Master thesis In & On Architecture: Research Studio

Teacher(s)

Fontaine Christine;

Language

English

Content

Territory
The majority of the Earth’s surface has been profoundly transformed by the process of urbanization. Any project in the territorial field, necessarily a project of “modification,” will be guided by three principles:
(a) placing at the center of reflection the “space between things” as a support — and infrastructure — of the project, at all scales;
(b) the longue durée: the territory is the result of a process of transformations to be discovered;
(c) the already-there (déjà-là) is a true material for design.
Typically, the approaches within the territorial field address:
(a) fragments of cities, (b) infrastructures, or, finally, the (c) landscape.
This approach requires a multiple perspective:
(a) trans-scalar: by identifying specific projects capable of fitting within larger structures;
(b) systemic: by understanding the links and interactions between distant places, yet organized according to logics that follow ecological processes;
(c) multidisciplinary: by appropriating tools or technical notions from other disciplines as ingredients of a project that renews itself in response to contemporary challenges.
The studio is organized into three work cycles: (a) transformation, (b) strategies, (c) interventions.
Each cycle includes the development of an additional dimension and the updating of work carried out during the previous cycle.
Composition
Having mapped the projectual and reflexive issues that their question raises—on the one hand, regarding their study site(s), and on the other, regarding the development of a critical and reasoned argument—the students explore the constructive, spatial, everyday, and narrative implementation of a possible scenario.
Aware of the contemporary issues addressed by their question and the lessons learned from their research through design, the students can fully engage in the development of an architectural proposal, from their discursive stance and the inclusion of their approach in the typological catalog, to the implementation of the materials, which guarantee spatial quality.
An attentive posture inscribed in its study context by means of models, axonometrics, collages…

• A unique written position that echoes the bibliographic panorama delimited by the question posed,
• A reasoned architectural proposal included in the typological catalogue in response to the transformations of the built type in light of the challenges raised by the question,
• The spatial and material representation of a “society of rooms” which illustrates the articulation of uses on the one hand, of the material used on the other (constructive nodes, 1/1 scale experimentation, etc.).

The choice of medium used (disciplinary or interdisciplinary) is the subject of careful research throughout the TFE and is an integral part of the student's position in the production resulting from the architectural discipline.
Re-Act!
RE-ACT ! explores contemporary architectural issues in a context marked by the worsening of socio-spatial inequalities and the climate crisis. Climate and social crises share the same roots. From then on, it is a question of reacting (RE-ACT!), aware that to build differently, we must first think differently.
To do this, RE-ACT! uses two complementary approaches:

• Ethnography of practices, to anchor oneself in lived realities,
• 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 the workshop, students will be given three exercises : 

1. An inhabited space (formalization of a characteristic space in section or model, integrating its potential uses), 
2. A typological atlas (critical analysis of projects based on questions similar to those of the developed TFE, integrating the proposal(s) of the student's TFE),
3. An alternative vision (putting into perspective the direction that the project wishes to give to society).

Heritages
The teaching unit is developing the theme of Inherited Heritage and its Materiality. The research focuses on a project approach "on" and "with" heritage. The research will involve different themes, which will be manifested with varying degrees of intensity depending on the case studied. Among these, we distinguish, in a non-exhaustive manner: :
- Heritage as a vector of identity and manifestation of collective memory
- Traces of Heritage in the region
- The materiality of the intervention, the notions of gaps and reversibility
- Questioning the ethics of restoration and integration
- Heritage facing the socio-economic challenges of tomorrow
- Heritage values in the context of sustainable development.
The method that structures the research work takes as its starting point the knowledge and understanding of the physical state of the existing building (TFE seminar) in order to formalize a methodological approach for intervention and integration of the project into this pre-existing building. The research studio’s questions explore three generic issues:
- Heritage as a vector of intangible or material identity
- Treatment of the gap
- Sustainability for future generations.

Teaching methods

The teaching unit is composed of:
- Ex cathedra presentations given by co-chairs and/or external experts who provide input on the issue
- Poster sessions supervised by co-teachers focusing on research and sharing of information related to the issue. Research is carried out independently by students
- Workshop work (supervised by co-teachers and possibly thematic co-promoters) and independently around the personal theme, which is the subject of the research question.
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 :
- Continuous formative evaluation focusing on the process of research and technical analysis of data to be used in the research workshop. It is punctuated by intermediate presentations
- Criterion-based evaluation 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 the part of the work that is presented to them.

Faculty or entity

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