Course Statement of Pedagogical Intentions

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The first year studio constitutes an introduction to architectural issues. It is focused on the fundamentals of formal conceptual relationships, design methodology and design process. Basic spatial and compositional ideas are introduced through the study of precedent, typology, the use of diagram, elementary tectonic systems and a process of re conceptualization. The student will be introduced to the relationship of the individual to the collective, as represented in the city. Research, writing, and presentation skills are incorporated in the design curriculum to further promote architectural literacy. Students should be able to demonstrate an ability to think and represent ideas in three dimensions by the end of the first year.

The second year studio stresses an understanding of the relationship between ideas, form and space, as it builds upon the techniques and concepts of the first year. In particular, the generation of form and space is addressed, as a conceptual and cultural response to program, type, precedent, collective sites, basic building construction, architectural language and design methods. The form-idea discourse is expanded through didactic vehicles that emphasize basic architectural theory and related design strategies, visual representation and a maturation of the student's design process.

The third year studio is distinguished from the previous two by a greater emphasis placed on the comprehensive nature of building design. The development of architectural language is of particular importance. Material and structural study, initiated in the previous semesters is combined with an understanding of appropriate environmental systems. Materials and building systems are studied, both, as tectonic elements, and, as components of a broad cultural and historic context. Students are expected to integrate lessons of the first and second years from all components of the professional curriculum, including history, theory, technology and structures. The studio discourse weaves together these architectural threads to influence both formal and conceptual design. Questions of meaning and expression, as they are manifest in materials, details, language and imagery will be addressed. Complex concerns of response to context, program interpretation, innovation and contesting values emerge in the course of the year. Student design projects are of longer duration and must evidence a holistic development of architectural solutions for this broad range of related issues.

FIRST YEAR

"Spatial Awareness"
(Introduction to Spatial, Representational and Formal Logic)
Spatial Concepts-
     Historic/Contemporary
     Figure/Field
     Sequence
Abstraction
Form/Idea
Idea/Strategy
Type/Form and Culture
Composition
     Transparency
     Proportion
     Hierarchy
     Figure/Field
Diagram/Parti
Introduction to Elementary Building Systems
     Properties of Basic Tectonic Systems
Introduction to individual and Collective
     As Represented in Urban Form
Assess Value

'Design Methods" (Cultural Themes and Relationships to the Generation of Space and Form)
Reiterate First Year Themes
     Spatial Awareness and Relation to Spatial Representation and
     Formal Logic
Movement
Collective Site
Program
Type
Precedent
Familiarization with Construction Systems
Theory and Relation to Design Strategy
Design Process

Second Year projects will evidence development of selected issues, This selection is intended to encourage didactic -focus and to reiterate concepts and techniques introduced in the First Year Design Studio.

"Design Development"
(Typology and Systems Integration)
The City
Research
Analysis
Program Logic
Transformation
Multiple Strategies
Structure
Materials
Construction
Environmental Systems
Codes
Form Generation
Cultural Themes

Each Third Year project will evidence development that addresses all Core Year issues listed above.

Studio Organization and expectations:

in both ARC 307 (fall term) and ARC 308 (spring term) there will be a main project of at least a nine week duration to provide time for gestation and significant development of an architectural design.

Sites both terms will be urban. Arc 307 will begin with a study and analysis of the city within which the project is to be sited and extend through the beginning development of all aspects of the building. The project program of the ARC 307 term may be complex, an institution, housing etc. The ARC 308 term will advance some assumptions about an urban condition, context, to provide the opportunity to take a project of relatively simple program and site to a high degree of resolution and detail development.

The issues of technical and practical matters, structure, environmental systems, materials, codes, and construction are to be addressed as included concerns of any architectural proposition. The final design, product, must show that all these systems and issues are understood and evident at a fundamental level.

Students must work in the studio space provided. Students are expected to be present in studio from 2:00 PM until 6:00 PM Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Interaction between students and studios is encouraged, but not during studio hours. The studio is to remain a place of academic investigation and work at all times.

Evaluation of student work will be specifically discussed in each individual studio syllabus. However grades will follow the "Grading Guidelines for Design Studios" attached.