CITAstudio 2013-14 course description

Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademis Skoler for Arkitektur, Design og Konservering Arkitektskolen

Philip de Langes Allé 10 DK-1435 København K Denmark

CITAstudio: Computation in Architecture

International Master’s studio 2013/14

Tel. +45 32 68 60 00 Fax +45 32 68 61 11 info@kadk.dk

side 2 af 9

Introduction CITAstudio provides a Masters level architectural design programme that fosters a dynamic, creative and rich intellectual environment. We place a special focus on examining architectural issues through critically situating computation and digital technologies in the processes of thinking, forming and producing architecture. The programme places particular emphasis on the intersection between computation, fabrication, material and performance.

The programme will equip you with core knowledge and understandings for addressing site, complex building programme and related architectural issues through computational design methods. Our goal is to provide a creative framework for the active and critical thinking of the spatial, theoretical and technological consequences of digital design practice. We want you to devise your own critical reflections on how these tools are used, how they are developed and how they interface with the knowledge fields of other disciplines.

Sofia Adolfsson CITAstudio 2012-13

To assist this we have structured the course around project-based experimentation and inquiry in order to stimulate and sharpen creative and critical abilities. In the first and third semesters these projects are established to introduce critical concepts, methods and tools for computationally based architectural design. In the second and fourth semesters you are given the opportunity to focus more fully on identifying and pursuing your own personal agendas and methods of study within the field – for those in year five, this is your thesis.

Positioning CITAstudio: pedagogical context and relevance

Jonas Ersson CITAstudio 2012-13

Changing Practice Over the last 30 years the introduction of digital design tools has exerted a profound impact on architectural design practice, fundamentally changing the ways in which the built environment is designed, communicated and realised. Today, architecture is almost entirely produced using digital tools. The development of programmed information models has created a new generation of dynamic representations in which complex environmental and material simulations, structural analyses and fabrication data can be directly interfaced with the architectural design space. In these models the act of drawing has become entangled with the ability to calculate.

Creating a new site between tool and representation, architects are given a new opportunity to design for, and with, a higher degree of complexity. By devising new environmental, material and structural solutions we can radically challenge the way we design our built surroundings.

It is this context and potential which ‘CITA Studio: Computation in Architecture’ investigates. Our ambition is to understand Information Technology as a fundamental shift in architecture's representational and conceptual traditions. In architecture our representations; drawings and models are not only systems of notation but also speculative sites of design investigation and discovery. As our representations develop, the possibility for architectural expression changes - not only with respect to its formal or structural thinking but also with respect to its spatial, social and experiential potential.

Mattias Lindskog CITAstudio 2012-13

side 3 af 9

Relation to Research The changes to the profession and practice outlined above are also eroding many of the traditional boundaries of the profession, altering its scope, values and mixing disciplinary demarcations – all of which drives a need for the conceptualisation and invention of alternatives to traditional practice. A principle location for such alternatives to be investigated is within the context of research.

Thaw - CITA

CITA is a research body with an international presence that is investigating the implications and potentials of digital technologies in Architecture. Over the last seven years it has established itself as a leading international research environment, disseminating its work through numerous exhibitions, publications, conference presentations, scholarly papers, etc.

The study programme places you in direct contact with research-informed teaching by interfacing the expertise of CITA’s research environment and extensive international network of collaborators and industrial partners. The teaching focus is tightly linked to CITA’s core research practice which is established upon the internationally recognised Research-by-Design methodology. Through project-based teaching you will be introduced to core aspects of this methodology providing you with critical capacities, advanced skills and new creative frameworks relevant to a contemporary practice that is in a state of continual transformation.

Learning Objectives The learning objectives for Masters students as set out by the school (in the ‘Kvalifikationsramme’) are fully integrated within the two-year programme of study.

Learning through the full range of teaching methods and project related activities over the course of the two years, the aim is that you will be able to demonstrate the following attributes and competencies:  Possession of the requisite knowledge and understanding of the theories, methods and practices of leading research and development within the architectural field.  The ability to critically reflect upon the knowledge and understanding above, in order to identify key architectural issues and challenges.  Proficient use of the artistic and scientific methods and tools of the architectural profession.  The ability to determine and evaluate the most appropriate methods, tools and media through which to develop and pursue architectural proposition.  The ability to cogently communicate architectural ideas visually and linguistically with both peers and non-specialists.  The ability to formulate a rigorous programme of study in order to frame personally directed learning and support development of competent, sophisticated and ambitious architectural proposition.  The ability to initiate and implement cooperation and collaboration within and across disciplinary boundaries.  The ability to be responsible and self-directed in personal professional development and specialisation.

Persistent Model #1 - CITA

side 4 af 9

Structure and Content of the Course

Faraday Pavilion – CITA

Composite Territories – CITA

‘Cascading Luminescence’ Installation Project, CITAstudio 2012-13

Two-year Masters The image above illustrates how the course is organised across 2 years (4 semesters), the final semester of which is the thesis project. We strongly recommend that you commit to following the entire programme without interruption in order to benefit fully from the curriculum. Only a sustained engagement with the programme will give you the time and space to reach greater depths of understanding and skill.

Year 4 and year 5 operate in parallel and have considerable overlap - in the first and third semesters you are all following the same projects allowing for mutual exchange and peer support through the experiences, knowledge and skills that you are each building up. In the second and fourth semesters you are following your own programme of study in exchange with CITAstudio tutors.

It is our experience that through exposure to the same intellectual and scheduling demands, year 4 students gain the necessary confidence to successfully prepare and follow their upcoming thesis year.

Year 2013-14 Thematic This year we will be focusing on the notion of Adaptation – the ability for natural and artificial systems to adjust, steer and transform themselves in relation to dynamic environmental influence. We will spend the year examining and interrogating this notion from an architectural perspective. We will explore the implications that operating with adaptation has upon the ways in which we think, design, produce and experience architecture – doing so through the development of our own design tools and the building and testing of experimental prototypes.

Projects and Workshops The year will start with ‘The Installation Project’. This is a group based project in which all students contribute to the design and installation of a full-scale demonstrator that will be publicly exhibited. We are currently preparing the material for this project which will be called ‘Adaptive Aggregations’. It aims to explore issues of adaptive self-organisation through simulation and physical prototyping of a given material system against an architectural brief.

side 5 af 9

Material and process investigations Installation Project, CITAstudio 2012-13

The following project is the ‘Material Dynamics Project’ – or ‘Advanced Material Dynamics Project’ for year 5. In this project you will be working individually and beginning to identify personal territories of interest specific to particular materials and material dynamics that you wish to investigate relative to an architectural brief.

‘The Research Question Project’, or ‘Advanced Research Question Project’ for year 5, asks you to define a study programme for the following semester. For year 5 this is your thesis semester and for year 4 this is the ‘Dynamic Constructions Project’.

The demands for the individual design projects in both year 4 and 5 is that they are motivated through the year’s thematic and the skills, tools and personal interests developed in the previous semester(s).

Throughout the year projects are supported through compulsory workshops. These are rigorously planned and prepared to synergise with design project concerns. The workshops are often led by invited researchers/practitioners in association with CITAstudio staff and present an especially intensive context for learning and experimentation.

Compulsory Courses In addition to project work there are a number of obligatory courses that you must follow during the course of the programme. CITAstudio is providing two of these.

The first is the (Adv.)Embodied Computation, Making and Prototyping course.

The purpose of this course is to introduce you to, and develop an appreciation of, programming theory, concepts and techniques in both abstract and applied contexts.

The second course – CITAsessions – is an informal lecture series occurring approximately bi-monthly. The lectures are given by invited academics, practitioners, researchers from related fields. The purpose is to introduce you to a broader community, and to stimulate discussion around common concerns and issues of computation with design practices.

Both of these courses are independent but highly relevant to the concerns of the projects conducted in the design studio.

The other courses have been selected to complement our programme, to provide other perspectives and discuss aspects of the architectural project that CITAstudio may not deal with explicitly. These courses are an essential component of your education and constitute the ‘Grundlagsdiscipliner’, or ‘Ground Disciplines’, which are organised and delivered by other members of the school’s research staff.

These chosen courses will be given in English.

Netherlands CITAstudio fieldtrip 2012-13

Fieldtrip(s) and Collaborations with the Broader Community Our fieldtrip this year will be to Barcelona. This is planned for week 42 (the week starting 14.10). The fieldtrip instigates an academic collaboration with the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC - http://www.iaac.net/), which will continue across the year. The collaboration will revolve around joint workshops and aims to foster dialogue with a broader community of people within the field. In order to keep costs to a minimum we will be encouraging you to book flights and accommodation as early as possible after the start of the year once we have the finer grain planning sorted out.

In addition to this fieldtrip we also have the exclusive opportunity for four students from CITAstudio to attend the upcoming ACADIA conference in the USA. ACADIA (http://acadia.org/) is an international network of digital researchers and professionals, and the conference has been a leading event within the community for more than a decade. CITA is participating in the prestigious conference and related

side 6 af 9

events which includes running a pre-conference workshop. The ACADIA board have very generously offered free participation, billeting (accommodation with local students) and food for four students. The CITAstudio study schedule has been arranged to allow participation. If you wish to participate, the only cost implication is your travel. If you are interested in this opportunity please email Martin Tamke at the earliest opportunity – martin.tamke@kadk.dk – for further details.

Facilities and Resources Teaching Team The teaching team is led by Phil Ayres together with Paul Nicholas and Martin Tamke – all lead researchers at CITA – together with Jacob Riiber and Tore Banke – both of whom are completing their PhD studies this year. This core team has extensive experience in education, practice and research. Additional teaching support is provided by other members of CITA including the Head of CITA, Prof.

Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen, our research assistants and PhD fellows. Our programme also includes teaching periods to support project-work in the form of workshops from key international practitioners, educators and researchers. This includes Professor Dr.-Ing. Christoph Gengnagel from UdK, Berlin who will be leading two workshops for CITAstudio during his Guest Professorship with CITA. Location CITAstudio remains located in the Vandflyverhangar – just 5mins from the main campus, but this year we have been given significantly more space which should permit us to establish a small and local mock-up/workshop/storage room. We insist that you make this space your working base as this will help foster a dynamic and strong studio culture that promotes knowledge sharing and critical peer support.

Workshop Facilities The school has extensive workshop facilities for production in wood, metal and metal casting, a large format laser cutter and ABS plastic 3D printer, available for all students to use. In addition CITA has its own workshop facility which includes a double gantry hot-wire cutter, laser cutter, Z Corp 3D printer and Ultrasonic welder.

We are anticipating the arrival of our own 6-axis robot arm at some point in the autumn. These facilities are available for CITAstudio students to make use of under direction from research staff.

side 7 af 9

CITA publications include:

Reading List There is a proliferation of scholarly literature emerging from the field of Computation in Architecture. What we offer below is an introductory list of texts and publications that aim to help define the intellectual territory we are operating within.

We encourage you to delve into and beyond these – including the growing number of publications coming directly out of CITA. As a means of making the reading list active and a stimulate for discussion, our PhD fellows will be running a bi-monthly (approx.)reading list discussion group. These sessions are planned for an hour prior to each CITAsession – the provisional dates of which are shown in the Study Programme schedule below.

Borden, G. P. & Meredith, M. (eds.), Matter – material processes in architectural production, Routledge, 2012 Hovestadt, L. (ed.), Beyond the Grid – architecture and information technology, Birkhäuser, 2010 Glynn, R. & Sheil, R. (eds.) Fabricate: making digital architecture, Riverside Architectural Press, 2011 Hensel, M., Menges, A. & Weinstock, M., Emergent technologies and design, Routledge, 2010 Menges, A. & Ahlquist, S. (eds.), Computational Design Thinking, AD Reader, John Wiley & Sons, 2011 Braham, W. W., Hale, J. A. & Sada, J. S. (eds.), Rethinking technology: a reader in architectural theory, Routledge, 2007 Corser, R. (ed.), Fabricating architecture: selected readings in digital design and manufacturing, Princeton Architectural Press, 2010 Kieran, S. & Timberlake, J., Refabricating architecture: how manufacturing methodologies are poised to transform building construction, McGraw-Hill, 2004

Year Schedule The schedule for the year aims to be as complete as possible. Please understand that on occasion modifications may need to be made to the schedule provided.

In such circumstances we will aim to inform you at the earliest opportunity.

Project briefs will be issued at the start of each project.

We are very excited to begin the year in our new capacity as an International Master’s programme and are very much looking forward to welcoming you and engaging in the intensive, experimental, speculative and fun year we have planned.

The CITAstudio team

side 8 af 9