The course is a cooperation between Department of Architecture (FB15), Technische Universität Darmstadt (TUDa) and the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center (WAAC), Virginia Tech (VT), intended to enhance the (digital) mobility of students and professors of both universities.
The course format is a combination of lectures, seminars, and collaborative project work. Although there will be online lectures, the course will be based on a self-initiated group research project, gathering empirical data through different methods used in the urban planning field and the evaluation and analysis of the data. Active participation in academic discussion surrounding course content and student projects will be a critical component of the course.
The course will be held in an online form (video-conference + online learning platform). Most of the learning material will be uploaded on the online platform in order to offer students the flexibility to learn whenever it suits for them. Nevertheless, there are appointments where the online presence is required.
Students will work in tandems (e.g. 2 students from Germany and 2 from the U.S.) to design and develop a research project with the same topic but in two different locations. The objective of this form of work is to allow the performance of an analysis and comparison between two public spaces in two different cities (Washington and Darmstadt). The comparison should encompass the differences and similarities among the natural, cultural, and economic and legal forces that underlie the access and usage of public spaces. It is up to the students to self-organize format, times and working tools in their teams. The teams, and with faculty guidance, will select one space in each city (Darmstadt and Washington DC) to work on.