S3/C1
The Type Studio: Diagram, Grammar and Language of Space
Anuj Daga, Dushyant Asher, The Architecture Story (Deepak Jawahar and Justine De Penning), Sagarika Suri
School of Environment & Architecture
14th June to 31st July 2021
BACKGROUND
‘Type’ is an instrument through which spatial characteristics of an architectural schema can be studied and brought under comparative scrutiny. It is the generic pattern of relationships that gets translated via several social, cultural, political and material forces into a consolidated spatial and formal setting. Typology is the study of building types, and may be best expressed through the making of diagrams. Spatial diagrams help reveal the hidden systems and patterns of social relations within a built form and further extrapolate the historical modes of spatial organization. They may also hold certain cultural codings of ideological beliefs within societies, in other words, institutionalised forms of practices that get encrusted into built form. Such knowledge is essential in order to develop a critical appraisal of the built environment on the one hand, as well as devising contextual and meaningful conditions for inhabitation on the other.
Types are thus held through a spatial syntax. The typological method uses the tools of diagram, grammar and language to help us identify and address complex environmental issues within the design process. Diagrams help extract the relationships between spaces within an architectural setting; grammar refers to the specific codification behind the setting; and language denotes the architectonic attributes that such codification produces. Architecture emerges in the intimate understanding and playful deployment of the above tools. It is through these instruments that the aesthetics of inhabitation and the practices of living are eventually shaped - primarily held in the building type. How can these ideas within buildings be appreciated and harnessed towards contemporary design processes? How do they relate to questions of site, climate, context, scale, body and behavior? This course will focus on deciphering building grammars, and formulating architectural languages that generate possibilities for the experimentation of innovative spatial types that compliment, interrogate as well as critically inform the practices of inhabitation today in different conditions of the shared and public realms.
The understanding of “type” will be developed over the course through three primary modes:
A diagrammatic survey of examples through architectural history.
Key theoretical readings around architectural typology, diagramming, grammar and language.
Architectural design exercise where the above concepts are translated into a built response.
Focused sessions shall introduce students to architectural elements and services.
KEY DISCUSSION / THEORY SESSIONS
· Introduction to Historical Building Types (10 sessions)
· What to register in field study?
· Towards an Understanding of ‘Type’ in Architecture: Processes and Entries
· Diagramming in Architecture
· Concepts of Body as measure, Proportion & Scale
· Syntax, Grammar and Language
