052-1133-24L Architectural Design V-IX: Material Gesture: We the People and 19 Others (A.Holtrop)

Semester	Autumn Semester 2024
Lecturers	A. Holtrop
Periodicity	every semester recurring course
Language of instruction	English
Comment	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 30.10.2024 (valuation date) only. This is the ultimate deadline to unsubscribe or enroll for the studio.

Courses

Number

Title

Hours

Lecturers

052-1133-24 U

Architectural Design V-IX: Material Gesture: We the People and 19 Others (A.Holtrop)

Permission from lecturers required for all students.
No course on 22/23.10.2024 (seminar week).

16 hrs

Tue	10:00-18:00	RIA E 1 »
Wed	08:00-18:00	RIA E 1 »

A. Holtrop

Catalogue data

Abstract

Learning objective

When we take all aspects of the material into consideration – the geology, the sourcing, the industry, the different properties, the craftsmanship, the specialised techniques and the cultural significance – we can deploy the full potential of the inherent qualities of the material itself and our way of working it in what we call MATERIAL GESTURE.

In this design studio, you will define your gestures of making and working with material(s) through research and experiment, and in response to the topic of the studio. You are required to produce an architecture that results from your specific engagement with the material and the spatial condition you construct with it. The architecture that results from this approach does not reference or represent something, but simply attempts to exist as a physical spatial reality in its own right.

There is no given program for the space. This can be chosen at any time in the development of your project and should support the spatial and material conditions that you have set out.
For the final presentation, you are required to make a physical model of your work, or a fragment of it. The model should show the material and the gestures (the ways of making) and the specific spatial conditions it constructs. This is the key element of your presentation, along with samples of the material research and test models. You are required to display the material gesture research, drawings of the project and photos of the model alongside your model on portrait A2 sheets. The A2 material will be collected in print and digitally in PDF format for the material gesture archive.

Content

This is the last semester of our six years of artistic research titled MATERIAL GESTURE. The research on material gesture wishes to shift the focus towards the processes of working with a material and its resulting gestures in order to define a specific expression and spatial formation of architecture. Roland Barthes in his writings on the work of Cy Twombly, defines the term gesture as the surplus of an action. An action, he writes: “is transitive, it seeks only to provoke an object, a result.” Whereas the gesture is “the indeterminate and inexhaustible total of reasons, pulsions, indolences which surround the action with an ‘atmosphere’.”
In this last semester an artwork will be your departure point. We have selected 20 works with a strong material, gestural and ideological character, and each student will be assigned one of the artworks within this selection. As opposed to the white cube approach where the exhibition space is made as neutral as possible, you will research the possibility of making an architecture that is dedicated and specifically built for the artwork. The ambition is to research the work through its material aspects, the gestures and ideas of the artist and to produce an architecture for that work that is as specific as the work itself.

Prerequisites / Notice

Group work only

Introduction: 16 and 18 September, 2024, Avignon France
Intermediate crits: 5 and 6 November, 2024
Final crits: 17 and 18 December, 2024
Additional costs: approx. 350.-

Competencies

Subject-specific Competencies	Concepts and Theories	assessed
	Techniques and Technologies	assessed
Social Competencies	Communication	assessed
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	assessed

Performance assessment

Performance assessment information (valid until the course unit is held again)
Performance assessment as a semester course
ECTS credits	14 credits
Examiners	A. Holtrop
Type	graded semester performance
Language of examination	English
Repetition	Repetition possible without re-enrolling for the course unit.
Additional information on mode of examination	Ultimate deadline for changing enrolments for this course is 30.10.2024, 24:00 h. After this date it is strictly forbidden to enrol for the course or to delete the enrolment!

Learning materials


Main link	Information
Only public learning materials are listed.

Groups

No information on groups available.

Restrictions

General

: Special students and auditors need a special permission from the lecturers
Permission from lecturers required for all students

Offered in

Programme	Section	Type
Architecture Bachelor	Architectural Design (from 5. Semester on)	W