Architecture Program Report Tulane University New Orleans ...

design studio is the “site” of that union.
The first three years in the current studio sequence (in the M.Arch I postbaccalaureate
program, the 2.5 years) represent the student’s “core” education in
design. These studios are taught by several faculty; the material for the studio is
developed collectively under the oversight of the Year Coordinators. Hence,
students, while having access to a wide variety of points of view, nonetheless
have the identity of a smaller section (12-13 students per instructor) along with a
more personal relationship to their particular studio section leader.
The First-year “experience” occurs in the first two semesters, for the
undergraduate student, and the condensed summer studios for the graduate
student. The First-year curriculum introduces students to a broad understanding
of the culture of architecture, as well as the multiple landscapes in which the
discipline and practice of architecture operate. Hence, students are given studio
programs and skills courses (the representation courses) that are conditioned by
multiple scales, uses, human factors, and material, constructional, and
environmental parameters. Students are also introduced to architecture as a form
of research as well as the kinds of research that inform the development of an
architectural idea. The idea of architecture as a form of research includes not
only the notion of architecture as a critical mode of inquiry, but empirical
research―the considerations surrounding “learning to see” as well. In addition,
the nature of criticism, the language associated with architectural ideas, and the
ethics of practice are discussed.
First-year studio is aided and abetted by two key courses during the spring
semester, History of Architecture I and Technological Systems. In these courses,
students are introduced to the myriad environments that inform the culture of
architecture and content that informs their studio production from both a historical
and technological point of view. These environments include the history and
theories associated with architectural production, technology and structures, and
“paradigmatic” ways of thinking about the discipline and practices of architecture.
Hence, students are granted an awareness of the broader circumstances that
condition architectural research both as a knowledge-based inquiry and as a
practical pursuit.
As students begin their technology sequence, they engage the theoretical and
practice issues of statics, construction materials and assemblies and technical
documentation. This approach allows students to begin to understand the
underlying principles associated with architectural construction so that they may
be able to not only understand the substantial and practical knowledge
associated with technology, but are able to intuitively comprehend the role and
measure of technology in architecture. This is also the case with history: students
are introduced to the fact that architecture is historically and culturally bound and
cultural thinking is an endemic requirement in architectural design. This material
is affirmed by the design studio practices in two ways: through programs that pay
particular heed to the material being presented in the parallel coursework. In
this way, technologies (which includes structures) are not something to be
applied after the fact of design, but becomes an integral component of the design
process itself – in the same manner that formal criteria may be used to critically
evaluate a given project, structures and technology can also be used as critical
tools. The accelerated complexity and depth of the technology/structures
sequence, built on a strong conceptual foundation, conditions the design studio
sequence, thus preparing the student to consider architecture as an integrative