Architectural Theory 2

Code:

300303

Acronym:

300303

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
CNAEF	Architecture and Urbanism

Instance: 2021/2022 - 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	144	MIARQ	3	-	9	-	243

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

The teaching of the Curricular Unit (CU) Theory 2 (T2) takes place in an intermediate condition of the students' education in Architecture, a school year in which the (nuclear) Project 3 (P3) is exercised the urban and architectural intervention through the multifamily housing program.

Taking into account what has been acquired in terms of the History of Theory, and in the awareness that it is a panorama that should be constantly revisited, because it is about information and knowledge, through theory (History+theories+Criticism), the students experience critical reflection, the exercise of dialogue and contradiction, as well as communicative action (through the text-image relationship), favouring the processes of (re)knowledge and awareness about recognisable themes in the "dialogues between Architecture and the City".

These processes of (re)knowledge and awareness, enhanced by the guidance in practical classes and by the realization of practical exercises, guided by the didactic balance of the theoretical classes, between the "source of information" and the "space for training" (proper of the "network society" in the "information age"), thus, they envisage the sophistication of the proper, theoretical and disciplinary knowledge of Architecture, helping the student in the organization of contents and methods, particularly with regard to the implications on the observation, selection, collection, categorization and manipulation of matters and materials in question.

 

Learning outcomes and competences

The frequency of UC T2 thus envisages the increase of student autonomy, by the achievement of the objectives set, experiencing the qualities of the choices, between the "discipline" and the "will", by the dialogic, the intersubjective and the communicative action, particularly in the relationship between the domain of the image, the strength of the word and the consistency of argumentation. In this way, will be worked with students the ability to:

• frame the study themes proper to the stage of academic training in question;
• to map (relevant scenarios) the own knowledge and in construction;
• and to deepen the perspectives, themes and interests triggered and purposeful (oriented).

In didactic terms, if, by observation and/or experiments, of the practices and representations of Architecture, the transmissibility of own knowledge is envisaged, by the qualities of dialogical, intersubjective and communicational (text-image; Vilém Flusser, 1983), the interpretative readings, the construction of arguments and eventual appropriate demonstrations are objectified and registered (Luís Viegas, 2014). If, theory, the visions and mental conceptions imply "reading the world", "writing about life" and "telling the story" recognized and/or recognizable (Paulo Freire; 1981), this presupposes, in the potency of useful problems, the configuration of the scenarios of relevance itself. In summary, between the will and discipline, in the revealing search of the invisible (Paul Klee; 1964), as a critical dimension (Josep Maria Montaner), imagining (Álvaro Siza, 2000) or explaining (Luís Viegas, 2014) the evidence, the stimulus is potentiated in the student, for the observation and study - describable, narrative or speculative (Palomar; Italo Calvino, 1987)-, in the pursuit of the organization of the transmissible knowledge -projectum: to see, understand, abstract, codify, share and disseminate.

 

Working method

Presencial

Program

Enunciated "by an operative multidimensional field" (Viegas, 2014), the theory-practice nature and artistic of Architecture, as a construct and/or concretion of the transformation of/of the real/reality, in the extended phenomenological-semiological spectrum - Imaterial+Visual+Visible+Accessible+Material+Haptic+Sensible - of its cultural objects, can be objectified in the knowledge/doing of Project, History, Theory and Criticism (T=P+T(HtsC).

If, for the sake of its own comprehensiveness, divergences and generalizations, no Architecture theory can abdicate from the (re)knowledge of the procedural, material and phenomenological qualities of the transformations to which it reports, it will also be unproductive in the comprehension of the actualization processes involved without considering the conceptual, methodological and productive issues, particularly the authorial problematics (Foucault, 1969), either regarding the discourse-work(s) duality, or regarding the multiple dimensions/problems that the interdisciplinary and team work summons.

T2, for the valorisation of knowledge through critical discernment (W. Benjamin, 1936), perspectives the sedimentation of "visions" and "mental conceptions" about the knowledge/doing of Architecture, supported on what is available in the respective "practices" and "representations" (R. Chartier, 1989) ("things" and "language"; R. Blanché, 1972), enhanced by the "circularities" or antinomies experience-consciousness, competences-knowledge, process-product, problem-solution and equation-result.

The globality of the theoretical classes will have as background two foundational plans of knowledge and skills (considered, articulated and in exercise with the Research Line "Dialogues between Practice and Didactics and, Architecture: Production, Teaching and Research", based at CEAU), proper of the disciplinary knowledge of Architecture:

1. EDU.cir – (E)DUCERE: complexes, implexes and reflections -, as a transdisciplinary epistemological territory, aims to strengthen the theoretical field of Architecture, through dialogue with other knowledges, their immanences, compositions and references, enhancing reflection and insight into the foundational, constitutive and communicational dimensions of Knowledge, today, in the information age and in a networked society;
2. MDArC – MDArC - Maps and Dialogues of Contemporary Architecture - that configures a laboratorial domain in which the exemplary skills of production and research in Architecture will be explored. The realisations of contemporary architecture are multiple and as multiform as the contexts in which they take place, as well as the production technologies involved and, naturally, the methods practised. It is from this perspective that the Cycle Maps and Dialogues in Contemporary Architecture takes shape as a hypothesis for the recognition and dissemination of the experiences of making in this field.

At the beginning of the activities, the General Programme for Theory 2 will be presented, highlighting: the framework, the domain, the themes, the objectives and the expected results; the modalities of the various exercises to be developed -#postTI_T2_21, #composition_T2_21, #essayTI_T2_21 and #bookA_T2P3_21"- (evaluation criteria and classification parameters); and some aspects regarding bibliographic, iconographic and videographic sources, respective domains and access conditions.

1 TOWARDS A THEORY OF THE METHOD IN ARCHITECTURE

From the multidimensionality to the Method in Architecture - as Multidimensional Operative Field (MOC) -, between Theory (HtsC) and praxis (P), through poiêsis, the importance of the recognition of the relevant scenarios and the opportunity of the useful problems in the qualification of the reflection about the contemporary architectural production, of things and languages as practices and representations, and their respective qualities as cultural objects (Art, Technique and Culture) is highlighted. From the operative sense of the MOC two fundamental orders will be clarified: 1) the Observer's Mobility, the Reading Speeds and the Levels of Objectivation, and 2), demultifying the Levels of Objectivation, the Interpretative Readings, the Construction of Arguments and the Eventual Demonstrations.

Starting from the triad of the epistemological problem territory -Arts, Humanities and Technologies-, in the Teaching of Architecture, the problems of the tendential fragmentation of knowledge will be addressed, by the hegemonic force of the competences and the amplitude/diversity of the proficiencies required to the discipline of Architecture, particularly in the multidisciplinary-interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary-intradisciplinary axes. Hence, the importance of authorship in Architecture will be revealed.

In the domain of the disciplinary problematic, the circumstantial and contextual aspects -economy, society and culture- of the condition of contemporary practices of Architecture, in a 'networked society in the information age' (Manuel Castells), as a hypothesis of hypermodernity (Marshal Berman), will be addressed, synthesized by the course 'From the industrial (Le Corbusier) to the informational (Rem Koolhaas)'. Integrated in this topic, the central issues from "disciplinary society" to "control society" (MFoucault and GDeleuze) will be acknowledged.

1.1 Topics/themes/lessons/sessions:

• "From Method to the Multidimensional Operative Field"
• "On the discernment/(ac)knowledgement of representations/language and practices/things in a Network Society in the Information Age" (M. Castells)
• "From Chaos to the Brain" (Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari)
• "Hello Consciousness. A journey through Philosophy" (Mendo Castro Henriques)
• "e-Nounce Fernando Lanhas: (Designed Topics) the Spectacle of (Ac)Knowledgement", arch. Catarina Alves Costa and Prof. Rui Américo Cardoso.
• “Seven questions for the times to come: Linearity, Transparency, Intimacy, Independence, Provocation, Synthesis and Clarity", Prof. Rui Braz Afonso (EDU.cir)
• “The transdisciplinary and ecology of knowledge" (António Quadros e Boaventura de Sousa Santos)
• "The sensitive chaos. In the project between the constellation and the forest", arch. António Salgado.
• "The Polis Aveiro: a 'multifocal' experience in Architecture"
• "From the Body to the Cosmos, by the House and the City " (EDU.cir)

2 FROM THE IMMATERIAL TO THE SENSITIVE IN ARCHITECTURE

From the perspective of configuring a framework of values suitable for the reading and appreciation of contemporary practices of Architecture, particularly in the condition of creation and production of cultural objects, simultaneously ethical, aesthetic and technical, is proposed the arrangement of a spectrum of seven domains - from the immaterial to the sensitive -, as scenarios of relevance of these artifacts and/or events.

Between the immaterial and the sensitive, there are the visual, the visible, the accessible, the material and the haptic. If we suspend the visual, for critical prudence, and the haptic, for technical prudence, we circumscribe ourselves to the visible, the accessible and the material, as the fundamental triad for the conception and the "organization of space" in architecture. It is in this triadic field that the programmatic, functional and use components are placed in the organisation of space, as a response to a will, request or need, its relationship with the context and architectural concretion. As such, it is in this conceptual domain that the implications and qualities of the human body in space (still or in movement, in contemplation or in action) are placed, equated and enhanced.

When we suspended the immaterial and the sensitive above, we did it because they are domains, or rather, relevant scenarios of a radically subjective nature: the first in the register of values and culture and the second in the register of living and experience. We also leave in abeyance the prudence regarding the visual and the haptic, and reinforce the idea that the questions of perception are realised, or rather, become reality in the fundamental triad visible-accessible-material, as an antechamber, through the haptic, of the sensitive, and, following the visual, through the immaterial.

If, by circularity and return, the immaterial-sensitive, visual-haptic, visible-material dualities are highlighted, and the accessible is isolated as nuclear, we can highlight three relevant sequential triadic registers:

1. by spirit, mind and abstraction (magician; W. Benjamin) the immaterial, the visual and the visible;
2. by sight, the body and the hand, the visible, the accessible and the material;
3. through matter, the body and concretion (surgeon; W. Benjamin), the material, the haptic and the sensitive.

 2.1 Topics/themes/lessons/sessions:

• "From the Immaterial to the Sensitive, by the Visual, Visible, Accessible, Material and Haptic" (MDArC).
• From the Immaterial to the Sensitive: Le Corbusier, Álvaro Siza and Peter Zumthor"
• "From 'Maps and Dialogues in Contemporary Architecture': Three authorial records with Siza, Manuel Botelho and Souto de Moura", arch. Rute Castro.      

3 DIALOGUES BETWEEN ARCHITECTURE AND CITY

By the problematic "The City as Context/Object as Architecture", taking into account the double register (continuous/exception; Siza) and the predominance of the housing programme (C.M. Arís), between evidences, transformations and evidences (H. Lefèbvre), two themes will be highlighted: 1) "The Transformation of the City" and 2) "The Updating of Architecture". Furthermore, some topics will be highlighted for reflection on the duality "quantity versus quality", as well as on the qualities/opportunities of the "force-projects" (J. Busquets) and the critical-projects.

Thus, these "dialogues", as constructive relations, incorporate three levels of objectification (interpretation and (re)knowledge):

1. circumstance-project;
2. context-object;
3. environment-construction.

This topic will enhance the discourse-work relationship of authors considered singular, by the conditions of exemplarity they reveal, particularly in the recognition and configuration of the possible panoramas of contemporary architectural practice.

3.1 Topics/themes/lessons/sessions:

• "Authors, discourses and works in the transformation of the city: Manuel de Solà-Morales, Eduardo Souto de Moura and Rem Koolhaas (in Porto)"
• "Januário Godinho (1910-1990), Casas José Lourenço da Silva, 193-259, Rua Arquitecto Marques da Silva, 1935, Porto,"
• "Pereira da Costa (1923-1976), Houses in Multifamily Housing, rua Guerra Junqueiro, 1962, Porto,"
• "Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971), Housing Estate, Ved Bellevue Brgt, Strandvegen 415-417, Klanperborg, 1960-61"
• "Paulo David (1959-), Arts Center - Casa das Mudas, 2015, Calheta (Madeira)"
• "From Intervention in the Existing in a Rural Context", arch. Rui Américo Cardoso

3.2 FROM THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE RECOGNISABLE CITY

• "For an intelligent urban design: Manuel de Solà-Morales, Nuno Portas and Bernardo Secchi"
• From the recognisable city to the city of walls"
• " Urban Challenges "
• "From Journey to Places: London, Paris, Milan, Vicenza, Venice, Amsterdam, Delft, Rotterdam..."
• "Dialogues between Architecture and City: between Quantity and Quality"

3.3 FROM UPDATING CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE

• "From the Virtual, the Experience of Simulation in Architecture"
• "From Indeterminacy... in the (Networked in the Age of) Information Society"
• "Conjuring Viewpoints: 'Two Paths to the Future. From the Contemporary Vernacular to the Hedonistic Technological," arch. Axel Fangueiro
• "Rafael Moneo, between 'Theoretical Unquietness and Projectual Strategy' and 'Apuntes sobre 21 obras'"
• "What is an Author? (Michel Foucault)"

4 BETWEEN DIDACTICS AND PRACTICE, THEORY IN THE TEACHING OF ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

• "Project, History, Theory and Critique"
• "Teaching"
• "Exemplarity"
• "But what is an Author in Architecture?"
• "From skills to knowledge in architecture. Bologna-integrated university education."
• "Between Experience and Knowledge"
• "Between Process and Result"

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
Walter Benjamin; Imagens de pensamento. ISBN: 972-37-0972-4
Josep Maria Montaner; La modernidad superada. ISBN: 84-252-1696-6
Josep Maria Montaner; Arquitectura y crítica. ISBN: 84-252-1768-7
Josep Maria Montaner; Sistemas arquitectónicos contemporáneos. ISBN: 978-84-252-2190-3
Ignasi de Solà-Morales; Territorios. ISBN: 84-252-1864-0
Ignasi de Solà-Morales; Diferencias. ISBN: 84-252-1912-4
Ignasi de Solà-Morales; Inscripciones. ISBN: 84-252-1913-2
Manfredo Tafuri; Projecto e Utopia
Nuno Portas; Os^tempos das formas. ISBN: 972-99822-0-1
Nuno Portas; A cidade como arquitectura
Italo Calvino; Palomar. ISBN: 978-972-695-869-7
Herman Hertzberger; Lições de arquitectura. ISBN: 85-336-0479-3

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
Walter Benjamin; Imagens de pensamento. ISBN: 972-37-0972-4
Michel Foucault; O que é um autor?. ISBN: 978-972-699-303-2
Edward T. Hall; A dimensão oculta
Steven Holl; Questions of perception. ISBN: 0-9746214-7-1

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

In the theoretical lessons, more as "source of information", programmatic contents will be exposed (criteria, relevancy and exemplarity), through images, videos, texts and "words", registered in powerpoint and complemented by the use of the blackboard or the www network. In the practical lessons, more as "space for training", the learning activities correspond to the development of the works (of study and reflection), individual and/or in group, proper of the exercises to carry out.

#postTI_T2_21

Format:

A4 page: 1 word (hashtag), 1 image and 1 text (up to 250 words).

(file/work naming #postTI_T2_21_class_title_name)

Delivery(s):

(date to be determined)

Objectives, contents and relations:

As a communicative action, each #postTI_T2_21 must express an individual "will" of study -theme, theme, subject, issue, problem, problematic, question...- in the field of Architecture, of free choice, but in the T2P3 context.

The interest of the choices should prove to be opportune, immediately (problems...) or throughout the work (solutions...).

From the "panorama of wills" of each class, involved by a joint reflection in the space of the practical class, will emerge the meanings and the power -paths, coherences and qualities- of the group works #composition_T2 to develop.

Throughout the development of the #composition_T2 the #postTI_T2_21 will be the object of two/three moments of revisit, always formalized in the same way, but with the perspective of improving the respective contents and compositions.

#composition_T2_21

Format:

Hip. 1 #TextImage (A4; 10000 characters)

Hip. 2 #Video (4-5')

Hip. 3 #Model (virtual)

(naming files/works #composition_T2_21_group_title)

Delivery(s):

Start (date to be defined)

Delivery (date to be defined)

SAMPLE (exhibition/sharing with opportunity, moulds and given to be defined)

Objectives, contents and relations:

Emerging from the "panorama of wills" #postTI_T2_21 (arranged in the Immaterial>Visual>Visible>Accessible>Material>Haptic>Sensitive spectrum) of each class, the #composition_T2_21 correspond to group works (4-5 students), guided by critical, interpersonal and dialogical reflection, whose synthesis should perspective communicative action.

The architectural themes of these group works should be related to the problems of multifamily housing -house, neighbourhood, street, city...-, revealing the ability to equate the essential questions: How do you make a house? How do you make a house in the street? How do you make a street with houses? How do you make a street?

This work should be reflected, objectively, in the contents of the #bookA_T2P3_21, particularly in the domain of Discipline and Will, being of secondary relevance for T2 the record in the Laboratory domain (more appropriate to the supported study of P3).

#essayTI_T2_21

Format:

Written document #TextImage (A4; up to 10000 characters with spaces) containing: cover, title (and subtitle), abstract (up to 250 words), keywords (three), introduction, development, conclusion, bibliographic sources and iconographic sources.

(file/work naming #essayTI_T2_class_title_name)

Delivery(s):

Start (date to be defined)

Delivery (date to be defined)

Objectives, content and relationships:

As a reflective action (analysis), this is an individual work representing the deepening of the topics of students' own interest, pointed out by #posTI_T2_21 and enriched by #composition_T2_21.

This work should be reflected, objectively, in the contents of the #bookA_T2P3_21, particularly in the domain of Discipline and Will, being of secondary relevance for T2 the register in the Laboratory domain (more appropriate to the supported study of P3).

#bookA_T2P3_21

Format:

A4, black cover (no variations...)

#TextImage

Presentation of exemplary components (discipline, lab and will):

(to be specified and terms and given to be defined)

Objectives, contents and relationships:

Between the Discipline, the Laboratory and the Will (1, 2 and 3..., Palomar by I. Calvino), the #bookA_T2P3_21 is constituted as an interface between Theory 2 and Project 3, reflecting the research and individual study of the student, accompanied in the practical classes of the two curricular units.

As contents, in the Discipline, examples of multi-family housing should be registered, in the Laboratory, eventual experiences of the working process should be registered and, in the Will, the ad hoc registers of the to come to be (future) should be reflected, irrigated by the elan of "architecting (in)the House (in)the City" (aHC): of the exercises in P3, i) abstract x concrete and ii) training x game; of the urban intervention (i) urban-territorial infrastructures, (ii) urban morphology (models, processes and realisations), (iii) building typology (models, types and experiences) and (iv) architectural language (composition, technologies and expression); of the organisation of space: (i) of concepts, traditions and cultures, (ii) house, dwelling, flat and fire and (iii) square, street, courtyard and transitions.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Participação presencial	20,00
Trabalho escrito	30,00
Trabalho de campo	20,00
Trabalho laboratorial	30,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	60,00
Frequência das aulas	68,50
Trabalho de investigação	54,50
Trabalho escrito	20,00
Trabalho laboratorial	20,00
Trabalho de campo	20,00
Total:	243,00

Eligibility for exams

To obtain the frequency implies the participation in at least 75% of theoretical and theoretical-practical lessons, as well as the completion and delivery of all work developed and corresponding to the scheduled exercises: #postTI_T2_21, #composition_T2_21, #essayTI_T2_21 and the exemplary components of the #bookA_T2P3_21 (to be specified).

Calculation formula of final grade

The classification of the various exercises (duly nominated and delivered within the defined deadlines) will result from the following evaluation criteria and parameters:

1. Overview (background and context) 10%.
2. Focus (timeliness and relevance) 10%
3. Composition (formatting, writing, and text-image) 20%
4. Network (articulation of content and storyline) 20%
5. Target (objectivation and communicative action) 20%
6. Rigour (terminology and referencing) 20%

The Final Classification will be determined by the following:

1. Attendance, participation and #bookA_T2P3_21 20%
2. #postTI_T2_21 5%
3. #composition_T2_21 30%
4. #essayTI_T2_21 45%

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

According to the legislation.

Classification improvement

The improvement of the final classification implies the critical revisitation and reworking of the #essayTI_T2_21 made by the student, as appropriate and under the consent and guidance of the teacher.

Observations

According to the evolution of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, and depending on the guidelines that may be issued by the General Health Directorate, there may be changes to the regime of functioning of presential teaching times.