The work for the semester is the designing of places for community and privacy. These are always the two main issues that we have as architects. How to make spaces that can respond to the needs of the community for joyful livable places of interaction and how to respond to the dreams of individuals to provide for a joyful livable place of their own.

The second concern is building on the land or – earthtexture. Earthtexture includes land, sky, air, wind, sun, context- all the influence what we design. Architecture happens in the space between the sky and land and the designs for the studio will always take this into account.

We will also explore materials and structures that can relate to earthtexture and to give architectural meaning to the forms. It is with an understanding of materials/structures that we can give form to our ideas of architecture.

Finally, and most important, we will be understanding and reflecting the ideas and dreams of the people we are designing for. Architecture is an echo of our society and culture and at the same time it can influence the way that people relate to their surroundings.

There are four projects for the semester:

The first project is designing a “Performance Place” on a site in North End.

The second project is a short building project to design an “A Place for Shelter”

The third project is to design an “A Individual Place in the Sky” on the rooftops and walls of buildings in the North End.

The last project and longest part, is to design an “A Coming Together Place” for members of your studio on a site in the same area.

During the semester, designing mediums will include many kinds of sketch modeling, sketching, making of full size pieces of the building and drawing methods both that you used last semester and new ones. In addition we will be working in digital programs that can be useful in explaining your design.

Other issues for the semester include, the making of the space and space within, the making of large scale and human size spaces, the making of light and shadow and the making of beautiful architecture.

More on presentation day – September 4.
First studio meeting will be on Thursday, September 6 at 1:00pm.