Architectural Theory 3

Code:

400403

Acronym:

400403

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
CNAEF	Architecture and Urbanism

Instance: 2016/2017 - A

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Arquitectura (A)
Course/CS Responsible:	Integrated Master Degree in Architecture

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MIARQ	231	MIARQ	4	-	6	-	162

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

Theory 3 - "From Contemporary Architecture" (fCA) – approaches the "dialog" (concepts, processes, methods and phenomena) between the Architecture’s updating process and the City's phenomena of transformation.

"By an Operative Multidimensional Field" (Viegas, 2014), considering the two axes of the fragmentation and of the valorization of knowledge - from multi-disciplinary to interdisciplinary and from disciplinary to transdisciplinary -, the theoretical and practical nature of the architecture, own of the transformation of material reality (visible, habitable and sensitive), can result from the knowing/doing by the Architectural Design, the History, the Theory and the Criticism.

In Architecture, from the divergence to the generalization, theory can´t “abdicate” of the substantial recognition of contemporary, circumstantial and contextual phenomena, of the transformation of the reality in which "operates", understanding the Architecture’ updating process regarding "authorial condition" relating the "works" and the "speeches" of the protagonists/involved (Foucault, 1969).

The fCA, valuing the knowledge through a critical discernment and conscientiousness, fundamental in our educational and formative processes, perspective the sedimentation of the "visions" and the "mental conceptions" of the students on own practices, as well as in the various means of organization and communication.

If the observation and/or "experiences" - practices and representations, things and languages -, in/by the student, qualifies the self-knowledge, the intersubjective and communicational dialogues potentialize own objectification, particularly by interpretive readings, construction of arguments e/or eventual demonstrations.

If the "visions" and the "mental conceptions", in the Paul’s Freire (1981) pedagogical approach, are fundamentals to “read” the world, "writing" about the life and "telling" the history, this implies to recognize the "useful problems" and the “relevance scenarios” of the interests disciplinary or others.

In synthesis, from "will" to "discipline", revealing the invisible (Klee, 1964), "imagining" or "explaining" the evidence (Siza, 2000), the main goal is to stimulate the student to observe, study, organize and communicate the know-how (see, understand, abstract, codify, share and diffuse): grasp the stone from the ground, look, and cast it with determination towards the target (projectum).

Thus, the fAC is not available as a "source of information", but rather as a "space for formation". Because data and information are widely accessible the main didactic interest is the organization of knowledge, recognizing the “relevance scenarios” and potentializing students’ "will".

Learning outcomes and competences

Through Theory, the competences to organize the knowledge implies a systematic improvement to communicative action, in the context of fCA, relating the domain of the image, the strength of the word and the consistency of the argumentation.

Working method

Presencial

Program

The programmatic contents of the fAC, anchored in the theoria, poiésis and praxis of the project, presupposes (if not acquired) the underlying (sequential and/or striking, linked and/or networked) bases of the "history of architectural theory" as referential overview (Theory 1), and the "case studies" as exemplary approaches (Theory 2).

The theoretical and critical reflections on the multidimensionality, conceptual and operative, of the contemporary practices of architecture, "choreographed" by or alluded to the History, the Critique and the Theory, will be highlighted at the core of the disciplinary problematic approached.

1. Introduction to the disciplinary problematic "Dialogues between Architecture and City. For an Operative Multidimensional Field "; Start of the exercise (annual) Composition and Essay fCAC/I+W+text);

1.1 On the territory of the epistemological problem: Philosophy, Art and Science, Epistemology, Teaching and Research;

1.2 On the domain of the disciplinary problematic: Practice, Economy and Society, City, Architecture, and History, Theory and Criticism;

1.3 For the "relevance scenarios" of/and the "useful problems", between the panoramic vision (magician) and the exemplarity of the focuses (surgeon);

1.4 From the "Constructive Relations" of the transformation of the City by the updating of Architecture (circumstance-architectural design, context/object and surroundings/construction);

1.5 From the Operative Multidimensional Field, the Observer Mobility, the Reading Speeds and the Objectivization Levels;

1.6 The Objectivation Levels of the "thinking in action" of the Architecture, the Interpretive Readings, the Construction of Arguments and the Eventual Demonstrations;

2. From the disciplinary practices of Architecture, Architectural Design, History, Theory and Critique (AD+HTC), as Operative Multidimensional Field;

2.1 Between urban practices, as urban intervention technology, and architectural practices, as technology to produce architectural work;

2.2 From experience, through travel, to the communication of knowledge (HTC);

3. From the domain of the Disciplinary Problematic, the Dialogues between the updating of the Architecture and the transformation of the City, by the Constructive Relations circumstance-architectural design, context/object and surrounding/construction.

4. Between Theory and Practice (AD+HTC) and practice to didactics (with the students' iconographic choices for the Composition fCA/I+W+text);

4.1 From experience to knowledge, the antinomies of experience-consciousness and skills-knowledge;

4.2 From process to result, the process-product, problem-solution and equation-result antinomies;

5. From the immaterial to the sensitive in Architecture;

5.1 Practices and things: the phenomenological, the immaterial, the visual, the visible, the accessible, the material, the haptic and the sensible:

5.2 Representations and language: conceptual (know-how), line, letter and number;

6 Of the Objectification Levels, between the interpretation, the argumentation and the demonstration (with the students' choices for the Composition fCA/I+W+text);

7 Hypermodernity - From the industrial society to the informational society;

8 What is an Author in Architecture? (Between the simulacrum and the simulation, the director, the actor or illusionist, the anonymous, the author and the illusion);

8.1 "Paradigms of the city: The case of Paulo Mendes da Rocha and the strategies for the architectural design", Carlo Gandolfi;

9 Between the discourse/argument and the work in the theory and practice of contemporary architecture (from panoramic to exemplarity);

9.1 Rem Koolhaas, Manuel de Solà-Morales and Eduardo Souto Moura;

9.2 Álvaro Siza and Peter Zunthor;

10 Between the strength and the critical dimensions through the Architectural Design.

10.1 Architecture, body and cognition;

10.2 Indeterminacy in contemporary architecture;

10.3 Mediated Architecture.

Mandatory literature

Benjamin Walter; Sobre arte, técnica, linguagem e política. ISBN: 978-989-641-270-8
Foucault Michel; O que é um autor?. ISBN: 978-972-699-303-2
Hertzberger Herman; Lições de arquitectura. ISBN: 85-336-0479-3
Koolhaas Rem; Delirious New York. ISBN: 88-435-6230-4
Moneo Rafael; Inquietud teórica y estrategia proyectual. ISBN: 84-95951-68-1
Nesbitt Kate 340; Uma nova agenda para a arquitectura. ISBN: 978-85-7503-599-3
Pallasmaa Juhani; The thinking hand. ISBN: 978-0-470-77929-3
Siza Vieira Álvaro; Immaginare l.evidenza. ISBN: 88-420-5616-2
Solà-Morales Manuel de 340; De cosas urbanas. ISBN: 978-84-252-2260-3

Complementary Bibliography

Berman Marshall; Tudo o que é sólido se dissolve no ar
Castells Manuel; A^sociedade em rede. ISBN: 972-31-0984-0
Costa Alexandre Alves; Textos datados. ISBN: 972-99821-4-9
Harvey David; The condition of postmodernity. ISBN: 0-631-16294-1
Siza Vieira Álvaro; 01 textos. ISBN: 978-972-26-2923-2
Tafuri Manfredo; Teorias e história da arquitectura
Viegas Luís Sebastião da Costa; Diálogos entre arquitetura e cidade

Comments from the literature

Given the didactics’ and disciplinary relevances (stimulus and thematic) resulted of the students' "wills" - Image, Word and text (I+W+t) - for the annual exercise (Composition + Essay), the references iconographic, bibliographical and video, widely available and accessible online and physically, will be opportunely communicated to the students through the Moodle platform of UP.

Teaching methods and learning activities

Through the oral presentation, the criteria, relevance and exemplarity of the fCA programmatic contents will be substantiated in class, by images, videos, texts and words, as powerpoint syntheses, complemented (by the 'free' resource of the "slate frame" or online information) on purpose and in circumstance.

The learning activities, involving the presence and the attention of the student in the classroom, correspond to the development of the study and reflection activities (individual and/or group) of the exercise Composition and Essay fCA/I+W+text. In this condition, enhancing the mentioned qualities and stimuli, the exercise to be developed, as a theoretical-critical reflection on contemporary architecture, consists, in a "journey of the will to the discipline", by "useful problems", in the sophistication of consciousness, by valorization, for the communication of an own knowledge/thought.

The dominium and the circumscriptions of the "wills" I+W+text, resulting from the students’ choices, is fundamental for the exemplarity of the didactic materials and even for the theoretical-critical "spoken" perspective in the classes.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Participação presencial	20,00
Trabalho escrito	40,00
Trabalho prático ou de projeto	40,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	121,50
Frequência das aulas	40,50
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

In addition to the presence in 75% of the classes according the timetable, the frequency conditions imply the delivery of the two phases of the exercise Composition and Essay fCA/I+W+text, on the scheduled dates, as well as the student's answer to informational and procedural requests, considered necessary by the teacher during the academic year.

Calculation formula of final grade

The final classification (FC) results from the weighted average of the classifications (0-20) obtained in the Composition fCA/I+W+text (C) and in the Essay fCA/I+W+text (E) per the calculation formula: FC = 40%C + 60%E.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

According to the legislation.

Classification improvement

The improvement of the final classification implies the critical revision and the re-elaboration of one of the phases (Composition or Essay) of the exercise developed by the student, according the cases and under the consent and guidance of the teacher.