Studio MA1 (Kueng & Caputo)
AR-401(t) / 13 credits
Teacher(s): Caputo Luigia Francesca Eléni, Kueng Sarah Katrin Brigga
Language: English
Withdrawal: It is not allowed to withdraw from this subject after the registration deadline.
Remark: Inscription faite par la section
Summary
La Vita è Bella engages with the question of how people appropriate their surroundings in the private and public sphere. How do we adopt and intervene in this world? By means of built interventions, 1:1 prototypes and collective activities, we investigate space in its proportions and dimensions.
Content
La Vita è Bella examines architecture as an active process to increase quality of life. We analyse our immediate environment and intervene on-site in the urban reality.
Through sketching, walking, talking and building we acquire knowledge and uncover new potentials and perspectives, which are directly tested in practice through the 1:1 prototype.
This studio is the collective attempt to explore design processes. We face the discomfort of the unknown by asking what if questions. Based on our desires we map out a possible future. To carry out this research, we build 1:1 prototypes, walk through the city, and visit our homes. We observe and question the reality, test ideas, and challenge the limits.
La Vita è Bella engages with the question of how people appropriate their surroundings in the private and public sphere. How do we adopt and intervene in this world? By means of built interventions and collective activities, we investigate space in its proportions and dimensions.
1:1 BUILDING
We think and design in 1:1. Only the scale of reality exists. The potential of these prototypes lies in the immediate experience of a physical concept. Thinking in the 1:1 prototype as an idea calls for a spontaneous, detailed approach.
The 1:1 prototypes are the built fragment of a possible future and the realistic argument of the project. They are proof that we can change the way we think about the future. From imaginative speculation to constructive details, we shape and define the reality to come.
TESTING TESTING TESTING
By experiencing a space through our body and senses, we create a spatial argument that becomes the foundation of our discussions. To sharpen this arguments and our vocabulary of space, we need to repeat this process again and again.
WALKING
During the semester, we develop a collective memory. Walking is more than just relocating ourselves, it is a tool to start a dialogue within the group and to create an alternative understanding of the urban territories we live in. The studio investigates the idea of collective learning and questioning as a design process.
CRITICAL DIALOGUE
The collision of different interests creates a versatile and shared memory. Through the receptivity of learning from others and the erasure of personal authorship, unforseeable, surprising and unexpectedly rare things are possible.
THE ROOM
The field of interventions spans from your intimate bedroom to the public square. First, we test our arguments in 1:1 prototypes in a private room and explore possible implications in real life. By analysing the 1:1 draft collectively, we question what is common perception and what is individual assumption.
THE CITY
In a next step, the 1:1 intervention moves from the room to the city. The relocation of a spatial idea from the intimate living space to the urban context questions boundaries between private and public space. It gives rise to social and spatial questions in an inevitable but playful way. Urban initiatives organised by students for students highlight collective interests in the city and landscape.
TEAM: Lovis Caputo, Sarah Kueng, Michelle Geilinger, Nicolas Rothenbühler
WORKSHOP: Susanne Kaelin
GUEST CRITICS: Gian Trachsler, Li Tavor
Keywords
Collective Activities, Building, Urban Appropriation, 1:1, Walking, Talking, Approving, Walking,
Learning Prerequisites
Important concepts to start the course
Critical Thinking
Motivation
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, the student must be able to:
- Analyze the immediate environment through walking research and develop techniques to record and map the experiences
- Develop a consistent architectural concept
- Design in 1:1 scale. Various techniques for a fast-paced design process
- Develop verbally a thesis based on the students' own desire
- Develop strategies to moderate a discussion and cultivate a dialogue
- Design collectively
- Test different design techniques
- Elaborate critical thinking
Transversal skills
- Give feedback (critique) in an appropriate fashion.
- Demonstrate the capacity for critical thinking
Teaching methods
Research, Analysis, Concept, Draft, Implementation
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Question the common architectural design process
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Process-oriented
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Working with proportions
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Test design through actual experience
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Visualize concept three-dimensionally
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Appropriation of new methods through repetition
Expected student activities
- doing one project individually
- analyzing, testing and criticising projects of other students
- doing one project in a group
- walk, talk, build
Assessment methods
33 % engagement en groupe et en studio: participation en discussions, cooperation en groupe
33 % critiques intérmediaires et de fin de semestre,
33 % pour la communication : représentation, présentation orales, documents écrits, maquettes, travail en groupe
Supervision
Assistants | Yes |
Resources
Bibliography
Making Air Visible / Far vedere l‘aria: A Visual Reader on Bruno Munari,
by Claude Lichtenstein, Lars Muller Publishers, 2001
In Praise of Shadows, by Junichiro Tanizaki, 1977
Living in Motion: Design and Architecture for Flexible Dwelling,
by Vitra Design Museum, 2002
Architecture Without Architects. A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed
Architecture, by Bernard Rudofsky, 1987
Nomadic Furniture, by James Hennessey, 1973
Ettore Sottsass - Adesso però, by Ettore Sottsass, Hatje Verlag, 1993
Ressources en bibliothèque
- Making Air Visible / Lichtenstein
- In Praise of Shadows / Tanizaki
- Living in Motion /Vitra Design Museum
- Architecture without Architects / Rudofsky
- Nomadic Furniture / Hennessey
Websites
In the programs
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Studio MA1 (Kueng & Caputo)
- Lecture: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Project: 4 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Studio MA1 (Kueng & Caputo)
- Lecture: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Project: 4 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Studio MA1 (Kueng & Caputo)
- Lecture: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Project: 4 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
Reference week
Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | |
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21-22 |
Légendes:
Lecture
Exercise, TP
Project, other