UG: 4.032, G: 4.033

Provides an introduction to working with information, data and visualization in a hands-on studio learning environment. Studies the history and theory of information, followed by a series of projects in which students apply the ideas directly. Progresses though basic data analysis, visual design and presentation, and more sophisticated interaction techniques. Topics include storytelling and narrative, choosing representations, understanding audiences, and the role of designers working with data. 

Graduate students are expected to complete additional assignments. 

Provides instruction in architectural design and project development with an emphasis on social, cultural, or civic programs. Builds on foundational design skills with more complex constraints and contexts. Integrates aspects of architectural theory, building technology, and computation into the design process. 

Introduces the tools, techniques and technologies of design across a range of projects in a studio environment. Explores concepts related to form, function, materials, tools, and physical environments through project-based exercises. Develops familiarity with design process, critical observation, and the translation of design concepts into digital and physical reality. Utilizing traditional and contemporary techniques and tools, faculty across various design disciplines expose students to a unique cross-section of inquiry.

Introduces fundamental design principles as a way to demystify design and provide a basic introduction to all aspects of the process. Stimulates creativity, abstract thinking, representation, iteration, and design development. Equips students with skills to have more effective communication with designers, and develops their ability to apply the foundations of design to any discipline.

2/15/23 - this subject number was previously 4.s22

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) dates back over 80 years when digital computers were developed during World War II. Using binary code to represent various phenomena made it possible to solve previously unsolvable numerical problems. AI has rapidly become a transformative technology in various fields, including the built environment. This course offers a thorough understanding of AI's role in the built environment, including hands-on examples of utilizing AI to tackle various urban challenges. Through data-driven case studies, this course will explore how emerging data and AI models are changing the assessment of the built environment. The structure of this course focuses on four key areas: 

• Data Analysis in Satellite Imagery
• Fundamental of Graph Theory and its applications in cities
• Computer vision and  image processing
• Theories of Artificial Neural Networks and image data classification. 

In this project-based course, students will work in teams to develop a computational approach that addresses the use of these four methods to solve an urban problem.  
 

2/24/23 - class will now meet in room 5-216

Master/Piece wordshop will study 6 buildings that are considered seminal in contemporary architecture, built by architects that remain active in practice. We will discuss why those works are key and the chain of reactions and trends that detonate in architecture culture, their traces and impact in peers and in other projects. We will focus deep in the conceptual to constructive scales and the masters will join the class to culminate the analysis and conversation.

Visiting masters: Alberto Campo Baeza, Diébédo Francis Kéré & Alejandro Aravena

Note: 1st meeting, T 2/7, 10am on Zoom: https://mit.zoom.us/j/97338571583

The Metropolitan Storage Warehouse was built in 1895, it is one of the oldest buildings in the MIT neighborhood and currently finds itself in the midst of redevelopment as it will become the new home of the School of Architecture and Planning in 2025. Upon completion the MET will provide approximately 110,000 square feet of academic, research, and gathering space including labs and studios for architecture students. As the building finds itself amidst active transformation this workshop will look back on the MET’s past lives, investigate its current working state, and ponder on its future through the tools of phonography, or field recording, to better understand the multiple layers of reality that converge at this site.

The MET Warehouse operated as a storage facility since its construction and its architectural elements– two-foot-thick-stone walls, vaulted ceilings, its medieval crenellations—all stood witness to years of internal life, the drama of the storage facility; the secret life of boxes that end up in secret rooms. In 2015, when the MET closed, much more than boxes were revealed to have occupied the nearly 1,500 internal units: private offices, satellite walk-in closets, a wine collection dating back to the mid-90’s, a saxophonist’s recording studio, extension art storage for Boston museums, the list goes on.  The MET Warehouse, like many other storage spaces, was a territory of exchange and protection for belonging(s): material, capital, life. How might the past lives of this building effect its future life as repository and vessel for a community of architects, designers, and thinkers (both academic and not, institutional and extra institutional)? In listening to the building might we learn more about its expansive ability to hold, archive, and safekeep and challenge our expectations for what forms of belonging might take place here next?

2/15/23 - this subject number has been changed to 4.s23

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) dates back over 80 years when digital computers were developed during World War II. Using binary code to represent various phenomena made it possible to solve previously unsolvable numerical problems. AI has rapidly become a transformative technology in various fields, including the built environment. This course offers a thorough understanding of AI's role in the built environment, including hands-on examples of utilizing AI to tackle various urban challenges. Through data-driven case studies, this course will explore how emerging data and AI models are changing the assessment of the built environment. The structure of this course focuses on four key areas: 

• Data Analysis in Satellite Imagery
• Fundamental of Graph Theory and its applications in cities
• Computer vision and  image processing
• Theories of Artificial Neural Networks and image data classification. 

In this project-based course, students will work in teams to develop a computational approach that addresses the use of these four methods to solve an urban problem.  
 

2/8/23 note: Room changed to E15-283A

Investigates the political economy of attention from a contemporary media studies perspective. Offers instructions in theories of mass media and commodification, the history of capitalism, and key theoretical debates pertaining to the mediation of attention as a cultural form. Emphasis on critical practices of reading, viewing, and listening that resist dominant configurations of attention in the capitalist sensorium. Seminar format with time for student presentation, guest lecture, visiting artist presentation, and class field trips. Readings will be drawn from a range of fields including political philosophy, film and media theory, art history, technology studies, and communication theory. The course is open to both graduate and undergraduate students. Students may elect to fulfill final assignment as either creative project or research-based seminar paper. Additional work required of students taking graduate version.

4.s33 Syllabus (MIT Certificate protected)

2/8/23 note: Room changed to E15-207

Textile manufacturing is among the most lucrative and largest polluting industries today: more than 80 billion square meters of leftover garments end up in landfills or get destroyed by burning. When the expected demand is not met, supply chains channel stock to the parallel economy of stock destruction ensuring price control. Critiquing this widespread phenomenon of fast fashion, this course takes the notion of “toxic textiles” both as a medium and as a framework to explore the cultural, social, political, economic, and environmental footprint of clothing through the textile medium as a artistic and critical response to the world’s pressing concerns. The course introduces hands-on experimentation with textile art and fashion design informed by case studies in contemporary art, decolonizing fashion, performative and wearable technologies, experimental preservation, and fabric upcycling. 

Research assignments and material experimentation in the first part of the semester build on Donna Haraway’s method of “Implosion” geared toward concept development and skill building. The course will introduce working with a variety of materials and techniques, with an emphasis on reverse applique technique and fabric manipulation. Lectures, readings, screenings, and crits supplement studio practice. At the end of the semester, students will be expected to exhibit one studio-based final project informed by thematic readings and class discussions. 

Students from all disciplines are encouraged and welcome to enroll. The enrollment is limited to 20 students. Sewing skills are beneficial but not pre-required for the class; sewing tutorials, machines, and basic sewing equipment and textiles will be provided.

4.s32 Syllabus (MIT Certificate protected)