Circuits, Circles, and Loops: Towards a Regenerative Architecture
Present assumptions indicate that the management of our material world accounts for more than half of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Nearly fifty percent of these emissions are attributed directly to building construction. And these numbers are predicted to grow, more than doubling the gross amount of material extraction and flow around the planet by 2060. This course asks how we design new architectures that fit within the circuits, circles, and loops of a healthy, regenerative material ecology.
Through in-class lectures, case studies, and hands-on workshops, students will develop a comprehensive understanding of both contemporary theory and practical applications surrounding lifecycle material design. They will actively research topics such as systems ecology, extractive geographies, life cycle material modeling, circular design, pervasive connectivity, biomaterials, adaptive reuse, indigenous and traditional craftsmanship, healthy materials, social equity, and other pertinent subjects. Additionally, students will acquire advanced proficiency in utilizing software tools and innovate new fabrication processes to address material flows around and through buildings effectively.
Beyond theoretical knowledge, this course offers a unique opportunity for students to actively confront the environmental and human impacts associated with material management in the built environment. Through hands-on, design-led learning experiences, students will be encouraged to tackle these challenges by designing and building real-world prototypes through semester-long team projects that utilize industry and Harvard University material resources. Ultimately, students will develop a robust research framework to investigate, deconstruct, and invent new material life cycle design strategies that critically engage pluralistic design solutions toward a new regenerative architecture.
Enactive Design: Creative Applications through Concurrent Human-Machine Interaction
Enactive Design is an advanced research seminar on human-computer interaction. We will explore the role of real-time, bidirectional communication between human and digital agents in a design context, and leverage the potentials of this interactive relationship to establish new creative domains.
Digital interfaces provide computational frameworks for creative exploration in disciplines such as architecture, design and art. However, in many instances such as traditional computer-aided design (CAD) software, integrated development environments (IDE), numerically-controlled (CNC) fabrication machines, or certain kinds of robots and neural networks, the machine is subservient to the orders of its human counterpart. While this model might be a convenient human-machine relationship for production-oriented scenarios, in the case of design environments, a higher degree of machine agency could be desired, as it may generate new models of ideation, creative exploration and design through human-computer collaboration.
Our investigation is inspired by the concept of Enactivism, a philosophy which argues that cognition arises from the interactions of an agent with its context. Rather than in an abstract or intangible way, knowledge and learning in agents arise from purposeful, situated and embodied interaction with their context. Translated to design environments, what would it mean to create with tools that have a certain degree of agency of their own? How would that inform and expand our creativity? What kind of opportunities may arise from designing as a conversation rather than an imposition? Can design be conceived as the human curation of the suggestions of an artificial intelligence? How can the power and precision of fabrication machines be amplified by the decision-making capacity of humans-on-the-loop? Are these new forms of collaborative art?
We will address these questions, and many others, through the design of concurrent human-machine interactive platforms, with a particular focus on the computational aspects of the system. The course will be conducted through a series of lectures, readings, discussions and hands-on workshops. Participants will learn techniques such as applied machine learning, robotic control, physical sensing, network communication, interactive fabrication and asynchronous programming. Exercises will experiment with real-time communication between human and digital agents, leading to a semester-long personal final project and a conference-grade research paper.
Prerequisites: Demonstrated experience in computer programming via SCI-6338, SCI-6483, CS50 or similar. If you are not sure if you satisfy these requirements, please contact the instructor directly. Participants should anticipate spending around $200 in prototyping material and digital subscriptions.
This course is the last installment of a three-part course series on Computational Design preceded by SCI-6338: Introduction to Computational Design (Fall), and SCI-6483: Procedural Fields, Functional Design of Discrete Hyperdimensional Spaces (Spring), taught by the same instructor.
The first day of GSD classes, Tuesday, September 5th, is held as a MONDAY schedule at the GSD. As this course meets on Monday, the first meeting of this course will be on Tuesday, September 5th. It will meet regularly thereafter.
Introduction to Computational Design
#GSD6338 is an introductory course on Computational Design, with a particular focus on architecture, landscape and urbanism.
In this course, we will understand "Computational Design" as the set of methods borrowed from fields such as computer science, mathematics, and geometry, applied to solving design problems. Chances are that a significant portion of your typical design workflow is mediated by digital tools and, in particular, computer software that has been designed and created by a third party, and therefore, your creativity is partially biased by someone else's opinions. However, the real craftsman is the one who understands their tools so well that they can change, improve and adapt them to their own desires. In this course, you will learn how to think algorithmically, and how to understand and create computer software, so that you will be able to explore new creative opportunities and relate them to your personal interests.
The course will be conducted as a mix of lectures, hands-on workshops and sections that will introduce you to the conceptual and technical foundations of Computational Design. Coursework will be a blend of focused technical exercises and open-ended assignments, culminating in a final project of your choice at the end of the semester.
Basic knowledge of Grasshopper is strongly desired although not required; if you feel you do not meet this requirement, you will be required the first week to follow a series of tutorials and complete a small exercise. Additionally, previous knowledge of computer programming is NOT required; this is part of what you will learn in this course!
If you are interested in getting a better glimpse of the kind of work you will develop for the class, you can check work by course alumni on https://gsd6338.org/.
This course is the first installment of a three-part course series on Computational Design, followed by SCI-6483 Procedural Fields: Functional Design of Discrete Hyperdimensional Spaces (Spring) and SCI-6365: Enactive Design: Creative Applications through Concurrent Human-Machine Interaction (Fall), taught by the same instructor.
The first day of GSD classes, Tuesday, September 5th, is held as a MONDAY schedule. The course will meet for the first time on Thursday, September 7th and will meet regularly thereafter.
Water, Land-Water Linkages, and Aquatic Ecology
GSD 6333 covers water across the globe in relation to (1) land-water interactions, emphasizing hydrology and water quality, (2) aquatic ecology, and (3) human activities, including design questions and methodologies. While the course will focus on fresh waters, there will be limited coverage of near-shore coastal waters and coastal wetlands.
This course will provide students with an understanding of water that will inform their professional approaches to landscape architecture, architecture, and planning, and contribute to protecting, improving, restoring, and sustaining water resources. Emphasis will be placed on both the science and the application of this science in designs for projects involving a wide range of interactions with water including coastlines, inland rivers and lakes, and urban stormwater. With ongoing global changes in climate, urbanization, and the use of water for energy and food production, the relationship between humans and water will continue to grow and evolve. We will learn about environmental and land justice issues and think about their relationship to our design work. We will learn from members of the Indigenous communities about the importance of land, water, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). Students will come away from this course with a better understanding of our evolving relationship with water and the environment and how designs can account for hydrologic change and adaptation while also considering the local communities in which we work. While many varied case studies from around the U.S. and internationally will be discussed throughout the semester, much of the course content and assignments will involve hydrology, stormwater, and sea level rise in the Charles River and Boston Harbor; river and wetland restoration in Plymouth, MA; and stormwater and low-impact design in Washington, D.C.
Discussion of these focus areas will include design challenges, social issues, permitting, and the implementation process. Students will come away with a better understanding of how projects go from conceptual design to a constructed site. Students will be encouraged to bring water and ecology-related projects/challenges from other courses, studios, or projects to the class for an open discussion. Hands-on exercises include watershed delineation, hydrologic calculations to estimate runoff and groundwater infiltration and flow, design exercises developing recommendations for stormwater best-management-practices/low-impact design (LID) for a neighborhood in Washington, DC, and research and design exercises for river restoration projects. Multiple classes will have outside activities or visits to nearby river, wetland, and water-related sites, including the Alewife stormwater facility, Alewife Brook, and the Charles River. Attendance at a 2-day weekend fieldtrip with hands-on field sampling will be mandatory. A semester long group project will focus on the sites visited during this weekend fieldtrip and will culminate in a conceptual design of restoration and revitalization.
Evaluation: Based on class attendance and participation (including field trips), short written assignments, quizzes, focused design exercises, and a semester-long project.
Climate by Design
The climate crisis is here now and for the foreseeable future. For designers who shape the built environment, there is an urgent need to respond to the changing climate with greater understanding, sophistication, and imagination. To do so requires a community of learning committed to deeper analysis of the patterns of change and the potential roles designers may play in reducing carbon emissions and adapting to the many changes the future will bring. We must ask critical questions and interrogate existing systems of knowledge. What is climate change? How can designers approach it? What are the design strategies? How effective are they? Whom do they serve? And on what terms?
The effects and burdens of climatic change are unequal, contributing to increased social and economic disparity and often exacerbating historic patterns of inequity. The impacts are multiple and diverse as are the many cultures and communities that must respond and adapt. Therefore, a universal, one size fits all approach is not an adequate response. To develop design tools that respond to these conditions, we need to understand not only the science, but also the political, social, economic, and cultural contexts on the ground, where design projects and movements are rooted.
Through a series of lectures and case studies, this course will explore the range of paradigmatic design responses to the climate crisis. This foundation will be built through a series of talks by GSD faculty and external experts across a variety of fields. Lectures and panel discussions will cover both the science of and design response to the climate crisis including adaptation, mitigation, climate justice and activism. We will engage in discussion together and with these invited experts to advance our knowledge and interrogate existing practices.
Students will develop and analyze a case study, advancing methodologies for critical assessment and visual representation. The studies will consider social, cultural, and aesthetic dimensions as well as environmental function, economic deployment, and political engagement. These exemplary cases will be a means to understand and articulate the evolving role of landscape architecture and related disciplines in designing for an increasingly vulnerable planet. As such, the course will explore not only how landscape architects respond to the climate crisis, but what these actions say about the nature of design itself. The cases will be situated in different geographical and climatic contexts and the responses will be understood in relation to advances in science as well as the variations in political, environmental, economic, social, and historical context.
Climate by Design is a required course for MLA degree candidates and open to other GSD and Harvard students with an interest in the climate crisis and design.
The first day of GSD classes, Tuesday, September 5th, is held as a MONDAY schedule at the GSD. As this course meets on Monday, the first meeting of this course will be on Tuesday, September 5th. It will meet regularly thereafter.
Ecologies, Techniques, Technologies III: Ecology and the Design World
Ecology and the Design World (Estefania Fernandez Barrancos):
Landscape architecture incorporates an additional layer of complexity to design that is less present in other design disciplines: living organisms. The relationships among those organisms and between them and the environment define the dynamics of populations, communities, and ecosystems. Ecology is the science that aims to understand how all these relationships work and how they change through space and time. Landscape design can incorporate many of those relationships to create spaces that go beyond human value-laden functions and design complex systems that are able to self-organize and respond to current global changes, with lasting impact for centuries.
Through lectures, discussions, readings, case studies, and design projects, the goal of this course is to understand the complexity of living systems to integrate it in landscape design. In particular, we will investigate the processes and functions that emerge from ecosystem structure to help you integrate these components in your future designs creating resilient and resistant landscapes. From small-scale projects where one or several processes or ecosystem components can be integrated at the core of urban areas or buildings, to large-scale projects aiming to design entire landscapes or manage large portions of land, you will learn how to use the power of life in design.
The centerpiece of this course will be the development of this ecological layer in the context of your Core Studio III project. We will reach this goal with the help of two key course components. Field trips to key ecosystems close to the Cambridge area (coastal areas and forests) that have being affected by human disturbance and protection. Six guest lecturers from outstanding firms and the academia will join us to share their views on how to integrate ecology in design and gain a deeper understanding of key ecological elements. We will explore the integration of all these elements in the practice of landscape architecture in a rapidly changing world with an uncertain future.
An Introduction to Woody Plants as a Design Medium (Matthew Girard):
This portion of the course is for MLA AP students.
Recognizing that plants are one of the essential mediums of landscape architecture, this module seeks to introduce the student to the relationships between plants and people (horticulture) and the relationships between plants and the environment (ecology). The class focuses on the following topics and objectives:
– Concepts and practices necessary for using woody plants as a design medium.
– An introduction to the spatial, visual, functional, temporal, and sensorial qualities of woody plants in the landscape.
– An introduction to the horticultural requirements of woody plants particularly as it relates to the urban environment.
– Techniques and practices for using woody plants in the designed landscape.
Structural Design II
This course is a continuation of GSD 6227 and completes the introduction to the analysis and design of building structures. Both 6227 and 6229 are the required courses to satisfy (and exceed) accreditation requirements for structures in the MArch I program.
The course has three closely related pedagogical components. First, it introduces additional methods for structural analysis and design—numerical analysis techniques, physical model analysis, ultimate strength design of reinforced concrete elements, and structural design software.
Second, it completes the introduction to the elements of structures by introducing 3-D trusses, continuous beams, statically indeterminate frames, shells, and membranes. In addition to timber and steel, we introduce the design of reinforced concrete structures.
Finally, this course dedicates a significant amount of time to the design of structural systems, addressing both gravity as well as lateral loading scenarios. The design of structural systems is not treated as a purely quantitative exercise but as a design activity that synergizes architectural design and the mechanics of structural principles. Design exercises and case study analysis serve to expose the relationship between structural systems and architectural form and space. Students will learn to identify typical design strategies for structural system strategies and understand their spatial and formal ramifications. They will learn to select and apply appropriate methods of analysis when conducting structural analysis studies in order to make informed decisions throughout the architectural design process.
A computer-based structural analysis program (Multiframe 3-D) will be used during the course. Together with its first part, GSD 6227, this course:
– Provides an understanding of the behavior of structural systems.
– Gives students an exposure to basic and advanced structural concepts and teaches simple calculations and the use of computer tools applicable in the early stages of the design process in order to select and size the most appropriate structural systems.
– Teaches the engineering language in an effort to improve communication with the engineers in the design team
The Monday class meeting is an optional review session.
Prerequisites: GSD 6227 or equivalent.
The first day of GSD classes, Tuesday, September 5th, is held as a MONDAY schedule at the GSD. As this course meets on Monday, the first meeting of this course will be on Tuesday, September 5th. It will meet regularly thereafter.
Ecologies, Techniques, Technologies I
This course recognizes plants as one of the most expressive materials of the artform — a living medium that distinguishes the discipline from the other applied sciences and fine arts. The goal of the course is to introduce the global potential of plants as a means of design for shaping the character of a place for individual and collective human experience. Investigations that straddle hand-drawn, digital and analog mediums will explore the universally accessible and adaptive power of plants in making healthy, resilient ecologies and socially dynamic spaces.
The course emphasizes the use of empirical observations and investigation to explore multiple-scaled thinking about plants and their habitats, including cultural and vernacular attributes and larger ecological systems. It is not a comprehensive overview of the horticultural or botanical history of plants, however students will employ an important methodology for how to learn plants that can be translated to any locale, including the rote memorization of botanical and common plant names combined with recognition of a plant's visual features.
Through case studies, field visits, lectures, and readings students will learn to identify approximately 50+ plants, define notational systems, and translate plant characteristics into design languages that they can apply in future design work. The course exposes students to the understanding of plants from non-managed plant communities to managed living systems.
Products of the course will include mixed media drawings that explore typologies of designed and non- designed plant communities. Videos, photographs, black and white field notes, sketches, diagrams, and a series of curated drawings in axon, plan, and section will be the vocabulary of the course. Regular "plant walks” which will provide great opportunities to observe plants in situ and learn how to use plants to shape the experience of place.
The first day of GSD classes, Tuesday, September 5th, is held as a MONDAY schedule. The course will meet for the first time on Thursday, September 7th and will meet regularly thereafter.
Construction Systems
This course introduces students to methods of construction: conceptually, historically, and practically. We will consider how construction techniques emerge in relation to architectural desires and technical criteria in order to emphasize the architect’s agency in shaping construction systems within the collaborative environment of contemporary building design. Construction has material, structural, spatial, economic, environmental, and cultural consequences. As such, this foundational course will have the dual charge of understanding not just how, but also why we build in a particular manner.
An overview of construction systems will be provided including a review of wall, roof, envelope, and foundation systems. Students will learn about construction systems through lectures, readings, and a series of research assignments that ask students to apply methods of dissection (by drawing and modeling selected systems in detail) and to speculate on the larger societal and cultural relevance of architectural technologies. Students will be evaluated on the basis of their research assignments and participation in course discussions. Select course materials will be made available online for students to review outside of class hours for asynchronous engagement and discussion.
This course is part of the core curriculum in architecture for MArch I and MArch I AP students.
Environmental Systems 1 [Module 1]
This course is the first of a two-module sequence in building technology (6121, 6122) and constitutes part of the core curriculum in architecture.
Objectives:
– To study selected aspects of the physical environment which directly affect people and their buildings, such as climate, weather, solar radiation and heat gain and loss.
– To study the means by which environmental factors may be wisely utilized, controlled, and modified as an integral part of the architectural design.
“Environmental Systems 1” will undertake the study of human needs, comfort, performance, and sense of well-being in relation to the physical environments, both natural and man-made, that occur in and around buildings. Recent environmental problems have been traced to the energy and waste products used or created by buildings. These environmental problems make it imperative that architects be familiar with the systems that affect building energy use.
Students in this course will become familiar with those elements of a building that contribute to the heat and cooling loads in the building and will be introduced to methods that reduce the energy consumption. Different methods of analysis, evaluation, and simulation will be introduced and used.
The first day of GSD classes, Tuesday, September 5th, is held as a MONDAY schedule at the GSD. As this course meets on Monday, the first meeting of this course will be on Tuesday, September 5th. It will meet regularly thereafter.