Architecture Course Descriptions
Design Studio
Studio is the core of the architecture pre-college program and serves as an introduction to the spatial concepts of architecture. Projects will explore the design and experience of spatial environments through a series of creative investigations consisting of both independent and collaborative work. Project themes include context, scale, perception, light, materiality and component systems. Studio work will be supported by individual critique as well as group discussion based upon critical review of student work. The course is focused entirely on project design work, while integrating concepts and skills from Drawing and Digital Media as well as the workshop and seminar courses.
Drawing
This course introduces observational and creative drawing, including free hand and mechanical drawing of spatial environments - interior and exterior, architecture, still life and the human figure. A wide range of media will be explored including pencil, ink and charcoal. We will learn the basic principles of constructing two and three-dimensional drawings and perspective as well as a variety of sketching and free hand drawing techniques.
Digital Media
Digital Media Workshop intends to familiarize students with the history, thinking and application of digital media in architecture. Students will learn the basic skills needed to create, explore and critique digital images, drawings and three-dimensional environments. As a complement to the design studio, assignments will encourage an active dialogue between design intentions and representational tools. With a focus on Photoshop and Rhinoceros, skills explored include image editing, color manipulation, photomontage, spatial depth, time-lapse sequence, curves, surfaces and solids, 3D object manipulation and digital design.
Process and Form
This course will examine the role process plays in shaping the work of architecture. Process is instrumental in the creation of architecture and is intimately linked and primarily responsible for its final form. Process as a means and working methodology to generate architecture will be reviewed, from historical precedents to contemporary work practices. Particular emphasis will be placed on drawing and representation; unlike most art forms, a work of architecture relies upon various forms of representation to construct it. Process in this context comingles with our understanding of the world; it recreates the world as artifice in order to project a future work into this domain. This artifice that process creates is ultimately responsible for shaping our built environment and our understanding and perception of the world.
Science in Design
Bodies, cells and code: why the scientific imaginary matters for contemporary architecture.
Why have some strange architectural bodies appeared in our cities? What does biomorphic mean? What is the role of computers and code in contemporary architectural work? For centuries architects have been fascinated by the world - and words - of science, but in the past two decades this relationship has been tighter than ever. For an entire generation of architects, science has become an important source of images, inspiration and often the main authority to justify design decisions – but the degree in which this happens is very variable. We will try to understand better this exchange and its context by discussing iconic buildings, short theoretical texts and magazine articles.
Hands-On Workshops
When we sketch a design, the idea exists on paper. As we develop our design, material choices influence our investigation of the form. When we construct the design, the assembly of material dictates the final product. This workshop provokes how we imagine an idea, how we think of the materials we use to construct it, and how the act of building can reestablish the design sketch. Through the process of design-build, we will experience how these actions can work simultaneously and dynamically to influence the invention of physical space.
