ARC F3501R
Material and Detail

Instructor: Anne Filson
Time: MWF 3:30-6:00

Material culture over the past century has sustained a steady pace of invention. Materials have become lighter, stronger, smarter, and greener to meet the rapidly developing requirements of aerospace, the automotive industry, biotech, and agriculture. Increasing performance demands have generated materials with new properties--gels, composites, foams, films and others can be soft, thin, light, flimsy, and resilient while outperforming their predecessors in terms of strength, insulation, fire resistance, and optical clarity. New methods of fabrication and processing have also emerged to shape these materials for optimal use.

This seminar will seek out these new material technologies and production methods and study them in their "native" applications in aerospace, biotech, etc. We will then investigate how material technologies find their way into wider contexts and how architecture culture has adopted some of them. The seminar will ultimately work in teams to propose a high performance construction system (which could be anything from furniture to facade) that utilizes these new materials. In the process, each team will propose fabrication and detailing strategies that will successfully bring these new materials into our built environment.

This seminar will be project and discussion driven. To best optimize the exchange of ideas, class size will be limited to 12. Class discussions will consist of readings and team PowerPoint presentations of research and presentation of the final design project. Success of the final project is dependant upon rigorous research and conceptual development, as well as the clear communication of findings and intent. Grading criteria will be as follows:

class participation 40%
industry analysis * 20%
architecture research * 10%
final project * 30%

*projects grade weighted by 2/3 for content quality and 1/3 for effectiveness of oral and visual communication.