Southern California Institute of Architecture www.sciarc.edu
2008–09 Course Catalog
SCI-Arc’s Course Catalog is a living document, and as such, SCI-Arc reserves the right to revise, add or delete information in this catalog at any time. Therefore, changes to the Course Catalog may be distributed after this initial printing. In addition to the Course Catalog, students should consult the Student Handbook and the IT Handbook, and any other student policy documents. Regular updates are available at www.sciarc.edu.
Contents 6 SCI-Arc history 7 introduction 9 Director’s statement
Section 1 Procedures and Academic Policies
Section 2 Courses and Degree Requirements
1.11 Admissions 1.12 A dvanced placement for transfer students 1.12 Application procedures 1.14 International students 1.16 Reading/writing competency test 1.16 Accreditation 1.17 Housing 1.17 Registration policies 1.17 Online registration 1.17 Add/drop procedure 1.18 Leave of absence/Withdrawal 1.18 Course and credit system 1.18 Transfer of credit 1.19 Waiver of required courses 1.19 Residency 1.19 Vertical studio procedure 1.20 Grading and academic progress 1.20 Grading 1.20 Academic standing 1.21 Academic warning 1.21 Expulsion 1.21 Academic counseling 1.22 Portfolio review 1.22 Ownership of student work 1.23 Archiving 1.23 Attendance 1.23 Incomplete work 1.23 Appeal of a grade 1.24 Access to records 1.25 Equal opportunity 1.26 Standards of conduct 1.29 SCI-ARC DRUG AND ALCOHOL POLICY 1.32 Financial information 1.32 Privacy of personal information 1.32 Tuition and expenses 1.34 Tuition refunds 1.35 Delinquent payments 1.35 Financial aid 1.40 Scholarships 1.41 Employment 1.42 ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE 1.45 Safety rules 1.46 Security 1.46 Student IDs 1.46 parking
2.1 Undergraduate degree program 2.8 Graduate degree programs 2.8 M.Arch 1 2.12 M.Arch 2 2.15 Post Graduate Programs 2.15 SCIFI 2.16 MediaSCAPES 2.17 2008–09 Academic Calendar 2.20 Design studios 2.20 Core studios 2.20 Undergraduate 2.22 M.Arch 1 2.23 M.Arch 2 2.24 Vertical studios 2.31 Graduate thesis 2.32 Cultural Studies 2.32 Core CS seminars 2.32 Undergraduate 2.35 M.Arch 1 2.37 M.Arch 2 2.37 Recurring CS electives 2.39 Recent special project CS electives 2.44 Applied Studies 2.43 Core AS seminars 2.44 Undergraduate 2.47 M.Arch 1 2.49 M.Arch 2 2.50 Recurring AS electives 2.51 Recent special project AS electives 2.54 Visual Studies 2.54 Core VS seminars 2.54 Undergraduate 2.55 M.Arch 1 2.56 M.Arch 2 2.56 Recurring VS electives 2.59 Recent special project VS electives 2.63 S tudy abroad/Exchange programs 2.64 Community Design Program 2.66 Summer at SCI-Arc 2.66 Making + Meaning
Section 3 Resources, Public Programs, People 3.1 SCI-Arc resources 3.1 Kappe Library 3.2 Wood and metal shop 3.2 CNC/Digital fabrication facilities 3.3 Computer resources 3.3 Print center 3.3 SCI-Portal 3.3 Supply Store 3.3 Student Union 3.4 Psychological counseling program 3.4 Public Programs 3.4 Lecture series 3.5 SCI-Arc Gallery 3.6 SCI-Arc Press 3.7 DEVELOPMENT AND ALUMNI RELATIONS 3.7 Development office 3.7 Public relations 3.7 Alumni relations 3.8 People 3.9 Faculty 3.12 Staff 3.14 Board of Directors
Making + Meaning: The Foundation Program in Architecture, 2007
5
SCI-ARC HISTORY
SCI-Arc was founded in 1972 as a radical alternative to the conventional system of architectural education. Architect and educator Ray Kappe—formerly the chair of Architecture at Cal Poly Pomona, and director of SCI-Arc until 1987—leased an industrial building in Santa Monica, and, with a group of six faculty members and 75 students, started what they initially called the “New School,” based on the concept of a “college without walls.” Shelly Kappe, Ahde Lahti, Thom Mayne, Bill Simonian, Glen Small and Jim Stafford were among the founding faculty. United by their commitment to an alternative to the more rigid, hierarchical structure they had encountered at other institutions, they established SCIArc as a mechanism for invention, exploration, and criticism. The school grew rapidly and quickly developed an international reputation, ranking among the best schools of Architecture in the country. SCI-Arc attracted motivated students and faculty from all over the world who were interested in pursuing their own independent ideas about the built environment and who enjoyed SCIArc’s emphasis on process—the synthesis of thinking, analyzing and making. In 2000, SCI-Arc moved to the historic Santa Fe Freight Depot building in Downtown Los Angeles, where it plays an important cultural role in the area while engaging in the local community on various levels. The school continues its energetic commitment to experimentation and to examining of the social, as well as the formal aspects of architecture.
6
INTRODUCTION
The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is an independent, degree-granting educational laboratory that tests the limits of Architecture in order to transform existing conditions into the designs for the future. With its location in a quarter-mile-long former freight depot in the intensely urban Arts District in downtown Los Angeles, SCI-Arc provides a uniquely inspiring environment in which to study Architecture. It is distinguished by the vibrant atmosphere of its studios, where some five hundred students and eighty faculty members—mostly practicing architects—re-examine assumptions, and explore and test new ideas through making. During the fall and spring terms, design studios are offered along with seminars and workshops—taught by visiting instructors as well as SCI-Arc faculty—to students enrolled in SCI-Arc degree programs. During the summer term, these courses are also open to upper-level students from other Architecture programs and to members of the general public.
SCI-Arc Mission
Re-imagining the edge: Educating Architects to engage, speculate, innovate.
7
Eric Owen Moss, SCI-Arc Graduation 2007
8
DIRECTORS STATEMENT
There is so much in architecture that has to do with the creation of opinion as opposed to the creation of the thing, the making the thing. Making the thing and commenting on the thing are very much about developing a meaning of the thing that lasts. I would like to create an environment at SCI-Arc that would enable faculty, students, and everyone associated with the school to have enough confidence in what they know and in what they do to be able to distinguish the importance of those things from all the noise and promotion. We need at SCI-Arc a sense of critical durability that enables us to make real contributions that resonate over a long period of time in artistically, poetically, intellectually meaningful ways. And this relates directly to what it means to be an architect. One of the really charming things about SCI-Arc initially was that it had no idea of itself as SCI-Arc. What mattered was not an image of SCI-Arc; what mattered was the different ways of making space and objects, ways of discussing, presenting and building those objects. The discussion was intimate and about small buildings and houses that were scattered all over LA. And the discussion related to building. The building process involved a precise connection between the conception, design and implementation for one very simple reason: there was not a lot of money. The success of SCI-Arc was related to this process and to the success of some practitioners who were speculating and delivering those small-scale projects. People started to notice and get interested. SCI-Arc was not concerned with its place in some kind of academic pantheon, and that gave it a naive quality. It focused on what anybody who does anything meaningful has to focus on: what goes on between the hand, the eye and the table. The feeling was: “Don’t worry about who thinks what. Over a period of time, what you do will work or it won’t. If it works it has durability; if it does not, you move on to the next thing.” That, I think, is what today endures at SCI-Arc. — Eric Owen Moss, Director
9
1
Procedures and Academic Policies The academic year at SCI-Arc is divided into three terms: fall, spring, and summer. Important deadlines are prin ed in the academic calendar but students should check regularly for official notices posted on SCI-Portal (SCI-Arc’s intranet) and around the school. Important school-related information is also sent out via email, and it is the student’s responsibility to check his or her SCI-Arc email on a regular basis.
Procedures and Academic Policies
ADMISSIONS The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc)—accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)—seeks applicants who demonstrate interest, ability, and academic achievement that reveal potential for the study of Architecture. SCI-Arc admits students both into a particular degree program or as visiting students who do not wish to matriculate. Undergraduate admission The undergraduate program at SCI-Arc is a five-year (ten-term) professional Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) program, accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). The first two years of the undergraduate program are sequential by term. Students are admitted into 1A or 2A in the fall term only, while admission into 1B and 2B is in the spring term only. Students seeking to enter SCI-Arc at the 3A, 3B, or 4A level may apply for admission in either the fall, spring, or summer terms. The undergraduate program admits approximately seventy students per year. Students may apply directly from high school or may transfer from two- or fouryear architecture programs. Applications for first-year placement are accepted for the fall term; applications for advanced placement are accepted for the fall and spring terms. Admission to the undergraduate program is competitive, and applicants must generally have a GPA of 3.0 or higher, in addition to a distinctive portfolio of work. Students who have completed general, non-architecture coursework at other two-or four-year colleges may apply for placement in the first year of the B.Arch program. These include students who have completed associate degrees (A.A. or A.S.) in disciplines other than Architecture. Admission is based on the applicant’s personal statement, creative portfolio, academic record, and letters of recommendation. Admission is to a studio level and may be contingent on the completion of prerequisite academic units. Graduate admission Students are admitted into the graduate programs in the fall term only. Admission is determined by a review of the applicant’s personal statement, letters of recommendation, academic record, and portfolio of architectural and creative work. SCI-Arc offers four graduate programs:
Recommended (and in some cases required) preparatory course for M.Arch 1: Making + Meaning: The Foundation Program in Architecture, offered
M.Arch 1 A three year (seven term) professional Master of Architecture program, accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) and open to applicants who hold a bachelor’s degree or equivalent in any field of study. This program requires attendance for the fall and spring terms of the first two years, and the fall, spring and summer terms of the final year.
during the summer term.
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Procedures and Academic Policies
Prerequisite course for M.Arch 2: Introduction to Digital Design, offered in the summer term prior to entering the program.
Familiarity with the following programs if recommended for students entering the MediaSCAPES program: Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Illustrator, Adobe Flash, Adobe Premier. It is recommended that students entering the SCIFI program are familiar with the following software: InDesign, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, Maya, Rhino, Illustra-
M.Arch 2 A two year (five term) professional Master of Architecture program, accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) and open to applicants with a minimum of a four-year degree in Architecture, or its equivalent abroad. This program requires attendance for the fall and spring terms of the first year, and the fall, spring and summer terms of the final year. MediaSCAPES A one year (three semester) non-professional M.Arch degree program blending research and design studios with intensive seminars and workshops. MediaSCAPES welcomes interdisciplinary applicants from the fields of new media, interactive media, film, urban design, landscape design and architecture. Both designers and theorists are encouraged to apply. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the program, it is strongly suggested that applicants have a prior graduate degree in their discipline. Selected undergraduate students and non degree students will be evaluated on a case by case basis.
tor, After Effects, Flash, and 3D Studio Max.
SCIFI (Southern California Institute of Future Initiatives) A one year (three term) non-professional M.Arch degree, open to students with a professional degree in Architecture or a bachelor degree or equivalent in any field. The SCIFI program prepares its members to successfully meet the challenges of leadership in Architecture, planning, politics and other endeavors that impact the planning, design, development, operations and governance of cities. Advanced placement for transfer students Advanced placement for transfer students from other Architecture programs is not guaranteed, but is determined on a case-by-case basis on review of the applicant’s portfolio of architectural and creative work, the number of architectural design studios completed, their personal statement, academic standing, and letters of recommendation. Students who begin their studies in the B.Arch program with advanced standing (1B studio placement or higher) may be required to complete additional prerequisite seminars at SCI-Arc before advancing to the next studio level. Advanced placement is not applicable to the M.Arch 2 and SCIFI programs. Also see Transfer of Credit section.
Application procedures Inquiries and requests for application, as well as completed application forms, should be sent to: SCI-Arc Admissions Office 960 East 3rd Street Los Angeles, California 90013 T: 213.613.2200 x320 admissions@sciarc.edu Section 1 • 12
Procedures and Academic Policies
Application deadlines Applications for admission to the B.Arch program are accepted for the fall and spring terms, but placement preference will be given to fall applicants. The fall term deadline is February 1 for international students and for students applying for first year placement. May 1 is the deadline for transfer students applying from other two-or four-year colleges. The spring term deadline is October 1. Applications for admission to the M.Arch programs and the SCIFI and Media -SCAPES programs are due by January 15. Late applications may be considered on a case-by-case basis. Application for financial aid should be made to the financial aid office. Application materials All applications must include the following materials:
Application materials will be stored in the admissions
– Completed application form
office for up to a year. After a
– $75 application fee
including unclaimed portfolios,
– Statement of purpose
up by the applicant.
year, application materials, will be discarded if not picked
– Three letters of recommendation – Official transcripts – Test scores, if applicable (SAT or ACT, GRE) – TOEFL or IELTS (for international students only) – Résumé or curriculum vitae, if applicable – Portfolio of work. For more information on application materials, refer to the SCI-Arc Application for Admissions, available at www.sciarc.edu or from the admissions office. Notification of acceptance Graduate applicants will be notified of their admission status by mail in early April; undergraduate applicants will be notified on a rolling basis between the months of April and June. Students who accept SCI-Arc’s offer of admission are required to submit a non-refundable deposit of $500 which reserves them a place in the entering class. This deposit is applied toward tuition for their first semester at SCI-Arc. M.Arch 2 students submit a deposit of $850 which is the cost of the prerequisite course Introduction to Digital Design. (International students are required to submit an additional tuition deposit in order to begin the I-20 process. Refer to the International Student Handbook for more information.) If the enrollment deposit is not received by the appropriate deadline, the applicant may forfeit their place in the entering class. Section 1 • 13
Procedures and Academic Policies
Waiting list placement If an applicant is placed on the waiting list, the applicant will be notified as places open in the entering class or as information becomes available. Portfolios belonging to applicants on the waiting list may need to be retained after the notification date for admission purposes. Applicants accepted from the waiting list are not eligible for deferment. Admission deferment Admission deferments are granted on a case-by-case basis for up to one year (two terms). Applicants must petition the school in writing to defer their admission. Petitions are reviewed by the Admissions Committee and the applicant receives written notification of the decision. If an applicant fails to enroll in the following year, he or she must reapply for admission and they forfeit their deposit and must resubmit application fees. Admission appeals Applicants who wish to appeal an admission decision or studio placement must make their requests in writing. Appeals should be addressed to the Admissions Committee and should include applicable support materials (additional portfolio work and/or additional letter of recommendation, resume, etc.). Appeals are reviewed by the Admissions Committee and may require a personal interview with one or more committee member. The applicant receives written notification of the decision. Reapplication for admission Reapplication within one year: Accepted students who have paid their deposit and who have not deferred, and former students who did not receive an authorized leave of absence, must submit the following when reapplying: – New application form – New application fee – New portfolio (with recent work, if applicable) – At least one new letter of recommendation pertaining to work or study done since the last application was filed. Reapplication after one year: If an applicant wishes to reapply for admission after one year of absence from the program, he or she must resubmit all application materials specified for the initial application. International students Citizens from other countries are admitted to the school on exactly the same basis as citizens of the United States. All application materials must be submitted in English. Transcripts in English translation are accepted. Section 1 • 14
Procedures and Academic Policies
English proficiency All international students, with the exception of those who have completed their secondary education in an English-speaking school or those who have completed at least two years of study at an English-speaking university, must submit the results of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the International English Language Test System (IELTS) to the admissions office. Based on international applicants who score below 560 on the paper-based exam, below a 230 on the computer-based exam, or below 83 on the internet-based exam; or applicants scoring below 6.5 on the IELTS will not be admitted to SCI-Arc. All entering international students are required to take an English language competency exam during orientation. Also see Reading/writing competency test, below.
Finances for international students To ensure that students from other countries will not have financial difficulties after they have begun their studies at SCI-Arc, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) requires that international students certify that they have the necessary funds available to cover tuition and living expenses while studying the US. The I-20 will be issued when the completed certification form is submitted and the required tuition deposit is paid. Certification is required for the first year of study only. Curricular Practical Training (CPT) Curricular Practical Training authorizes employment when it is required as an integral part of the academic program for which academic credit is given. CPT is recorded as units toward a degree. A student cannot take more than 6 units of CPT (equivalent to two courses), please see Courses and Degree Requirements, page 2.0. Employment for more than 20 hours per week is considered full-time CPT, regardless of whether a student is enrolled full-time or part-time. If a student receives one year or more of full-time CPT, the student is ineligible for Optional Practical Training (OPT) after completion of the degree. Part-time CPT of any duration does not limit post-completion OPT. The IA (international advisor) must review each request and have prior approval from the Academic Counselor for all CPT requests. To make a request, students should submit the following documents to the IA:
Note: Students may not start work until the IA authorizes them to engage in CPT. The IA will update the I-20 with the information when all paperwork is finalized. CPT must be applied for before the end of the Add/Drop period (the first two weeks of the term).
– An I-538 for with Section A completed and signed by the student – Original form I-20 ID – A letter from the Academic Counselor (AC) stating that the employment is for credit. This is in addition to the IA’s approval of the employment and is verified by the AC for elective /internship credit on the degree checklist. – A letter from the employer stating the name of the firm, beginning and ending dates of the position, job description and whether the job will be full or parttime. Section 1 • 15
Procedures and Academic Policies
Reading / Writing competency test All entering students, as well as returning students, are required to take a language placement exam to determine their level of fluency in reading and writing English. Entering students unable to demonstrate competency in English language skills will be enrolled in English writing classes (ESL/ELL) in their first semester at SCI-Arc. Students who have continuing language difficulties may petition, or be required, to repeat ESL/ELL .
Accreditation The professional degrees awarded by SCI-Arc, the B.Arch and M.Arch (offered through the M.Arch 1 and M.Arch 2 programs), are accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). The NAAB states that In the United States, most state registration boards require a degree from an accredited professional degree program as a prerequisite for licensure. The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), which is the sole agency authorized to accredit U.S. professional degree programs in architecture, recognizes three types of degrees: the Bachelor of Architecture, the Master of Architecture, and the Doctor of Architecture. A program may be granted a 6-year, 3-year, or 2-year term of accreditation, depending on the extent of its conformance with established educational standards. Master’s degree programs may consist of a preprofessional undergraduate degree and a professional graduate degree that, when earned sequentially, constitute an accredited professional education. However, the preprofessional degree is not, by itself, recognized as an accredited degree. IThe NAAB Conditions of Accreditation, including Student Performance Criteria, are accessible at www.naab.org. WASC accreditation SCI-Arc is also accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), 985 Atlantic Avenue, Suite 100, Alameda, CA 94501, 510.748.9001, www.wascweb.org. Institutional and academic amendments undertaken in support of these accreditations may be viewed on the SCI-Arc Portal, the institute’s intranet. The SCI-Arc Portal is a digital “bulletin board” for SCI-Arc’s community.
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Procedures and Academic Policies
Housing SCI-Arc students engage with the city of Los Angeles by seeking living accommodation independently of the school. Some choose to live within walking or biking distance of the school in downtown LA; others live in nearby communities and commute.
SCI-Arc provides housing listings as an accommodation to students and does not endorse or independently investigate the quality or safety of such housing.
Listings for available housing can also be found on the following websites: www.losangeles.craigslist.org www.downtownnews.com/classifieds www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/rentals www.apartments.com www.westsiderentals.com (membership fee required)
Registration policies Online registration Registration for classes is done over the internet. Students must enroll in at least a full load of classes until they have completed their core study. During the summer, students are allowed to enroll in individual studios and seminars and pay tuition accordingly. Enrollment must be completed during the prescribed enrollment period. All core graduate students (1GA to 2GB) and all undergraduate students (1A to 5B) must see the Academic Counselor at their appointed times before they will be allowed to register online. Typically, registration opens approximately thirty days prior to the beginning of each term. Refer to Academic Programs section for course requirements. Please note: Students in poor standing, or who are on academic or financial aid warning, cannot register online and must register with the Academic Counselor or registrar in person. Add/drop procedure Students can change courses by completing the add/drop process online during the first 7 calendar days of each term. (This period is subject to change.) Students may access their course load by using their PIN (personal identification number) and student ID number. If the student fails to drop a course within the prescribed time limit, a permanent no credit (NC) for that course will be recorded on the student’s transcript. After the first week, and up until the thirteenth week of the term, students may withdraw from a course. To withdraw from a course, students must obtain an add/drop form from the Registrar and return it to the Registrar by the thirteenth week of term. A withdrawal (W) is recorded on the transcript. Students are eligible for a partial refund of their tuition fees only if they drop to below the full-time load—9 units per term for graduates and 12 units per term for undergraduates—and if they have approval to do so from the undergraduate or graduate program directors prior to the 38th day of term. Refunds are calculated
Students must print and keep a copy of their registration for verification purposes. Online registration is binding. Students will not need to fill out an enrollment sheet. By enrolling online, the student agrees to comply with and accept the policies and procedures as described in this catalog.
Students must visit the Financial Aid Office in order to understand how their financial aid package will be impacted by adding and dropping courses.
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Procedures and Academic Policies
as set forth in the tuition refund policy. During the core sequence, students are expected to maintain a full course load. Students taking more than 18 units are required to get approval from the Academic Counselor and the program directors. Also see Tuition Refunds section.
Leave of absence/ Withdrawal Upon the satisfactory completion of any term, a student who is in good standing is eligible to take a leave of absence for up to two years with the approval of the Registrar, Academic Counselor and Program Director. Students on leaves of absence are assured readmission to resume their studies from the point at which they were interrupted. The Registrar must receive notification no later than two months prior to the start of the term in which students intend to resume their studies. All students seeking a leave of absence must interview with the Academic Counselor before they are authorized to leave. Students who fail to register for the next regular academic term following a leave of absence will be withdrawn automatically at the end of the term in which the leave of absence expires. A student who has withdrawn must reapply. Course and credit system Academic study at SCI-Arc is recorded in course units. In order to complete degree requirements on time, students should take a minimum of one studio (6 units) and three seminars (3 units each) per term. Workshops (units vary) are offered periodically. Eighteen (18) units is the maximum number a student can carry before they are charged for additional units.
Completion of the B.Arch degree requires 165 units plus an additional 21 transfer units in General Studies, which are generally taken at other institutions. Students need 111 units to complete the M.Arch 1 degree , 75 units to complete the M.Arch 2 degree, and 45 units to complete the SCIFI and MediaSCAPES programs.
Transfer of credit Undergraduate students who wish to receive transfer credits for courses completed at other institutions should be prepared to provide the Academic Counselor and the program coordinator with transcripts and course descriptions or syllabi for these courses. Credit for coursework completed at other colleges with the grade of B or better will be granted for seminar requirements after review of the student’s prior academic record, with the approval of the appropriate study area coordinator, and in consultation with the Academic Counselor. Students who wish to receive veteran’s benefits must submit a statement of previous training to the school for consideration. Credit for the General Education portion of the B.Arch degree requirements is awarded after the Academic Counselor reviews the student’s prior academic record. SCI-Arc also accepts credits for advanced placement examinations (with scores of 3 or better) and CLEP subject examinations (with grades of 500 or better) for General Studies requirements. Also see Courses and Degree Requirements section.
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Procedures and Academic Policies
Waiver of required courses A required course may be waived upon determination that the coursework was adequately covered by previous college work. Graduate students must replace waived courses with either core or elective classes approved by the Academic Counselor and study area coordinator. Course waiver forms are available from the Registrar or Academic Counselor and must be approved by the study area coordinator under which the required course is classified. Students must be prepared to present evidence of course work, such as catalog descriptions, course syllabi and transcripts. Course waiver requests must be filed with the Academic Counselor by the third day of the term. Residency Residency is required for the last two terms of each program. The undergraduate program consists of ten terms of full-time study. Applicants accepted with advanced placement are individually placed according to previous academic and design work. A minimum of four terms of full-time study or residency must be completed at SCI-Arc to receive a Bachelor of Architecture degree. A minimum of six terms of full-time study is required to receive a Master of Architecture degree in the three-year graduate program. A minimum of four terms of full-time study is required to receive a Master of Architecture degree in the two-year graduate program. Residency is required for the entire duration of the course to receive a Master of Architecture in the postgraduate programs. Vertical studio procedure Vertical studios are open to upper division students from the undergraduate and graduate programs — that is, students in 4B, 5A, 3GA and 3GB — and exchange students. Acceptance into a vertical studio is based on completion of core studio and seminar prerequisites. Following presentations by the vertical studio instructors, eligible students complete a vertical preference sheet, listing their top three choices of studio. Priority is given to 3GB and 5A students, then to 3GA and 4B students. Vertical studios are strictly limited to fifteen students. A lottery system—or portfolio review in the case of traveling studios—is used when demand for a studio is greater than the number of spaces available. Students may petition to do independent coursework at the vertical studio level, but a limited number of such requests is granted. A written proposal should be submitted to the Academic Counselor no later than six weeks before the beginning of the term and approved by the program directors. Students interested in the vertical studios offered abroad cannot register for the same travel studio more than once without the authorization from the Director’s Office.
Placement in vertical students is final and dependant upon portfolio review.
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Procedures and Academic Policies
Grading and academic progress The grading system and GPA equivalents are subject to change.
Grading: SCI-Arc employs a narrative grading system, as follows: credit with distinction (CR+), credit (CR), marginal credit (CR-), conditional credit (CCR), no credit (NC), incomplete (I) and withdrawal (W). The grade of no credit (NC) is given whenever cumulative work, final work, or attendance are unsatisfactory. It is also given when a student fails to submit a final project or fails to take a final examination without prior approval from the instructor. No credit (NC) grades cannot be altered. GPA equivalents Grade
Point equivalent
CR+
4.0
CR
3.35
CR–
2.7
CCR
2.0
NC
0.0
I
0.0
W
0.0
Minimum requirements
The maximum number of units a student may take per semester, without incurring additional cost, is 18 units. Additional credit may be taken with authorization from the Director’s Office.
Studios If a student’s studio GPA (grade point average) drops below 2.7, he or she must meet with the program director, who will review his or her portfolio and determine whether or not the student can continue to the next studio level. Students who receive two consecutive CCR grades must repeat the most recent studio and receive a grade of CR or better. Students who receive two consecutive NCs in studios will be dismissed from SCI-Arc. Seminars Students who receive two NCs in seminars will be placed on academic warning. Cumulative Students with an overall GPA of 2.7 or below will be placed on academic warning. If the student does not raise his or her GPA to 2.7 or above during the next semester, he or she must meet with the program director to determine whether or not he or she will be permitted to continue at SCI-Arc. Academic standing Students are considered to be making satisfactory academic progress if they follow the designated program of study, receive credit for coursework, and receive favorable portfolio reviews. Students must not only complete courses suc-
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Procedures and Academic Policies
cessfully, but also maintain an up-to-date portfolio that includes the best work of their choice and a minimum of one document from each studio project for all terms they are enrolled. Academic warning At the end of each term, students who have not satisfactorily maintained their academic standing will be sent an academic warning. The record of a student who has received an academic warning will be reviewed by the Academic Counselor and discussed with the student at the end of the subsequent term. Students receiving an academic warning are expected to improve their record so there will be no further question about their ability to complete the coursework required in the degree program. Students who do not improve satisfactorily during the term they are on academic warning will be required by the Academic Counselor to have their overall record, including their portfolio, reviewed by the program director. Students may be asked to withdraw if the program director determines that their work does not meet SCI-Arc standards. Expulsion Cause for dismissal is based on the accumulation of unsatisfactory grades and overall performance. Two consecutive no credits (NC) in design studio, or failure to comply with the terms of academic warning, are grounds for dismissal. Registering for studio and/or seminars without regard for prerequisite course requirements results in suspension from design studio. A termination letter is sent to the student from the Academic Counselor’s office. Readmission to SCI-Arc is not guaranteed to a student who has been expelled. The school insists on a strong record of performance in successful completion of courses at another school for a minimum of two terms. This, however, may not be used to waive no credit grades at SCI-Arc. Academic counseling SCI-Arc maintains an academic counseling service for the benefit of all students. The Academic Counselor is available for advice about general program requirements and help with academic problems. After acceptance, each student receives a degree checklist from the Academic Counselor. This form states the individual requirements for each student’s degree. Since programs are being continuously updated, the individual degree checklist in effect at the time of the student’s admittance establishes each student’s requirements for completion. Graduate core and undergraduate students must meet with the Academic Counselor at least once a semester to update their checklist to ensure satisfactory academic progress. Other students must meet with the Academic Counselor at least once each academic year. One term prior to expected graduation, the student must submit an Application for Graduation form to the Academic Counselor. Upon receipt, the student’s record will be reviewed and he or she will be advised in writing as to which, if any, courses remain to be completed for the degree. Section 1 • 21
Procedures and Academic Policies
Portfolio review A student portfolio is a meeting place, an intersection of architecture and architectural student. Not to be underestimated, this convergence can and should be a powerful one. Learning, analyzing, organizing, formatting, designing and reflecting, are all ways of developing a point of view, forging a binding relationship between the discipline of architecture and the student. The portfolio works to develop and convey the sense of architecture within the physical parameters of the portfolio. The portfolio is conceived as an experimental tool for engaging in a discussion of architecture, and is to be developed by each student as a selfcontained project in its own right. In the B.Arch program, the portfolio supports evidence of the student’s capacity to learn about the world through general education coursework and the curriculum in architectural studies, the portfolio integrates general education, core and advanced interdisciplinary work. Students are required to maintain a comprehensive portfolio of their design studio work as well as selected work from other courses. The portfolios should document clearly and concisely each student’s progress through the curriculum, organizing the work chronologically and cumulatively. Portfolios are submitted for review at the end of the 2B and 4A studios for undergraduates, and at the end of 1GB and 3GA for graduates. Portfolios are reviewed by a faculty committee including studio and seminar faculty. During the review, faculty will assess the work documented for its capacity to give a clear sense of each individual student’s progress in all areas of their education at SCI-Arc. The portfolio is also used for admission into special programs, exchanges, and for special petitions. Students whose work does not meet the standards of the program may be given the opportunity to resubmit a portfolio, to enable them to better articulate their knowledge and skills. If the required standard is still not met, students may be asked to repeat their studio or enroll in an independent tutorial seminar. Students who submit their portfolios after the review date are charged a $100 late fee. Their portfolios may not be commented on by the review committee. Students who fail to submit a portfolio will be put on academic hold. Ownership of student work Student material—including digital files, papers, drawings, and models submitted to the school to satisfy course requirements—becomes the physical property of the school, although the student retains all rights to the intellectual content of the material. SCI-Arc assumes no obligation to safeguard such material and may, at its discretion, retain such material, return it to the student, or discard it.
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Procedures and Academic Policies
Archiving Selected students are required to submit examples of their work, on a clearly labeled CD, no later than one week after the end of term, to their instructors for archiving and, at SCI-Arc’s election, posting on the SCI-Arc website. By enrolling at SCI-Arc, each student grants SCI-Arc a license to reproduce and display his or her work. This is a chance for students to have their work shown online and potentially featured in forthcoming school publications.
Failure to submit work will result in the witholding of grades.
Images should be organized into two folders: Print: Images in tiff format, CMYK, 300 dpi and minimum 7 inches wide Web: The same images as jpgs. , RGB, 72 dpi, 7 inches wide Image file titles should include the term, year, studio (or instructor’s last name in the case of a vertical), and student name, and a number for each image submitted. For example: Sp_05_1GB_Doe_1.tiff Please also include on the CD, in Microsoft Word format: The course outline and a 100 word paragraph describing the project, with the student’s full name, year, studio, image titles, and a caption for each image submitted. Attendance Any student who is absent without an acceptable excuse more than three times during a fifteen-week term will receive a grade of no credit (NC) for the course. Instructors may impose more stringent attendance requirements and should make them clear at the beginning of the term. It is legitimate for the instructor to view unexcused lateness or departures from class as full absences. Incomplete work A student may receive a grade of incomplete (I) by requesting permission from the instructor prior to the date of the final examination or presentation. Permission will be granted only under extraordinary circumstances and usually for medical reasons. Incompletes must be fulfilled to the satisfaction of the instructor no later than six weeks after the end of term. The student is responsible for providing the instructor with the “Request for Credit” card used for this purpose. This card must be signed by the instructor and returned to the Registrar’s office. Failure to do so will result in the incomplete (I) being changed to a no credit (NC). No credit grades cannot be altered. Appeal of a grade Evaluation of a student’s performance in each course is the responsibility of the instructor for that course. If the grade is disputed, a student may appeal to the instructor for a review. If, after the review, the student still believes that a grade has been assigned unfairly, the student may submit a written petition with a copy Section 1 • 23
Procedures and Academic Policies
of the transcript and portfolio, if necessary, to the Academic Counselor and a committee of the program directors and faculty will review the work . The petition must clearly state the reasons for the appeal. The program director’s decision concerning such an appeal is final. Access to records Official student records are housed in the Registrar’s office. Student records are accessible to faculty members, the director, and staff who have legitimate educational interest in examining them. These individuals have specific responsibilities in connection with the campus’ academic, administrative, or service functions and have reason to use student records connected with their campus or other related academic responsibilities. Information is not released to any other party (including relatives of the student) without the knowledge and written consent of the student. Students have automatic access to all parts of the records except as follows: Financial records and statements of their parents or any information contained therein. Information from the Parents’ Confidential Statement or equivalent information may be released to the student on condition that the proper authorization has been signed by the parent(s). Confidential letters and statements of recommendation which were placed in student records prior to January 1, 1975, provided that: 1. The letters and statements were solicited with a written assurance of confidentiality, or sent and retained with a documented request for confidentiality, and 2. The letters and statements are used only for the purposes for which they were specifically intended. Confidential letters and statements of recommendation placed in a student’s records after January 1, 1975, with regard to admission, employment, or the receipt of an honor, if the student has waived the right to inspect those recommendations. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), with which SCI-Arc complies, was enacted to protect the privacy of educational records, to establish the right of students to inspect and review their educational records, and to provide guidelines for the correction of inaccurate or misleading statements. FERPA governs access to students’ records maintained by the school and the release thereof. The law provides that students are entitled to certain access to records directly related to the student, as well as an opportunity, should it be necessary, for a hearing to challenge such records if they are inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise inappropriate. If a student believes there is an inaccuracy in the college records, the student should write to the college official responsible for the record, clearly identify the part of the record(s) the student wants changed and specify Section 1 • 24
Procedures and Academic Policies
where it is inaccurate or misleading. If the college decides not to amend the record as requested, the college will notify the student of the decision and advise the student of his or her right to a hearing regarding the request for amendment. Additional information regarding the hearing procedures will be provided to the student when notified of the right to a hearing. The right to a hearing under this law does not include any right to challenge the appropriateness of a grade as determined by the instructor. SCI-Arc is authorized under FERPA to release public “directory information” on its students. The term “directory information” includes the student’s name, address, telephone listing, date and place of birth, major field of study, dates of attendance, degrees and awards received, and the name of the most recent previous educational agency or institution attended by the student. At any time, SCI-Arc can and will release to interested parties the above information unless it has received prior written objection from the student. This notification is required annually and must be renewed at the start of the fall term. According to FERPA, students also have access to the “completion or graduation” rate data. The information is available from the Registrar and can be accessed with ten days’ prior notification. A student has the right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failure by the College to comply with the requirements of FERPA. The name and address of the office that administers FERPA is: Family Policy Compliance Office, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20202-4605
Equal opportunity SCI-Arc promotes an open and ethical environment in which to work, teach, and study. SCI-Arc expects all members of the SCI-Arc community to uphold the values of honesty, respect, trust, tolerance, and civility in dealing with one another. Commitment to opportunity SCI-Arc does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, amnesty, medical condition, handicap or disability, creed, religious belief or non-belief, military status, age, marital status, gender, sexual or transgender orientation, domestic partner status, or sexual preference with regard to any of its policies and practices, including, but not limited to admissions, financial assistance, education programs, academic counseling, activities, or employment. If you believe you have been discriminated against on such basis, you should notify the Academic Counselor.
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Procedures and Academic Policies
Special accommodation policies SCI-Arc complies with federal regulations concerning access for physically challenged students. Reasonable efforts will be made to accommodate individual needs. Applicants with disabilities who require any special accommodation in the application and pre-admission process should provide notification and make a written accommodations request to the admissions office. Applicants who do not need accommodations during the application process, but who anticipate the need for accommodations during their education, need not submit a request for accommodations until after admission to the college. Current students and newly admitted students who require special accommodations because of a disability, a serious health condition or a personal or family emergency must submit a written request for accommodation to the Academic Counselor as early as possible after the need for an accommodation becomes known. Students with disabilities who require accommodations will be required to obtain and submit a completed Request for Disability Accommodations and Certification Form to the Academic Counselor. This form must be completed by the student’s health care provider. The college reserves the right to require proof of the reasons underlying a student’s request for special accommodations.
STANDARDS OF CONDUCT All students are expected to comply with all laws and to respect the rights and privileges of other members of the SCI-Arc community and its neighbors. Unacceptable behaviors include, but are not limited to, those described herein. These descriptions should be read broadly and are not designed to define misconduct in exhaustive terms. Academic infractions SCI-Arc believes strongly in the integrity of the work of individuals. Student work that presents the ideas or words of others as the student’s own adversely impacts the whole school and may lead to immediate dismissal. Academic dishonesty, including cheating, plagiarism, commissioning academic work by others, or performing academic work on behalf of another student, is strictly prohibited. Common sense, integrity and personal responsibility Although it is not possible to provide a complete list of all types of impermissible conduct, the following are some examples of conduct that may result in disciplinary action, including expulsion: – C heating, plagiarism, commissioning academic work by others, or performing academic work on behalf of another student, and misrepresenting facts. – D ishonesty, including, but not limited to falsification or making a material misrepresentation or omission on forms, records, or reports or any other school record. Section 1 • 26
Procedures and Academic Policies
– Misusing, mutilating, defacing, destroying, damaging of or unauthorized possession of school information, materials, equipment, or property. – E xcessive absence. – H azing, sexual and gender harassment, and actual or threatened physical violence toward another. (Please see below for a full harassment information.) – Unlawful possession, distribution, sale, use or being under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol while on school property, while acting on behalf of the school, or while operating a vehicle or potentially dangerous equipment leased or owned by the school. (Please see the SCI-Arc Drug and Alcohol Policy on page 1.29) – Unauthorized possession of school property or the property of a SCI-Arc student or staff member, or visitor. – V iolation of SCI-Arc’s IT policy, including infringement of patents, trademarks, trade secrets, or intellectual property rights, software piracy, unauthorized network/computer access, illegal export, spamming, email/news bombing, email/message forging, virus distribution, Ponzi schemes, chain letters, pyramid schemes, access to pornography, and the inappropriate use of software or hardware. – C onducting oneself in a manner that endangers the health or safety of oneself, other members or visitors within the SCI-Arc community or at SCI-Arc sponsored or related events. – Tampering with or damaging fire and life safety equipment. – B ringing or possessing dangerous or unauthorized materials, such as weapons, explosives, firearms or other similar items to SCI-Arc or to SCI-Arc sponsored or related events. Harassment Sexual and gender harassment, as well as harassment due to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, is strictly prohibited. It is impossible to define every action, all words or all situations that could be interpreted as sexual harassment. Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature are defined as sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as a basis for decisions affecting an individual’s education, employment or participation in school activity; when such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance; and when such conduct could reasonably be construed as intimidating, hostile or demeaning. The following descriptions are not meant to be a complete list of objectionable behavior, nor do they always constitute sexual harassment. Sexual harassment can be verbal, non-verbal, or physical. It can be overt or can be implied from the conduct, circumstances and relationships of the individuals involved. It can range from unwelcome sexual flirtations and inappropriate putSection 1 • 27
Procedures and Academic Policies
downs of individual persons or classes of people, to serious physical abuses such as sexual assault and rape. Examples include, but are not limited to unwelcome sexual advances; repeated sexually-oriented kidding, teasing, joking or flirting; verbal abuse of a sexual nature; graphic commentary about an individual’s body, sexual prowess or sexual deficiencies; derogatory or demeaning comments which are gender-directed, whether sexual or not; leering, whistling, touching, pinching or brushing against another body; blocking movement; offensive crude language; or displaying objects or pictures which are sexual in nature and would create hostile or offensive work and learning environments. Relationships of a sexual or amorous nature between faculty members and students are inappropriate. SCI-Arc will not tolerate current faculty members engaging in relations of a sexual or amorous nature with currently enrolled students. Relationships of a sexual or amorous nature between staff and students are also inappropriate. SCI-Arc’s policy in regard to amorous relationships between staff and subordinates is the same as its policy regarding relationships between faculty and students, as stated above. Reporting harassment Students should address complaints to the Academic Counselor. Faculty and staff members should address complaints to the Human Resources Director. Rights of the accused A person formally charged has the right to receive immediate notification that a complaint has been filed, the name of the complainant, and the nature of the harassment alleged. During the process of investigation, the accused will have an opportunity to offer evidence, including the names of witnesses or any other supporting documentation, to the investigation process. Disciplinary proceedings are intended to be informal, fair and expeditious. The procedures of criminal and civil courts shall not govern disciplinary proceedings, and formal rules of evidence shall not be applicable. Retaliation policy It is against SCI-Arc policy to retaliate against any person who has filed a complaint or sought advice through the processes described above. It is also against SCI-Arc policy to retaliate against anyone who has testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in such processes. These policies regarding retaliation also apply to the accused and third parties siding with the accused. Violations of these policies regarding retaliation are subject to disciplinary measures or expulsion. Disciplinary measures Disciplinary measures, if necessary, may consist of any of the following: verbal warning, written warning, probation, suspension with or without pay and/or termination, suspension and/or expulsion from the school. Section 1 • 28
Procedures and Academic Policies
SCI-ARC DRUG AND ALCOHOL POLICY SCI-Arc believes that all students, staff and faculty have an obligation to the SCI-Arc community to deal responsibly with alcoholic beverages and controlled substances and to protect SCI-Arc from inappropriate liability. While SCI-Arc respects the rights of its students and employees to exercise their legal options regarding alcohol consumption, they should make decisions that are respectful of SCI-Arc and those around them, and with an understanding of the potential consequences to themselves. All must also understand that various federal laws provide clear expectations that colleges will act to prevent the illegal use of drugs and alcohol on their campuses and at their events and penalize colleges for their failure to do so. The following is a summary of SCI-Arc’s policies and programs relating to the use of alcohol and other drugs on campus and at school sponsored events. This information is sent to you annually as a requirement of the Drug-Free Schools and Campuses Act of 1990, and the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988. Universities that receive federal/state funds in any form are required to comply with the above acts. We must take affirmative steps to prohibit the unlawful possession, use, and/or distribution of illicit drugs and alcohol. Should you have any questions, students should consult the Academic Counselor; faculty and staff should consult the Human Resources Director. Standard of Conduct Compliance With All Laws: Students, faculty and staff will comply with federal, state and local laws governing the use of alcohol and drugs on SCI-Arc property or at any activity or event on and off the campus sponsored by SCI-Arc. Additional Policies The Director’s Office shall be notified of any school event at which alcohol is to be served. At those events, alcohol shall be limited to that provided by the organization or group and one or more individuals shall be designated by the group to serve the alcohol. The person designated by the group shall confirm that each member served is over 21 years of age and shall not serve alcohol to anyone who appears intoxicated. No person attending an event where alcohol is being served shall bring his or her own alcohol to the event. No student or employee may use any Wood and Metal Shop tools or equipment or any CNC equipment if he or she has consumed alcohol within the prior twentyfour (24) hours. Description of Health and Other Risks All drugs can be toxic or poisonous if abused. The use of illicit drugs and abuse of alcohol can result in death, violence, incarceration, loss of a drivers license, damaged fetuses, failed relationships, petty property crime, school dropout, lowered productivity and quality, increased absenteeism and tardiness, serious Section 1 • 29
Procedures and Academic Policies
psychobiological and neurobiological problems, reduced concentration, impaired judgment, loss of short tern and long term memory, diminished reasoning skills, strained family relationships, and other serious life altering affects. Applicable laws and sanctions The unlawful manufacture, distribution, dispensation, possession, and/or use of controlled substances or alcohol is regulated by a number of federal, state and local laws. These laws impose legal sanctions for both misdemeanor and felony convictions. Criminal penalties can be dependent upon several conditions including the substance, amount, and whether the matter is a first offense or repeated offense. Criminal penalties for convictions can range from fines and probation to denial or revocation of federal benefits (such as student loans) to imprisonment and forfeiture of personal and real property. While not exhaustive, the following are laws of which students and employees should be aware: Use or Possession of Alcohol by Minor People under the age of 21 may not consume, possess or distribute alcohol, nor may they drive any motor vehicle containing any alcoholic beverage unless a parent or legal guardian is present in the vehicle. Service to Minors It is unlawful for any person to sell, furnish or give any alcoholic beverage to anyone under the age of 21. False Identification Minors who use false identification in order to obtain alcoholic beverages are guilty of a misdemeanor. It is also unlawful to provide a minor with false identification. Drinking and Driving No person may drink any alcoholic beverage while driving or possess in any vehicle any bottle, can or other receptacle which has been opened, or a seal broken. While any person over 21 with a blood alcohol content of .08 or higher and any person under 21 with any measurable blood alcohol content violates the law, this does not mean that someone with a lesser alcohol content is not guilty of violating the law. Any person whose behavior indicates he or she is under the influence violates the law no matter what his or her blood alcohol level. Sale or gift of alcohol to an intoxicated person The sale or furnishing of alcoholic beverages to an obviously intoxicated person constitutes a misdemeanor. Selling alcoholic beverages, either directly or indirectly, except with the proper license, is a crime. This includes selling tickets to be used for drinks, or charging admission to any event where alcohol will be provided, whether or not food is served. Section 1 • 30
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Cultivation, Manufacturing, Trafficking and Sale of Drugs Cultivations, manufacture, sale or distribution of controlled substances or drug paraphernalia can result in life imprisonment and fines in excess of $1000. Permitting Property to be Used in Connection with the Trafficking or Sale of Drugs: If your vehicle or other property is used in connection the sale or trafficking of drugs, it can be seized and retained or sold by the government without compensation to you, regardless of whether you participated in the illegal activities. Disciplinary Sanctions Students who have violated laws governing the use of alcohol and illicit drugs or this policy will be subject to disciplinary sanctions by SCI-Arc ranging from probation up to and including expulsion from SCI-Arc. A student under 21 years of age who uses or has in his or her possession alcoholic beverages on SCI-Arc’s campus or at a SCI-Arc event, and/or any student who to supplies alcohol to an individual who is under the age of 21 years on SCI-Arc’s campus or at a SCI-Arc event, will be subject to immediate discipline as follows: 1. For a first offense, mandatory counseling at the student’s expense, as well as suspension from the school and a forfeiture of tuition and fees for the period of the suspension; and 2. For a second offense, expulsion. Employees of SCI-Arc who have violated laws governing the use of alcohol and illicit drugs or this policy may be demoted, suspended or terminated. Violations of law by either students or employees may also be referred to the appropriate authorities for prosecution. Students are strongly encouraged to call for medical assistance for themselves or for another person who is dangerously intoxicated or for assistance if he or she becomes a threat to himself or others. If the student who places the call for help is found to be in violation of SCI-Arc’s poly, the fact that he or she placed the call will be considered mitigating circumstances when sanctions are imposed. Resources for Assistance Employees and students who are concerned about substance use, abuse, and rehabilitation are strongly encouraged to contact their family physicians, their health plan, or, in the case of students, the Academic Counselor and in the case of employees, the Human Resources Director, who can refer them to appropriate resources (community or private agencies) that provide complete, confidential substance abuse counseling. Additionally, the Yellow Pages of the telephone directories under the headings Alcoholism Information & Treatment Centers or Drug Abuse & Addiction Information & Treatment Centers contain numerous agencies and practitioners specializing in the treatment of alcohol and drug problems. Section 1 • 31
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SCI-Arc provides three (3) sessions of counseling free to individual students; students who wish such assistance should contact Abby Adorney at (310) 392-4490. Disclosure of campus security policy and campus crime statistics The college’s security and law enforcement policies and programs, and statistics regarding crimes on campus are available on the SCI-Portal and will be distributed annually at Orientation.
Financial information Privacy of personal information SCI-Arc complies with state and federal regulations concerning use of personal information. Information collected from and about students, faculty, staff and business associates is shared only to meet government requirements and conduct business within SCI-Arc. Personal information is acquired and used on a limited basis to comply with government requirements, fulfill service requirements, and provide effective coordination of academic and administrative operations. To maximize the protection of personal information, SCI-Arc urges everyone to be cautious in sharing personal information with others. In particular, social security numbers should be guarded carefully. Each student is assigned a Student Identification Number to link information to individuals. Tuition and expenses Tuition (including fees) per term for the academic school year is currently $10,772. Students attend an average of two terms per year. While every effort is made to keep tuition costs low, phased periodic increases do occur, and students should budget accordingly. The following additional estimated expenses are calculated for an unmarried student for a one term (four month) period. These figures should be used only as a guideline. Travel to and from Los Angeles is not included. Degree Programs/Fall and Spring Tuition and fees (per term)
$10,772 (including fees)
(subject to change)
Section 1 • 32
Course supplies and books
$693
Living and personal expenses
$3,612
Transportation expenses
$427
Miscellaneous expenses
$980
Total
$16,484
Procedures and Academic Policies
Summer Programs Tuition for the summer 2008 academic
$10,772 (full-time students)
term
(including fees)
Workshops (1 unit)
$893 / 1 workshop $1,786 / 2 workshops $2,667 / 3 workshops
Design studio workshops (2 units)
$2,546 / 1 workshop $5,093 / 2 workshops $7,570 / 3 workshops
Individual seminar
$2,667 each
Individual studio
$7,570
Making+Meaning: The Foundation Program in Architecture Tuition and fees
$2,600
Materials and lab fee
$250
Administration fee
$150
Total
$3,000
Payment schedule Tuition and fees are paid in three installments for new students, and two installments for continuing students. For new students, a nonrefundable deposit is due no later than thirty days after notification of acceptance. Under special circumstances, this deposit can also be used to defer a place in the program, upon acceptance, of up to one year if a written request is received. The first payment for continuing students, which establishes enrollment priority, is 50% of tuition and fees for the fall term. This deposit is due at the time of enrollment. Students may not enroll for a term unless one of the following is met: 1. Tuition is paid in full 2. 50% of the tuition paid and promissory note for the remaining amount 3. A letter of award for recipients of financial aid covering full tuition There is a $50 set-up fee for a promissory note. Only students with qualifying needs are eligible for a payment plan. A default fee of $100 (as well as applicable interest) is charged if the promissory note is paid after its due date. Payment plans not in place at the start of term are subject to a $100 late payment fee.
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Procedures and Academic Policies
If a student expects to receive financial aid, the difference between the awarded amount and total tuition must be paid in two equal installments on the designated due dates. Students must be enrolled by the last day of the add/drop period. If registration occurs after this, it is considered late and a $100 late registration fee applies. Payment methods All payments must be made in US dollars. (Cash, MasterCard, VISA, American Express and checks are accepted.) A $25 returned-check fee, payable by cash or money order, is charged each time a check is returned by the bank. Students whose checks are returned by the bank are moved to the end of the priority list for choosing studios or seminars. They also lose their place in studio if it is full.
Tuition covers a maximum of 18 units per term. Students interested in taking over 18 units will be charged $591 per unit. The maximum units allowed per semester is 21 units.
Tuition refunds A student is considered enrolled when registration is completed. Up to the first day of class, the student may be refunded all monies paid to SCI-Arc except for the $100 registration fee for continuing students and the non-refundable deposit for new students. Written notice must be received prior to the start of the term if the student is to receive the maximum refund. Pro-rated refunds will be issued according to the following schedule: Degree programs
Please note that these figures are subject to change and do not
90% refund
classes
include student union, academic service or lab fees.
1–10 weekdays from the first day of
50% refund
11–19 weekdays from the first day of classes
25% refund
20– 37 weekdays from the first day of classes
0% refund
After 37 weekdays from the beginning of classes
All requests for refunds must be made in writing and dated. This refund policy is subject to change without prior notice. This policy pertains to the full tuition after the first day of class. When a student withdraws from school or is granted a leave of absence, the refund is calculated based on the total tuition due for that term. Tuition is assumed to have been paid in full by the first day of class, at which time students begin receiving services for the term. The refund policy also applies to federal loans received.
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Procedures and Academic Policies
Making + Meaning: The Foundation Program In Architecture 80% refund
1–2 days from the beginning of the program
0% refund
On the 3rd day or after
Delinquent payments Payment plans or promissory notes are monitored monthly. In addition, statements are sent to students at the end of each month, and the appropriate fee is charged to the account. Any account left unpaid 90 days after the end of the term, or after the end of the payment arrangement, will be placed on financial hold and may be sent to collections. Students shall be responsible for all collection costs and interest charged by the collection agency. A student may not reenroll until balances have been cleared, or payment arrangements have been made with the finance office.
Please contact the admissions office for application deadlines.
Financial aid The school’s financial aid policy is designed to maximize assistance to all admitted students who demonstrate financial need. The financial aid office offers information on many programs to incoming and continuing students. All students who wish to receive financial aid must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and SCI-Arc’s financial aid applications. Students must reapply for financial aid and scholarships every year. Students must reapply for financial aid by completing the FAFSA online at www.fafsa. ed.gov beginning in January. It is recommended that all students complete their applications and submit the required institutional paperwork and taxes by the priority deadline to ensure funds are disbursed on time. School participation SCI-Arc participates in various state and federal programs: the Federal Family Education Loan, Federal Work-Study, Pell Grant and SEOG programs, the Cal Grant program, institutional scholarships, and alternative loan programs. Private loans An alternative loan or private loan is a private educational loan made through a lender. The SCI-Arc preferred lender list for private loans may be found on the financial aid page of the SCI-Arc website. Private loans generally include processing fees and higher interest rates, so carefully evaluate the total cost including repayment before deciding to borrow. The combination of an alternative loan and all other financial aid or scholarships cannot exceed the student budget. The financial aid office certifies enrollment for most alternative loans.
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Procedures and Academic Policies
Further information regarding various available loan programs can be found in the Guide to Applying for Financial Aid and on the college’s financial aid webpage. Exit counseling Loan exit counseling is required: 1. Prior to graduation 2. If a student withdraws entirely from classes 3. If a student transfers to another school, or 4. If a student drops below half-time enrollment. Students may complete their loan exit counseling at one of the sessions offered at the end of each semester or by visiting www.edfund.org and go to Ed Test. Exit counseling is also available on the lender’s website. It is advisable to learn about managing repayment obligations and options before repayment begins. Forms and publications Students may download most forms from www.sciarc.edu. The financial aid office supplies paper versions of forms and publications upon request. Faxed forms and/or documents are accepted. Students who apply after the March 2nd deadline may endanger their eligibility for grants, work-study, and scholarships. Students who plan to enroll for the summer term and wish to receive financial aid must turn in all forms in their financial aid packet by April 15. The FAFSA will be available for completion on January 1. Students may complete the FAFSA prior to filing their federal income tax by selecting the “Will Complete” option on the tax information page of the FAFSA and estimating your tax information. Students may use their W-2s or federal income tax forms to assist them with their estimation. They will need to update their tax information on the FAFSA and submit a signed copy of their recent federal income tax forms to the financial aid office once the return has been filed.
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Procedures and Academic Policies
Minimum unit/studio requirement A student receiving aid must earn a minimum number of units each semester, applicable to his/her degree, and consistent with his/her enrollment/funding status. Students are encouraged to register for more than the minimum number of units applicable to his/her degree so as not to jeopardize progress. Failure to complete a studio or continue on to the next studio level, and falling behind in seminar requirements will result in academic disqualification for financial aid. Enrollment/Funding status
Undergraduate
Graduate
Full time
12 + units
9 + units
¾ time
9–11 units
7–8 units
½ time
6–8 units
5–6 units
Application priority deadline for new and continuing students: March 2nd Final deadline: September 2nd
Dropping units Once classes begin and financial aid is disbursed, a student may have a unit deficiency if he or she drops below the minimum unit requirement. During the 100% refund period, aid will be reduced to reflect the new enrollment/funding status. If there is a unit deficiency, funds will have to be repaid and the funds restored to the aid program(s). After the 100% refund period, dropping units below the minimum unit requirement creates a unit deficiency. Dual enrollment Students will only receive financial aid from one college, even if they are concurrently enrolled. Enrollment status at SCI-Arc only includes coursework that is listed in the class schedule for that term. An exception may be made for undergraduate students who must take courses to complete their B.Arch that are never offered at SCI-Arc, such as the General Education requirements. In cases such as this, completed coursework at another institution may be used to make up a prior unit deficiency. Satisfactory Academic Progress probation for unit/studio deficiency A student who earns at least one unit in the fall term and maintains the required cumulative GPA may continue to receive aid for the spring semester. At the end of the spring semester, the total number of deficient units for the two semesters must be made up before further aid can be offered. During the probationary period, the student must meet with the Academic Counselor to develop a plan of action to get the student back on track. A revised copy of the student’s degree checklist must be submitted to the financial aid office. Financial aid may be terminated for any of the following reasons: – Failure to make satisfactory academic progress – A unit deficiency exists for more than two semesters – Cumulative GPA is lower than the required minimum standard – Enrollment status at the end of the add/drop period is less than half time Section 1 • 37
Procedures and Academic Policies
– Withdrawal or leave of absence from SCI-Arc – Failure to earn units. ork study awards and eligibility may be revoked for unsatisfactory performance W or violation of the standards of conduct and student responsibilities in this catalog. Students may regain eligibility by: Raising the GPA: Only SCI-Arc coursework is included in the calculation of the GPA. To increase the GPA, a student must enroll and complete coursework at SCIArc. Transfer coursework is not included in the GPA calculation. Correcting a unit deficiency If a student’s GPA is at the required standard or above and he or she only needs to make up units, the student may take additional courses at SCI-Arc. Undergraduates may also take General Education courses at another institution. All coursework must be applicable toward the degree objective and not exceed the number of units that are transferable to SCI-Arc. Aid may NOT be received from any college while making up the deficiency to regain aid eligibility. Students who have not maintained satisfactory academic progress must be prepared to pay their own fees for the following term. Satisfactory Academic Progress appeals A written appeal may be made, which must include documentation. The student must prove that the circumstances that created the academic problem were unavoidable and beyond his or her control. Factors considered in reviewing an appeal include, but are not limited to: the student’s entire academic history; level of borrowing in relation to units completed; class standing; number of terms of aid; previous deficiencies and appeals; and extenuating and unavoidable circumstances. Chronic medical problems are not considered extenuating circumstances. If the condition existed at the time aid was offered, it should have been taken into consideration when the classes and unit load were planned. Between terms, time is limited for review. Students who have not maintained satisfactory academic progress must be prepared to pay their own fees. Reinstatement and appeals are reviewed in the order received. Withdrawal and leave of absence If a student begins class attendance in any term and then withdraws completely from SCI-Arc or earns no units after financial aid has been disbursed, that student may be required to return all or part of the funds received, including funds credited to pay tuition and fees. Since financial aid must be used solely for educationally related expenses during periods of enrollment, federal regulations Section 1 • 38
Procedures and Academic Policies
require SCI-Arc’s financial aid office to calculate the amount of aid the student “earned” for the number of days he or she attended. “Unearned” aid, that covered periods of the semester when the student did not attend classes or were not enrolled, must be repaid. If the student withdraws prior to the start of the semester or never attended any classes, 100% of aid disbursed to that student account and/or disbursed to the student must be repaid. If a repayment is owed, the student will be billed by the finance office and will have 45 days to arrange satisfactory repayment. The student will not be eligible for further aid until repayment is made in full. The student may also be reported to the US Department of Education or to a collection agency representing SCI-Arc for collection. If a student must leave SCI-Arc for any reason, they are required to withdraw officially by contacting the Registrar’s office.
Students should consult with a financial aid advisor before dropping units.
Student responsibilities Individual students are makers of, and participate in, an academic community whose core values include tolerance of differences, support of one another and dedication to the SCI-Arc mission of re-imagining the edge and the education of architects to engage, speculate and innovate. These concepts are further developed in the Studio Culture Policy. Students are also expected to be held to these responsibilities: 1. Students must be officially accepted into a degree-seeking program at SCI-Arc and make satisfactory academic progress toward that degree objective. 2. Students must report any additional resources and/or changes. Such changes include, but are not limited to: additional financial resources such as veteran’s educational benefits; scholarships; stipends; graduate teaching assistantships. 3. Students must be enrolled in and earn the minimum number of units required by their enrollment/funding status each semester. 4. Students must maintain “satisfactory academic progress” as defined for all applicants and recipients of aid. 5. Students must activate their SCI-Arc email address and use their official email address to receive important financial aid notifications and information. 6. Students must immediately report any change of address to the Registrar. 7. S tudents must notify the financial aid office in writing if they will not be attending. 8. Students must officially withdraw if they must leave SCI-Arc for any reason. Contact the Registrar’s office for additional information. 9. Students must read the SCI-Arc Guide to Applying for Financial Aid and all Section 1 • 39
Procedures and Academic Policies
other financial aid and scholarship information that they may receive. Advisors are available to assist those who have questions or do not understand what is required. 10. Student loan borrowers who are graduating, transferring to another college, or dropping below half time must participate in exit counseling. This can be completed at www.edfund.org. 11. Students must meet all published deadlines. 12. Students should come to campus with enough funds to pay for books, supplies, incidentals, and initial living expenses. Terms for employment 1. S tudents who have unusual circumstances that they feel may impact their ability to contribute may contact their financial aid advisor for further information. Unusual circumstances could include loss of a benefit or non-taxable income, separation/divorce, death of a parent or spouse, or economic hardship such as elementary or secondary school tuition for children, major medical or dental expenses not covered by insurance or natural disaster. Documentation is required. 2. If an independent student or parent(s) of a dependent student has a substantial reduction in taxable income/benefits, the student may contact the financial aid office regarding the reevaluation process. 3. Students will be notified by mail about their eligibility and if changes are made to your offer letter during the year. 4. All information is held in confidence. The Family Education Right to Privacy Act (FERPA) restricts SCI-Arc’s financial aid office from releasing confidential information to anyone without proper identification. Only the student, the parent of record of a dependent student, or a pre-assigned designee may obtain access to the student’s information. A signed release must be on file and proper identification must be presented. Scholarships Funded by endowments, SCI-Arc scholarships are awarded on the basis of merit and financial need. They are available to all continuing students who are enrolled full-time in any program at SCI-Arc at the time they apply and who will have completed at least 24 units prior to the summer term that follows their application. SCI-Arc scholarships are awarded to its full-time students based on academic achievement, portfolio submission, and demonstration of financial need. Service to the community may be considered. Applicants may be enrolled in the graduate or undergraduate programs as in-state, out-of-state, and/or international students, and must have completed at least one year of their respective programs. The weighting for scholarship decisions is as follows: Portfolio (40 pts); GPA (25 pts); financial need (25 pts); service (max. 10 pts). Section 1 • 40
Procedures and Academic Policies
Scholarship applications, available in March for the following academic year, require the following: 1. A completed scholarship application form 2. A brief statement (250 words or less) stating academic and career goals 3. A SCI-Arc Financial Aid form and/or the International Student application and the FAFSA (domestic students only) 4. One letter of recommendation from the student’s most recent SCI-Arc studio instructor 5. Portfolio (SCI-Arc work only) 6. Current transcript. Applications are reviewed by graduate and undergraduate scholarship committees. Applications are due at the end of the spring term. Failure to meet the deadline will result in disqualification from the scholarship review process. Consult the Academic Counselor, who acts as the scholarship coordinator, for the exact date. Failure to meet the deadline will result in disqualification. Applications and further information are available from the financial aid office or the Academic Counselor. Admissions scholarships A limited number of scholarships are awarded to entering undergraduate and graduate students. These scholarships are awarded on the basis of the applicant’s potential to succeed at SCI-Arc, overall merit of his or her application submissions and financial need. These scholarships will adjust the student’s need of financial aid. Employment Student workers at SCI-Arc are expected to treat this job as they would any job. Students are expected to: show up when scheduled; show up on time; not conduct personal matters on work time; perform duties competently; and generally contribute to the smooth running of the school. Unsatisfactory performance in work study may result in termination of employment and/or termination of work study. Some unsatisfactory performance examples are: absenteeism; falsification of records; unauthorized possession of equipment, materials or information; harassment of any kind; violence; illegal consumption of alcohol and the illegal possession or consumption of controlled substances; and working in any condition that may impair the safety of yourself and others. It is strongly suggested that students do not have full time employment while earning their degree at SCI-Arc. Depending on student need and work study opportunities, students can work 10 hours per week during school sessions and up to 30 hours per week during summer term, if they are not enrolled in classes. Section 1 • 41
Procedures and Academic Policies
Teaching assistantships Paid teaching assistantships are available to currently enrolled graduate students and 5th year undergraduates who have demonstrated a level of excellence in their studies and are in good academic standing. Time commitment varies from five to seven hours per week for seminars to fifteen hours per week for studios. Interested students should approach faculty members or program directors. All teaching assistantships must be approved by the appropriate program director. Employment packets, available from the financial aid office, must be completed and turned in to the financial aid office prior to the start of work. Students are allowed a maximum of three TA-ships during their time at SCI-Arc. Work-study The financial aid office and the human resources office coordinate the workstudy program. A listing of on-campus part-time job openings is posted outside of these offices at the beginning of each semester. Also posted is a list of off-campus community service opportunities. Students should speak with the manager of the department in which they are interested in working. Work-study packages are available from the financial aid office and should be returned to the financial aid office upon completion. Employment may begin only after the completed work study packet has been approved by the financial aid office. All state and federal equal opportunity employment practices are upheld. International students are not eligible for federal work-study, but may be eligible for institutional work study with a work permit. All employees must provide a valid social security number and be prepared to establish eligibility to work in the United States within three business days of being hired.
ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE SCI-Arc is a non-profit institute dedicated to the study of Architecture. Its operations are overseen by a board of directors consisting of twenty-five members. The board membership includes recognized leaders in the areas of architectural design, art, finance, real estate, law, and real estate development. In addition, SCI-Arc faculty, students and alumni are represented at the board level. All three positions are elected. Board of Directors Committees The board operates through a series of standing and ad-hoc committees: Standing Ad Hoc Finance Academic Affairs Development Board Governance Building Director Evaluation Strategic Planning Investment Section 1 • 42
Procedures and Academic Policies
Standing Committees Finance Committee: Works in conjunction with the finance department to monitor the financial wellbeing of the institution. Includes oversight of income/expenses, investment accounts, and state and federal tax compliance. Development Works in conjunction with the development & alumni relations office to assist in defining strategies for raising funds from individuals, foundations, corporations, government entities, events, etc. Researches and nominates prospective board members with the current objectives of increasing diversity, corporate representation, and engagement with downtown Los Angeles. Ad Hoc Committees Academic Affairs Committee Helps resolve disputes between faculty members, students, and staff / administration. Board Governance Committee Seeks to clarify the roles and lines of authority between the director, chairman of the board, legal council, and the board at large, as they relate to supra-curricular issues. Structures decision-making procedures in terms of short- and long-term priorities, leadership responsibilities, and authority at the board level. Ensures compliance with and reviews institution by-laws. Building Committee Addresses issues related to the SCI-Arc campus, facilities, and works toward the procurement of a permanent location. Director Evaluation Committee Evaluates director’s efficacy in upholding and developing SCI-Arc’s mission. Makes recommendation to the board about reappointment of the school’s directorship every five years. Strategic Planning Committee Function: Works to formulate a strategic plan for the institution and evaluates progress and/or need for redirection. Investment Committee To make recommendations to the Board of Directors on investment policy and strategy for operating and endowed funds; review and report investment performance on quarterly basis. Section 1 • 43
Procedures and Academic Policies
Academic Council The agenda is set by the director and other members of the council. The director solicits advice from the council in formulating, implementing and evaluating aspects of the academic development and management of the institute. The Academic Council attempts to reach a consensus on proposals submitted for its consideration by members of the Academic Council, the Faculty Council, or the Student Union. If a consensus cannot be reached, votes may be taken. Reports of the council’s deliberations are made available to the Board of Directors, faculty and students. Schedule: The Academic Council meets on a regular basis throughout Fall and Spring Terms.
Admission Committee, Graduate and Undergraduate The admission committees meets intensively and at regular intervals following fall and spring admission application deadlines. Alumni Association SCI-Arc alumni maintain a strong relationship with the school through the Alumni Association. Established in 1998, the association works to identify and meet the needs of the alumni, and to serve the larger interests of the school. The Alumni Association seeks to build the alumni community, to promote the work of alumni, to educate alumni and current students, and to support SCI-Arc. Among the association’s various activities and projects are alumni-driven publications; the establishment of the SCI-Arc Alumni Association Scholarship Fund, which awards two scholarships each year (one to an undergraduate and one to a graduate student); the production of the Main Event scholarship fundraiser; the sponsorship of an alumni lecturer in the SCI-Arc lecture series; a career open house for alumni firms interested in hiring SCI-Arc graduates; and regular friend-raising and networking events, including the Moveable Feast, designed to bring the alumni community together. Schedule: The Alumni Association meets on regular intervals.
Curriculum Committee, Graduate and Undergraduate The Curriculum Committee is a forum for the evaluation of efficacy, relevance and coordination of class content with regard to the institute’s pedagogy and professional licensure requirements. When changes are needed, this body works with appropriate faculty and campus constituencies to form new standards and/or directions.Schedule: The curriculum committees meets on a prescribed schedule set by each program director, generally twice per term. Faculty Council Function: The Faculty Council consists of full time faculty who meet to vote for faculty representatives on the Board and which faculty participate in the Academic Council. Schedule: The Faculty Council meets on an open calendar. Section 1 • 44
Procedures and Academic Policies
Portfolio Committee, Graduate and Undergraduate This committee meets to assess students’ progress through the foundation and core semesters by evaluating , (through a compilation of design and academic work into a portfolios) the student’s strength and weaknesses, and may make recommendations as necessary in order to help improve the level of the work. Schedule: This committee meets at the end of the fall and spring semesters in the undergraduate program, and at the end of the spring semester in the graduate program. C ontinuing students Scholarship Committee, Graduate and Undergraduate This body awards scholarships based on students’ overall academic excellence and financial need. Schedule: This committee meets at the beginning of the summer semester to make scholarship awards for the following academic year.
Student Union The Student Union administers student activities and helps to support the student community at SCI-Arc. It helps to fund student-built work, student exhibitions, and student publications, as well as purchasing supplemental tools for departments such as the wood shop and computer resources, and sponsoring competitions and special projects. The Student Union organizes a weekly academic open house open to the entire school that allow the SCI-Arc community to discuss and meet informally each week. Students select several speakers for the each year’s lecture series, a unique and tremendous opportunity to shape discussion at the school. One student representative sits as a full member of the SCIArc Board of Directors for a two-year term. This student reports directly to and from the student community to the board. The representative also has full voting power and sits on committees that advise the Board. Two student representatives sit on the Academic Council, which allows the student body a formal arena for voicing their concerns not only to the director, but also to the faculty and staff in attendance. It provides an opportunity for students to participate in discussions with the director, faculty, and staff on policy decisions. Schedule: The Student Union cabinet meets once every two weeks with the student members of the Academic Council and the representatives from each design studio. All school meetings are scheduled as needed.
safety Rules SCI-Arc’s safety rules are based on respect for each other, respect for facilities, common sense, and personal responsibility. Students must follow all posted signs and observe all safety warnings given by safe team members during emergencies and emergency drills.
Section 1 • 45
Procedures and Academic Policies
Security 24-hour security | Tel# 213.220.3084 SCI-Arc is equipped with cameras to monitor security along with 24-hour security guards. For everyone’s security, SCI-Arc students, staff and faculty are required to present the guards with their SCI-Arc ID card upon request. Failure to provide such proof will result in being escorted off the property. Visitors to the school must be accompanied by a SCI-Arc student or representative or have made prior arrangements through the administrative offices. Personal property brought into the school is the responsibility of the owner. Please take precautions to secure and lock all valuables. There will be regular emergency and security drills performed in both the Fall and Spring terms in order to cover escape routes and security procedures. Student IDs Students are issued a magnetic ID card that provides access to the building and to the computer lab. A schedule is posted for new students to have their photo taken, and the ID card is distributed within the week. Student are required to carry their ID with them at all times. Students will be charged $25 to replace cards that have been lost or damaged. ID cards are not transferable. The lending or giving of ID cards to any other person may lead to disciplinary action and must pay $25 for a replacement card.
Parking Registration of vehicles All student vehicles parked in any of SCI-Arc’s parking lots must have a valid SCIArc permit displayed. Permits can be obtained from at the front desk, and fees should be paid in the finance office. The City of Los Angeles Parking Enforcement patrols all SCI-Arc parking lots and issuing parking citations for any of the following non-moving violations: – No current SCI-Arc parking permit visibly displayed. – Vehicle is parked in or blocking a handicapped parking space. – Vehicle is blocking an emergency exit. – Vehicle is parked in or blocking a fire lane. – Vehicle is parked in visitor’s parking area.
Section 1 • 46
Procedures and Academic Policies
Vehicles will be ticketed by the City of Los Angeles, so once a ticket is issued it must be rectified through the City of Los Angeles. In addition to any fines which may be levied by governmental parking enforcement agencies, SCI-Arc may impose additional penalties for violations of the school vehicle regulations. There will be a $300 fine for reckless driving while on campus. In addition, students are responsible for paying any reparations from damage incurred by reckless behavior. Please consult the SCI-Arc Drug and Alcohol Policy for full details pertaining to the use of drugs and alcohol while on campus. Paying fines City of Los Angeles citations: Once a ticket is issued it is a City matter and must be rectified through the City of Los Angeles. SCI-Arc issued citations: These need to be paid through the finance office. Unpaid fines are automatically charged to the registrant’s campus bill. Boot Unpaid SCI-Arc parking violations: SCI-Arc Security will apply the boot to the vehicle along with a notice warning the owner not to move the vehicle until the boot has been removed. The registrant needs to pay all outstanding parking violations in addition to a $75 charge before the boot will be removed. If the registrant has not contacted SCI-Arc Security to have the boot removed within 24 hours, the vehicle could be towed. The registrant is responsible for paying the towing charge. Tampering with, damaging, or removing a parking boot subjects the registrant to a $300 fine. Towing SCI-Arc reserves the right to immediately tow vehicles which are in dangerous positions or are creating a hazard. In addition, SCI-Arc reserves the right to immediately tow any vehicle which, through its reckless operation, has created a danger to the SCI-Arc campus community. Vehicles blocking tow-away zones, fire lanes and roadways or driveways could be towed immediately. Furthermore, vehicles may also be towed when registrants refuse to identify themselves. Revocation of parking ticket After five offenses, the driver may be “banned” and not permitted to park or drive any vehicle on campus for the remainder of the academic year. Drivers with fewer than five violations may be banned if any one violation is serious enough to warrant immediate suspension of all vehicle privileges.
Section 1 • 47
2
Procedures and Academic Policies
Section 1 • 48
Courses and Degree Requirements
Courses and Degree Requirements
Undergraduate degree (B.Arch) 5 YEAR (10 TERM) program Professional Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) program, accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB).
Chris Genik Undergraduate Program Director SCI-Arc’s undergraduate program integrates the development of knowledge of a wide range of conceptual and practical skills, from critical thinking to technical expertise, to create a fluid and holistic approach to the education of the becoming contemporary architect. Throughout the program, emphasis is placed on the development of the individual student’s personal growth, self reflection and knowledge of architectural design issues, including theoretical constructs and advancements in building technology, and ranging from applications of highperformance “intelligent” materials to considerations for sustainable practices. The undergraduate curriculum is built around an integrated sequence of design studios, Visual Studies, History and Theory, Media and Technology courses, into which interdisciplinary seminars in the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities are woven. Following the foundation and core sequence, upper-division courses are offered in Professional Practice and related subjects. Over five years of study, students become actively engaged in the discussion of the practice of architecture and are prepared to join the workforce.
Section 2 • 1
Courses and Degree Requirements
General Studies requirements In addition to SCI-Arc’s 165+6 required units, students must complete seven General Studies courses with a grade of C or better in order to graduate: at least four one-term courses
at college level in the area of Social Sciences and Humanities, and at least three courses in the area of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (see below). Students are given until the end of the third year of the program to complete General Studies requirements, but it is recommended that transfer students complete as many of these requirements as possible before coming to SCI-Arc.
A general studies committee, consisting of the Director of Admissions, the Student Counselor, the Undergraduate Thesis Coordinator and the Cultural Studies Coordinator periodically review and update general studies requirements.
Section 2 • 2
Choose two courses from the Social Sciences and Humanities:
Choose one courses from Natural Sciences and Mathematics:
Anthropology Classics Comparative Religion Economics Geography Philosophy Political Science Psychology Sociology
Astronomy Biological Sciences Chemistry Computer Science Earth Sciences Mathematics Physics
Required History of Western Civilization or History of Eastern Civilization
Required Trigonometry
Courses and Degree Requirements
Course structure I. Foundation program First term — 1A
Second term — 1B
DS1010 — 6 units Material Strategies for the Physical World ~
DS1011 — 6 units Conceptual Strategies for the Physical World~ Prerequisite: DS1010
CS2010 — 3 units Fields and Practices: Introduction to Design Cultures } CS2011 — 3 units Writing in Architecture: ESL/ELL 1 (as required) } AS3010 — 3 units Introduction to the Physical World: Materials, Behaviors, Forces } VS4010 — 3 units Fabrications and Delineations 1: Introduction to Fabrication and Drawing Techniques: Perception/ Translation
CS2012 — 3 units History of Architecture 1: Prehistory to Middle Ages } CS2013 — 3 units Humanities 1: Antiquity to Middle Ages } CS2014 — 3 units Writing in Architecture: ESL/ELL 2 (as required) } VS4011 — 3 units Fabrications and Delineations 2: Introduction to Fabrication and Drawing Techniques: Projection/ Description Prerequisite: VS4010
Students who fall behind their studio level by three or more required courses will be required to enroll in seminars only during the subsequent term. It is recommended to complete at least 2-3 general studies requirements between the 1B and 2A semesters. ~ Studios: One unit can be applied toward General Education studies requirements. } Courses that can be taken for General Education studies credit
Section 2 • 3
Courses and Degree Requirements
Third term — 2A
Fourth term — 2B
DS1020 — 6 units Formworks: Sites and Contexts ~ Prerequisite: DS1011
DS1021 — 6 units Frameworks: Programs ~ Prerequisite: CS2012
CS2020 — 3 units History of Architecture 2: Renaissance to the Enlightenment } Prerequisite: CS2012
CS2022 — 3 units History of Architecture 3: Industrial Revolution to Contemporary Discourses } Prerequisite: CS2012
CS2021 — 3 units Humanities 2: Renaissance to Romanticism } Prerequisite: CS2012
CS2023 — 3 units Humanities 3: Modernism in Literature, Art and Film } Prerequisite: CS2012
AS3020 — 3 units Introduction to the Environment and Climate
AS3021 — 3 units Structures 1: Forces and Vectors
VS4020 — 3 units Technologies of Description 1: Analog and Digital Practices Prerequisite: CS2012
VS4021 — 3 units Technologies of Description 2: Analog and Digital Practices Prerequisite: CS2012
Students are required to submit a portfolio at the completion of the 2B studio prior to advancing into the fifth term. It is recommended to complete at least 2–3 general studies requirements between the 2B and 3A semesters. ~ Studios: One unit can be applied toward General Education studies requirements. } Courses that can be taken for General Education studies credit
Section 2 • 4
Courses and Degree Requirements
II. Core program Fifth term — 3A
Sixth term — 3B
DS1030 — 6 units Field Operations: Static Architectural Systems ~ + Integrated Applied Studies component — 1 unit Prerequisite: DS1021
DS1031 — 6 units Dynamic Architectural Systems: Anabolic, Metabolic, Catabolic ~ + integrated Applied Studies component — 1 unit Prerequisite: DS1030
CS2030 — 3 units Introduction to Urban Systems } Prerequisites: CS2022
CS2031 — 3 units Philosophy of Technology } Prerequisites: CS2030
AS3030 — 3 units Structures 2: Long Span and Lateral Systems Prerequisite: AS3021
AS3032 — 3 units Smart and Sustainable Systems
AS3031 — 3 units Tempering the Environment:Light, Air and Sound
AS3033 — 3 units Tectonics: Construction, Assembly and Detail
VS4030 — 3 units Technologies of Description 3: Analog and Digital Practices Prerequisite: VS4021
It is recommended to complete at least 2–3 general studies requirements between the 3B and 4A semesters. All general studies requirements must be completed before entering the 4A semester. ~ Studios: One unit can be applied toward General Education studies requirements. } Courses that can be taken for General Education studies credit
Section 2 • 5
Courses and Degree Requirements
III. Advanced studies
Seventh term — 4A
Eighth term — 4B
DS1040 — 6 units City Operations: Architecture in Critical Settings + integrated Cultural Studies component — 1 unit ~ Prerequisite: DS1031
Vertical studio— 6 units ~ Prerequisite: DS1040
CS2040 — 3 units Introduction to Critical Studies } Prerequisite: CS2030 AS3040 — 3 units Design Documentation: Analysis and Development Elective — 3 units or CPT s
Cultural Studies elective— 3 units } AS3041 — 3 units Design Documentation: Construction Documents AS3042 — 3 units Professional internship (by approval: full-time summer) or Elective — 3 units or CPT s
Students are required to submit a portfolio at completion of the DS1040 (4A) studio before advancing into the eighth term. Students are also required to complete all core courses prior to advancement. ~ Studios: One unit can be applied toward General Education studies requirements. } Courses that can be taken for General Education studies credit.
s Students may apply for CPT units beginning in their 4A semester. Only two 3 unit electives can be used for CPT. Students wishing to apply for CPT units must enroll with the Registrar and Academic Counselor’s Offices. Approval for coursework is made by the Director’s Office.
Section 2 • 6
Courses and Degree Requirements
Ninth term — 5A
Tenth term — 5B
Vertical studio — 6 units ~
DS1051 — 9 units Thesis studio Prerequisite: CS2050
CS2050 — 3 units Thesis studio preparation }
Elective — 3 units AS3050 — 3 units Practice Environments: Contracts, Liability, Business Models
Elective — 3 units or CPT s
Elective — 3 units or CPT s
~ Studios: One unit can be applied toward General Education studies requirements. } Courses that can be taken for General Education studies credit.
s Students may apply for CPT units beginning in their 4A semester. Only two 3 unit electives can be used for CPT. Students wishing to apply for CPT units must enroll with the Registrar and Academic Counselor’s Offices. Approval for coursework is made by the Director’s Office.
Section 2 • 7
Courses and Degree Requirements
Graduate Degree Programs Hsinming Fung Graduate Programs Director SCI-Arc’s graduate studies foster the school’s open-ended spirit of inquiry, responding to shifts in society, technology, and culture with a constantly-evolving learning environment in which faculty and advanced-level students work together to advance to the next generation of the architectural discipline. The programs are led by a faculty of practitioners and scholars that is actively engaged in contemporary architectural discourse and production worldwide, working in fields ranging from design and engineering to visual and cultural studies. Through the feedback they provide from their own practices, the graduate curriculum is continuously and dynamically shaped in a manner only available to an institution entirely devoted to architecture. The graduate programs promote cross-pollination from other fields of study in a critical manner, with a practice that derives from an emphasis on process and a synthesis of thinking, inquiry and execution. With a diverse and international student body, the graduate programs at SCI-Arc provide a rigorous architectural education that promotes experimentation and creative freedom, and is at once global and local, comprehensive and current. In pursuit of these goals, the graduate programs offer four study options: The three-year M.Arch 1 program, the two-year M.Arch 2 program and the one-year SCIFI and MediaSCAPES programs. M.Arch 1 3 Year (7 Term) program A professional Master of Architecture program, accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) and open to applicants who hold a bachelor’s degree or equivalent in any field of study. This program requires attendance for the fall and spring terms of the first two years, and the fall, spring and summer terms of the final year.
Architectural experimentation and learning through making lie at the core of the M.Arch 1 program. The curriculum is horizontally integrated and vertically progressive, starting with a four-semester core sequence in which students develop a framework for the discipline of Architecture, as well as a strong foundation for critical inquiry and experimentation. By integrally linking each semester’s design studio with courses in visual, cultural and applied studies, students are offered an immediate instruction in the depth of the relationship between architecture and technological advances, representation, and social change. With each progressive semester increasing in sophistication, students acquire a unique ability to address a breadth of complex architectural issues while testing their own intellectual and design convictions. Upon completion of the core sequence, students are encouraged to pursue their vision, investigating design through the latest innovations in technology, advancing new praxes of design analysis and innovating through applied research with a choice Section 2 • 8
Courses and Degree Requirements
of advanced studios and seminars. Students complete their studies with the presentation, in a public exhibition, of a thoroughly researched independent architectural thesis. Throughout the M.Arch 1 program, particular emphasis is placed on the production of architecture, and the ways in which making produces a unique intelligence for the field. M.Arch 1 graduates are therefore prepared to further this intelligence through significant contributions in the profession.
Course structure First term— 1GA (fall)
Second term — 1GB (spring)
DS1100 — 6 units Fundamental Architectural Principles 1: Elements of Space
DS1101 — 6 units Fundamental Architectural Principles 2: Organizational Systems Prerequisite: DS1100
CS2100— 3 units Architecture Culture 1 AS3100 — 3 units Material Properties, Industrial Processes and Structural Principles VS4100 — 3 units Strategies of Representation 1: Analysis, Translation and Communication
CS2101 — 3 units Architecture Culture 2 Prerequisite: CS2100 AS3101 — 3 units Structures 1: Forces and Vectors Prerequisite: AS3100 AS3121 — 3 units Tempering the Environment: Light, Air and Sound VS4101 — 3 units Strategies of Representation 2: Diagramming and Spatial Construction Prerequisite: VS4100
Students are required to submit a portfolio at the completion of the 1GB studio prior to advancing into the third term.
Section 2 • 9
Courses and Degree Requirements
Third term — 2GA (fall)
Fourth term — 2GB (spring)
DS1120 studio — 6 units Architecture’s Intervention 1 : Context and Territory Prerequisite: DS1101
DS1121 — 6 units Architecture’s Intervention 2: Urbanism, Landscapes and Infrastructures Prerequisite: DS1120
CS2120 — 3 units The Rise and Fall of Theory Vanguardism Prerequisite: CS2101 AS3120 — 3 units Structures 2: Techniques and Implementation: Connections and Systems Prerequisite: AS3101 AS3123 — 3 units Advanced Building Systems: Sustainability and Complex Envelopes Prerequisite: AS3121
CS2121 — 3 units Urban Studies: History, Theory, Criticism Prerequisite: CS2120 AS3122 — 4 units Design Documentation: Analysis and Development Prerequisite: AS3123 VS4121 — 3 units Strategies of Representation 4: Advanced Digital Tools, Modeling and Fabrication Prerequisite: VS4120
VS4120 — 3 units Strategies of Representation 3: Advanced Digital Tools, Modeling and Fabrications Prerequisite: VS4101
Students are required to complete all the above courses prior to advancing into the fifth term.
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Courses and Degree Requirements
Fifth term — 3GA (fall)
Sixth term— 3GB (spring)
Vertical studio — 6 units
Vertical studio — 6 units
Cultural Studies elective — 3 units
CS2410 — 3 units Thesis Preparation: Research Strategies
AS3130 — 3 units Practice Environments: Contracts, Liability, Business Models (Note: can also be taken in the 3GB term) Elective — 3 units or CPT s
Elective — 3 units or CPT s Elective — 3 units or CPT s
Students are required to submit a portfolio at the completion of the 3GA studio prior to advancing into the thesis prep (3GB) term. Students are required to complete all course requirements up to the sixth term (3GB) prior to advancing into the graduate thesis term. Seventh Term— 4GA (summer) DS1420 — 9 units Graduate thesis Prerequisite: CS2410 Elective — 3 units or CPT s Elective — 3 units or CPT s
s Students may apply for CPT units after completing the 1GB semester. Only one 3 unit elective can be used for CPT. Students wishing to apply for CPT units must enroll with the Registrar and Academic Counselor’s Offices. Approval for coursework is made by the Director’s Office.
Section 2 • 11
Courses and Degree Requirements
M.Arch 2 2 Year (5 Term) program A professional Master of Architecture program, accredited by the the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) and open to applicants with a minimum of a four year degree in Architecture, or its equivalent abroad. This program requires attendance for the fall and spring terms of the first year, and the fall, spring and summer terms of the final year.
The M.Arch 2 program has as its aim the reappraisal of the discipline of Architecture, and is specifically designed to build upon and reconsider knowledge gained from a prior undergraduate degree in Architecture. Students are introduced to an advanced critical perspective on contemporary architectural issues—both theoretical and design-related— as a tool with which to examine the complex and shifting relationship between architecture and cultural, political, economic and social change. Architectural conventions and standards are challenged through the rigorous examination of other models of design and production. The program investigates the contemporary architectural platform and operates as a laboratory with which to identify new possibilities for the integration of a wide range of emerging techniques and technologies. Students are provided with a knowledge of the latest developments in fabrication, as well as an understanding of design methodologies and their historical and contemporary contexts. On completing the three term core sequence, students are able to choose from vertical studios and elective seminars that either continue the focus of their core studies or broaden the scope of their education. Students complete their studies with the presentation, in a public exhibition, of a thoroughly researched independent architectural thesis.
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Courses and Degree Requirements
Required courses
The Academic Counselor reviews the transcripts of students entering the M.Arch 2 program to verify that they have completed courses comparable to the following core Applied Studies classes offered at SCI-Arc: AS3101: Structures 1: Forces and Vectors; AS3120: Structures 2: Techniques and Implementation: Connections and Systems; and AS3121: Tempering the Environment: Light, Air and Sound. Students who have not passed these classes are required to do so. M.Arch 2 students who have passed a sequence of courses on structures during their undergraduate courses at other insititutions, but have not been introduced to seismic issues, are required to take a course on that subject before the end of their second term at SCI-Arc. Incoming M.Arch 2 transcripts will also be evaluated for achievement in the NAAB requirements for Architectural Traditions.
Course structure First term — 2GAX (fall)
Second term — 2GBX (spring)
DS1200 — 6 units Indeterminate Architecture
DS1201 — 6 units On Forms of Tectonics and Cellular Aggregation Prerequisite: DS1200
CS2200 — 3 units Modern, Postmodern, Supermodern
CS2201 — 3 units AS3200 — 3 units Design Intelligence Reflexive Formal Assemblies: Material Prerequisite: CS2200 to System AS3201— 3 units VS4200 — 3 units Optimization, Performance and Delineation and Dynamic Systems Implementation: System to Building Prerequisite: AS3200 AS3302 — 3 units Advanced Structure Prerequisite: AS3200
Students are required to complete all 2GAX and 2GBX courses prior to advancing into the third term. Students are required to submit a portfolio at the completion of the 2GBX studio prior to advancing into the thesis prep term 2GAX Students who do not meet NAAB requirements for Non-Western, Local and Regional Traditions will be required to take CS2100 | Architecture Culture.
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Courses and Degree Requirements
Third term — 3GAX (fall)
Fourth term — 3GBX (spring)
Vertical studio — 6 units or DS1210— 6 units XLAB Prerequisite: DS1201
Vertical studio — 6 units
Cultural Studies elective — 3 units Prerequisite: CS2121 AS3222 — 3 units Design Documentation: Analysis and Development Prerequisite: AS3201 and AS3302
CS2410 — 3 units Thesis preparation: research strategies Elective — 3 units or CPT s Elective — 3 units or CPT s
AS3230 — 3 units Practice Environments: Contracts, Liability, Business Models (Note: can also be taken in the 3GB term)
Students are required to submit a portfolio at the completion of the 3GA studio prior to advancing into the thesis prep term. Students are required to complete all 3GAX and 3GBX courses prior to advancing into the graduate thesis term. Fifth Term — 4GAX (summer) DS1420 — 9 units Graduate thesis Prerequisite: CS2410 Elective — 3 units or CPT s Elective — 3 units or CPT s
s Students may apply for CPT units after completing the 1GB semester. Only one 3 unit elective can be used for CPT. Students wishing to apply for CPT units must enroll with the Registrar and Academic Counselor’s Offices. Approval for coursework is made by the Director’s Office. Section 2 • 14
Courses and Degree Requirements
Post Graduate Program 1 Year (3 Term) programs SCI-Arc currently offers two tracks for post graduate study, SCIFI (the Southern California Institute for Future Initiatives) and MediaScapes. Both tracks are Master of Design Research Studies degrees, open to applicants with a minimum of a four year degree in Architecture, or its equivalent abroad. This program requires attendance for the fall, spring and summer terms.
SCIFI (Southern California Institute for Future Initiatives) Peter Zellner and David Bergman Program Coordinators SCIFI is an intensive research-based “think tank” dedicated to generating pertinent examinations of contemporary city design, city formulation and urban regulation. The program is calibrated to develop research skills, urban design expertise and unique strategic thinking. The SCIFI program is configured as an “expert research center” focused on promoting innovations within design, policy, planning, development and management responses to the economic, social and environmental futures of global cities and regions. Students will integrate skills from across the Institute’s programs including design technologies, cultural studies and hard technology applications.
Course structure First Term (fall)
Second Term (spring)
Third Term (summer)
DS1500 — 6 units Design research studio
DS1501 — 6 units Design research studio
DS1502 — 6 units Design research studio
CS2500 — 3 units Seminar
CS2501 — 3 units Seminar
CS2502 — 3 units Seminar
CS2600 — 3 units Seminar
CS2601 — 3 units Seminar
Elective— 3 units
VS2500 — 3 units Interactive Mapping & Motion Graphics
Elective — 3 units
Elective— 3 units
Section 2 • 15
Courses and Degree Requirements
MediaScapes A Master of Design Research Studies degree, open to applicants with a minimum of a four year degree in Architecture, or its equivalent abroad. This program requires attendance for the fall, spring and summer terms.
Ed Keller Program Coordinator MediaScapes focuses on media production and theory in the context of today’s highly technologized cities, landscapes and architecture. The program leverages significant emerging relationships within technology, software, media, film and game spaces to produce new content and ideas in a “thinktank R&D” environment. The program prepares students for thought leadership in positions in design, research and theory work across the fields of new media, architecture, landscape, and digital film. MediaScapes blends the mandates of a school, a think tank and a research lab with commercial sponsorship to push the boundaries of the relationship between culture and technology.
Course structure
Section 2 • 16
First Term (fall)
Second Term (fall)
Third Term (summer)
DS1600 — 6 units Design research studio
DS1601 — 6 units Design research studio
DS1602 — 6 units Design research studio
CS2500 — 3 units Seminar
CS2501 — 3 units Seminar
CS2602 — 3 units Seminar
CS2600 — 3 units Seminar
CS2601 — 3 units Seminar
Elective — 3 units
VS2500 — 3 units Interactive Mapping & Motion Graphics
Elective — 3 units
Elective — 3 units (optional)
Courses and Degree Requirements
2008-09 Academic Calendar August 22 – Undergraduate portfolio review – Deadline for admission into 3A or 4B studio in the Fall 2008 term August 25 – September 1 – Summer break August 27, 28, 29 – Orientation for new students September 1 – Labor Day (all school holiday) Spring Term
September 2 – First day of Fall 2008 term September 3 – Vertical Lottery September 3 – Deadline for submitting waiver requests to appropriate Department Heads September 5 – Deadline for Summer 2008 grade appeals September 6, 7 – Graduate Thesis presentations September 7, 2008 – Graduation September 8 – Fall 2008 add/drop period ends September 12 – Final tuition payment due for Fall 2008 term (continuing students only) September 15, 2008 – Last day to register for Fall 2008 term October 1 – International Students graduating in December 2008 begin applying for OPT Section 2 • 17
Courses and Degree Requirements Spring Term (continued)
October 3 – All “Incompletes” without extensions from the Summer 2008 term change to “Credit” or “No Credit” November 10 – Spring 2009 registration available to students November 27 – 28 – Thanksgiving Day Holiday (school closed) December 1 – First tuition payment due for Spring 2009 December 1 – 12 – Final reviews/presentations for the Fall 2008 term December 12 – Last day of Fall 2008 term – Undergraduate portfolio review –D eadline for admission into 4B studio for the Spring 2009 term Graduate portfolio review. Deadline for admission into 3GB studio for the Spring 2009 term December 15 – January 9 – Winter break January 9 – Undergraduate portfolio review – Graduate portfolio review
winter Term
January 12 – Spring 2009 term begins – Students must register by January 23 – Orientation for new students – Vertical Lottery January 14 – Deadline for submitting waiver requests to appropriate Department Heads January 16 – Add/drop deadline for Spring 2009 term – Final tuition payment due for Spring 2009 term – Deadline for Fall 2008 grade appeals
Section 2 • 18
Courses and Degree Requirements winter Term (continued)
January 19 – Martin Luther King, Jr Birthday (all school holiday) January 23 – All “Incompletes” without extensions from the Fall 2008 term become “Credit” or “No Credit” today March 9 – Online registration for Summer 2009 begins (subject to change) March 27 – First half tuition payment due for Summer 2009 April 13 – 17 – Final reviews/presentations for the Spring 2009 term April 24 – Last day of Spring 2009 term April 27 – Undergraduate portfolio review – Graduate portfolio review April 27 – May 15 – Spring Break
Summer Term
May 18 – Summer 2009 term begins May 22 – Last day to officially add/drop classes May 25 – Memorial Day (all school holiday) August 14 – Last day of Summer 2009 term
Section 2 • 19
Courses and Degree Requirements
DESIGN studios Undergraduate (Core studios) DS1010 | 1A studio | Material Strategies for the Physical World This first studio in a sequence of four foundation studios introduces the student to spatial problem-solving. A sequence of increasingly complex problems charge the students with working within two opposing knowledge-based fields: analytical and intuitive operations are applied to the study of materials, their potential for transformation, their capacity to suggest ideas and intentions, organizational concepts and abstract spaces. The interrelationship between the act of making and the process of execution are studied. The studio begins with an examination of two-dimensional problems, then focuses on problem-solving in three dimensions. Students are given the Emerging Professionals Companion along with updated IDP information. Skills: Craft in drawing and model building / plan, section, elevation drawing / self-organization in work / use of shop. Concepts: Syntax of architecture / seriality / repetition/ fields. DS1011 | 1B studio | Conceptual Strategies for the Physical World The premise of the second studio in the foundation sequence is that ideas, when deliberately assembled, become intellectual structures for conceptual strategies that direct notions of spatial ordering systems and architectural form. The relationship between the conceptual and the circumstantial will be examined in a series of evolutionary and interrelated projects which guide the student towards an under-standing of sophisticated notions of spatial structures and material considerations. Skills: Communication of spatial concepts / projection drawing / craft in model building and drawing. Concepts: Abstract programming / complex ordering systems / matrices. DS1020 | 2A studio | Formworks: Sites and Contexts Projects work within the variable conditions that determine the characteristics of a site, whether conceptual (eg.musical score, text, painting, idea) or physical (eg.location, geometrically described piece of property, legal boundary condition). Students explore the various conditional relationships that affect the reading and description of sites, and understand circumstance and environment as complex systems of information. Skills: Analysis of data / photographic depiction of information. C oncepts: Context / conditions / circumstance/ environment / data sets. DS1021 | 2B studio | Frameworks: Programs Students examine the structure of information that organizes a project. Consideration for varying weaves of interrelationships is studied through increasingly Section 2 • 20
Courses and Degree Requirements
complex data sets. Students are challenged to work within specific conditions, as well as develop working processes which yield their own ideas for organizational operations regarding space, site and context. Skills: Familiarity with AutoCAD and hand drafting/ verbal presentation. Concepts: Analytical processes/ work process/ scenario planning. DS1030 | 3A studio | Field Operations: Static Architectural Systems The first studio of the core studio sequence locates the idea of architecture at the intersection of various systems of information: from technical to cultural, from visual to tactile. Students consider the uses of precedent and antecedent in their work, while the main investigation examines the impact of structure and material systems on site and building form, and the capacity to use transformation as a methodological tool to guide a rigorous approach to decision making. Skills: Methodological decision making. Concepts: Transformation and behavior alteration of simple systems. DS1031 | 3B studio | Dynamic Architectural Systems: Anabolic, Metabolic, Catabolic, Comprehensive Design, Part 1 This studio introduces students to the comprehensive development of a building, from conception to large-scale detail, with an emphasis on the assimilation of building systems. Students examine interrelated systems which are able to both modify the spatial structure of a building, and articulate expectations of their performance structurally, thermally, acoustically and environmentally. In this studio, along with AS3040 – Design Documentation Analysis and Development, students are expected to demonstrate how their buildings explore and resolve issues of egress, codes and life safety. Both classes comprise the academic sequence in fulfillment of NAAB condition 13.28, Comprehensive Design, defined as “Ability to produce a comprehensive architectural project based on a building program and site that includes development of programmed spaces demonstrating an understanding of structural and environmental systems, building envelop systems, life safety provisions, wall sections and building assemblies and the principles of sustainability. Skills: Research, working process and design methodology/ technique (precision and purposefulness) / 3D modeling. Concepts: Performativity. Meets NAAB Conditions: 1.3 Architectural Education and Registration; 3.13.14 Accessibility; 3.13.20 Life Safety; 3.13.28 Comprehensive Design DS1040 | 4A studio | City Operations: Architecture in Critical Settings The premise of this studio is that cities and buildings are largely shaped by a dynamic flow of interrelated cultural, social, political and economic forces. During the course of the term, students test the nature of possible interfaces between architecture and its various settings within the contemporary city. This studio has two formats: in the fall term, it focuses on the development of a single project, Section 2 • 21
Courses and Degree Requirements
while in the spring term, students work with a member of faculty to submit entries to significant architectural competitions. Both terms are structured in such a way that theoretical assumptions are tested and developed as an integral part of the building design process. 4B | 5A | Vertical studio Students develop projects which explore particular interests and focus. They have the opportunity to work with architects visiting the school, and gain insight into a broad range of issues concerning approaches to building, the environment, technology, theoretical stances, and personal interests. DS1051 | 5B | Thesis studio The intent of the thesis studio is for student to demonstrate proficiency in making proposals for buildings that integrate knowledge from the principle disciplines represented within the program. Building Design, History, Theory and Humanities, Technology, and Visual Studies weigh into the execution of a synthetic work of architecture. Students work with a committee consisting of representative members of each academic discipline, and design a project from proposals developed in the prior semester. Note: Beginning academic year 2009–10, Thesis prep will only be offered Fall semester and Thesis studio will only be offered Spring semester. M.Arch 1 DS1100 | 1GA studio | Fundamental Architectural Principles 1: Elements of Space The first studio in a sequence of four foundation studios, this course introduces the student to fundamental issues of architecture. Through the study of the interrelationship of geometry, form, tectonics, and materiality, students are asked to continually develop and reconsider strategies for the production of architecture. The studio aims to endow students with a range of fundamental working methodologies. Through generative drawing, iterative material studies, generative modeling, descriptive drawing and analytical mapping and diagramming, students are expected to develop an intellectual framework as well as productive techniques for the development of spatial organizations, architectural forms and structural systems. DS1101 | 1GB studio | Fundamental Architectural Principles 2: Organizational Systems This course is a continuation and expansion of the fundamental issues of architecture introduced in the first studio of the core sequence. The interrelationship between geometry, form, tectonics, and materiality is explored as it relates to overarching organizational systems and emergent systemic behaviors driven by programmatic content, structural logics and physical setting. Program and strucSection 2 • 22
Courses and Degree Requirements
ture are considered to be creative components of design rather than fixed entities. Students are given the Emerging Professionals Companion along with updated IDP information. The working methodologies introduced in 1GA are expanded and refined to allow each student to continue developing conceptual frameworks and productive techniques for the creation of architecture. As the first part of the Graduate Program’s Comprehensive Design Sequence, this course challenges students to design both site and buildings accommodating individuals with varying physical disabilities. Meets NAAB Conditions: 1.3 Architectural Education and Registration; 3.13.14 Accessibility
DS1120 | 2GA studio | Architecture’s Intervention 1: Context and Territory The first term in the second year of the core M.Arch 1 sequence builds upon the awareness of the discipline and knowledge of architectural production by focusing on issues of Comprehensive Design. The studio is structured to hone each student’s awareness of the complex and layered issues involved in an architectural problem. Elemental spatial constructs and organizational systems are seen as resulting from and reacting to forces of site, context and territory. These influences are considered physical and virtual, permanent and ephemeral, situational and circumstantial. Qualities of site, situation and environment, as well as cultural contexts, are considered as potential tools with which to challenge conventional approaches to architectural design. Meets NAAB Condition: 3.13.28 Comprehensive Design
DS1121 | 2GB studio | Architecture’s Intervention 2: Urbanism, Landscapes and Infrastructures This studio examines the interrelationship between architecture and the city, deepening students’ understanding of the ways in which architecture can both inform, and be informed by, the urban fabric into which it is woven. Through a full integration of design resources and research on various scales of operation— from housing to institutional and commercial building types that contribute to the formation of neighborhoods and public space—students are encouraged to design into existing urban conditions with a full understanding of the dynamic and interdependent forces of economics, ethnicity, culture, society, politics and infrastructure that have shaped the contemporary city. M.Arch 2 DS1200 | 2GAX studio | Indeterminate Architecture Programmatics, geotechnics, structure, mechanics, commerce and environment are among the many fields which enable architecture to operate and perform. These technologies react to create an Architecture of Indeterminacy that favors multiple and temporal approaches to design over planning and orchestration, and allows architecture to participate in and reorganize our constantly shifting culture. This studio looks at the contemporary architectural platform and opSection 2 • 23
Courses and Degree Requirements
erates as a laboratory for finding new possibilities of integrating a wide range of techniques and technologies. Conventions and standards in architecture are challenged through a rigorous examination of other models of design and production, such as fashion, art, film and industrial design, creating a nonlinear process that can respond to a number of parameters, while exposing the disparate strategies and technologies inherent in the production of architecture. Students are also exposed to issues concerning the relationship of the part to the whole, repetition and structure, as well as the notion of variation and systemic manipulation through topological evolution. As the second part of the Graduate Program’s Comprehensive Design sequence, students are expected to design site and building. Meets NAAB Condition: 3.13.14 Accessibility
DS1201 | 2GBX studio | On Forms of Tectonics and Cellullar Aggregation This studio explores topological evolution and systems of design intelligence, with an emphasis on the broader infrastructural role that architecture can play in the city. With its ability to both perform and organize at the same time, architecture, it is argued, is able to have an effect that is felt at the scale of the urban landscape. DS1210 | X LAB Optional studio (M.Arch 2) The M.Arch 2 program at SCI-Arc is developing and expanding the domain of emerging technologies in the design and production of architecture. With this in mind, M.Arch 2 students are given the opportunity to continue their explorations and research into the future of architecture into their second year of study through XLAB, an optional studio offered in the third term of the program. Working in a laboratory environment, students develop the knowledge acquired in the first two semesters of the M.Arch 2 program, investigating and applying the possibilities of emerging technologies, theories and model production, and testing new design territories such as scripting, biogenetics, codes, new materials, biomimicry and cellular systems. This studio is offered as an alternative—exclusive to M.Arch 2 students—to the vertical studio requirement at the 3GA level. Vertical studios SCI-Arc’s upper level studios brings students into contact with renowned architects from all over the world whose work has placed them firmly at the forefront of the discipline. Visiting instructors have included Raymond Abraham, Lise-Anne Couture, Bill MacDonald, Sulan Kolatan, Brendan MacFarlane, Monica Ponce de Leon, Michael Malzan, Odile Decq and Andrew Zago, among others. Students from both undergraduate and graduate programs who have completed their core sequence work together in groups of fifteen or fewer.
Section 2 • 24
Courses and Degree Requirements
Recent vertical studios include: DS1301 | LA Sky-High Raimund Abraham I shall tell you what I dreamt last night” he says to Marco. “In the midst of a flat and yellow land, dotted with meteorites and erratic boulders, I saw from a distance the spires of a city rise, slender pinnacles, made in such a way that the moon and her journey can rest now on one, now on another, or sway from the cables of the cranes. — Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
This studio examined the interface between gravityand architecture in the city on an imaginary new plane like a wolkenkukuksheim—according to Aristophanes, “a city built by birds into the sky.” DS1302 | Bahia Balandra Eric Owen Moss, John Enright Students developed proposals for an urban-scaled vacation resort that is actually planned for an area north of La Paz, Mexico, located on the Balandra Bay in the Sea of Cortes. Visiting critics included faculty from the Stanford University Humanities Lab and the Iberoamerica University in Mexico City, and professional structural engineers from Ove Arup, who also provided engineering reports for each of the final designs. Students traveled to the site and researched the area in terms of physical, biological, and environmental conditions. They also investigated large-scale infrastructural typologies including marinas, piers, canals, tunnels, and bridges, and catalogued state-of-the-art sustainable systems such as desalination facilities, water reclamation projects, solar electric power, water purification, waste management, and power generation systems. This research formed a basis for the more specific investigations of the final schemes, which presented solutions that addressed larger environmental issues specific to the site and region. The projects were presented to the developer in Mexico City and one of them is likely be developed for future construction. DS1303 | New Cultures…Specters of the Spectrum Jean-Michel Crettaz New Cultures is an architectural design essay based on the investigation of current, yet unassimilated, initially invisible energies of cultural and scientific progress subsequently informing speculative concepts and scenarios of new Western life forms and architectures. The studio agenda invites speculative visions for new cultures. The program evolves from an interest in socio-cultural and political text—and sub-textures informing new generative processes of architectural design. The topic “new cultures” initiates a critical discourse on contemporary Western cultures and technological progress subsequently defining the foundation of the design program and life form: specters of the spectrum. Quests and experimentations are initially sited within the framework of the human experience. The subject, reflecting new human needs, provides a field for coded, immersive and Section 2 • 25
Courses and Degree Requirements
subversive phenomena, expressiveness and articulacy located the body / subject / material / space. DS1304 | Pre-Fab: China Evan Douglis Targeting recent advancements made in parametric design, emergent materials and fabrication technology, the Pre-Fab: China studio attempts to reassess masscustomization by issuing new proposals for alternative prefabricated houses for a global marketplace. Inspired by an ever-increasing trend for variation and difference as typified within our current design and consumer culture, as well as a call for action due to a continuous worldwide shortage of housing due to ongoing environmental and economic instability, pre-fab architecture holds great promise as a compelling agent for change. Structured as an experimental research laboratory, our intention is to highlight new and emerging practices and their corresponding effects for the first pre-fab LUNIT home. Proposed as a universal system of interchangeable and adaptive building components, this revolutionary modular house is conceived as a multi-national fleet of domestic vehicles capable of accommodating a variety of cultural, site, program and spatial applications. DS1305 | Fleshology, “Becoming Animal”: The Horrific and the Grotesque Hernan Diaz Alonso Flesh/organs are the two components that are scrutinized in this studio. By means of tall structures and adjoining parts, the studio reveals design procedures as dynamic relationships. If skyscrapers are primarily intervened by means of their typological strength, we grow them by means of their topological intensity. Assuming what is at stake is tall buildings’ vertical vertigo, we concentrate on their interior, not in the manner of structure, core or repetitive stacks. Instead we develop active nesting techniques where the inner body is not a sequential vertical proliferation but rather a discontinuous organic growth; at the same time, this inner mass stretches in and out of the outer flesh. Flesh differs from surface for its layered nature; it cannot be detached from the inner organs, it is just one more coat, it is deeply attached, it stretches and compresses for the sake of smoothness, porosity and voluptuousness. DS1306 | Vertical Studio Coy Howard The objective of the studio is to broaden students’ intellectual understanding of aesthetics and increase the range of students’ skill sets in order to promote a more robust personal aesthetic. Through readings, exercises and projects, the studio challenges the current dominance of reductive abstraction in architectural education, developing ideas and sensibilities in areas that include the beautiful, the iconic, the symbolic, the decorative, the mysterious, the transrational, the frivolous and the humorous, as well as in the more pragmatic aspects of architecSection 2 • 26
Courses and Degree Requirements
ture. Central to these explorations is the arousal and stimulation of the student’s personal curiosity and open-mindedness to the possibility of a richer range of architectural expression than is currently in vogue. DS1307 | SCIFI: South China Jeffrey Inaba, Paul Nakazawa, visiting faculty In China, the southern part of the country has been considered crude and unsophisticated. Wildly independent and unselfconscious of their northern counterparts, the southern Chinese are notoriously inventive and entrepreneurial. This is evident in south Chinese cities. Pearl River Delta cities like Guangzhou, Zhuhai, and Zhongshan exemplify the extreme accomplishments and surprising failures of efforts to create a contemporary city. Unlike the American or European city, its infrastructure, patterns of growth, and architecture do not fit previous paradigms. Instead, they represent the blueprint for the 21st century city. The studio studies urban growth in South China and makes design proposals for “failed” cities. DS1308 | Riverfront Housing and Mixed-Use Development Ray Kappe and Sam Hall Kaplan The Los Angeles River has the unique potential of being both an engaging public amenity and a catalyst for complementary development. What is needed is a vision that addresses this challenge to mark it as the eastern gateway to downtown and an anchor for contiguous, nascent neighborhoods. Such an opportunity exists east of SCI-Arc across Santa Fe, on a site bounded by the First Street and Sixth Street bridges and the river. The studio demonstrates an exciting use of the river for market-rate housing, loft-work, student housing, and affordable housing, that also includes commercial use, offices and riverfront restaurants and entertainment. Interested citizens, council members, river advocates, developers and present landowners interact with the studio. Urban concerns, environmental response, sun access, energy consumption, green architecture and building systems are discussed in the development of viable architectural solutions to entice developers and the city to seriously consider the efficacy of student proposals. DS1309 | Water, Infrastructure, Geopolitics: Urban Systems Management, Resource Flow, and the Networked City-State Ed Keller, Juan Azulay, Moji Baratloo Contemporary urban design has to deal with an ever more complex network of landscapes. Water as a resource is of global concern. Control of water, protocols for its use, and an evaluation of the overall influence of water infrastructure on urban morphology are key factors for socio-political formations over the coming decades. The impact of these factors on urban use patterns, as well as developing architectural, urban and political morphologies has not been adequately studied. This studio undertakes a groundbreaking study of current urban, technological and political paradigm shifts and proposes new urban morphologies based on a range of networks coming into being in this decade. Section 2 • 27
Courses and Degree Requirements
DS1310 | Tangled Structure/Fiber Space Peter Testa This studio is based on the idea of tangled structures—massively distributed networks made up of relatively weak cross-linked fibrous elements that are the basic building blocks of structures in nature. There are also many precedents for this idea within architecture, from gothic interweaving to arabesques; textile techniques from two- to three-dimensional weaving; Fine Arts from Pollack to Eliasson; Mathematics from topology to tangle theory; and science from topological enzymology to tissue engineering. A key characteristic of this structural morphology is that patterning, form, and organization are an informal or emergent effect. Studio projects explore in depth the aesthetics and performative parameters of tangled and patterned surface structures as an alternative to modern assembled structures. Design research is conducted into the material basis for this idea in the context of advanced engineering and contemporary construction methods. DS1312 | Tall Buildings in Flat Spreads Robert Mangurian, Mary-Ann Ray The studio tackles real situations within a place and culture where much of the world’s construction is taking place. One of these situations, related to city making in new urban Asia, is the required production of density (to partially face the reality of limited energy in the future/present). This requirement results in the mandate of the tall building (stand tall, and sometimes wiggle, slide, squirm, and hide). Add this requirement to social and spatial aspects of urban life in China that have always been present, and what occurs is a new alchemy begging for new architectures. The standard studio within schools of Architecture seems to avoid this project—projects are usually clever lumps, fields of stuff, smaller widgets fitting into the cracks, and other rather interesting programs and forms. Some programs don’t seem to be addressed. One is suburban housing and another is high rise construction— office, hotel, housing, and... In Beijing today, there are probably 250 high rise buildings in various states of construction. Multiply this by a hundred large Chinese cities. Our estimates could be low. In our city, Los Angeles, we have not built a tall building for about twenty years. DS1313 | Conservation / Development in Hawaii Ian Robertson, Nels Hefty This studio examines conservation development opportunities presented by an ahupuaa in Hawaii. The ahupuaa is a Hawaiian form of land division extending from the mountain to the ocean. In Western terms, it may be viewed as an intact 10,000 acre watershed. Hawaii is chosen for the study site because it is the most remote place on earth; has the largest number of distinct ecosystems of any place of similar size; has a unique sociological background in that it was settled by ocean voyaging Polynesians 800 to 2,000 years ago; has a unique background of land use laws (the laws of the Kingdom of Hawaii are expressly included by the state conSection 2 • 28
Courses and Degree Requirements
stitution as part of the legal system); all the while being part of the United States. Students examine the characteristics of the site and the geopolitical aspects of Hawaii. Each student is asked to develop a proposed project that is responsive to the economic, sociological, and environmental constraints of the site. Students are required to address the concerns of the land owner, the land use dictates of the County of Hawaii, and the customs and practices of native Hawaiians. DS1314 | (Architectural) Approaches to the “Question” of Technology: Visitor Center and Hostel at Heidegger’s Hut Wes Jones This studio investigates the monstrous and tragic condition of technology and humanity’s “enframed” condition from the perspective of architecture—how architecture might be implicated in its coming to pass, and how architecture might yet represent the saving-power of which Heidegger spoke. Architecture was there at the beginning (of the transformation of techné into what would be thought of today as technology), and it is here now at what could be the end. Through analysis and design, the studio examines three possible answers to the challenge raised by this essay, three possible sources for the saving power Heidegger invokes. In each case, technology is understood as both the medium and the subject of interest, and architecture’s approach to it as the potential embodiment of that saving power. The three technological attitudes could be termed equipmental, PCAD, and green. Explicit arguments for each can be found in “The Question Concerning Technology” or related essays. The sites for this research and for the design that eventually demonstrates its conclusions are Heidegger’s mythic Black Forest Hut and environs in Todtnauberg. DS1315 | Green Soapy Branes Sulan Kolatan w/Robert Cervellione The studio focuses on form-finding through minimal surface geometry and soap bubble experimentation with the intent to design architectural and urban membranes that go beyond the current “green” standards. Topics include advanced geometry, material and structural engineering, digital fabrication and emerging expertise in ecology and biomedia. The architectural potential of minimal surface topology are discussed and explored. We believe this potential presents itself in affinities between form and performance in the broadest sense. Students are asked to obsessively pursue these relations between form and perform by recognizing potential for performance in form, first, and refining form by adapting to performance, second. Unlike the modernist dictum “form follows function”, the relation outlined here is neither linear, nor is it singular, idealized or optimized. Instead, we prefer to understand relatedness in terms of ranges of productivity linked to families of form.
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DS1316 | Swarm Stadia Hernan Diaz Alonso, Benjamin Bratton Guest: Peter Frankfurt (Imaginary Forces) Architecture is never displayed innocently. Any encounter with the work is framed by multiple determining contexts—political, sensual, and spatial—that productively contaminate the moment of reception. This laboratory develops an investigation of the processes of mutation, growth and movement patterns of insects. With a focus on biogenetics, the course constantly shifts from micro behaviors to macro conditions as a work method. Therefore we problematize the parameters that define insect species understanding their constituent cells all the way up to their morphology and mass. Swarm Stadia is a combination of the typology of stadiums, as the architectural imprint, and the study of mass behaviors of insects, as the method of cell duplication. The study of grouping mechanisms of particular species allows the class to define specific techniques (scripting, real flow, particle system, mutations) that become perfomative elements in the design processes. The class not only focuses on the understanding of the methods of aggregation and accumulation but also on the topological and aesthetic properties of insects. The assignment is to (A) design a stadium for the LA MLS team, (B) a stadium for the LA NFL team, or (C) a dual purpose stadium for a sharedbrand team, soccer and NFL. DS1317 | Shelter as Product Stephanie Smith Today we have the technical and industrial capabilities necessary to create shelter using the mass production processes previously used to create consumer products. Arguably, the 21st century global economy must evolve its approach to physical infrastructure from “one-off” to mass production in order to accommodate global shifts in population as work forces migrate; aid relief efforts caused by famine and natural disasters (increasing due to climate change); serve the huge market for second homes and recreational dwellings as the first world grows wealthier; and adjust to increasing urban densification. Can human shelter be freed from its connection to place, to specificity, to singularity? If so, what are the implications on dwelling experiences and lifestyle patterns, socio-political and market systems, and urban migration and flow? The task of this studio is to design a dwelling “product,” a 150 sq. ft. temporary or permanent living unit for one to two people. The studio uses as a test site the former Dome Village in downtown Los Angeles, a small, urban community of eighteen fiberglass domes housing thirty-five people, built in 1993. Students explore issues of advanced materials, systems and manufacturing processes; minimum dwelling; form and aesthetics (from the exotic to the generic); product branding, marketing and positioning; sustainable practices; social and economic strategies and impacts.
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Graduate thesis Hernan Diaz Alonso, Coordinator DS1420 (M.Arch 1 and M.Arch 2) Since its founding, SCI-Arc has maintained a proud tradition of graduate design theses. In addition to a consistent stewardship of the thesis within the architectural discipline, SCI-Arc has been dedicated to the empowerment of individual design vision on the global stage. The graduate thesis program at SCI-Arc represents a culmination of the graduate curriculum and a significant test of the students’ ability to synthesize and produce critical and rigorous architecture. For M.Arch 1 students, preparation for the thesis begins at the end of the first year, when they submit portfolios of their work to a graduate review committee, who review their strategies of representation and ability to communicate effectively. Prior to entering the Thesis Research and Preparation class (thesis prep), all graduate students submit their portfolios, which provide immediate feedback on their particular design vision and serve as a solid foundation for the development and direction of each individual student. In thesis prep, students work in small, topical workgroups, led by a thesis advisor, to prepare their argument and the research and materials necessary for an intelligent thesis. Upon successful completion of thesis prep, students are encouraged to strengthen their thesis arguments through the selection of a thesis advisor of their choice with whom they will work independently on their design thesis. Thesis advisors are not limited to SCI-Arc faculty: Students may select advisors from outside the school in order to foster an intellectually challenging relationship. During the thesis term, students undergo a series of public reviews, with their advisor present, to evaluate progress and develop their projects in the light of the collective intellect of the reviewing body. The SCI-Arc graduate thesis program culminates in a public two-day event in which students present their thesis projects to critics from all over the world. A celebration of academic achievement, the SCI-Arc thesis weekend is widely regarded as a major forum for the discussion of fresh insights and innovative concepts among noted theoreticians and practicing architects. Jury panels comprising members of the international, national and local design community, along with SCI-Arc faculty members, discuss and critique the work in hour-long panel sessions. Following a question and answer period, the discussion opens to the attending audience members, other SCI-Arc faculty, students and community members.
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CULTURAL STUDIES Cultural Studies at SCI-Arc is uniquely tailored to meet the educational needs of emerging architects and designers in the contemporary field. As a necessary step in their enculturation, “Cultural Studies” at SCI-Arc refers to the study of architectural cultures: design cultures, building cultures, disciplinary interiority and exteriority, canons and traditions, critiques and avant-gardisms. In this manner, it is both fundamental and interdisciplinary: the core program at both the undergraduate and graduate levels is comprised of courses in Urban Studies, Visual Culture, Philosophy, New Media, Critical Theory, and all aspects of Architectural History, Theory and Criticism. After completion of their core studies, students may enroll in a series of advanced seminar electives which represent the most current conceptualizations, discourse and production in architectural studies. In addition to courses offered by regular faculty, the Cultural Studies program seeks authors and critics worldwide to share their recent work in this forum. Many courses are offered in conjunction with publications and conferences, or enlist the active participation of students in research endeavors. Therefore, while some elective courses do recur, all are subject to shifts in content and attention. Core Cultural Studies seminars Undergraduate CS2010 | Fields and Practices: Introduction to Design Cultures This course serves as an introduction, overview and preview of the SCI-Arc curriculum, and as an introduction to the immense variety of pathways available to students as they move ahead in the world as a designer and, possibly, as an architect. The aims of the class are to expose students to a broad range of design work and introduces the role of the experimental within the fields of furniture, architecture, interior space, set design, exhibition design, product design, and landscape, and to develop in them the eye and senses of the curious and critical observer of the products of design culture. CS2011, CS2014 | Writing in Architecture: ESL/ELL The class helps undergraduates improve their English language usage and composition skills. Students read literary and architectural theory, and respond to the work in their writing. Goals for the course are to develop a vocabulary to discuss studio projects; conduct research based on primary and secondary sources; compose and rewrite an essay in preparation for upper-division Cultural Studies assignments; and draft a basic proposal to fund projects. These are supplemented by in-class creative writing assignments to better perceive writing “off the page.”
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CS2012 | History of Architecture 1: Prehistory to Middle Ages This course introduces students to the history of world architecture by examining the origins and elaboration of human settlements and architecture from prehistory to the medieval era. Particular attention is given to the evolving status and role of the architect in the ancient world as well as to the development of architecture as an autonomous category of cultural artifact. CS2013 | Humanities 1: Antiquity to the Middle Ages This introductory survey course addresses ancient cultural production with a framework that extends beyond a normative Western trajectory with an interest in tracing parallel histories in disparate geographical and cultural locales. The course addresses art,archi- tecture, music and literature in ancient Greece, Rome, Africa, Egypt, Asia, Europe and beyond. The task of this course is to survey historical cultures as well as to reframe his- torical conditions of culture through the lens of contemporary discourse. CS2020 | History of Architecture 2: Renaissance to the Enlightenment History of Architecture 2 covers the development of architecture and urban culture from the Renaissance to the end of the 19th century. It surveys developments of the 15th century, including the revival of architecture and the rise of a new attitude toward the aesthetic and civic potential of the built domain; the emergence of architectural practice from the traditional workshop system and the establishment of the “discipline” in the modern sense; the advent of new representational practices; the rise of the institution of the academy in the 16th and 17th centuries; the invention of new building technologies and materials in pace with the aesthetic, scientific and social theories of the 18th and 19th centuries; and the increased awareness of an urban subjectivity and the rise of a science of urban planning in the industrialized era. CS2021 | Humanities 2: Renaissance to Romanticism This seminar looks at the early modern age of Western civilization, along with develop-ments in non-Western cultures, from the end of the “dark ages” to the advent of modernism in the mid 19th century. Assumptions about the period are examined critically, along with texts and art works that preceded and influenced the modern age, and which to a large extent define the way we think and behave today. The role of the arts in society and their relation to socio-economic, political, and religious conditions are examined, along with the relationship of artists to their own times and to the classical past. The course presents wider contexts as well as looking closely at strategies and techniques used in works from The Song of Roland to George Büchner’s Woyzeck. CS2022 | History of Architecture 3: Industrial Revolution to Contemporary Discourses This class presents a history of 20th century architecture and urbanism, from 19th century tectonics and structural rationalism to the emergence of deconSection 2 • 33
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struction and the contemporary avant-garde. The course examines critical moments in the creative and intellectual discourses that have arisen over the course of the century, a time in which the discipline of Architecture has endured innumerable theoretical debates that forged an ever-greater reliance upon theoretical sources and visual knowledge. Among the issues discussed are the rise of industrial production of new technologies and mass urbanization. CS2023 | Humanities 3: Modernism in Literature, Art and Film This seminar looks at the background, nature, evolution and multiple facets of modernism, and how these connect through the arts. The ways in which artists in all fields have responded to modernity is discussed, along with the impact of new technologies, art forms, and social and economic conditions. Students develop a faculty for literary, film and art criticism, and an awareness of the ways in which similar themes, techniques and world outlooks have recurred at different times in different media since the advent of modernism. The course operates at two scales, presenting the wider context for each topic as well as looking closely at strategies used by writers, artists and film-makers from Baudelaire to Wong Kar-Wai. CS2030 | Introduction to Urban Systems This course examines the city as a dynamic process composed of so-called “open systems”—infrastructural, economic, environmental and socio-cultural—that interact with each other. Through an exploration of their interrelationship, these systems are understood as historically determined, and are presented in the class in rough chronological order, from water and sewage systems to fiber optic and wireless technologies. CS2031 | Philosophy of Technology This course provides a historical survey of the philosophy of technology, using Martin Heidegger’s seminal lecture, “The Question Concerning Technology,” as a guide. Examining the ways in which technology has been addressed through time by different philosophical and critical traditions, from pre-Socratic discussions of techne to Deleuze’s machinic delirium, this course charts the progress of the human relationship with technology and the nature it mediates. While primarily concerned with philosophical developments, this course will index the evolution of such thinking to the state of technology and architecture at the time, emphasizing issues of particular importance for architects. CS2040 | Introduction to Critical Studies One of the radical shifts in architectural production at the end of the twentieth century emerged from the introduction of new theoretical tools into architectural culture. Architects such as Bernard Tschumi, Peter Eisenman, Daniel Libeskind and Rem Koolhaas began to develop a radically new approach to architecture by appropriating ideas from the world of cultural theory and philosophy. They recognized that architectural culture—in and of itself—was trapped within a relaSection 2 • 34
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tively complacent, self-legitimising condition, that needed to be destabilized and reinvigorated by fresh impulses from outside. Meanwhile, with the emergence of cultural theory, a whole generation of critical thinkers—such as Jacques Derrida, Jean Baudrillard and Fredric Jameson—began to see architecture as a field of interdisciplinary cultural enquiry. As a result of this convergence, a new criticality emerged, which has been further developed by a second generation of architects, led by Greg Lynn, Foreign Office Architects and Lars Spuybroek. This course introduces students to the thinking behind this new criticality. The course is based on Rethinking Architecture, a collection of seminal essays on architecture by key thinkers of the twentieth century. Students are asked to read and dissect primary texts from significant fields of study, including critical theory, postmodern studies, phenomenology, structuralism, deconstruction, and post-structuralism, alongside readings from architectural culture. CS2050 | Thesis preparation The Thesis program is fundamentally about the development of a set of beliefs. Students are expected to have a cumulative knowledge base paired with a unique and passionate perspective on their work. Thesis preparation asks that each individual stake a position based on their perspective and hold it up against a set of widely held beliefs. The thesis program involves the development of a thesis regarding architecture, as well as a design program and project that explores and tests it. The thesis is more than a theme, a site, or a specific type of program. It is a proposition regarding architecture that takes a specific position in a field of possibilities. It is a position that requires architectural exploration in order to understand it, test the possibilities, and recognize the limits of its application. Note: Beginning academic year 2009–10, Thesis prep will only be offered Fall semester and Thesis studio will only be offered Spring semester.
Thesis prep and thesis studio are seen as a comprehensive project and students are required to undertake them at SCI-Arc, not while studying abroad.
Undergraduate Writing Clinic This writing clinic is an appointment based non-credit workshop where students can receive help on work in progress. A faculty member provides one on one help with formulation, articulation and structure of student ideas and helps the student to discover the appropriate expression of their written documentation.
M.Arch 1 CS2100 | Architecture Culture 1 This course introduces students to the history of the discipline of Architecture in Western and non-Western culture from the Vitruvian tradition, as instantiated by Alberti, to the beginning of the “critical,” or postwar period. The course considers architecture as both a profession and a discipline, and explores its relationship to the society, economy, politics, and cultural developments of this time period. Theories of aesthetics and space are covered, as well as the rise of the academy, the inclusion of landscape and other arts in architectural studies, and the subsequent fragmentation—from the Enlightenment onwards—of Classical
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ideals into broad questions of origin, type, form, function and identity. Throughout the course, students will also be introduced to a range of different possible histories of architecture- vernacular histories, formal histories, and geographic histories that have been heretofore considered “outside” of the discipline. Students will be challenged to consider whether these forms and meanings have had a critical impact in the discipline, and to imagine a set of alternative canons and agencies that could be implicit in each. This includes a six-week module on non-Western and Regional Architectural Traditions, at which attendance is mandatory for all graduate students at SCI-Arc. The course culminates in a 12-week research project in which students will gain and present a thorough knowledge of one historic building (pre-1949) in order to further the investigations of this class into architecture’s disciplinary identity. All research projects will be archived in the SCI-Arc Library. Meets NAAB Conditions: 1.13.9 Non-Western Traditions; 3.13.10 National and Regional Tradition
CS2101 | Architecture Culture 2 This course introduces students to their more immediate heritage in the emergent architectural discipline, and to its concomitant problematics in the modern and postmodern eras. In the first section of the semester, the discipline is considered in relation to the radical changes brought about by social, political and economic events from the Industrial Revolution to the Second World War. The linkage of architecture and morality, the rise of the metropolis , the development of urban design, and the adoption of the machine as model and metaphor are key themes of investigation. In the second section, the consequences of the transition from the modern to the postmodern is considered in architecture. Emphasis is placed on the canonization of modernism into high modernism following the Second World War and its subsequent critique and decline. Throughout the course, issues of race, colonization, class and gender are understood as constituent factors of global—and hence architectural—culture. CS2120 | The Rise and Fall of Theory Vanguardism This course concentrates on the ways in which the shift from philosophy to “theory,” following the events of 1968, directly affected the intellectual life of architecture from the 1970s to today. Through an examination of scholarly journals, school curricula, and intellectual discourse and debate in architecture, students are introduced to the rise and fall of these theory vanguards —their continuous critique and the influence it has had on the work of architects. Furthermore, given the significant challenges to critique in recent work, students are asked to consider its influence on the rapidly changing nature of contemporary architectural practice. CS2121 | Urban Studies: History, Theory, Criticism This course of study presents students with a range of contemporary research methods for understanding the complex, multivalent and dynamic set of systems and pressures known as “the city.” In order to provide rigor and intensity, the urban Section 2 • 36
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studies course is divided into 3 small seminars that align exactly with the sections of the 2GB studio. Through various methods and theories—from market research to scenario analysis to historiography—students are asked to formulate interpretations of urbanism and apply these to their studio projects. Because SCI-Arc innately understands the shifting nature of this discourse, the courses in Urban Studies endeavor to represent the most current paradigms and orientations.
M.Arch 2 CS2200 | Modern, Postmodern, Supermodern This seminar tracks the short but intense history of architecture’s transition from modernism to postmodernism to supermodernism. Within the context of the last three decades of the 20th century, it is argued that contemporary architectural practices have been dominated by, and characterized by, different modes of communication. Through the rigorous study of architectural practices that have moved from an emphasis on meaning to one of immersive experience, this seminar focuses on the communicative potentials and critical explorations of contemporary architectural design. CS2201 | Design Intelligence This seminar focuses on an emergent form of post-vanguard design practice that employs testing and prototyping to create design knowledge, or design intelligence. It details the emergence of this new intelligence paradigm through readings drawn from a variety of contemporary debates in philosophy, science, strategic gaming and other areas, before turning to a series of firm-specific case studies that explicitly address the role of intelligence in contemporary design practice.
Recurring Cultural Studies electives Please note that these courses are not offered every semester and are subject to change. Check the latest course schedule for current course offerings, and visit SCI-Portal for each semester’s course descriptions. CS2301 | Form to Informe Tulay Atak The primary objective of this course is to introduce the cultural and historical background of current theories on form. It intends to distinguish between different approaches to form in architecture, especially between form generation and formalism as sets of practices that involve the social and cultural aspects of architecture. Rather than attempting global definitions of form and formalism, this course focuses on a number of themes linked to formal organizational concepts and analyses of selected case studies in contemporary architecture.
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CS2302 | Urban Planning and Development David Bergman This course provides a basic background in the planning and land use system in California as well as providing exposure to elements of the land development process. Students gain an understanding of the land use and regulatory environment in which architecture and urban design takes place. The course centers on a weekly lecture along with an assignment related to interpretation of a zoning code. CS2303 | Terrorism and Architecture Benjamin Bratton This seminar focuses on the interrelations of architecture-as-politics and politics-as-architecture. Following a proposition that 9/11 has made terrorism a key factor in late modernity, terrorism is examined as an architectural phenomenon. With an inherently spatial program, political and cultural institutions are reconsidered as embodied explicitly by their architectural manifestations. CS2304 | Video-City Jeffrey Inaba This course presents video as an alternative to the book as a medium for generating urban hypotheses and speculation. A hands-on workshop, students produce short planning manifestoes for Southern California’s Inland Empire, exploring the unique ability of video to readily integrate visual information, while attempting to exacerbate video’s capacity to seamlessly document and fictionalize its subject matter. CS2305 | Discipline & Reward Dora Epstein Jones This course examines the critique of discipline (following Foucault) and the effects of that critique on the theories, profession and practice of architecture. Dedicated to the idea that the discipline of Architecture is far more agile and accepting than critique has figured, this course urges students to explore and use its standards, norms, techniques and habits in new and rewarding ways. The course is conducted in two parts: as a seven-week survey of the discipline and its critical engagement in architectural discourse, and as a seven-week investigative study into the possibilities of a transformative, rather than restrictive, architectural discipline. CS2306 | Active Time in Landscape, Architecture and Cinema Ed Keller Cinema has compressed into just over one century all the representational and philosophical themes that our built environment has been driven by for over a thousand years. This evolution of film has been informed, in many ways, by the history of landscape theory: Moving from the primarily visual, to the compositional and symbolic, to the compositional and material, to the active landscape, and the discovery of network systems on macro and microscopic levels. This course Section 2 • 38
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tracks this catalog of time landscapes through several dozen films. A wide range of film genres and periods give cinematic illustrations of each concept of landscape, and are joined with selected examples from landscape, urbanism, and architecture. CS2307 | Parallel Worlds: The Imaginary Twentieth Century and Other Architectural Myths Norman Klein In 1876, both the light bulb and the telephone—new inventions of immense importance to architecture—were given spectacular architectural premieres. Afterwards, hundreds of illustrations, utopian and sci-fi novels and films caricatured what the new industrial century might look like. None of these guesses were accurate; but almost all remain eerily familiar today, like bizarre facelifts that resemble someone you knew. Students are invited to design 3D versions of parallel worlds—on the computer, and as maquettes. These will become part of a large database novel in DVD-ROM, to be exhibited from 2006 onward. Visits from various guest artists and scholars are included in the course, to sharpen what is possible. CS2308 | Non-Creative Writing Bruna Mori In this course, focused on the craft of writing, students are encouraged to be as experimental and disciplined with text as they are with their architecture in this workshop-style class. Featured guests include fiction writer Aimee Bender (author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and An Invisible Sign of My Own) and poet David Hernandez (author of Man Climbs Out of Manhole and A House Waiting for Music). Techniques for writing poetry, prose poems, short stories, fiction, and hybrid forms are reviewed. Weekly presentations of student writing and assigned literature are supplemented with live readings, videos, recordings, and attendance at a spoken word event.
Recent special project Cultural Studies electives Please note that these courses are not offered every semester and are subject to change. Check the latest course schedule for current course offerings, and visit SCI-Portal for each semester’s course descriptions. CS2311 | Hydrotectonics: An Ethical Survey of Urbanism and Water Juan Azulay and Ed Keller The control of any vast, networked system requires both a conceptual power to think and see the extents to which it is interconnected over time with other systems—some visible and some hidden—and also a conceptual and technical rigor to understand the practical techne of “systems control” and engineering. This seminar merges those two modes of thinking to develop a contemporary model of geopolitical ethics based on examples and theories of urban water systems control chosen throughout history.
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CS2312 | Triple A: Angelino Art Ascendant Howard Fox This lecture/seminar course traces the emergence and ascendance of Southern California as an international focal point for the creation of contemporary art from the 1960s to the present. It investigates a mix of historical directions, major figures, significant followers, and some outsiders through a continuum of art that ranges from the light-and-space movement to assemblage, to SoCal’s unique contribution to the development of conceptual, video, performance, and new media art. Sessions also focus on such politically radical movements as chicano, black, feminist, and gay art. CS2313 | Cross-Cutting: Fashion in Architecture Brooke Hodge This seminar explores the common threads and underpinnings of fashion and architecture. It asks ask how they affect each field, and how fashion has influenced architecture and vice-versa. In addition to in-depth study of the work of individual fashion designers, it looks at stylistic tendencies shared by the worlds of fashion and architecture, including deconstruction, minimalism, and post-modernism. For their final project, students are asked to design a garment based on a work of architecture that engages space as well as the body. CS2314 | The History of Cities: From Origins to the Ephemeral City Joel Kotkin The purpose of the class is to understand the evolution of cities from the earliest periods to the contemporary scene. The first half of the class deals largely in conceptual and historical issues. The second half of the class deals with contemporary urban issues, such as urban poverty, the role of suburbia, downtowns and “urban villages.” CS2315 | Deleuze and New Scientific Thinking Neil Leach This course draws upon the work of Gilles Deleuze, a philosopher who was himself deeply influenced by scientific theories, and whose philosophy has been described as a “bio-philosophy”. It also draws upon a range of new scientific thinking which engages with topics like emergence, chaos theory and complexity. The aim is to draw connections between Deleuze’s philosophical thought, new scientific thinking, and recent developments within the digital realm, especially the use of cellular automata, genetic algorithms and other generative tools. In so doing, the course investigates an influential new strand of thinking that is having an increasing influence on architectural production.
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CS2316 | Urban Design in the Middle East: Space and the Politics of Development Ali Modarres This seminar provides an overview of urban development in the Middle East. Focusing mostly on the last two centuries, the class examines the political economy of urban design and the socio-spatial restructuring of cities in this region. Through case studies that portray the confluence of political, economic, and cultural structures with design, students analyze how urban morphology and urban aesthetics were affected by the forces of colonialism, nationalism, and modernism. CS2317 | Digital Architecture: Fabricating Ideology Joseph Rosa This seminar traces the trajectory of digital pedagogy and practice of architecture, from early, rarely realized, 20th century precursors of non-Cartesian aesthetics, to its formation and evolution from deconstructivist ideology. By examining the evolution of digital architecture from its inception in the early 1990s to the present, the course shows how these new frontiers are widening as practices fuse with other media to carry forward varying aesthetic explorations, embodying diverse ideologies and generating new typologies that are changing the way architecture is fabricated, aestheticized and perceived in the 21st century. CS2318 | Incarnate Urbanism—A Symposium Paulette Singley The ability of food production and consumption to generate urban communities remains central—and yet surprisingly peripheral within the mainstream discussion—to any understanding of urban design. From urban gardening and the need to make our cities more sustainable, to public markets or grocery stores, and on to the places where we eat, the culinary axis of urbanism is a dominant dimension of public space and performance. Topics include a brief history of public space and public dining, the grotesque and carnivalesque in urban design, an inquiry into the aesthetics of eating, the city as a table, dining as performance, slow and fast spaces, still life painting as food formalism, the status of figuration and “body-blobs,” and the idea of the urban recipe or menu. CS2319 | Whatever Happened to LA? Peter Zellner This seminar examines the genesis of Los Angeles as a physical and ideological site for experimentation between 1970 and 1990. It focuses on the post-Case Study period, in which Los Angeles was “re-discovered” as a contemporary city and became defined by the emergence, from its unique set of urban circumstances, of the “LA School” of architects, including Gehry, Morphosis, Eric Owen Moss and Studio Works.
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CS2320 Science Fiction Writing for Architects Claire Phillips This creative writing class familiarizes students with the art of making the strange familiar or the familiar strange. Students are introduced to genre works, ranging from pre-cyberpunk sci-fi to the present practice of “slipstream”. Both experimental and traditional story-telling techniques are reviewed with a special emphasis placed on prose style and hybrid narrative forms. Projects include the short story, the proposal and the film treatment, and are peer reviewed in a workshop format. Materials for study range from the renowned works of James Tiptree, Jr., Philip K. Dick and J.G. Ballard to the current works of Haruki Murakami and Kelly Link. Readings are supplemented with film clips and a brief introduction to popular virtual reality games. CS2321 | Huts and Halls: Contrasting Currents in Japanese Traditional Architecture and Gardens Greg Walsh The course explores the often diverse and contrasting cultural currents evident in Japanese traditional architecture: Cities, buildings, gardens from earliest eras up to the 20th Century will be looked at, studied and discussed. The final class session is an overview of how these traditions were transformed into the architecture of the present-day Japan. Students also read architectural writings reflecting both Western and Japanese points of view. In addition to architecture, painting, sculpture, and crafts are examined, along with readings from the literature and drama created by the Japanese people throughout history. CS2322 | Special Effects in the City, and Other Myths Norman Klein, with Tom Marble This seminar is on the scripted “illusionistic” space as an urban process, from as early as 1580 to the present; and on social imaginaries about cities— with a particular focus on Los Angeles (boosterism, urban misplanning, cinema, erasure/forgetting, anti-tours, simulation, autopias, etc.). Students are also invited to join in an exhibition at the Southwest Museum, to “imagine” what the future of that site can be, and the neighborhoods around it. Scripted spaces are examined where illusionistic staging—or scripted spaces—dominate, from Baroque churches to casinos in Vegas, and hundreds of examples in between, including theatrical “machines” for special effects, the cinematic construction of the city, consumerist spectacle and the city, myths of circulation, of the panoramic, of the labyrinth. This also takes us into digital design, particularly Klein’s database novel, Bleeding Through, and his new project on The Imaginary Twentieth Century.
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CS2323 | Post-Empire Urbanisms: Parallel Realities, Trans-national Archipelagos, New Urban Ambiences Ed Keller “Sometimes reality is too complex for oral communication...But legend embodies it in a form which enables it to spread all over the world...” This voiceover from Godard’s film Alphaville, spoken as the camera pans across nondescript postwar middle class high rise residential towers, identifies two kinds of global systems. The first is the wildly proliferating Hollywood mythmachine, which is able to colonize most of the world as America’s most visible export, and which Godard satirizes directly in his film, by creating Lemmy Caution (E. Constantine) as a doppelganger of Bogart; and second, the global space which began to coalesce as the world recovered from World War Two, when urban centers were rebuilt and global networks of capital and materials intensified. The first problems of infrastructure, information science, highways, social housing on a mass scale, and systemic architectures in general emerged in macro-urban assemblies as the embodiment of such systems. The political theorist Fredric Jameson argues that in contemporary post-capital/post-national society, the task of creating “cognitive maps” of urban space and cultural landscapes has become substantially more complex. Likewise, a new paradigm in both theory and narrative provides us with glimpses of parallel realities which function as futures that we can anticipate with a mixture of dread and delight. The world that John Brunner depicts in his novel Shockwave Rider (1973) is almost impossible to distinguish from the one we live in today. The global spaces of contestation for resources, identity, infrastructure, military control, or desire that we see in films like Demonlover (Assayas, 2003), Syriana (Gaghan, 2005), or Code 46 (Winterbottom, 2003) are not science fiction speculations, but verifications of the wildly reterritorialized reality we inhabit today. Urban morphologies are now on fast forward, as they adjust ever more rapidly to global systems that provide individuals, collectives, institutions with constantly shifting ways to interact. Architecture operates as a key link in this dynamic relation, in its capability to slow down such time, unlike many other disciplines tied into the practice of generating urban morphology. This seminar studies these emerging “Post-Empire” landscapes of control, systemic tendencies, and new freedoms.
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Courses and Degree Requirements
APPLIED STUDIES Architecture is about the way we make worlds, worlds populated with subjects and objects, the definitions of which are always mediated by their cultural significance. Embedded in that act of “making” as the transposition and materialization of abstract ideas into spatial form, is the conception of technology as the necessary means by which that complex process takes place. The continuous definition and challenge of the multiple ways we make the world and its physical environment constitute the fundamental motivation of the Applied Studies program at SCI-Arc. The program offers a range of courses that critically engage technology and its spatial and social consequences. Foundation courses are offered in Physics and other sciences, building systems, structural analysis, tectonics, material development, acoustics, lighting and environmental control. Advanced courses explore the design consequences of the continued material and technical development of architectural proposals in the physical world. Elective courses offer the unique opportunity to further research and experiment with highly specific technologies that constantly redefine the conventions of architecture as a discipline and as a practice. Recent courses explore topics as diverse as parametric design, structural optimization, advanced geometry, composite tectonics, material research and development, complex assemblies, as well as ecology, biomimicry and solar performance. Core Applied Studies seminars Undergraduate AS3010 | Introduction to the Physical World: Materials, Behaviors, Forces This course introduces students to the physical properties governing works of architecture and their material making. Drawing upon Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Philosophy, the class examines concepts relating to energy and forces. These include gravity and thermal forces, material qualities such as brittleness and flexibility, reactions between forces and materials such as tension and compression. The role of applied material experimentation as a practice is introduced, along with the investigation of the properties and performance of materials through the development of a series of physical models and a final term paper.
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AS3020 | Introduction to Environment and Climate Context and environment are the two fundamental terms examined in this course. Beginning with an understanding of what constitutes the experience of place, the class develops a series of arguments with which to evaluate environments, the relationship between man and nature, and the architectural notion of what constitutes comfort. The course investigates to what extent the understanding of the environment is culturally and biologically determined. Students conduct their own research into a chosen area of climatology and develop schematic buildings proposals for various climactic conditions while making design decisions that conserve natural and built resources.
Courses and Degree Requirements
AS3021 | Structures 1: Forces and Vectors Beginning with a broad understanding of the ways in which materials work at the molecular level, this course introduces students to principles governing structure such as force and unit stress, equilibrium and span, stiffness, and the reasons materials change shape when subjected to loads. Through a number of assignments, which include exercises in shear and bending moment diagrams and the calculation of equilibrium and internal forces in trusses, students are provided with a practical basis for understanding structures and their behavior. AS3030 | Structures 2: Long Span and Lateral Systems This course offers an insight into methods of lateral load resistance within structures. The class examines concepts and definitions of lateral loads and the structural systems used to resist those loads, as well as it considers the influence of various load resisting systems on architectural design projects. By focusing on loads caused by wind and seismic forces within long span buildings, the class introduces students to building code requirements pertaining to loads, lateral loadresisting systems and moment-resisting reinforced concrete structural systems. AS3031 | Tempering the Environment: Light, Air and Sound This course introduces students to the basic physical principles, design implications and performance of environmental systems by focusing on the behavior of lighting, acoustical and climate modification systems within the built environment. The course relies upon the assumption that a careful integration of these elements within an architectural project, especially in the impact these elements have on building envelopes, can contribute significantly to improving the quality of our environment. Life-safety systems are also discussed, with a special emphasis on movement systems and egress. The class is divided into three independent modules, each of which addresses a single environmental system and is taught by a professional engineer specializing in the field. AS3032 | Smart and Sustainable Systems This class examines principles of sustainability by providing students with criteria for making decisions in architecture and urban design based on the preservation of natural and built resources—including important building and sites—and the creation of healthful communities. The course introduces a range of models and philosophies pertaining to a “sustainable” approach to architecture. Each session takes one notion of sustainability and explores it through a series of presentations, readings and assignments. Case studies are used to examine the practical application of abstract ideals, and of more technical aspects such as water and sewage management, thermal transfer strategies in buildings, and embodied energy in materials and construction processes.
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Courses and Degree Requirements
AS3033 | Tectonics: Construction, Assembly and Detail This course explores the considerations and concepts that govern architecture within a tectonic tradition of craft, construction, detail and assembly. The class examines the use of techniques and technologies and discusses them through contemporary precedents as well as by means of current designs and studio projects. By focusing on different construction principles, materials and their particular use, different methods of fabrication, assembly and detail, and the integration of mechanical and electric systems within the building envelope, the class focuses on their design impact in the overall conception and experience of a building. Exercises are carried out in model form both physically and digitally and simultaneously documented in CAD. AS3040 | Design Documentation: Analysis and Development This course investigates issues related to the implementation of design: technology, the use of materials, systems integration, and the archetypal analytical strategies of force, order and character. The course includes a review of basic construction methods, analysis of building codes, the design of structural and mechanical systems, the development of building materials and the integration of building components and systems. Students are given the Emerging Professional’s Companion and updated IDP materials. Students are asked to select their studio project from the previous semester to develop, focusing on a detailed design of a single component of the building and the resolution of its structural system and building envelope as a whole. Meets NAAB Conditions: 1.3 Architectural Education and Registration; 3.13.14 Accessibility
AS3041 | Design Documentation: Construction Documents, Comprehensive Design, Part 2 The goal of this course is to provide students with a comprehensive knowledge of the perfectible craft of construction documentation, a standardized language developed to clearly communicate complex designs to a third party and the architect’s legal responsibilities, including the AIA Code of Ethics and Regulations Statutes. Students refine their skills through the production of a full construction documentation package, drawn in 2D and 3D CAD, for a small to mediumscale single story residence. In doing so, they also develop an understanding of what types of technically precise documents and outlined specifications need to be produced and in what sequence, and of the languages of other disciplines, such as mechanical, electrical, and acoustical engineering. Attention is place on student’s understanding of registration law, building codes and regulations, professional service contracts, zoning and sub-division ordnances, environmental regulations and other licensure concerns. This class also introduces students to the basics of cost analysis and construction management. Meets NAAB Conditions: 3.13.20 Life Safety; 3.13.25 Construction Cost Control; 3.13.28 Comprehensive Design; 3.13.32 Professional Development; 3.13.33 Legal Responsibility Section 2 • 46
Courses and Degree Requirements
AS3050 | Practice Environments: Contracts, Liability, Business Models This course examines critically the role of professional architectural practices in the development and direction of architectural design, production and pedagogy. As its basis, the course comprises a survey of the architectural profession— its licensing and legal requirements, its adherence to the constraints of codes and budgets, and its place among competing professions and financial interests. Attention is place on student’s understanding of registration law, building codes and regulations, professional service contracts, zoning and sub-division ordnances, environmental regulations and other licensure concerns. Students gain an understanding of the architect’s administrative role, and of issues relating to obtaining commissions, selecting and coordinating consultants, negotiating contracts, project management and issues of egress, code compliance and principles of life safety. They also develop the skills necessary to effectively communicate to clients and user groups. Trends such as globalization and outsourcing are analyzed in their capacity to substantially affect the practice of an architect. Students also receive the Emerging Professionals Companion along with updated IDP information. Meets NAAB Conditions: 1.3 Architectural Education and Registration; 3.13.20 Life Safety; 3.13.25 Construction Cost Control; 3.13.28 Comprehensive Design; 3.13.32 Professional Development; 3.13.33 Legal Responsibility
M.Arch 1 AS3100 | Material Properties, Industrial Processes and Structural Principles This class introduces students to fundamental structural principles with a strong emphasis on materials, material properties and industrial processes. This course is an investigation into the anatomy of material and its potential use in architecture. The goal of the class is to provide students with a thorough understanding of materials, and of the design methods, techniques, and industrial processes by which they acquire meaning in an architectural and building context. By means of direct testing and experimentation, the class explores technical and rational manipulations of traditional as well as novel materials, aiming to develop an expansive understanding of their physical nature, environmental impact and possible reuse. AS3101 | Structures 1: Forces and Vectors Beginning with a broad understanding of the ways in which materials work at the molecular level, this course introduces students to principles governing structure such as force and unit stress, equilibrium and span, stiffness, and the reasons materials change shape when subjected to loads. Through a number of assignments which include exercises in shear and bending moment diagrams and the calculation of equilibrium and internal forces in trusses, students are provided with a practical basis for understanding structures and their behavior
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Courses and Degree Requirements
AS3120 | Structures 2: Techniques and Implementation: Connections and Systems Based on a series of lectures, this course aims to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of structural engineering and of the architect’s role in the creative application of engineering principles. During the first part of the term, the class examines concepts and definitions of lateral loads and the structural systems used to resist those loads, and also considers the influence of various load resisting systems on architectural design projects. By focusing on loads caused by wind and seismic forces within long span buildings, the class introduces students to building code requirements pertaining to loads, lateral load-resisting systems and moment-resisting reinforced concrete structural systems. AS3121 | Tempering the Environment: Light, Air and Sound This course introduces students with the basic physical principles, design implications and performance of environmental systems by focusing on the behavior of lighting, acoustical and climate modification systems within the built environment. The course relies upon the assumption that a careful integration of these elements within an architectural project, especially in the impact these elements have on building envelopes, can contribute significantly to improving the quality of our environment. Life-safety systems are also discussed, with a special emphasis on movement systems and egress. The class is divided into three independent modules, each of which addresses a single environmental system and is taught by a professional engineer specializing in the field. AS3122/3222 | Design Documentation: Analysis and Development This course focuses on construction systems, building technology, the use of materials and system integration. The course includes a review of basic construction methods, analysis of building codes including occupancy and life-safety issues, the design of structural and mechanical systems and familiarizes students with basic principles of sustainable design. Studio projects from the previous semester are developed, focusing on the detailed design of a zone of the building in terms of the resolution of its structural system and building envelope using three-dimensional modeling as well as drafting. Drawings at various scales are produced to introduce students to the language and standards of details, wall sections and overall building representations, culminating in a comprehensive package of drawings. The course also introduces student to the basics of cost control including life-cylce costs. Students receive the Emerging Professionals Companion along with updated IDP information. Meets NAAB Conditions: 1.3 Architectural Education and Registration; 3.13.28 Comprehensive Design
AS3123 | Advanced Building Systems: Sustainability and Complex Envelopes This course focuses on advanced building systems and technologies. With a special emphasis on high rise construction, students investigate issues pertaining to Section 2 • 48
Courses and Degree Requirements
vertical movement systems, advanced structures and their relation to surface and building envelopes. The course also covers other building services such as plumbing, electrical, security and fire protection systems and their effects on architectural design. Through a series of lectures, group presentations and individual assignments, current typologies and specific architectural precedents are researched and discussed, with a special focus on glass, curtain wall systems, sustainable, energy efficient systems, and technologies of construction and assembly. AS3130/3230 | Practice Environments: Contracts, Liability, Business Models This course examines critically the role of professional architectural practices in the development and direction of architectural design, production and pedagogy. As its basis, the course comprises a survey of the architectural profession— its licensing and legal requirements, its adherence to the constraints of codes and budgets, and its place among competing professions and financial interests. Attention is place on student’s understanding of registration law, building codes and regulations, professional service contracts, zoning and sub-division ordnances, environmental regulations and other licensure concerns. Students gain an understanding of the architect’s administrative role, and of issues relating to obtaining commissions, selecting and coordinating consultants, negotiating contracts, project management and issues of egress, code compliance and principles of life safety. They also develop the skills necessary to effectively communicate to clients and user groups. Trends such as globalization and outsourcing are analyzed in their capacity to substantially affect the practice of an architect. Students also receive the Emerging Professionals Companion along with updated IDP information. Meets NAAB Conditions: 1.3 Architectural Education and Registration; 3.13.20 Life Safety; 3.13.25 Construction Cost Control; 3.13.32 Professional Development; 3.13.33 Legal Responsibility
M.Arch 2 See M.Arch 1 section for other core seminar descriptions.
AS3200 | Reflexive Formal Assemblies: Material to System This course looks at the new ability of architects to design, develop and produce structural assemblies for highly specific performances and applications. The course explores new materials, as well as the integral manner in which building systems and structures are produced—from design idea to fabrication and erection—to precisely fit designers’ specifications and to provide optimized performance. AS3201 | Optimization, Performance and Implementation: System to Building This course introduces students to innovative methods of construction, fabrication, structuring and assembly enabled by the advent of new technologies. The class focuses on issues pertaining to structure and its relation to surface and Section 2 • 49
Courses and Degree Requirements
building envelope, with an emphasis on the instrumental and conceptual shift from two-dimensional forms of representation and documentation, to three-dimensional systems based on material performance and force flow simulation and their consequent impact on architecture’s relation to the building industry. Current typologies and specific precedents of architectural realization—and their integration of geometry and ordering systems with systems of construction and assembly—are discussed through a series of lectures, group presentations and individual assignments. Recurring Applied Studies electives Please note that these courses are not offered every semester and are subject to change. Check the latest course schedule for current course offerings, and visit SCI-Portal for each semester’s course descriptions. AS3301 | Ecological Elements of Site Analysis and Design Rosie Dagit Architecture and the physical environment into which it is placed are often seen as two separate, not necessarily connected, aspects of a project. Integrating a design into the existing landscape has been embraced by a few practitioners, but the more common process is to design first and then modify the site to accommodate the proposed design. The conflicts this generates are becoming increasingly intense, pitting “Nature” against the “built” environment. This class explores the resulting tension between the environmental community and the architectural community. The class meets at numerous locations throughout Los Angeles, visiting sites ranging from single family homes to large sub-divisions, commercial, and recreational/educational facilities. The focus is on analysis of the ecological constraints of each site, ways to incorporate or enhance environmental assets, and evaluation of proposed or actual developments for compliance with environmental regulations. AS3302 | Advanced Structures: Shells, Membranes and Structural Surfaces Bruce Danziger The course examines how architectural concepts can be enhanced with appropriate structural systems. The class content includes structures in nature, the modern history of structural engineering and engineers, structural models, and demonstrations of analysis techniques. Lectures are based on structural engineering as a form generator. Established structural systems such as membranes, shells, tension structures, space frames, folded plates, grid shells, pneumatics, cable nets, etc. and new approaches are discussed in depth through evaluations of built projects, current designs, studio projects and class assignments. AS3303 | Composite Tectonics: Modulating Monocoques Marcelo Spina Rooted in the technical and theoretical need to continue a rather holistic and inSection 2 • 50
Courses and Degree Requirements
tegral approach to form, structure, construction and assembly, this class examines complex structural surfaces known as “monocoques” or unibodies and their possible application. Whilst an infrequent approach to construction and design since its inception, these structures imply a uniquely integrated process of fabrication, production and assembly capable of streamlining construction processes while at the same time allowing for an advanced degree of technological, formal and material innovation. Under this framework, the class investigates the potentiality of shells and modulated surfaces in the production of small size proto architectures that inventively challenge the overly assumed notions of hierarchy and separation between structure and skin. AS3304 | Biomimicry: Innovation in Architecture Inspired by Nature Ilaria Mazzoleni This seminar takes inspiration from the animal world and, through the analysis and understanding of specific examples such as spider webs, termites, polar bears, bees, birds, etc., translates the learned principles to the built environment. The class positions the question of how the environment interferes with the behavior and physiological evolution of animals and human constructions by learning lessons from the analysis and observation of the animal world. Today, we design and engineer dynamic systems to mediate the interaction between man and nature. This course illustrates how, by learning from nature, we can greatly enhance our design abilities and interference with the environment in a more sophisticated and less invasive way, creating a more sustainable form of living. AS3305 | The Parametric Affect: Design Research through Variational and Associative Geometry David Gerber Intended to position itself as a critical ground for exploring the value and potential of parametric design in architectural practice, this class offers design exploration experience in how to structure, visualize, and prototype variation, associations, and change propagation. Given the prevalence of the topic in current architectural discourse this class looks to situate the existing value and to critically expand upon its current potential. Utilizing software technologies such as CATIA, Generative Components, or MAYA, the emphasis of the class is to develop a design project through the use of parametric logic(s), variational technique(s), and digital prototyping. Ultimately the seminar looks to bring an understanding of the value, limitations, possibilities and expansions of parametric design to the conceptual thinking, formal and material production. Recent special project Applied Studies electives Please note that these courses are not offered every semester and are subject to change. Check the latest course schedule for current course offerings, and visit SCI-Portal for each semester’s course descriptions.
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Courses and Degree Requirements
AS3306 | Warped Surfaces:Bridging Geometry, Performance and Fabrication Tom Wiscombe The intention of this seminar is to introduce ways of linking issues of geometry, performance and fabrication into larger design processes. With the intention of defining a complex structure through the use of patterns of simple surface patches defined by their mathematical economy and adaptive potential, the geometrical point of departure of the class is that of warped surfaces. The logic afforded by these surfaces offers both high tech and low tech solutions for production and fabrication, which are an ongoing theme in the class. Issues of materiality, structural patterning, unitization, thickness, and span are used to increase the overall coherence and intelligence of the proposals. Structural performance is used in articulating curvature, volume, material and depth. AS3307 | Solar Tech: Design and Technologies for Solar Performance Jose da Veiga Solar Tech is aimed at exploring the relationship between solar performance and the design of building envelopes. Students accomplish several small design and form-making exercises through the use of software analysis tools, which allow them to explore the relationships between form and solar energy. With the goal of creating conceptual designs with optimal solar performance, students explore form-making and solar analysis methodologies along with basic concepts of building envelope performance and energy efficiency. The class begins with an overview of existing projects, key concepts relating to performance based design, concepts relating to the representation of technical information in design, and an overview of existing and future solar building technologies. For their final projects, students design and present their own conceptual designs of solar performance based building envelopes. AS3308 | In/discrete Materials Roland Wahlroos-Ritter In/discrete Materials seeks to establish an understanding of the often complex relationship between materials, architectural concepts, production and design processes. The seminar is structured in three parts. Following discussions of materials and architectural practice, students research new materials in design. Students then design and build, in groups of three, full-scale installations which incorporate selected materials. Workshops include material detailing and construction, and material and fabrication techniques based on an investigation into boat-building, automotive design, aeronautical and other industries. AS3309 | Form Finding and Optimization in Lightweight Structures Patrick Teuffel The application of lightweight systems is necessary for mobile, deployable and long spans structures. However, its propagation is also desirable for other buildSection 2 • 52
Courses and Degree Requirements
ing projects in order to achieve economical or ecological performance using minimum weight and energy solutions. By using high performance materials or employing various experimental and numerical structural optimization techniques, this course investigates the principles of lightweight structures and seeks to expand students’ insight into the complex relationship between structural form and force. AS3310 | Green Urbanism: Nature’s Services and Urban Design Ted Bardacke and Walker Wells Modern cities stand at the critical nexus of the many of the most pressing issues of our time: rapid population growth, unbalanced resource consumption, growing air and water pollution, climate change, and the relentless destruction of natural habitats. The premise of this course is that creating sustainable urban systems is the 21st century’s most crucial design challenge. In responding to this challenge, it is critical to reassess traditional notions about the interrelationship between the built and natural environments. Green Urbanism, in contrast to conventional regional planning approaches, works to identify a number of small-scale interventions that can be applied to urbanized locations, which, in aggregate, lead to an overall shift towards sustainable neighborhoods, districts, and regions. AS3311 | Stereolabs: Towards an exploratory approach for architecture and sound Juan Azulay This course studies, formulates and tests principles and models driven by the relationship between sound and matter through building systems and methods of material aggregation. The course covers the physics of sound and precedents in acoustic design and engineering. Students develops models to test and simulate applications of studied principles on speculative building systems and technologies, survey materials and applications for mutual sonic performativity, and fabricate and test digital and physical mockups and performance-based systems. The sound sourcing and sampling range from urban noise to programmaticallydriven sound, to music, to algorithmically generated sound waves. Invited lecturers include Robin Glosemeyer (Jaffe Holden LA , Hollywood Bowl, etc.), Perry Hall (live paintings), Paul Bacca (film set sound engineer). The semester ends with a sampling/performance of the work in a public venue in the Los Angeles area and SCI-Arc.
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Courses and Degree Requirements
visual studies The practice of architecture relies on systems of communication to conceive, develop, and subsequently represent and communicate architectural ideas, where the breadth of the work is reflected in the implied proficiencies of technical skills and visual culture. The Visual Studies program takes a central role in the education of communications techniques and required skills sets offered across the SCI-Arc course curriculum. It includes drawing tools ranging from generative diagramming to representation, project communication and project production documents. Students become familiar with established and emergent technologies and fabrication processes. The program sets the foundation for understanding the implications of working within the framework of communication systems. It fosters excellence, precision and critical engagement, and encourages highly creative work in which working methods, tools and their interfaces are interlaced. The Visual Studies curriculum responds to the constantly evolving paradigms of architectural communication, introducing new tools within a progressively structured program. New media instruments—ranging from advanced digital modeling and animation to the equipment for computer-controlled fabrication processes— complement established methods of drawing, such as planimetric and sectional representations, constructed perspective and freehand drawing and sketching. Core Visual Studies seminars Undergraduate VS4010 | Fabrications and Delineations 1 Introduction to Fabrication and Drawing Techniques: Perception / Translation The first course in the Visual Studies series introduces students to the principle skills and disciplines of making and drawing. Through various assignments, employing a range of conventional media—including scale drawing, plan/section, model and object work and photography—students develop skills for detailed observation and to-scale translation of visual and spatial ideas. The fabrication of physical prototypes is emphasized to instill an ethic of hands-on making and to initiate the instincts for 2D and 3D representation of physical form and structure. VS4011 | Fabrications and Delineations 2 Introduction to Fabrication and Drawing Techniques: Projection / Description The second stage of Fabrications and Delineations emphasizes the conventions of architectural projection for the description of form and space. The exercises build on the understanding of the logic inherent to deployed techniques, physical Section 2 • 54
Courses and Degree Requirements
modeling and manually constructed geometry. This includes the fundamentals of Euclidean and non-Euclidian geometric principles, the construction of plan / section / elevation, axonometric and perspective drawing. VS4020 | Technologies of Description 1 Analog and Digital Practices This course introduces the principles of digital drawing tools essential to 2D architectural representation. Working with primary digital representation tools, students learn both the application of projective techniques for architectural subjects and the conventions of operation and interface. Of central importance is instilling in students a critical sensitivity for the inherent bias and nature of each deployed medium. VS4021 | Technologies of Description 2 Analog and Digital Practices This course examines and extends the analytical techniques and strategies for the study of architecture evolving from programmatic and structural systems to external factors affecting site or building. Work is centered on advanced digital 3D drawing and modeling techniques for the construction and evaluation of spatial conditions. Students develop techniques for manipulating 3D data that include rapid modeling, texture mapping, lighting and rendering, and analog drawing. VS4030 | Technologies of Description 3 Analog and Digital Practices The last course in the Technologies of Description sequence is an introduction to advanced techniques in digital modeling and processes of fabrication. The work focuses on digital tools that enable the development of complex surfaces, procedural and parametric forms, and basic animation. Projects include work and production of digital models and material output using computer numerical control (CNC) devices as integral tools for the development of architectural conceptions. M.Arch 1 VS4100 | Strategies of Representation 1 Analysis, Translation and Communication The course examines the theories and practices of representation and analysis of architectural ideas. It is structured to introduce the primary and auxiliary tools necessary to analyze and translate spatial concepts into two-dimensional representations. Students generate descriptive work using planar, plan/section and axonometric projections as well as freehand and digital drawing tools and develop an understanding of the specific characteristics and application potentials.
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Courses and Degree Requirements
VS4101 | Strategies of Representation 2 Diagramming and Spatial Constructions The course forms the continuation of Strategies of Representation 1 by expanding on the conceptions of representational tools, emphasizing diagramming and spatial representations, and incorporating site analysis, topography and threedimensional realizations. The program focuses on developing the precision of intentions in the production of architectural drawings and instilling a critical sensitivity for the inherent bias and interface of each deployed medium of representation. VS4120 | Strategies of Representation 3 Advanced Digital Tools, Modeling and Fabrications This course provides an introduction to advanced techniques in modeling and fabrication processes by focusing on digital drawing and production tools that enable the development of complex and dynamic surfaces, procedural and parametric forms, and the development of the relationship between architecture and geometry. Projects include prints of digital models using CNC and laser cutter devices. VS4121 | Strategies of Representation 4 Advanced Digital Tools, Modeling and Fabrications (optional) The course forms the continuation of Strategies of Representation 3 furthering the knowledge of digital modeling and fabrication techniques by incorporating animation as a dynamic mechanism that extends the spectrum of representational tools. Students are encouraged to explore the sequencing of tools and interrelations between idea and fabrication and space/time related architectural processes. M.Arch 2 VS4200 | Delineation and Dynamic Systems This course explores new software technologies that allow variables of time, reproduction, variation and repetition. The intention is to question the relationship of architecture to geometry and the idea of representation as a static organization of concepts. Students are encouraged to search for the possibilities offered by tools of representation and simulation as active mechanisms for the production of design, thought and products. Geometry is considered no longer as a static Cartesian system, but as encompassing an array of articulated geometrical variations, affected by new instrumental abilities. Recurring Visual Studies electives Please note that these courses are not offered every semester and are subject to change. Check the latest course schedule for current course offerings, and visit SCI-Portal for each semester’s course descriptions. Section 2 • 56
Courses and Degree Requirements
VS4301 | Photography Lane Barden This class combines fundamental skills in black and white photography with an inquiry into photographic “seeing” and photographic space. Students learn to shoot using natural light and camera controls. Addressed are digital processes and work with Photoshop, density, contrast and image manipulation. Projects typically include framing and the construction of photographic space; sequencing and serial editing; the interpretation of motion in still photography; and projects which address cinematic constructs and framing. Classes consist of lectures on technique, slides of contemporary and historical photographic work, and occasional field trips. Students realize and resolve the skills and concepts covered in this class through the production and installation of an exhibition at the end of the semester. VS4302 | Intelligent Systems tba This course introduces modes of computation as a design tool. The first part covers a general introduction of the theory and implementation of the tool set using Maya’s MEL (Maya Embedded Language). Topics include visual mathematics theory, functions to produce form, linear and non linear time-based systems, and methods of producing mutation and representational techniques. The second part addresses specific research into structure, skin, and form. Students are asked to explore the potential of scripting, where the Maya software becomes a platform to either launch robotics or to open up to “speak” to other programs or proceed in base programming language outside the interface. Lastly, non-linear generative systems are introduced, including emergent flocking conditions, cellular automata, eugenic and evolutionary logics. VS4303 | Architecture Drawing Advanced Architectural Drawings with AutoCAD This course is an in-depth, hands-on exploration of the fundamentals of AutoCAD from the beginner to intermediate level. Through in-lab sessions, combined with assignments, student are exposed to the concepts and strategies of AutoCAD, including basic to advanced drawing and editing commands and an introduction to 3D. VS4304 | Graphic Space April Greiman This workshop is about finding the appropriate visual hierarchy of words and images to match the content of a publication or presentation. From the onset, students are required to generate a mission or intent statement for their publication/presentation. From this initial overview concept presentation, the course format is in a general critique format. The focus is on the “making” of a future — or revising of an existing — presentation, portfolio, or thesis publication and/or preSection 2 • 57
Courses and Degree Requirements
sentation boards. The course also includes lectures on typography and letterform development, as well as the construction of a grid system. VS4305 | Interactive Communication Florencia Pita By means of computation, design has expanded its expertise to a larger frame of work, intensifying the disciplinary boundaries into more continuous transferences from design processes to fabrication. New techniques have succeed in expanding the possibilities for innovation in design, innovation that is at the same time a return to an organic base, with a direction towards continuity instead of fragmentation as the influential mechanism. From surface to body to detail, organic matter has territorialized a new vocabulary of mutating form; transformative and active form is more and never less. Through the combination of two active media such as Maya and Flash, students develop dynamic processes of design, where not only the basis of animated tools produce new forms, but those forms also evolve as active narratives with the use of web-based interfaces. VS4306 | Japanese Aesthetics and Sumi Ink Painting Yoshio Ikezaki The purpose of this course is to introduce and elaborate on three important elements and traditional Japanese aesthetics, using Japanese art and literature as examples. Those three key words are Wabi-Sabi, Ma, and Kan. Wabi-Sabi describes a spiritually richer way of life, which was considered to be achievable through the self-imposed isolation and the voluntary poverty of the hermit’s life which were previously viewed as negative. Ma is linguistically translated as the distance between two objects, two spaces or a break in modern meaning. Ma determines the balance and unification of the composition for Sumi ink painting, tea ceremony, flower arrangement, Haiku poetry and many other Japanese art forms. Kan can be loosely translated as “sixth sense,” or intuition, that Japanese artists and craftsmen trust and upon which they rely for their inspiration. VS4307 | Synthetic Drawing Sean Sullivan The objective of this course is to develop perceptual skills as a basis for acquiring information to facilitate accuracy in drawing; to reckon with the precision of line and shape as it relates to the representational and imagined form; to methodically layer the visual vocabulary of the student and, in the process, create options in terms of what is recorded; to deal with those options constructively and creatively; to explore the possibilities of mark making and its relevance to the student’s studio practice as a designer; and to couple technical skill with research and sound conceptual thinking.
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Recent special project Visual Studies electives Please note that these courses are not offered every semester and are subject to change. Check the latest course schedule for current course offerings, and visit SCI-Portal for each semester’s course descriptions. VS4308 | Synthetic Scapes Alexis Rochas This design build course studies the generation and production of synthetic objects as active economies resetting the formal, physical and ecological attributes of the domestic environment. Defining a self-sufficient micro-ecology, and setting future parameters for object use, transformation and interaction, the course addresses the design and implementation of a prototypical object that challenges established furniture design. VS4309 | Wearable Architecture Elena Manferdini This class researches core properties of effect and aesthetic common to architectural and fashion design and formulates a theory of exoticism as it applies to both fields. The seminar focuses on understanding these disciplines within the context of a body in space. This interaction is discussed from a visceral, systemic, material and social perspective. An intimate knowledge of design requires an understanding of underlying software and hardware technologies. Students develop new skills for communicating and realizing their ideas, and are given the opportunity to construct physical, analog and digital artifacts and develop their own concepts within the context of garment design and video making. VS4310 | Cinematic Space Jean Michel Crettaz with Norman Klein The perception and ideas of architectural and cinematic space have played an ongoing role in the history and cultures of visual representation. The contemporary discourse of architectural space incorporates ideas of cinematic space by engaging with time, narrative structures, scale, frame and cut—investigating new interrelating layers and perceptive modes of different kinds of time and space. The seminar examines hypotheses presented in questions of evolving functions of time and space within architecture and the filmic media. Students examine, and in return produce cinematic constructions as means to explore, observe, experience, and deploy time-based conditions as integral systems of space and time embodied in the representation of architectural ideas. VS4311 | Showtime Heather Flood and Rob Ley This course explores contemporary means for the dissemination of architectural content. Specifically, the class uses the world wide web to produce and broadcast architecture media. This workshop operates on multiple levels. Throughout Section 2 • 59
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the course are a series of in-class discussions regarding the role of media in architecture. The class investigates historic and contemporary examples as well as generating ideas for future possibilities. Additionally, the class actively engages in the production of architectural media by broadcasting live over the internet. Each show includes an on air pre-broadcast introduction to the work of the lecturer, live coverage of the lecture, and a post-broadcast editing of the event into a digital archive. Showtime is a media initiative that combines the technical resources of the library and the media center with the intellectual content generated by the lecture series to make free and unedited architectural information available to a global audience. VS4312 | Articulation, Communication and Intervention Jeff Cain Articulation is a class designed to examine creative communication practice set in the context of site-specific works. Students examine the work and writings of architects, artists and designers to locate employed strategies of communications, media and techniques and discuss their practices and impact. Students are expected to make two presentations articulating their own practice, make proposals for articulated interventions, and work collaboratively to actualize tangible site specific projects. VS4313 | Architecture Visualization Aaron Bocanegra A series of workshop are designed to provide basic to high-level skill sets for the construction and visualizations in still and time-based formats. This includes photography, animation, image construction and manipulation, using Photoshop, FinalCutPro and AfterEffects tools. The aim is to gain in-depth understanding of these essential tools for the production of architectural visualizations and animation. Assignments and exercises complement the workshop structure. VS4314 | Freeze / Soundbodies Perry Hall Moving well beyond the metaphor that “Architecture is frozen music,” we propose that sound can literally be frozen in order for it to then be populated; but really should be thawed... cooked and digested. This “Soundbody,” once visualized, delivers awareness of the structure, dynamics, and concepts within sound/music that ask to be more fully inhabited and translated. The emphasis is on sound as encoded, embodied, cinematic and conceptual material, as well as the strategies, tactics, instrumentation and techniques for deployment of these materials within design and architecture.
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VS4315 | Interactive Media Fiona Whitton and Sean Dockray This class looks at a variety of quasi-architectural practices that have developed between art and architecture (media art, installation art, relational art, interactive art, sound art, etc.) and is primarily interested in how technology and social relations are integrated into design to produce different forms of spatial experience, particularly fluid, temporary, and fictional ones. Weekly workshops provide hands-on introduction to “physical computing” through materials (switches, sensors, speakers, motors, lights, radio, and microcontrollers) and methods (simple circuit design, hacking, circuit bending). VS4317 | Animation Techniques Aaron Boganegra In this course we will explore animation in terms of performance, concept, spectacle and technique. The purpose is to craft thoughtfully descriptive and exhilarating communication pieces that go beyond what is typically seen today. Working towards this end we will discuss techniques and pieces from the art, film, design and architecture world. With a desire to advance a critical conversation, regarding communication devices, we will delve into relevant theory exploring Mise-EnScene, Narrative Structure, Realism, Semiotics, Form and Structure and other aspects of cinema, animation and visual culture. Some of the theorists we will explore are André Bazin, Siegfried Kracauer, David Bordwell, Theodor Adorno, Christian Metz, Sergei Eisenstein, and various artists, writers and critics. To reinforce the necessary skill-sets there will be workshops focusing on the various softwares and techniques needed, such as filmmaking, photography, lighting, Photoshop, Illustrator, Final cut and After Effects. It is in communication that an amazing concept is revealed, this will be our focus. VS4318 | rxd research x design Florencia Pita, Michael Speaks This class acts as a laboratory for the production of knowledge instead of the study of knowledge, with a base of design thinking, where design determines the combination between methodology and innovation. Structured in four modules, the class will work in collaboration with several institutions: Stanford University, the Architectural Association and TU Delft. This method of collaborations is the activation of an operational mechanism to interact with further strategies and methods for the production of ideas. The objective is to produce a shift in thinking from current learning practices to those that would employ the basis of a dynamic environment where research, test and prototyping are the agents that will bring upon an expanded methodology.
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VS4319 | Visual Imagination Michael Rotondi This course explores the range of relations between the visual imagination and the built and natural environments. Through lectures, readings, short assignments and class participation, students are encouraged to adopt innovative methods of visually thinking about the world and to be cognizant of any biases or limitations in their current ways of thinking. Individual lectures are modular rather than chronological, yet each builds on information presented in previous lectures to progress in a cyclical fashion from ways of knowing to, ultimately, methods of creation. Repetition is used as a device to show all of the different perspectives from which you can see the same things — all the different ways the same concept can be defined in words and images used to illustrate particular points. VS4320 | Industries Drawing: Dana Bauer This class — a study in illustration, analysis and photography through the documenting the Alameda corridor — looks at ways in which the industrial landscape of Los Angeles became a passageway. We will take a tour of the Port of Long Beach and observe the Alameda Corridor, a continuous stream of product and document the particularities of the City of Vernon, once the center of factory industry, now a truck stop. Through the illustration of the movement of goods, the mechanisms of production, the landscape of distribution, the class observes the materiality and obsolescence of industry. If the geographical development of cities throughout history may be attributed to the establishment of units of value and their exchange, then contemporary “currencies” that possess value in circulation might include water, oil, scrap metal, knowledge and beauty. The class proposes to identify tangible currencies exchanged in Los Angeles and to investigate the spatial impact of their transaction along the Alameda Corridor. Products distributed along streamlined pathways are then dispersed via consumption. The compact footprint of transport of goods ultimately expands to fill the contiguous United States and beyond. The value of these commodities shift as they are traded across spatial and cultural territories. A series of photographs and drawings depicting these relationships, gradients and matrices form the basis for a reinterpretation in drawing of urban space. The representation of transference and points of exchange will replace the traditional understanding of the urban figure/ground relationship with a complex dynamic and multi-dimensional field. This process simultaneously generates ideas about architecture, urbanism and representation. VS 4321 | Project Communications Imaginary Forces, Peter Frankfurt and IF team The course addresses theory and praxis of the communication of architectural ideas and is aimed to explore the relations of creating-, making- and communicating set within the context of contemporary media cultures. The course will incorporate design development, storyboard, communication design and production. Section 2 • 62
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Study abroad/ Exchange programs Every year, SCI-Arc students are offered the opportunity to participate in onesemester traveling studios. As well as experiencing European architecture while studying at SCI-Arc’s school in Vico Morcote in Switzerland, students have studied in India, Holland, Mexico, China, Japan, Egypt, and Turkey. In addition, the faculty frequently lead students on field trips to destinations that have included Marfa, Texas, California’s Owens Valley, Detroit, Michigan, and a desert site in Utah. As well as regular exchange programs with Seika University in Kyoto and the Universidad Ibero-Americana in Mexico City, SCI-Arc also offers exchange programs with the Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark, Delft Technical University in the Netherlands, RMIT in Melbourne, SIT in Tokyo, the Stadelschule in Frankfurt, the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, the Ecole Speciale d’Architecture in Paris, and the Belazel Academy in Jerusalem. .
Please note that eligibility for the study abroad programs is by permission only. Candidates need to have completed their core curriculum and be good academic standing. To participate in off-campus visits or field trips, students must complete and sign a Release and Waiver of Liability and Indemnity Agreement
SCI-Arc: Kyoto Japan Studio, Seika University, Kyoto The Japan study program introduces students to the urban and architectural circumstances of the contemporary Japanese city. The four month program consists of two parts. The first is a one-month travel segment, during which students are introduced to traditional Japanese crafts including calligraphy, paper-making, sword-making and flower arranging. It serves as a primer in the arts and crafts of traditional Japanese design. Students spend the second part of the semester in residence at Seika University in Kyoto, where they undertake a studio project based on an intervention in an urban site. The studio is accompanied by a History course and a seminar on Professional Practice, focused on the work of contemporary Japanese architects. SCI-Arc: Vico European Program: Vico Morcote, Switzerland SCI-Arc’s European program is taught in a restored villa overlooking Lake Lugano in the medieval hill town of Vico Morcote in Ticino, the Italian-speaking canton of southern Switzerland renowned for its modern and post-modern architecture. Started twenty-five years ago, SCI-Arc:Vico offers a congenial setting for the intensive study of Architecture under the daily guidance of teachers and architects from all over Europe as well as from America. The program takes full advantage of its location in the center of Europe: guided architectural tours to destinations including Berlin, Rotterdam, Vienna, Prague, Barcelona, Paris, Urbino and Siena form an essential part of the curriculum, along with guest lectures, panel discussions and films. SCI-Arc:Vico lecturers have included Dagmar Richter, Andrew Zago, Lebbeus Woods, Lars Lerup, Matthias Sauerbruch, Andrew Benjamin, Aaron Betsky, Luigi Snozzi, Suzanne Zottl, Ludovica Molo and Jachen Koenz.
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SCI-Arc: Ibero The Universidad Ibero-Americana in Mexico City (UIA) is one of the outstanding universities in Mexico, and their participation in an exchange program with SCIArc provides the opportunity for SCI-Arc students to study in Mexico and look closely at problems or organization, architecture and planning in an economy adjacent to the US. Conversely, it allows students from the Ibero Institute to study at SCI-Arc and examine the urban condition of Los Angeles.
SCI-Arc Community DESIGN PROGRAM Michael Pinto Program Coordinator Since moving to downtown Los Angeles, SCI-Arc has sought opportunities to engage various local communities by spearheading a number of tactical, actionbased projects, which enable students to collaborate directly with community agencies and undertake design/build projects. Each project deals with some form of practical and urgent problem solving circumstance. This might involve the creation of built structures or functional implements, or the imparting of vital skills to community members or at-risk groups. Drawing upon the professional expertise of architects, urban planners, computer designers, visual artists, social scientists, cultural theorists, and others, SCI-Arc faculty and students have demonstrated a powerful capacity to impact specific social problems, working with intentionally short lead-times and reacting quickly to address immediate conditions. Whether coordinating with local government, city or community agencies, private industry, educational or philanthropic institutions, or local residents, SCI-Arc’s Community Design Program is known for applying solutions that are at once uniquely innovative and personally felt. SCI-Arc’s Community Programs are made possible in part by a grant from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Recent and upcoming projects include: Sonic Bloom Ramiro Diaz-Granados Sonic Bloom was a two-part installation located at the lower entry and tunnel of the Southwest Museum. As the museum is currently transforming itself, both through a building renovation and identity overhaul, the intent was to install an experience that marked the entry, while symbolizing the museum’s metamorphosis. As an experience, it performs visually, audibly, and refers to the material history of Native American culture. At the exterior of the lower entry, which is slightly visible from the metro stop nearby, a giant loom with green and yellow nylon twine was installed. This refers to the large collection of Native American Section 2 • 64
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blankets and textiles owned by the museum. Transposing a simple geometric motif, the loom creates a field of vertical and angled lines that provides a new experience at the entry and heightens the visibility from a distance. The idea here is that one experiences the making of a textile as a spatial threshold. The tunnel — a 275 ft. chamber that leads to the lower lobby space of the museum — was treated as a sonic instrument. The acoustical properties of the tunnel are such that at the proper frequency, it generates a standing wave: a sound wave that becomes stationary due to the interference caused by two waves moving in opposite directions. Essentially, this allows one to feel the sound as well as hear it. Here, a sound system was installed with a soundtrack that consisted of traditional Native American sounds such as percussions, flutes, and sounds from nature. These were then compressed and stretched in order to create an ambient experience that collapses and extends time within the tunnel. Playing in Traffic: Glassell Park Bus Shelter Michael Pinto The relationship between people waiting for the bus and the car commuter is the subject of this course. Watching others and being watched is a quintessential function of the public realm. The situation of the site, between two high traffic boulevards, makes this an ideal site to test these relationships. The SCI-Arc Community Design Program developed a serial structure, at once a point of rest and a representation of vehicular movement. The steel structure was fitted with unistrut and polycarbonate sheeting. Surphase, LINC Housing Alexis Rochas, Michael Pinto The two LINC Housing projects near Chinatown, constructed in 1985, are typical of affordable housing in Los Angeles. The stuccoed courtyard complex sits above a parking garage, detached from the street by a series of metal fences and gates. Students were faced with a piecemeal courtyard within the fences, which did little to foster community activities. To remedy this, the courtyard was unified with an undulating plane of recycled rubber that creates room for play, barbecues, Tai-Chi, and other community gatherings. Aeromads Alexis Rochas Aeromads, designed by faculty member Alexis Rochas, was an itinerant housing prototype installed in various locations throughout Los Angeles over six weeks. It incorporated a range of programs and ideas, hosting children’s art workshops at Slanguage, Canoga Park Youth Arts Center and the Watts Tower Arts Center; becoming a house within a house at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House; and finally serving as a surrealist projection surface and bar for the closing party at the Telic gallery in Chinatown.
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LAMP Community: Frank Rice Safehaven Sun Shelter Alexis Rochas In August 2004, a group of ten SCI-Arc students completed a new façade for the LAMP Community project, a drop-in and crisis center for the homeless with mental illnesses at 627 St Julian Street, between 6th Street and 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles. The team was led by Alexis Rochas, who designed the wall out of recycled polyurethane panels, fabricated by students in the SCI-Arc woodshop and assembled on site. It took six months to complete, and provides a shaded courtyard with seating and planters, as well as a sculptural presence on the downtown street.
summer at SCI-Arc Summer at SCI-Arc offers a broad range of studios and courses for undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate students, as well as graduate thesis. Students in advanced studios construct their own curriculums by selecting studios and/or seminar courses. Seminars offered include Cultural Studies, Visual Studies and Applied Studies courses, professional development seminars and SCI-Arc’s Community Design Program. SCI-Arc core students are able to enroll for full- or parttime studies at the level for which they qualify. Summer workshops Summer at SCI-Arc offers students the opportunity to work for a concentrated period of time with experts in the fields that include Architecture, Engineering, Art, History, Theory. The workshops involve an intense and full-time effort. This program is open to both SCI-Arc students and students visiting from other institutions. See Financial Information section for fees and tuition.
MAKING + MEANING Making + Meaning tuition Please contact the admissions office for application deadlines.
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The Foundation Program In Architecture SCI-Arc’s Foundation Program in Architecture addresses a broad range of educational needs, catering for anyone with an interest in architecture and providing a head start for students preparing an application for, or about to embark upon a degree in Architecture or other design-related fields. The curriculum continuously evolves to incorporate the latest developments in materials and fabrication technologies. Students learn about the language of architecture, develop a design process, and hone representational and model-making skills in a studio atmosphere that fosters creativity, innovative thinking, and a flexible design process. Construction and model-making are introduced early on as means with which to visualize and test three-dimensional ideas. Throughout these explorations, students learn to balance initial intuitive responses with the need to clearly present their work to a jury. See Financial Information section for fees and tuition.
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Resources, Public Events, People SCI-Arc offers students an integrated suite of digital and analog facilities, both learning tools and means of supporting academic progress and experimentation. These include some of the most advanced digital fabrication machines available, computer facilities with all software necessary to support the school’s curriculum and low-cost printing, a supply store, and a library dedicated to the study of Architecture and related disciplines. Students should familiarize themselves with the individual handbooks from each facility and keep informed of all updates.
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SCI-ARC Resources Kappe Library The Kappe Library supports SCI-Arc’s curriculum and the study of Architecture with a focused collection maintained by experienced staff. Since the library began in 1974 with donations from faculty, students and staff, it has grown through the support of the school, the wider SCI-Arc community, and various foundations. The only academic library in Southern California focused on Architecture, the Kappe Library welcomes all architectural researchers. The Kappe Library is located on the second floor of the north end of the SCIArc building and provides a comfortable environment for research. The collection is made up of 20,000 books in 97 subject areas, with Architecture and related technical and design subjects accounting for most of the collection. Some 1,500 titles are added each year. Books are arranged on open stacks according to the Library of Congress alpha-numeric system. The library maintains 106 subscriptions, and has over 2,800 bound volumes of back issues. The slide collection consists of 35,000 architectural history images, mostly from the 20th century. Reference services and research tools can be found at the entrance: Patrons can navigate through the collections by searching in the Educational Resources of SCI-Arc (EROS) database, the Avery Index, the Art Index, and others. The Kappe Library Guides provide additional orientation, offering tips on research methods and resources, and recommending books, articles and websites on selected topics in Architecture, the Fine Arts, History and Cultural Studies, and Science and Technology. Web versions of this and all other library guides are available at www.silverlakeblvd.com/arch.html. Email questions directly to the library manager at kevin@sciarc.edu. The library is wired via airport and maintains six public workstations, including scanning workstations and one for VHS video-to-digital transfer. Media Center The library loans audio-visual equipment to students and faculty, including darkroom equipment, digital projectors, digital still cameras, digital video cameras, DVD players, monitors, slide projectors, and VCRs. Reserving equipment in advance is highly recommended. Contact the A/V manager for reservations or technical help. Archive The SCI-Arc archive consists of several collections to document SCI-Arc activities. Archive materials do not circulate and access is by appointment only.
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– The student work archive includes a chronologically organized digital and slide archive of student work and events. – The video collection contains 2,500 videos documenting SCI-Arc lectures and events from 1974 to the present. – The print archive consists of forty linear feet of books, catalogs, posters, and other printed materials illustrating SCI-Arc activities from 1972 to the present. – Press articles: Electronic files of news articles relating to SCI-Arc and SCI-Arc students, faculty and alumni from 1990 to the present. Materials Library Currently under development, the Materials Library offers a collection of samples and related specifications of new and innovative materials. Wood and metal shop The 5,000-square-foot wood and metal shop plays an integral role in student work, supporting hands-on experimentation with materials and construction. It includes a machining room, a model-making shop, bench room, metalworking area, and assembly spaces. Students have access to a wide variety of hand and power tools, and to instruction and facilities for model-making, furniture making, industrial design, and aluminum foundry casting. The facility enables and encourages experimentation with materials such as concrete, metal, and plastics, and allows for the creation of substantial projects. Recent additions to the SCIArc shop include a 4’ x 10’ panel saw, a plasma cutter, and an improved covered exterior metal working lab. Though the facility is primarily for student use, it is available to faculty and staff depending on availability. See the Student Handbook for further information regarding the use of the shop.
There are a variety of software compatibility issues. Students should consult a member of staff before starting any project.
CNC / Digital fabrication facilities SCI-Arc’s IT Department includes four computer labs, email, networked file, print, web and ftp servers. Tools include computer numerically controlled (CNC) machinery—directed specifically towards architecture and design — a laser cutter, a vacuum-former, three 3-axis milling machines and a 3-D printing station with two 3D printers, capable of sculpting surfaces in a variety of materials, including wood, plastic and aluminum, from CAD and CAM files. All of the CNC machinery interfaces with the most current industry standard software and protocols. Students are able output and fabricate their work using all the most popular design software. Computer Resources SCI-Arc’s IT Department includes four computer labs, email, networked files, print, web and ftp servers. Each student desk has Internet access and in the computer lab, access to file and ftp servers, free email, 24/7 access to state of the art PC and Mac labs, free black and white network printing, on-site large format color printing and high volume laser printers.
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Print Center SCI-Arc’s Print Center provides students and faculty with access to large-format high resolution color plotters and color laser prints up to 13” x 19” at a fraction of typical service center prices. SCI-Portal The SCI-Arc “SCI-Portal”—located at http://sciportal.sciarc.edu—is the central source for campus information ranging from news to enrollment information to studio postings, keeping the SCI-Arc community informed with up-to-the-minute details. Areas include For Sale, Jobs, Course Descriptions, Financial Aid and the SCI-Arc message board. The SCI-Portal is not a read-only tool. Contribution to public areas is greatly encouraged. You may log into the SCI-Portal from any internet connection. All you need is a valid network ID. Please see the IT department for a quick handout describing the login procedure.
See the IT Handbook for detailed information.
Supply Store 811 Traction Avenue, Unit 1A T/F: 213.687.0854 Located near the school on Traction Avenue, the SCI-Arc supply store supports the SCI-Arc curriculum, providing the tools and materials necessary to allow students to experiment with model making and drawing. It also provides books and readers for seminars. The store serves both the student body and the downtown community by offering low prices for architecture and art supplies. The extensive inventory of model-making materials includes a wide selection of bass- and hardwoods, as well as plastic, metal, and wood structural shapes. Student Union The Student Union comprises representatives from each studio as well as an elected executive board. Among the events organized by the Student Union are Friday Design @ 5, weekly gatherings, created by each class year and open to the entire SCI-Arc community, and a yearly Halloween social. Students are actively engaged in constructing SCI-Arc Gallery exhibitions, and supporting the openings and discussions of these projects. The Student Union, with funds collected from students, has been involved in shaping and organizing the weekly lecture series, publishing a newsletter, and organizing student exhibitions and student design competitions. The Student Union voices student concerns at Academic Council and through informal forums and collaborates with the administration to find solutions to specific concerns. They hold meetings according to a predetermined schedule, open to the whole school and dealing with issues ranging from specific student concerns to long-term planning issues. A student representative sits on the SCI-Arc Board of Directors for a two-year term, reporting directly to and from the student community. Two student representatives sit on the Academic Council, which meets monthly to make recommendations to the administration on school policy matters. Section 3 • 3
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Psychological counseling program Any student enrolled at SCI-Arc is offered up to three free counseling / personal consultation meetings with a licensed clinical psychologist. Students generally use this service for one of the following reasons: – Work quality/productivity level below usual baseline – Experiencing excessive stress/pressure/loss of perspective – Questioning where they are/what they are doing – Problems with relationship(s) or relating to others – Experiencing major transitions or losses – Confidence/self esteem difficulties – Thesis stress. Being short-term in nature, this service is not designed to address severe psychological problems or medication-related issues. In case of a psychiatric emergency, students should call the police and ask for the Psychiatric Emergency Team (PET), or visit a hospital. Students should ask the Academic Counselor for details regarding this program.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS SCI-Arc’s public programs support the idea that engaging communities invited to gather at the institute increases the capacity for debate and understanding of architecture’s capacity to transform the world. Lecture Series All SCI-Arc lectures are free and open to the public and are followed by a dinner in honor of the speaker, allowing students and faculty to interact more personally with the invited speaker. Speakers are selected by a forum of students, faculty, alumni, and administration. As a result, each semester’s lecture series promises to be an eclectic selection of lecturers from multiple disciplines, including architects, artists, film-makers, engineers, theoreticians, and performers. SCIArc lectures are broadcast live for simultaneous viewing on the internet at www. sciarc.edu/live. Recent lecturers have included graphic designers John Maeda, Michael Worthington, and 2 x 4’s Michael Rock; Archigram members Peter Cook and Dennis Dollens; artists Char Davies, Taft Green and Julie Bargmann; Arquitectura Viva editor Luis Fernandez Galiano, and architects Momoyo Kaijima of Atelier Bow Wow, Günther Domenig and Shigeru Ban.
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Other recent lecturers include: – Jeffrey Kipnis; SCI-Arc Distinguished Chair of History and Theory – Manuel DeLanda; Philosopher and Professor, University of Pennsylvania; New York – Wolf D. Prix; principal, Coop Himmelb(l)au; Vienna and Los Angeles – Dietmar Steiner; Director of the Architecture Center; Vienna – Greg Lynn; principal, Greg Lynn FORM; Santa Monica – Qingyun Ma; Dean of the USC Department of Architecture; Los Angeles – Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues; partners Ball-Nogues Studio, Los Angeles – Giovanni la Varra; Multiplicity and Studio Boeri: Italy – Neil Spiller; Vice Dean and Director of the AVATAR, Bartlett School of Architecture, London SCI-Arc Gallery SCI-Arc Gallery exhibitions are an intersection between the various communities in which the institution participates: architecture, urban planning, design, and art. The gallery provides a space where practitioners, professionals, faculty, students, and the public can learn about and experience provocative architecture. Located within the school and in the same vicinity as the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), the Disney Concert Hall and REDCAT theater and gallery, the Japanese American Museum and the Chinatown galleries, the SCI-Arc Gallery is the only cultural institution in Los Angeles committed to exhibiting experimental projects by contemporary architects. The gallery program allows exhibitors to experiment with new materials, concepts or fabrication methods, reflecting SCI-Arc’s encouragement of an experimental approach to construction materials and its emphasis on learning through building. Less concerned with identifying design trends, the SCI-Arc Gallery aims to exhibit work that provokes critical discussions of current building practices. Each of the six yearly exhibitions is executed as a workshop in which students work closely with the invited architect to assist in the fabrication and installation/deinstallation of the exhibit. Many exhibitions have been published nationally and internationally, and two recent SCI-Arc Gallery exhibitions, by Griffin Enright Architects and Darin Johnstone + Scott Parker, received the 2006 Los Angeles AIA Design Award. For their exhibition, Keep Off the Grass, Griffin Enright Architects suspended an undulating 1000 square foot plane of sod over pools of water on the gallery floor. The installation developed an ironic tension regarding our cultural relationship to the lawn, while subtly commenting on its negative impacts on our larger environment. Darin Section 3 • 5
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Johnstone + Scott Parker’s Drop: Hi-Lo Fielding featured identical three-dimensional asymmetrical units set within the common “drop ceiling’ framework. Each unit had four simple variables (drop-up, drop-down, drop-normal, drop-rotated) that were changed throughout the duration of the exhibit. In the exhibition POROSITY, Steven Holl Architects invented a new material—a digitally perforated skin of a walnut and composite laminate—that exploits the possibilities offered by new, digitally driven techniques for a previously unattainable degree of porosity in membranes, surfaces and solids. Recognizing the phenomenological power of natural light and shadow, and mimicking the variegation of sunlight projected through trees, the exhibition staged a series of spatial sequences within, around, and between eight-foot tall towers. New York-based a|Um Studio created an expanded cinema installation entitled SUTURE. The concept of suture, a key term in film theory, was reconfigured in this installation to propose a new architectural body created through event, gesture and temporality. Informed by a contemporary reconsideration of cinematic and architectural affect, SUTURE created new forms of sense and agency through autonomous feedback loops within a media assemblage, allowing the visitor to actively reshape space and event. SCI-Arc Press As a leader in the investigation of the merging of creative thought with society and politics, the SCI-Arc Press publishes works engaging in the current discourse of architecture and design. The program provides a forum for new voices and ideas that affect and pertain to the architectural education of its students and the continuing education of its alumni and community. Recent publications include Who Says What Architecture Is? a collection of introductions, essays and lectures by SCI-Arc Director Eric Owen Moss; Onramp #1 a collect of student work from the 2007-8 academic year; Pafford Keating Clay: Modern Architect(ure)/Modern Master(s) by Eric Keune, the first monograph on the Bay Area architect; Sessions, featuring the work of SCI-Arc faculty members George Yu, Marcelo Spina, Marta Male-Alemany, Benjamin Bratton, and Hernan Diaz Alonso; and Zago Architecture and Office dA: Two Installations, which considers the work of Office dA and Andrew Zago, including their installations in the SCI-Arc Gallery. Forthcoming publications include Making the Unmade, edited by Chris Genik and Julianna Morais, which will document exhibitions in the SCI-Arc Gallery in the five years since the school moved to downtown Los Angeles and Onramp #2, the continuing documentation of student work. The SCI-Arc Press is also responsible for all printed material relating to SCI-Arc, Section 3 • 6
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including invitations, lecture posters, academic program posters, exhibition brochures and in-school publications.
Development and alumni relations Development office SCI-Arc’s development office is responsible for raising funds and in-kind contributions from foundations, corporations, individuals, and government sources to support the school’s mission. Working closely with board members, the Alumni Association, and the SCI-Arc Development Committee, the development staff welcomes volunteer participation in all facets of fund development, including event planning, securing in-kind contributions, and the identification and solicitation of potential donors.
The development office welcomes all students to take part in SCI-Arc’s development opportunities.
The department produces grant proposal submissions for faculty projects and SCI-Arc Press publications, updates donor and alumni contact information, and develops an annual development plan and calendar. This includes a strategy for direct mail appeals, and events that highlight the work and accomplishments of the SCI-Arc community. The department also produces a bi-annual newsletter that provides a means of communication with the people and organizations that SCI-Arc is trying to reach, and manages the stewardship program, ensuring that donors are thanked and recognized for their philanthropy. In addition, in an effort to enhance and expand SCI-Arc’s Board of Directors, the development office works with the SCI-Arc Development Committee to identify and recruit new board members. Public relations The public relations team at SCI-Arc is responsible for correspondence with the news media and the public to promote the school’s curriculum, student work, publications, and public events. With a focus on student recruitment and public exposure, the public relations firm works with SCI-Arc staff, faculty, and administration to effectively communicate SCI-Arc’s philosophy and mission. Public relations also supports the development office in its fundraising efforts. Alumni relations Established in 1998 by a group of twenty alumni from a range of graduating classes, the SCI-Arc Alumni Association works to identify and meet the needs of the alumni, and to serve the larger interests of the school. The Alumni Association seeks to build the alumni community, to promote the work of alumni, to educate alumni and current students, and to support SCI-Arc. Among the association’s various activities and projects are alumni-driven publications; the establishment of the SCI-Arc Alumni Association Scholarship Fund, which awards Section 3 • 7
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two scholarships each year (one to an undergraduate and one to a graduate student); the production of the Main Event scholarship fundraiser; the sponsorship of an alumni lecturer in the SCI-Arc lecture series; a career open house for alumni firms interested in hiring SCI-Arc graduates; and regular friend-raising and networking events, including the Moveable Feast, designed to bring the alumni community together. The Alumni Association also works closely with SCI-Arc to maintain an updated database of alumni contact information, so that both the school and the association can remain in close contact with alumni as they pursue their careers in all parts of the world. The Alumni Association is a completely volunteer-based and -run organization. Activities and undertakings are funded by annual membership dues and other fundraising efforts. The association meets quarterly. Meetings and participation are open to all alumni, as well as current students. Alumni also participate in the governance of the school by electing an at-large alumni representative to serve a three-year term on the SCI-Arc Board of Directors.
PEOPLE SCI-Arc’s faculty represents a wide range of contemporary approaches to Architecture and related disciplines. Among its members are renowned theorists, critics, and historians and some of Los Angeles’s leading architects, practitioners who have devoted their careers to investigating how broad aesthetic, social, and cultural concerns can be integrated into an overall understanding of the built and natural environments.
Section 3 • 8
Resources, Public Events, People
Contact
Director Eric Owen Moss
DESIGN STUDIO FACULTY
Graduate Program Director
Juan Azulay, AiB Matter Management /
Hsinming Fung
Osborn, Los Angeles
Rob Ley, Urbana, Los Angeles Elena Manferdini, Atelier Manferdini, Los Angeles Undergraduate Program Director
Dana Bauer, ground up LLC,
Chris Genik
Los Angeles
Chief Operating Officer
Joe Deegan Day, Deegan-Day Design,
Robert Mangurian, Studioworks,
Jack Wiant
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Ilaria Mazzoleni, Los Angeles
Hernan Diaz Alonso, Xefirotarch,
Paul Nakazawa, Nakazawa Consultants,
Los Angeles
Wellesley Hills, Massachusets
Ramiro Diaz-Granados, F-lab,
Dwayne Oyler, Oyler Wu Collaborative,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Jean-Michel Crettaz, Los Angeles
Gary Paige, GPS Studio, Los Angeles
Heather Flood, F-lab, Los Angeles
Florencia Pita, fpmod, Los Angeles
Margaret Griffin, Griffin Enright
Mary-Ann Ray, Studioworks,
Architects, Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Coy Howard, Coy Howard & Company,
Alexis Rochas, I/O, Los Angeles
Los Angeles Michael Rotondi, RoTo Architects, Darin Johnstone, Johnstone Parker,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles Marcelo Spina, PATTERNS, Wes Jones, Jones: Partners,
Los Angeles
Architecture, Los Angeles Peter Testa, Testa & Weiser, Eric Kahn, COA, Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Ed Keller, a|Um Studio, New York
Russell Thomsen, COA, Los Angeles
Andy Ku, Organized Crime Collective,
C. Gregory Walsh, Architect,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Section 3 • 9
Resources, Public Events, People
Devyn Weiser, Testa & Weiser,
Craig Hodgetts, Hodgetts+Fung,
Andrew Zago, Andrew Zago Architecture,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
New York
Tom Wiscombe, EMERGENT,
Brooke Hodge, Curator of Architecture
Susanne Zottl, Vienna
Los Angeles
and Design, MOCA, Los Angeles
Jenny Wu, Oyler Wu Collaborative,
Steven Holl, Steven Holl Architects,
Los Angeles
New York
Peter Zellner, Zellner Plus Associates,
Susanna Isa, Bartlett School of
Los Angeles
Architecture; Velvetair, London
RECENT VISITING SEMINAR/ WORKSHOP FACULTY Guillermo Banchini, Los Angeles Lane Barden, Photographer, Los Angeles RECENT VISITING STUDIO FACULTY
Lisa Iwamoto, Iwamoto Scott Architecture, San Francisco
Raimund Abraham, Atelier Raimund Abraham, New York
Nathaniel Belcher, Assistant Dean, Florida International University
Ray Kappe, Ray Kappe Architects, Los Angeles
Sir Peter Cook
Sulan Kolatan, KOL/MAC Studio,
Robert Davolio
Moji Baratloo, Los Angeles Nathaniel Belcher, Assistant Dean,
New York Edward Dimendberg, PhD, University
Florida International University Peter Noever, Director, MAK Center, Craig Borum, PLY Architecture, Michigan
Los Angeles, Vienna, Austria
Lise Anne Couture, Asymptote,
Guy Nordenson, Guy Nordenson and
New York
Associates, San Francisco/New York
Kevin Daly, Daly Genik Architects Inc.,
Monica Ponce de Leon, Office dA, Boston
of California, Irvine Heidi Duckler, Performance Artist, Los Angeles Howard Fox, Curator of Contemporary Art, LACMA, Los Angeles
Los Angeles Wolf Prix, CoopHimmelb(l)au, Vienna Neil M. Denari, Los Angeles
Michael Fox, Ocean Design Collaborative, Los Angeles
Mark Robbins, Architect, New York John Gautry, IBE Engineers,
Evan Douglis, Evan Douglis + Associates, New York
Dagmar Richter, Architect, Berlin
Los Angeles
Julie Eizenberg, Koning Eizenberg,
Michele Saee, Architect, Los Angeles
April Greiman, Made in Space, Los Angeles
Los Angeles Craig Scott, Iwamoto Scott Architecture, David Erdman, servo
San Francisco
Simon Herron, Bartlett School of
Nader Tehrani, Office dA, Boston
Seth Jameson, University of California, Los Angeles
Architecture; Velvetair, London Lebbeus Woods, New York
Section 3 • 10
Yoshio Ikezaki, Artist, Los Angeles, Kyoto
Resources, Public Events, People
Norman Klein, Writer and Critic,
Patrick Teuffel, Teuffel Engineering
Los Angeles
Consultants, Stuttgart, Germany
Neil Leach, Writer and Theorist, London
Susan Ubbelhode, Loisos + Ubbelhode
VISUAL STUDIES Jean-Michel Crettaz, Visual Studies Coordinator
Associates, Oakland Juan Azulay, AiB Matter Management /
Alan Locke, IBE Engineers, Los Angeles Fiona Whitton, Los Angeles
Osborn, Los Angeles
Lev Manovich, New Media Theorist, Wim de Wit, Getty Research Institute,
Ramiro Diaz-Granados, F-lab,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
CULTURAL STUDIES
Andy Ku, Organized Crime Collective,
Matthew Melnyk, Buro Happold
Dora Epstein Jones, PhD, Cultural
Consulting Engineers Inc.
Studies Coordinator
San Diego Erin McConahey, Ove Arup Engineers,
Los Angeles Elena Manferdini, Atelier Manferdini, Los Angeles Nancy Montgomery, Reform, Inc.,
Tulay Atak, PhD, Historian and Critic,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Chris Perry, servo, Los Angeles
David Bergman, Economic Research
Dwayne Oyler, Oyler Wu Collaborative, Los Angeles
Associates, Los Angeles
Gary Paige, GPS Studio, Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Alicia Imperiale, Architect and Writer
Florencia Pita, fpmod, Los Angeles
Ian Robertson, Robertson Company,
Ed Keller, a/Um Studio, New York
APPLIED STUDIES
Afsheen Rais-Rohani, NULLAB,
Los Angeles Jamey Lyzun, Arup Joseph Rosa,Chief Curator, the National
Marcelo Spina, Applied Studies Coordinator
Building Museum, Washington, D.C.
Manuel Delanda, writer
Nathan Sevener, Acoustical Engineer,
Greg Otto, Buro Happold Consulting
Arup LA
Engineers Inc.
Peter Simmonds, IBE Consulting
Clare Phillips, Writer, Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Janet Sager, Sager Design Research +
Michael Brown, Martin Newson &
Communication, Los Angeles
Associates LLC
John Bencher, AGA Architects, Los Angeles Bruce Danziger, Ove Arup Engineers, Engineers Kivi Sotamma Yanina Spizzirri, Los Angeles
Marcos Sanchez, Critic and Media Artist,
Phyllis Dubinsky, PDK Urban Strategies
Los Angeles
Michael Folonis, Folonis Architects,
John Sueda, Stripe, Los Angeles
Los Angeles J. Vesci, Los Angeles
Section 3 • 11
Resources, Public Events, People
David Gerber, Doctoral Candidate,
STAFF
Admissions Director
Harvard University GSD
The general telephone number at SCI-Arc
JJ Jackman
is 213.613.2200
john_jackman@sciarc.edu
Margaret Griffin, Griffin Enright
x321
Architects, Los Angeles
Administration
William Hogan, Los Angeles
Director
Shelby Ikeda
Eric Owen Moss
admissions@sciarc.edu x321
Admissions Coordinator
Heather Libonati, Horton Lees Brogden,
directors_office@sciarc.edu
Los Angeles
x327
Linda Taalman, Taalman Koch
Director’s Assistant
Peter Dung
Architecture, Los Angeles
Liz McDermott
peter_dung@sciarc.edu
liz_mcdermott@sciarc.edu
x316
Jay Vanos, Vanos Architects,
x327
Academic Counselor
Student Services
Los Angeles Graduate Programs Director Christian Williamson, CT Williamson
Hsinming Fung
Marisela De La Torre
Engineers, Los Angeles
ming@sciarc.edu
marisela@sciarc.edu
x318
x310
Undergraduate Program Director
Administrative Assistant
Tom Wiscombe, EMERGENT, Los Angeles
Chris Genik
Diana Arterian
chris@sciarc.edu
diana_arterian@sciarc.edu
x315
x327
Program Coordinator; Osborn Architects,
Chief Operating Officer
Facilities Manager
Los Angeles
Jack Wiant
David Ramos
jack_wiant@sciarc.edu
david_ramos@sciarc.edu
x324
x355
Academic Programs Coordinator
Information Technology
COMMUNITY DESIGN PROGRAM Michael Pinto, Community Design
John Bencher, AGA Architects, Los Angeles Ramiro Diaz-Granados, F-lab,
Paul Holliday
Los Angeles
paul_holliday@sciarc.edu
Information Technology Manager
x348
Vic Jabrassian
Academic Services
x317
Alexis Rochas, I/O, Los Angeles
vic@sciarc.edu
Finn Kappe, Kappe Architect Planners, Los Angeles
Chief of Staff/
IT Assistant
Registrar/International Advisor
Zuma Arechiga
Lisa Russo
zuma@sciarc.edu
lisarusso@sciarc.edu
x313
x314
Section 3 • 12
Resources, Public Events, People
Network/Systems Administrator
Assistant Store Manager
Lynn Ordinario
Vance Lanoy
Marsha Liske
lynn_ordinario@sciarc.edu
vance_lanoy@sciarc.edu
x312
x311
Financial Services
Print Center
Financial Controller
Public Programs Carlos Menendez
Christopher Banks
Public Programs Coordinator /
carlos_menendez@sciarc.edu
christopher_banks@sciarc.edu
Editor
x363
x330
Brandon Wyant brandon@sciarc.edu
Library/Media Center Manager
Senior Accountant
Kevin McMahon
Erlita Mascarinas
kevin@sciarc.edu
erlita_mascarinas@sciarc.edu
x323
x331
x347 Managing Editor, SCI-Arc Press Julianna Morais julianna@sciarc.edu
Media Assistant
Staff Accountant
John Hartman
Cynthia Dizon
john_hartman@sciarc.edu
cynthia_dizon@sciarc.edu
Brian Roettinger
x323
x333
brian_roettinger@sciarc.edu
Woodshop/Metalshop Coordinator
Financial Aid Director
Director of Design
x357 Katsumi Moroi
Helen Lara
Graphic Designer
kmoroi@sciarc.edu
helen_lara@sciarc.edu
Lucas Quigley
x335
x346
lucas_quigley@sciarc.edu
Shop Assistant
Financial Aid Counselor
James Peterson
Debby Unoura
james@artcontraptions.com
debby_unoura@sciarc.edu
x335
x326
CNC Milling Coordinator
Human Resources Director
Rodney Rojas
Melissa Burgess
rodney_rojas@sciarc.edu
x350
x337 Development and Alumni Relations CNC Milling Assistant Dan Riley
Director of Development
driley@sciarc.edu
Colleen Elkins
x337
colleen_elkins@sciarc.edu x319
Supply Store Manager Chris Broadstone 213.687.0854
Alumni Relations Officer
Section 3 • 13
Resources, Public Events, People
SHARC Board of Directors
Ray Kappe Kappe Architect Planners
Chairman John Geresi
Jerry Neuman
JP Morgan Securities, Los Angeles
Allen Matkins
Secretary
Merry Norris
Tom Gilmore
Merry Norris Contemporary Art
Gilmore Associates Michael Poris Eric Owen Moss, Director, SCI-Arc
McIntosh Poris Associates
Eric Owen Moss Architects Kevin Rattner Secretary
President, Forest City Residential West
Joseph Deegan Day Deegan-Day Design
Michael Rotondi ROTO Architects
Treasurer Daniel Swartz
Howard Sadowsky
Quadrangle Development Company Nick Seierup Faculty Representative Darin Johnstone, Student Representative Joe Tarr Alumni Representative Carlos Madrid DMJM William Fain Johnson Fain Partners Frank O. Gehry Gehry Partners, LLC Elyse Grinstein William Gruen Scott Hughes
Section 3 • 14
Perkins + Will Architects
SCI-Arc Admissions Office 960 East 3rd Street Los Angeles, California 90013 T: 213.613.2200 x320 admissions@sciarc.edu