Led by BFA AD faculty Nick Brinen, the 2012 Undergraduate Architecture Studio II will develop a design proposal that incorporates issues of site specificity, material systems, and human scale. The format of the course will allow for an exploratory design process, which methodically increases in complexity as the problem changes in scope and scale.  The first project of the studio will have students performing material explorations through the process of Thinning and Thickening. They will physically transform the material properties to further understand the material’s capacity. These manipulations will be combined to form a taxonomy focusing on FIVE different assembly methods; dry joint, wet joint (compound); hinging-movable connection, stacking compressive joint, and tensile.

The problems following the material exploration will introduce a performance of the human body that will be analyzed and studied through drawings, photographs, and other media.  The final stage of the semester will synthesize both the material studies and performance analysis to develop an outdoor dance performance space in Greenwich Village of New York City.  We will investigate how design, as a process of creating site-specific knowledge across human and material scales, can contribute to the creation of new urban materiality.