The path into the semester #3 - »Moodle« and »low context« instead of models and context

Teachers of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism have been trying to answer this question since March. »We want to ensure that students can study in the summer semester and earn a sufficient number of credits. But we know that we will be limited. For example, courses that cannot be digitalised, such as plastic design, must be postponed since there is no way to conduct them without being in the studio«, says Prof. Bernd Rudolf, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, confidently looking ahead to the 2020 summer semester that will begin digitally on 4. May.

Steffen de Rudder, Head of the Professorship for Urban Planung and Urban Design, has also had to make short-term changes to his plans. For the summer semester, he had prepared a district development for Cologne involving Architecture and Urban Planning for Bachelor students in the 4th semester. In Urban Planning and Design, students usually sketch their ideas on sketch rolls, draw plans, build models and present their designs. Close supervision through weekly consultations between students and supervisors is crucial for the quality of the design. The biggest challenge for Steffen de Rudder and his team, however, is not the technical conversion to digital teaching that involves trying out different tools with mutual sharing options, but reorientating the design in terms of content.

There was a brief shock when the preparations of the last few weeks for the Cologne design theme had to be put on the back burner; the architect quickly realised that he had to completely alter his teaching content. »For urban design, context is the be-all and end-all. Urban design implies cities as living spaces and cultural hubs. And if it's not possible to experience urban moods on-site during an excursion, inspect the location, have conversations with the responsible people on-site, the whole process has to be radically rethought. Urban planning will be taught this semester without visiting any towns or cities – we have to turn our usual approach upside down.«

Lecturers have chosen three locations that share the absence of context for their newly-orientated design theme: a site in Brandenburg closed off by cut edges and the treetops of extensive pine forests, a raised piece of land on the Dutch coast bordered by a wide horizon, and a deserted, uninhabited island in the Venetian Lagoon. In all three, housing is to be built in a way that the students can develop it in the absence of context.

»I find this specific urban planning challenge inspiring. It offers us the chance to shift our awareness of the context and deal in depth with grids, patterns and orders«, comments Steffen de Rudder, optimistic about the start of the semester.

It's not easy to vary the topics in other disciplines; the basics of architectural creation must be »established« with everyone. More than one hundred bachelor students in architecture traditionally take the foundational course in Building Construction in the summer semester. A series of lectures with in-depth exercises teaches students how to correctly design all construction-relevant components with a focus on wood and masonry constructions, how to detail plinths and window connections, and much more. Throughout the process, students solve weekly tasks and create sketches assessed by the teachers individually. Students also answer detailed questions during the exercises.

»But how can we smoothly transform this very personal and individual approach into a digital format? This is something we are currently working on very intensively«, says Martin Ahner, Research Assistant at the Chair of Design and Building Construction. »If we're going to turn our basic teaching into a BigBlueButton presentation, we need to figure out how we're going to keep our 50 online listeners engaged, even if we can't see them. Therefore, we try to free the content from redundancies, streamline it, and concentrate on the essentials. There's also a charming chat function – instead of answering questions verbally, we could – if there are two lecturers – do this in the chat as well. We need to gain some experience here.«

Ahner says that many things have to be presented and tried out during the first few weeks; there are as yet no patent remedies. At the time of writing, he and his colleagues were still experimenting, and the performance of the university server was also playing a major role. »The high-resolution projector presentation intended for the Audimax would consume too much bandwidth on the net. It's imperative that we reduce the data volume.« It's also not yet clear how the architectural drawings, which the students have to draw by hand, will be handled. »You can design anything digitally, but an aesthetically pleasing architectural drawing that ›speaks‹ with its line thickness and cleanly executed hatching is not entirely mistake-free as a CAD novice«, Ahner sums up.

There are still four weeks left before the semester begins and, through extensives processes, lecturers from all faculties are committed to ensuring that studies can begin in May without any drawbacks in the content. Some elements, such as model building in the workshops, will not take place, but they will resume in the winter semester – that's what everyone is hoping for.