Options I Studio: Atlanta Quality of Life Zoning Districts
ARCH 6031 focuses on a comprehensive design project in which students produce an architectural project informed by a comprehensive program, from schematic design through the detailed development of programmatic spaces; including structural and environmental systems, life-safety provisions, wall sections, and building assemblies. The project is developed with a critical understanding of the contemporary urban condition in Atlanta and the connections of and within communities.
An additional objective is to investigate the implications, and possibilities, for urban development and development patterns (SPI zoning) resulting from the ARC (Atlanta Regional Commission) LCI grant provisions. The goal of this investigation is to propose a critical assessment of legislation and the actualities of site and community as they co-exist in the development of a particular site and more-over the rebirth of larger community systems.
The further objective is to use the building design project itself to test and critique the underlying notions of context and compatibility as these ideas relate to building typology and 'style'. In addition, the design process will be predicated on an assumption that there is an understanding of past processes and ordering systems which may be expressed through contemporary means, methods and techniques. Building "of our time" is as important as preservation, in an attitude of respect towards the past.
The design project for this course will be a mixed-use building consisting of a mix of some components of restaurant, retail, and/or office, as determined by each student, with a requirement for residential occupancy. Each studio has a site(s) located in various areas of Atlanta. Each of these areas either has a 'Quality of Life' zoning ordinance currently in place or is in the process of adopting one. Therefore the program and conditions for the prize jury will have a commonality. You are welcome to discuss findings between studios; however each studio will be focusing on divergent paths of study. Students will critique and add to the program requirements in order to ground their buildings in the sense of "place" that has drawn them to a particular site.
Construction Tech & Design Integration II
The relationship between the construction of architectural sites and buildings and the representations which describe these constructions is the primary focus of the course. At its core, the course aims to provide students with tools which will allow them to design, with greater precision and confidence, projects which demonstrate site planning and construction, which merge with problems in construction technology with in the context of a given, hypothetical, site and building design. Architectural representation becomes shared context of problem solving for both site and building.