| Syllabus | |
|---|---|
| Course | Arch 2042 |
| Date | 2012/02/22 |
| Learning Objectives | |
| Agenda |
|
| Uses Tool(s) | |
Instructor
Joy Ko, jko01@risd.edu
Time and Place
- Weekly Class: Friday, 1:10PM-4:10PM, BEB Rm 120
- Office Hours: Wednesday, 12:30-2PM, BEB Rm 324 or by appointment
Course Description
In architectural practice, a working knowledge of design computation has gone from "nice to know" to "need to know", and yet many academic and professional institutions struggle to keep pace. At best, resourceful architecture students and practitioners piece together their computational skill sets in an ad-hoc manner, adopting fragmented sources developed in contexts unrelated to architectural design. This course is designed to address this unmet need by teaching foundational computational concepts tailored specifically towards architectural design. An understanding of the fundamental structures of design computation -- including the structure of code and algorithms for computational geometry- will prepare students to survive in the new reality of digital practice. The specific content of this course will be carried through a discussion of practical situations that architects commonly encounter, and in which computation has proven to be a powerful ally to generate effective solutions. These topics will evolve based on existing technology and challenges in practice, and may include topics such as aggregation and tiling, early stage design setting tools, agent-based form generation, surface decomposition, optimization, and tools for collaboration.
Class time will be actively distributed between lecture, discussion and workshops so your attendance is required unless you have permission from me.
What this class WILL do:
- discuss process. The predominant language to convey process in computation is code. Understanding and engaging code is a challenging task for many and it requires a specific mind-set.
- introduce the foundational computational (and mathematical) principles from an architectural design point of view
- motivate these concepts using practical situations that architects commonly find themselves in where computational literacy has proven critical
What this class WILL NOT do :
- show you how to use a specific set of software programs that perform a particular set of tasks
- show lots of case studies of projects where architectural design computation gets applied.
Computational Tools
Rhino-Python Setup
Python for Rhino 5 is a cross-platform language that will be used for this course.
Please have the latest Rhino 5 for Windows WIP or the latest Rhino for OSX WIP installed.
Script Editor Setup
On Windows, you can now type in the command EditPythonScript. The command displays a script editor for writing and experimenting with scripts.
On OSX, you will be installing Komodo Edit (free). Please follow these instructions
Grading
You will be evaluated on active participation, the completion of all assignments, and the successful implementation of the midterm and final projects. A significant portion of the material for this course will be presented only in class, so students are expected to regularly attend lectures.
Grading will be broken down as follows:
- Participation and Weekly Assignments 30%
- Midterm Project 30%
- Final Project 40%.
Resources
There is no course textbook; much of the material on learning Rhino-Python will come from the in-class workshops and the following online sources: