Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering, Unit Catalogue 2006/07

AR30021 Design studio 4.1

Credits: 21

Level: Honours

Semester: 1

Assessment: CW100

Requisites:

Aims:
* To develop creative collaborative working between architects and engineers.
* To explore the impact of both structural and environmental engineering on the form and functioning of a building.
* To study the characteristic strengths and weaknesses of a particular material, along with its environmental implications.
* To experience the interaction of architecture and engineering through a realistic design project.
* To understand how each discipline contributes creatively to the production of a building.
Learning Outcomes:
The ability to produce and present collaboratively a coherent and sophisticated design solution which integrates knowledge of:
* structural, constructional and environmental strategies
* issues related to energy use, material use and sustainability
* the regulatory frameworks and health and safety considerations that guide building construction.
Each student must demonstrate the ability to:
* work as part of a team
* reflect upon, and relate their ideas to, a design and to the work of others
* listen, and critically respond to, the views of others
Students will be required to demonstrate through their project work a knowledge of how context and budget inform design.
Within this project the student is required to demonstrate an ability to record, manage and appraise their own working practices.
Skills:
The project will require the teams of students to produce proposals to a given brief which clearly demonstrates the integration of structural and environmental criteria, paying specific attention to energy and sustainability issues which should be apparent in the design solution.
Content:
A design project known as the Basil Spence Project, run since 1978. It is undertaken by architectural and engineering students and based on a highly prescriptive brief which integrates structural and environmental criteria and pays specific attention to energy and sustainability issues. This project forms part of a sustained study of a particular urban area, which forms part of the locale for the entire years project design work, and focuses on materials and technique as central issues. Teams are required to design and detail a building of moderate complexity and understand the inherent structural, constructional and environmental qualities of a specified category of building materials. Specialist lectures are provided to cover particular subjects including fire safety design. The final part of the semester requires students to undertake a comprehensive study of the chosen locality for the project including various aspects of its cultural and physical context.

University | Catalogues for 2006/07