This course will examine the relevance of geological thought and methodology for the understanding of built environments. Students will be introduced to key geological concepts, bringing this knowledge into the analysis of built artefacts through the reading of texts, discussion of definitions, understanding of field discoveries, and investigation of specimen.
“Ultimately, I like to think, when you get to the furthest point of technology, when you get to outer space, what do you find to bring back? Rocks!”
Isamu Noguchi
The earth and its rocks have been a source of knowledge for the science of geology and beyond. Meanwhile environmental and philosophical discussions focus on the earth’s new geological epoch, one that is marked by human presence, activities and their after-effects. Geological thinking offers a lens to understand the complex dynamics between intertwined human and other than human processes as they are manifest in select constructed environments to be discussed in class.
Methodologically, the seminar will discuss terms such as rocks, fossils, minerals, aggregates and modes of representation such as stratigraphy, geosections and petrography. We will read historic and contemporary geological texts paired with texts from philosophy, anthropology, and political geography. Thinking with feminist new materialisms, we will approach built environments that engage with earthly processes. Collective writing exercises and invited speakers will complement our class discussions and readings. In excursions, we will visit “the laboratory” and “the field”, as distinct spaces of knowledge.
Conversations will aim at a collective writing of field questions: how does the knowledge gathered relate to the making of the built environment? By critically examining material specimens and their manifestations in practices of drawing and analysis, students will be exposed to the impact of geological processes as they unfold in time. Acquiring an understanding of fundamental geologic principles, the seminar will expand the students’ knowledge beyond typical architectural understandings of matter and space. Ultimately, the seminar aims to provoke a more expansive and complex analysis of the relationship between constructed environments and the material earth, one that engages with the interrelatedness between different scales, times and matters.
The outcome of the seminar will be a field guide, a written (and optionally visual) companion of a selected site.
“Ultimately, I like to think, when you get to the furthest point of technology, when you get to outer space, what do you find to bring back? Rocks!”
Isamu Noguchi
The earth and its rocks have been a source of knowledge for the science of geology and beyond. Meanwhile environmental and philosophical discussions focus on the earth’s new geological epoch, one that is marked by human presence, activities and their after-effects. Geological thinking offers a lens to understand the complex dynamics between intertwined human and other than human processes as they are manifest in select constructed environments to be discussed in class.
Methodologically, the seminar will discuss terms such as rocks, fossils, minerals, aggregates and modes of representation such as stratigraphy, geosections and petrography. We will read historic and contemporary geological texts paired with texts from philosophy, anthropology, and political geography. Thinking with feminist new materialisms, we will approach built environments that engage with earthly processes. Collective writing exercises and invited speakers will complement our class discussions and readings. In excursions, we will visit “the laboratory” and “the field”, as distinct spaces of knowledge.
Conversations will aim at a collective writing of field questions: how does the knowledge gathered relate to the making of the built environment? By critically examining material specimens and their manifestations in practices of drawing and analysis, students will be exposed to the impact of geological processes as they unfold in time. Acquiring an understanding of fundamental geologic principles, the seminar will expand the students’ knowledge beyond typical architectural understandings of matter and space. Ultimately, the seminar aims to provoke a more expansive and complex analysis of the relationship between constructed environments and the material earth, one that engages with the interrelatedness between different scales, times and matters.
The outcome of the seminar will be a field guide, a written (and optionally visual) companion of a selected site.
- Dozent/in: Lydia Xynogala