ARC3323H F
Instructor: Matthew Allen
Meeting Section: L0101
Wednesday, 9:00am - 12:00pm

As architectural methods have gone digital, databases and archives of various sorts have become a focus of design experimentation. This course explores the techniques, theories, and historical resonances of a particular branch of contemporary architecture that is obsessed with collecting, scanning, aggregating, sampling, mining, hoarding, searching, sorting, assembling, recombining, and heaping (among other things). Throughout the course, students will be exposed to current theories, relevant historical genealogies, cases studies of recent practices, and tutorials in relevant techniques. A final project will ask students to produce and evaluate their own assemblages, heaps, and aggregations.

Theory. A theoretical basis will be provided from (1) object-oriented ontology and speculative realism; (2) big data and digital preservation; and (3) classics of avant-garde experimentation, medium specificity, and post-structuralism.

History. Students will learn about the history of architectural collecting, dada assemblages, the computational turn in abstract art and formalist architecture in the mid-twentieth century, and the more recent digital and post-digital culture in architecture. These topics will be situated in their cultural contexts of global architectural practices.

Practice. Techniques will be presented beginning with early-twentieth century formalism, proceeding through mid-century serial/algorithmic art, and into contemporary workflows involving programming and software. Unusual “data” will be sought out and treated as found objects for architectural design. These databases of elements may be digital or physical - techniques may be computational or analog. It is the mindset that matters.

Class sessions will feature short lectures, group case study presentations (from a list provided by the instructor), tutorials of design techniques, and guided discussions. The case study may be either an in-depth presentation of a technique or project and its context OR a re-enactment of a design technique using digital methods. The final project will be a design project (in the form of a building, space, or sculpture) based on techniques learned through the semester, which will be accompanied by a dossier presenting its historical precedents, theoretical context, and design rationale. It will be presented in a final pin-up.