Course Overview:

The seminar “Team Building Mediation” delves into the topics of mediation and team building, offering a comprehensive approach to understanding and managing interpersonal conflicts in organizational and creative contexts. The focus of this lecture is on exploring the dynamic interactions among team members in architectural projects. Teamwork is a fundamental element of the architectural creative process, as projects often require collaboration among experts from diverse disciplines. Simultaneously, in creative environments where artistic visions and individual ideas converge, interpersonal conflicts and differences of opinion are ever-present.

Students are encouraged to analyze the team’s dynamics and strengthen their communication, leadership, and collaboration skills to successfully execute complex projects. This practice-oriented seminar provides valuable insights and tools for proactively addressing conflicts in professional creative environments. Mediation plays a central role in this process, as differences of opinion and divergent views are inevitable. Students will learn practical techniques to identify, analyze, and constructively resolve conflicts. A constructive approach to conflicts is crucial because if conflicts remain destructive and unresolved, they can have negative consequences and harm the involved parties. Hence, it is essential to develop conflict resolution mechanisms that lead to win-win situations, benefiting all parties involved. In this context, value-creating negotiation is introduced as an essential skill for architects and planners. In today’s interdisciplinary collaboration, mastering negotiation techniques that focus on mutual benefit and value creation is indispensable. Students will be empowered to develop sustainable solutions that consider the interests of all stakeholders, enabling long-term and mutually beneficial partnerships.

In this semester, we will also delve into the topic of self-organization in social systems, exploring new forms of organization in hierarchy-free and hierarchy-reduced systems, as well as collective decision-making in organizations with non-hierarchical aspirations. Another seminar topic is participatory design, an evolving approach in architecture. Here, students will learn how to actively involve future users in the design process. Participatory design allows the needs, desires, and perspectives of those who will ultimately use the built environments to be incorporated early in the design process. By integrating the community into the planning process, not only are innovative and adaptable solutions developed, but increased acceptance and identification with the resulting structures are also promoted.

During the seminar, students will give presentations on specific topics, and their grades will be based on their participation and an individual final summary. Attendance is mandatory.