Courses

Screens – Projecting Media and The Visual Arts

Giuliana Bruno, Emilio Vavarella

How do screens function as interface between us and the world? What is the role of the screen in contemporary visual arts and media culture?…

Building Conservation and Renewal: Assessment, Analysis, Design

David Fixler

What are the spatial, material, and  cultural values inherent in a property that must be understood to craft interventions and additions that…

Environmentalisms II: How to Have a Politics?

John May

Today we find ourselves in a paradoxical situation: at the very moment that the idea of “environment” is being placed at the center of our…

Postmodernism, Poststructuralism, and Architecture 1960 to the Present

K. Michael Hays

The concept of postmodernism finds its definitive articulation in architecture, even though postmodern thought far exceeds the use of the term postmodern…

Architecture and Construction: From the Vitruvian Tradition to the Digital

Antoine Picon

The course aims to contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between architecture and construction through the study of key historical…

The Project and the Territory: Japan Story

Mohsen Mostafavi

What is the future of urbanization?What role can design play in shaping that future? What will happen to the conflicting tensions…

Urban Ethnographies

Michael Herzfeld

Planners’ understanding of social process and cultural values is often woefully inadequate, and their thinking is dominated by a “one-size-fits-all” approach and…

Public health in an era of epidemics: from the camp to the building

Elvis Garcia

We didn’t need a pandemic to know that we shouldn’t conceive any more architecture projects and urban planning interventions that disregard their…

New Spaces of Justice

Oana Stanescu

This class will take the shape of a multidisciplinary workshop in collaboration with Virgil Abloh, Nóra Al Haider and the Legal Design Lab at Stanford…

Race, Power, and Resistance in the City

Sebastian Schmidt Dalzon

The police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other Black Americans, as well as the racial health disparities highlighted by the…

Justice: Ethics in an Age of Pandemic and Racial Reckoning (at FAS)

Michael Sandel

What is a just society?  What do we owe one another as citizens?  What is a good life?  These questions, long debated by philosophers, arise…

Environmental Systems 1

Ali Malkawi

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:  –…

Environmental Systems 2

Holly Samuelson

Purpose: This course is the second of a two-module sequence in building technology (6121, 6122) and constitutes part of the core curriculum in architecture.  Objective:…

Construction Systems

Yasmin Vobis

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…

Structural Design II

Martin Bechthold, Jose Luis Garcia del Castillo Lopez

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…

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

David Weitz

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…

Material Systems: Digital Design and Fabrication

Nathan King, Zach Seibold

Digital design and fabrication technologies have become integral to the discourse surrounding contemporary design and architectural practice. The translation from design to…

Introduction to Computational Design

Jose Luis Garcia del Castillo Lopez

#GSD6338 is an introductory course on Computational Design, with particular focus on architecture, landscape and urbanism.  In this course, we will understand…

Interface Design: Integrating Material Perceptions

Sawako Kaijima

The course explores the interface between architecture and engineering by examining our perceptions towards materials. Interdisciplinary research has gained interest in recent…

Advanced Topics on Embodied Carbon in Buildings

Jonathan Grinham

Present assumptions indicate that the management of our material world accounts for more than half of all global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Domestic Logistics

Andrew Witt

Modern domestic spaces are embedded in networks of goods, labor, media, and technology that shape their functions, capacities, and cultural role. They…

Advanced Applications in Sustainable Architecture

Holly Samuelson

This new elective seminar will provide a deeper dive into issues of evidence-based, high-performance, sustainable building design. The course is intended for…

Optimizing Facade Performance: A Deep Dive on Design Decisions

Andrea Love

Building envelopes are at the intersection of design, performance, and occupant experience in architectural design. Facades influence many aspects of building performance,…

Visualization (at SEAS)

Hanspeter Pfister

This course is an introduction to key design principles and techniques for visualizing data. It covers design practices, data and image models, visual perception, interaction…

Transformable Design Methods

Chuck Hoberman

This course is intended for students interested in how to create products, buildings, and environments that utilize physical transformation to realize enhanced…

Confronting Climate Change: A Foundation in Science, Technology and Policy (at FAS)

Daniel Schrag

This course will consider the challenge of climate change and what to do about it.   Students will be introduced to the basic science of…

Foundations of Practice

Jeffry Burchard, Gregg Garmisa, Timothy R. Twomey

For students in the fifth semester of the MArch I degree program, this course examines models and issues that define contemporary professional practice. Requiring students…

Integrative Frameworks for Technology, Environment, and Society I

Jock Herron, Luba Greenwood

Developing and implementing good solutions to real problems facing human society requires a broad understanding of the relationships between technology innovation, science, manufacturing, design thinking,…

Frameworks of Practice

Jacob Reidel

How should we practice today? The discipline, the profession, and the practice of architecture are invented and designed things. And the roles,…

Innovation in Project Delivery

Mark R. Johnson

Project delivery—the organizational, legal, and economic arrangements by which society produces its built environment—has undergone a radical transformation over the past half…

Elements of the Urban Stack

Paul Nakazawa, Elizabeth Christoforetti

The Urban Stack is a pedagogical framework for understanding the infrastructures of power that operate in relationship to practice. These elements shape…

Forms of Assembly

Malkit Shoshan, Dan Borelli

This course is an advanced two semester research and project-based seminar initiated by Art, Design, and the Public Domain MDes, in collaboration with…

Independent Study by Candidates for Master’s Degrees

Seth Denizen, Alistair McIntosh, George Thomas, Elizabeth Whittaker, Charles Waldheim, Iman Fayyad, Stephen Gray, Jonathan Grinham, Mark Lee, George L. Legendre, Ann Forsyth, Alex Wall, Sergio Lopez-Pineiro, Lily Song, Oana Stanescu, Gareth Doherty, Preston Scott Cohen, Nathan King, Alfredo Thiermann, Megan Panzano, Joan Busquets, Malkit Shoshan, Stephen Ervin, Toshiko Mori, Jorge Silvetti, John May, Montserrat Bonvehi Rosich, Andrew Witt, Abby Spinak, Daniel D’Oca, Susan Snyder

Students may take a maximum of 8 units with different GSD instructors in this course series. 9201 must be taken for either 2, or 4…

Independent Thesis in Satisfaction of Degree MArch

Eric Howeler

The Thesis Program encourages students to take advantage of the wide range of resources and research initiatives of the Graduate School of Design and its…

Independent Design Engineering Project I

Martin Bechthold, Mary Tolikas, Julia Lee

The Independent Design Engineering Project (IDEP) is a two-semester project during which students in the Master in Design Engineering (MDE) program work on understanding a…

Independent Study by Candidates for Doctoral Degrees

9502 must be taken for either 2 or 4 units.  Under faculty guidance, the student conducts an independent reading program and formulates a thesis proposal.

Preparation of Doctoral Thesis Proposal

Martin Bechthold, Anita Berrizbeitia, Gareth Doherty, Ann Forsyth, Ali Malkawi, Richard Peiser, Peter Rowe, Holly Samuelson, Carole Voulgaris

Independent study with doctoral advisor to produce a preliminary literature review. Prerequisite: Enrollment in GSD DDes program. …

Thesis Extension in Satisfaction of Degree Doctor of Design

Martin Bechthold, Charles Waldheim, Diane Davis, Anita Berrizbeitia, Neil Brenner, Ann Forsyth, Alex Krieger, Ali Malkawi, Erika Naginski, Antoine Picon, Peter Rowe

Thesis extension in satisfaction of the degree Doctor of Design.

MArch II Proseminar

Preston Scott Cohen

This course provides a forum for critical discussion of contemporary design practices that is exploratory and speculative in nature. The course emphasizes collaborative thinking and…

Second Semester Architecture Core: SITUATE

Jeffry Burchard, Tomás dePaor, Sean Canty, Michelle Chang, Sergio Lopez-Pineiro, Alfredo Thiermann, Patrick McCafferty

The overarching pedagogical agenda for second semester is to expand upon the design methodologies developed in the first semester such that students acquire an understanding…

Fourth Semester Architecture Core: RELATE

Jenny French, Grace La, Oana Stanescu, Megan Panzano, Elizabeth Whittaker, Ron Witte

The fourth and final semester of the core sequence, this architecture studio tackles the complexity of the urban condition through the design of housing.

Collaborative Design Engineering Studio II

Jock Herron, Stephen Burks, Luba Greenwood, Julia Lee

The spring studio builds upon theoretical and technical concepts already introduced in the MDE program with the emphasis on creative and critical thinking, observational and…

KING TUT’S SKULL

Mack Scogin, Merrill Elam, Helen Han

This dusty skull was Ol’King Tut’s.I found it in this pyramid.This tiny skull was King Tut’s too(From when he was…

Block Blob Mat Slab Slat: Art Spaces

George L. Legendre

“For this requirement there are no typologies”—Rem Koolhaas (teased over the apparent lack of historical perspective in OMA’s proposal for the addition of a…

Béton Brut and Beyond

Jeanne Gang, Anika Schwarzwald

At a time when it is more essential than ever to conserve resources and prevent carbon pollution—which critically includes limiting the demolition of existing buildings…

Making Next to Forest

Toshiko Mori

Seventy-one percent of Japan’s northern-most island, Hokkaido, is covered in forest, comprising almost one-quarter of the entire nation’s forested landmass. It is also the center…

Generic Specificity

Sharon Johnston, Mark Lee

Architecture’s most dramatic evolution in the last century has been the increasing fissure between the generic and the specific. As Internationalism at the beginning of…

Mass Timber and the Scandinavian Effect

Jennifer Bonner, Hanif Kara

1. On Effect: When the Guggenheim Museum opened in Bilbao, Spain in 1997 it produced an instantaneous reaction from around the globe. New pacts were formed between…

Geometry, Order, and Mannerism

Oliver Lütjens, Thomas Padmanabhan

The architecture of the Italian Renaissance is an architecture consisting of incomplete individual buildings and magnificent urban fragments. The artistic return to antiquity was above…

Sic. Building Syndrome

Thomas Kelley, Carrie Norman

“If we are to discuss the faults of building and their correction, we ought first to consider the nature and type of the faults that…