FRANCE / GERMANY / SWITZERLAND / NETHERLANDS
Prof. Andrew Schachman
It’s no coincidence that Paris is situated within a dense territory of architectural wonders. From the 13th Century to the present it's earned its reputation as a massive epicenter of cultural production, making profound contributions to nearly every aspect of human preoccupation: from cuisine to politics, from exceptionally beautiful engineering, architecture, and art to literary and philosophical miracles, from the birthplace of the modern city to the theory of relativity.
In the 19th and 20th century Paris' intense cultural preoccupation allowed it to cultivate a graceful and refined response to the industrial revolution. Its where Le Corbusier, Chareau, Art-Nouveau, Impressionists, Dadaists, Surrealists, Cubists, Structuralists, Post-modernists, Eiffel, Prouvé, Poincaré, Baudelaire, James Joyce, Karl Marx, Picasso, all flourished...
A few hours to the north, and a few hours to the east of Paris are cities who have recently developed world renown for their culturally enriched and playful developments in architecture and landscape. The Netherlands is where Koolhaas, Rietveld, MVRDV, Wiel Arets, Ben VanBerkel, and many others call home. To the East, in Switzerland and nearby Germany a community of architects have developed refined material capabilities, its Zumthor and Herzog DeMeuron territory. There are also many architectural gems by younger, or just quieter, architects in both regions that remain unpublished.
The deliverable for this course of study is simple to describe, easy to practice, but hard to master. Its a sketchbook, or series of sketchbooks that you will generate in response to two complementary and interconnected classes. You will produce these as we go, working each day.
ARCH 497
To describe it succinctly, this class looks at the building itself as a model. Through readings designed for the 'summer brain' - we will introduce students to the context, intermediary constructs, and the intellectual aspirations of specific architects and their buildings. Mostly we will focus on Chareau and Le Corbusier, Zumthor and Koolhaas. Our discussions will take place in the space of the buildings themselves. Specifically, we will examine the idea of “building” as an activity (rather than as a mere object), looking at what it means to make a masterpiece - the transcendent successes, but also the moments of vulnerability and struggle in the formulation and resolution of ideas as they are, or were, translated through practice (in 'professional' sense, but also refinement through repetition) to material construction and spatial organization.
ARCH 468
The second will introduce you to techniques of drawing and painting. To describe it succinctly, this class is the inverse of studio: you start with a building and discover, through drawing, the ideas that organized it. In support of this, you will be introduced to an arsenal of technique to help you record, analyze, and represent context, organization, and other dimensions of spatial experience that may not be immediately visible, but who’s presence reverberates in the formulation architecture, landscape and urbanity. The conventions of architectural drawing (plan, section, elevation) support some modes of making buildings, this class will help you develop and explore ways of thinking via the act of drawing, and you will return to studio with vastly expanded resources.
Spain and Portugal
Prof. Romina Canna
Prof. David Goodman
When the Barcelona Olympic torch was finally ignited on July 25th, 1992, the city inaugurated much more than just the Summer Olympic Games. Barcelona, and the whole of Spain, seemed to crystallize in one moment the years of hard work that had followed the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. Franco’s death, and the restoration of democracy, opened Spain’s view to the world, initiating a fertile period of cultural and democratic development. Emerging from a long period of hibernation, and with billions in “cohesion funds” from the European Union, Spain developed an unstoppable spatial reorganization on all scales, from analysis of regional and urban structure to a new way of thinking about a distinctly Spanish national architecture.
Nowadays, Spain is at the center of the discussion of architecture and urbanism, and all interested parties have the obligation to understand this phenomenon. But Spain was not born in 1992. During different periods, and tied to different dynamics, the country has benefitted from the rich flow of cultures that built the country, and the conflict that often accompanied the transition from one to the other. This country in the Mediterranean Sea has been home to Phoenicians, Romans, Visigoths, Muslims, Jews, and Catholics; the Spanish are a mix of all of these cultures, and this hybrid cultural legacy has left indelible marks on their cities.
Cities in Spain are the accumulation of layers of this varied history. We will trace this history from different points of view, trying to understand its distinct episodes and also its broader cultural and historical background. In order to do this, we will traverse centuries of architecture and urbanism revealing not only material structures, but also the thoughts behind the interventions.
Spain has now entered a new period of cultural foment; globalization and the unification of Europe have, perhaps, begun to dilute the "Spanishness" of the country's architecture, as it uses a newfound prosperity to attract architects from around the world: Zaha Hadid, MVRDV, Herzog & deMeuron, Norman Foster, and Wiel Arets, among others. We will see these projects as well, examining the latest layer to be added to the cultural mix that is Spain.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The course will be structured in two modules that will analyze the fundamental components of the construction of Spain: the construction of the city, and the construction of the individual building or complex. Most days will consist of two sessions, one dealing primarily with urban issues, the other dealing with the scale of single project. At times, these sessions will inevitably mix. The idea here is to transcend the understanding of architecture as a series of isolated objects, proposing a view of the city as the stage for architecture.
Our travels will be intense. Backpacks in tow, we will visit a total of 16 cities in 30 days. We will walk until our feet are sore. We will visit around 170 buildings, and fill piles of sketchbooks in mere weeks. We will immerse ourselves in the cultures--architectural, culinary, historical, social--of the Iberian Peninsula, and from our observations, we will begin to learn about the relationship of building culture, to culture more broadly understood.
Our trip will take us to the following cities: Madrid, Toledo, El Escorial, Cordoba, Granada, Seville, Merida, Lisbon, Porto, Santiago de Compostela, Burgos, Leon, Pamplona, Zaragoza, Igualada, Barcelona.
After the end of the program in Barcelona, up to ten interested students may elect to participate with usin a two-week design workshop at the ETSAB (the Barcelona Superior Technical School of Architecture, one of the best schools of architecture in Europe) with students and professors from Barcelona and from four other universities from around the world. This optional workshop will allow students to put into practice some of the discoveries made during the trip, and to become acquainted with international students, faculty, and modes of architectural pedagogy in other countries.
The two required course modules are as follows:
ARCH 497 From Architecture to the City (3 Credits) - Studio Assistant Professor David Goodman
ARCH 498: From The City to Architecture (3 Credits) - Adjunct Assistant Professor Romina Canna
Berlin/Germany/Denmark
Professor John DeSalvo
Professor Eva Kultermann
Travel
Based in Berlin, the two course, four week, 6 credit elective curriculum will spend four weeks travelling in Germany and Denmark to immerse students in historic and contemporary architecture, landscapes, and urbanism. Tours will stress sustainable architecture and design, focusing on substantial new developments in Berlin and its surroundings that showcase best practices and some of the most advanced work in sustainability occurring in Europe today.
Berlin: Potsdamer Platz, Pariser Platz and Alexander Platz , Museum Island, the prewar Jewish quarter, New Holocaust Memorial and Museum, the Nazi architecture of Albert Spear, Hansaviertel, DG-Bank, Akademie der Künste, Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatsbibliothek, Nordic Embassies, Reichstag and Government buildings, Velodrom, Unité d´habitation "Berlin", Dutch Embassy, GSW headquarters, Krematorium Baumschulenweg, Technologiepark Adlershof and more…….......Dessau: Bauhaus, Federal Environment Agency............ Potsdam: Park Sanssouci, Einstein Tower, Hans-Otto-Theater, Biosphere flower pavillion...... Copenhagen: Tietgen Dormitory, University housing, Royal Opera House by Jean Nouvel, Big Architects MV and Bjerget residential projects and a visit to the Louisiana Museum........ Munich: Jahn and Coop Himmelblau plus.........
Arch 468 - Drawing from Travel
A travel sketch course that explores the art of free hand sketching and conceptual thinking as a means to convey both the physicality and character of a place. The study and examination of both historic and current European architecture that has shaped and transformed the face of modern design. The most simple and pure concept drawings do not have to come from belabored or complex renderings, but need to have a clear complexity of thought behind them. The belief is that architects need to have the ability to express thought through both complex and basic free hand sketching techniques and have the confidence and speed to get these ideas across to the viewer. Techniques to be explored include perspective drawings, a variety of hand rendering techniques, and media including pencil, pen and ink, and watercolor. The course includes the production of a comprehensive drawn record of travels in the form of a journal/sketchbook, as well as a number of finished rendering studies.
Arch 509 - Topics in Advanced Technology
A research seminar examining advances in the technologies that affect the practice of architecture. The course will research leading technologies, processes and applications and their role in architectural design and production. Students will be investigating a number of innovative architectural projects in order to evaluate their relative success or failure, and comment upon the viability of adopting their basic principles in their own work. The objective is to enable the student to understand the role of new materials, assemblies and systems as a parameter for creating high performance architecture in different contexts. The seminar is interested in a discussion of the role of sustainable technologies and their impact on the customs and prevailing conditions of the built environment. The object of the course is not solely expository, but also critical: Students will not only document technical strategies and developments, but also investigate them in terms of their appropriateness and cost (both real and cultural).
Please visit the program blog for more info.