Architectural Design Unit

This research unit groups together :

• Teaching linked to architectural and urban compositions, more generally referred to as workshops ;
• Teaching linked to architecture and heritage theory ;
• Teaching linked to analysis methods and tools used in architectural design ;
• The organisation of placements.

The research unit also carries out various missions related to architecture and perspective. As with other units, the research domains covered are thematic and not disciplinary. The unit is also implicated in different public activities through its participation in competitions for universities, in projects linked to the Mons 2015 – European Capital of Culture, in collaborations with internationally renowned creative talent, in the organisation of international workshops (for example in Paris and Daegu (South Korea), and in projects designed to inform primary school children about contemporary architecture.

The unit is concerned with issues related to large-scale multidisciplinary programming. The teaching activities are based on a pedagogical practice centred on the architectural project. Its essential prerogatives are to :

• Bring together resources, teaching and skills related to architectural composition, urban planning, urban morphology, planning tools and territorial representation.
• To structure and develop the themes of the Master's courses, specifically linked to the restructuring of heritage buildings, urbanity, social ecology and the scales of the landscape.
• To carry out research projects questioning the quality of public spaces, post-industrial territorial reconversions and developments and the new landscapes of ecology. As an extension of these functions, communication and the organisation of events that help the inter-faculty and societal sharing of knowledge about architectural territories.