Architecture Theory I / Prof. Dr. Jörg Gleiter
Theory and History of Architecture 3/6 ETCS

Architectural theory is a profoundly modern concern. Architecture's need for critical-theoretical reflection on its cultural foundations results directly from the particular developmental dynamics of modernity. With the emergence of new materials (steel, concrete, glass), new technologies (machine, photo, film, computer, smartphone) and new social orders, architecture can no longer unquestioningly borrow its orienting standards from the models of past eras in order to cope with its cultural tasks. Since everything is constantly in motion and changing, it must constantly redefine its goals, means and methods. This is particularly evident in the transition from manual to machine production in the 19th century, as well as today at the turn from the analogue to the digital age. Therefore: architectural theory is the medium of reflection on the being-made as well as the being-made of architecture and on its cultural function in the respective, changing cultural field of forces.

The lecture is intended as an introduction to architectural theory as the instance of critical reflection that inquires into the foundations of architecture as a sensual-aesthetic experience, as a constructive reality and social system of reference in the respective cultural field of forces. It is intended as an introduction to the philosophical, aesthetic, psychological, social, perceptual, etc. foundations of architecture. Fundamentals of architecture. With the necessary historical deepening, an overview of the most important theoretical positions, their deficits and failures since the end of the 18th century until today will be given. 

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Jörg Gleiter

Time: Wed. 16:00 - 18:00 hrs
Location: A 151 / online
First date: 26.10.2022, 16:00 hrs

Registration: MTS in Moses (registration is for the entire module) / ISIS

ISIS-Link: https://isis.tu-berlin.de/course/view.php?id=31792

Apocalypse / Prof. Dr. Jörg Gleiter
Architecture Theory / Philosophy I - 3 ETCS

As global warming progresses, our time is characterised by a peculiar mood of the end of time. Apocalyptic, chiliastic or eschatological visions of the end of the world have accompanied mankind from its beginnings. This also includes the fact that Fredric Jameson diagnosed a cheerful, light-hearted, inverted chiliasm (end-time mood) for the postmodern era - that was not so long ago. Today, this seems to have turned into the opposite. What is new is that architecture has changed sides in the process. Until recently, architecture was still a means by which man gained sovereignty over his life in a forward-looking way; today, architecture and the city, land and resource consumption are seen as the causes of the dystopian state of the earth. The seminar will examine various apocalyptic narratives in literature, philosophy, religion, music and cultural criticism and the role architecture plays in them. The (research) seminar will be conducted with the ARS Research Network Project (TU and UdK).

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Jörg Gleiter
Tutor: Anh Hoffmann

Time: Mon 14:00 - 16:00
Location: A 201a / online
First date: 24.10.2022

Registration: in the 1st course and ISIS
Language: German

ISIS-Link: https://isis.tu-berlin.de/course/view.php?id=31793

Type and Modell II / Prof. Dr. Jörg Gleiter
Semiotic Analysis of Architecture - 3/6 ETCS

Beyond their functional, design, and material aspects, types constitute the basic elements of a language of architecture. Like the tropes and figures of speech in rhetoric, types are semiotic devices of the language of architecture. At the very least types have a narrative function as they tell us something about the time, purposes, customs, expediency and culture in general. With types, architecture leaves the realm of the elite codification of its sign system (style, history etc.). How does architecture speak through typology? How is meaning created through types? And in the first place, what does it mean if we talk of the language of architecture? How can architecture be meaningful at all? What is meant if we refer to architecture as language? The seminar is a basic introduction into architectural semiotics. Focusing on aspects of semiotics, rhetoric and language the seminar seeks to free typology from the hardened image of cataloged, formulaic knowledge and functionalist compartmentalization with the aim of casting a critical eye on the clichés and stereotypes that have been hardened in the debates surrounding postmodernism and the digital.

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Jörg Gleiter

Time: Mo., 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location: 201a / online
First session: 17.10.2022, 6:00 pm

Enrollment: MTS in Moses / ISIS

ISIS-Link: https://isis.tu-berlin.de/course/view.php?id=31796

Crisis +/- Process / Hannah Elisabeth Mareeke Folkea Tatjes
Society/Philosophy

Critical analyses of the present in the field of tension between system and disturbance

Between nuclear weapons and a lack of resources, between alarming climate catastrophes and a lack of tourist:inside entertainment during a global pandemic; between warlords, authoritarian states, popular referendums and civil wars - in a reality that multiplies faster than we can create social media accounts, fragments of a persistent present accumulate.
The tutorial is dedicated to this present in the context of architecture and urban planning under the aspect of crisis; between disruption and system. The focus is on the question of how interdisciplinary research and (counter)planning can be made possible within complex global systems, both perfect and catastrophic.
The aim is the joint development of critical tools for future architects, urban planners and social scientists, but it is equally aimed at students from other disciplines who are interested in the topics and methods.

Lecturer: Hannah Elisabeth Mareeke Folkea Tatjes

Time: Wed 11:00 - 15:00
Location: hybrid (Zoom / room to be announced!)
First date: 20.10.2022 (online)

Registration: 1st event / Berlin University Alliance X-Tutorials Berlin University Alliance
Language: German

ISIS-Link: https://isis.tu-berlin.de/course/view.php?id=31795

Typologies of the Anthropocene / Dr. Lidia Gasperoni
PiV Typology Design Studio - 3 ECTS

The PIV of TYPOLOGIES OF THE ANTHROPOCENE investigates the conceptual framework of the Anthropocene that involves different modes of relationality between (human and non-human) environments and life forms. The PIV introduces the Anthopocene discourse, discussing the current paradigm shift and making its environmental proximities explicit.
It investigates case studies and architectural projects. In the PIV the students will experiment through a specific media practice with new projecting forms assuming different typological perspectives on atmosphere, kinship and common ground. The aim of the PIV is to support the development of a new spatial vocabulary in the Design Studio.

Lecturer: Dr. Lidia Gasperoni

Time: Thu., 10:00 pm
Location A 701
First session: 20.10.2022

Enrollment: tba

ISIS-Link: https://isis.tu-berlin.de/course/view.php?id=31791

Data: Accumulated, Big, Biased / Klaus Platzgummer
Architekturtheorie/Theorie I - 3 ETCS

Data accumulation — data on identity markers such as gender or race, geographic and climate data, data on the movement of people, goods and capital, and much more — is increasingly conditioning the production of architecture. Big data has become synonymous with an intangibly large body of knowledge, and the application of data-based techniques is typically accompanied by the promise of ever more accurate depictions and predictions of the world, the environment and architectures. Data sets, however, are not a given but constructs with inscribed biases and powers: issues to be critically addressed, described and debated.

This exploration unfolds along the analysis of various data- driven architectural and environmental practices, alongside the study of key texts from racial studies, gender studies and science and technology studies, laying the necessary foundations for careful distinctions between different forms of biases and powers and their intersectionalities; and for what data is and what it constitutes.

Lecturer: Klaus Platzgummer

Time: Mo., 16:00 - 18:00 h
Location: A 201a / online
First session: 24.10.2022

Pre-Registration via e-mail to klaus.platzgummer@tu-berlin.de, within October 24 2022, noon.

ISIS-Link: https://isis.tu-berlin.de/course/view.php?id=31794