Northern Grounds

Teachers: Anders Berensson, Malin Heyman

Studio Theme What constitutes architecture practice today, and how do we practice becoming its practitioners? Out of Practice sets out to take a few close looks at the contemporary tangle of architecture, relying on the healing potential of practicing our practice with all the naiveté we can muster. Out of Practice emphasizes the significance of the specific tools used in architectural practice in terms of their effects on the resulting architectures and the consequences of their production, as well as the influence of past and present structures of power embedded within them. By attentively and playfully using, discussing and attempting to challenge the tools of architecture one at a time, we hope to slowly start untangling our understanding of what agency we really have as practitioners. Working out our imagination as well as working an embodied perspective into all experiments, we will try to make ourselves aware of our own points of view, and exercise our empathy.

Teaching Methodology By isolating one tool at a time and providing frameworks for how our work oscillates between production and reflection, we aim to improve our command of each tool, as well as deepen our understanding of histories and effects that may otherwise be overlooked. As both deliverables and manner of working will vary significantly between projects, we intend for different abilities, inclinations and previous experience within the student group to come to light at different points of the year. Taking risks is key, and failure is celebrated. We’re all out of practice here! Project 1 Shoot, the Picture! / Collage Architecture imagines futures. In this project we imagine through collaging images and visualizing in detail 1:1.

Stock Check / Room Specifications The contemporary production of buildings is to a significant degree a matter of combining readymade products. We will study the architect as a shopper and use room specifications as our tool.

Project 2 Cajsa Warg / Building Drawings for builders It’s easier and cheaper to cook with ingredients you already got in the fridge than going out buying new ones for each dish, perhaps it is the same when making architecture. We will study local resources with a focus on material, site, and knowledge. We will work with local craftsmen and materials on real commissions to deliver proposals and later building drawings for small public projects to be built in the Swedish town Tibro.

Project 3 Reviewing the Reference / Analysis The study of reference projects is an almost inescapable part of architecture practice. We consider ramifications of this custom, using intentions and effects of 17th century architect Olof Rudbeck’s built and unbuilt architectural fantasies in Uppsala as a case study.

Drawing on Modernity / Section drawing Suppose that the architectural utopias of modernity are a consequence of one great misunderstanding: the misreading of Plato’s critical fiction of Atlantis. We throw a glance back at the historical attempts at reflective drawing practices - the paper architectures of the 1970’ to 1990’s - and construct new architectural speculations through analogy in drawing.

Project 4 Taking Measure / Mock-up wood construction As a consequence of its presumed geographic and cultural origins having been attributed especially ”desirable” qualities such as rationality and efficiency, wood construction has acquired particular status in the formation of architectural modernity. Tracing the creation of these value systems, we will develop small wood constructions through the production of mock-ups.

Anders Berensson AB is an architect educated at Chalmers University of technology and KTH. AB has worked at OMA, co-founded visionsdivision and is currently director of Anders Berensson Architects. AB is a lecturer at KTH School of Architecture and has previously taught KTH Master Studio, Full Scale Studio. Malin Heyman MH is an architect educated at KTH, the Cooper Union in New York and the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. She runs the architecture practice AT - HH together with James Hamilton and is a regular contributor of writings on architecture to books and periodicals. MH has been teaching studio at KTH School of Architecture since 2015.

1.

2.

4.

1. Diploma project Lovisa Orebrand, 2022 2. Studio project : Typical wood house 3. Studio project Joar Nordvall – Drawing on modernity 4. Studio project Filippa Hallstensson and Ella Lundblad – reviewing the reference 5. Studio project Jonas Jansson, 2022. 5. 3.