Visual media courses at the Graduate School of Design provide fluency in technologies of visualization and of fabrication. Correspondingly, courses in this distributional area focus on the toolset of computational geometry or material research. VIS 2122, as the required first course in the sequence, introduces students to both modes of engagement.

Module II proceeds directly from Module I. Module I introduces abstract geometry and explores its relationship with flatness, vision, projection and drawing. Module II reintroduces architectural geometry in its computational terms and then focuses on its interactions with thickness, material, joint, detail, and function.
Module II has several learning objectives. As stated above, it prepares students for both halves of the visual media curriculum. More specifically, the class positions computational geometry and material investigation in dialog as two approaches to the problem of building. The capacity to sync the digital and physical worlds is at the heart of architectural design today. In response, the course teaches methods of translation from digital model to physical prototype and back from material test to computer model.

Complementary learning objectives follow from NAAB criteria, PC.5, Research and Innovation: how the program prepares students to engage and participate in architectural research to test and evaluate innovations in the field. A significant research-driven aspect of architectural practice involves analyzing material systems and developing details that consider their constraints. Correspondingly, Module II asks students to investigate material and design responsive connections. The course guides students in developing a research project, emphasizing building knowledge across a series of iterations. The final assignment turns outward, to the communal nature of research, as students must frame their work as an instructional drawing set that others can follow and build upon. Lastly, the course provides an introduction to and vocabulary for reading research papers in digital media and sources for keeping abreast of current developments in the field.

Assignments follow a back-and-forth process between two modes, anticipating an outcome in the computer [simulation] and physical testing in reality [prototyping]. These parallel approaches to architectural discovery are taught through specific techniques of parametric modeling and physical model making. Parametric modeling is taught as a tool for adaptation to constraints of fabrication, rather than as a generative tool for form. The properties of parametric surfaces are approached in relation to material elasticity, resistance to torsion and bending. Model making is taught as an experimental discipline for testing materials and joints rather than a representation tool. The rich history of the physical prototype is discussed as the basis for creating a culture of model making as an experimental essay in assembly.  

Module II’s approach to geometry aims to reflect practice. In any real building project, the interplay between goals and constraints arising from the specificity of site, client, material, economy, and interdisciplinary discussion makes the accurate resolution of intersections in space a practical necessity and brings geometry out of abstraction. Architecture requires means to adjust flexibly as design progresses towards construction and research reveals constraints. The exercises in this class create a microcosm of these interactions with the goal of developing tools for precision, design of details, permutation, and adaptation to material systems.