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Start semester

40 544 Body and Space Morphologies : Acting and The Collective #XII

Credits: 
24
Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål: 
Body and Space Morphologies : Acting and The Collective #XII
Course code: 
40 544
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching semester: 
2021 Autumn
Assessment semester: 
2021 Autumn
Language of instruction: 
English
Year: 
2021
Maximum number of students: 
15
Person in charge
Rolf Gerstlauer
Wenkai Xu
Required prerequisite knowledge
  • The course is for master-students of all the study-fields at AHO - Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Design - interested in phenomenology in architecture; the discourse on the phenomenal world that we are entangled with.
  • The course is for master-students who wish to engage in research creation by working personal initiative in an independent investigation and exploration towards the making of an inspired material practice able to produce collective awareness for the issues at stake.

 

 

Course content

 

INTRODUCTION:

Body & Space Morphologies: Content, Overall Aims and Methods

Body and Space Morphologies is a research-based teaching program placed in the field of Architecture & Culture studies. Dedicated to Phenomenology in Architecture, the program offers Trans-Disciplinary master studios in explorative architectural and pre-architectural making, sensing and thinking.

From The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Phenomenology (2012, Dan Zahavi, ed.):
“Phenomenology shares the conviction that the critical stance proper to philosophy requires a move away from a straightforward metaphysical or empirical investigation of objects to an investigation of the very framework of meaning and intelligibility that makes any such straightforward investigation possible in the first place. It precisely asks how something like objectivity is possible in the first place.”

Our attempt is to partake in the discourse on the Phenomenology of Architecture by working and studying Architectural Phenomenology outside of the Conventions of Architecture. In theory, this can mean a free-thinking, and to some degree also a “free-making” and/or “free-looking”, yet in the realm of our studios it means the making of a dedicated Artistic Research which is looking for the Creation of a Material Practice in which the student can gain a certain expertise in and through which the discourse on the Phenomenology of Architecture can be tried on – if it not already is embodied by the material itself.

We aim at preparing and enabling students to conduct their own investigation into Architectural Phenomenology understood as a Research Creation; a working mode creating an inspired Material Practiceattuned to process rather than the communication of outputs or products”. We consider this to be the Artistic Parallel to both Traditional Scholarly Research and Common Architectural Design Practice.

Based on performativity and affordance theories, performance and performance studies, disability and neurodiversity studies as well as phenomenology and perception theories, the Body & Space Morphologies Studio Works investigate primal and/or pre-architectural material/processes/phenomena/conditions and develop or perform 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/environments/conditions, and the craft of our hands in the making of them.

Students individually study the performance of and with materials or environments of their choice. The studio emphasizes reiterated acting with a material body and gains experience and confidence in the making as a “becoming or being architecture”. Lectures, individual reviews and an extensive reading list enable the students to enter the discourse on the phenomenology in architecture on the base of their own material practice, and to furthermore collectively and critically reflect on theories and research related to perception, affordance, behavior, performativity and performance in architecture, objects and/or environments.

 

WORKING TOPICS FOR AUTUMN 2021:

The Body & Space Morphology Studio on Acting and The Collective offers students to place their working initatives for a research creation under one of the following topics:

Catharsis:  the necessity to do something because of a particular interest / inspiration / desire of yours. Satisfies your curiosity and releases a working process that brings you closer to that which you want to get to know better.

Land: the readiness to engage with an environment, source or ground from which you can draw affordance from. Relates your creation and material process to a body/ source/phenomena you connect it too.

House: the want to make a house (construction/unit/infrastructure/garden/beholder) you want or need to make. Releases the attempt to make that house and finds ways to make it based on your understanding of the "want" as a necessity that connects the work to something else.

Film: the confrontation with conditions and phenomena and the practice of looking at and forming content through recording and editing moving images and audo. Strengthens your awareness for existing alternative narratives in the way we see production and presentation of phenomena and conditions.

 

WORKING PLACES - AHO and THE LISTA FIELD STUDIO:

The Body & Space Morphology Studio on Acting and The Collective Autumn 2021 offers its students two workplaces: our regular studio space at AHO and our LISTA Field Studio in Farsund, Southern Norway.

In collaboration with Farsund Commune, section for culture and sports, Stiv Kuling AS architects as well as private business and landowners, the Body & Space Morphologies teaching and research unit maintains the LISTA Field-Studio as an extension to the regular AHO Studio.

Throughout the semester, students of the Body & Space Morphologies studio are given the possibility to spend shorter or longer periods in Lista – or alternative; to spend the whole semester in Lista. The choice of working place is not made dependend on the chosen working topics, but we encourage students working the topic "Land" to onsider at least some of their studies to take place in the Lista environment.

Students choosing to work in the LISTA Field-Studio are given free accommodation, access to the land and personnel capacities as well as material recourses etc..

The aim with this initiative is threefold:
a) to provide students with the possibility to spend shorter or longer periods on the LISTA peninsula in order to draw from the affordance that resides in this particular multi-faceted cultural landscape.
b) through the individual works of the students to collect and show a growing body of artistic research that reflects on issues of - or that makes new subjects relative to – the Lista Peninsula.
c) to strengthen ongoing and/or to make new collaborations for the establishing of an International Interdisciplinary Research Creation project-proposal called The LISTA Project.

The Field-Studio in LISTA is run by the architects Jan Gunnar Skjeldsøy and Anders Eik Pilskog, Stiv Kuling AS, Farsund. Their atelier will serve as common place for discussions and the supervising of those students working in Lista. However, students choosing this option are entirely free to decide where and what to work with. The initiative for an artistic research – what it copes with and wants to try itself on - still remains the responsibility of the student.

Please contact the teaching body for more information on accommodation, working conditions and possibilities connected to the LISTA Field Studio.

 

 

Learning outcome

 

Overall aims:

Body & Space Morphologies students learn how to develop strong initiatives for an explorative working process that acts on impulse /affordance and that creates visual/haptic experience that again stimulates, or re-states/re-news, architectural content. As a student in the Body & Space Morphologies studio one is asked to submit to performativity as the instance in which to act a material, condition or event - hence the individual act, or the acting and making, makes also the discursive space of the social(ly) employed collective phenomenology in architecture: the three forms of creativity that in Norwegian language are skaperglede, skapertrang and skaperkraft, make in sum again that what could be named as “skaperkunnskap” – the Creative Knowledge about this which is created.

After completing the course, the student should have:

Knowledge of

  • the basics in phenomenology of architecture and the various practices that exist within (and that can become part of) architectural phenomenology

  • the basics in affordance theory and the theories concerning objecthood and/or object relations as means to fuel and reflect upon a material practice and/or artistic research in the field of architecture

  • the basics in performance and performance studies that make body & space morphologies: ways of making, looking at, discussing and seeing/understanding qualia and perception in the working of architecture

  • the basics in disability studies and neurodiversity studies as the necessary activist movements working and re-defining the human condition from “all the world’s a stage” (Shakespeare) towards for all of the human spectrum with its diverse behavior

  • the basics of performativity, language and speech acts as the tools that can add value to the making and a work – but that not necessarily must seek to replace the issues at stake in a work or a thing

  • the foundational preparations for an advanced haptic visual and experimental artistic research leading to a material practice and/or architectural phenomenology

Skills in

  • finding, developing and/or embracing initiatives for the making of an inspired, explorative and imaginative artistic research

  • manufacturing physical and/or visual (or otherwise sensible/perceptible) works and gaining a unique expertise in the craft(s) deployed in the making of these artifacts

  • conducting this artistic research with the desire to make or pursue a material practice containing, or inviting for, reflections in phenomenology of architecture / architectural phenomenology

  • deploying complementary ways of working and means of creative investigations that make, demonstrate or narrate a dialogue between the works inherent qualities and how this connects to (or can become) issues, phenomena and/or subjects in the world

  • maintaining a personal diary of the making that can be worked into documents of the making aiming at a third-party readability

  • approaching environments, situations and discussions phenomenological and applying and recognizing performativity in speech and action as productive means from which to provoke and receive social employed knowing in trans-disciplinary teams

Competence in

  • developing distinct initiatives and choosing the craft in which to act or work them so as to partake in the discourse on the phenomenology of architecture

  • approaching and acting on impulse with all sorts of material, objects, environments and/or events and gaining valuable experience, artefacts and/or documents from this

  • conceiving of and presenting/communicating unique architectural content/research through a haptic visual material and the phenomena or conditions contained and experienced in it

  • understanding the mechanisms and rhetoric of systems of oppression, learned behavior, eugenics and stigma that are un-productive and unsustainable (in the field of architecture as well as in the systems we call architecture)

  • developing and/or pursuing life-long initiatives for a material practice in architectural phenomenology that is independent of, and/or adaptable to, any kind of professional commission

  • not knowing a thing, but having the passion, dedication, endurance and imagination to wanting to get to know it

 

 

Working and learning activities

 

Organization, Workload and Activities

At AHO and if the restrictions concerning the corona pandemic allow for it, the course is organized as a studio in which each student has a designated working area for the whole semester and no matter if parts of the study are conducted in Lista.

In the Lista Field Studio and if the restrictions concerning the corona pandemic allow for it, students meet for discussions in the atelier of Stiv Kuling As in Farsund but have their working place either in the open land or in their private accomodation that we provide for you.

The working week goes from Wednesday to Monday. Tuesdays are reserved for the studies in the elective courses. Mondays are silent working days (meaning no teaching is provided and you work independently) while the studio meets for every Wednesday and Thursday from 9:30 to 5 for lectures, screenings, reviews and work-table talks.

We have five public mid-term reviews and prepare at the end of the semester a work display for the AHO WORKS Exhibition. The exhibition allows for the students to display their complete works (all objects and artefacts – found or made) together with a book and/or film or video containing a written and/or otherwise illustrated experience of their making and that what the making had connected to. An external sensor team will study the exhibition and books and/or video/films and then give feedback and critique on the individual work but also on the studio as a whole.

The Body & Space Morphologies diploma thesis candidates are integrated in the studio and work in the same space (at AHO or in Lista). We recommend the master course students to attend the diploma mid-term reviews (between four or five in the course of the semester).

If the covid restrictions allow for it, we plan two excursions to the Lista Peninsula in Southern-Norway. The first visitation in early September happens in the form of a four-day long field-trip in which each student draws from the affordance that resides in that particular landscape to make site specific-works and/or to gather material and experience relevant for the working process in the studio. The second visitation (during the regular excursion week in early October) is organized as a mix between study-trip, seminars, talks, performance events, craft workshops and work-demonstrations related to the being in and coping with the affordance and challenges of a landscape (and culture) exposed to rapid change. In case of an AHO lock-down and travel restrictions due to covid, the two excursions will be replaced by online workshops and events.

 

 

Curriculum

 

The Body and Space Morphologies studios collaborate with capacities in other fields of the Humanities (and the Science) providing us with the Trans-Disciplinary syllabus (lectures, readings and field-studies / excursions) necessary to individually and collectively ponder and reflect on Phenomenology in Architecture; the Human Condition and the Creative Act it is to make and conceive of Relational Objects or Architectural Phenomenology.

Teachers

Rolf Gerstlauer, professor, architect and multimedia artist/researcher at The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, AHO. Head of the Body and Space Morphologies research and teaching program. Maintains an artistic practice together with Dind and collaborates with her in implementing aspects of Disability and Neurodiversity Studies into the teachings of the Body and Space Morphologies studios.

Julie Valentine Dind, performer/artist/phd-student, Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, Brown University, Providence/USA. Dind’s scholarly work provides all the Body and Space Morphologies studios with an updated syllabus on Performance and Performance Studies, Disability Studies and the Neurodiversity Movement. The Body and Space Morphologies studios serve as laboratory in which this work is sought to be implemented into architectural education – and architecture per se.

Wenkai Xu, did her Body & Space Morphologies Catharsis studio diploma thesis "A House for me and my animals" in January 2019. She is the Body & Space Morphologies studio teaching assistant in Oslo and works as alumnus with the continuation of her project, inspires the studio and together with Gerstlauer co-supervises the diploma works.

Jan Gunar Skjeldsøy & Anders Eik Pilskog, architects, Stiv Kuling AS, Farsund/Norway. Skjeldsøy and Pilskog, both former AHO students, are long-term collaborators to the Body and Space Morphologies studios and since 2019 also our teaching assistants. Together they sign responsible to run and teach the LISTA Field-Studio since autumn 2019.

 

Recommended Literature and Mandatory Readings

At the start of the semester, a detailed "recommended reading list" is handed out. Most of those readings are for the semester made available in the course book-shelf in the AHO library. Additional readings, most of Dind's papers and other relevant texts that make the course syllabus / mandatory curriculum, are handed out as pdf's in the Moodle platform of the course.

 

 

Form of assessmentGroupingGrading scaleComment
Project assignmentIndividualPass / failAttendance & participation – individual studio / or field work:
20 weeks full-time study. The work has to be conducted and performed in-situ in LISTA or in the Studio at AHO (or in case of an AHO lockdown; at home but made available on the moodle-platform) - the working material is present at any time.
Vurderinger:
Form of assessment:Project assignment
Grouping:Individual
Grading scale:Pass / fail
Comment:Attendance & participation – individual studio / or field work:
20 weeks full-time study. The work has to be conducted and performed in-situ in LISTA or in the Studio at AHO (or in case of an AHO lockdown; at home but made available on the moodle-platform) - the working material is present at any time.

Start semester

40 540 Architecture of Sports: City of Courts

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål: 
Architecture of Sports: City of Courts
Credits: 
24
Course code: 
40 540
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching semester: 
2021 Autumn
Assessment semester: 
2021 Autumn
Language of instruction: 
English
Year: 
2021
Maximum number of students: 
15
Person in charge
Thomas McQuillan
Course content

Play is an essential feature of humanity, and sport formalizes this play in a social space. This series of courses is an examination of the spatial and architectural features of sport. 

Sport is a central aspect of our society, as it has been for millennia. Both the ancient Egyptians and Greeks afforded a prominent place to sport, and throughout history, it has provided a space for both participation and spectatorship. From the most casual of games to the cutthroat world of professional sports, it provides its participants with excitement, confrontation, competition and personal challenge. For the fall 2021 semester, the topic is tennis. 

Tennis has a long history, and one intimately connected to architecture. Its early form took place in the monasteries of France, in the 1300’s, and developed in the cloisters or courtyard, which has given us the concept of a ‘court’. These courts became enclosed areas dedicated exclusively to the sport, such as the court at Falkland Castle from 1539. Throughout the 17th century, indoor courts proliferated across Europe. By the end of the 19th century, the game underwent another innovation in the form of lawn tennis, which gives us the form of the sport we know today. 

This course is an exploration of the spatial and architectural features of tennis as a basis for designing tennis facilities today. Initial research will focus on spatio-historical case studies through models and drawing. The project task will be the design of a tennis facility in Oslo. 

Learning outcome

Primary Learning Outcome
- Ability to employ architectural research as a basis for original designs

Subsidary Learning Outcomes
- How to do basic research into a topic
- How city, sport and architecture interact
- How to communicate findings and designs
- Experience with the architecture of tennis

Working and learning activities

The course consists of two activities: a series of lectures by architects, athletes and historians, and weekly reviews of progress. Our studies will lead us from the urban scale  (e.g. 1:5.000) to the development of architectural space at 1:200. 

This course is intended as an in-person arrangement, but activities can when needed be moved to the internet. Attendance at all activities is essential. 

Curriculum

An extensive list of literature on the topic is under preparation and will be available at course start. The following are general references on tennis. 

Bondt, Cees de. 2006. Royal tennis in Renaissance Italy. Turnhout: Brepols.

Gillmeister, Heiner. 2017. Tennis: a cultural history. Bristol, CT: Equinox Publishing.

Phillips, Rowan Ricardo. 2020. The circuit: a tennis odyssey.  New York: Picador.

Wilson, Elizabeth. 2016. Love Game A History of Tennis, from Victorian Pastime to Global Phenomenon. University of Chicago Press.

Mandatory courseworkCourseworks requiredPresence requiredComment
Presence required Required
Obligatoriske arbeidskrav:
Mandatory coursework:Presence required
Courseworks required:
Presence required:Required
Comment:
Form of assessmentGroupingGrading scaleComment
Project assignmentIndividualPass / fail
Vurderinger:
Form of assessment:Project assignment
Grouping:Individual
Grading scale:Pass / fail
Comment:

Start semester

40 541 TAP The architectural project - A building for the Divine

Credits: 
24
Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål: 
TAP The architectural project - A building for the Divine
Course code: 
40 541
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching semester: 
2021 Autumn
Assessment semester: 
2021 Autumn
Language of instruction: 
English
Year: 
2021
Maximum number of students: 
15
Person in charge
Beate Hølmebakk
Required prerequisite knowledge

Bachelor in architecture.

Course content

T AP is a building design studio concerned with the measurable and immeasurable qualities of architecture. It is a studio where the students are to develop an individual architectural project from abstract concept to concrete solution. It is a studio where spatial, structural, material and tectonic considerations will be based on explicit architectural ambitions and design criteria defined by each student.

The brief for the spring 2021 semester is to design one building for the worship of two religions in Hovinbyen in Oslo. 

At the start of the semester the students will receive a specified brief for the building and a specific site.

The project will be conceived and developed in two and three dimensions until it reaches completion in a scale relevant to the task.

 

 

Learning outcome

At the end of the semester the student will have acquired knowledge about the design of a medium sized public building in a complex urban environment. 

The student will have developed skills in architectural argumentation and representation and acquired experience with design methodology.​

Working and learning activities

In the beginning of the semester each student is to present her/his portfolio.

The design process will be divided into distinct phases from idea to detailed project. Each phase will be reviewed collectively with external critics.

There will be individual tutoring and lectures on architecture, religious practice and urban sociology from teachers and invited guests. The main pedagogical tool of the TAP studio is the exchange between given assignments/constraints and individual freedom in the design process.

Excursions to relevant buildings will be part of the studio.

 

Curriculum

Relevant texts, recorded lectures, and interviews will be made available during the semester. These  will be the basis for collective talks in the studio.

Form of assessmentGroupingGrading scaleComment
Project assignmentIndividualPass / fail
Vurderinger:
Form of assessment:Project assignment
Grouping:Individual
Grading scale:Pass / fail
Comment:

Start semester

80 521 Constructive Logic: Earth Matters

Credits: 
24
Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål: 
Constructive Logic: Earth Matters
Course code: 
80 521
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching semester: 
2021 Autumn
Assessment semester: 
2021 Autumn
Language of instruction: 
English
Year: 
2021
Maximum number of students: 
12
Person in charge
Lina Elisabeth Broström
Andrea Pinochet
Required prerequisite knowledge

Good understanding of written and spoken English
Intermediate to a good level of draughtsmanship
Interest in working with material experiments and large scale models

Course content

How can a better understanding of materials and the building industry guide our design choices? This studio is part of a series where each semester we will investigate one particular material in depth, examining the full building process from the extraction of raw materials, to production of elements, transportation, building technology and how a building is eventually dismantled. ​
This semester we will study concrete and earth-based composites. Learning about their current use through a historical and technological lense, we will seek to understand their future potential in our fast changing environment. 
The studio will research the manufacture of buildings and building components and develop prototypical designs for a medium size commercial project on a given site.

Earth Matters
Concrete is one of the most prevalent construction materials worldwide. It is affordable, easy to use, strong, long-lasting and available in large quantities everywhere, making it a staple in every building or infrastructure project. Although there are many different types of concrete, today the majority of concrete used in construction is based on Ordinary Portland Cement, and these account for a significant portion of global CO2 emissions. In addition to that, we find resource extraction practices that leave great scars on the earth and an enormous amount of construction and demolition waste behind, putting land under pressure and disrupting many ecosystems.

But what if we could use the resources found on-site to make buildings that are site specific and have a lower environmental impact? As a counterpoint to concrete, we will study other geopolymers and earth-based materials. Earth makes some of the oldest buildings on our planet, it is cheap, versatile and easy to upcycle. 

This course will then examine the building industry, in particular the concrete industry, trying to get an overview of how it works and reflecting on its culture and environmental impact. Learning from traditional building techniques and material science, we will experiment with a range of composite materials and discuss how we can develop better practices that can be implemented at a large scale, across the building industry.

Learning outcome

Constructive Logic
The design questions raised by the studio will be addressed through an investigation of material technology and study of the building industry, letting form emerge from an understanding of the material properties, both physical and aesthetic, and the individual ambitions set out by the students.
Through an in-depth study of a given material, participants will gain an understanding of the complexity involved in the realization of a simple work of architecture. We will discuss architectural aesthetics and the craft of building as a creative endeavor.
We will also address issues relating to resource extraction, division of labor, building ethics and the politics of the construction site.

Lightweight Architecture and the Life (Cycle) of Buildings
The studio will work with lightness as a design attitude, challenging more permanent and static building solutions. Another way of understanding the concept of lightweight architecture is to think about low impact building —everything that minimizes construction material, doesn't weigh much on the environment and, therefore, has special properties.
With this concept in mind, the studio seeks to understand the complexity of a building’s life cycle, trying to anticipate not just how it will be built and used, but also how it will be maintained and disassembled; and investigating the full potential of certain materials that have a low environmental impact or that are responsive to the environment.

Working and learning activities

The studio will work with experimental characterization techniques, analytical drawing, model making and construction details. Revisiting the scientific method, we will discuss material science and study the specific and unique qualities of building materials in order to understand material properties, structural capacity and position in the industry. Getting our hands dirty, we will experiment with different materials and learn more about concrete, rammed earth, pisé, adobe, hempcrete, bricks, mortars and other building composites.
We will work with big models and physical samples, and will embrace technical drawing, budget sheets, schedules and logistics plans, making discussion around labor and organizational systems an important component of the course.
NB! In the event of school closure or limited workshop access in the fall, independent working methods will be set up by the studio in order to address the similar questions regarding material technology.

Curriculum

Syllabus will be distributed on the first day of class.

Literature List

The Ecology of Building Materials. Architectural Press, Bjørn Berge, 2009.

The Material Book, Ilka and Andreas Ruby, Ruby Press, 2020.

Re-inventing Construction, Ilka and Andreas Ruby, Ruby Press 2010.

Bernard Rudofsky, Architecture Without Architects A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed Architecture, 1964.

Concretopia: A Journey Around the Rebuilding of Postwar Britain, John Grindrod, 2013.

Upscaling Earth - Material, Process, Catalyst, Anna Heringer, Lindsay Blair Howe, Martin Rauch, 2019.

Rammed Earth - Tradition And Potential, Roger Boltshauser, Cyril Veillon, Nadja Maillard

Refined Earth – Construction & Design of Rammed Earth, Martin Rauch, 2015.

Concrete Oslo, Langdalen, Pinochet, Szacka, Torpedo Press 2018.

Log 47: Overcoming Carbon Form, 2019.

Architect As Organizer Or The Way The World Works, Eeva-liisa Pelkonen, 2012.

Working with Industry, An Engineer Imagines, Peter Rice, 1998.

The New Less is More, Werner Sobeck, 2009.

Climates: Architecture and the Planetary Imaginary, The Avery Review, 2016.

The Natural Contract, Michel Serres, 1990. 

Form of assessmentGroupingGrading scaleComment
Other assessment method, define in comment fieldIndividualPass / failThe final grade in the course will be given based on:
— Design production and participation in studio meetings: 30%
— Mid-review and Interim review presentation: 30%
— Final review presentation and portfolio assessment: 40%
Vurderinger:
Form of assessment:Other assessment method, define in comment field
Grouping:Individual
Grading scale:Pass / fail
Comment:The final grade in the course will be given based on:
— Design production and participation in studio meetings: 30%
— Mid-review and Interim review presentation: 30%
— Final review presentation and portfolio assessment: 40%

Start semester

40 543 Studio Positions_Radical Architecture I: EVOLVER

Credits: 
24
Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål: 
Studio Positions_Radical Architecture I: EVOLVER
Course code: 
40 543
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching semester: 
2021 Autumn
Assessment semester: 
2021 Autumn
Language of instruction: 
English
Year: 
2021
Maximum number of students: 
15
Person in charge
Lisbeth Funck
Matthew Anderson
Required prerequisite knowledge

Passed foundation years

Course content
  • How to embody history within our time?
  • How do we define an individual position as architects in relation to the history of architecture?

Studio Position’s pedagogical approach aims towards a radical understanding of architecture through a critical approach to the creation of architecture – radical understood as asking new questions, thereby expanding the realm of architectural discourse with regard to contemporary philosophical positions.

To be radical requires the critical thinking or rethinking of what something is, and what made it what it is. With this aim, the studio engages with new ontologies and the ways they can be made operational and manifested in architecture, in order to take care of and renew building knowledge, social structures, and contemporary theory.

The studio aims to deconstruct architectural and social norms – and to develop and renew architecture through the critical study of selected case studies.  Through a radical approach it is possible to reach a renewed and holistic understanding of architecture in relation to culture, by building on technical, functional, social and sensual aspects to reform the way architecture is understood and made.

Structure
Based on subjective analyses, the students are asked to position themselves in relation to architectural qualities in the given case-studies (existing buildings) through a semester project and in a continuous written reflection to be discussed in plenum.
With these starting positions, the semester is divided in two main parts; 1. WORK; Architectural design, and part 2. REFLECTION; workshops, discussions, written reflections.

Part 1. is subdivided into three phases where the students work towards an architectural project:

  1. Framing an architectural concept
  2. Imagining a life (scale, materiality, activity, accessibility, structure)
  3. An architectural project

 

Learning outcome

The students will develop skills based on:

  • work based, and theoretical research
  • practice knowledge through case studies
  • translation between concepts and architectural practice
  • material knowledge
  • artistic creativity and critical and innovative thinking
  • ability to discuss architecture in relation to a wider cultural discourse, including historical, philosophical, ethical, theoretical, social, and architectural knowledge.
Working and learning activities

Introductionary task

Semester-task. The semester-task will be investigated and developed through concept sketches, conceptual models, process text, and through architectural drawings (plans, sections, elevations), (large) physical spatial models, photo, (video), and a final project text.

Weekly talks. The studio emphasizes and facilitates peer-review of works and words as a vital aspect of the learning environment.
Groupreading
Lectures
Films
City walks
(Studytrip ?)
3 reviews

Form of assessmentGroupingGrading scaleComment
Project assignmentIndividualPass / fail
Vurderinger:
Form of assessment:Project assignment
Grouping:Individual
Grading scale:Pass / fail
Comment:

Start semester

80 520 Transformation in Practice: Gamlebyen

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål: 
Transformation in Practice: Gamlebyen
Credits: 
24
Course code: 
80 520
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching semester: 
2021 Autumn
Assessment semester: 
2021 Autumn
Language of instruction: 
English
Year: 
2021
Maximum number of students: 
15
Person in charge
Amandine Kastler
Erlend Skjeseth
Required prerequisite knowledge
  • Good understanding of written and spoken English
  • Intermediate to a good level of digital modelling and draftsmanship
  • Experience with and interest in building large scale material models
Course content

“This practice is not nostalgic – the fragments it deals with are not treated longingly as a part of some lost whole, but rather as the emergent potential for what comes next.” Andrew Clancy, Critical practice: can architecture be critical?

The studio promotes a form of practice within the field of building heritage that is as comfortable working with existing buildings as proposing new. Contemporary architecture needs to develop ways of operating between the lines of history without falling into the well-worn traps of romanticism, sentimentalism and conservatism. Through analysis of the pre-existing urban fabric, this studio will draw on what is already there by harvesting fragments of the historical city and abstracting these findings into durable pieces of architecture. Tools and tactics to engage actively with the historic fabric of the city will be developed, and an elastic approach between standing out and fitting in will be practiced. To do this, the binary opposition between strict conservation and the tabula rasa will be challenged. Working within the constraints and resources of a particular site and its environs, the question we will ask is how to build into, on top and around what already exists.

The current dilemma for the city of Oslo is how to handle a forecast of continued growth inside a perimeter that is sanctified to protect the natural environments that surround it. Crossing the line towards the outback is a no-go zone and there is strong opposition to building tall buildings. The need to densify is inevitable and the city needs to better utilise its existing neighbourhoods. This inevitably will put pressure on historical areas, creating tensions between stakeholders. Yet, this is also an opportunity to improve, extend and enhance existing places through a more sustainable form of development that focuses on addition without subtraction.

The testing ground for the work will be Gamlebyen, a neighbourhood situated on the inner east side of Oslo. As the gaze of developers turns east from the seafront, this area is increasingly drawing speculation. Gamlebyen is an area protected by history and archaeology, its existing built environment is a tapestry woven over many centuries by countless authors. The area where medieval Oslo was once located has seen periods of prominence followed by decay and destruction. War and fire left it a burned-out timber village, replaced by Christiania, a new city of bricks and mortar further to the west. For centuries Gamlebyen remained peripheral to the major developments of the city. Industrial and infrastructural interventions in the 20th century left the neighbourhood partially destitute and impoverished. Today, the area has seen a significant increase in property prices and an influx of new residents. However, as the city grows and densifies around it, Gamlebyen remains a partly hidden treasure and a repository of subculture and resistance unique in Oslo.

Cycles of boom and bust have resulted in a scared yet rich and densely layered piece of urbanity, wedged tightly between the past and the future. The complex assemblage of built fragments and the seemingly ad hoc appropriation of space are valuable features of Gamlebyens character. Yet, they are not currently reflected in the regulatory zoning plans governing development in the area, leaving gaps and blind spots open to developer-led statements pushing in from the west.  The studio will operate in these sites of composite character by delving into the technical, cultural and legal parameters that determine their treatment. The diversity of the approaches in the studio will reflect the pluralistic nature of complex heritage sites, where different parcels require differentiated approaches. Hence, projects will reach beyond the one-off proposal and be relevant for anyone who wishes to practice as an architect in historical settings.

Working Methods:

The studio does not consider research, in any form, to be a separate exercise from ‘propositional thinking’, rather, it asserts that the act of reading, observing, surveying and fabricating new artifacts is all propositional by nature and therefore a powerful asset within design thinking. Projects will be developed iteratively throughout the semester using architectural drawings and large-scale material models, both analogue and digital. The different work phases will be supported by workshops and seminars.

Survey

The studio will lend considerable attention to understanding context through fieldwork and will embed itself in Gamlebyen to study variations in style and typology. Surveys will not only quantify physical properties but also the qualified values such as significance, symbolism and local tradition. Using both analogue and digital surveying techniques, recordings will document the intersection between historical periods and typologies. These fragments of the city will be iteratively adapted and translated to create a familiar, yet new building type that mediates these fault lines.

Artifact Model(s)

The survey will be the foundation for the artefact, a large-scale material model that starts the inverted design process from fragment to building. The artifact model is a physical and material manifestation of an essential component or junction found in your survey, which is subsequently translated into a three-dimensional piece at a detailed scale. This ‘hot-spot is a free-standing bricolage of materials that suggests something more than the sum of its parts. The original is not a prescriptive tool but rather the starting point for new designs. The production of models depends on workshop availability during the spring semester. Both analogue and digital tools will be used to make and represent new artifacts. 

Proposal

Proposals will focus on contextual construction through the design of a multi-functional building that embodies the complexity of the site it inhabits. This is architecture as a general practice, working on ordinary everyday things. The output of the studio will consist of well-resolved projects with distinctive formal qualities built on clear intentions. Proposals can be deceitful and camouflaged, replacing the limitations of modernist dogma with the full array of exciting strategies at hand for an architect in our day and age. Due to the proximity of buildings from different periods, each proposal will have to contain multiple aspects, differentiated through formal expression, programmatic disposition or its relationship to the immediate context. Or in other words, make a skillfully woven synthesis of seemingly disparate things. Depending on the site, projects will engage with the transformations and connection of existing buildings, as well as the design of autonomous new buildings. A selection of sites will be determined prior to the start of the course.

Learning outcome
  • Independently undertake a precise measured survey of a site in Gamlebyen, using analogue and digital surveying technology.
  • Document and interpret the current condition, both quantitative and qualitative, of an existing building or site using architectural drawing convention.
  • Design and build large scale material models as an approach to transform existing buildings and places.
  • Formulate individual architectural proposals based on close observation and analysis of existing conditions and identify the architectural qualities in one's own work that demonstrate relevance to the field. 
  • Understand the basic regulatory frameworks that govern architectural projects in the field of building heritage, such as zoning plans and heritage guidelines, assess their impact on one’s own architectural project.
  • Convey through oral presentation and text an understanding of the key terms, definitions, and concepts of preservation and situate them relative to one’s own architectural project.
Working and learning activities

The studio will be taught with Benjamin Sjöberg and will be closely linked to the practice work of Kastler Skjeseth Architects. http://www.kastlerskjeseth.no/.  

Students will be expected to work in Gamlebyen on-site for parts of the semester. Teaching will consist of twice-weekly tutorials, seminars, pin-ups and reviews with invited critics. Students are expected to be active participants, to attend all trips, studio meetings, pin-ups and reviews, while keeping up with a rigorous level of production. This studio is a full-time commitment.

It is highly recommended to take the Re Store Values elective course in conjunction with this studio.

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

Curriculum

A complete course syllabus and program will be handed out at the beginning of the semester

Form of assessmentGroupingGrading scaleComment
Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe)IndividualPass / failPass/Fail, based on the following criteria in relation to the given assignments:

The final grade in the course will be given based on:
- Attendance and design production for twice-weekly studio meetings: 30%
- Mid review and Interim review presentation: 30%
- Final review presentation: 40%

The oral presentation is a part of the portfolio assessment.

Mid review, Interim review and Final review: Work presented for the Mid review, the Interim 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 design ambitions. Students are expected to clearly articulate their ambitions and the intellectual underpinnings of their work in pin-ups 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 representations.

Portfolio: The care taken in the compilation and design of the portfolio the presentation of physical models 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.
Vurderinger:
Form of assessment:Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe)
Grouping:Individual
Grading scale:Pass / fail
Comment:Pass/Fail, based on the following criteria in relation to the given assignments:

The final grade in the course will be given based on:
- Attendance and design production for twice-weekly studio meetings: 30%
- Mid review and Interim review presentation: 30%
- Final review presentation: 40%

The oral presentation is a part of the portfolio assessment.

Mid review, Interim review and Final review: Work presented for the Mid review, the Interim 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 design ambitions. Students are expected to clearly articulate their ambitions and the intellectual underpinnings of their work in pin-ups 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 representations.

Portfolio: The care taken in the compilation and design of the portfolio the presentation of physical models 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.
Workload activityComment
Group workStudents are expected to regularly work in the studio and to be active participants in the collaborative studio environment. Sharing knowledge, techniques, and ideas with your fellow students is incredibly important to your own creative development and to your success in this studio. Students are expected to keep the studio space orderly and to collectively organise and maintain a large table and wall space for group meetings and pin-ups.

Students are expected to work independently and to show initiative in locating the resources and supplies they need to complete their work. Since this course involves site visits outside of the school, students are expected to behave maturely and respectfully.
Individual problem solvingDeadlines and required deliverables are indicated on the syllabus and on individual project assignments and are not negotiable. Students must complete assignments by the given deadline.

Students are responsible for managing their own print schedules and for backing up files. Loss of data will not be considered a valid justification for submitting incomplete project work.

Deadlines can only be extended in cases of illness or special circumstances, and requests for extensions must be submitted to the tutor before the deadline in writing, accompanied by a medical certificate when necessary.
AttendanceStudents 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 for social engagements, holidays, etc. will not be accepted. Absences from studio meetings and reviews will affect the final grade and multiple unexcused absences will result in course failure.
Forventet arbeidsinnsats:
Workload activity:Group work
Comment:Students are expected to regularly work in the studio and to be active participants in the collaborative studio environment. Sharing knowledge, techniques, and ideas with your fellow students is incredibly important to your own creative development and to your success in this studio. Students are expected to keep the studio space orderly and to collectively organise and maintain a large table and wall space for group meetings and pin-ups.

Students are expected to work independently and to show initiative in locating the resources and supplies they need to complete their work. Since this course involves site visits outside of the school, students are expected to behave maturely and respectfully.
Workload activity:Individual problem solving
Comment:Deadlines and required deliverables are indicated on the syllabus and on individual project assignments and are not negotiable. Students must complete assignments by the given deadline.

Students are responsible for managing their own print schedules and for backing up files. Loss of data will not be considered a valid justification for submitting incomplete project work.

Deadlines can only be extended in cases of illness or special circumstances, and requests for extensions must be submitted to the tutor before the deadline in writing, accompanied by a medical certificate when necessary.
Workload activity:Attendance
Comment: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 for social engagements, holidays, etc. will not be accepted. Absences from studio meetings and reviews will affect the final grade and multiple unexcused absences will result in course failure.

60 526 Edge Landscape– the role of Park Systems in the contemporary city

Credits: 
24
Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål: 
Edge Landscape– the role of Park Systems in the contemporary city
Course code: 
60 526
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching semester: 
2021 Autumn
Assessment semester: 
2021 Autumn
Language of instruction: 
English
Year: 
2021
Maximum number of students: 
20
Person in charge
Karin Helms
Required prerequisite knowledge

Admission to AHO’s Master programme in Architecture or Landscape Architecture. The course is mandatory for Master’s students in Landscape Architecture. Basic knowledges in architecture, urban planning and landscape architecture are is required.  

Course content

The aim of the studio is to explore how to design a park in various scales. This involves understanding the contemporary role of parks in connection to its ground, the surrounding space, and to the existing urban landscapes, and linking this to the actual current social demand and urban development. The studio will explore notions such as Park, park systems of the past, green and water infrastructure, and ground and soil fertility, as well as an initial introduction to notions related to urban agriculture.

Moreover, the studio aims to link these landscape notions to the idea of Edges and Landscape Edges  Landscape edges are transitional linear places where one space or landscape becomes part of another – and explore how these landscape edges can influence future urban “tissues”.

The site will be in the North East suburban area of Oslo, combining a macro perspective and local area development. The purpose of the park is to provide a space for recreation, food productivity, and for shared activities for the local community. The overall perspective is to enable the park at on a grand large scale to answer to the long-term demand for biodiversity in towns, and participate to new mobility axes.

Learning outcome

The studio presents the students with a theoretical understanding and a framework for assessing and understanding the landscape issues in an urban and suburban context. It presents key concepts for designing and evaluating interventions in public spaces.

Over the course of the semester we will engage in theoretical discussion, focusing on the application of different theoretical perspectives to specific cases.

On a large scale students will learn to: understand landscape dynamics.  Learn to, observe, investigate and how to transcribe landscape data over to mapping. Learn to use geologic and geographic maps, understand layers and contours, and levelling in use landscape architecture as grounding the grounds for a design. They will also learn to work in group and individually.

At SOn a smallermall scale the studio will support help the students in developingdevelop their landscape architecture-based general competences in Design design,and   how to focus on Concepts. U, use an iterative mode, go throughmake use of various scales, and propose design landscape structures, forms in the landscape. They students will learn about the understanding of soil fertility in town, provide the practical and theoretical tools to design and specify the plantation.

Skills

The coursework relies on basic tools such as drawings, learnings of conceptual models, contour models, and software within landscape design in order to test their design proposal and represent spatial and material conditions. Examples of these include AutoCAD, Arc GIS, photoshop, Adobe package, and others. 

We will apply various tools for mapping, analysing, and assessing sites, and gain insights about needs, challenges, and opportunities for design. Through the creative group process of integrating insights from mapping into feasible designs, students will learn key principles and tools for designing and running creative processes, both individually and in groups. 

General competence

The course aims to develop the student’s ability to combine and integrate insight about the landscape in a creative process, leading to a specific design that can convincingly contribute to achieving specific development aims for the area. The questions about Edge landscape in an urban context will be one of the main topics and along with how to transform this objective into a general park system through design.

Graduating from the course, students will have developed awareness of how various aspects and factors affects a specific site and will be able to describe these factors from a theoretically informed perspective. Using more tools, analytics, models and mapping, they will be able to derive insights about the specificity of a given site and review those insights in both a theoretical and an applied perspective.

Working and learning activities

The studio is organised around four phases: 

01

  • Group work: Large-scale analysis and diagnosis stage, mapping. References and big data research with the support of methodologic lectures. Study trip: park and garden as well as green infrastructure visits in town and suburban sites of Oslo. Draw while walking! The students will be invited to learn about the specific landscape entities thanks to landscape readings, herbarium and an understanding of phytosociology understanding. This stage ends with an interim presentation.                                                

02

  • Individual work: Selection of an area within the large-scale study area for scenario development. Drafting of a clear concept for a comprehensive special design, operating at a variety of scales. Design research and visualisation. Tools: Drawings, digital and hand drawing, conceptual models, idea expressed in words. This stage ends with an interim presentation.        

03       Theoretical discussions. Debate on park system’s role today and the notion of Edge landscapes. Excursion to an European city. Finland: Otaniemi, Tapiola’s urban landscapes. Course at Aalto University on forest edge management and precedents. Helsinki’s Green finger network. Visit of contemporary urban edges systems as at Arabianranta’s district. Art experience on the notion of Edge.

04          Individual work: Work through on scales. Small-scale design, elaboration and details until planting construction. Understand the role of techniques in landscape architecture and how this enable the student to further develop their concept. Notions of time and how to design time will also be addressed to the students at this stage.                          Transformation of the design proposal over into the large-scale project. Final presentation of the results to experts or target group.

Evaluation

Final project hand-in and an oral presentation, which is assessed in line with the studio learning outcomes. It is expected to take active part in the studio during all semester. Continuous assessment of practical work throughout the studio time, exercises, intermediate presentations and attendance in the studio will be important for the assessment. ​

Form of assessmentGroupingGrading scaleComment
Project assignmentIndividualPass / fail
Vurderinger:
Form of assessment:Project assignment
Grouping:Individual
Grading scale:Pass / fail
Comment:

70 501 Industrial Design 1: Technoform

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål: 
Industridesign 1: Teknoform 1
Credits: 
24
Course code: 
70 501
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching semester: 
2021 Autumn
Assessment semester: 
2021 Autumn
Language of instruction: 
English
Year: 
2021
Maximum number of students: 
24
Person in charge
Steinar Killi
Required prerequisite knowledge

Passed foundation level (BA-level) courses at AHO or equivalent, 180 ECTS.

Course content

Technoform is an advanced course in industrial design dealing with the interaction between new technology and advanced form generation. The course builds on the legacy of industrial design both in Norway and Scandinavia, aesthetic approaches are explored in a cultural context within a technological frame. This is approached through two extensive iterations. First an incremental viable solution that builds on and refine solutions already available. Then a more radical proposition within the same theme that requires an even more creative and inventive process. The outcome of the course will be physical products.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

By the completion of the course the student shall have knowledge about:

  • perform a design process for physical products within to paradigms; as an iteration and through recontextualisation. The first part would typically be an incremental process while the second pursues on a process that aims for more radical innovations.

Skills

By the completion of the course the student shall have the ability to:

  • work and research through new manufacturing trends, that could be the foundation for advanced form-generation
  • to use methods like Peer Creative development, backcasting and possibility driven design
  • sketching, mock up building and CAD are extensively trained during the course

Competence

By the completion of the course the student shall:

  • have increased their tacit competence in performing a design process
  • be able to perform design processes that is not human centered driven
  • be able to utilize form developing methods within a technological frame
Working and learning activities

Workshops, lectures, individual and in groups. Peer feedback is a core method in the course.

Curriculum

Curriculum will be presented at the course start and will consist of articles that can be downloaded from the Internet.

Form of assessmentGroupingGrading scaleComment
Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe)IndividualPass / failThe course has 2 modules with 2 main deliveries/studio projects. Both modules must be passed in order to pass the course.

If the student fails the first module, it is possible to supplement this before the final assessement.
Vurderinger:
Form of assessment:Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe)
Grouping:Individual
Grading scale:Pass / fail
Comment:The course has 2 modules with 2 main deliveries/studio projects. Both modules must be passed in order to pass the course.

If the student fails the first module, it is possible to supplement this before the final assessement.
Workload activityComment
AttendanceThe semester has an expected high general attendance from the students, particurlarly at lectures and workshops.
Forventet arbeidsinnsats:
Workload activity:Attendance
Comment:The semester has an expected high general attendance from the students, particurlarly at lectures and workshops.

70 503 Service Design 1: Methods and Tools

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål: 
Tjenestedesign 1: Metoder og verktøy
Credits: 
24
Course code: 
70 503
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching semester: 
2021 Autumn
Assessment semester: 
2021 Autumn
Language of instruction: 
English
Year: 
2021
Maximum number of students: 
24
Person in charge
Josina Vink
Required prerequisite knowledge

Passed foundation level (BA-level) courses at AHO or equivalent, 180 ECTS.

Recommended previous knowledge:

  • User centred design methodologies
  • Qualitative research and analysis
  • Ideation techniques
  • Prototyping
  • Concept communication
Course content

This semester allows Masters level students to develop and practice the key competences of service design within projects together with professional partners and in real service design settings. It aims to reflect on the methodologies related to service design in a real context, where projects are intended to be desirable and viable.

The course has two main sections, both developed by means of projects. The short project is intended to be an applied introduction to the concepts, methods, and resources used for the design of services; the second one is a broader project for a partner (a private company or a public organization), where the students will work as professional Service Design consultants.

The course’s orientation is essentially practical, it builds on the idea that the best way to develop skills is by means of projects and practical experiences, and by exposing the students to different experiences and feedback from multiple observers.

Learning outcome

KNOWLEDGE

  • Understand and appropriate Service Design methodologies relating to User-Centred Design for the development of service design projects.
  • Develop a reflective mindset about the Service Design, its approach, process, deliverables, possibilities, limitations and implications.

SKILLS

  • Refine the skills of observation, analysis, and creativity that lead to the formulation of relevant and valuable solutions for the user(s) as well as viable and feasible for the service provider.
  • Develop the skills to understand how businesses think, and its relation to service design opportunities.
  • Visualize, communicate and prototype, both the current experience (what is) and the suggested new one (what could be).
  • Develop skills to evaluate the proposed solutions and business projects, according to the differential potential in the eyes of the user(s) and service provider.
  • Be able to plan and facilitate workshops for project teams.
  • Develop collaborative skills to work with other designers, users, and different stakeholders that enable a proactive and professional role in teams and in collaboration with project partners.

GENERAL COMPETENCE

  • Be able to describe the difference between products and services and what it means to design a service.
  • Gain methodical insight by actively participating in a service design process.
  • Promote professional experience in a real organization, strengthening the ability to work in teams with an emphasis on results. 
  • Understand how service design can influence a company's strategy and value creation.

 

Working and learning activities

The main teaching will be based on tutoring sessions at the studio, Innovation workshops, structured presentations and discussions within the course participants. 

The course also integrates lectures, studio work (groups and individual), and project(s) in collaboration with external partners where the students will form and work as design consultancies. 

The course has two main sections, both developed by means of projects:

  • Short project: An applied introduction to concrete concepts, methods, and tools used for the design of services.
  • Broad project: A project developed with a partner (a private company or public organization), where the students will work as professional Service Design consultants.

Being a practice-driven course, the student’s progression through both projects will be presented by means of:

  • Group and individual mid-term deliverables and presentations 
  • Workshops
  • Evidencing material

Details regarding the calendar,  main events, deliverables, and evaluation criteria will be described and detailed in the briefing for each project at the beginning of each section. 

Curriculum

This is service design doing: Applying service design thinking in the real world’ by Stickdorn, M., Hormess, M. E., Lawrence, A., & Schneider, J.

This is Service Design Methods: A Companion to this is Service Design Doing. by Stickdorn, M., Hormess, M. E., Lawrence, A., & Schneider, J.

An Introduction to Service Design: Designing the Invisible. Laura Penin.

Papers and other literature will be distributed as appropriate.

Form of assessmentGroupingGrading scaleComment
Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe)-Pass / failBeing a practice-driven course, the student’s progression through the course will be assessed by means of:
• Evidencing material
• Group and individual mid-term deliverables
• Presentations
• Project reports

The course has 2 modules. Each module will consist of a main project with group and individual deliverables that will receive qualitative assessment to identify strengths and weaknesses. The project will have a final presentation, that will be assessed in pass or fail by an external sensor and the course leader. The details for each project regarding deliverables and evaluation criteria will be described in the brief for each project at the beginning of each module.

The students need to pass both modules to pass the course.

For those students that fail one of two modules, a portfolio assessment of the whole coursework (this comprises all group and individual deliverables presented by the student during the semester, additionally to the final presentation), will be carried out by the course leader and a second Service Design lecturer from the Institute at the end of the semester to finally decide if the student has reached the desired learning outcomes presented in this document.





Vurderinger:
Form of assessment:Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe)
Grouping:-
Grading scale:Pass / fail
Comment:Being a practice-driven course, the student’s progression through the course will be assessed by means of:
• Evidencing material
• Group and individual mid-term deliverables
• Presentations
• Project reports

The course has 2 modules. Each module will consist of a main project with group and individual deliverables that will receive qualitative assessment to identify strengths and weaknesses. The project will have a final presentation, that will be assessed in pass or fail by an external sensor and the course leader. The details for each project regarding deliverables and evaluation criteria will be described in the brief for each project at the beginning of each module.

The students need to pass both modules to pass the course.

For those students that fail one of two modules, a portfolio assessment of the whole coursework (this comprises all group and individual deliverables presented by the student during the semester, additionally to the final presentation), will be carried out by the course leader and a second Service Design lecturer from the Institute at the end of the semester to finally decide if the student has reached the desired learning outcomes presented in this document.





Workload activityComment
AttendanceBeing a practice-driven course, the student’s progression through the course will be assessed by means of:
• Evidencing material
• Group and individual mid-term deliverables
• Presentations
• Project reports

The course has 2 modules. Each module will consist of a main project with group and individual deliverables that will receive qualitative assessment to identify strengths and weaknesses. The project will have a final presentation, that will be assessed in pass or fail by an external sensor and the course leader. The details for each project regarding deliverables and evaluation criteria will be described in the brief for each project at the beginning of each module.

The students need to pass both modules to pass the course.

For those students that fail one of two modules, a portfolio assessment of the whole coursework (this comprises all group and individual deliverables presented by the student during the semester, additionally to the final presentation), will be carried out by the course leader and a second Service Design lecturer from the Institute at the end of the semester to finally decide if the student has reached the desired learning outcomes presented in this document.
Forventet arbeidsinnsats:
Workload activity:Attendance
Comment:Being a practice-driven course, the student’s progression through the course will be assessed by means of:
• Evidencing material
• Group and individual mid-term deliverables
• Presentations
• Project reports

The course has 2 modules. Each module will consist of a main project with group and individual deliverables that will receive qualitative assessment to identify strengths and weaknesses. The project will have a final presentation, that will be assessed in pass or fail by an external sensor and the course leader. The details for each project regarding deliverables and evaluation criteria will be described in the brief for each project at the beginning of each module.

The students need to pass both modules to pass the course.

For those students that fail one of two modules, a portfolio assessment of the whole coursework (this comprises all group and individual deliverables presented by the student during the semester, additionally to the final presentation), will be carried out by the course leader and a second Service Design lecturer from the Institute at the end of the semester to finally decide if the student has reached the desired learning outcomes presented in this document.

70 504 Systems Oriented Design: “Design for Very Complex System“

Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål: 
System orientert design: “Design for meget komplekse systemer“
Credits: 
24
Course code: 
70 504
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching semester: 
2021 Autumn
Assessment semester: 
2021 Autumn
Language of instruction: 
Norwegian / English
Year: 
2021
Maximum number of students: 
30
Person in charge
Birger Sevaldson
Required prerequisite knowledge

Passed foundation level (BA-level) courses at AHO in design or architecture or equivalent, 180 ECTS.

The course is open for all programmes at AHO.

 

Course content

Backdrop:

Our world is increasingly being battered by pressures such as the rapid development of technology, globalization, immigration and increasing inequality. We are facing multiple complex and interconnected problems within society and the environment. This is leading to disruption and uncertainty to life as we know it across multiple sectors, with the current coronavirus pandemic just one example. These disruptions are intricately linked to the underlying structures of our socio-economic systems and the ecological systems upon which they depend. These socio-ecological pressures and disruptions are reinforcing each other and exacerbating threats to life on planet earth.

Now more than ever, designers are being recognized for their fundamental role in addressing the urgent and connected global health crises we currently face: from climate change to social inequities to COVID-19. As creatives, we naturally navigate between the detail to the big picture, concept and vision to the final delivery. However:

 "We cannot solve problems with the same kind of thinking that created them" - Albert Einstein

For dealing with the complexity and uncertainty that of complex contexts of interconnected social and ecological problems, a systems approach is needed to enhance the ability of the designer to design solutions that address the underlying drivers of the socio-ecological crises. This systems approach will empower students with the ability to rapidly learn and understand the complexity of the context to find the most effective places in the system to design interventions that are relevant to addressing the problems. The SOD methodology is applicable in any context and scale, from sustainable product design, better healthcare services, to policy design to sustainability transitions of communities and society at large.

This SOD fall masters course invites you to get on the dance floor and jointly explore and play with ideas that are rooted in systems thinking and design doing. Through hands on approaches and tools, you'll be able to take a systemic perspective to nurture your design practice to create things that are relevant to the complex world at different scales, from products to services to experiences to sustainability transitions of entire systems. If you are a curious person who likes to puzzle and have fun with exploring a context broadly and figure out what would be relevant to design to make systemic impacts, you have found the right course for you!

Read more on:

www.systemsorienteddesign.net

www.systemic-design.net

Structure of the course:

This course contains three modules

Module 1 (8 ETCS): Regenerative Systems Design (through immersion in Alpine-Urban reality) (4 weeks)

Module 2 (8 ETCS) Design for Governance Innovation (Democracy/Society/Wellbeing) (4 weeks)

Module 3 (8 ETCS) Design for Action (4 weeks)

Between each module there is a short period for reflection, digestion and self-programmed reading.

The content and microstructure of the course is somewhat dynamic and adaptive to possibly changing conditions.

Suitable for designers, architects, urbanists and landscape architects

The course content is suitable for all design topics including architecture, urbanism and landscape architecture and is open to students from all programmes at AHO. The course has two suggested main themes to choose between, but even self- programming your own focus is possible. The course is well suited as preparation for undertaking your diploma.

Module 1 – Regenerative Systems Design (through immersion in a real-world Alpine-Rural context)

The first module based partly in Hemsedal and partly in Oslo immediately exposes you into a real-life design context, where you will be introduced to SOD while being immersed in the local system of the Hemsedal mountain community, considering its complexities and connections to the urban systems. The time in Hemsedal is an opportunity for you to get outdoors and meet locals to help you understand what nature and societies can teach us about systems and designing better solutions for sustainable places and communities. It will also be a chance to get to know the other students and staff in an informal social but facilitated environment, which will be important to build a positive and engaged class culture with the people you will be spending the rest of the semester with.

Concretely we will dive into the local community, ecology and economy of the Hemsedal region, considering the social network of its communities, landscape use, and zooming into the different economic activities. Your tasks in this module will be to consider how to shift Hemsedal’s degenerative, vulnerable and linear economy to a more regenerative, resilient and circular economy that regenerates the community and ecology while building resilience to shocks at various system scales, and improves circularity of materials and waste.

We will consider various scales, from materials, products to communities, to regions while mapping system flows – such as tourists, materials, good and products, food, water, energy, waster, emissions, and money. We will also consider how the mountain systems are connected with urban systems. Mapping the current system flows, and together with insight from locals will help you identify innovation points at the various scales in mountain-urban system of Hemsedal.

Additionally, the module will expose you to various mindsets for considering complexity (such as systems thinking and ecological thinking) and world views and how they are connected to systems. The work will involve developing desirable future scenarios informed by sustainability science and the insight of locals. You will be facilitated to reflect critically on your role as a designer, and whose vision you are designing for. You will be exposed on the importance of moving beyond sustainability, which is focused on stopping damaging to address the socio-ecological crises with regeneration which is focusing on repairing the damages from socio-ecological impacts. You will practice various qualitative, quantitative and spatial mapping techniques (including gathering spatial data by drone flying) to develop gigamaps rich with qualitative, quantitative and spatial information. In this module we are taking the classroom outside the lecture hall and studio room, where will learn through outdoor, field activities and immersion in the context you are designing for.

Why the mountain context of Hemsedal for learning about SOD? Mountain regions are complex social-ecological systems, vulnerable to global environmental and economic changes, often dependent on single industry sectors like tourism, forestry, or mining. They are prime cases for us to consider how we can design a more resilient, regenerative communities, ecologies and economies. How to create circularity in mountain regions, with a more diversified, flexible, connected economy, where (winter) tourism is one pillar of a circular economy? We will consider and reflect on various topics and questions such as what is the role of the consumer, the local citizens, the tourist, the products we consume, the choices we make? How do product design, skis, mobility, local identity, and a circular economy in mountains correlate? How can designers design for circularity?

Module 2:  Design for Governance Innovation (Democracy/Society/Wellbeing)

The second module, back at AHO, sees you pick a real project aligned with the either the theme options or their self-programmed project and facilitates students to deep dive into learning a systemic context and then designing solutions that address the problems and opportunities in their chosen context.

Amongst the context themes of this year, foci will be on how to transform societies at both local and global scales by orienting business and public sector to deliver on wellbeing through enhancing democracy (bottom-up influencing) and innovating governance systems (facilitating top-down structures). Further course foci may feed from Governance Innovation relating with Economic Governance and the implementation of a circular economy on a bio-regional scale, with Governance of the Commons with new flexible network governance systems, new knowledge systems, common resources governance through social circularity and real-world laboratory research, and systemic innovation for creating regenerative systems; and with Transboundary Governance, what governance supports joint innovation on the local-regional scale, and how seeds of systemic innovation can scale and create local people action.

Design for democracy is at the forefront of an international movement based on initiatives by Ezio Manzini and Victor Margolin. Design for democracy has a relatively long history starting with designing election situations. However, there has been a long development where democracy today is better understood in all its nuances. We have previously worked with participation (Tønsberg Municipality), workplace democracy (Gjensidige Forsikring and UDI), and involvement (Dagens Næringsliv). This year we will focus on finding ways to draw political and strategic discussions from being based on singular issues to focussing on holistic thinking. We will seek to cover both public and private fields in the choice of partners. Read more and see previous projects here:

Design for governance looks at our society from different perspectives: New Public Governance is a current trend that seeks to replace the heavily criticized and failing concept of New public Management. New Public Governance introduces a cooperative and networked form of policy development and governance that values a participatory public involvement and views citizens as co-producers of policies and public services. The course will explore democratic political processes and the combined use of political instruments through using SOD as an approach.

http://systemsorienteddesign.net/index.php/projects/design-for-democracy

Module 3 – Design for action - (Implementation in complex systems)

It is one thing to figure out your intervention concepts, it is another to implement these concepts into the complex reality. The challenges and complexities of implementation often substantially outweigh the efforts of developing your design.

Often implementation will also require the culture of systems (organisations, communities etc) to change for the success of any solution. This module focuses on how to take your design from concept to reality utilising SOD and other approaches like Change Management, Transition Design and Action Research, or Real-World Laboratory research, to prototype, iterate and implement the concepts developed in module 2 while also considering other relevant initiatives already working and how to connect your concepts with these to increase the probability of successful implementation. In order to find the right action points for successful implementation, it is essential to understand which systems we want to change, who participates in this and the power dynamics going on.  And then we need to sort out what counts as change, what changes count, by when does it count?

Learn how to use SOD methodology to take your designed interventions from concept to reality. Be exposed to various implementation models and tools for change, such as piloting, prototyping, action planning, change management, real world laboratories, seeds for systemic innovation and other implementation techniques. Learn how to implement your concept in various contexts, from economies to markets, from governments to organisations, considering the importance of network and alliance building, and how to connect projects together to amplify their collective impact. In all this work we claim that looking at SOD as processes to enhance the necessary silo bridging will be an important contribution to any implementation.

Meet relevant stakeholders and use your curiosity to understand the challenges in getting your concepts to work and then use these insights to improve your impact as a designer. Visualizing complexity will be an important tool in all these processes.

We will also examine the idea of first develop – then implement – and try to look into how these two phases might be wise to let overlap and look at “back testing” as part of the implementation. How can this both improve your concept at the same time help to speed up implementation?

Who should take this course?

This is the course for you if you wish

  • Learn how to develop your own problem design brief(s) that are relevant for the real underlying problem(s) in your community or organisation to design solutions that are more effective at addressing the problem
  • to take up a challenge to work with very complex problems,
  • to develop the designers' abilities of holistic thinking,
  • to have a strategic role in your future work as a designer, architect or urbanist.
  • to combining multiple perspectives and diversified views, as well as conflicting interest, such as sustainability while maintaining profit, or navigating different beliefs, values and opinions be part of driving a transition to more sustainable societies
  • to learn to design as nature: (1) with materials and products, and (2) on a systems level in organizational and economic transitions, such as governance, health or mobility
  • to acquire methodological, contextual, technical, and social skills in circular regenerative design, i.e. life cycle analysis, engineering design with renewable materials, circularity indices, transitioning towards a tourism service economy, and alike
  • to develop the designers' ability to integrate holistic thinking and circular design in a real-world contexts
  • getting better at handling different perspectives, interests and values

This course is for you if you…

  • are interested in developing a systemic perspective on design while driving the shift of society towards sustainability
  • like to work with challenging topics that warrant critical thinking
  • are willing to take in new knowledge and to read independently
  • are good at taking initiative, self-organize, and seek guidance when needed
  • are able to engage in critical discussion and actively participate throughout the course
  • are interested in how to develop design briefs/problem statements to design solutions that are relevant to various system contexts in our world

If you feel that you do not meet these requirements you should think carefully, but if you are willing to improve in the above requirements then you are most welcome.  If you are in doubt, don’t hesitate but contact birger.sevaldson@aho.no

 

 

Learning outcome

Students will be introduced to System Oriented Design (SOD) as a method and approach, to:

  • Develop a sensibility for systems, relationships and consequences: cause and effect, to think of how systems are embedded within different domains and different scales
  • Deal with uncertainty through unfolding and understanding complexity while working with “problematiques” (multiple interlinked problems)
  • Anticipate futures through developing an ability to understand and consider multiple future scenarios and evaluate the possible, probable and desirable, developing both individual and participatory visions of the future.
  • Anticipate thresholds for implementation and impacts of designed solutions.
  • Critically think and self-reflect through considering questioning the norms, values influencing the opinions, behaviour and decisions of yourself and the stakeholders they are designing for. Also considering their role as a designer and citizen in the local community and global society. Understand how to navigate decisions about sustainability values, principles, goals and targets in a context of conflicting interests and trade-offs
  • Navigate sustainability by being exposed to the state of the world and guiding design criteria for sustainability Regenerative, Resilient, Circular, Cross-scale design through a critical lens
  • Undertake trandisciplinary collaboration and integrated problem-solving by working in transdisciplinary teams and processes to not only understand the complex socio-ecological challenges but also address them through designing systemically rooted solutions, while applying the aforementioned skills.
  • Strategise through prototyping and implementing developed concepts

Knowledge

Students are:

  • introduced to System Oriented Design (SOD) as a method and approach, to be able to work with a greater degree of complexity.
  • given a thorough introduction to System Oriented Design, Rich Design Space, Giga-mapping, ZIP analysis and systemic evaluation.
  • Given an understanding and a general knowledge of systems thinking, systems theory, systems dynamics: cause and effect relationships and complexity for practicing designers.
  • Exposed to learning, applying and reflecting sustainability science

Skills

Students will acquire skills in:

  • SOD as process-led methodology
  • Research by design methodology
  • Systems Thinking
  • Sustainability Science
  • Ecological Thinking
  • Critical Thinking
  • Dealing with uncertainty
  • Collaboration through interdisciplinary problem solving in groups
  • Visioning
  • Action Planning
  • Workshop facilitation
  • Participatory design

General competence

Students will be able to use this methodology to understand and tackle complex problems and to think systemically. Systems thinking in design is a highly relevant skill as the world is becoming increasingly interconnected, and since the challenges the world need us to solve today are fuzzy and consists of a great degree of complexity. This competence is often required by design consultancies today as they take on a higher degree of projects that demands design capacity that can work with Wicked Problems.

Holistic perspectives, ethics and sustainability as well as cultural, organizational, economic and technical considerations are central to the Systems oriented designer. These perspectives and the ability to have the project overview is a very good competence for a designer in a team, and also excellent proficiency for a project leader. Systems-oriented designers can play a decisive role in managing complexity in future societal developments. Systems-oriented designers typically can work in design consultancies, in organizations, in municipalities with service design, on policy level, in the private sector to give some examples.

Systems-oriented designers are trained in techniques such as Gigamapping, this enables them to cope with complexity, - and to take more responsibility for the consequences of their actions. The systems-oriented designer is also a skilled workshop facilitator and leader of co-design processes, to achieve the holistic picture of complex design problems with different stakeholders.

 

Working and learning activities

Module 1 will involve you working in teams, partly independent, partly outdoors and in Hemsedal. Module 2 and 3 will see you work on a chosen focus context according to the main themes or your chosen self-programmed theme. Projects for Module 2 and 3 can be individual or in groups. Group projects are preferred.

Project plans are created for each project individually according to the demands. Each project requires, in principle, its own project design. The course itself is a dynamic social system that must be adjusted and tweaked in real time.

 

Curriculum

Luthe, T. 2018. Designing More Resilient Arctic Communities: Change Means Chance. The Circle 2/2018. WWF Arctic Program.

Meadows D. (2008). Thinking in Systems. A Primer. Redaktører: Wright D. Forlag: Chelsea Green Publishing Company.

MonViso Institute. A real-world laboratory experimentation space. www.monviso-institute.org.

Sevaldson, B. (2011). GIGA mapping: Visualization for Complexity and Systems Thinking in Design. Artikkel presentet at Nordic Design Research Conference, Helsingfors 2011.

Sevaldson, B. (2008). Rich Design Research Space. FORMakademisk, 2008 bind 1 (1) s. 28–44.

Systems Oriented Design: www.systemsorienteddesign.net

Systemic Design www.systemic-design.net

Syllabus literature beyond this will be given during the course.

Form of assessmentGroupingGrading scaleComment
Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe)-Pass / failModule 1 – Circular systems gigamap, walkthrough presentation/video to communicate how Hemsedal as a community, ecology and economy can transform from its unsustainable status quo today, to a pioneering sustainable system in the future. Chapter contributions to report.

Module 2 – Storyboard gigamap, walkthrough presentation/video and chapter contributions to final report with emphasis on leverage points and developed concepts

Module 3 – Iterated storyboard gigamap, and iterated walkthrough presentation/video with extra focus on implementation and action. Final report including chapters from previous modules.

Final storyboard gigamap (digital and walkthrough video) to easily communicate the project for the AHO WORKS EXHIBITION. The report is the main delivery.

The students are evaluated on the basis of participation and effort, milestone reviews, assessment and final project delivery.

All project material is to be digitally submitted to an online assignment system.

Vurderinger:
Form of assessment:Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe)
Grouping:-
Grading scale:Pass / fail
Comment:Module 1 – Circular systems gigamap, walkthrough presentation/video to communicate how Hemsedal as a community, ecology and economy can transform from its unsustainable status quo today, to a pioneering sustainable system in the future. Chapter contributions to report.

Module 2 – Storyboard gigamap, walkthrough presentation/video and chapter contributions to final report with emphasis on leverage points and developed concepts

Module 3 – Iterated storyboard gigamap, and iterated walkthrough presentation/video with extra focus on implementation and action. Final report including chapters from previous modules.

Final storyboard gigamap (digital and walkthrough video) to easily communicate the project for the AHO WORKS EXHIBITION. The report is the main delivery.

The students are evaluated on the basis of participation and effort, milestone reviews, assessment and final project delivery.

All project material is to be digitally submitted to an online assignment system.

Workload activityComment
AttendanceStudents are expected to attend all lectures, tutorials and presentations.
Forventet arbeidsinnsats:
Workload activity:Attendance
Comment:Students are expected to attend all lectures, tutorials and presentations.

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