052-0661-24L Architectural Design V-IX: Architecture in Large Quantities (GD G.Retsin)
| Semester | Autumn Semester 2024 |
| Lecturers | G. Retsin |
| 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 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 052-0661-24 U | Architectural Design V-IX: Architecture in Large Quantities (GD G.Retsin) Keine Lehrveranstaltung am 22/23.10.2024 (Seminarwoche). | 16 hrs |
| G. Retsin |
Catalogue data
| Abstract | This studio will challenge students to develop not just one design but a fully automated system that can generate endless designs for high-quality, inspiring, and sustainable timber housing. Students will work in small groups, each representing a notional “housing factory” that is asked to produce thousands of new homes for Zurich within the next 10 years. |
| Learning objective | |
| Content | If a building is good, why don’t we repeat it? This studio will challenge students to develop not just one design but a fully automated system that can generate endless designs for high-quality, inspiring, and sustainable timber housing. Students will work in small groups, each representing a notional “housing factory” that is asked to produce thousands of new homes for Zurich within the next 10 years. These homes should be built fast but also sustainable and long-lasting. Historically, architecture has been able to repeat itself successfully. Almost any historic city serves as proof. Architecture was a discipline focused on the serial repetition and iteration of designs, typologies, and construction methods. The modernists made architecture in large quantities their project. Modernist experiments tried to deliver millions of homes using new design and production methods. The most famous - and most singular- houses of modernism, such as Villa Savoye, the Barcelona Pavilion, or the Californian Case Study Homes, were all meant to be repeated in large numbers. Today, this sounds strange and unusual. Economic and cultural circumstances have changed our profession so much that architecture—especially good architecture—is rarely repeated. Good architects work very hard to develop a unique and compelling one-off design, to then start again—almost from scratch—for the next project. When we think about architecture that repeats itself, we often think about the lazy, uninspiring accumulations of anonymous buildings around our cities or the dreary apartment buildings left behind by the modernist building craze. However, after a 50-year pause, the question of architecture in large quantities is back on the table. Under the pressure of a global housing crisis and climate emergency, architecture is again asked to revisit its multiplication and, therefore, its very core. The age-old question of the mass-produced home is back, with all its challenges, controversies, stigmas, and opportunities. This time, it is bolstered by new digital technologies and sustainable materials. The studio will work both in-depth and at scale. In the first half of the semester, students will form groups and develop a detailed timber construction system for a small factory-produced housing unit with the input of BUK. Students will be asked to develop both their idea for a housing factory and a strong architectural idea and expression for the houses it produces that is worth repeating in large amounts. If we build this building in thousands of variations - is it good enough? Or is the design too original and unique to be repeated one thousand times? In the second half of the semester, students will scale and deploy their designs across 40+ sites in Zurich. Students will use a simple AI-driven workflow and the parametric design tool Rhino/Grasshopper to support this exercise. Students will critically reflect on the deployment of their designs, the opportunities and limitations of their system, and the computational tools they use. We’ll reflect on the societal questions surrounding architecture and the discipline itself: how do we work? What are we good at? What would we rather not do? The outcome of the studio will consist of depth and scale: Depth: A factory-produced timber construction system, demonstrated with a detailed 1:10 architectural model and axonometric drawing. Scale: An automated, repeatable timber housing model demonstrated by plans, sections, and renderings for 40+ designs across many sites in Zurich No existing experience with AI or Rhino/Grasshopper is required to take the studio. Critical thinking is the most important skill for the studio. |
| Prerequisites / Notice | Integrated Discipline Construction - BUK Group work only. Introduction: Tuesday 17 September, 09:00 am, HIL C 15 Intermediate crits: Tuesday 05 November Final crits: Tuesday 17 December Extra costs: Approx. CHF 150.-- per student (estimated costs, without possible seminar week costs) |
Performance assessment
| Performance assessment information (valid until the course unit is held again) | |
Performance assessment as a semester course | |
| ECTS credits | 14 credits |
| Examiners | G. Retsin |
| Type | graded semester performance |
| Language of examination | German |
| Repetition | Repetition only possible after re-enrolling for the course unit. |
| Additional information on mode of examination | Letzter Abmeldetermin für das Entwurfssemester ist der 30.10.2024, 24:00 Uhr. Das Löschen einer Belegung nach diesem Datum ist nicht zulässig. |
Learning materials
| No public learning materials available. | |
| Only public learning materials are listed. |
Groups
| No information on groups available. |
Restrictions
| There are no additional restrictions for the registration. |
Offered in
| Programme | Section | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture Bachelor | Architectural Design (from 5. Semester on) | W |  |