KONSTFACK  Department  of  Design,  Crafts  and  Arts  Master’s  programme  in  Design:    Specialisation  Spatial  Design  Course  code:  MDE100  Level:  Advanced  level  Valid  for:  HT15  

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Introduction and Broadening of Perspective

MODUL 2

Explorations 2 (6 credit points) and

parts of Orientations (6 credit points)

12 credits of total 30 credits

This description concerns the students participating in the specialisation Spatial Design

Responsible teacher: Rochus Hinkel

Participating teachers: Rochus Hinkel, guest teachers and other faculty staff

INTERIORS AND CITIES In this course you will broaden your understanding of interiors by

exploring the concept of urban interiors within cities.

In the first part you will use a series of artistic methods, like

drifting, derivé and notations, actions, insertions and

installations to explore and engage with urban interiors.

During the introductory workshop, which will involve an artist and

an urban anthropologist, you will learn how to use anthropological

methods of observing, documenting and interviewing. You will also

collect material, thoughts, and discoveries and use them to create a

map of the found in order to develop an idea about the social and

cultural fabric of the city. You will then start to interpret and

analyze the material you have collected. You will develop links

between your private and individual engagement, thoughts and

experiences with the practices and experiences of a diverse public.

As such the workshop serves as an introduction to doing research in

a complex and difficult to control context. This will enable you to

re-think urban spaces and to re-position yourself as a spatial

practitioner that interacts with spaces in flux, ready to develop an

open, inviting, provocative, temporal or ephemeral design.

You will then experiment with different artistic methods, including

actions, insertions and installations, in order to develop your own

spatial practice, a practice that engages with interiors and cities.

In the second part you will study theoretical texts exploring a

broad array of themes related to the urban interior and engage with

a critical and reflective writing about your project. The compulsory

course literature will help you to develop a deeper theoretical

understanding of concepts related to your field of enquiry. These

text studies, accompanied with brief summaries and discussions, will

enable you to disseminate and contextualize your artistic practice.

At the end of this course you will have explored your spatial

practice through a series of experiments and discussed it through a

more theoretical lense in order to position yourself and your

interests I relationship to the concepts of interiors and cities.

Learning outcomes See course syllabus.

Course Requirements The student need to:

-­‐ Partake in workshops, reviews, seminars, and pin-ups. -­‐ Document and present orally and visually their process of

investigating an urban context through diagramming and mapping, as well as installations and/or interventions in week 51 during the review week.

-­‐ Read and reflect on course readings and hand in a required amount of text at the end of the course

-­‐ Update and present a revised ATLAS so it includes the work of explorations 2

Course structure and teaching methods

The course consists of two parts. In the first part, a more explorative part, you will focus on a series of artistic methods and experimentations to engage with the concept of interiors and cities in a variety of ways. You will present these explorations in week 52. In the second part, a more reflective part, you will reflect through a series of readings on concepts related to the course. The course ends with a final submission of a written reflection and positioning of your spatial practice in cities.

During the course there will be

-­‐ workshops and lectures -­‐ seminars where the students prepare and discuss texts and other

sources of reference -­‐ individual and group tutoring -­‐ oral presentations and written hand-ins.

Examination

The final grade is based on the design explorations undertaken and executed, the presented artefacts and visual materials, and the oral presentation, and a written reflection on the explorations an dthe theoretical readings.

The course is assessed with the grades Fail (U) or Pass (G). Examination criteria to pass the course are defined by the intended learning outcomes. Examination is based on oral and visual/material presentations and the submission of documentation of the process, the written texts and other outcomes as PDF.

Grade criteria in order to get a passing grade the students must do all of the following

-show that they have planned and performed the projects and created a proposal that has a high and relevant level of precision and articulation,

-have used methods and approaches that have been suitable for a the project and argue for the choice,

- judge the quality of a his/her own and others students’ work and design proposals in relation to the relevance for the discipline and profession, and potential client or intended end users and other stakeholders,

- explain and justify their own proposals in such a way that the projects outline, intention, outcomes and artefacts are clear and make sense,

- explain and justify the design proposal in which way it is relevant for the discipline and profession, as well as potential client or intended end users and other stakeholders,

- actively participate and contribute in classes, seminars, tutoring and presentations throughout the course.

Course literature and other teaching aids Compulsory course literature is available in Konstfack’s library on the course shelves. Other reference material will be shared throughout the course.

Jane Rendell et al (eds.), Gender Space Architecture, London: Routhledge, 2000.

Fran Tonkiss, Cities by Design: The Social Life of Urban Form. Cambridge: Polity, 2013.

Fran Tonkiss, Space, the City and Social Theory. Cambridge: Polity, 2005.

Henrietta Palmer, Access to Resources – An Urban Agenda, Baunach: AADR, 2014.

Alberto Altes and Oren Lieberman, Intravention, Durations, Effects: Notes of Expansive Sites and Relational Architectures, Baunach: AADR, 2013.

Rochus Hinkel (ed.), Urban Interior – Informal Explorations, Interventions and Occupations, Baunach: Spurbuchverlag, 2011.

Schedule

PART 1 – EXPLORING THE URBAN CONDITIONS

w.48 LEARNING FROM OBSERVATIONS

Tuesday, November 24: INTRODUCTION

09.30, Aquariet: Introduction to Explorations 2

13.00, Mandelgren: Lecture by Urbanouveau, Filipe Balestra, Stockholm

Wednesday, November 25 to Friday November 27: WORKSHOP

HOME IN THE CITY: FIELDWORK, MAPPING AND DESIGN

Locations: Wednesday Lecture 0930 Mandelgren / Thursday Lecture 0900 in S 1 / Friday 0900-1200 Review and Reflection in Seminariegatan, otherwise in the studio spaces and outside of Konstfack.

Teaching: Neeltje ten Westenend (Design Academy Eindhoven) & Leeke

Reinders (TU Delft/KU Leuven): This two-day workshop explores the

city as an assemblage of spaces, buildings, objects, people and

relationships.

Workshop schedule see attached – please note that the workshop

includes evening events

 

w 49 A SPATIAL PRACTICE OF ACTING WITHIN

Reflect on the observations and the discoveries you made during wk 48 and undertake as a further development from these experiments an experimental spatial practice that involves you as an actor in urban spaces. You might choose to interact with others, or act independently as a group or individual in space. Examples for interactions can range from playful engagements to provocations, from subtle shifts to public performances. Document these actions through media and develop a diagrammatic analysis and representation of the actions you undertook.

w 50 A SPATIAL PRACTICE OF INSERTING INTO

Rather than being the actual actor implementing new practices into urban contexts you will now design low-cost or no-costs insertions that allow, encourage or animate others to interact with your design insertions.

w 51 Reviews and Exhibition in Seminariegatan

You will attend the SYMPOSIUM ON INTERIORS AND CITIES and present your explorations to a panel of critics, including international guests from the Symposium on INTERIOS AND CITIES.

PART 2 – REFLECTING ON URBAN CONDITIONS

w 52/wk 53 TEXT STUDIES

You will undertake text studies (see literature list) and take notes on interesting concepts, you should then present and discuss with your peers in week 1. You will summarize at least one essay of the readings and share your summaries with the group.

wk 1 PEER DISCUSSIONS AND REFLECTIONS

In small groups you will present and discuss productively your findings in the readings, exchange your notes and try to define difficult concepts with your own words. You will then reflect how these concepts could be of relevance to an interior practice in general and to your work/practice in particular.

w 2 REFLECTING AND POSITIONING

During this week we will further discuss your finding and develop your writings into a reflective positioning statement. The writing should express and articulate a critical reflection on your projects during explorations 2 and outline why the concept of urban spaces as urban interiors might be relevant to the discipline and the world around us. This reflection will need to be accompanied with a mapping of the relevant themes, precedents and literatures. The format for this is a minimum 500 to maximum 1000 word abstract, accompanied with at least one map in A2.

Document drawn up by: Rochus Urban Hinkel 2015-11-17

HOME IN THE CITY:

FIELDWORK, MAPPING AND DESIGN

Workshop MFA DESIGN Konstfack

by Neeltje ten Westenend (Design Academy Eindhoven) & Leeke Reinders (TU

Delft/KU Leuven)

This two-day workshop explores the city as an assemblage of spaces, buildings, objects,

people and relationships. Using visual anthropological methods of observation and

interviewing, students learn to read, map and analyse the material, social and cultural

fabric of the city. Linking the interior and the private with the outside and the public,

the workshop serves as a first step to move from doing research into framing design.

Wednesday, November 25: exploring / getting lost / making a map

Morning – Lecture on practices of urban exploration and methods of mapping.

Afternoon – Fieldwork in which students undertake a three hour exploration of the city,

get lost and make discoveries. They explore unknown worlds and are invited to get out

of their comfort zones.

Late afternoon – Mapping exercise in which students translate their field notations,

drawings and photographs into a soft map of the city. At the end of the day students

choose a subject/topic for focused research on Thursday, and are devided into theme

groups.

Evening – Film screening of Kitchen Stories and Perfect Day.

Thursday, November 26: focusing, deepening, making sections

Morning – Introduction in doing fieldwork (observation and interviewing) and

methods of analysis and diagramming.

Late morning and early afternoon – Fieldwork on informal practices at the intersection

between home and the public, private, public and collective spaces.

Late afternoon –Analysis, making diagrams and drawing sections.

Evening – Discussion and reflection, also for making final presentations.

Friday, November 27: presentations

Morning – Presentation by groups.