Course syllabus

Course-PM

ACE575 Sustainable building transformation lp4 VT26 (15 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Figure 1:  Google Earth Satellite image showing UB50 and UB80 in context

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 Building Transformation at the Division of Building Design, ACE.

Teachers and supervisors:

• Carrie Bobo, carrie.bobo@chalmers.se. Carrie is an architect and lecturer in the practice of architecture in building design
• 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.
• Mikael Sonnsjö, mikael@sonnsjo.se; sonnsjo@chalmers.se. Mikael is an architect with his own office, and regaulary taking part as teacher at Chalmers
• 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
• Jonatan Forsman, jonatan.forsman@chalmers.se.  Jonatan is an architect and PhD student in heritage and building renovations.

Client representatives from Akademiska hus

• Karolina Ganhammar, Architect, Property Manager, Akademiska Hus
• Sofia Bårdén, Architect, Strategic Property Developer, Akademiska Hus
• Rebecka Gunnarsson, Development Manager, Akademiska Hus

Guest lecturers, tutors & reviewers

• 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.
• Susanne Fredholm, Senior Lecturer in Conservation of Built Environments, at the University of Gothenburg
• Gertrud Gudmundsson, Architect at Gajd Architects. Long experience working with renovation and adaptive reuse
• More will be added

Course purpose

This course, a design studio, distinguishes itself by offering the opportunity to develop skills in architectural transformation through the adaptation of two existing connected buildings constructed in two different time periods, in collaboration with a property owner.    

The course will develop your skills as an architect to support the extended life, use, and value creation of existing built environments through design. Design proposals should contribute to the avoidance of redundancy of sites and buildings, and minimise resource extraction, waste production and surplus materials. The course will introduce a variety of strategies for the continued use of a site and its buildings that can be approached through preservation, renovation, reprogramming, adaptive reuse, transformation, and/or additions, as well as a combination of those strategies.

The course is set in a framework of current climate and energy crises as well as strives for sustainable and equal rights to resources and places for all. Design proposals should be based on and motivated by an understanding of environmental, technical, material, socio-economic, and cultural aspects. Proposals should carefully consider historical contexts, cultural heritage, and collective memories.

The course focuses on the understanding of a specific limited site and set of buildings, all while considering its relationship to local surrounding natural, urban and societal environments and political contexts.

Schedule

We primarily use the Canvas calendar. If discrepancies exist between the Canvas calendar and TimeEdit, Canvas information is valid.   TimeEdit Links to an external site.

Course literature

List all mandatory literature, including descriptions of how to access the texts (e.g. Cremona, Chalmers Library, links).

Also list reference literature, further reading, and other non-mandatory texts.

Course design

This course is designed as a studio where you will work on repurposing and transforming selected buildings with fellow students in a team. You will train your ability to analyse, document and evaluate the qualities, opportunities, and challenges of the selected buildings(s) and their context. This ability is 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, minimizing resource extraction, waste production, and the addition of surplus materials.

We work in the setting of teams in order to best reflect the nature of work in an architectural office as happening within teams and as a conversation between many parties.  Part of the work of the studio is the organization of your team in a structured, professional, and respectful way so that team members each have the best experiences possible.

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
• Theory & Research, The Self study weeks
• Design Phase One, Concept, further investigations, and a spatial programme
• Design Phase Two, Developing and finalising your architectural proposal
• Presentation & Exhibition.

Inventory & Analysis

In this first phase, you investigate and analyze the buildings and the site.  For the inventory, you use photo documentation, sketches, and existing documents (reports, drawings, plans, and historical photos). You will update drawings and plans.  

Theory & Research

This phase allows in-depth research of information that may be relevant to the project's design and development.  This is a critical phase in any project where you will determine and investigate subjects that could inform the project design.  Individual research will be assembled to create a comprehensive body of knowledge for the team to work from.  This could include: relevant reference projects, the site and buildings histories, and material strategies. In this phase, you will also consider the course literature and how theory could inform approaches to the project.

Design Phase One

In this third phase, you start working on a concept for your proposal.  You will begin by choosing your approach and rules of the game for your architectural intervention informed and inspired by theory on adaptive reuse and circular economy. You will formulate a concept, a motto, and a working plan forward. You will develop a concept model.  The concept becomes the red thread that leads you through this processing phase. During this phase, you will likely need to do more in-depth research and inventories on-site.

Design Phase Two

In this fourth phase, the focus is on developing your project and producing working documents in drawings and models. 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.

Presentation and Exhibition

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 to be exhibited in public exhibition at Akademiska Hus.  Part of the work of the course will also be designing and preparing a printed book that will serve as a catalog of the exhibition and include the full course process including research, approach, and each team's proposals. 

Locations

The studio is full-time and will take place at Chalmers and, at times, at the specific site or on field visits to relevant projects.  You will be given a working place at Chalmers, where you will build your studio environment together using a combination of digital and analogue tools.  We will also use the workshop for the production of models.  We will have some of our pin-ups and sharing at AWL, a working lab where Akademiska Hus has its offices and also plan to have the exhibition within Akademiska Hus. 

Communication

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

Group and Team Assignments

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.

Responsibility, Attendance, and Complementary Task

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.

 

Figure 2: Diener & Diener Architekten. The Museum of Natural History, Berlin

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 has been the selection of buildings. 

Learning objectives and syllabus

Knowledge and understanding

After the course the student should be able to:

1. Recognise and describe various architectural approaches and strategies to work with continued use, renovation, and/or transformation of existing built environments.
2. Identify and select methods for inventory and analysis of existing built environments with respect to material and immaterial information and values.
3. Identify challenges and possibilities for sustainable futures for a specific site and its buildings.

Competence and skills

After the course the student should be able to, both individually and as part of a team:

1. Select and apply methods to describe and analyse a specific site and its buildings from different perspectives with respect to material and immaterial perspectives.
2. Search for, identify and select references for institutional frameworks, scientific and grey literature, and exemplary architectural projects for the development of a concept and design proposal.
3. Formulate a written vision and strategy for the sustainable continued use of a specific site and buildings that makes references to institutional frameworks, scientific literature, and exemplary architectural projects.
4. Develop a vision and strategy into a design proposal that will extend the lifespan of a site and its building(s)/building components and with the ambition of reducing (unsustainable) resource use through production and use phase.
5. Develop an architectural project that will enable the continued use of a place and its buildings and create new or sustain existing values in relation to and respect for existing material and immaterial values.
6. Visually and orally communicate and defend the proposed concept and design.

Judgement and approach

After the Course the student should be able to, both individually and as part of a team:

1. Critically reflect on challenges, and at times competing objectives and interests, for sustainable continued use or transformation of the built environment.
2. Critically reflect upon the effect of an architectural intervention/proposal upon existing material and immaterial values.
3. Justify and critically reflect on a proposal for vision, strategy, and design intervention, from the perspective of efficient use of recourses, the current climate and energy crises and a sustainable continued use with respect to social, cultural and historical values.
4. Critically reflect on the role of the architect and architectural knowledge for sustainable continued use and/or transformation of existing built environments

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

https://www.chalmers.se/en/education/your-studies/find-course-and-programme-syllabi/course-syllabus/ACE575/?acYear=2025%2F2026 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.