Option: Experimentation (44 h)

This course invites students to physically intervene on the former port and river site of Chalon-sur-Saône. The implementation of experimental devices, urban scenographies, architectures or ephemeral landscapes, consists in revealing the site’s potentialities, producing possible urban imaginaries with the materialities present.

This intensive course will take place during the second week of spring vacation
from Monday, April 20 to Sunday, April 26, 2026.

To register, please contact Antoine Petitrenaud: antonaud@yahoo.fr

Field action (80%) Document rendering (20%)

Photographic file of work carried out on the site

Dates: July 6 to July 17, 2026

Where pedagogy, research and professional practice meet.

History of partnership and pedagogical networks
This Summer School proposal stems from a scientific partnership with California State Polytechnic University Pomona, Department of Landscape Architecture (CPPLA) in Los Angeles. Several of our teachers have developed pedagogies that combine reflection and action, inviting students to develop their projects in a back-and-forth between thought and practice. What unites us is the conviction that we need to experiment and experience, to physically confront the places in which we intervene, in order to imagine situated creations. This calls for pedagogical research protocols which, based on action and realization, foster students’ awareness of experienced, sensitive space, and nurture their projects. At the same time, they provide a lever for architectural and landscape design to integrate ecological, sociological and political issues.

Group rendering

Think about the how to imagine the do.

The physical model as a design tool.
The parametric digital model to rationalize and produce.
The assembly process as a target.
Hand-drawing to tell and explain.

The course focuses on the design of a micro-space using a study model and sketch drawing. This design is refined in its constructive dimension by parametric modeling on Rhino. A scale model of the space will be produced using digitally controlled machines (3D printing, cuter laser, etc.). Finally, an instruction manual will be produced to explain how to assemble it.

The following skills will be developed:

Parametric modeling methods on Rhino.
Preparing files for a CNC machine (3D printer / Laser Cutter).
Manufacturing on a CNC machine.
Manual assembly.
Narration and graphic layout for comics – instructions for use.

Evaluation will focus on the quality of the assembly process, the clarity and realism of the explanation of this process, and the appearance of the printed model. The quality of reflection and the ambition of experimentation will be highlighted.

– study models (foam, cardboard, paper, wood, wire, etc.)
– 3D modeling on Rhino and parametric design,
– 3D printing file,
– designed instructions (paper or digital, depending on the production method chosen)

The Second Digital Turn. Design Beyond Intelligence. Mario Carpo, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2017.

Book Details

The aim is to encourage students to approach architectural design by integrating and interacting social, ecological and spatial dimensions through studies of operating facilities, leading ultimately to programmatic prefiguration.

It proposes an approach to architectural programming based on a method for analyzing the uses of a space, implemented during group visits to a leather goods workshop and a medical-social center.

The students also reflect on the purpose of the organization chart in its ability to make the transition from a programmatic reflection, consisting of defining the activities, uses and spatial relationships to be favored in a facility, to a work aimed at formalizing and inscribing it in an urban situation.

The collaboration between several disciplinary fields on which this course is based, aims to find places where methods for assessing the quality of use of spaces for inventive programming intersect with a design approach mobilizing algorithmic approaches to representation, experimenting with the contributions of new forms of artificial intelligence to spatial formalization. Students will develop a critical approach to digital tools, exploring their potential and assessing their limits.

Continuous assessment through participation in sessions and preparation of a final report.

Conduct and report on visits to a healthcare facility and a leather goods factory, using a pre-presented method.
Draw up a report and pre-programming proposals.

Daniel-Lacombe Éric, Zetlaoui-Léger Jodelle – Evaluation des usages et invention architecturale. Le Moniteur-PUCA, 2024. (Biblio ENSAPLV)
Pinot Gérard, Redoutey Emmanuel (coord.), 2021, Démarches de programmation architecturale – de l’usage à l’ouvrage, Paris, Editions Le Moniteur.
Guo, Z., and Li, B. (2017). Evolutionary approach for spatial architecture layout design enhanced by an agent-based topology finding system. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 6(1), 53-62.
Macal, C. M. (2016). Everything you need to know about agent-based modelling and simulation. Journal of Simulation, 10(2), 144-156.

Intensive multidisciplinary workshop on the theme of ecological transition in rural areas (7-day residential trip). Approach and practice the specifics of design in the context of a participatory project, with the involvement of local people (local people understood here as residents and socio-economic players in the area, in partnership with didattica, an ENSAPLV association).
A project approach based on local stories (cultural rights approach, partnership with Petites Cités de Caractères France).

Oral and projected presentation of the results of the week’s work: diagnosis, issues and projects. The projected boards are then printed in A3 notebook format, with a view to creating a discussion tool for the community once the workshop is over. This presentation is the starting point for discussion and debate, not only with students and their teachers, but also with elected representatives, local professionals and residents. It should invite the institutional partners to question the work directions identified, and to put certain elements into perspective.

The experiment takes the form of a week-long intensive. Attendance is compulsory for the whole week, which includes supervised hours and a few hours of individual work during the residency.
At the end of the residency, students are asked to produce a personal report (a few pages illustrated with the week’s work).
All student groups produce a collective file containing all the analysis and project work carried out. The work is posted online and available on a blog.
Presentation of residencies between 2018 and 2023:
http://enseignementshmu.paris-lavillette.archi.fr/hvd/?cat=24
http://didattica-asso.com/-Workshops-participatifs-en-residence-etudiante-

Each year, this program offers an international workshop in a foreign city or region, where students encounter other cultures, other worldviews and other ways of interpreting and designing living spaces. In this context, experimentation plays a central role, enabling students to broaden their fields of learning and action, as well as their imaginations. International workshops – which have taken place in Europe (Cologne, Rome), Latin America (Havana, El Alto, La Paz, Sao Paolo) and Asia (Chengdu, Tokyo, Varanasi, Kolkata, Dhakar, Bandung) – represent a central pedagogical offering of the DE MTP. More generally, these international courses aim to develop a critical and situated view of the effects of globalization on the professions of architecture, urban planning and landscape design, and on the transformation of our inhabited environments.

50% participation, 50% final presentation

Pre-selection based on application (limited to 12 places):

– letter of motivation (1-2 pages)
– mini-portfolio demonstrating relevant achievements in representation (hand-drawing, cartography, photography, video, installation, exhibition, writing…) and research (dissertation topic, field surveys, interdisciplinary work…)

To be submitted via Taïga before November 11, 2025 (to be confirmed)

ATELIER BOW-WOW and TSUKAMOTO Architectural Lab (Tokyo Institute of Technology), Pet Architecture Guide Book, Living Spheres Vol. 2, World Photo Press, Tokyo, 2002.
KAJIMA Momoyo, Junzo KURODA, Yoshiharu TSUKAMOTO, Made in Tokyo: Guide Book, Kajima, Tokyo, 2001.
_____, Laurent STADLER and Yu ISEKI, Architectural Ethnography, Tokyo, TOTO Publishing, 2018.
______, ETH Zurich Chair of Behaviorology, Swiss Window Journeys, gta Verlag, 2023.
KOOLHAAS Rem (1978), New York Délire: Un manifeste rétroactif pour Manhattan, Parenthèses, Marseille, 2002.
LI Han and Yan HU, A Little Bit of Beijing, vols. 1-3, Sanlitun, 798 Art District, Nanluoguxiang, Tongji University Press, Shanghai, 2017-18.
LUCAS Ray, Anthropology for Architects: Social Relations and the Built Environment, Bloomsbury Visual Arts, London, 2020.
NJOO Jim, Liang ZHANG and Philippe NYS, Mapping Chengdu: Histoires//Territoires//Traces, ENSAPLV/SCU, Paris, 2022.
TSUKAMOTO Laboratory (Tokyo Institute of Technology), Windowscape3: Window Workology, Film Art, Inc, 2017.
VENTURI Robert, Denise SCOTT-BROWN and Steven IZENOUR (1977), L’enseignement de Las Vegas, Liège, Mardaga, 2008.
WOOD Denis, Everythings Sings: Maps for a Narrative Atlas, Siglio Press, Los Angeles, 2010.