Course syllabus

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Course-PM

ACE440 Beyond sustainability lp1 HT23 (10 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Contact details

Contact details

Course purpose

The overall aim of the course is to provide critical, theoretical, and practical knowledge regarding sustainable development, by focusing on perspectives and frameworks that lift challenges and questions beyond sustainable building to include also social, economic, cultural, and political aspects. This course will introduce approaches and theories that explicitly define sustainability and ecology in terms of the complexity, relationality, and interconnectedness of the stakes and problems at hand and that approach these at multiple scale levels: from planetary to local communities. Through combining a close study of theories and approaches with hands-on practical assignments, this course aims to prepare students to become both problem-identifying and problem-solving professionals who can act as critical and ethical agents for the sustainable transformation of the built environment at all scale levels. The course aims to provide deeper understandings of sustainable methods and approaches that can be further developed in the students’ ensuing design studio trajectories. In doing so it aims to encourage and support students to act critically and caring vis-a-vis environmental challenges, as thinkers and designers.

Groups: Students will be working in groups. The groups will be formed by the examiner.

Schedule 

NOTE THAT ANY UPDATES OR FURTHER DETAILS TO THE SCHEDULE ARE PROVIDED IN THE DEDICATED MODULES SECTION ON CANVAS)

 

MODULE 1: 

1 September 2023

0900-1145: Introduction (New Room: VASA C)

1315-1700: Reading preparation

7 September 2023

0900-1145: Lecture (Room: SB-H5)

THIS SESSION WILL BE ON ZOOM:

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://chalmers.zoom.us/j/64737012372

    Meeting ID: 647 3701 2372
    Password: 914469

1315-1700: Reading Seminar: groups

8 September 2023

0900-1145: Reading Seminar: groups peer-to-peer

1315-1600: Reading Seminar: all (Room: SB-H5)

THIS SESSION WILL BE ON ZOOM BUT STUDENTS CAN USE THE BOOKED ROOM AS WELL

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://chalmers.zoom.us/j/63679740288

    Meeting ID: 636 7974 0288
    Password: 464070


MODULE 2

14 September 2023

0900-1145: Introduction / lecture (Room: SB-H5)

1315-1700: Reading preparation (readings AND ‘39 Ways’)

15 September 2023

0900-1145: Reading Seminar: groups (readings AND ‘39 Ways’)

1315-1600: Reading Seminar: all (Room: SB-H6)

 

MODULE 3

19 September 2023

0900-1145: Introduction / lecture (Room: SB-H5)

1315-1700: Reading preparation

20 September 2023

0900-1145: Reading Seminar: all (Room: SB-H8)

1315-1600: Reading Seminar: groups peer-to-peer evaluation (SB-H6 or Fifth Floor)

 

WRAP-UP MODULES 1-3 (Self Study)

21 - 22 September 2023

Wrap up and submission Assignment 1 (Modules 1-3)

 

MODULE 4

26 September 2023

0900-1145: Kick Start Module 4 (Room: SB-H3)

1315-1600: Project work

27 September 2023

0900-1145: Project work

1315-1600: Project work

28 September 2023

0900-1145: Project work and tutorials (Room: SB 584) (see schedule under module 4)

1315-1700: Project work and tutorials (Room: SB 584) (see schedule under module 4)

29 September 2023

0900-1145: Project work and tutorials (Room: SB 583 and 584) (see schedule under module 4)

1315-1700: Project work and tutorials (Room: SB 583 and 584) (see schedule under module 4)

3 October 2023

0900-1145: Review and wrap up

1315-1600: Review and wrap up

4 October 2023

0830-1145: Presentations (Room: SB-L216 / SB-L316 / SB-L516) (see schedule under module 4)

1315-1600: Review and submission 

 

MODULE 5

5 October 2023

0900-1145: Kick Start Module 5 (Room: SB-H7)

1315-1600: Kick Start Module 5 (Room: SB-H6)

6 October 2023

0900-1145: Project work

1315-1600: Project work

10 October 2023

0900-1145: Project work and tutorials

1315-1700: Project work and tutorials

11 October 2023

During the day, you are scheduled to leave project work for an hour for workshop introduction

0900-1145: Project work and tutorials

1315-1700: Project work and tutorials

12 October 2023

0900-1145: Project work

1315-1600: Project work

13 October 2023

0900-1145: Review and wrap up (Room: SB-H4)

1315-1600: Review and submission (Room: SB-H6)

 

MODULE 6

17 October 2023

0900-1145: Kick Start Module 6 (Room: SB-H4)

1315-1600: Project work

18 October 2023

0900-1145: Lecture (Room: SB-H4)

1315-1600: Project work and workshop introduction (Room: Multisalen)

19 October 2023

During the day, you are scheduled to leave project work for an hour for the machinery safety course

0900-1145: Project work

1315-1700: Workshop (Room: Multisalen)

20 October 2023

0900-1145: Project work and tutorials

1315-1700: Project work and tutorials

24 October 2023

0900-1145: Project work

1315-1600: Project work

25 October 2023

0830-1145: Review and wrap up (Room: EDIT Building (EB)

1315-1700: Review and Submission (Room: EDIT Building (EB)

 

WRAP-UP MODULES 1-6 (Self study)

26-27 October 2023

Wrap up and final submission

 

TimeEdit

Course literature

All mandatory readings as well as additional readings are provided within the dedicated Modules sections on Canvas.

Course design

The course comprises lectures, literature studies, seminars, and design exercises/testing. The seminars are carried out in smaller groups. The course assignment is carried out through a series of assignments following dedicated modules, and will be carried out in groups.

In the course different perspectives on sustainable development are presented and discussed, and selectively tested, with a particular focus on wider societal perspectives. These can include, for example, collaborative learning and world-making, place-based analysis, multi-scalar sustainability, circular economy, planning for communities and social-environmental justice, relational and urban ecologies, and critical planetary care. The role of designers will consequently also be approached in a broader sense, including their capacity, in addition to providing sustainable designs, to generate critical awareness and imagine alternative futures through critical storytelling, novel imaginations for the future etc.

The course is organized in two parts: ‘Thinking-With’ and ‘Acting-With’. Each of these two parts is subdivided in thematic modules.

 

PART 1: Thinking-With: Theories and critical frameworks ‘beyond’ sustainability:

Amid various old and new approaches to sustainability in architecture and the urban, this part of the course will zoom in on specific theories that lift the discussion ‘beyond’ sustainability. It will be taught through reading and discussion seminars and lectures. This part of the course contains 3 modules.

Module 1: Beyond What? (1-8 September 2023)

Module 2: Environmental Actions (Through Design) (14-15 September 2023)

Module 3: Inclusive Environmental Action, Ethics and Climate Justice (19-20 September 2023)

 

PART 2: Acting-With: Design methods and approaches 'beyond' sustainability.

This part of the course will introduce the students to specific methods and approaches that allow for architects and urban designers to act ‘beyond’ sustainability and contribute to change. In each module, students will be introduced to a method or approach suitable for addressing ‘beyond’ sustainability challenges, and they will be tasked with hands-on research and design exercises. Each of these modules introduces the students to a specific approach / method that allows them as designers to address complex questions of sustainability. Each module uses distinct scales, geographies, typologies, and tools or ‘sites’ for analysis (e.g., policy documents, construction materials, stakeholders) in order to study sustainability in a broad and complex way, and to formulate suitable responses.

The selected methodological approaches are offered as stand-alone learning modules, but they also will serve, to some degree, as a prelude to specific methods used in the different MPDSD design studios. 

This part of the course contains 3 modules. The design (research) exercises within these three Acting-With modules are taught through a combination of lectures, tutorials, self-study (design and analysis), and reviews.

Module 4: The Broader Context (26 September – 4 October 2023)

Module 5: Reuse and Circularity (5 October – 13 October 2023)

Module 6: Stakeholder Analysis (17 - 25 October 2023)

 

Changes made since the last occasion

Not applicable. This is a new course.

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning outcomes (after completion of the course the student should be able to)

Knowledge and understanding

  • Critically analyse, and selectively test, different aspects of the built environment that are connected to but also beyond sustainability.
  • Critically compare different frameworks and models for conceptualizing, and developing solutions for environmental challenges, understood in a broad societal sense.

Competence and skills

  • Critically analyse, select, and selectively test/apply existing approaches towards a complex and relational understanding of environmental challenges and for designing for environmental care, drawing from multiple fields of study, and working at different scale levels.
  • Critically assess and synthesize varied types of and approaches to knowledge, which is a key competence required for designing sustainable environments.
  • Correctly cite and reference precedents (both projects, methods, and ideas) when synthesizing knowledge in a design project.
  • Evaluate the capacity of architectural/urban projects towards sustainable development and environmental care and for developing ways of responding to complex challenges through design.

Judgement and approach

  • Critically analyse opportunities and challenges of thinking about sustainable development through wider societal forces and perspectives and the implications for architectural, urban, and environmental design.
  • Evaluate and formulate their own societal and critical role as professionals vis-a-vis questions of sustainability, and reflect upon the possibility of becoming agents of change.

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen: https://www.student.chalmers.se/sp/course?course_id=37174

 

Examination form

To obtain a pass in this course the following requirements must be fulfilled.

  • Presence at scheduled lectures and films - 80 % at the minimum.
  • Active participation in seminars
  • Submission of course assignment in accordance with assigned criteria (SEE THE ASSIGNMENT SECTION ON CANVAS)

Course summary:

Date Details Due