Architecture Design Studio I
ARCH 2011---Architectural Design Studio One---is first in the sequence of six studios of the Architecture Program's undergraduate design curriculum. It is designed to build on the "broader understanding of design as a particular set of operations that shape virtually everything in the world" of the Freshman Common Year, moving now to address those of the discipline and profession that makeup the field of Architecture. The primary pedagogical focus is on the fundamental ideas of and interrelationships between form, space, and program in architecture. Within this, close attention is paid to setting the 'foundation' and 'scaffolding' of a lifelong understanding and skill set; one constructed with the spirit, humanity, creative skill and critical judgment the world demands of all of those who will contribute through the field. Additionally, tremendous openness, 'reflection-in-action' and dedication are necessary from those choosing to embark on this life-defining path and experience---the ability to be both 'self-reliant' and connected with communities of similar and dissimilar others. It is only through this and by actively engaging the larger conditions of world and the field of Architecture---conditions not initially of one's own making---that either real belonging or agency within them can begin to happen.
Introduction to Design Computing
A series of lectures on the role of digital media in architectural design and production. A variety of n-dimensional digital design media, for n≤3, is systematically presented within a common computational framework including models, drawings, images, sketches, graphs, maps, diagrams, sounds, texts, animation, video, and immersive virtual reality worlds.
The class is structured around a counterpoint of lectures and software tutorials. The sequence of lectures gives an overview of the history and logic of computation in architectural design and provides a concise introduction to fundamental issues related to contemporary computer-aided design media. The sequence of tutorials illustrates these principles and provides a brief overview of state-of-the-art design software such as AutoCAD, 3DVIZ, FormZ, Premiers, Photoshop, Illustrator, Pagemaker, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, and Unreal Tournament.
Architectonics
Keywords: Symmetry, Proportion, Order
The study of architecture of form from both an historical, and a mathematical perspective. The formal theory is applied mathematics, in particular modern group theory, combinatorics, as well as recent studies in the history of mathematics. Whenever possible, the presentations are graphic and not symbolic, employing diagrammatic models from graph theory and lattice theory, as well as shape grammars. Design examples are used to illustrate principles and for analysis. The examples are culled from classical Greece to works of the modern period.
Architectonics is conceived to be to architecture what musicology is to music. Musicology has been described as music scholarship covering all studies of music other than that directed to proficiency in performance and composition: likewise for architectonics, broadly understood, to the practice of architecture. In part the term derives from Semper's 'tectonics' the theoretical grounding for painting, sculpture and architecture - the Tectonic Arts which he distinguished from Music on the one hand and Dance on the other. The extended term Architectonicks was introduced in the seventeenth century by the Cambridge Platonist, Henry More, as a category distinct from Letters and Musick with the sense of the science of architecture.
The course is designed to provide a framework for the better understanding of the relationship between design and mathematics. Examples of formal composition from architecture and music are presented to illustrate underlying principles of symmetry, proportion and order. Apart from the substantive content, the sequence of lectures serves also to introduce the student to scholarly habits of mind and a sense of ongoing research in the field; projects worked out in the class are expected to be submitted in various concurrent conferences on design and mathematics, and generative systems in design.
Design Computing: Computational Design
A series of lectures emphasizing the role of algorithmic thinking in design production. Shape grammars, a powerful formal system for the description and generation of designs is presented in detail. Shape grammars have been developed to generate a variety of architectural languages including Palladidan Villas, Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Houses, Queen Ann houses, Christopher Wren churches, Guiseppe Terragni Apartments, Ricardo Legoretta housing schemes, and many others. And still other grammars are currently developed to generate designs from scratch. /this class emphasizes the systematic generation of sets of designs (languages of designs) from scratch and focuses in the representation of these designs in 3-dimensional design worlds.