The course provides an introduction to design principles by addressing their function in a theoretical, historical, and practical context. The topics are not presented in chronological order, but are introduced and reviewed to critically examine some fundamental design issues. Design principles are grounded in all the arts, from ancient to contemporary, and the course draws from a wide spectrum of forms of expression such as painting, architecture, sculpture, literature, and film. Design Principles is a lecture course complementary to beginning design studio. Many of the design problems explored in class will be applicable in the studio. Likewise, many of the insights gained from the design studio can be essential to better understand the issues covered in class.
2. Content
The readings are to be found in a reader prepared for the course. Students are required to purchase them at Gnomon Copy, located at 325 Huntington Avenue, Boston, (617-536-4600). Other books that may be useful but that are not ordered as texts:
• Programs and manifestoes of 20th-century architecture. Ed. Ulrich Conrads. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1964, 1989.
• Mark Gelernter. Sources of architectural form, A critical history of Western design theory. Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 1995.
• A Documentary History of Art, Vol.1-4. Ed. Elizabeth Gilmore Holt. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1947, 1986.
• Pierre von Meiss. Elements of Architecture, From form to place. London: E&FN Spon, 1991.
3. Evaluation
Forty percent of the grade is based on the semester project. Twenty percent of the grade is based on weekly assignments, twenty percent for the mid-term presentation and the remaining twenty percent is based on the final presentation. Attendance is important and directly affects grading.
4. Term Project
A semester analysis project is introduced in Week 2. The project will focus on the constructive analysis of a freestanding house (villa). The project will be semester-long and will involve three small study models, a mid-term presentation and a final presentation and paper towards the end of the semester. The three models produced by the students mirror their interpretation regarding the spatial character of each villa. The first model in the sequence is to be constructed entirely out of solid forms. No indication of walls or openings is permitted, in this model. The second model in the sequence should be constructed out of planes. Only general indication of boundaries and their voids is permitted in the second model. The third model in the sequence should be constructed out of all the basic spatial elements. Walls and their main openings, columns, circulation elements must be included in the third model.
During the first half of the course students document their assigned villa and present the results in class. In the second part students produce an in-depth analysis of each assigned house and submit their findings in the form of a final paper. The approach should be creative and it should address the villa through the ideas discussed in class.
5. Weekly assignments
Weekly assignments accompany the weekly readings. Each assignment should not be more than one page in length. The assignment consists of an abstract exposing the main ideas of the paper, and a comment expressing ones personal views regarding its content, style of exposition etc.
6. Schedule and readings
7. Student work sample