| Architecture Upper-Division Courses |
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Spring 2008 ARCH 109X Extended Course Description Synthetic Tectonics However, given these advances in computationally driven methods, recent production often falls short of their potential mainly because architects have repeatedly neglected formal disciplines of geometry and instead turned to reductive principles for conceiving, describing and producing seemingly complex forms. In addition to totally weakening any integrity of formal logic, this computationally aided process mistakenly assumes that, as long as it is CAD/CAM, the resultant form will gain integrity. In seeking a more open set of outcomes, this seminar will be engaging the abovementioned technologies in a way that is commensurate with their possibilities. Working with both top-down and bottom-up approaches, this course will promote the exploration of an alternative way of conceiving and producing architecture by engaging matter across a wide spectrum of scales and regimes. We will regard the contemporary surplus of computational form as a provocation to develop formal and spatial configurations that demand the development and use of new hybrid, synthetic or composite tectonics in which not only its form but also its material incarnation is integral to that particular architectural expression. Along this line of thinking, we will consider an architectural project working within a wide range of material possibilities and logistics at work: from the immediate qualities and performances of materials –weight, durability, extension, color, etc.- to directives that architects make on them together with the invisible forces that shape architecture. However, that is not to say that we will only adhere to the pragmatics of conventional continuity between form and construction and accept pure constructive determinism as in any other architectural practice. Alternatively, our interest will focus on harnessing modes of organization based upon matter as an abstract machine. The course will be designed as a workshop or testing laboratory in tectonic studies. With equal emphasis on formal and graphic analysis, elementary mathematical thinking and numerically controlled material technology, the seminar will circle, in increasing tight loops, the exploration and production of new tectonics and their material effects. As a result, the course will develop competence in inventive tectonic and material design and develop criteria for discussing performative effects which are verifiable by sensing what they do and how they work in reality, by relating them to an extended field of affects and effects. ARCH 111 Three hours of lecture per week. Introduction to international housing from the Architectural and City Planning perspective. Housing issues (social, cultural, and policy) ranging from micro-scale (house) to macro-scale (city) presented with a comparison of housing situations in developed and developing countries. (SP) ARCH 130 Forty-five hours of lecture and 20 hours of discussion per semester. Formerly 130A. Comparison and discussion of the theories of environmental design, and development and testing of various methods, tools, and techniques available for environmental designers. Particular emphasis lies on the difficulties of environmental design and related fields. (SP) ARCH 139X/ARCH 239A Course may be repeated for credit as topic varies. (SP) Extended Course Description Metropolis of the Mind: Designing Virtual Worlds Virtual worlds were once the province of science fiction authors, like Gibson (Neuromancer, 1984), Stephenson (Snow Crash, 1992), and Wachowski (The Matrix, 1999). The advent of on-line, multiplayer games like World of Warcraft, and ‘alternative’ worlds like SecondLife, made them reality. Virtual worlds are digital, three-dimensional, immersive, interactive environments that mimic existing, bygone, or fantasy worlds. They are populated by avatars representing individuals participating online in social, economic, educational, and other activities. Virtual worlds are based on principles borrowed from architectural theory, game technology, and filmmaking, blended and adapted to support specific objectives. They can be used to design and test new places (buildings, cities, etc.), to re-create culturally significant but destroyed places, and to create new types of combined physical/informational places that can only exist in Cyberspace. Starting with architectural place-making, game design theories, and filmmaking principles, the course will introduce the principles of designing virtual worlds, through readings, discussions, and exercises. Working in groups, students will design of an actual SimVenture (simulation/adventure) of their own choice (e.g., a virtual museum, a virtual learning environment, a virtual cultural heritage, etc.). The course project will be implemented in Virtools (a commercial web-based game engine), which will be taught in class. (PhD students can substitute the course project with a research paper on a related topic.) The course is open to graduate and undergraduate students, from all departments. Prior knowledge of gaming, programming, or architectural design are desired, but not required. ARCH 140 Fifty hours of lecture and 30 hours of discussion per semester. Prerequisites: Physics or equivalent, or consent of instructor. Study of the thermal and lighting environments in buildings, with emphasis on quantitative design techniques. (SP) ARCH 154 Thirty hours of lecture and 45 hours of laboratory per semester. Prerequisites: 150. Design and analysis of whole structural building systems with the aid of finite element analytical methods. Advanced structural concepts explored in a laboratory environment. ARCH 160 Three hours of lecture and three hours of laboratory per week. This introduction to the materials and processes of construction takes architecture from design to realization. The course will cover four material groups commonly used in two areas of the building assembly (structure and envelope): wood, concrete, steel, and glass. You will understand choices available and how materials are conventionally used. By observing construction, you'll see how our decisions affect the size of materials, connections, and where they are assembled. Architects must understand not only conventions, but also the potential in materials, so we will also study unusual and new developments. (SP) Extended Course Description This course is intended as an introduction to the materials and processes that take architecture from design to realization. For many architects, successfully navigating the construction phase is disheartening; there is a sense within the profession that this is the stage when dreams die. But for the best architects, construction is not only necessary, but stimulates good design. As this is an introductory course, we will cover a number of topics in a relatively short time. The course will focus on three major material groups: wood, especially dimensioned lumber and engineered wood; precast and sitecast concrete; and metals, especially aluminum and steel. We have selected these topics because the materials are commonly used for two major areas of the building assembly: the structure and the envelope. For each subject material, there will be a team-built shop project. You should not expect to be an expert on these building materials at the end of the semester. Instead, you should be able to understand the choices available to you as a designer, and have a passion for the stuff of architecture. In our experience, much of the mystery that construction holds for students is a lack of awareness about what you already know. Through your experiences—living in buildings, crossing bridges, and doing things like walking out on diving boards—you have already developed a fundamental appreciation of the strengths and sizes of construction materials. (Ever feel like it might be dangerous to walk under something?) In this class, we will help you see what you know, and build on it. Note: In Spring of 2008 only, this class will be co-taught by Dana Buntrock and Lauren Mallas. Graduate students are welcome, but should also know that a graduate-level course will be offered in Fall 2008. ARCH 170B Forty-five hours of lecture and 15 hours of seminar/discussion per semester. 170A studies the ancient and medieval periods; 170B studies the period since 1400; the aim is to look at architecture and urbanism in their social and historical context. (F,SP) ARCH 179 Course may be repeated for credit. Fifteen hours of lecture/seminar per unit per semester. Prerequisites: 170A-170B and consent of instructor. Special topics in Architectural History. Extended Course Description Rethinking Suburban History Recent historical research about American suburbs demonstrates that they are much more varied and complicated than previously imagined. Descriptions of “the suburbs,” as a generic environment are no longer convincing. We are now aware of African-American, working class, industrial and agricultural suburbs. Continuing exurban development is currently producing phenomena as different as gated communities, ethnoburbs, lifestyle centers, and restructured rural towns. With more than half of the U.S. population now residing outside of central cities, even the name “suburb,” implying dependence on a central city, must be questioned. This seminar will examine, using both scholarly and popular explanations, the economic, social, and cultural debates that have shaped our interpretation of this form of urban development. Topics will include the following: defining the suburb (metropolitan region vs. “shrinking city;” the historiography of the suburb; cultural representations of suburbia (films, novels, comics, popular music and video); comparative exurban development (zwischenstadt, citta diffusa, etc.); race and the suburbs; gender and the suburbs; suburban building and planning typologies; designed vs. vernacular suburbs; exporting suburbs. Students will be expected to conduct original research on a suburban topic of their choice. |
