Lecture Class: Origins of Modern European Architecture,  

32 Undergraduate and Graduate Students  

Winter 2020, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.

Professor: Dr. Alberto Pérez-Gómez

Teaching Assistant: Ali Reza Shahbazin

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      Being in charge of the project component associated with the course, I designed assignments that emphasize storytelling and literary imagination as essential tools for architectural inquiry and design strategy. Exploring the spatial dimensions within Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges’ short stories encourages students to perceive architecture as more than a functional backdrop or a formal shell, but as a lived-in experienced space.

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Student Works

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     Assignment 1 - Translating Borges

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        For the initial assignment, I invited students to translate the mystical spatial experiences portrayed in Borges’ stories into architectural composite drawings using collage and montage techniques. I invited them to view space as a theatrical scenery with spatial potentialities for the unfolding of the story. Considering questions such as how do architectural elements, colors, and lights contribute to the meaning of the story? How does Borges (the architect) may use mathematics, geometry, and maps to generate meaning and mystery for a place?

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    Assignment 2 – In Search of Lost Place

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     For the subsequent task, I asked students to find a real place (site) for their chosen Borges story to unfold. I emphasized the concept of “place” as a space enriched with narratives and human experiences. Students envisioned themselves in the role of directors or set designers, searching for a suitable setting for their selected Borges narrative. Their challenge was to integrate the story and the selected place through a collage, revealing the spatial possibilities of the real location.

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       Assignment 3 – There is a Labyrinth which is a…

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         The third task is creating a labyrinth—not the classic architectural notion of a labyrinth, but rather a material demonstration of the mystic quality of a Borges story. Look at “labyrinth” not just as an object but also as something active that reveals and hides simultaneously. Students will apply this Borgesian mystical and mythical notion to a constructed object. In this assignment, labyrinthine refers to more than a physical structure. It is a mystic quality that can be experienced in a three-dimensional model, an installation, a performance, video art, a cinematic approach relying on architectural qualities and atmosphere—even students’ bodies can be materials. The embodiment of the labyrinth should provide a space for human interaction and poetic imagination.