ARC 350R/386M
Theory and Practice

Unique Nos.: 00670 (368R); 00930 (388R)
Instructor: Larry Speck
Time and Place: Th 6:00-9:00p SUT 2.110

Prerequisites

None. Can fulfill third-year design enrichment elective requierment for undergraduates and advanced theory requirement for graduate students.

Educational Objectives

1. To help all participants in the course to become better designers producing stronger, more sophisticated work.

2. To learn how to transfer the work of others (both writing and buidling) into fuel to enrich one's own design work.

3. To help begin to clarify how individual students' values and backgrounds can influence their design positively.

Educational Approach

This will be a standard seminar course with presentations by the instructor and class discussions in early sessions based on reading assignments. Toward the end of the semester students will be focusing on their own individual projects and papers which will be subjects for discussion in class.

Evaluation

The final grade will be b ased primarily on a series of short "think sheets" generated in response to readings in the early part of the semester (40%) as well as a longer research paper toward the end of the semester (50%). The remainder of the grade will be based on class participation.

Texts

Most of the assigned readings will be from works written by architects who also had substantial practice. Emphasis will be placed on direct connections between the world of ideas and built work. Students will frequently hvae choices as to which theorists/practitioners they want to study.