Leading a Workshop at the School of Architecture in KTH: Research Methodologies, Fieldwork Tools, an

The workshop explores contemporary research methodologies, fieldwork tools and the agency of design at different scales of inquiry in Snösätra. While documenting the site, students work on a Table of Assembly to collect all fragments of information, to propose new connections and narratives, and to present their findings. The table is understood as a space of archival, a space of production and a space of display. The course offers as well a series of lectures, theoretical discussions and workshop sessions to advance a common vocabulary on investigation, documentation and intervention in the context of the Urban Ecologies Design Studio 2.1 run by Adrià Carbonell.

Table of Assembly 1 of 8 investigating the graffiti practices in Snösätra. Students explore the historical, material, and cultural implications of graffiti in contemporary urban transformation.

Students working in teams research, analyze and document one particular question of the proposed site. Questions range from graffiti practices to storage protocols, including squatting initiatives, housing conditions, infra- structural systems, maintenance strategies, pollution’s management, and natural reserve contexts among others. Through collecting data, surveying spaces and interviewing the different agents involved in the site, students propose a collection of evidences with the ambition to understand the spatial, economic and cultural implications of these particular questions.

From the selection of the specific question to study, students focus on three consecutive scales of analysis of that question: Material Ecologies, Political Ecologies and Social Ecologies. Material Ecologies brings into question the spatial, formal and aesthetic implications of the site; Political Ecologies offers an approximation to the regulations, management systems, and economies; and Social Ecologies focuses on the residents, social alliances and communities in Snösätra. After three weeks of documenting the site—with a focus on a specific question and through three different Ecologies—students prepare a Table of Assembly to present their findings and propose possible narratives, protocols and design strategies of site intervention.

The Table of Assembly offers an operative space where students will collect, present, and connect various fragments of information. These pieces of information include images, drawings, maps, news articles, scripts from interviews, sound descriptions, and video clips, among others. The table presents a surface to document the process, to produce the work and to establish new relations between the objects, spaces and systems under investigation.

Table of Assembly 2 of 8 investigating the management of pollution in Snösätra. Students explore the visual, sound, and material pollution of the site, documenting as well the different agents in the production and management of these substances over time.

Table of Assembly 3 of 8 investigating the network of social groups in Snösätra. Students explore the communities, organizations, and institutions around this area proposing different discussions, activities, and political agendas.