POSGRADUATE DOCTORAL PROGRAM Concentration area ARCHITECTURE 1. 2013-2015: The 4th Generation of the PhD in Architecture Program University of Zagreb Faculty of Architecture launched its new doctoral program in architecture in 2007. The PhD program has three concentration areas Architecture, Urban and Spatial Planning, and Preservation of Architectural Heritage. In class of 2013-15, the PhD program welcomes applications for concentration area Architecture. However, electives will be offered from other two concentrations as well. 1.1. General information The PhD program in architecture focuses on the research of contemporary phenomena in the field of architecture and urban planning. Its goals include promoting advanced scholarship, teaching, and profession, which will enhance our knowledge and scholarly research methods in the field of architectural design; encouraging scholarly work and training the candidates for working in the institutes of higher education and scholarly institutes; and training professional architects, who will be able to investigate and develop various aspects of architectural discipline, as well as conceptually and functionally complex ideas and programs in the fields of architecture and urban planning, in accordance with the most advanced cultural achievements, requirements, and needs. 1.2. Duration The doctoral program consists of six (6) semesters with 180 ECTS credits, and ends with the defense of the candidate s doctoral dissertation, upon which the candidate obtains the academic degree of PhD in architecture. The program takes place in two-year cycles, with coursework during the first two years (four semesters). The last, third year (fifth and sixth semester) is planned for dissertation writing and regular meetings with the advisor. 1.3. Curriculum and coursework organization The thematic modules of the program include: Architectural thought and criticism, Architectural Research on Contemporaneity, Structure and Technology of Architectural Practice, and Research Workshop (Research as project / Project as research). All of the first semester's courses are lecture courses: the candidates must take four required courses (Introduction to Research Methods, Architectural Thought, Architectural Research on Contemporaneity, and Structure and Technology of Architectural Practice), as well as two electives. Required courses offer basic knowledge and skills needed for independent research, critical analysis of literature, exploration of contemporary phenomena in the field of architecture and urban planning. These courses focus on selected theoretical issues, projects, and achievements that have crucially
determined architectural discipline in the past century. The candidates are expected to produce seminar papers on the selected topics, which are often published as articles in scholarly journals. Elective courses are divided into three thematic modules according to their content and topics. The offer of electives is continuously enriched and updated, in accordance with the candidates interests and research needs. The Doctoral Council is in charge of inviting distinguished scholars and researchers as guest lecturers for a number of electives. During the following semesters (2 nd 4 th ), independent scholarly work is the prevailing format, which takes place in supervised thematic Research workshops (Research as project / Project as research). Over the semesters, the electives' course load is gradually reduced, and ECTS-credited independent scholarly research is proportionally increased (publication of articles, participation in conferences and research projects). The topics of the workshop research are proposed by the candidates. The range of research topics during the past years has been extraordinarily broad and varied, including almost all academic and professional areas belonging to the discipline. The conceptual and methodological approaches to research have been equally open and manifold: historiographical, theoretical, phenomenological, problem-oriented, typological, quantitative-analytical, etc. The Doctoral Council encourages the candidates to direct their research in doctoral workshops towards the topic of their dissertation. At the end of each semester (2 nd 4 th ), all candidates are required to present the results of their research in workshop before the Doctoral Council. 1.5. Doctoral Dissertation At the end of the fourth semester, the candidates propose the topic of their dissertation to the Doctoral Council and defend the prospectus before the committee. During the 3 rd year of study, the candidates write the dissertation, which is read by the Evaluation Committee. The program ends with the defense of the dissertation before the Defense Committee. 2. STUDY MODULES 2.1. Architectural Research on Contemporaneity (Prof. Velimir Neidhardt, FCASA) Architectural Research on Contemporary is a required course in semester I of the first academic year. It is a kaleidoscopic tool of kinds offering an overview of the material and methods offered during the entire course of studies and in later semesters, that is, it is a focused presentation including the participation of students and their selection of various elective courses for the continuation of studies which can be broadly defined as the architectural research of contemporaneity. The title of the module reflects a shift outside the traditional framework of programmed and planned, process-oriented and creative, technical and social categories of architecture, and towards global phenomena and international trends world, both philosophical and scientific, towards dominant technological influences, as well as the dynamics inherent to social values systems, communications phenomena and cultural-anthropological and social-anthropological structures, humankind s lifestyles, including participation and the possibility of choice; towards cosmic impulses, symbolism and the iconography of the contemporary character of changing artistic expression, as well as other complementary components of the contemporary world within and around architecture. The module is open to all kinds of contemporary influences without doctrinism, ideology, and/or supremacy in the treatment of defined sources.
2.2. Architectural Thought (Prof. Karin Šerman) As one of the modules of the doctoral study program, Architectural Thought focuses on advanced research into the architectural discipline from the aspect of theoretical assessment and analysis. The module is therefore dedicated to interrogation and discussion of fundamental aspects of architectural practice: the issues of a general position and role of architecture in a wider social context; potentials of architecture as a medium and the responsibility that it assumes in a given social moment; the position and tasks of architectural theory in guiding and informing the architectural practice and production; basic types and concerns of architectural theory; the relationship between the critical theory and architectural design; the issue of possible future research and directions of development of architectural discipline in general. The module primarily focuses on recent periods and the current social moment, whose intense dynamism and transformations pose significant challenges to architectural practice proper, directing it into deeper introspection and analysis. Special attention within the module is given to recent phenomena and their manifestations challenges of a contemporary city, dominant infrastructure, transformed environment, effects of intensive information flows, movements, flux and instability which all necessarily lead to the intense re-examination of inherited views of architecture as a discipline, and raise the questions of its identity, potentials, instruments, discourses and strategies. The module also investigates the position of architectural theory within the broader disciplinary boundaries and determines its potentials and tasks as an engaged and consequential "practice of mediation" critically open to insights from other spheres of cultural production, ready to adequately transcode and implement relevant external concepts and paradigms, to creatively construct instruments and tools of its own operation and reasoning, and to responsibly investigate potential directions for architecture s possible future developments. By so doing, the module also affirms architectural thought and criticism as a relevant means of public practice, engaged in raising social and cultural awareness about the role of architecture, its operations and its spatial consequences. The module consists of the required course Architectural Thought and a series of more profiled and thematically more narrowly defined elective courses. 2.3. Structure and Technology of Architectural Practice (Prof. Dražen Juračić) The module Structure and Technology of Architectural Practice includes a series of complementary electives grouped under the basic required course. The structure of architectural practice is analyzed and researched through precedents, as well as more recent examples based on two basic aspects the main protagonists and the processes, and the emergence and evolution of the profession and the history of professional education. Themes that are dealt with include a historical and contemporary overview of basic terms: architect (from builder to manager; construction manager to cultural activis), contractor (from master to artisan to coordinator), client (from patron to corporate and state investors), control (from defense and communal discipline to social regulations for safety and sustainability), and building product (from traditional in situ construction to CAD/CAM techniques). The emergence of the profession and the education of architects stresses various forms of project practices and educational models from unconscious processes to the appearance of a creative individual, sources of educational models (academies, polytechnic colleges, technical schools of higher education, technical universities), educational models of the 20th century (Bauhaus, CIAM, the Modern) and their extra-institutional predecessors, new contents and methods of education in participation study communities (research model), as well as new tendencies from the beginning of the 21st century (the Bologna Accord process and life-long learning).
Through literature and electives focused on particular topics, students discover the technology of contemporary architectural practice by studying 1) the characteristics of issues that architects resolve, 2) the historical and contemporary approach of architects to design, 3) the principles of systematic understanding of buildings, especially spatial and technical subsystems, and 4) the development and achievements of the design methods. Architectural practices and theories of architecture are analyzed on a series of examples; the level of their inter-congruence is researched (the practical field with which the theory of architecture is concerned) with special attention paid to: project planning and forming, technological and production aspects, architectural criticism and cultural analysis of contemporary architectural production. The offer of elective courses of this module is formed and updated depending on the specific research interests of students, and encompasses choice-specialized themes and fields like: system approach to project planning, post-occupancy evaluation, sustainable development, energetic efficiency, transformation and management of the built heritage, innovative structure systems and materials, professional education, etc. 2.4. Introduction to Research Methods (Prof. Ariana Štulhofer) Scientific research is a systematic creative activity which uses scientific methods in order to produce new scientific knowledge. Research methods are a group of various procedures used by a scientific discipline for the purposes of research and presentation of research results in a specific field of study. Each scientific work, including dissertations, is prepared and written according to an established methodology of scientific research. Perception of a research problem, which cannot be solved by studying but it is necessary to apply research methods in order to conduct a scholarly research, leads to new insights and objective knowledge of the researched topics. The research problem is the basis for the formulation of a problem hypothesis which is only the first stage of the work. Preparatory stages of research include the perception and definition of a problem, formulation of a hypothesis, selection and analysis of a topic, creation of a research outline, collection and analysis of research material, preparation of illustrations. They all lead to the creation of scholarly papers or reports. Introduction to Research Methods is a course which explores common procedures and methods of scholarly research but also specific tools, preparation and writing of academic papers in the field of architecture and urban planning. Students are equipped with knowledge on the process of academic research which results in scholarly or professional articles. Doctoral Council January 2013
3. PhD COURSE CATALOG (2013-15) REQUIRED CORUSES ECTS 5, hours 15 Prof. Velimir Neidhardt, PhD, FCASA Architectural Research on Contemporaneity Prof. Karin Šerman, PhD Architectural Thought Structure and Technology of Architectural Practice Prof. Ariana Štulhofer, PhD Introduction to Research Methods RESEARCH WORKSHOP ECTS 10, hours 40 Prof. Velimir Neidhardt, PhD, FCASA Prof. Nikola Filipović, PhD, Emeritus Prof. Karin Šerman, PhD ELECTIVE COURSES ECTS 5, hours 15 Architectural Research on Contemporaneity (Neidhardt) Universities as Multifunctional Systems: Programming, planning and design issues Museums in Croatia Assist. Prof. Ivan Čović, PhD Sustainability of Urbanscape Assoc. Prof. Aleksandar Homadovski, PhD Uniqueness in Contemporary Architecture Prof. Tihomir Jukić, PhD Contemporary Urban Transformations Assoc. Prof. Vesna Mikić, PhD Libraries Phenomena in Contemporary Architecture Prof. Ljubomir Miščević Design of Sustainable Architecture Prof. Srečko Pegan, PhD Planning of Coastal Areas Prof. Srečko Pegan, PhD Spatial Planning and Urbanization Prof. Lenko Pleština, PhD The Problems of Modernity in Family House Architecture Architectural Thought (Šerman) Assist. Prof. Katja Marasović, PhD Introduction to Design in Protected Areas Assoc. Prof. Anka Mišetić, PhD Sociology of Culture: Selected topics Assoc. Prof. Karin Šerman, PhD Architectural Theory from 1960 to the Present Assoc. Prof. Igor Toš, PhD Anthropology of Human Environment Prof. Andrej Uchytil, PhD Contemporary Croatian Architecture and the European Context Assoc. Prof. Feđa Vukić, PhD Popular Culture: Identity Topographies Structure and Technology of Architectural Practice (Juračić) Assoc. Prof. Miljenko Haiman, PhD The Future Structures Architect: Profession and education Visit. Prof. Snješka Knežević, PhD Sustainability of the Built Heritage: Preservation issues Prof. Nenad Starc, PhD / Irena Đokić, PhD Architecture and Sustainable Development Assist. Prof. Zoran Veršić, PhD Architectural Acoustics Other credited research activites ECTS PhD Research proposal 5 Advanced PhD research outline 5 Published article 5-10 PhD Prospectus 10 PhD Thesis 60