ED4 2024-2025 studio descriptions (fall)

In this architecture design studio, we venture into the interwoven realms of materiality, ecology, and Indigenous perspectives, seeking to dissolve the boundaries between architecture and the living systems it inhabits. The studio invites students to explore the intersection of biogenic systems, material resources, and Indigenous paradigms of reciprocity and stewardship, contemplating how architecture might emerge as a practice of care and reverence for the Land. 

Drawing from the cyclical processes inherent in nature and the ethical imperatives of Indigenous thought, students will interrogate the role of architecture in the broader ecological and cultural matrix. By engaging with the full life cycle of materials—from their extraction to their eventual return to the earth—students will develop a nuanced understanding of energy flows, material economies, and the possibilities for creating architectures that resonate with the rhythms of the natural world. 

In this studio we will use design practice as a forum to explore these ideas and to connect them to the stages of architectural production. The aim will be to grow practice to incorporate other ways of knowing that is rooted in knowledge systems indigenous to Land, place, and people. 

To deepen our exploration of these themes, the studio will journey to British Columbia, where we will study inspiring examples of cultivated profound practices that intertwine natural and built environments through tectonic, cultural, and spiritual traditions. This trip will examine both natural and human-made structures, reflecting on how design practices have evolved to honor and synthesize these elements in a mutually respectful and harmonious way. 

This studio proposes that architecture is not merely a human endeavor but a dialogue with the earth, where design is an act of listening and responding to the complex, dynamic systems that sustain life. Through this philosophical lens, students will be encouraged to cultivate a practice that embraces care, reciprocity, and stewardship, envisioning architectural futures that are in harmony with the ecological and cultural landscapes they inhabit.
 

Arkhè-Téchnē-Vῦv! -Architecture Now! 
Origins and Contemporaneity in Architectural Design

One key objective of this studio is to address a fundamental loss in contemporary architecture that we may put in terms of a lack of sense of ‘unity’ with the world, a sense of existential disorientation. We may situate such loss in the realm of cultural and historical implications of architecture: undeniable one of the highest forms of cultural creation of humanity in history. Arkhē (Ancient Greek) ἀρχή, from ἄρχω (árkhō, “to begin, to be first in order”), Arkhē is inherent in the word-definition of architecture itself. Tékhnē (Greek: τέχνη) its complement, refers us to the ‘know-how’ art or skill which is specific to the work of the architect. Tékhnē derives from an Ancient Greek root in Tik, Tikto, where Tekton comes from: the master builder, who knows and puts together a creation higher than the sum of its parts. Vῦv (now) situates us in time: architecture is an event in time that happens in space, and a tradition (today a sum of traditions) of making which has evolved in time since prehistory. How tradition is considered now, and changes over time, will also be a key subject of our exploration        

Such ‘origins’ which connect us with a “time of the-now” (in Walter Benjamin’s terms) and enable to project us to the future can be found in foundational myths, history or the tracing of historical change, and even in primeval poetic (material) images such as those suggested by phenomenologists Gaston Bachelard, Juahni Pallasmaa, and others. Our studio will learn about meaningful buildings and places, and those will inform our new creations with the notion of such connectivity with the world, and meaning, in mind. We will discuss works, visit places (in presence as with the flight of reading and imagination), and, in critically and creative manner produce and project new buildings and new places with architecture that reflects strong sense of place-in-the-world (unity), and existential orientation.  During the term we will develop two small-to medium-scale projects, in context (physical, historical, cultural, and natural), and we will travel (with readings imagery, and our bodies) to places near and far.
Near, since our first project will take place in the interstices of our local ‘urban’ context, reshaping and sensibly re-densifying urban domestic environments with ethical and aesthetic connotations. The project will be developed learning from, and considering, not only the existing conditions in their cultural and historical evolution but also a meaningful ‘precedents’ in our modern and contemporary world and architectural tradition. Far, since our second project, a small-scale infill, will take place in Nafplion, Greece, an urban palimpsest where time immemorial still resonates: from pre-Homeric Mycenes and Argos to the best of modernism. All students (whether they travel to Greece or not) will team for the purpose of site analysis and will individual develop one building.  

Greece, or Hellas, is relevant and unique destination to experience and elaborate on the subject. We will visit Athens, the islands of Aegina and Poros, and the Peloponnesus, with stays and stops in Limeni, Nafplio, Epidauros. In Aegina, the sites of Kolonna, Aphaea, and Paleochora will take us from the Bronze Age to Byzantium; in Athens, from classical antiquity to the modern metropolis; In Nafplion, from pre-Homeric Hellas to the contemporary; in Epidauros, to the world of the best classical sanctuaries. I cannot conceive of a more complete architectural Journey.
 

Urban large-scale housing on an industrial site immediately adjacent to a  trendy historical neighborhood and close to a large urban park. 

‘Housing’ is the modernist project of greatest importance to everyone: How does one design places to live that are appealing and affordable? How much of the housing built in Winnipeg is truly inspiring? Would you like a good job when you graduate? Then learn something about housing; there is need everywhere. 

Last week, Kamala Harris announced the urgent goal of building three million … 3,000,000 … new housing units in America over the next four years. This said, ninety-nine percent of these units will be bland and boring. Germany has similarly urgent housing needs and, after being at the forefront of progressive and innovative solutions over the past decades, it is also in need of new impulses and directions.  

This Studio will take students through the logical steps of working on complex spatial organizations within a clearly defined site. You will learn how to design places and spaces that you will want to live in. Living well is the best revenge.

PDF can be downloaded HERE