Exquisite Corpse: Architecture Assembled

Summary

Through close readings of key examples, the course revisits the historical evolution of architectural drawing and representation as autonomous entities, aiming to reclaim the agency of architectural drawing as a project.

Content

Keywords

architectural representation, drawing, painting, axomonetric drawing, diagram, code, score, collage, assemblage, model

Learning Outcomes

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

• Develop a methodology in making architectural representation
• Conduct precedent research and literature review based on relevant conceptual and theoretical frameworks, or technical methods
• Develop structured and critical reflections in reading the historical precedents
• Make critical reflection in taking informed and consistent design decisions
• Formulate a set of hypotheses, critical observations, analyses, and reflections in format of a structured writing
• Produce a sample work informed by the case studies

Teaching methods

The sessions are organised in person with seminars (first half),  and group discussions and tutorials (second half).

Expected student activities

Students are expected to attend each of the twelve sessions and tutorials (2 joint sessions every two weeks); to read the key texts provided for each lecture; to develop case studies; and to complete the written and 'drawn' assignment.

Assessment methods

The submission is a digital document including an illustrated essay of a maximum 1200 words accompanied by a 'drawing' exercise.

The course is assessed in a twofold way (weighing 50/50), next to regular participation in the lectures, tutorials, and discussions:

1-The essay (max. 1200 w.) is structured by a approx. of 300 w. introduction outlining the aims and objectives of the enquiry, studied technique(s) of representation, and case study(ies). The main body of the essay sets up the relevant historical and theoretical framework for the investigation, outlines the criteria based on which the case study(ies) are selected, analyses case(s), and develops key critical observations. The text contains analytical drawings€“ made by the students€“ that dissect, decompose, and examine the case(s). The conclusion discusses the key outcomes; a set of principles and methods of assemblage deployed by the artists or architects, which directly or indirectly served the purpose of the drawings and the idea of the projects.

2-The 'drawing' exercise tests some of techniques and tactics analysed in the seminars or studied by the students in making of a composite (assembled) image that could potentially serve the purpose of the students’ projects in their respective design studios. The technique of representation is free and could vary from analogue drawings and paintings, to digital collages, to physical models. The process will be presented and discussed in group tutorial sessions (second half of each session). The process and the final outcome are digitally documented and included in the submission.

Resources

Bibliography

Aling, Michael; Morris, Mark, Worldmodelling: architectural models in the 21st century. Architectural Design, 271 (Chichester, West Sussex Wiley, 2021).

Argan, Giulio Carlo; Lassaigne, Jacques, The Great Centuries of Painting, The Fifteenth Century: from Van Eyck to Botticelli (Skira: Geneva, 1953).

Avvakumov, Yuri, Paper Architecture. An Anthology (Moscow: Garage, 2021).

Basar, Shumon; Truby, Stephan, The World of Madelon Vriesendorp (AA Publications: London, 2008).

Birnholz, Alan C., 'El Lissitzky's "Prouns", Part I,' Artforum vol.8 no.2 (October 1969), 65-70.

Buckley, Craig, Graphic Assembly: Montage, Media and Experimental Architecture in the 1960s (Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2019).

Carpo, Mario, Architecture in the Age of Printing (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001).

Carpo, Mario, The Working Drawing: The Architect's Tool (Zurich: Park Books, 2013).

Celant, Germano, Andrea Branzi: The Complete Works (London: Thames and Hudson, 1992).

de Dreuille, Simon, 'Les Nuits sans Kim Wilde,' in San Rocco 2, pp. 6-11.

Dali, Salvador, Conquest of the Irrational (New York: Julien Levy Publisher, 1935).

Durand, Jean Nicolas Louis, Précis of the Lectures on Architecture, trans. by David Britt (Los Angeles: Getty Trust Publications, 2000).

Khosravi, Hamed, Do You Remember How Perfect Everything Was? The Work of Zoe Zenghelis (AA Publications: London, 2022).

Koolhaas, Rem, Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan (New York, NY: Monacelli Press, 1994).

Lavin, Maud; Teitelbaum, Matthew, Montage and Modern Life 1919–1942 (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992).

Mindrup, Matthew, The Architectural Model Histories of the Miniature and the Prototype, the Exemplar and the Muse (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2019).

Mindrup, Matthew; Wells, Matthew, 'The Architectural Model as Tool, Medium and Agent of Change,' Architectural Theory Review, 24:3(2020), 221-223.

Scolari, Massimo, Oblique Drawing: A History of Anti-Perspective (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2012).

Stierli, Martino, Montage and the Metropolis: Architecture, Modernity, and the Representation of Space (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018).

Vidler, Anthony, 'Diagrams of Diagrams: Architectural Abstraction and Modern Representation,' Representations 72 (Autumn, 2000), 1-20.

Ressources en bibliothèque

• Paper Architecture. An Anthology / Avvakumov
• Montage and Modern Life 1919-1942
• Oblique Drawing: A History of Anti-Perspective / Scolari
• Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan / Koolhaas
• 'Les Nuits sans Kim Wilde / de Dreuille, in San Rocco 2, pp. 6-11
• Graphic Assembly / Buckley
• Architecture in the Age of Printing / Carpo
• Les grands siècles de la peinture : Le quinzième siècle : de Van Eyck à BoticelliArgan & Lassaigne
• The World of Madelon Vriesendorp / Basar & Truby
• The Working Drawing: The Architect's Tool / Carpo
• Précis of the Lectures on Architecture / Durand
• Worldmodelling: architectural models in the 21st century (Architectural design ; 271)
• Andrea Branzi: The Complete Works / Celante
• Précis of the Lectures on Architecture / Durand (online)
• Do You Remember How Perfect Everything Was? The Work of Zoe Zenghelis / Khosravi
• The Architectural Model Histories of the Miniature and the Prototype, the Exemplar and the Muse / Mindrup
• 'The Architectural Model as Tool, Medium and Agent of Change / Mindrup & Wells, Architectural Theory Review, 24:3(2020), 221-223.
• Montage and the Metropolis: Architecture, Modernity, and the Representation of Space / Stierli
• Diagrams of Diagrams' / Vidler, Representations 72 (Autumn, 2000), 1-20
• El Lissitzky's "Prouns", Part I, Artforum, vol.8 no.2 (October 1969), 65-70