Course syllabus
Course-PM
ACE460 ACE460 Building on context lp2 HT26 (15 hp)
Course is offered by the department of Architecture And Civil Engineering
Contact details
Naima Callenberg, examiner, course leader, supervisor
naima@chalmers.se
Peter Christensson, supervisor
peter@chalmers.se
Course purpose
This is the first studio in a sequence of three that revolves around the theme Before and After Building. It continues an on-going exploration of architecture that departs from existing environments, buildings, and materials. This involves extending the architect’s engagement with “a project” to include a longer time span and untypical responsibilities, ranging from what happens before building, such as ways of investigating a context or the sourcing of materials, to what happens after building, such as occupancy, transformation, and adaptation. Rather than dismissing these issues as mundane or relegating them to other disciplines, the studio will consider them as architectural and designerly problems.
Within this framework, this studio will explore the before-aspect of architecture through the notion of context. How can, or should, that which is already present in and around a site influence that which is about to be designed? What does “a context” in architecture encompass? What does it mean to be contextual? And what are the means of representation that can be used to investigate and design in relation to a context? The projects developed within the studio will draw from current discourse on context as well as from alternative representation techniques that study material, programmatical, situational, temporal, or other aspects.
Investigating both physical and cultural notions, we are looking into context as a device in the conception and production of architecture. The investigation will depart from an inventory that documents features, values, and relations in and around the site. The inventory will be formatted as a “library” of inherent forms and materials to draw from. Through this process we aim to broaden our understanding of the contexts, both as in site, as in design influence, and as in regulation. What are the agendas, motivations, and strategies one may have for building anew?
Temporal, material and spatial continuity
The investigation will focus on Backaplan, Gothenburg, where a large-scale development is planned. Context changes naturally over time, but as rapid and sometimes drastic change happens in a short time span due to urban development, layers of a site may be altered or sometimes erased. How can different layers of the urban fabric at Backaplan be revealed and form the basis for engagement with, and interventions on, the site? Can such engagement and interventions, as architect Jan De Vylder phrased it, “delay” the act of development so that other processes, considerations, and understandings can come into play? Dynamic processes that consider scenarios and change over time, rather than a fixed new development. What roles can architects play in this development, to safeguard values, to assume responsibility, and to create an approach based on caring rather than exploitation. The aim is to design a small-scale addition to the site which creates continuity between past, present, and future, through strategies of reuse.
Please read further in course pm: Course description_ACE460_26-27.pdf
Schedule
A rough preliminary schedule in pdf is uploaded under module General course information. See and follow the canvas calendar. All changes made to the schedule will be announced via canvas calendar and announcement.
Course literature
Please see course pm.
Course design
The studio revolves around a multiple set of learning activities, such as lectures, seminars, presentations, critique, field work, workshops, exhibition etc. The studio itself should be seen as a critical laboratory and a collective endeavour, where we invite all students to actively participate in creating a lively and open studio culture. We will arrange for studio meetings on a regular basis where the course development and discourse will be discussed continuously.
Through-out the course, design work is assessed in weekly supervision sessions. The students are assessed individually. The studio cannot offer any online supervision on students’ request.
The course includes a number of days for self-studies, which does not allow for on-campus scheduled activities. Instead, the groups will have to plan for the developments of their projects over these days resulting in individual assignments. Further information will be specified at a later stage during the course.
Canvas is used for all communication within the course. Please see to that your email is updated to receive notifications from Canvas when both “announcements” and “messages” are sent out and make yourself familiar with the content uploaded. The Canvas-schedule will be actively used throughout the course, as well as the module-system and notifications/announcements where updates, changes and detailed schedule will be communicated. We will not use time edit.
We expect all students to, besides being present on site explorations, use the studio spaces on the fifth floor to construct an active studio culture. Tutorials will be held in the studio space.
Please see course pm for full description of course content.
Learning objectives and syllabus
Learning objectives:
Knowledge and understanding
- Define an architectural design process that departs from an extended investigation of an existing environment or situation through representation.
- Define notions of context in relation to current practice and theory.
- Discuss their own design work in relation to the above.
- Use and synthesize common as well as alternative techniques of architectural representation such as drawing, modelling, and scanning to analyse and explore an existing environment or situation.
- Design a small to medium scale architecture project that responds to and/or intervenes in an existing environment or situation.
- Use an iterative and speculative method to design a project.
- Demonstrate the capacity for teamwork and collaboration with various constellations.
Judgement and approach
- Integrate design, representation, and theory into a coherent argument for their design work.
- Reflect on the agencies of representation on how the use of representations influences the development and communication of the project.
- Show intention, commitment, and ability to identify needs for further knowledge and undertake on-going development of their skills, especially with regards to architectural representation.
Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.
Examination form
Participation at a minimum of 80% attendance to all teacher led activities, including supervision sessions, seminars, and reviews is required to pass the course. Examination and grading are individual, cumulative across the duration of the course, and they take material presented at presentations, final reviews, booklet, week-to-week development assessed in tutorials, as well as degree of participation in tutoring/seminars/studio seminars into account. The final grade thus takes progress during the entire studio into account, as well as the quantity and quality of the work presented at the final review and in the booklet. The work is in addition assessed for its level of effort, engagement with the agenda of the course, as well as for graphic and verbal presentation.
Cumulative grading
20% Material presented at the presentations and pinpups
50% Material presented at the final review and submission.
20% Development of the work across the semester, as assessed in supervision sessions.
10% Degree of participation in seminars.
Grades are Pass with distinction (5), Pass with credit (4), Pass (3), Fail. In case of a fail grade, the student will receive a written list of complimentary material to complete, but no further supervision.
The reviews will be accompanied by a list of required material to be presented verbally by the student / team. They require students to hand in the material as a pdf on Canvas, to be further assessed after the review. Failure to hand-in material will result in a fail grade, with no possibility of receiving a complimentary task. Examination of complimentary material will be done by the examiner no later than the next re-examination period.
Absence
Students are expected to make up for lost time in connection to any absence from the working hours of the studio, even if the accumulated absence is less than 20%. Absence from pin-up, review, lectures, or seminars may result in a complimentary task. The studio applies a Chalmers´ standard 45 work hours/week (8am-6pm) where students are asked to individually plan their work outside of scheduled sessions accordingly.
The course examiner may assess individual students in other ways than what is stated above if there are special reasons for doing so, for example if a student has a decision from Chalmers on educational support due to disability.
Course summary:
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