BACKGROUND

The course enables the student to develop a systemic and material response for specific spatial engagements.  The key objective of the course is to enable students to understand relationships between systems/materials and life (behaviour, experience and relationships) via the idea of space - the premise here is that form articulates space and hence the structure of the form is instrumental in this articulation. (For example, a natural cave and a human-made cave have two different structural logics; a trabeated system and a framed system produce different proportions of voids and give a different sense of material; a domed roof is different from a trussed roof in spatiality).

This studio intends to understand the relationship between behaviour, experience,  meaning and living that is crafted through the structure, materiality and systems thinking for any configuration of space. The module shall explore communitarian, artisanal, exploratory and temporal dimensions in the process of design thinking and building making. This shall be attained by a studio exercise to design a space that provides for an individual or a group of people to read, gain and share knowledge and deliberate and reflect. The architectural imperatives are derived from these intangibles. The materiality and structure that are the derivatives of form and experience of the space at the same time are required to provide thermal and visual comfort to the users. The climatic response here hence becomes inherent to the design process.

A pair of students shall be required to design one structure for one of their own climatic contexts (city/ town/village). The chosen 600-750qm site and defined user group by the student pair will define what will the designed space and structure be used for and as. The build area of 450-500qm shall accommodate 150-200 pax. As a given requirement the clear span of the structure should be a minimum of 15 metres.