The way of looking, the way of drawing, and the way of building are causally related. PROJECT DOMAIN is drawn with a sequence of notions, paradigms and epistemologies surrounding the architectural practice and the discourse on architecture. Instead of imposing ready-made design schemes, the intention of this course is to logically proof the existence of the substantial and multidirectional relation: TEXT – IMAGE
– PROJECT, through the proposed sequence of diachronically contextualized readings: from the tractates and essays on architecture, architectural travelogues, and exemplary critics of architectural projects, to the excerpts from philosophical treatises, literary writings, or scientific papers directly or indirectly related to architecture. The introductory definition of basic notions around the project, including the project itself, is followed by the elaborate discussion of the relation between nature and architecture in the context of the fundamental ontologies about the purpose of humans in this world. Those relations are architecturally expressed in various notions of place, space and non-place, in the actual facts of horizon and vertical axis, and in the phenomena of natural and artificial growth, and gravitation. The subsequent discussion about the picturesque and the sublime, their origins and their applicability in the architectural practice and the discourse on architecture, leads to the hierarchically substantiated system of specifically architectural perspective on things, dependent on the natural order and the level of the technological sophistication: from the levelled view, the upwards view and the appropriation of the horizon, to the elevated, disinterested view from above, which expands the domain of architecture, from the object scale in the immediate physical context onto the geographic scales of landform and landscape. The logical arguments about the autonomy and about the essential materiality of architecture are derived in the conclusion, following the same scale sequence. Students are expected to posses a certain experience in architectural practice, at least basic knowledge of history and theory of architecture, and normal ambition to critically reflect upon their future profession. The lectures and seminars are in English. Students are required to read at least two out of the proposed short texts per lecture. Those hardly accessible will be issued as a script.
While delimiting the notions around the architectural project, the aim of the lectures and the parallel seminar is to teach the students how to reflect critically upon those notions and, notwithstanding the evanescent meanings and the associated concepts, how to understand and logically argument their own and other projects in pictorial and verbal ways. While attending the lectures, contributing to the discussions, and analysing and presenting the referential project, the student will start to develop his/ her own catalogue of epistemologies and paradigms, eventually useful in his/ her architectural practice. The knowledge acquired with this course will enhance the general architectural skills of the students. In pragmatic, professional terms, it will also help them to pictorially represent and verbalize their projects, expanding thus the limits of the architectural project within the real context of its ever decreasing circumference.
