INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN 1

General Foundation

ELECTIVE: Taught by: Apostolos Kalfopoulos, Fenia Pagoni, Konstantinos Spyridonides, Dimitris Frangos. The studio entitled «Introduction to Design 1» aims to the understanding and research on architectural design, the development of architectural creativity and the formulation and presentation of multiple architectural proposals, through a direct contact of the students with various expressive means and representational techniques, a familiarization with the various scales of design, an introduction to the organization of the built environment and a do-it-yourself construction of objects and models. Through a wide range of exercises, the course discusses topics such as thinking and practice in the built environment, abstraction and materiality, conjecture and construction, systematic design and free experimentation. Each student or student shall maintain a portfolio with all his/her exercises, reflections and recordings that will occur during the course all of which will be evaluated in total. The studio entitled «Introduction to Design 1» aims to the understanding and research on architectural design, the development of architectural creativity and the formulation and presentation of multiple architectural proposals, through a direct contact of the students with various expressive means and representational techniques, a familiarization with the various scales of design, an introduction to the organization of the built environment and a do-it-yourself construction of objects and models. Through a wide range of exercises, the course discusses topics such as thinking and practice in the built environment, abstraction and materiality, conjecture and construction, systematic design and free experimentation. Each student or student shall maintain a portfolio with all his/her exercises, reflections and recordings that will occur during the course all of which will be evaluated in total. ELECTIVE: Taught by: Tatiana Andreadou (Associate Professor), Stamatis Koukopoulos (Scientific Associate), George Vlachodimos (PhD candidate) The course is a design studio assisted by lectures and power point presentations. The object of the course is introduction to architectural design. This is aimed through an effort of understanding, assimilating and managing the basic tools and symbols of design, the approach and familiarization with the concept and the use of different “scales” and the introduction into understanding the built environment through a small building integrated into the urban context. The teaching of the course is done through two (2) design-synthetic exercises , while at the same time information and advising is given through lectures and discussions conducted during the studio hours. The first exercise the students have to complete, is to construct in model, and in 1:1 scale, a synthesis where a cube – and in fact a grid cube, a cube with its subdivisions- is the basic element. During the making of this synthesis students have to think and speculate in contradictory concepts as, symmetry /asymmetry, dynamic/static, transparency/ opacity , vacuum /whole, introversion / extroversion, solid/permeable e.a. The synthesis is not of a decorative character, it has to be a synthesis following the above concepts, though there are no functional requirements , it is free and abstract. After they complete their synthesis, students draw in floorplans, sections and views, the synthesis which they have constructed. EXERSICE A: CUBE Target of exercise A is a first understanding of concepts such as: symmetry -asymmetry, introversion - extroversion, transparency- opacity , dynamic-static, whole-vacuum / solid- permeable limits-without limits through a free and abstract synthesis of spaces, without any limitations or requirements of scale, function or construction. Processing the cube exercise is being done in two phases, with the use of a 3D grid in space, as a basic tool of organizing their synthesis. a. In the first phase, students construct with wooden or balsa laths a grid cube, the dimensions of it being 16x16x16 cm. Then, using as the basic element the cube, but at the same time using other geometrical forms ( surfaces as well as volumes) students are experimenting individually on different aspects on a synthesis in space, from which they choose one and complete the construction of their synthesis. b. On the second phase , students represent in drawings, in floorplans, sections and views , and on the same scale (1:1), using also perspectives and sketches the model they have constructed. In their next exercise what is asked from the students is, using this same synthesis they have made when using the cube as the basic element, to design in floorplans, sections and views, and finally a model, a house. During this exercise they become acquainted with concepts such as public / private, individual / collective, indoors/outdoors, continuous space / divided space , function/form ergonomics/construction, e.a. EXERCISE B: HOUSE After the first exercise and the concepts into which the synthesis of the “cube” was based, other concepts are added such as: public - private individual -collective outdoors- semi-outdoors space continuous space -divided space typology-morphology function-form ergonomics-construction In exercise B, the final synthesis of the cube is being transformed almost unchanged or with little changes, into the synthesis of a house with its basic functional requirements. Each student chooses and describes the scenario of the residents the house is going to host, Therefore each student describes the rooms and areas and the relations among them, all with their stable as well as with their movable equipment (bathtubs, furniture e.t.c.), that the specific users (inhabitants) are going to need as each student estimates and conceives that suits them in order to cover their needs of inhabitation. a. In the first phase students are working on drafts, sometimes on working models. b. On the second phase elaboration of the final proposal is done through drawings (floorplans, sections and views) and a final model in scale 1:50 assisted by sketches and perspective drawings . Drawings include the surrounding the house space, the lot, where it stays. Along with the syllabus, a time chart of the course is given, assigning in relation each year’s calendar, what will be done each week, when finals and collective presentations of the exercises are e.t.c. The aim of this introductory course is to bring first year students of architecture into a first contact with the problems of identification, representation and designing of the environment .We aim at making students become acquainted with the tools of expression and representation of architectural design and introducing them to the basic principles of architectural theory and practice. The above approach is being done through the designing-synthetic exercises that are interrelated. Beginning from the model of a cube-a procedure which is not the usual one since architects start designing from drawings- students pass to its transformation and its representation through drawings, while eventually they transform it into a house using as a basis the principles they used in their cube synthesis as well as the concepts, symbols and parameters that convert the object into architecture. Essential is the fact that 1st year 1st semester students, are not familiar with the sense of representation, which is the communicative tool, the language of architecture. As in their 1st exercise they make by themselves, with their own hands and in a 1:1 scale a synthesis, and then they design in floorplans, sections and views their own synthesis, they become acquainted with the sense of representation , since they design an object which they have in front of them, they see it, and no matter how complex it is , they know it very well , because they have constructed it themselves. During the elaboration of their synthesis, an introduction into synthesis is being made, through the understanding of basic concepts and symbols of space such as: symmetry /asymmetry, introversion / extroversion, transparency/ opacity dynamic/static, vacuum /whole, built space/open space, continuous space / divided space , e.a. In their next exercise what we ask them to do is, based on this same synthesis that they have made with its basic element the cube, to design in floorplans, sections and views and finally a model , a house. Designing in this next exercise a simple house while using as the basis of their synthesis the cube which they already have made, almost transforming the cube, they design the house based on synthetic decisions and not on previous esthetic preferences they might have, which are not always the best. During this exercise besides the concepts referring to synthesis as mentioned above, they become acquainted with concepts such as : public/private, individual / collective, indoors/outdoors, function/form, ergonomics-construction e.a. but also with concepts such as : building factor; coverage ratio, orientation e.a. Dimensions of the cube have on purpose been chosen so that the cube, when transformed in a house and in a 1:50 scale, relates to a volume 8x8x8 meters, which is not two floors neither three, so that they will be pushed to experiment with mezzanine and intermediate levels, and familiarize themselves with the 3rd dimension of space.

CubeIntroduction to Architectural Design, Creativity, Representation, Do-it-Yourself, Model, Cube

11-10-2015