This is the second undergraduate architectural studio at MIT. Previously, in 4.101, students were taught to explore the concept of experiencing architectural design through the coordination and integration of circulation, structure and space.
This term students will be challenged to use that knowledge and to add to it the dimension of intention, in order to develop a personal design process that will be used as a method of informing and interrogating future designs. By a series of initial short projects, students will be required to develop attitudes - spatial, contextual, structural, and phenomenological - toward the assigned design problems. By identifying and cataloguing these attitudes and intentions, students will develop a rigorous set of guidelines against which their proposals may be critiqued.
Students will learn various methods of representation for their ideas, and will work in model form and both freehand and hard-line drawings. Students will be encouraged to remain away from digital means of representation until late in the semester. 4.104 will be an opportunity for students to challenge and develop strong manual skill sets and learn to rely on ready methods of visual and physical exploration.
The 4.104 studio will have a rigorous emphasis on the development of a personal working method. The curriculum and evaluation methods will recognize design as a process, not a product, and constant evaluation and evolution of that process will be of paramount importance.