ARCH2112 Introduction to Architectural Design II – Prototype
Target Students BSSc2
Course Term 2
Course Type Studio
Teacher FERRETTO, Peter W. / GHELICHI, Pedram / SHINJI, Wataru / WUETHRICH, Caroline / XU, Liang
ISSUE
The architectural discipline has long perpetuated the misconception that creative agency exists exclusively during the design phase and is mostly an individual effort. This worldview simplifies the construction phase to a mere technical execution of ‘architectural concepts’ and reduces building use as a static, predetermined activity, where occupants are expected to simply fit into finished spaces. Such categorical thinking segregates design, construction, and performance into discrete phases of ‘Design first, build second, then plan occupancy’, which fundamentally underestimates architecture’s creative and performative potentials.
This studio challenges both of these assumptions by treating the entire process—designing, building, and performing—as a collective and co-optive practice. Thus, prototyping is not a simple materialisation of design idea, or an end, but rather an ongoing experiment, shaped by collective input and real-time adjustments, where each stage of design, construction, and performance feeds back into one another and opens up new creative opportunities. Every prototype is a living test which creates interactions between materials, ideas, and everyone involved. In Tim Ingold’s words, it is a form of ‘correspondence’: a collaborative process that responds to both challenges and social influences, binding the creative and performative aspects of architecture together.
