Philip Ursprung: Catalogue data in Autumn Semester 2021 |  |
| Name | Prof. Dr. Philip Ursprung |
| Field | History of Art and Architecture |
| Address | I. f. Geschichte/Theorie der Arch. ETH Zürich, HIL D 63 Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5 8093 Zürich SWITZERLAND |
| Telephone | +41 44 633 44 60 |
| Fax | +41 44 633 13 42 |
| philip.ursprung@gta.arch.ethz.ch | |
| Department | Architecture |
| Relationship | Full Professor |
| Number | Title | ECTS | Hours | Lecturers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 052-0803-00L | History and Theory of Architecture I  | 2 credits | 2V + 2U | T. Avermaete, M. Delbeke, L. Stalder, H. Teerds, P. Ursprung | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Introduction and overview of the history and theory of architecture from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century. The course covers the chronology and key works, protagonists and discourses of early modern European architecture. ‘Fundamentals for the History and Theory of Architecture I-II’ provides a practical introduction to the methods and instruments of the history of art and architecture. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | 1. Acquiring basic knowledge of the history and theory of architecture during the early modern period, of its key protagonists and discourses and of the methods and instruments of architectural research. 2. Identifying the main architectural issues and debates of the period and recognising the places and architectural works covered in the course. 3. Acquiring the tools to develop a historically informed reading of the built environment, recognising debates, styles, ideas and problems which drive and inform architectural production. 4. Developing the tools to draw on historical, theoretical and critical research to the benefit to one's own architectural culture. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The course ‘History and Theory of Architecture I-II’ offers a chronological and thematic survey of early modern architecture and architectural theory produced in Europe from the 15th up to 19th century. The course is based on thematic lectures, analysing key European architectural works, texts and iconography. Themes will include the origin of the Vitruvian tradition in architectural theory and practice and its dissemination in Italy during the 15th and 16th centuries; the mediatisation of architectural principles through the development of book production during the 16th century; the development of divergent theories of architectural composition and design in Italy and France between the 16th and 17th centuries; the formation and international spread of religious symbolism through architecture; analyses of original design practices, such as in the case of Michelangelo; a study of building types, such as the palazzo and the villa, and their codification by architects like Andrea Palladio; debates over questions of beauty and ornament, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries; questions of patronage and the relationship between architecture and political and religious powers (e.g. the French Monarchy and the Roman Papacy); the relation between buildings and their urban setting in the development of European capitals like Rome, Paris and Berlin; historicism and attitudes towards the past in architectural styles. In addition to the main lectures, the course ‘History and Theory of Architecture I-II’ will also include a series of seminars, called ‘Small Narratives’. These seminars are meant to widen the scope of the programme by exploring case studies, such as buildings and ruins in Zurich, which relate and contribute to the content of the course. While content of the ‘Small Narratives’ seminars is not part of the exam, students are invited to make use of it for their study, and attendance is compulsory. The course ‘Fundamentals of the History and Theory of Architecture I-II’ aims to explore and develop basic methods and strategies to research the history of art and architecture. It consists of four parts, each developed under one of the four Chairs of the gta, and each dealing with a particular area of study in the field of architecture and art history. The course will consist of four different exercises and tasks, carried out under the supervision of each of the four Chairs throughout the year: 1. Architecture and books (M. Delbeke) 2. Architecture and media (L. Stalder) 3. Architecture and art (P. Ursprung) 4. Urbanism and the Commons (T. Avermaete) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | Course scripts, PowerPoints and lecture recordings for ‘History and Theory of Architecture I-II’ will be available to download from the course page at the beginning of the semester. Printed copies of the course scripts will also be available for purchase. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | For the course ‘History and Theory of Architecture I-II’ students will rely on assisted self-study to acquire basic knowledge of the history of architecture in Europe. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 052-0807-00L | History and Theory of Architecture V | 2 credits | 2V | P. Ursprung | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | History of Art and Architecture since the 1970s | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The course target is to let the students gain a overview of a line of formative occurrences, works of art, buildings and theories from the early nineteen-seventies. The students should become sensitive for questions and problems in the field of history and theory and they should increasingly be able to relate their own praxis with historical relations. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The two-semester course offers an introduction to the history of modern and contemporary art and architecture since ca. 1970. Motivated by questions of the current discourse, central topics and exemplary works of art and architecture are discussed. Concepts such as "labor", "economy", "experience", "research", "nature", "diversity" or "surface" are used to focus on specific historical developments and connections. Art and architecture is considered as a field of cultural change as well as an indicator of social, economic, and political conflicts which in turn helps to understand historical dynamics. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lecture notes | A video documentation of the lecture class is available. https://video.ethz.ch/lectures/d-arch/2019/autumn/052-0807-00L.html | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | Philip Ursprung, Die Kunst der Gegenwart: 1960 bis heute, München, Beck, 2019. Philip Ursprung, Der Wert der Oberfläche, Essays zu Kunst, Architektur und Ökonomie, Zürich, gta Verlag, 2017. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 052-0823-21L | History of Art and Architecture: Life Without Buildings - Adam Szymczyk and gta Exhibitions | 2 credits | 2S | P. Ursprung, F. Fischli, N. Olsen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | You participate in the curatorial work of the thematic exhibition "Life Without Buildings". The tutors are Adam Szymczyk (curator and artistic director of documenta 14), Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen (gta exhibitions). Throughout the semester you are introduced to numerous artists, architects and authors visiting the course. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | In this elective course you actively engage in exhibition making and you reflect on methods of curating, while focusing on "exhibiting architecture". | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | A reading list will be provided. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | Contribution / A project realized individually or as a team for the exhibition. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 052-0843-21L | History of Art and Architecture  Does not take place this semester. | 2 credits | 2G | P. Ursprung | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Not offered in HS21. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 052-0845-21L | Reflection on Exhibition and Art Practice Now: Artistic Research This course is limited to 20 participants. Enrollment on agreement with the lecturer (s. coiurse descroiption) | 2 credits | 2U | L. Schädler Meiler, P. Ursprung | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Since the 1990s, there is a vivid discourse on “Artistic Research” – an artistic approach, which is characterized by different interconnections to other fields of research. In the seminar, we will read a selection of texts and will – in artist’s studios or at the Graphische Sammlung – discuss with artists how they would define “Artistic Research” and what strategies they use. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Students gain knowledge of the concept of “Artistic Research” and learn to distinguish it from other artistic strategies. They will get an overview of the latest discourse by reading the most important theories and discussing them together in the seminar. Moreover, they will become acquainted with different approaches and techniques of “Artistic Research” in personal encounters with artists. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | For some time now, the term “Artistic Research” is on everyone’s lips. Has it turned into a buzzword for a phenomenon that has – in fact – been in existence for centuries? Or does the term describe a new approach which has come into existence since the 1990s only? While looking back into history, the seminar will deal with the question how artistic research can be defined in the 21st century and how it differs from the notion of the universal artist so common during Renaissance. Students will read and discuss texts (for example from Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Elke Bippus or Dieter Mersch) and dispute the phenomenon theoretically. Besides, they will engage in conversation with artists, who are doing “Artistic Research”. They will particularly discuss the challenges and chances of artists and scientists, whenever they embark on the context of the other one. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | The compulsory texts will be available at the beginning of the seminar. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | Students have to attend regularly at the seminar inside and outside of ETH, to take part in the discussions and to prepare the selected texts. Each participant has to hold an input lecture. The seminar is limited to 20 people. There will be a waiting list. Please note: Around 4-5 meetings will take place outside ETH Hönggerberg and some at Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich in the main building. Time for travel before and after the meetings is therefore necessary. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 052-0853-21L | Architecture Beyond the Studio: Reflecting the Social and Cultural Dimensions of Design Proposals This course is offered until end of spring 2023 semester. | 4 credits | 4S | P. Ursprung, B. Böhm, J. Kaçani | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | “Architecture beyond the studio” is a seminar with the aim to reflect and rethink the formal and spatial aspects of the students’ own design projects from the perspective of the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS). Literature from the HSS is researched individually, related to the design projects in the form of a paper and presented jointly in an exhibition. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | In this seminar students learn to critically reflect their practice as architects from the perspective of the humanities and social sciences (HSS). As object for these reflections serves one of the students’ own design projects. This can be an architectural project they have designed at a chair for architecture and design, an architectural practice or independently. The main focus of the seminar lies on identifying a spatially and architecturally clearly defined aspect within the students’ design projects and in reflecting as well as deepening one’s own understanding of this aspect. By writing texts alienating architectural plans and images of their design projects and establishing an individual collection of architectural examples, the students learn to relate their own design practice to research of the HSS as well as the built environment. At the end of the semester, the students will be able to identify the historical, political sociological and/or economic dimensions of the architectural aspects in their design project as well as to locate these aspects in a contemporary architectural and HSS discourse. Furthermore, they learn to develop an individual conceptual position towards architectural-spatial questions and to communicate them visually and verbally. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Currently, the discipline of architecture is undergoing substantial change. Political and social aspects are again becoming more important within the profession of architecture. In the 1980s and 1990s architects legitimized their designs by recurring to their artistic abilities and individual ingenuity. Today, however, practicing architects cannot escape the social and political responsibility that comes with the design of architectural buildings. An increasing number of public as well as private developers expect architects to include considerations about the social and cultural live of prospective inhabitants in their architectural designs. Against this background, the seminar “Architecture beyond the Studio” bridges the gap between architectural design and the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS). Supported by two lecturers – with backgrounds in architecture and the social sciences – the students develop texts in which they critically reflect on spatial aspects in one of their own design projects from the perspective of the HSS. The aim of this seminar is to enable students to better understand social, political and/or historic dimensions of spatial aspects in their architectural designs. The students’ tasks include reflexive and analytical writing, the presentation and discussion of these reflections, literature research and the production of a final text, in which they summarize their most important findings and define a theoretical position that could guide their future work as designers. During the semester the seminar will be held as elective course (4 ECTS), including group-work, input by the tutors and individual feedback sessions. Additionally, this seminar contains two one-week-long writing workshops, which will be offered as focus work (6 ECTS) during the semester break. Next to a paper, the outcomes of this seminar will be presented in an exhibition taking place at the beginning of the following semester. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | As the number of participants is limited, interested students are asked to send an A4 page including one image and/or one plan of a previous design project as well as 3-4 sentences describing the aspect of the design project the student wants to investigate and reflect on during this seminar. In order to register for the seminar, students have to send this document to both of the tutors of this course. Students enrolling in this elective course are required to additionally enroll in the Focus-Work at the gta at the Chair of Prof. Philip Ursprung (063-0852-21). By successfully completing the whole seminar students receive 4 ECTS for the elective course and 6 ECTS for the focus work. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Competencies |
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| 063-0803-00L | History and Theory in Architecture IX (Ursprung) This core course (ending with «00L») can only be passed once! Please check before signing up. | 1 credit | 1V | P. Ursprung | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Out of the Crisis: Architecture in Times of Disease: The lecture will pose questions rather than offer answers. Each lecture will be structured by an input by the professor and guests and followed by a discussion with all participants. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Awareness of the role of the immediate present on architectural discourse. Knowlege of contemporary practices and discourses. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Out of the Crisis: Architecture in Times of Disease Which lessons can be drawn for architecture from the pandemic? Will there be a back to normal? How did concepts of space and time change? How can architecture education react? Out of the Crisis: Architecture in Times of Disease: The lecture will pose questions rather than offer answers. Each lecture will be structured by an input by the professor and guests and followed by a discussion with all participants. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 063-0853-21L | Subject Semester HS21 in the Field of History and Theory in Architecture (gta, Prof. Ursprung) Allocation only after consultation with the professor (meetings as required and after consultation with the chair). The application deadline is Wednesday September 8, 2021, 8 p.m. You will receive a message about acceptance or rejection for the subject semester by Thursday, September 9, 2021, 2 p.m. at the latest. Students who have been rejected have the opportunity to choose a design class. A student can only register once for a "Fachsemester" during the Master studies! | 14 credits | 29A | P. Ursprung, T. Avermaete, M. Delbeke | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Paying Attention: A Collective Manifesto. Attention is a rare commodity. How do we deal with attention? How is it manipulated? Who pays? Students produce autonomous texts. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Our aim is to increase the knowledge and sensitivity of architecture students toward the issue of attention, to make their voices heard and to develop a new teaching form for the history and theory of architecture. Students will be familiar with theories and practices of attention, they will learn to take position in a field, they will practice argumentation and increase their writing skills. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | Will be provided. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | A student can only register once for a "Fachsemester" during the Master studies! The application deadline is Wednesday, September 8, 2021, 8 p.m. You will receive a message about acceptance or rejection for the subject semester by Thursday, September 9, 2021, 2 p.m. at the latest. Students who have been rejected have the opportunity to choose a design class. Accompanying courses: - 063-0803-00L History and Theory in Architecture IX. - 052-0825-20L Special Questions in History of Art and Architecture (optional, individual events). Self dependent work. Within the frame of the semester topic, the choice of topic is free. For further information, please see: https://ursprung.arch.ethz.ch/courses/who-cares/information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 063-0855-21L | Subject Semester HS21 (Fachsemester) in the Field of History and Theory in Architecture gta(Delbeke) Allocation only after consultation with the professor (meetings as required and after consultation with the chair). A student can only register once for a "Fachsemester" during the Master studies! The application deadline is Wednesay, September 8, 2021, 8 p.m. You will receive a message about acceptance or rejection for the subject semester by Thursday, September 9, 2021, 2 p.m. at the latest. Students who have been rejected have the opportunity to choose a design class. | 14 credits | 29A | M. Delbeke, T. Avermaete, P. Ursprung | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The theme of this History Research Studio is ‘Female Agency in Architecture before 1850’. The Studio aims at exploring the crucial role women played in the birth, life and afterlife of buildings in the early modern period. We will study female patronage, authorship, and criticism in architecture. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Students are invited to identify and investigate their own specific case studies that pertain to this theme. The Studio will teach students to be both historically and critically competent. By combining different historiographical approaches, students will develop the skills to articulate their research questions, carry out appropriate primary and secondary study and write a complete paper. The structure of the studio will follow an input-exchange-output model. All members of the chair will provide input, to both the theme and method, as well as examples and references of research. There is also room for students to read and discuss together with the material prepared for them (short texts, summaries and reading lists) and the materials they found. Weekly group meetings and individual supervision by the chair members will help students in academic research and writing. Exchanges with the researchers at the chair are also beneficial to further develop their research themes and teaching. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Focussing on ‘Female Agency in Architecture before 1850’ this studio examines the emergence of the role of women in architecture and architectural theory, in a period of great economic, social and cultural change: 1450-1850. Women acquired a major role in architectural patronage in eighteenth-century France and England, when they came to independently design and commission innovative mansions and dwellings. They stand in a tradition of major female builders in early-modern (sixteenth- and seventeenth-century) Italy and in Ottoman Turkey. The relationship between architect and patron surfaces in different types of buildings commanded by women: stately residences (hôtels urbains) and emerging types as pavilions and petites mansions. These women excited their influence in the various aspects of the design process. Female patrons used their expertise in determining the layouts of their dwellings and in arranging spaces that reflected as much their daily lives as special occasions. They tell us about women’s lifestyles, their use of specific spaces, and the expression such spaces should have, as well as about their social and economic situations. While many of these patrons were women of fortune, from aristocracy, the period also sees a changing female clientele emerge with collectors, artists, dancers, actresses, writers and mistresses (the Petit Trianon for Madame de Pompadour for example). Furthermore, in this period women would increasingly express their ideas in pamphlets and articles in journals, in salons, in letter writing, in literature, or in travel accounts. They were thus voicing their ideas on architecture in both spoken and written form, and in drawing up plans for new buildings, when acting as a patron. Both as a patron and as a user of buildings women acted as a critical voice of how to design architecture from the point of view of the user of architectural spaces, be it in a domestic or a more public setting. This Master Studio invites students to adopt female agency as a primary investigative territory to critically examine the ways in which architecture is produced, conceptualised and historicised in a particular cultural and historical context. It was in a wide array of media that constituted architectural debate that the female voice was heard and influenced the larger debate. By examining the female perspective this Studio aims to open up the corpus and historiography of thinking about buildings. While we understand the necessity of a canonical history the Studio actively searches and tests approaches and methods of enquiry that challenge that canon and propose a different history. By examining the professional, artistic, authorial and cultural role of women in architecture the courses and meetings of the semester will offer an opportunity to look afresh at architectural history and theory of the early modern period. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | Places for this Subject Semester are limited. Please send your candidacy by email (a 300-word motivation letter and a 300-word statement on your topic of interest) to: professur.delbeke@gta.arch.ethz.ch See also the website of the chair: https://delbeke.arch.ethz.ch/courses Deadline for application is Wednesday, September 8, 2021, 20.00h. You will receive a message on your acceptance for the Fachsemester by Thursday, September 9, 2021, 14.00 h. This means rejected students can then still choose a design class for HS 2021. A student can only register once for a Subject Semester during the Master studies! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 063-0857-21L | Subject Semester HS21 (Fachsemester) in the Field of History and Theory in Architecture (Avermaete) Enrolment in agreement with the chair only. Meetings as required and in consultation with the chair. A student can only register once for a "Fachsemester" during the Master studies! The application deadline is Wednesday 8th September 2021, 8 p.m. You will receive a message about acceptance or rejection for the subject semester by Thursday, September 9, 2021, 2 p.m. at the latest. Students who have been rejected have the opportunity to choose a design class. | 14 credits | 29A | T. Avermaete, M. Delbeke, P. Ursprung | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Housing Commons and the City: Zurich Focuses on the housing commons of Zurich, namely collectively owned, non-profit forms of housing ownership (e.g. cooperatives). In the ways that they have been produced, managed, used, maintained, and appropriated, housing commons offer new perspectives to think about contemporary urban challenges such as densification, housing demand, and sustainability. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The Research Studio has two objectives. First, to develop an ‘Archeology’ of Zürich’s housing commons. In this part, the work of the urban historian or theoretician is understood as an archaeological venture. The collective residential stock, as well as the integrated common facilities that often accompany it, will be systematically analyzed as the outcome of codes and as reliant on established practices of ‘commoning’. The result will be a catalogue of city’s cooperative and related networks, illustrating how these provide frameworks for ‘commoning’ and how, as urban figures, they are integrated into and impact upon the city fabric. Secondly, we will develop an ‘Assemblage’ of Zürich’s housing commons by scrutinizing how they are experienced, practised, and developed in the city. To this end, we will analyze the character and role of cooperative and not-for-profit housing, be they in the inner city fabric (historically so-called ‘colonies’), in the city’s fast-densifying residential and post-industrial suburbs (‘settlements’), as well as newer forms of housing ideologically indebted to the social movements of the 1980s, and exploring new forms of communal living and typological innovation through the historical legal framework of housing cooperatives. We will investigate the relations between typological definition and commoning practices, and the negotiations they entail between experts and non-experts, formal and informal agencies, the city and grassroots action groups. The result of the Research Studio will be A Retroactive Manifesto for the city of Zürich, in which the past, present and future roles of housing commons in the city will be discussed, as a more comprehensive project for the city as we know it and as it might evolve. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Housing Commons and the City: The Case of Zurich This Research Studio focuses on the housing commons of Zürich. By ‘housing commons’ we mean various collectively owned, non-profit forms of housing ownership such as associations, public (municipal) housing, and cooperatives, all formats that have built up the backbone of the city’s affordable housing policy since the early 1900s. A long-standing alliance with the local government, financial subsidies historically ratified in popular referendums, and the possibility of leasing city-owned land for development have rendered housing commons prominent, in a housing sector otherwise dominated by market rental and private ownership. About a quarter of the city’s residential stock qualifies as collectively owned housing, a ratio set up to increase to a third by 2040. In a city where 1-person households still make up almost half of the entire residential stock, housing commons are exemplary as models for sustainable densification and typological innovation. In this research studio we will explore how housing commons have been produced, managed, used, maintained, and appropriated, how are they manifest themselves in the city, how they are iconographically or typologically distinguished from the housing on the market. We are particularly interested in how housing commons have contributed to ease the chronic housing shortage in the city, and might continue to do so in the future? We hold that housing commons offer us new perspectives to think about contemporary challenges such as densification, a growing housing demand, and sustainable urban living. Cities have always been places based on common resources and common practices. While designing and constructing the architecture of the city, architects, urban designers, builders, and inhabitants have had to engage with common resources located in particular places and geographies: inherited common-pool resources (water, nature, air); material common-pool resources (clay, brick, stone, wood); and immaterial common-pool resources (craft, knowledge). This understanding of the city, as related to common resources and practices, has gained renewed attention, as neoliberalism replaces ever-shrinking welfare structures, and global urbanization is accompanied by rising inequality. It is not only architects and urban designers who are again becoming interested in alternative principles of governing common resources, but also political movements and society at large. Some of these issues – generally called ‘the commons’ – have also received growing academic attention in the last decades within the fields of critical urban studies, urban history, urban geography and the social sciences. This Research Studio continues the studio’s investigations into the rich history of ‘the commons’ in the city of Zürich by focusing on its residential infrastructures. The ‘housing commons’ will be investigated from architectural, urban, typological, environmental and material perspectives. We will explore how common practices and resources have affected their development in the city, and conversely how the built housing commons enable and structure common practices. The research will unlock an alternative reading of the urban and architectural qualities of the built environment of the city. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lecture notes | Methodology: Exploring the Tools and Knowledge of the Architect The main hypothesis of the Research Studio is that historical and theoretical research can gain from a profound use of the tools and knowledge of an architect. During the Research Studio students will employ specific architectural tools, such as drawing, writing, and model making to explore historical and theoretical realities. Students will be urged to explore various methods of composing analytical and interpretative drawings. They will reflect upon the capacity of drawing methods from the field of architecture, such as plan drawing, sectional drawings, mappings, serial visions, public drawings, diagramming and perspective representations to act as tools of historical and theoretical research. At the same time, they will be asked to investigate various analytical and interpretative modes of scale-model making. Students may work with different types of models (structural models, mass models, counter form models, landscape and territorial models) as ways to historically or theoretically explore the reality of the city. Far from being simple graphic or artefactual restitutions of the city, these drawings and models will create morphological, thematic or theoretical links between various occurrences in the city. These methods of drawing and model making will be combined with more conventional investigative techniques in the fields of history and theory such as discourse analysis, iconographic studies and compositional investigation, to support a better historical or theoretical understanding of specific occurrences and conditions in the city of Zürich. Students will also be stimulated to use their spatial, formal, material and constructive architectural knowledge to offer alternative historical or theoretical interpretations of the reality that they encounter in the archives, in the library or in the city. They will be asked to activate their specific spatial, typological, compositional, technical, material and constructive expertise to probe into the various historical layers of the architecture of the city in newfangled ways. Within the general theme of housing commons, students will be guided to identify their own subtheme, as well as explore their own different methodologies of doing research. During the Research Studio students will confront their empirical knowledge (about space, typology, composition, technique, material and construction), pertaining to the autonomy of architecture, with other types of knowledge (on politics, economy, the social and cultural) that belong to the heteronomy of architecture. In the relation between autonomous and heteronomous knowledge, a new understanding of the city will be constructed. The combination of these tools and methods will offer an in-depth mode of historical and theoretical research, wherein the students will retro-actively explore the spatial, formal, material and constructive features of a particular situation to uncover and reconstruct the logics that have led to a certain urban condition. On the basis of this research, students will be able to develop an architectural hypothesis of the developments in the city of Zürich. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | A student can only register once for a "Fachsemester" during the Master studies! The application deadline is Wednesday 8th September, 2021, 8 p.m. You will receive a message about acceptance or rejection for the subject semester by Thursday, September 9, 2021, 2 p.m. at the latest. Students who have been rejected have the opportunity to choose a design class. Self-dependent work. Enrollment on agreement with the chair only. Meetings as required and after consultation with the chair (Wednesdays). The collective and individual projects together will offer an alternative reading, which retro-actively traces the urban territory and architectural quality of the city of Zurich back to the local common resources and common practices. The different materials – texts, drawings, models – will be combined in an atlas, which presents this alternative reading to a larger audience. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 063-0953-21L | Subject Semester HS21 in the Field of Historic Building Research and Conservation (IDB, Prof Holzer) A student can only register once for a "Fachsemester" during the Master studies! The application deadline is Friday September 3, 2021, 8 p.m. You will receive a message about acceptance or rejection for the subject semester by Thursday, September 9, 2021, 2 p.m. at the latest. Students who have been rejected have the opportunity to choose a design class. | 14 credits | 29A | S. Holzer, T. Avermaete, M. Delbeke, P. Ursprung | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The subject semester (to choose out of two topics) includes the individual, independent processing of a specific task, whereby the relevance of the respective discipline is examined with regard to the specific architectural and design aspects of the task. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The subject semester includes the individual, independent processing of a specific task, whereby the relevance of the respective discipline is examined with regard to the specific architectural and design aspects of the task. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The subject of the semester is defined by the chair and published on the website: https://holzer.arch.ethz.ch/en/education/Fachsemester.html | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | A student can only register once for a "Fachsemester" during the Master studies! The application deadline is Sunday December26, 2021, 8 p.m. You will receive a message about acceptance or rejection for the subject semester by Wednesday, January 26, 2022, 2 p.m. at the latest. Students who have been rejected have the opportunity to choose a design class. The requirements for this subject semester are interest in the material as well as experience with and knowledge of historical wooden structures and the methods of building research. Ideally, the student has heard Prof. Holzer's lectures on construction history or does so during the semester. It is also beneficial to have attended the case studies exercise. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 064-0005-21L | Advanced Topics in History and Theory of Architecture: Entry Points - Reading Seminar For Architecture doctoral program only. | 1 credit | 1K | P. Ursprung, T. Avermaete, M. Delbeke, L. Stalder | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The seminar will consist of a series of collective readings of selected texts. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Knowledge of relevant texts in contemporary theory. Capacity to critically discuss methods and discourses. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lecture notes | Scans of selected texts for discussion and exercises will be provided at the beginning of HS 2020 on the course website: https://doctoral-program.gta.arch.ethz.ch/courses/advanced-methods-in-the-history-and-theory-of-architecture | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | The seminar addresses the fellows of the Doctoral Program in History and Theory of Architecture. All other doctoral students of the Faculty of Architecture are welcome. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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