ARPL 201 Architectural Foundations III: Design Analysis & Synthesis
This course is the first in the sequence of design studio offerings. As the first design course but last of the foundational courses, 201 is structured to provide a stable design foundation. The linguistic theme is "Grammar" or perhaps understood as proto-architecture. The beginnings of architecture, before it becomes highly evolved, formal, and poetic. The course will begin with exploring and understanding the essence of architecture. What is architecture? What does it consist of? How does it come together? How can it communicate? How does the context shape its message, understanding that architecture is essentially a public art? From this exploration, attention will be given to learning what the "elements" of architecture are and how they work independently and within the broader context of a building, through the study of good examples. Precedents will be examined, described, diagrammed, and documented graphically (2D & 3D) for the explicit purpose of extracting lessons for design. These lessons will be immediately applied to smaller incremental design projects of architectural components, leading up to the design of a complete building within an intentional context.