This studio will investigate the social, physiological and phenomenological elements of a student gathering place on the MIT campus. Whether it is simply for socializing or for more specific events, the student gathering place will serve as a refuge from the vigorous educational environment of the Institute, and reinforce the sense of "play" through a sensible organization of the program. The place will foster a casual discovery of a sense of "being": a reflection upon the student's own existence based upon an intellectual attitude of acting and group events. To create a space that inspires, rather than imposes: such a discovery is the foremost challenge of this studio.

" This studio will investigate the social, programmatic, tectonic and phenomenological performance and character of a student gathering place on the MIT campus. Whether it is simply for socializing or for more specific events, the student gathering place will serve as a refuge from the vigorous educational environment of the Institute, and it will reinforce a critical sense of "place" through the almost logical organization of its program. The place will foster a casual discovery of "being": a reflection upon the student's own existence based upon participation in group events and an intellectual attitude toward acting. To create a space that inspires, rather than imposes: such a discovery is the foremost challenge of this studio."

The project for this studio is to design a demonstration project for a site near the French Quarter in New Orleans. The objectives of the project are the following: To design more intense housing, community, educational and commercial facilities in 4 to 6 story buildings. To explore the "space between" buildings as a way of designing and shaping objects. To design at three scales - dwelling, cluster and overall. To design dwellings where the owners may be able to help build and gain a skill for employment. To provide/design facilities that can help the residents to gain education and skills.

This architectural studio will have one main project for the semester: to explore the issues surrounding the redesign of an area in Havana Cuba. It is a typical area about the size of a Law of Indies block that presently has a mix of housing, work, and shopping in buildings that need to be replaced and others that need to be rehabilitated. There is also vacant land, and buildings that are unused. Part of the blocks front on the Malecon, the street next to the water. The other edge fronts onto a typical neighborhood. The intention is to study the culture through an understanding of one area of Havana and then design an "echo" in architectural form. The design will include public space as well as a mix of buildings: some new, some rehabilitated.

This subject introduces skills needed to build within a landscape establishing continuities between the built and natural world. Students learn to build appropriately through analysis of landscape and climate for a chosen site, and to conceptualize design decisions through drawings and models.

This subject introduces skills needed to build within a landscape establishing continuities between the built and natural world. Students learn to build appropriately through analysis of landscape and climate for a chosen site, and to conceptualize design decisions through drawings and models.

This is the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Urban Design Studio, which is a joint program between the MIT and Tsinghua University Schools of Architecture and Planning. The goal of the studio is to foster international cooperation through the undertaking of a joint urban design and planning initiative in the city of Beijing involving important, often controversial, sites and projects. Since 1995, almost 250 MIT and Tsinghua University students and faculty have participated in this annual studio, making it one of the most successful and enduring international academic programs between China and the US. It has received the Irwin Sizer Award from MIT for outstanding innovation in education. The studio takes place over five weeks in June and July including several weeks in residence at Tsinghua University and two brief study tours to locations and projects that inform the work. It will include 18-20 MIT and 10-15 Tsinghua Architecture and Planning students. The Beijing City Planning Institute, responsible for strategic planning in the city, participates in the studio as the client.

Design Fabrication is an introductory course in the field of advanced computing, prototyping and building fabrication. The class is focused on the relationship between design, various forms of computer modeling both explicit and generative and the physical representation of information using rapid prototyping devices.

This class serves as an introductory subject in advanced computing, rapid prototyping, and CAD/CAM fabrication for architects. It focuses on the relationship between design and various forms of computer modeling as input, and CAD/CAM tools as output material. It presents the process of design and construction using CAD files introduced by the office of Gehry Partners during the construction of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. It is taught in phases starting with rapid prototyping and ending with digital mockups of building components fabricated from CAD files on a one-to-one scale.

This is a project to assist in the design, drawing, modeling and hopefully constructing of a small Community Children’s Center near Guayaquil, Ecuador. For the last year, Nicki Lehrer, from MIT’s Aero/Astro Department, has been organizing efforts to build the project. The goal of the workshop is to provide her with a full fleshed out design for the community center so it can be built in the summer of 2007.

Explores the role of computer visualization as a representational medium. Visualization is widely used in scientific, engineering, and design disciplines to help people understand complex phenomena and constructs. The key intellectual challenge is to develop the right visual metaphors for conveying information in the most effective way. Through programming projects and applications work, real and imaginary environments are constructed, probed, and displayed. Also covers the relevant computer graphics methods and data representations. Required of Course IV majors. This course will introduce students to architectural design and computation through the use of computer modeling, rendering and digital fabrication. The course focuses on teaching architectural design with CAD drawing, modeling, rendering and rapid prototyping. Students will be required to build computer models that will lead to a full package of architectural explorations within a computational environment. Each semester will explore a particular historical period in architecture and the work of a selected architect.

This course introduces students to architectural design and computation through the use of computer modeling, rendering, and digital fabrication. The focus is on the exploration of space and place-making through the use of computer rendering and design construction and fabrication. Students design a small building using computer models leading to a full package of physical and virtual materials, from computer generated drawings to rapid, prototyped models.