AAK N05 HT10 6hp Theory: Seminars, lectures and study trips (together with the course AAK N01).
AAK N01 HT10 18hp CITY SPACE - DWELLING SPACE 1 Participation in AAK N05 i compulsory for this course.
CONTENT & AIM
The project’s main aim is to communicate, and extend, knowledge that is common to all architecture. It revolves mainly around questions of spatial relations, construc- tion, light, materiality, dimensions and scale.
The second aim is to develop the specific intentions underlying architectural creations. Intentions based on a wide reading of societal spatial needs that will be given physical, architectural expression.
Spatial organization Technical structure Lloyd’s of London, arch. Richard Rogers Lloyd’s of London, arch. Richard Rogers
“Architects make use of two different types of knowledge. Technical, and spatial, knowledge. Technical knowledge is about assembling building components into a physical struc- ture and spatial knowledge is about combining spaces and relating them to one another so as to make them into mean- ingful, and in the broadest sense, useful places. Both types of knowledge are necessary yet not equivalent as far as the architect’s intentions are concerned. Technical knowledge describes the physical means of the spatial end. Everybody has a more or less developed spatial knowledge acquired through experiences in society, but the architect is expected to creatively employ this knowledge. This is the very core of architecture’s professional identity.”
“It is the task of the Architect to produce a warm and com- fortable space. Warm and comfortable are carpets. Therefore he decides to lay one carpet on the floor, four more are hung. These are intended to make four walls. The foot carpet as well as the wall carpets need a supported frame that keeps them in the right position. To invent this frame is the second task of the Architect.” Adolf Loos
From “Cities for a Small Planet” by Richard Rogers Kvarteret St Laurentius, Lund Eames’ House, arch. Charles & Ray Eames Student project
STUDIO
The project work can be likened to a three-dimensional space, stretching through time and space. We will investigate the physical/architectonic world’s relation to society and the individual together, and we will do this beneath an umbrella of consciously chosen ideas and instruments for interpretation.
“Architects draw with different intentions. The drawing I will describe here has to do with learning - with investigating, bit by bit, the mass of a building with a pencil - with simultaneously perceiving the entire span between landscape and built detail. Not just how something looks but also how it was contemplated then completed - to experience scale and articulation through the pencil/hand/body and in doing so taking part. Not until the lines have noted the inevitable physical force-field/obstacles, not until the breach between wishes and solid boundaries is reached will new possibilities and new questions arise step by step. Then that phase of work that Picasso describes in the words “I’m not searching - I’m finding” will commence.” B.E. (From an article on ILA&UD in AT 2/81)
The project work is supported by seminars treating theories about, and approaches to, plan- ning and building in cities. The seminars aim to provide the project with theoretical depth. Ideas will be tested and developed throughout the project which means that theoretical discussions and practical applications will be entwined into a whole.
A plan generated by an ordering principle - the placing of servant spaces, in relation to the surrounding walls, creates the rooms of the house. Retirement House in Kent, project, arch. Alison + Peter Smithson
Detail of wall Eames’ House, arch. Charles & Ray Eames SITES & THEMES
The starting point of the project is that the architect’s knowledge is acquired in concrete working situations where studies of specialised areas of knowledge and of theory formations complete the working process.
The city of Lund with its ample display of constructed as well as societal conditions offers a close and complex sphere of activity. By developing projects at specific sites we can investigate and learn how individual phenomena - spatial, technical, societal etc. - interact and form mean- ingful wholes.
The incentive for a specific architectural task will often spring from what we call “programmes”. The creative force, however, - the “design energy” - springs from intentions and goals at a more basic level than individual programmes are usually capable of expressing.
Examples of such intentions and goals to be developed in the project are:
- Which qualities, regarding spatial relations, space qualities, availability, light, construction, materi- als, colour, etc should city-buildings embody to satisfy the conditions for long-term usability?
- Can we take advantage of Lund’s rapid expan- sion to transform the existing space structure into a richer environment?
- How can we develop a language of architecture that is understood and valued?
- How can techniques and materials of today con- tribute to the development of our physical space?
- Can we, through the conscious expansion of existing and new built structures, preserve and develop the qualities of the rural landscape and simultaneously make it more publicly accessible?
- Can monofunctional areas of the city, e.g. old industrial areas, be developed in a way that will encour- age contemporary multi purpose use and at the same time help to create new physical connections and relationships in the city as a whole?
(Specific sites of interest will be presented at the start of the project.) STUDY TOUR
A main feature of the autumn semester is a study tour to London, Oxford and Bath, that is an integral part of the continuous project work. A series of preparatory seminars will elucidate issues of special relevance to the project. The aim is to take advantage of the energy generated by experienc- ing and investigating interesting architectonic phenomena in a new context. We will practise the ability to transform these experiences and to put them into practise in the envi- ronment and context we normally work in. Another advantage of the tour is that it provides for the studio a common experience-bank of obser- vations that can be drawn upon when discussing and drawing together. LITERATURE
Steen Eiler Rasmussen Towns and Buildings, part I and II London the Unique City Experiencing Architecture
Edmund Bacon Design of Cities (London 1992) Chr. Norberg-Schultz Existence, Space and Architecture (London 1971) The Damand for a Contemporary Language of Architecture (Art&Design nov.1986) Lamberto Rossi Giancarlo de Carlo (Milano 1988)
Giancarlo de Carlo Connections on Urbino (Lotus International 18)
Bill Hillier The Social Logic of Space (excerpt)
Vitruvius Ten Books on Architecture
Le Corbusier Towards a New Architecture
Richard Rogers Architecture - A Modern View Cities for a Small Planet Cities for a Small Country
Aldo Van Eyck Aldo Van Eyck (Amsterdam1982)
H. Herzberger et al Buildings and Projects 1959-1986 (Haag 1987)
Herman Herzberger Lessons for Students in Architecture
A+P Smithson Italian Thoughts (Lund1993) The Shift (Architectural Monograph 7, 1982) Collective Design (AD nr 10/73, 7/74, 11/74, 3/75, 5/75)
A. Smithson Team X Primer
P. Smithson The Heroic Period of Modern Architecture
Louis I. Kahn Between Silence And Light Jon Lobell
Louis I. Kahn Writings, Lectures, Interview (New York 1991)
David B. Brownlee Louis Kahn - In the Realm of Architecture
Jørn Utzon Jørn Utzon on Architecture (Living Architecture)
James Stirling James Stirling Monograph
James Gowan James Gowan (Architectural Monograph 3)
Ian Lambot (ed.) Norman Foster
Peter Buchanan Renzo Piano Building Workshop (London 1993)
John Neuhart Eames Design Marilyn Neuhart Ray Eames
David Hockney Hockney on Photography (London 1988) David Hockney (Art & Design, London 1988)
ILA&UD Year Books Contributions by Giancarlo de Carlo, Peter Smithson 1976 - 1993 Herman Herzberger, Renzo Piano and others.
Kenneth Frampton Studies in Tectonic Culture A Critical History of Modern Architecture
Richard Weston Utzon (Hellerup 2002)