40 584 Body & Space Morphologies: Ecoperformance in Architecture (Autumn 2026)

Course responsible: Rolf Gerstlauer

Body and Space Morphologies (B&SM) is a research-based teaching program dedicated to works and studies in the Phenomenology of Architecture. The program offers Trans-Disciplinary master studios in explorative - architectural, pre-architectural and post-architectural - making, sensing and thinking.

We aim at preparing and enabling students to conduct their own interest driven investigation into Architectural Phenomenology understood as Research Creation; a working mode creating an inspired, process focused and reflective Material Practice. We consider this to be the Artistic Parallel to both Traditional Scholarly Research and Common Architectural Design Practice.

Based on performativity and affordance theories, performance and performance studies, disability and neurodiversity studies as well as phenomenology and perception theories, the B&SM Studio Works investigate primal and/or pre-architectural material, processes, phenomena and/or conditions, and develop or perform a series of experienced distinct objects that behave relational, that inspire imagination, that provide new knowledge, strong architectural interests and/or architectural narratives or identities.

The autumn semesters – part of a series of courses on Acting and The Acted in a More-Than-Human World - investigate Ecoperformance in Architecture studied and worked through a discursive design practice that seeks to establish porous architectural infrastructures which understand environment and body as inseparable dimensions of performative creation.

The fall 2026 semester works on Ecoperformance in Architecture through a focus set on Plateaus & Woodlands.

What is Ecoperformance?

https://www.ecoperformance.art.br/about-ecoperformance)

At the conclusion of the course the student should be able to:

• understand, present and argue for Ecoperformance as a multidisciplinary non-human-centric approach to intuit a making, sensing, thinking and writing with environments.
• find artistic research initiatives and choosing the craft / developing a material in which to act them for the making of an inspired, explorative and imaginative discourse toward a phenomenology of architecture.
• approach environments, objects, situations, and discussions phenomenological and thus applying and recognizing performativity in speech and action as productive means from which to provoke and receive socially employed knowing in trans-disciplinary teams.
• conceive, present and/or communicate unique architectural content through a haptic visual material and the phenomena or conditions contained and experienced in it.
• see and point at the mechanisms and rhetorics of systems of oppression, learned behavior, eugenics and stigma that are un-productive and unsustainable (in the field of architecture as well as in the systems we call architecture.)
• deploy complementary ways of working and means of creative investigations that make, demonstrate, or narrate a dialogue between the works' inherent qualities and how this connects to (or can become) issues, phenomena and/or subjects in the world.
• maintain a personal diary of the making that can be worked into documents of the making aiming at a third-party readability.

Pedagogical approach: Learning by doing

Students will undertake individual initiatives within a collaborative framework. Emphasis is placed on creating an inclusive studio environment and implementing/maintaining circular processes to minimize waste and maximize creativity. Teaching activities are designed to contextualize student work while challenging and reflecting upon conceptual connections.

Weekly schedule: Class meetings

• Wednesday & Thursday (13:00 – 17:00): Lectures, screenings, reviews, and worktable talks
• Friday Afternoons: Studio commons for student-led discussions, weekly summaries and peer-to-peer sessions

Supplemental activities: Workshops and excursions

Workshops and excursions will be determined collectively during the first week of the semester.

Reviews and final exhibition

The semester includes four public mid-term reviews, culminating in a final work-display and exhibition where the students will present their complete works (objects/artefacts) alongside a book, film, or video documenting their creative process and connections. An external examiner will provide feedback on both individual projects and the studio as a whole.

Physical attendance at lectures, reviews, supervision sessions, discussions, and other educational activities is expected and necessary in order to achieve the learning outcome

Form of assessment:Project

Grading scale: Pass/fail

In order to be assessed in this course, the student must have completed the following activities and assignments:

The course is assessed based on a semester project culminating in a final delivery consisting of

• a comprehensive exhibition of all objects and artefacts (and/or performances) produced
• a supporting hand-made book (or a film / video) illustrating the making process and conceptual / environmental connections
• a verbal presentation (10 minutes) followed by a Q&A session with the external examiner, peers and faculty