< terug

Dead Poets Society

Dead Poets Society (1):
Mnemosyne’s Dwelling in the Dark Forest.

Prof.dr. Architect Jo Van Den Berghe
Master Architectuur KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture campus Sint-Lucas Ghent.
Master thesis studio, academic year 2025-2026.

Semester: Phase 2 – Autumn semester and Spring Semester
Startweek: Week 4
Credits 30
Number of students 9
Language: Nederlands
Titular and teacher: Prof.dr. arch. Jo Van Den Berghe

Taal: Nederlands. De jury gaat echter door in het Engels, om internationale juryleden uit te nodigen, hiermee studenten in contact te brengen met een internationaal netwerk, en hen op deze manier meer kansen te bieden. Om deze redenen is deze studiobeschrijving opgemaakt in het Engels, zodat de ‘architectural discourse’ van meet af aan wordt ingeoefend.

Beeld: My Black Mariah, photo © Jo Van Den Berghe (2025)

 

Theme.

In a dark forest, the students develop dwellings for the Dead Poets Society—a group of poets who withdraw temporarilly from the world, longing to immerse themselves in reflections and writing on life, nature, silence, air, earth, light, darkness and ultimately, death.

This master thesis project “calls upon the thinker to heed the word of the poet who speaks to a destitute time” (Fóti 1992). According to Heidegger, the gentle law of the poet (Ge-setz) “becomes occluded by the totalizing posure of the hard law (Ge-stell) of technicity, which is not, for Heidegger, a mere infatuation with technological power but rather the very nature of evil” (Fóti 1992). This may invite to draw an architecture of poetics, architectural probes for the gentle law of the poet.

Program.

Dwellings for poets in residence (2), a secret library, a declamation stage for poetry. Seclusion, silence and remembrance—Mnemosyne (3)—are key qualities. To be designed as far as to the window details.

(1) The title and theme of this studio is indebted to the film Dead Poets Society (1989). Director Peter
Weir, Scenario Tom Schulman. Touchstone Pictures and Silver Screen Partners IV.
(2) See also Steven Holl’s project Hybrid Building, Seaside, Florida (1985-88). “…, the building
expresses the idea of a society of strangers (…) rooms for melancholic types (…) inclined to silence
and solitude (…): a tragic poet, a musician, and a mathematician”.
(3) Mnemosyne, in Greek mythology, is the personification of memory and remembrance.

Method.

Drawing by hand, vertical (topographical) sections, materializing architecture, full scale architectural details. The mastery of Technè as the indispensable condition for an architecture of Poetics to become. More specifically, the drawing processes start from drawing vertical sections, including the topographies these sections belong to, into which central perspectives will gradually show emerging corners, rooms, and spaces. From these sections and their integrated central perspectives, fragments of floorplans are derived. These drawings are repeated and gradually improved through an iterative process of drawing—Critical Sequential Drawing (CSD)(Van Den Berghe 2021).

Timing.

The fall semester: will be dedicated to

  • site analysis, starting with a site A a mirroring pond in a magic forest (Sint-Lievens-Esse).
  • producing a refined and detailed scale model on scale 1/50 of an architectural reference, accompagnied by drawing investigations of fragments and details as an onset for a personal architectural The references will be selected by the promotor of the master thesis studio and presented and discussed with the students upon the first studio session.

The spring semester: will bank on the investigations of the fall semester. The program (see above) offers grips to the student to imagine situations, out of which a series of rooms and corners as architectural fragments will be developed. These fragments need to be fully elaborated, and as a series they form the onset of a personal repertoire, a prediction of your own critical reflective architectural practice. These rooms and corners both ‘project’ your future imaginations ànd strongly draw from your personal memories of spaces, haunting architectural bodies and eidetic architectural references that populate your past and present.

Method.

Drawing, mostly by hand, constitutes the core of the method of this master thesis studio (drawing, here, also includes scale modeling). More specifically, the drawing processes start from drawing vertical sections of the topographies of the site, out of which your architecture emerges as corners, rooms, and spaces. From these sections, fragments of floorplans are derived.

Output.

  1. fall semester: detailed scale model of an architectural reference (scale 1/50) and drawings, sketches, … (see above under ‘timing’).
  2. spring semester: the student can make choices from the following possible documents:
    • topographical sections, sections with inscribed central perspectives scale 1/10, (fragments of) plans derived from these sections, the investigation of full scale architectural (window) details scale 1/1, plans on scale 1/50, drawings on scale 1/10 that permit to mediate between the scale 1/50 and 1/1, and all the drawings needed to do the investigations and presentations. Also, a detailed scale model of the project and its surroundings on scale 1/100 (or 1/50).
    • an architectural discourse in a written document (max. 5 pages), about the drawing process and the contextualization in the landscape of architectural references the student will
    • finally, choreographing the jury moment through a meticulous set-up of the exhibition, as a group work with your teammates in the studio.

Evaluation.

  1. the student will be evaluated and calibrated at the weekly
  2. three milestone evaluations during this master thesis project: (1) at the end of the fall semester, (2) in the last session before Easter holiday, and (3) approximately two weeks before the jury.
  3. the final evaluation through/in a jury-exhibition setting, where a group of (international) jury members will look at the work and discuss the process and the output with the student.

Evaluation format.

The evaluation will assess the aspects as formulated above, i.e. the process and the final production. Criteria: see ects file and competention matrix.
The output will be presented on a weekly basis by the student, and in intermediary reviews in the presence of the whole group (reviews) and evaluated.
The reviews will be peer review, up-liner review by guest critics and academic review by the professor. There will be a final presentation with a public exhibition in the final week of the course for a jury of internal and external critics.

Objectices / Specific objectives and Learning Outcomes: see ECTS Sheets.
See https://onderwijsaanbod.kuleuven.be/opleidingen/n/CQ_51522855.htm#activetab=doelstellingen and https://onderwijsaanbod.kuleuven.be/opleidingen/e/CQ_51522858.htm#activetab=doelstellingen.

References.

  • Fóti, M. (1992). Heidegger and the Poets: Poiesis/Sophia/Techne, Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press, NewJersey/London, pp. 60-61.
  • Holl, (1989). Anchoring, Princeton Architectural Press, p. 81.
  • KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture / Studio Anatomy: studio-anatomy.org, https://www.blog-archkuleuven.be/motherhouse/
  • KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture / The Architectural Detail: https://www.blog-archkuleuven.be/architectural-detail/
  • Van Den Berghe, (2021). Critical Sequential Drawing: a drawing method to close the gap between the Poetic Image and its Material Presence. Stoà, pp. 168-179.


My Black Mariah, drawing scale 1/10, Jo Van Den Berghe architect (2016)


The Poet’s Writing Cabin, photo © Jo Van Den Berghe (2025).


The Boathouse, drawing scale 1/10, Jo Van Den Berghe Architect (2013).