Course syllabus for Beyond sustainability

Course syllabus adopted 2023-02-13 by Head of Programme (or corresponding).

Overview

  • Swedish nameHållbar framtid
  • CodeACE440
  • Credits10 Credits
  • OwnerMPDSD
  • Education cycleSecond-cycle
  • Main field of studyArchitecture
  • ThemeArchitectural design project 7.5 c
  • DepartmentARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING
  • GradingTH - Pass with distinction (5), Pass with credit (4), Pass (3), Fail

Course round 1

  • Teaching language English
  • Application code 17117
  • Open for exchange studentsYes
  • Only students with the course round in the programme overview.

Credit distribution

0123 Written and oral assignments 10 c
Grading: TH		10 c0 c0 c0 c0 c0 c

In programmes

Examiner

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Eligibility

General entry requirements for Master's level (second cycle)
Applicants enrolled in a programme at Chalmers where the course is included in the study programme are exempted from fulfilling the requirements above.

Specific entry requirements

English 6 (or by other approved means with the equivalent proficiency level)
Applicants enrolled in a programme at Chalmers where the course is included in the study programme are exempted from fulfilling the requirements above.

Course specific prerequisites


Aim

The overall aim of the course is to provide critical, theoretical, and practical knowledge regarding sustainable development, by focusing on perspectives and frameworks that lift challenges and questions beyond sustainable building to include also social, economic, cultural, and political aspects. These include, for example, critical concerns around climate migration, planetary extraction and exhaustion, and social and environmental injustices. This course will introduce approaches and theories that explicitly define sustainability and ecology in terms of the complexity, relationality, and interconnectedness of the stakes and problems at hand and that approach these at multiple scale levels: from planetary to local communities. By combining an expanded (‘beyond’) approach to sustainability questions through a close study of theories and approaches with hands-on practical assignments, this course aims to prepare students to become both problem-identifying and problem-solving professionals who can act as critical and ethical agents for the sustainable transformation of the built environment at all scale levels. The course aims to provide deeper understandings of sustainable methods and approaches that can be further developed in the students’ ensuing design studio trajectories. In doing so it aims to encourage and support students to act critically and independent vis-a-vis environmental care, as thinkers and designers.

Learning outcomes (after completion of the course the student should be able to)

Knowledge and understanding

  • Critically analyse, and selectively test, different aspects of the built environment that are connected to but also beyond sustainability.
  • Critically compare different frameworks and models for conceptualizing, and developing solutions for environmental challenges, understood in a broad societal sense.

Competence and skills

  • Critically analyse, select, and selectively test/apply existing approaches towards a complex and relational understanding of environmental challenges and for designing for environmental care, drawing from multiple fields of study, and working at different scale levels.
  • Critically assess and synthesize varied types of and approaches to knowledge, which is a key competence required for designing sustainable environments.
  • Correctly cite and reference precedents (both projects, methods, and ideas) when synthesizing knowledge in a design project.
  • Evaluate the capacity of architectural/urban projects towards sustainable development and environmental care and for developing ways of responding to complex challenges through design.

Judgement and approach

  • Critically analyse opportunities and challenges of thinking about sustainable development through wider societal forces and perspectives and the implications for architectural, urban, and environmental design.
  • Evaluate and formulate their own societal and critical role as professionals vis-a-vis questions of sustainability, and reflect upon the possibility of becoming agents of change.

Content

In the course different perspectives on sustainable development are presented and discussed, and selectively tested, with a particular focus on wider societal perspectives. These can include, for example, collaborative learning and world-making, place-based analysis, multi-scalar sustainability, circular economy, planning for communities and social-environmental justice, relational and urban ecologies, and critical planetary care. The role of designers will consequently also be approached in a broader sense, including their capacity, in addition to providing sustainable designs, to generate critical awareness and imagine alternative futures through critical storytelling, novel imaginations for the future etc.

Organisation

The course comprises lectures, literature studies, seminars, and design exercises/testing.
The seminars are carried out in smaller groups. The course assignment is carried out on an individual basis.

Literature

A list of compulsory and reference literature/study material will be presented at the start of the course.

Examination including compulsory elements

To obtain a pass in this course the following requirements must be fulfilled.
  • Presence at scheduled lectures and films - 80 % at the minimum.
  • Active participation in seminars
  • Submission of course assignment in accordance with assigned criteria

The course examiner may assess individual students in other ways than what is stated above if there are special reasons for doing so, for example if a student has a decision from Chalmers on educational support due to disability.