Fall 2024 Electives

Arch 5392: Facade Design and Construction with Alex Terzich

This course explains and explores contemporary facade design by introducing students to key technical principles that will empower them to be more thoughtful and informed facade designers. We will take an in-depth look at four fundamental facade materials — stone, clay, metal, and glass —followed by exploration and development in a 3D environment of the students' choice.

Meets T/Th 4:00-5:15pm

Arch 5410: Topics in Architectural History (Alternative Landscape Histories, The City and the Park) with Kristine Miller

In this interdisciplinary and project based seminar, we will explore how research methods and content of landscape histories are being fundamentally reshaped in order to remap the future of the profession. Our class will contribute to these efforts. We will ask, “What histories will enable designers and historians working in a time of rapid and unpredictable change to further environmental justice?” We will focus on the idea of the “park” in the United States at three different scales: neighborhood, city, and nation. Every park is the site and subject of ongoing ethical debates. Parks are imagined, constructed, promoted, programmed, used, maintained, and redesigned in ways that reveal conflicting values about what is “good” and “right”. By creating “long histories” of parks that tie together past and present concerns, we can better frame opportunities for future action.



Meets T/Th 2:30-3:45pm

Arch 5410: Topics in Architectural History (Cold War Space: Landscapes, Images, Technologies) with Secil Binboga

The Cold War is over. Yet as historian Rashid Khalidi contends, “its tragic sequels, its toxic debris, and its unexploded mines [continue] to cause great harm, in ways largely unrecognized in American public discourse.”1 Notwithstanding that filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s recent intervention, Oppenheimer (2023) offers a popular recap of the breaking point that inaugurated a series of not-so-cold wars, the question remains: What counts as the architecture of the global Cold War? To answer this question, our seminar will explore the changing paradigms of “space” during the Cold War era. We will draw on a wide variety of media to conduct a historical study of the complex relations between images, artifacts, landscapes, technologies, territories, and infrastructures—that all together contributed to the design process of what we will term “Cold War space.” Our cases include but are not limited to mushroom clouds, do-it-yourself shelters, space capsules, atomic cities, protest graphics, and examples of Cold War Cinema.

Meets T/Th 4:00-5:15pm

Arch 5434: Contemporary Architecture with Alex Maymind

This course focuses on the developments, theories, movements, and trends in architecture and urban design, from World War II to present.

Meets Th 4:00-6:30pm

Arch 5550: Principled Construction: Wood-based Building with Jacob Mans

The trans-scalar topics of this cons are Forests and Fiber. Our research and making will focus on the performative feedback loops embodied in tree|timber|wood that necessarily connect forested landscapes to wood-fiber buildings across space and time. What are the performative variables attached to Minnesota’s forested landscapes and how can their design positively impact the buildings whose materials are sourced from them? How can material specification and construction impact the management of forested landscapes and the design of rural economies and communities that live in them?

Meets T/Th 11:15am-12:30pm

Arch 5609: Development and Implementation of Research with Bonnie Sanborn

This course bridges the gaps among architectural research, design, practice. Forum for students to independently develop research topics/implement research methods related to architectural scholarship/practice, aided by classmates, instructor, guest lecturers. 

Meets MW 9:45am-11:00am

Arch 5630: Practicum—Advanced Issues in Practice with Dustin Schipper

This course advances architectural practice topics not normally covered in curricula are examined/evaluated as foundation for licensure/ARE 4.0 testing processes.

Meets Th 5:30-8:00pm

Arch 5650: Topics in Arch. Practice (Readable, Wearable, Playable, and Edible Architecture) with Lisa Hsieh

Meets T/Th 11:15am-12:00pm

Arch 5671: Historic Preservation with Greg Donofrio

Philosophy and theory of historic preservation and its origins. Historic building research, descriptive analysis of historic buildings, historic archaeology, historic building documentation, the government role in historic preservation, preservation standards and guidelines, preservation and building codes, neighborhood preservation, preservation advocacy, and future directions for historic preservation. Research on architectural and historical aspects of a historic site using primary and secondary resources and on controversial aspects of preservation. 

Meets Thursday 4:00-6:30pm

Arch 8561: Sustainable Design Theory and Practice with Billy Weber

History, theory, and ethics of sustainable design processes/practices. Emphasizes approaches to sustainable architecture. Regional/global ecological issues, design strategies, methods of assessment. Primary architectural/technological implications of sustainable design theory/practice that inform design thinking/research. Sustainable design issues. Research projects, case studies, fieldwork. 

Meets T/Th 4:00-6:00pm

Arch 8567: Site and Water Issues in Sustainable Design with Matt Tierney and Peter Macdonagh 

Site, water and site/building integration aspects of sustainable design. Ecological principles, site analysis. Water/site/building integration strategies, methods, and tools integrated with sustainable design issues such as energy, indoor environmental quality, and materials. Research projects, case studies, measurement methods. 

Meets T/Th 2:30-3:45pm