Building Construction I & II

Introduction

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION I

Building Construction I introduces students to architecture from a technological point of view. An architecture of technology will become active through building construction systems based on materials. Through the curation of the courses, issues of efficiency, environmental footprint and a wide range of interrelationships with the environment will become a common means to approach architecture, with the goal of introducing students to a more holistic conception of architecture and sustainability. Building Construction I will study material-based building construction systems based on wood and masonry.

The architecture project’s organization, its structure and materiality are not to be applied to an abstract formal idea, but they are thought as inherent to the syntactical form of the development of the project. The logic of the various construction types will reference design strategies for architecture organizations and linguistic expressions.

FACULTY

Pablo Lorenzo-Eiroa Wojceich Oktaweic Tobias Holler, Coordinator Mathew Ford Niel Rosen + Nick Defelice, Structures- Coordinator Mathew Ford James Wiesenfeld Ivan Markov These studies are taken also in parallel to understand the material tectonics of large scale digitally fabricated physical models such as laser cut models and 3d printed models which as material based construction systems are understood as means to activate the logic of the design from the linguistic syntactical possibilities of the construction system.

Yashvi Mistry + Manuel Feurtes + Erika Zhinin, Kagi Okawa + Jose Rivera + Valerie Smith, David Shacalo Professor Pablo Lorenzo -Eiroa B.Arch + B.S.A.T. Program Fall 2019

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION II

Building Construction II will study material-based building construction systems based on steel, glass and concrete. Continuing with the construction sequence and its fundamental concepts and technical methodologies laid out in Building Construction I, students are asked to consider their Design II studio projects through a material tectonic and a building construction system.

By understanding first the logic of a specific material, its industry proportions and properties, its possibilities, characteristics and performance, students will start addressing the material based construction systems, its components, assembly, interrelationships and overall systemic logic and design possibilities.

Examples of these explorations include large scale digitally fabricated physical models, revealing and aiming to explore the possibilities of the construction system, but also exploring limits in the ranges, for instance applying conventional solutions first, but then systematizing its understanding more efficiently and in relation to the structure of the building, exploring

FACULTY

Wojceich Oktaweic Pablo Lorenzo-Eiroa Tobias Holler, Coordinator Niel Rosen Robert Cody + Nick Defelice, Structures- Coordinator Mathew Ford James Wiesenfeld Ivan Markov alternative solutions to known conventions, exploring systematic variations of found architecture potential within the construction system. In addition to standard systems, students are also asked to develop a shell structure design to understand the potential capacity of reinforced concrete by optimizing its form through a structural computational simulation.