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Courses

ARC 501

Studio 1
Studio 1 explores the scale of the body within the landscape as a point of departure for understanding architecture in its environment, with an aim to provide a firm foundation upon which the further study of architecture may be undertaken. The studio introduces students to the basic concepts of architecture and design through lectures, discussions, workshops, studio work, presentations, and field trips. Examples of studio themes and focus might be: architectural pavilions, a small transit stop, or a small public structure such as an information kiosk or visitors center. The purpose of this studio is to become familiar with the basic elements of architecture through material explorations, develop an initial understanding of Frank Lloyd Wright’s design principles, and to inculcate working methods and beginning-level skills.
Credits
6
Course Type
Core Studio
Course Format
Seven hours of lecture/seminar per week
Prerequisites

ARC 502

Studio 2
Studio 2 begins with the prototypical home to explore the conception and design of a project at a larger scale. Through rigorous architectural research, students explore architecture via the design of multi-family dwellings, with complementary community, commercial (office, retail, etc.), or assembly functions to explore issues of equity, accessibility and density. The focus of the studio is the relationship between architecture and the surrounding environment/context, exploring urban site design issues as a new constraint. The studio serves to develop a student’s ability to elaborate on basic skills in a more complex spatial composition.
Credits
6
Course Type
Core Studio
Course Format
Seven hours of lecture/seminar per week
Prerequisites
ARC-501

ARC 503

Experimental Studio
The Experimental Studio offers students a chance to use the skills and knowledge they have been acquiring to break the box, develop a new vision, and experiment with new modes of both design and representation. While the studio program will be public, it is also open ended, based on a thematic, rather than a programmatic, core. Students will be 3 encouraged to use the history of experimentation in American architecture, including that conducted by Frank Lloyd Wright, to develop new ways of seeing and acting in their world. This studio will put special emphasis on modes of presentation that go beyond the representations students have learned in previous studios.
Credits
5
Course Type
Core Studio
Course Format
Five hours of lecture/seminar per week
Prerequisites
ARC-502

ARC 504

Elective, Special Topics (Summer) Varies
Special topics elective is designed with an open course description in order to provide for a variety of changing course topics that explore current or advanced issues within the discipline of architecture, offered by faculty or Visiting Teaching Fellows to align with their particular research or expertise.
Credits
2
Course Type
Elective
Course Format
Prerequisites

ARC 505

Elective, Special Topics (Summer) Varies
Special topics elective is designed with an open course description in order to provide for a variety of changing course topics that explore current or advanced issues within the discipline of architecture, offered by faculty or Visiting Teaching Fellows to align with their particular research or expertise.
Credits
2
Course Type
Elective
Course Format
Prerequisites

ARC 512

Architectural History 2
How did we build the modern world? Picking up where History of Architecture 1 left off, this course will tell the story of the development of architecture since the 18th century. It will trace the emergence not only of new technologies, materials, and building types, but also of the modern definition of the discipline and its makers. The course will follow the establishment of the profession under Louis XIV, the course and influence of the Industrial Revolution, the emergence of a new global culture, and the rise of the middle class as the principal actors on architecture’s scene. Students will be asked to present weekly analyses of relevant buildings and take a final exam.
Credits
2
Course Type
Core Class
Course Format
Two hours of lecture/seminar per week
Prerequisites
ARC-511

ARC 521

Structures 1
Description: Students will learn to efficiently organize, coordinate and communicate information in order to convey data necessary for structural design. Incorporated is an applied research project and field sketches related to structural design and detailing. Students will gain exposure to the essence of structural design.
Credits
3
Course Type
Core Class
Course Format
Three hours of lecture/seminar per week
Prerequisites

ARC 522

Structures 2
Description: This course is a lecture class that focuses on structural design for architects. Students will learn to efficiently organize, coordinate and communicate information in order to convey data necessary for structural design. Incorporated is an applied research project and field sketches related to structural design and detailing. Students will gain exposure to the essence of structural design, primarily using wood and steel members, and with an emphasis on systems, detailing, connections and economic design.
Credits
3
Course Type
Core Class
Course Format
Three hours of lecture/seminar per week
Prerequisites
ARC-521

ARC 531

Communicate Design 1
Students will explore visual representation of design with a focus on technical drawing types using CAD software. They will discover the importance of each technique as it relates to one’s architectural intentions. Other mediums may include manual drawing and drafting, graphic design and layout, and 3-d modeling and fabrication.
Credits
2
Course Type
Core Class
Course Format
2.5 hours of lecture/seminar per week
Prerequisites

ARC 532

Communicate Design 2
Students will explore visual representation of design with a focus on imaging through rendering, photography, and image manipulation. CD2 also expands on the concepts developed and learned in Communicate Design 1 regarding visual representation of design in areas such as: CAD drawing and drafting, graphic design and layout, and 3-d modeling and fabrication. Students will enhance their understanding of each technique as it relates to one’s architectural intentions.
Credits
2
Course Type
Core Class
Course Format
2.5 hours of lecture/seminar per week
Prerequisites
ARC-531

ARC 541

Landscape Architecture Workshop
The goal is to instill a new, or renewed, love, respect and appreciation for landscapes and gardens and their celebration of nature through integration with architecture. The objective is to make you a better architect by broadening your understanding of the profession through an exploration of landscape architecture and site planning.
Credits
2
Course Type
Core Class
Course Format
TBD
Prerequisites

ARC 551

Sustainability 1 (Principles of Sustainability)
Principles of Sustainability, and Applied Sustainability focus on healthy and resource-efficient residential and commercial design. Combined, the two seminars address issues of solar radiation, passive solar design, energy efficiency, natural ventilation and mechanical systems, non-toxic finishes in materials, remediation, sustainable and recycled materials, lighting, and water crisis issues.
Credits
2
Course Type
Core Class
Course Format
Two hours of lecture/seminar per week
Prerequisites

ARC 587

Organic in Context
This seminar provides a range of historical and contemporary perspectives on the term “organic” in architecture, popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright but never consistently defined. The multifaceted and historical use of the term organic reveals its opportunities, issues, and problems. This seminar seeks renewed value in organic thought given our transforming relationships to and narratives around “nature”, environments, histories, societies, technologies, styles, and materials. The course is conducted through presentations, workshops, and discussions with Core Faculty and guest lecturers.
Credits
2
Course Type
Core Class
Course Format
TBD
Prerequisites

ARC 592

Compositional Design 1
This class will use Frank Lloyd Wright’s art glass patterns and the furniture of Taliesin to study the ideas and systems that energize his work. These remarkable patterns and objects contain unique compositional effects, organizational principles and structural solutions not usually found in contemporary design.
Credits
1
Course Type
Elective
Course Format
Five hours of lecture/workshop per week
Prerequisites

ARC 597

Performance Project
Students explore imagination, creativity, the social context, literature and design. They rehearse, design, build, and perform a one-act or short two-act play for the public. The chosen piece will offer the opportunity to explore interdisciplinary areas of knowledge and skill. Learning about the world of the play - understanding it’s time, context and ideas – is critical in interpreting the text. Performance techniques will be introduced and exercised. Performers will wrestle with translating ideas and timing from the page to the stage. Designers will interpret the physical world of the piece, creating a design that is both aesthetically pleasing and functional.
Credits
2
Course Type
Elective
Course Format
Prerequisites

ARC 602

Integrated Design Studio w/ Landscape Integration
The Integrated Design Studio is a highly-structured studio that spans preliminary research and design to design development. The scale and scope of the project are appropriately complex for the objectives of the studio, and generally focus on a medium-scale mixed-use, multi-story building in an urban context. Students develop the design through the required set of criteria and graphic standards that best demonstrate student ability in comprehensive design and systems integration. The studio aims to develop student ability to produce an architectural project informed by a comprehensive program, from schematic design through the detailed development of programmatic spaces, structural and environmental systems, life-safety provisions, wall sections, and building assemblies. The purpose of the studio is to act as the capstone of the student’s learning process in which he or she can demonstrate analytical, design, and presentation skills.
Credits
6
Course Type
Core Studio
Course Format
Six hours of lecture/seminar per week
Prerequisites
ARC-601; ARC-621; ARC-532

ARC 621

Codes
This course is a study of the International Building Code as it applies to building design from the architect’s perspective. Students will develop the knowledge of the building code to apply code requirements to their Box, shelter, and other community design and construction projects. Students will develop: the ability to determine the occupancies of typical buildings; the ability to determine applicable construction type to a building based on construction materials; the ability to calculate allowable area and height for single and multiple story buildings, and for separated and non-separated uses; the ability to analyze a typical building for means of egress, including determining occupant load, egress width, and travel distance; the ability to analyze materials for compliance with the building code, including materials for roofing, exterior walls, and interior finishes.
Credits
3
Course Type
Core Class
Course Format
TBD
Prerequisites

ARC 622

Contracts
Sessions will provide an overview of the most frequently used AIA and ConsensusDOCs contract forms, how they can be customized for the particular needs of a project, the liabilities that flow from them to the Architect and others, the ethical negotiation of these contracts and their ongoing use throughout the life of a project. Students will read contract documents in advance of class, participate in interactive classroom lectures designed to explore the uses and limits of the documents, as well as how to ethically negotiate terms of them for a specific project. Students will explore the newest design and construction industry contract forms, looking at such issues as project electronic communications, building information modeling (BIM), and sustainable/green design development, as well as emerging methods of project delivery, such as integrated project delivery and the Architect’s role on construction manager-managed projects. Students desiring to explore preparation of these additional contract forms for use on their studio or Thesis projects will work one-on-one with the teacher to customize these forms for their specific project.
Credits
2
Course Type
Core Class
Course Format
TBD
Prerequisites

ARC 623

Building Construction Technology
This class explores how an architectural project becomes realizable, including the parties involved, and the contracts and drawings (construction documents). There is a focus on drawing specifications- the detailed information included in the project manual that further explain the drawings. Students will complete several assignments and participate in scenarios.
Credits
3
Course Type
Core Class
Course Format
Three hours of lecture/seminar per week
Prerequisites
ARC-621

ARC 631

Communicate Design 3
Students will explore visual representation of design with a focus on tooling and digital fabrication. CD3 expands on the concepts developed and learned in Communicate Design 1 and 2 regarding visual representation of design in areas such as: CAD drawing and drafting, imaging, graphic design and layout, and 3-d modeling and fabrication. Students will enhance their understanding of each technique as it relates to one’s architectural intentions.
Credits
2
Course Type
Core Class
Course Format
2.5 hours of lecture/seminar per week
Prerequisites
ARC-532

ARC 651

Sustainability 2 (Applied Sustainability)
Students will focus on healthy and resource-efficient residential and commercial design. Combined, the two seminars address issues of solar radiation, passive solar design, energy efficiency, natural ventilation and mechanical systems, non-toxic finishes in materials, remediation, sustainable and recycled materials, lighting, and water crisis issues.
Credits
2
Course Type
Core Class
Course Format
Prerequisites
ARC-551

ARC 686

Usonia 21
Modeled after Wright’s mid-twentieth century vision of Usonia, wherein he imagined the American landscape transformed through organic architecture, Usonia 21 (U21) is an ongoing interdisciplinary initiative focused on developing student-led design and building projects in underserved communities, with an emphasis on innovative affordable housing and economic development. As a form of service learning that expands on TSOA’s tradition of learning by doing, U21 enables students to collaborate with local communities to address issues of sustainability, equity, and racial justice through architecture. Students will engage augmented reality technologies as media for immersive storytelling.
Credits
2
Course Type
Core Class
Course Format
Two hours of seminar per week
Prerequisites

ARC 689

Pre-thesis Seminar
This course aims to explore the potential and limitations that diverse tools played in the production and diffusion of architectural intelligence while providing tools for shaping new positions and discourses in the form of a thesis proposal; the written component of the final project; and a print and web based visualization and presentation of rigorous, original research. Focusing on historical precedents, students will investigate how certain strategies and mediums forged new forms of aesthetic, critical, conceptual, narrative, programmatic and technical positions. A rigorous research component will be followed by the development of new and known mediums of research and dissemination. Students will fully immerse on the construction of critical positions and discourses while forging potential new modalities of architectural intelligence. The final project of the course consists of the development of a thesis proposal.
Credits
2
Course Type
Core Class
Course Format
Two hours of seminar per week
Prerequisites

ARC 692

Compositional Design 2
This course is intended to provide strategies and techniques for safe and effective use of the woodshop for the beginner as well as more experienced woodworkers. The class will start with an overview of terminology and the woodworking machinery. A handout will be provided and we will divide up into small groups of two to three students. Woodshop Utility will provide ongoing feedback about the work being accomplished, as well as a final assessment.
Credits
1
Course Type
Elective
Course Format
Five hours of lecture/workshop per week
Prerequisites
ARC-592

ARC 699

Internship
Taking place during the summer sessions, internships provide practical experience in the field of architecture and are a mandatory part of the students’ education.
Credits
0
Course Type
Core Co-curricular
Course Format
Prerequisites

ARC 731

Shelter Thesis - Design/Construct
This experience will provide students with the opportunity to take design from representation to physical reality. In most cases students design what they will construct, or assist their colleagues in the design-build process. Student learning establishes continuity from proposal, to design, construction, use, maintenance, alteration, and preservation. Projects and student work are guided, mentored, and evaluated by architecture Core Faculty, practitioner faculty, and practitioners in the internship network.
Credits
6
Course Type
Core Studio
Course Format
Prerequisites
ARC-602

ARC 732

Shelter Thesis - Construct/Inhabit
A continuation and expansion of the experience and work begun in ARC-731 that offers students the unprecedented experience of shaping the quality of their living spaces and to become the user of their own designs. Projects and student work are guided, mentored, and evaluated by architecture Core Faculty, practitioner faculty, and practitioners in the internship network.
Credits
6
Course Type
Core Studio
Course Format
Prerequisites
ARC-602; ARC-731

ARC 739

Independent Study (Fall)
Independent study work comprises complementary and supplementary projects that strengthen areas of interest as identified by the student and/or the review process. Independent study is available through an approval process to students in Intermediate and Integrated phases of the program.
Credits
2
Course Type
Elective
Course Format
Prerequisites

ARC 740

Independent Study (Spring)
Independent study work comprises complementary and supplementary projects that strengthen areas of interest as identified by the student and/or the review process. Independent study is available through an approval process to students in Intermediate and Integrated phases of the program.
Credits
2
Course Type
Elective
Course Format
Prerequisites

ARC 791

Details
What precisely is a detail? Where does the architect formulate the intention behind the approach to combining construction elements? ARC-791 explores this in three parts. Firstly, contemporary examples of the use of traditional materials (concrete, wood, masonry, glass, steel); we will explore a wide variety of cases of assembly and discuss what the architect intended with these materials. Next, we direct focus to specific construction topics (interior details, lighting, urban details, low-cost construction, hybrid construction and new materials) and, lastly, explore and unpack architect and author Edward R. Ford’s five definitions of details and detailing and endeavor to clarify and expand upon these definitions. As the course progresses through these discussions, students will be assigned the task of detailing the specific architectonic conditions within their shelter or studio project.
Credits
2
Course Type
Elective
Course Format
Prerequisites

ARC 792

Elective, Special Topics (Spring) Varies
Special topics elective is designed with an open course description in order to provide for a variety of changing course topics that explore current or advanced issues within the discipline of architecture, offered by faculty or Visiting Teaching Fellows to align with their particular research or expertise.
Credits
2
Course Type
Elective
Course Format
Prerequisites

ARC 793

Elective, Special Topics (Fall) Varies
Special topics elective is designed with an open course description in order to provide for a variety of changing course topics that explore current or advanced issues within the discipline of architecture, offered by faculty or Visiting Teaching Fellows to align with their particular research or expertise.
Credits
2
Course Type
Elective
Course Format
Prerequisites

ARC 794

Elective, Special Topics (Summer)
Special topics elective is designed with an open course description in order to provide for a variety of changing course topics that explore current or advanced issues within the discipline of architecture, offered by faculty or Visiting Teaching Fellows to align with their particular research or expertise.
Credits
2
Course Type
Elective
Course Format
Prerequisites

ARC 796

Elective, Special Topics (Spring) Varies
Special topics elective is designed with an open course description in order to provide for a variety of changing course topics that explore current or advanced issues within the discipline of architecture, offered by faculty or Visiting Teaching Fellows to align with their particular research or expertise.
Credits
2
Course Type
Elective
Course Format
Prerequisites

ARC 799

AP Projects
Architectural Practice (AP) projects fulfill the Architectural Practice area of the curriculum that promotes project-based learning. The AP Projects Studio engages the design of real-world project(s) led by architecture faculty and are completed in collaboration with mission-aligned organizations in housing, sustainability, history, or the arts. The AP Projects Studio includes weekly opportunities such as guest workshops, presentations, and field trips.
Credits
0
Course Type
Core Co-curricular
Course Format
Prerequisites

CLR 100

Community Life Requirement
Co-curricular activities through community life offer an overall integrative approach to the student experience that ultimately informs design thinking through values of Leadership, Collaboration, Responsibility, Communication, and Creativity.
Credits
0
Course Type
Core Co-curricular
Course Format
Prerequisites
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