Course syllabus for Mediated material interfaces

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

Overview

  • Swedish nameFörmedlade materialgränssnitt
  • CodeACE510
  • Credits15 Credits
  • OwnerMPARC
  • Education cycleSecond-cycle
  • Main field of studyArchitecture
  • 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 05124
  • Maximum participants20
  • Minimum participants8
  • Open for exchange studentsNo
  • 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

At least 30 c, including at least one design studio, in the master’s programme Architecture and urban design (MPARC), or the equivalent.

Aim

This studio explores hybrid interfaces occurring when various material and spatial entities meet to comprise architectural components, interiors and buildings. The hybrid interfaces combine existing and new sustainable materials and building elements. They are expressed in diverse ways, using digital media as key drivers of ideation, creation and materialization. By employing the hybrid material interface as its conceptual driver, the studio also introduces a novel trajectory of architectural thinking and practice of tomorrow. This new trajectory follows the principles of circularity and rational use of resources in the built environment, achieved through respectful mending, care, recycling and reuse of architectural materials, elements and spaces.

With its exploratory approach, the studio exposes students to a unique working method of architectural experimentation, conducted in the spirit of research by design and aimed to generate new architectural knowledge while conceiving a speculative architectural design project having a limited scope and scale. To achieve this, the studio relies on material experiments and fabrication of physical design mock-ups that serve as sources of new architectural knowledge, underpinning and informing an architectural design proposal.

Each year’s studio creatively investigates a given material combination, having sustainable potentials, using a specific digital fabrication technique as a medium driving the explorations. Architectural values and applications of the given materials are discovered and coined in the course of the studio, to contribute to material innovation in architecture. Emphasis is placed on linking architecture with the science of circular building materials. Moreover, the studio accentuates excellence in the creative, artistic use of digital fabrication, which capitalizes on the aesthetic agencies of the interfaced materials and spatial entities.

Students learn about current research relevant for exploring the given materials and digital fabrication techniques through own readings and precedent studies, as well as lectures and lab demos. Ultimately, the studio aims to encourage design novelty through thoughtful embedding of various sustainable materials in existing architectural contexts. The overarching purpose is to promote more circular architectural design, renovation and construction, capitalizing on cross-disciplinary knowledge synergies between architecture, digital design and manufacturing as well as materials science.

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

Knowledge and understanding
  1. Discuss examples of experimental architectural design projects and research involving novel sustainable and biobased materials and new digital design and manufacturing techniques.
  2. Explain how thoughtful mediation of material interfaces can contribute to more circular and resource-efficient design of architectural interventions into existing material and spatial settings.
Competence and skills
  1. Demonstrate the ability to design mediated material interfaces, encompassing the meeting zones between existing and new architectural materials and spatial elements, using advanced digital media such as 3D scanning, parametric design and digital fabrication.
  2. Showcase the ability to translate the material experiments at the micro scale of a material sample into the macro scale of an architectural detail, element and/or larger spatial entity.
  3. Demonstrate the ability to employ architectural experimentation in the spirit of research by design as a driving force that simultaneously generates new architectural knowledge and informs a design proposal.
Judgement and approach
  1. Critically discuss and evaluate the quality of the interfaces between the materials combined in the studio, through lenses such as cultural value, spatial quality, aesthetics, functionality and sustainability.
  2. Provide arguments for how resource-efficient reuse of materials and building elements, as well as sustainable digital manufacturing techniques can contribute to more circular design and construction in the near future.
  3. Formulate the challenges to be faced by architects when employing new circularity principles and sustainable digital fabrication techniques in a new design practice that encompasses architectural assignments such as renovation, historic preservation and adaptive reuse.

Content

The studio work encompasses explorations of a given combination of architectural materials and elements with sustainability potentials. The explorations are carried out using a toolkit comprising specified digital design and fabrication techniques. The combined materials are applied to perform a design intervention into a given architectural setting, at the scale of a building detail, fragment, or an interior feature. Examples of interventions can be to preserve, regenerate, repair, complement, redesign, repurpose or reuse.

Organisation

The studio work will proceed in the following intertwined phases:
1. Foundations. Lectures, seminars and individual studies aimed at analysing and discussing current research and design precedents relevant for the undertaken design investigations. Digital design and fabrication demos preparing for design explorations of the given material or element and enabling digital techniques. First material trials, e.g., in smaller samples and simple design probes, documented in submitted lab reports.

2. Research by design. This phase features two interdependent sub-phases. Pin-ups and tutorials will take place in these sub-phases. The sub-phases are:
  • Material experimentation. Iterative series of systematic yet open-ended material experiments based on the conduct of digitally mediated design explorations with the given material, done e.g. in more complex samples, scaled models, architectural mock-ups etc. The material experiments will be compiled and reflected upon by the students in regularly submitted lab reports. They will also be displayed collectively at the final presentation seminar.
  • Design proposal development. Continuous design, representation and curation of an architectural proposal informed by the findings from the material experiments.

3. Design research curation. This phase is aimed to result in two deliverables:
  • The design proposal presentation, compiled into a coherent design research poster or poster series, comprising architectural drawings, short text and other means of design research communication and representation.
  • A short design research synopsis, in written form complemented with illustrations, highlighting the main findings of the material experiments, reflections from the design process and general statement of positioning and contribution of the work to design knowledge development and architectural research.

In the course round for each year, the process phases, content and organization outlined above will undergo adaptation to the specific studio prerequisites and conditions.

The students will carry out and participate in the abovementioned phases and learning activities in various ways, i.e., collectively, in groups and individually. The specification of the activity types (collective, in group, individual) will be provided in the detailed course description for each year.

Literature

To be announced in the course description for each year.

Examination including compulsory elements

The attainment of the learning objectives by the student is examined at the final seminar of the studio, through the review of the design research posters and their verbal presentation, as well as the curated display of design samples and models. The examination is further complemented by a review of the design research synopsis. The synopsis, the delivery of all material samples and models produced in the course, as well as the final version of the design research poster, comprise the final submission at the end of the course.

A minimum of 80% overall attendance in lectures, pin-ups, tutorials and demos is required to pass the course. The submission of lab reports and other assignment hand-ins specified in the course description for each year, is mandatory.

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.