DCC Ways of Living: Danish Architecture & Urban Design [Copenhagen’s Walking Classroom, S23]

(NOTE: Course is full)

This two-week, intensive, summer course welcomes students from a diversity of academic and cultural backgrounds and socio-political perspectives, who have deep interests in urban environments and issues. The city of Copenhagen is our primary classroom, and walking lectures, sidewalk seminars, independent field studies, and collegial debates will be unfolded across a diversity of places within the metropolis. First-hand experiences, place-based interpretative discourses, on-site analyses, and critical readings are entwined to support grounded ways of questioning and considering the historical and contemporary Danish urban design and architecture cases at hand. ‘Ways of living’, in this course, encompasses and addresses a diversity of human and nonhuman actors and relationalities, and acknowledges that architecture and urban design are never stand-alone but are always entangled as parts of something both bigger and smaller than themselves – both materially and immaterially. In this course, ways of living span a broad spectrum between ways of living relative to the constantly shifting socio-cultural conditions and political landscapes, as well as ways of living with (and as) nature and climate crisis. Our primary foci include such wider themes as urban history, sustainable urban development, public life and day-to-day life (including human health and wellness), climate adaptation and biodiversity, architectural transformation, multi-modal transport, decision-making processes (including participatory urban design and the distribution of power relations and resources), circularity, playscapes, and urban recreation.

NB: Additional notes on course structure: The primary assignment in this course is a written exam paper structured as a critical reflection logbook. In general, each course day is organised such that collective field sessions compromise the first half of the day, and independent field studies compromise the afternoons. Moreover, there will be a one-course day designated as a full-day group field study exploring new neighbourhood developments in Copenhagen. Note well that weekend days are included in the course schedule given the condensed period of two weeks. Lastly, all sites can be easily reached via public transport, bicycle, foot, or/and scooter – however, should you have any accessibility-related concerns, please feel free to mail your queries in advance to dcc@hum.ku.dk.

PROFESSORS:

Courtney D. Coyne-Jensen is an architect and urbanist, working with projects situated in the nexus of practice-teaching-research as a unity.  Working as an external Assoc. Professor at the University of Copenhagen, she also has her atelier in CPH. Phenomenology, enaction, and co-creation underpin her multi-scalar praxis. Degrees include: PhD (KADK), M.Phil. (Cambridge Univ.), B.Arch. (DAAP). CDC has been the recipient of numerous international grants, and publishes and exhibits globally. She is also appointed Ministry-appointed Examiner for all higher education artistic programs in Denmark. She always warmly welcomes collaborations with others dedicated to architecture and design as critical inquiry, social impact, and serious play. https://dk.linkedin.com/in/courtneycoynejensen

Lars Gemzøe is an architect M.A.A. who has been working in practice, teaching and research. He has been an associate partner at Gehl Architects and a Senior Lecturer of Urban Design at the School of Architecture in Copenhagen, as well as teaching at DIS, the Danish Institute for Study Abroad. He has been an external Assoc. Professor at the University of Copenhagen since 2005, and has been guest teaching and lecturing at numerous universities and at conferences around the world.  https://dk.linkedin.com/in/lars-gemzøe-20445b10

www.danishculturecourse.ku.dk

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