Studio 1E – THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CITY

Studio 1E City Architecture is a building design studio where we work in the span between building scale and urban scale: in ‘in-between’ that avoids a sharp distinction between building and city.

The world’s cities are growing. More and more people are moving to the cities, which are being expanded and densified. Urban densification is a key tool in the ambition for a more sustainable society. There is a need for architects who understand the city as a spatial and built phenomenon, architects who know the city’s typologies and structures, and who can contribute to our cities’ ongoing transformation both intelligently and empathetically.

At Studio 1E City Architecture, we concentrate on current issues, but we do not necessarily approach them in conventional ways.

Both the physical model, the analogue drawing and digital tools will be used, and we believe in the value of combining the analogue and the digital tools.

It is important for us to take advantage of the opportunities that exist in the study situation and emphasize the exploratory and experimental. At Studio 1E City Architecture, we emphasise that the individual student is given space to develop his or her academic methods and interests.

Transformation

Studio 1E City Architecture belongs to program 1, and we work with transformation in a double sense:
– firstly, as the urban transformation that takes place when something new is added in an existing context
– secondly, by considering creating architecture as an ongoing transformation of already existing spatial concepts, typologies, and architectural motifs.

We consider the architecture of the past as a gigantic reservoir of knowledge about what architecture can be and become: a knowledge that can be used actively in the form of redrawings and reinterpretations. Just as physical buildings can be reused and reprogrammed, new projects can be created by reusing and reprogramming existing spatial concepts and motifs.

Structure and assignments

The study is organised around three semesters in which:

– all semester assignments deal with the design of new buildings or spaces in close connection with existing urban structures
– all semester assignments have their focal point on a scale of 1:200 but will include context studies on a scale of 1:1000/1:500 and detailed studies on a scale of 1:50/1:20.

Teachers: Karen Olesen, Associate Professor.