Students work directly with materials and tools, producing models that help them connect the formal basis of architecture with its physical construction. In addition, the design studios are supported by lectures and seminars in history, theory and building technologies of architecture. These courses help students understand that architecture is a multi-disciplinary profession that combines knowledge from the humanities, the applied arts and engineering technology.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of all requirements, the student will have knowledge of:

• Understanding issues and methods of architectural design, representation and construction
• Becoming culturally aware, technically competent and environmentally responsible
• Freshman studio sequence: basic literacy in design principles and fundamentals using two- and three- dimensional media, and to become familiar with the tools, materials, techniques and values that enable an architectural design proposition
• Sophomore studio sequence: the basic knowledge of historical precedents, site planning and analyzing context and expands the range of design methods
• Junior studio sequence: students are introduced to a variety of performative criteria that govern the workings of buildings to understand how dynamic forces contribute to the constructional, functional and spatial formation of architecture
• Senior fall semester studio: students synthesize the social needs of collective domesticity with the real world constraints of site, climate and program