Open Studio: Agent

Simone Koch

Studio Description

I’ve called the studio agent for a couple of reasons. Primarily it recognizes that as architects we are agents for change, that the work we do has an instrumental quality: it affects its circumstance. Secondarily, but to instigate change, it recognizes us as agents of the state. As a profession, trust is given to us in exchange for our understanding of and adherence to the mechanisms of control that ultimately protect the very public we serve. We often overlook this both here at university and in the profession for the allure of creative autonomy.

My conjecture is: to reveal the essence of architecture we need to first acknowledge who our client is (the public) and then understand the mechanisms that protect them. We can then start to look at the mechanisms for change which also require an understanding of those that prevent it. So, the idea of agents, or instruments, is founded on prior knowledge and agreement.

Studio Outcomes

The studio will support the achievement of the subject outcomes: engagement, research and critical reflection, generation of ideas, translation of ideas, composition, pragmatics, communication, and overall integration.

• Establish a theoretical framework for your thesis, both philosophical and analytical through reading and research
• Select a site and project to test your thesis
• The process will be to read and research, document and understand the context, and design a project that acknowledges the system that it contributes to and the ideas that underpin it
• Weekly projects will take us from careful observation of place through the design of site-specific interventions to the design of your chosen project that will be developed and detailed in writing, drawings and models in the latter part of the semester
• The structure embeds an understanding of the broader considerations at play in every architectural proposition
• Each week you will present a concise spoken piece expressing the idea behind what you are showing in that week

Studio Leader

Simone Koch is an architect and educator who found the practice Architect Brew Koch with Dr Peter Brew in 2022. Their practice is perhaps best described as a theoretical practice, in that what they produce is a theory of architecture. As a theoretical practice (which might be taken as perhaps not existing) they see themselves producing theory, which comes from their collaborations in and between architectural practices. This relates to and is part of these practices but is also separate from them.  Through their work they move from understanding situations that are personal and circumstantial to ones that are generative and universal.

Readings & References

• Althusser, Louis. Philosophy for Non-Philosophers.
• Althusser, Louis. For Marx.
• Agamben, Giorgio. What is and Apparatus.
• Aurelli, Pierre Vittorio. Architecture and Abstraction.
• Barthes, Roland. Semiology and Urbanism.
• Barthes, Roland. The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies.
• Brew, Peter and Koch, Simone. “Entitlement” Inflection Journal.
• Butler, Judith. “Can one lead a good life in a bad life?” Adorno Prize Lecture.
• Clarke, Linda. Building Capitalism.
• Cruz, Teddy and Forman, Fonna. Spatializing Justice: Building Blocks.
• Damisch, Hubert. Noah’s Ark: Essays on Architecture.
• Derrida, Jacques. The Force of Law.
• Evens, Robin. Translations from Drawings to Buildings.
• Ferro, Sérgio. Architecture from Below.
• Heidegger, Martin. “Building Dwelling Thinking”, Heidegger Basic Writings.
• Heidegger, Martin. “The Origin of the Work of Art”, Heidegger Basic Writings.
• Hyde, Timothy. Ugliness and Judgement.
• Lefebvre, Henri. The Everyday and Everydayness.

Schedule:
Monday 9am - 1pm
Thursday 2pm - 4pm

Contact Handbook