After successful completion of the course, students are able to orient themselves in a wide range of works from different disciplines. They will learn methods for approaching works of visual art, science and literature, making fruitful connections and practicing thinking in unfamiliar structures. The seminar is aimed at students who want to explore different architectural forms and formats of writing. The content of the seminar is intended to motivate students to think within architecture and not about architecture.

Circular Knowledge in Architectonic Imagery

In this seminar we will treat architectonic image making as a locus for theory. Realized in the paintings and drawings of Lina Bo Bardi, Marco Frascari, John Hejduk, Aldo Rossi or Madelon Vriesendorp, images are able to transcend any built reference while embodying knowledge as theoretical artefacts. Instead of appraising them as autonomous works of art, they can be reconsidered as an essential part of architectural communication. We will question the current understanding of images in architecture to serve as models for imitation in the realisation of buildings. Thus, we will start from canonical architecture buildings of the last decades, move beyond their original social and technological contexts, and consider them as protagonists of metaphysical paintings. Elements of myths gain contemporary significance through recodification. Like in the work of Junya Ishigami, the act of embodying in architecture that which has never been architecture before promises an approach to sustainability that brings the craft of imagination back into circulation.

The semester will be structured into three stages following Alberti's principles of constructing a painting (Bildaufbau): seam, composition, and incidence of light. Text and Image will be treated as autonomous formats. Students will learn how to engage with canon and the art of mimesis. Weekly exercises will build on the mechanics of paintings, including juxtaposing, alluring, duplicating, masking, figuring out, intertwining, and detailing. Inspiration will be drawn from the theory of metaphysic painting. Throughout the seminar, students will develop their own Vocabulary of Architectonic Imagery, which will help connect the tangible with the intangible, the built environment with abstract theory. Finally, the principles of composition from painting will be projected back into an architectonic articulation.

Thursday, 10:00 - 13:00

Starting: 10.10.2024
Place: Seminar Room AC-02 2

Active participation in the lessons and completion of the exercises are decisive for the grading. The ability to engage with the concepts and content of the course in an innovative way is assessed. Students should be able to distinguish and articulate different formats and genres of writing. Weekly exercises will be presented and discussed in meetings, and students will have time to revise them for final submission.

Background Literature

• Alberti, Leon Battista: De Pictura, 1435/1436, in: Bätschmann, Oskar; Schäublin, Christoph: De Statua. De Pictura. Elementa Picturae, 2011
• Boehm, Gottfried; Burioni, Matteo: Der Grund. Das Feld des Sichtbaren, 2012
• Bolt, Barbara: Art Beyond Representation. The Performative Power of the Image, 2004
• Bredekamp, Horst: Theorie des Bildakts. Frankfurter Adorno-Vorlesungen, 2007 
• Colman, Felicity; Van der Tuin, Iris (Eds.): Methods and Genealogies of New Materialisms, 2024
• Le Corbusier: Le Poème de l’angle droit, 1955
• Frascari, Marco; Hale, Jonathan; Starkey, Bradley: From Models to Drawings: Imagination and representation in architecture, 2007
• Ishigami, Junya: Another Scale for Architecture, 2019
• Mical, Thomas (Eds.): Surrealism and Architecture, 2005
• Merleau-Ponty, Maurice: The Visible and the Invisible, 1969
• Pallasmaa, Juhani: The Embodied Image. Imagination and Imagery in Architecture, 2011