AR-476 / 4 credits

Teacher: Maçães E Costa Bárbara

Language: English

Withdrawal: It is not allowed to withdraw from this subject after the registration deadline.

Remark: Inscription faite par la section


Summary

Teaching unit on mapping environmental relations in architecture.

Content

Keywords

Architecture, Cartography, Dialectics, Environmental aesthetics, Modern/postmodern urban politics.

 

Learning Prerequisites

Recommended courses

Preparation for design and research studios that reflect on cross-scale relationships and the ecological backgrounds of architectural form. Provides a methodological foundation for the Enoncé théorique de master and the orientation Project Urbain. Content is closely related to the theory course AR-505 Modernity, Architecture and the Environment, which teaches a textual/discursive version of the same question and method.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

  • Draw abstract visual layers from complex landscapes.
  • Assemble those layers to form spatial figures.
  • Contextualise those figures in the concrete spatial and historical development of the site.
  • Systematize (map) a building as a dynamic and contradictory totality.

Teaching methods

The course takes a skeptical stance toward traditional claims of "cartographic truth" by addressing the map's internal tension between sensuous perspective and rational plan. The method blends tools from art (hand drawing), planning (remote sensing), and history (dialectical criticism). Hand drawing guides the initial process of abstraction and layering; planning offers a set of spatial figures as metaphors for the urban palimpsest; and a dialectical approach to historical development reveals hidden relationships between form and context. In this way, cartography reconciles the immanent (object) and the contingent (environment), allowing us to measure how certain buildings function as devices of environmental mediation.

Theoretical content is provided through weekly lectures, and practical assignments are supported by weekly desk critiques and group reviews. Classes include close reading of historical maps, and the analysis of texts and films on cartography, landscape, and environmental politics. Special emphasis is placed on hand drawing, AI, CAD, and GIS, but no previous experience is required.

Assessment methods

Continuous assessment: midterm review 25%; final review 50%; intermediate exercises and class participation: 25%. All classes are held in English, reviews may be held in French.

Supervision

Office hours No
Assistants No
Forum No

Resources

Bibliography

  • AURELI, Pier Vittorio. "Life, Abstracted: Notes on the Floor Plan." e-flux Architecture (October 2017). Available at https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/representation/159199/life-abstracted-notes-on-the-floor-plan.
  • COSTA, Bárbara Maçães. "Conduit, Patio, Waste Mapping Environmental Relations in Bairro da Malagueira." PhD diss. École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, 2021.
  • HARVEY, David. "The Experience of Space and Time." In The Condition of Postmodernity, 201-326. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1990.

Ressources en bibliothèque

Notes/Handbook

Detailed syllabus with dedicated class readings provided upon enrolment. Reading ahead advised but not mandatory.

Websites

Moodle Link

In the programs

  • Semester: Fall
  • Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
  • Subject examined: UE U : Cartography
  • Lecture: 3 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Semester: Fall
  • Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
  • Subject examined: UE U : Cartography
  • Lecture: 3 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Semester: Fall
  • Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
  • Subject examined: UE U : Cartography
  • Lecture: 3 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks

Reference week

 MoTuWeThFr
8-9     
9-10     
10-11     
11-12     
12-13     
13-14     
14-15     
15-16     
16-17     
17-18     
18-19     
19-20     
20-21     
21-22     

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