COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
ARCHITECTURE 6012INTENSIVE ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO
Summer Semester 2004
9:00 am to 12 noon MWF
Design Studio and Arch 228
William Miller, FAIA, Professor
Office hours: 12 noon to 1:00 pm MWF
“Architecture depends on Order, Arrangement, Eurhythmy, Propriety, and Economy.”
Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture
“Architecture is by definition a chaotic adventure. Coherence imposed on an architect’s
work is either cosmetic or the result is self-censorship.”
Rem Koolhaas, OMA, S,M,L,XL
“It is when rationality and irrationality compromise each other that the art of
architectureacquires its first liberty of growth.”
Amos I. T. Chang, The Tao of Architecture
Course Overview
Catalogue Description: “An intensive summer design studio for graduate students in the 3+ program. Studio problems in architectural design and communication at the foundation level.”
This course is not only an introduction to, but an immersion into the realm of architecture and architectural design. In a sense, it will be a bath of images and words, rigor and chaos, manipulation and absorption. The aim of this studio will be to explore architecture through analysis, synthesis, and making. You will begin to evolve an understanding of core principles through the design process, as well as developing your level of craft, through a series of focused design exercises. An important objective of this course is that you develop skills and an adjusted way of seeing, which will provide a foundation for the transition to the next level in the architectural design studio sequence.
Success in this design studio will result from three attitudes and actions: 1. demonstrating an appetite for inquiry and inspection; 2. exercising an eagerness for exploration and iteration through making and doing; and 3. expressing a willingness to critically assess and reformulate what you think architecture could be.
Course Premises
The purpose of architectural education is to transform individuals into future architectural professionals. This is done through a series of structured experiences/exercises that eventually lead an individual into being able to engage in the doing of architecture. The term “professional”
suggests two forms of action. The first is that the architectural professional should be concerned with the well-being of the people and environment she or he serves. The second addresses the productive manner and means by which architects exercises their specialized and particular skills. This assumes that the professional combines both conviction and empathy with skill and knowledge. The successful architectural professional is able to bring belief and knowledge together in the here and now.
Architects depend upon both verbal and graphic representations for the description, design, communication, and criticism of architecture. Of these two, for most individuals entering into architectural education the understanding and use of graphic representation is limited and underdeveloped compared to verbal skills. Graphic representation in architecture is both essential and instrumental. There are two main reasons for this: First, architectural designs cannot be developed and tested in full scale for obvious pragmatic reasons. Second, our minds have limitations in generating, sustaining, and communicating credible simulations of architecture without external recordings. By using graphic representations to articulate and communicate architectural intentions and actions, architects not only give solution to their work, but also use a language within which the architectural work is conceived.
Even through you are taking Intensive Architectural Communication as a co-requisite with this course, we will focus upon your development of the languages of architecture – graphic and verbal – as well as the vocabulary of the discipline. Your responsibility as an entering student in architecture is to begin engaging and mastering these languages.
Learning how to design and communicate design ideas and propositions requires a student make a substantial commitment in time and effort. The studio environment is a place of inquiry and action, and involves continuous interaction with peers and instructor. The basic mode of instruction is through the process of proposing and doing, followed by critique and discussion, and then redoing. This will involve individual desk crits, informal pin-ups with accompanying group discussion, and formal reviews involving other faculty and guest critics (usually members of the professional community). The ability to openly present ideas and propositions, to receive criticism and from it revise one’s work and direction, and to share in the ongoing studio discussions about the immediate project and the larger issues of architecture are important expectations of this course.
Course Texts and Reading
There are two required texts (although reference works would be a better term) for the course:
Francis D. K. Ching. Architecture: Form, Space and Order. Wiley, 1995.
Francis D. K. Ching. Architectural Graphics: Fourth Edition. Wiley, 2002.
Along with these books, there will be readings associated with project assignments, and others that are verbally suggested by the instructor. Often these readings will address fundamental ideas in architecture utilizing analysis of existing architecture as a means to enhance ones larger understanding of the discipline.
Over the course of this class, your education in architecture, and your professional career, you will find a broad range of often contradictory ideas, theories, and methods exist in architecture. It is to your advantage to read widely in the discipline, including those many differing texts documenting the work of significant and contemporary world architects and architectural firms. Architecture is a learned profession, and there is the expectation that you will actively seek out disciplinary and professional knowledge. As in all professions, so it is with architecture, there is a life-long process of learning and developing both disciplinary and professional knowledgefor which you are responsible.
Course Requirements and Grading
The studio meets on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays from 9:00 AM to 12:noon. Students are expected to attend all classes and any other School or course activities assigned by the instructor. Presence, engagement, and interaction are essential aspects of studio life and the functioning of this course, as all projects and assignments will be explained, criticized, handed in, and reviewed in class.
Over the semester, there will be four types of required work: 1. major projects – assignments covering essential design issues and ideas; 2. minor exercises – short work covering a particular issue that may arise from the studio project; 3. presentations – formal and informal presentations of individual and/or group work at various stages of the design process; and 4. a sketchbook – of design ideas, thinking, and architecturally related information gathering.
Evaluation in a studio context is not like grading in a lecture or other type of course. It is, at its best, a process which permits the instructor to help the student understand what is necessary to know, how the learning and understanding is progressing, and how that learning might be directed or expanded. With that in mind, there are some general expectations which will form the basis for all project evaluations:
- The outcome meets the objectives described in the project statement.
- The design process is thoughtful, meaningful, and thorough.
- Self-motivation and a high level of independent inquiry is exhibited.
- Presentationsare well composed, appropriately crafted, and communicate clearly.
More specific supplemental evaluation criteria will be issued with each project or assignment.
Grading will be done on an individual basis, and use the university system of letter grades (A – E). While we all seek excellence in what we do, excellence is rarely demonstrated in excess in beginning design studio work. This is partly because of the iterative nature of the design process (work must be done, redone, and redone)coupled with an underdeveloped sense of both an architectural vocabulary and a graphic capacity. But that does not mean we are not seeking and striving for excellence in our actions and work.
The value of the projects assigned for the semesters is as follows:
- Project 1Case Study Analysis10%
- Project 2Form and Space20%
- Project 3Spatial Order & Landscape25%
- Project 4Form Types & Tectonics35%
- Sketchbook10%
Incomplete and late projects will not be accepted unless due to a documented illness or other justifiable reason. All projects, assignments, and the sketchbook must be submitted for assessing the final grade for the course. There will be two personal interviews with each student to discuss their overall performance. The first will occur in mid-semester, and the second at the end of the semester.
Equipment and Media Requirements
Each project will have specific media requirements associated with it, however, the following equipment and supplies will be used throughout the semester:
- Bound sketchbook – size which you are comfortable working with. This will be a place to record your design ideas, process, considerations, and research notes, collage photocopied images, etc., as you analyze information, and assimilate ideas. This is a working book.
- Wood or composite drawing board with resilient (vinyl or borco) top, 3’x4’ minimum.
- Parallel rule bar, 48” recommended.
- Adjustable triangle, 10” recommended, of a 45 degree & 30/60 degree triangles.
- An architectural scale.
- Pencils, pens, x-acto knives, and other drafting and model making equipment and tools as required.
- Model making materials for each project will be discussed in studio.
While a good portion of this studio will focus on traditional means of architectural communication – hand drawing and physical models – you will also be expected to have a computer, as specified in the School’s computer requirement, at your desk. You will be encouraged to move back and forth between these two modes of production to gain an more complete understanding of the power and appropriateness found in both modes of representation and communication.
Instructor Absence
Faculty members are involved in research, scholarly and creative endeavors, other teaching assignments, professional and theoretical practice, university service, speaking engagements, and other activities. As such, they may be absent from time to time during the semester. Every effort will be made to make up the times missed by the faculty, and students will be informed of expected absences from studio.
Semester Schedule
MondayWednesdayFriday______
May
Week 117 – Introduction and hand 19 – desk crits21 – desk crits
out Projects 1 & 2
Week 224 – Review Project #126 – site visit28 – pin-up
(project due at 9:00 am)(all day)
June
Week 331 – Holiday, no class4 – pin-up4 – desk crit
Week 47 – pin-up 9 – desk crit11 – desk crit
Week 514 – Review Project #216 – Project #3 intro18 – site visit
(project due at 9:00 am)
Week 621 – pin-up23 – desk crit25 – desk crit
Week 728 – pin-up30 – desk crit2 – desk crit
(Interviews for studio and seminar)
July
Week 85 – Holiday, no class7 – Review Project #39 – Project #4 intro
(project due at 10:00pm, Tuesday, July 6th)
Week 912 – pin-up 14 – desk crit16 – desk crit
Week 1019 – pin-up21 – desk crit23 – Holiday, no class
Week 1126 – pin-up 28 – desk crit30 – desk crit
August
Week 12 2 – desk crit4 – Review Project #4 6 – interviewsfor both (project due at 10:00 pm, Tuesday, August 3rd) studio and seminar
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