Open Studio: Substance

Dr Guillermo Rojas Alfaro

Studio Description

Substance Latin. Substantia, "being, essence, material". Sub- ("under") + stare ("to stand") “that which stands under"

This thesis studio is about coherence in architecture. It is based on the classical figure of substance and asks what happens when design is faithful to a radical and unmovable concept. Substance (in Aristotle, that which stands stable beneath change), here, names the insistence of a concept that refuses to compromise. It is what must remain stable when everything in a project wants to become hybrid, contingent or negotiable.

Each student will define a single idea and explore it faithfully throughout the semester, allowing it to dictate programmatic choices, spatial thinking, structural logic, modes of representation and design processes. The aim is to produce projects that are radically consistent, while remaining aware of the tensions, exclusions and absences that such obedience inevitably creates.

Studio Outcomes

Thesis Greek. Thithenai, “to place”. Thésis, “placing a proposition”.

The semester is divided into two movements. In the first, a sequence of short, idealised exercises is designed to explore conceptual thinking. External constraints are temporarily suspended to push concepts to uncomfortable conclusions.

In the second, one of these experiments is translated into a thesis project and exposed to program, contextual and technical constraints to test whether the idea fractures or hardens under pressure.

Precedents are largely non-architectural. The site, program, form and representation methods emerge from a disciplined inquiry rather than from style, typology or personal preferences.

Deliverables will include two theses: two propositions. A textual one, where students will present, enquire and evaluate the boundaries, possibilities and limitations of a concept, and a material one, where students will clash rationality against the limitations of architectural design and develop a verisimilar project.

Learning outcomes include the ability to formulate a clear proposition based on a single concept; to translate ideas into spatial, programmatic, structural, and representational design decisions; to develop and test a project through iterative research-by-design methods; to critically evaluate the limits, implications, and contradictions of a design statement and to communicate ideas through appropriate and tailored media in relation to a concept.

Studio Leader

Dr Guillermo Rojas-Alfaro is a designer trained at The Bartlett UCL, a researcher, and an educator with 15 years of academic experience in Australia, Belgium, Germany, the US, and Chile. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Melbourne, and his research explores unproductivity, mystery, and uncertainty in architecture. He is also the director of NIEBLA (http://niebla.design), and his creative work has been published, awarded, and presented at various international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale. This will be his 40^th studio.

Readings & References

• Benjamin, W. (1969). The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. In Illuminations (H. Zohn, Trans., pp. 220-221). New York: Schocken.
• Borges, J. L. (1945). The Aleph. In The Aleph and other stories, 1933–1969 (pp. 19–29). E. P. Dutton.
• Han, B.-C. (2023). Absence (D. Steuer, Trans.). Oxford: Polity Press.
• Weaver, T (2018a). Against Research. Santiago: ARQ.
• Wilde, O. (2005). Epistola: In Carcere et Vinculis. In I.Small (Ed.), The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, Vol. II, De Profundis (p. 39). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Schedule:
Tuesday 9am - 11am
Thursday 9am - 1 pm

Contact Handbook