Environmental Design Studio 3: Institution(s)

This studio course will focus on the exploration of complex physical and spatial programs in a building and landscape design in the public realm. The regard between ‘building’ and context are to be the focus , including a deliberate concern for the circumstances that characterize the contemporary urban condition. The refinement of more abstract, analytical skills will be encouraged, including deployment of the considerable capabilities available in digital media.

STRUCTURE
INSTITUTIONS[s] originates with ideas and methods of observation and description, survey and measure of the public realm. Public places, natural and man-made, 'buildings and landscapes' and materials are studied and illustrated, mapped and detailed with relative dimensions assembled, shaped and interpreted. This process of the depiction of public space, of 'building and landscape' is then explored in photographic and graphic studies, and in two- and three-dimensional representations.
The analysis leads to a body of research that is used by students towards investigations of the social, material and physical constructs of public space.
Complex maps detailing social, physical and programmatic intentions are surveyed and the first intimations of transformations and design propositions are made.
INSTITUTIONS[s] concludes with individual design proposals for a 'building' or 'landscape' within the public realm representing the socio-political aspirations of a particular community. Ergonomics, siting, structure, materiality, context and urban planning form are considered.

PEDAGOGY
Each faculty member or educator will develop [a] particular pedagogical model[s] or investigation[s] within the general description of INSTITUTION[s]. Guided by the general academic intentions of the program, the studio will continually evolve and design proposals that respond both to existing and emerging social, cultural and technological culture, from local to regional and global concerns.
Because the skills level of students will vary significantly throughout the program, each participant will be evaluated according to the level of their own individual growth, emphasizing intellectual as well as technical engagement with the themes and topics of each studio.

Prerequisite: ENDS 302