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74176-01 - Course: Architecture of the Everyday (3 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2025 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | Francesca Romana Dell'Aglio (francescaromana.dellaglio@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | The city is a complex organism that can hardly be reconciled into a single understanding. It is an architecture that is not only inhabited but also constructed by human beings: every built form in the city becomes a manifestation of a form of life. Yet, a latent friction has always existed between the morphology of the city—how it appears from above—and the forms of life that compose it—how it is experienced from below. Too often, social and economic discussions about the city avoid engaging with its physical form, even though the urban form is a direct and concrete reflection of the structure of its society. The relationship between human beings and the built environment is one of the founding principles of architecture: our homes, schools, workplaces, and cities are extensions of our bodies; their spatial conditions are inherently human. We will use the city of Basel as our testing ground, examining the life that unfolds at the micro-scale as an anthropological expression—where something messy and unpredictable can emerge in the informal pockets of everyday life, challenging the city's unifying urban form. By observing daily life and its relationship with the built environment, we will collectively attempt to address the question: what is the link between the city and its architecture? Structure: The course consists of a series of lectures, seminars, and practical exercises. The lectures will equip students with the theoretical and practical tools necessary for urban observation as well as an overview of architectural histories and theories and an understanding of rituals as spatial practices that are integral to the fabric of everyday life. The seminars provide an opportunity for students to engage closely with a variety of urban observation techniques, including the analysis of films, photographs, drawings, and written texts. These will serve as points of reference for the practical exercises, during which students will learn to identify the various forms of daily ritual activity that occur in urban environments, ranging from more intimate practices to collective actions. The exercises are of two kinds. The first begins with the banal and familiar components that frame the mundane reality of our normal, day-to-day existence: commuting to work, grocery shopping, house cleaning, etc. The second exercise will identify a local ritual performed by a subject of your choice in and around the city. This may include activities such as maintenance, cleaning, playing, policing, protesting, commuting, building, and so forth. The objective is to gain insight into how other members of society utilise and rethink the urban space around them in ways different from our own. The methods of observation and documentation adopted in each exercise are open and will be discussed together, but if the first exercise brings our own privacy to the centre of analysis, the second will help us understand what it means to observe and interact with a community outside of our own. Both exercises provide an opportunity to create new layers of micro-urbanism and micro-history through our recordings and observations; together these layers may ultimately contribute to reveal a different image of the city of Basel. |
| Learning objectives | • The course invites students to observe the city from the micro scale of its architecture and the interactions we have with it, before assessing the complexity of its urban form. • The course aims to encourage an awareness of the highly complex, fragmented nature of the spaces in and around the city and their subjects. • The course aims to develop a methodology that starts from a highly embodied experience of the city in order to ground everyday practices in a concrete and immediate relationship with the urban environment. • The course provides an opportunity to develop and assess observational skills, enabling students to learn from and subsequently apply these skills to their future research. |
| Bibliography | |
| Comments | The course is open to Master students from other programs with a priority for MA Students in Critical Urbanisms and in Changing Societies on timely registration. Max. capacity 35 |
| Admission requirements | Anmelden: Belegen ; Abmelden: nicht erforderlich |
| Course application | Anmelden: Belegen ; Abmelden: nicht erforderlich |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Tuesday | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday 16.09.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Tuesday 23.09.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Tuesday 30.09.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Tuesday 07.10.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Tuesday 14.10.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Tuesday 21.10.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Tuesday 28.10.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Tuesday 04.11.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Tuesday 11.11.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Tuesday 18.11.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Tuesday 25.11.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Tuesday 02.12.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Tuesday 09.12.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Tuesday 16.12.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Modules |
Module: The Urban across Disciplines (Master's degree program: Critical Urbanisms) Module: Ways of Knowing the City (Master's degree program: Critical Urbanisms) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Pass/ Fail |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Urban Studies |