These studios, three of which are required for graduation, are offered by individual instructors to students who have successfully completed the core curriculum. They are assigned by lottery on the first day of classes. Once assigned to an advanced studio, a student may not drop studio.
Major requirement; ARCH majors only
Registration by Architecture department, course not available via web registration
Fee: Some advanced studio sections have a fee for course supplies or field trips. The fee is announced during the registration lottery held in the Department.

This course introduces the beginning student to the origins, media, geometries and role(s) of projection drawing in the design and construction process. The student will learn systems of projection drawing from direct experience, and be challenged to work both from like and to life. Subjects such as transparency, figure/ground, sciagrphy, oblique projection, surface development, volumetric intersections, spatial manipulation and analytic operations will build on the basics of orthographic and conic projection. The course involves line and tone drawing, hand drafting, computer drawing(Autocad) and computer modeling(Rhino).
Major requirement; ARCH majors only
Registration by Architecture department, course not available via web registration

"There is no way to make a drawing--there is only drawing." --Richard Serra
Much of the pleasure of drawing is in the act-the process of its unfolding. The Drawings of Things provides an opportunity to experiment with a variety of simple procedures that can lead to the creation of powerful works. The semester revolves around the making of drawings in various materials and processes guided by the organizational principles of the grid and notions of repetition. The exploration of constructed images undertakes the following topics: surface, materials, mark-making, composition, space and scale. These parameters provide guidance to an otherwise open set of personal investigations made by hand. This tactile connection with the work brings back the human touch, the eye and hand working together, control, concentration, and the language of marking marks.
Much of the pleasure of drawing is in the act-the process of its unfolding. The Drawing of Things provides an opportunity to experiment with a variety of simple procedures that can lead to the creation of powerful works. The semester revolves around the making of drawings in various materials and processes guided by the organizational principles of the grid and notions of repetition. The exploration of constructed images undertakes the following topics: surface, materials, mark-making,composition, space and scale. These parameters provide guidance to an otherwise open set of personal investigations made by hand. This tactile connection with the work brings back the human touch, the eye and hand working together, control, concentration, and the language of marking marks.
The "lab" component for the course takes two forms: in addition to the weekly projects to be completed outside seminar hours, participants will be exploring drawing ideas through short, hands-on probes during the 3-hour class. There is no better way to learn than by doing, so with this in mind, advice and direction will be kept to a minimum. Students have their own sensibilities to guide themselves, and its up to the students to supply the desire to make things and the curiosity to try out different possibilities.
ARCH majors only; Open to fifth-year, graduate or permission of instructor.
Registration by Architecture department, course not available via web registration.
This course satisfies the prerequisite requirement for Degree Project.

Cities are complex artifacts shaped by powerful forces such as history, geography, culture, building and landscape. In turn, they become a stage for human drama, shaping the very life of people connected with them. This course understands cities as both physical and cultural constructions that can be subject to a variety of readings. Lectures, presentations, assignments and discussions will focus on individual cities--such as Havana, Vienna, Lisbon, Istanbul and Beijing--looking at their physical form and history, as well as some of their major cultural figures, materials, including maps, aerials, historic documents, fiction and non-fiction readings, theatre, film, visual arts, music, dance and food.
ARCH majors only; Open to fifth-year UG and 3rd year Graduate.
Registration by Architecture department.
Course not available via web registration.
This course satisfies the prerequisite requirement for Degree Project.

This seminar is dedicated to helping individuals clarify the personal direction of their work in architecture. Through examination and analysis of vital models of spatial practice, manifestoes and manifestations, this course is a pointed examination of architectural space - an intimate inquiry on making - and seeks to develop an awareness and understanding for the complexity of built form while being challenged by intellectual and practical intensity, challenged by experimentation, dialogue and critique. We will move between reading and discussion, drawing and making, providing a platform to carry the work into the world.
ARCH majors only; Open to fifth-year, graduate, or permission of instructor
Registration by Architecture department.
Course not available via web registration
This course satisfies the prerequisite requirement for Degree Project

In recent years, the development and propagation of digital media has led to an array of innovative projects while generating numerous debates. In architecture, some digital tools and techniques have made conventional modes of operation more efficient. However others have developed into processes of their own, subverting the conventional means and creating new patterns of thought and practice.
Faced with new and uncanny modes of thinking and representation, architects have reacted to the change in different manners. From denial to flirtations, from superficial consumerism to total immersion, the reactions and approaches are multiple and often puzzling. The course aims at offering a critical survey of the modes of operation, techniques and trends in relation to architecture in the past few decades.
The sequence is comprised of thematic lectures by the instructor as well as selected readings, verbal and visual presentations by students. Each student will select a topic to endeavor in depth in both analytical and experimental modes. Final presentation in which the students will present their research and ideas, provides a dynamic pedagogical forum to culminate the course.
A number of guest speakers would be invited to give focused presentations on their digital practices.
Architecture Majors only; Open to fifth year UG and 3rd year grads. Others require permission by the instructor.
Registration by Architecture department; course not available via web registration.
This course satisfies the prerequisite requirement for Degree Project In recent years, the development and propagation of digital media has caused many debates. Faced with these new and uncanny modes of representation, artists and architects have reacted to the change in different manners. From denial to flirtations, from total submission to superficial consumerism, the reactions and approaches are multiple and often puzzling. The course aims at offering a critical survey of the modes of operation, techniques and trends set in the past few decades. Students will select specific subjects and endeavor them in depth in both analytical and experimental modes. A final themed debate in which students participate and present their point of views, supported by their work, will take place in the hope of providing a more dynamic pedagogical process. A number of guest speakers would be invited to give focused presentations on their digital practices.
ARCH Majors Only: Open to fifth-year, graduate, or Permission of Instructor. Registration by Architecture department, course not available via web registration. This course satisfies the prerequisite requirement for Degree Project

The Bronze Age saw the development of several advanced civilizations in the Mediterranean basin. Perhaps the best-known among these is the civilization of Pharaonic Egypt. This course will focus on the art and architecture of Egypt and their neighbors to the north: the Aegean civilizations known as Cycladic, Minoan, and Mycenaean. While art historical study of these cultures will be emphasized, evidence for trade and other cultural interchange between them will also be discussed. The course will cover such topics as the Pyramids of Giza, the Tomb of Tutankhamun, and the Palace of Knossos.
Students interested in this course must register for ARTH-H509 under the subject of History of Art and Visual Culture

The study of basic concepts of Human Environmental Comforts. Inherent within 'physio-environ' considerations are principles of temperature, humidity, heat transfer, air movement, and hydrostatics. These principles will be studied in terms of their abstract physics and mathematics, through empirical benchmarking and as the basis for a design proposal that includes considerations of larger scale strategies as well as assemblies. Emphasis will be placed on the principles behind the technology, the behavioral characteristics and the qualities of the systems' operation considered in making building design decisions.
Major requirement; ARCH majors only
Registration by Architecture department.
Course not available via web registration.

This course will attempt to identify, analyze, and understand non-western architectural traditions of Native people in North America, Mesoamerica, and South America. An attempt will be made to understand both environmental and cultural components people integrated into their choices of construction materials, spatial arrangements, and in some cases urban planning. Particular emphasis will be placed on the appropriation and socialization of landscapes through architecture, and how landscape was used to express greater cultural concerns. The following cultures will be discussed: Mound Builders and the Mississippians; the Iroquois; Coastal Northwest coast cultures; the Arctic; the Southwest; the Maya; and Ancient Peru.
Students interested in this course must register for ARTH-H653 under the subject of History of Art and Visual Culture

Conceived as the culmination of the technologies sequence of courses, this course allows students to choose amongst the three instructor's differing approaches to the problem of conceiving technology holistically, in relation to a set of architectural criteria. The conceptual and technical aspects of building systems are considered and emergent environmentally-conscious technologies are emphasized for research and application.
Prerequisites: All required technologies courses
Major requirement; ARCH majors only
Registration by Architecture department.
Course not available via web registration.

This course is a placeholder for Architecture students who will be taking one of the degree project seminars, ARCH-2173, 2175, 2182, or 2188. Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration

As over half the world's population has come to live in cities, urbanization has moved to the center of the environmental debate. This course will provide an interdisciplinary engagement between Sociology and Architecture to reflect on the past, present and future of ecological urbanism. Co-taught by professors from Architecture and Liberal Arts, the seminar will interrogate the ways in which green urban design has been conceptualized to date. It will explore cutting edge contemporary debates around the future of the green urban project and ask students to think forward into the future. Students will have the opportunity to locate their own interests and Degree Project investigations within this discussion.
Priority given to Arch Degree Project students (5th year UG and 3rd year Grad). Also listed as HPSS-S151 for non-architecture majors--by permission of the instructor.

Globalization (or capitalist expansion) is a crucial factor to explain modern art ("primitivism" and cubism, for example) but this factor is ignored in order to explain modern architecture. The history of modern architecture was written from a very provincial and restrictive North-Atlantic perspective; following Raymond Williams the renovation of this canonical tale needs of a multiplication of the visions from outside the Euro-North American point of view. In "The politics of Modernism" the British scholar revealed the centrality of immigration for the creation of what -referring to early modern art- he called the most creative but today canonized phase of modern culture. With regards to a possible re-invigoration of that creativity he proposed the necessity of new ways of seeing. "It is time to explore (that phase)" -he writes- with something of its own sense of strangeness and distance, rather than with the comfortable and now internally accommodated forms of its incorporation and naturalization. (?) It involves looking from time to time, from outside the metropolis: from the deprived hinterlands, where different forces are moving, and from the poor world which has always been peripheral to the metropolitan systems".
Some of the issues we will examine will be: the new (colonial) types of built environment, the territorial systems (railroads system), the discovery of "other"s creativity (primitivism and orientalism), the influence of tropical conditions, the discoveries in the architecture of ancient non western cultures, the aplication of new urban schemes, the lost of roots, the new sense of landscape. This index must be expanded by considering the emergence of "Third World" after WW2 and with it a new state of things that introduced the expansion of shanty towns, the attraction of new exoticisms -since tropicalism to informal urbanism-, the foundation of new capital cities, the formation of new international institutions, the discovery of the boundaries of modernistic "universalism", the experiences of exile.

This course reviews the role of metals in architecture, focusing on the fundamentals of steel analysis and design in architecture; and examines typical framing techniques and systems. Topics include construction issues, floor framing systems, column analysis and design, steel detailing and light gauge steel framing materials and systems. In addition the course introduces students to lateral force resistance systems in steel construction and exposes them to alternatives to steel such as aluminum and fiberglass. By the and of the course, students will be aware of the role of metals in architectural design and construction; design and detail simple steel structural systems; and proportion these systems to resist the moment and shear demands determined through structural analysis.
Major requirement; ARCH majors only
Registration by Architecture department, course not available via web registration

The basic content will be statics and strength of materials. The first portion will deal with force vectors, trusses, cross-sectional properties, and shear/moment diagrams, followed by stresses, strains, material applications and the analysis procedures necessary to compute structural behaviors. While the class format is mostly lecture, there will be ample time for discussion, in addition to group projects and field trips. This class is foundational to all future structural design classes such as Wood Structures and Steel Structures. The student will develop an intuitive understanding of structural behavior by studying various structural systems qualitatively under various loading conditions. The analysis of statically determinate trusses and frames will reinforce the intuitive understanding. Structural forces will be understood by tracing the loads (dead, live, wind, and seismic) through a building. They will be able to convert these loads into internal material stresses (axial, shear bending) for the purposes of proportioning members quantitatively. The relevant material sectional properties (such as moment of inertia and radius of gyration) will be learned through hands on bending and buckling experiments and later backed by quantitative analysis. This course is a pre-requisite for either Steel Structures or Wood Structures.
Major requirement; ARCH majors only. Registration by Architecture Department.
Course not available via web registration.

This course will focus on architectural buildings and remains of synagogues, churches, and mosques in Palestine from antiquity (the sixth century BCE) through the end of the Ottoman period (1917). Beyond the physical components of the houses of worship, and dealing with architectural, technological, and iconographic matters, we will investigate the spiritual and religious characteristics of the relevant structures. One of the goals will be to examine how these institutions influenced each other throughout the history of their architectural development.
Students interested in this course must register for ARTH-H652 under the subject of History of Art and Visual Culture

This course, the first in a two semester sequence, explores design principles common to architecture, and landscape architecture. Projects are selected to provide a basis for discerning and investigating both the differences of focus suggested by the two disciplines and their common concerns. Two interrelated aspects of design are pursued: 1) the elements of composition and their formal, spatial, and tectonic manipulation and 2) meanings conveyed by formal choices and transformations.
Major requirement; ARCH majors only
Registration by Architecture department; Course not available via web registration

TOPOLOGY is a mathematical term concerned with spatial properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, and thus, if one object can have another form just by deformation, not by cutting or gluing, those two objects are considered as same topology. And mathematicians proved that one topology has the same spatial relationship between the solid object and the void. This is a new way of explaining the logic and structure of space beyond the world of two-dimensional Euclidean geometry.
The concept can be easily adopted in architecture to explain the relationship between solid and void, building versus landscape or context. The relation,ship is defined by the three-dimensional form of a building not by geometrical shapes in a plan. This is a key feature in contemporary architecture, which has become possible with the improvement of building technology. And thus, a building is not just an extrusion of a plan anymore but a malleable form that can be deformed in three-dimensional ways. By deforming the solid object, students can develop a pure three dimensional relationship between the solid and void without focusing on two-dimensional geometrical shapes. This strat,egy can broaden the student's views towards urban scale by developing the form in a relation to urban settings.
TYPOLOGY is a concept that keeps on getting revisited in order to criticize the architectural language from within the field. We are researching typology as a taxonomy of contemporary architectural systems that break the modernist par,adigms by generating a new autonomous language. The instructor will generate a catalogue for new strategies of space manipulation that have broken modernists' tendencies from the post-war era through today. Some of the strategies to be considered are structural expressionism: structure can become a spatial organizer as well as ornament; slab manipulation: slabs can interconnect allowing for programmatic continuity, and core displacement: cores have a larger architectural spatial role other than just infrastructure. By studying and reviewing the concept of typology in architecture, students will generate a broader understanding of the linguistic implication that some architectural strategies bring towards the discourse and deepen their perspectives about architectural systems. Students will be encouraged to develop their representation skills for diagramming and analyzing a building based on the theoretical components of the class. It will be necessary for students to interpret the theory discussed in order create a dialogue of contemporary architecture with their own project (new, old, or current studio work).
Each three-hour class will be divided into three one hour components: theory, precedent analysis, and a student presen,tation or discussion. Each class will be guided towards a specific strategy presented by the lecturer. Students will be required to generate their own interpretation of the topic, and prepare an example for the next class.
ARCH majors only, Junior and above
Major elective

The Urban Design Principles core studio introduces students to the city as a designed environment, giving them the tools to work through impressions, analysis and design operations as ways to understand "man's greatest work of art". Students confront the design of housing as a way to order social relationships and shape the public realm and attack the problems of structure, construction, access and code compliance in the context of a complex large-scale architectural design.
Major requirement; ARCH majors only
Registration by Architecture department.
Course not available via web registration.

This history of architecture course, co-taught by an architectural historian and an architect, introduces key ideas, forces, and techniques that have shaped world architecture through the ages prior to the modern period. The course is based on critical categories, ranging from indigenous and vernacular architecture, to technology, culture, and representation. The lectures and discussions present systems of thought, practice and organization, emphasizing both historical and global interconnectedness, and critical architectural differences and anomalies. Each topic will be presented through case studies accompanied by relevant texts. The students will be expected to engage in the discussion groups, prepare material for these discussions, write about, and be examined on the topics.
Major requirement for Architecture majors
Registration by Architecture department, course not available via web registration
Nonmajors on a space available basis

Various off-campus travel classes are offered through the department of Architecture to non-majors. See the current Wintersession Publication for this year's offerings.

This course introduces the beginnings of architectural drawing to students who are looking to pursue a spatial field in the future. It is a course that is aimed to those who are interested in developing an architectural language and does not require extensive previous experience in the field.
This is not a technical drafting course, however each student will develop drawings that would be created with measure and precision. A series of careful operations are designed to allow each student to discover their own methodology of how to best convey their spatial ideas through representation.
The students will learn from experience, travelling between the spectrums of reality and imagination. Learning from their surroundings as well as their creations. The buildup of material will allow students to transfer from parallel drawings to projected drawings, being able to display a full set of drawing representations that supports the idea of their exploration.
Estimated Material Cost: $150.00

This course will challenge a student to develop an architectural design through advanced operations. While learning a basic foundation of digital tools, students will be building on a design by analyzing and evolving spatial conditions, materiality, scale, and light.
Through the progression of design, students will be challenged to explore creative processes of working. By developing with textures, light quality, compositions, and boundaries, there will be discussions about operations, visual clarity, and over the overall ability to communicate.
This course will use Rhino or Sketch up, V-ray, Photoshop, and hand drafting.
Estimated Material Cost: $50.00

Jerusalem has earned a special eminence among the famed ancient cities of the world. Its sanctity to Jews, Christians, and Moslems has made the city a focus of discussions and controversies regarding the evolving and changing identifies throughout its long urban history. Early and recent studies and discoveries, as well as old and new theories with a special emphasis on the Roman, Byzantine, and Early Islamic periods (ca. 63 BCE - 1099 CE) will be examined in the seminar. A particular focus will be placed on how to identify ethnicity, religious identity, and gender in the archaeological record. Though politics and religion have often biased related scholarship and the way excavations and their interpretations have been presented to the public, the goal of the seminar is to understand and examine various opinions and viewpoints. This seminar will consist of regular meetings, with illustrated lectures, student presentations, and discussions. In addition to the presentations, weekly reading assignments, a mid-term exam, and a final term paper will be required.
Students interested in this course must register for ARTH-C729 or HPSS-C729
Course satisfies Art History or Architecture elective credit. .

An introduction to the principles of architectural design beginning with a close examination of materials, forces and the human body. The examination will progressively widen in scope to include issues of form, space, structure, program and site. This condensed architectural studio is intended for freshmen and students outside the Division of Architecture and Design.

Serious research and a specific preparation begins in this course, forming the theoretical basis for the creative development of the Degree Project (Spring, 6 credits). This is a period in which the nature of the work is clarified, a process is developed, possibilities are examined, and research and information gathering completed. The research from this course acts as an armature, establishing the attitude, objectives, and significance of the thesis as an exploration of architectural ideas, and forming the underpinnings for the work of the coming semester. The result of this effort, begun in the fall with DP prep and completed in the spring, is gathered together and reflected in the DP Book as part of the requirements for completion of Degree Project. The work is reviewed at the end of Wintersession; satisfactory completion of this course is a prerequisite for the Degree Project in the Spring semester.
Major requirement; ARCH majors only
Registration by Architecture department; course not available via web registration
Schedule to be determined with Advisor
Permission of instructor required

From Planetary to the Individual scale, the use of energy productive substances and their corresponding global affects, is becoming a major topic and condition of concern. What are our alternatives?

This course will not only investigate the problems, but also look at possible natural alternatives. Some of these are - solar, wind, geo-thermal, and ocean phenomena. The intent is to have the students - individually or in teams - research, and then investigate and apply at a small scale - possibly at residential scale - one of the alternatives. It is expected that in addition to the theory, there would be the development of numerical and/or proto-type justification for the small scale system.

The ambition of this course is to develop an empirical understanding of digital fabrication processes, their implementation and implication through design challenges meant to leverage proficiencies specific to digital means. Assignments will be structured to necessitate reciprocity between working digitally and by hand. A primary element to the class is learning two and three dimensional modeling in Rhinoceros, AutoCAD, and SketchUp. These investigations will ossify through any manner of digital production. With emphasis towards experimentation, students will discover their own ways of making, guided by the design of their projects. There will be a focus to form clear concepts for work. This course is intended for all majors.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00

This course is intended to give students both the technical skill and knowledge of computational design tools as well as insight into the theoretical and practical context behind their creation and application. The course is designed around four major themes, beyond formal fetish, complexity, performance, and beyond responsiveness which will build upon one another and inform the exploration and application of computational tools including Grasshopper and Python.
Estimated Material Cost: $250

In this course we will research and discuss a variety of materials, their physical properties and their applications. Using furniture as our vehicle, we will explore how these materials might be utilized, beyond their original intent. We will also examine how the manipulation of these materials can create new ideas in furniture. In the first half of the course students will research, view, handle, and discuss a variety of materials. In the second half, students will model and construct, either a 1/4 scale model, or a full scale detail of a piece of furniture using a material selected from the research done in the first half of the course.

Advanced studios in the architectures, required of, and generally restricted to, second year transfers and graduate students who are required to take an additional studio. For more information, contact the Department of Architecture.
Permission of instructor required Some sections of this course involve travel, usually outside the United States, and for those sections there are significant fees for travel and academic expenses. The fees are listed here as soon as they are available. At the time of registration for the travel section, the entire fee must be paid to the Student Accounts Office. The last day to register and pay for Wintersession 2013 is Wednesday, October 31, 2012. When space permits, this class may be available in a three credit version to undergraduates in majors outside of Architecture; the registration number is ARCH W220.
2013 Wintersession Sections: ARCH W202 01 MEXICO: PROPOSITIONS IN OAXACA
Travel Cost: $1,319.00 plus airfare ***Off Campus Study**
ARCH W202 02 Form and Form Making in Architecture
This course explores the process of generation of form in Architecture. A stream of linked individual explorations, methods and investigations is the basis for the production of a body of work that exists both as a reality and a medium for the fulfilment of spatial and programmatic futures. The studio format of this course combined with readings, discussions and viewing son the topic, provides a broad understanding of both the experimental and the interdisciplinary aspects of Architectural production.
Registration by the Architecture Department. Course not available via web registration.
ARCH W202 03 *GERMANY: ADAPTIVE ARCHITECTURE: CASA MAXIMA/MINIMA
Travel Cost: $271.00 plus airfare ***Off Campus Study**

In this seminar we will approach the enigma of space from many different philosophical perspectives and thereby shed light not only on the question of space, but also on the halo of philosophical problems surrounding it, including 'perception', 'perspective', 'place', and 'movement', 'subjectivity' and 'objectivity'. Our philosophical investigation of the concept of space in such diverse philosophies as Henry More's, Reni Descartes' Immanuel Kant's, Ludwig Wittgenstein's and Maurice Merleau-Ponty's, will disclose the imagination as an important link in understanding the problems of space philosophically. While philosophers use examples from the arts metaphorically to make their abstract ideas more palpable, artists take recourse to philosophy to describe space as an intrinsic function of their embodied works of art. We will look at both sides of the picture, engaging not only with philosophical works, but also with visual and textual material by such artists as Char Davies, Daniel Libeskind, Ludwig Wittgenstein (as architect), and Irene Rice Pereira. This will not be a course about philosophy but a course in philosophy -- an experience of practicing philosophical thinking.

These studios, three of which are required for graduation, are offered by individual instructors to students who have successfully completed the core curriculum. They are assigned by lottery on the first day of classes. Once assigned to an advanced studio, a student may not drop studio.
Major requirement; ARCH majors only
Registration by Architecture department, course not available via web registration
Fee: Some advanced studio sections have a fee for course supplies or field trips. The fee is announced during the registration lottery held in the Department.

This course will develop one's ability to critically read and understand architecture through formal, geometric, tectonic and spatial analytic processes. Analysis acts as an intermediary between observation, expression, and understanding, offering deep insights into works of architecture. The course builds upon the processes introduced in Architectural Projection. Through various conceptual and representational frameworks, the issues of mapping-layers. Point of view, scale, morphology,topography and tectonics will be explored as part of a larger creative process, embracing visual imagination, communication and critique.

Estimated Material Cost: $50.00
Major requirement; ARCH majors only
Registration by Architecture department, course not available via web registration

Design principles presented in the first semester are further developed through a series of projects involving actual sites with their concomitant physical and historic-cultural conditions. Issues of context, methodology, program and construction are explored for their possible interrelated meanings and influences on the making of architectural form.
Estimated Material Cost: $55
Major requirement; ARCH majors only
Registration by Architecture department.
Course not available via web registration.

This course reviews the fundamentals of concrete and masonry in architecture with a focus on materials, structural analysis and design. The analysis and design includes concrete structures, reinforced and pre-stressed concrete members, concrete foundations and reinforced masonry. The student will proportion concrete and masonry structures using ultimate strength design. The longer class time on Tuesday allows students to design, make a concrete mix and create a concrete object. By the end of the course, the students will be able to design and detail simple concrete and masonry systems such as footings, basement walls, beams and slabs; proportion these systems to resist the moment and shear demands determined through structural analysis; develop an understanding of proper detailing of architectural concrete and masonry veneers by understanding thermal movements, waterproofing, and construction techniques.
Major requirement; ARCH majors only
Registration by Architecture department.
Course not available via web registration.

Under the supervision of a faculty advisor, students are responsible for the preparation and completion of an independent thesis project.
Prerequisites: One of the degree project seminars. See footnotes on the curriculum sheet for a list of these classes or read the course descriptions in the "History and Theory" section which follows.
Major requirement; ARCH majors only
Registration by Architecture department, course not available via web registration
Permission for this class is based on the student's overall academic record as well as their performance in Wintersession Degree Project Research. If the department recommends against a student undertaking the degree project, two advanced elective studios must be taken instead.

This equally distributed three part course will continue with the principles from "Physics", the application of electric energy, lighting and sound to building environs. Building technology continues to demand a larger percentage of the building's budget and thus should receive a greater degree of time and understanding by the Architect. Topics and principles to be included are: electronic generation, distribution, and building systems; electronic and communication systems; lighting fundamentals, design and control; and enviro-acoustical fundamentals, sound transmission, amplification, and absorption principles.
Major requirement; ARCH majors only
Registration by Architecture department.
Course not available via web registration.

This class is designed for students of RISD and Brown who want a broader understanding of structural behavior and material science without the mathematical complexity of an engineering course. What types of geometry, structural systems, or materials shall we consider for a certain design problem and why? Where does innovation lie in building materials and structural forms? How can we optimize forms to create elegant, efficient and economical architecture? We will review geometry, environmental forces, and material mechanics to understand the design of towers, long-span roofs, bridges, cable and fabric structures, tensegrity sculptures, arches, hypars, and domes. We will investigate innovation in traditional building materials (wood, steel, concrete) as well as introduce new materials (micromechanics of nanotubes, FRPs, and biomaterials). Guest lectures, drawn from both research and professional practice will discuss applied and conceptual design ideas of high performance systems.
Elective; Open to senior, fifth-year, graduate

This course is an introduction to contemporary theories and criticism in architecture. Starting with contemporary writing on architecture (such as those by Lavin, Kwinter, Martin, Whiting) we will consider seminal texts on architecture throughout history (Alberti, Quatremere, Loos, Le Corbusier, Rowe, Fuller, Rudofsky, Banham, Tafuri etc.)
While reading these texts, we will consider the role of architecture in culture. We will consider its changing relations to design fields and other disciplines. We will also consider the different ways in which social and theoretical questions are mediated in architecture. Special attention will be paid to questions of autonomy, form, design and media. Current issues of ecology, environment, visualization, program and scale will be critically discussed. We will be reading texts and there will be writing assignments. Each student will present a text and a project during the semester.
Elective;Opent to senior, fifth-year, graduate

The course will focus on the diverse new roles encountered by the architect in the 20th century: form maker, administrator of urban development, social theorist, cultural interpreter, ideologue. Emphasis will be placed upon the increasing interdependence of architecture and the city, and the recurrent conflicts between mind and hand, modernity and locality, expressionism and universality.
Major requirementfor Architecture majors
Art History credit for Architecture majors
Liberal Arts elective credit for nonmajors on a space available basis.

This workshop course provides an opportunity for the exploration of spatial concepts through observation and experience of phenomena. Using the infrastructure and environment of Providence as a laboratory, we will investigate how the ordinary can be transformed into the extraordinary and how the invisible can be rendered visible. Memory, time, light, vibration and metaphor will be examined in relation to the experience of architecture, installation and event.

Students' participation and individual interests will shape the direction of the workshop. The idea is to investigate and invent, pushing the parameters of what is known by applying new ideas and materials. An ongoing series of experimental drawings, constructions and installation projects will be reinforced by discussions and selected readings. The semester will be punctuated with multimedia presentations and site visits. Instruction will be individualized, with an emphasis on group critiques. Guest speakers will share their work and challenge the process. Visiting critics will participate in final reviews.

The course begins with individual projects and will encourage collaboration. Site-specific, ephemeral installations will focus on magnifying a sense of place and present.

Students will record the environmental stimuli that inform our experience of place and time; Identify conditions, influences, and social forces that influence our built environment; consider spectacle, surprise and wonder as artistic devices; question your own aesthetics and instincts; engage in the work of significant figures in contemporary architecture and art; and develop critical skills that support and encourage the learning process.

This is a course about becoming a licensed architect, a business professional and an active, engaged and responsible citizen. It is intended to help prepare students for the challenges and opportunities confronted by a life in Architecture. Lectures are organized around four themes: The architect as a trained and certified "Professional" in traditional and alternative careers; the architect as an operative in the world of business and commerce; the origins of architectural projects; and the detailed work performed through professional Architectural Contracts. Regular panels, composed of RISD alums and other allied professionals provide an external perspective on all elements of the course, and allow students the opportunity to direct discussion in ways appropriate to their needs.
Major requirement; ARCH majors only.
Registration by Architecture department.
Course not available via web registration.

This course will review the fundamentals of wood in architecture with a focus on wood materials and construction systems and lumber and timber structural analysis and design. Work includes timber systems consisting of conventional framing trusses, laminates, built-up sections and connections. In addition, this course will review the principles of structural loads; gravity, lateral, live and dead. The concept of lateral resistance through standard wood framing systems will be explored. Manufactured lumber has become a major part of today's wood construction industry and the design and detailing of these materials will be explored in depth. By the end of the course, students will be aware of the role of wood materials in architectural design and construction and be able to design and detail simple Lumber and Timber structural systems. They will be able to proportion these systems to resist the moment and shear demands determined through structural analysis. This course will provide the student with a good understanding of the material and the common structural and architectural systems used in today's practice.
Major Requirement: ARCH majors only.
Registration by the Architecture Department.
Course not available via web registration