The seminar will provide a structure for understanding architectural detailing in terms of technical, structural, and aesthetic considerations in combination with aspects of material, scale, thermal condition, architectural concept and construction logic.

The seminar will primarily give students a framework for why elements are put together as they are – how climatic considerations are solved together with architectural aims and ideas. We will look at historical references to the making of architectural details and its current status in today’s building industry. We will investigate the relationship between the performer and the consumer – the performer meaning creator; the Architect or Engineer, and the consumer as client, builder or contractor. They all read the architectural detail in different ways in terms of - for example - cost, maintenance, fabrication, and even health and safety.

By re-drawing projects not only in detail, but also in plan, section, façade and schemes, students will investigate why and how elements are put together as they are. What does every line in the detail represent? How is heat flow and water controlled in the detail? Which material touch upon each other and which do not? What materials are chosen and why? How is its hierarchy and refinement? How does the detail deal with the buildings life cycle? What does the detail tell us about the ease of assembly? How does the detail even deal with a particular site? 

Architectural detailing is a subject within the field of architecture, where details give us knowledge of interventions and principals for constructing the built environment. Students will through lectures, tasks and discussions be introduced to the complexity of detailing.

Tutors: Ane Sønderaal Tolfsen og Ingvild Hodnekvam