Preparatory research development leading to a well-conceived proposition for the MArch design thesis. Students formulate a cohesive thesis argument and critical project using supportive research and case studies through a variety of representational media, critical traditions, and architectural/artistic conventions. Group study in seminar and studio format, with periodic reviews supplemented by conference with faculty and a designated committee member for each individual thesis.

The design of urban environments. Strategies for change in large areas of cities, to be developed over time, involving different actors. Fitting forms into natural, man-made, historical, and cultural contexts; enabling desirable activity patterns; conceptualizing built form; providing infrastructure and service systems; guiding the sensory character of development. Involves architecture and planning students in joint work; requires individual designs or design and planning guidelines.

Under One Roof explores the agency of the roof as public device.

Following two semesters focused on Enclosures, and on the primacy of the plan, Under One Roof will continue our investigation on collective form through a radical 90-degree turn, placing the section (and the worm’s-eye view) at the center of the discourse.

As for the previous iterations, the studio intends to stimulate an accurate research into the possibilities generated by a fundamental act of spatial delimitation. The project will be explored as selective device, capable of framing contemporary rituals, activating possible scenes of public life.

Under One Roof is not so much about the object roof itself as the covered space beneath it, understood as a plural and shared territory. A portion of space that interests us because of its specific spatial qualities: structure, proportions, light, atmospheric conditions, material expression.

Criteria of rationality, efficiency and climatic performance will meet the monumental, the archaic, the symbolic, the unconscious.

The expression Under One Roof can be read both literally and metaphorically. It describes an act of collective recognition - the effort of a multitude - as well as the form of the thing: the way it manifests itself to the sensible world.

Under One Roof celebrates the value of being physically present: the risk of bringing one’s own body in a specific place - sharing it with other bodies - as a basic form of democratic participation. It also celebrates the city as a place of material and immaterial accumulation, injecting architectural meaning and providing a condensed collective experience.

he studio will operate as a project-driven research unit. 
The design work will unfold in two segments:  
A Roof for 10-100 (weeks 1-5) and A Roof for 100-1,000 (weeks 7-14).

Throughout the semester, we will conduct local site visits to examine architectural precedents.

The students will participate in a series of Rooftalks: online conversations with the authors of some of the proposed case studies. Every talk will focus on one project, that will be presented and discussed in depth.

Mandatory lottery process.

Interdisciplinary approach to design through studio design problems that engage the domains of building technology, computation, and the cultural/historical geographies of energy. Uses different modalities of thought to examine architectural agendas for 'sustainability'; students position their work with respect to a broader understanding of the environment and its relationship to society and technology. Students develop a project with a comprehensive approach to programmatic organization, energy load considerations, building material assemblies, exterior envelope and structure systems.

Explores the foundations of design through a series of bracketed methods of production. These methods exercise topics such as form, space, organization, structure, circulation, use, tectonics, temporality, and experience. Students develop methods of representation that span from manual to virtual and from canonical to experimental. Each method is evaluated for what it offers and privileges, supplying a survey of approaches for design exercises to follow. First in a sequence of design subjects, which must be taken in order.

Provides a practical hands-on introduction to digital fabrication, including CAD/CAM/CAE, NC machining, 3-D printing and scanning, molding and casting, composites, laser and waterjet cutting, PCB design and fabrication; sensors and actuators; mixed-signal instrumentation, embedded processing, and wired and wireless communications. Develops an understanding of these capabilities through projects using them individually and jointly to create functional systems.

Schedule & Information

Studies design as an interrogative technique to examine material sciences, media arts and technology, cultural studies, computation and emerging fabrication protocols. Provides in-depth, theoretical grounding to the notion of 'design' in architecture, and to the consideration of contemporary design methodologies, while encouraging speculation on emerging design thinking. Topical focus varies with instructor. May be repeated for credit with permission of department.

Introduction to cultures of form in architectural design, representation, and production, including material cultures, geometric discourse and analysis, Western and non-Western modes of perception and representation. Through a series of acts of forming and making, provides a primer and venue to rehearse skills such as 3D modeling and the reciprocity between representation and materialization. Exercises accompanied by lectures from practitioners, who each represent a highly articulated relationship between form and material in a body of design research or built work.

Provides an introduction to visual communication, emphasizing the development of a visual and verbal vocabulary through the lens of typography. Presents the fundamentals of shape, composition, visual hierarchy, word/image relationships, and type systems as building blocks for communicating with clarity, emotion, and meaning. Students develop their ability to analyze, discuss, and critique both their work and the work of the designed world, with an emphasis on type as a visual and conceptual medium.

Overview of design as the giving of form, order, and interactivity to the objects that define our daily life. Follows the path from project to interactive product. Covers the overall design process, preparing students for work in a hands-on studio learning environment. Emphasizes design development and constraints. Topics include the analysis of objects; interaction design and user experience; design methodologies, current dialogues in design; economies of scale vs. means; and the role of technology in design. Provides a foundation in prototyping skills such as carpentry, casting, digital fabrication, electronics, and coding.