Playfulness: The irony, the comical, the grotesque and the marvel, the fantastic, the joke, the gimmickry, and the absurd transformation of things. These are going to be the keywords accompanying us throughout this year’s Bachelor studio at architectural theory. Using those concepts and their performative functions, we want to bridge certain conceptual and socio-cultural ideas with architecture.  We will use them as tools to undermine stereotypes, develop ideas, and think about architecture as a discipline that produces cultural values, allowing the production of surreal, comedic and ironic realities. Furthermore, we are looking for a way to escape from certain limitations and single-sided forms of representation to produce very individual forms of critique.

The studio will consist of three parts. In the first we will work on architectural case studies and readings, learning how to understand a building through its representations and how to write theoretical texts. The second part will focus on individual interests, allowing the participants to develop the topic of their bachelor thesis. The third part, the figure theory, is going to merge the theoretical principles from the first two sections in the form of dolls’ houses. These small-scale architectural objects will physically embody the students´ contents. Composed as playful assemblages of images, forms, texts, figures, and ideas, they can become devices for exploring the development of speculative ideas, aesthetics, and forms, allowing students to learn a conceptual approach to architecture and enabling a dialogue between theory and design.

During the academic year, there will be various introductions and workshops on methods of architectural research and representation. The final outcome of both semesters will be the production of a research book and the figure theory in the form of a dolls’ house.