Architecture (ARCH)

ARCH 0110 Design, Race, and Climate Justice

Through a critical and historical lens, students will examine material, spatial, and ecological practices in architecture and design that perpetuate racial inequities and exacerbate climate injustices. This course will challenge students to consider the ways in which design decisions negatively impact black, indigenous, and other people of color, while also causing harm to the environment. The extraction of raw materials for production often leads to the displacement of communities, destruction of habitats and ecosystems, and the depletion of finite natural resources. Historically, urban planning and design has been used to enforce racial segregation and deny access to services and amenities to non-whites. The siting of toxic waste facilities, highways, and industrial zones in low-income communities of color has had devastating impacts on public health and quality of life. Probing the intersectional relationships between design, race, and climate change, students will engage with a range of texts, multimedia content, case studies, and hands-on projects. By the end of the semester, they will have a deeper understanding of the ways in which design impacts communities and the environment and be equipped with knowledge to advance a more just, equitable, and resilient future.

Fall

1 Course Unit

ARCH 0111 Architecture in the Anthropocene

This course will use architecture and the built environmental as a lens to investigate the emerging field of the environmental humanities. Our goal will be to analyze and understand these new intellectual frameworks in order to consider the relationship between global environmental challenges and the process of constructing the built environment. As such, we will oscillate between social and political theory, environmental history, and architectural history and theory. Issues of importance will include: theories of risk, the role of nature in political conflicts; images, design and environmental communication; and the relationship between speculative design and other narratives of the future. These conceptual frameworks will be read alongside examples of related creative projects in art, literature, and architecture, and will be amplified through presentations and discussions with studio faculty and other visitors to the course.

Fall

1 Course Unit

ARCH 0201 Introduction to Landscape

This course introduces students to the relevant topics, themes, and sites that help us understand the conception, production, evolution, and reception of designed and found landscapes throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It aims at building an understanding of landscapes as both physical spaces and cultural constructions at the nexus of art and science. We also explore how our understanding of landscapes contributes meaning to our relationships with nature and more-than-human species. Landscapes are the result of social, political, artistic, and intellectual endeavors. The topography, soil, and climate of a site also condition its design, use, and habitation. As much as designed and found landscapes are a product of their time, they also contribute to shaping history, both through their physical materiality and through the cultural worlds they enable. Embedding found and designed landscapes into their social, political, and cultural contexts allow us to address the role of so-called expert knowledge and the characters that have emerged both around and beyond the margins of this knowledge.

Spring

1 Course Unit

ARCH 0318 Topographical Stories: Architecture, Literature, and Cities

This course will argue a simple thesis: that the spaces of our lives record the stories of our lives. Architecture and literature will be studied, through built works and texts, the latter from both author-architects and fiction writers (novelists, short story writers, and poets). Urban settings throughout the world will occupy our attention, in Berlin, New York, Paris, Milan, London, Venice, Vienna, Chicago, and Shanghai. In much the same way that literacy is both cultivated and preserved in books, cultural memory obtains legible shape in buildings, persisting as long as they do. In a time when so much in life seems in flux social norms, family structures, political allegiances, and so on the power of architecture to give practical affairs orientation and stability is especially important. This course will study how architectural settings provide palpable structure for the events of our lives, particularly those events that occur in cities and their institutions, for cities have always been and remain culture's most efficient and eloquent articulation. Unlike literature, film, or advertising, architecture performs its signifying role rather quietly and unobtrusively; but this fact does not diminish its capacity to allow us to feel "at home" in many and varied settings. This will be clear to non-architects as soon as they reflect on the role played by domestic arrangements, for even the most prosaic events cannot unfold unless the settings in which they are to occur are "in order." Less clear perhaps, but no less important is the role that architecture plays in our understanding and experience of community, civility, and the common good. The course will be structured in two parts. The first part, much shorter than the second, will be thematic and a-historical. In the opening lectures the basic topics of the course will be introduced, as will be the questions to be asked of the writings, images, buildings, and cities taken up in part two. The second group of studies will look at a number of cities in Europe, the USA, and China. To make the volume of study materials manageable, we will concentrate on developments in the last hundred to hundred and fifty years. The writings of author architects will provide us with some insight into the ways architecture has served a "narrative" function in these cities, but we will also read stories, poems, and parts of novels that augment and enrich those architectural accounts. The idea is that stories about spaces will clarify the ways that spaces are stories.

Spring

1 Course Unit

ARCH 1010 Introduction to Design

An investigation of an object-oriented design process utilizing digital drawings, rapid prototyping, and digital fabrication techniques. This course introduces design as a creative act marking out a synthesis based on observation of a problem, interpretation of possibilities, and translation of a concept into meaningful three-dimensional objects that engage with society and social justice. The course includes a weekly lecture and studio component.

Fall

Also Offered As: DSGN 1011

1 Course Unit

ARCH 1020 Introduction to Architecture

An exploration of the design process utilizing drawing and model-making techniques. Skills of representation and fabrication are introduced in the context of the development of each student's capacity to observe, interpret, and translate design concepts into physical form. The course includes a weekly lecture and studio component. The primary purpose of this course is to introduce the fundamental concepts and basic skills necessary in the design of a work of architecture. Fundamental concepts include a basic understanding of description, projection, and fabrication – in both two and three‐dimensions. Basic skills include freehand sketching and drawing, computer‐aided drawing (orthographic and axonometric) and the fabrication of scale models using hand, power, and digital tools.

Spring

1 Course Unit

ARCH 2010 Design Fundamentals I

This studio course develops drawing and model-making skills with emphasis on digital representation and digital fabrication. The capacity of nature-inspired design is explored as a foundation for the creative production of new forms of expression. As the second course in the five-semester cumulative sequence of required design studios, ARCH 2010 is preceded by ARCH 1020, an exploration of orthogonal geometry and orthographic and axonometric projection. ARCH 2010 focuses on the non-orthogonal geometries of animate form as the basis for the development of analogical and prototypical structures utilizing 3D digital modeling software and digital fabrication. In ARCH 2020, the design studio following ARCH 2010, students explore the movement of the body as a basis for design.

Fall

Prerequisite: ARCH 1010 AND ARCH 1020

1.5 Course Unit

ARCH 2020 Design Fundamentals II

A studio course exploring the relationship between two-dimensional images and three-dimensional digital and physical models. This studio course develops advanced techniques in digital representation and fabrication through an investigation of the theme of inhabitation in architecture. In the previous semester (ARCH 2010), you looked to nature to study, analyze and then translate complex geometry as it occurs in the natural world. This biomorphic study laid the foundation to learn how to describe non-Euclidean geometries through drawing techniques. Building on this knowledge, in ARCH 2020 you will learn to collect data by carefully mapping a body’s movement during a specific activity. You will analyze, document and ultimately represent this data through drawing. Through this process, you will build an understanding of how a body in motion inhabits space. The range of motion your body maps will be the frame of reference to design a site- specific architectonic enclosure. You will continue to expand your knowledge of digital drawing and fabrication tools using Rhino as your primary 3D modeling software as well as V-Ray for rendering.

Spring

Prerequisite: ARCH 2010

1.5 Course Unit

ARCH 2101 Concepts for Understanding Space in the Americas

To study the built environment of the Americas is to deal with an inherent contradiction. While our disciplines of architecture, urban design, landscape, and planning share the fundamental belief that spaces matter; an overwhelming majority of our knowledge comes from another continent. As reminded by Edward Said in the classic “Orientalism” of 1974, European culture developed narratives about all other societies on Earth and as a result established itself as the center of human knowledge. One could easily apply Said’s orientalism to a certain “occidentalism” of the American continent and we shall ask what such narrative entails. According to the Eurocentric narrative, the Americas were a vast continent empty of sophisticated cultures and ready to be conquered by superior knowledge of the self-proclaimed “old world”. This course looks into an array of spatial concepts developed by Americans (understood here of course as anyone who is rooted in the continent, from Chile to Alaska); in order to provide Penn undergraduate students with the intellectual tools to understand such spaces.

Spring

1 Course Unit

ARCH 3010 Architecture Design I

An introduction to the design of architecture in the city. Students explore the relationships between two-dimensional patterns and their corresponding three-dimensional interpretations through the orthographic drawings of plan, section, and elevation and three-dimensional digital and physical models. ARCH 3010 focuses on Architecture’s connective role as a whole comprised of parts (a building comprised of components) a contributing part of a whole (a building within an urban, suburban, or rural environment).

Fall

Prerequisite: ARCH 2020

2 Course Units

ARCH 3020 Architecture Design II

An introduction to the design of architecture in the landscape. Issues of mapping, placement, scale, and construction are explored through studio design projects, site visits, and discussions. Course work focuses on the preparation and presentation of design projects emphasizing analytical skills along with the development of imaginative invention and judgment.

Spring

Prerequisite: ARCH 3010

2 Course Units

ARCH 3030 Design Fundamentals

The creation of a successful product requires the integration of design, engineering, and marketing. The purpose of this intensive studio course is to introduce basic concepts in the design of three-dimensional products. For purposes of the course, design is understood as a creative act of synthesis expressed through various modes of 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional representation. The course develops basic design skills ranging from hand sketching to the use of digital modeling software and rapid prototyping. Fulfills the requirement for a design background course in the interdisciplinary graduate program in Integrated Product Design (IPD).

Summer Term

1 Course Unit

ARCH 3101 Spatial Reparations: Material and Territorial Practices of Justice

This interdisciplinary seminar will look at the ways in which acts of historical repair and justice have been materially negotiated through landscapes, sites, buildings, and objects. Historic and collective trauma – from the injustices of colonialism, slavery, war, dispossession, genocide, and ecocide – often involves multiple, interconnected scales of harm, and accordingly demands responses that consider multiple forms of healing. Forms of repair might include the restoration of a local ecosystem, the establishment of an archive, the preservation of a building or street, legal acknowledgement of heirs, the transfer of property rights, or the repatriation of artworks. This course will consider these interdisciplinary approaches and strategies of redemption through both readings and case studies. Case studies will be international in scope and will focus on the ways in which an engaged approach to history can inform responses through landscape, community activism, architecture, monuments, artworks, exhibitions, or archives. Students are not required to have a background in architecture, and students from different disciplinary backgrounds and interests are encouraged to participate. One of the goals of this course is to explore how architectural, urban planning, and landscape approaches to reparations offer forms of knowledge that are productive for other fields. But we will also look at how different disciplines can contribute unique responses to addressing historical trauma and injustice. Classes will consist of weekly discussions of readings, peer feedback on final projects, and student presentations chosen from suggested case studies. As a final project, students may write a research or critical essay, or may produce a visual or graphic work that includes a written component.

Spring

1 Course Unit

ARCH 3110 Theory I

Theory I offers an introduction to key topics in architectural theory, providing students with a foundational understanding of the discipline. Through readings, case studies, and diverse materials, participants will critically reflect on issues of contemporary relevance within the field of architecture. This course equips students with essential tools for thoughtful analysis and creative engagement in architectural discourse.

Fall

1 Course Unit

ARCH 3301 Architectural Representation

This course explores the production of architectural representation as both a storytelling tool and a design language. Emphasizing the historical, theoretical, and practical applications of these methods, students will think critically about the role of architectural representations in society and gain a comprehensive understanding of the "stories" behind various drawing methods, the origins of their inventions, and the critical impacts these drawing types have had on the practice. Additionally, we will discuss representational "strategies" needed to effectively engage with these techniques in design work and project collaborations. Through various lectures, reading discussions, and hands-on workshops, we will explore the cultural impact of architectural drawings and develop critically reflective drawing skills, viewing architectural representation as both a process and a production of architecture. While not all architectural designs transform into buildings, every architectural drawing emerges with deliberate intention and purpose, serving as a storytelling medium and one of our most essential tools for communicating ideas. This universal language, powerful in its proper or improper application, has been employed to make the invisible visible, be it sensory experiences or underrepresented voices, and to give meaning and message to architectural form. The way architects represent buildings and ideas through various mediums bridges the realms of imagination and reality, acting as the conduit through which ideas, iterations, and methodologies take on tangible forms in our constructed environment. In this class, we will explore the role of mediums, their impact, and lessons from the historical theory of architectural drawings. We will start with a close reading of orthographic and oblique projections, collaging and textures, and aspects of generative representation influenced by historical and contemporary practices. Developing a critical eye toward various architectural mediums, students will learn to be critically reflective in their work to improve its effectiveness in communication. This class closely examines how architectural drawings guide the creation of physical spaces and reflect and shape cultural and historical narratives. Architectural Representation: Stories & Strategies will be structured around bi-weekly topics framed by theory readings, lectures, discussions, workshops, software tutorials, and drawing exercises. These activities will prompt students to experiment with representation techniques in the context of their own design projects in concurrent studios. As part of the course requirements, students will need to complete three representation exercises related to course topics and experiment in parallel with their current or past design courses. These exercises will be presented and discussed in class, providing a platform for peer learning and feedback. The final project will require students to select a representation strategy and critically evaluate the architectural possibilities that emerge from the close reading and analysis conducted throughout the course. Students will apply the representation technique to their portfolio, challenging them to explore and refine a representation from their studio work and storytelling skills.

Spring

1 Course Unit

ARCH 3302 Thinking through Making

This course will consider the architectural model as an Interrogatory, exploratory, documentary, and/ or revelatory device through historical and contemporary lenses. Intended for both majors and non-majors, this introduction to the role of making in architectural production will provide students with a foundational understanding of the ways in which architects interpret, understand, and develop their work through tactile engagement with the material world. A focus on three dimensional representation will encourage students to consider the work of others while building individual skills in, and familiarity with, the workshop as a place of production, exploration, and possibility.

1 Course Unit

ARCH 3800 Topics In Architecture

The topics courses offer a timely exploration of issues of contemporary relevance within the discipline of architecture. These introductory seminars engage with a diverse range of themes that vary by semester and instructor. Open to all undergraduate students.

1 Course Unit

ARCH 3801 Topics In Landscape

This course offers a timely exploration of issues of contemporary relevance within the area of landscape studies. Specific content will vary by semester and instructor. Open to all undergraduate students.

1 Course Unit

ARCH 3802 Topics in Theory

This course offers a timely exploration of issues of contemporary relevance within the area of architectural theory. Specific content will vary by semester and instructor. Open to all undergraduate students.

1 Course Unit

ARCH 3803 Topics in Representation

This course offers a timely exploration of issues of contemporary relevance within the area of architectural representation. Specific content will vary by semester and instructor. Open to all undergraduate students.

1 Course Unit

ARCH 3804 Topics in Technology

This course offers a timely exploration of issues of contemporary relevance within the area of architectural technology. Specific content will vary by semester and instructor. Open to all undergraduate students.

1 Course Unit

ARCH 4010 Advanced Design Workshop

Advanced design course that engages contemporary contexts of architecture through historical, socio-cultural, and environmental frameworks. Students develop skills for collaboration, self-evaluation, and peer critique while learning how to effectively communicate design ideas to a public audience.

Fall

Prerequisite: ARCH 3020

2 Course Units

ARCH 4020 Advanced Design Seminar

ARCH 4020: Advanced Design Seminar builds on projects and student work completed in ARCH 4010: Advanced Design, refining the studio projects in consideration of real-life constraints and opportunities. It allows students to develop in-depth research and design skills in partnership with community groups and/or industry partners. Addressing questions of design feasibility that extend beyond the scope of an architecture design studio, students will learn how issues such as economics, financing, constructability, design standards, zoning, and building codes ultimately impact the evolution of a project. Students will sharpen their communication and representation skills while creatively responding to the constraints and opportunities inherent within the practice of architecture.

Spring

1 Course Unit

ARCH 4110 Theory I: Geometry in Architecture

Following a brief historical overview of Euclidean, stereotomic, projective anddescriptive geometry in pre-modern architecture, the course examines the writings and works of early 20th-century modern architects who used regulating lines and numerical harmonic scales to generate and regulate architectural form in accordance with the golden section ratio and the dynamic symmetry of root rectangles. Also examined are works of mid 20th-century architecture based on traditional geometric constructions--conic sections (circles, ellipse, hyperbola and parabola) and ruled surfaces (cylinders, cones, hyperboloids, and hyperbolic paraboloids), as well as those derived from polyhedral and geodesic structures. Following an introduction to the geometry of free-form curves characteristic of the digital turn in late 20th-century architecture--including Bezier, B-spline, NURBS (non-uniform rational B-spline), and developable surfaces--the course concludes with an overview of recent efforts to utilize curvature in contemporary architecture within a set of more definitive geometrical and disciplinary boundaries.

Fall

1 Course Unit

ARCH 4120 Theory II

Theory II explores advanced topics in architectural theory. Through readings, case studies, and multi-media materials, students will explore contemporary concerns within the discipline of architecture in relationship to other areas of knowledge. By engaging with complex issues, students will hone their analytical abilities and develop a critical lens through which to examine architectural thought and practice.

Spring

Prerequisite: ARCH 3110

1 Course Unit

ARCH 4310 Construction I

Lecture course exploring the basic principles of architectural technology and building construction. The course is focused on building material, methods of on-site and off-site preparation, material assemblies, and the performance of materials. Topics discussed include load bearing masonry structures of small to medium size (typical row house constuction), heavy and light wood frame construction, sustainable construction practices, emerging + engineered materials, and integrated building practices. The course also introduces students to Building Information Modeling (BIM) via the production of construction documents.

Fall

Mutually Exclusive: ARCH 5310

0.5 Course Units

ARCH 4320 Construction II

A continuation of Construction I, focusing on light and heavy steel frame construction, concrete construction, light and heavyweight cladding systems and systems building.

Spring

Mutually Exclusive: ARCH 5320

1 Course Unit

ARCH 4330 Building Systems Integration

What makes buildings livable and buildable. After the initial concept design and massing studies are complete the next step is detailing. This seminar will examine the detail, how they can inform and enhance a building's design. The primary goals of a building is that it stands up to external forces, protects inhabitants from the elements and provides a healthy environment. This course will look at the individual components of structure, skin and systems. More importantly though, it will examine the connections between them. The class will begin with lectures examining the different systems and then progress into applying these ideas as a whole to individual studio projects. The final results of this course will be a 3D wall section with accompanying details. These details will be developed in a variety of software as chosen by the student. Recommended options are Revit, Rhino, AutoCAD.

Fall

0.5 Course Units

ARCH 4350 Structures I

Theory applied toward structural form. A review of one-dimensional structural elements; a study of arches, slabs and plates, curved surface structures, lateral and dynamic loads; survey of current and future structural technology. The course comprises both lectures and a weekly laboratory in which various structural elements, systems, materials and technical principles are explored.

Fall

Mutually Exclusive: ARCH 5350

0.5 Course Units

ARCH 4360 Structures II

A continuation of the equilibrium analysis of structures covered in Structures I. The study of static and hyperstatic systems and design of their elements. Flexural theory, elastic and plastic. Design for combined stresses; prestressing. The study of graphic statics and the design of trusses. The course comprises both lectures and a weekly laboratory in which various structural elements, systems, materials and technical principles are explored.

Spring

Mutually Exclusive: ARCH 5360

0.5 Course Units

ARCH 4998 Senior Thesis

The architecture senior thesis provides students with the opportunity to undertake an independent critical and speculative exploration of a chosen theme. The theme is required to connect architecture with at least one other discipline or subject in the College of Arts and Science. In addition, the questions formulated should establish a concrete link to debates that can be identified as architectural, whether belonging to the realm of individual buildings, urbanism, or product design. This means, that departing from a humanistic question, students should seek to establish clear connections to architectural discourse in the process of conducting their thesis. The thesis project initiates a set of issues and methods that students may continue to develop as they embark on their future professional and intellectual careers. Although the thesis is conceived independently, it is conducted under the supervision of faculty advisors and the thesis coordinator. For additional information, please contact the Chair of Undergraduate Architecture.

Spring

Prerequisite: ARCH 3010

1 Course Unit

ARCH 5000 Summer Preparatory Design Studio

The Summer Preparatory Studio offers an intensive drawing and design experience to candidates for admission to the Graduate Program in Architecture who have not completed the necessary design studio prerequisites or who are required to have additional design experience to qualify for matriculation into the Master of Architecture Professional Degree Program in September. Enrollment in this program does not count towards the Master of Architecture degree. The intent of the drawing component of the course is to familiarize the student with primarily black and white mediums (pencil, charcoal, ink, etc). Exercises are designed to sharpen the student's ability to see selectively and to transform image to paper through both line and tonal renditions in freehand sketch form. Exercises will also familiarize the student with basic drafting skills necessary for architectural communication and provide an introduction to computer-aided design through applications of the intensive Rhino and Illustrator tutorials given in the Digital Navigation course. The design part of the course presents a rhythm of basic three-dimensional design studies and simple architectural studio investigations. These are intended to build fundamental skills and acquaint the student with the architectural issues of form/space, conceptualization, transformation of scale, simple functional and constructional problems and a sensitivity to context. Course enrollment is by permit only.

Summer Term

2 Course Units

ARCH 5010 Design Studio I

This course is the first of a four-semester long design sequence that constitutes the core studio curriculum within the Master of Architecture program at the Weitzman School of Design. This studio introduces specific modes of architectural thinking, design, and practice through a set of projects that examine the foundational topics of component order and assembly . The semester will examine part-to-whole relationships through digital design techniques, tectonic and material studies and physical fabrication . The semester will culminate with the design of a small institutional extension that allows students to apply these foundational concepts to architectural space.

Fall

Corequisite: ARCH 5210

2 Course Units

ARCH 5020 Design Studio II

This studio explores urban architecture as an embodiment of cultural values . Analytical techniques for representing urban conditions are explored extensively . Students are challenged to interact with large, complex programs , individually determining one large component of the assigned program. Siting, enclosure of space and dimensions of public space and commons are stressed in order to challenge students to project relevant and inventive architectural situations . Large scale site and ground plans are stressed in the development of the project.

Spring

Corequisite: ARCH 5220

2 Course Units

ARCH 5110 History and Theory I

This overview of the history of architecture from the mid-nineteenth century through World War II places modern architecture’s evolution into global perspective, taking into account not just transformations in architectural aesthetics and building practices around the world but also the broader sociopolitical, economic, technological, environmental, and intellectual forces that influenced them . We consider changing modes of production and reception, disciplinary and institutional innovations, animating debates, and global interdependencies and interchanges . Going well beyond iconic buildings and canonical “isms,” we pose the following questions: In what ways did the new architecture of the period respond to, participate in, and mediate the unprecedented experiences of modernizing societies? How did urban and environmental crises, colonial enterprises and devastating wars, national and international agendas, social changes, and technological advances affect architects’ understanding of the spaces they were called upon to design? How, in turn, did buildings and projects reflect different societies’ self-images and aspirations to become modern? What can architecture’s manifestations over the course of this formative period tell us about the emergent modern world? In attempting to answer these questions, we take note of shifting historiographic paradigms and reflect on the genealogical relationship and relevance of this epoch to architectural thought and practice today.

Fall

1 Course Unit

ARCH 5120 History and Theory II

ARCH 512 continues topics introduced in ARCH 511, in the midst of World War II, and traces the evolution of architecture culture up to the twenty-first century in the context of an increasingly complex and interconnected world. We are concerned with both material and ideological changes, with key architectural protagonists, projects, and contexts as well as the impact of external historical forces. Lectures move roughly chronologically through a varied array of issues, among them: postwar reconstruction and planning; the culture of the Cold War; the critique of interwar modernism; the emergence of new technologies and postindustrial processes; the burgeoning of suburbanization, consumer culture, and mass media; revisionist and radical approaches to form and space; the rise of new social movements; postmodernism; globalization and the advent of digital culture; and environmental, social, and geopolitical challenges at the turn of the century. As in the previous semester, the course is intended to provide students with a broad knowledge of the architectural history of the period under study and an understanding of architecture’s role and agency in a changing world.

Spring

1 Course Unit

ARCH 5210 Visual Studies I

The coursework of Visual Studies investigates architectural representation as the primary means for communication and development of an architect's work. Alongside the development of fundamental skills are weekly lectures on the history of representation exploring the introduction of new technologies, drawings relation to culture, and the impact on practice of representational turns. The first semester investigates documenting objects and space through orthographic projection and isometric drawing while also moving between virtual and physical space with means including photogrammetry and 3D printing.

Fall

Corequisite: ARCH 5010

0.5 Course Units

ARCH 5220 Visual Studies II

The second course in the Visual Studies sequence emphasizes drawings as generative devices which project possibilities rather than just documenting design decisions. Assignments explore image construction through photography and rendering and the construction of a large cutaway section drawing which speculates on the development of the studio project.

Spring

Corequisite: ARCH 5020

0.5 Course Units

ARCH 5310 Construction I

ARCH 5310 is the first of two courses explaining Construction Technology. The first course introduces the student to the relationship of design and construction in the creation of buildings. The early lectures trace the evolution and innovation of construction techniques throughout history and around the globe . This is used to ground the course in the kinds of environmental, economic, and technological pressures that have influenced the use of materials and methods in construction . Next, the course presents a primer describing how design and the act of drawing establishes a vocabulary that architects use to describe the construction of buildings. The balance of the course presents the building of a “light scale” building from the ground up; examining the fundamental material and construction concepts related to construction starting with excavation and ending with interior finishes . Bi-weekly labs complement the lectures with site visits to construction sites and trade facilities as well as more focused lessons.

Fall

Mutually Exclusive: ARCH 4310

0.5 Course Units

ARCH 5320 Construction II

Lecture and Workshop course focused on light and heavy steel frame construction, concrete construction, light and heavyweight cladding systems and systems building. Construction Technology II is an advanced course in building technology and building information modeling that informs, instructs, and demonstrates the extent to which industrialized building systems and innovative building technologies impact and guide the architect’s design process. The course focuses on multistory buildings whose complexities require the adoption of varying material, constructional, and informational technologies. Students are guided by teaching assistants in the completion of a set of construction drawings that are reviewed using industry standard red-lining digital techniques.

Spring

Mutually Exclusive: ARCH 4320

1 Course Unit

ARCH 5350 Structures I

Theory applied toward structural form. A review of one-dimensional structural elements; a study of arches, slabs and plates, curved surface structures, lateral and dynamic loads; the sizing and selection of materials are undertaken using acceptable standards and code requirements; survey of current and future structural technology. The course comprises both lectures and a weekly laboratory in which various structural elements, systems, materials and technical principles are explored.

Fall

Mutually Exclusive: ARCH 4350

0.5 Course Units

ARCH 5360 Structures II

The course is continuation of Structures I. A review of two-dimensional structural elements including slabs, plates, walls, curved surfaces, and solid structures are conducted . The sizing and selection of materials is undertaken using acceptable standards and code requirements . Additionally, prestressing and composite systems, materials, and elements are studied. Wind, seismic and flooding events are introduced through lateral stability criteria. A survey of current and future structural technology is undertaken . The course is made up of both lectures and a weekly laboratory in which various structural elements, systems, materials and technical principles are explored.

Spring

Mutually Exclusive: ARCH 4360

0.5 Course Units

ARCH 5990 First Year Technology Lab

ARCH 5999 is a required lab/workshop that accompanies the core technology sequence in the M.Arch program in both the Fall and Spring terms. This non-graded lab section will offer additional instruction, workshops, lab time, and other support to the first year technology courses. Enrollment in ARCH 5999 is required for all undergraduate and graduate Architecture students taking ARCH 4350/5350, ARCH 4356/5356, ARCH 4310/5310, and/or ARCH 4320/5320.

0 Course Units

ARCH 6010 Design Studio III

The third core studio proposes the design of a 50,000 square foot, urban sited building that positions a new urban housing project with an existing structure. Students engage architecture in its role as a cultural agent and examine the way buildings establish and organize dynamic relationships between site, program and building materials . Urban access, relationship to siting, mass-transit, and the larger city will be considered . The curricular goals of the studio include the exploration of building massing, housing unit scale and variation, and the creation of hybrid forms of housing/dwelling as they relate to adaptive reuse and public programs within the urban environment .

Fall

Corequisite: ARCH 6210

2 Course Units

ARCH 6020 Design Studio IV

The fourth core studio aims to develop students’ understanding of building design through the coordination, negotiation, and feedback of multiple constituents and consultants . The integration of site, structure, mechanical systems, envelope, and material are key to the development of the work . The organization of the semester works to give an understanding of how critical input from a host of expertise serves the design process . The students work alongside engineers, material specialists, and other consultants to gain new insight into building and construction constraints, processes, and opportunities . The projects, sited in urban contexts, are 35,000 square foot buildings which engage with the 600 studio wide theme of the Public Commons - a term used for shared, equitable access of all communities to natural resources such as air, oceans and wildlife as well as to social creations such as libraries, public spaces, technology and scientific research.

Spring

2 Course Units

ARCH 6110 History and Theory III

This course builds on the previous History/Theory sequence (ARCH 5110 and ARCH 5120), moving from an emphasis on history to focus on contemporary theories of architecture. The goal is to build literacy in contemporary architectural discourse in correlation with design culture. Students will gain awareness of where the field of contemporary architectural theory currently stands, especially in terms of its societal and scientific relevance. Lectures and discussions will look at the aesthetic, political, and ethical implications of design, and will consider the global context of architecture in light of climate change and emerging building and design technologies. Successful students will gain skills in reading and discussing theoretical texts and will be able to better articulate their own critical thinking and positioning in the field.

Fall

1 Course Unit

ARCH 6210 Visual Studies III

The final course in the Visual Studies sequence integrates more dynamic modeling, texturing, and rendering applications to synthesize and propel work from the earlier semesters. To avoid tropes and the inherent biases of the tools, the courses serve to help comprehend not only the technical and aesthetic but also the theoretical and political implications of representation. The three-semester arc provides an understanding of contemporary drawing, modeling, and visualization techniques while also creating the necessary grounding in the historical context needed to position one's work. This allows the students to engage and critique larger discussions in the field as well as to shape and impact culture and the built environment.

Fall

Corequisite: ARCH 6010

0.5 Course Units

ARCH 6310 D3: Details, Data, Delivery

This course is focused on advanced subjects in the project delivery of buildings, subjects inclusive of Biogenic and Carbon Responsive Materials and Details, Environment, Resiliency, and Fossil Fuel Free Building Systems Integration, Advanced Fabrication, Robotic Manufacturing, and Building Labor, and Computational Workflows, Artificial Intelligence, and Simulating Building. Students study complex, integrated, and sustainably determined buildings seeking their systems based, technological, and labor-based innovations. Students engage in advanced research methods and forensic analysis of artifacts and primary source documents associated with the material detailing, fabrication, data-scaping, virtualizing, simulating, and workflow planning of building projects. Students organize the collection of firsthand/primary source information and interview members of the project delivery team. Identifying how, why, and to what end products and practices are deployed in the construction of innovative projects is the goal.

Fall

0.5 Course Units

ARCH 6330 Environmental Systems I

The course prepares the students to understand the role of environmental systems in building design, and how to apply principles of building science such as the building heat balance, solar heat gain and daylighting in the early building design, through calculations and simulations. Issues of climate, health and environmental sustainability are explored as they relate to architecture in its natural context. The classes include lectures, site visits and lab sessions.

Spring

0.5 Course Units

ARCH 6340 Environmental Systems II

The second course in the Environmental Systems sequence considers the environmental and global systems of larger, more complex buildings. Contemporary buildings are characterized by the use of systems such as ventilation, heating, cooling, dehumidification, lighting, acoustics, and controls that not only have their own demands, but interact dynamically with one another. At a global scale, factors that connect the built environment to carbon emissions are explored, developing careful and rigorous analysis techniques to minimize both lifecycle and operational carbon emissions of buildings. As more buildings over the coming decades become all-electric, frontiers and opportunities for novel system design are explored.

Spring

.5 Course Units

ARCH 6360 Material Formations

Architectural design involves the incorporation of numerous technical and creative considerations that must be weighted and synthesized, and ultimately embodied in an architectural work’s material outcome. The effectiveness of this endeavor is tightly related to a design’s alignment with design-engineering, material and production constraints and opportunities. The building industry is increasingly adopting automated methods both in design and engineering software, and robotic means of fabrication and construction to decrease material, environmental and time costs. The discipline of architecture must not only keep apace with these developments, but also develop a creative and critical approach to the increasingly automated means by which buildings are designed and realized, re-casting it as an opportunity to engage in design with greater degrees of holistic thinking, while engaging in material and production decisions.

Spring

1 Course Unit

ARCH 6710 Professional Practice I

The Professional Practice Sequence comprises two essential courses: ARCH 6710 in the Spring of the second year and ARCH 7710 in the Fall of the third year. These courses play a pivotal role in integrating the student's design, history and theory, and technical expertise into the broader framework of the regulatory, business, and cultural realms they will encounter in their professional journey. The discipline of architecture demands an inquisitive mind capable of synthesizing a multitude of technical, aesthetic, social, and conceptual elements. This essential characteristic is not limited to the mere creation of built spaces; it also extends to formulating a process of labor that is both responsible and fair, and capable of adapting to the ever-changing conditions of the world. ARCH 6710 begins by briefly outlining the overall course sequence in order to locate the first section in the context of the next course in the Fall, ARCH 7710. From there the course uses each week to describe the methods involved in acquiring, designing, and constructing a building project. Lectures will delve deep into the mechanisms for articulating a design vision visually and verbally and the systems employed to ensure successful implementation of that vision. The lectures will draw connections between the student’s studio design knowledge to date and the instructor’s experience in practice including local building examples and current events. Due to the more limited time allotted per class for ARCH 6710, the course will be predominantly in-class lectures and out of class assignments.

Spring

0.5 Course Units

ARCH 6741 Curricular Practical Training: Academic Year

Course Description This course provides international Architecture department students the opportunity for practical training in architecture in the United States (CPT). The course develops critical thinking about the organization, operation, and ethics of professional practice in city planning. This course will allow international M.Arch/MSD students to work in an internship in the United States during the academic year without shortening their limited OPT time. The course is offered for .20 course units. The employment must relate to the major and the experience must be part of the program of study. Course enrollment is by permit only.

0.2 Course Units

ARCH 6850 Environmental Readings

In this seminar, we will explore the green thread in America thought and letters and analyze its influence on how we shape our environments through design and planning. The course has three parts. Throughout, the influence of literature on design and planning theory will be explored. The first part will focus on three most important theorists in environmental planning and landscape architecture: Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., Charles Eliot, and Ian McHarg. The second part of the course will critically explore current theories in environmental planning and landscape architecture. The topics include: frameworks for cultural landscape studies, the future of the vernacular, ecological design and planning, sustainable and regenerative design, the languages of landscapes, and evolving views of landscape aesthetics and ethics. In the third part of the course, students will build on the readings to develop their own theory for ecological planning or, alternatively, landscape architecture. While literacy and inquiry are addressed throughout the course, critical thinking is especially important for this final section.

Fall

Also Offered As: CPLN 6850, LARP 6850

1 Course Unit

ARCH 6980 Architectural Association (AA), London

This course is reserved for M.Arch students in their final year participating in the semester abroad program in London, England. The program is housed at the Architectural Association (AA), located on Bedford Square in the heart of Bloomsbury. Students enroll in a special section of ARCH 7040 taught by Penn faculty in London and in elective courses offered by the faculty at the AA.

Fall

1 Course Unit

ARCH 6999 Second Year Technology Lab

ARCH 6999 is a required lab/workshop that accompanies the core technology sequence in the M.Arch program in both the Fall and Spring terms. This non-graded lab section will offer additional instruction, workshops, lab time, and other support to the second year technology courses. Enrollment in ARCH 5999 is required for all Master of Architecture students taking ARCH 6330, ARCH 6340, ARCH 6310, and/or ARCH 6360.

0 Course Units

ARCH 7010 Design Studio V

The fall Advanced Design Studio focuses on the dynamic transformations shaping the 21st-century city. These transformations are multi-faceted, deep-rooted, and impact all aspects of contemporary urban life. Studio topics encompass a wide range of themes, including technological innovations, sociopolitical and environmental challenges, and cultural and historical shifts that typify architecture in the urban realm today. All studios travel to domestic and international cities to engage local stakeholders and conduct research on site.

Fall

2 Course Units

ARCH 7030 Advanced Architectural Design Studio

An Advanced Architectural Design Studio specifically tailored to post-professional students. Through this studio, students engage in the challenges and opportunities presented by changes in society, technology, and urban experience. Through design projects, they explore alternative modes and markets for practice, along with new directions and new tools for design.

Fall

2 Course Units

ARCH 7040 Design Studio VI

The sixth and final Design Studios offer an in-depth examination and exploration of relevant architectural subjects through critical conceptual thinking, rigorous research, and advanced design and representational methodologies. As the final studios in the M. Arch sequence, these studios lead inquiries into topical subjects and prepare students for lifelong engagement in the field. Studios are taught by leading practitioners in the field, who share their expertise with the students and equip them with the necessary tools to participate in the discipline at the highest level. All studios include travel to a domestic or international destination.

Spring

2 Course Units

ARCH 7050 MSD-AAD Design Research Studio

Students learn from industry leaders by electing their Design research Studio. The second semester design research studio focuses on large scale detail leading to a building design.

2 Course Units

ARCH 7060 Honors Thesis Program

The thesis program is offered to a select group of students who apply and qualify through two rounds of assessment, comprising typically 6-10 students. The summer and fall semester serve to develop research of interests individual to students, with the help of faculty advisors, who critique individually and as a group in a workshop format. Design projects are developed in the spring semester. Besides final reviews, students are expected to document their work in a book format.

Spring

2 Course Units

ARCH 7070 AAD Fabrication Studio

The final studio course in the MSD-AAD sequence. Through this studio, students engage in the challenges and opportunities presented by changes in society, technology, and urban experience. Through design projects, they explore alternative modes and markets for practice, along with new directions and new tools for design.

Summer Term

2 Course Units

ARCH 7080 Bioclimatic Design Studio

An advanced design studio for the MSD-EBD program that synthesizes the concepts and techniques of environmental building design. Topics and materials for the studio are developed in ARCH 7520: EBD Research Seminar, and summarized in a research report at the end of studio.

Summer Term

Prerequisite: ARCH 7510 AND ARCH 7520 AND ARCH 7530

2 Course Units

ARCH 7090 Environmental Building Design Research Studio

Architecture is a process of discovery, of deciding what to work on, before it ever becomes a matter of design (disegno, drawing). For environmental building design, the process of discovery is even more profound, involving issues of resource consumption, modes of living and working, and of ecological interconnection that have to be explored before questions of performance can even be addressed. This design studio uses research at multiple scales to identify the topic of the studio, then student teams develop design for buildings of maximum (ecological) power.

Fall

Prerequisite: ARCH 7080 AND ARCH 7510 AND ARCH 7520 AND ARCH 7530

2 Course Units

ARCH 7100 Contemporary Theory 1989-Present

A chronological overview of the approaches and attitudes adopted by architects, theorists and inter-disciplinary writers from 1993- today that havehelped shape the current discourse of architecture. This course will introduce and contextualize key projects, and polemics over the last 25 years. Central themes in this course include the impact of digital technologies and methods of design, production and materiality. These are explored through texts, movements, projects and buildings that help form an overview that has shaped the contemporary condition that we live in. There have been a myriad of different approaches and through a select set of readings and lectures students will be exposed to crucial texts, projects and buildings making students versatile and knowledgeable in the important concepts that shape our current discourse. A focus will be the organization, configuration and articulation of buildings and the conceptual and cultural arguments they are associated. Formal, organizational and material characteristics of this period will be explored. This class will develop students' knowledge and provide a platform from which they can continue the discussions surrounding architectural thought and practice. The students will learn to communicate their ideas verbally and in writing. Contemporary topics in architecture theory and projects are introduced in a weekly lecture format critical to the shaping of our discipline today. A weeklyrecitation session allows students to engage with the readings critically in the subject matter. A mid-term and final paper are required to pass this class. (Topics to be covered: Seminal projects and buildings in the last 25 years, situating the architects work within a culture of debate and discourse identifying the important readings surrounding each building/project.) This course is a requirement of the MSD-AAD curriculum.

Spring

1 Course Unit

ARCH 7110 Topics in Architecture Theory I