Modulverantwortung: Alberto Alessi
Lehrteam: Alberto Alessi,
Assistant: Olin Petzold

Zeitgeist of Change

„A patchwork of arguments scavenged since the sixties from American sociologists, ideologues, philosophers, French intellectuals, cybermystics, etc., suggests that architecture will be the first “solid that melts into air” through the combined effects of demographic trends, electronics, media, speed, the economy, leisure, the death of God, the book, the phone, the fax, affluence, democracy, the end of the Big Story…“ Rem Koolhaas, Bigness, 1995

Which theories, conditions, opportunities and aspirations shaped architecture in the final decades of the twentieth century? How is an architectural project produced? What are its roots? What is it expected to do? To which Zeitgeist does it belong? What consequences does it produce? Society, politics, economics, technology, art, architecture: what relationships can be traced between these different dimensions of a cultural period? What kind of substantive coherence can be found between an architectural work, a philosophical position and a technological development within a particular historical period? What formal continuities and discrepancies can be identified—or sought—between a building, a novel and a work of art?

Architecture always emerges from a complex interplay of ideas, possibilities, individual ambitions, collective meanings and physical decisions. The course encourages students to actively investigate the particular richness of different situations, positions and tools as essential components in developing a conscious architectural attitude. Lectures and guest lectures are complemented by student presentations and collective discussions.