Graduate courses - Winter 2017

WINTER 2017 CORE CLASSES - 2 YEAR MArch STUDENTS

ARCH 690 - Design Studio
ARCH 662 - Steel & Concrete: Design, Structure and Construction
 

WINTER 2017 - CORE CLASSES - THESIS STUDENTS

ARCH 693 - Thesis Research and Design Studio II
ARCH 655 - Architectural Professional Practice: Ethics, Business, Legal Issues and Contract Administration
 

WINTER 2017 GRADUATE ELECTIVES

ARCH 570_001 - Architectural Steel Design
ARCH 623 – Ecosystems Design – Urban Landscape
ARCH 684_001 - CONCATENATIONS: Deleuze and Contemporary Architecture
ARCH 684_002 - Coding Design
ARCH 684_003 - Information, Communication, and the Evolving Conceptions of Urban Space
ARCH 684_004 - Philosophy in Architecture
ARCH 684_006 - Gardiner Museum Installation: Toronto Design Build Elective
ARCH 685 - Readings in Architecture
ARCH 686 - Competitions in Architecture



WINTER 2017 CORE CLASSES - 2 YEAR MArch STUDENTS

Course Topic: Design Studio
Course Code: ARCH 690
Instructor(s): Andrew Levitt
Day/Time: Monday 9:30-12:30 & 1:30-5:30 / Thursday 9:30-12:30 & 1:30-5:30


Course Topic: Steel & Concrete: Design, Structure and Construction
Course Code: ARCH 662
Instructor(s): Andrea Atkins

Day/Time: Friday 2:00-6:00 PM ARC 1101 - Lecture
Wednesday 6:30-8:30 PM ARC 1101 - Tutorial


WINTER 2017 - CORE CLASSES - THESIS STUDENTS

Course Topic: Thesis Research and Design Studio II
Course Code: ARCH 693 -
Instructor(s): Ali Fard, Maya Przybylski, Dereck Revington, Val
Rynnimeri
Day/Time: Tuesday 9:30-12:30 & 1:30-5:30 / Thursday 9:30-1:30

Studio presentations and selection - TBA. Permission numbers required and will be distributed after the selection.


Course Topic: Architectural Professional Practice: Ethics, Business, Legal Issues and Contract Administration
Course Code: ARCH 655 

Day/Time: Block course 04/10/2017- 04/14/2017 & 04/24/2017 - 04/28/2017 each day from approximately 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM


WINTER 2017 GRADUATE ELECTIVES

Course Topic: Architectural Steel Design
Course Code: ARCH 570_001
Instructor(s): Terri Boake

Day/Time: Wednesday 2:00-5:00 ARC 1101
Enrolment Cap: 10

*This course requires a course add form in order to be added to your schedule. Please email Emily if you are interested in enrolling and the spots will be filled on a first come first serve basis*

Using an international database of case studies this course examines in detail the architectural design, specification, fabrication and construction process for Architecturally Exposed Structural Steel (AESS). It references the standards that were developed by the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction. Lectures will address topics including, the AESS Category Approach, fabrication standards and practices, project communication, tensile structures, diagrid structures, curved steel, castings, pedestrian bridges, steel with glazing, steel with timber. The work of the term will use  steel based competitions to explore detailed design application of the material. The term’s knowledge will focus on design projects that requires the students to design and detail architecturally exposed structural steel systems, connections and buildings. Students will keep a detailed sketchbook of examples and details addressed in class, in teams of 2 (masters) or 3 (undergrad) students, complete the CISC Design Competition in teams of 2 (masters) or 3 (undergrad) students, complete the AISC/ACSA Design Competition (topic yet to be announced) or the OPEN Category. The latter could be an extrapolation of your 3A studio project or thesis if desired.

The overall intention is to provide you with a high level appreciation of steel structural systems and an adeptness for detailing that is appropriate to the specific project and building type. The work of the term is intended to provide you with some significant pieces for your portfolio.

The majority of the project work has been designed as group projects to keep it manageable and within the suggested constraints of an elective. If there are compelling reasons for tackling the work individually, these can be discussed. The course reflects the research of my new book on Architecturally Exposed Structural Steel published by Birkhauser in January 2015.

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Course Topic: Ecosystems Design - Urban Landscape
Course Code: ARCH 623
Instructor(s): Val Rynnimeri

Day/Time: Friday 10:00 - 1:00 ARC Main Lecture Hall
Enrolment cap: 10

Landscape and urban design today are in the middle of being re-shaped by ecosystem thinking and new design and planning methodologies like “resilience management”. These new approaches, in turn, are being influenced by increasingly sophisticated theories of emergent complexity. This course outlines the concepts of complex ecosystem design useful for landscape and urban design, and more detailed project work. The course focus is on expanding conventional urban design’s theoretical and working methodologies, to place the larger surrounding urban ecosystems themselves into a more central position in urban analysis and design, and to re-frame the above in the terms of complex systems thinking. There will be a dual emphasis in the course on introducing theory and methodologies through selected readings and seminar discussion, and in case study project work based on the student’s anticipated studio design work.


Course Topic: CONCATENATIONS: Deleuze and Contemporary Architecture
Course Code: ARCH 684_001
Instructor(s): Dereck Revington

Day/Time: Thursday 2:00 - 5:00 ARC 2026
Enrolment cap: 15

Gilles Deleuze asserts that great artists are also great thinkers, but they think in terms of the logic of sensation and through percepts and affects. Architects think in sensible aggregates of matter in space- time, musicians think in sounds, writers in words, filmmakers in “movement-images” and “time-images”, and painters in color and line. But architecture, as Deleuze says, “is the first of the arts’ from which all the others draw their frames”. 

This experimental seminar will focus on the theories and generative practices that a Deleuzian ontology has spawned over the last two decades with particular emphasis on architecture, cinema and the visual arts. Students will explore productive concatenations between these practices through selected readings, through seminar presentations, writing, and the creation of non-discursive artifacts.

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Course Topic: Coding Design
Course Code: ARCH 684_002
Instructor(s): Maya Przybylski

Day/Time: Wednesday 10:00 - 1:00 ARC 2026
Enrolment cap: 15

Coding Design focuses on the investigation and exploration of the structures, processes and opportunities central to computational design. Such a practice requires that designers expand their notion of digital methodologies to include the fundamental paradigms of computer science. At the core of this practice is close attention to the organization of information and the use of algorithms.

Coding Design posits that through working in the process-oriented methods associated with programming, new ways of design thinking are exposed. The course positions computers and their associated technologies not only as machines used in the imitation and appropriation of what is already understood but also as vehicles for exploring and visualizing what is yet to be discovered.

The primary format for learning takes place in the form of  hands-on lab sessions. During these working sessions the instructor will walk through specific topics and issues after which students will engage in the lesson directly through working on various in-class exercises. Students will have the opportunity to develop the fundamental skills necessary to engage with the computational design discourse. Some class time will be spent positioning these methods and tools within a broader critical context but this is not the focus of the course.

The course project will ask students to plan, design (in a computational sense), and develop a custom script to serve as a computational tool aiding thesis development. We will work in the Java-based  Processing programming environment. Other environments (such as Grasshopper and RhinoScript) may be included if time permits and interest exists. Students are free to choose their preferred development environment for their project development.

Previous exposure to writing/reading code is not required. If you have some experience reading/writing code please contact instructor prior to registering to explore expanded learning options.

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Course Topic: Information, Communication, and the Evolving Conceptions of Urban Space
Course Code: ARCH 684_003
Instructor(s): Ali Fard

Day/Time: Thursday 2:00-5:00 PM ARC 2008
Enrolment Cap: 15

The rapid development of information and communication technologies after the Second World War has greatly influenced the conception of urban space within design. New modes of communication, together with the rise of personal computing and the expanding capacity of modern societies to generate, absorb, and analyze massive amounts of information, have generated a number of spatial ideologies that are in need of critical engagement. This seminar will investigate the spatial ideologies generated by the growth of information and communication technologies which have influenced architects, designers and urbanists to re-think and re-imagine the city and its future spatial trajectory. The seminar will trace the spatial ideas around information and communication technologies, starting with the development of a network culture in architecture after WWII and will chart its development through the works of the radical architecture of 1960s, followed by investigations into the urban transcendence ideologies of late 20th century and the emerging discourse around “smart” cities. The final part of the seminar will examine the future trajectory of these ideas within architecture and design. The course will be structured around a set of readings and analysis of the design experiments of each period of development.


Course Topic: Philosophy in Architecture
​Course Code: ARCH 684_004 
Instructor(s): Marie-Paule Macdonald

Day/Time: Wednesday 2:00-5:00 PM ARC 2026
Enrolment cap: 6

Note - not open to students if course was taken as elective in the Bachelor of Architectural Studies.

This seminar uses the close reading approach to study selected texts by contemporary philosophers, including Judith Butler, Gilles Deleuze, Jaques Derrida, Friedrich Kittler, Jacques Rancière, Slavoj Žižek, selected based on their references to architectural and urban themes. What is meant by close reading? This approach will use small chapters and shorter texts to gain access to the approach. Rather than reading vast quantities of material, the class will look at fragments, listen to audio and video excerpts, and discuss the content. This will give students an opportunity to build bibliographies and references, to pursue reading in greater depth during thesis.

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Course Topic: Gardiner Museum Installation: Toronto Design Build Elective
Course Code: ARCH 684_006
Instructor(s): Jonathan Friedman

The Gardiner Museum Installation: Toronto Design Build Elective is a course that will activate the exterior entrance forecourt of the Gardiner Museum in Toronto with a student designed and built, site-specific installation.

Using the the Gardiner Museum as a backdrop, a class of 12 to 15 graduate students will envision, design and fabricate an outdoor installation for an opening in early July 2017. The installation is intended to animate and activate the public plaza in front of the Museum for 3 weeks, day and night in a meaningful and memorable way. It will also serve to mark the 50th anniversary of UW's School of Architecture.

The course - led by Jonathan Friedman a partner at PARTISANS Architects - will involve students in all aspects of developing a built project from start to finish. Over the duration of the course students will learn about bridging conceptual design with a real site, budget, schedule and construction techniques. A background or interest in ceramics and casting, along with parametric modeling and digital fabrication skills, is encouraged, but not required. Students will develop ideas that will be focused on 3 core areas: Materiality and Ceramics - the opportunity to investigate and link traditional methods with new technologies; The site - to consider the forecourt and the sidewalk/street in a meaningful way so as to engage the public; Poetics and Space - the opportunity to create a provocative and resonant piece of design in the heart of downtown Toronto.

Please note that the schedule for this course will span two terms, with approximately 6 meetings scheduled over the Winter Term, and the remaining weeks of teaching taking place in May and June. Formal classes / meetings will be scheduled approximately every 2 weeks. Funding for the build will be supported by the University of Waterloo, the Gardiner Museum and additional fundraising efforts.

Schedule*

Winter Term 2017

Mid January:   Site visit to the Gardiner Museum, Toronto; introduction to ceramics making.

End of January:   Kickoff design charette  - students are to come prepared with their analysis of the site, consideration about materials and design ideas.

February:   Selection of scheme; Design Development including layout, materials, budget review.

Reading Week

March:   Detailed Design & prototyping.

April:     No formal class

Spring Term 2017

May - June 2017:  Fabrication

July 2017 -  On Site Assembly; Opening and Activation (2 to 3 weeks) followed by Take down

*Subject to confirmation

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Course Topic: Readings in Architecture
Course Code: ARCH 685

Issues to be negotiated on an individual basis with faculty members. An outline of this course, approved by the professor in charge, must be submitted to the Graduate Officer within three weeks of the Winter term.


Course Topic: Competitions in Architecture
Course Code: ARCH 686

Instructor(s): Terri Meyer Boake

This course provides an opportunity for the student to independently engage in the respected tradition of the Architectural Competition. The competition entry and accompanying research paper must focus on the use of architectural precedents as the basis for the creation of typologically based propositions. Submission to the external competition is mandatory, the timing and detailed requirements of which will determine the personalized academic requirements for this course.

Rick Haldenby has worked with Masonryworx to develop a competition specifically for Waterloo Architecture students. The details of the competition and registration information are available in the link below. If you are interested in registering, you can speak with Terri Boake to complete the competition along with some additional academic deliverables for an ARCH 686 Competitions in Architecture Elective credit.

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