This course takes a systems perspective to study and design for sustainability in the built environment at various scales (e.g., materials, buildings, cities, and regions) and for different types of systems (e.g., physical, social, information). Students from SEAS, A-School, and other majors are welcome in this course, which emphasizes interdisciplinary design collaboration and diversity of thought.

Which is the role of publications in the contemporary architectural debate & in a school of architecture? The seminar has the purpose of experimenting the critical edition of contents, reflect on the instruments & educate in the related skills. It will combine the research on themes & other publications, the presence of experts & the editorial staff meetings, & will include short exercises, the definition of an editorial line.

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.

This course offers a foundation in understanding climate and energy in buildings and cities, and teaches the tools to parametrically analyze, model, visualize and design for energy impacts. Starting from real energy in real buildings through physical and data exploration, the course then teaches parametric tools to propose interventions and analyze for performance. The course is open to students in both Architecture and Engineering.

Combining tools, spaces, and skills of Arts Grounds, this course explores the design and construction of large moving creatures that culminates in The Stan Winston and Steven Warner Festival of the Moving Creature. Students will gain hands-on experience with materials, craft, and prototyping, and learn lessons from professional designers, artists, and Hollywood creature makers. This is a collaborative course, diving into storytelling and movement to bring each student's vision to life. Graduate students will have additional 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. For a one-page course description and recommended baseline academic experience, please be in touch with the faculty member or academic advisor. 

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.