Course syllabus

Room SB-R260 on the second floor.

The course starts on Monday 20th January at 9:00 sharp.

Course-PM

ARK620 Crash course: Beyond sustainability lp3 VT20 (4.5 hp)
Course is offered by the department of Architecture and Civil Engineering
Master’s Programme Architecture and Planning Beyond Sustainability / MPDSD
Chalmers School of Architecture – Spring Term 2020

Examiner: Emílio Brandão • brandao@chalmers.se • 0762 343 647
Coordinator and teacher: Shea Hagy • shea.hagy@chalmers.se • 0709 847 067

 

4,5 ects Crash Course - ARK620

BEYOND SUSTAINABILITY

There is no simple formula for how to practice sustainable architecture and planning. There are myriads of solutions focusing on different aspects of sustainability within the built environment. Navigating, prioritising and selecting among them is not an easy task. This calls for not only knowledge about a wide range of sustainable architecture and planning tools, but also being a reflective practitioner concerning how to apply what and when, and understanding how different approaches and solutions influence each other. This course strengthens the architect as a reflective practitioner committed to a sustainable architectural practice in an expanded field.

The course Beyond Sustainability aims at supporting students to further develop and explore methods for their personal and individual approach to sustainable architecture and planning through a reflective and practical understanding of the necessary transformation of the profession. The content of the course will every year adapt to the current forefront questions and knowledge production in the field of sustainable architecture and planning.

After this course, you will eventually be able to build your personal and professional code of conduct, your own reflective manifesto beyond sustainability or a deeper reflection on a personal and professional paradigm change within architecture. You will be able to search within and beyond the conventional frame of architecture and dare to project yourself among leaders in architecture practices beyond sustainability.

Structure:

Each week of the course will focus on a different topic at the forefront of sustainability within architecture and planning. During the first day of the course, there will be a general introduction to the main intentions with the course. Then, each thematic week, will start with an introduction to the theoretical framework and practice concerning the approach explored, followed by intensive project work in workshop format (with sessions of tutorials) for 3-4 days. Each week will be concluded with presentations and critique. The students shall work with a new project context, set of questions, methods and setup for each week. The main topics during spring semester 2018 are:

 

1^st week: Biomimicry and more-than-human thinking

Responsible teacher: Anna Maria Orru, PhD

This week will introduce you to thinking and designing in terms of other species and more- than-human consideration. To design with ‘others’ in mind will be investigated through biomimicry and eco-feminism thinking. We will explore biomimicry both from a theoretical and practice- based perspective looking at how Nature holds solutions to many challenges we grapple with on a daily basis. To further the biomimicry perspective, lectures on post-human and eco-feminism thinking will help us in critically looking at other species as companions in urban living and making.

 

2^nd week: Architecture and Human Rights

Responsible teacher: Inger Lise Syversen, PhD and Feras Hammami, Senior Lecturer

The starting point for this week is the current global situation of migration, refugees and armed conflicts based on cultural and religious diversity and uneven distribution of wealth and power. The aim of this week is to introduce to the method of Right-based approach to cultural and architectural heritage and to explore architectural heritage as a generator for peace and reconciliation.

 

3^rd week: Embodied thinking and alternate Artistic-based approaches

Responsible teacher: Anna Maria Orru, PhD

This week will close the ‘beyond sustainability’ course by considering embodied thinking and artistic research as alternate modes of practicing architecture, especially from an ecological point of view. We will investigate what ‘alternate modes’ of inquiry are and can bring to our working methodologies. These perspective offer a transdisciplinary way to process and deepen what has been learned on the course and may prove uncomfortable or foreign at first, but it creates the opportunity for an ‘otherly’ thinking that opens up for different approaches to climate challenges – something crucial in these times of environmental unrest.

 

Learning outcomes

After the course, you are expected to be able to:

• Build and reflect upon your personal engagement and your professional behaviour within practices and methods beyond sustainability.
• Demonstrate a deepened understanding of a set of specific methods, techniques and processes required to handle complex design issues within the field of architecture and planning beyond sustainability.
• Conceive, analyse and/or realize architectural ideas beyond sustainability through representations, prototypes and/or virtual or material processes organised in presentation format.

 

Course Start and Registration

The course starts on January 20th, week 4, 2020, and ends in February 7th 2020, week 6.

For information about admission and registration, please contact Agnes Elmefjäll, study counsellor (agnes.elmefjall@chalmers.se).

Entry requirements
Undergraduate profile with a Bachelor degree or similar, in Architecture, Architecture and Engineering, Interior Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Spatial planning or Urban design.

 

Other information

Credits for the course: 4,5 ects, advanced level 

Teaching language: English

Examiner:
Emílio da Cruz Brandão
0762 34 36 47, brandao@chalmers.se

Coordinator/teacher:
Shea Hagy
0709 847 067, shea.hagy@chalmers.se

 

Course homepage:

Search the course number ARK 620 at: www.student.chalmers.se