Fall 2008 Student Work
Click on the images for a brief slide show of the student work.
2nd year Architecture Studios
Objecting/subjecting Urban Habitation: live/work spaces for graduate art students
This studio is the first in the sequence of six studios of the undergraduate design curriculum. It was designed to build on the "broader understanding of design as a particular set of operations that shape virtually everything in the world" that was developed in the Freshman Common Year, moving on to address those of the discipline and profession that make up the field of Architecture. The studio began with a fundamental understanding of spatial relationships and the physical manipulation of space as place-making and followed with an exploration of architectural vocabularies and languages. In both cases, the primary emphases was to define the necessary skills of seeing, thinking and representing that are critical for the development of architectural proficiency at all levels.
3rd year Architecture Studios
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.
4th year Architecture Studios
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.
Architecture Core Studio II
Intermediate studies in architectural design emphasizing integrative design strategies that engage the programmatic, contextual, and constructed dimensions of architecture and its representations.
Architecture Options Studio I
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.
Architecture Options Studio III
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.
Introduction to Design Computing
The course seeks to introduce students to the use of microcomputers within the context of architectural design and practice. Attention will be geared more towards underlying principles, rather than the mastery of a given set of tools, since these evolve over time with increasing rapidity. It is however intended that the completion of the course will leave students with a practical and functional level of capability in the use of the more popular subset of tools which they will find useful both through the remaining of the degree as well as beyond. The course should also provide the student with the ability to comfortably pursue advanced investigation of a wide range of specific tools should interest or circumstance demand this. It should also provide an introduction for students interested in pursuing more computationally rigorous specialization's, through introduction to current research issues in the field of design computing. The content and conceptual emphasis of the course should provide a good introduction to the evolving nature of design and design practice, including its growing overlap with computer science and technology.
Photography 1
The purpose of this class is to introduce students to photography as a means of personal expression and to learn how that experience is applied in the creative processes of the designer.
Students have access to a black and white chemical darkroom, where they develop film and make prints by hand. They need no prior experience in the use of the camera or the darkroom. Students are also taught studio and lighting and techniques for documenting their architectural artwork and models. They learn the technical skills necessary to make photographs, but also develop overall visual literacy through the practice of making and talking about art.