Fundamentals and principles

Short Description:
The book presents a coherent theory of building information, focusing on its representation and management in the digital era. It addresses issues such as the information explosion and the structure of analogue building representations to propose a parsimonious approach to the deployment and utilization of symbolic digital technologies like BIM.

Word Count: 27171

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Athletes often wear protective gear to keep themselves safe in contact sports. In this spirit, students follow the steps of engineering design process as they design, build and test protective padding for an egg drop. Many of the design considerations surrounding egg drops are similar to sports equipment design. Watching the transformation of energy from potential to kinetic, observing the impact and working under material constraints introduces students to "sports engineering" and gives them a chance to experience some of the challenges engineers face in designing equipment to protect athletes.

Students explore the interface between architecture and engineering. In the associated hands-on activity, students act as both architects and engineers by designing and building a small parking garage.

Students model and design the sound environment for a room. They analyze the sound performance of different materials that represent wallpaper, thick curtains, and sound-absorbing panels. Then, referring to the results of their analysis, they design another room based on certain specifications, and test their designs.

This series of lessons will provide students with an understanding of the Baroque period and help them identify decorative arts and architecture from that period. After studying Baroque paintings, furniture, architecture, and craft guilds, students will create a mixed-media sculpture inspired by Bernard van Risenburgh's Double Desk. Throughout the unit, students will reflect on their experiences in journals.

54 Laws Underlying Settlements Across Scale and Culture

Short Description:
Laws of Settlement revives, updates and refreshes the ’54 Laws of Settlements’ outlined in Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis’ seminal book Ekistics: An Introduction to the Science of Human Settlements, making them relevant to the problems we face in the 21st century.

Long Description:
Are there fundamental laws that govern all settlements—from the smallest village to the largest cities? The Laws of Settlements ambitiously describes the principles underlying human settlements of all sizes and across all cultures. It revives, updates and refreshes the ’54 Laws of Settlements’ outlined in Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis’ seminal book Ekistics: An Introduction to the Science of Human Settlements, making them relevant to the problems we face in the 21st century.

Word Count: 29957

ISBN: 978-1-989864-03-6

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Students design and build a mechanical arm that lifts and moves an empty 12-ounce soda can using hydraulics for power. Small design teams (1-2 students each) design and build a single axis for use in the completed mechanical arm. One team designs and builds the grasping hand, another team the lifting arm, and a third team the rotation base. The three groups must work to communicate effectively through written and verbal communication and sketches.

54 Laws Underlying Settlements Across Scale and Culture

Short Description:
Laws of Settlement revives, updates and refreshes the ’54 Laws of Settlements’ outlined in Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis’ seminal book Ekistics: An Introduction to the Science of Human Settlements, making them relevant to the problems we face in the 21st century.

Long Description:
Are there fundamental laws that govern all settlements—from the smallest village to the largest cities? The Laws of Settlements ambitiously describes the principles underlying human settlements of all sizes and across all cultures. It revives, updates and refreshes the ’54 Laws of Settlements’ outlined in Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis’ seminal book Ekistics: An Introduction to the Science of Human Settlements, making them relevant to the problems we face in the 21st century.

Word Count: 29856

ISBN: 978-1-989864-03-6

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

This class is developed around the concept of disobedient interference within the existing models of production of space and knowledge.
Modeling is the main modus operandi of the class as students will be required to make critical diagrammatic cuts through processes of production in different thematic registers – from chemistry, law and economy to art, architecture and urbanism – in order to investigate the sense of social responsibility and control over the complex agendas embedded in models that supports production of everyday objects and surroundings. Students will be encouraged to explore relations between material or immaterial aspects and agencies of production, whether they emerged as a consequence of connection of mind, body and space, or the infrastructural, geographical and ecological complexities of the Anthropocene. These production environments will be taken as modeling settings.

Being able to recognize a problem and design a potential solution is the first step in the development of new and useful products. In this activity, students create devices to get "that pesky itch in the center of your back." Once the idea is thought through, students produce design schematics (sketches). They are given a variety of everyday materials and recyclables, from which they prototype their back-scratching devices.

The aim of the Portfolio Seminar is to assist in developing a critical position in relationship to their design work. By engaging multiple forms of representation, written and visual, students will explore methods that facilitate describing and representing their design work. Through a critical assessment of their existing portfolios, students will first be challenged to articulate design theses and interests in their past projects. Different mediums of representation will then be studied in order to hone an understanding of the relationship between form and content, and more specifically, the understanding of particular modes of representation as different filters through which their work can be read. Some of the questions that will be addressed are:

How does one go about describing an image?
How does one theorize representation?
How does one articulate a design thesis in writing verses visual media?
How can the two interact to enhance each other?
How do different media, printed verses web publishing, affect the representation of work?
How is your work best communicated?

This lesson focuses on how food packages are designed and made. Students will learn three of the main functions of a food package. They will learn what is necessary of the design and materials of a package to keep food clean, protect or aid in the physical and chemical changes that can take place in a food, and identify a food appealingly. Then, in the associated activity, the students will have the opportunity to become packaging engineers by designing and building their own food package for a particular type of food.

Looking for a fun and engaging way for your students to work on collaboration and using the engineering design process? STEM Challenge: Marshmallow Tower is for you! Simple and cheap materials and little prep required.

Students groups use balsa wood and glue to build their own towers using some of the techniques they learned from the associated lesson. While general guidelines are provided, give students freedom with their designs and encourage them to implement what they have learned about structural engineering. The winning team design is the tower with the highest strength-to-weight ratio.

Students learn about the major factors that comprise the design and construction cost of a modern bridge. Before a bridge design is completed, engineers provide overall cost estimates for construction of the bridge. Students learn about the components that go into estimating the total cost, including expenses for site investigation, design, materials, equipment, labor and construction oversight, as well as the trade-off between a design and its cost.

Students are introduced to the health risks caused by cooking and heating with inefficient cook stoves inside homes, a common practice in rural developing communities. Students simulate the cook stove scenario and use the engineering design process, including iterative trials, to increase warmth inside a building while reducing air quality problems. Students then collect and graph data, and analyze their findings.

Towers have been a part of developed society for centuries, serving a variety of purposes, from watch towers to modern cell towers. In this activity, student groups design and build three types of towers (guyed or cable-supported, free-standing or self-standing, and monopole), engineering them to meet the requirements that they hold an egg one foot high for 15 seconds.

This course serves as an introduction to urban form and design, focusing on the physical, historical, and social form of cities. Selected cities are analyzed, drawn, and compared, to develop a working understanding of urban and architectural form. The development of map making and urban representation is discussed, and use of the computer is required. A special focus is placed on the historical development of the selected cities, especially mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth century periods of expansion. Readings focus on urban design theory in the twentieth century and will be discussed during a weekly seminar on them. This is a methods class for S.M.Arch.S. students in Architecture and Urbanism.

Furniture making is in many ways like bridge building, connections holding posts apart with spans to support a deck. Many architects have tried their hand at furniture design, Wright, Mies Van Der Rohe, Aalto, Saarinen, Le Corbusier, and Gerhy.
We will review the history of furniture making in America with a visit to the Decorative Arts Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and have Cambridge artist/craftsman Mitch Ryerson show us his work and talk about design process. Students will learn traditional woodworking techniques beginning with the use of hand tools, power tools and finally woodworking machines.
Students will build a single piece of furniture of an original design that must support someone weighing 185 lbs. sitting on it 12 inches off the ground made primarily of wood. Students should expect to spend approximately 80 hours in the shop outside of class time.
Preregistered architecture students will get first priority but first meeting attendance is mandatory. Twelve student maximum, no exceptions.