architecture - Sam Fox School - Washington University in St. Louis

Fall 2010
40
help improving subjective knowledge by fallibilism. In this case
conducting research, means making a measurement and then
writing some formulas and then it starts all over again.
Course Description:
317 graduate design core studio is rooted in representational
techniques, concepts, metaphors and those founded on
articulation of material systems and organizations of
architectural formations. Rigorous scientific methodologies
and inquiries will be developed to appreciate the heuristics of
research in architectural discipline. However, the difference
between architecture and science is its degree to which
functionality can be reduced to matters of material organization.
Architecture organizes social life via the articulation/perception,
and the conception/comprehension of spatial order.
Project Description:
The studio will concentrate on the individual development of
design process through production of complex architectural
projects. The experimental processes will focus on the procedures
of making architecture in current contemporary culture allowing
each student to develop a strong sense of craft, critical and
theoretical relationship to architecture. In this pivotal semester
the students are asked to commit to the discipline of architecture
and the importance of understanding the speculative nature of
spatial order.
Course Goals:
• Develop high standards of design techniques through twodimensional
and three-dimensional productions.
• Ability to speculate through a fruitful and critical design
process, and articulate these intentions in visual and verbal
forms.
• Develop an understanding of scale and the relationship
between the human body and architecture.
• Develop an understanding of material tectonics and the
formation of spatial order.
• Basic understanding of structural implications in material
decisions.
• Understanding the importance of landscape and natural
phenomena in the design process.
• Basic understanding of program through sequence, user
and functional requirements.
• Ability to engage digital design tools in two-dimensional
processes.