Required Course
Credits 1-12-5 (5 semester hours)
Type of Course Architectural Design Studio
Instructors Varies
Prerequisites ARCH 3011
Course Overview
The third year design studio sequence focuses upon strategies of architectural design. Three themes continue throughout this year: program and use; site and context; and material and construction. Individual projects stress the consideration of these issues as well as issues of life safety, accessibility, sustainability. Studios are coordinated with required courses in fundamentals of structures and environmental systems.
Learning Objectives
Topics include:
- Development of strategic design and analytical skills which acknowledge the role of the building, architecturally and environmentally, within the city.
- Development of a critical awareness of the dimensions of contemporary architectural practice and the multiple contexts of design.
- Application of knowledge gained through collateral courses in architectural history toward the development of critical and analytical skills serving the design process.
- Demonstrate through synthetic design and representational processes the ability to organize and manipulate the architectural program towards thematic objectives defined through critical analytical exercises.
Course Requirements
Each design assignment includes explicit due dates and minimum requirements which must be met. Project presentation requirements include explanatory descriptions of the project (analytical and conceptual diagrams, axonometrics, models, site models, written texts) technical descriptions (site plan, plans, sections, elevations, construction details), and experiential representations (perspectives; color, shade-and- shadow, material studies). In addition, student work is evaluated in terms of design process and methodology (which must be explicitly recorded) and in terms of the quality of execution of the work. The course includes weekly seminars and lectures on issues of topical relevance for the design studio. When readings are assigned for the seminars, students are responsible for the readings and are expected to actively participate in the seminar discussions. At the end of each design project, students make public, oral presentations of their design work and engage in class wide discussion of the design approaches manifested in the work. Participation in these "juries" is required. At the end of each academic term, the design instructors formally review the compiled work of each student for that term for purposes of grading. Students are responsible for preserving their work (drawings, models, etc.) and organizing it in a design portfolio for purposes of this review. Students are given a written evaluation of their work both at mid-term and term-end. Attendance to all design studio sessions and seminars is required. Unexcused absences from more than three classes may result in a deduction in the course grade.