The Grid is an absolute and repetitive system, expanding to infinity in all directions and independent from any local condition. An emblematic structure of Modernism, the Grid shows its indifference to narrative, specificity and to a sequential reading of any kind.

As a system that can be applied anywhere and anytime, it became a tool for universality, its architectural role being independent from history or geography. The possibility of endless repetition made it a device for control and order in the process of rationalizing complicated structures or dealing with programmatic complexity. The extreme regularity reveals the search for something absolute and an autonomous aesthetic decision, rather than imitation of an existing condition.

In today’s architectural environment we experience a paradoxical reappearance of the Grid: 

Why do we still look for a universal device in a time when architectural discourse focuses on identity and specificity?

Is the Grid a self-reassuring presence in a progressive loss of control, as the process of building becomes more and more complex?

Why do we need a structural device that helps us rationalize complicated structures, if today we finally possess tools to calculate and manufacture complex forms? 

The Studio will explore the possibilities, the pitfalls as well as the contradictions inherent in the grid.

Regular Meetings: Thu, 11h00 – 6h00, Studio
First Meeting: Thu, 18.04.2024,10h30, Studio
Mandatory Excursion: 25 – 28.04.24
Presentation: Wed, 31.07.24

Being the largest country in Africa, Algeria faces the Mediterranean see with roots in the Sahara desert. Over many centuries, the region has been shaped by various ethnic, cultural and religious influences, as a relay between Orient, Occident and West Africa.In 1962 more than a century of French colonization ended. Algeria emerged as an independent nation.

The seminar is divided into two parts.
First, a drawing analysis and documentation of relevant architectural references with in-depth focus on their multi-faceted cultural and political context through texts, lectures and film screenings. 
Then, we will undertake a 10-day excursion to Algeria to visit the architectural projects analyzed. 

The excursion will take place in September 2024
Regular Meetings: Wed, 11h30 – 13h00
First Meeting: Wed, 17.04.24 – 13h00
Submission/Exam: Wed. 07.08.24, 11h30 – 13h00
Excursion: End of September

The seminar offers the opportunity to dive into the wealth of architectural knowledge stored at SAAI, making it accessible and meaningful as a trigger for your own design practice. Instead of following the usual silos of classification (by author, date or type), the seminar seeks to match archival material that was not destined to meet.

You will work with a series of pre-selected sectional drawings of projects from a wide variety of architects, historical periods as well as typologies. Using different strategies of visual association such as Exquisite corps, Palimpsest and Cut-up, you will bring together two of these unrelated drawings thereby creating your own “architectural bastard”.

Through this process of bastardization, the seminar explores a design methodology based on the fortuitous meeting of architectural antagonists. The result will be a series of three sectional line drawings each of which is based on a specific approach to visual association. Will your bastards be architectural compromises? Can they be read as a synthesis? Or will they embody a non-resolvable conflict between both sources?

21.05.24 – 24.05.24
First Meeting: Tue, 21.05.24, 9h30
Submission/Exam: Fri, 24.05.24

Being the largest country in Africa, Algeria faces the Mediterranean see with roots in the Sahara desert. Over many centuries, the region has been shaped by various ethnic, cultural and religious influences, as a relay between Orient, Occident and West Africa. In 1962 more than a century of French colonization ended. Algeria emerged as an independent nation.

The seminar is divided into two parts.
First, a drawing analysis and documentation of relevant architectural references with in-depth focus on their multi-faceted cultural and political context through texts, lectures and film screenings. 
Then, we will undertake a 10-day excursion to Algeria to visit the architectural projects analyzed. 

The excursion will take place in September 2024
Regular Meetings: Wed, 11h30 – 13h00
First Meeting: Wed, 17.04.24, 11h30 – 13h00
Submission/Exam: Wed. 07.08.24, 11h30 – 13h00
Excursion: End of September

The seminar offers the opportunity to dive into the wealth of architectural knowledge stored at SAAI, making it accessible and meaningful as a trigger for your own design practice. Instead of following the usual silos of classification (by author, date or type), the seminar seeks to match archival material that was not destined to meet.

You will work with a series of pre-selected sectional drawings of projects from a wide variety of architects, historical periods as well as typologies. Using different strategies of visual association such as Exquisite corps, Palimpsest and Cut-up, you will bring together two of these unrelated drawings thereby creating your own “architectural bastard”.

Through this process of bastardization, the seminar explores a design methodology based on the fortuitous meeting of architectural antagonists. The result will be a series of three sectional line drawings each of which is based on a specific approach to visual association. Will your bastards be architectural compromises? Can they be read as a synthesis? Or will they embody a non-resolvable conflict between both sources?

21.05.24 – 24.05.24
First Meeting: Tue, 21.05.24, 9h30
Submission/Exam: Fri, 24.05.24

Platforms like DALL-E or Midjourney are having a significant impact on methods of image production and are gaining increasing importance in architecture as well. 
These production processes are enabled by the concept of so-called Prompt Engineering, which aims at processing natural language.

The seminar "Zoom it, Crack it, Fix it" explores the possibilities and potentials of creating and manipulating architectural images using this novel tool. Various text-to-image generators are tested, examining how this technology can assist in realizing and further developing ideas and concepts in architecture. 

Through the analysis of a selected realized project, analytical (zoom it), descriptive (crack it), transformative, and synthetic (fix it) approaches are applied to develop a comprehensive understanding of the application of image-based design techniques.

Regular Meetings: Wed, 11h30 – 13h00
First Meeting: Wed, 17.04.24, 11h30 – 13h00
Submission/Exam: Thu, 08.08.24

The seminar is part of the research project "Typological Resilience". Based on so-called "shape grammars", floor plans of canonical residential buildings are made geometrically describable and transferable. New floor plans can be generated based on them. Using a basic grammatical framework developed by R+E this process of translating will deepen your understanding of relevant principles and examples of housing plans. It will also address the following questions regarding the use of shape grammars:

How specific do the grammars have to be in order to describe the respective housing floor plans structurally unambiguously and make their qualities transferable?

To what extent can the shape grammars reveal unifying structural principles between the architecturally very different canonical reference floor plans?

Regular Meetings: Wed, 09h45 am – 11h15 am
First Meeting: Wed, 17.04.2024, 09h45 am
Submission/Exam: Wed, 07.08.24, 09h45 am – 11h00 am

To be defined.

07.08.24 – 23.08.24
First Meeting: Wed, 07.08.2024, 11h00
Submission/Exam: Fri, 23.08.24

Since 2019, our team has been dedicated to uncovering the rich historical narrative surrounding the design for the ZKM building in Karlsruhe by Rem Kohlhaas / OMA .

In this research seminar, we will explore the multifaceted nature of architectural production by examining the design project of the ZKM building. While studying the design project is just one approach to understanding architecture, we recognize the existence of numerous other sources that can shed light on its intricacies. By delving into the subject, we aim to unravel the reasons behind the unexpected cancellation of the ZKM project just a few months before construction was scheduled to begin. Through an exploration of politics, costs, and interpersonal relationships, we will rewrite an alternative history, presenting a fresh perspective on this captivating architectural endeavour. We will challenge conventional narratives and uncover hidden truths surrounding the ZKM project.

In this seminar, we will guide participants on how to effectively organise and advance their own research. Learn valuable techniques on selecting intriguing facts from vast archive material, collected at the  Deutsches Kunstarchiv. The seminar will be mainly online, with some in presence sessions. The chair's inquiry into the ZKM project constitutes the basis for a future publication.

Meetings once every 2 weeks.
Appointment: Wed, 9h45 – 11h15