Elective Course
Credits: 1-12-5 (5 semester hours)
Type of Course: Architectural Design Studio
Instructors: Varies
Prerequisites: ARCH 3012
Course Overview
Fourth year design studios are comprised of two projects, each extending the full length of the semester. This allows each project to have the following two characteristics: 1) they are comprehensive, allowing components of research, design, development, and full presentation of the work to be developed; and 2) they are critical, allowing adequate exploration of the theoretical, programmatic, contextual, and material basis of the work, both through the studios and through the concurrent seminar format. The content of the two studios is differentiated, in the fall, by emphasis upon the generative role of construction, and in the spring, by the generative role of the urban context. The fourth year studio sequence is optional, acting as one of the 10 semester hour "cluster" options that a fourth year student may elect as partial fulfillment of the Bachelor of Science degree. This sequence provides the context within which design skills and potentials of the student may mature in preparation for entry to a graduate professional program in architecture or may be broadened in preparation for alternative careers in allied fields. The studio sequence is offered at Georgia Tech and as part of the Paris study-abroad program.
Learning Objectives
Arch 4011 emphasizes the generative role of the construction detail in the conceptualization of the architectural project. Utilizing an inductive design methodology, students analyze programmatic, contextual, life safety, and accessibility issues in the development of conceptual and practical approaches to the solution of design problems. Students develop large-scale details in both two and three dimensions both through manual and digital means. The purpose of this approach is to allow a high degree of detail development within a prescribed but generic design situation. Design projects require the combination of the various detail approaches into one synthetic design solution which satisfies programmatic, contextual, and technical demands. In parallel with the Paris studio, the Atlanta studio integrates a field trip and utilizes a site in an urban center away from Atlanta.
Topics include:
- Computer component: intense, directed computer exercise in three-dimensional representation
- Design detail: exercise in technology, model and representation
- Site investigation and analysis: on-site work and team analysis
- Design schematics, design development, and final design representation.
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.