Seminar Courses 2022 Spring. YR 4/5 School of Architecture KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Seminars Spring 2022
Anders Bergström.............................. Stockholm Public Library Victor Edman..................................Bringing History to Life Chen Feng...................................................Space Syntax Catharina Gabrielsson....................................................... Dreamwork Katja Grillner.................. Feminist Writing in Architecture José Hernández Vargas.............. Understanding Digital Fabrication Helena Mattsson............................................... Architecture.zip Course codes for seminar courses YR 4: A42SEV YR 5: A52SEH
Claes Sörstedt, Erik Wingquist, Malin Wennerholm.........................................DIY Thesis Booklet Helena Westerlind................The Liquid Stone Cooking Show
Seminar Courses
The Archive of Stockholm Public Library Anders Bergström Sweden’s most referred building in an international context serves here as a case study for a critical historiography. Ever since Stockholm Public Library was completed in 1928, its reception has changed over the years. At an early stage, the library was overshadowed by the Stockholm exhibition of 1930, and it was first included in the canon of modern architecture about 1960. The reception was based on a limited knowledge of the project as a whole, given the character of a primary material that can be referred to as the “archive”. The course highlights this material, consisting of drawings, photographs, documents and printed texts, as well as the building itself. ArkDes Collection
Dreamwork Catharina Gabrielsson Bridging between social reality and the collective imaginary, the course will explore the implications that dreams hold for architectural theory and practice. Spanning across psychoanalysis, Marxist critique and popular culture, students will be introduced to key concepts and ideas that allow for a probing of utopias, visions and future scenarios. A central concern is architecture’s role in shaping the yet-to-come, drawing on the history of the avant-garde and the “wake-up call” of postmodernism. The seminar will combine presentations with close readings and discussions of designated texts. Divided into groups, students will be asked to present a central concept or theme to the rest of the class and curate a discussion. The individual assignment will be to write a short reflection accompanied by an illustration towards the end of the course.
Bringing History to Life: Architectural restoration in the 20th century Victor Edman Architectural restoration is a professional field evolved mainly over the last two hundred years, and therefore closely related to modernity. The seminar addresses historical and theoretical perspectives on this development, with a focus on the 20th century. The objective is to provide an overview of the history and theory of architectural restoration and to initiate a critical discussion of the subject. Except for a selection of seminal texts, the seminar also highlights built examples, aiming at an understanding of how the historic buildings we meet today have been transformed by later interventions. The seminar includes short lectures and discussions of relevant texts. An individual essay is to be presented at the end of the semester. Malmöhus under restoration.
Space syntax Chen Feng Space syntax is a set of theories and techniques that offer a framework to quantify aspects of spatial relationships embedded in buildings and cities. It enables a reading of the perceptual and functional affordances of inhabited space that are relevant to design and planning. The course, titled “Analytical Investigations in Urban Design”, introduces students to the theory of space syntax and the associated methods of spatial analysis that can be applied to (a) model the human functions of urban space, (b) benchmark design alternatives, (c) evaluate competing designs to support design choices, and (d) inform the design imagination.
Feminist Writing in Architecture Katja Grillner During this seminar we will study feminist writing within theories and critical practices of architecture. The course contains lectures and peer group discussions around assigned readings and your own writing. The following themes are dealt with in the lectures: Writing feminism; Voice and address; Place, space, situation and dialogue; Academic conventions. The seminar aims at enabling students to develop tools for feminist interpretations of architecture and in an extended sense, to create new architectures. On completing the seminar, the student will have a basic orientation concerning feminist writing practices within architecture, and have initiated the development of a personal relation to it. The seminar will be given together with the course AD237V Architecture and Gender: Essay.
Understanding Digital Fabrication José Hernández Vargas The introduction of computer-aided design and manufacturing has enabled architects and engineers to create structures with unprecedented levels of complexity. However, these widely promoted “freeform” geometries are still tied to technical, economic, and sustainability constraints, while the higher complexity of the underlying technologies demands a wider skillset that increasingly blurs the boundaries between different disciplines. Through a series of lectures and quick applied exercises, this seminar course presents an overview of methodologies and subjects involved in the field of digital design and fabrication with a special focus on prefabricated concrete.
Architecture.zip Helena Mattsson (collaboration with Neighbours of Architecture) What is an architectural archive? It is not simply an empty container for collecting and compressing information. The archive can also be the “documents”. Be they paper trails, objects or entire built environments – architectural artifacts, sites, and situations are in themselves material records. What meaning they convey, though, is open for examination and interpretation. Therefore, this seminar investigates which form archives of architecture already take, beyond the museum. We will see site-specific imprints, preserved fragments, and architecture collected in unexpected ways. The course is structured around weekly study visits and the writing of a short essay. You are encouraged to find traces of the past and use them as sites for new architectural histories. Layered 3D scan interface, The Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm, 2018.
DIY Thesis Booklet Claes Sörstedt, Erik Wingquist, Malin Wennerholm A Diploma project at KTH starts with a thesis booklet. Instead of seeing it as just another compulsory hand-in, we think it is a great tool – and – a chance to start thinking and planning a significant and the last project in your education. We’ll try to leverage the crafting of the booklet to something else than just a formal hand-in. It can and should be a statement of your ambitions more like a useful tool for your upcoming work. As a start-up for your Diploma, we’ll familiarize ourselves with the framework of the Diploma, methods, processes, planning but also tools and the experience from different Studio tutors. This course will set aside time and give you resources to explore different paths. The course will be fully digital.
The Liquid Stone Cooking Show Helena Westerlind The story of concrete – our most used building material − typically begins with the invention of Portland cement. Yet, the notion that concrete is a modern material without a history is a curious one. Ever since prehistoric communities discovered how to burn limestone in order to make the first lime cements, the control of fire has been an instrument of cookery – of both of foods and materials. This course explores the prehistory of concrete by tracing the evolution of liquid stone in the history of architecture. By adopting the format of a cooking show the course will recreate historical recipes of artificial stone and discuss the transformative processes involved in their making, from their geological beginnings through the elaboration of human techniques.
Scagliola (2017). Imitation of marble by mixing gypsum plaster, rabbit glue and pigments.
Courses: A42SEV, A52SEH