Art seminar week. During my tenure at the ETH-Zürich, Switzerland, I discovered how consensus among faculty benefits students.

The following proposal involves consensus and a coming together of faculty to share their individual expertise beyond their classroom, and might be of pedagogical interest for a design school—for example, at my current institution—and is inspired by one offered in Zürich. Let me start by contextualizing that one, and then follow up with a proposal for first-year design studios that currently offer a design foundation to students in architecture, industrial design, interior design, and landscape architecture.

ETH-Zürich

Each year Zürich offered a one-week hiatus from regular classes for all architecture students enrolled in the program. Instead of course work, the students partook in a travel week called Seminarwoche (seminar week). The idea was brilliant. Faculty and administrators coordinated themes that were relevant to the students’ learning.

Key to the success, was that faculty agreed that while design studios were essential as the locus of becoming an architect, they should not override the distinctiveness of the students’ interests or, more importantly, the collective identity of the architecture unit. This meant that other classes, be it structures, or history / theory or seminars, did not meet this week. A remarkable moment of collective engagement. A mindset that is lacking in many institutions where the individual (student or faculty) often eclipses the collective good (community and distinctiveness of the school).

The logistics of seminar week were predicated on releasing students from their classes, enabling them to join one of the travel seminars offered by faculty. Opportunities ranged from day trips in the city of Zürich, to site visits in nearby cantons, or more extravagant trips to nearby European capitals. 

The educational purpose of this sabbatical week was for students to gain new perspectives on how to look, observe, visit, and research while learning from other students. They would also be introduced to faculty’s expertise and interests, all-the-while honing and experiencing new ways to think about topics that might not be explored during their current design studio. Topics (site locales) varied from year to year, and those used below as examples are simply some of the field trips that I remember being proposed during and after my tenure at the ETH.

Site visits in Zürich 

Image 1: Google Images -Max Ernst Haefele, Alfred Roth, and Adolf Steger

A recuring theme that drew many students was visiting housing of the 1920s and 1930s in Zürich. The German Neu Sachlichkeit movement (New Objectivity or New Sobriety) had seminal examples in the city, offering students an immersion in the rich architectural heritage. Along other discoveries, students learned that Zürich was a key player in the promotion of modern architecture and urbanism throughout Europe. 

Sites visits in nearby cities

Image 2: Google Images -Heidi Weber, Beyeler Foundation, Winterthur Museum, F. Durrenmatt Foundation

The second possible model focused on museums. In Zürich the Heidi Weber Pavilion, Swiss National Museum, and the Kuntshaus. World renowned museums were also found in other cities including Basel (Beyeler Foundation by Renzo Piano, and the Tinguely museum by Mario Botta); Bern (Paul Klee Museum by Renzo Piano); Neuchatel (Friedrich Durrenmatt by Mario Botta); and Winterthur (addition by Gigon/Guyer). These were all much appreciated by students. 

I like to remind myself that Switzerland has so many excellent interventions by leading architects (mostly alumni from the EPFL and the ETH), along with remarkable art collections which include famous Swiss artists such as Alberto and Diego Giacometti, Hans Erni, Robert Frank, Ferdinand Hodler, Paul Klee, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Max Bill (both Bauhaus students), Paul Lohse, Jean Tinguely, and Felix Vallotton. Architecture and art were an area of focus for this second type of site visit.

These day trips were not only intellectually provocative, but offered students with more modest budgets the ability to partake in the seminar week without depleting precious funds.

Site visits in European cities

Image 3: Google Images -Amsterdam; and Barcelona, Paris, Porto, and Berlin (author’s collection)

The third alternative required more disposable income. European cities formed many tempting proposals, and included Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Paris, and Porto, particularly as many visiting professors had practices or had completed buildings there. 

Each of the thematic proposals gave students exposure to new and innovative ideas. Not only did many students choose a topic or city as a point of discovery, but often and with a more strategic intention, they wanted to be mentored by professors other than their current design studio faculty.

The art of making at my institution

Fast forward to today. Regardless of the institution—especially those in America that espouse the educational mission of a Land Grant institution—site visits such as those found at the ETH are difficult to replicate due to the scale of the country and how schools are typically located in a remote area and do not have easy access to the urban cornucopia of a larger city. Thus, proposing day trips through the course of a week may seem less appealing than those offered in Zürich, which, in addition to being a world capital, has the privilege of neighboring Austria and Germany, and being a few hours away from major cities across Europe.

And yet, Appalachian Virginia (where the School of Architecture at Virginia Tech (VT) is located) offers many interesting rural towns and landscapes that are noteworthy and accessible in less than an hour. Farther out, cities such as Charlottesville, Charlotte NC, Lexington KY, and Washington DC, and even farther up the northeast corridor you find Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston to name a few robust architecture and cultural centers. But traveling is not the point of my proposal for students at the School of Architecture at VT.

Art seminar week as an intellectual opportunity

Image 4: Google Images -various art disciplines

We all need challenges in our lives. So, what would happen if we offered topics outside of the routine of usual classes in a targeted manner for first year students during one design week spanning Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. Imagine that for one week (aka., Art Seminar Week), each of the usual studio class mornings is dedicated to the study of artistic disciplines in a seminar. Students would enroll in one of the seminars offered by faculty across all years. During this week students would learn, apprentice, and discover new medias that could be incorporated into their future design projects, or perhaps it would simply open new perspectives as they continue to hone the particularities of their respective disciplines. 

Students in our first year already come from mixed disciples, and they could mingle for this week in different cohorts, learning through an increased fertilization between other first year students and upper-level faculty. This might be particularly relevant as students are currently mainly taught by one faculty member each year during their five years. With this proposal, students would have an opportunity to learn from not only other first year faculty but upper-level faculty, meaning any freshman cohort can experience the breath of opportunities that our unit has to offer. 

VT’s School of Architecture has great facilities and committed faculty with talent from a variety of art and design fields. I have come to recognize each of their respective passions including collage/montage/assemblage, color theory, film making, furniture design, metalsmithing, painting, photography, pottery, silk screening, sketching, watercolor, and weaving to name a few. Add in the digital programs, and you have a robust palette of Art Seminar Week topics. Imagine a first-year student can choose between 30 topics for their immersive experience, working shoulder to shoulder with eight or ten students and a faculty leader.

As part of a Bauhaus tradition—yes, our first dean was Charles Burchard who was a student at Harvard under Walter Gropius—our architecture unit still offers students an immersion in one of these art forms as a semester long class. Art Seminar Week creates parallel insights that are key to our pedagogy, and that we believe promote cross pollination between disciplines which helps students be creative and lets them build upon different ideas. 

Conclusion

This Bauhaus inspired seminar-week would bring together multiple art forms by “eroding the distinction between artists and artisans.” Not only could this intermezzo offer a natural transition between first year assignments, but create a moment where the entire school partakes in teaching at the freshman level. This is possible as all the upper year faculty teach in the afternoon. 

Given that semester projects in first year include punctual program briefs, I see a wonderful opportunity to build into the program’s learning objectives and each faculty’s pedagogy, a one-week experiential art seminar where a collective and vibrant moment of learning would take place throughout the School of Architecture.