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>> Resilient Habitat Architecture<< 

Climate Shelters and Collective Housing in Extreme Environments  

Video presentation: https://youtu.be/g8evBF1f4Lg

Course abstract:

This course focuses on the exploration of designing climate shelters integrated with collective housing in the context of extreme climate conditions. In a world facing significant challenges due to climate change, architecture has the responsibility to propose innovative and sustainable solutions.

In an era where climate change is rapidly altering environmental conditions, architecture must evolve to meet the demands of new, resilient habitats. This course, “Resilient Habitat Architecture”, delves into the critical role of contemporary design in creating sustainable living spaces that can withstand extreme weather conditions. Students will explore how architectural innovation can address the urgent need for adaptable, durable, and efficient habitats in environments ranging from deserts and polar regions to areas prone to floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters.

The course will start with an examination of the pneumatic architecture of José Miguel de Prada Poole, particularly his "Instant City" project in Ibiza (1971), to investigate how inflatable and lightweight structures can serve as models for shelters in extreme environments. Through the lens of José Miguel de Prada Poole’s visionary work in pneumatic architecture, students will learn to conceive and develop architectural solutions that not only provide shelter but also enhance communal living and sustainability. The course will emphasize the importance of integrating advanced materials, digital design tools, and generative AI in the creation of these habitats, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in modern architecture.

The central project of the course will involve designing a climate shelter that also functions as collective housing in an extreme environment. Students will investigate how Prada Poole's approach to pneumatic architecture—inflatable and temporary structures—can inspire modern solutions for shelters that adapt quickly to changing and extreme environmental needs. 

Emphasis will be placed on designing resilient habitats that are capable of withstanding the harshest conditions while providing a comfortable and sustainable living environment. Students will be challenged to innovate in the use of materials, energy efficiency, and space optimization, ensuring that their designs meet both functional and environmental demands.

Course methodology:

The course will develop through the following stages:

1. Research and Analysis: Students will begin with research on different types of extreme climates and how architecture has responded to these challenges, focusing on José Miguel de Prada Poole’s projects like "Instant City."

2. Introduction to Pneumatic Architecture and Generative AI: Workshops will be conducted on the use of generative AI tools for exploring new architectural forms, and on pneumatic architecture as a model for adaptable and sustainable shelters.

3. Conceptual Design: Students will develop initial proposals through sketches, digital models, and simulations, exploring inflatable and lightweight structures inspired by Prada Poole’s work.

4. Project Development: Using digital modeling software, students will refine their preliminary designs, considering aspects such as mobility, sustainability, energy efficiency, and collective habitability.

5. Final Presentation and Critique: The projects will be presented and discussed in a final forum, evaluating both the innovation in design and the technical feasibility of the proposals.

This course will be an Advanced Architectural Design studio which examines the connection between conceptual understanding of design and form generation through digital design techniques. Essential knowledge will be acquired by software modeling and critical current discourse on the discipline. Students will be instructed in theory and simultaneously they will be equipped with digital techniques of design and representation.

Our premise is that Architecture is a formal discipline and based on that statement the course will be divide in three blocks. Each of them will last four weeks and it will contain theory and a design tasks. These three design tasks will reflect over three main levels of understanding: conceptual, procedural and practical; each of them connected to a canonical concept of our discipline.

During the semester, the students will be working on these design block:

- BLOCK 1. CONCEPTUAL KNOWLEDGE. ABSTRACTING MORPHOLOGIES. A TOPOLOGICAL PROBLEM 

Students will formulate associative arguments using Artificial intelligent as a design tool. A critical analysis of the result is expected because this transdisciplinary approach will have to formulate new formal conditions, new coherencies and new formal aesthetics in architecture.

- BLOCK 2. PROCEDURAL KNOWLEDGE. CREATING A NEW URBAN TISSUE. AI as a speculative tool.

Students will have to do research to identify and model architectural conditions. There will be a problem of abstraction vs literality; how much abstraction is needed in order to read the different morphologies as geometries without reducing too much their specific qualities.

- BLOCK 3. PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE. THE DEFINITION OF SEMANTICS. 

From conceptual to disciplinary objects. Students will investigate on the qualities that give meaning to the diagrammatic design such as materiality and contextual conditions. The implementation of a system into an urban scenario of shelter plus collective housing.  

Course Structure & Organization

Students will work individually. Each session will contain a theoretical lesson, deskcrits and specific software tutorials needed for developing the project. Progress will be reviewed weekly at the studio. 

Lehrveranstaltungsprüfung gemäß § 6 Satzungsteil, Studienrechtliche Bestimmungen.

Wird im Rahmen der ersten Lehrveranstaltung besprochen.

Informationen zur Anmeldung zu den Entwurfsstudio Lehrveranstaltungen finden Sie unter: https://www.uibk.ac.at/fakultaeten-servicestelle/standorte/technikerstrasse/studium.html/