»Architecture or Revolution« - The Architecture as democratic emancipation – Reloaded
»Architecture or Revolution« was the famous sentence at the end of Le Corbusiers book Towards a new Architecture - to which he added that the »Revolution can be avoided«. However, Le Corbusier emphasized that he was solely concerned with technical, not with political issues.¿
Ninety years have passed since Le Corbusier claimed that a better architecture would be enough to prevent social unrest. Shortly after, Europe went through a period of dreadful dictatorships, only to regain (or gain) democracy. Today, not only do europeans live under the rule of constitutional democraties, rather, it has become a model of success in many parts of the world. On the other hand, there is a rising consciousness for other forms of democratic articulations, many of them on the streets and through social networks. What, one we might ask, can be the role of architecture within all those forms of democratic articulation?¿
This will just one of the questions of the seminar. Research questions will be detailed in collaboration with the advisors. Students will also be introduced to principles of argumentation and of scientific research and writing. Students will write a bachelor thesis or a scientific paper.
The seminar will take part in german and english, as much of the literature will be in english. It consists of two parts: the discussion of relevant literature and the organisation and presentation of the seminar paper.
