Crisis and Critique: A Seminar on Writing about Architecture
Seminar Architecture and City I (056-0001-01)
Organizer: MAS
Lecturers: Dr. Anne Kockelkorn, Dr. Susanne Schindler
Time: Fridays, 13.00–16.30 Uhr
Location: HIL H 35.1
How do we want to live tomorrow? And how are we living today? Architectural criticism enables us to debate and contest the production of the built environment. This is true in particular in times of social, economic or ecological change. Crisis and critique are not only related etymologically with regards to the question of how to discern and differentiate. They also connect architecture with public debates about key aspects of a society’s development.
Architectural criticism emerged in the late eighteenth century as a literary genre and format of public debate of civil society: at a moment when sufficient numbers of educated reader were able to reflect on relevance, form, and expression of buildings. Two centuries on, some of the main conditions of architectural criticism were fundamentally called into question. The economic, environmental, and political crises of the 1970s meant an abrupt end to modernity’s narrative of growth and progress; accordingly, its models of architecture and planning became untenable. Beginning in the 1990s, the internet provided a previously unknown availability of images: at that point in time, websites and blogs took over the function of reporting on architecture, thus rendering conventional print media obsolete. Ever since, architectural criticism has been struggling with visibility, and yet as a space for political debates on the built environment it is more relevant than ever.
In this seminar, three contemporary crises will serve us a point of the departure to ask how architectural criticism can contribute to an understanding of the built environment and of the society that produced it. First, there is the question of survival, or how architecture, urban development and construction technologies contribute to global warming through energy use and land consumption. How do architectural critics frame the conditions of architectural production when considering climate change, and do they dare to define “architecture” in terms other than as the materialization of progress and endless growth? Second, there is the financialization of development, fueled by long periods of zero or negative interest rates, which has taken hold of cities globally and is destroying their social networks. How do architectural critics respond to the housing question in light of these new challenges, which alternative mode of thinking do they offer? Finally, there is growing political polarization and the question, if and how architecture can propose shared spaces and models thereof. How do critics address what building tasks are needed, and how they might be aesthetically resolved?
In “Crisis and Critique” we posit that “architectural criticism” deals not only with just-completed buildings, but takes into focus society’s entanglements, analyzes the layering of places, or investigates the conditions of production. Criticism requires a variety and breadth of sources that go beyond the perspective and documents of architects (their drawings, their statements). Criticism can dissect the conventions of public discourse and what it excludes, or propose alternative models of architectural thought including the formats and channels of their distribution and reception. Toward these goals, the seminar sessions are divided in equal parts into two different formats: first, text analysis and discussion (5 sessions); second, site visits as prompts for writing criticism in short, medium and long form, with feedback and discussion sessions of students’ work with invited guests (5 sessions). The seminar thus seeks to provide ample opportunities for students to articulate and refine their own responses to the questions asked in the beginning: How do we want to live tomorrow? And how are we living today?
Learning Objectives
• To obtain an overview of the different media, formats and debates in contemporary German- and English-language architectural criticism.
• To gain a basic understanding of the historical development of German- and English-language architectural criticism.
• To develop arguments, methods and research questions for contextualizing architectural artifacts politically and historically.
Skills Obtained
• Writing short, precise texts.
• Learning to describe and interpret buildings or spatial situations for different audience and media in short, medium and long form.
• Analyzing architectural criticism: You will dissect an author’s basic assumptions, argumentative structure, and rhetorical devices.
• Articulating a critical and personal position: You will develop your own intellectual and stylistic approach to contemporary architectural production.
[pic-20221011-154854-z236.jpg]
Critics with Dr. Gabrielle Schaad and Kaye Geipel (Editor-in-Chief Bauwelt), Photo: Marie-Anne Lerjen
Organizer: MAS
Lecturers: Dr. Anne Kockelkorn, Dr. Susanne Schindler
Time: Fridays, 13.00–16.30 Uhr
Location: HIL H 35.1
How do we want to live tomorrow? And how are we living today? Architectural criticism enables us to debate and contest the production of the built environment. This is true in particular in times of social, economic or ecological change. Crisis and critique are not only related etymologically with regards to the question of how to discern and differentiate. They also connect architecture with public debates about key aspects of a society’s development.
Architectural criticism emerged in the late eighteenth century as a literary genre and format of public debate of civil society: at a moment when sufficient numbers of educated reader were able to reflect on relevance, form, and expression of buildings. Two centuries on, some of the main conditions of architectural criticism were fundamentally called into question. The economic, environmental, and political crises of the 1970s meant an abrupt end to modernity’s narrative of growth and progress; accordingly, its models of architecture and planning became untenable. Beginning in the 1990s, the internet provided a previously unknown availability of images: at that point in time, websites and blogs took over the function of reporting on architecture, thus rendering conventional print media obsolete. Ever since, architectural criticism has been struggling with visibility, and yet as a space for political debates on the built environment it is more relevant than ever.
In this seminar, three contemporary crises will serve us a point of the departure to ask how architectural criticism can contribute to an understanding of the built environment and of the society that produced it. First, there is the question of survival, or how architecture, urban development and construction technologies contribute to global warming through energy use and land consumption. How do architectural critics frame the conditions of architectural production when considering climate change, and do they dare to define “architecture” in terms other than as the materialization of progress and endless growth? Second, there is the financialization of development, fueled by long periods of zero or negative interest rates, which has taken hold of cities globally and is destroying their social networks. How do architectural critics respond to the housing question in light of these new challenges, which alternative mode of thinking do they offer? Finally, there is growing political polarization and the question, if and how architecture can propose shared spaces and models thereof. How do critics address what building tasks are needed, and how they might be aesthetically resolved?
In “Crisis and Critique” we posit that “architectural criticism” deals not only with just-completed buildings, but takes into focus society’s entanglements, analyzes the layering of places, or investigates the conditions of production. Criticism requires a variety and breadth of sources that go beyond the perspective and documents of architects (their drawings, their statements). Criticism can dissect the conventions of public discourse and what it excludes, or propose alternative models of architectural thought including the formats and channels of their distribution and reception. Toward these goals, the seminar sessions are divided in equal parts into two different formats: first, text analysis and discussion (5 sessions); second, site visits as prompts for writing criticism in short, medium and long form, with feedback and discussion sessions of students’ work with invited guests (5 sessions). The seminar thus seeks to provide ample opportunities for students to articulate and refine their own responses to the questions asked in the beginning: How do we want to live tomorrow? And how are we living today?
Learning Objectives
• To obtain an overview of the different media, formats and debates in contemporary German- and English-language architectural criticism.
• To gain a basic understanding of the historical development of German- and English-language architectural criticism.
• To develop arguments, methods and research questions for contextualizing architectural artifacts politically and historically.
Skills Obtained
• Writing short, precise texts.
• Learning to describe and interpret buildings or spatial situations for different audience and media in short, medium and long form.
• Analyzing architectural criticism: You will dissect an author’s basic assumptions, argumentative structure, and rhetorical devices.
• Articulating a critical and personal position: You will develop your own intellectual and stylistic approach to contemporary architectural production.
[pic-20221011-154854-z236.jpg]
Critics with Dr. Gabrielle Schaad and Kaye Geipel (Editor-in-Chief Bauwelt), Photo: Marie-Anne Lerjen
