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. Restricted to and Requirement for ARCH sophomore and first-year MARC [2009-2010]

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. Restricted to and Requirement for second semester sophomores and first-year M. Arch. students [2009-2010]

In the first semester of the junior year, all architecture students choose one of a set of studios designed to confront issues of housing, public space and medium to large scale construction. Restricted to ARCH majors: Junior and 2nd-year MARC requirement [2009-2010]

The political avant-garde Situationist International (1957-72) had a major impact on art, architecture, urbanism and counterculture. The utopian urban proposals anticipated recent transformations / expansions of cities and sociopolitical networks that have manifested with the advent of cyberspace and new media technologies.<BR> Self Organized Urbansim is a partnership between Architecture and Digital+Media departments to explore, access and develop SI's Unitary Urbanism in the digital age. Armed now with several decades of advance in digital technology since the SI introduced their radical ideas, we will refresh their methodologies as contemporary research tools to understand urbanism as a technology of power.<BR> Reading the urban life as a fluid play on a dynamic stage, the students will assume the role of ethnographers, sociologists, directors, activists or simply citizens to critically survey and infiltrate urban sites and communities with various digital media. We will practice SI's derive (urban wandering) and psychogeography (mapping) to analyze the ongoing action on the urban stage and to identify places of conflict. Through detournement (diversion) and setting up of situations we will suggest new creative spaces of play, freedom and critical thinking.<BR> After a series of introductory workshops in algorithmic design, networking, augmented space, responsive environments and mobile technologies the students will develop a final project in the digital media of their choice. Seminar style reading will carefully examine the legacy of SI. The projects, that could find their premiere in virtual and / or physical space, will attempt to create unexpected urban narratives in order to subvert preconceived systems and initiate passionate connection between people, places and events.<BR> "Be realistic - demand the impossible!"<BR> Open to junior and above; Architecture a Digital + Media students only during registration; seats may be available during Add/Drop [2010-2011]

This course provides a knowledge of orthographic, axonometric, oblique, and conical projection drawing. It encourages disciplined attitudes towards drawing through reasoning and develops the ability to present and explain creative ideas. [2009-2010]

This course is intended to provide students with initial exposure to the basic techniques of architectural representation using computers. Throughout the semester, we will be learning the tools of two-dimensional representations and learning to build three-dimensional models along with some specific rendering techniques. We will be using three widely accepted software platforms -AutoCad, Rhino and Autodesk Viz. We will cover a wide range of outputting programs such as Photoshop, Powerpoint and InDesign/Illustrator. [2009-2010]

Basic content will be statics a 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 computer structural behaviors. [2009-2010]

Building on the base of structural principles introduced in Statics a Strength of Materials, the student will study in more detail systems appropriate to the structural materials wood a steel, including timber systems consisting of conventional framing trusses, laminates, built-up sections and connections, steel systems consisting of rolled sections, built-up sections, trusses, frames, composite design, connection, etc. [2009-2010]

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. [2009-2010]

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 [2009-2010]