AHT - Foundation Studio : Histories of Spaces

The foundation studio trains students in core skills of architectural historical and theoretical enquiry through the analysis of built environments and relevant archival material. Students learn to observe and document a selected site, and analyse architectural cues to understand transformation. The pedagogy of the studio aims to expand formalist histories - which typically dominate the students' own consciousness of architectural history - and introduce students to larger questions of how the built environment is produced, used, remembered, represented, and transformed. The studio is organised in two modules which will cover historical documentation strategies and constructing a timeline that chronicles architectural transformation. The modules are discrete and self-contained in terms of exercises, objectives and outcomes, but come together as a continuous process of inquiry through seminars and reflection sessions. By the end of the semester, students will become conscious of the analytical connections and conceptual overlaps inherent in built environment analysis, and be able to make appropriate connections across bodies of scholarship and their own modes of thinking, analysis, and writing.