CURRICULUM

CURRICULUM

CONTENT

CURRICULUM REORGANIZATION................................................................................................................................... 5

Structure.............................................................................................................................................................................................. 6

Majors.................................................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Current Department Credit Distribution........................................................................................................................ 9

Proposed Department Credit Distribution................................................................................................................ 10

Proposed Departmental Required and Elective Credits................................................................................. 10

PRESENT COURSE OF STUDY........................................................................................................................................ 12

PROPOSED COURSE OF STUDY.................................................................................................................................... 13

Recommended Course of Study for Architecture Major................................................................................ 14

Recommended Course of Study for Digital Architecture Major................................................................ 15

DEFINITION..................................................................................................................................................................................... 19

DESCRIPTION................................................................................................................................................................................ 22

Sophomore Year.......................................................................................................................................................................... 22

Junior Year...................................................................................................................................................................................... 25

Senior Year...................................................................................................................................................................................... 27

ARCHITECTURE IN THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT............................................................................................ 28

CURRICULUM REORGANIZATION

The intent of the new BFA curriculum is to offer students greater freedom in determining the focus and the direction of their education. The new curriculum offers students the choice to concentrate on one or more areas of the curriculum, while preparing them for graduate study and professional careers in architecture and the allied design disciplines. The trust of the new curriculum is to foster analytical, conceptual, and creative problem solving skills that are applicable in multiple design environments, including the emerging digital environment.

The reorganization of the BFA Curriculum is in response to two distinct and contradictory pressures from the profession and the market place. Architects and professionals in allied design disciplines are expected to have specialized knowledge and expertise in their chosen area of the profession and yet have the flexibility to shift career on demand. The latter is no longer the exception, but fast approaching the norm.

For the better part of the past two decades the trend in the environmental design professions (architecture, landscape, urban, lighting, and interior design) has been toward specialization and not generalization. The latter is the focus of the current BFA curriculum. Meeting the demand for specialization in the profession has been relegated in academia to various professional graduate programs focused on individual disciplines. These professional programs face stringent accreditation requirements that ensure levels of expertise and specialization adequate to the demands of the profession. To meet the accreditation requirements, professional graduate programs require extended courses of study (three or more years on average) or else require extensive undergraduate preparation for advanced standing.

The trend at the undergraduate level, in turn, has been toward focused programs that offer adequate preparation for advanced standing at the graduate level. The move toward focused undergraduate programs is hastened, of course, by the ever increasing cost of higher education. The cost of being a generalist today is formidable and the choice is open to a very small group of students.

Given current external pressures on undergraduate programs in Environmental Design disciplines, the challenge is fashioning a curriculum that allows students to develop expertise in a given discipline without losing sight of the broader connection and points of overlap between the various disciplines. What is no longer tenable is a curriculum that seeks to cover all grounds and will inevitably lose on all fronts given the larger socioeconomic and cultural trends. An ideal curriculum will offer specific undergraduate programs in each discipline, with sufficient opportunity in each program for cross-disciplinary dialogue. It would stress both the distinct nature of each discipline as well as points of overlap and exchange between them. Such a curriculum is, however, best suited to a large department, whose size may prove, in the final count, to be as much an asset as a liability. The next option is to develop a curriculum that is focused on one discipline, though mindful of the burden of its focus at an undergraduate level, stresses the type of design skills that are readily transferable to allied design disciplines at graduate level. This is the path that the new BFA curriculum follows.

Structure

To foster analytical, conceptual, and creative problem solving skills that are applicable across disciplinary lines, the new curriculum is organized around areas of study as opposed to bodies of knowledge. The proposed areas of study are:

I. Design Studies

II. Representational Studies

III. Historical Studies

IV. Technological Studies

V. Cultural Studies

VI. Digital Studies

The distinction between the proposed areas of study is based on both methodology and content. Specific courses will fall into one or another area of study based on emphasis and specific method of investigation. This should help clarify the pedagogical mission of each course and prevent duplication and undue overlap. The proposed areas of study are not finite; nor are they autonomous. The same subject matter may be examined in two area courses using two different methodologies. The areas introduced are meant to ensure basic coverage and academic competence.

For each area of study , excluding design, there will be one to two required introductory courses followed by one to two required area elective courses. The introductory courses will provide the students with an overview of each area of study and its modes of analysis and investigation. The electives will allow investigation of specific topics in each area.

Each introductory course will provide an overview of the history and the cultural context of the subject matter, e.g., introduction to technology will provide an overview of the history and the various attitudes toward technology as a sub-text of the course. This is part and parcel of the question what is technology and what do we do with it? The same applies to the other areas of study.

Majors

The new curriculum offers two majors:

I. Architecture

II. Digital Architecture

Students will choose their major in the Fall semester of their Junior year and receive a BFA in that major, e.g., BFA with a major in Architecture.

The major reflects how a student chooses to distribute his or her four free electives, in consultation with his or her advisor. Students planning to pursue a graduate professional degree in architecture, for instance, will take Theory of Arch Form, Theory of Urban Form and two Graduate Technology courses as free electives. Students concentrating on Digital Design will take two to four digital courses as free electives.

Required credits for a BFA

Total 134 credits

Department 92 credits

Liberal Arts 30 credits

Art History 12 credits

Current Department Credit Distribution

Design Studio 34 credits

Visual Language 6 credits

Required Courses 21 credits Including 6 credits of Arch History

Electives 12 credits

Portfolio Prep. 1 credits

Sub-Total 74 credits

Foundation Studio 24 credits

Art History 12 credits

Liberal Arts 30 credits

Total - including credit discrepancy 140 credits

Required credits for a BA/BFA

Total 180 credits

Department 90 credits

Liberal Arts 46 credits including Art History

Lang 44 credits 36 credits in major

Proposed Department Credit Distribution

Design Studio 34 credits

Analysis and Representation 6 credits

Required Courses 9 credits Not including 6 credits in Arch history

Area Electives 6 credits

Free Elective 12 credits

Portfolio Prep. 1 credits

Sub-Total 68 credits

Foundation Studio 24 credits

Art History 12 credits Including 6 credits in Arch. history

Liberal Arts 30 credits

Total 134 credits

Proposed Departmental Required and Elective Credits

Design Studies
Required 34 credits

Representational Studies
Required 6 credits

Historical Studies:
Required 6 credits
Area Elective 3 credits

Cultural Studies
Required 3 credits
Area Elective 3 credits

Technological Studies
Required 3 credits
Area Elective 0 credits

Digital Studies
Required 3 credits (Elements and Media)
Area Elective 0 credits

PRESENT COURSE OF STUDY

Sophomore Year

Fall Spring

Design Studio I 5 Design Studio II 5

Visual Language Studio 3 Visual Language Studio 3

Introduction to Envir. Design 3 Design Issues: Interior 3

History of Architecture I 3 History of Architecture II 3

Liberal Arts 3 Liberal Arts 3

17 17

Junior Year

Fall Spring

Design Studio III 6 Design Studio IV 6

Design Issues: Site & Land 3 Issues in Environ Design 3

History of Architecture III 3 Materials 3

Concentration Elective 3 Concentration Elective 3

Liberal Arts 3

18 15

Senior Year

Fall Spring

Design Studio V 6 Design Studio VI 6

Portfolio Preparation 1 Concentration Elective 3

Art History Elective 3 Liberal Arts 3

Concentration Elective 3 Liberal Arts 3

Liberal Arts 3

16 15
PROPOSED COURSE OF STUDY

Sophomore Year

Fall Spring

Design Studio I 5 Design Studio II 5

Analysis and Representation I 3 Analysis and Representation II 3

Elements and Media 3 Technological Studies Req. 3

History of Architecture I 3 History of Architecture II 3

Liberal Arts 3 Liberal Arts 3

17 17

Junior Year

Fall Spring

Design Studio III 6 Design Studio IV 6

Cultural Studies Req. 3 Area Elective 3

Area Elective 3 Liberal Arts 3

Liberal Arts 3 Liberal Arts 3

Liberal Arts 3

18 15

Senior Year

Fall Spring

Design Studio V 6 Design Studio VI 6

Portfolio Preparation 1 Free Elective 3

Free Elective 3 Free Elective 3

Free Elective 3 Liberal Arts 3

Liberal Arts 3

16 15

Recommended Course of Study for Architecture Major

Sophomore Year

Fall Spring

Design Studio I 5 Design Studio II 5

Analysis and Representation I 3 Analysis and Representation II 3

Elements and Media 3 Technological Studies Req. 3

History of Architecture I 3 History of Architecture II 3

Liberal Arts 3 Liberal Arts 3

17 17

Junior Year

Fall Spring

Design Studio III 6 Design Studio IV 6

Cultural Studies Req. 3 Area Elective 3

Area Elective 3 Liberal Arts 3

Liberal Arts 3 Liberal Arts 3

Liberal Arts 3

18 15

Senior Year

Fall Spring

Design Studio V 6 Design Studio VI 6

Portfolio Preparation 1 Theory of Urban Form 3

Theory of Arch. Form 3 Construction Technology II 3

Construction Technology I 3 Liberal Arts 3

Liberal Arts 3

16 15

Recommended Course of Study for Digital Architecture Major

Sophomore Year

Fall Spring

Design Studio I 5 Design Studio II 5

Analysis and Representation I 3 Analysis and Representation II 3

Elements and Media 3 Technological Studies Req. 3

History of Architecture I 3 History of Architecture II 3

Liberal Arts 3 Liberal Arts 3

17 17

Junior Year

Fall Spring

Design Studio III 6 Design Studio IV 6

Cultural Studies Req. 3 Area Elective 3

Area Elective 3 Digital Design II 3

Digital Design I 3 Liberal Arts 3

Liberal Arts 3

18 15

Senior Year

Fall Spring

Design Studio V 6 Design Studio VI 6

Portfolio Preparation 1 Digital Design IV 3

Digital Design III 3 Liberal Arts 3

Liberal Arts 3 Liberal Arts 3

Liberal Arts 3

16 15

FALL SEMESTER

Present Course Offerings Proposed Course Offerings

Design Studio I-IV Design Studio I-V

Visual Language Studio Analysis and Representation I

Introduction to Envir. Design Elements and Media

History of Architecture I History of Architecture I

Design Issues: Site & Land Cultural Studies Req.

History of Architecture III Portfolio Preparation

Portfolio Preparation Digital Studies Elective

Elective 1 (Auto CAD) Cultural Studies Elective

Elective 2 (Digital Arch) Historical Studies Elective

Elective 3 Tech/Rep/other Elective

Elective FF Tech/Rep/other Elective

SPRING SEMESTER
Present Course Offerings Proposed Course Offerings

Design Studio II-V Design Studio II-VI

Visual Language Studio Analysis and Representation II

Design Issues: Interior Technological Studies Req.

History of Architecture II History of Architecture II

Issues in Environ Design Cultural Studies Elective

Materials Historical Studies Elective

Elective 1 (Auto CAD) Digital Studies Elective (Auto CAD)

Elective 2 (Digital Arch) Digital Studies Elective

Elective 3 Tech/Rep./other Elective

Elective FF Tech/Rep./other Elective

Technological Studies:

The objective of the required course in technology is to introduce students to basic building techniques, materials, and environmental control systems (passive and active). The objective is also to make students aware of technology’s inextricable link to our cultural values, perceptions, goals, and ideals. Technology is presented in this course not as technique per se, but as a cultural instrument. The question of technology in relation to the broader cultural context of inception and use is posed and discussed through a focused look at the cultural and historical context in which the various building techniques and environmental control systems covered in the course were invented, perfected, and eventually supplanted.

Elective courses in technology will extend the frame work established in the introductory course and explore particular issues and topics in building techniques, materials, and Environmental control systems.

Cultural Studies:

The objective of the required course in cultural studies is to make students aware of the intricate and complex link between culture and architecture. This course introduces students to the concept of culture and discusses the ways in which culture sustains and maintains itself through specific mechanisms that include architecture as a vital component. The course points out and distinguishes between the conceptual and the experiential aspects of culture (World view and ethos) and discusses how culture relies on architecture to synthesize its world view and ethos, i.e., the experience of the world with our conception of it. The course traces the impact of culture on architecture through specific case studies and assignments.

The course provides a brief history of the development of the concept of culture and the dialogue between social sciences and architecture for the past century. It introduces students to basic methodologies for the study and analysis of culture prevalent in various fields of the humanities.

Elective courses in Cultural Studies will extend the frame work established in the introductory course and focus on specific aspects of the relationship between culture and architecture and explore them in depth.

Digital Studies:

Elements and Media

The objective of this course is to teach students the formal elements and compositional rules of architecture using the electronic medium as a tool for architectural analysis and design. The course offers a comprehensive introduction to the formal vocabulary of architecture, from solids and voids to structure and detail, and basic compositional rules such as hierarchy, axis, layer, order, and collage, using both historic and contemporary examples. Students learn to read, analyze and decipher architectural compositions and their constituent parts, as they explore the potential and limitations of the digital media as a tool for analysis and design.

DEFINITION:

Assuming architecture is a language, in the broader sense of the term, and buildings are complex cultural Statements (promoting and sustaining specific values, beliefs, and ideals in space and time), the task of teaching architecture would entail:

I. teaching students the language of architecture and expanding their vocabulary overtime.

II. teaching students how to:

a. decipher, evaluate, and form ideas understood as a complex set of values, beliefs, and ideals (requiring analytical skills and an understanding of the link between form and ideology).

b. express and communicate ideas in architectonic form (requiring formal and visual communication skills).

FRESHMAN YEAR: Foundation

Focuses on the development of a common formal vocabulary and the skills needed to communicate mechanically and digitally. The formal language taught in the foundation year is not specifically architectural, but it is broad and comprehensive.

SOPHOMORE YEAR: Learning to speak architecture

Studio I (language)

Learning the elements of architecture and their expressive potential. (solids and voids, planes and volumes, paths and places, walls and columns, etc.).

Understand the difference and learn to distinguish between what is read and what is seen, what is experienced and what is viewed, active and passive reception, etc. (phenomenal and literal). Understand space and light as architectural elements.

Studio II (expression)

Learn to translate and express ideas through architecture. (Non-formal ideas)

Understand the relationship between expression (reading/meaning) and context (site).

Understand Hierarchy and composition. Understand expression as the consequence of composition.

Analysis and Representation

Students who complete these classes will not only be able to draft and construe models effectively (both mechanically and digitally), but they will also have a thorough understanding of drawings and models as

1- communication tools (as distinct from representation)

2- design tools (as distinct from communication)

Both skills, particularly the latter, require understanding abstraction as an analytical process, a mode of thinking, and a mode of visualizing. Learn abstraction as a means to an end. Learn to think with and through abstraction.

History I&II

These courses focus on the history of architecture as a history of ideas, realized through form. They offer lessons in formal and spatial composition. Parallel to studio and representational studies courses, illustrating effective realization and communication through architecture as a cultural system.

JUNIOR YEAR: Learning to form ideas - architecture as culture (affirmative). Small scale buildings.

Studio III

Building ideologies, embodying world views.

Exploring the link between program and world view.

Studio IV/VI

Building ideologies, emphasis on context (site), varied scale

SENIOR YEAR: Analytical/critical appraisal of the link between form and ideology, architecture and culture. Greater programmatic complexity.

Studio V

Cultural appropriation and consumption of buildings.

Exploring structure as a design element

understanding the cultural/ideological agenda of program

Studio VI/IV

Building ideologies, emphasis on context (site), varied scale

DESCRIPTION:

Sophomore Year:

1. The language of architecture, its formal elements and their expressive potential

2. Learning how to speak this language willfully and effectively.

To this end, one may proceed from the exploration of the expressive potential of the more abstract elements of architecture, e.g., solids and voids, planes and lines, to their more concrete expressions, e.g., columns, walls, stairs, windows, corners, etc., to their assemblages into paths and places, rooms and passages. In turn, one may also proceed from detail, to building, to site, to city over the extended time frame of the curriculum.

At the outset, it is important to analyze and understand the dual nature of each architectural element as both a function and an expression, i.e., in terms of what each does and what each says or is capable of expressing. Subsequently, it is important to distinguish and explore how architecture communicates both statically and dynamically, in space and in time, i.e., passive and active reception. One may start with passive communication (in place, looking at) and elements that readily lend themselves to this form of communication, i.e., elements that can make a statement without requiring time and movement (columns, walls, windows) and then introduce elements that reveal their message with time and movement as a requisite component of the expression, e.g., a staircase, a room, etc. In this latter context organizational principles such as axis, layers, etc., can be introduced and explored effectively. In this same vain, it is important to distinguish between experiencing architecture, which is accumulative, and viewing it, which is totalizing as a mode of reception.

While exploring the expressive potential of architectural elements, it is important for the students to realize that, on the one hand, what an element says and what it is are two separate issues, e.g., being solid is not the equivalent of expressing solidity and that the former is not an acceptable substitute for the latter. On the other hand it is also important for them to realize that the expressive potential of each element is conditioned by what it does, e.g., support, define, lead, connect, etc. (later the question of program will have to be explored in the same vain).

As a matter of strategy, addressing the above issues, one may formulate assignments that requires students to contradict in expression the overt function of the elements they are to analyze and design, e.g., design a column that appears to defy weight, design a stair that resists its destination, design an opaque window, design an infinite room, etc. On the one hand, this type of exercise forces to surface assumptions and presuppositions about the element, and on the other hand, it forces students to distinguish between what the element does and what it can say (they cannot depend on the element to make the statement for them, insofar as the expression is meant to contradict the function).

In learning how to express ideas through form, it is important to begin with architectural or formal concepts, e.g., finite, infinite; static, dynamic; transparent, opaque; etc., and having mastered them, move on to explore how non-architectural ideas can be translated and transformed into an architectural concept and communicated formally. Throughout this process it is important for the students to develop a clear understanding of reading (as distinguished from the metaphysical term meaning) being context dependent (present or assumed). This latter is, of course, a major theme that should lead to the realization that architectural expression is a question of relational composition at every scale, that no element, in itself, communicates anything. Also, architectural expressions are fundamentally experiential and evanescent and not concrete or verbal.

In the end, Students should have a clear understanding that to design means forming an idea in relation to the specifics of the problem at hand and then struggle to realize and express that idea in architectonic form through deliberate and successive assemblage or composition of parts. This implies the realization that function (as distinct from program) has no form, e.g., there are endless possibilities for transferring a given load from point a to b, the form of which is determined by one’s design agenda and expressive intent.

On another general note, students should come away with a clear understanding of the crucial interplay between analysis and design as two complementary processes. They should understand analysis as a process of moving from realization to abstraction (e.g., from form to principle, to intent) and design as a process of going from abstraction to realization (e.g., from intent to form).

Formally, students should be able to conceive and construe a willful and detailed architectural composition that incorporates structure, light, and material as expressive elements of an experiential composition.

Junior Year:

Assuming students come to the Junior year with an understanding of the formal elements of architecture and their expressive potential, as well as the ability to speak this language willfully and effectively, the pedagogical goals of the Junior year may be defined as developing a thorough understanding of architecture as the spatial dimension of culture, and buildings as ideological constructs. This entails learning how to design in deference to specific ideologies or world views. The latter, of course, requires the ability to analyze and decipher the complex relationship between architectural form, function, and ideology.

Focusing on small scale buildings with varying degrees of contextual complexity, in this segment of the curriculum students should learn how culture appropriates architecture through program and aesthetics. They should develop an understanding of program as a cultural interpretation of function (e.g., sleeping is natural or instinctive, where and under what conditions we sleep is cultural) and aesthetics as a mode of cultural appropriation of form, in keeping with specific cultural agendas, presuppositions, or world views (e.g., Albertian mathematics, Corbusian pure geometric forms, Venturian mundane, historicism of grays and abstract geometries of whites, etc.). They should understand that design “ideas” are not merely random opinions, but analytical constructs reflecting specific cultural agendas. They embody and reflect cultural values, beliefs and ideals. Partis are cultural blue prints.

To develop an appreciation for architecture as the spatial dimension of culture (as distinct from its motivated perception as a cultural artifact), it is important to assign design problems that require the students to become aware and eventually learn to operate outside the confines of their own cultural or sub-cultural presuppositions and in the process develop an understanding and an appreciation for their own presuppositions, as such. It is important to ask students to design for the peculiarities of world views that are different (as a matter of degree) from their own.

By way of furthering the understanding of the operational link between analysis and design, as well as exploring the link between form(ation) and culture, students may be asked to begin with a text (in any of its numerous guises) that articulates a particular point of view, go through the exercise of deciphering that point of view, translating and transforming it into a series of formal ideas and experiential strategies, and proceed to realization. Each exercise should require analytical rigor and the expansion and adaptation of one’s formal vocabulary to the exigencies of the problem at hand. The key here is understanding the way world views are translated into rituals (courses of action and behavior) and how rituals demand specific settings and formal experiences.

Examples that readily come to mind are domestic or public settings that embody a particular point of view (The Little Prince) or a particular experience such as exile which forces questions of place and placement, of grounding and occupation, etc., both mental and formal.

Formally, the focus of the Junior year should be on developing greater appreciation for compositional hierarchies leading to detail, i.e., understanding the role of primary, secondary and tertiary elements of the composition and clarification of intent in each subsequent layer of the hierarchy, i.e., how what is intended in one layer is clarified by the secondary layer of articulation, and so on down the line. The focus should also be on developing greater appreciation for experiential progression and the significance of relationships. Culture, it is important for the students to realize, primarily communicates through architecture experientially and not merely statically (it is not the icons of the church so much as the congregational or processional experience of its space and form that convey its message, to say nothing here of its mediated relationship to the outside as the space of the profane or else the spacing of the outside as profane). Sacred is not an idea that is communicated as such, but an experience that is imparted.

Students should complete the year with a clear understanding of how design ideas are formed through the analysis of the program as a cultural recipe for action and perception and how to transform those ideas into formal strategies and specific architectural experiences.

Senior Year: The senior year should follow in much the same vain as the Junior year, focusing on small scale institutional buildings in various contexts. The senior year will differ primarily in assuming a critical stance as opposed to the affirmative stand of the Junior Year. The assignments should require students to engage programmatic issues or rather cultural presuppositions critically and explore the ways in which architecture can play a critical as well as an affirmative role within the broader cultural context.
ARCHITECTURE IN THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT:
The Curricular Dimension

At the dawn of the information age, faced as we are with the emergence of a new environment dedicated to the flow of information - as it were in cyberspace, through info-bahns, in the guise of virtual realities - it is not surprising that our thoughts and attention have been primarily focused on the unprecedented scale of access to information, unrivaled potential for its manipulation and transformation, as well as the social, political, and economic opportunities and repercussions of the new information age. The complete story of this change, to say nothing of its morale, is, of course, yet to be written as history.

In the meantime, what has virtually escaped notice is the changing nature of information as we have traditionally understood it. What has changed in the past few decades, as dramatically as the scale of our access to and the ability to manipulate information, is our modes of conception and reception of information. The digital medium is steadfastly transforming the way we convey and receive information and along with it the way we conceive and view the world.

The transformation is in no small measure owing to the unique nature of the medium. Unlike most traditional modes of communication, the digital medium is non-linear, multi-dimensional, and dynamic. It defies and transforms our linear conception of time and space and consequently the traditional modes of organization and reception of information predicated upon it. It offers us a new environment where the rules of composition, organization, and dissemination of information peculiar to other media are not readily applicable, and when applied the results are often unsatisfactory, if not measurably ineffective.

Different as the new digital medium is, as compared to most modes of communication, it does have much in common with one of the oldest. The new medium’s unique modes of reception and consumption are conspicuously similar to architecture’s. The mode of reception in both is neither linear, nor static, but fragmented and dynamic. Both are fundamentally multi-dimensional and dynamically sequential, requiring static observation and dynamic movement in combination. Both are fundamentally spatial and relational, depending as much on their individual elements as on dynamic links and connections between them to impart their message.

Architecture here is not merely a metaphor for the new medium, evoked as it often is from a conservative and reactionary vantage point to impose conceptual spatial boundaries around the new medium and domesticate it. The similarities are fundamental, though not literal or for that matter metaphoric. They reside in the abstract organizational, compositional, and communicational principles of both media. The digital environment is not “like” architecture. However, the conceptual and compositional skills acquired in one are readily and effectively transferable to the other. This is the premise of the new digital architecture curriculum. The belief is that the required design skills in the digital environment are effectively the same as those provided by an architecture education, given the abstract similarities between the two media. What is required in turn is the opportunity to make the necessary translation and application.

Offered as an area of concentration within the architecture curriculum, Digital Architecture will offer interested students the opportunity to apply their architectural design skills to design for the digital environment. The curriculum is organized around the existing core of design studio courses and required lecture and seminar courses. It is augmented with four courses (electives in the present curriculum) that sequentially address the question of transference and application of skills.

Subsequent to their introduction to the digital medium in the foundation year and their explorations of the digital medium as a three-dimensional design and representation tool in the sophomore year (two semester sequence Visual Language courses), the students will be required to declare a concentration for their Junior year. Those who choose digital architecture as their area of concentration will be required to take a sequence of four courses in the ensuing four semesters.

The first course in the sequence will explore in depth the peculiarities of the digital medium as a design environment and the points of overlap and potential transference and translation of design skills between the two design environments. The remaining three courses will offer digital design problems of increasing complexity commensurate with the level of design skills developed in studio courses. Conceived as digital design studios, the pedagogical intent of these courses is to present digital design problems that require exploration of alternative and more effective modes of organization and communication of information - conceived in the broadest sense of the term - using the design skills acquired in studio courses. The goal is proficiency and competence in design for the digital environment.