Summer Semester 2021
Bachelor
Architects do not build, they draw, model, render, process or print and stamp plans. But how did these techniques of the modern architect come about? Which value systems have they inherited, how many technological turns have they weathered? With shifts in techniques often come shifts in representation, even architecture itself: progress for some, threat for others. But what do our tools really have to do with our work? And how has architecture, the ever-mediated discipline, become a medium in its own right? At a point where digitalization is not only ubiquitous but inevitable, we will think about questions of techniques not as mere skills or obsolete habits, but as inherently connected to the history, present and future of our practice.
Bachelor seminar
Prof. Dr. Anna-Maria Meister
After World War II, the Soviet Union became a global power and its changing approaches to the architectural symbolism, the housing problem, the modernization of urban fabric and the territorial planning profoundly influenced multiple countries around the Eastern Bloc and the developing word. Standardization, the industrialization of construction and long-term planning were in the center of its approach to the built environment, while aesthetic concerns played a relatively minor role. The story of Soviet architecture, explored in this class, was that of depersonalized institutions funded and run by the state and working in collaboration with the government planning authorities. Striving to achieve economic autarky, the USSR was however open to borrowing technological solutions from across the Iron Curtain, which extended to architecture and planning: the dynamics of exchange under the Cold War conditions will be an important focus of this course.
Bachelor seminar
Dr. Igor Demchenko
Not only since Corona have we known: Schools are system-relevant. Children and young people in Germany spend an average of around 12,000 hours at school. Here, knowledge is transferred, social skills are trained and roles practiced. Schools are not only places of education, but also places of optimization and regulation. What does this mean in terms of school architecture, for example for the design of classrooms or schoolyards? What influence do social and political contexts have on design? What were the historical developments? The seminar addresses these questions based on selected school buildings in Darmstadt from the Wilhelminian period to the late 20th century, flanked by glimpses of pedagogical, educational theory and political approaches. As part of the 'Übung', you will contribute to a portfolio of Darmstadt schools.
Bachelor seminar
Lisa Beißwanger M.A.
Today, architectural production is integrated into a global network of infrastructures and logistics. Where do the raw materials come from, where are building materials produced and where are they transported to? What are the spatial effects of the materials' flow in different places? And what political and economic constellations underlie these movements? Using the example of the ubiquitous building material concrete and German cement producers, which are among the largest building materials corporations in the world, the global networks and translocal effects of the construction industry will be traced. On the one hand, this seminar offers an introduction to the cultural, ideological and organizational logics of concrete as a building material.On the other hand, individual case studies will be used to trace, analyze and map the networks of raw material extraction, production, transport and processing, as well as construction, use and recycling or disposal at different scales.
Bachelor seminar
Anna Luise Schubert M.Sc.
Master
This course is part of module A (Historical Foundations).
When architecture builds schools (as buildings, movements or institutions), spaces for learning and teaching emerge as materialized vision for the next generation. In this lecture series we will investigate the construction of schools through curricula and political programs: we look at school school-architectures from classroom to campus, at design methods and radical pedagogies, and at architecture as didactic object itself. How and where is architecture being taught? Where is architecture being studied? How do space and teaching interact? And who has access to which of these spaces? These questions about spaces for teaching societal building task and practice emerged long before modern school typologies. How schools are built is a quest for societal imaginaries – not last for our own future.
The brief in relation to the lecture series is to be completed by 8 June 2021 and will be graded.
The introduction to the lecture series and assignment will be available on Moodle starting April 13, 2021. One week later, on April 20, a mini-symposium with all lectures will take place in the morning. The films with the individual lectures will be available on Moodle from April 27.
Lecture Series
Fachgruppe A | Lisa Beißwanger M.A., Sina Brückner-Amin M.A., Christina Clausen M.A., Dr.-Ing. Christiane Fülscher, Prof. Dr. Anna-Maria Meister, Prof. Dr. Christiane Salge, PD Dr.-Ing. Helge Svenshon
The seminar is focused on the conceptual, political, and pragmatic logic underlying different and often competing strands of historic preservation theory as it developed globally during the last two centuries. It traces the genealogy of key preservation modalities, concepts, and methodologies and explores the extents to which they defined the material practices of conservation, restoration, reconstruction and revalorization. The course aims to introduce students to the major theoretical and methodological challenges and opportunities encountered, explored, accepted, and rejected within the field of historic preservation from the 19th century to the present.
Master seminar
Dr. Igor Demchenko
How can we save the environment? And how can we, as architects, help minimize our impact on the planet? These are some of the most important questions we face today. Yet, “the environment” as we currently understand it has only existed for about 70 years. During the last half of the 20th century, it changed from simply being the background to human activity to something else – an entity of its own that was interconnected and fragile, and that could be severely impacted by our technology, our cities, and our lifestyles. This modern concept of the environment would forever alter the way we view our planet, but it also changed architecture and design. In this class we will examine how the emergence of environmental thinking influenced the field of architecture, and how it revolutionized the way architects worked, researched, collaborated, and designed from the 1950s and up till today.
