Course syllabus for Form, space and structure

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

Overview

  • Swedish nameForm, rum och struktur
  • CodeACE615
  • Credits4.5 Credits
  • OwnerTKARK
  • Education cycleFirst-cycle
  • Main field of studyArchitecture
  • ThemeArchitectural design project 4.5 c
  • DepartmentARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING
  • GradingUG - Pass, Fail

Course round 1

  • Teaching language English
  • Application code 45136
  • Open for exchange studentsNo
  • Only students with the course round in the programme overview.

Credit distribution

0124 Written and oral assignments 4.5 c
Grading: UG		 4.5 c

In programmes

Examiner

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Eligibility

General entry requirements for bachelor's level (first 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

The same as for the programme that owns the course.
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

  • Architectural design and aesthetics, or equivalent
The course is part of the learning sequence Morphology and builds on and deepens the knowledge of form theory, form language and spatial design covered in the above-mentioned course.

Aim

The second course in the Morphology learning sequence, Form space and structure, looks at building and urban morphology from a system perspective. The purpose is to introduce the students to the system dimension of spatial form throughout spatial scales and provide the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological tools to apply system thinking in a design context. The focus of the course shifts from describing and designing cities, neighborhoods and buildings as areas, objects and geometries, to describing and designing them as spatial structures, highlighting their system dimension. During the course, students will be introduced to this system perspective in three ways: 1) by describing cities, neighbourhoods and buildings through their underlying spatial network, 2) by describing the multiscalar character and the interconnectedness of these spatial networks, and 3) by purposefully restructuring the spatial networks to fit design aims.

Spatial networks are primarily formed by relations of accessibility/permeability and visibility between the different spatial elements and units (e.g., rooms, buildings, streets, neighborhoods). These relations are fundamental to support a given program or function. The students will learn to describe and analyze relations of visibility and accessibility and discuss the implications of this for the patterns of use, movement and co-presence created in a building or urban layout, and, in turn, spatial experience and function. Students will study spatial networks from a multiscalar perspective, focusing as much on the internal structure of spatial forms as on the external systems these spatial forms are part of. For example, a building is part of the urban structure and location in the city, while each room in the building is affected by its internal spatial organization. Interfaces between scales and nested spatial elements (e.g., rooms – building - street) will be investigated as they mediate between different levels of privateness and publicness, indoor and outdoor environments and between different user groups. Finally, through explorative design assignments the students will train to design spatial layouts focusing on their underlying spatial configuration, make structural interventions to a simple or complex spatial layout with intent and learn to critically reflect on their own design work from a system perspective.

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

  1. Describe and compare buildings and urban layouts, as well as typologies, in terms of their underlying spatial structures.
  2. Investigate the ‘relative location’ of a place in multiple scales and spatial hierarchies and identify its configurational and systemic properties. I
  3. Use analogue and digital tools to represent and analyse spatial layouts in terms of visibility and accessibility and discuss the implications for the patterns of movement, co-presence, experience and function.
  4. Make structural interventions to a spatial layout with a design intent and evaluate the design outcome using different analogue and digital tools.
  5. Reflect on their own creative design process by identifying the role of spatial structure and spatial organisation in different design phases and iterations.

Content

The content will be organized in two thematic clusters:
a) Building structures.
b) Urban structures.

In the building scale, the focus is on the relation of architectural layouts and spatial configurations to behaviour, patterns of movement, social interaction and co-presence, patterns of spatial use and activity and spatial cultures. In the urban scale, the focus is on the relation of the spatial form of the city and social structures, urban phenomena and processes, such as the distribution of urban flows, cohesion and segregation, spatial inequalities or the development of local markets. The interfaces between the different scales and nested spatial structures are a common theme that will be investigated across both clusters. This includes interfaces and structural transitions between local and global, private and public, indoor and outdoor, as well as between user groups and social roles and activities. What will also be studied is the communicative and pedagogic power of spatial form that through structuring embodied spatial experience constructs narratives, social roles, behavioural norms and relations of bonds and power. What will also be studied is how spatial form and structure powerfully create narratives, social roles, behavioral norms, and relationships of bond and power.

Throughout the course methods to analyse spatial configurations focusing on relations of visibility and accessibility will be presented to the students and digital tools to help their analytic and design explorations in different scales will be provided.

Organisation

Each thematic cluster includes lectures, seminars, exercises and reflective texts, through which relevant theories and methods are presented, tested, discussed, and applied. The course is exploratory including both short analytic and design investigations/exercises, as well as reading assignments and seminars. Laboratories using analogue and digital tools will be provided to the students to assist with their explorative analytic and design work.

Comparative reading of relevant texts (provided at the start of the course) will complement the lectures and form the basis of seminars. Comparative study of layouts and plans (specified at the start of the course) will comprise the main analytic investigations. Comparative structural interventions in existing, well-known or familiar layouts to the students will comprise the main design explorations.

The students will mainly work in groups.

Literature

Thomas A. Markus, 1993, Buildings and Power. Freedom and Control in the Origin of Modern Building Types. Taylor & Francis Ltd

Lars Marcus, 2023, Städernas stenar - Hur den byggda staden formar den levda staden. Dokument press

Further literature will be announced at the start of the course.

Examination including compulsory elements

Examination takes place through a series of compulsory presentations or hand-ins of the short exercises/assignments (more details announced at the start of the course).
The examination will take place via:
  • Two presentations of the two analytic investigations (LOs 1,2,3)
  • Two presentations of the two design explorations (LO 4)
  • Two reports of the two reading assignments (LOs 1,2,3)
  • One reflective text (LO 5)
  • Final hand-in compiling the 7 assignments
A student who is not approved in the course after the regular examination must be given the opportunity to be examined through supplementation after the end of the course. If, after two attempts at completion, the student still cannot be approved, the student must retake the course. Assessment of completions takes place during Chalmers' re-examination periods. It is the student's responsibility to check reported study results in Ladok after each study period and to contact the course examiner for instructions on supplementation if an approved result is missing.

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.