T 6:30-9:00pm, 217 Anderson Hall
Small, focused, intermediate-level course in discussion, workshop and/or design-based format on topics related to current research in architecture.
This seminar will focus on an examination of architectural facades. We will begin with an overview of architecture’s outer-most edge, with an eye on grasping how we, as architects, might better exploit the perimeter of architecture’s physiognomy. One need go no further than an examination of the many labels applied to architecture’s face to being to grasp its volatility across eras and schools of thought: “façade,” “elevation,” “envelope,” “composition,” “index,” “form,” “enclosure,” “representation,” “symbol,” “skin,”…the list is long, varied, and invariably pointed in disparate directions.
The seminar will revolve around weekly conversations in which students will be asked to develop concise hypotheses—focused on case studies—so as to develop a vigorous baseline for your work as a thinking/designing architect. The primary material will include weekly readings and visual/graphic analyses. There will be a short final paper but the emphasis will be on weekly participation in the seminar discussions. Open to architecture students only, juniors and above.