Studio on Contemporary Issues: Designing to last through time

licar2612  2026-2027  Louvain-la-Neuve

Studio on Contemporary Issues: Designing to last through time
10.00 credits
120.0 h
Q1
Teacher(s)
Van Oost Nicolas;
Language
French
Main themes
The studio offers a new cumulative experience of the architectural design process.  
In the context of a world in ecological and social transition, this studio explores what constitutes the durable quality of a building (in its temporal, cultural, structural, spatial, environmental, functional, and health-related dimensions). Working on large-scale architectural programs, the studio addresses themes such as the relationship between permanence and temporality of use, the atmospheres evoked by spaces, structures, materials… as well as the balance between overdetermination and the arbitrary. The scales addressed will range from contextual integration to detailed architectural proposals (including technical details). Studio outputs will include hand and computer-aided drawings, physical and/or digital models, and written reports synthesizing the hypotheses, issues, methods, and objectives of the proposed investigations.
Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

  • Analyse and evaluate, through drawings and within an iterative process, what constitutes the durable quality (in its various scales and dimensions) of a building, and to use this as a driver of architectural design
  • Integrate the different dimensions that contribute to the durable quality of a building in an architectural project
  • Critically argue, based on the analyses made, the choices that guided and shaped the architectural project
  • Choose and select the graphical methods adequate for the development of the project as well as its representation
  • Take critical distance from the project under development: describe, analyse and critique its foundations, methods, and objects
  • Develop an architectural project, integrating multiple issues and drivers (ecological, programmatic, constructional, typological, poetic…)
  • Integrate the design process across multiple scales, from the landscape and urban context to the precise definition of architectonic, constructional, and technological elements – in other words, from context to detail (1:10)
 
Faculty or entity
> LOCI


Programmes / formations proposant cette unité d'enseignement (UE)

Title of the programme
Sigle
Credits
Prerequisites
Learning outcomes
Master [120] in Architecture and Engineering
ARCH2M
10