Minor: House of the Future, 30 ECTS
Organisation:
Ir. Jack Breen, Minor coordinator, Form & Modelling Studies
Prof. ir. Dick van Gameren, Architecture and Dwellings chair
In collaboration with prof. ir. Adriaan Beukers, Design and Production of Composite Structures, faculty of Aerospace Engineering, TU Delft.
Content:
The focus of this Minor is the study of spatial/formal concepts, specifically in the domain of housing design, in the light of changing cultural, societal, ecological and technological conditions, whereby an emphasis is placed on the evolvement of insights and skills on the level of design exploration, representation and communication.
The central theme is ‘the House of the Future (past and present)’.
In three interrelated study trajectories, working individually as well as in groups, design based and -driven studies are carried out, making active use of the Forms Studies and Modelling facilities of the faculty.
In a series of lectures and precedent-based studies, the Minor will address evocative utopian projects and boundary shifting housing prototypes of the past.
In the design project the participants will develop evocative proposals for dwelling forms for the future, whereby innovative and durable material applications and production procedures will be explored.
Parallel with this central design task, students will develop prototypes for appliances with an architectural basis, which will be worked out in detailed models and in a project portfolio.
The results of these three development cycles will be compared and discussed a series of intermediate project evaluations and subsequently brought together in a concluding group presentation, in which all participating students and project tutors will take part.
The minor is composed of the following three study elements:
1. Project The House of the Future (design): 15 ECTS
2. Analysis and Model Study (research): 7,5 ECTS
3. Imaging and Communication (form study): 7,5 ECTS
The results of each of these three subjects will be evaluated in its own right and awarded a specific a mark.
On the basis of the total of study results, the participating teaching staff members will determine an individual final mark for the Minor as a whole.
A brief overview of the three interrelated paths of study:
1. Design project ‘House of the Future’ (Dwellings, Form Studies, Aerospace Engineering):
Design driven explorations of future-oriented scenarios for housing development. The design development line will be supported by a thematic series of lectures, in which specific boundary-shifting house designs of the past will be presented and analysed in detail. Furthermore, a series of targeted workshops will focus on specific issues of development in the fields of materialisation, production and assembly (link with Aerospace industry).
Themes: living; the home; programme; composition and experience; plan; façade; connectivity; material qualities; durability; Lightness; energy use; fabrication and montage.
2. Analysis and Model Study (Dwellings and Modelling Studies):
Imaginative, explorative studies on the level of formal and spatial composition on the basis of selected architectural precedents.
Themes: design and realisation; interpretation and visualisation; digital and physical modelling; presentation and exposition.
3. Imaging and Communication (form Studies and Modelling Studies):
Elementary studies involving issues of form giving, expression and physical experimentation and object making.
Themes: explorative form exploration; realisation in study models and (full scale) prototypes; presentation and design of information.
Approach: The acquired results, findings and conclusions will be bundled for each of the three trajectories in a graphically representative dossier, consisting of texts, drawings, computer models, photographs, schemes, collages and physical presentation models.
These dossiers will be presented, discussed and evaluated in a series of concluding, communal presentations.
