UG: 4.520 G: 4.521

Introduces a visual-perceptual, rule-based approach to design using shape grammars. Covers grammar fundamentals through lectures and in-class, exercises. Focuses on shape grammar applications, from stylistic analysis to creative design, through presentations of past applications and through short student exercises and projects. Presents computer programs for automating shape grammars.

Additional work required of students taking graduate version.

UG: 4.507 G: 4.567

Addresses fundamental methods, theories, and practices that engage contemporary modeling tools in the context of architectural design. Introduces selected academic and professional topics through lectures, demonstrations, and assignments. Topics include parametric modeling, component types and assembly, prototyping, scripting, and simulations. Initiates intellectual explorations in the use of building information modeling in research projects and design practices.

Additional work required of students taking graduate version.

See class website.

UG: 4.501; Grad: 4.511

This course introduces digital fabrication as a method of home, hut, and shelter delivery (construction). The class explores industrial-based building production from prefab to digital fab. Most important we explore new computational techniques for rapid construction. We will explore the basics of tiny building design, different types of 3D modeling systems, scalable ways to prototype and CNC fabrication. The focus is on learning by doing. The class result will be a well-designed prototype of a small building as a single packaged product. 

Additional work required of graduate students.

Selection of thesis topic, definition of method of approach, and preparation of thesis proposal. Independent study supplemented by individual conference with faculty.

Selection of thesis topic, definition of method of approach, and preparation of thesis proposal. Independent study supplemented by individual conference with faculty.

Focuses on applications of machine learning (ML) for creative design generation and data-informed design exploration, with an emphasis on visual and 3-D generative systems. Explores how recent advances in artificial intelligence, and specifically machine learning, can offer humans more natural, performance-driven design processes. Covers a wide range of machine learning algorithms and their applications to design, with topics including neural networks, generative adversarial networks, variational autoencoders, dimensionality reduction, geometric deep learning, and other ML techniques. Includes an open-ended, applied research or design project demonstrating an original, creative use of machine learning for design, architecture, engineering, or art. 

UG: 4.440, 1.056; Grad: 4.462

Introduces the design and behavior of large-scale structures and structural materials. Emphasizes the development of structural form and the principles of structural design. Presents design methods for timber, masonry, concrete and steel applied to long-span roof systems, bridges, and high-rise buildings. Includes environmental assessment of structural systems and materials. In laboratory sessions, students solve structural problems by building and testing simple models. 

Graduate and undergraduate students have separate lab sections.

GIR LAB (4.440)

Students select thesis topic, define method of approach, and prepare thesis proposal for SMArchS degree. Faculty supervision on an individual or group basis. Intended for SMArchS program students prior to registration for 4.THG.

Introduces critical theories and contemporary practices in the field of urbanism that challenge its paradigms and advance its future. Includes theoretical linkages between ideas about the cultures of urbanization, social and political processes of development, environmental tradeoffs of city making, and the potential of design disciplines to intervene to change the future of built forms. Events and lecture series co-organized by faculty and doctoral students further engage and inform research.

This edition of the class will be structured around four key debates: 1) the city and the urban, 2) spatial forms of the political, 3) world systems and urban economies, and 4) environmentalism. We will analyze these topics both cross-historically and cross-geographically, consistently moving between historical and contemporary urban formations.

The class will explore these four questions by examining the various artifacts and mechanisms that make up the urban environment (infrastructures, buildings, plans) and the spatial structures they generate. Throughout, we will consider cities as part of broader processes of territorial structuring, investigating how cities depend on these processes for their functioning while also contributing to their shaping.

The class debates will be complemented by an individual, semester-long design-research project, which will be discussed through presentations and dedicated workshops.