Transversality In and On Architecture, tools and methods : Developing Your Research

Teacher(s)

Fontaine Christine;

Language

English

Content

Territory
The conceptualization of territory opens up a reflection on the “space between things,” beyond buildings, exploring scales ranging from very small public spaces to the larger territorial context. Territorial design observes the local scale (a square, a park, a road, a bike path, an industrial wasteland, a small stream, a forest plot, urban morphologies of varying densities) to better understand the functioning of larger territorial systems. At the same time, it analyses larger territorial systems (for example, open green spaces, natural and artificial water networks, urban morphology, productive landscapes) to constantly situate local observations within a broader territorial perspective. This shift between scales is neither linear nor occasional but an active and continuous exchange throughout the conceptualization of the project.
Composition
Drawing on the knowledge of references and the state of the art acquired in the first year of the Master's program, the students have culturally and historically situated their question and their site(s). They then engage in an exploration in which the medium used is the subject of careful research:

• Understanding the context through maps, archives, surveys, etc., …
• Writing and positioning within a bibliographical panorama defined by the question posed,
• Creation of a typological catalog, revealing the transformations of the building type in response to the challenges raised by the question,
• Architectural experimentation, taking a position on the choices of material implementation and the implications of this implementation on the quality of the spaces.

This work allows students to test the capacity of the question and the site(s) to produce the project. Contextual understanding, a bibliographic overview, a typological catalog, and architectural experimentation allow students to acquire a genuine method, both discursive and analytical, as well as reflective and graphic tools that they can directly apply to their independent work throughout their thesis. Aware of the contemporary issues addressed by their research question—issues that bring together the questions of several students in a collective dynamic—the student explores the open fields of reflexive and project-based action. In doing so, they clearly position their approach within a form of project-based research.
Re-Act!
RE-ACT ! explores contemporary architectural issues in a context marked by worsening socio-spatial inequalities and the climate crisis. The climate and social crises share common roots. Therefore, it's a matter of reacting (RE-ACT!), aware that to build differently, we must first think differently.
To do this, RE-ACT! mobilizes two complementary approaches:
the ethnography of practices, to anchor ourselves in lived realities;
the typological analysis of spaces, first to understand, then to imagine alternative places.
Through this approach, RE-ACT! aims to contribute to greater spatial justice. As part of this seminar, three exercises will be proposed to students :

• REFLEXIVITY: What is my research stance? What role does my TFE play in my curriculum ?
• ETHNOLOGY and TYPOLOGY : how to analyze and represent socio-spatial data to support TFE research ?
• TRANSFORM !: What social transformations do I want to bring through my TFE ?

Heritages
The Inherited Heritage research seminar questions the paradigms, methods, and tools of the project on built heritage and with built, natural, and intangible heritage. The objective of the research seminar is to situate one's work in relation to the specificity of its subject, the context in which it is situated, and the frameworks of scientific research. The seminar allows students to document their TFE topic in three complementary areas:
- The collection of data specific to the selected case study (historical data, territorial context, programming and specificities of the subject, …)
- The collection of the data necessary for the establishment of the argument (written and/or drawn) and also necessary for the project experimentation (spatial and/or reasoned) of its TFE
- The data collection also involves the investigation and creation of an exhaustive “state of the art” of the theoretical research subject.
These issues manifest themselves with varying degrees of intensity, depending on the case study developed by the student. In the seminar, each student chooses an existing building case study, for which they will prepare a comprehensive preliminary study report, and whose experimental design will be integrated with the theoretical research report.

Teaching methods

The teaching unit is composed of:
- Seminar sessions led by co-teachers focusing on research, data collection, and information sharing related to their research question. Research is carried out independently by students.
-The seminars are supported by introductory presentations by the co-teachers and presentations by the students of their work in progress..
The co-teachers all participate in the overall coordination of the activity (content and operating methods).

Evaluation methods

The assessment of learning outcomes is done in the form of a final submission, in a weighted average taking account of the continuous evaluation. The assessment of successive assignments results in a single grade. The assessment covers:
- Formative and continuous assessment throughout the term of students' productions and seminar presentations.
- Certification assessment of the final production.
The teaching team is authorized to invite external members for the final evaluation. They are authorized to evaluate the students for that part of the work that is presented to them.

Faculty or entity

> LOCI