Fall 2010 Architecture Lower- and Upper-Division Courses Print

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ARCH 39C
FRESHMAN/SOPHOMORE SEMINAR: DESIGN IN EARTHQUAKE COUNTRY
COMERIO

(3) Three hours of lecture/seminar per week. Introduction to design and construction issues in high seismic zones. Topics will include earthquake causes and effects, with a focus on why buildings fail. Case studies of recent international earthquake losses will include approaches to rebuilding after disasters and techniques for strengthening existing buildings.

Extended Course Description

This seminar introduces seismic design principals to any student interested in how and why buildings fail in earthquakes. Students will learn what causes earthquakes and why some building types are at risk. The course will focus on housing, schools, commercial, and industrial buildings in the U.S. and in developing countries to evaluate how different building types perform in earthquakes. The course will also explore techniques for strengthening existing buildings and different approaches to rebuilding after major disasters. This course will help a student to understand the basic structural components of existing buildings and performance-based design principles for new buildings. Case studies from recent earthquakes in China, Chile, Haiti, Mexico, and other countries will focus attention on the global construction issues and opportunities for improvement.

ARCH 100A
FUNDAMENTALS OF ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
IWAMOTO/CHOCKSOMBATCHAI

(6) Two hours of lecture, six hours of studio, and two hours of computer graphics laboratory per week. Prerequisites: ED 11A-11B. Must be taken in sequence. Introductory courses in the design of buildings. Problems emphasize conceptual strategies of form and space, site relationships and social, technological and environmental determinants. 100A focuses on the conceptual design process.

ARCH 100B
FUNDAMENTALS OF ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
CHOW/
BOURDIER

(6) Two hours of lecture, six hours of studio, and two hours of computer graphics laboratory per week. Prerequisites: ED 11A-11B. Must be taken in sequence. Introductory courses in the design of buildings. Problems emphasize conceptual strategies of form and space, site relationships and social, technological and environmental determinants. 100B stresses tectonics, materials, and energy considerations. Studio work is supplemented by lectures, discussions, readings and field trips.

ARCH 101
CASE STUDIES IN ARCHITECTURE

(5) Course may be repeated for credit as topic varies. Three hours of lecture and five hours of studio per week. Prerequisites: 100A-100B. Problems in the design of buildings of intermediate complexity. Each section deals with a selected topic and concentrates on developing conceptual strategies in the analysis and design of buildings: internal spatial relationships, material, form, tectonics, social and environmental considerations and built landscapes. Studio work is supplemented by lectures, discussions, readings, and field trips.

ARCH 101 SEC 1
CASE STUDIES IN ARCH
DAVIDS

Extended description to come.

ARCH 101 SEC 2
CASE STUDIES IN ARCH
DE MONCHAUX

Extended description to come.

ARCH 109
SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
DE MONCHAUX

(1-4) Course may be repeated for credit as topic varies. One to four hours of seminar per week. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor. Selected topics in the theories and conceopts of architectural design.

Extended Course Description

To come.

ARCH 110AC
SOCIAL & CULTURAL FACTORS IN DESIGN
CRANZ

(4) Three hours of lecture/forum and one and one-half hours of discussion per week. This course focuses on the significance of the physical environment for citizens and future design professionals. This course is an introduction to the field of human-environment studies, taught from an American Cultures perspective. Its objectives include: 1) being able to use the concepts in person-environment relations, 2) understanding how these concepts vary by subculture, primarily Anglo-, Hispanic-, and Chinese-American, 3) learning to use the methodological skills needed to conduct architectural programming and evaluation research, 4) thinking critically about the values embedded in design and the consequences for people, their behavior, and feelings. This course satisfies the American cultures requirement.

Extended Course Description

To come.

ARCH 129 (FORMERLY ARCH 138/139X)
SPECIAL TOPICS IN DIGITAL DESIGN THEORIES & METHODS

(1–4) Course may be repeated for credit as topic varies. One hour of lecture/seminar per unit per week. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor. Topics cover advanced and research-related issues in digital design and New Media, related to architecture.

ARCH 129 SEC 1
SPECIAL TOPICS IN DIGITAL DESIGN THEORIES
DHAEMERS

ARCH 129 Fall 2010 Website

This course is for students who will be working on a specific project involved with digital representation, visualization or rendering. The course is run as a lab / seminar where individuals are responsible for their own agenda and its completion. It provides a forum for serious discussion and exploration of emerging fields in computer rendering, painting, modeling, animation, multimedia and design as well as to related issues.

Idea development beyond the original project will result from the interaction of the idea with a synthesis of the individuals experience and the class interaction.

Students should have previous computer and software experience and to be able to present a project and research plan. The agenda for the class meetings consists of discussions, project demos, guest speakers from the digital fields, the viewing of historical and current animations and presentations by outside and student researchers. Students will be responsible for a completed storyboard and animation. There will be three reviews and a final presentation. The final will be conducted with guest reviewers. Results may be either 2D or 3D, still or animated. Groups of two or more students may work on a project. This course may be repeated for credit.

ARCH 129 SEC 2
SPECIAL TOPICS IN DIGITAL DESIGN THEORIES
RAEL

Extended description to come.

ARCH 139

SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN THEORY & CRITICISM

(1-4) Fifteen hours of lecture/seminar per unit per semester. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor. Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit. Topics cover contemporary and historical issues in architectural design theory and criticism. For current offerings, see department website.

ARCH 139 SEC 1
SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN THEORY & CRITICISM
CENZATTI

Spaces of Local Development

This course focuses on the workshops, firms, activities and labor skills that are present – even if in an embryonic form – in a given area and can be starting points for local (re)development. Drawing from industrial district studies (which deal with the success of geographical clusters of small firms in related activities), in this course will pay particular attention, to the close-nit social and economic relationships that characterize these complexes of small firms and to the spaces that foster those relationships. Students will be asked (1) to research specific case studies either of an already existing industrial district (e.g., the garment/fashion district in NY or LA, urban agriculture in Berkeley, multimedia in Santa Monica), or of an underdeveloped area, and (2) to identify interventions on spaces that can facilitate the interactions necessary for the successful growth of the selected cases.

ARCH 139 SEC 2
SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN THEORY & CRITICISM
CRYSLER

Architecture, Ethics, and Activism

This class will explore the paradoxes and possibilities of activist architectural practice. Activism is characterized by intentional actions that seek to bring about social and political change. Architecture depends on finance, regulation, institutions, industries, experts and laypeople to be realized, making the pursuit of activist agendas a complex ambition, one that requires navigating across a wide array of contradictory terrains. Where does an activist agenda begin and end, and how do we define what constitutes a successful form of activist practice?


The question of how to define, realize and assess activist agendas in architecture necessarily involves the philosophy of ethics: the systematic study of the reasoning or ways of thinking that guide the actions of a particular group. Over the last two decades there has been a resurgence of interest in activist approaches to architecture, and with it, calls for sustained engagement with the field of ethics.  A wide range of academic, philanthropic and non-governmental organizations concerned with the built environment have emerged to address conditions ranging from the aftermath of environmental devastation (as in the post-Katrina rebuilding efforts) to  the impact of growing economic inequality (as in the consequences of the foreclosure crisis for housing provision), slum improvement programs in rapidly urbanizing cities, and the housing conditions of populations displaced by war and other forms of social unrest.


This class will provide an introduction to the field of architectural activism and the many debates that surround it, through a combination of student-led research projects, case studies and site visits to relevant organizations in the Bay Area. Students will be divided into research teams and asked to develop a class presentation on an ethical controversy and its architectural response.

The course will have the following primary goals:
1) To consider activist practices historically: The current wave of activist practice is frequently represented in the architectural media as “new” and a departure from more conventional forms of practice. We will challenge this claim by investigating the rich (and sometime problematic) history of activist architecture, using historical examples to raise questions about current agendas. Our historical focus will be on the period following 1968, when many of the assumptions of high modernism, technical rationality and professional expertise were challenged through advocacy planning and participatory design.
    
2) To introduce students to the ethical basis of activist practice: There are a wide range of competing approaches to the processes and philosophy of ethical decision-making. This class will provide students with an overview of the philosophy of ethics as it has unfolded in architecture, with specific emphasis on the ethics of pragmatism, where theories are tested and revised through iterations of practice.

3) To examine activist practices through case studies: We will explore responses to specific ethical controversies and dilemmas through case studies that provide an overview of the different frameworks and contexts for activist practice. These will extend from examples of “engaged learning” in architecture programs to innovative forms of practice developed by professional firms, NGOs, charitable organizations, and government agencies, amongst others.

4) To consider the local and global dimensions of activist practice: The social processes that shape activist agendas (whether the effects of an oil spill, or the impact of toxic assets on housing supply) transcend national borders. This class will argue that activist practices, though related to geographically specific contexts and conditions, must be attuned to the global interdependence of economies, cultures and environments. We will therefore consider the capacity of practices developed in one context to inform those in another; we will also consider activist  alliances and temporary collaborations across borders in response to common  transnational issues.
 
Class format: The course will be divided into three major segments: the first part of the class will provide students with an overview of key debates in the ethical frameworks of activist practice; the second part will examine the potential and limitations of historical models of architectural activism.
The third and major part of the class will explore a sequence of ethical dilemmas and responses developed through activist practice.
Students will participate in shaping the content of the second third parts of the class and will be expected to act as vocal participants in class deliberations and work in research teams. Course requirements include an individual research report, a class presentation and structured class participation. The class is open to both upper division undergraduates and graduate students.

ARCH 144 (FORMERLY ARCH 149A)
INTRODUCTION TO ACOUSTICS
SALTER

(1) Three hours of lecture/discussion per week for five weeks. Must be taken on a passed/not passed basis. This course focuses on what architects need to know about acoustics. The first part deals with the fundamentals of acoustics including how sound levels are described and measured, and human response to sound. The course then covers building acoustics, mechanical equipment noise and vibration control, office acoustics, design of sound amplification systems, and environmental acoustics.

ARCH 150
INTRODUCTION TO STRUCTURES

BLACK

(4) Forty-five hours of lecture and thirty hours of discussion per semester. Prerequisites: Physics 8A. Study of forces, materials, and structural significance in the design of buildings. Emphasis on understanding the structural behavior of real building systems.

ARCH 170A
AN HISTORICAL SURVEY OF ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM
SHANKEN

(4) Forty-five hours of lecture and 15 hours of seminar/discussion per semester. The first part of this sequence (170A) studies the ancient and medieval periods; the second part (170B) studies the period since 1400; the aim is to look at architecture and urbanism in their social and historical context.

Antiquity to the Middle Ages

This course provides an overview of the history of the built environment from the beginnings to about 1400CE. The scope is broad in geographical and cultural terms. Although the prime emphasis is on the Mediterranean basin and Europe in general, a substantial number of lectures will be devoted to Asia, Africa, and the pre-Columbian Americas. Our aim is to expose you to the architectural heritage of the past in its social and historical context.

ARCH 173
CASE STUDIES IN MODERN ARCHITECTURE
CASTILLO

(3) Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: 170A-170B and consent of instructor. Formerly 173A.

Extended Course Description

This course examines developments in design, theory, graphic representation, construction technology, and interior programming through case studies of individual buildings. Our survey technique will be highly focused rather than panoptic. Each lecture will delve deeply into one or two buildings to examine program, spatial organization, graphic representation, critical building details, construction technology, and the relationship of the case study building with regard to other contemporary structures and the architect's overall body of work. From this nucleus, we will spiral outward to consider how the case study is embedded within a constellation of social and economic factors crucial to its design and physical realization. This survey of "modernism's built discourses" provides multiple perspectives on the variety of architectural propositions advanced to express the nature of modernity as a way of life.

ARCH 177
ARCHITECTURE AND MEMORY
SHANKEN

Extended Course Description

(3) Architecture and Memory examines the relationship between the built environment and cultural constructions of memory. Topics may include, but are not limited to, cross-cultural conceptions of the relationship between place, buildings, and memory; the destruction, neglect, or desecration of memorials; changes in spatial conventions of commemorative landscapes, objects, and practices; the recent rise in interest in sites of memory and heritage; the World Trade Center; impromptu memorials; and phenomenological approaches to the subject. Readings will include selections of Pierre Nora’s Lieux de Mémoire, James Young on the Holocaust, Serguisz Michalski on the politics of European memorials, Françoise Choay on the invention of the historic monument, Nigel Thrift on non-representational theory, Bruno Latour, and a range of other essays and books. The course will provide students with the opportunity to do original research on a topic of their choosing. Students from all disciplines are welcome!

ARCH 179
SPECIAL TOPICS IN THE HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

(1-4) Course may be repeated for credit. Fifteen hours of lecture/seminar per unit per semester. Prerequisites: 170A-170B and consent of instructor. Special topics in Architectural History.

ARCH 179 SEC 1
SPECIAL TOPICS IN THE HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE
FULLER

Extended description to come.

ARCH 198
SPECIAL GROUP STUDY

(1-4) Course may be repeated for credit. Enrollment is restricted; see the Introduction to Courses and Curricula section of this catalog. Must be taken on a passed/not passed basis. Studies developed to meet needs.

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Department of Architecture
University of California, Berkeley
232 Wurster Hall #1800
Berkeley, CA 94720-1800
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