Form follows Paragraph: Regulations, Risks, and Fictions

Do rules configure the architecture and the city? Does the architecture need rules? Must and can everything be planned and predictable at all?
Many of today's rules (laws, building codes, norms, etc.) are motivated by questions of safety and health; In most cases, they relate to the observance of technical aspects. The "necessary minimum", that they define in the process, now reaches an extent that in practice leaves little room for freedom.
Architecture is not unfamiliar with rules: we know of a long tradition of tracts and regulations. In most cases however, utility and durability were associated with aesthetics, with an idea of beauty whose idea was to convey meaning.
The seminar accompanies the preparation for the exhibition "Form Follows Paragraph", which will open in autumn at the Az W. This exhibition will look for ways to direct the view of non-experts to the legal subtext of the built environment and to highlight the invisible legal framework. The seminar will draw a broader perspective and illuminate the relationship between architecture and rules.

The course can be held bilingual (German/English). As an introduction into the subject, a few texts will be read and discussed in the seminar during the first weeks. These texts (mostly English) are continually updated on TISS. The elaboration of the seminar work itself comprises several intermediate steps:

a) Accompanying research and finding a research question
b) the research and writing of a short summary (Exposée)
c) Intermediate presentation of the state of things and the structure of the argument
d) Preparation of the seminar paper (delivery in July)

 Wednesday 15.03.2017 10:30 - first unit, seminar room at architecture theory

Note: there might also be some meetings with the curators of the Az W outside of these regular dates. These dates will be announced on TISS as soon as they are established.

Written academic paper. Due at the end of July 2017.