ARC 695S
This studio will investigate the relationship between program, building form, and construction technique as they relate to the development of a building for performance spaces and public-facing programs on a downtown Austin lot. All research and work in the studio will be toward a single project, paced throughout the course of the semester.
The project will take on the parameters of human performance and building performance, and the cultural underpinnings which drive both. By examining the technological and physical ramifications of performance of both the human body and the building, and the future of urban development in this city, the studio will explore ways that performance space can be intelligently incorporated into buildings in a productive and meaningful fashion.
The studio will also address issues of performance and response to environmental conditions. Each student team will identify contextual environmental factors of the site and surroundings, and in turn, demonstrate how their design tracks and responds to this condition from the scale of the building’s massing down to individual details. While developing a Performing Arts Center over the course of the semester, students will respond to the question of how a building’s performance can create or strengthen meaningful relationships between urban and environmental conditions, and social and cultural situations.