Architecture today is communicated not only through buildings, but also through writing, publishing, criticism, exhibitions, digital platforms, and public debate. This course explores how architectural journalism, critical writing, and media practices influence the understanding of architecture, cities, design cultures, and social change. Combining critical inquiry with editorial experimentation, the course investigates how architecture is represented, interpreted, documented, and debated across different cultural and media contexts.
Participants will engage with architectural criticism as both an analytical and creative practice. Through lectures, seminars, discussions, editorial exercises, and observational fieldwork, the programme introduces methods of critical observation, analytical reading, interviewing, review writing, narrative construction, and research-based storytelling. The course also examines the evolving relationship between architecture, publishing, digital media, and public discourse, while encouraging participants to develop their own critical voice and interdisciplinary perspective.
The course builds upon earlier pedagogical and workshop-based initiatives in architectural journalism, criticism, critical appreciation, academic writing, and Bauhaus-inspired interdisciplinary learning methodologies developed through AJC+ and related international platforms. Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding architecture through cultural interpretation, critical appreciation, editorial engagement, and public communication.
The online component of the course will be led by Pappal Suneja (PS) and will focus on foundational theoretical discussions, case studies, editorial methodologies, media analysis, and writing workshops. Participants will analyse selected texts, journals, exhibitions, and contemporary media practices related to architecture and design criticism. Short writing assignments, peer discussions, and collaborative exercises will prepare participants for the in-person phase in Weimar.
As part of the online programme, an invited contribution by Kushal Birendra (KB), freelance designer and researcher from KB Designs London will introduce participants to questions surrounding digital transformation, entrepreneurial thinking, independent creative practices, and emerging modes of communication within contemporary digital culture.
The in-class phase in Weimar will also be led by Pappal Suneja and will critically engage participants with the architectural and cultural environment of the city through site observations, group discussions, editorial exercises, presentations, and experimental modes of documentation. Special emphasis will be placed on Bauhaus pedagogical approaches, interdisciplinary thinking, and the relationship between architecture, society, media, and cultural production. Participants will explore how architecture can be interpreted and communicated through writing, criticism, observation, and collaborative discourse.
The course encourages participants to approach journalism and criticism not merely as forms of documentation, but as active tools for public engagement, cultural interpretation, intellectual inquiry, and contemporary architectural discourse.
