Teaching
FALL 2023 | ARCH 4605-6605
The Better Life
As urban centers are mandated to decarbonize their building stock, there is an unparalleled opportunity to explore how strategic performance improvements of residential buildings can be achieved in architecturally innovative ways to enhance the quality of life for residents and create value for the city and society. Using NYC as a testbed, the seminar asks how to design for a better life. It examines the relationships between the challenges confronting households today and the typological, spatial, and material considerations involved in housing design and retrofitting.
IMAGE BY RONISHKA SABU NALPATHIL
FALL 2019 & 2022, Spring 2021 | ARCH 4605-6605
Timber Tectonics
Timber construction has experienced a resurgence in recent years. Advanced wood products, computational design tools, and digital fabrication expand the application area of wood and allow us to rethink the way wood is used in buildings. This seminar explores the reciprocal relationships between joint, system, and architectural form based on a taxonomy of timber precedents. It positions material systems at the center of conceptual investigation asking students to systematically adjust and recombine design parameters for the generation of new form and inventive assembly logics.
IMAGE BY Jingxin Yang
SPRING 2019 | ARCH 4605-6605
Rethinking Concrete
Concrete is the most widely used, man-made material on the planet. At the same time, it is one of the main producers of carbon dioxide which makes it necessary to investigate more sustainable solutions. The seminar explores ways to lower the carbon footprint of concrete construction at the scales of the material and building. It introduces alternative material mixtures and casting methods using waste and recycled matter. Computational tools shed light on the structural and environmental performance of concrete and are used generatively to rethink existing structures.
IMAGE BY SEO YUN BANG & Georgine Botha
FALL 2018 | ARCH 4605-6605
Rethinking Timber Systems
Unlike other high-performance construction materials, wood has the unique property to sequester carbon dioxide instead of just adding to global emissions. Hence, its environmental footprint is significantly smaller, while, at the same time, it shows a 14 times higher load-bearing capacity in relation to its own weight than steel. The seminar leverages structural simulation software for the design of speculative, multi-story timber buildings. Students compare structural mass and embodied carbon results of different material options to gain insight into the consequences of their design decisions.
IMAGE BY Su yeon Chi & Maitai Kunawong
SPRING 2017 | ARCH 4605-6605
Timber Modular
It is one of the architectural challenges of our century to provide sustainable, cost-effective, and enjoyable habitats for billions of global dwellers. In this context, timber construction is of interest: Timber is a renewable material, relatively easy to process, and has good structural, thermal, and aesthetic properties. The seminar explores concepts of standardization and modularity culminating in the design of an incremental housing scheme. Using a kit-of-part approach, students develop an inventive timber system that can be assembled and adapted according to individual needs and preferences.
IMAGE BY Natalie Hemlick, Takuma Johnson & Charly Kring
SPRING 2021 | OPTION STUDIO
Minimax: Polyvalent Housinig
Since the early 20th century, architects have asked “How to live?” and have explored ways of advancing the cause of “architecture as a social art”. However, apartments in urban centers are becoming increasingly expensive and are oftentimes not tailored to the needs of a diverse population. This studio investigates spatial polyvalence, modular system thinking, and emerging mass timber technologies to develop visions for flexible, sustainable, high-quality housing. Students develop manifestos that center around social mobility, health, co-living, gender equality, space efficiency, and more.
IMAGE BY Felix Samo
Spring 2018–20 & 2022–24 | ARCH 2102 - B.Arch. DESIGN IV
Integrative Design
This studio emphasizes the broad integration of the basic principles of environmental and structural systems, envelope, and material to support and inform architectural concepts and form. In addressing sustainability goals, tectonic resolution, and building systems requirements, a fundamental objective of this studio is to convey design intent through the act of architectural resolution. Doing so positions material and performative systems as sites of conceptual motivation from which spatial innovation may occur while developing core competencies in building integration and design synthesis.
IMAGE BY JiaYU Su
FALL 2022 | ARCH 5111 - M.Arch. DESIGN I
Around Form and Environment
As an ecosystem forms, the mix of species and habitats in an area change over time until an equilibrium is reached. Human-caused disturbances increasingly threaten this delicate state and necessitate conservation and adaptation. This studio explores legible relationships between beings and their environments. Exploring how structure and enclosures both materialize architecturally and adapt to varying environments, the studio investigates their potential for a re-organization of structure, circulation, and spaces of inhabitation, culminating in the design of a Wildlife Conservation Center.
IMAGE BY Lanye Luo & Vedika Khushalani
FALL 2017–19 | ARCH 2101 - B.Arch. DESIGN III
The Architecture of Domesticity
Despite the intimacy of its scale, the house plays a significant role in orienting the understanding of domesticity, habit, and tradition in the face of technological, social and environmental transformations of modern industrialized society. This studio focuses on the problem of domesticity introducing methods for the systematic exploration, conception and creation of architectural space, including orientation, spatial hierarchy and movement. It further explores physical and experiential conditions of material and site through a focus on the building’s relationship to the landscape.
IMAGE BY Christina Xie