Master in Design Studies (MDesS)
Design Computation
This thematic area focuses on design computational techniques in architecture, landscape architecture and urban design and planning as they specifically relate to design and simulation processes and procedures. The array of topics addressed includes computational methods associated with form-generation, scripting, interactive spaces, geographic information systems, physical computing and others.
The area broadly covers digital modeling, scripting, and visualization, but focuses also on advanced topics that reflect faculty interests. These interests include recent theories of form in architecture that employ computational methods for definition, description, and manipulation. From algorithmic design to open source and from virtual reality to robotics, many designers are seeking new tools to explore formal and functional properties as sources of ordering systems. Related procedures include developing algorithms and computational methods that encapsulate the processes that lead to the generation of meaningful architectural form. Other interests include the exploration of motion in architecture, as well as, the use and potential of interactive spaces. Parametric design and related issues are explored in a variety of ways, but quite directly in relation to the GSD’s strong presence in the CAD/CAM field noted previously. Also explored are the use of computer-based techniques for connecting distant users in the design process through integrated project models, and creating information linkages between participants in the spectrum of design manufacturing and construction processes via Building Information Models.
Courses
Typical Electives:
2310 Sculpting in Motion
2309 Kinetic Architecture
2314 Interactive Spaces
2315 From Industrial to Strategic Design: The Changing Value of Design
4335 Architecure, Science and Technology
6331 Building Information Models
6407 Acoustics
6415 Construction Automation
6418 Smart Materials