Theory offerings in the architecture department are deliberately consistent or complementary with our pedagogy, born and raised in an arts college. Theory based courses have a basis in empiricism, direct observation and experience of creative processes. Recognizing that discovery and invention often come between existing matrices of thought, offerings may be from disciplines other than architecture or branches of knowledge other than art and design. Objectives of the theory component of our curriculum are to:

• Expand the capacity to speculate productively.
• Develop the skeptic's eye and mind.
• Equip the ability to recognize connections that trigger discovery and invention.

Elective

This 3-credit seminar will focus on the potential of sunlight and other forms of ambient energy to explore artistic forms of solar technology in our built environment. We will look at an array of emerging solid-state technologies and explore the positively and negatively charged layers of silicon and other semiconductor materials, which can be crystallized, cut, deposited, scored, into and onto multiple substrates. This accessible technology can easily be deployed. The very small compositions and patterns of these layers have the potential for radically different effects at different scales. The world of the microscope and the telescope, the minute and far away, will serve as guides and tools. We will also explore the spatial potential of electronic outputs like light and sound to produce a changed state.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $30.00 - $50.00

Elective

This 3 credit advanced seminar offers students the opportunity to focus on advanced applications of technology in architecture. Students will explore the relationship between design and technology within topics such as advanced energy modeling, advanced structural analysis, high performance structures, high performance building facades, and sustainable design. These seminars are designed to strengthen students' ability to conduct research, explore material performance and enable validation of design concepts based on applied technology.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $30.00 - $50.00

Non-majors may enroll pending seat availability. Email the instructor to request permission.

Elective

As artists and designers our understanding of the physical universe can be a fundamental part of our engagement with our context and in production of our creative work. This course includes an introduction to selected fundamentals of physics: momentum, thermodynamics, and waves and optics - all part of the basis for Architectural Technology. These fundamental phenomena are to be considered both through their mathematical application and expression as concepts in contemporary art. Content to be examined through mathematical problem solving, critical reading, and lab sessions using both physical measurement and digital simulation in Python programming language.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MArch: Architecture (3yr)

Introduction to technical building systems - Structure, Environmental and Enclosure - and their integration with an emphasis on quantifying performance and increasing sustainability. Content includes survey of these three system types - typical components, basis of performance, and analysis of performance - and introduction to related conventions of construction and architectural detailing to realize them.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to first-year MArch (3yr) Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MArch: Architecture (3yr)

Structural Design with timber, steel and concrete (allowable stress, plastic, and composite design respectively). Students will develop understanding and application of quantitative methods of structural design for conventional structural components and systems - beams, columns, trusses, frames, walls, etc. in multiple materials. Introduces the conventions of detailing structural systems in these materials. Introduces systems and requirements for building foundation, gravity superstructure, and lateral superstructure.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for second-year MArch (3yr) Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MArch: Architecture (3yr)

Comprehensive design of building enclosures - integrated consideration of structural design, tolerance, detailing, thermal transmission, air transmission, and moisture transmission. Introduce typical and atypical systems of enclosure with emphasis on relative advantages of different systems depending on location, intended performance, and design intent.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MArch (2yr) and (3yr): Architecture

Comprehensive design of building enclosures - integrated consideration of structural design, tolerance, detailing, thermal transmission, air transmission, and moisture transmission. Introduce typical and atypical systems of enclosure with emphasis on relative advantages of different systems depending on location, intended performance, and design intent.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MArch (2yr) and (3yr): Architecture

This course reinforces the fundamentals of environmental systems- thermal, light, ventilation, acoustics-and teaches design strategies to evaluate and optimize building concepts based on these systems. The lab component will include hands-on testing (e.g. data-loggers for thermal and HDR imaging for daylighting) and an emphasis on digital simulations (e.g. Rhino plug-ins for thermal and lighting analysis). The Simulation Game is an in-class activity where students compete to make the most energy-efficient conceptual building massing using an energy modeling program in Rhino/Grasshopper. The course will culminate in a case study project in which students apply design strategies to a specific building design problem.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for first-year MArch (3yr) Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MArch: Architecture (3yr)

Capstone architectural technology design class focusing on the integration of Structural, Environmental, Enclosure, and Circulation systems. Course to be semester long group design project with labs/workshops using related quantitative analysis and design tools to design systems for a complete building in detail. Special consideration for egress, accessibility, life safety, general code requirements (construction type and zoning), and documentation standards.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for second-year MArch (2yr) and third-year MArch (3yr) Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MArch (2yr) and (3yr): Architecture

Capstone architectural technology design class focusing on the integration of Structural, Environmental, Enclosure, and Circulation systems. Course to be semester long group design project with labs/workshops using related quantitative analysis and design tools to design systems for a complete building in detail. Special consideration for egress, accessibility, life safety, general code requirements (construction type and zoning), and documentation standards.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for second-year MArch (2yr) and third-year MArch (3yr) Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MArch (2yr) and (3yr): Architecture

Anyone following contemporary debates in architecture knows that there are as many definitions of architecture's disciplinarity as there are people who attempt to define it. In the current spate of publications on this topic, Mark Jarzombek declares architecture to be a failed discipline; Jane Rendell claims that architecture is a 'subject' subsuming several disciplines; Mark Wigley ruminates upon the prosthetic nature of the discipline to the sciences; Bob Somol and Sarah Whiting attempt to recover a Foucaultian disciplinarity in which norms, principles and traditions are supplanted by performative practice; Akos Moravansky argues that the disciplinarity of architecture resists the discursive approach embodied in post-1968 theory; Keller Easterling seeks the trapdoor into another habit of mind" by eschewing narrow categories of thought for more inclusive ones; Sylvia Lavin uses the analogy of the 'kiss' between an installation and the architecture that houses it as a model of architectural inter-disciplinarity as media interaction; and Hal Foster and Michael Speaks face off on the relative merits of design intelligence and critical distance. How can a student of architecture ever gain a foothold in this complex and confusing debate? At stake in the debates over disciplinarity is the question: how can we identify architecture's categories of knowledge, and how did the categorization of knowledge become a priority? This Disciplinarity seminar will historically situate the circumstances of architecture's emerging disciplinarity, and thematize it through three seemingly disparate but operatively identical lenses: the aesthetic, the historic, and the technological. Although the debates cited above appear unruly at first blush, fundamentally they aggregate around the relative merits of defining disciplinary categories of knowledge either too narrowly or too broadly, focusing either on architecture's autonomy or its extra-disciplinary appropriations. In addition to architecture's various categories of knowledge, the seminar will consider the influence of disciplinarity on our practices, considering how various classifications of architectural knowledge affect its techniques, standards, and formats of dissemination. From its Foucaultian framing to its current incarnations, Disciplinarity will unpack the construction of architecture's disciplinarity, and shed some much-needed light on what it means for architects to be disciplinary.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MArch: Architecture (3yr)

This is a theoretical seminar course that will be concerned with ideas and architectural knowledge that may be cultivated and tested through discourse. The course discussions will focus on an expansive role of architectural tools. While acknowledging a wealth of disciplinary conventions, histories and theories, this course recognizes that the forms of representation within the discipline of architecture have the capacity to affect the discipline of architecture and are not fixed. Students in this course will be expected to build upon their previous architectural education through a series of directed projects aimed at advancing architectural theories, ideas and methods. Some of the questions that students will be expected to address are: What are the practical, theoretical, and creative implications of a drawing that functions as architecture? How do architects change the way we make and think thanks to digital media? How do architects represent and model natural forces? How do architects express political or social agendas? What is the nature of an architectural contribution to interdisciplinary discourse? How can representation enable new kinds of artistic and research-based practices for architecture? Students will be expected to self-direct their process while framing their work intellectually in a seminar environment.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00

This course is limited to first-year MArch (2yr) Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MArch: Architecture (2yr)

This is a placeholder course for RISD students interested in taking a class at Brown University.

RISD students must receive prior approval from either the Division of Liberal Arts (for Liberal Arts credit) or their Department Head (for Major, Non-Major, or Graduate Elective credit) in order to cross-register. This will be conducted using an electronic ‘Prior Approval for Brown University Credit’ form found in Etrieve.

This course will be replaced with the approved designation as outlined on the Prior Approval for Brown University Credit form.

This is a placeholder course for RISD students interested in taking a class at Brown University.

RISD students must receive prior approval from either the Division of Liberal Arts (for Liberal Arts credit) or their Department Head (for Major, Non-Major, or Graduate Elective credit) in order to cross-register. This will be conducted using an electronic ‘Prior Approval for Brown University Credit’ form found in Etrieve.

This course will be replaced with the approved designation as outlined on the Prior Approval for Brown University Credit form.

Ceramics and printmaking have a shared ethos in the production of multiples and process-driven technical methods. This is reflected in industry but is not often explored in an academic context. This course would be the first at RISD to explore the rich resources of the Ceramics and Printmaking Departments to promote research into innovative ways to combine the disciplines. For almost three centuries ceramics have been enhanced by printed elements. The combination of ceramic and print technologies have tremendous potential for new applications in functional and sculptural approaches to ceramic multiples and printed editions. RISD has all the facilities in ceramics and printmaking required to pursue research in this field. Students will learn ceramic techniques such as hand-building and slip casting to create forms to hold screen printed, intaglio, relief, and digital images. Historical techniques will be presented and new methods and combinations will be developed.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

Major elective for Junior and Senior Ceramics students. Experienced non-majors may enroll pending seat availability.

Prerequisite: 6 credits of college-level ceramics or equivalent experience. To request permission, email the Department Head and instructor jointly and include images of past work.

Elective

This course will explore digital design and production methods of ceramic objects within the context of contemporary art and design. Students will undertake a series of projects utilizing 3D modeling applications to produce forms that can be fabricated by additive technologies including direct extrusion of clay. Students will also build an open source printer to gain a better understanding of the adaptability and control of the tools they will be using. Rhino will be used as the primary CAD tool and students will need to provide their own laptop with Rhino installed. Experience with both ceramics and 3D modeling preferred.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

Introduction to Ceramics for Design Majors would condense the sophomore ceramics curriculum so that design students can enroll in other ceramics-based courses, insuring that the sequence builds on prior knowledge. After this introductory course design majors will be better equipped to take Slip Casting, Advanced Pottery and Production, and Tableware. Interested students could take the science course for a more in depth understanding of the material.

Information to be covered in Introduction to Ceramics for Design Majors. Basic hand building techniques. Basic mold making for slip casting and pressing. Proper use of plaster and the plaster room. Basic clay and glaze formulation - proper use of the glaze room and clay making facilities. Basic firing processes and understanding the effects of different kiln temperatures and atmospheres. Use of 3d design technology and ceramics - marriage of traditional techniques and new technology.

Elective

In this class we will utilize an industrial approach and integrate it with a fine art sensibility. Students will learn how to make molds and prototypes; produce porcelain casting slip; strategies in casting; traditional and non-traditional surface applications. Course projects will focus on non-functional concepts. Many tools are supplied, however, students are required to purchase a tool kit to supplement those already on hand.

This course is a requirement for Sophomore Ceramics students. Sophomore non-majors may enroll pending seat availability. Email the Department Head and instructor jointly to request permission.

Major Requirement | BFA Ceramics

In this class you will find a site, a venue, a place from which your investigations will spring. Working from the tradition and need of tableware; or architectural ornamentation; or public art, you will attach your personal expressive needs and vision to uses outside of the studio. Creative and inventive individual solutions are stressed. All ceramic techniques and processes appropriate may be used. Collaboration is encouraged. Designed for students at an advanced level, using clay as a primary material and involving a variety of processes and forming methods.

Elective