ENDS 105: Design Foundations I

FALL 22 + SPRING 23

Course Description

Visual and functional design principles; development of skills in perception, thought and craft as they apply to the formation of two- and three-dimensional relationships; design attitudes and environmental awareness.

This course consists of studio, lecture, and seminar classes dedicated to mastering the foundational techniques of design practice and critical thinking. This course requires serious dedication to your studies; every day you will draw, make models, and engage in reading, writing, and speaking about your work and the work of architecture in general. Throughout this course you will be challenged by your instructors and peers and you are expected to respond to each and every challenge at the reach of your ability. This will be a transformative learning experience. The design studio is a learning environment intended to provoke creative action and critical reflection. It is a place for open-ended exploration. It is a kind of education that fosters great responsibility in the midst of great liberty. In this course, there are seven separate sections. All seven sections adhere to the same syllabus (this syllabus), which outlines the course information and policies, including very specific cognitive learning outcomes. While each section will provide opportunities for students to accomplish those outcomes though project- based learning, the means and methods of the projects will vary at the discretion of the Section Instructors.

In other words, while all sections share the same goals for learners, each teacher will pursue those goals through their own unique series of projects. Project or assignment descriptions will be distributed by Section Instructors at the beginning of each project.

Course Learning Outcomes

At the end of the semester, students are expected to have a visual vocabulary of drawing and abstract architectonic representation methods and the way they relate to the design process and its presentation. Students should be able to represent existing spaces and buildings in rapid hand sketches as well as descriptive drawings. Students will be expected to represent abstract architectural ideas, spaces, and form through analytical drawings. This course will cover methodologies and workflows for both analog and digital skills used to represent and communicate design. Students should be able to utilize learned skills separately or in combination to visually express analysis, concepts, and ideas. Students should be able to have a good domain of two or more of the drawing methods and techniques used in the course.

Instructional Goals

A successful student in their first semester of their design education will accomplish several basic but far-reaching learning outcomes. Upon completion of this course, a student will be able to demonstrate an ability to:

+ define, debate, and defend the basic premises of a design project

+ develop a project using a critical and rational iterative method

+ manipulate two- and three- dimensional materials and geometries

+ create and evaluate works of design using formal concepts, including the concepts of interval, ratio, proportion, contrast, hierarchy, rhythm, scale, etc.

+ interpret a project using conventional forms of orthometric drawing, including plan, elevation, and section, as well as the techniques of line-weight and line type

Learning Outcomes

Related to Visual Communication

+ Learn/Introduced to the current techniques of digitally driven design.

+ Architecture Verbal Communication skills. Ability to talk architecturally about a project within the discipline.

+Develop strategies for digital modeling and drawing skills (organization, editing, resolutions, purpose)

+ Drawing Skills: Plan, Section, elevation, Axonometric. linework, line weight.

+ Mediums | Analog | drawing and model making understanding materials.

+ Digital: Understanding Basic Computer Aided Design, representation methods and skills as well as basic modeling.

+ Understanding the application of digital workflows.

Related to Problem Solving/Critical Thinking

+ Effectively accomplish some reading comprehension from the discipline along with crafting discussion, positioning, arguments (verbal & spatialized).

+ Basic understanding of program and its flexibility.

Related to Specific Knowledge

+ Understanding of figure, space and volume.

+ Understanding of the ordering principles of architecture.

+ Understanding the grid as an ordering and proportioning system.

+ Gain awareness of the power of precision by making refined models in tandem to defining premises of their work.

+ Understanding of the problem of scale.

Related to Integration

+ Make a coherent correlation among spatial, structural and organizational systems.

+ Exposure to concepts of structure in architectural design

Related to Social, Cultural, & Global Competence

+ Understand and Experience the Studio Culture of Architecture education and profession.

+ Understand the role that architecture can play in society and climate

+ Understand the possible social implications of architecture and design.

+ Understanding of the problem of the site.

First-Year Instructors

+Davi Xavier (First Year Coordinator)

+Alejandro Borges (First Year Coordinator)

+Se Woong Kim, Ph.D

+Antonio Vazquez