Teaching
Advanced Architectural Design Studio
January 6, 2017
Course: DME2100 Research in Design Computing (Advanced Architectural Design Studio series)
School: Boston Architectural College
Year: Spring 2017
Role: Course Developer and Instructor
This class reimagines the architectural design studio, to introduce design computation research and scholarship as a pedagogical method. Computation in architecture is often a mere tool-based interaction between users and design software. Design computation here takes a different meaning. Specifically, it is a field of inquiry that expands what computation means in the process of arriving at architectural design solutions. How might computation explain the active at times improvisational and dynamic process of designing? What are potential collisions with abstract, digital forms of computation?
The studio consists of 2-week modules that explore design through a particular computational design theme. The aim is for students to develop a strong foundation on a contemporary subject and a critical understanding of some of the history of ideas leading to current work. Weekly lectures introduce a host of formal methods. These include design descriptions, parametric (constraint) modeling, design space formalisms, shape grammars and visual computing.
Students initiate a final independent or team project incorporating methods that addresses key issues discussed in class. Examples of project topics include the following. Analysis of an aesthetic object (e.g., a painting, a building, a landscape, a sculpture), a computer implementation, an architectural project, a scholarly paper.