Fall 2024 Technical Methods, Intellectual Domain Seminars and ARC Electives

It is encouraged, but not required,  that students register for the technical methods seminar and intellectual domain seminar that is in the same graduate research group as their research studio. For those students taking an option studio, design studio or are on the thesis track, students should consider topic of interest when registering for the seminars.

Students are only allowed to retake a seminar of the same number if the course content has significantly changed since last registration. Please reach out to the instructor of the course to confirm this is the case before registering. 

Technical Methods seminars explore strategies for conducting research in different focus areas of architecture, from visualization techniques, skill-building in the use of tools, and developing specific methods for technically-driven inquiry.

Sub-Title: Passive House Training Seminar

This course satisfies the required training necessary to earn the Certified Passive House Consultant (CPHC) designation from the Passive House Institute U.S. (PHIUS). CPHC training teaches designers how to apply passive building principles in a cost-optimized, climate-specific manner. The training is geared toward architects, engineers, and design professionals who want to take their high-performance building expertise to the next level.

In this class, we will discuss the detailing of assemblies, thermal bridging, specification of mechanical systems, how to test airtightness with a blower door, and other concepts that build on the knowledge gleaned from the introductory environmental systems courses at the University at Buffalo. The class will conclude with the two-part CPHC evaluation: an open-book online exam covering the passive house standard and building science and a take-home design prompt. Students who successfully complete the class and earn the minimum passing score on the exam and design prompt will earn the CPHC designation from PHIUS for their resume.

In addition, beyond learning current technical methods to decarbonize the building stock, we will discuss the relevance of these advanced energy efficiency standards for places like Buffalo, New York: cities where extreme racial segregation, an aged housing stock, and other environmental stressors are the norm. To do this, we will engage with staff from People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH Buffalo) to understand their approach to providing affordable energy efficient housing to residents on the West Side of Buffalo.

Sub-title: Visualizing Resilience: Territory, Transect, Types

This course introduces techniques for visualizing water-resilient urbanization scenarios at three scales: the territory, the transect, and the housing type.  Based on visualization approaches from landscape architecture, architecture, and media studies, the course introduces 2D, 3D, and 4D drawing types that visualize transformation where landscapes and buildings intersect in cities where extreme climate events have intensified amid global warming. The goal is to prepare students to visualize how nature based solutions might be used to mitigate the deleterious impacts of a rapidly changing climate. This course will evolve in parallel with the option studio Reimagining Casco Bay: Designing for Extreme Climate Events in Coastal Cities” (Kristine Stiphany).

This course will empower students to:

• Characterize building – landscape intersections at three scales (Territory, Transect, Types)
• Draw time and space-based transitions from impacted to mitigated scenarios. 

This course is expected to be closely aligned with the Ecological Practices studio. Therefore, registration will be restricted until after the studio lottery takes place to save space for students assigned to this studio. 

Sub-title: Scripted Geometric Modeling

This course aims to prepare students for learning computational design methodologies. During the first half of the term, students will learn to define 2D patterns and 3D geometries parametrically using Grasshopper. Students will develop skills to simulate and analyze building systems or components in the second half using parametric tools. Class sessions include lectures, tutorials, study, and discuss reading assignments relevant to the topics taught in class. The class provides a solid base in geometric modeling to further investigate digital fabrication, generative modeling, optimization, and computational design exploration methodologies through other courses offered at UB.

Subtitle: Urban Design Case Studies and Mappings

This seminar will introduce students to the case study method as technical inquiry. Students will read and discuss case study topics in resilient design and transportation at the urban scale, including design for walking, bicycling, public transportation, electric vehicles, planes, water transportation, and non-human species travel.

Central to the case study method is participation in in-class discussion, in which students debate questions to understand the “why” and “how” of a situation rather than focusing on facts or actual outcomes.

After several weeks of studying case studies written by others, students will organize into groups of 3-5 students and prepare their own case study on a given topic or propose one of their own.  Students will research the topics, learn about the actors associated with the project and summarize their findings in a compelling narrative.

As part of the case study development, students will use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software to create maps to visualize data as a communication method to be included in their case study.  Special attention will be paid to methods of mapping movement, and to objects, edges, and territories in motion.

By the end of the semester, each group will have a well written and thoughtfully mapped case study that they will then present in class and submit to a case study competition and/or conference related to their topic. 

Sub-title: Machine Production: Digitally Fabricated Assemblies 

Investigate the role digital fabrication plays in architectural assemblies and why tools such as CNC routers, waterjet cutters and robotic arms are becoming increasingly prominent in the industry. 

Through engaging our workshop's advanced machinery we will focus on efficient processes and material mindfulness. Together we will weigh the variables of design and production in pre-fab assembly systems.

In addition to working on a physical assembly design, students will hear from practicing industry fabricators and designers for insight into their production workflows

Cameron Sinclair in an international leader in humanitarian and socially responsible architecture. He cofounded Architecture for Humanity, among other non-profit organizations, and co-authored the influential book, “Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises.” Sinclair is teaching an Inclusive Design seminar on empathy-based design for populations seriously impacted by climate change.

Intellectual Domain seminars explore the theoretical and historical knowledge-bases of various focus areas of architecture, with an emphasis on pursuing intellectual inquiry.

Sub-Title: Designing Inclusive Environments

This seminar provides an overview of inclusive design. Inclusive design empowers the people who use products, buildings and communities by taking their perspective and making it the central focus of the design process. Rooted in a critique of designer-centric practice and embracing an ethic of social responsibility, this new paradigm focuses on developing form from function to increase the usefulness and responsiveness of our physical world for a wider and more diverse range of people.

The course will introduce inclusive design principles and knowledge bases, the concept of evidence based practice, methods of criticism and evaluation, and best practice examples.

Sub-Title: Fabricating the Real 

This seminar introduces theoretical and historical topics relevant for research in the design of Situated Technologies. Current research investigates artificial intelligence and mixed-reality technologies, and their application within architecture and construction. Surveying the cultural history of VR, AR, MR and the emergence of tools for generating synthetic media through large language models and diffusion models, the course focuses on the ontological and epistemological implications of these technologies with regard to conceptions of “the real.” Students develop short films of design fiction scenarios for near-future technologies enabling hybrid virtual-actual spatial interactions.

Sub-Title: Using Evidence-Based Precedents in Practice for Architecture, Planning, and Real Estate Development.

The final structure and conduct of the course will be a negotiation among course participants based on our review of the following general description and the specifics of the syllabus.

This course equips students with the tools to navigate the intricate world of urban placemaking and design. It draws on the practical wisdom of Don Schon’s “Reflective Practice,” the problem-solving insights of Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber’s concept of “wicked problems,” and the contemporary theories of comprehensive place-making developed over the past 25 years. The course will critically assess real-world, award-winning urban interventions recognized by the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence from 1986 through 2019. These 88 projects, spanning 36 states, serve as invaluable precedents for similar circumstances in contemporary projects. Students will delve into the literature of precedents across various disciplines, explore storytelling approaches, and learn how to contextualize precedents in practice, situating them in new places.  The theoretical foundation for this work is grounded in placemaking theories that have evolved over the past 25 years. 

Students will explore sites of interest in our region through comparative precedent cases to explore how to situate general knowledge in specific contexts.

Student learning outcomes include:

1.The Aims of Practice. The ability to clarify practice aims, focusing on the quality of relationships between people and place and the relations among people in place as fundamental goals.

2. Opening the Dialogic Space. The ability to open dialogue about the full potential of urban projects . . .

• By identifying relevant precedents, students can initiate dialogue with   clients, stakeholders, and the impacted public about the project and the project development process. This enhances their understanding and empowers them to contribute to the urban development discourse.
• Capturing and communicating knowledge gained from a project from    “somewhere else” and situating it in a new context with different local    knowledge, geographies, climates, economics, constituencies, histories, political regimes, and cultures.
• .Drawing on precedents and other facts on the ground, deriving who should be included or excluded from having a voice in the process.

3. Confirmation and Interrogation (Critical Thinking). The ability to confirm and interrogate the expressions of client and stakeholder intentions.

• Presenting precedents with critical assessments
• Aligning the precedents with current project circumstances.
• The ability to employ additional methods (graphics, proposal review, storytelling, etc.) to explore potential futures for the project site.

4.Framing Action. The ability to frame actions for consideration by the clients, stakeholders, and others impacted by the projects.

Sub-Title: Material Connections 

The seminar will focus on connections between materials and designers in contemporary architecture. Examinations of exemplary projects, notable designers and material qualities will seek to reveal significant connections. Those examinations will be advanced through site visits, global research, drawing and documentation.

Sub-Title Material Fictions

"What matters is not the technology itself, but the social or economic system in which it is embedded." – Langdon Winner

This seminar looks at buildings as technical objects that have both material qualities and intangible lived contexts. For instance – Modern Architecture is both forms and assemblies afforded by emergent material technologies and the processes of manufacture and individuals who enabled their production. With this framework as a point of departure, students will examine an element of contemporary construction alongside works of theory and fiction. Through readings, discussions, and tectonic design experiments, students will examine the potentials of narrative in architecture. This course is meant to deepen students’ understandings of theoretical frameworks through which they design, and shift attention from exterior projection to lived experience.

Any 500 level or higher graduate course at UB may count as an elective in the M.Arch program. If a student wishes to take a course outside of the Department of Architecture, they must work with the department offering the course to register. The courses below are those offered by the Department of Architecture. Note that these courses may have limited seats if they are dual listed with an undergraduate section.

Students who take additional techincal methods and intellectual domain seminars to what is required can use these courses as electives. 

This course will be taught as two parallel narratives regarding Global Practices in Design. The first narrative will be a class by class overview of important movements in art, architecture and design over the past century. Key movements will be examined in relationship to the social, political and economic factors which either played a role in its formation or which was reacted against. The intent of this approach to instruction is to provide students with a framework by which to recognize the societal forces which have an impact on the production of art, architecture and design.

The second narrative of the course will survey small, cutting-edge architecture firms across the globe. We will begin with a review of the theory of 'critical regionalism' proposed by Kenneth Frampton in the 1980's and follow that up with several readings that reinforce and/or question the validity of this theory. Students will then focus on the work of architects and artists working in different countries across the globe. The intent of the course is to facilitate students understanding of the design process used by various architects and to critically examine the relationship of this design process to the particular social, political and cultural milieu of the region in which each architect is generating the work.​

alecuyer@buffalo.edu

This seminar will focus upon the tectonic, the convergence of poetry and technique in architecture. The course will explore innovative uses of materials through the examination of a series of contemporary buildings by distinguished international architects. It will seek to develop an understanding of how technical decisions in the deployment of materials, construction systems and details can be directed towards conceptual and cultural ends.

Sub-title: CommunIty–based Light Rail Infrastructure + Speculative Design proposals

We will design groovy Rail Stations for three potential Light Rail Rapid Transit (LRRT) Lines in conjunction with Citizens for Regional Transit (CRT): the historic Belt Line, the Kensington Line, and CRT’s Airport Corridor. We will map the proposed Lines, building on the work of last semester, and meet with community members and government officials to discuss routes and feasibility.

The semester will start by walking the Belt Line. We will then design new Stations, most likely in Larkinville and other key nodes in the City. 

This seminar will examine options for career development in architecture and design. We will recognize traditional design based careers, but focus on developing a wider scope of career development for the built environment, explore pathways and build networks for early career growth and other opportunities.  We will examine the role of the architect in relation to traditional private clients as well as not-for profits, granting agencies, educational institutions, and other public organizations.  We will investigate how the practice of architecture can respond to our current economic, ecological, and political climates.  We will welcome a range of guest speakers, analyze readings, and share perspectives through discussion. Students will also develop conceptual career roadmaps and/or business models.

ARC 584 does not substitute for ARC 582 (Professional Practice) which is required for all students in the M.Arch program. 

Sub-Title: History of the Levant

In this seminar, we will study the region known as the Levant (including modern-day Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria) through the complementary lenses of urban and architectural history. We will trace the complex archaeological past of the area, its natural environment, and its geographical position at the eastern end of the Mediterranean and connecting Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. We will learn about the various cultures, empires, and religions in the area by considering monuments, cities, and vernacular architecture. We will span the arc from antiquity to the present.

This course is meant for students who want to learn about the factual architectural and urban history of this region. While we will consider the political dimensions of architecture and urbanism, this is not a course for political or ideological debates. It is a space for open-minded, brave, and empathetic learning.

Due to the rich, layered, and complex history of the Levant, this course is best suited for students who are comfortable with hearing and respectfully engaging a diversity of perspectives, including those different from their own.

The course will be a small seminar and will rely on collaborative learning, with in-class exercises, research projects, and the discussion of readings, movies, and other materials. There might be a small amount of in-class lecture as needed, but most of the course will be interactive and require everyone’s active participation.

Any student  is welcome to take this course as an elective. Students considering doing a thesis in the future are most encouraged. 

Architectural research is an important part of the advancement of the discipline and practice of architecture. As such, this course provides students with the knowledge and skills on how frame and carry out research in diverse settings, across a wide range of topics, and using a variety of methods. Through readings, discussions, writing, and peer reviews, the course builds both a conceptual understanding of the strengths and limitations of various methods and practical knowledge on how to carry out a research project. The course is particularly designed for students pursuing a thesis, considering doctoral study, and/or interested in research positions in architectural practice.