The study of architecture as a speculation on origins is located at the conjunctive core of any liberal arts curriculum and serves as the physical armature and conceptual foundation of the University. This course is concerned with the contemporary imagination, attempting to make the discipline of architecture meaningful to a wide range of citizens in its public obligation to be constructive and optimistic in the most profoundly ethical, pragmatic, and magical of terms.

In this course we explore the delights and dilemmas of design. With paper, pencils, cardboard, and glue, we draw, sketch, and construct collages and architectural models. As we do so, we ask fundamental questions. What is design? What exactly do designers do when they design? What makes the practice meaningful, and what makes it difficult? To see work from past years, visit: https://web.arch.virginia.edu/designfundamentals/.

The foundations studios involve beginning design students in thoughtful application of fundamental design principles, foundational techniques of representation and fabrication and comprehensive critical design strategies. These courses foster the development of the beginning design student's design methodology founded on thoughtful, creative, ethical and rigorous work practices in service of exploring meaningful formal and spatial propositions.Prerequisite: ARCH 1010, 1020, 1030.

Earth's ecosystems are unraveling at an unprecedented rate, threatening human wellbeing and posing substantial challenges to contemporary society. Designing sustainable practices, institutions, and technologies for a resource-constrained world is our greatest challenge. This integrated and interdisciplinary course prepares students to understand, innovate and lead the efforts necessary to engage in this task.

A comprehensive hands-on course in three-dimensional computer aided design that ranges from beginning to advanced methods in geometrical modeling, macro programming, and visualization used in design related disciplines. The class explores approaches to design made possible through computer-based methods. Lectures and workshops provide a conceptual and applied framework, examine state-of-the-art techniques today,and speculate on future advances

This studio course emphasizes conceptualization and synthesis of complex programs in contemporary contexts at multiple scales.Prerequisite: ARCH 2020

This is a studio based course on Architectural design thinking with a focus on creative approaches to analyzing and solving diverse problems.

This class examines major themes & methodologies found in or taken up by twentieth century architectural theory. The course considers architecture through a wider set of cultural studies that include critical theory, phenomenology, semiotics, structuralism, post-structuralism & psychoanalysis. Questions involve the associations constructed between architecture & autonomy, technology, perception, art, theory & practice. Prereq: ARH 1010 &1020

A first course in structures for undergraduates to develop analytic and critical skills through both mathematical and visual investigation. Topics include statics, mechanics of materials, computer-based structural analysis, and the design and behavior of basic structural elements and systems.

This studio course emphasizes conceptualization and synthesis of complex programs in contemporary contexts at multiple scales.Prerequisite: ARCH 3020

This is a studio based course on Architectural design thinking with a focus on creative approaches to analyzing and solving diverse problems.Prerequisite: ARCH 3021

Architectural research methods are introduced and applied to the development of an undergraduate thesis in Architecture. Students develop and investigate research questions, research methods, and data sources. Open to both Pre-Professional and Design Thinking concentrations.

Student will engage with faculty on selected topics in Architecture Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor

Independent research on topics selected by individual students in consultation with a faculty advisor

Just as physics and math inform design, so can behavioral sciences, which offer rigorous and rapidly advancing insight into how people interact with their environments and with each other. This project-based course will expand students' design repertoires by connecting to psychology and related fields. This course is for "designers" broadly construed: those who wish to influence areas such as architecture, engineering, policy, and business.

Earth's ecosystems are unraveling at an unprecedented rate, threatening human wellbeing & posing substantial challenges to contemporary society. Designing sustainable practices, institutions, & technologies for a resource-constrained world is our greatest challenge. This integrated and interdisciplinary course prepares students to understand,innovate & lead the efforts necessary to engage in this task. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.

An exploration of moviemaking through exercises in computer animation. Approximately five independently developed short animations constitute the work of the semester, culminating in a one- to five-minute long final movie project. It is anticipated that an interdisciplinary group of students admitted to the seminar will bring perspectives from across the visual & design arts. Movie projects may range in creative subject areas. Instructor Consent

This comprehensive introduction to grasshopper also covers the spatial inventions of current design practice through case studies and demonstrations. Ideas and techniques such as variables, fields, transformations, attraction, data structures, and conditional logic will be explored in the first half of the semester. Mesh structures, grasshopper fabrication, analytic methods, and workflow for studio projects are the focus of the final six week.

Topical offerings in architecture.

Worldwide urbanization processes will increase in the next years reaching a rate of 75% until the middle of the century. Shrinkage, stagnation and rapid growth will be simultaneous phenomena and to achieve urban sustainability it will be important to innovate analytical methods and urban design frameworks. Discussions, lectures, and readings in combination with an urban design group project will introduce students to contemporary urban design methodologies.

This seminar is about architectural design. Approximately twenty-five lecture/discussions span various aspects of design beginning with principles and including topics such as multiple ideas, multiple studies, abstraction, proportion and composition. Final topics include practical and esthetic considerations of design and materials. A class notebook is required for lecture notes and assignments of writings and drawings.

Independent research on topics selected by individual students in consultation with a faculty advisor

Introductory design problems in architecture for  First Professional degree students.  Emphasizes developing a systemic approach to design on the land and in the city through experience with a constructional kit of parts and an awareness of the role of architectural theory and history in the design process. The faculty reviews all work in ARCH 6010-6020 to determine the progress and potential of each student.

The Building Workshop I addresses building science and technology topics that influence the built environment for safe and healthy human occupation. BIW 1 focuses on the dimension and performance of basic elements of construction, analyzed through a variety of historical, typological, and geographic precedents.

Students will attend 6 of the School of Architecture public lecture series and exchange feedback on architectural career paths and architecture's role in cultural, social, environmental, and economic contexts.

Intermediate-level design problems, emphasizing analysis and synthesis of complex contextual, cultural, and constructional issues. Prerequisite: ARCH 6020 or chair permission.

This course will investigate the role that ideas play in the conception, making and interpretation of buildings. As a basis for this inquiry, the course will explore significant architectural and urban theories, design strategies, and architectural projects developed primarily from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. Lectures will cover a broad range of theoretical positions that have influenced or emerged from form making.

A graduate-level introduction to structural design that uses mathematic and geometric principals to inform design tools and methods based upon an understanding of material and structural behavior. The course covers statics, material mechanics, computational analysis and design, and the behavior of structural systems through a framework involving ethics, climate, and culture.

The course involves the study of human comfort, environmental conditioning systems, building systems, daylighting and lighting technology. Students will be exposed to digital simulation tools to assess daylighting and energy use.

Independent Study Prerequisite: Permission of the chair.

Student will engage with faculty on selected topics in Architecture Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor