Aim
One of four basic courses during the student’s first two years, this course aims to give him or her step-by-step a basic knowledge and ability to use an architect’s equipment and understand the arts of giving architectural form and perceiving spatial conditions, and how individual buildings and towns are technically built and used.

He or she learns how with these means to give form to buildings in a spatial context by working and investigating creatively, to take account of various factors in expressing architectural ideas; and to use drawings, sketches, models, written texts and images to communicate with others.

This course (Course A) emphasizes the architecture of residential apartments and how it relates to those who live in them.

Knowledge and understanding
For a passing grade the student must

• fundamentally understand and interpret drawings of a building that already exists and perceive how the drawings relate to it.

• describe the fundamental preconditions for designing furniture.

• be able to use simpler terms and concepts of building technology and explain their significance and to present firstly a chosen construction and its material and secondly the effects of its construction and architecture from the points of view of sustainability, the character of its material, its expression and an architectural idea.

• describe in general terms the history of dwelling and changes to it

• describe and analyze a dwelling’s architectural qualities, giving particular attention to the interplay between its aesthetic, spatial and functional aspects and, in his or her individual project, balance these aspects against one another in giving form to the object of the project

• choose and present building materials and its architectural effects from the points of view of sustainability, its character and expression and its significance for those who experience it.

Skills and abilities
For a passing grade the student must

• design with the help of an architectural method of sketching a small uncomplicated building that with given preconditions including a spatial and architectural context expresses the student´s chosen architectural idea and design a piece of furniture in a creative and experimental process that is motivated by an expressed aesthetical purpose.

• present for his or her fellow students and their teachers his or her project in a clear and orderly manner both orally and in drawings and correctly-made models and make such a presentation to mediate the architectural ideas embodied in the project in a way that demonstrates a well-developed precision and a deliberate use of graphical methodology.

• make an uncomplicated wooden model to scale in the school’s workshop and realize in full scale a piece of furniture he or she has designed.

• present a building in an uncomplicated way that comprises manual and digital images and mediate its ideas and spatial context using fundamental artistic techniques.

• present an existing building or and the student’s own project using for the purpose the relevant architectural terms and concepts.

• design a dwelling that, in a given spatial and architectural context, expresses an architectural idea.

• in both a discussion of existing dwellings and a presentation of his or her own project make use of the relevant architectural terms and concepts.

• present a dwelling orally and in drawings and models for his or her fellow students and their teachers to mediate its architectural ideas clearly, correctly and in good order and demonstrate a well-developed precision, firmness of expression, and a deliberate graphical skill.

• use the basic functions of making sketches digitally and use the basic functions of making digital drawings.

Judgement and approach
For a passing grade the student must

• compare and evaluate different pieces of furniture with respect to their architectural values and their relationships to an architectural idea.

• demonstrate independently an active and creative attitude in a design process that follows given instructions.

• compare and evaluate various dwellings with special respect to their architectural values and the values placed on them by various groups of users in various situations.

• following given instructions, independently seek for knowledge and resolutions in a design process and do so similarly but in the absence of such instructions.

Contents
Teaching proceeds in lectures, projects, exercises, seminars, study trips, workshops and written work. The main emphasis is on teaching students to consider and present what they have learned in the form of drawings, models, sketches, images, texts and other relevant media. At the end of each term each student’s work is assembled in a portfolio that is used in a pedagogic discussion with him or her.

Before the first part of the examination, first-year students take a course that introduces architectural concepts and equipment and emphasizes drawing techniques. Simultaneously, second-year students work on a project that focusses on a creative, aesthetically-motivated project to form the prototype of a full-scale piece of furniture. In the second part of the examination students are trained in analyzing and expressing the architecture of dwellings. See also the contents of the examinations.

First part

First-year course This part of the course aims to introduce students to the means used by architects to give form to architectural ideas. It focusses closely on drawing techniques, to teach each student to draw correctly and clearly, so that his or her drawing represents physical realities. They also learn fundamental uses of e.g. methods of sketching, building models, drawing and collating illustrations. Each student trains in the various uses of other architectural means and works through different exercises in making drawings that can creatively and forcefully depict an architectural idea, and mediate it accurately and clearly. From other exercises students learn to build models in paper and wood, and to perceive how models can realize and communicate an idea’s three dimensions. Having successfully done some such exercises, a student then analyzes a known building before doing what is needed to complete an incomplete set of drawings of its plan, sections and façades, besides showing it as a whole in a scale model to others, to whom he or she explains its architectural ideas in a generally acceptable architectural language—the original is a little unclear). Having done this, he or she then first designs a small uncomplicated building that harmonizes with its surroundings spatially, in form and in its inherent ideas and then presents it in drawings and models in a demonstration of his or her command of the studied techniques of drawing and modelling.

Second-year students work on the Fantasiprojektet that takes a holistic approach to form in relation to human beings, their dwellings and furniture. Applying a creative experimental model, each student works out a proposal for a piece of furniture in which his or her ambition to realize its form is perceptible at each stage, especially ultimately, when he or she makes it in full scale in the school workshop and writes an account of its design and the material it is made of. It shall be an enlivening original development of the art of furniture in conjunction with architecture and be well enough made to deserve exhibition at, for example, an international furniture fair. To assist students individually in doing this they see and summarize in writing a series of films that consider significant contemporary architects.

Second part

The project work and exercises of this course include theory, analysis and applied gestalt of a dwelling in a known context, in which its spatial qualities—movement within it, the proportions of its rooms, its light, functions, dimensions and social aspects—are investigated. In addition, students are taught how to use computers and other technical means, including artistic techniques

Workshop

A special workshop is conducted in each studio and concentrates on two themes during each study period.

Literature
The university provides compendia that contain practical instructions about and the theoretical background to the subjects to be studied.

Code: 0107. Name: Part 1.
Higher education credits: 10,5. Grading scale: UG. Assessment: To obtain a passing mark each student shall have made all submissions required; and handed in, and got approved, all projects and exercises and collected in a portfolio for the term in question. In addition he or she shall have achieved at least an approved result on each examination; attended at least eighty per cent of all lectures, workshops and pre-arranged exercises with assistants in drafting and in learning to use computers. Examinations shall be made of individual and group-based work. To achieve a passing mark a student must have submitted and got approved his or her material, including all projects and exercises. In addition he or she must have attended at least eighty per cent of lectures, workshops and pre-arranged exercises with assistants in the drafting studio and in training on computers. The examination is of both individual and group work. Having been submitted before the date of the examination, project material is examined when the student presents it orally to his or her fellow students and their teachers who form for the occasion an assessment group. Within three working days, the student is informed whether his or her project has Passed or Failed. Should it Fail, the examiner shall inform the student what is needed to achieve a Pass, and the student may be re-examined once he or she has done what is necessary. Other exercises can be examined in for example a seminar, a conversation with an examiner, or in writing.

Code: 0207. Name: Part 2.
Higher education credits: 9. Grading scale: UG. Assessment: To obtain a passing mark each student shall have made all submissions required; and handed in, and got approved, all projects and exercises and collected in a portfolio for the term in question. In addition he or she shall have achieved at least an approved result on each examination; attended at least eighty per cent of all lectures, workshops and pre-arranged exercises with assistants in drafting and in learning to use computers. Examinations shall be made of individual and group-based work. To achieve a passing mark a student must have submitted and got approved his or her material, including all projects and exercises. In addition he or she must have attended at least eighty per cent of lectures, workshops and pre-arranged exercises with assistants in the drafting studio and in training on computers. The examination is of both individual and group work. Having been submitted before the date of the examination, project material is examined when the student presents it orally to his or her fellow students and their teachers who form for the occasion an assessment group. Within three working days, the student is informed whether his or her project has Passed or Failed. Should it Fail, the examiner shall inform the student what is needed to achieve a Pass, and the student may be re-examined once he or she has done what is necessary. Other exercises can be examined in for example a seminar, a conversation with an examiner, or in writing.

Code: 0307. Name: Workshop.
Higher education credits: 1,5. Grading scale: UG. Assessment: To obtain a passing mark each student shall have made all submissions required and got the project approved. In addition he or she shall have attended at least eighty per cent of all lectures and pre-arranged exercises. Examinations shall be made of individual and group-based work. To achieve a passing mark a student must have submitted and got approved his or her material. Having been submitted before the date of the examination, project material is examined when the student presents it orally to his or her fellow students and their teachers who form for the occasion an assessment group. Within three working days, the student is informed whether his or her project has Passed or Failed. Should it Fail, the examiner shall inform the student what is needed to achieve a Pass, and the student may be re-examined once he or she has done what is necessary.