Courses

• Subject Matter: The Stone Building Reconsidered →

  Fall 2024

  The Subject Matter studio series examines the material basis of architecture in order to illuminate the consequences of procuring building materials for construction, whether extracted from landscapes or repurposed from existing stock. Materials constitute a complex ecosystem whose contents are not fixed entities but rather flows that have histories. By borrowing these material contents for contemporary use, architecture interacts with these histories and changes them. A study of the path that materials take from findspot to construction and reuse allows these passages to be reflected in architecture. Since the materials of construction guide the development of spatial form, the studio interrogates these questions and implications through experimental, research-based architectural design. Methodologies emphasize historical and archival research, ecosystem thinking, the presence of provenance, circularity, and artistic exploration to reveal the long-term consequences of the architectural project.

  For the fall of 2024, we will study the potential of load-bearing stone construction as an alternative to more commonly used contemporary materials such as concrete or composite construction. While load-bearing stone structures have a long history, they have been quite niche in recent years. With an increased focus on carbon emissions and building longevity, the study of the use of stone has recently become much more widespread. This semester, we will study the use of load-bearing stone in the design of a building for an archive.

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• Subject Matter: Rocks & Thoughts →

  Fall 2023

  The courses that make up the Subject Matter series are intended to explore what it means to use materials in architecture today, in a time we call the Anthropocene.

  The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch where human activities are understood to significantly impact Earth's ecosystems. Ecosystem thinking suggests that materials are not fixed entities, but rather flows that have histories. When we extract materials for use in architecture, we interact with these histories and change them. This should lead us to ask questions about the meaning and impact of the work that we do. How should an architect understand these questions today?

  For the Fall semester 2023, the course will focus on rocks. The lithosphere is Earth's rigid outer layer, encompassing the crust and upper mantle. It's where rock formation occurs through various geological processes. Igneous rocks form from cooling magma or lava, sedimentary rocks from accumulated sediments, and metamorphic rocks from existing rocks altered by heat and pressure, all contributing to Earth's diverse geology.

  Stone is among the oldest and most noble of building materials, and was the choice historically for buildings meant to last. But stone is also witness to a span of time in which our human existence is but a speck. Rocks are among the most immutable of objects, dating millennia or even eons back into time. What does it mean to extract them, move them, reveal them?

  The materials of the post-industrial world – concrete, metal, plastics – are the product of industrial heat, with its combustion and pollution. Stone on the other hand, is neutral, having been formed by the great heat of original creation. As such, and with the proper techniques of extraction and transport, it represents a low carbon product. Used structurally, it can replace concrete in many cases. But we would like to look at the use of stone in an extended way, by becoming much more aware – in a poetic and artistic sense, not simply technically – of how the things that we set into motion are connected in a larger context.

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• Subject Matter: Metals →

  Spring 2022

  The Subject Matter design studio approaches materials as a continuum, from their extraction and production, through craft and fabrication, to their use and significance. For the Spring 2023 semester, the subject matter is metals.

  Metals are among the earliest of elements in our world, and among the most common. Their refinement and use parallel the development of human society. In the 1830s, the Danish archeologist Christian Jürgensen Thomsen proposed a ‘three age’ system for categorizing human history: from stone to bronze (around 3500 BCE) and to iron (around 500 BCE in Europe). The refinement of metals is among our earliest technologies and represent decisive moments in society. Each of these metal technologies changed the ways humans interacted with each other and their environment.

  Another transitional moment was the invention of the Bessemer process in the 1850s, when the mass production of steel became possible by purifying iron in a blast furnace. This method allowed for strong structural sections to be produced, enabling the steel frame building. At the same time, the process produced a great deal of carbon pollution – poorly understood at the time, but a significant problem for inhabitants of the Anthropocene – ourselves.

  It is becoming increasingly clear that the way that we use materials in architecture has implications for the environment in which we live and which we leave for our descendants. In this course, we would like to understand materials better, and to know how they circulate in today’s world. We use provenance to study the path a material takes from production, to use, and re-use. Provenance is the 'life story' of a material, rendering it concrete and specific rather than abstract and formal.

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