Course syllabus

Course-PM

ACE575 Sustainable building transformation lp4 VT25 (15 hp)

The course is offered by the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Figure 1: Diener & Diener Architekten. The Museum of Natural History, Berlin

Contact details

The teaching team includes teachers from ACE and external teachers working in architectural transformation, conservation, and sustainability. Additional expertise will be brought in for lectures and special tutorials.

Examiner:

• Paula Femenias, femenias@chalmers.se (telephone: 0735570048). Paula is a Professor in Sustainable Transformation of the Built Environment at the Division of Building Design, ACE.

Teachers and supervisors:

• Charlie Gullström, charlie.gullstrom@sweco.se, is an architect, Research and innovation strategist at SWECO and an Adjunct Professor in Circular economy in architecture and urban planning at Chalmers
• Mikael Sonnsjö, mikael@sonnsjo.se; sonnsjo@chalmers.se. Mikael is an architect with his own office, and regaulary taking part as teacher at Chalmers.
• Kaj Granath, granath@chalmers.se, Kaj is an architect, PhD and teacher in building design.
• Tabita Nilsson, tabita@chalmers.se. Tabita is one of our teachers in the workshop and is responsible for a module on models as a tool for analysis and representation.
• Maitri Dore, maitre.dore@chalmers.se. Maitri is an architect with a PhD in Conservation from Gothenburg University and now a post-doc at Chalmers.
• Greta Faxberg, faxberg@chalmers.se. Greta is an architect and project and teaching assistant at Chalmers.

Client representatives from Akademiska hus

• Karolina Ganhammar, Architect, Property Manager, Akademiska Hus
• Rebecka Gunnarsson, Development Manager, Akademiska Hus

Guest lecturers, tutors & reviewers

• Rasmus Ranglin, Architect at Boverket - the Swedish National Board for Housing, Building and Planning 

• Gertrud Gudmundsson, Architect at Gajd Architects. Long experience working with renovation and adaptive reuse

• Bie Plevoelts, Assistant Professor at the University of Hasselt in Belgium
• Koenraad van Cleempoel – Professor in Art History at the University of Hasselt in Belgium. Koenraad and Bie will lecture on Adaptive Reuse, a topic they have researched and written extensively about.
• More people might be added.

Schedule

TimeEditLinks to an external site.

We primarily use the Canvas calendar. If discrepancies exist between the Canvas calendar and TimeEdit, Canvas information is valid.

Course literature

Two texts are compulsory for the course:

Plevoets, B., & Van Cleempoel, K. (2019). Adaptive reuse of the built heritage: Concepts and cases of an Links to an external site.emerging disciplineLinks to an external site..Routledge. Chapter 1-5. [Available on-line through Chalmers Library]

Huuhka, S., & Vestergaard, I. (2020). Building conservation and the circular economy: a theoretical considerationLinks to an external site.. Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, 10(1), 29-40.

For reference literature, see list in Assignment for Approaches & Cases

Course design

The studio will develop your practical and theoretical skills as an architect to contribute to existing buildings’ extended life and usage. The course is set in a framework of current climate crises and resource scarcity where demolition of buildings and new construction must be restricted in favour of repair, extended use, transformation and repurposing of existing buildings for new and changing uses. The ambition is also to create inclusive and attractive places for all. 

You will work on repurposing and transforming selected buildings with fellow students on a team. You will train your ability to analyse, document and evaluate the qualities and challenges of the selected buildings(s) and their context. This ability increasingly becomes important knowledge for architects when working with existing buildings. Your analysis will produce a program and concept to inform and drive the design process. Lectures, seminars, and weekly tutorials support your design process. We will have recurrent pin-ups with group presentations and discussions. The pin-ups will be an important forum in the studio to share knowledge between groups and students and advance your and all other students’ progression and learning. Physical models will be used as a tool for interpreting your analysis and inventory in 3 dimensions, as well as a tool to test concepts and design.

We work in the setting of a circular economy, slowing down, narrowing and closing resource flows. Emphasis lies on the highest levels of the circular hierarchy: Refuse, Rethink and Reduce. Your proposals should contribute to avoiding redundancy, minimising resource extraction, waste production, and the addition of surplus materials.

We will use architectural concepts from theories on adaptive reuse at the crossroads of architecture and conservation, working respectfully with historical traces, heritage values and collective memories while acknowledging that changes might be necessary to embrace new futures and long-term usages.

The course is structured in four phases:

• Inventory, analysis and concept
• Design phase 1, further investigations and first design for the proposal
• Design phase 2, developing and finalising the proposal
• Presentation and exhibition.

In this phase, you investigate and analyse the buildings and the site. You will be divided into groups based on your personal interest, and the groups will be kept throughout the design phase. For the inventory you use photo documentation, sketches, as well as existing documents (reports, drawings, plans and historical photos). You will update drawings and plans. You will choose your approach and rules of the game for your architectural intervention informed and inspired by theory on adaptive reuse and circular economy. By the end of this phase, you will formulate a concept, a motto, and a working plan forward.

During design phase 1, you start working on your proposal. The concept becomes the red thread that leads you through this processing phase. As a start, you might need to do more in-depth research and inventories on-site.

In design phase 2, the focus is on producing working documents in drawings. You will work out a well-thought-out and coherent proposal that handles the building scale as a whole and come down to one detail of a spatial intervention that is critical for your proposal, which should be investigated and presented in detail.

The ambition for the presentation and exhibition is to present the project in the best possible way in drawings, images, text and models. You are expected to present a narrative from concept to your architectural intervention in drawings and models.

The studio is full-time and will take place at Chalmers and, at times, at the specific site. You will be given a working place at Chalmers, where you will build your studio environment together. We will have some of our pin-ups and sharing at AWL, a working lab where Akademiska Hus has its offices. We plan for a study trip to Lund/Malmö/Copenhagen in the beginning of May. 

The course uses Canvas to communicate scheduled activities and hand-ins, share common material, and communicate between students and teachers.

You are expected to work in groups with other students for the main task, the architectural proposal for the extended use of a building. The course also includes individual assignments (individual site analysis using Album-RIDS, literature studies, and selection of reference projects).

As a second-cycle student, you are expected to take significant responsibility for your own studies and progress. Full attendance is expected at lectures, seminars, supervision, and review. Attendance will be taken at lectures, seminars, reviews, and supervision. When you have a legitimate reason (illness, doctor’s appointment) for not attending, a message should be sent to the examiner before that occasion or by the same morning at the latest. Complementary tasks will be requested when you miss a compulsory seminar or lecture. In the same way, a long absence due to illness might be subject to complementary tasks.

Changes made since the last occasion

The precedents to the course have been running for over a decade. For two years, the course has had a stronger focus on spatial sufficiency through the extended use of existing buildings using theories on circular economy and adaptive reuse.  Since last year, the main change is the selection of buildings. 

Learning objectives and syllabus

Knowledge and understanding

After the course, the student should be able to:

1. Recognise and describe the main theories in circular economy and adaptive reuse. 
2. Identify and describe methods to identify, document and describe the values and qualities of existing buildings. 
3. Identify challenges and possibilities for sustainable futures for a specific site and its buildings.

Skills and abilities

After the course, the student should be able to:

1. In your team, collectively select and apply methods to identify, document and describe the values and qualities of existing buildings to create a program/concept for their extended and continued use.
2. Individually and in discussion with your team, identify, select, describe and discuss reference projects using circular economy and adaptive reuse as frameworks.
3. As part of a team, collectively formulate a concept and program for the extended life of the building based on inventory. 
4. As a team, visually and orally communicate and defend the proposed architectural intervention.

Ability of assessment and attitude

After the course, the student should be able to:

1. In groups, critically reflect on challenges and, at times, competing objectives and interests for the extended and sustainable use of buildings with respect to resource use, heritage conservation and inclusive societies.
2. In groups, evaluate the impact of the proposed architectural intervention with respect to existing stakeholders, material and immaterial values, and the efficient use of resources.
3. In groups, critically reflect on the role of the architect and architectural knowledge for the extended sustainable use of existing built environments

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

Study plan Links to an external site.

Links to an external site.Links to an external site.

Integrated learning

The course is offered in both MPDSD and MPARC. In relation to other courses in MPDSD and MPARC that also propose transformation projects, this course distinguishes itself by emphasising an understanding and developing existing built structures regarding technical, material, and cultural values. The course emphasises an architectural intervention regarding technical and architectural details. The course also develops a theoretical understanding of the crossing between theories of architectural adaptive reuse and circular societies.

Examination form

The course has continuous examination; thus, active participation in common activities, lectures, seminars, tutoring, and reviews is required. Absences from scheduled supervision, lectures, seminars, and activities, as well as shorter sick leaves, are to be replaced by supplementary assignments. The examination is based on active participation, as stated above and the quality of compulsory hand-ins. The teaching team assesses the quality of the hand-ins with the support of invited external critics.

You must submit hand-ins on time to participate in reviews and discussions. If you miss a deadline, this must be notified, and you might be granted an extension. You must actively participate in all pin-ups and final presentations. Before the final presentation, a 90% check will be carried out by the tutors/examiner.

If your project does not pass the final review, you can be asked to make minor or major revisions and supplementary work. If you are asked to make minor revisions, these must be submitted within a week. If major revisions are requested, a date for a new examination will be discussed in dialogue with the examiner and the student. It is impossible to revise or supplement your project if you have missed substantial parts of the course (lectures, seminars, tutorials) and failed to present a project at the final review that is at least 90% ready. Then you will be asked to take the course again.

Grading depends on the quality of the student’s work. Failed (F), good quality (3), high quality (4), very high quality 5

Grade 5: Very high-quality design project. Show excellent ability to integrate practical and scientific knowledge from different disciplines in concept and design proposals. All assignments should have high quality. Be able to formulate a written concept with academic quality using references. Very high and active presence at all scheduled activities and active participation in seminars, tutorials, pin-ups, reviews, discussions, and group work.  

Grade 4 High quality of design. Show the ability to integrate practical and scientific knowledge from different disciplines in the design. Be able to formulate a written concept using references. All assignments should have high quality. High presence at all scheduled activities and active participation  in seminars, tutorials, pin-ups, reviews, discussions, and group work.  

Grade 3 Good quality of design. Show the ability to integrate practical and scientific knowledge from different disciplines in the design. Be able to formulate a written concept using references. All assignments are submitted and approved. Attendance at all scheduled activities and active participation in seminars, pin-ups, reviews, discussions, and group work.