Over a two year period (2006-2007) a commitment was made to re-inventing the nature of design studio. Incorporating student collaboration at multiple levels, innovative teaching activities resulted from a re-thinking of the role of design in architectural education. Architecture students worked alongside students from Building Technology (PhD), as well as with industry suppliers, fabricators, contractors and building experts. The aim of each studio was the concrete manifestation of design decisions. The four workshops and three studios taught were concrete examples of Architecture-Engineering and Construction (AEC) Integration. They were also concrete opportunities to investigate the role which ideas play in the history and theory of technology; particularly tectonics.
Vertical studios were organized pedagogically to permit undergraduate and graduate students (Juniors, Seniors, Options 1 and Options 3 students) to work together. Conducted in an innovative manner, students developed all design and construction details for the construction of the Solar Decathlon house. Issues of architectural technology, fabrication, construction procedures and material choices were at the center of student research and design activities. Students collaborated on a weekly basis with engineering students in EE, ME, and Biology. For the first time in a studio setting, students forged relationships with partners in the construction industry including material suppliers, manufactures, and building components fabricators. Half scale and full scale mock-ups were produced and in the Fall of 2007 students worked directly on construction of the house.
Design studio which actualized the research methodologies developed in the seminar on Architectural Matter. In studio design processes promoted modes of thinking, argumentation and fabrication committed to the study of the natural elements and the art of building. Ten students developed independent thesis projects; three of which won 1st, 2nd and 3rd (shared) prize in the end of year Invited Jury Competition.
Design studio which explored the role of material specificity as it pertains to the design of buildings. In particular, the studio questioned traditional notions of tectonics which historically have given primacy to techniques of aggregation and assembly of materials. Concrete and its material analogue of Plaster were used as physical constraints with students asked to design an art gallery and/or performing arts center.
Undergraduate studio whose focus is the study of architecture’s relationship to Nature; viewed as both force and resource and as raw material for the twin impulses of necessity and artifice. The studio highlights the act of making as an ethical choice with regard to Nature and the “poetics of construction”. It also engages issues of Place and place-making within the study of Tectonics – the art of joining. The studio’s main project is the design of an artists’ cooperative. Based on installations which each student designs and builds in the garden of the College of Architecture, design processes are translated into proposals for a new art center for Dekalb County.