Selective studio course (24 ECTS)

This seminar examines the way representations of society and culture are embodied in social theories and their relation to the act of designing spaces and places. Several critical questions guide the discussion and exercises in the seminar. Can social theoretical texts be usefully or meaningfully incorporated in or represented through the medium of design? Can design media and visual representations be used to elaborate and extend social theoretical texts? How useful is the potential interplay between social theory and design?

The seminar will be based on a close reading and discussion of the visions for the city and critical issues of urban life in such important social theorists as Karl Marx, Max Weber, Gustav Simmel, Louis Wirth, Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, Marc Auge, Manuel Castells, Saskia Sassen, and Michael Smith among others.

The course should add significantly to the students’ knowledge of urban social theory and the relationship between verbal and visual discourses in conceptualizing the city. More critically it should help them understand the extent to which and in what ways urban social theory might be deployed in creating better and more relevant urban and architectural design in our cities. Thus its goal is to ground the knowledge of urban social theory in the world of design thinking and practice.

The course will consist of lectures an discussions about the assigned social theorists to be followed by the discussion of a social text, proposals for these alternative visions framed through a design medium will be offered for discussion

Students will be responsible for one presentation during the semester and one final presentation. The last will be reviewed by both AHO faculty and outside censors.

The course is assessed as pass/fail, subject to the Regulations for Master's degree programmes at Oslo School of Architecture and Design, § 6-14.

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