CRITICIZING PRACTICE PRACTISING CRITIQUE

Introduction The Module 'Criticizing practice, practising critique' aims to cultivate critical reflection on landscape architecture, taking as the point of departure its most concrete instance: the project. It does so in discussing critiques written by others, and in exercising the writing of new critiques. The Module is developed by independent researcher, landscape architect and writer Noël van Dooren on the basis of his work for the Dutch Blauwe Kamer magazine and the Journal of Landscape Architecture. Overview of the Module The Module consists of three different phases. The first phase starts with a lecture on critique and an overview of the Module and its aims. There are two objectives for the students in this phase. One is to choose a study object for the critique like a park, a square, or any other project, for which choice criteria will be provided beforehand. This can be a free choice, or a list of preselected projects, for example related to the Hannover. The student explores the rough argument he or she wants to follow, and collects the materials needed, to be able to discuss this in the Module. The other objective of the first part is to study an existing critique, which can be either proposed by the student, or chosen from the selected critiques in a reader that will be available beforehand. The student prepares a small talk for the Module to show how this critique operates, and what makes it a critique. This is to find a shared understanding on the phenomenon of critique. The middle phase, which is a three day block seminar, consists of these ingredients: • a session in which the existing critiques from phase one are presented and discussed, to arrive at a shared understanding of the nature of critique; • a session in which a rough argumentation for the proposed critiques is presented by the students and discussed; • an individual session in which the supervisor can discuss the rough argument more in depth with a student, while others are working independently, and in which comments are integrated in a second version; • a session in which the second version is presented, and also aspects of the final critique are discussed, such as a title, first and conclusive sentences, the available images, and the known project facts; • a concluding session in which the writing of the actual critique, the third part, is structured, and conclusions on the phenomenon of critique are drawn. The third phase of the Module is the actual writing of the critique. Depending on the level and the learning goals this is a piece of 2000-3000 words, with adequate imagery. In this phase, individual coaching hours with Catherine Atkinson can be arranged to support the English writing skills. The host institute gards the deadline, collects the results (which are in Pdf format) , and sends them to Noël van Dooren. He provides a feedback and gives the grades. The best articles might be published in a publication edited by Noël van Dooren and, if possible, in a theme issue of the Spanish journal Paisea. Aus didaktischen Gründen wird das Verfassen der Projektkritik auf Englisch bevorzugt. Auf Wunsch kann die Projektkritik auch in Deutsch geschrieben werden, Noel van Dooren spricht ausgezeichnet Deutsch. keine öffentliche Person Das Seminar ist auf 12 Teilnehmende begrenzt. Universität Hannover WiSe 2015/16 Landschaftsarchitektur, Master of Science van Dooren Noel