Course syllabus for Building on context

Course syllabus adopted 2024-02-02 by Head of Programme (or corresponding).

Overview

  • Swedish nameBygga på kontex
  • CodeACE460
  • Credits15 Credits
  • OwnerMPARC
  • Education cycleSecond-cycle
  • Main field of studyArchitecture, Architecture and Engineering
  • ThemeArchitectural design project 15 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 05137
  • Maximum participants20 (at least 10% of the seats are reserved for exchange students)
  • Minimum participants8
  • Open for exchange studentsYes
  • Only students with the course round in the programme overview.

Credit distribution

0123 Project 15 c
Grading: TH		 15 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 course is the first in a sequence of three freestanding architectural design projects that explore alternative and experimental means of representation in the analysis, conception, and production of architecture. The course introduces architectural design that departs from an extended consideration and definition of contexts, such as existing environments, situations, buildings, and/or materials. It explores the design of a small to medium scale project that springs from analysis and documentation of a given urban context through representations and narratives. The architect’s temporal engagement with a project is expanded, including investigations of a site and its histories, and proposition of alternative scenarios through spatial interventions over time. The range of techniques of architectural representation for such investigations is similarly expanded. An iterative design process is combined with an introduction to precedent studies and theory to critically identify and discuss concepts and approaches related to the notion of context. Emphasis is on design driven research as an approach to method, in which the artistic development of each student and the development of common knowledge, know-how, and discourse in the studio is pursued in tandem.

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

Knowledge and understanding
  1. Define an architectural design process that departs from an extended investigation of an existing environment or situation through representation.
  2. Define notions of context in relation to current practice and theory.
  3. Discuss their own design work in relation to the above.
Competence and skills
  1. Use and synthesize common as well as alternative techniques of architectural representation such as drawing, modelling, and scanning to analyse and explore an existing environment or situation.
  2. Design a small to medium scale architecture project that responds to and/or intervenes in an existing environment or situation.
  3. Use an iterative and speculative method to design a project.
  4. Demonstrate the capacity for teamwork and collaboration with various constellations.
Judgement and approach
  1. Integrate design, representation, and theory into a coherent argument for their design work.
  2. Reflect on the agencies of representation – on how the use of representations influences the development and communication of the project.
  3. Show intention, commitment, and ability to identify needs for further knowledge and undertake on-going development of their skills, especially with regards to architectural representation.

Content

The course introduces an iterative approach to design that progresses through analysis of and interaction with a given site and context of ideas and approaches, speculative and conceptual design explorations, and concludes with a full-fledged design project. This first course in the sequence departs from techniques of architectural representation as ways of investigating a context in a widened sense, including but not limited to aspects that escape typical means of representation such as materiality, activities, and temporal aspects, with an emphasis on mapping, drawing, and collage. Design, then, is pursued in response to a substantial “archive” or “library” of representations of a context. The notion of a “context” is actively defined and constructed through these investigations and through precedent projects and theory, rather than taken for granted.

Organisation

The studio consists of an introductory presentation, lectures and presentations, visits and excursions, technique demonstrations, text and/or precedent studies seminars, supervision, and interim, midterm and final reviews with invited guests. The initial presentation introduces the brief, the process and structure of the course as well as gives an orientation in terms of context, architectural representation, and design driven research. These issues are furthered in lectures, and in seminars with hand-ins. Students work individually, but part of the course, site investigations, seminars, and supervision sessions may require group work. Design work is assessed in weekly supervision sessions and peer reviewed in student reference groups. Readings are discussed and assessed in seminars with written hand-ins.

Literature

Daglioglu, Esin Komez. 2015. “The Context Debate: An Archeology.” Architectural Theory Review 20, no. 2, 266-279.

Latour, Bruno, and Albena Yaneva. 2008. “’Give Me a Gun and I Will Make All Buildings Move’: An ANT’s View of Architecture”. In Explorations in Architecture: Teaching, Design, Research, 80-89. Basel: Birkhäuser.

Shields, Jennifer A. 2014. Collage and Architecture. Oxon: Routledge.

Literature is subject to change. Further literature to be announced in course description.

Examination including compulsory elements

Participation at a minimum of 80% attendance to all teacher led activities, including supervision sessions, seminars, and reviews is required to pass the course. Examination and grading are cumulative across the duration of the course, and they take material presented at midterm and final reviews, week-to-week development, as well as degree of participation in seminars into account. The final grade thus takes progress during the entire studio into account, as well as the quantity and quality of the work presented at the final review. The work is in addition assessed for its level of effort, engagement with the agenda of the course, as well as for graphic and verbal presentation.

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.