Based on the term “Advanced Architecture”, coined in 2003 in the Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture, the course aims to establish theoretical principles around 3 Conceptual Perspectives: [1] Transversal Logics: Information – Cities; [2] Relational Logics: Cities – Nature; [3] Digital Logics: Nature – Information. The seminar explores relevant architectural references, in order to construct a critical body of knowledge that serves as a basis (both theoretical and practical), in particular related to the emergent paradigm around Advanced Architecture.
The book The Threefold Logic of Advanced Architecture has confirmed the evidence of a striking change of paradigms in the definition of our spaces of relation, interaction and sociability. These transformations are intimately associated with the embodied and accelerated growth of the technological capacity to process information, increase communication and multiply differential definitions of our environment(s).
Taking this work as a base camp, the seminar will investigate the new theoretical frameworks and challenges that, in the context of advanced architecture, this new decade will face. The term “investigation” comes from the Latin investigare, which derives from vestigium, meaning fingerprint. On the one hand, to investigate is equivalent to “going in pursuit of the fingerprint of something”, that is to say, “to go after the track of something” in order to discover it. On the other hand, to investigate also means to explore an uncertain epistemological domain in order to increase the field of knowledge on a certain matter.
Based on this twofold distinction, this seminar will have two main parts. The first one will be delivered in the format of lectures, and will consist in the presentation and discussion of the argument of The Threefold Logic of Advanced Architecture. This will be the base from which the second part of the seminar will depart; delivered in the format of desk crits and with the students as main protagonists, this part will consist in the invention and cultivation of a fictional dialogue – an earthly convivium – involving different characters that, in light of the proposed bibliography, debate some of the key substantial questions that populate the multidisciplinar landscape in which advanced architecture operates today.
The course is underpinned on The Threefold Logic of Advanced Architecture, (Actar Publishers, 2020), and will be delivered in the format of lectures, workshops and critical discussions. However, the target does not consist in reaffirming its text, but in constructing a critical approach towards Advanced Architecture that on the one side, enters in conversation with the proposed bibliography, and, on the other side, focuses on how it transcends, expands, increases, interrupts, deviates or insists on the main concepts of the book The Threefold Logics of Advanced Architecture.
At course completion the student will:
How to think of the notion of Utopia when articulating the futures embedded within phygital urban environments? ACT 1 – POWER Scene 1: Phone call between Patrick and Carmen. Patrick is in his sleek, high-tech San Francisco apartment . Carmen sits in a park in Seoul, a city filled with the hum of rapid urban … Read more
How do digital multi-platforms branch our sense of alter-ego? ACT 1 | SCENE 1 The Trans-Siberian train passes through the pastoral snowy landscape. Each second, the window is framing a different scene. The train represents the transition between fragmented digital identities and beneath the masks. A family of three is sitting in the compartment. MOM: … Read more
Too late capitalism: Does style become lost in immediacy? . ACT ONE It is late morning in the famous Khan el-Khalil market of Cairo, Egypt. (Fig 1) The air is filled with the aroma of the local spices and each stall is filled with different colors of fabric, textures and souvenirs. There is a steady … Read more
How redesigning the household through automation could inform emancipatory politics of domesticity? In a world where the boundaries between work and life are increasingly blurred, the notion of domesticity and automation are redefined through technology’s growing influence on our daily lives. Books like After Work by Helen Hester, The Care Manifesto, A Matter of Care, … Read more
How is citizens’ privacy affected by surveillance systems in urban mobility infrastructures? Credits Ameya ThopteManideep Mamidala Ragini ChakrawartiRishi Srinivasan Sakshi Adwani Varalika Sahu Setting: Beijing-Mongolia Expressway, 2024. It’s a warm afternoon, and the clear road promises an easy drive. Characters: 1. Astrid: Skeptical, Questions the effects of constant surveillance on freedom and identity2. Chen: Optimistic, … Read more
How do the figures of the planet through which we think of the Earth inform the design of Planetary Energetic Infrastructures? ACT 1 A deserted highway near Mount Clarke. Beside it, Ben, Sophie and Buddy the hitchhikers stand, shielding their eyes from the glaring sun (1)Avanessian and Falb. The Earth is in this condition because … Read more
What could it mean to be An Activist in a Post Anthropocene Planet? Abstract Set at Reggio School, Madrid, on Earth Day, this play critically evaluates the differing approaches to environmental activism in an Anthropocene planet. The narrative begins with a guest lecture by Margherita, a visiting environmental thinker, who introduces the concept of a-human … Read more
