12/16/25 Note - subject is now H3 half term and schedule change to R 9:30-12:30

Place is location, but it’s also people, relationships, and memories, the site of things forgotten, suppressed or unrecorded, terrible and ordinary ways of being. The experience of people and peoples who have migrated, been displaced or exiled add further complexity to place: perhaps, an unshakeable orientation to elsewhere or a sense of in-betweenness; or a simultaneous yet imperfect belonging to both here and there, to neither here nor there; an intermittent or constant feeling of being entirely out of place. What is a diasporic sense of place, how do we image or describe it, and how might it reimage space and place to define a territory for spatial practice?

Note for MArch students: Serves as a HTC Non-Restricted OR Restricted Elective; also serves as an Urbanism elective

1/28/26 note: class schedule change from M 9-12 to R 9-12

This course is an exploration of the later stages of architectural design that occurs in architectural detailing and construction mock-ups. To initiate this course, students will select a building threshold from a project that they have previously designed and use it as a basis to produce 5-10 new threshold variations. The threshold variations will be a detailed response and study of select architectural precedents. For the final project, students will select one threshold design to build a physical model at full (or half) scale.

Students will explore the design potential of building thresholds, passages, and openings. Every threshold is on the verge of–. Choosing and isolating a threshold allows for an in-depth study of the passage between interiors, and exteriors, and of the in between space itself. For example, in Marcel Duchamp’s door 11 rue Larrey from 1927, the threshold is an opening to, a closure of, and as such it holds the space between both conditions.

In their threshold (re)designs, students will explore multiple threshold design options–each approached through a different tectonic lens. The variations will be supported by two studies: 1. an exploration of a range of cross-cultural threshold precedents drawn from editions of GA Detail, Global Architecture, El Croquis, and when possible, detailed vernacular and classical examples to establish the tectonic lenses; 2. An exploration of material, spatial, and atmospheric properties and qualities, and the bodily performances required of the passage.

The approach to tectonic studies is informed by a range of precedents from literature, mathematics, art, music and architecture. In art and music, instructional compositions are informed by repetition, variation, and singularity (uniqueness). Examples are the chance compositions of John Cage and the wall drawings of Sol Le Witt. Other models for this exploration include Elements of Style by Raymond Queneau and 99 Variations on a Proof by Philip Ording, two works that begin with a simple premise that is reinvented one hundredfold by a new set of principles, techniques, contexts, and histories.

Queneau the cofounder of OuLiPo (workshop of potential literature) begins with a narrative, while Ording begins with a theorem, yet each uses the same method to generate new perspectives of the original through an exploration of style. The class will draw from these examples to devise constraints and rules to conceive of and structure thresholds.

Since the threshold selected by student is from an original design that was given much consideration previously, each new speculation suggests alternative design approaches and potentials for the original building design, and, for their future approach to design in general.

 In 1997, the Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Pritzker Prize in 2006, was invited to take part in an art exhibition called Sao Paulo Arte Cidade, curated by Nelson Brissac. The location of his work was a former industrial zone alongside an old railway crossing the downtown area of the city. Mendes da Rocha´s proposal was just to install a construction hoist in front of the framework of the abandoned factory as a way to highlight the mechanical dimension of the city (at the time: 50km of subway, 250km of trains and 2,500 km of lifts). That intervention, which went almost unnoticed during the event, was but a brief comment informed by the architect’s keen critical vision over the city. That vision, indeed, was forged by the dialogue between his architectural work and his experience of the city, beyond its mechanical dimension it means the intense experience of the urban everyday life. A way to think in architecture more informed by culture than by erudition. Two notions, culture and erudition, that the architect used to oppose. 

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.

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.

Note for MArch students: Serves as a HTC Non-Restricted OR Restricted Elective

MIT Certificate Protected Syllabus

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 Temporal Commons is a multi-year research project that aims to bridge two millennia—one behind us & one to come—by integrating speculative futures with historical foundations. In doing so, it challenges the immediacy that dominates architectural discourse and the instinctive temporal narrowing of modernism’s legacy of presentism, proposing instead a pedagogy and practice grounded in the longue durée: an expanded historical horizon attentive to cycles of continuity, transformation, and stewardship.

This year’s studio, FLOOD, will situate architectural thinking within the fragile ecologies of mountain and riverine systems—landscapes increasingly vulnerable to flash flooding. Here, water is both a destructive force and a generative agent, revealing how architectural, legal, and ecological structures are intertwined. The studio will examine how forest depletion, timber extraction, and shortened building lifespans accelerate hydrological instability—how the rhythms of design and demolition reverberate through riparian systems. Through design speculation, students will explore how altering and extending the lifespan and regulatory contexts of materials and structures might stabilize these environments, fostering architectures of stewardship rather than extraction.

Operating between research & design, the studio will adopt a dual structure:

• As a seminar, students will pursue historical and theoretical investigations into topics such as riparian law, forest governance, cultural practices of riverine settlements, timber economies, and hydraulic science. These inquiries will establish a shared intellectual foundation and critical vocabulary.
• As a studio, students will translate this research into speculative architectural proposals—projects that test new modes of temporality, adaptation, and ecological reciprocity. Design will serve as both method and argument, transforming research into spatial, material, and environmental propositions.

Builds on Core I skills and expands the constraints of the architectural problem to include issues of urban site logistics, cultural and programmatic material (inhabitation and human factors), and long span structures. Two related projects introduce a range of disciplinary issues, such as working with precedents, site, sectional and spatial proposition of the building, and the performance of the outer envelope. Emphasizes the clarity of intentions and the development of appropriate architectural and representational solutions.

Fosters a holistic understanding of the architectural-building cycle, enabling students to build upon the history of design and construction to make informed decisions towards developing innovative building systems. Includes an overview of materials, processing methods, and their formation into building systems across cultures. Looks at developing innovative architectural systems focusing on the building envelope. Seeks to adapt processes from the aerospace and automotive industries to investigate buildings as prefabricated design and engineering assemblies. Synthesizes knowledge in building design and construction systems, environmental and structural design, and geometric and computational approaches.

Provides instruction in designing and building a functional piece of furniture from an original design. Develops woodworking techniques from use of traditional hand tools to digital fabrication. Gives students the opportunity to practice design without using a building program or code. Surveys the history of furniture making.