Disobedience. The conscious refusal to act or behave as told or taught. The deliberate decision not to follow the rules, laws or standards explicitly or implicitly prescribed by authority. 

What do you choose: to preserve energy or history? Will the next generation agree with your choice or regret your blindness?

Doubt. Doubt has, one could say, a dubious reputation. It prevents action, postpones decisions, puts everything off. Yet, we believe doubt can be a fruitful strategy.

We hold that an in-depth study of, with and through the undercommons can offer us clues to design according to different values than those that result in the generic ‘types’ of neighbourhoods, buildings and spaces that continue to emerge all over our cities.

Trust. A firm belief in the reliability, truth, or capacity of someone or something. A belief in the self, but also in the other. Can one trust in something one does not yet fully understand? 

We hold that an in-depth study of, with and through the undercommons can offer us clues to design according to different values than those that result in the generic ‘types’ of neighbourhoods, buildings and spaces that continue to emerge all over our cities.

How can we reassert that form does matter? That form is actually about life, and about community, about all the things that the form enables around and within itself?

In the tradition of flaneurs and strollers, we develop a walking practice, a habit of observing a street, over and over again, by day, by night, learning to discover the hidden qualities of the everyday, and make the familiar strange again.

Multiplicity refers to a plurality of facets, implications and ramifications any question, even seemingly simple, can have. This layered reality, if fully embraced, verges on hyper-complexity, but can also be considered a productive entanglement, a richness.

Empathy is the ability to project oneself into someone else’s position and take their perspective for a while. An understanding based on the temporary weakening of the limit between oneself and ‘the other’.

Ambiguity. The capacity of an individual object or idea to be perceived in multiple ways. A status which can be seen as unclear and confusing, or as valuable in its complexity and richness.

Consistency. This semester we will adopt the attitude of consistency. We will explore how we could actually free architecture by tightening its rules even more.

Exactitude. An attitude orienting choices towards decisiveness, a posture in which everything is weighed, measured, examined and determined.

Optimism. Can we use this term without feeling embarrassed? It seems naive and light-hearted. Can it be appropriate today? We believe so.