At the beginning of the 21st century, architecture finds itself in a state of uncertainty and change. Like 100 years before, architects are pursuing ways of reconfiguring the aesthetic, technical, and social demands of their profession in hopes of establishing legitimacy in their work. This class will investigate the buildings and ideas of the early 20th century architect, Adolf Loos (1870-1933), as a vehicle to come to grips with our own percepts about modern architectural theory and practice.

Cross-listed as LTAM 6350. This course will survey the ways by which Latin American architectures (both north and south of the US/Mexico border) have come to be seen within the western canon. In this sense, this course is not purely historical; rather, the class will explore Latin American architecture chronologically but from a post-colonial perspective rooted in the present.

This course will investigate the influence of 1950s and 60s modern international architecture on Charlotte and the Piedmont region. The goals of the courses are: (1) to probe deeper into why this type of architecture became popular in the region in both its private and public iterations; and (2) to link this interest with similar developments in other American cities and discuss such developments within the context of international architecture of the same period.

Architectural History Electives Study of topical areas of history and theory of architecture. These courses are required for architecture majors (6 credit hours) to complement the required survey courses (ARCH 4211 and 4212) to develop in-depth research, writing, and presentation skills. May be repeated for credit as topics of course change. (Fall)

City design in the twentieth century has been based on a series of intellectual ideas about what constitutes the “ideal city” on the one hand, and a series of more pragmatic notions about the construction of city space derived from political and/or economic power on the other. The legacy of these conflicting paradigms and intentions can been read in city development and in unbuilt projects across Europe and America. These buildings and projects provide signposts for future efforts of city building in the early years of the 21st century.

This course consists of a survey of contemporary architectural theory from 1950 to the present. It builds upon History and Theory of Architecture I and II (ARCH 4211/5211 and ARCH 4212/5212) in that it will revisit critical ideas touched in these courses in greater depth. While architectural theory constitutes a key aspect of the first two courses in the architectural history sequence, this course offers students the opportunity to focus on the key ideas that inform much of comtemporary architectural practice.

The only way to understand emerging digital theory is to situate it in an historical discourse on the role of the artificial and the machine in architectural thinking and production. This course will allow the students to use that knowledge to connect the realm of digital discourse with digital making.

See Course Syllabus

See Syllabus

See Syllabus

See Syllabus.

Concentrated, in-depth study of selected topic. Topics vary according to faculty expertise and often include contemporary theoretical, social, technological, and design issues. (Fall, Spring)

An introduction in the fundamentals of digital design & representation techniques, within the contest of theoretical works since the industrial revolution. The course will develop a set of aesthetic, performative, and method based criteria for understanding digital work. This framework will serve as a starting point for students to assess a developing set of digital design values.

Course focusing on modeling, shading and rendering using Maya 3D software. The class will explore other relevant representation tools, and the proper methods for achieving seamless integration between such tools.

This course explores the generative and parametric methods as they impact the practice of architecture. A comprehensive use of various software packages will exploit the computer's ability to cross-reference geometric relationships, data sets, and parametric variables.

This course employs ideas from industrial, mechanical, and technical construction as precedent for digital spaces and programs. the course will analyze contemporary projects to understand related programs, constructured spaces, and conceptual ideas. Using parametric design techniques, spaces and designs will be computer-generated using dynamic systems and modifiers.

A continuation of "Digital Fabrication 1," utilizing more advanced hardware and software fabrication techniques.

This seminar examines how techniques of spatial representation interact with architectural and urban ideas. The extent to which ideas of perception create, as opposed to reflect, cultural changes is debatable. Both linear perspective and cinema are paradigms of spatial perception that coinice with broader revolutions in art and culture. These two practices will serve as case studies through which to explore the complex relationship between art, architecture, and vision.

This course will visit and animate familiar and uncanny examples of the built environment, using as its reference the relationship between architecture's tenets and contemporary visual artists' motives across the fields of architecture, art, media, and politics. It examines how artists both borrow from and move byond architecture by building an aesthetic and critical case for the necessary and culturally redemptive practice of art within architectural contexts.

This course will discuss the promise and problems of architecture understood as a set of perceptual effects. This position of interpreting buildings is rooted in the discipline's connection to the visual arts-for examples: the discovery of perspective and its influence on painting, the invention of photography and the moving image, or the use of electronic media for creating aesthetic complexity in the building arts.

This course offers an exploration of design themes in the two-dimensional, image-based world of the architect. It defines contemporary architectural representation and surveys ideas that center on drawing in architectural practice.

Course covering how cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas develop and change. Topics range from grand ideas proposed by individuals to smaller more incremental processes carried out through collaborating parties.

Cross-listed as MUDD 5601. This course serves to acquaint students with contemporary theory and practice in planning and urban design; to give students experience in applying planning an urban design theory and methods to actual problems; to provide students with experience in compiling and analyzing community scale data, working with citizens, professional planners and designers, and elected officials, to provide students with experience in the preparation of oral reports and technical documents; and to examine what it means for the planner and urban designer to demonstrate ethical responsibility to the public interest, to clients and employers, and to colleagues and oneself.

Cross-listed as MUDD 6050. Throughout the twentieth Century urban politics, policies, and programs have shaped the space of the American City, including the architecture of urban settlement patterns, public space, transportation, and housing. An understanding of the political/social/historical/spatial foundations of urban policies in relation to the American City is critical in understanding the development of our current urban patterns, the spatial distribution of people and resources, and the future production of architecture and design in urban settings. Issues will be framed in the interstices of the space/knowledge/power triad. (On Demand)

Cross-listed as MUDD 6050. The patterns of man's settlement are predicated upon particular paradigms of urbanism, as well as more pragmatic concerns of politics, economics and geography. An examination of these influences and their interconnections provides the necessary theoretical and historical background from which to propose improvements to the contemporary landscapes of our cities. (Spring)

Cross-listed within MUDD 6213/6214 Topics in Urban History and Theory. This seminar will examine the evolution of postwar urbanism as a particular synthesis of cultural criticism, shift of direction in practice, and architectural experiments. They represented innovative responses to changes in sociopolitical and cultural conditions. The central focus of investigation will be the essential theories of urbanism and experimental design practice from the mid 1950s to the early 1970s.

Cross-listed as MUDD 6050. The production of buildings requires both architectural and economic skill. Likewise, the production of our landscape is both a private and public endeavor. To balance these skills and endeavors requires an understanding of basic facts. This course focuses on an introduction to the real estate development process. Course material, lectures and case studies focus on the identification and evaluation of critical assumptions and issues related to market and site feasibility, planning, acquisition, construction, and operation of economically viable commercial real estate projects. (Fall)

The public realm has historically constituted a set of real places possessing physical form and has been the setting for civic and communal life. This traditional role of public space is brought into question by the advent of cyberspace, with unknown consequences for city form. This course focuses on the origins and transformations of public space within American culture and principles of urban design as they have related to the creation of public space during different historical periods. Course material will also focus on the historical connection between the public realm and democratic principles, and the threats to the continued existence of truly public space in American cities. (On Demand)

Cross-listed as MUDD 6050. Urban development and redevelopment can be considered typologically in two main categories: Large "catalyst" projects (performing arts centers, entertainment complexes, and other large, mixed-use projects); and smaller, incremental intervention in the urban setting that lack glamor but contribute much needed depth and complexity to the urban environment. This course focuses on how and why urban projects are formulated by public and private interests. It engages the conceptual origins, design development and production of urban projects large and small, in an effort to understand the relationship between development economics, social factors, program development, design concepts and urban contexts.

Cross-listed as MUDD 6050. The design and evolution of cities is a reflection of evolving attitudes about gender, race, crime and socioeconomic conditions as well as governmental interventions and the efforts of private enterprise. Charlotte's center city is a unique result of those many influences and serves as an excellent laboratory for gaining an understanding of the forces that shape the making of the places we live. This class will explore the historical growth of Charlotte through the eyes of city leaders who have lived through it. Specific topics will include the development of neighborhood, the demise of the Brooklyn neighborhood in Second Ward, professional sports in uptown Charlotte, the development of Fourth Ward, the civic patron/corporate factor, transportation in Uptown Charlotte and finally the 2010 Plan for Uptown. (On demand)

A project-based seminar that introduces concepts and methods for developing ecologically based site plans within the context of economic and social issues. Students work in teams to generate redevelopment plans for local sites in Charlotte, North Carolina.

This course introduces the technical and practical issues of climate responsive architecture by providing an overview of passive control systems. The class provides a survey of solar, wind, and other environmental opportunities as means for understanding passive techniques for building.

A case study course that evaluates building form and enclosure lighting data from an existing building. Computer simulated parametric analysis are then generated to study alternative design scenarios. The course utilizes Spot and UNC Charlotte-Light simulation tools, including Eco-tech, DaySim and Radiance.

A formal design decision-making process is developed in this course through the elaboration of the systemic principles that describe the role of architecture to reconcile the pertinent utilization of mechanical, electrical and material system choices. Issues of the implicit role of the architect to understand the public policy decisions and economic solutions that provide for the sustained delivery of human, environmental and physical performance are brought to bear through a variety of methods.

Through this course a conceptual framework of social and technical determinism is developed from a single disciplinary point of view based on the traditions of building design science and environmental technology informed by social science theory. Topical field assessments will be developed through a research-based introduction of the Human Relations Area Files to address the cultural/societal and technical realms that describe traditional built form. The issues that have influenced and are currently impacting human settlement, building, and tectonic design are explored through the use of the Mahony Tables to weave the relevant connections to built formal response and the interpretation of climatically responsive architectural principles of design sustainability.

The architectural luminous environment is introduced in this course as a continuum of technical/material innovation from 1850 to the present. Issues of daylighting and electric lighting are explored as an integrated systems approach to evaluate current sustainable design practices that relate to energy utilization and appropriate resources allocation. Case study research methods of assessment, computational analysis, physical modeling and economic evaluation will be introduced.

Sustainable design is the term most commonly used when describing building carried out according to sound ecological and environmental perspectives. Utilizing a lecture/seminar/case study format the course content will survey the principles of environmentally sensitive design review case studies of "green building" application, and explore various concepts for integrating sustainable planning and building principles into the form-making process of architectural design. The process includes an analysis of bioclimatic comfort, climate responsive design, integration of passive heating and cooling systems, and the basis for specifying sustainable design and the impact on the building design process and built form.

Course addressing issues and opportunities afforded by Building Information Modeling (BIM) programs. It includes: (1) an introduction to definitions, principles and strategies, (2) an understanding of how BIM allows an integrated design process that encourages creative and appropriate solutions, and (3) to engage BIM software use via the modeling of a building example.

This course is structured as an overview of sustainable design and how this subject is defined within the parameters of the built environment. It is designed to introduce students to a broad base of concepts, philosophies, and practices of sustainable design.

This course is an examination of the identity of objects and furniture in relation to ritual and space. Through coursework students will develop a historical ground and analytical methods that will extend into the making of an object. This making will involve the exercise of fine craftsmanship in a combination of media.

This course traces ideological movements that have informed the discipline of architecture both past and present. In this sense, this course provides a historical vantage point from which to view how theories of architecture and the city develop as inter-related ideas, practices, and traditions through the persistence of specific themes over time and space.

This course examines a range of architectural ideas with an emphasis on developments from the late 1960s to the present. Attention will be paid to the interrelation between theory and practice and how clusters of ideas formulate the discourse as trends both mainstream and marginal. Emphasis will be placed on texts and their interpretation alongside examples of work inspired by the same. This survey means to formulate a broad understanding of contemporary architectural culture.

The practice of watercolor can make many design notions clear for the maker as well as the observer. This course introduces basic visual strategies utilizing tactics and techniques of watercolor. The class focus is on developing a practical vocabulary for skillful representation and emphasizes a working knowledge of watercolor painting and its application at all phases of design work. Students will develop skills presenting objects in space using watercolor and pencil.

This class emphasizes the development of working methods for thoughtful representation using watercolor for all phases of design work. Issues and skills addressed include analysis; representation of interior and exterior spaces and events; representation of urban context and site; and presentation of organizational strategies.

This is a laboratory course in the fundamentals of designing and building of furniture, primarily in wood. Included are the basics of materials selection, machine and hand tool use, joinery, and finishing. The crafting of furniture of student's design is an integral part of the course.

Cross-listed as MUDD 6050. Contemporary theories and practices in urban design underscore the connection between the citizen and the public realm and between the physical and social attributes of the city. Urban design is not so much an aesthetic as it is a strategy for change, transformation, dialogue, and interaction. Urban design is the link between architecture and urbanism, tying together the city's disparate parts and celebrating the complexity and connectedness of space. (On demand)

The only way to understand emerging digital theory is to situate it in an historical discourse on the role of the artificial and the machine in architectural thinking and production. This course will allow the students to use that knowledge to connect the realm of digital discourse with digital making.

See Syllabus for Course Description.

This course examines the aesthetic, historic, and ideological frameworks involved in Chicano/a and Latina/o artistic, design and spatial practices in order to better understand their roles in the making of space, place, and identity.

When it comes to cities, what happens in Vegas is often representative of the changes, forces and factors at play in major cities cross the country and globe. In an effort to better understand some of the factors helping shape our cities, this course will examine the architectural, urban and cultural (both popular and academic) importance of Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Strip in order to understand how what happens in Vegas does not always stay in Vegas

Architecture, as a result of cultural and technological shifts, has drifted towards internally focused, compositional exercises rather than expressions of contemporary human needs and experiences.  It is the responsibility of designers to create culturally and physically responsive architecture that can begin to heal the scars perpetrated by an approach to design that is insensitive and removed from the experience of the user.  In 1994, architectural theorist Juhani Pallasmaa posited a series of questions facing the architecture profession, in a critique of this trend: “Can architecture define a credible social and cultural goal for itself?  Can architecture be rooted in culture in order to create an experience of locality, place, and identity?” These questions and responses were articulated in his essay, “Six Themes for the Next Millennium,” published in The Architectural Review.

See syllabus.

See Syllabus.

See Syllabus

See syllabus.

See Syllabus

This course serves as an introduction to the objectives of the practice of architecture, its responsibilities and procedures, and emerging alternative forms of practice and as they pertain to the role of the architect. (Spring)

This course focuses on examination of analytic and synthetic models including information processing, programming, and implementation activities used to structure the architect's design process, conjectural models, and methods specific to the architect's creative skills. (Spring)

This design studio focuses on issues relevant to current architectural practice and/or exploration of architectural theory. Students choose from among several sections of this studio, each of which of addresses a different set of issues. The issues addressed as well as the pedagogical approach of these studios are defined by the faculty teaching them. All students must take a minimum of one Topical Design Studio within the area Concentration. Course may be repeated with permission. (Spring)

This design studio focuses on issues relevant to current architectural practice and/or exploration of architectural theory. Students choose from among several sections of this studio, each of which addresses a different set of issues. The issues are defined by the faculty teaching them. All students must take a minimum of one Topical Design Studio within their area of Concentration. Course may be repeated with permission. (Fall)

This studio offers support and structure for students undertaking their individualized thesis project in either the MArchI or the MArchII program. For MArchI students, this studio will focus upon an individually defined architectural project; for MArchII students, this studio will focus upon an individually defined research project. (see Requisite & Capstone Experiences for more details). The faculty member teaching ARCH 7104 coordinates the activities of the students and their advisory committees. (Spring)