Architecture Theory II - 3 ECTS

The series of lectures focuses on the basic concepts of architectural theory. The lectures are intended as an introduction to the conceptual terms that form the basis for understanding all architecture: Sign, image, simulacrum, history, phenomenon, aura, atmosphere, empathy, avant-garde, the new, tectonics, ruin, author, etc.
Linked to this is the question of a comprehensive definition of modernity. 

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. -Ing. Jörg Gleiter

Time: Wednesdays, 16-18 h
Start: Wednesday, 20.04.2022, 16:15, lecture hall A 151

Registration: MTS in Moses (from 25.04.22 as module registration)
Lecture notes: Link will follow shortly

The Anthropocene and Architecture:
Of Eccentricities, Resistances and Angels of History (BA/MA)
Architectural Theory/Philosophy I - 3 ECTS

Something is going wrong in the debates on sustainability, the crisis of energy, resources and climate. As in the mid-20th century, architecture seems to be taken over by instrumental technical reason. In contrast, the seminar will focus on the cultural, anthropological and aesthetic dimensions On an anthropological basis, the question of the changing status of the paradigms of architecture in the Anthropocene, the changing cultural dominants, the models of history, the eccentricity of man, the obstinacy of things and the angel of history, etc. will be raised. The reading seminar is intended as an introduction to the basic principles of architectural anthropology.

Achievements: Regular attendance, solution of a small research task, presentation in the seminar, written report of 5 pages.  

Lecturer: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Gleiter

Time: Mon., 18:00-20:00 hrs
Place: A 201a
1st event: 25.04.2022

Registration: 1. lecture
Information about registration for examinations will be announced in the 1st lecture

Ever Present Past: Memorials and the Lived Space of Recollection (MA)
Architekturtheorie/Theorie I (Architecture Theory/Theory I) - 3 ECTS 

The seminar will look into the various forms of collective remembrance and how they change over time. Berlin has a diverse collection of memorials. Traditionally, they remember what was considered the heroic past of the nation. Yet since 1945 a new type of memorial made its way into the public realm: memorials that commemorate the darker side of German history, particularly the atrocities committed against the Jewish citizens and other minorities. Since the mid-1980s, the memorials that commemorate the Holocaust underwent significant changes. While formally these memorials had been characterized as works of art–– on account of how they communicated their message through artistic means and how they stood out in the public realm––, the new memorials pursue an opposing strategy of dissimulation into everyday life. The seminar will critically assess the architectural, intellectual, philosophical, social and historical background of these changing concepts of public recollection. The seminar will include visits to some of the places of remembrance in and around Berlin.

Requirements: a. short presentation, b. video (5 min) and c. a final paper of 5 pages.

Dozent: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Gleiter

Time: Mo., 14:00-16:00 Uhr
Location: A 201a
First lesson: 25.04.2022

Language: English
Registration: First lesson
Information about exam registration will be announced in the first meeting

AGENDA.
Architecture as Ecological Practice (MA/BA)
Architectural Theory/Philosophy II - 3 ECTS

What is the agenda ('things to be done') of spatial design today? Architecture is confronted with challenges arising from the climatic emergency, which requires a rethinking of the stock, of materials, of production techniques, of the labour dimension, and of the impact of design and construction practices. In this context, the concept of the Anthropocene has gained acceptance, which on the one hand refers to a new epoch in the history of the Earth that cannot be separated from the geological force of humanity. On the other hand, this concept points to a field of creative ecological practices in which novel encounters between humans and (built and unbuilt) environments can be analysed, made visible and constructed. In the seminar, which is aimed at Bachelor's and Master's students, we will introduce the concept of the Anthropocene and the theoretical approaches that have emerged in this field, look at aesthetic and archi-tectural practices
and together develop an applied, experimental architectural practice.

Lecturer: Dr. Lidia Gasperoni

Time: Mon., 10:00-12:00 hrs
Location: A 201a
1st event: 25.04.22

Registration: 1st course
Information about registration for exams will be announced in the 1st course.

Augmented Historical Pedagogies: Tiergarten’s Hidden Urban Narratives
Architekturtheorie/Philosophie III - 6 ECTS

Augmented Historical Pedagogies: Tiergarten’s Hidden Urban Narratives is a collaborative workshop bringing together three institutions: the MIT Department of Architecture, the Institute for Architecture at TU  Berlin, and The Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. The collaboration will foster a VR- and AR-based, interdisciplinary study of the Tiergarten, Berlin’s largest park and a site which has undergone unique historical transformations. Because of its complex history, not just in field of architecture and urban planning, but also within the history of film, literature, politics, zoology, hydrology, and botanics, Tiergarten is an exemplary location for a critical exploration of the ways through which urban history is written and produced.

In addition to engaging with the site’s history through readings and archival research, students will use advanced simulation techniques–such as environmental sensing, laser scanning, and photogrammetry–as well as game engines, and produce immersive representations of Tiergarten. These projects, virtual- and augmented-reality installations, will be conceived as digital spaces that present the multiplicity of the park’s historical narratives through a variety of mediums, techniques and materials. The aim is not to make a passive reconstruction, but to use these digital spaces as the sites for insightful historical investigations. The final results, a collection of virtual tours and ‘incisions’ through the layers of knowledge and representation, aim to provoke discussion not just about Tiergarten’s past, but also about a re-envisioned future.

Dozent: Klaus Platzgummer, MSc ETH Arch, M.A. (AA)

Time: May 30 – June 7; pre- and post-workshop preparation meetings tbd
Location: in-person, FG Architekturtheorie
First lesson: April 22 2022 at 17:45 info meeting at FG Architekturtheorie

Language: English
Registration: First lesson
Information about exam registration will be announced in the first meeting

Digital Architecture Commons:
Architekturtheorie/Theorie III - 6 ECTS

What is the importance of digital architecture commons in creating and managing “real” material environments? Seemingly immaterial and streamlined data flows do not reveal the usually messy reality of material extraction, privatization, land and real estate speculation, slow environmental violence, spatial injustice, displacement, or energy use, to name a few. In this sense, making such processes visible and tangible by exposing the systems at work through their material dimension is of uttermost importance. Can we, as architects, become agents for change and start a conversation about the future of architecture commons by looking at domains of the digital: its mechanisms and tools. How are they developed, deployed, monetized, accessed, shared, and hacked? What is their visual and sociopolitical impact on the material world - the cities and environments we create? Can we analyze digital architecture commons by looking at a data set or a protocol and trace its impact on the poured concrete, steel, and glass that surround us? In this sense, we will examine how the materiality of data can become a site of architectural knowledge.
The seminar will consist of two parts. First, we will discuss and analyze art and architecture practices that deal with creating spatial agencies in the digital domain. Digital artworks, simulators, game design, and tools like hybrid visual/textual live programming environments, utilizing A.I., big data, machine learning, smart contracts, NFT, or blockchain technologies are of interest. We will then define key concepts and aspects of the digital by looking at various infrastructures of data. In the second part, we will create a curatorial concept for an exhibition that will address the findings of the first part by ¨making things visible¨. Each participant will work individually or in a group and develop their curatorial project.
The seminar will be held in collaboration with Dr. Damjan Kokalevski, Architktekturmuseum, TU München

Dozent: Klaus Platzgummer, MSc ETH Arch, M.A. (AA)

Time: according to arranged appointments within the group; 4 appointments on Thursday's (studio hours are taken in consideration)
Location: hybrid (TU Berlin / TU München)
First lesson: April 27 2022 at 13:00 info meeting at FG Architekturtheorie

Language: English
Registration: First lesson
Information about exam registration will be announced in the first meeting

Building Information
Architekturtheorie/Kritik III - 6 ECTS

a workshop in collaboration with ARCH+ based on the current exhibition and series of events BUILDING INFORMATION (Architekturmuseum, TU Berlin) with the members of the Architecture Beyond Capitalism (ABC) School, The Architecture Lobby, architects, artists and curators: Kadambari Baxi (Columbia University), Aaron Cayer (University of New Mexico), Peggy Deamer (Yale University), Elisa R. Linn (AdBK Nürnberg), Alan Ruiz (The New School), et al.

BUILDING INFORMATION addresses labor processes in architecture in the context of today's digital ecosystems which structure relationships among human and non-human actors. How do micro-labor and outsourcing affect not only the authorship of architecture but also labor struggles and organization? In the exhibition, contemporary conditions of labor are addressed in artworks by Alan Ruiz and documentary and interview formats by Kadambari Baxi of Who Builds Your Architecture as well as the rendering studio ATCHAIN. Mollie Claypool-Glass and Claire McAndrew (Automated Architecture Lab) and Aaron Benanav discuss the extent to which automation is not only socially disruptive but also has emancipatory potential. Harun Farocki's film compares the working and production conditions of bricks, moving between full automation and manual labor. The fact that neocolonial extractivism is not only inscribed in the mining of physical raw and building materials, but also in data, is unpacked by artists Sidsel Meineche Hansen and Ibiye Camp. Amelyn Ng, Bernard Cache, and video artist Ericka Beckman trace how real and simulated worlds are designed with data, information, and immaterial labor in software such as BIM (Building Information Modeling). The architectural firm HOME-OFFICE inventories the specific construction materials of the Architekturmuseum of the TU Berlin itself.

Dozent: Klaus Platzgummer, MSc ETH Arch, M.A. (AA)

Time: May 9 – May 12 afternoons/evenings; pre- and post-workshop preparation meetings tbd
Location: in-person, FG Architekturtheorie
First lesson: April 25 2022 at 16:00 info meeting at Architekturmuseum der TU Berlin

Language: English
Registration: First lesson
Information about exam registration will be announced in the first meeting

Architecture Inside Out—On Interior Design
Berlin as a Case Study and Research Laboratory
Architekturtheorie/Kritik I (Architecture Theory/Critics I) - 3 ECTS

“Outside and inside form a dialectic of division,” writes the French Philosopher Gaston Bachelard. “Open closed open. That’s all we are,” posits the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai in describing the life cycle of a person from the moment he enters the world to the moment he departs from it. In the seminar we shall examine the interior spaces as a theoretical and physical space. One of the particularities of designing interior spaces is that the architect operates within a given space that is usually predefined by the building envelope and various elements related to the building’s systems like the structural frame, electrical wiring, water, and other infrastructures. In the seminar, we will review a number of case studies by way of walking tours around the city of Berlin. We will try to expand our professional toolbox by analyzing and studying the phenomena that materialize within these spaces. 

Dozenten: Shuli Beimel (Technion/Haifa), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg H. Gleiter

Compact seminar 16.05.2022 -29.05.2022 (the exact dates tba)

First meeting: 26.04.2022, 18:00 h (https://tu-berlin.zoom.us/j/91762587273?pwd- =ZDlpcE1wOURuWGt3eG5peHhkeVBtdz09)

Language: English
Registration: First lesson
Information about exam registration will be announced in the first meeting

The Project of Theory
Architekturtheorie/Theorie II (Architecture Theory/Theory II) - 3 ECTS

The 2022 Summer School in Cres, Croatia, will adress the projective character of theory. Genuine innovation in architecture is always a project of theory. The workshop poses the question of the relation between theory and architectural practice. Critical theory opens up architecture to the possibility of the new by way of making visible the immanent deficits, the aesthetic, ethical and social conditions and paradoxes of architecture. Echoing the philosopher Christine Blättler, it can be said that theory directs the “gaze from metaphysical sense to material intrinsic meaning.” There is no true innovation without theory. The Summer School will be prepared in advance in a series of seminar sessions. Students will prepare presentations of free choice and actively participate in the meetings. The Summer School will be joined by students of Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Torino e ETSAM Madrid.

There is only a limited number of 5 participants. Students interested in participating send their letter of intent to joerg.gleiter@tu-berlin.de not later than April 10. The letter includes your datas and a brief essay of 1500 characters in which you briefly explain your motivation.

Dozent: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg H. Gleiter

Compact seminar 03.05. - 06.05.2022
The Moise Palace, Cres (Croatia) 
First seminar session: April 19, 6 pm
Deadline of letter of intent: April 10
Language: English

MY-CO BUILD+AFFECT
Scenarios for mushroom-based building materials. Accompanying research in architectural psychology Research project with young researchers: X-Student Research Groups - 6 ECTS

Mushroom-based composite materials represent a promising alternative to conventional building materials - as renewable raw materials that can also be returned to the natural cycle. The MY-CO BUILD project (V. Meyer & S. Pfeiffer) places fungi and fungal materials at the centre of a debate about future ways of building as well as ways of living for humans. The MY-CO BUILD+AFFECT teaching research project expands this to include the perspective of architectural psychology. The multisensory dimensions and effects on experience, as well as acceptance research, are the focus of the investigations in order to further clarify open questions about the future viability of these materials. The teaching research project offers students the opportunity to try out an interdisciplinary research field, to experiment with production processes in this area and to make them visible, as well as to involve future users as actors in participation workshops. MY-CO BUILD+AFFECT is to be conceived as an interdisciplinary project, experiential experimental arrangement and workshop by students - as an innovation space for user:inside integration and for data collection for an architectural psychological exploration study and insights.

An interdisciplinary research project within the framework of the Berlin University Alliance that is primarily aimed at students of architecture (at the Institute of Architecture, TU Berlin), biotechnology (at the Institute of Biotechnology, TU Berlin), psychology (HU, FU Berlin) and human factors (at the Institute of Psychology and Work Science, TU Berlin) in their Master's degree - who wish to acquire (additional) knowledge in empirical research and test it on a practical and relevant topic.

Lecturer: Dipl.-Psych. Gudrun Rauwolf

Time: Wed., 13:00-16:00 hrs
Location: A 201 a
1st meeting: 20.04.22, 13:15 online ZOOM (Meeting-ID: 679 8950 2321, Kenncode: 382040)

Registration by mail: g.rauwolf@tu-berlin.de
Information about registration for exams will be announced in the 2nd meeting.