Основы критического мышления

Магистратура 2020/2021

Лучший по критерию «Новизна полученных знаний»

Статус: Курс адаптационный (Прототипирование городов будущего)

Направление: 07.04.04. Градостроительство

Кто читает: Высшая школа урбанистики имени А.А. Высоковского

Где читается: Факультет городского и регионального развития

Когда читается: 1-й курс, 1 семестр

Формат изучения: без онлайн-курса

Прогр. обучения: Прототипирование городов будущего

Язык: английский

Кредиты: 3

Контактные часы: 44

Full Syllabus

Abstract

Introduction to Critical Thinking is intended as a brief, intensive kick-off course aimed at engaging students in new ways of thinking about cities and space. Through an engagement with specific thematics pertaining to spatial practice, students will be given the opportunity to engage in spatial criticism through writing and discussion, meanwhile developing a more refined methodological approach to critical thinking.

Learning Objectives

Develop students’ ability to recognize and understand arguments in critical texts and other media
Develop students' ability to formulate their own arguments and present them clearly in written and verbal communication
Introduce interdisciplinary thinking and investigation methodologies applied to a diverse range of topics relating to the built environment

Expected Learning Outcomes

Engaged with a range of critical texts, through a series of ‘letters to the author’, (short, informal texts, written in a letter format, which make a counter-argument or counter-point to an aspect of the reading)
Applied an interdisciplinary perspective to challenge taken-for-granted assumptions in different areas of spatial practice
Familiarised themselves with the critical position of their fellow coursemates and explored possibilities for project collaboration in the rest of the course

Course Contents

Space, Ideology, and Historical Materialism
The part is led by Charlie J. Clemoes (Editor at Failed Architecture, Amsterdam, NL; Theory Teacher at Fontys Tilburg, Amsterdam Academy of Architecture and Gerrit Rietveld Academie). Students will explore the various ways that the underlying relations of production and associated ideological forces that enable these relations affect the production of space. Through discussion of Louis Althusser’s concept of ideology and various thinkers from the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies, students will start to develop an idea how culture helps to reproduce the power dynamics that exist in cities, but also it offers opportunities for marginalised groups to challenge these same power dynamics.
Form Follows Profit
The part is led by Chiara Dorbolò (Guest Lecturer at Amsterdam Academy of Architecture and at Gerrit Rietveld Academy; Senior Editor at Failed Architecture, Amsterdam, NL). Students will look critically at architecture to deconstruct the production of space from an economic perspective—often overlooked in architecture history courses. By looking at practical examples (the First Chicago School, New York’s pencil towers, and Google’s Sidewalk Labs) we will investigate the relationship between architecture and capital, proposing interdisciplinarity as a fundamental condition for spatial criticism.
Space, Body, and Mass Media
The part is led by María Mazzanti Moncada (Teacher at Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam, NL). Students will critically analyze the relationship between space, the body, and mass media in the texts of Paul B. Preciado, Beatriz Colomina's theory, and the work of Andrés Jaque (Office for Political Innovation). Subsequently, the seminar will understand how Playboy's architecture and branded lifestyle functioned as a biopolitical technique for governing sexuality and the material production of white American masculinity.
Architecture, Climate, and Politics
The part is led by Ameneh Solati (Editor at Failed Architecture, Amsterdam, NL). Students will unravel the connections between the built environment, power structures, and climatic conditions through a close reading of specific critical investigations working across these subjects. We will explore within these works methods of practicing critical thinking that embrace the agency of both human and non-human actors, and domains spanning from the atmosphere to the desert, all of which are often overlooked yet key in understanding the impact of complex power dynamics on the production of space.

Assessment Elements

participation in class and each of the daily “letters”
In each class students will be asked to submit a 500-word informal text (or “letter to the author”), to engage critically with the course material.
final edited text
During the last class, students will select one of their letters to edit. The edited text will be submitted as the final assignment and will constitute the main part of the assessment.

Interim Assessment

Interim assessment (1 semester)
0.4 * final edited text + 0.6 * participation in class and each of the daily “letters”

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

Paul Preciado. (2014). Pornotopia : An Essay on Playboy’s Architecture and Biopolitics. Zone Books.
Peggy Deamer. (2013). Architecture and Capitalism : 1845 to the Present. Routledge.
Smith, N. (1987). Gentrification and the Rent Gap. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 77(3), 462–465. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8306.1987.tb00171.x
Tsing, A. L. (2015). The Mushroom at the End of the World : On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=980728

Recommended Additional Bibliography

Neil Brenner. (2019). New Urban Spaces : Urban Theory and the Scale Question. Oxford University Press.

Course Syllabus