Advanced Theory Seminar explores contemporary frameworks of advanced architecture through critical engagement with The Threefold Logic of Advanced Architecture (Actar Publishers, 2020). Combining lectures, workshops, and discussions, the course examines how technology reshapes spatial, social, and theoretical paradigms. Students develop research and analytical skills by constructing a fictional dialogue that debates key concepts in architecture’s evolving disciplinary landscape, fostering critical reflection and theoretical precision.


Syllabus


Credits: Manuel Gausa, Jordi Vivaldi

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.

 


Credits: Theory and Knowledge Seminar, MAA01

Learning Objectives

At course completion the student will:

  • Familiarise with and understand the complexity of the different phases of the whole process of an academic investigation; 
  • Critically Analyse texts and documents; 
  • Develop analytical thoughts, conclusions and reasoning during the investigations; 
  • Know-how necessary to extract a few theoretical principles as a conclusion in any kind of research; 
  • Write and present a theoretical dialogue that demands to understand various postures and the arguments that each one of them maintain with respect to a contemporary issue directly or indirectly connected to architecture.

Faculty


Faculty Assistants


Projects from this course

The Land Remembers

Agricultural landscapes often disappear from visual and political attention during conflict, overshadowed by images of urban destruction. This project uses satellite imagery to examine agricultural land in Gaza, focusing on the Beit Hanoun belt as an intersection between destruction and food systems. Through vegetation indices and bombing crater detection, the study distinguishes seasonal agricultural cycles … Read more

Kipnuk: The Lost Land

Is the concept of utopia fading as we gain more forecasting power yet face even greater uncertainty? CHARACTERS Governor Journalist Fisherman Fish Seller Governor’s P.A Media – FIRST ACT – GOVERNOR IN THE CAR (OVERLOOKING RUINS) (The Governor receives a call.) Governor: Everything is falling into place… right where we want it. We’ll move when it’s … Read more

Calle Donceles 47, Departamento 6A

In what ways can homeliness manifest within temporary, automated, and plural domesticities? ______________________________________________ CHARACTERS AlexaAlexaTalaEzgiLucienFranciscoBaba ______________________________________________ – FIRST ACT – ALEXA: Good morning, Ezgi. Listing work schedule. (1) At 09:00 – téléconsultation with Médecins Sans Frontières. At 11:00 – follow-up with patient Carlos in Hospital San Marcos At 19:00 – Zoom meeting with Dr. Frank. … Read more

Lollapalooza: Between Tracks

In what ways do multi-intelligence design processes unravel the entanglement between authorship, authority and authenticity? CHARACTERS RK WARREN CHRIS SRB KSHITIJA AMANO – FIRST ACT – (It’s late evening, and the concert grounds of Lollapalooza are alive with sound and motion. RK and Warren step through the gates, the air buzzing with anticipation and the … Read more

Let there be Light

What economies of attention do augmented environments trigger? CHARACTERS ÉtienneAshleyAkshayLukasEmily Fig. 1“When the Festival Begins” (2016) – FIRST ACT – (Inside the Saint‑Jean Cathedral, Lyon. Étienne sits in quiet contemplation. Sound tests begin for the Fête des Lumières. Outside, Ashley Summers arrives, phone in hand, preparing to livestream.Darkness falls. The cathedral glows faintly. Étienne rises, … Read more

Act at Dawn

What modes of activism do the ends of a world trigger? Introduction This project was developed as part of the Advanced Theory Seminar: The Earthly Convivium – Conversational Narratives. The seminar invites students to work with theory not as a distant academic exercise, but as a tool to build fictional situations where different worldviews collide. … Read more

MULTIPLY-ME

In what ways do stereotypes inform multiplatform bodies? – CHARACTERS – – Victor Franklin, aged 45, neuroscientist venture capitalist –Alexandros Antoniou, aged 37, Elite athlete –Avery Blake, aged 29, VR artist / designer –Brother Jonah, aged 72 Monk / philosopher –Elsa M, aged 17, waitress / student / online activist –NEO, a synthetic robot with … Read more

After the Feed

*** “Is there a perception of transparency in digital societies which masks a more intrusive form of control than disciplinary institutions ever achieved?” CHARACTERS Professor Bratton Peluza Lucia Vela Minister Mouffe Arin Reporter Nox – FIRST ACT – Scene 1: The Ambush at the Café Door Place de la République, early evening.A rally forms under … Read more