Required Course
Credits: 1-15-6 (6 semester hours)
Type of Course: Architectural Design Studio
Instructors: Varies
Prerequisites: ARCH 4023 or advanced placement
Course Overview:Advanced studio problems in architecture emphasizing research and application in the areas of history and theory, urban and environmental design, culture and practice, electronic media, and construction technology.
Topics include:
- Comprehensive design project in which students "produce an architecture project informed by a comprehensive program, from schematic design through the detailed development of programmatic spaces, structural and environmental systems, life-safety provisions, wall sections, and building assemblies, as may be appropriate"
- Changing project topics within a variety of critical and ideological constructs.
- Development of a critical understanding of the contemporary urban condition in Atlanta.
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.