolidations, and the material obsolescence of the building’s aging modernist structure.

Additional Teacher

Erlend Skjeseth

Learning outcome

The studio will provide a foundation to critically evaluate different ways of approaching the re-use and transformation of existing structures at varying scales. Students will accrue knowledge on how to formulate individual architectural proposals based on close observation and analysis of present conditions. Students will learn to analyse and adapt existing infrastructure to develop operational forms of architecture. Actively working with current issues affecting Asker Town Hall, the course will provide insights into the ongoing public discourse around the preservation and adaptation of the many town halls left affected by municipal reform in Norway.

The studio will provide a basic introduction to aspects of the history and techniques of preservation. For students to develop their understanding of urban preservation, it is strongly recommended to take the Urban Preservation elective course taught by Even Smith Wergeland with this studio.

Working and learning activities

The studio will be divided into two stages:

The first stage will use the survey as a record of the spatial relationship between the town hall, its users, and the larger urban context of the municipality. Students will collaboratively amass an index of municipal systems. Students will survey elements of the building and its relationship to the wider area through a variety of techniques of measurement and recording. Qualitative judgements will be suspended whilst quantitative research is accumulated. The survey will include urban planning, procurement processes, maintenance specifications, and most importantly the physical performance of local governance.

During the second and more extensive phase, students will use these ingredients to form the basis of individual design proposals for Asker Town Hall. These architectural interventions will negotiate the scale of the user, the building, and the wider urban context. We will develop proposals for the adaptation and appropriation of the Town Hall, and in doing so, generate a personal approach to preservation.

Teaching will consist of twice weekly desk tutorials, seminars, pin-ups and reviews with invited critiques. Students are expected to be active participants in group conversations, to attend all studio meetings, pin-ups and reviews, while keeping up with a rigorous level of production.

In combination with the studio meetings, the course will involve numerous trips to Asker Town Hall as well as related institutional buildings around Norway. A series of joint seminars and workshops will be organized in collaboration with Asker Kommune in Norway and with the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.

The studio will be evaluated by submitting assignments and participation, judged as “passed” or “not passed” (according to AHO regulations for master studies).

Mandatory coursework	Courseworks required	Presence required	Comment
Presence required		Not required	Attendance: Students are expected to be present and working during all studio meetings, which occur twice a week. Students are also expected to be present during all seminars and reviews. Absences from studio meetings and reviews will affect the final grade and multiple unexcused absences will result in course failure.

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe)	Individual	Pass / fail	The final grade in the course will be given based on: - Attendance and design production for twice-weekly studio meetings: 30% - Midreview presentation: 30% - Final review presentation: 40% Oral presentation is a part of the portfolio assessment. Mid review and Final review: Work presented for both the mid review and the final review will be evaluated according to the following criteria: - Conceptual Clarity: Students should demonstrate proactive engagement with the material and self-motivated intellectual pursuits that enhance their own design ambitions. Students are expected to clearly articulate their ambitions and the intellectual underpinnings of their work in pinups and desk crits. - Technique: Students are expected to execute all assignments with care and precision. Assignments will be evaluated not only on the basis of the ideas, but also to a large degree on the quality of the execution. Students are responsible for planning sufficient time for developing appropriate and thorough representation. Portfolio: The care taken in the compilation and design of the portfolio will be considered in the final assessment. The portfolio is to be formatted and printed at A2 or larger. Each student will also be required to design a portfolio booklet at A3 to accompany the printed portfolio. Deadlines: Students must complete assignments by the given deadline.

Workload activity	Comment
Individual problem solving	Design production for twice-weekly studio meetings: Students are expected to be self-motivated and ambitious in their development of their design proposals. During each twice-weekly studio meeting, students will discuss their work with the tutors. Students are expected to revise and improve their work for each session in accordance with brief and in response earlier feedback from their tutors.
Excursion	Students are generally expected to participate in all planned studio excursions. Students are expected to attend all site visits to Asker Kommune.

Start semester

40 620 Building

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

Literal Architecture

Credits:

Course code:

40 620

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2018 Spring

Assessment semester:

2018 Spring

Language of instruction:

English

Year:

2018

Maximum number of students:

Person in charge

Espen Vatn

Required prerequisite knowledge

Passed base education

Course content

Continuing a series of studios that investigate Universal Architecture, this studio will engage with questions of technology, structure and tectonics in relation to the city and current economic realities´ impact on architecture. We will discuss in what way structure is a carrier of content, addressing questions of construction and serial production within the contemporary city through the design of a research facility for immaterial labor.

Structure and content: Literalism and the Bare Frame

The studio will begin with the examination of precedents, studying buildings from late 19th Century in Chicago. During 1850-1910 the city of Chicago experienced a radical transformation in its city fabric and economic reality of architectural production. Following advances in the development of steel production in the rail industry and the advent of the elevator, the big Chicago fire brought the necessity of a rapid reconstruction that was embraced by the open minded matter-of-factness of the Chicago entrepreneur and subsequently the architects. This gave way to new forms of practices in the United States and architectural offices grew rapidly from the first professionals in the 1820´s to 110 employees in the 1890´s.

In his essay “The Chicago Frame” Colin Rowe describes the Chicago structural steel frame construction as a non-ideological application of its contemporary economic and material reality assembled into a carte blanche for life to unfold, where uniqueness is replaced by reproducibility. As opposed to the European avant-garde of the early 20th century, where the structural frame was heavily connected with ideology, the Chicago frame was not imbued with meaning, it was the product of a structural revolution without a stable theoretical support. The Chicago Frame was austere and the Chicago architects “frankly accepted the conditions imposed by the speculator”.

Taking this two opposing ways of understanding structure as a point of departure, we will expand this discussion by investigating a direct and literal architecture: an architecture of matter-of-fact who´s aims and agency is clear and stated. Literalism, as Mark Linder describes in his book “Nothing Less Than Literal: Architecture After Minimalism”, originated as a discourse in art but influenced by architecture, which later had architectural implications and manifestations in works such as John Hejduk´s Wall House.

Later, in his essay “Generic City” (1995), Rem Koolhaas reveals the impact the sedated homogeneity of the 21st Century city, generating a “hallucination of the normal”. This normality, understood as the absence of the special, can be likened to a literal condition where there is no more than the thing itself.

Further Alejandro Zaera-Polo connects the work of Lacaton Vassal to literalism and cheapness in his essay “Cheapness: No Frills and Bare Life” of 2010:

“Of all contemporary architects exploring the idea of value as a projectual argument, Lacatón & Vassal comes closest to the idea of actual bare life, where building is understood as an assemblage of systems arrayed in an ad hoc manner, suspending the representation of a qualified life in architecture. The buildings are barely conditioned, austere, and semi-exterior environments, again using a neo-Rousseauian aesthetic of community with the natural, reminiscent of several aspects of Arte Povera (and to the installations of Lucy Orta or the clothing lines of the Japanese brand Final Home). Unlike Gehry's cheapness, where double skins, pochéd spaces, and complex geometries produce a sophisticated envelope with frills at relatively affordable prices, Lacatón & Vassals veritable no frills strategy appears to be working more with ephemerality, transparency, and continuity between inside and outside, lacerating expense across the entire project and driving the budget into the enviable terrain of the literally, truly cheap.”

To further expand this discussion of literalism, the studio will carefully study techniques from other disciplines, such as the Oulipo group; reading concrete poetry and studying the paintings of Wade Guyton to explore their potential in architectural production. Also in the work of Kenneth Goldsmith we can locate new forms of artistic production which through its direct and uncreative way manages to reinvent writing.

Form and content

The studio will delve into the relationship of form and content, creating architecture which serves as a frame that has tolerance for change and conversion.

In architecture, the neoliberal economy has broken down the relationship between form and content, as projects are planned and built with an unstable future where the twists and turns of global economy render an accurate projection of occupation difficult.

In this world of speculation and rapid transformability, there is a potential for shifting the focus of architecture away from symbolic image making and into a literal domain: Building is just building and the structural frame, details, materials and manufacturing is the architecture which allows for contemporary life to unfold.

Research center

Participants will work on the design on a research facility in an high density urban setting in Chicago, which should hold a sense of generality to allow for future change and transformation. Learning from Flavio Motta´s recognition of “meaningful spaces with no name” we will develop architecture which goes beyond function and through that seek new types of spaces for learning.

Research centers, in this case a space for immaterial labour, work on production and validation of knowledge, and students can choose to focus on facilities connected to the sciences, political, economic or art research. Guided by studious curiosity and economic interests, these are spaces that host highly specialized study.

In the design of the building we will work with the industrial process of productuction to build “tailor made” industrial products or investigate the potential of “off the shelf” elements, such as building parts and details. We will then look into contemporary modes of construction, slip casting, 3D printing, CNC milling, other manufacturing technologies. In their projects, students will engage in architectural production through detailed design and crafting of both buildings, employing drawing, model making and writing as essential means to produce architecture.

By the end of the semester, the students will have produced architecture which proudly can be pointed to and exclaimed: this is this!

Learning outcome

Upon completion of this studio the students will have gained knowledge of the design of a project in a dense urban situation.

Working and learning activities

The studio will be based on work in the studio and lectures by the faculty or invited guests. The studio will meet two days a week, in addition to reviews and lecture days.

Curriculum

Woods, M., 1999. From Craft to Profession The Practice of Architecture in Nineteenth-Century America. 1st ed. Berkely: University of California Press.
Huyssen, A., 2017. Miniature Metropolis. Harvard University Press.
Larson, E., 2017. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. Vintage Books.
Linder, M., 2017. Nothing Less Than Literal. MIT Press.
Goldsmith, K., 2011. Uncreative Writing. Columbia University Press.
Rothkopf, S., 2012. Wade Guyton OS. Yale University Press.
Koolhaas, R, 1995 The Generic City. in: O.M.A., Rem Koolhaas, Bruce Mau (eds.), S, M, L, XL. Monacelli Press, p.1248-1264.
Zaera-Polo, Alejandro, 2010, Cheapness: No Frills and Bare Life, Log Magazine, p.15-27.
Rowe, Colin, 1976, The Chicago Frame. in: The mathematics of the ideal villa and other essays. MIT Press,
The Chicago Frame, Colin Rowe

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale
Exercise	Individual	Pass / fail
Exercise	Individual	Pass / fail
Project assignment	Individual	Pass / fail

Workload activity	Comment
Planning assignment
Individual problem solving

Start semester

40 617 Studio Positions_NOVELTY

Credits:

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

Positions_NOVELTY

Course code:

40 617

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2018 Spring

Assessment semester:

2018 Spring

Language of instruction:

English

Year:

2018

Maximum number of students:

Person in charge

Lisbeth Funck

Course content

In the spring semester 2018 the studio will continue to investigate the relationship between the four fundamental architectural categories; substructure, structure, space and material, that is to say, to study how ideas of structural and material assembly are inseparable from the formation of characterful spaces.

The focus of the discussion will be on the notion of the “new” in architecture. A series of selected buildings built during the 20th century, situated in the Metropolitan City of Milan, and the city itself, act as a starting point for the investigations. The students will visit, sensually experience and study buildings created by the architects Mario Asagno (1886-1980) and Claudio Vender (1904-1986). Based on these subjective experiences and analyses, the students are asked to position themselves in relation to the “new” or “modern” in architecture, in writing and through a semester project. How do we define an individual position as architects in relation to the history of architecture - what to continue and what to leave behind? What kinds of values do we want to take with us into the future?

The semester task, titled NOVELTY, is to develop one, or several autonomous structures based on the concept of the “new” with a minimum area of 1000 m2 and maximum area of 10 000 m2. The selected buildings’ substructures (historical, political, philosophical, typological), construction, materiality, surface ornament and spaces, will serve both as an immediate inspiration, and as case studies to be analysed according to the given topic. An individual architectural program is to be developed, framed by each student’s findings/interests in the building/s. Relevant topics to be discussed throughout the semester will be; to alter, to renew, to remain, to repeat, to substitute, recurrence or recombination.

Architecture is about having a sensual approach to technical challenges. The awareness and ability to gain knowledge from own sensual experience of existing buildings and a context and how to use this in the making of architecture is a critical and continuous discussion in studio Positions.

Learning outcome

Ability to deal with issues of construction and thematic intent

Ability to reflect on own work verbally and in writing

Increased knowledge and skills in: Investigation methods, architectural programming,

architectural properties

Awareness and ability to gain knowledge from own sensual experience of existing buildings and

use this in the making of architecture.

Knowledge and reflection on architecture’s fundamental elements; substructure, structure, material and space, and how they are assembled.

Historical layers. What to continue and what to leave behind?

Revisit history of architecture – by being inspired by, interpret anew, to further develop by clarification.

Working and learning activities

Preface task (three weeks)

Semester task

Group discussions

4 reviews

Final review

Excursion: Milano

The course will offer a series of lecturers from various disciplines that present different positions

Individual talks

Curriculum

Architectural design. Individual investigation.

Individual written assignment

Group Reviews

Mandatory attendance:

Lectures

4 reviews

Final review

Announced studio meetings

Discussions on:

Relevant projects and theories in art, architecture, literature and philosophy

Architecture and the production of presence

Culture/Architecture/Nature:

The relation between culture, architecture and nature has always been reflected in the arts and architecture and as we today face fast progressing climate changes, the relevance of the topic is reflected in the effort put into research. New knowledge brougt forward through more technical based research will inform the development of buildings to come. The artistic challenge is to consider the new knowledge as input and not as the result in itself and to challenge how we conventionally look upon nature as its superiors. The studio will question how we wish to relate to nature where architecture is given an active role as the mediator.

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

Workload activity	Comment
Attendance	Lectures 4 reviews Final review Announced studio meetings

Start semester

40 616 Body and Space Morphologies : Catharsis V - Acting and the Collective V

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

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

Credits:

Course code:

40 616

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2018 Spring

Assessment semester:

2018 Spring

Language of instruction:

English

Year:

2018

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.

Collaborations:

- Julie Dind, scholar, Performance and Performance Studies, Pratt Institute New York

- Stiv Kuling AS, Farsund

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 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		Not 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).

Start semester

40 611 Local Specificity

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

Local Specificity

Credits:

Course code:

40 611

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2018 Spring

Assessment semester:

2018 Spring

Language of instruction:

English

Year:

2018

Maximum number of students:

Person in charge

Søren S. Sørensen

Michael Ulrich Hensel

Required prerequisite knowledge

Completed Bachelor Studies.

Working Knowledge in Rhino.

Studio participants are required to take the elective course "Data and Analysis".

Course content

This project-based studio offers practice oriented design assignments focused on designing new environments for human habitation. This implies architectures that are closely embedded into their context. Together we will seek to address societal and environmental dynamics through the medium of architectural design in response to locally specific conditions and circumstances, and societal and environmental changes that require architectural designs that go beyond current standard practice.

Learning outcome

To develop an understanding of and a response to the increasingly complex design requirements architectural designs have to meet and therefore to be prepared for practice in architecture and the challenges architects need to meet.
The ability to set up and follow through a design process that leads to the desired result;
The ability to utilize design as a method of research in architecture that facilitates the conception of novel architectural designs;
Students will gain detailed knowledge of the architectural and computational design themes pursued by the studio and develop skill in computational design in architecture;
Students will gain the ability to develop designs based on specific performative criteria in an integrated manner from the conceptual stage to the material articulation through computational design;
Knowledge in associative modelling and generative systems;
Knowledge in use of advanced architectural and design visualization;

Working and learning activities

Research-by-Design Project.

Weekly studio tutorials and project discussions.

Lectures by staff and invited lecturers.

Seminars by staff.

Computational methods workshops.

Study trip with participation in research seminars and activities.

Public reviews.

Curriculum

Core thematic foci include:
• Performance-oriented Architecture;
• Information-based Design;
• Embedded Architectures and New Environments;

The methodological approach encompasses:
• Performance-oriented Computational Design;
• Integration of data-driven Methods, Processes, Information and Analysis;
• Data-collection and utilization in computational design;

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

Workload activity	Comment
Attendance	We expect presence in the studio every day

Start semester

40 621 Multistory Buildings

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

Multistory Buildings

Credits:

Course code:

40 621

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2018 Spring

Assessment semester:

2018 Spring

Language of instruction:

Norwegian / English

Year:

2018

Maximum number of students:

Person in charge

Bente Kleven

Required prerequisite knowledge

Passed bachelor level courses in architecture

Course content

The most important issue about making architecture sustainable is to design and build buildings capable to adapt to changing users and programs over time. That is not always the case nowadays.

Lots of buildings are being demolished because of lack of adaptability to new users and programs. Practicing architects with their clients should always consider a holistic building design that takes care of durable solutions so that a building can last as long as possible framing the activity of different users to different times.

This Multistory building course will therefore focus on the architectural potential of various structures as a framework for good architectural spaces with general usability over time. An important aim for the course is to explore, study and play with the architectural potential of the loadbearing structure of a building in terms of materiality, design and how the structure can play an active role in framing good spaces for different use.

Another issue is to study and explore is the impact of a building's internal vertical infrastructure with concerns to building structure, multi-story spaces for stairs, lifts and shafts for service and technical equipment.

The building envelope do for sure also play an important role for a holistic architectural quality concerning daylight, indoor climate, materiality and how the architecture of a building fits into the actual surroundings. The climate shell will always deal with rough impact due to weather conditions and need special investigation and care in an architectural design process.

The first part of the semester will deal with investigation and research of actual structural materials and configuration of loadbearing elements for multistory buildings. These studies will include interesting historical examples, projects from architectural competitions and student projects.

The students will also investigate possible structural configurations in physical ( and digital? )model studies

The second part of the semester the students will choose an actual plot and further investigate architectural ideas for a holistic multistory building in or near Oslo, and prove through sketches the adaptability for different users and programs(living or working). The students have to choose specific topics that their own project will specially concentrate on.

Learning outcome

Knowledge about:
- how to explore, create and organize good architectural space for different programs in a given context.
- how to deal with different structural materials and loadbearing principles

- different principles for organization and design of vertical communication space
- different building envelopes physical structure and materiality

Skills:
Being able to discuss, consider and explore:

- spatial and tactile qualities within a holistic architectural concept.
- various structural materiality and principles impact on architectural quality customized for different use and program for a building over time.
- architectural qualities and possibilities of different organization and design of vertical communication space

- a building envelope design

- architectural expression and materiality in relation to an actual location context.

Being able to document and present a conclusive and comprehensive and sustainable architectural project on an actual plot through excellent illustrations and a physical model.

General competence:
Being able to apply the acquired knowledge about structures, vertical communication spaces and building envelope into a sustainable building project with great architectural qualities usable for different programs. Get skills in discussing, evaluating and exploring the actual architectural topics.

Working and learning activities

The studio will be carried through with a main emphasis on architectural projects to be completed in groups or individually. Project material is expected to be detailed using digital tools, as well as small and largescale models. Preliminary sketching and development of ideas is to be done using analogue tools.

Otherwise, the course includes various activities:
• initial subtasks on current topics
• theme-oriented lectures
• private and group input / lectures and discussions
• inspection of relevant local projects
• a foreign excursion
• reviews every second week

Students will be working on the main semester project in groups of 2. When signing up for the course, it is possible to give a message about which fellow student you already have planned to work together with by sending an e-mail to the administration; Reier.Moll.Schoder@adm.aho.no

Mandatory coursework	Courseworks required	Presence required	Comment
Annet - spesifiser i kommentarfeltet		Required	A general attendance of minimum 80% is required. - Attendance at lectures is required. - Participation in individual or group supervision is required, adapted to individual needs. - Participation in workshops and reviews is required to pass. - Development, presentation, and review of a completed project design is required to pass. Students are evaluated to pass or fail, according to Regulations for Master’s Degree Programmes at AHO. International grading is provided for exchange students who require this.

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Project assignment	Individual	Pass / fail	The student must attend all project reviews. Final project presentations will be assessed as passed/failed by an internal and external examiner after a final review. There will be made a written evaluation.

Workload activity	Comment
Lectures	Mandatory attendance at all project reviews and active participation in discussions around the course different topics at lectures and other arragements

Start semester

2018 Vår

40 622 Climate-informed densification with wooden constructions

Credits:

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

Climate-informed densification with wooden constructions

Course code:

40 622

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2018 Spring

Assessment semester:

2018 Spring

Language of instruction:

English

Year:

2018

Maximum number of students:

Person in charge

Sissil Morseth Gromholt

Moritz Groba

Required prerequisite knowledge

Bachelor in architecture.

Preliminary skills in 3D CAD drawing is advisory, but not compulsory. It is desirable that part of the group have some knowledge of Rhino/Grasshopper or similar, hence students with skills in the field are encouraged to apply.

Course content

The course will offer an investigation into available techniques to inform, design and communicate architecture and area developments with a sustainable ecological footprint. Based on an integrated understanding of our natural and built environment, we will this semester particularly explore the advantages of wooden hybrid constructions to optimize structural and ecological performance and quality in urban housing within a challenging, urban context.

Both quantitative criteria and advanced generative computing as well as quick sketches and manual models will continuously be used for qualitative and intuitive investigations within the design process.

An idealistic and innovative approach merges with a commercial scenario, on a real site in a dense, urban context in Oslo, and within the current planning regime.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

of reducing the ecological footprint of architecture
of optimizing architectural design to a specific construction material and to a given contextual and climatic situation
of advantages of wooden constructions in dense, urban situations
of what tools are available to assist the design of sustainable and climate-adapted architecture
of the role of materials in a climatically informed design
of planning with timber as a design parameter
of the stages, rules and actors at play in an urban housing development
of best-practice examples of wooden urban housing and
of best-practice climatically informed architecture

Skills:

To use wooden constructions in a challenging urban context
To use simple 3D CAD modeling in the conceptual development of a neighborhood
To 3D print models for use both as sketch-models, analysis and presentation models
To use 2D projection drawing as a tool for planning housing and housing units
To refine techniques for communicative visual presentations

Competence:

To develop a sustainable conceptual design
To plan and design high-density housing with wooden constructions
To make and argue for decisions on sustainability and architectural quality
To realize the sustainable design through form, materials and details
To develop a position to the questions of sustainability and architectural quality
To understand the wooden structure as a decisive and form-generating parameter

Working and learning activities

The learning approach is project-based. The students develop architectural projects, with tasks given and advised by the staff. Lectures and workshops focusing on selected themes will contribute to knowledge and skills relevant for the project.

The course will include (preliminary plan):

Introductory tasks that generate a common knowledge base for the studio
Workshop on tools and methods for climatic considerations and design adaption
Main task: Work in couples or individual on 1-3 given sites
Weekly tutoring in the studio
Lectures by staff and invited architects and specialists
Study trip to a European city
Perspective/presentation workshop
Public reviews

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Project assignment	Individual	Pass / fail	Project assignment and reviews

Start semester

2018 Vår

40 408 Data & Analysis

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:

Data & analysis

Credits:

Course code:

40 408

Level of study:

Master

Teaching semester:

2018 Spring

Assessment semester:

2018 Spring

Language of instruction:

English

Year:

2018

Maximum number of students:

Person in charge

Michael Ulrich Hensel

Søren S. Sørensen

Required prerequisite knowledge

Prerequisites: Completed Bachelor studies, Basic Knowledge in Rhino.

Recommended: Working skills in computational modelling and visualization.

[The course is only available for students in the Embedded Architectures 2 Studio course of the RCAT | ACDL group.]

Course content

The elective course will introduce approaches, concepts and skills related to information-based design. This course includes lectures and seminars focusing on introducing the practice-oriented approach pursued by the RCAT | ACDL group, as well as an intense skill building boot-camp that focuses on associative modelling, local data-collection and analysis.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:
At the end of the course the student will have gained knowledge in a specific practice-oriented approach to information-based design.
Skills:
The student will have gained skills in data-collection and utilization in computational design with specific focus on the Rhino and Grasshopper environment.
General competence:
After successful completion of the course students are expected to have gained good working knowledge in information-based design and the ability to utilize this knowledge in a design project.

Working and learning activities

1. Lectures on selected topics regarding information-based design.
2. Tutorials on an individual and group basis concerning skill-building in data-collection and utilization in computational design.

Note: All instructions are based on active participation by the students and 90 % attendance.

Delivery: Portfolio of work process including visualization of collected data and utilization of the data in the design of the studio project.

Curriculum

The elective course will be run as a series of workshops.

Form of assessment	Grouping	Grading scale	Comment
Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe)	Individual	Pass / fail

Workload activity	Comment
Workshops
Attendance	We expect presence in each class

Form of assessment:	Oral Exam
Grouping:	Individual
Grading scale:	Pass / fail
Comment:

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

Mandatory coursework:	Presence required
Courseworks required:
Presence required:	Not required
Comment:	Attendance: Students are expected to be present and working during all studio meetings, which occur twice a week. Students are also expected to be present during all seminars and reviews. Absences from studio meetings and reviews will affect the final grade and multiple unexcused absences will result in course failure.

Form of assessment:	Exercise
Grouping:	Individual
Grading scale:	Pass / fail
Comment:

Form of assessment:	Exercise
Grouping:	Individual
Grading scale:	Pass / fail
Comment:

Languages

2018 Vår

Start semester

65 402 Powers of ten: Representing a Territory in Transition

Start semester

80 603 S P A - Studio for Potential Architecture

Start semester

80 608 Re-store Municipal Monuments

Start semester

40 620 Building

Start semester

40 617 Studio Positions_NOVELTY

Start semester

40 616 Body and Space Morphologies : Catharsis V - Acting and the Collective V

Start semester

40 611 Local Specificity

Start semester

40 621 Multistory Buildings

Start semester

40 622 Climate-informed densification with wooden constructions

Start semester

40 408 Data & Analysis

Pages

Workload activity:	Attendance
Comment:	All activities are mandatory. Students are expected to work on their drawings on a weekly basis.