Ludger Hovestadt: Catalogue data in Spring Semester 2021

Name	Prof. Dr. Ludger Hovestadt
Field	Digital Architectonics
Address	Inst. f. Technologie in der Arch. ETH Zürich, HIB E 15 Stefano-Franscini-Platz 1 8093 Zürich SWITZERLAND
E-mail	hovestadt@arch.ethz.ch
Department	Architecture
Relationship	Full Professor

Number	Title	ECTS	Hours	Lecturers
051-1218-21L	Integrated Discipline CAAD	3 credits	2U	L. Hovestadt
Abstract	This part of the curriculum addresses design work in different areas of architecture and urbanism and integrates the knowledge acquired in previous years. It involves the active participation of specialists from related disciplines (e.g. building structures, landscape architecture, history of art and architecture, monuments conservation etc.).
Learning objective	Today architectural sketching without the employment of information technologies is only meaningful in exceptional cases. CAD plans, three-dimensional rendering, CNC model construction etc. are pervasive media for the development and presentation of architectural drafts. This elective course tries to follow questions on a new plateau: Which are the common traits of current design methods and modern information technologies and how can they symbiotically lead to a new architectural expressions in formal and constructional regard. Draft-accompanying, these questions are pursuit on a theoretical level, in order to be able to find its expression in the concrete draft. Ascertained technical applications are not ment to be of priority.
Content	This part of the curriculum addresses design work in different areas of architecture and urbanism and integrates the knowledge acquired in previous years. It involves the active participation of specialists from related disciplines (e.g. building structures, landscape architecture, history of art and architecture, monuments conservation etc.).
Lecture notes	http://www.caad.arch.ethz.ch
Literature	http://www.caad.arch.ethz.ch
052-0606-00L	Mathematics and Programming II	2 credits	2V	L. Hovestadt
Abstract	An introduction to information technology for architects. It is not about the HOW, but rather about the WHAT, not about virtuosity when dealing with digital tools, but rather about understanding coding. Not about pragmatism, but rather about literacy. It forms the basis of digital architectonics, the art of joining, which needs to be cultivated with care, prudence and patience.
Learning objective	Normally, one would expect this course to teach students how to draw architecture while using computers. This course does not because digital architectural models are not drawn, but encoded. In the current discussion about building information models (BIM), we see how blocked the situation can become when one draws architecture digitally. Today, digital models are a tedious 'minefield' with hundreds of gigabytes of data of all kinds. A digital model as code, however, is lightweight, compact and fast – a sparkling crystal, like poetry. That is why coding is the focus of this course. More specifically, students learn to read code and to value thinking in code. Learning active coding goes beyond the time-frame and should not be forced upon people. Thanks to digital awareness, students can quickly learn a wide variety of software using help available in the Internet, and competently use it according to their personal preferences. The aim of the course is for the students to develop as architects and to grow a digital personality. Specific reference is made to the history of architecture in conjunction with mathematics and philosophy. The essential tool of the trade is the lambda calculus in the implementation of Mathematica. The information technology interconnection of all digital media will be presented: text, image, graphic, model, animation, film, audio and the corresponding software. Current issues will be discussed: Internet, Internet of things, cryptography, privacy, big data, machine intelligence, building information models, responsive cities, smart homes, robotics, energy and logistics. Current and historical modelling processes will be worked on.
Content	The Mechanics of Digital Introduction and overview on folding Calculus Text and numbers Lists and colours Pictures and films Cryptography and communication Rules and graphs Graphics and Animation 3D models Solid models Music and sound The Big Plenty Parsers Databases Machine intelligence Many images Many texts Many drawings Many models Smart buildings City and country On the Internet of Things A Digital Archaeology of Architecture The geometry of Euclid The architecture of the Greeks The arithmetic of Ptolemy The architecture of the middle ages The geometry of Descartes The architecture of the Renaissance The arithmetic of Lagrange The architecture of the Enlightenment The algebra of Boole The architecture of the classical period The theory of categories The architecture of the 20th century The Digital Architectural Model Architecture and poetry The perspective model The probabilistic model The crystal The hybrid The continuum The Oikos The model concept 1920 The model concept 1950 The model concept 1980 The model concept 2010 Brand and style
052-0628-21L	CAAD Theory: A House that Demands More From the Sunset (Hovestadt) ITA Pool information event on the offered courses: 10.2.2021, 10-11 h, ONLINE, VideoZoom Link: https://ethz.zoom.us/s/92856146358	2 credits	2G	L. Hovestadt
Abstract	“Perhaps the only difference between me and other people is that I've always demanded more from the sunset. More spectacular colors when the sun hit the horizon. That's perhaps my only sin.” Joe, Nymphomaniac: Vol. I
Learning objective	In this course you will select a building and create a persona that both is and is not yourself. Through writing a text with the help of a library (Xenotheka) and Machine Intelligence (Ask.Alice search engine), you will mobilise that persona and set it to work in a space. From an ‘elsewhere’ to ‘anywhere’, we can animate spaces and make them talk; we can create a persona.
Content	Setting: House, Library and Me Play: If the walls could speak . . . what would they demand? We use space to create multiple personae, all with different tempers. A million chattering voices. Avatars, yes, but what could they do? The inside becomes the outside: the part becomes the whole. One little room becomes an everywhere. The creation of a space that is you. But how do we get them to talk? By mobilising multiple personae and setting them to work in a space. By creating an alter-ego from the perspective of an element. Like Captain Planet? Air - Earth - Fire - Water. A house characterised by four humours and four elements in balance. What is a house but a coded balance that shifts? ‘Even Bergsonian duration is in need of a runner’. Deleuze and Guattari’s conceptual personae include the Socrates of Plato, the Dionysus of Nietzsche, the Idiot of Nicholas of Cusa. But what if the concept is yourself?
Lecture notes	http://www.caad.arch.ethz.ch
Literature	http://www.caad.arch.ethz.ch
Prerequisites / Notice	ITA Pool information event on the offered courses: 10.2.2021, 10-11 h, ONLINE, VideoZoom Link: https://ethz.zoom.us/s/92856146358
052-0630-21L	CAAD Practice: A Brief Introduction to Coding (L. Hovestadt) ITA Pool information event on the offered courses: 10.2.2021, 10-11 h, ONLINE, VideoZoom Link: https://ethz.zoom.us/s/92856146358	2 credits	2G	L. Hovestadt
Abstract	Computers are not machines, rather instruments to think the world with. Coding is not about submitting yourself to computer scientists' formalities and worldviews, but about the emancipation of writing itself in the digital age.
Learning objective	This course aims to expose you to writing code (you will be writing a lot). Teaching will not be rigidly structured since we do not seek to solve any particular problem using code, nor offer certification. We want to learn to talk in a new way. We will let grammar fit into its place naturally, and let the ideas about what we can do with code cook slowly.
Content	Computers are not machines, rather instruments to think the world with. Coding is not about submitting yourself to computer scientists' formalities and worldviews, but about the emancipation of writing itself in the digital age. Even if you never end up using computer code in your architectural endeavours (highly unlikely), knowing what code does and how to write it will make you a literate person in a sense you cannot currently imagine. New perspectives will open to you in the world that is already there. This course aims to expose you to writing code (you will be writing a lot). Teaching will not be rigidly structured since we do not seek to solve any particular problem using code, nor offer certification. We want to learn to talk in a new way. We will let grammar fit into its place naturally, and let the ideas about what we can do with code cook slowly. We will be coding in Python programming language. Python is a very popular language that is easy to start with, but hard to master (just like English). But we are not here for the Python or any other language. We are interested in the talks that it allows us to articulate.
Lecture notes	You do not need any prerequisites to join this course. Python can be run in a web browser, and you do not need to install anything. Join the course via Zoom on the following link: https://ethz.zoom.us/my/marincic
Literature	http://www.caad.arch.ethz.ch
Prerequisites / Notice	ITA Pool information event on the offered courses: 10.2.2021, 10-11 h, ONLINE, VideoZoom Link: https://ethz.zoom.us/s/92856146358
052-0636-00L	Mathematical Thinking and Programming IV	2 credits	2V	L. Hovestadt
Abstract	Advanced knowledge of the CAD Programme "Blender" Advanced knowledge of "Lambda Calculus" and "Mathematica"
Learning objective	Advanced knowlede of the CAD program "Blender" Advanced knowlede of "Lambda Calculus" and the programming environment "Mathematica".
Content	Introduction to the consistent processing of the following media per code: text, colour, image, graphs, graphic (2D and 3D), animation and web.
052-1110-21L	Architectural Design V-IX: Meteora #04 Alienations (L. Hovestadt) Please register (www.mystudies.ethz.ch) only after the internal enrolment for the design classes (see http://www.einschreibung.arch.ethz.ch/design.php). Project grading at semester end is based on the list of enrolments on 2nd April 2021, 24:00 h. This is the ultimate deadline to unsubscribe or enroll for the studio!	14 credits	16U	L. Hovestadt
Abstract	This studio works on the idea that a substantial understanding of todays technology (internet of things, big data, machine intelligence...) changes the perspective to architectural theory and will result in different architectural designs and building constructions.
Learning objective	1) Identification and understanding of the challenges of todays technologies; 2) techniques of working within the plenty of the internet; 3) a methodology to design digital architectures; 4) understanding of the shift from hard building construction to soft building applications, and 5) an understanding of the importance of becoming a literate digital persona in order to be an architect today.
Content	METEORA #04 ALIENATIONS in the time of corona, sitting at home, connected with the world. we feel like laughing. sitting at the edge of the world. we start thinking. an alien building of the last century (ludwig wittgenstein house, vienna, 1928) meets an alien figure of today's media (lenny belardo aka jude law by paolo sorrentino, 2016) you look at me and I look at you. I'm the world, I'm the world, the world in a box. METEORA #04 is an architectonic exercise on our cultural heritage and its challenges of today. white noise, beautiful white noise. in a room without a roof i'm staring at the ceiling. METEORA #04 will use artificial intelligence to write a text to explicate a precise position in today's world, to create a spectrum of images to reflect this world and design an architectural artefact which brings things into adequate proportions in the plentiful noise of today lenny will help us to talk about the world today, and ludwig will help us to make detailed architectonic arguments.
Prerequisites / Notice	Individual work only. Mid term crits: Dates will follow. No extra costs!
063-0716-00L	CAAD III: Positions within Architecture This core course (ends with «00L») can only be passed once! Please check this before signing up.	2 credits	2V	L. Hovestadt
Abstract	Information technologies for architects. Third, deepening part. Information technologies are today constituent part both for the architectural work and our built environment. Hardware and software are pervasive, inexpensive and easy to use. Conventional planning and building processes are accelerated and improved in the good case.
Learning objective	In this course we ask the qualitative question about new attitudes and meanings on the new plateau. CAAD III treats deepened in a seminaristic manner a selected application on this new plateau. CAAD III begins with introductory lectures and closes off with individual elaborations.
Content	Information technologies for architects. Third, deepening part. Information technologies are today constituent part both for the architectural work and our built environment. Hardware and software are pervasive, inexpensive and easy to use. Conventional planning and building processes are accelerated and improved in the good case.
063-0732-21L	CAAD Theory (Thesis Elective)	6 credits	13A	L. Hovestadt
Abstract	Within three elective courses the students need to fulfill an elective work (seminar work). Elective works serve the independent way of dealing with the contents of the according elective course.
Learning objective	Within three elective courses the students need to fulfill an elective work (seminar work). Elective works serve the independent way of dealing with the contents of the according elective course.
Content	The contents of these elective studies are expected to link to the subject matter of the attended course.
Lecture notes	http://www.caad.arch.ethz.ch
Literature	http://www.caad.arch.ethz.ch
063-0734-21L	CAAD Practice (Thesis Elective)	6 credits	13A	L. Hovestadt
Abstract	Within three elective courses the students need to fulfill an elective work (seminar work). Elective works serve the independent way of dealing with the contents of the according elective course.
Learning objective	Within three elective courses the students need to fulfill an elective work (seminar work). Elective works serve the independent way of dealing with the contents of the according elective course.
Content	The contents of these elective studies are expected to link to the subject matter of the attended course.
Lecture notes	http://www.caad.arch.ethz.ch
Literature	http://www.caad.arch.ethz.ch
064-0016-21L	PhD Colloquium Theory of Information Technology for Architects	2 credits	2K	L. Hovestadt
Abstract	Information technology plays an increasingly important role in research. To meet this challenging development, it is not only important to acquire respective skills, but also to consider and understand information technology in what sets it apart from other gestalts of technics (like mechanics, dynamics, or thermodynamics).
Learning objective	The aim of this colloquium is to counter an observable tendency, that proportional to the degree in which students master practical skills in computing, they increasingly submit uncritically, in their understanding and framing of problems, to the dictation of schemata and templates implemented by technical systems.
Content	The starting point for this colloquium is to comprehend computing not in terms of skills, but as a literacy which we can experience emerging today. Like in the case of writing as well, computing cannot exhaustively be reduced to either logics, grammar, arithmetics, or analytics. Rather, computation, if comprehended as a literacy, relates to any of the established categories of learning and raises questions of an architectonic kind. This colloquium draws from the principal richness of cultural forms of knowing and learning and thematizes approaches to formulate a theoretical stance on information technology for architects which is driven by and resting on the actual reality of computability today. In this, it is complementary to those theory courses on technology offered by the historical disciplines at ETH.
Prerequisites / Notice	To benefit from this course, you should have a practical affinity to technics, as well as an abstract interest in information technology in its comprehensive cultural context.