The research program 'The Architectural Project and Its Foundations' of the Department of Architecture explicitly focuses on architecure as ‘métier’, or a ‘craft’ in the broadest sense of the word; a field where making and thinking are inextricably linked. It regards the ‘architectural project’ as the cornerstone of architectural practice and reflection. It holds that the architectural project forms the junction where a complex combination of cultural, social, functional, economical and ecological factors is articulated as a concrete spatial proposal. This articulation requires a specific expertise that characterizes the discipline of architecture.
The aim of the research program is to firmly reposition architecture as a field of expertise with its own specific logic, rationale and instruments. While in recent years, research in architecture has often implied a quest for intangible forces, the focus on architecture as ‘craft’ and ‘project’ entails a return to the history, tools and paradigms of the discipline. This encompasses an in-depth investigation of how architectural projects can perform at the scale of the building, the city and the territory (sub-program ‘The Architectural Project’) as well as a study of existing approaches and perspectives, instruments and disciplinary boundaries (sub-program ‘Foundations’).
The Department of Architecture presents itself nationally and internationally as a center of expertise towards the public and private sector, approaching important societal issues through the concrete spatial dimension of the architectural project. The research group has maintained a strong international reputation in the fields of typological and design-oriented research, which is underscored by various international exhibitions, publications and keynote lectures by group members.
Building Typologies, Materialization, Urban Forms, Public Space, Historiography, Criticism, Design Instruments
Main Publications and Events
Avermaete, Tom et al. (ed.), Architectural Positions: Architecture, Modernity and the Public Sphere (Amsterdam: SUN Publishers, 2009) colloquia and publication.
Schrijver, Lara, Radical Games: Popping the Bubble of 1960s’ Architecture (Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2009)
Architecture as a Craft. Capita Selecta Lecture Series (13 Mai – 17 June 2009, Faculty of Architecture - TU Delft, Delft, The Netherlands)
Pimlott, Mark, Without and Within: Essays on Territory and the Interior (Rotterdam: Episode Publishers, 2007)
Projective Landscape. Stylos Conference on Projective Practice (16-17 March 2006, Faculty of Architecture - TU Delft, Delft, The Netherlands)
Risselada, Max and Dirk van den Heuvel, Team 10: A Utopia of the Present (Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2005) exhibition and publication
Avermaete, Tom, Another Modern: The Postwar Architecture and Urbanism of Candilis Josic Woods (Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2005)
Komossa, Suzanne, Max Risselada et al. (ed.), The Atlas of the Dutch Urban Block (Bussum: Nijhof & Lee, 2005)
Heuvel, Dirk van den, Alison and Peter Smithson - From the House of the Future to a House of Today (Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 2004)
Barbieri, Umberto and Leen van Duin, A Hundred Years of Dutch Architecture (Rotterdam and Amsterdam: NAi Publishers and SUN, 2003)
