Architecture I ARST 235, Spring 2019 t/th 1.20-3.50 Art Studio North 105 Wesleyan University Syllabus Instructor: Elijah Huge email: ehuge@wesleyan.edu office hours: Tuesday 4-5 PM 104 Art Studio North Teaching Apprentice: Bela Bucciarelli ibucciarelli@wesleyan.edu TA office hours: tbd Description Architecture I is an introduction to architectural design concepts and methods. The first half of the semester will focus on the analysis of important existing works through study and interpretation of their architectural representations. The second half of the semester will apply the principles learned to the design of an architectural project with a specific site. Complementing each of the studio projects, there will be required readings, presentations, and workshops to introduce the conceptual underpinnings of the course, provide historical points of reference, and develop requisite technical skills. In addition to work produced for class pinups and presentations, students are expected to keep a sketchbook as a repository of their design process and observations and to document the work they produce for the class for inclusion in the portfolio due at the end of the term. Structure The focus of the course will be the Studio Projects: 1. Projects will introduce architectural design concepts and methods while challenging the studio to creatively manipulate these conventions in the work produced. 2. Presentations, readings, and case studies will be treated collectively as an introduction to architectural thinking in relation to each of the Projects and as such will be used both to develop the intellectual underpinnings for the analysis and design work of the studio and as a starting point for discussions of design methodology. 3. Workshops will be used to introduce useful tools and techniques for Studio Projects, including drafting, model making, computer graphic and drawing programs (photoshop, illustrator, AutoCAD/Rhino), composing presentation material, interpreting architectural documents, and documenting finished work.
Projects 1.1-2 Representation (Weeks 1-2) Drawing in architecture is not done after nature, but prior to construction; it is not so much produced by reflection on the reality outside the drawing, as productive of a reality that will end up outside the drawing. The logic of classical realism is stood on its head, and it is through this inversion that architectural drawing has obtained an enormous and largely unacknowledged generative power: by stealth. For, when I say unacknowledged, I mean unacknowledged in principles and theory. Drawing s hegemony over the architectural object has never really been challenged. - Robin Evans, Translations from Drawing to Building, 1986 The studio will study and explore techniques and conventions of architectural representation while challenging itself to creatively manipulate these conventions, using study and analysis to find ground for generative possibilities. 1.3-4 Space (Weeks 2-6) After a century of predominantly decorative, sculptural, and a- or nonspatial architecture, the modern movement, with the splendid intent of returning architecture to the expression proper to it, banished decoration from building, insisting on the thesis that volumetric and spatial values are the only values legitimate to architecture. - Bruno Zevi, Architecture as Space, 1957 Of the three architectural paradigms studied this semester, space is arguably the most pervasive as a model for understanding and interpreting architecture. For the design assignment, the studio will work with a number of important examples of modern domestic architecture, using comparative analysis of their spatial qualities as a point of departure. 2.1-3 Program (Weeks 7-14) If program initiates the individual architectural project, what is the influence of program on the project of architecture? If we take program not as a generic designation of use, but as a specific concept within architecture s development, a useful framework is John Summerson s 1957 The Case for a Theory of Modern Architecture, in which he distinguished program as the novel innovation of modernism. After rejecting a series of plausible but insufficient coherencies to explain the emergence of modern architecture, such as geometry and biological metaphors, he came to the conclusion that such architecture is based not on a figurative idea but on a social one, and therein established program as that which was truly distinct in the modern. - John McMorrough, Notes on the Adaptive Re-use of Program, 2006 Working with a specific site, the studio will work to interpret and respond to a program brief. The assignment will focus on the interrelationships between activities in the program and their formal and organizational implications as presented in each design project.
Readings & Workshops Office Hours TA Office Hours Tied to each of the studio projects, the required readings and instructor presentations provide valuable background information for situating the concepts explored in the studio. While class time will be set aside specifically for the discussion of the readings, they are also important as supplementary material to the design work of the studio. The class times scheduled for these and the instructional sessions or workshops are noted on the course calendar You are strongly encouraged to bring any questions or concerns about the course to designated office hours. The Teaching Apprentice will hold weekly office hours in the Studio (Art Studio North) or. Review sessions and/or special workshops may also be scheduled during these times. Field Trip There will be one off-campus field trip scheduled for 3/7/2019 Lectures There will be Studio related lectures and events this Spring attendance is strongly encouraged. Dates and times will be noted when available. Evaluation Criteria 85% Studio Projects (10, 15, 15, 40) 1. Ability to convey information in drawings and models in direct relationship to your stated intention for the project. 2. Visual quality, coherence, and clarity of work 3. Growth, measured in terms of improvement through the course of the semester and creative energy demonstrated in work. 4. Timely completion of work assigned throughout the semester. 20% Class attendance, participation, and sketchbook 1. You are expected to attend all class meetings prepared to contribute to class discussion 2. Punctual attendance and presentation in class pinups is mandatory. 3. Two absences will negatively affect your final grade. More than two absences is considered grounds for failure of the course. If absent, you are responsible to make up work and prepare for the next class. 4. All late work will be down-graded by one full letter grade unless accompanied by a physician s note or other evidence of an emergency. 5. Sketchbooks are not graded, but will be reviewed at midterm or on request. Accommodations It is the policy of Wesleyan University to provide reasonable accommodations to students with documented disabilities. Students, however, are responsible for registering with Disabilities Services, in addition to making requests known to me in a timely manner. If you require accommodations in this class, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible [before the second week of the semester], so that appropriate arrangements can be made. The procedures for registering with Disabilities Services can be found at: http://www.wesleyan.edu/deans/disability-students.html
Studio Rules Woodshop Rules 1. Cell phones are to be turned off/silenced through the duration of class. 2. Only students registered in ARST 235 (Architecture I), ARST 233 (Digital Architecture) and Architecture Thesis students may use Art Studio North 105. 3. Use cutting boards for cutting DO NOT use wood tables as cutting surfaces. 4. Clean up glue from cutting boards and other work surfaces immediately glue that is left to dry on a cutting board or other work surface will destroy said cutting board or other work surface. 5. Do not leave any drawings, drawing instruments, models or materials of any kind on the working tables after using them. You must store all supplies in lockers, cabinets or flat files. Anything left on tables or floor may be discarded by the janitorial staff. Take responsibility for all equipment and material in the studio; it is all for your use. 6. If you are the last person working in the studio please make sure the storage cabinet is locked before you leave. 7. Clean up your area at the end of each class period. 8. Power tools in the woodshop are to be used in accordance with woodshop rules and only when the woodshop supervisor or monitors are present in the shop. 1. You will all have access to the woodshop after receiving instructions on how to operate power tools. 2. Students who do not follow woodshop rules will have their shop privileges suspended. Please be considerate of your fellow students. Everyone is responsible for clean up in the studio. Documentation It is important that you document your work for the studio (this is particularly important if you have an interest in potentially pursuing a job or career in architecture, design, or other arts related field). It is expected that the work produced in this course may be used as a foundation for your portfolio. At the end of the semester, you will be required to submit a digital portfolio. You will receive specific instructions for formatting and submission of your portfolio. In the event that this is not completed before the end of the term, grades are held until the required documentation material has been properly formatted and uploaded. (No portfolio = no grade).
Schedule Draft 1.18.2019 ARST 435 Architecture I Date analysis/design assignments reading discussions, presentations, workshops Week 0 1/24/19 Project 1.1 Assigned Presentation: Introduction to Course (Representation) Reading 1 assigned Week 1 1/29/19 Project 1.1 pinup Reading 1 Discussion Project 1.2 Assigned Presentation 1: What is a Diagram? (all printouts/copies pinned up) 1/31/19 Project 1.2 Desk Crits Workshop: Drawing Conventions, Intro Rhino Week 2 2/5/19 Project 1.2 Pinup (all drawings pinned up) Project 1.3 Assigned 2/7/19 Reading 2 Discussion Workshop: Rhino & Laser cutter Week 3 2/12/19 Project 1.3 "sketch" review (all drawings pinned up) 2/14/19 Workshop: Casting Workshop: Woodshop Training Week 4 2/19/19 Project 1.3 Review 2/21/19 Presentation 2: Tectonic v. Stereotomic Reading 3 Discussion Week 5 2/26/19 Project 1.4 "sketch" review 2/28/19 Workshop: Documentation Week 6 3/5/19 Project 1.4 Review 3/7/19 FIELD TRIP Week 7 USDAN STEPS 3/12/19 Spring Break Week 8 3/19/19 Spring Break
Week 9 3/26/19 Project Introduction Presentation 3: Program Project 3.0, 3.1, 3.2 Assigned Reading 3 Discussion 3/28/19 INDIVIDUAL PROGRESS MEETINGS Workshop: The site model Week 10 4/2/19 Project 3.2 Pinup Project 3.3 Assigned 4/4/19 Workshop: Adobe Photoshop Week 11 Workshop: Adobe Illustrator 4/9/19 Desk Crits (group 2) Project 3.1 (Site Model) due 4/11/19 Desk Crits (group 1) Week 12 4/16/19 Project 3 Mid-Review sketch model (1/8" = 1') (model 1) schematic drawings 4/18/19 Workshop: Illustrator + Photoshop Week 13 Workshop: Adobe indesign (portfolios) 4/23/19 Project 3.0 Pinup sketch model 2 (1/4" = 1') 4/25/19 Working Session (Software review or desk crits) Week 14 Special Material Requests Fielded Special Material Requests Filled 4/30/19 Project 3.0 Desk Crits (group 1) Full schematic drawing set (min 2 plans, 2 sections) 5/2/19 Project 3.0 Desk Crits (group 2) final model due (model 4) Week 15 5/7/19 Project 3 Review final model and drawings presented Final Jury TBA 5/9/19 End of Term Open House 5/12/19 Studio Cleanup 5/18/19 Portfolios DUE Week 16 FINALS WEEK
Architecture 1 Reading List Concepts of Analysis (Introduction: Reading 1) Lucan, Jacques, Composition, Non-Composition : Architecture and Theory in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. (Lausanne, Switzerland : EPFL Press ; Abingdon, Oxford : Routledge, 2012): 6-7, 10-25, 172-189, 484-503. Regulating Lines (Space v. Geometry: Reading 2) Required: - Rowe, Colin. "The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa," in: Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1972): 1-28. - Allen, Stan. Field Conditions, in: Points + Lines: Diagrams and Projects for the City (New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 1985). Recommended - Risselada, Max, Introduction, Raumplan Versus Plan Libre: Adolf Loos And Le Corbusier, 1919-1930, M. Risselada and B. Colomina, eds., (New York : Rizzoli, 1988, c1987), 6-8. - V. de Beek, Johan, Adolf Loos patterns of town houses, In Raumplan Versus Plan Libre: Adolf Loos And Le Corbusier, 1919-1930, M. Risselada and B. Colomina, eds., (New York : Rizzoli, 1988) 27-46. - Hebly, Arjan, The 5 Points and form, In Raumplan Versus Plan Libre: Adolf Loos And Le Corbusier, 1919-1930, M. Risselada and B. Colomina, eds., (New York : Rizzoli, 1988) 47-53. - Rowe, Colin and Robert Slutzky. "Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal," [1955-63] in: Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1972): 160-176. Structuring Space (Tectonic v. Stereotomic: Reading 3) Required: - Gottfried Semper, "The Four Elements of Architecture" [1851], trans. Wolfgang Herrmann and Harry Mallgrave, in Harry Mallgrave, ed.,architectural Theory Vol. 1: An Anthology from Vitruvius to 1870 (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006), 536-39. - Kenneth Frampton, Introduction, Studies in Tectonic Culture (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1995), 1-28. - Koolhaas, Rem, Transformations, In OMA@Work.A+U, (Tokyo: A&U Publishing Co., Ltd., 2000) 106-115. Recommended: - Frascari, Marco. The Tell-the-Tale Detail. In: VIA7: The Building of Architecture (1984): 23-37. in: Kate Nesbitt ed. Theorizing a New Agenda For Architecture. An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995. (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996) 500-14 - Van de Ven, Cornelius Making Space Tangible, Space in Architecture (Assen/Maastricht, The Netherlands: Van Gorcum &Comp.B.V., 1977): 2-8. Program (Reading 4) Bernard Tschumi, Violence of Architecture, from Architecture and Disjunction John McMorrough, Notes on the Adaptive Re-use of Program, from Praxis 8 WORKac, Program Primer, from Praxis 8