(1) Problem awareness: A critical analysis of today's knowledge about the topics to be addressed during the semester precedes the actual design work. The aim of this phase is to encourage students to develop a heightened awareness of the problems, in order to allow them to go beyond a primarily formbased conception of architecture. Science, humanities and the social sciences will be referred to as their achievements are essential knowledge for today's architect.
(2) Site analysis: Through the analysis and assessment of the selected site, comprising an evaluation of the wider context, students evolve a multi-tiered informational network. This allows them to take into consideration all the factors that might influence design decisions right from the beginning, and to translate them effciently into a complex set of relations during the preparation of the project.
(3) Design phase: Working at first outside a restrictive framework of formal, functional and structural constraints, students develop an image (design solution) which builds on the results of the two earlier stages - the problem awareness stage and the informational network - and gives the design process the necessary foundation. Architectural form and the environment are considered to be the main determining factors. This image (or sign) will then pass through various adaptions to ensure it respects functional, structural and formal constraints, until a complex balance is ultimately achieved which gives the design its true significance. During the design process special attention is paid to the building achievment.
(4) Sustainibility: The existing design solution has to be examined in a second phase on the basis of sustainable thinking in regard to materials, energy, economics, hygenia etc.
(5) Representation and presentation: During this last phase students are introduced to design presentation, and how to fulfill the requirements of communication (language) and of a domain which is dominated by the visual (aesthetics). The course emphasises the essential role of presentations as information carriers. Particular emphasis is also placed on the potential of the new electronic media for presentations (simulation).