Course syllabus
Course-PM
ACE525 ACE525 Building on building lp4 VT26 (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 second studio in a sequence of three that revolve 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 reuse. 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, the studio will explore the after-aspect of architecture through a study of, and an architectural as well as a programmatic transformation of a office building at Kungsgatan 12-16, located on Kungshöjd in central Gothenburg, and designed by Semrén. The building is from 1972 and is in need of transformation due to a perceived state of obsolescence. Obsolescence is a term that is used in architecture to describe the decline in a building's utility, value, or relevance, causing it to become outdated, inefficient, or unsuitable for current needs. It encompasses technical decay, functional irrelevance, and economic unprofitability, often leading to renovation or demolition.
The chosen building belongs to a typology of buildings from a specific time period which is often deemed as unfit for contemporary demands and standards. Space in such buildings is often vacant due to technical, spatial, and/or architectural conditions and limitations. The studio will explore how these types of buildings can be transformed and adapted for contemporary and future needs, while also addressing what factors and mechanisms lie behind its perceived obsolescence. Further, we will explore strategies to prevent or counteract obsolescence.
Schedule
See canvas calendar + pdf schedule under module General Course information
Course literature
See course pm and module Literature
Course design
The studio revolves around a multiple set of learning activities, such as lectures, seminars, presentations, critique, on-site work, workshops, exhibition etc. The studio itself should be seen as a collective endeavour, where we invite all students to actively participate in creating a lively and open studio culture.
Through-out the course, design work is assessed in weekly supervision sessions. The studio cannot offer any online supervision on students’ request.
See course pm for further information.
Learning objectives and syllabus
Learning objectives:
Knowledge and understanding
- Define an architectural design process that departs from an extended investigation of an existing building through representation.
- Define notions of architectural reuse in relation to current practice and theory.
- Discuss their own design work in relation to the above.
Competence and skills
- Use and synthesize common as well as alternative techniques of architectural representation such as drawing, modelling, and scanning to analyse and explore an existing building or situation.
- Design a medium scale architecture project that responds to and/or intervenes in an existing building.
- 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 cumulative across the duration of the course, and they take material presented at presentations, final reviews, booklet, week-to-week development, as well as degree of participation in 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.
See further information in course pm.
Course summary:
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