Syllabus

SUMMARY: The primary objective of the workshop/seminar is to develop a real scale portion of a glass/plastic interactive façade. The course examines a design workshop paradigm that tights together: 1) the culture of glass. 2) parametric design techniques, 2) 3D fabrication, 3) New materials that interplay with light.

SEMESTER LAYOUT: Each session will include a half an hour session were one topic regarding the culture (history, theory and technology) of glass will be addressed. The talk will be related with the readings required for the session. The class will be prepared to discuss the topic. The rest of the class will be dedicated to the exercises and iterative prototypes development.

SETTING: We will meet on Tuesdays in Campbell 325 from 4:00 to 6:45 p.m. On some occasions the class will meet in Campbell 105, the computer laboratory, and in Campbell 132, the CNC Fabrication Lab. We will be developing 4 prototypes in groups of three/four people. The process of production of the iterative prototypes will be evaluated as a whole. The weekly uploading of the work in the class’ Blog and the edition of a booklet by the end of the course will be required. The primary software and hardware used this term is: Generative Components and Parallax Basic Stamp Module; both will be provided by the school. Class participation will count towards 10 percent of the grade. Full attendance is expected.

TEXTS: Each day of class the instructor will send by e-mail the required readings for the following class as well as the text with the assignments due the following day of class if that is the case.

PREMISE: A new type of post-digital experimentation has called into question the "muteness and inertness" of traditional glass architecture and its transparency. We will be working on the definition of the novel “trans-apparent” condition of glass designing and building full scale envelope prototypes for a polemical urban context such as Times Square in NYC.

The following schedule is subject to revision.

January Trans-appearance

20th New Glasses. Course Overview.
Introduction. Transparency/ Trans-appearance.
Smart Materials and the Light Environment.

27th Smart Geometry.
The Metaphor of Crystal in Art and Architecture.
Generative Components hands on example: free form with hierarchical control geometry.

February Glass and the City

3rd Making Motion.
Color, Luminism & Kinetism
Prototypes proposal discussion.
Basic Stamp Micro Controller hands on examples:
Nitinol Wire and Servo.

10th Metropolis and Mental life.
Prototype: iteration 1

17th Building the Empire of the Gaze.
Prototype: iteration 2

24th Glass: From Utopia to Globalization. Curtain Wall as a Mass Media.
Prototype: iteration 3

March Functional, Phenomenal and Performative Glass

9th MID TERM REVIEW. Guest Critic: Rosa Urbano. MIT D-Lite Laboratory.

16th Glass Architecture Paradigms.
Prototype: iteration 4

23rd Glass Technologies.
Prototype: iteration 5

30th Glass and the Luminous Environment.
Prototype: iteration 6

April Functional, Phenomenal and Performative Glass

7th Phenomenology of Transparencies and Reflections.
Prototype: iteration 6

14th Interactive Glass Façades.
Prototype: iteration 6

21st Urban Mega Screens.
Prototype: iteration 6

28th Hiperreality and Transparency.
Prototype: iteration 6

May Final Prototype

5th FINAL REVIEW