This studio was dedicated to furthering the techniques and concepts of computational design in architecture. In particular, the studio sought to dispel the conventional wisdom that serious formal investigation and serious programmatic investigation are mutually exclusive.
Students explored the hypothesis that the negotiation of competing demands and desires in order to seek integration, differentiation and hybridity is a fertile path towards the production of architecture that is novel, spatially and experientially rich, and high-performing. To focus their enquiry, students produced highly articulated architectural projects (almost) entirely without walls, focussing on pushing the limits of what can be achieved with a highly differentiated, spatially complex roof.
Each student took on one of a list of typologies that have a proven history of yielding canonical architectural projects: Gallery, Library, Museum, Market, Place of Worship, Sports Hall, Thermal Baths. The roof was a strategic choice—it is the one element that is entirely obliged to serve simultaneously as structure and enclosure and has the potential to engage with spatial definition, program, lighting, storytelling, servicing, context, and much more.
