intro to
architectural design
Fall 2010 Days + Times
Classroom Building + Room Number
Class Blog Blog Address
Professor Alicia Eggert
Contact aliciaceggert@gmail.com
Office Room Number + Hours
Course Description + Goals
In this course we will investigate our relationship to the
built environment, first and foremost as individuals but
also as a society. We will research the subject both
physically - through field trips and personal explorations
of space - and historically - by learning about primitive
forms of shelter, historical movements and theories, and
contemporary practices and methods. Our research will
be furthered through regular class discussions about an
architectural design’s relationship to current social and
political issues. We will identify problems found within
the built environments we encounter locally and propose
our own solutions, all the while applying ideas and
information gleaned from other subjects, such as the
arts, social sciences, ecology and mathematics.
In addition to acquiring fundamental design skills in
architectural drafting, site surveying and model making,
we will also explore three very different prioritized
approaches to the design process: formal, functional and
conceptual. Formal concerns addressed throughout the
semester will include scale, volume, order, proportion,
and materiality; functional considerations will include
programmatic distribution, accessibility and spatial
circulation; and conceptual and theoretical approaches
explored will include functionalism, landscape urbanism,
impermanence/mobility, and situationist practices such
as the dérive. We will also analyze and discuss the
importance of context with respect to the site or land-
scape, and the interplay between interior and exterior.
Most importantly, the class will focus on individual
creative development and the application of our diverse
personal interests, ideas and opinions to the various
problems encountered within the assignments. Our main
goal should be to end the semester seeing the world
from a new perspective and thinking about the architec-
tural environments we interact with daily in a
completely different way.
Required Readings + Discussions
You will be assigned readings from various sources
related to the topics covered within the assignments.
Interesting conversations result when everyone reads
critically, comes to class prepared, and openly joins the
dialogue. An excellent discussion is one where the group
questions assumptions and works on developing a higher
level of understanding of the material at hand.
Evaluation + Grading
Your personal evaluation will be determined by your
commitment to the quality, creativity and completion of
your work, your dedication to the required fieldwork and
research, and your participation in class. You will be
expected to help foster the class community by taking an
active role in the discussions, thoroughly reading all
assigned materials, and energetically pursuing your own
learning through a high level of engagement with the
assignments. Lack of respect for studio rules and cleanli-
ness will adversely affect your grade.
Attendance + Critiques
Success in a studio art class is dependent upon your
participation in the studio activities and your interaction
with other students. This cannot occur if you are not in
class. Therefore, the attendance policy will be strictly
enforced. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to
find out what you have missed and what you need to
prepare for the next class. In addition to contacting the
instructor, you should also contact one of your class-
mates to find out about any assignments not indicated on
the course outline.
Despite the title, critique sessions are not intended to be
forums for demeaning criticism; neither are they meant
to focus on what one likes or dislikes. They are to assist
you in your creative development by providing focused
opportunities for you to verbalize your reasoning and
intentions, and for fellow classmates to share their
individual perspectives and knowledge. Critiques in a
studio class take the place of exams and quizzes in a
lecture course. Attendance is critical and required. Not
only are no make ups allowed, they are not possible.
Field Trips
Experiencing local architectural environments will be an
important aspect of this class. Depending on schedules
and events, we may arrange to meet in a place other
than the classroom during the course. Dates will be
discussed in advance and arranged according to personal
schedules.
Class Blog
You will be required to document each of your projects
and post images and writings on the class blog. This
documentation will be viewed at midterms and finals,
and will be a determining factor of your final grade.
walking a line
“What we need to question is bricks, concrete, glass, our table manners, our
utensils, our tools, the way we spend our time, our rhythms. To question that
which seems to have ceased forever to astonish us. We live, true, we breathe, true;
we walk, we go downstairs, we sit at a table in order to eat, we lie down on a bed
in order to sleep. How? Where? When? Why?”
Project Description + Goals
This assignment asks you to go for a walk. But not just an
ordinary walk. First, you must delineate your current
location on a map. Start by printing a Google Map
satellite view of the town. Find your dorm or apartment
on that map, and mark it with a solid dot. Then, with a
ruler, draw a straight line that is approximately 1/2 mile
long in any direction (use the map’s scale to estimate the
appropriate length). Mark the endpoint of that line with
another solid dot. That will be your destination.
Your goal will be to walk from your bedroom to that
destination by following that straight line as closely and
as accurately as possible. Stand in the center of your
bedroom and figure out which wall you would need to
face in order to be heading directly towards that seem-
ingly faraway place. Then start walking.
You will undoubtedly encounter many obstacles along the
way. It will be up to you to decide how to surmount
them. Obviously you will not be able to walk through
walls, trees, cars or fences. You will have to veer off
course slightly at times. But try your best to adhere to
the line (it is, after all, the shortest distance between
two points). Is this even possible?
Safety should be your first priority, and efficiency your
second. Buildings may have to be entered and navigated
(legally, of course) or sometimes circumvented. Your
path will most likely cross a wide variety of territories,
both natural and artificial, private and public. How are
they delineated? Are the boundaries between them
physical? social? political?
The goal of this assignment is to heighten your physical
and mental awareness of interior and exterior spaces,
the way you traverse them and transition between them.
You will, therefore, be asked to perform this walk on
three separate occasions, focusing each time on differ-
ent sensory perceptions and documenting your experi-
ences accordingly.
Readings + Resources
Action in Perception, by Alva Noë
Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, by Georges Perec
Theory of the Dérive:
www.bopsecrets.org/SI/2.derive.htm
Richard Long’s “Walking the Line”:
www.richardlong.org
Janet Cardiff’s “Walks”:
www.cardiffmiller.com
-Georges Perec
Walk #1
Your first walk should feel like an expedition. You should
feel like an explorer of a foreign land.
Bring a notebook with you and map out your experi-
ences. Draw your path and the objects and buildings you
encounter. Take notes. What did you do when you came
upon that picket fence? You will need to remember your
route and how you navigated around, over or through
specific obstacles so you can repeat those movements in
your future walks.
Walk #2
Your second walk will require a more comprehensive
visual analysis of the terrain. You have already traveled
this route, so you know what to expect. Now you need to
scrutinize it.
For this journey you will need to affix the camera to your
body so that it maintains a consistent directional focus in
relationship to your body. For example, the camera can
point straight down at your feet by cantilevering out
from a belt buckle, or it can focus on what is directly
ahead of or behind you if it is mounted to a hat.
As you walk, count your steps and take a picture every
10 paces. Once the walk is complete, upload these
images onto the computer and use the appropriate
software to convert these images into an animation
(specific software demonstrations will be given in class).
Walk #3
Your final journey will be dramatically different from the
first two because it will occur without the use of your
most powerful sense: your sight. For this last expedition
you will need to employ the help of a trustworthy friend.
This friend will lead you, blindfolded, to your destina-
tion. However, this will most likely require you to
instruct your guide on how to proceed around certain
obstacles. Will you be able to recognize your surround-
ings by sound, smell or touch well enough to navigate
this assumingly familiar path?
You will be provided with an audio recorder with which
to document this final experience. In addition to
instructing your guide, you should also verbally narrate
your sensory experiences as much as possible. This audio
recording will then be paired with your animation and
drawings from Walk #1, and uploaded to the class blog.
human scale
a physical comparison of body + space

Project Description + Goals

The intent of this assignment is for you to recognize the
way your body physically relates to the spaces and
objects around you, and to consider the differences
between perceived scale and objective size. How do you
fit in?
You will be provided with a standard 2x4 (1.5” x 3.5” x
8’-0” piece of lumber) with which to create your own
measuring device. We will cut the length of it down to
your exact height in inches. Then, using color and line,
you will need to subdivide that unit into at least 2
incrementally smaller units (like a yard stick, which
subdivides one yard into feet and inches). Those smaller
units should also relate to different parts of your body,
like the length of your forearm or your index finger.
What parts of your body can be multiplied by a whole
number to equal its total length?
Le Corbusier’s Modular System
Once complete, your personal ‘ruler’ will be a sculptural
object with which to measure a chosen interior space.
Select a medium-sized room that interests and appeals Technical Drawings
to you, one that you feel comfortable in. Measure all Using 1/4” graph paper and a ruler, you will then draw
aspects of that built environment with your instrument - this room to scale. Determine what each 1/4” box will
its length, width, height, the location of doors and equal in anatomical units so that your drawings will fill
windows, cabinets, and even the larger objects or most of the page (for instance, one box could equal one
furniture. Start by sketching a plan view of the room and arm’s length, four boxes equaling one ‘Joe’). Note that
then start in one corner, working your way around the scale in the bottom left corner of the page.
room systematically and noting all of its measurements.
Next, sketch one interior facing each direction (north, You should do five drawings in total, one plan view and
south, east and west) on which you can note heights. four interior elevations, and label each drawing accord-
ingly as taught in class. Use a soft, sharp pencil (2B or
314 drafting pencil). Prepare five sheets of 8 1/2" x 11"
Readings + Resources graph paper. In the lower right corner of each sheet,
The Modulor, by Le Corbusier print the following information as neatly as you can (use
Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, by Georges Perec guidelines):
Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man”: YOUR NAME (in 3/16" letters, all upper case)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man Intro to Architecture (in 1/8" letters,
Ron Mueck: Assignment 2 upper and lower case)
http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/ron-mueck/ Include a graphic compass on the upper right hand corner
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/10/arts/design/10mu of the page of your plan view drawing to indicate direc-
ec.html tion. Include a scaled figure in each elevation view (scale
Claes Oldenburg: a picture of yourself in Photoshop using the ruler tool,
http://www.oldenburgvanbruggen.com/ print it out, and trace your profile).
folding architecture
an eploration of form
“Architecture is the learned game,
correct and magnificent,
of forms assembled in the light.”
-Le Corbusier
Project Description + Goals
The intent of this assignment is to explore folding as a
generative process that has the potential to create
countless forms. You will be supplied with 5 pieces of 24
x 30” Ivory Carton paper to manipulate using the follow-
ing techniques: fold, pleat, crease, press, score, cut,
pull up-down, rotate, twist, turn, wrap, enfold, pierce,
hinge, knot, weave, compress, balance, unfold, crumple.
Your goal should be to create a very distinct and varied
form from each continuous sheet of paper. Pay respect to
volume (positive and negative space), layering, pattern
and repetition, and rectilinear and curvilinear folds.
Work intuitively and playfully with the material, without
predetermining the final results. Do not think about what
function that form would serve, only observe and react
to its formal qualities.
We will observe and analyze these forms, and choose as
a class which one we think is the most dynamic. You will
at that point decide how that form should rest on the
ground, and mount it securely to a cardboard or foam
core base. You will then build off of it (additively or
subtractively) to create a more realistic architectural
model, using everyday materials such as bamboo skew-
ers, vellum, transparency paper, and aluminum foil.
Spatial + Organizational Diagrams
Print several photographs of your printed form (one for
each direction). Overlay tracing paper and use color,
line, shading and words to make the following spatial and
organizational diagrams:
1. Physically describe each interior space with 1-3 words.
Avoid using words such as ‘big’ or ‘small’; instead, use
descriptive words like airy, cramped, sharp, warped, etc.
2. Analyze the way light interacts with the form and its
interior. Shade each interior space according to the
quality of light it receives from a fixed light source.
3. Use lines and arrows to create circulation diagrams.
Where would a person enter/exit the structure? If you
were to pour water into that opening, how would it flow
through the form? Do the spaces intersect in such a way
that they allow for multiple directions of travel, or are
there one clear path or direction?
Function
After completing your diagrams, you will finally decide
upon this structure’s function. What purpose could this
form serve? Consider all the possibilities, including
open-air park structures, religious temples, monuments,
museums, schools, residences, factories, etc. Once
you’ve decided, make any necessary practical adjust-
ments to your model and re-photograph it if necessary.
Then, draw one final diagram describing the various uses
of each interior space. What activities would be most
appropriate considering it’s formal qualities? Refer to
your prior diagrams and make informed choices.
Site
Now that you have a form that serves a very particular
function, think about how that form would relate to a
particular site. Does it belong in the middle of a metro-
politan are? in the woods? on a cliff? How would the way
people perceive it change if it were located in different
countries, and perceived my people of different cultures?
Use Google Maps to choose a specific geographical
location, and screen capture the satellite view of that
site. Photograph your model from directly overhead, and
use Photoshop to scale it correctly and place it on the
map. This image, along with your diagrams and docu-
mentation of your initial five forms will be uploaded to
the class blog for grading.
Readings + Resources
Folding Architecture, by Sophia Vyzoviti
Folding in Architecture, edited by Greg Lynn
Frank Gehry:
www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Frank_Gehry.html
Andrew Scott Ross:
http://andrewscottross.com
Yuken Teruya:
www.yukenteruyastudio.com