GRAPHIC NOVEL. Making Neualtland – Ficto-criticism in Architectural Historiography

Abstract

Abstract This paper offers a reflection on an educational experiment. In the spring of 2021, a group of nine architecture students at the Delft University of Technology participated in a research elective that invited them to narrate architectural and urban design history through a ficto-critical short story in graphic-novel format. This paper is based on a conversation between Janina Gosseye, the instructor of the elective, and Meitar Tewel, who made Neualtland as part of this course. In their conversation, Janina and Meitar consider whether the shift away from the more conventional modes of historiography, represented by the ficto-critical graphic novel short story, is merely a shift in genre and tools - from writing to drawing - or if it represents an epistemological shift that can help architecture students unlock and develop new knowledge about the history of architecture and urban design. Could it be a new »species of thesis«?