11275 Architectural Studio 3
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 12 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
Requisite(s): (11274 Architectural Studio 2 AND 11273 Architectural Studio 1) OR (11211 Architectural Design: Forming AND 11209 Architectural Design: Making)
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses. See access conditions.
Description
The architectural design studio provides the creative framework for students to explore how a diverse set of performative criteria informs a design inquiry. Through the project brief, students learn to balance conceptual, programmatic and organisational strategies with site and contextual influences along with the technical and material parameters of an architectural project.
The subject explores the development and testing of architectural strategies within the design process from brief to building (design). Students develop approaches to the extraction and application of disciplinary knowledge from precedent as well the ability to make design decisions in the service of a guiding project concept.
Students advance their ability to visually and verbally communicate and position their projects.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:
| 1. | Develop the ability to extract, generalise, adapt and translate disciplinary knowledge from relevant architectural precedents to apply in your own project. |
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| 2. | Develop a critical approach to the re-categorisation and organisation of architectural program in support of a clearly defined set of design intentions including spatial sequence. |
| 3. | Establish and develop an informed position relating site and contextual responses to experiential, social, environmental and technical performance. |
| 4. | Creatively make use of a variety of media, technologies and materials to test, develop and refine your ideas, forms and strategies. |
| 5. | Understand and challenge disciplinary conventions by developing form, organisation and site-response logics in parallel rather than sequentially, emphasising feedback between each aspect. |
| 6. | Develop the ability to produce synergies between form, materiality, organisation and structure. |
| 7. | Clearly verbally and visually communicate: the project intent; relevant precedents; program re-categorisation; organisational diagram (before site influence), organisational diagram (after site influence); tectonic formal variations, and the way these translate into the project. |
| 8. | Position your project ambitions relative to other architectural and non-architectural precedents, texts, films etc. |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes to the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes:
- Establish and develop an informed and ethical position towards social, technical and environmental issues and practices (A.1)
- Communicate ideas professionally and effectively through a variety of mediums: oral, written, visual, physical and digital (C.2)
- Creatively use architectural media, technologies and materials (I.2)
- Understand and challenge disciplinary conventions through an engagement with emergent forms of architectural practice, technologies and modes of production (P.1)
- Thoughtfully apply disciplinary learning in work, with a continuing commitment to personal professional development (P.2)
- Evidence a three-dimensional understanding of spatial sequence and organisation (P.4)
- Integrate an understanding of a relationship between form, materiality, structure and construction within design thinking (P.5)
- Position work within an extended and critically reasoned context through the identification, evaluation and application of relevant academic references and architectural case studies (R.1)
Contribution to the development of graduate attributes
The term CAPRI is used for the five Design, Architecture and Building faculty graduate attribute categories where:
C = communication and groupwork
A = attitudes and values
P = practical and professional
R = research and critique
I = innovation and creativity.
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs) are linked to these categories using codes (e.g. C-1, A-3, P-4, etc.).
Teaching and learning strategies
The subject is structured around successive project-based design exercises. There will be a series of illustrated lectures that introduce design theory and examples pertinent to the overarching themes and activities of the subject. The remaining six hours per week are structured as guided working sessions in the architecture studios for thinking, discussing, drawing and making.
The studio will guide you through a strategic design process to bridge the gap between a brief and a building (design).
Lectures
Lectures will introduce design theory and specific themes that will lead discussions about studio activities and the development of concepts. It is essential that students attend these lectures. Attendance will be recorded.
The latter half of the semester will be focused on studio production and management of project outcomes. There will be opportunities for feedback on assessment tasks and for an explanation of subject criteria in the weeks leading to submissions during this time.
Studio Sessions
Studio time will focus on specific activities set by the studio leaders and as outlined in the lectures. These working sessions will include group discussion, individual discussion, workshop activities and peer review. Each studio session will involve the negotiation of a particular aspect of the design project, building on the feedback from work produced in the previous weeks. Students must attend studio with adequate materials (laptop, paper, pens, scale, rule, model making materials when required). All work in progress must be printed before studio sessions and brought in for feedback.
Please note:
Participation, preparation and group collaboration during studio sessions are assessable components of the subject.
Students will refer to the Design Brief and Lecture Slides which set the requirements for each exercise or assessment. Any changes will be made via the Design Brief, CANVAS and Lecture Slides - students will be notified of any alterations in a timely manner.
A large proportion of subject content, intent and activity description is delivered via the lectures.
Work produced will be discussed in subsequent classes, offering opportunities for feedback prior to submission.
Print and carefully pin-up work before studio as late arrival or work not pinned-up in studio will be recorded as an absence. No printout or model, no feedback.
Students are expected to attend all lecture and studio sessions according to UTS Policy.
Collaborative learning
To facilitate collaborative learning all assessment tasks involve group work with individual assessment.
Online coursework
Teaching will be online and on campus. Lectures will be held on campus with zoom links provided for those students in online tutorials. All tutorials will be on campus unless a student has an approved medical or travel situation (eg is currently overseas) necessitating online tutorials. For approvals, please contact the subject coordinator before the commencement of the semester.
CANVAS
There are a number of online resources used to support the learning objectives of this subject and these will be accessible via CANVAS.
Feedback
The subject provides a range of formative feedback strategies centred on verbal peer and tutor feedback and discussion in the studio.
All assessments will be graded in ReView.
The subject is designed around the progressive development of a final design project. In this sense, every weekly studio session helps you progressively develop your project. It is therefore vital you complete the work outlined to receive useful formative feedback.
Attendance
The DAB attendance policy requires students to attend no less than 80% of formal teaching sessions (lectures and tutorials) for each class they are enrolled in to remain eligible for assessment.
Pursuant to “UTS Rule 3.8.2”, students who do not satisfy the attendance requirements may be refused permission by the Responsible Academic Officer to be considered for assessment for this subject.
Students can make themselves familiar with all University rules here:
https://www.uts.edu.au/about/uts-governance/rules/uts-student-rules
Content (topics)
The content of this subject is centred on the task of designing a building larger and more complex than the abstract, residential, pavilion and landscape-intervention projects undertaken in earlier design studios. The guided project design process builds a strategic framework around a five-step process bridging between brief and building (design): concept, (re)categorisation, organisation, site response and tectonic based form. The process is initially developed in steps and then in parallel with feedback and synergies between all stages a primary goal.
Concept and Aim/s
The central driving decision for your project this semester is ‘What type of library are you trying to achieve?’ The answer to this question should be able to be explained in two to three sentences building from your chosen conceptual point of departure.
(Re)Categorisation
The initial brief contains both too many items and is too generic to work with at the early design stages. It must be replaced with fewer, more specific and meaningful (relative to your design concept and aims) categories. Each category should imply a specific atmosphere, collection of activities and be sufficiently distinct from all other categories.
Organisation
The specific arrangement and associated relationships between your project categories above determine a great deal about operation and experience of your building. It is imperative that this organisation reflects and realises your project concept and ambitions. Appropriately specific categories will be easier to arrange. Having difficulty arranging your categories or feeling ambivalent about one arrangement vs. another is a sign that you need to invest more in the categories themselves.
Site Response
All sites have highly specific shapes, areas, orientations, topography, vegetation, micro- and macro-climates and contexts of many types (physical, cultural, historical, economic etc.). Each of these aspects can be conceived as exerting forces that shape, attract and repel all of the various architectural elements. These forces will act differently depending on the type of library you are trying to achieve (above). The successful response to and negotiation between the various site forces will yield a building that better ‘performs’ in relation to your aims.
Tectonic Form
The form of your architecture — of its spaces and its elements — is not neutral. It is impacted by the materials from which it is built, the way they are fabricated and constructed and by self-imposed rules (authorship). When performed skillfully the formal language of your project works together with the organisation and site response to realise the best possible set of experiences — like calligraphy — contributes to the experience of your project
The content of this subject includes a series of design exercises that lead to an integrated design proposal.
The subject links directly to material covered in 11207 and 11248.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Mid Review
| Intent: | This task aims to develop each student’s ability to approach the design of a medium-complexity project driven by a clear guiding idea and following a strategic iterative design process. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.): A.1, C.2, I.2, P.2 and P.4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Type: | Project | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Group, individually assessed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 25% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 2: 3/4 Review
| Intent: | This task aims to continue the development of techniques and strategies to initiate and guide the design of project of medium complexity. The task assesses a design proposal at a schematic level, articulating the primary conceptual, organisational, contextual, material, formal, spatial and environmental concepts of the design process continued from Assessment Task 01. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.): A.1, C.2, P.1, P.4, P.5 and R.1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Type: | Project | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Group, individually assessed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 25% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 3: Final Review
| Intent: | This task assesses the final design proposal. The task requires the presentation of a technically resolved proposal developed from AT1 and AT2, demonstrating refined development of all steps in the process including the revisiting of all previous steps in feedback and synergy with all others. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.): A.1, C.2, P.1, P.4, P.5 and R.1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Type: | Project | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Group, individually assessed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 50% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Minimum requirements
The DAB attendance policy requires students to attend no less than 80% of formal teaching sessions (lectures and tutorials) for each class they are enrolled in to remain eligible for assessment.