Course syllabus

Theme 2022: NORDIC WOMEN

What is “the Nordic”? This course has two main aims: first, to give a brief introduction to Nordic architecture. Second, to research Nordic qualities like site adaptation, space, light, and materiality, as well as social characteristics such as collectivity, flexibility, and critical praxis. Students will work in teams on a concrete analysis of one particular building through model making, and the projects will be discussed in a series of 3 seminars, in which an invited practitioner from one of the Nordic countries connects the theme to current practice and architectural community.

This year’s theme, Nordic Women, engages projects designed by women from across the last century, illuminating contributions from designers more likely to be hidden in the architectural canon and thus broadening the architectural perspective of the students and the broader public.

 

Schedule

Schedule ARK079 updated 220113

Lectures, seminars and group work

If possible due to Covid, all lectures and group work will be held at school in the Art Studio. The seminars with invited guests, though, will be on zoom on the following link.

https://chalmers.zoom.us/j/62880723964    Password: ARK079

The group work and model building will have a home space in the Art studio, where each group has a table.

 

Covid

The course has been planned departing from the Covid conditions of the autumn semester, i.e. more or less totally campus based. However, we are flexible to adjust the situation according to the current pandemic situation, and if necessary, we will make adjustments with more digital meetings, spacing you out even more at campus and, if some students need to isolate, find hybrid solutions. The same goes for the study trip. If the study trip is not possible because of Covid, the experience from last year is that it can be met with another focus on the model building and the learning outcomes will be a bit different but not lesser. We are monitoring the situation and will give more specific information when needed. If you are restricted by symptoms or family isolation, please contact us as soon as poosible so that we can work things out together.

 

Contact details

Tabita Nilsson, course leader, teacher, tabita@chalmers.se, 0709-615052

Bri Gauger, course leader, bri.gauger@chalmers.se, 0701-478671

Isabelle Doucet, professor, examiner,  isabelle.doucet@chalmers.se

Johan Linton, professor, linton@chalmers.se

Peter Lindblom, teacher, pl@chalmers.se

 

Course purpose and content

The course gives a basis for reflection on Nordic architecture on different scales through a discourse with some of its traditions, contemporary developments, buildings and architects. The course is based on lectures, student seminars, an optional study trip, and an analysis through model building. The students will work in groups of about five or six students each.

The course has two main aims. First, to give a brief introduction to Nordic architecture. Second, to research Nordic qualities like site adaptation, space, light, and materiality by working with a concrete analysis of one particular building through model making. These aims are tied together by 3 seminars, discussing the buildings through different themes. Each seminar has an invited guest from one of the Nordic countries, thus connecting the theme to current practice and architectural community.

The subject of analysis is focused on a specific architectural theme which varies each year. Recent years included housing (2021) and public buildings (2020). This year’s theme, Nordic women, engages projects designed by women from across the last century, illuminating contributions from designers more likely to be hidden in the Nordic canon and thus broadening the architectural perspective.

Eight buildings, all outstanding projects on different scales and with different design philosophies, from each of the Nordic countries will be studied in groups and analysed in depth. Projects will be understood through making multiple types of models as well as images, collages, and text. This analysis is intended to help others understand essential qualities of the buildings in their historic, spatial, and social context and also to develop and clarify concepts of Nordic architecture.

Sweden

• Marianne Dahlbäck – Vasa Museum, Stockholm, 1990  

• Ingrid Wallberg – rowhouse in Bö, Göteborg, 1943

Finland

• Wivi Lönn – Ebeneser House kindergarden, Helsinki, 1908
• Pia Ilonen – Tila House, self-build housing project, Helsinki, 2011

Norway

• Karen Nissen Brodtkorb – Dockums, office building, Malmö, 2010
• Wenche Selmer – Summerhouse on Belstesholmen, Kristiansand, 1957

Denmark

• Lene Tranberg - Tietgenkollegiet Student housing, 2005
• Hanne Kjaerholm – Own house, Hørsholm, 1962

 

Course literature

These are optional readings that frame the larger issues and questions in the course. See project modules for readings specific for each project.

Claes Caldenby (ed.), Sweden: 20th-century architecture. München: Prestel, 1998.

Wenche Findal Mindretallets mangfold. Kvinner i norsk arkitekturhistorie. Oslo: Abstrakt Forlag, 2004

Kjeld Kjeldsen (ed.), New Nordic: architecture & identity. Humlebæk: Louisiana, 2012.

Renja Suominen-Kokkonen The fringe of a profession : women as architects in Finland from the 1890s to the 1950s (1992)

Nils Ole Lund, Nordic architecture, Arkitektens forlag, 2008.

Gunilla Lundahl (ed.), Kvinnorum: Porträtt av Arkitekter. ArkitekturMuseet, 1991.

Gunilla Lundahl (ed.), Kvinnor Som Banade Väg. Byggforskningsrådet, 1992.

 

(Books are available at the library at the School of Architecture or at the University library.)

 

Course design

The course in Nordic architecture is three weeks long and the work will be communicated in a final exhibition curated by the students, opening on the last day of the course. The exhibition will also have a digital format and published at https://projects.arch.chalmers.se/category/nordic-architecture/. 

The students will work in project groups of 5 or 6.  The project groups will be pre-made but the choice of which building to pursue will be elective to a certain degree. All student groups will together be responsible for the layout, mounting and dismounting of the physical exhibition as well as the digital, and promoting them. For this purpose, the students will form a curating group.

The first week includes a presentation of the course and a brief presentation and discussion of Nordic architecture. It also includes an introduction and preparations for the model building as well as for study trips for those involved. Literature studies, analytic drawings based on existing plans, sections and other representations as well as an optional study trip to the buildings are the basis for a deeper understanding and reflection. For those students not participating in a trip, study of Nordic Architecture in the near surroundings is an option.

The second week will be mostly dedicated to model building with analysis discussed in a series of three seminars. Students will formulate research questions for their projects for group discussion which will be facilitated by an external guest with expertise in Nordic architecture practice.

The third week will include model building, seminars and concrete preparations for the exhibition. The course ends with an exhibition opening which includes a critique by the examiner.

 

Changes made since the last occasion

The course this year might have the possibility of again being able to travel, and so the study trip has been brought back in. It offers a different and, in some ways, enhanced experience of the model building, but is an opportunity that can be adjusted to the travel possibility of the students, with local study objects as alternatives. Travel plans will be monitored and evaluated in light of Covid-19.

The delivery of photos and references has been adjusted so that they be reported directly into the Model Archive. To compensate this work, the model report has been made into a smaller, reflective exercise.

Due to booking issues, the exhibition will take place in an external venue.

 

Learning objectives and syllabus

At the completion of the course, each student should be able to describe some aspects of Nordic architecture, its conditions and character. Also to describe a number of Nordic architects and buildings and relate them to a cultural and historical context.

Study plan

 

Examination

To pass the course the following is required: active participation in lectures, seminars and discussions as well as contribution to reports and to the exhibition.

Grading:

For any student being present at all the lectures, trips, seminars and the model building the normal grade is 4. Lesser participation will result in the grade 3 or not passed. Exceptional contributions during the course might result in the grade 5.

 

Deliveries

Each individual student shall deliver:

• Model reflection 1, Jan 18 (written)
• Model reflection 2, Feb 4 (written)

Each project group shall deliver:

• List of study tour objects (written)
• Plan and discussion points for one seminar (written, 2 days prior to seminar)
• Leading role in one seminar (oral)
• 3 models of the project building (physical)
• Documentation of building and models, in photos, text and references, uploaded on https://odr.chalmers.se/modellkammaren according to instructions

The whole group shall deliver:

• A physical exhibition with models and information, Feb 4
• A digital exhibition with model photos and/or films and information, Feb 4