»Architecture or Revolution« - The Architecture as democratic emancipation

»Architecture or Revolution« was the famous sentence, with which Le Corbusier ended his book Towards a new Architecture - not without forgetting to add: »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 suffice to prevent social unrest. In the meantime, Europe went through the most dreadful of dictatorships imaginable. Today, the picture has completely changed: 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, other forms of democratic articulations have risen, many of them on the street and through social networks. What, one we might ask, can be the role of architecture within all those forms of democratic articulation?
This will be the main question 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 we will also examine english literature.

First meeting: Tuesday, October 15 10:30 am, Seminar-room of the a-theory department.

Following meetings: Tuesday 11.30 am - 1:00 pm.

Bachelor thesis or scientific paper.

 A reader and a list of literature will be made available at the beginning of the course.