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Fall 2018

  1. Advanced Studio

    These studios, three of which are required for graduation, are offered by individual instructors to students who have successfully completed the core curriculum. They are assigned by lottery. Once assigned to an advanced studio, a student may not drop studio.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $200.00

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

    Fee: Some advanced studio sections have a fee for course supplies or field trips. The fee is announced during the registration lottery held in the department.

  2. Advanced Topics In Architectural Computation

    This 3 credit advanced seminar offers students the opportunity to focus on computational topics pertaining to architecture. Computational techniques and computational ideas are explored through making, writing, reading, and discussion. Some of the work in this course will take place in the space of the digital model, but coding, physical computation, and human computation may also enter into play. Students in this course will, under the mentorship of faculty, develop a level of expertise and knowledge that goes beyond what is usually associated with the requisite skills for contemporary architectural practice. Conversely, it is expected that computation may provoke a challenge to even the most base conceptions of design and architecture. Each iteration of this course will identify and advance a single theme, concept or problem. Some issues that may arise during this course include authorship, modeling vs simulation, computer controlled fabrication, intelligence, and creativity. Prerequisite: completion of Architectural Projection or permission of instructor with a demonstrated experience with 2-D and 3-D software.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $20.00 - $100.00

    Major elective

    For Fall and Spring Semesters:

    Restricted to Architecture majors junior and above; open to CTC Concentrators and non-majors pending seat availability and permission of Instructor.

    For Wintersession:

    Open to undergraduate and graduate students.

  3. Advanced Topics In Architectural Drawing

    This 3 credit advanced seminar offers students the opportunity to focus on drawing topics pertaining to architecture. Drawing is treated as a space for architectural research and/or as an autonomous work of architecture. The notion that drawing serves architecture merely as representation is questioned and critiqued. The theoretical and technical focus on the process of drawing will cultivate and address issues that have for hundreds of years served as the core of the architecture discipline. Simultaneously, the research may allow for the generation or assimilation of ideas, cultures and knowledge from other fields into architecture.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $20.00 - $100.00

    Major elective

    Restricted to Architecture majors junior and above; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of Instructor.

  4. Advanced Topics In Architectural Technology

    This 3 credit advanced seminar offers students the opportunity to focus on advanced applications of technology in architecture. Students will explore the relationship between design and technology within topics such as advanced energy modeling, advanced structural analysis, high performance structures, high performance building facades, and sustainable design. These seminars are designed to strengthen students' ability to conduct research, explore material performance and enable validation of design concepts based on applied technology.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $30.00 - $50.00

    Major elective

    For Fall and Spring Semesters:

    Restricted to Architecture juniors and above; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of Instructor.

    For Wintersession:

    Open to undergraduate and graduate students.

  5. Architectural Projection

    This course introduces the beginning student to the origins, media, geometries and role(s) of projection drawing in the design and construction process. The student will learn systems of projection drawing from direct experience, and be challenged to work both from life and to life. Subjects such as transparency, figure/ground, sciagraphy, oblique projection, surface development, volumetric intersections, spatial manipulation and analytic operations will build on the basics of orthographic and conic projection. The course involves line and tone drawing, hand drafting, computer drawing(Autocad) and computer modeling(Rhino).

    Estimated Materials Cost: $20.00 - $100.00 Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

  6. Collaborative Study

    A Collaborative Study Project (CSP) allows two students to work collaboratively to complete a faculty supervised project of independent study.

    Usually, a CSP is supervised by two faculty members, but with approval it may be supervised by one faculty member. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses, though it is not a substitute for a course if that course is regularly offered.

  7. EHP Fall:studio Concentration

    In this intensive independent studio students continue and complete the work began in "EHP Studio Elective", culminating in the final exhibition and review. It corresponds to the remaining four weeks of the program, after students have finished with their Art History and Italian classes.

    Note: EHP credits replace the on-campus major requirements for the term students attend. Distribution to non-major requirements occurs when major credits are not needed.

  8. EHP Studio Elective

    Independent studio is at the core of the EHP experience. Upon arrival, students are assigned studio space at the Palazzetto Cenci, home of RISD's program in Rome. With guidance from the chief critic, each student develops a personal body of work sparked by his/her interactions with places, people and circumstances in Rome and other locations that are part of the EHP tours (such as the Northern, Southern or Eastern tours, as well as other shorter trips.) The work takes as a point of departure knowledge and techniques specific to individual home departments, but allows, and even encourages, explorations beyond disciplinary boundaries, including collaborations and cross-fertilization within a group of students from different departments working together.

    Beyond consistent and thorough engagement with studio work, requirements include participation in open studios and exhibitions, presentations in reviews, and attendance to all group activities and events, such as lectures at the Cenci and other institutions. From time to time, the chief critic may issue short assignments to introduce or focus on a particular subject. As part of the studio elective, students may be encouraged to keep sketchbooks and/or diaries, participate in optional activities--such as figure drawing sessions--and search for brief internships, apprenticeships, or other forms of interactions with local artists, designers, curators and critics.

    EHP Studio Elective corresponds to the first twelve weeks of the program, while students are also taking Art History and Italian classes. This course establishes the direction for the work in the "Studio Concentration" course that follows.

    Note: EHP credits replace the on-campus major requirements for the term students attend. Distribution to non-major requirements occurs when major credits are not needed.

  9. Environmental Design I

    The study of basic concepts of Human Environmental Comforts. Inherent within 'physio-environ' considerations are principles of temperature, humidity, heat transfer, air movement, and hydrostatics. These principles will be studied in terms of their abstract physics and mathematics, through empirical benchmarking and as the basis for a design proposal that includes considerations of larger scale strategies as well as assemblies. Emphasis will be placed on the principles behind the technology, the behavioral characteristics and the qualities of the systems' operation considered in making building design decisions.

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Open to NCSS Concentrators pending seat availability and permission of Instructor.

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

  10. Graduate Theory Seminar: Making Discourse

    This is a theoretical seminar course that will be concerned with ideas and architectural knowledge that may be cultivated and tested through discourse. The course discussions will focus on an expansive role of architectural tools. While acknowledging a wealth of disciplinary conventions, histories and theories, this course recognizes that the forms of representation within the discipline of architecture have the capacity to affect the discipline of architecture and are not fixed. Students in this course will be expected to build upon their previous architectural education through a series of directed projects aimed at advancing architectural theories, ideas and methods. Some of the questions that students will be expected to address are: What are the practical, theoretical, and creative implications of a drawing that functions as architecture? How do architects change the way we make and think thanks to digital media? How do architects represent and model natural forces? How do architects express political or social agendas? What is the nature of an architectural contribution to interdisciplinary discourse? How can representation enable new kinds of artistic and research-based practices for architecture? Students will be expected to self-direct their process while framing their work intellectually in a seminar environment.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00

    Graduate Major requirement; Architecture 2-year majors only

    Open to first-year M.ARCH Advanced Standing students only.

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

    Open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of Instructor.

  11. ISP Major

    The Independent Study Project (ISP) allows students to supplement the established curriculum by completing a faculty supervised project for credit in a specific area of interest. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses.

    Register by completing the Independent Study Application available on the Registrar's website; course not available via web registration.

  12. Integrated Building Systems

    Conceived as the culmination of the technologies sequence of courses, this course allows students to choose amongst the three instructor's differing approaches to the problem of conceiving technology holistically, in relation to a set of architectural criteria. The conceptual and technical aspects of building systems are considered and emergent environmentally-conscious technologies are emphasized for research and application.

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

    Prerequisites: All required technologies courses.

  13. Modern Architecture

    The course will focus on the diverse new roles encountered by the architect in the 20th century: form maker, administrator of urban development, social theorist, cultural interpreter, ideologue. Emphasis will be placed upon the increasing interdependence of architecture and the city, and the recurrent conflicts between mind and hand, modernity and locality, expressionism and universality.

    Major requirement; Architecture majors

    Art History credit for Architecture majors

    Liberal Arts elective credit for non-majors pending seat availability.

  14. Professional Internship

    ARCH-8960 is an optional off campus internship, which may be taken during the summer or in wintersession. Depending on the nature of the work, the internship may count for major elective credit within the department or for non-major elective credit. Total hours required are 180.

  15. Scope Seminar

    This seminar will utilize the content, topic, and conceit of measure as a pinhole through which to see the world of Directed Design Research. Directed Design Research is an alternative to Thesis, which lays out a specific territory of inquiry and encourages students to identify the topic and scope of their work, emanating from this specific point of departure. The seminar will lay out a series of methods, techniques, and exercises related to the exploration of measure, asking each student to then define a territory of inquiry within this delimited field. The deliverables for the Scope Seminar include a thoughtfully delimited and actionable statement of the intended design research, the documentation of a minimum of three methodologies or approaches to be utilized in the design research, and a well-wrought syllabus that includes: a weekly breakdown of tasks and deliverables, relevant references and precedents properly cited, and a concise text (3 pages maximum) describing the research activities to be undertaken.

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

  16. Steel Structures

    This course reviews the role of metals in architecture, focusing on the fundamentals of steel analysis and design in architecture; and examines typical framing techniques and systems. Topics include construction issues, floor framing systems, column analysis and design, steel detailing and light gauge steel framing materials and systems. In addition the course introduces students to lateral force resistance systems in steel construction and exposes them to alternatives to steel such as aluminum and fiberglass. By the end of the course, students will be aware of the role of metals in architectural design and construction; design and detail simple steel structural systems; and proportion these systems to resist the moment and shear demands determined through structural analysis.

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

  17. Structural Analysis

    The basic content will be statics and strength of materials. The first portion will deal with force vectors, trusses, cross-sectional properties, and shear/moment diagrams, followed by stresses, strains, material applications and the analysis procedures necessary to compute structural behaviors. While the class format is mostly lecture, there will be ample time for discussion, in addition to group projects and field trips. This class is foundational to all future structural design classes such as Wood Structures and Steel Structures. The student will develop an intuitive understanding of structural behavior by studying various structural systems qualitatively under various loading conditions. The analysis of statically determinate trusses and frames will reinforce the intuitive understanding. Structural forces will be understood by tracing the loads (dead, live, wind, and seismic) through a building. They will be able to convert these loads into internal material stresses (axial, shear bending) for the purposes of proportioning members quantitatively. The relevant material sectional properties (such as moment of inertia and radius of gyration) will be learned through hands on bending and buckling experiments and later backed by quantitative analysis. A math test will be given prior to the first class to determine which students are required to attend a supplemental lecture class instructed by the teaching assistant. This course is a pre-requisite for Steel Structures, Wood Structures, and Concrete Structures.

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

  18. The Making Of Design Principles

    This course, the first in a two semester sequence, explores design principles specific to architecture. Two interrelated aspects of design are pursued: 1) the elements of composition and their formal, spatial, and tectonic manipulation and 2) meanings conveyed by formal choices and transformations.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $50 - $200

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

  19. Thesis Sem: Navigating The Creative Process

    We begin work on your Thesis Projects from the outset of the semester: navigating arbitrary beginnings; setting boundaries like nets; developing a whole language of grunts, smudges and haiku; gathering the unique and unrepeatable content, forces, and conditions of your project; hunting an emerging and fleeting idea; recognizing discoveries; projecting forward with the imagination; and distilling glyphs, diagrams and insight plans.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $200.00

    This course satisfies the prerequisite requirement for Thesis Project.

  20. Urban Ecologies

    The Urban Ecologies core studio introduces students to the city as a designed environment with an emphasis on sustainability, giving them the tools to work through impressions, analysis and design operations as ways to understand the relationship between naturally formed and culturally constructed landscapes and strategies for urban ecological development.". Students confront the design of housing as a way to order social relationships and shape the public realm and attack the problems of structure, construction, access and code compliance in the context of a complex large-scale architectural design.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $200.00

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

Wintersession 2019

  1. Advanced Topics In Architectural Computation

    This 3 credit advanced seminar offers students the opportunity to focus on computational topics pertaining to architecture. Computational techniques and computational ideas are explored through making, writing, reading, and discussion. Some of the work in this course will take place in the space of the digital model, but coding, physical computation, and human computation may also enter into play. Students in this course will, under the mentorship of faculty, develop a level of expertise and knowledge that goes beyond what is usually associated with the requisite skills for contemporary architectural practice. Conversely, it is expected that computation may provoke a challenge to even the most base conceptions of design and architecture. Each iteration of this course will identify and advance a single theme, concept or problem. Some issues that may arise during this course include authorship, modeling vs simulation, computer controlled fabrication, intelligence, and creativity. Prerequisite: completion of Architectural Projection or permission of instructor with a demonstrated experience with 2-D and 3-D software.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $20.00 - $100.00

    Major elective

    For Fall and Spring Semesters:

    Restricted to Architecture majors junior and above; open to CTC Concentrators and non-majors pending seat availability and permission of Instructor.

    For Wintersession:

    Open to undergraduate and graduate students.

  2. Advanced Topics In Architectural Technology

    This 3 credit advanced seminar offers students the opportunity to focus on advanced applications of technology in architecture. Students will explore the relationship between design and technology within topics such as advanced energy modeling, advanced structural analysis, high performance structures, high performance building facades, and sustainable design. These seminars are designed to strengthen students' ability to conduct research, explore material performance and enable validation of design concepts based on applied technology.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $30.00 - $50.00

    Major elective

    For Fall and Spring Semesters:

    Restricted to Architecture juniors and above; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of Instructor.

    For Wintersession:

    Open to undergraduate and graduate students.

  3. Architectonics

    An introduction to the principles of architectural design beginning with a close examination of materials, forces and the human body. The examination will progressively widen in scope to include issues of form, space, structure, program and site. This condensed architectural studio is intended for freshmen and students outside the Division of Architecture and Design.

  4. Architecture Professional Internship

    ARCH-2199 is the required summer internship. It may be completed in any summer prior to entering the final year. Total hours required are 280. This internship can count for NCARB Architectural Experience Program AX-P. The internship hours for ARCH-2199 can be used towards architecture licensure through the NCARB Internship. Student's intent upon becoming registered architects in the USA after graduation should enroll in the AXP as soon as possible. AXP is the internship program required by all registration jurisdictions. The work experience accomplished during ARCH-2199, the department's minimum Internship experience (280 hours) can be recorded as acceptable experience in the AXP (3740 hours) and thus accelerate one's pace towards architectural licensure.

    Website: http://www.ncarb.org/Experience-Through-Internship s.aspx

    To register, go to www.risdcareers.com (ArtWorks)

    Course not available via web registration.

  5. Collaborative Study

    A Collaborative Study Project (CSP) allows two students to work collaboratively to complete a faculty supervised project of independent study.

    Usually, a CSP is supervised by two faculty members, but with approval it may be supervised by one faculty member. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses, though it is not a substitute for a course if that course is regularly offered.

  6. Designing The Cosmos

    The Cosmos is a universe regarded as an orderly complete and harmonious system. "Designing The Cosmos" is a studio that brings the opportunity to all interested RISD students to create and design their own physical and diverse Universe. During this course, the students will use Reverse Engineering to understand the Universe as a whole and deconstruct it at different scales. The student will design their own Universe, Solar systems,and Planets. Students will explore their new city and lifestyles of their own personalized planet through models and drawings. The Episcopal Cleric Desmond Tutu said that "We inhabit a universe that is characterized by diversity", therefore, the purpose of the course is to encourage students to re-envision the cosmos as a potential to discover the value of diversity and be able to materialize it in a physical reality. A universe could be defined as "a particular sphere of activity, interest, or experience." As architects and artists we design a sphere of activity, our own interests and experiences. To us designing the cosmos pushes students forward, to analyze our current realm and push what the world can possibly become by designing a totally new universe! Art and architecture need creative thinkers, we believe by exploring the potential of the cosmos one can be free from social "norms" and truly explore where one's mind can take them.

    Prompts:

    In this course the use of physical model making, digital modeling, and drawing will allow students to explore the scope of space and its limits.

    1. Create a physical model that explores the volume of space that exists around your idea of a universe. Your universe will exist as a void within set parameters of the volume.

    2. Imagine within the void live star clusters, explore how these stars exist in space.

    3. Define the motion of what lives around your stars.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $200.00

  7. Fabricating Urbanity

    This studio aims to question place-making through the critical analysis of both the urban and the form, and the examination of the shifting scales of architecture and the built environment. Students will first be asked to study urbanism through an analytic exploration into Providence, examining the human relationship to the city and its setting. Guided by a brief background of urban design basics, students will be assigned a site as a focus their study, that will later become the location of their design intervention. Through an ongoing process of drawing and modeling, students will engage in an integral process of formal making as experimentation into the relationship between scale and human encounter. These analytical observations will be recorded both in two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms, which will be referenced throughout the course and ultimately will become the basis to their final design intervention. Using the knowledge and questions gained from the examination of form and scale, students will be asked to design and fabricate a site-specific installation focused on human interaction as the creation of space and place. There is no limit to material, scale, use, medium, or form. Depending on size students will thus fabricate their design to scale, keeping in mind materiality, representation, and the encounter.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $100.00-$500.00

  8. ISP Major

    The Independent Study Project (ISP) allows students to supplement the established curriculum by completing a faculty supervised project for credit in a specific area of interest. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses.

    Register by completing the Independent Study Application available on the Registrar's website; course not available via web registration.

  9. Professional Internship

    The professional Internship provides valuable exposure to a professional setting, enabling students to better establish a career path and define practical aspirations. Internship proposals are carefully vetted to determine legitimacy and must meet the contact hour requirements listed in the RISD Course Announcement.

  10. Thesis Discursive Workshop

    Thesis Discursive Workshop utilizes Wintersession to hone students' discursive skills, both written and oral, so that they can choreograph a robust discussion around their work. This course establishes a consistent discursive trajectory to the ongoing individual design development of the thesis project that begins in the Fall. In addition to providing a forum in which students might draw out, articulate, and position some of the central claims and aims of their thesis work, this course also aims to instigate careful thought about the written component of the eventual thesis book and the way that this written component might inform or be informed by design work. The assignments of the course are designed to create the infrastructure of a student's eventual thesis book, the elements of any/many book(s). They are not the book content itself, but organize, clarify, define, contextualize, reference, etc. the work contained therein. These elements, for the purposes of this course, are: synopsis (back page/cover flap summary), "cover art", bibliography, table of contents, title, index, and appendix/appendices. In this five-week intensive workshop, students will develop and refine the following skills, relating each development to a component of their eventual book via an assignment:

    1. Crafting the thesis polemic or narrative;

    2. Positioning the thesis;

    3. Contextualizing and formatting the thesis;

    4. Curating and editing the thesis;

    5. Persuasively articulating the thesis.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $200.00

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Permission of Instructor required.

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

    Schedule to be determined with Advisor.

Spring 2019

  1. Advanced Studio

    These studios, three of which are required for graduation, are offered by individual instructors to students who have successfully completed the core curriculum. They are assigned by lottery. Once assigned to an advanced studio, a student may not drop studio.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $200.00

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

    Fee: Some advanced studio sections have a fee for course supplies or field trips. The fee is announced during the registration lottery held in the department.

  2. Advanced Topics In Architectural Technology

    This 3 credit advanced seminar offers students the opportunity to focus on advanced applications of technology in architecture. Students will explore the relationship between design and technology within topics such as advanced energy modeling, advanced structural analysis, high performance structures, high performance building facades, and sustainable design. These seminars are designed to strengthen students' ability to conduct research, explore material performance and enable validation of design concepts based on applied technology.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $30.00 - $50.00

    Major elective

    For Fall and Spring Semesters:

    Restricted to Architecture juniors and above; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of Instructor.

    For Wintersession:

    Open to undergraduate and graduate students.

  3. Advanced Topics In Architectural Theory

    Theory offerings in the architecture department are deliberately consistent or complementary with our pedagogy, born and raised in an arts college. Theory based courses have a basis in empiricism, direct observation and experience of creative processes. Recognizing that discovery and invention often come between existing matrices of thought, offerings may be from disciplines other than architecture or branches of knowledge other than art and design.

    Objectives of the theory component of our curriculum are to:

    1. Expand the capacity to speculate productively.

    2. Develop the skeptic's eye and mind.

    3. Equip the ability to recognize connections that trigger discovery and invention.

    Major elective

    Restricted to Architecture majors junior and above; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of Instructor.

  4. Architectural Analysis

    This course will develop one's ability to critically read and understand architecture through formal, geometric, tectonic and spatial analytic processes. Analysis acts as an intermediary between observation, expression, and understanding, offering deep insights into works of architecture. The course builds upon the processes introduced in Architectural Projection. Through various conceptual and representational frameworks, the issues of mapping-layers. Point of view, scale, morphology, topography and tectonics will be explored as part of a larger creative process, embracing visual imagination, communication and critique.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $20.00 - $100.00

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

  5. Architectural Design

    Design principles presented in the first semester are further developed through a series of projects involving actual sites with their concomitant physical and historic-cultural conditions. Issues of context, methodology, program and construction are explored for their possible interrelated meanings and influences on the making of architectural form.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $200.00

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

  6. Architecture Professional Internship

    ARCH-2199 is the required summer internship. It may be completed in any summer prior to entering the final year. Total hours required are 280. This internship can count for NCARB Architectural Experience Program AX-P. The internship hours for ARCH-2199 can be used towards architecture licensure through the NCARB Internship. Student's intent upon becoming registered architects in the USA after graduation should enroll in the AXP as soon as possible. AXP is the internship program required by all registration jurisdictions. The work experience accomplished during ARCH-2199, the department's minimum Internship experience (280 hours) can be recorded as acceptable experience in the AXP (3740 hours) and thus accelerate one's pace towards architectural licensure.

    Website: http://www.ncarb.org/Experience-Through-Internship s.aspx

    To register, go to www.risdcareers.com (ArtWorks)

    Course not available via web registration.

  7. Building Prints

    This course brings together printmaking and architecture, with their respective modes of working and sensibilities. There is long tradition connecting the two disciplines; here we will focus on a fundamental, physical connection, experimenting with materials and ways of assembling them to make prints. We will think of the press bed almost as a construction site. Collecting materials from everyday life, we will explore their characteristics and qualities--textures, patterns, opacities and translucencies--in the process of transferring them onto paper. The main technique of the course will be monotype, but we may also employ other techniques, such as soft ground and laser etching depending of students' experience and interest. We will start with simple monochrome prints, progressively moving to more open-ended, elaborate and ambitious experiments, including multicolor prints and three-dimensional assemblages. Students will produce weekly sets of prints in order to develop themes and variations. Above all, the work of the course should be thought of as an opportunity to develop careful experimental habits.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00

    Elective

    Open to sophomore and above.

    Please follow the below registration availability:

    ARCH-2080: Open to Architecture majors only.

    PRINT-2080: Open to Printmaking majors only.

    IDISC-2080: Open to all other majors.

  8. Collaborative Study

    A Collaborative Study Project (CSP) allows two students to work collaboratively to complete a faculty supervised project of independent study.

    Usually, a CSP is supervised by two faculty members, but with approval it may be supervised by one faculty member. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses, though it is not a substitute for a course if that course is regularly offered.

  9. Concrete Structures

    This course reviews the fundamentals of concrete and masonry in architecture with a focus on materials, structural analysis and design. The analysis and design includes concrete structures, reinforced and pre-stressed concrete members, concrete foundations and reinforced masonry. The student will proportion concrete and masonry structures using ultimate strength design. The longer class time on Tuesday allows students to design, make a concrete mix and create a concrete object. By the end of the course, the students will be able to design and detail simple concrete and masonry systems such as footings, basement walls, beams and slabs; proportion these systems to resist the moment and shear demands determined through structural analysis; develop an understanding of proper detailing of architectural concrete and masonry veneers by understanding thermal movements, waterproofing, and construction techniques.

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

  10. EHP Sprg:studio Concentratio

    In this intensive independent studio students continue and complete the work began in "EHP Studio Elective", culminating in the final exhibition and review. It corresponds to the remaining eight weeks of the program, after students have finished with their Art History and Italian classes.

    Note: EHP credits replace the on-campus major requirements for the term students attend. Distribution to non-major requirements occurs when major credits are not needed.

  11. EHP Studio Elective

    Independent studio is at the core of the EHP experience. Upon arrival, students are assigned studio space at the Palazzetto Cenci, home of RISD's program in Rome. With guidance from the chief critic, each student develops a personal body of work sparked by his/her interactions with places, people and circumstances in Rome and other locations that are part of the EHP tours (such as the Northern, Southern or Eastern tours, as well as other shorter trips.) The work takes as a point of departure knowledge and techniques specific to individual home departments, but allows, and even encourages, explorations beyond disciplinary boundaries, including collaborations and cross-fertilization within a group of students from different departments working together.

    Beyond consistent and thorough engagement with studio work, requirements include participation in open studios and exhibitions, presentations in reviews, and attendance to all group activities and events, such as lectures at the Cenci and other institutions. From time to time, the chief critic may issue short assignments to introduce or focus on a particular subject. As part of the studio elective, students may be encouraged to keep sketchbooks and/or diaries, participate in optional activities--such as figure drawing sessions--and search for brief internships, apprenticeships, or other forms of interactions with local artists, designers, curators and critics.

    EHP Studio Elective corresponds to the first twelve weeks of the program, while students are also taking Art History and Italian classes. This course establishes the direction for the work in the "Studio Concentration" course that follows.

    Note: EHP credits replace the on-campus major requirements for the term students attend. Distribution to non-major requirements occurs when major credits are not needed.

  12. Environmental Design II

    This equally distributed three part course will continue with the principles from "Physics", the application of electric energy, lighting and sound to building environs. Building technology continues to demand a larger percentage of the building's budget and thus should receive a greater degree of time and understanding by the Architect. Topics and principles to be included are: electronic generation, distribution, and building systems; electronic and communication systems; lighting fundamentals, design and control; and enviro-acoustical fundamentals, sound transmission, amplification, and absorption principles.

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Open to NCSS Concentrators pending seat availability and permission of Instructor.

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

  13. ISP Major

    The Independent Study Project (ISP) allows students to supplement the established curriculum by completing a faculty supervised project for credit in a specific area of interest. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses.

    Register by completing the Independent Study Application available on the Registrar's website; course not available via web registration.

  14. ISP Non-major Elective

    The Independent Study Project (ISP) allows students to supplement the established curriculum by completing a faculty supervised project for credit in a specific area of interest. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses.

    Permission of Instructor and GPA of 3.0 or higher is required.

    Register by completing the Independent Study Application available on the Registrar's website; the course is not available via web registration.

  15. Principles Of Professional Practice

    This is a course about becoming a licensed architect, a business professional and an active, engaged and responsible citizen. It is intended to help prepare students for the challenges and opportunities confronted by a life in Architecture. Lectures are organized around four themes: The architect as a trained and certified "Professional" in traditional and alternative careers; the architect as an operative in the world of business and commerce; the origins of architectural projects; and the detailed work performed through professional Architectural Contracts. Regular panels, composed of RISD alums and other allied professionals provide an external perspective on all elements of the course, and allow students the opportunity to direct discussion in ways appropriate to their needs.

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration

  16. Professional Internship

    The professional Internship provides valuable exposure to a professional setting, enabling students to better establish a career path and define practical aspirations. Internship proposals are carefully vetted to determine legitimacy and must meet the contact hour requirements listed in the RISD Course Announcement.

  17. Rethinking Green Urbanism

    As over half the world's population has come to live in cities, urbanization has moved to the center of the environmental debate. This course will provide an interdisciplinary engagement between Sociology and Architecture to reflect on the past, present and future of ecological urbanism. Co-taught by professors from Architecture and Liberal Arts, the seminar will interrogate the ways in which green urban design has been conceptualized to date. It will explore cutting edge contemporary debates around the future of the green urban project and ask students to think forward into the future.
    Open to sophomore and above.

    Permission of Instructor Required.

    Also offered as HPSS-S151; Register in the course for which credit is desired.

  18. Stuminar: Directed Research Seminar

    The stuminar is, effectively, a seminar congruent with a studio, and its ambition is to provide rigorous methodological framing and provocative content scaffolding for the design research activities within the studio. While the studio component will focus on the advancing of the design research questions framed in the fall seminar, the seminar component will consider the best formats and vehicles for the dissemination of the design research. The deliverables for this stuminar will be twofold: a thoroughly researched, documented, and delineated design project; and a textual 'exit document' in which students articulate their research methods, techniques, formats, and outcomes.

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

  19. Stuminar: Directed Research Studio

    The stuminar is, effectively, a studio congruent with a seminar, and its ambition is to provide rigorous methodological framing and provocative content scaffolding for the design research activities within the studio. While the studio component will focus on the advancing of the design research questions framed in the fall seminar, the seminar component will consider the best formats and vehicles for the dissemination of the design research. The deliverables for this stuminar will be twofold: a thoroughly researched, documented, and delineated design project; and a textual 'exit document' in which students articulate their research methods, techniques, formats, and outcomes.

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

  20. Thesis Project

    Under the supervision of a faculty advisor, students are responsible for the preparation and completion of an independent thesis project.

    Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $200.00

    Major requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

    Permission for this class is based on the student's overall academic record as well as their performance in Wintersession Thesis Research. If the department recommends against a student undertaking the thesis project, two advanced elective studios must be taken instead.

    Prerequisites: One of the thesis project seminars. See footnotes on the curriculum sheet for a list of these classes or read the course descriptions in the "History and Theory" section which follows.

  21. Urban Farm: Gathering - Learning From Community Garden Practices

    This course is sponsored by the RISD SEI Action Plan. The course addresses the plan's call for meaningful Community Engagement (VI) and Community Wellness (VII) by recognizing the power of affiliating with members of our local community and with natural systems.

    Urban agriculture has the potential to strengthen local communities with many social benefits including; enhancing food security with healthy food, the reduction of the use of fossil-fuels, and local economic development within the food network. It also creates more sustainable urban environments with green spaces that re-establish interrelated natural systems, promoting biodiversity and reducing urban impact on the water cycle. Finally, these spaces can be a locus for the neighborhood.

    This course will focus on creative place making and contemporary urban agriculture practices. We will work closely with Southside Community Land Trust and Down City Design in South Providence as community partners to understand and support their work through creative thinking. Class time will be divided between field trips, working collaboratively in the city with our partners, and working quietly in the classroom.

    Each student will be asked to prepare two projects. The first will be a case study analysis of existing examples of urban farms across the country to learn from the unique ways people are farming in different cities. In the second, we will work with our community partners in the fields and on a small design-build project situated at an existing garden.

    Open to junior and above.

    Open to students in Architecture, Interior Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Industrial Design.

    Also offered as ARCH-2340; Register in the course for which credit is desired.

  22. Wood Structures

    This course will review the fundamentals of wood in architecture with a focus on wood materials and construction systems and lumber and timber structural analysis and design. Work includes timber systems consisting of conventional framing trusses, laminates, built-up sections and connections. In addition, this course will review the principles of structural loads; gravity, lateral, live and dead. The concept of lateral resistance through standard wood framing systems will be explored. Manufactured lumber has become a major part of today's wood construction industry and the design and detailing of these materials will be explored in depth. By the end of the course, students will be aware of the role of wood materials in architectural design and construction and be able to design and detail simple Lumber and Timber structural systems. They will be able to proportion these systems to resist the moment and shear demands determined through structural analysis. This course will provide the student with a good understanding of the material and the common structural and architectural systems used in today's practice.

    Major Requirement; Architecture majors only

    Registration by the Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.

  23. World Architecture: From Pre-history To Pre-modern: Ideas and Artifacts

    This history of architecture course, co-taught by an architectural historian and an architect, introduces key ideas, forces, and techniques that have shaped world architecture through the ages prior to the modern period. The course is based on critical categories, ranging from indigenous and vernacular architecture, to technology, culture, and representation. The lectures and discussions present systems of thought, practice and organization, emphasizing both historical and global interconnectedness, and critical architectural differences and anomalies. Each topic will be presented through case studies accompanied by relevant texts. The students will be expected to engage in the discussion groups, prepare material for these discussions, write about, and be examined on the topics.

    Major requirement; Architecture majors

    Art History credit for Architecture majors

    Liberal Arts elective credit for non-majors pending seat availability and permission of Instructor.

    Registration by Architecture Department, course not available via web registration.