EAAE Annual Conference Proceedings

What can architecture do?

2023-08-22T18:45:37+01:00

Some territories encounter an accumulation of difficulties, despoiling of resources, slavery, maltreatment, then abandonment with pollution, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, diseases... The mining basin of the Nord and Pas-de-Calais is a good illustration. It was exploited from the beginning of the 18th century for its coal. Despite its recognition in 2012 as a Unesco World Heritage Site, it remains a territory in economic decline and whose social indicators are alarming.

Practicing care through architecture: participatory research as a tool to subvert power relations

2023-08-22T18:47:37+01:00

The paper questions to what extent architectural research can act as tool to subvert power relations and to enable the critique of capitalism that, according to Meiksins Wood “requires a constantly renewed critique of the analytic instruments designed to understand it”.

Who is in?: More-than-living constituents of the architecture studio

2023-08-22T18:56:59+01:00

During the educational process of architecture, the studio space generously hosts both living and non-living constituents, including students, instructors/lecturers, invited individuals, digital or physical agents, owned/hacked/open-sourced components and strategies, online or offline tools, and more.

Research by Design at the Crossroads of Architecture and Visual Arts: Exploring the Epistemological Reconfigurations

2023-08-22T18:59:12+01:00

The paper aims to explore the potentials of research by design in architecture and visual arts. The main objective of the paper is to analyse the different models and epistemological positions advanced in the academic milieus as far as the doctoral research by design is concerned, to explore the differences and similarities between the research by design in the field of architecture and in the field of visual arts.

Action research and commoning: positioning architectural research in (or with) local grassroot group

2023-08-22T19:00:45+01:00

The proposed contribution is based on two case studies where architect-researchers and local actors partner as collaborators in commoning efforts. The first case develops around an ‘urban common’ (as named by the local council) Moruzzi Road in Pavia, Italy. The second one involves reappropiation of a disused open space as a community orchard at Huddersfield, UK.

Topological deformability in architecture, or how to learn about differences

2023-08-22T19:03:06+01:00

The main question of this paper is related to whether and in what way we understand the topological characteristic of deformability in numerous texts and examples of architectural theory and practice in the period from the beginning of 1990s until today. Using the concepts from topology shows how the architectural discourse changes the meaning of a mathematical and philosophical concept, determining it within its own discipline.

The Complexity and Contradiction Conflict in Research and Practice: The Case of Public-Private Interface Configuration

2023-08-22T19:04:59+01:00

The disassociation between research and practice in architecture and urban design is a recognized issue, leading to an ongoing academic debate on the credibility of the field (Dovey, Pafka 2016; Alexander 2010; Carmona 2014a; Palermo 2014). The most influential text shaping the architectural practice has very limited scientific rigour and is more of a normative interpretation of subjective observations (Marshall 2012).

Regenerating public housing in Italy within the Next Generation EU fund. Learnings from a research-by-design experience in Bergamo

2023-08-22T19:06:50+01:00

In 2021 Italy launched a National Innovative Program for Housing Quality (PINQuA), enabled by the Next Generation EU instrument, and funded with 2,8 billion euros. By funding 159 projects, the program opens a new season for public housing in Italy after more than three decades of shrinking investment, a short season that will run out by 2026, largely centred on regenerating the existing public housing stock.

Inter-scalar and inter-disciplinary approaches for a valley community. The case of Sappada

2023-08-22T19:08:41+01:00

Our research aimed to explore an inter-scalar field in which architectural design tools are intertwined with urban and territorial scales. The case is an enclave between different limits: a valley near the border with Austria, located on the edge of north of Veneto region with an ethnic-linguistic heritage of Germanic matrix, administratively migrated in 2017 to Friuli Venezia Giulia region.

Design process innovation against the epistemicide

2023-08-22T19:11:56+01:00

The idea of epistemicide, harshly criticized by the Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos, is the murder of alternative and subordinate knowledge that modernity and its scientific knowledge have systematically carried out over time. In academic schools and architectural studios, the epistemicide is visible when the “element of repetition” inherent to the profession mentioned by Schön in 1983 is confused with homogeneity, standardization, and monotony.

Architectural design studio: Embracing a transdisciplinary approach

2023-08-22T19:13:27+01:00

The Co-creation design studio, at the Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus, has been acting as a meeting place for students, educators, researchers, citizens, and external stakeholders since 2021, aiming to bridge gaps between architectural research, pedagogy, civil society, and local governance bodies through a transdisciplinary pedagogical framework.

Action based research for capacity building of neighbourhood communities

2023-08-22T19:16:06+01:00

This paper aims to present action research experiences in Romanian context and reflection on architectural education contribution to helping neighbourhood communities. The project entitled Urban Education Live - Innovative Urban Education in Live Settings - meant applying social mapping tools with a civic initiative group and then defining a common agenda that was presented to the local authorities as the first neighbourhood development plan in Romania.

Mental Spaces /Real Spaces - A Digital Archive

2023-08-22T19:18:37+01:00

Mental Spaces / Real Spaces - a Digital Archive, is a community research project supported by the government programme Bairros Saudáveis launched during the pandemic. It involved the local community of the Alto dos Barronhos, the largest social housing estate in the municipality of Oeiras, in a set of participatory actions between Architecture and Mental Health with the local community. Questioning what it is to inhabit social housing, the public space was transformed into a space of critical redefinitions.

Mountains in motion, visions in nutshells

2023-08-22T19:20:15+01:00

Architectural research is defined as community practice and for communities. Architecture has always been constituted as a practice of settlement and territorial domestication for the community’s liveability of the places. This paper focuses on how architecture, in its dual form of discipline and utility, defines itself as a conspicuous part of ‘solid’ memory.

Architecture extinction?

2023-08-22T19:21:43+01:00

I would like to start by quoting the CFP, Session 2. Roots of Architecture: Ways of Research: ‘While the social and political dimension of architecture is given, architecture is often asked to comply with market requests ed economic issues.’

Research on the spatial perception and preferences of traditional villages from the perspective of local gaze: a case study of Hongkeng Village, China

2023-08-22T19:23:02+01:00

As one of the World Cultural Heritage Sites, Hongkeng Village in China is a typical representative of the traditional Hakka villages. With the advent of the era of mass tourism, it is important to understand the perception, preference and identity of local people towards the village space from the perspective of local gaze, in order to maintain the characteristics of the village and perpetuate its vitality.

The Positionality and the Promise of Architecture(s)

2023-08-22T19:24:54+01:00

We are living in an age where the digital avant-garde has been blooming in the practice of architectural discipline. This is an age when the inevitable march of digital technologies, especially the mobilization of artificial intelligence, has increasingly gained momentum. For these reasons, it is even more challenging for architects and researchers to tackle their roles in this tendency.

Research for an architect as a specialized citizen

2023-08-22T19:26:19+01:00

If he was not dead already, the pandemic has definitely killed Howard Roark. The time of this heroic character of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead is over. Today architectural community has departed from an understanding of the architect as a godly figure who singularly blesses the world with his prophetic vision. Instead, now is the time of the architect as a specialized citizen—one who is an integral part of the social and natural ecosystem of the world.

The power of an architect’s competences in interdisciplinary research: the case of the Belgian-Tanzanian IUC partnership

2023-08-26T10:57:26+01:00

In answer to the calls’ questions in ‘Roots of Architecture(s)’, we explain the ‘Ways of Research’ in a concrete case, with a focus on its interdisciplinary dimensions, its envisioned tangible social impact, its embedded communities’ participation and its social urgency. We identify the role of an architect’s competences in the process prior to the start of the project, and we argue that these critical, creative and collaborative problem-solving skills have been (and still are) of vital importance for its success.

Program, Speakers, Venue

2023-08-22T19:59:49+01:00

We thank all speakers, respondents, moderators, student volunteers, colleagues and administrative staff from Politecnico di Torino, Department of Architecture and Design who provide the venue and made this event possible, to our general sponsor Velux.

Aligning the pedagogy of postgraduate professional practice courses to develop the meta-competencies required of Architects today

2023-08-22T19:32:33+01:00

Postgraduate professional practice courses (part 3) play a critical role in the registration process for Architects. However, there is little research published on the pedagogy of these courses nor their suitability to the evolving demands on the multifaceted role required of Architects today. As a result, there is a need to reassess Part 3 courses considering the meta-competencies required in Architect’s diverse ‘ways of practice.’

Architectural Ethnography or On The Architect’s filter in using Ethnography

2023-08-22T19:44:53+01:00

‘Architectural ethnography’ has increasingly been a focus of attention thanks to studies by Albena Yaneva and practices and research carried out by Momoyo Kaijima with her Atelier Bow Wow. Starting from these well-known examples, this essay reviews the literature related to ethnography when used by architects, planners, and researchers interested in forms, materiality, and uses of space in everyday life.

II level training and construction of scientific and didactic contents: The case of the “Master Executive: Mountain Able. Planning and Design for the sustainable development of the mountain”

2023-08-22T19:46:40+01:00

The current training of the architect is structured on a path that often provides diversified degrees of specialization and is not very comparable with equivalent training courses in other disciplines. One of the most evident consequences in the field of Architect training is the need to build courses of the ever-greater specialization, especially in the post-graduate phase.

The Glass House Revisited

2023-08-22T19:48:02+01:00

If modernist architecture allowed for a continuous space between building and landscape, nurturing the understanding of the “forest edge as man’s ideal habitat and as a mythical image” (Geddes 1982), today the boundaries between the artificial and natural, the urban and the sylvan, are increasingly folding in.

Participation of stakeholders in open architectural and urban planning competitions: procedure model and application in Croatian context

2023-08-22T19:49:40+01:00

The participation of society in public spaces issues, though advocated for decades, experiences an increase in recent years. Citizen participation in Croatian spatial planning appears to be mostly declarative and formally takes place in the final stages of planning. On the contrary, the full benefits of integrative planning would be if participation of all sectors (civil, academic, economy and management structures) is continuous, especially important in the initial planning phase - forming the basic intentions.

Architectural Practice in the Digital Age: Balancing Adoption and Adaptation

2023-08-22T19:51:35+01:00

The digital age presents both challenges and opportunities for the architectural profession. Architects must navigate the integration of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and digital design tools while adapting to the evolving scope of their practice. This paper investigates the balance between adoption and adaptation in architectural practice, exploring strategies for architects to effectively engage with the digital landscape while maintaining the integrity of their profession. The outcomes of fully embracing new technologies and methodologies are contrasted with the approach of modifying existing practices to accommodate digital advancements, considering the implications for the architectural profession.

Nomad Science of Remote Intensities for Architectural Doctorates

2023-08-22T19:53:18+01:00

Nomad Science proposes the lived displacement of apparatuses of state science, drawing out and connecting knowledge systems. This production schema places architectural questioning as a free journey, aspiring towards a free subjectivity, accumulated through the nomadic search for distant knowledge fields as a creative project, to transform the nomadic into a new new science for architectural doctorates.

Design Institutes & Design Studios

2023-08-22T19:54:48+01:00

The aim of the contribution is describing an urban design teaching activity developed in the last eight years (2016-2023) at one of the top Schools of Architecture in China: the Design Studios “Urban morphology, architectural typology, contemporary settlement patterns” held at the School of Architecture in Southeast University Nanjing, China.

Rethinking Participation: A Pedagogical Overview

2023-08-22T19:56:59+01:00

In recent years, the relationships between participatory processes and the disciplines involved in space production have strengthened. Architects are now becoming more involved and playing increasingly significant roles in the framework of participatory space production. The architectural education systems, however, are not yet developed enough to support this scenario.

A Truly Existing “Extradisciplinary” Architecture Design System ——Analysis and Discussion on Ancient Chinese Architecture Practice Based on Algorithms

2023-08-22T19:58:22+01:00

In the context of Western culture, Architecture is usually regarded as an independent discipline with its own boundaries. Researchers either try to dig inward within the boundaries or seek intersections outside the boundaries. But in another context, in ancient China, the design of architecture was based on algorithms (a branch of mathematics), which is obviously an independent system of extra-disciplinary.

Introduction

2023-08-19T12:32:52+01:00

We are all overwhelmed with the enormous frequency and power of the many challenges that we are confronted with, in this time called by some the “anthropocene” – the geochronical era in which humans have become one of the most important factors influencing biological, geological, and atmospheric processes on Earth. Climate change continuing – it seems – unhindered, the Corona pandemic not yet fully overcome (and new pandemics possibly at the doorstep), biodiversity endangered, war and natural disasters, uncanny developments in artificial intelligence with great significance also for the scientific production of knowledge: all these “wicked problems” require immediate solution and powerful action. That is where we stand: in a sliding, rising, sinking, shaking, moving sociocultural landscape.

School of Architecture(s)

2023-08-19T12:37:02+01:00

Architecture as a discipline entangles multiple interactions between the physical world, technology, and the organisation of the cultural and social environment of the profession, but its multidisciplinary character is not the only multi-dimension to be investigated. In the era of post-architecture, moving towards an autonomous subjectivity, opening up the field, and questioning the plurality of the discipline is crucial: not just Architecture but Architecture(s). Furthermore, European Schools of Architecture offer a wide variety of meanings of the term Architecture in their curricula. For all these reasons, it is urgent to discuss a broadening of the term itself to understand the positioning of architectural education in the contemporary global world.

“Self-efficacy” as a value in architectural pedagogy

2023-08-19T12:41:16+01:00

This research is about designing a tool to support the format of the pinups for: increasing the performance of the presenting/ commenting activity as the main activity of exposition in architectural education. The main components of architectural pedagogies, which supports the self-efficacy in place of learning a specific Master of architecture were questioned.

Means-oriented or goal-oriented architecture education?

2023-08-19T12:44:31+01:00

In a fading material culture, where societies have become far from making and only content with image approximations, architectural education, no exception, is suffering from the absence of visual, haptic, and tacit knowledge. When pairing the knowledge of materials with its related issues of resource depletion, climate change, and waste, a new seed for teaching architecture is ready to be planted.

Architecture and Pedagogy after Carbon: Three Conceptual Figures

2023-08-19T12:48:34+01:00

This presentation explores three conceptual figures for architectural pedagogy in a period when carbon emissions are no longer socially viable.

Architectural thresholds: critical theory as soglia in teaching architecture

2023-08-19T12:52:21+01:00

In architecture and urban design education, critique is hard to find anymore: it does seem lost in the call for a renewed disciplinary autonomy, localised territorial interests and the sole artistic and sovereign agency of the maestro.

How to tackle the crisis in architectural education: Truth or Dare?

2023-08-19T13:02:14+01:00

Architectural practice is influenced by all the dynamics of daily life, such as climate change, pandemics, political changes, economic issues, globalization, and social inequalities, so the roles and responsibilities of the architect have also changed. As a result, the practice of architecture and the discipline of architecture has been compressed into a narrow field, and it can be called a crisis.

Accessibility and Inclusion in Teaching for Architects

2023-08-19T13:05:18+01:00

This text describes an activity carried out in the teaching of the course Representation Methodologies for the Project (Master’s Degree Course in Architecture, University of Genoa, Italy). This course focuses on expanding the concept of accessibility for the configuration and communication of architecture through theory and practice.

Inclusive and Generative Possibilities of Precedent Analysis in Architectural Education

2023-08-19T13:07:58+01:00

This study focuses on the contribution of precedent analysis to design thinking via the framework provided by the “device” and “material” relationship. Elucidated first by the formalist tradition of literary criticism known as Russian Formalism, the “device and material relationship” is explored as a viable framework for understanding and analysing architectural form.

A Laboratory of Pedagogical Experiments: Architecture Through the Body

2023-08-19T13:31:11+01:00

Traditional practices for training first-year students in architecture, tend to rely on hard-core skill training, digitalisation and programmatic exercises. However, these pragmatic methods have shown low impact on student’s creativity, experimental skills or spatial literacy.

Why to (Not) Demolish a Building. A Experimental Teaching Approach to Question Demolition in Architecture

2023-08-19T13:33:19+01:00

The transformation of mid-twentieth century social housing is a key issue in contemporary Europe, raising several architectural, environmental and social questions. While some examples show the potential of renovating public housing, demolition is unfortunately still considered commonplace, leading not only to the loss of architectural heritage and affordable housing, but also to the destruction of communities built over decades.

Studio Life: mechanisms of competition and collaboration in the architectural labour process

2023-08-19T13:39:25+01:00

This paper explores creative labour production in architectural design studios (in Brazil, UK and Italy). In contrast to narratives of free autonomy, participant observation revealed conflicting mechanisms, such as: subjectification, distinction, and hierarchical expropriation. This is pivotal in a transition period where architecture confronts the myths of geniuses aiming for paradigms of knowledge exchange and inclusion.

Socially situated pedagogies as a strategy to innovate architectural curricula: the case study of SArPe and its first experimentation at the University of Pavia

2023-08-19T13:44:12+01:00

The authors discuss a pedagogical experiment that arises out of an ongoing Erasmus+ project titled “Socially Situated Architectural Pedagogies” or SArPe, which involves the Universities of Pavia, Istanbul, TU Delft and Malaga. SArPe project situates itself in between three areas of inquiry: critical/radical pedagogies (Colomina et al., 2022; Crysler, 1995; Dutton & Mann, 1996; Hooks, 2014); situated knowledge (Haraway, 1988; Rendell, 2020) and commons-oriented knowledge and pedagogy (Bourassa et al., 2017; Deamer, 2022; Korsgaard, 2019).

Minds, Machines, and the Future of Design: Rethinking Architectural Education in the Age of AI

2023-08-19T13:47:47+01:00

The introduction of computer-aided design (CAD) programs marked a significant shift in architectural practice, with professionals transitioning from hand drawing to digital tools. This evolution sparked debates on the implications of technology for the quality and authenticity of design.

Challenging the Master: Lessons from Rethinking The Crit

2023-08-19T13:50:04+01:00

Alberti’s 1485 book On The Art of Building describes the design process as one where the architect applies absolute authority and claims ownership and credit through developing judgement. These necessary judgement skills are developed in the crit setting by the public presentation of work; the student both experiences judgement (of their own work) and observes the judgement (of their peer’s work).

Teaching architecture in the age of a fragile humanity

2023-08-19T13:52:26+01:00

Thinking about the meaning of education in architecture requires a reflection on the contemporary world as a subject and object of design. The capitalist development of construction and real estate has meant that today only an insignificant number of constructed buildings are designed by architects.

Shifting Mentality: from “Heritage Recovery” to “Heritage for Recovery”. Teaching heritage management for post crisis areas

2023-08-19T13:54:05+01:00

The role of architect in recovery process covers a wide horizon of different sectors and diverse topics. Lately,Turkiye has lived different crisis, including natural disasters, political and economic crisis with refugees’ waves from neighboring countries which suffered armed conflict. This required a shifting in mentality for the teaching and training of architecture students to comprehend and be prepared for their role in the post crisis recovery process.

Transformations of public spaces - sustainable and ethical approach to architectural and urban design using mixed cultural background

2023-08-19T13:56:25+01:00

Transformations of public spaces are an integral part of city life. These processes although addressing site specific problems are universal for the urban centres across European countries struggling with desurbanisation, social exclusion, massive tourism, climate change and pollution.

Pedagogical consequences and potentials of a Design Built Studio Program

2023-08-22T18:21:16+01:00

Design Build Studios (DBS) are special pedagogical tools in architectural education. They offer 1:1 scale construction experience, a chance to utilize the creativity of the students for the public benefit, are based on collaboration and teamwork. In the curriculum of MEF University Architecture program there is a DBS component that is compulsory for all students.

Modus Operandi: Continuously Transforming And Renewing Action In Architectural Design Studio

2023-08-22T18:25:09+01:00

In the plurality of the contemporary world, the content and limits of architects’ knowledge and skills are in an indefinable expansion. A fundamental problem is the difficulty of determining the essential knowledge and skills provided to the architectural student within the framework of education and whether the foundation provided by education can provide a structure suitable for the integration of new, non-scoped knowledge and skills into professional practice.

Digital Survey as a Method for Creative Thinking in Architectural Design

2023-08-22T18:27:26+01:00

Architectural surveying has always been the purview of the architect, despite the fact that it is practiced by other disciplines. Technological innovations in surveying have led, at least in France, to an ambivalent relationship with these new methods of documenting the existing. Although very rare in teaching, learning digital surveying techniques is nevertheless inevitable for future architects who will be required to handle these tools directly or to interact closely with their operators.

Affirmation of a Discipline: Ephemeral Tectonics of an Architecture Lesson

2023-08-22T18:29:25+01:00

Architecture study teaching process is technical, and exact, where architecture is measurable. But architecture studies must remain open to processing abstract values itself. Architecture is rigorous but anexact*. Presented course units encourage work on elaborate execution of an ephemeral idea.

Ethnographic Ways of Architectural Knowing: A Pre-design Pedagogy for Radical Inclusion

2023-08-22T18:31:23+01:00

The global response of architectural education to recent calls for social and epistemic justice has been to inaugurate the project of decolonising pedagogy and curricula, a project which admits a historical failure to respond to diverse social needs. This paper proposes ethnography as a decolonial method capable of disrupting — and evolving — normative architectural approaches to ‘site’.

Stumbling as a praxis of design practice: a pedagogical experiment in “Theory and Critic of Architectural Action”

2023-08-22T18:33:14+01:00

The Thesis Seminar “Theory and Critic of Architectural Action” is a multidisciplinary didactic experience designated to study the methodological aspects related to developing a research project in architectural history and/or design, and notably aimed at developing Master’s Degree Graduation. The Seminar identifies six key nodes in research on project practice and takes a multidisciplinary view to tackle them critically.

The Necessity of Big Beautiful Mistakes

2023-08-22T18:38:13+01:00

There is a well-known need for innovative ways of tackling the burning challenges of today. Complex problem solving, critical thinking and creativity are key competences for the future according to World Economic Forum, 2020. It is therefore problematic that we all – not least architecture students – are embedded in friction-free systems and technologies that cloud the complexities of urgent issues.

A Cosmopolitan Architectural Education

2023-08-22T18:35:15+01:00

This paper is the result of multiple dialogues conducted among students and educators part of the Nordic Baltic Academy of Architecture. These conversations were initiated by three questions: What skills should students have after studying architecture? How should these skills be taught? How can architectural education be of special importance to our society?

Bridging methods and disciplines: an Architectural Pedagogy for Rural Areas Communities

2023-08-22T18:40:38+01:00

Architectural pedagogy in rural areas necessitates a thoughtful consideration of both methodological and disciplinary approaches within educational process. Inner areas, which suffers from constant depopulation, lack of connection, and richness of historical/natural heritage, are entangled to a complex multiplicity of design scenarios.

A new approach to teaching architectural and urban design: Reformulation of city spaces with virtual tools and long-distance influences

2023-08-22T18:42:14+01:00

The spatial interventions in city heritage areas today require careful consideration of many issues. Solutions require a deep understanding of social, cultural, economic, architectural, historical, and more that make up the fabric of cities. Sometimes, more than just knowledge and design skills, what is required is to anticipate, to compromise a vision of possible memories and future recollections. The paper presents a teaching method elaborated and tested during an international student design workshop in Tel Aviv (Israel) and Cracow (Poland).

The merit of teaching introductory architecture courses in general education

2023-08-22T18:44:16+01:00

People must be aware of architecture and related sciences and technologies, and architectural education to nurture conscious citizens is as important as it is for professionals. A recent quantitative survey with 2,000 respondents in Japan revealed only about 15% are interested in ‘shelter’ out of three essentials in everyday life: food, clothing, and shelter. They did not acknowledge architecture as essential in their lives.