Seminar Courses Fall 2024. YR 4/5
School of Architecture KTH Royal Institute
Course codes for seminar courses
YR 4: A42SEH
YR 5: A52SEH
Seminars Fall 2024
AndersBergström
TheArchiveofthe1930StockholmExhibition
AndreasFalk TimberStructuresandLogic
CatharinaGabrielsson ArchitectureandDemocracy
CheroEliassi
ReadingTransformativeLandscapes
ErikStenberg Bostadsfrågan
FedericoFavero NaturalandArtificialLightRhythms
JanekOzmin EcologicalArchitecturesoftheContemporaryPast
MalinZimm FuturecraftforArchitects
PeterLynch FragmentsandCoherence:HoldingTogether
PålRöjgård ArchitectureandSpace
RumiKubokawa Experimental
Seminar Courses
The Archive of the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition
Anders Bergström
Sweden’s most referred architectural event serves here as a case study for a critical historiography. Ever since the Stockholm Exhibition opened in May 1930, its importance has generally been acknowledged as a breakthrough for modernism in Sweden. Although criticized already at that time, the exhibition was included in the canon of modern architecture at an early stage. As the exhibition soon turned into a virtual object, however, its reception must now be based on primary material that can be referred to as the “archive”. The seminar highlights this material, which consists of drawings, photographs, documents and printed texts, as well as the limited remains of the exhibition itself.
Timber structures and logic
Andreas Falk
Timber is considered being a sustainable material choice for our contemporary built environment. It enables a wide variety of form and design options. Understanding the boundary conditions for timber and other bio-based materials in construction – preconditions and integration of material properties and production already in the conceptual design phase – is a prerequisite.
This seminar course comprises reading, sketching and analyses of a set of research papers on advanced timber and bio-based architecture. This is used for discussion and as point of departure for an exploratory study of how to release the potential of bio-based materials in advanced architectural and structural design.
Architecture and Democracy
Catharina Gabrielsson
How does architecture relate to notions of justice, equality and human rights? What are the meanings of democracy, and how can democratic ideals be represented, realised and secured by architectural means? As informed by seminal and/or recent work in political philosophy, art, architecture history and -theory, we will discuss the multifarious ways in which architecture partakes (or fails to partake) in processes of democratization. By critically questioning democracy as a fixed or given entity, the boundaries and content of architecture will start to shift, too. The course will be based on weekly readings and include a few site visits. Students are expected to contribute actively to the seminars, present examples and share ideas in preparation for a final short essay.
Reading Transformative Landscapes
Chero Eliassi
What are our surrounding landscapes telling us? As urban densification escalates and green spaces face increasing threats, this course explores the criticality of reading and documenting ever-transforming urban landscapes and history. Intended for those interested in expanding their analytical toolbox, students engage with mapping techniques grounded in landscape architecture, feminist theory, and ethnography. By studying past and present cultural rituals, symbols, and physical structures, students will uncover the histories and cultural narratives embedded in landscapes. The course includes fieldwork on Järva Field and classroom group discussions around assigned analytical tasks and readings.
Bostadsfrågan: Aktuella Perspektiv
på en Klassisk Utmaning
Erik Stenberg
Under detta seminarium kommer vi att undersöka, diskutera och ifrågasätta bostadsfrågan i Sverige genom flera samtida perspektiv.
Bostadsfrågan refererar till Friedrich Engels text från 1872-1873 där han beskriver utmaningen med bostaden som del av urbaniseringen efter industrialismens framväxt. På utställningen ”Bo.Nu.Då.
Bostadsfrågor och svar under 99 år” som visades på ArkDes (2016) placeras den svenska startpunkten för bostadsfrågan vid Gunnar Asplunds nödbostäder från 1917. Tre frågor drev utställningen: ”Varför är det så svårt att hitta bostad? Hur kunde det bli så här? Hur ska vi lösa krisen?” Frågorna är fortfarande aktuella.
Natural and Artificial Light Rhythms
Federico Favero
This seminar will look into the perception and representation of light rhythms in architecture through exploration, study visit, analysis and personal reflection. We will also discuss, through lectures and relevant literature, how physical natural and artificial light phenomena shape and inform the experience of architectural spaces, which involves visual, perceptual, behavioural and physiological aspects. And thus, how design choices can influence well-being and sustainability. The seminar addresses basic aspects of natural and artificial light and lighting in architecture, which can be of inspiration for further studies and for an environmentally conscious approach to practice.
Ecological Architectures of the Contemporary Past
Janek Ozmin
Taking Bengt Warne’s Natarus 1976–1981, pictured, as a starting point, participants will document and analyse encounters with architecture, critically examining sustainability within the context of domestic inhabitation and everyday life through a practice-based research approach.
The course will explore methods for approaching a site or architectural object, strategies for photographic documentation and visual narrative building, anthropological surveys, encountering a living archive, ethnographic site-writing and generating micro-practice proposals. The artefacts created from these site-based encounters will form part of the basis for seminar readings and group discussions. These discussions will explore how the material conditions of domestic space and everyday architecture relate to broader concepts, such as production and consumption, maintenance, repair and adaptation.
Futurecraft for Architects
Malin Zimm
This course aims to expand the architect’s communicative means of drawings, models and images by developing and exercising the narrative dimension of architecture. Speculative fiction provides a unique lens through which to view and explore the future of architecture and planning. This seminar series seeks to nurture visionary thinking, encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, and equip architects with not only the skills to design for the unknown, but rather to develop tools to negotiate the boundaries of the unknown. On a conceptual level, this course will also look at the various concepts and methodologies associated with the field of futures studies, from forecasting to design fiction.
Fragments and Coherence: Holding Together
Peter Lynch
The course explores one approach to architecture composition—what we will call “holding together.”
The structure of a held-together work arises from the specific character of its parts and the way they are reconciled. There is no a-priori conception of the whole. Held-together work is not an accumulation, bricolage, eclectic combination, or postmodern “difficult whole,” because the result is something coherent and singular. We will draw upon examples from architecture history, painting, poetry, and music, and build upon three key concepts: singularity, individuation, encounter. Our approach is dialogical. You’ll need to say what you think—venture ideas—take risks. The questions we’ll address are important: What qualities do you wish your architectural work to have? What is the difference between art and architecture? Above all, how do you approach architectural design?
Arkitektur och
Röjgård Harryan
Den arkitektoniska kompositionen syftar till att organisera och definiera gränser som artikulerar rumsliga relationer. Samspelet mellan kropp, rymd, orientering och projektion upplevs av vårt eget fysiologiska och psykologiska tillstånd och verkar som rumsliga fenomen som definierar alla platser på olika sätt. Denna seminarieserie kommer att fokusera på hur man sorterar, ordnar och beskriver olika rumsliga karaktärer för att kunna skapa verktyg som kan generera nya arkitektoniska utgångspunkter.
Architecture and Space
Pål Röjgård
The architectural composition aims to organize and define boundaries that articulate spatial relationships. The interplay between body, space, orientation and projection is experienced by our own physiological and psychological state and acts as spatial phenomena that define all places in different ways. This seminar series will focus on how to sort, arrange and describe different spatial characters in order to create tools that can generate the architectural starting points.
Experimental: The dialogic imagination and the studio as praxis
Rumi
Kubokawa
This course is concerned with the method and practice of the studio system that underlies the teaching of our architecture school. We will examine the ways in which we learn, gaining a critical understanding of the pedagogy of the studio, its potential and limitations as a space of learning.
The sessions will be based on dialogic discussions, exploring specific themes in relation to students current projects and preoccupations. We will investigate in practice how a pedagogy assuming its beginning in equality may take form, contribute in redressing the imbalance in power structures inherent in the studio and serve as a constructor of knowledge. Participation is a requirement and a starting point for the development of the course.
Courses: A42SEH, A52SEH
Fall 2024
