Seminar-Archetypes

In the course of the evolution and development in architectural history, archetypes have emerged. Depending on the point of view, they derive from basic functional or morphological principles of organization or from principles of construction in a specific material. They can be seen as the results of  thousand year long trials and tests of various design solutions by mankind and therefore contain a valuable fund of research results that are useful even today.

Nevertheless, modern architecture has dispelled numerous archetypes or introduced completely new ones in the course of the industrialization of our societies. Archetypes, however, are also understood by certain architectural currents as "eternally valid" design blueprints that derive from universally valid elementary geometric principles of organization and possess a transcendental, quasi-mystical significance.

In the summer of 2020, the seminar module "Construction and Form" is to be held within the framework of self-imposed topics and a largely independent elaboration on the topic area "Archetypes". The joint processing of the chosen topic in a group of 2, preferably consisting of one student from architecture and one student from civil engineering, is recommended. A holistic approach is the focus of the B.Sc. module "Design and Construction".