HAA 96b

Architecture Studio II: Connections
Lisa Haber-Thompson
Tuesday/Thursday1-4pm
Architecture, as an act of design, is about placing objects the world. But architecture also fundamentally asks us to continuously engage with, and re-conceptualize, the world for which we are designing. As such, architecture as a discipline requires us to challenge our own positionality with regards to the world we all occupy.
This studio takes on the challenge through a series of design exercises focused on understanding, engaging with, and reimaging the urban condition. In this course, we will be mobilizing the autonomous architectural transformations mastered in HAA 96A to intervene with a programed architectural project designed for a specific site in Harvard Square. Students will produce projects that address existing site conditions, and will develop designs in response to a determined program. Students will be expected to take into account projected occupants and other users of the site. Throughout the course, we will approach architectural design as both a method of producing urban environments, and also as an avenue through which to understand our cities. We will be directly confronting the social, environmental, and cultural contexts that are necessarily implicated in any design process.
The studio centers on three progressive design assignments, culminating in an architectural project for a site in Harvard Square. Design exercises will be supplemented with a series of short readings. Technical workshops will allow students to further develop skills in mapping, rendering, and simple animation.