The International Engagements course provides opportunities for students to be immersed in international settings through collaborative projects, site visits, and study tours. The aim is to provide students with the opportunity to experience other cultural and educational settings in order to develop their own understanding of the global educational and professional context.
This course will provide students with relevant frameworks for investigating familiar typologies within a non-familiar cultural and social context. Student will engage with other professional settings and gain insights into international design, construction and planning practice.
COURSE INFORMATION
2016W, UE, 4.0h, 5.0EC, to be held in blocked form btw. 02.12.2018 and 14.12.2018
Teaching Times and Locations: TU Wien and University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia)
Teaching Staff:
TU Wien - Ass. Prof. Dr. Mladen Jadric
UNSW - Dr. Dijana Alic
Important: This course in English is only reserved for students who participate in the workshop in Vienna
Date (Workshop): 02.12.2018 - 14.12.2018
SUMMARY OF PROPOSAL
Affordable housing is a basic requirement and an essential ingredient of a just, inclusive and sustainable city. With the low housing affordability in Sydney it is of paramount importance that the students of architecture, interior architecture, construction, planning and landscape architecture are introduced to models of affordable housing that are accessible to the majority of the city´s population.
The course: VORBILD WIEN / EXEMPLE PARLANT VIENNA about the Housing in Vienna, takes the students to the city of Vienna where almost 60% of the city´s population lives in some form of subsidized apartments. The Viennese model of affordable housing is built on a diverse definition of social and affordable housing that includes city-owned flats and limited profit housing co-operatives. The City of Vienna organizes special "developers' contests" that promote a developer & architect alliance and encourage innovative engagements between construction, design, and planning professions.
LINK VIENNA-SYDNEY
Vienna born, Sidney based Australian architect Harry Seidler participate actively this process in Austria (Wohnpark Neue Donau, Design/Completion 1993 -1998; tower 2001) and promoted the principles of social housing in Australia. With his projects in Vienna, he not only made a symbolic return to the city of his origin, but contributed to a long tradition of affordable housing - the tradition that in the city of Vienna has been considered a public task of major social importance.
SOFT CITY RENEWAL
Today, the City Department for Housing and Urban Renewal of Vienna is responsible for the subsidisation of several thousand new apartments each year; administration of more than 220,000 city-owned flats (Wiener Wohnen) and Europe's largest housing renewal program (wohnfonds_wien - Fund for Housing Construction and Urban Renewal). Vienna´s housing model represents a successful integration of design, ecology, economy and social sustainability. Major architects, past and present, have been involved in the design of this social housing built to encourage interaction among social classes, and promote innovation and high-quality design.
JUSTIFICATION FOR PROPOSAL
The Housing in Vienna course provides an opportunity for students to explore this urban typology within the international context of Vienna. The course supports multidisciplinary learning practice across postgraduate and undergraduate levels. The course offers to further develop and extend the core courses for the Master of Architecture specialisations of housing and social agency.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Work in teams and engage in the study of urban issues that concern multiple disciplines and work creatively within and across disciplines, with each student learning from the insights of other students.
- Apply cross-disciplinary studies and cross-cultural studies to their understanding of built fabric and design
- Utilize research and an analysis of diverse sources in an `imaginative¿, `creative¿ and `operative¿ manner, interpreting these through two and three dimensional graphic representation
- Operate and relate to international and global professional agendas
- Clearly articulate and clearly define a strategic and rigorous design position from its conceptual stage to a developed design proposal based on an in-depth appreciation of design principles of the selected typology
TEACHING STRATEGIES AND RATIONALE
The course comprises an international study trip to Vienna conducted through a range of teaching practices: a series of weekly seminars undertaken prior to the trip to Vienna; visits of key housing projects in Vienna; and intensive collaborative efforts with the student of TU Wien. Students will be required to attend session before and after the study tour. While on sites in Vienna the students are expected to strictly adhere to travel agenda and conduct themselves in the most professional and ethical manner.
Daily activities in Vienna include: site visits to key housing projects, lectures from TU Wien and invited guests, daily meetings with staff, and feedback on progress. The students will participate in a two-day intensive workshop with TU Wien students and staff.
Students will engage in research of housing of Vienna through a textual analysis of recommended texts. The visual diaries will include diagrams and drawings of selected projects that, in turn, will be interpreted on site. The site visits will help students negotiate different modes of representation and relate historic context to contemporary urban conditions of Vienna.
COURSE OUTCOMES
- Plan and prepare for an international study trip in a professional manner
- Appreciate and understand the importance of diverse social and political contexts to the design agenda and city planning
- Understand the relationships between social, economic, construction, and design agendas with an international context
- Demonstrate analytical skills to interpret complex urban context and the importance of the specific typology [housing] to the broader urban context
- Analyse the historical, cultural and social phenomena that influence the design of housing projects
- Interpret the relationships between social and cultural practices and architecture and urban design;
- Demonstrate creative and interpretative skills in presenting research data and analysis; and
- Demonstrate advanced skills in methods of visualisation, representation and spatialisation of research findings.
