Spring 2026
Wednesdays, 14:15-16:00 Room: AAC114
Architectural Anthropology explores how people imagine, create, and inhabit built environments. It introduces an emerging field that brings architecture into dialogue with anthropological inquiries. Anthropology’s central tool of inquiry is “ethnography”—a people-oriented qualitative research practice and sensibility that makes it possible to document and interpret how individuals and collectives understand, act, organize, and situate themselves in the world. Introducing ethnography as a creative and dynamic toolkit for architectural research, it can, for instance, help us make sense of how people imagine and make use of space, how built environments take shape through political, ecological, and socio-economic forces and conditions, and how design emerges from and engages with everyday life.
To not only discuss anthropological inquiries and tools but also work with them directly, this course offers methodological exercises and creative explorations that can potentially expand architectural knowledge and practice. Designed as a type of “ethnographic studio,” the course involves writing fieldnotes, producing ethnographic drawings and visualizations, documenting soundscapes and walking experiences, analyzing observations, and conducting a qualitative interview exercise. These and other ethnographic methods can offer new insights into how design practitioners and urban dwellers across the world are rethinking the critical potential of architectural knowledge and building practices amid social, ecological, and political crises and inequalities. The course thus combines an introduction to anthropology’s key debates and methods with investigations into architectural production and design practices.
Instructor: Dr. Laurin Baumgardt