The course considers the multiple design strategies, representation methods, architectural media (including textual methods), to express the quality of an architectural proposal. The course considers three fundamental aspects that stand at the core the architectural research, namely the notions of form, forces, and material. Based on these three notions, each weekly session will be dedicated to the presentation of a series of seminal architectural projects that exemplify a particular strategy, representation, and media in order to evaluate the physical, material, virtual, and environmental qualities of an architectural project.

This semester will reinforce and extend issues introduced in the past semester ( i.e. technology, and media). The lessons and experiences of the earlier studios were directed at introducing architectural issues, skills/techniques, design methodologies, and texts fundamental to an understanding of architecture and the processes of design. You learned to see and record the physical environment, develop basic research and presentation skills, produce specifically architectural work (plans, sections, models, formal analyses, etc.) and explore compositional strategies and spatial ideas. You were also introduced to notions of architecture as both a participant in and product of culture. The course will introduce you to new issues, theories, environmental and architectural strategies. We will stress an understanding of the relationship between intentions, devices, and media and their architectural implications. The primary concerns of this semester include promoting an understanding of the critical role that architecture plays in the creation of, and intervention in the natural environment, as well as an increasing sophistication regarding building design.

From Vitruvius’ treatise De Architectura to today’s fascination for animated diagrams, architectural research has always been a function of formal definitions, system of forces, and material strategy. These three notions represents as many aspects to evaluate the nature and performance of a design proposal. The structure and content of this course will therefore follow these three aspects.

Instructors: Associate Prof. Aaron Sprecher, Tom Shaked, Yael Engelhart, Hadar Ben Avraham, Roy Finkelman

Winter Semester | Segoe Building – Architecture & Urban Building Room 521