Elective course

the course provides a one-time opportunity for the intellectual development of the theoretical layers that form the basis of our final project. As with any intellectual or architectural project, each new proposal is in fact a participation in an evolving intergenerational, interspatial, and intercultural conversation. For this reason, the efforts in the course will be divided into two: in the first part we will review conversations and polemics that take place around the topic we chose to engage in the final project, and in the second part we will try to join the conversation ourselves by creating a new text of our own making.
Text is a wonderful medium, since it is encapsulated within and simultaneously exceeding itself. Text is omnipotent. Writers create entire worlds by establishing frameworks, semantic fields, structures, rhythms, and scales. They plant reference points, stage intricate associations, and insert allusions below and above the text. The architectural text has the privilege to design its modes of appearance, through typography, displacement in space, and sensorial terms. Text is also a rebellious medium. It is inherently heterogeneous. After all, are minds are wired differently. Each word or accumulation of words will resonate and mean in particular ways for every reader. Text is in fact a shared outcome of the writer and the reader .
In the course we will learn methods for reading and interpreting text. Each participant will select a text from a shortlist of important architectural texts. We will break down the text, parse it into general claims and narratives, unravel its structure, expose various authorial tricks, find "black holes" that the writer tried consciously or consciously to conceal. Since every text is a small unit of a wider context, we will try to understand the author's intentions in relations to his audience, his teachers, his epoch. We will explore ways of embedding visual material -especially architectural precedents - inside the text. Finally, we will create a document that will become our new text. This document will incorporate fragments of the primary text, reflect our critical reading, and – should we succeed – articulate perspectives about its relevance to our time.