Architecture Program Report Tulane University New Orleans ...

ability to employ appropriate representational media.
Also in First-year, students are introduced to image manipulation and
desktop publishing as part of their Design Studio requirement—this
component is included in the representational skills courses (graduate
students receive additional instruction in InDesign, Photoshop and
Illustrator and other applications as part of the Summer Program). This
encourages not only graphic design skills development, but also the
maintenance of their portfolios.
The required courses are supplemented by additional courses that include
digital technologies skills across the curriculum, under the headings of
ADGM and AVSM courses. For instance, ADGM 310 (Digital Media II: CAD
and Spatial Modeling) is required as a co-requisite with first semester
second year design (DSGN 210). While for the most part the ADGM
courses are required, the AVSM courses are offered as electives, thereby
supplementing students’ graphic skills.
Perhaps the single most critical factor in the acquisition and development
of representational media techniques is “peer-to-peer” instruction whereby
many students become exceptionally adept with computer graphics
techniques and applications. This is a natural outcome of the studio
environment and is actively encouraged by the faculty.
It should also be noted that the design faculty are, in general, interested in
the critical apprehension of representational media and that many, if not all,
have some familiarity with computer programs that support various
representational media.
4. Research Skills
Ability to gather, assess, record, and apply relevant information in
architectural coursework.
The development of the student’s ability to employ basic methods of data
collection and analysis pertinent to all aspects of the programming and
design process is diffused throughout the Design Studio (DSGN)
curriculum. Both analytical and empirical methods of data collection are
encouraged, and the students are introduced to the methods of analysis
associated with the evaluation of collected data. In the School of
Architecture, the subject of data collection is discussed under the rubric of
“architecture as research.” This idea reflects not only the traditional
scientific and academic methods—empirical, critical, fact-gathering,
abstract and quantitative research—but the fact that the design of
architecture constitutes a kind of data collection based on the critical
evaluation and analysis at all stages of the design process.
In terms of programming, students are introduced to the methods of program
evaluation in the core design studios (DSGN 110, 120; DSGN 210, 220). In
particular, they are asked to not only respect the program in terms of use and
to evaluate the internal relationships between the areas of programmatic use
(function), but to establish a “a program for the program,” that is, an
underlying conceptual strategy that will enable the building to function as
architecture. The relationship between these two areas of function is critical