Transformative Teaching

Abstract

In architecture, experiential quality seems to appear when architects succeed in engaging with material and bring forth characteristic material articulations (Petersen, Leatherbarrow, Pallasmaa, Rasmussen). However, despite the notion that properties, qualities, and effects of materials may be inseparable in the experience of architecture, the quantifiable is often considered more decisive than the synthesised quality in the making of architecture (Ingold). It may resonantly appear, that the practice of architecture, in large, is structured around ways of understanding, where the conceptual is valued over the material and in which “[t]he valuing of form over matter relegates material in architecture to the practical underside of the profession” (Thomas). This paper takes an interest in the relations between “experience,” “material” and “making,” concentrating on the “coming to presentation” of architecture through a combination of phenomenological description, 1:1 model-making and spatial re-presentation (Andersen, Böhme, Heidegger, Schmitz). The notion is that making, thinking and teaching architecture may benefit from an engagement “within” rather than being theorised from “without” (Ingold). Considering building-culture a resource that may hold technical as well as aesthetic knowledge, the investigation revolves around the development of the listed Nyholm in Copenhagen as part of a master’s course.
The paper is developed through a methodical tripartite, consisting of a theoretical reading, a study of three student projects and a discussion reflecting on method. It asks, how may, what is already there, be altered and extended through a sensitive work with the highly specific materials, structures and presences that characterise an architectural environment (Caruso)?