Thesis project / Project Thesis

As the culminating effort for the Master of Architecture degree, a “Thesis” entails multiple expectations. It is a demonstration, not only of competency and expertise but of originality and relevance. It requires the ability to conceive and execute work that is both a specific project (delimited in scope, a specific set of deliverables) as well as the indication of a wider “Project”(possessing disciplinary value, contributing to the larger discourse). This class will address both valances of both “Thesis” and “Project.” In a series of seminars, students will study the theory and practice of the architectural thesis by examining its institutional history and disciplinary development to understand the conventions and possibilities of the format. In workshop sessions, as preparation for their own theses, students will produce definitive statements (“what is the topic?”), relevant research (“what is the position?”), and studies of implementation (“what is the method?”). With these efforts, students will be equipped to undertake a thesis project in every sense.

Innovation in Science and Engineering: Conference Course (at SEAS)

The course explores factors and conditions contributing to innovation in science and engineering; how important problems are found, defined, and solved; roles of teamwork and creativity; and applications of these methods to other endeavors. Students will receive practical and professional training in techniques to define and solve problems, and in brainstorming and other individual and team approaches. 

Course format: Taught through a combination of lectures, discussions, and exercises led by innovators in science, engineering, arts, and business. 

See my.harvard, SEAS ENG-SCI 139, for location

Art, Design and the Public Domain Proseminar

This seminar is intended to serve as a theoretical and practical laboratory for the development of student ideas and concepts toward their artistic, design, and research projects. The course will explore artistic and design methodologies that aim at bringing new meaning to public space, contribute to the lives of people in an urban environment, and inspire the democratic process. The course will focus on informed review and discussion of contemporary art and design practices and related larger theoretical and critical discourse enhanced by students’ own project proposals and explorations. The seminar will also be a discussion forum for further development of the GSD’s MDes program in Art, Design, and the Public Domain. 

Student interests and instructor suggestions will become a base for assigned readings, presentations, and projects. Some seminar sessions will include appearances and participation by invited fellows, researchers, artists, and curators, as well as film screenings and field visits. 

In the course of readings, discussions, presentations and in the process of working on their own artistic and design project proposals, the students will explore issues and concepts of public domain, public space, public sphere, public place, the inner public, the political, “Agonistic Democracy,” the event, parrhesia, “Feminine Law”, the avant-garde, urban intervention, spatial practice, memory, memorial and monument, conflict transformation, trauma and recovery, public testimony, the “stranger,” site specificity and audience specificity, relational aesthetics, theater and pedagogy of “the oppressed,” epic theater, psychogeography, nomadology, interrogative design, strategy and tactics, transitional object, “good enough mother,” participation, responsiveness and interactivity, cultural prosthetics, and others. 
 

Landscape Representation I

The rich and varied discipline of landscape architecture is inextricably intertwined with the concept of representation. The first in a three-semester sequence, this course introduces students to the unique relationship between landscape architecture and representation through an overview of its history, techniques, and conventions. Emphasizing experimentation and fabrication, this course embraces representation as a highly generative process in the act of designing.

Weekly tutorials, presentations, and discussions reinforce a collaborative space to investigate new skills, strategies, and workflows. Through a series of exercises, students will develop their own iterative representational approach that incorporates both analog and digital methodologies. Coursework will include digital software such as AutoCAD, Rhino, and Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign), as well as physical modeling and hand drawing techniques.

Prerequisites: None.

Drawing for Designers 2: Human Presence and Appearance in Natural and Built Environment

The aim of the class is to learn how to depict and express the presence and appearance of people in natural and built environments.

This class objective will be achieved through three projects:

Each of the assigned projects will be realized in a different, specifically selected technique:

Thesis project / Project Thesis

As the culminating requirement of the Master in Architecture degree, “Thesis” entails multiple expectations. It is a demonstration, not only of competency and expertise but of originality and relevance. It requires the ability to conceive and execute work that is both a specific project (delimited in scope, a specific set of deliverables) as well as the indication of a wider Project (possessing disciplinary value, contributing to the larger discourse). The class will address both valances of the Thesis project. In a series of lectures and workshops, students will study the theory and practice of the architectural thesis by examining its institutional history at the GSD and its development in the field at large in order to understand the conventions and possibilities of the format. In preparation for their own thesis, students will, in a guided series of exercises, produce definitive statements (“what is the topic?”), relevant research (“what is the position?”), and studies of implementation (“what is the method?”). With this preparation, students will be equipped to undertake a thesis “Project" in every sense of the word.

The course consists of a lecture and a series of workshops to structure the production of research and initial design exercises.
The course is intended to complement any arrangements already made with thesis advisors. Thesis advisors are welcome to review progress in the course and suggest individually-tailored topics for the research work that each student will complete as part of the course.

Eligibility:
This course is intended for second semester MArch IIs, fourth semester MArch I APs, and sixth semester MArch Is.

Information for MArch Is and APs:

Information for MArch IIs:

Interface Design: Integrating Material Perceptions

The course explores the interface between architecture and engineering by examining our perceptions towards materials.

Interdisciplinary research has gained interest in recent years due to its creative potential to solve complex problems through the integration of diverse perspectives. Epistemological convergence across fields, though, is hindered due to different languages, value sets, and frames of reference used in individual domains. On the other hand, computation / computational thinking is becoming a common language across fields today that can facilitate new forms of communication and collaboration.

In this context, the class will focus on linking intrinsic material properties, often examined by engineering fields, to extrinsic material properties and geometry more central to the architectural domain. The course provides insight into the structural and mechanical engineering perspectives of material along with their quantitative analysis, optimization, and evaluation methods. In parallel, students will be exposed to computational workflows used to access and process material information. The discussions and design investigations will be organized as a dialog between numerical and visual, analytical and synthetical, as well as digital and physical with the goal of recognizing the differences and similarities between the fields.

Students will be asked to work in teams to (i) design and develop a simple software tool that assists in the understanding of engineering material knowledge in ways that are intuitive and relevant to architecture design processes, (ii) propose an integrative design application manifested in physical prototypes, and (iii) document the process in an academic paper format.    

Minimal programming skills per team would be desirable but not required.

Computational Design 2: Time/Design as Signal

In “computational design 1” we focused on space, its structure and representation within the realm of digital media. In this course we will be focusing on time and temporal phenomena which requires a different set of techniques and programming patterns. The design problems we will look at, all have a strong temporal component, and we will use computation as the medium by which we can analyse and intervene within a transient environment seeing as a signal.  The emphasis is on interactivity, quantitative aesthetics and digitally augmented design.

The course will introduce techniques for real time and deferred analysis of contextual information, such as sound analysis, computer vision, movement analysis and others. In addition, generative approaches that remix or synthesize new sensory information, such as real time sound synthesis, interactive light projections and installations are also introduced. On the more technical side we will be looking at various programming patterns and techniques including, object-oriented programming, event driven and asynchronous design, interactivity and real-time graphics.

The course builds upon “computational design 1” and expands into more advanced programming patterns, suitable for real time and asynchronous applications. Therefore, students are required to have taken Computational Design I or possess equivalent basic programming skills and computational geometry knowledge.

Throughout the semester, lectures and technical workshops will be held, aiming to develop the thinking, understanding and technical skills required to engage with digital technologies in an art and design context. Students will work in small groups on a single project throughout the semester in the form of an interactive installation that seeks to reconfigure, challenge or augment the sensory experience of our environment.

Power & Place: Culture and Conflict in the Built Environment

This lecture/workshop course studies and analyzes processes and expressions of power in urban form and design in the North American built environment. Focusing on the topics of identity and differentiation that are expressed in spatial interventions across history, this course surveys historic and contemporary cultural conflicts that have emerged from regulatory processes, many of which result, intentionally or unintentionally in patterns of spatial exclusion.

This course explores the underlying power networks behind the transformation of the Los Angeles River and the development of its adjacent urban fabric. The story of who benefited from the water of the Los Angeles River initially expressed the power to control its distribution. From irrigation ditches for agriculture to aqueducts for the domestic water systems critical to a growing city and then to the reduction of the river to a flood control channel to ensure flood-free development, whoever controlled the river infrastructure shaped Los Angeles and the development in the river’s flood plain. We will investigate two zones relating to the river at the extreme ends of the 110. At the northern end—the Arroyo Seco—in affluent Pasadena and Altadena issues arising from the Devil's Gate Reservoir Restoration project have produced a conflict between dredging a reservoir to maintain flood protection and the destruction of habitat. At the southern end, in less affluent Wilmington and San Pedro—areas of heavy industry, oil production and one of the busiest container ports in the world— issues of water and air quality, sediment and pollution have produced conflicts between conservation and market forces creating a situation of environmental discrimination.

The course will develop cognitive methodologies (ways of thinking), research methodologies (familiarity with original historical sources and databases) and analytical means (modes of interpretation) associated with places where power and politics play critical and often undisclosed influence in shaping the built environment. The goal of the course is to foster an understanding of urban ethics and political awareness that can be applied to different parts of the built world, leading to a broader understanding of the dimensions of the cultural ecology of a place over time.

The limited enrollment course lottery will select 12 students to travel to Los Angeles, CA. Critical Conservation students will have priority for enrollment for travel. Travel will take place during spring break, March 23-31, and students who travel in this course will be term billed $200. The limited enrollment lottery is only to select the students who will travel on the trip. After the selection process for the trip this course will be changed to unlimited enrollment and students may enroll as they would any other lecture course.  Students may enroll in only one traveling course or studio in a given term, and are responsible for the cost of all meals and incidentals related to the trip, including visas and any change fees related to modifications to the set flight itinerary.

Innovation in Science and Engineering: Conference Course (at SEAS)

Explores factors and conditions contributing to innovation in science and engineering; how important problems are found, defined, and solved; roles of teamwork and creativity; and applications of these methods to other endeavors. Students receive practical and professional training in techniques to define and solve problems, and in brainstorming and other individual and team approaches.

Taught through a combination of lectures, discussions, and exercises led by innovators in science, engineering, arts, and business.

Jointly Offered Course: SEAS EngSci 139/239