SoA Elective Courses for Spring 2009

In addition to the required lecture courses and studios the following electives will be offered this spring (pending adequate enrollment).  This is the best selection of electives we have ever offered in a single term.

ARC 4202 – Ethics and Architecture
Instructor: Philippe d’Anjou

The course Ethics & Architecture addresses most specifically ethics as a foundation of design and projects in architecture. It is meant to bring ethics into the architectural design consciousness and attitude of the students.  It aims to provide them with ethical judgment skills to deal with the dilemmas that their projects pose.  It is built around the concepts of intention, choice, action, responsibility, engagement, and values. These notions are studied and articulated in relation to the phenomenon of design and the project in architecture.

The course addresses: theories of design based on practical reason; the ethical nature of architectural design; case studies related to ethical issues of contemporary architecture projects; and the ethical reasoning process that includes assessment, evaluation, and resolution, integrated into the architectural design act. The course focuses on the ethical dimension of architecture from an integrative philosophical perspective that bridges theory and practice, where the students are encouraged to reach in a reflective manner beyond professional competency towards professional and global responsibility.

ARC 4482 – Architectural Detail Generation
Instructor: Anthony Abbate

The premise placed before you is that building details contain something akin to a ‘genetic code’ for a building.  Inasmuch as the detailing of a building’s skin, joints, and finishes informs the whole architectural system it also disposes the vulnerability of shelter against the forces of time, nature, and use. Through dedicated research, analysis, and interpretation of selected case studies and self generated design investigations we will explore and document how the detail is developed as the connection between utility and pleasure in architecture.

ARC 4930-001 – Advanced Dynamic Design Methods
Instructor: Aron Temkin

With digital video we will explore spatial conditions in motion.  Using video tools we have the opportunity to apply sound and motion to our delineations of space.  How should this simulated condition of motion relate to how we naturally perceive our surroundings?

Using advanced tools for lighting and rendering we will explore how digital modeling can serve as both a representation and a tool for evaluation.  Using advanced rendering tools we have the means for examining simulated light, color, and reflection with a very precise level of control. How should this change the way we compose the characteristics of light, shadow, and reflectivity in a design process?

With interactive media tools we will explore the new opportunities provided by the presentation of visual data through a non-linear interface.  Using these tools we have the opportunity to compose architectural ideas as a composition of discoveries rather than purely as a composition of views.  How can we use these opportunities for non-linear presentation to communicate a more complete description of an architectural context?

ARC 4930-002 – Central European Modernism
Instructor: Vladimir Kulic

Modern architecture does not have one single birthplace.  But among the several regions that can be called a cradle of modernism, Central Europe holds a prominent place.  It gave us such great names as Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, and Coop Himmelb(l)au, but also a host of other less famous architects, whose contributions are equally interesting and instructive.

Stretching from Austria in the West to Ukraine in the East, and from the Czech lands in the North to Bosnia in the South, Central Europe was only sporadically on the cutting edge of industrialization and technological development.  But because of its complex demography, it placed before architects a different set of questions related to modernity: those of national, religious, and class identity and of the limits of architecture’s role as a medium of communication.   In our globalized world, these are still important questions and Central Europe can give us instructive answers to them.

This course will explore the emergence and development of modernism in Central Europe from the early 19th century until today.  Besides lectures, it will include in-class discussions of theoretical readings and work on a research project.  The course will present some truly spectacular visual material that is not normally seen in architectural history courses. 

ARC 4930-003 – Color-Material-Space
Instructor: Henning Haupt

The seminar ‘Color - Material - Space’ will explore relationships between color and architecture. This is considered a difficult partnership: historically painting was mostly assigned to the flat canvas and architecture to the tangible three-dimensional composition of space and its constitutional elements. Nevertheless color is a valid element of architectural design and important to understanding the approaches of 20th and 21st century architecture; the use of color in architecture can be rethought in a critical manner. The approach ­offered in the seminar concentrates on color as a material, its potentials in a design process and qualities of color in the spatial condition of an architectural product.

The seminar will provide information on color theories and the perception of color and space. It will discuss color, material and space in paintings, the relationship of paintings to architectural space as well as color in architecture. Parallel to these lectures and discussions every student in the seminar will explore personal skills for color via a hands-on process. Weekly assignments start from two-dimensional work and will shift to three-dimensional objects using different materials. This process will be repeated to pursue an independent body of work leading to an architectural design incorporating color, material and space at the end of the semester.

ARC 4930-004 – Biomorphic Design
Instructor: Emmanouil Vermisso

Biomorphic Design is a seminar that deals with biomimicry, that is, how principles of evolutionary biology may be applied to architecture. Engineers have been looking into this for some time now – this class will introduce biomimicry within an architectural design context.  The class will begin with a lecture and readings on design theory and evolutionary biology looking at key sources like Darwin and D'Arcy Thompson, moving on to more recent critical texts on organicism in architecture and the arts (Van Eck, Steadman) and contemporary research led by Michael Weinstock at the AA school in London. Texts will be complemented by relevant videos and possibly a site visit to a museum of natural history. The texts will be discussed in class; students will then formulate a theoretical framework based on the readings and pursue one of their topics of interest towards the design of a small space that is informed by the extracted knowledge. Final submission requirements include a short theoretical paper and a three-dimensional design (Rhino is suggested as a modeling platform due to its flexibility with organic nurbs surfaces).

ARC 4930-005 – Designing Safer Communities
Instructor: Randy Atlas

Designing Safe Communities with CPTED is a contemporary course on current practical applications of designing for security in the built environments with Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) for multi-family mixed-use housing, traditional neighborhood community planning, high-rise office buildings, and critical infrastructure. This course addresses the emerging threats of workplace violence, street crime, and terrorism, as it relates to homeland security, contemporary architecture, and critical infrastructure protection. The course addresses the lessons learned from 9/11 and the subsequent acts of terrorism as well as the national standards of care for designing security in new buildings in both the public and private sectors. CPTED is based on the premise that proper design and effective use of the built environment can lead to a reduction in the opportunity of predatory stranger-to-stranger crime, with the result of improving the quality of life, and reducing fear. CPTED provides criminal justice planners, architects, urban planners, criminologists, and law enforcement with opportunities to enhance public safety, security, and general welfare by designing security into the built environment proactively. The course will discuss a broad range of intervention strategies within the context of potential impacts upon the quality of the built environment. Actual case studies in South Florida will be used as practical experience. This course does give you a CPTED Practitioners Certification.