How can we better understand and explain the phenomena of architectural composition and perception? The aim of this research is to systematically and imaginatively (re)consider the conditions of architectural composition, whilst doing justice to the operational and the aesthetic issues of design. The ambition is to contribute towards generating a deeper, more objective understanding, concerning the craft of architectural design and consequently: the art of architecture. To unravel the expressive themes that are at interplay in a designed object and to demonstrate their combined workings, formal characteristics are identified and conceptual and analytical models were developed. These are applied and tested in case-studies. The Patterns & Variations study as a whole has been a laboratory and testing-ground for a variety of steadily evolving assumptions, interpretations, and applications that have been generated over a number of years. It is the closing piece of an extensive, personal search, which has sought to bridge the gap between practice, education, research and theory.@en

How should one go about creating a wholly new educational program – with the aim of furthering the understanding of architectural Form and the development of essential Visualisation skills – within strictly defined constraints, concerning the available study time and academic staff, plus a binding, interdisciplinary curriculum organization? This Paper documents the thematic integration and thorough ‘re-design’ of pre-existing foundational courses into two ‘twinned’ first-year Bachelor teaching applications, with ‘Form and Visualisation’ as their guiding theme. The challenge was set some four-and-a-half years ago, when the faculty’s (then) Dean decided to completely re-organize the existing Bachelor curriculum. The aim: to create an efficient and cost-effective integral study program, with clearly identifiable components and intellectually stimulating and creatively challenging new course concepts. The consequences of the initiative were far-reaching and involved re-defining – and frequently re-inventing – teaching methods and -contents. All of the new BSc programs would be required to fit into a rigorous, top-down, three-year time-frame, whereby the subjects of wholly different disciplines (in our case: Building Technology and Architectural History & Theory), would need to be offered simultaneously, in parallel trajectories. Whilst the ‘old’ program was still up-and-running, a busy half-year was spent developing a tightly organized conglomerate of interwoven educational modules. Then (some four years ago) the entire Bachelor curriculum was re launched in one go: a logistically and pedagogically challenging operation, to say the least! @en