“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
Subject-specific Competencies
Concepts and Theories
assessed
Techniques and Technologies
fostered
Method-specific Competencies
Analytical Competencies
assessed
Decision-making
assessed
Media and Digital Technologies
fostered
Problem-solving
fostered
Project Management
fostered
Social Competencies
Communication
assessed
Cooperation and Teamwork
assessed
Customer Orientation
fostered
Leadership and Responsibility
fostered
Self-presentation and Social Influence
assessed
Sensitivity to Diversity
assessed
Negotiation
fostered
Personal Competencies
Adaptability and Flexibility
assessed
Creative Thinking
assessed
Critical Thinking
assessed
Integrity and Work Ethics
assessed
Self-awareness and Self-reflection
assessed
Self-direction and Self-management
fostered
Performance assessment
Performance assessment information (valid until the course unit is held again)
Performance assessment as a semester course