A Flat Theory presents a first step toward a yet-to-be-completed, larger project: a genealogy of apartments. While centering on the historical formation of apartments, it does not offer a straight-forward history of apartments or flats. Rather, as a contribution to a wider history of the present, it draws together the first synthetic study of the complex processes through which apartments have initially taken form. To do so, it proposes an eco-systemic and assemblage-theoretic extension of genealogical modes of inquiry so as to draw together an epiphylogenetic mapping of this complex process. After situating and specifying this approach, A Flat Theory charts three converging lineages that mark the ‘material-discursive’ formation of appartamenti and appartements as an (I) architectural concept, (II) spatial phenomenon, and (III) residential system during the 1540–1780s in western Europe@en

This book is the result of the research conducted in the P1 phase of the graduation studio ‘Positions in Practice’ of the chair Methods and Analysis in the department for architecture and the built environment, TU Delft.

The context in which (landscape) architects and urban designers work today poses new challenges for which conventional planning and design tools seem to be unfit. We have to recognise that every place is a complex and layered phenomenon, a physical platform of lived space. Complex locations like Sarajevo and its mountain, its bobsleigh track, with a particular geological, political, social and cultural history, demand analysis and design approaches that take into account the experience on the ground, the lived space, the different layers and meanings of a site, the experience of movement and time. Furthermore, the central position of the designer
in the transformation process needs to be questioned by demands for participation and even co-creation with the different urban actors, which require specific tools that take into account the multiple stories embodied in a place. Top-down design and planning has increasingly made way for a complex process that involves many actors, creating a need to redefine the question of what design is. Rather than a linear, rational character of traditional planning, a shift towards more open design approaches should be made, which take into account experiential responses to the sites at hand, and which allow more relational ways of doing.

My aim is that through the cinematic narrative and the use of film as a method, I open up the possibilities for a new reading of the void, beyond the existing interpretation, a new understanding of the bobsleigh track as an open space. Open space as a space for opportunity, imagination, un-programmed and free for uses not yet conceived, accepting changes in the mode of life. The space is to be shaped by the users. Forms should emerge spontaneously as an effect of human activity and are not defined beforehand in its manifestation. Within this open construct, the bobsleigh track is accessible and interpretable in various ways, thus preserving the void. By showing a multiplicity of viewpoints the void is preserved, maintaining its temporary appro- priation by different users, and giving it a place in the larger urban landscape. The user has to reflect and engage in a personal dialogue with the urban landscape. This is not a pre-determined role, but an active and open-ended part. More than simply leading to a final representation, this could be used to develop an architectural strategy as a structure in which time has room to breathe, and to let aging, growth and even decay unfold.

This body of research attempts to investigate the role of shopping typologies and their reciprocal relation with (ex-) Yugoslav Croatia, through (three) exemplary cases (the neighborhood department store, the city department store and the shopping center) by looking at three themes such as: their creation of centrality, the continuation of the public and the composition of program. The three main cases are Nama Trnsko, robna kuca RI, and Koteks and Gripe sports- and shopping center.

It describes how the various types of shopping-buildings had either an installing or introductory role for the public/city/neighborhood around them; and/or an enhancing or supporting role, enhancing existing movement/centrality within the center/public.

The main discussed themes in existing discourse (within as well as outside of HR) are housing and education, but ideologically the shopping typologies functioned as another trajectory towards modernity. On the architectural level, the types adopted certain ‘traditional’ or typical department store elements, such as the arcade and open plan. Increasingly implementing regional elements. On an urban scale, it would (literally) take the center position in new neighborhoods but (sometimes simultaneously) enhancing circulation flows in the area is not uncommon, as well as offering a mixed program that goes beyond shopping alone.

As a final evaluation, the research shows the typologies have certainly evolved since then. The public character or role of the typologies has partially evaporated, and as urban entities they have become (partially) isolated. Often, what was once a single department store, has now split up into several smaller shops within the original building or have gone (partially) out of use. The shift from socialist to neo-liberal economy (accompanied by a violent transition) has altered the role of the typologies. The question arises, did the typologies as a trajectory to emancipation succeed? Have the fantastic visions of modernist
architects and urbanists given society the physical structure to emancipation?

Positions in Practice : Constructing the Commons in the Latin American Metropolis, Graduation Studio (Msc 3 | Msc 4), Valparaíso, Chile, Fall 2017 - Spring 2018.
The MSc3/MSc4 Graduation Studio “Positions in Practice” of the Department of Architecture TU Delft (fall, 2017) focused on the urban and architectural context of Valparaíso, as a laboratory for the definition of disciplinary positions and the performance of these positions in practice.

The aim of this thesis is twofold. First, it offers a ‘theoretical reading’ of a historically important architectural entity – namely the bazaar – in order to propose a synthetic understanding of its complexity and to explore the multiplicity of forces and regimes involved in the bazaar’s [historical] formation. Second, by conceptualizing the architecture of the bazaar, this thesis explores the relation between architecture and territory, inhabitation and infrastructure in the context of the Iranian Plateau. In doing so, this thesis contributes to the production of an architectural knowledge which encourages a contextual studying of complex spatial regimes and mechanisms as their prime forces for intervention.
The notion of the bazaar is complex. Not only does it have implications in diverse disciplines, but it also carries various definitions. Depending on the context in which it is used, the bazaar can be depicted as a place, a form of economy, a social class or a way of life, and thus it can embody the notion of a city, a territory or even it can be expanded to the region known as the Middle East or the Islamic world. Within this wide spectrum of possible meanings, the bazaar has been the topic of discourse in architecture and urban history, as well as anthropology, sociology, economics and political science.
The inherent complexity of the notion of the bazaar is attributable to its intermediate position, i.e. its relation to the territory and various ways of life, its spatial complexity, i.e. a space of movement and a place of public and the collective, and the superposition of different scales between architecture and the city. This implies that research on the bazaar needs to deviate from purely typological or urban morphological studies. Rather it needs to devote simultaneous attention to people as well as the numerous spatial interrelations involved in its formation. This means that an architecture is possible which gives form to the accumulation of complex cultural, social, economic and administrative relations. While it enables connection and integration, it provides scope for confrontation and encounter.
The first chapter provides an overview of various conceptions, definitions and perceptions of the bazaar. This chapter will demonstrate that a proper discursive framework that allows us to grasp the spatial complexity of the bazaar is, in fact, missing. While architecture and urban studies have focused mainly on describing and classifying the bazaar’s structural and morphological presence, other disciplines have hardly recognized its physical importance in the process of forming various interrelations. This chapter concludes that the bazaar is not simply an architectural object, rather it is an entity which is territorial. This means that the bazaar’s formation has been closely related to the ways in which the territory has been managed and inhabited.
Subsequently, this research conceptualizes the architecture of the bazaar by revisiting its ‘whereness’ and ‘whatness’, using the ‘territory’ as a theoretical framework. While ‘whereness’ addresses the characteristics of ‘where’ the bazaar is historically located, ‘whatness’ is concerned with what the bazaar is and what it does. In this process, it is important to note that ‘whereness’ and ‘whatness’ are closely linked to each other, and they are both simultaneously a precondition and product.
The second part of the thesis – which includes chapters three and four – presents an understanding of the ‘whereness’. This part seeks means and lenses to open a discussion on territory both as a precondition and product. These two chapters discuss the geographical condition – and what I call the geopolitics of the in-between, through which two kinds of territorialities take form: i.e. the extensive territoriality of the nomadic spatialized through distribution and movement and the intensive territoriality of the sedentary spatialized through managerial knowledge of dehqan to inhabit a land. The coexistence, encounter and assimilation of these territorialities has had an impact on the state-form and the social and economic system on the Iranian Plateau in general and the spatial formation of the bazaar as an intermediate.
The third part of this thesis focuses on the issue of ‘whatness’. This part – chapters five and six – re-examines the established knowledge on the bazaar as a physical and spatial entity by experimenting within two kinds of territorialities proposed in the previous chapters. In other words, the bazaar is seen as an assemblage of various territorial regimes rooted in the extensive nomadic territoriality and intensive sedentary territoriality. This not only pertains to the relation between movement and inhabitation, space and place in the bazaar’s physical structure, but also in its social and legal organization, topology and logistical system. Thus, the bazaar goes beyond the mere circulation space; rather it is perceived as an infra+structure which is situated within the city and operated as the city’s main [public] place.
The present thesis examines the possibility of constructing a discursive platform for studying the bazaar as a complex architectural entity. It posits a critical reading of the bazaar’s primary spatial idea, suggesting that a territorial reading of the bazaar can provide a valuable alternative lens for looking beyond mere preservation concerns or the purely formal imitations that are normally applied when examining the current condition of the bazaar in Iranian cities. It can help to redefine the intermediate position of the bazaar as a way of discovering new orders and hierarchies within and without the city.@en

The departure point for the research is the everyday life of practitioners. The position is that the thinking and crafts of architects in the field of practice has not been seen as a valuable body of knowledge in projects, where large pragmatic, political and social factors are at work. The aim of the dissertation is to demonstrate this type of knowledge. It is the belief that the formalisation of practice as a knowledge platform will be of notable value to practising architects in the development of projects, in the education of students in architecture, and for people outside the architectural field, who seek a deeper understanding of the qualities of the profession, and what it is that architects have to offer, not least in the decision-making process. The purpose of the title »Architectural Thinking in Practice« is to communicate that the aim of the dissertation is to contribute to the architectural discourse in two ways; 1. - By adding the perspective of practice, 2. - By looking at architecture as a knowledge - and thought - field rather than as a building. It is related to a discussion of the architectural discipline and how practice is performed, and to the fact that there are different ways architects think in practice (from preparing, planning, testing and making to observing, reflecting, analysing, interpreting and evaluating but also presenting, debating, negotiating, communicating and collaborating), different practice forms (roles, responsibilities, areas of expertise), and different interpretations (attitudes and positions) in the field. The analytical work is a qualitative study of these variations in meaning…@en

This graduation project is the result of the ambition of generating a public intervention in an extremely complex and challenging environment, translating in a space of mediation between different - social and morphological - realities, able to embrace urban fact in all its facets and contradictions.

The concept of war abolition introduced by Krzysztof Wodiczko has attracted the attention of different scholars, and generated various reactions. Despite the affirmation of anthropologists, such as Margaret Mead and Douglas P. Fry, the project has not met with widespread acclaim from other areas, and not for lack of discussion. There are many voices that recognise the essence of the subject, however a substantial response beyond experimenting on paper has yet to emerge.
This thesis re-examines the original assumptions of the concept and raises the subject of architecture in relation to the concept of war abolition.
Assuming that the fate of people is intertwined with wars it seems crucial to understand the mechanisms and the medium of warfare, as well as our inestimable role in it.
Are there any lessons to be learned from the experience of war?
If indeed there are some, how can this knowledge be used in order to better the cities and their reconstruction in times of
peace?
To address this hypothesis it is necessary to study the transformation of the city during the war and adaptation of its inhabitants. Due to the proximity in time and space to Bosnian War, Sarajevo is a perfect case study for this examination.
This thesis investigates the untapped potential of architecture to become a platform for dissemination of the concept of war abolition and its application in Sarajevo.

How to construct the commons with the power of play? How to reactivate leftover public spaces in central Bogota by architectural interventions that stimulate playful actions?

I shift my focus from buildings to the ground surfaces, and redesign them into a constellation of “2.5D architectural composition”. “2.5D” refers to an abstract composition of the ground surface, including composing different ground materials on the planer dimension (2D), and create minor vertical level difference by sinking, elevating, folding and undulating (0.5D).

These compositions become abstract playgrounds. They should be unconventional as the playful quality is achieved by manipulating the ground surface rather than adding playful objects. Yet, they are humble as the minor level difference and usage of familiar materials enable them to merge into the local context.

I expect that these “2.5D playgrounds” will bring Bogota citizens together, stimulate their playful actions, and enable them to recognize the scattered playgrounds in the city as a constellation of “playful commons”.

Experiments of Analysis and Intervention MSc3/MSc4 Graduation Studio - Spring 2017.

The framework of this work is situated between the typological issue about the epistemological definition of art spaces, and their role as consequence within the city, and a personal interest in the kind of attention art demands in space for a specific engagement. It is in the place where art is displayed that the knowledge about it is produced.

Within the art system, a distortion in the value of art has been staged by the increasing significance of the role of private collectors in investing in contemporary art and legitimating their collections trough the echoes of certain art spaces’ typologies. As consequence, private collectors become the accepted ‘manager of consciousness,’ and the former distance between collectors and museum is confused, and the museum academic capacity is being replaced. Here, the question of how a private collection is presented to the world became particularly urgent.

In response to this context, the construction of two specific narratives embedded in two contemporary art spaces for two private art collections has been delineated not in a deconstruction of values, but contextualised in-culture within the realm of architecture and its position towards the system.

Seeking a condition of nearness to the art world has been necessary in order to trace the encounters, or relationships which would construct the notion of place for contemporary art, and the values of the prelude to it. A certain alertness and respect towards the other and the world can be achieved in the art gallery that is otherwise often elusive, since what the art gallery as site does that ‘real life’ does not is that it forces the issues of attention – towards the space, the place and the other. Especially in this context, “considerations of where implies more than an ontology of position.”

The fiction of the art space started from the definition of the collection as first assemble to relate art to places and spaces, since the structure and identity of it became fundamental. A section through two collections and their collectors tries to trace the ways and rules which define the different spatial implications of art, in order to relate different specificities to the word, to find them a place within the world.

The role of architecture has been a negotiation between narratives, the one of the existing place which I found as connected to the specificity of the two collections I was dealing with, and the one of the artwork within the collection itself. And in measuring the one with the other, a staged uncertainty would lead to a certain awareness of the place one is in, and how does it relate with the collection itself, and with the world. I believe architecture has to offer a framework that should elicit reactions – it cannot be, as consequence, neutral.

I do think that the role of architecture in relation with art it is not so different from the one of storytelling in “establishing the rights of intensity” of encounters. Since eventually, everything become visible through relationships.

Positions in Practice Graduation Studio (MSc 3 | MSc 4), Bogotá, Colombia, Fall 2015 - Spring 2016