Course syllabus

 

Course Overview 

ACE570 Reality studio

lp4 VT26 (15 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Master's Programme Architecture and Planning Beyond Sustainability / MPDSD

 

Course syllabus Links to an external site.

CONTACT DETAILS

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to send an email to:

Course examiner: Liane Thuvander, liane.thuvander@chalmers.se

Course coordinator: Jessica Lundin, jeslundi@chalmers.se

Course teachers: Emiline Elangovan, emiline.elangovan@chalmers.se and Marli Swanepoel marlis@chalmers.se

 

INFORMATION

Link to Presentation Download Presentation from information meeting

Link to Funding opportunities Download Funding opportunities

Link to Q&A session 16 November 2025 Download Q&A session 16 November 2025

 

COURSE LOCATION

There are 2 assigned working spaces for students in this course:

• Pre-Field Study Studio will be in Hammarkullen
  
  • You can get to Hammarkullen with tram 4, 8 or 9 from the city centre and towards Angered, then get off at the station “Hammarkullen".
• Post-Field Study Studio will be at Chalmers
  

 

COURSE ZOOM LINK

 

COURSE PURPOSE

The mission of the studio is for the students, through their coursework, develop and plan for the implementation of resilient, culturally appropriate, healthy and innovative design solutions that support dignified human everyday life. These design solutions are situated in culturally different and unfamiliar real-world environments (often in challenging foreign contexts of a low- or middle-income country), and cocreated through collaboration with local communities, NGOs, universities, governmental institutions and other organisations. Reality Studio aims to bring students into close contact with a range of global perspectives and ethically sensitive questions, and to learn and co-create spatial design approaches and methods that deal with challenges such as urban poverty, injustice, climate adaptation, among others.

• UNSDGs: The studio relates to and focuses on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (17)

 

COURSE DESIGN

Reality Studio revolves around a field study where students immerse themselves in the local context and build collaborations with local actors. The 2025 Reality Studio aims to include a field study trip of 4-5 weeks in April-May, to 2 locations simultaneously (South Africa/Kenya) where the studio will collaborate closely with local organisations and universities on existing projects in local communities. Below is the planned structure:

• Pre-Field Study (weeks 13-14): During these weeks, together as a whole class, we will meet various stakeholders from around the world, while gaining knowledge on the different challenges and communities presented by the stakeholders and delving deep into each of the presented contexts. Lectures, literature seminars, discussions on ethics, power, agency and coloniality will be part of this introduction period.
• Field Study (weeks 15-19): The class will break into teams of about 4 students each based on interest and skills, each team will then travel to their respective sites. Together with the partners/ stakeholders, the teams will be challenged to develop and apply methods/tools to collect information and data to analyse the project sites, communities, and cases in order to contribute to the project with design interventions based on the needs of the project and community.
• Post-Field Study (weeks 20-23): Each project team will work to create and design spatially contextualised proposals to meet the needs and challenges of the project site/community. The design proposals will address different time and spatial scales, short + long term, small + large scale, and they will be based on the information collected during the field study and knowledge gained from the stakeholders. Finally, each team will document and package their work in a way that will be available and useful for the stakeholders to easily implement some of the solutions proposed.

COURSE DESIGN LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Points of departure in the studio are everyday needs and activities of people, local businesses and communities in relation to a spatial context. The problems and possible solutions will vary significantly in different regions of the world. This will challenge the ability of the students in analysing the local situation in a broader context as a basis for the choice, the approach and the implementation of their architectural and urban design projects. See specific Intended Learning Outcomes in the course syllabus on the student portal.

 

MASTERS THESIS CONNECTION 

The studio will also aim to provide the students with inspiration, ideas and contacts for eventual future projects within the students upcoming masters thesis, especially within the masters thesis direction Society, Justice, Space. 

 

READINGS

Literature

• Hamdi, Nabeel (2004). Small change. Introduction.   Download Hamdi, Nabeel (2004). Small change. Introduction.  
• Tuck, E (2009). Suspending Damage-a letter to communities. Download Tuck, E (2009). Suspending Damage-a letter to communities.

 

Previous projects

For more information, you can refer to Chalmers Open Digital Repository(ODR).

South Africa

RS24_CoBuilding Identity.pdf Download RS24_CoBuilding Identity.pdf

RS25_Growing Community.pdf Download RS25_Growing Community.pdf

RS25_Stories in the making.pdf Download RS25_Stories in the making.pdf

Kenya

RS25_Boardwalk.pdf Download RS25_Boardwalk.pdf

RS25_Empower the Community.pdf Download RS25_Empower the Community.pdf

RS25_Spatial Stories of Dunga Primary School_comp.pdf Download RS25_Spatial Stories of Dunga Primary School_comp.pdf

 

EXAMINATION FORM

As a minimum, to pass the course and receive a grade, you need:

• Presence at all scheduled activities is required. Some absences can be accepted if there are legitimate reasons (e.g. temporary sickness). In other cases, supplementary assignments have to be handed in in order to compensate for absence (e.g. written reviews on literature). Non-compensated absence will negatively influence the grades (Regarding missed deadlines or other compulsory activities, please contact the teachers for a solution on how to compensate);
• Active participation at seminars, workshops and in group work;
• Course participation, hand-ins and assignments of sufficient quality (i.e. that fulfills the course objectives and specific requirements);
• Delayed submission of hand-ins without any approved motivation will negatively influence the grades;
• Electronic course evaluations should be filled in.

The expected students’ submissions in the studio in order to pass is divided into 2 groups:

• Hand-ins – non-graded compulsory submissions:
• Assignments – compulsory and graded (Fail, 3, 4, or 5), either individual or group submissions:

For grading details, see RS_Evaluation matrix Download RS_Evaluation matrix

 

COURSE REPRESENTATIVES

• To be confirmed

 

SCHEDULE

For the detailed and updated daily schedule, please check the course canvas calendar.