LAWI301427 Design workshop

Type
Project course
Semester hours
2
Lecturer (assistant)
Organisation
Landscape Architecture
Offered in
Wintersemester 2025/26
Languages of instruction
Englisch, Deutsch
Content

Scenarios for the Alps without Snow – A Landscape Urbanism Project

Global warming is accelerating at an ever faster speed, bringing with it many uncertainties. We live at a time when we need new ideas. New imaginaries of how to live together in this beautifully complex and interwoven web of life. As we are heading towards a different Anthropocene, this course aims to develop new narratives for it. We will think beyond the human habitat and design with and for more-than-human entanglements. Through scenario thinking and storytelling, the course will teach you how to use imagination to bring about the necessary change. It shall be a critical investigation of one of our most challenged changing landscapes – the Alps.

Through global warming, the Alps are changing their form. Glaciers are melting, and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent - causing floods and droughts. Water plays an essential role in the Alps. Their valleys have been shaped by millennials of glacial movements, and with the disappearance of them, going as far as the thawing of permafrost, the Alpine landscape is inevitably altered. Through this transition formerly imposed infrastructures are becoming obsolete. Vast skiing resorts are losing their fundamental base of existence. Hydropower plants are running out of water. In the course, we will follow the traces of water. What does it mean if there will be no snow in the mountains anymore? Will the production of artificial snow come to a halt with increasing demand for its energy production or will there be a change in mindset going beyond economic profit? In the design workshop, we will investigate new possibilities for these transitioning landscapes and imagine places of coexistence between humans and more-than-human entities. The course aims at reconceptualizing what it means to be human and how design thinking can positively impact the life of our shared planet.

Date of design workshop: 04.11.2024 - 08.11.2024. Core working hours Monday to Friday 9:00 to 17:00. Compulsory attendance.
Previous knowledge expected

The workshop is open to students of the Master programme Landscape Architecture and Landscape Planning.
Expected skills are knowledge of designing, CAD, GIS and techniques for visualization.
The course will be held in English and German.
Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

After the course, the students will be able to:
- Apply scenario construction methods to their study area
- Identify drivers of change in the transitioning Alpine landscapes
- Position themselves as political agents through design
- Critically reflect on their design process
- Enhance their storytelling capacities through different forms of media
- Develop a critical and reflective attitude towards the current urbanism practice
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.