Authenticity and Historical Dimension – Conditions for Landscape Projects

The reference to existing or lost traces of a site in general or to specific elements and artefacts in particular have been of eminent importance for many approaches in designing spaces while other ones postulate free expression of form and use without the chains of history and local condition.

Site specificity might be a post-modern concept, but it is far from being generally agreed: controversial positions about authenticity, reconstruction and about how to deal with heritage, sustainability and even nature confuse us but show us as designers, architects and landscape architects also many options and ways to follow.

The seminar is taking a closer look to these different positions and tries to sharpen the individual position of each student by experimenting several case studies from the past and from today.

Course learning objectives:
– strengthen a critical personal points of view about dealing with issues of historical dimension, heritage and authenticity in a spatial design project (landscape architecture, urban design, architecture);
– taking position in how historical traces may be preserved, reconstructed, re-interpretated or become inspiration for a contemporary or future project.

Outcomes:
– personal documentation of a case study in a personal format (text, drawings, schemes, collage, …);
– collection of the individual documentations and projects in a common media (online or print).

Course format:
– introduction lectures by the professor and guests (mostly online);
– reading/research/documentation of historical and contemporary case studies proposed by the professor and/or the students;
– group discussion of case studies and positions.

Method of evaluation:
– considering the active participation at discussions and presentations during the seminar;
– participative discussion of the quality and originality of the final elaboration (text/design/collage…).

Prerequisites:
– basic knowledge about history of architecture and landscape architecture;
– basic skills in graphical representation of complex contents.