Schedule and Readings

GreenPix, Simone Giostra & Partners

2. Introduction / Disruptive Innovation [09.10]

Material strategies and the nature of design innovation
Lecture and course introduction
Discussion

READ Paola Antonelli, “Introduction,” Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design, 8-19
Dirk Funhoff, “The Development of Innovative Materials,” Construction Materials Manual, 28-31
Sheila Kennedy, “Material Presence,” KVA: Material Misuse, 4-21
Antoine Picon, “Construction History: Between Technological and Cultural History,” Building Systems: Design Technology and Society, 13-33
Christiane Sauer, “The Architect as Building Materials Scout,” Construction Materials Manual, 14-17
DUE Material Focus

3. Skeleton to Skin [09.17]

Minerals in architecture (loam, stone, ceramics)
Lecture
Discussion

READ Manuel De Landa, “Geological History,” A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History, 25-56
Ronald Rael, “Introduction,” Earth Architecture, 8-15
Dan Snow, Listening to Stone (excerpts), xii-xiii, 12-15, 44-55, 60-63
Rafael Diez Barreñada, “Ceramic Tile and Modern Technological Levity,” Moulding Assembling Designing: Ceramics in Architecture, 94-97

4. Liquid Stone [09.24]

Concrete in architecture
Lecture
Discussion

READ Jean-Louis Cohen, “Modern Architecture and the Saga of Concrete,” Liquid Stone, 20-33
Adrian Forty, “The Material Without a History,” Liquid Stone, 34-45
Sanford Kwinter, “Concrete: Dead or Alive?” Solid States: Concrete in Transition, 39-46
Detlef Mertins, “Pervasive Plasticity,” Solid States: Concrete in Transition, 27-38
DUE Material Interrogation, proposed topic and detail (2-3 paragraphs, 2-3 images)

5. Living Structures [10.01]

Wood in architecture
Lecture
Discussion

READ Manuel De Landa, “Biological History,” A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History, 103-134
Luis Fernández-Galiano, Chapter One, Fire and Memory, 2-32
Franco Laner, “Old Morphemes for New Technemes,” Materia 36, 22-27
Maria Argenti, “Wood in Contemporary Architecture,” Materia 36, 28-33
Dung Ngo and Eric Pfeiffer, “Introduction,” Bent Ply, 14-21

6. Material Interrogations: Set 1 [10.08]

Analysis of significant material details and their implications
Student presentations and discussion

DUE Material Interrogation model + drawings (presentation) [all students]
Student presentations and discussion [first half of class]

7. Material Interrogations: Set 2 [10.15]

Analysis of significant material details and their implications
Student presentations and discussion

DUE Student presentations and discussion [second half of class]

8. Magma to Machines [10.22]

Blaine out—class to be rescheduled
Metal in architecture
Lecture
Discussion

READ Erick van Egeraat, “Al is Sex,” Aluminum Architecture, 7-9
Michael Caldwell, “Flooded at the Farnsworth House,” Strange Details, 92-136
Annette LeCuyer, Steel and Beyond: “Metals, Machines and Modernity,” 6-15; “Optimization,” 12-15; “Mathematics and Materials,” 40-43; “Alternative Concepts of Order,” 66-69; “Hybrid Material Systems,” 84-87; and “The Palpable Skin,” 110-113
DUE Material Case Study, proposed topic and outline (1 page)

9. Engineered Transparency [10.29]

Glass in architecture
Lecture
Discussion

READ Colin Rowe, “Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal,” Mathematics of the Ideal Villa, 159-183
Paul Scheerbart, Glass Architecture (excerpt), 32-33
Michael Bell, “Introduction,” Engineered Transparency, 10-15
Guy Nordenson, “Infrathin,” Engineered Transparency, 72-77
Beatriz Colomina, “Unclear Vision: Architectures of Surveillance,” Engineered Transparency, 78-87
Elizabeth Diller, “Phantom House,” Engineered Transparency, 250-255

10. The Age of Plastic [11.05]

Polymers in architecture
Lecture
Discussion

READ Roland Barthes, “Plastic,” Mythologies, 97-99
Theo van Doesburg, Towards a Plastic Architecture (excerpt), 78-80
Jeffrey L. Meikle, American Plastic: A Cultural History: “Introduction: A Matter of Definition,” 1-9 and “Design in Plastic,” 183-241