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Design - Philosophy - Architecture (ABPL90421)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
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About this subject
- Overview
- Eligibility and requirements
- Assessment
- Dates and times
- Further information
- Timetable(opens in new window)
Contact information
Semester 1
Subject Coordinator
Donald Bates
Coordinator
Louise Burchill
Please refer to the LMS for up-to-date subject information, including assessment and participation requirements, for subjects being offered in 2020.
Overview
Availability | Semester 1 |
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This subject explores an array of philosophical perspectives on design and architecture by way of which students can develop a deeper appreciation of the complex, and compellingly contemporary, questions raised both by creative design practice and by design taken in its broader anthropological sense of an essentially human modality of being-in-the-world.
These questions predominantly concern, as regards creative design practice, the relation of design to art, the status of the design object, the conditions under which something new can be created, the notion of space that informs design activity, and the necessity to rethink, in terms other than the traditional dichotomies, the interrelation of form, function and matter, subjectivity and objectivity, idea and materialization. We will examine, in this respect, a number of key (conceptual and material) “constellations” in the history of design (e.g., the Renaissance concept of disegno, or, again, the paradigmatic portent of the 1851 Crystal Palace) as well as a number of its key movements (notably, of course, the Bauhaus school). We will also focus on the interrelation of architecture and philosophy—as well as design—as different ways of thinking and fashioning space, spatiality and subjectivity.
As to design as an anthropological category, the overarching question here concerns the manner in which we are to understand the designed to now form the naturalized but problematic condition of existence. What are the ways in which humans are designed by their designs? What is the pertinence in this respect of conceptions of the “post-human”? What could, or ought, design be, what does it need to be and to become, for the world to be habitable for human and non-human beings or entities alike? In what way do human beings come to understand the essence of a thing to be used, and in what way do designed things allow or disallow creative life-forms in which each living individuality’s potential can be maximized?
Philosophers whose work offers us conceptual tools (and sometimes extensively elaborated positions) for this exploration of design and architecture include Heidegger, Sloterdijk, Baudrillard, Benjamin, Deleuze, Harman, Foucault, Rancière, Derrida, Latour, Irigaray, Haraway, Ingold, Lefebvre and Fry. We will also refer to philosophical texts and systems that have, historically, informed design discourse (by, e.g., Plato, Aristotle, Kant …).
Intended learning outcomes
On completion of this subject, students should be able to
- Demonstrate an advanced understanding of core philosophical and theoretical issues in, and relating to, both design discourse and contemporary anthropological conceptions of design.
- Critically engage with (analyze, mobilize, problematize) conceptions of space, spatiality, materiality, and "being-in-the-world' elaborated within the Western philosophical tradition (as well, in certain cases, as within other cultural spheres).
- Critically analyze and evaluate definitions of design.
- Critically analyze aesthetic definitions of taste and judgement in relation to design.
- Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of design's involvement with the production of social space, gender and personal identity.
- Identify and analyze a number of key moments and movements in design history.
Generic skills
- Comprehension of philosophical concepts related to design and architecture;
- The capacity to clearly communicate the results of research and scholarship by oral and written communication;
- Critical thinking and analysis;
- Use and citation of sources.
Last updated: 3 November 2022