The exchange term at Umeå School of Architecture provides the students with a wide understanding of the subject architecture, the necessary practical tools and implements for analysis, conceptual sketch and composition skills, and a wide range of technical knowledge. The education is largely based on project assignments and aims to integrate theoretical and scientific knowledge with artistic process and research.
The package consists of courses in Architecture Project, Architectural Technology, History of Architecture, Urban Planning and Theory of Architecture. All courses run in parallel with some weeks during the term dedicated to specific courses.
5AR211 Architecture Project 2:2, 15 credits. The course develops students' understanding of architecture in relation to society and its changes. In the project work the students explore how architectural structures and public spaces interact in different contexts at local, regional and global levels. The student is trained to see both the individual and societal perspectives on the organization and design of environments. The course increases the student's ability to make informed decisions between different working methods and representational techniques in architectural projects. Analog and digital, as well as text-based and visual tools and representation methods are combined in the project work.
5AR205 Architectural Technology 2:2, 4 credits The course deals with the construction of large spaces. Students carry out investigations in a workshop aimed at examining structural principles and behavior of different materials and the relationship between structural strategies and the architectural space.
5AR207 Urban Planning 1, 6 credits The course deals with planning for architects on a basic level. The course provides knowledge about the official principles of planning through elements that highlight both visionary and interdisciplinary aspects. The course includes a discussion of both the private and public spheres in the city. The emphasis lies on the awareness that the planning of communities and the built environment is defined by relationships between different scales, densities and systems of communities, as well as architecture. Students are introduced to the parameters that affect a specific context's character and development over time. The student's understanding of the city's political and spatial complexity is developed in the project work. New context specific strategies with a focus on sustainability are developed in the project work.
5AR208 Theory of Architecture 2:2, 2 credits In the course, human beings and their relationship to the object are discussed throughout history, now and in the future. By highlighting a number of theories about how we as people can understand and act in a world that is both digital and analog, the course provides a deeper understanding of how the network society changes our ways of being.
5AR216 History of Architecture 2:2, 3 credits The course provides students with a global overview of the history of architecture from 14th century until the 18th century CE. It covers a period in European architectural history starting with the Italian Renaissance and concluding with the Industrial Revolution. The course begins from a European perspective, but critically contextualizes the dominant narratives of European history with counter-narratives from the global south. The course addresses the history of both buildings and urban design. The nature of historiography as a subjective practice is critically examined through the omissions of the key texts. Alternative narratives of global architectural history are introduced, and examples from the global north and south are presented in dialogue with one another.
