Aim
The aim of the course is to analyze certain basic elements in architecture through use of the analogy with a theater space, regarded as a laboratory, one in which various basic aspects of architecture can be examined. A theater is an intentionally limited space in which the processes involved take as their point of departure a manuscript (a sort of program). The essential elements in this space are constructed through the combined effect of different physical elements such as light, sound, human presence, movement and action (processes).

Various aspects of architecture – extending from the furniture in a room and the spatial characteristics there to architecture on a large scale – are to be taken up within such a frame of reference with the idea of encouraging and promoting breadth of thinking in an architectural context, very useful within the profession.

Knowledge and understanding
For a passing grade the student must

• be able to show a facility to form her or his ideas regarding the designing of a building on the basis of thinking that reflects analogies taken to non-architectual objects and events and to apply a similar type of reasoning in developing ideas on a city-planning scale.

Skills and abilities
For a passing grade the student must

• demonstrate the ability to create a program for action within the bounds of architecture on the basis on the description of something quite outside the strictly architectual realm.

• display the ability to develop an architectual design based on an initial conception arrived at through analogous thinking having a non-architectual source, showing the readiness in this way to update and renew the relation of architecture to the world both outside and surrounding it.

Judgement and approach
For a passing grade the student must

• show the ability to conceive of urban space in a holistic perspective – encompassing both interior space and the elements of architecture exposed to public view – integrating architecture in this way with the existence as a whole to which it related.

Contents
Through a general reflection on urban life, five areas of configuration activities are defined, and will be treated in the course:

1. The possibility to develop the requirements of urbanity, where urban space is treated from a holistic point of view. Its use of different scales, different levels of public use, the historic background, local and global communication, the interaction of motions and circulation, the infrastructure and social preconditions define the urban space.

2. The transformation of design typologies, i.e. furniture, interiors, buildings, infrastructure and communication, public areas, cultural and academic institutions, healthcare, environments for living, manufacturing, service, work and commerce.

3. To understand the importance of a process oriented configuration of space design, integrating between space, technology, building technology, ecology, materials and use methods for to co-ordinate with construction, ecological systems, manufacturing processes, industrialisation, energy, natural resources and a sustainable society.

4. To attend to methodology and theories within design, processes, structures, visual communication, digital studies, and methods and techniques for spatial simulation.

5. Critical analysis and examination of theories, history, methodology, architectural criticism, social context, cultural assumptions and integration.

The education is mainly based on workshops, and exercises in configuration, in order to develop tools for spatial and architectural design in a broader sense – from working in full-scale experiments with a variety of materials, to exercises and analyses in urban or regional scale.

Architecture as performance is a project about theory and experimentation in which we emphasise the process of artistic liberation and intellectual experiments in theatrical and architectural spaces. The student will use the theatrical space as a stage for experimental work, for to investigate the basic components of architecture. The theatrical space will provide a secluded and limited space, where the design process emanates from a script (program). The stage design makes use of physical elements (stage settings), light, sound, and the presence of human beings, of movement and action (process).

Stage Design makes a starting-point for turning focus towards the urban spaces and the design of a building. We work with properties in the centre of Malmö where empty spaces remain from urban post-war reconstruction. These properties clearly represent the complexity of contemporary urbanisation, and they require both comprehension and fresh ideas when being exploited. The design work, workshops and seminars will make up the main part of the project.

Literature
Augé, Marc. Non-Places: Introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity, London, 1995
Bell, Michael/Leong, Sze Tsung. Slow Space, New York, 1998
Benjamin, Walter. The Arcades Project, Cambridge, 2002
Betsky, Aaron. Architecture Must Burn: a manifesto for an architecture beyond building, London, 2000
Cullen, Gordon. Townscape, Oxford, 1994
Letringer, Sylvere/Cavaliere, Michael/Virilio, Paul. Politics of the very worst, New York, 1998
Lidne, Annika. CoMa, Malmö, 1996
Thafvelin, Harald. Arkitektursimulering, Lund, 1984
Thafvelin, Harald. Gestaltperspektiv och hus, Lund, 1982
Vidler, Anthony. Warped Space: Art, Architecture and Anxiety in Modern Culture, Cambridge, 2002
Virilio, Paul. Försvinnandets estetik, Göteborg, 1996.