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  • WILD CITY

    AIMS

    – Explore the question: what is a place of wildlife in a city be? And how wild can your design and manifesto could be?
    Examine the coexistence and relationships between humans and non-humans (animals, plants, and other forms of wildlife) in urban contexts.
    – Investigate how cities can be designed to interconnect humans and non-humans, inspired by deep ecology and Timothy Morton’s who claims that Humankind: Solidarity with Non-Human People. This includes rethinking human-centred design and embracing a more inclusive perspective on urban ecosystems.

    METHOD

    • Annie Morrad (Artist): Utilises art & photography to develop sensitivity to the unknown, encouraging curiosity and humility as a foundation for design.

    • Marcin Kołakowski & Sarah Stevens (Architects): Focuses on alternative design and the interplay between buildings and their surroundings, – where architecture meets the non-built environment.
    • Together, these approaches will frame the workshop, encouraging participants to observe and design architecture from the perspective of non-humans, stimulating innovative ideas.

    TECHNIQUE

    • Use of photography as a tool for observation and heightened sensitivity.
    • Application of unconventional design methods to critique architecture from non-human perspectives.
    • Creation of collages combining photography and architectural design to form a manifesto for cohabitation.
    • Presentation of workshop outcomes in a format suitable for future exhibition.

    STRENGTHS

    The workshop will develop design sensitivity to alternative viewpoints beyond anthropocentric norms. It encourages interdisciplinary collaboration by blending artistic and architectural practices. Additionally, the workshop aims to stimulate innovative thinking by integrating ecological awareness into urban design.

  • FOUR RES FOR RE

    AIMS

    Thinking and suggesting solutions of REuse, REbuilding, REconstruction, and Rehabilitation to provide the needs of REturnees to the destroyed Syrian cities and settlements after the end of the war.

    METHOD

    Groups of 2-3 students formed with international colleagues to : choose one out of the 6 different building typologies in the neighborhood, create 2min need assessment video -Decide the strategy out of the 4Res to be followed and design the solution to provide the needs (storyboard, shop drawings are preferred).

    TECHNIQUE

    Need assessment Video preparation, Storytelling.
    Design for Urgent needs without forgetting Identity of place and culture of the community.

    STRENGTHS

    – Respond to Urgent needs of buildings with a long term use (it is not emergency or temporary projects).
    – Devloping strategies and solutions when a mass reversed migration occurs) Returning Refugees and IDPs).

  • IN-DETAIL

    AIMS

    The workshop explores material conjunctions between people, materials and meanings through the micro-scales of architecture.

    METHOD

    Observing and drawing architecture and urban space as it is shaped by micro stories, incidents and matter; the accidents of the site the flotsam of city tides, accruing artefacts of lived spaces, the disintegrating of solid matter.

    TECHNIQUE

    Students will create individual drawings and videos of micro spaces and merge them into thematic groups to create a collective story of places.

    STRENGTHS

    – Observing and drawing in detail
    – Touches on material issues, microhistories and anthropological issues
    – Individual and collective work
    – Creating new narratives of architecture

  • ACTING/ACTED BODIES IN THE ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN SPACES

    AIMS
    To explore the evolving body-space relationship in public and private through an architectural and urban experiential journey, imagining design improvements that integrate urban and architectural perspectives and examining how the blend of in-person and digitally mediated reflections shapes the experience of architectural spaces and urban actions.
    METHOD
    Students will be invited to carry out an architectural and urban journey involving their private and public space, mapping and highlighting the salient places of the body-space relationship and trying to imagine site-specific design improvements, questioning the in-presence/digital perspective of the experience of architectural space as well as urban-scale actions.
    TECHNIQUE
    Through in-first-person interactions and multilayered/multimodal descriptions and interpretations, the WS will raise participants’ awareness of the acting and acted body-space relationship and invite them to question the critical issues and possibilities for improving this relationship, maturing an attitude towards a creative approach to the everyday-life experience of the space.
    STRENGTHS

    Cross-cultural exchange.

    Analytical and synthetic introspection.

    Development of site-specific architectural and urban micro-projects through the application of critical thinking.

    Documenting an urban/architectural project and presenting it orally and visually.

  • FOLLIES ON THE WAY TO ECC27

    AIMS

    Interpreting Public Place and Local Heritage; designing 10 thematic small ephemeral architectural structures for the European Capital of Culture 2027 (Évora).

    METHOD

    Students will be paired with international colleagues, and form groups; each group to propose an architectural device to enable people (locals, visitors, etc.) to enjoy the path along an historic aqueduct, defining a path between Évora and the ECC27 headquarters.

    TECHNIQUE

    Raise awareness about the local heritage and contemporary culture: how it can be displayed to the public and enjoyed in the outdoors, on a route among the nature.

    STRENGTHS
    Intercultural exchange: cooperation between students with diverse backgrounds, when exposed to different architectural schools and learning methods.

  • DESIGNING at the minimum

    AIMS

    The aim of this workshop is primarily to spark students’ curiosity, foster critical thinking, and encourage collaboration in solving housing problems by leveraging the advantages of controversy mapping as both a methodological and conceptual tool.

    METHOD
    It proposes a process of research and collective creation, beginning with the observation of controversies, the documentation of evidence (testimonies, data, references), the identification of actors (human and no – human), and the representation of the relationships among them. This process culminates in the development of a housing prototype concept based on the findings.
    TECHNIQUE
    Mind maps and relational diagrams are used to make the controversies visible, along with prototyping exercises and graphic representations (panels, models, collages) that facilitate architectural exploration. Narratives and storyboards are also employed to clearly and creatively communicate ideas.
    STRENGTHS
    Stands out for its interdisciplinary approach, which enables a deeper understanding of the complexity of architectural projects. It promotes critical reflection through the observation and analysis of controversies, while also encouraging creativity and collaboration by integrating different perspectives and representation techniques to enrich the design process.

  • PARADISE

    AIMS

    By questioning our experience and relationship with libraries, by trying to understand their place in the life of an individual, as well as its societal role, as architects we might be able to envision their future.

    METHOD

    Individual research

    Group collation of ideas, concept and design development

    Group collation of ideas, concept and design development

    TECHNIQUE
    Students are encouraged to select and use methods of representation/media appropriate to the stage of the design process and their own project [refer to ideas introduced in previous workshops and own tried and tested methods of illustration]
    STRENTHS

    – Analytical introspection.

    – Critical thinking

    – Abstraction and conceptualisation.

    – Phenomenological approach.

    – Evocative, expressive, subject appropriate representation.

  • RADICAL ENCOUNTER

    AIMS

    Learning from the relationships between us and our urban environment students will conceive the program as an open framework, generating new radical scenarios in the city through architecture.

    The aim of this workshop is to build upon what has been explored in the previous workshops.

    METHOD

    SEMINARS: Reflecting on the architectural program

    and concept in architecture, understanding its relationship with the society, through talks with invited architects and artists.

    EXERCISES: Unpacking the urban fabric. Reading the city as an ecosystem, identifying, understanding, and communicating (exchanging) the spatial and social dimension and qualities of

    the communities (Human and non-human) around the globe.

    OUTPUT: Communicating the idea/strategy through the production of an online showcase in form of a public exhibition. Each student will produce 10 images + a text of 200 words.

    TECHNIQUE

    1. Montage technique (Reflecting).
    2. Story tale / max 200 words (Unpacking).
    3. Layered drawings / collage technique (Communicating).

    STRENGTHS

    – Develop architecture projects through design processes and conceptual work methods.

    – Document an architectural project and present it orally and visually.

    – Design a programme based on research and strategy.

     

  • THE SHUAR’S ASPIRATION FOR MODERN HOUSING

    AIMS

    The Shuar tribe, residing in the Amazon rainforest, has expressed a desire for “modern housing.” In response, the Ecuadorian government has launched an international competition, questioning what it means to be modern today.

    METHOD
    Participants are tasked with designing a home in accordance with the competition’s guidelines:
    https://www.habitatyvivienda.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Bases-de-concurso-para-vivienda-Shuar-y-Achuar-f.pdfInscriptions:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-9JydVkkIOaW8x-czR0v15j5llnCvEujR0wWJzyzfF-qfDw/viewform
    TECHNIQUE
    The project will involve groups of 3 students producing detailed design plans in the required formats outlined in the competition rules, as well as creating an explanatory video.
    STRENGTHS
    This initiative positions architecture as a unique opportunity to contribute to a sustainable and forward-looking future. Notably, the winning team will have the opportunity to construct the proposed housing in the Amazon.

  • RE-READING STORIES OF HOUSES

    AIMS

    We do believe that architecture is part of specific stories, of affections and dreams, of interpersonal projects, as well as a result of negotiation and the unexpected.

    The course is built around the series of articles, “Stories of Houses”:

    http://storiesofhouses.blogspot.com

    Since these dwellings were built during the 20th century, the meaning of the cultural concept that generated them has changed in our contemporary society. This will allow us to rethink their architecture and update through transformations, extensions, demolitions, etc.

     

    METHOD

    1. Select one story.
    2. Create a presentation video, explaining the criteria of your choice.
    3. Make a group of three students and create a photomontage extracting cultural element.
    4. Observe the evolution of the culture in the last 30 years.
    5. Add a new End to the Story.
    6. Draw an action/activity of this cultural evolution.
    7. Achieve architecture that fits the new action/activity.

     

    TECHNIQUE

    The final exercise is to create a Publication where the students are asked to document the process of working and to reflect on the results.

    http://www.actar.es/

     

    STRENGTHS

    Detect new social patterns and organization by linking production with consumption, acknowledging how the different articles are built up, from the primary material to the final product.

  • CHILD IN THE CITY

    AIMS

    Play is the highest expression of human development, not just for children but for adults as well.

    In a time when many people—both adults and children—are glued to their computers and mobile devices, rarely leaving their homes, urban and cultural problems arise, particularly affecting social cohesion. Urban designers and architects have a crucial responsibility to rethink the concept of the city in ways that draw people outside, offering experiences that home cannot. In this task, we challenge you to explore this concept from a child’s perspective, but not exclusively.

    Your task: Propose an idea, vision, and concept for a space.

    You can approach this from the perspective of:

    A child in the city.

    A parent who wants to spend time in an environment that is not just centred around children but also caters to adult interaction.

    An adult without children who still values being in a quality environment where families are present.

    Too often, play areas for children are limited to tacky play zones or fun fairs. We challenge you to think differently and develop a fresh vision. As a starting point, consider a place where a maximum of 15 children and 30 adults can spend time together and enjoy the experience.

    While you may deviate from this, the core task is to express your ideas about the city from the perspective of children and the adults who interact with them.

    https://www.froebel.org.uk

    https://www.childinthecity.org/
    METHOD

    Take a walk through your city and observe it from a child’s perspective. Document your observations through drawings or photographs. Talk to some parents you know about their experiences with the city from their child’s point of view, and document these interviews with sketches.

    Suggest interventions that could make the city a better place for children. (This could become the foundation for your next project.)

    Form a group of three students to discuss your findings and ideas. Together, design a vision for a place or concept that doesn’t currently exist in our culture but is needed—a space that would bring happiness to children, parents, and others.

    Suggestion: Many places designed for children are not particularly appealing to adults. Perhaps you could create a space where a parent can bring their child, meet another adult without children, and all three can enjoy the environment. This may be a challenge, but any ideas or contributions to this discussion on viewing the city from a child’s perspective are welcome.

    TECHNIQUE
    The final presentation is expected to take the form of a poster composed of sketches, drawings, annotations, and collages, presented in a horizontal format. Your design or architectural proposal should serve as a manifesto and contribute to the ongoing discussion about children in the city.
    STRENGTHS

    The aim of this exercise is to develop a key skill for architects: the ability to take on the role of an engaged citizen, ready to tackle tasks from diverse perspectives and generate new, stimulating concepts.

    A significant part of this workshop will involve learning about the creative process through rapid exercises designed to teach creative methods, tools, and frameworks for quickly developing concepts using unconventional approaches.

    These exercises will be explained by the tutor during short exercises during the workshop

  • RADICAL PRESENT

    AIMS

    This workshop is intended to confront the world we have received by making its paradoxes visible and revealing the absurdity of a discipline that continues to insist on defining itself from formal and stylistic aspects to deviate towards a factual, operational architecture that acts on the real… even if it does not build anything (especially not building anything).
    METHOD
    1. Research and reflect about architecture as a radical discipline.
    2. Select your topic and scale (from the XS of furniture to the XL of planetary urbanism), locate it in our (or other) planet and briefly present it to the rest of the students (in groups of 3-4).
    3. Compose a genealogy or bloodline of radical projects that anticipated yours.
    4. Write down a sequence of words to summarize your radical project (such as indiscipline, fear, game, utopia…etc)
    5. Design an action/activity, according to your radical proposal prior to the design of anything and present it to the rest of the students.
    6. Achieve and draw design, architecture or urbanism that fits the previous radical action/activity.

    TECHNIQUE

    The final exercise is to create a Drawing where the students are asked to put together their radical present proposal + a short Manifesto to reflect on the result.
    STRENGTHS
    Confront present social issues and conflicts by linking architecture and criticism acknowledging how the different layers are built up.

  • RUSILIENCE- COMMUTE

    AIMS

    Designing a resilient structural system for a bus terminal or a train station using available local materials (stones, timber… etc) inspired by biomimicry and learning from local environment and traditional architecture.

    The line from Yerkoy to Kayseri passes through many towns and it will have terminals for intercity buses and railway stations for high speed trains.

     

    METHOD

    1-Create groups of 3-4 students

    2- select one town

    3- select a train station or bus terminal

    4- analyse traditional structural systems and local materials

    5- analyze BIO life in your area

    6- Choose animal/ plant as a reference to imitate when designing the structural system

    7- design the structural system and its components to host the architectural spaces and functions

     

    TECHNIQUE

    4 minutes Video

    Story boards

    And the final presentation is maximum four portrait A2 posters and physical model of the structural system

     

    STRENGTHS
    Learning the concept of Biomimicry design in architecture, understanding how structural systems can define and lead architectural design, in rich rural heritage context preserving its Identity.

  • EMBODIED LANDSCAPES

    AIMS

    The workshop aims to explore the potential of emerging technologies to reconnect us with our world and it’s non-human inhabitants. Through this journey we will critically engage the place of new AI tools within this process.
    METHOD

    Interdisciplinary engagement (architecture & computing).

    – Make a film

    -Test AI tools

    -Group technologies exploration

    -Group intervention

    TECHNIQUE
    Critical design
    STRENGTHS

    Critically explore AI tools.

    Evolve a critical position.

    Test the design implications of that position through a design proposal (intervention).

  • THE CITY AS VISUALIZED MUSIC

    AIMS

    Every city is a unique piece of music. Its rhythm is reflected by the incidental cadence (pulsation, undulation) of the urban structures and structural elements; its pitch reverberated by the various hues of colours, while its melodic leitmotifs translate into the recurring urban visual patterns. In this workshop, students will try to capture the harmonies of the architecture around them and create the sheet music of their city.

    METHOD
    Students will use their camera in the exploration of their urban surroundings looking for unique visual rhythm, color harmonies and patterns (contrasts, contextual interrelations, and constellations) in the architectural environment (structures, facades, details, etc.) prepare their personal “musical” reading of the city through architectural photo series.
    TECHNIQUE
    The final outcome of the workshop is 3 unique, and carefully composed architecture photo series
    (8-12 photos each)
    STRENGTHS
    Developing a new perspective and understanding of the individual character of our urban environment. Learning to see and imagine.

  • BUILDING THE EMPTINESS

    AIMS

    This workshop is based on the belief that emptiness plays an essential role in all gestures and actions. It aims to explore how emptiness interacts with both constructed and natural spaces. The goal is to design a space for pilgrims of Santiago de Compostela in A Guarda, Spain, with a focus on using emptiness as a fundamental design strategy to shape the experience and understanding of the place and the pilgrim.
    METHOD
    The Students will work around the possibility of creating a space and its perception and imagining the place to built. Will select a location and develop a program for a space accommodating four pilgrims, including areas for reflection, interaction, sleeping, cleaning, and eating. This stage involves reflecting on the pilgrim experience and the role of emptiness in architecture.
    TECHNIQUE
    During the workshop, participants will explore techniques in spatial analysis, conceptual modelling, creation of new architectural narratives, development of visual documentation, and project presentation to apply the concept of emptiness in architecture. The final exercise involves creating a conceptual architectural model and presenting the project and process on A3 sheets, including floor plans, sections, elevations, references, a brief descriptive summary, and a poetic name for the space.
    STRENGTHS
    In this workshop, emptiness is not seen as a void or absence but as an active, generative force. Inspired by the sculptures of Eduardo Chillida and Jorge Oteiza, where emptiness plays a central role, participants will explore how emptiness can be used as a tool for experimentation in architecture, enhancing both the physical and spiritual qualities of a space.

  • CITY OF GHOSTS

    AIMS /

    The temporal, transient and ephemeral nature of human presence in the urban environment.

    (Arch. Photography Quest – Chapter 5)

    METHOD /

    Using their cameras, students will explore their urban environment searching for imprints of the transient human presence / absence and try to capture the contrasting character of these ‘haunting’ scenes.

    TECHNIQUE /

    Students will have the opportunity to develop their visual compositional and urban photography skills.

    STRENGTHS /

    Developing a new perspective and understanding of the individual character of our urban environment. Learning to see and imagine.

  • DEFINING & REDEFINING STREET SPACE

    AIMS / The function of the street space and the way it’s perceived depend on activity level of its users. Observation and analysis of the street in an urban, universal design and artistic key.

    Second edition.

    METHOD /

    1. analysis of:
    – the function of buildings – urban composition
    – user activity and movement – impressions

    2. project of selected space
    3. Street art way of communicating and presenting the project

    TECHNIQUE /

    19/04 pdf with observations, photos, videos and analysis sketches

    26/04 pdf with the final version design including swot and street art implementation.

    STRENGTHS / Training in perceptiveness and the sense of observing real situations in urban areas (in situ). A chance to draw a design directly in the urban fabric. A chance to discuss with street users.

     

    Reus School of Architecture. Ear (URV)

    Ferran Grau & Sílvia González & Pablo Roel & Arnau Tiñena & Juan M. Zaguirre
    ferran.grau@urv.cat

  • BUILDING THE EMPTINESS

    AIMS / Working from a context that reafirms the importance of emptiness in all gestures and actions, which constantly confront the constructed space and the natural space where we live our daily lives. And creating a New Narrative Through the spaces of Three iconic Houses.

    METHOD / Thinking and looking at emptiness as a design strategy that supports the construction of a place.

    a) Select and present a house during the workshop.

    b) Choose two additional houses from a list provided by instructors.

    c) Integrate spaces from the three chosen houses to create a new architectural design.

    d) Convey a fresh architectural spirit and narrative through the new design.

    e) Display, present the project within the workshop space.

    TECHNIQUE / Emptiness is a tool and method of experimentation that allows the identification of strategies that improve a physical place that humans can occupy spiritually.

    STRENGTHS / Development of the perception and need for the existence of emptiness using the creative process as a means of awareness. Like Eduardo Chillida and Jorge Oteiza ́s sculptures, emptiness is no longer an absence, but more as something present in the built space. We speak of active emptiness as an emptiness that generates and provides symbolic and identity spaces.

    ——————————————–

    Porto School of Architecture. Portugal

    Alberto Lage + Beatriz Freitas

    jlage@arq.up.pt

  • MASHRABIYA, Ma’ Malqaf Modernization

    AIMS / To understand traditional Architectural elements in Islamic world that are used to create environmentally comfortable and healthy buildings. To be able to design new elements inspired by traditional ones.

    METHOD / Groups of 2-3 persons will be established to: choose one element, create 2min analysis presentation video -Design a modern element for the assigned building (storyboard, shop drawings are preferred).

    TECHNIQUE / The importance of traditional and vernacular architectural heritage and its role in inspiring future design contextually compatible.

    STRENGTHS / Intercultural exchange and cooperation between different members with diverse backgrounds, expose to different architectural schools and learning methods.

  • URBAN MUSICAL DEVICE: Music pavilion

    AIMS / Interpreting Public Place and Local Heritage; designing a thematic (music) small ephemeral architectural structure for the Cultural Capital of Culture 2027.

    METHOD / Students will be paired with international colleagues: select an historic urban space in Évora and propose an urban device to enable people (locals, visitors, etc.) to enjoy music that place.

    TECHNIQUE / Raise awareness about the local heritage and music: how it can be displayed to the public and enjoyed in the outdoors.

    STRENGTHS / Intercultural exchange. and cooperation between different members with diverse backgrounds, expose to different architectural schools and learning methods.

  • MEDITERRANEAN URBAN SHELTERS. Alicante study case

    AIMS/ Year after year, climate change underline the lacks of the cities urban planning and the disconnection in between architecture and the urban fabric in terms of its insufficient adaption to the climate change demands. The aim of the exercise is to search and found, urban situations inAlicante where climate shelters would improve the urban context and the citizen life.

    METHOD / 

    SEMINARS: Understanding of the Alicante’s urban morphology in relation to the specific climatic conditions. (Seminar class  by Andrés Silanes and Paco Leiva (AeA professors, and partner of Subarquitectura and Grupo Aranea)

    EXERCISES: To design an urban shelter built with recycled or natural materials; and placed into the Alicante context. The construction has to integrate greenery and self sufficient water management system (collecting system and a container).

    OUTPUT:  Architectural – structural model, and retroactive construction plans

    TECHNIQUE / 
    1. Site shadows model
    2. Architectural / structural model
    3. Construction plans
    STRENGTHS /
    • Face the climatic change and urban issues through architectural design
    • Develop architecture projects through models construction and retroactive plans
    • Imagine a design unit as aport of a urban system

  • RADICAL ENCOUNTERS. The city as a laboratory

    AIMS / Learning from the relationships between us and our urban environment students will conceive the program as an open framework, generating new radical scenarios in the city through architecture.

    The aim of this workshop is to build upon what has been explored in the previous workshops.

    METHOD /

    SEMINARS: Reflecting on the architectural program
    and concept in architecture, understanding its relationship with the society, through talks with invited architects and artists. EXERCISES: Unpacking the urban fabric. Reading the city as an ecosystem, identifying, understanding, and communicating (exchanging) the spatial and social dimension and qualities of the communities (Human and non- human) around the globe. OUTPUT: Communicating the idea/strategy through the production of an online showcase in form of a public exhibition. Each student will produce 10 images + a text of 200 words.

    TECHNIQUE /

    1. Montage technique (Reflecting)

    2. Story tale / max 200 words (Unpacking)

    3. Layered drawings / collage technique / AI (Communicating)

    STRENGTHS /

    Take care of the approach to your study object, how do we prepare for a field visit?

    Look and describe the complex networks of agents that make urban life possible.

  • TABARCA: A PLANETARY INDIGESTION

    AIMS / When we think of islands like Tabarca, it is common to imagine yourself disconnecting in an idyllic independent paradise. But far from being a self-sufficient island, Tabarca is a place deeply dependent on an outside world that provides it with services, manages part of its waste or delivers its tourists. A dependency much more prominent than in other ecosystems that are common to us, such as cities. Far from presenting dependency as a problem, we propose to understand it and become obsessed with it. By understanding the metabolic relationships of Tabarca with its environment, it is possible to propose architectures that mediate its future. And while you’re at it, organize a nice trip with friends.

    METHOD /  On February 2 you will have to present in class (4 min max.) the design of a trip that, reaching Tabarca, connects it with another point on the peninsula. The activity will be carried out in groups of three people maximum. When designing your trip, consider that:

    – It should be done before February 8.

    – Each group must get obsessed over a very specific issue from a list. What is the network of agents of your object of study? How did it get to Tabarca? etc.

    – Pay attention and prepare your travel equipment carefully. What tools do you need? How many hours will you be in each place? Should you contact someone beforehand?

    On February 9, the record of that trip will be exhibited.

    TECHNIQUE /  

    February 2: Free format (My maps, vector cartography, PP Presentation, etc.).

    February 9: Photo album with footnotes and a cartography or timeline.

    STRENGTHS /  

    Take care of the approach to your study object, how do we prepare for a field visit?

    Look and describe the complex networks of agents that make urban life possible.

    SCHEDULE /

    02 Feb                Presentation

    09 Feb                Final Crit

    EVALUATION / Jury: UOU professors.

    Those are 12 questions to be answered by students

    1.-The WORKSHOP proposes that students begin to build a complete thought to tackle projects, to process, organize, view and display information so that “data collection” became proactive rather than an analytical tool.

    Have I been able to go beyond analysis procedure and convert the project into a proposition display?

    2.-Students must learn to self-reference and criticize their work and to draw conclusions. They have to process systems and models of architectural production, reformulating nonobvious descriptions, focusing his gaze on the invisible structures, not having preconceived ideas, producing unexpected findings, and non-discursive (arguments that are made but which does not follow anything immediately) reasoning.

    Have I used my own ways of expression reformulating descriptions and avoiding the obvious and the use of direct images of the project culture?

    3.-Student begins to explore architectural expression systems to formalize their projective ideas.

    How many ways of expression have I used at work and what is the value expressed by each of them?

    4.-We must learn to talk and discuss about architectural sustainability criteria, adding the concept of ecological niche project (mental territory, social, material, technical, medium-environmental, etc …).

    Have I addressed the theme of THE WORKSHOP responding to the proposal on the sustainability?

    5.-We are going to know how to work in-group to discover the roles in production systems.

    How much information data made in-group have I used to express my project?

    6.-The students must participate and contribute with their ideas to the class as an essential part of knowledge.

    What is the intensity used to express my ideas through the architectural expression ways? How much time do I need to make a drawing or a model to express my ideas?

    7.-The students must learn to establish a personal lexicon to express his architectural ideas.

    Have you expressed your ideas through a personal lexicon or have you imitated expression systems used by other designers seen in the media (magazines or Internet)

    8.-You need positively assess risk and innovation as a necessary condition of design. Innovation defined as the use of allied disciplines to develop intellectual and technical tools to create new realities, within their own reality, exceeding the established models.

    Do I use allied disciplines for innovative production?

    9.-The students must enter, step by step, work details the project culture, you must learn to interpret and criticize from their own proposal.

    How many data have you appropriated from the culture to express my project?

    10.-You should produce an open system work, with more questions than answers. The number of questions the student will be assessed is more than the number of certainties, you must use fuzzy logic, to support multiple possible truth-values, allowing multiple possible truth-values and strategies to create unpredictability.

    How many questions have you made throughout the design process and how many have you tried to answer?

    11.-Skills: Interest in the contribution, regardless of the attitude from which it was generated

    What is the interest considering my contribution to the WORKSHOP?

    12.-Attitudes: how to tackle the problem independent of the outcome

    Have I tried to solve with intellectual and material effort to present the proposal. The project has developed enough quality

    Alicante University (SPAIN) / Joaquín Alvado Bañón (joaquin.alvado@ua.es) + Javier Sánchez Merina (jsm@ua.es)

    +

    La Cuarta Piel (lacuartapiel.com)

  • DEFINING & REDEFINING STREET SPACE

    AIMS

    The function of the street space and the way it is perceived depend on the activity level of its users.
    Observation and analysis of the street in an urban, universal design and artistic key.

    METHOD

    1. Analysis of:

    – the function of buildings and transport; – the height of buildings and greenery;
    – user activity and movement;
    – impressions.

    2. Project of selected space.
    3. Street art show off.
    The way of communicating and presenting main conclusions from the research part or the whole project itself.

    TECHNIQUE

    Week one:

    Observation/photography/filming.

    Week two:

    Sketches/photomontage/visualization.
    The presentation of the most inspiring observed problems will be drawn
    in the city on the streets and sidewalks using chalk, charcoal or parts of brick.

    STRENGTHS

    A chance to use specific measurement methods. Opportunity to look for unusual forms of project presentation. Sensitivity to the diverse needs of users.
    Team work.

    ANALYSIS AND STREET DESIGN SHOULD BE PREPARED IN GROUPS.

    WE CHOOSE ONE STREET LOCATED IN THE CITY CENTER. IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THE MOST POPULAR STREET. IT SHOULD BE OBSERVED, MEASURED AND ANALYZED ACCORDING TO THE GUIDELINES.

    THE CONCLUSIONS OF THE FIRST WEEK’S WORK SHOULD FORM THE BASIS FOR A PROJECT TO TRANSFORM THE CHOSEN STREET.

    SCOPE OF WORK FOR THE 1st WEEK

    ANALYSIS OF THE FUNCTIONS OF BUILDINGS AND TRANSPORT

    The function of the buildings should be identified, e.g. single-family residential buildings – light brown and multi-family residential buildings – dark brown, services – red, services on the ground floors of residential buildings – brown with a red line, public utilities – orange. On this analysis also streets should be divided according to traffic intensity. The less traffic, the lighter the gray color, e.g. streets with low traffic intensity, medium traffic intensity and high car traffic intensity. Parking spaces should also be marked on the analysis – blue hatching. Photos of the most important services should be included in the analysis.

    ANALYSIS OF THE HEIGHT OF BUILDINGS AND GREENERY

    Buildings should be divided into height groups, e.g. buildings up to 2 storeys, up to 4 storeys and up to 6 storeys, The lower the building groups, the lighter the gray color. On this analysis also greenery should be divided into e.g. private greenery – light green (around single-family houses), semi-private – dark green (around multi-family buildings) and public greenery – very dark green (parks, squares). Photos of the most characteristic buildings and green spaces should be included in the analysis.

    IMPRESSION CURVE FOR TWO FRONTAGES OF THE STREET

    The analysis should be presented on a chart, with individual objects on the x-axis and a 1-10 scale on the y-axis, where 1 means the lowest rating and 10 means the highest rating;

    – analysis of the aesthetic values of buildings; – analysis of the attractiveness of the function; – analysis of people’s activity.

    ANALYSIS OF STATIONARY AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES OF STREET USERS

    This analysis involves observing where the greatest concentrations of human activity occur on the street. These behaviors must be stationary or social and last longer than 15 seconds. Stationary activities include, for example, sitting, standing, eating, drinking, smoking, reading a book, listening to music in a place or looking at shop windows. Social behaviors include, for example, talking with friends, but also with strangers, standing on the street or sitting at a restaurant table or on a city bench, making contact with a person handing out leaflets, collecting signatures for a petition, a street vendor, but also children playing or observing and commenting on street performances. However, the map does not include dynamic activities related to movement, nor does it take into account people waiting at public transport stops. Observations should be made along the entire length of the street, three times for 15 minutes in places ensuring good visibility of a given part of the street, at different times of the day. Each dot in the diagram corresponds to 1 person. The collected results are presented together on a map. The observed stationary activities and social behaviors indicate which places on the examined street attract people and make them stay in a given space for longer. The photos documenting selected activities should be included in the analysis.

    ANALYSIS OF THE INTENSITY OF CAR, PEDESTRIAN AND CYCLIST TRAFFIC

    In order to obtain this information, measurements should be taken three times in two locations approximately every 100-200 m apart, at different times of the day. This intensity is measured per minute on a strip of the space in which pedestrians, cyclists and cars move. The table should include unit measurements and the average value of the measurements taken. To perform this analysis, three videos should be recorded from each location at different times of the day. Videos can be sent on the Teams platform along with the entire project.

  • RUSIELIENCE- RUral reSIELINCE

    Rusilience, is a workshop aims to achieve RUral ReSIELINCE, through developing traditional rural housing by locally feasible structural/construction systems.
    CONTENT / Climate change resisting strategies and rapid transformation in developing countries focus on designing systems which modernize cities and make their structures resilient in the face of natural disasters.
    Unfortunately, the process neglects rural areas in countries as Turkiye, which results in the abandon of rural areas and immigration to big cities and urban centers. In central Anatolia, and around the capital Ankara, a seismic prone area, the plans seeks either to transform the villages into concrete high-rise buildings, or (hobby gardens) with type of container slum housing.
    The workshop seeks to use traditional rural structural systems and/or construction methods as a reference to develop a modern, cost efficient, and easy to build structural system for rural housing to help enhancing the resilience of these rural areas, protecting its traditions, and encouraging people to stay in their villages
    AIMS / Designing a resilient structural system for a small rural house using available local materials and learning from rural traditional architecture.
    Bala is a village 60 km south east Ankara, we will choose a local traditional structural system, and think how to develop it to become more resilient and compatible with modern context and needs.
    – Analyzing traditional rural structural system.
    – Understanding rural resilience
    – Introduce yourself to the class.
    – Defining your working group.
    – Work as a team in different contexts.
    METHOD /
    1st working day: Introduce your rural context and the chosen traditional
    structural/construction system in a 4min video analyzing risks with the strengths and
    weaknesses.
    Group work according to your common interests. Define possibilities of system
    enhancement to suggest more resilient system, a story board (free technique).
    2nd day: Final crit. Design the new structural system/ or draw the details of the
    modifications on the traditional rural system you have analyzed.
    SCHEDULE / 2-Week Workshop. Weekly 4-hour class arranged with the students:
    Introduction / 17 Nov. 2023.
    Video + Story board / 24 Nov 2023.
    Final Crit / 01 DEC 2023.
    EVALUATION / The design should respond to the following requirements:
    Did it enhance the preparedness to resist hazards?
    Is it easier or more difficult to construct??
    Does it require special technologies and instruments??
    How it affects the cost of construction???
    Is the technology and materials available in the site??
    Who can build it?? Specialists, contractors or locals with the help of the
    community???
    Does it enable future expansion??
    Bibliography / -VerSus Project: Heritage for Tomorrow, Vernacular Knowledge for Sustainable
    Architecture.
    -Resilient Structures and Infrastructure (Ehsan Noroozinejad Farsangi)
    -Rural resilience as a new development concept(Wim J.M. Heijman)

  • BUILD THE EMPTINESS

    METHOD / Students will work around the possibility of creating a space and its perception and imagining the place to built.

    TECHNIQUE / Collages, sketches, drawings, photo, physical model, CAD drawings, tools that allows the construction SILENCE, TRUTH AND POETRY.

    AIMS / Working from a context that reaffirms the importance of emptiness, which constantly confront the constructed space and the natural space.

    STRENGTHS / Development of the perception and need for the existence of emptiness using the creative process as a means of awareness. Like Eduardo Chillida and Jorge Oteiza´s sculptures, emptiness is no longer an absence, but more as something present in the built space. We speak of active emptiness as an emptiness that generates and provides symbolic and identity spaces.

  • RADICAL HOUSING

    CONTENT / Radical comes from the latin radix, -īcis, and means root which, as for the Oxford Dictionary, stands for the origin or basis of something. Therefore, a RADICAL HOUSE should be somehow connected to the original meaning of what a house is but…. what is a house? What are its main characteristics and ingredients?

    We may not talk about it, but architecture (and architects, its most prominent agents) is always about imagining houses but most of the times the inner understanding of it is concealed within routine and unconsciousness.

    In this workshop we’ll focus on radical houses-seekers (or radical architects) that pushed the possibility of imagining a house with extreme ideas. From the single mind of Ledoux to the proposals of Raymund Abraham, Ant Farm, Street Farmers, Archigram, Archizoom, Coop Himmelblau, Haus Rucker Co, Hans Hollein, Pettena, Walter Pichler, Raggi, Saint Florian, Superstudio, UFO and Ugo La Pietra our goal will be to learn about radical houses to criticize them and to finally create one of our own.

    This course is as a way to understand that within the clear taxonomy of houses the radical ones have their own qualities and expectations. From there, each group of students will imagine one Radical House (verbally first, graphically at the end) and explain it to the rest of the class.

    Our workshop takes this radical projects as an inspiration to imagine new houses in order to extend the radical family. In this workshop we must push our limits and believe that utopia is still possible (please, do not forget that, for starters, the concept of a house must be critized).

    AIMS / To study, think about the idea of a radical house and to imagine a contemporary one. To address the experience of radicality, to conceal life maybe between walls, to draw…. To dismiss scale to start with a project. To generate a world map or radical houses that may coexist. To explain your ideas to the rest of the group. To design floor plans, elevations, cross sections and a render (the most efficient way to understand architecture) of your Radical Houses.

    METHOD + SCHEDULE / Radical knowledge and imagination as a tool. To imagine, agree and design your own Radical House.

    1st day / Presentation (27th Oct, 12:30CET) 20 minutes + homework: Introduction of the course by the professor, student’s questions and comments about the workshop and homework details.

    2nd day / Crit (03rd Nov, 09:30CET) 4 hours: Short lecture by the professor + Group work to start the design of your Radical House. Submission 01: First sketches and 100 words brief of the project (free technique).

    3rd day / Crit (10th Nov, 09:30CET) 4 hours: Feedback of submission 01 (before the class). Group work to complete the design of your Radical House. Submission 02: Floor plans, elevations, cross sections and a render of the project (free technique and scale).

    4th day / FESTIVAL (17th Nov, 9:30CET) 3,5 hours: exhibition in the city. EVALUATION AND EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES/ After these two weeks workshop the student

    will be able to:

     Understandradicalarchitecturemainconcernsandtools

     Developarchitecturalcriticismbyanalysingradicalarchitecture

     Developradicalarchitectureprojectsthroughradicaldesignprocessesandconceptual work methods

     Composearadicalarchitecturalprojectandpresentitorallyandvisuallytotheclass.  Design radical floor plans, elevations, cross sections and a render of a Radical House.

    Bibliography and Basic References:

    1. Radical Architecture: Radical Architecture | MoMA and How the 1960s and 1970s inspired radical architecture | CNN

    2. Exodus: Exodus, or the voluntary prisoners of architecture. – SOCKS (socks-studio.com)

     

    Universidad Europea de Madrid (SPAIN)

  • ONEIROPHRENIA

    A tribute to Mickael Sorkin

    CONTENT / We are convinced that the city has a role to play in the ecological transition we are experiencing. It seems essential to see the city as an ecological system that needs resources to be able to function, give us the opportunity to Live and Circulate but also that rejects waste.
    In addition, we take the measure of the role of the private car in the urban sprawl, the artificialization of soils, the sectorization (offices, commercial areas, residential areas, …) of our cities. Even more so its impact on the reduction of social ties in neighborhoods.

    “A study conducted in San Francisco compared streets in different neighborhoods to assess the impact of car traffic on the sense of belonging to a local community. The movements of individuals from one house to another in busy streets and quiet streets were recorded in different neighborhoods. The data collected reveals the shocking but predictable reality: the level of social interaction between neighbours on a given street, the feeling of belonging to a community on that street, are inversely proportional to the amount of cars that use it. This study denounces car traffic as a fundamental cause of the alienation of the city dweller, a key phenomenon in the decline of the notion of citizenship.”

    Richard Rogers, Cities for a Small Planet, Published by Faber and Faber, London, 1997.

     

    As a tribute to Mickael Sorkin, we propose to you to choose a part of a city, a neighborhood with a couple of streets where man can drive and to plant a tree in a crossroad, that is to say to replace driving by walking. What should be the consequences? On the way of life in that neighborhood?

    Intervention of Mickael SORKIN in the streets of New York

    AIMS /

    • –  To be able to observe, to read one site,
    • –  To be able to present one site with our sensibility,
    • –  To design a master plan with the theme of nature in the city / decline of car
    • –  To interview inhabitants of the street on which you plan to change the mode of traffic (no more cars but walking)

    METHOD /

    1st working day: The process consists of preparing a photo-drawings report of the site that you have chosen and explain why it could be interesting to plant a tree in a street.
    Produce a 3min video / interviews of inhabitants.

    2nd day: Final crit. Design a master plan and draw photo montages of the atmosphere of the life there.

     

    SCHEDULE /

    3-Week Workshop. Weekly 4-hour class arranged with the students:

    – Introduction / Friday 6th of OCTOBER 2023

    • 12h30 – 13h00 (CET) / 14h30 – 15h00 (RUN)

     

    – Crit / Friday 13th of OCTOBER 2023

    • 9h30 – 13h30 (CET) / 11h30 – 15h30 (RUN)
    • Presentation of choice of the site / photos report / questions for the interview of inhabitants / video.

     

    – Final Crit / Friday 20th of OCTOBER 2023

    • 9h00 – 13h00 (CET) / 11h00 – 15h00 (RUN)
    • Master plan design with our first idea to plant a tree in a crossroad and taking into account the opinions of residents.

     

    – FESTIVAL / Friday 27th of OCTOBER 2023

    EVALUATION /

    –  This topic is about to “read” the site chosen ad how to account of our reading. Be able to “read” the site. What is the best way to explain this data or the other? What are the characteristics of the site that I will use in the project?

    –  It is question to change our way to live in a neighborhood.

    –  More than this the question is to begin thinking about YOUR IDEA OF THE CITY.

    –  Which city do you want to plan?

    –  What do you really find important and needed to renew our cities?

    References /

    –  https://www.floornature.eu/adieu-laarchitecte-et-urbaniste-michael-sorkin- 15374/?_gl=1*1c0zjdn*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTk3NDcxNjMzMi4xNjk2MDcxMDg5*_ga_2Z26GF WJ1G*MTY5NjA3MTA4OC4xLjAuMTY5NjA3MTA4OC4wLjAuMA..

    •  Richard Rogers, Cities for a Small Planet, Published by Faber and Faber, London, 1997.

  • INTERWEAVINGS

    CONTENT /  We are situated within complex interweavings of event; environmental, human, non-human, digital.  Our urban spaces are complex relational realms in a constant state of becoming; a thick space of overlapping narratives set in both physical form and mercurial digital form. Ambitions for the evolution of the metaverse, avatars, and the expansion of our lives further into the digital through online worlds, can start to portray a retreat from physical reality. Such an apparent escape to digital realms might draw forth dystopian visions of environmental catastrophes aggravated by further separation from the physical world. As David Attenborough wrote “No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced.” With the latest research stating one in six species in the UK are at risk of extinction there is little need for argument that action is needed. Might we harness this thicker understanding of space to further our connection to the other creatures with whom we share the planet? Might engaging the interwoven digital layers within the spaces we inhabit enable us to draw other lives further into our realm of daily experience? Might this enable the evolution of a knowing entanglement that acts to enhance all of our futures?

    Expanded and augmented realities might enhance our engagement with the world we inhabit, extending our senses and strengthening our understanding. This might offer entry into others’ worlds, to hear ultrasonic communication of bat’s, to see magnetic fields alongside birds; to begin to see beyond our anthropocentric perception. Our spaces might become able to hold their histories more tightly, with the ghosts of lost occupations drawn back into a digitally augmented being.

    Might the digital begin to expand rather than contract the physical? Might it act to enhance embodiment, extending our senses and furthering the limits of our temporal engagement with place? By embracing this thicker understanding of space might we begin to evolve liminal interventions that augment and extend our experience of physical reality? In our workshop we will explore how the design of our architectures and cities might critically engage with these spatial interweavings, to begin to redefine our modes of engagement with our non-human companions through the spaces we dare to imagine.

    AIMS / The aim of our workshop is to begin to explore the potential of a thicker understanding of space to further our connection with other creatures. We will begin to explore technologies that move between the physical and the digital to construct speculative concepts for augmented reality projects as potential frameworks of engagement.

    METHOD / We will be working within the digital extension of space we will be contemplating as we come together through digital platforms, with our voices echoing around rooms we have never entered.  Working in small groups our process will engage emerging AI image generation tools, trialling their use as a critical tool. We will begin with evolving 1 minute films, develop experimental work which will be summarised within story boards leading to speculative proposals for proto architectures that extend our experience to encompass a deeper understanding of our non-human companions.

    SCHEDULE / 2-Week Workshop. Weekly 4-hour class arranged with the students:

    Introduction / 6th October

    Workshop / 13th October:  including talks: Interweavings: Sarah Stevens, and AI: Marcus Winter

    Final Review / 20th October

    EVALUATION / Develop these actions:

    – Engage critically with the digital realm that augments our day to day lives.

    – Evolve a clear critical position from which to evolve design proposals.

    – Explore AI image generation as a critical tool.

    – Uncover cultural implications.

    – Develop a speculative augmented reality proposal which begins to explore the potential of this new space to extend our experience into non-human worlds.

    Bibliography /

    Liam Young: https://liamyoung.org/projects/seoul-city-machine

    Anicka Yi: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/hyundai-commission-anicka-yi

    Google AI, Whalesong: https://www.blog.google/technology/ai/tale-whale-song/

    Pierre Huyghe: https://www.kistefosmuseum.com/news/pierre-huyghe-is-the-artist-of-the-year-2022

    https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/pierre-huyghe-uumwelt/

    Sarah Tze: https://www.sarahsze.com

    Sol Ey, Sonic Storm: https://sol-ey.com/sonic-storm/

    MIT senseable city Lab: https://senseable.mit.edu

    Sandipan Nath: https://www.behance.net/gallery/107173861/Interference-53N42E-v20

    Ocean Bloom: https://v2.nl/archive/works/ocean-bloom

    BTO Cuckoo Tracking Project: https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/cuckoo-tracking-project/about-project/international-projects

    Beyond Human Scale: https://www.archdaily.com/949912/beyond-human-scale-designing-for-ecosystems-migration-and-machines

    Situated technologies: http://www.situatedtechnologies.net

    Accessing habitats remotely: https://architecturetoday.co.uk/steve-mcintyre-and-ashley-welch/

    Watershed: https://www.watershed.co.uk/studio/projects

  • BIOTOPES

    A biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants and animals.

     

    The proposal is to redesign a network of Biotopes in Tabarca to project a future for the Island. The improvement of the biotopes through the project, as a network of connections, must effectively produce architecture for future conditions. We will project to find the most effective strategies to think the future as regenerative uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants, humans and animals.

    Along the project, we will focus in three main topics to connect the different areas of the Island.

    1. Water
    2. Construction management (recycling)
    3. Non_Human agents and the countryside.

    We propose a rural area geographically isolated, located outside towns and cities. Tabarca has a low population density and small settlements. Tabarca is an island that connects the three main topics.

    1. Water. The climate change is going to produce a change of the limits and relations between see and land. Drawing the maps of this future will be a knowledge of the ongoing landscapes.
    2. Construction management (recycling). An historic place with a profound sense of reusing the construction buildings and walls. A fishermen and rural area settlement transform into a touristic attraction.
    3. Non_Human agents. A landscaping marvellous space, full of species and with an interesting relation between diverse organisms live on the countryside and water.

    CONTENT / This year again we start making emphasis on the many changes that are shaking the architecture profession. More specifically, this time the introduction of non-human conditions in the process of design is needed to preserve the theory of the Earth as an organism – see Gaia hypothesis.

    In this semester, our course has students from more than twenty different nationalities. This is a strength of our learning, and we want to proceed with that singularity:

    Every student needs to study and measure a biotope from Tabarca. A piece of landscape to understand the environment and the rules of the relations between plants and animals, including people.

    AIMS / Our aim is to be capable of measuring an activity in a specific landscape and improve the environment. To do it we will have to design our measuring tools.

    After identifying a local biotope in Tabarca, we will work with the measurements and descriptions of the place to redesign the site.

    –        Find opportunities in our environments to develop a project.

    –        Introduce yourself to the class.

    –        Get to know the rest of the future members of your working group.

    –        Learn how to contribute to group work.

    METHOD /

    1st working week: Introduce your biotope presenting a 3min video with the values of your singular environment and the project you propose for the site.

    After the presentation, group work according to your common interests. Connect the activities of your biotopes in a story board (free technique).

    2nd week: Design your instruments of measuring aspects of live in your group selected biotope and improve the site with your project.

    3nd week: Final crit. Presentation of the model in the city.

    SCHEDULE / 3-Week Workshop. Weekly 4-hour class arranged with the students:

    Introduction / 15 September 2023.

    First Crit: Video + Storyboard / 22 Sept. 2023.

    Class workshop / Model / 29 Sept. 2023.

    Festival: Tabarca / 6 Oct. 2023.

     

    SELF_EVALUATION / Develop the answers to 5 questions from these 12:

     

    1. The WORKSHOP proposes that students begin to build a complete thought to tackle projects, to process, organize, view and display information so that “data collection” became proactive rather than an analytical tool. Have I been able to go beyond analysis procedure and convert the project into a proposition display?
    2. The students have to learn to criticize their work and to draw conclusions. They have to process systems and models of architectural production, reformulating nonobvious descriptions, focusing their gaze on the invisible structures, not having preconceived ideas, producing unexpected findings, and non-discursive reasoning. Have I used my own ways of expression reformulating descriptions and avoiding the obvious and the use of direct images of the project culture?
    3. The student begins to explore architectural expression systems to formalize their projective ideas. How many ways of expression have I used at work and what is the value expressed by each of them?
    4. We have to learn to talk and discuss about architectural sustainability criteria, adding the concept of ecological niche project (mental territory, social, material, technical, medium-environmental, etc). Have I addressed the theme of THE WORKSHOP responding to the proposal on the sustainability?
    5. We are going to know how to work in-group to discover the roles in production systems. How much information data made in-group have I used to express my project?
    6. The students must participate and contribute with their ideas to the class as an essential part of knowledge. What is the intensity used to express my ideas through the architectural expression ways?
    7. The students must learn to establish a personal lexicon to express his architectural ideas. Have you expressed your ideas through a personal lexicon, or have you imitated expression systems used by other designers seen in the media (magazines or Internet)?
    8. You need positively assess risk and innovation as a necessary condition of design. Innovation defined as the use of allied disciplines to develop intellectual and technical tools to create new realities, within their own reality, exceeding the established models. Do I use allied disciplines for innovative production?
    9. The students must enter, step by step, work details the project culture, you must learn to interpret and criticize from their own proposal. How many data have you appropriated from the culture to express my project?
    10. You should produce an open system work, with more questions than answers. How many questions have you made throughout the design process and how many have you tried to answer?
    11. Skills: Interest in the contribution, regardless of the attitude from which it was generated. What is the interest of my contribution?
    12. Attitudes: how to tackle the problem independent of the outcome. Have I solved with intellectual and material effort to present the proposal?

     

    Bibliography / The work by Neri Oxman, Thomas Thwaites and Philippe Rahm

  • A.I.DENTITY

    METHOD

    The course will help identifying and visualizing the distinct characteristic architectural traits in an urban environment, understanding what makes our context individual.

     

    TECHNIQUE

    Using their cameras, students will explore their urban environment for recurring unique patterns. Then, using their findings, students will synthesize an imaginary signature collage of their city with the aid of Artificial Intelligence.

     

    AIMS

    Students will develop their visual compositional and urban photography skills and will have a chance to use A.I. to create thoughtfully composed graphical imaginary visions.

     

    STRENGTHS

    Developing a new perspective and understanding of the individual character of our urban environment. Learning to see and imagine.

     

    PROF / UNIV

    Szabolcs Portschy

    –

    Budapest University of Technology and Economics

    Fridays

    09.00-13.00 CET

  • ARCHITECTURE, CREATIVITY AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE DAWN OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

    METHOD

    Future of architecture and urbanism will be greatly influenced by AI, but first, we need to know what kind of tools will be available and how to use them.

     

    TECHNIQUE

    – Searching for the tools, apps, protocols…

    – Analyses of what is about to happen, short essay.

    – Using the tools for rapid prototyping in development project– document + images / or video.

     

    AIMS

    Learning, how to navigate in the world of rapid technology development, globalisation, hyper communication, and over-flow of information.

     

    STRENGTHS

    Looking for the new tools and protocols and using them to achieve better results in architecture, urbanism and real estate development.

     

    PROF / UNIV

    Sinan MIHELČIČ

    –

    Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Fridays

    09.00-13.00 CET

     

  • TREES ARCHITECTURE FOR MOVABLE CITIES

    METHOD

    The course will explore the immaterial meaning of trees for moveable future scenarios in cities.

    Trees are used as metaphors and tools to explore cities’ contexts according to new utopia creativity.

     

    TECHNIQUE

    We explore our ideas using hand drawings, digital drawings, and other media.

     

    AIMS

    Imagining different and unexpected methodologies of communication

     

    STRENGTHS

    Escaping from comfort well-known zone. Students are required to explore deep creative processes of imagination.

     

    PROF / UNIV

    Valerio Morabito

    –

    Universitá Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria

    Fridays

    09.00-13.00 CET

     

  • NEW VISION OF PERFECT PLACE TO GIVE A BIRTH

    METHOD

    Students create an idealistic vision of place which do not exist: ‘New Vision Of Perfect Place to Give A Birth’ and spend time before and after. Opposite of conventional – hospital which are focused on doctors, machines, and medication.

    Forget about it!

     

    TECHNIQUE

    First week: the aim to produce series of sketchy ideas. To learn theory about various methods of creating many ideas and overcoming design blocks.

    Second week individual design. The workshop is possibility to enter the competition and exhibition and research which will be organised at the University of Lincoln.

     

    AIMS

    Students have opportunity to participate in lectures and meetings with experts in product design and design of medical facilities but also theory of creativity. The aim is not to design classical birth centre but to overcome all design blocs and learn about creative design methods.

     

    STRENGTHS

    1) Access to important but not well publicised knowledge about natural & positive birth.

    2) Developing skills on fast and experimental (enjoyable) design techniques e.g. pattern based force based and concept based.

    TEACHING DAY AND HOURS

    Mon-Thursday

    online lectures

    Fridays 10:30-14:30 CET

    Seminars (Flexible time if needed lectures could be pre-recorded)

     

    PROF / UNIV

    Marcin Mateusz Kolakowski

    &

    Franka Jagielak

    –

    University of Lincoln (UK)

    &

    Pedagogical University Cracow (Poland)

     

  • 3M: MASHRABIYA, MA’ MALQAF

    METHOD

    To understand traditional Architectural elements used in creating environmentally comfortable and healthy buildings. To be able to design new elements inspired by traditional ones

     

    TECHNIQUE

    -A model of the designed element.

    -A story board (shop drawings are recommended)

    -2min analysis presentation video.

     

    AIMS

    The importance of traditional and vernacular architectural heritage and its role in inspiring future design contextually compatible.

     

    STRENGTHS

    Intercultural exchange. and cooperation between different members with diverse backgrounds, expose to different architectural schools and learning methods.

    TEACHING DAY AND HOURS

    Fridays

    09.00-13.00 CET

     

    PROF / UNIV

    Salah HAJISMAIL

    –

    Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, Turkiye

     

  • EPHEMERAL ARCHITECTURE: URBAN FOLLIES

    METHOD

    Interpreting Public Place and Local Heritage; designing small ephemeral architectural structure for the Cultural Capital of Culture 2027

     

    TECHNIQUE

    Students will be paired with international colleagues: select an historic urban space in Évora and propose an urban device to enable people (locals, visitors, etc.) to enjoy that place.

     

    AIMS

    Raise awareness about the local heritage and how it can be displayed to the public in the outdoors.

     

    STRENGTHS

    “Bringing international students to Évora” and exchange knowledge about architectural heritage, as space and place.

    TEACHING DAY AND HOURS

    Tutorials|Lectures available on

    Tuesdays + Thursdays

    16:00-18:00 CET

    Crits

    Fridays

    09.00-13.00 CET

     

    PROF / UNIV

    Sofia Aleixo

    &

    João Santa Rita

    _

    Évora University, Portugal

     

  • SITE WORKS: THINKING THROUGH DRAWING

    METHOD

    Evolving the site drawing as a tool to think through.

    TECHNIQUE

    Evolving drawing techniques using your choice of medium in relation to site interests and project concerns.

    AIMS

    To explore the capacity of drawing as a means of extending cognition.

    STRENGTHS

    Evolving tools to investigate a site.

    TEACHING DAY AND HOURS

    Fridays

    09.00-13.00 CET

    PROF / UNIV

    Charlotte Erckrath

    &
    Sarah Stevens

    –

    Bergen School of Architecture + University of Brighton

     

  • BIOTOPES v2 COMPETITION

    A biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants and animals.

    Last semester we did a workshop related to biotopes. This year we will start with this information and we will revise the concept of Biotope using the work developed by the students as a task.

    CONTENT / This year again we start making emphasis on the many changes that are shaking the architecture profession. More specifically, this time the introduction of non-human conditions in the process of design is needed to preserve the theory of the Earth as an organism – see Gaia hypothesis.

    In this second semester, our course has students from more than twenty different nationalities. This is a strength of our learning, and we want to proceed with that singularity:

    Every student needs to study and measure a biotope from her/his country, city, or town. A piece of landscape to understand the environment and the rules of the relations between plants and animals, including people.

    AIMS / Our aim is to be capable of measuring an activity in a specific landscape and to do it we will have to design our measuring tools.

    After identifying a local biotope, we will work with the measurements and descriptions of the place.

    • Find opportunities in our environments to start with a project.
    • Introduce yourself to the class.
    • Get to know the rest of the future members of your working group.
    • Learn how to contribute to group work.

    METHOD /

    1st working week: Introduce your biotope presenting a 3min video with the values of your singular environment. For that purpose, you have to revise the work developed by the students in the first semester.

    Group work according to your common interests. Connect the activities of your biotopes in a story board (free technique).

    2nd week: Final crit. Design your instruments of measuring aspects of live in your group selected biotope.

    SCHEDULE / 2-Week Workshop. Weekly 8-hour class arranged with the students:

    Introduction / 5 April 2023.

    Video + Storyboard / 17 April 2023.

    Final Crit / 21 April 2023.

     

    EVALUATION / Develop the answers to 3 questions from these 12:

    1. The WORKSHOP proposes that students begin to build a complete thought to tackle projects, to process, organize, view and display information so that “data collection” became proactive rather than an analytical tool. Have I been able to go beyond analysis procedure and convert the project into a proposition display?
    1. The students have to learn to criticize their work and to draw conclusions. They have to process systems and models of architectural production, reformulating nonobvious descriptions, focusing their gaze on the invisible structures, not having preconceived ideas, producing unexpected findings, and non-discursive reasoning. Have I used my own ways of expression reformulating descriptions and avoiding the obvious and the use of direct images of the project culture?

     

    1. The student begins to explore architectural expression systems to formalize their projective ideas. How many ways of expression have I used at work and what is the value expressed by each of them?
    1. We have to learn to talk and discuss about architectural sustainability criteria, adding the concept of ecological niche project (mental territory, social, material, technical, medium-environmental, etc). Have I addressed the theme of THE WORKSHOP responding to the proposal on the sustainability?
    1. We are going to know how to work in-group to discover the roles in production systems. How much information data made in-group have I used to express my project?
    1. The students must participate and contribute with their ideas to the class as an essential part of knowledge. What is the intensity used to express my ideas through the architectural expression ways?
    1. The students must learn to establish a personal lexicon to express his architectural ideas. Have you expressed your ideas through a personal lexicon, or have you imitated expression systems used by other designers seen in the media (magazines or Internet)?
    1. You need positively assess risk and innovation as a necessary condition of design. Innovation defined as the use of allied disciplines to develop intellectual and technical tools to create new realities, within their own reality, exceeding the established models. Do I use allied disciplines for innovative production?
    1. The students must enter, step by step, work details the project culture, you must learn to interpret and criticize from their own proposal. How many data have you appropriated from the culture to express my project?
    1. You should produce an open system work, with more questions than answers. How many questions have you made throughout the design process and how many have you tried to answer?
    1. Skills: Interest in the contribution, regardless of the attitude from which it was generated. What is the interest of my contribution?
    1. Attitudes: how to tackle the problem independent of the outcome. Have I solved with intellectual and material effort to present the proposal?

     

    Bibliography / The work by Thomas Thwaites and Philippe Rahm

    Alicante University (SPAIN) /

    Joaquín Alvado Bañón (joaquin.alvado@ua.es) + Javier Sánchez Merina (jsm@ua.es)

     

  • VENICE IN THE METAVERSO v2

    CONTENT / what it is relevant on Architecture nowadays is talking about SUSTAINABILITY AND DIGITALIZATION. Last year we designed in the Metaverso in Venice to create new environments, relations and horizons.

    The proposal for the workshop is to create a sustainable space with agents and objects in order to redesign the project developed last year inside the “METAVERSO”. The design was a scenario for a video game in VENICE.

    As a third attempt for this workshop, using the video developed by the students last year, we are going to create a new horizon with LINES, AGENTS AND OBJECTS, and, going beyond, to design it into the “METAVERSO”. For this purpose, we will work together with one digital platform.

    AIMS / to understand the presence of the SUSTAINABLE AND DIGITAL SPACES in our projects.

    To relate drawings, physical models and video as a way to produce an architecture DIGITAL project.

    METHOD / The students will use the drawing to create A SUSTAINABLE SPACE USING the video design by students AS A TASK. We will draw lines, agents and objects, and model them to create a space as a sustainable scenario to improve that video.

    Finding opportunities of Multimedia Dawing_Model_Video relationships to start with a digital project.

    Part 1: Draw. Individual Work. Picture frame

    Select one scenario of the video in Venice and redraw the lines, agents and objects that constitute the sustainability of the space.

    BIBLIOGRAPHY / “Power of ten”. Charles and Ray Eames:

    Part 2: Model. Group Work. Story Board

    Transform the individual work into a three-dimensional object.

    BIBLIOGRAPHY / “Cloud Cities and Solar balloon travel”. Tomas Sarraceno:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61fybvkZiDE

    Part 3: Video. Class Work.

    Work all together to design the project as a new scenario for the video into the “METAVERSO” with all your ideas.

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    “Let me tell you about my boat.” – The Life Aquatic. Wes Anderson

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1RnYfFZK2k

     

    SCHEDULE /

    31 Jan                Presentation

    03 Feb                Part 1

    10 Feb                Part 2

    17 Feb                Part 3

     

    EVALUATION / Jury: UOU professors.

    Those are 12 questions to be answered by students

    1.-The WORKSHOP proposes that students begin to build a complete thought to tackle projects, to process, organize, view and display information so that “data collection” became proactive rather than an analytical tool.

    Have I been able to go beyond analysis procedure and convert the project into a proposition display?

    2.-Students must learn to self-reference and criticize their work and to draw conclusions. They have to process systems and models of architectural production, reformulating nonobvious descriptions, focusing his gaze on the invisible structures, not having preconceived ideas, producing unexpected findings, and non-discursive (arguments that are made but which does not follow anything immediately) reasoning.

    Have I used my own ways of expression reformulating descriptions and avoiding the obvious and the use of direct images of the project culture?

    3.-Student begins to explore architectural expression systems to formalize their projective ideas.

    How many ways of expression have I used at work and what is the value expressed by each of them?

    4.-We must learn to talk and discuss about architectural sustainability criteria, adding the concept of ecological niche project (mental territory, social, material, technical, medium-environmental, etc …).

    Have I addressed the theme of THE WORKSHOP responding to the proposal on the sustainability?

    5.-We are going to know how to work in-group to discover the roles in production systems.

    How much information data made in-group have I used to express my project?

    6.-The students must participate and contribute with their ideas to the class as an essential part of knowledge.

    What is the intensity used to express my ideas through the architectural expression ways? How much time do I need to make a drawing or a model to express my ideas?

    7.-The students must learn to establish a personal lexicon to express his architectural ideas.

    Have you expressed your ideas through a personal lexicon or have you imitated expression systems used by other designers seen in the media (magazines or Internet)

    8.-You need positively assess risk and innovation as a necessary condition of design. Innovation defined as the use of allied disciplines to develop intellectual and technical tools to create new realities, within their own reality, exceeding the established models.

    Do I use allied disciplines for innovative production?

    9.-The students must enter, step by step, work details the project culture, you must learn to interpret and criticize from their own proposal.

    How many data have you appropriated from the culture to express my project?

    10.-You should produce an open system work, with more questions than answers. The number of questions the student will be assessed is more than the number of certainties, you must use fuzzy logic, to support multiple possible truth-values, allowing multiple possible truth-values and strategies to create unpredictability.

    How many questions have you made throughout the design process and how many have you tried to answer?

    11.-Skills: Interest in the contribution, regardless of the attitude from which it was generated

    What is the interest considering my contribution to the WORKSHOP?

    12.-Attitudes: how to tackle the problem independent of the outcome

    Have I tried to solve with intellectual and material effort to present the proposal. The project has developed enough quality

    Alicante University (SPAIN) / Joaquín Alvado Bañón (joaquin.alvado@ua.es) + Javier Sánchez Merina (jsm@ua.es)

     

  • ARCH: MAPPING THE IMAGE OF URBAN GAIA

    The Gaia hypothesis (/ˈɡaɪ.ə/), proposes that living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic and self-regulating, complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet. It was formulated by the chemist James Lovelock and the microbiologist Lynn Margulis in the 1970s. Learn more about it in Wikipedia.

     

    CONTENT / A healthy ecosystem provides manifold benefits to humans and non-humans, climate stability and resilience. Envisioning future urban ecosystem services integrated within evolving cities is crucial to face the radical shift that the urban environment has to undertake in the coming years.

    This seminar is followed by students from more than twenty different nationalities. This is a strength of our learning, and we want to proceed with that singularity: every student needs to study and map the interaction of the built and the natural environment at her/his/their city/town. Places that have hosted a “Gartenschau” or garden event are highly appreciated.

    Taking advantage of bulk scraping of geolocated images and data, each student will develop mappings of the whole selected city/town that highlights the dynamic balance of nature in the urban realm. These mappings have to display the complexity of the existing relationships, and reveal connections and narratives that are unveiled thanks to the technology used.

    AIMS / Our aim is to generate a comprehensive and comparable set of mappings of different cities around Europe, that describe the network of interactions of the built and the natural environment throughout the whole city.

    METHOD / Research by design: remote sensing

    Introduction: Presentation of the goals of the seminar and first contact with bulk download of images for your use. Please have Rhino and Grasshopper or QGIS installed in your computers. Basic knowledge of Grasshopper or QGIS is welcome but not mandatory.

    1st mapping event: Present your first mapping ideas online (or in a pre-recorded video if you prefer so) of a ½ Pecha-Kucha format (10 slides, 20 seconds per slide: a total of 3 minutes 20 seconds).

    2nd mapping event: Final crit.

    SCHEDULE / 2-Week Workshop. Weekly 4-hour class arranged with the students:

    Introduction / 11th Nov 2022 12:30, 1 hour.

    Technical support (if needed) / 15th Nov 2022, 1 hour.

    First mappings / 18th Nov 2022 09:00, 4 hours.

    Final Crit / 25th Nov 2022, 4 hours.

     

    OPEN QUESTIONS / Your mapping reflects with the following (uncomplete) list of open questions:

    Which aspects, relationships, concepts and narratives are discovered and/or triggered by this use of technology?

    How can remote sensing help to perform analysis beyond traditional methods?

    How can remote sensing be a design tool beyond analysis?

    Which perspectives can be integrated? Which ones are left behind?

    How can your mapping be useful for urban planning?

     

    Bibliography / Local Code. Nicholas de Monchaux

    Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DEUTSCHLAND) /

    Arturo Romero Carnicero  /  arturo.romero@kit.edu

    Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape (GREAT BRITAIN)/

    Miguel Paredes Maldonado  /  Miguel.Paredes@ed.ac.uk

    With the support of

    Eduardo Gonzalo Amorox, Gustavo Romanillos

     

  • ARCH: Radical futures_Contemporary Edens

    Athanasius Kircher, Garden of Eden in Arca Noë, 1675

     

    CONTENT / Paradise comes from the latin paradisus, from the greek paradeisos, from the persian pairidaeza or “enclosure”, from “pairi” (meaning “around”, in Greek it’ll derive to “peri”) and “daeza” (meaning “wall”). Paradise or Eden was, therefore, first of all, a fortress, a place to protect from the outside (from Una breve historia del jardín, Gilles Clément, Ed. Gustavo Gili, 2019).

    We may not talk about it, but architecture (and architects, its most prominent agents) is aiming towards paradise in every work.

    In this workshop we’ll focus on radical paradise-seekers (or radical architects) that pushed the possibility of imagining Eden to extreme ideas. From the single mind of Ledoux to the collective partnership of Neom (via Boullée, Le Corbusier, The Metabolist group, Archigram…etc) our goal will be to learn about contemporary paradises (or fenced environments), to criticize them and to finally create one of our own.

    This course is as a way to understand that within the clear taxonomy of architectural Edens the linear ones have their own qualities and expectations. From there, each group of students will imagine one Contemporary Eden (verbally first, graphically at the end) and explain it to the rest of the class.

    Our workshop takes this radical projects as an inspiration to imagine new paradises in order to extend the radical family. In this workshop we must push our limits (literally…the two sides of our fenced Eden) and believe that utopia is still possible (please, do not forget that Eden was a garden, so the experience of Nature is a must).

    AIMS / To study, think about the idea of paradise and to imagine a linear one. To address the experience of radicality, to conceal nature between two walls, to draw…. To dismiss scale to start with a project. To generate a world map or radical lines that may coexist. To explain your ideas to the rest of the group. To design a cross section (the most efficient way to understand a linear city) of your Contemporary Edens.

    METHOD / Radical knowledge and imagination as a tool. To imagine, agree and design your own Contemporary Eden.

    1st day- 20 minutes + homework: Introduction of the course by the professor, students questions and comments about the workshop and homework details.

    2nd day- 4 hours: Short lecture by the professor + Group work to start the design of your Contemporary Edens. Submission 01: First sketches and 200 words brief of the project (free technique).

    3rd day- 3 hours + 30 minutes final crit: Feedback of submission 01 (before the class). Group work to complete the design of your Contemporary Edens. Submission 02: Cross section of the project (free technique and scale). Final crit.

    SCHEDULE / 2-Week Workshop. Weekly 4-hour class arranged with the students:

    Introduction / 28 Oct 2022.

    First class / 04 Nov 2022.

    Second class and Crit / 11 Nov 2022.

     

    EVALUATION AND EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES/ After these two weeks workshop the student will be able to:

    • Understand radical architecture main concerns and tools
    • Develop architectural criticism by analysing radical architecture
    • Develop radical architecture projects through radical design processes and conceptual work methods
    • Compose a radical architectural project and present it orally and visually to the class.
    • Design a radical cross section of a Contemporary Eden.

     

    Bibliography and Basic References:

    1. Monumento Continuo: https://www.frac-centre.fr/_en/art-and-architecture-collection/superstudio/il-monumento-continuo-317.html?authID=185&ensembleID=988#:~:text=Superstudio Il Monumento Continuo%2C 1969-1970 As a manifesto-like,the Earth’s surface%2C negotiating megalopolises%2C mountains and oceans.

    Superstudio, Cristiano Toraldo di Francia, Gian Piero Frassinelli, Alessandro Magris, Roberto Magris, Adolfo Natalini. The Continuous Monument: On the River, project (Perspective). 1969 | MoMA

    1. Exodus: Exodus, or the voluntary prisoners of architecture. – SOCKS (socks-studio.com)
    2. The line: THE LINE (neom.com)

    Universidad Europea de Madrid (SPAIN) /

    Miguel Luengo Angulo (miguel.luengo@universidadeuropea.es)

     

  • ARCH: Ecosystemic Relationships

    CONTENT / Situation. In the city people, ideas and objects cohabitate. Some have attracted the others, but their relations remain difficult and the potential profits of their cohabitation remains largely unrealized. In the article “Do it by yourself” published in L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui in 1970, Tschumi and Montès developed a reflection on interaction in architecture underlining how the cohabitation of people, ideas and objects in the city can facilitate ‘urban success’ and challenge the issues of contemporary society. They also claimed that ‘restricting the interaction [between people, ideas and objects] impoverishes the urban condition: I felt the need to see people talking and confronting experiences, expanding the field of knowledge, I was walking through the city through ancient objects that had come to a new existence.

    (Montès F, Tschumi B. Do-It-Yourself-City. L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui. 1970)

    In this sense the topic of Interaction in the context of architecture helps us in understanding the importance of raising a dialogue between inhabitants (human and non-human / visible and invisible) and architecture, understanding the political framework through a critical analysis of our current society. What does interaction mean? How this can be improved and defined in architecture dealing with a specific climatic, cultural and social condition?

    We can explore this by thinking of the program as an open framework that can be adapted to the current social, environmental and political challenges. We will learn from the cultural specificity at different climatic zones, from the north to the south. Looking at the urban environment as an ecosystem.

     

    AIMS / Learning from the ecosystemic relationships in their own urban environment students will understand the notion of program as an open framework inducing us as architect to rethink the traditional relation between forms and function, considering the interaction between the space and its inhabitants to generate new radical scenarios in the city through architecture.

    The aim of this workshop is to build upon what has been explored in the previous workshops.

     

    TOOLS / Students will learn how to define a program as a series of activities, understanding architecture as an instrument to provide the space for life.

    1. Montage technique (Reflecting)
    2. Story tale / max 200 words (Unpacking)
    3. Layered section drawings / collage technique (Communicating)

     

    METHOD / The design process will be structured in three moments:

    SEMINARS: Reflecting on the role of “Interaction” as a way of generating the architectural program and concept in architecture, understanding its relationship with the society, through talks with invited architects and artists. Reflecting on the notion of ecological design thinking. How will we live together in the future city?

    EXERCISES: Unpacking the urban fabric. Reading the city as an ecosystem, identifying, understanding and communicating (exchanging) the spatial and social dimension and qualities of the communities (Human and non-human) around the globe.

    OUTPUT: Communicating the idea/strategy through the production of an online showcase in form of a public exhibition. Each students will produce 10 images (montage+future scenario+layered section) + a text of 200 words.

     

    SCHEDULE /

    We will meet in zoom: https://umu.zoom.us/j/9465597160

    • 1st day /: Introduction to the workshop + Lectures (recorded).
    • 2nd day / Group work /Feedbacks and tutorials.
    • 3rd day / Online Showcase + Final discussion.

    The schedule will be adapted to the needs of each university providing access to recorded lectures and a-synchronous submissions.

    Expected Learning Outcomes / After these two weeks workshop the student will be able to:

    • Develop architecture projects through design processes and conceptual work methods
    • Document an architectural project and present it orally and visually
    • Design a building programme based on research (mapping) and strategy.

    References /

    Film / Audio:

    Wenders, Wim (2010) If Buildings could talk

    Text:

    Koolhaas, Rem (1977) The Story of the Pool

    Calvino, Italo (1972) Invisible cities

    Lynch, Kevin (1970) The image of the city

    Collage:

    Superstudio (1972) Supersuperficie

    Montage:

    Mili, Gjon (1939) Black and White Movements.

    Tschumi, Bernard (1994) Architecture and Disjunction

    Umeå School of Architecture – Umeå University (SWEDEN)/

    Maria Luna Nobile (maria.nobile@umu.se)

    Richard Conway (richard.conway@umu.se)

     

  • ARCH: The Immersion in the Spirit of Architecture

  • ARCH: Re: Enactment

    CONTENT / ‘Re:Enactment’ is the latest chapter in a series of workshops exploring the various interpretations and potential in narrative architectural photography, following workshops from the previous semesters: ‘Texture, Rhythm, Pattern’ & ‘Visual Storytelling’. Students once again use their photo cameras to capture their personal interpretation of human interaction with the architectural environment, and the potentials in visual storytelling through still images.

     

    AIMS & METHOD / In a similar fashion to the previous semester, the workshop is structured into two photo exercises. Students this semester investigate their broader urban living environment and look for architectural features and situations, which – by way of creative abstraction and with the help of human re-enactment – can be associated with a chosen works of art. In the first exercise they will focus on the contemporary re-enactment of a well-known planar visual artwork (painting, mural, graphics) while on the second week they will choose an emblematic scene from arthouse cinematography for their creative photographic reflection.

    These individual reinterpretations shall rely heavily on the interaction between the static architectural background and the human presence. Students are encouraged to utilize a wide range of visual accessories and to follow compositional principles consciously in their effort to put the original situation into a new perspective, adding new layers to the original narrative. In the process, students will have the opportunity to further develop their visual compositional skills, learn to understand the compositional values and narrative potentials in their built surroundings, and to explore the interdisciplinarity and the permeability of borderlines among the different genres of visual art.

    SCHEDULE / Two-week workshop. Weekly on-line classes (+ individual work during the week) arranged with the students:

    November 11th 2022 (Friday) – 2.00 pm (CET) – Introduction & Project Description

    November 15th 2022 (Tuesday) – 9.30 am (CET) – Consultation (Project 1)

    November 18th 2022 (Friday) – 10.00 am (CET) – Presentation & Critical Review (Project 1)

    November 22nd 2022 (Tuesday) – 9.30 am (CET) – Consultation (Project 2)

    November 25th 2022 (Friday) – 10.00 am (CET) – Final Critical Review (Project 1&2)

     

    EVALUATION / Evaluation is based on the fulfilment of workshop aims. Participating students are expected to gain a better understanding the visual characteristics of their urban surroundings and develop their visual compositional skills.

    Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Architecture (HUNGARY) / PORTSCHY, Szabolcs Dávid (portschy.szabolcs.david@epk.bme.hu)

     

  • ARCH: Characters in the Open Building

    CONTENT / The city as any living organism should be looked at not only in a three-dimensional (spatial) context but in a four-dimensional one that takes into account time. The changes taking place in the urban fabric range from the construction of new buildings to the adaptation and the demolition of existing structures. Thus, it is important to consider already at the design stage the possibilities of transforming a building during its lifespan.

    The direct participation of future residents is the domain of single-family houses. In contrast, it is difficult to identify the needs, ideas and opinions of future residents of multi-family housing, and the possibility of transforming the space is reduced to changing the partition walls within the occupied apartment. Furthermore, public consultation in the execution of multi-family buildings is fraught with the risk of tailoring the dwelling only to the first occupant.

    An approach that addresses these issues is the principle in which the building’s load-bearing elements such as walls, roofs, foundations, staircases and technical infrastructure are made by professionals, while future users influence shaping the internal spatial and functional layout. Such a design methodology is called Open Building and it was created and developed by the Dutch architect prof. John N. Habraken.

    The Open Building methodology assumes that the residential environment is divided into two main components. The frame consists of an analysis of the urban layout, the necessary infrastructure and the basic building structure. The second key element is the infill, i.e. the façade and internal spatial layout, which is influenced by the inhabitants or future users of the space (see Fig. 1).

    Fig. 1 source: ModRule: A User-Centric Mass Housing Design Platform [Marc Aurel Schnabel, Tian Tian Lo, Yan Gao]

    AIMS / The aim of the workshop is to understand the principles of the Open Building design method by personal experience. Through that process participants will gain knowledge of the frame structures, research the context the chosen character, compare different cultural background and various historical periods (i.e. different architectural styles, social relations) and tests the individual/ collective design processes.

    More about the Open Building idea can be found in the movie DE DRAGER / A film about Architect John Habraken:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85vhtwRwk9k&t=649s

     

    METHOD / The participants will be gathered into groups of 5 – 8 members from different universities. Each member of the group will choose one given historical character. Next, the group will propose a configuration of the apartments’ design for the characters as a neighbour. At the first stage, individual apartments will be proposed. At the second, the configuration of the apartments will be taken into account.

    The design process will include: to get know the chosen character and his/her context, to design a suitable apartment for the character, to agree between the individual designers on the relationship between the apartments in a given structure that meets the Open Building principles.

    TECHNIQUE / The presentation of the projects may have a form of sketches, notes, collages, mock-ups, diagrams, CAD drawings, visualisations, animations, videos, and other visual techniques that will support description of the assumed project idea, functioning and materialisation of the architectural building.

    The students will get the primary structure (frame) of a multifamily building (in .dwg/PDF file) and will be asked to design the apartments (infill).

    The expected drawings include: floor plan of the apartment, section of the apartment, interior/ exterior design, elevations, and plan of the building and landscape.

    SCHEDULE / 2-Week Workshop. Weekly 4-hour class arranged with the students:

    Introduction / 14 October 2022

    Workshop – characters and apartment design / 18 October 2022.

    Consultations 20 October 2022.

    Final Presentation / 25 October 2022

     

    EVALUATION /

    – Quality of the research on the Character’s context.

    – Originality of the concepts.

    – Cooperation between group members

    – Clear and comprehensible project content and presentation.

     

    Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (POLAND) /

                                                          Jerzy Łątka (jerzy.latka@pwr.edu.pl)

                                                          Agata Jasiołek (jagata.jasiolek@pwr.edu.pl)

    Yasar University in Izmir (TURKEY) /

                                                          Mauricio Morales-Betran (mauricio.beltran@yasar.edu.tr)

     

  • ARCH: Before Me the Deluge

    page1image62115280

    Hokusai’s Great Wave. Photograph: British Museum

    CONTENT/ Last summer, biblical floods in northern Europe washed away houses, undoing roads, revealing subterranean services. If our environment is unpredictable because of human or celestial activity is irrelevant: the reality is that water, while vital, is for architects a design constraint. Keeping water where it needs to be is one of our perennial challenges, regardless of what state it is in: solid, liquid or vapour.

    AIM/ To interrogate the role of the architect in extreme situations and understand how potent our craft can be to assist people and communities.

    This brief invites you to think about deluge, in other words the macro scale, the effect of unexpected behaviour of water levels on buildings. You are also encouraged to consider other states of water, if that is something that can be addressed by your design proposition.

     

    METHOD/ A physical/digital model of prototypes / proposals / reactions

    The site typologies you may want to consider are:

    _terra firma [land] that can get flooded by abundant precipitation (eg overflowing lakes, rivers that burst their banks, coastal sites)

    _edge [limen = threshold] liminality is a physical condition, as well as a psychological one

    _island which can be natural or artificial

    _open water

    SCHEDULE/

    1. Consider as a group:
      what_look at the 4 site typologies to decide which site condition to tackle. The decision should be justified by analysis of possibilities, literature, stories, anecdotal evidence, news, statistics etc
      why_document the decision-making for your site typology (use sketches, film, models etc)
      where_consider if the site is a real location, and identify it, or imaginary and explain graphically your choice
    2. [fri 21/10/21 10.30+ CET] Present your investigations and ideas as first iterations of concept and strategies for your design:
      _consider what architecture is suitable and why, based on research
      _appraise technologies and systems
    3. Develop:
      _solutions and construct models, physical or digital for proposals – they can be stand alone, clusters, involve infrastructure strategies – all in response to: site, vernacular (if real site), projections of technologies (if prototype, not site specific)
      _ the intervention which is the device/reaction
    4. [fri 28/10/21 10.30+ CET] Present:
      _final proposals.

     

    EVALUATION/ You may consider:

    _what the intervention is… a generic, multi-purpose building or with defined programme, permanent/temporary, independent/parasitic?
    _what characteristics it needs to have to respond to conditions… permeable/non- permeable, amphibious, buoyant
    _laws of physics… applied to materials and systems
    _resilience… and anything else that floats your boat…

    LINCOLN UNIVERSITY (UK)/

    Doina Carter (docarter@lincoln.ac.uk)

  • ARCH: Positive Birth

    DESIGN A NEW BIRTH CULTURE 2022

    WORKSHOP – SEMINAR – COMPETITION – EXHIBITION – RESEARCH

    QUESTIONS CONCERNING NEW VISION

    “In today’s culture, birth is in crisis” says Milli Hill, author of the Positive Birth Book who campaigns for dignity and right of choice for women planning birth. But perhaps the whole culture before and after birth needs rethinking as well? We are inviting designers to create a vision of a New Model of a place perfect to give a birth.

    Evidence suggests that architecture may ease or hinder the natural process of giving birth.

    Birth places are designed primarily to meet the needs of healthcare professionals – bright lights, ease of disinfection, convenient access to patient and monitoring equipment.

    Many women suffer birth trauma. Nowadays it seems impossible to give birth without a team of doctors, machines, and medication. But is that the case?

    Design a birthplace thinking only about the needs of a woman about to give birth. What she needs to do it peacefully and naturally is darkness, peace and quiet, ability to focus inwards, water, being able to move around, bend, bounce, squat…

    What would that space be if you disregard the needs of medical staff which are currently prioritized and focus solely on the needs of birthing women?

    What would the building and its surroundings offer? A form of a hotel for families before and after birth? Places that revolve around socialising, healthy lifestyle, training/learning/therapy, or a swimming pool? With a landscape that stems from thinking about this place more than merely a maternity ward: as a place where all the family can spend time before and after birth, a place that would support a positive time for woman before, during and after giving birth.

    What could be the role and place of such a birth centre in the community in terms of organisation status and the way in which it functions?

    Please design the brief and organisation: what rooms, functions and requirement this place should include. Tutors and guests of this workshop will offer knowledge about new model and support for a new way of thinking about the design of such places.

    Can we also imagine an alternative low-tech birth? Instead of concentrating on high-tech, why don’t we focus more on a highly humanistic birth? What could that mean? Designers often ignore/give up design of topics related in any way to medicine and are ready to let technician to lead the design. It could contribute to creating trauma. Good design can support heathy, natural birth and allow celebrating the magical moments of bringing new life into the world.

    WORKSHOP – SEMINAR – COMPETITION – EXHIBITION – RESEARCH

    We would like to invite you to visit, join or participate in a series of events which aim to stimulate the discussion on contemporary culture surrounding Giving Birth. This should be a platform to spread knowledge and support research on this topic.

    During the workshops, students from over 34 European universities associated with the UNIVERSITY of Universities (UOU) – Design Teachers Collective – will develop design answers to the question of a ‘Perfect Place for Giving Birth’. Best designs will take part in a competition and will be exhibited at the University of Lincoln. This exhibition will be associated with a seminar and talks which will prepare a platform where academic and non-academic partners could meet and exchange knowledge on the Culture of Giving Birth. This event is planned as ground for international research. We would like to invite anyone who is interested in this topic to follow or participate in this event.

    Dr Marcin M Kołakowski (University of Lincoln)
    Dr Franka Jagielak (Pedagogical University of Cracow)
    Dr Javier Sánchez Merina (University of Alicante, UNIVERSITY of Universities Facilitator)

    COMPETITION

    We are launching an open idea competition for designers which will be supported by the UNIVERSITY of Universities. In this competition, designers will be asked to create a vision for a place that would support an ideal, woman and family centered birth and culture around birth. The design could be idealistic vision of an institution which is not merely a maternity ward, and which possibly does not exist yet – It should be a place dedicated to giving birth but possibly also a center which would support woman and families before, during and after birth. This kind of institutions are not popular in our cultures, but maybe they could/should be (re)invented.

    We will ask participants of the competition to suggest a vision for a place of birth which will be woman and family centered. This vision should include at least 3 elements:

    1. Concept of organization & program: how this place should function and be organized? What spaces should it include and what should be requirements and functions of such a place?
    2. Architectural vision of such place.
    3. Visions and ideas for interiors and equipment.

    We encourage designing in groups of 3 participants, but smaller groups and individual designs will be accepted as well. Designers are asked to create their vision in any chosen setting: urban or rural. The vision presented in an A0 format should be sent digitally to the University of Lincoln. The best contributions will be printed and displayed as part of an exhibition organized by University of Lincoln.

    The competition is open both to students taking part in the UOU workshop supervised and supported by tutors and experts but also to designers who not taking part in UOU events.

    UOU WORKSHOP

    In the UOU community, we all come from different cultures and environments… Yet, despite all the differences, we definitely have one thing common… we were all born.

    During the 2 weeks workshop, we will offer knowledge about design that surrounds giving birth. This will be included technical facts and practical tips for designers, but we would also like to offer knowledge which may sometimes be surprising and eye opening.

    UOU students are invited to take part in the competition.

    This workshop will be open to UOU students as well as any designers who would like to join in. We will offer lectures on the topic of architecture and design of places dedicated to birth. Dr Franka Jagielak will present a lecture on the cross-cultural research on designs which support giving birth, and Dr Marcin Kołakowski will deliver lectures on the three main methods in the design process. We also intend to provide practical information and support with regard to designing birth places. Yet, this factual and practical information should not limit student’s imagination or prevent them from inventing visions which could be very far from the conventional understanding of traditional places for giving birth.

    The 2-week workshop will include tutorials offering consultations on design developments.

    ORGANISATION OF THE 2-WEEK WORKSHOP:
    During the workshop, participants from different counties associated with UOU will be encouraged to create groups ideally of 3 participants which will allow internal discussion and better exchange of ideas. In every group, each member will focus on a different scale and issue of the project, which should pose various questions:

    1. ORGANIZATION: What should the place be? What should be its program? What spaces should it include? How should it be run in an organizational sense? How long should people spend there: a day, a week or maybe a month? What should this place offer in terms of program, activities, services? Maybe you would like to suggest a very different idea for how this place should be run and organized?
    2. BUILDING & SURROUNDINGS: What should the building/place look like? How should it be designed externally? What should internal plans and massing of the building be like? What should be the relation between this building and its surroundings? What should be surroundings/landscape? Where should this place be located? In the city center? Next to the hospital? Or in a remote place? Maybe it could even be mobile? What should the surroundings be? Should there be only good access for cars and ambulances, or could you imagine it differently?
    3. INTERIORS: What should woman-centered interiors look like? What should be the equipment / furniture / materials used internally? How to allow women to choose the mood and atmosphere of the space? How to enable possibilities of different positions and movements beneficial during birth? (Tutors will offer knowledge about this topic in detail).

    As a team you should ask yourself: What are the other questions you could ask? Remember: good architecture stems not only from good answers, but also from good questions…

    It would be a good idea if each student focused on one aspect, but all together you will create one vision. In this case, collaboration is essential in order to achieve one coherent narrative – a visual statement that would address the question of an ideal place for being born and giving birth. The vision could be created by using various media: sketches, drawings, collages, mood board etc.

    GROUP DYNAMICS: international teams of (ideally) 3 UOU students consisting of students from various universities.

    Introduction: Friday – Week 0

    The introduction will take place on the first Friday after finishing previous UOU workshop. Contacts and organization will be explained.

    Week 1:

    Students will be encouraged to conduct interviews with their mothers or other persons who gave birth.

    Students will have a chance to listen to lectures online.

    After this introduction, teams which were formed during the first week will be asked to create TWO visons for the first review on Friday in Week 1. The two visions will be created following a change of roles within the team e.g.:

    VISION ALPHA

    ORGANISATION: Student A

    BUILDING & SURROUNDINGS: Student B

    INTERIORS & EQUIPMENT: Student D

    VISION BETA

    BUILDING &: SURROUNDINGS Student B

    ORGANISATION: Student A

    INTERIORS & EQUIPMENT: Student C

    Team can choose, vote or in any other way decide the roles of students A, B or C during week one. This way, each student will have an opportunity to go out of their comfort zone and design something that they would not usually design. The internal reshuffle of the whole group will create an opportunity to see how the dynamic changes and how internal reshuffling impacts design.

    Week 2:

    After the review on Friday in Week 1, the teams will have a chance to select the best ideas and focus on creating the one final design, which will be presented on Friday in Week 2.

    The initial vision for the first week could take the form of various media, such as drawings, images, collages, models etc. All the elements would then be merged into one narrative which will be a coherent design statement.

    TIMEFRAME:

    Week 1: Conduct interviews, listen to lectures, develop 2 visions with your team

    Week 2: Focus on the final presentation

    (See detailed framework below)

    FINAL DELIVERABLES FOR UOU WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS:

    The vision which could be presented in the exhibition should consist of:

    1. Individual Development portfolio (all the sketches that you did working on the project) identifying which students did what: one sketchbook with all the notes, drafts and drawings which lead to the final design (including those that were not continued).
    2. Final group presentations of the VISION OF Mother and Family centered PLACE TO BE BORN IN AND GIVE BIRTH. This should be an A0 poster which would be a graphical design statement with annotations.

    The project may be entered into a competition/exhibition at the University of Lincoln, UK.

    ASSESSMENT CRITERIA FOR UOU WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS:

    The project assessment will be based on the following criteria:

    ANALYSIS (FORMULATION OF QUESTION): Thorough and critically evaluated theories and findings. Context considered: environmental, social, cultural and philosophical aspects. Investigation conducted through literature review with a theoretical underpinning.

    CONCEPT (ANSWERING QUESTION): Strong original response to psychological needs and societal problems identified and their impact at various levels.

    DEVELOPMENT (EVALUATION OF ANSWERS): Development sketches, evidence of design investigations in different scales and aspects. Evidence versatile design paths.

    PRESENTATION (PRESENTING THE ANSWER): Content/deliverables: purposeful, coherent, high quality, rigorously developed body of work, professionally presented using a variety of media and a well-structured narrative

    TIMEFRAME

    ACTIVITY 1 (First Friday: Week 0)

    ALL STUDENT SESSION (Introduction)

    Activity Time
    1 All tutors and students introduce themselves.

    Where were you born? What makes you feel creative?

    Students form teams of 3 students

    IMPORTANT: do not forget to exchange contact details so we can contact you during the week.

    		 33 Min

     

    ACTIVITY 2 (Weekend)

    INDIVIDUAL TASK: listening, watching & learning, suggested: conduct an interview,

    Activity Time
    1 Suggestion for inspiration: Call your mother or any other woman who gave birth. Ask about her experiences of giving birth. Ask her what was good and what was negative? Discuss what helped and what did not help her at the time of giving birth. As much as needed
    2 Listen to lectures
    3 Read literature and learn about design and birth 1 hour

     

    ACTIVITY 3 (Weekend)
    INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT OF IDEAS: sketching your own ideas

    Activity Time
    1 While conducting the interview, listening to lectures or reading literature, behave like a designer: make sketches and develop ideas. This will help you start a conversation when you meet with other students from your team.

    Prepare yourselves for the next activity (which is a student team meeting) by making some hand sketches or ideas for a good place for giving birth. Each student should prepare at least 12 ideas for different aspects of the place. (This is a design method which forces you to be creative… so don’t stop when you have 20 sketches). The sketches could be in different scales answering different questions, e.g. What should the space be like? Who should organize the space? Should it be one space or more spaces connected? How should this place be organized? Etc.  other aspect of this space… do not limit yourselves… do your own brain storming, sketch, sketch, sketch, sketch, …

    The sketches do not need to be coherent. They could refer to very different aspects of the project. Keep these ideas even if they are crazy or nonsensical. Remember that at this time you want to suggest in sketchy way a lot of ideas which will perhaps inspire other ideas later. Later on, you will choose the best ones or refine some of them but not now. Focus on producing quantity not quality. Follow your wild intuition and creativity and do not exclude any ideas.

    		 As much as needed

     

    ACTIVITY 4 (Monday, Week 1)
    MEETING WITH YOUR TEAM FOR THE FIRST TIME: introduction, discussion and role distribution

    Activity Time
    1 Meet as a student team (approx. 3 students)

    1)     discuss your interview with woman who gave birth. Discuss the cultural differences, difficulties, anxieties and positive aspects of this moment.

    		 20 min
    2 Present to each other your own sketchy ideas. Inspire each other to think about other ideas.
    3 PREPARING A TEAM PROJECT. Discuss you team project with your group. Discuss the organization of work. Remember that for next Friday you will need to present two visions. You should therefore share tasks and set up a meeting (Activity 6). Please divide tasks among yourselves e.g.:

    VISION ALPHA

    ORGANISATION & PROGRAM: Student A

    BUILDING, SURROUNDINGS & LANDSCAPE: Student B

    INTERIORS & EQUIPMENT: Student C

    VISION BETA

    ORGANISATION & PROGRAM: Student C

    BUILDING, SURROUNDINGS & LANDSCAPE: Student A

    INTERIORS & EQUIPMENT: Student B

     

    ACTIVITY 5 a,b,c…  (Tuesday/Thursday Week 1: whatever time is good for the team)
    STUDENT TEAM MEETINGS: develop your ideas 

    Activity Time
    1 Discuss and develop your project as a student team.

    Prepare for Friday presentation.

     

    ACTIVITY 6 (Second Friday: Week 1)

    REVIEW: Online review for all students taking part in the competition (presentations of ideas) Perhaps a workshop on creative design methods if times allows

    Activity Time
    1 Students present their group work. TWO VISIONS
    Discussion about each group project    		 10-am

    12pm
    2 IF TIME ALLOWS, THERE WILL BE A WORKSHOP ON CREATIVITY WICH WILL SUPPORT YOUR PROJECT: divergent and convergent design methods 12-2

    ACTIVITY 7 (The same Friday in Week 1: after review)

    INTERNAL STUDENT TEAM MEETINGS: discuss the review plan for next week

    Activity Time
    1 Meet after the review to discuss in what direction you would like to go as a team and how you will organize the next week’s presentation 20 min

     

    ACTIVITY 8 a, b, c…..  (Week 2)

    INTERNAL STUDENT TEAM MEETINGS: development of projects

    Activity Time
    1 Meet after the review to discuss in what direction you would like to go as a team and how you will organize the next week’s presentation As much as needed

    ACTIVITY 9
    Final REVIEW (Third Friday)

    Activity Time
    1 Each team presents their own project 4 hours

    ACTIVITY 10 (after the final review, and before the deadline for the competition)
    WHOLE STUDENT TEAMS:  refining and submitting competition entries

    Activity Time
    1 Refining your project and submitting it for the exhibition

    EXHIBITION & COMPETITION:
    After that, students will be asked to submit the work which may be exhibited at the University of Lincoln and which will take part in the competition.

    SEMINAR / CONFERENCE:

    Seminar with contributions from academic and non-academic partners is planned to support the exhibition. This event will create a platform for further research and developing guidelines which could be used be teams supporting homebirths and parents who are interested in gaining knowledge about good parenting.

     

    University of Lincoln (UK)/

    Marcin Kołakowski (MKolakowski@lincoln.ac.uk)

    Pedagogical University of Cracow (POLAND)/

    Franka Jagielak (franciszka.jagielak@up.krakow.pl)

     

  • ARCH: Rusilience

    Rusilience, is a workshop aims to achieve RUral reSIELINCE, through developing traditional rural housing by locally feasible structural/construction systems.

    CONTENT / Climate change resisting strategies and rapid transformation in developing countries focus on designing systems which modernize cities and make their structures resilient in the face of natural disasters. Unfortunately, the process neglects rural areas in countries as Turkiye, which results in the abandon of rural areas and immigration to big cities and urban centers. In central Anatolia, and around the capital Ankara, a seismic prone area, the plans seeks either to transform the villages into concrete high-rise buildings, or (hobby gardens) with type of container slum housing.

    The workshop seeks to use traditional rural structural systems and/or construction methods as a reference to develop a modern, cost efficient, and easy to build structural system for rural housing to help enhancing the resilience of these rural areas, protecting its traditions, and encouraging people to stay in their villages

    AIMS / Designing a resilient structural system for a small rural house using available local materials and learning from rural traditional architecture .
    After identifying a village, or a rural center, we will choose a local traditional structural system, and think how to develop it to become more resilient and compatible with modern context and needs.

    • Analysing traditional rural structural system.
    • Understanding rural resilience.
    • Introduce yourself to the class.
    • Defining your working group.
    • Work as a team in different contexts.

    page1image57407712 page1image57397104

    METHOD /

    1st working day: Introduce your rural context and the chosen traditional structural/construction system in a 4min video analyzing risks with the strengths and weaknesses.

    page1image57399184 page1image57398560

    Group work according to your common interests. Dvefine possibilities of system enhancement to suggest more resilient system, a story board (free technique).
    2nd day: Final crit. Design the new structural system/ or draw the details of the modifications on the traditional rural system you have analyzed.

    SCHEDULE /

    2-Week Workshop. Weekly 4-hour class arranged with the students:

    Introduction / 14 Oct 2022.
    Video + Story board / 21 Oct 2022.
    Final Crit / 28 Oct 2022.

    EVALUATION / The design should respond to the following requirements:

    • Did it enhance the preparedness to resist hazards?
    • Is it easier or more difficult to construct?
    • Does it require special technologies and instruments?
    • How it affects the cost of construction?
    • Is the technology and materials available in the site?
    • Who can build it?
    • Specialists, contractors or locals with the help of the community?
    • Does it enable future expansion?

    Bibliography /

    1. VerSus Project: Heritage for Tomorrow, Vernacular Knowledge for Sustainable Architecture.
    2. Resilient Structures and Infrastructure (Ehsan Noroozinejad Farsangi)
    3. Rural resilience as a new development concept(Wim J.M. Heijman)

    Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University (Turkiye) /

    Salah Hajismail (salah.hajismail@aybu.edu.tr)

     

  • ARCH: Liminal: Digital Landscape

    Liminal: an intermediate state, phase, or condition: in-between, transitional

    CONTENT / We live suspended between the digital and the physical, in a liminal space. The pioneers of digital landscapes we navigate realms unfettered by physical constraints. A place where stories can construct and reconstruct themselves at will, where time is not just static but can be reversed, where truth can be rewritten and history revised. Orientation increasingly turns to an expanding mirror world, the echo of Borges fiction. A 1:1 remaking of the world, where huge ships may hide within the folds of fake signals, infrastructure is analysed through its digital twin and non-existent islands rise into being leading very real exhibitions to search for them.

    This can begin to paint a picture of an increasing retreat from reality into our imaginaries, with all the dystopian and problematic environmental consequences this could bring. Yet it also holds within it the potential to enhance and deepen our embodiment within the physical realm. AI and other technologies offer the opportunity for us to sculpt this liminal realm to enhance our spatial embodiment, extending our understanding and engagement of the physical world and ourselves.

    We will explore how the design of our architecture and cities might engage critically with these liminal landscapes, beginning to define our mode of engagement through the spaces we dare to imagine.

    AIMS / The aim of our workshop is to begin to explore the implications of our evolving liminal condition as an opportunity for extending embodiment. We aim to begin to construct potential frameworks of engagement; formulating a zoo of proto architectures for the liminal realm.

    METHOD / We will be teaching through the medium we are contemplating, the digital realm of Zoom, Teams, Miro. We will therefore begin through a questioning of the space of this connection. For our workshop each of us will automatically and simultaneously enter into multiple spaces in multiple countries through our digital presence. Yet the sound of our voices will echo around solid walls and physical spaces, influencing and impacting that space. Working in small groups of members in disparate locations we will begin attempting to grasp the nature of this liminal space, using drawing as a tool to start to discuss its implications for our inhabitation of space. With the aid of this initial navigation we will begin to focus on how AI might inform our engagement with liminal spaces to extend embodiment. We will workshop opportunities to evolve our zoo of proto architectures.

    SCHEDULE / 2-Week Workshop. Weekly 4-hour class arranged with the students:

    Introduction / 30th September
    Workshopping / 3rd October including talks: ‘Liminal landscapes’ Sarah Stevens, and ‘AI’ Marcus Winter Opening of the zoo with the Final Crit of the group’s proto architectures / 14th October

    EVALUATION / Develop these actions:

    – Engaging critically with the digital realm that augments out day to day lives.
    – Uncovering cultural implications.
    – Finishing with a proposal for a proto architecture which begins to discuss both the physical and digital realms we inhabit.

     

    Bibliography /

    Work by artists, architects and computer scientists including:
    Liam Young: https://liamyoung.org/projects/seoul-city-machine
    Anicka Yi: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/hyundai-commission-anicka-yi
    Google AI, Whalesong: https://www.blog.google/technology/ai/tale-whale-song/
    Machine Memoirs: Space, Refik Anadol: https://coventry2021.co.uk/explore/the-reel-store/
    Pierre Huyghe: https://www.kistefosmuseum.com/news/pierre-huyghe-is-the-artist-of-the-year-2022

    https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/pierre-huyghe-uumwelt/ Sarah Tze: https://www.sarahsze.com

    Sol Ey, Sonic Storm: https://sol-ey.com/sonic-storm/
    MIT senseable city Lab: https://senseable.mit.edu
    Sandipan Nath: https://www.behance.net/gallery/107173861/Interference-53N42E-v20
    Ocean Bloom: https://v2.nl/archive/works/ocean-bloom
    Smart city: https://v2.nl/lab/alternative-imaginaries-for-the-smart-city
    Centre for Digital Built Britain: https://www.cdbb.cam.ac.uk/what-we-do/national-digital-twin- programme
    BTO Cuckoo Tracking Project: https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/cuckoo-tracking-project/about- project/international-projects
    Rif Anadol: https://refikanadol.com/works/machine-memoirs-space/
    Richard Vijgen: https://www.richardvijgen.nl/#world
    Beyond Human Scale: https://www.archdaily.com/949912/beyond-human-scale-designing-for- ecosystems-migration-and-machines
    Situated technologies: http://www.situatedtechnologies.net
    Accessing habitats remotely: https://architecturetoday.co.uk/steve-mcintyre-and-ashley-welch/ Watershed: https://www.watershed.co.uk/studio/projects
    Ghislaine Boddington: https://ghislaineboddington.com/videos/

     

    University of Brighton (UK) /

    Sarah Stevens (s.stevens2@brighton.ac.uk) + Marcus Winter (Marcus.Winter@brighton.ac.uk)