ARC 560R Advanced Design (4th & 5th year students) and
ARC 696 Advanced Architectural Design (graduate students)

Instructor: Richard Swallow, Professor and Paul Philippe Cret Centennial Teaching Fellow in Architecture
SUT 4.112, 471-0147, swallow@mail.utexas.edu

Toward a Course Description for Advanced Design,
GRAPHIC CALCULATING INTO ARCHITECTURE:
A NEW-OLD PRAGMATISM

We dream of employing graphic calculating software, as a creative tool toward finding dynamic space defining forms, while remaining committed to being classically pragmatic in the sense of mathematical purity and economic (and environmentally sound) constructibility: the art of architecture and the art of building through mathematics, if you will.

Beyond the main initial activity,

1. 3-D Graphic Calculating Explorations, there will be the following activities:

2. History and Theory (research, diagramming, typologies, and writing);

3. Mechanical and Freehand Drawing Methdologies (in design process, presentation, and constrution documents);

4. Computer Graphics, Modeling, Light Rendering, Radiosity, and Animation (in design process, presentation, and constrution documents);

5. Shop Fabrication (large scale model building and testing);

6. Application to a Real Architectural Program (appropriate possibilities for discussion: railway station, airport terminal, convention hall, mercado, sports area, university art museum, or any building that has symbolic significance in a city and that will probably require a large concourse- like space);

and

7. The Production of a Publication (hard-copy and/or web-site) of this work (all presentations will be designed toward this goal with four to eight pages devoted to summarizing the work done by each student).

We donšt expect that one person will excell in all these areas, although that would be magnificent if you can. But we do expect everyone to produce great works in both the Explorations stage (1.) and the Real Program stage (6.). And excel in one of the others (2. - 5.). And everyone to help make the publication (7.) a reality in which you can pe proud.