Class Architecture Project I

The course introduces the symbiotic and experimental relationship between the Program, the Site, and the Materials as foundations of the Design Methodology in Architecture. The subject of the course is space, housing, and its typological, topological, and symbolic variables. The pedagogical foundation of the project methodology is the articulation of the critical exercise between the Program, the Site, and the Materials through the experimentation of hand drawing and geometric operativeness and the importance of scaling in the design process.

Introduction to Project Methodology through the support of sketching/geometry/hand drawing; physical models; technical drawing based on the study of the Program, Site, and Form Investigation of the conceptual process. Handling of programs and conceptual models in archetypal contexts: the underground; the shelter; the House; Handling of typological and morphological models: compact; fragmented; horizontal, vertical; serial. Introduction to housing issues. Experimentation of language and architectural expression. Formation of the concepts of architecture. Application of semiological concepts and phenomenological methods. Application of ergonomic and anthropometric concepts. Learning from successive approaches to the scales of technical drawing as a heuristic method from the formulation of concepts to materiality. Two (2) practical and one (1) theoretical exercises are developed that, in a complementary way, seek to develop the referred objectives.

The teaching methodology of Architectural Project I seeks to awaken in the student research methodologies for the elaboration of the Basic Project, structured around three fundamental elements: the Program, Form, and Space. The study of these elements is done through three basic supports of representation: the set Bizarre / Geometry / Hand Drawing; the model of study; the Technical Drawing. The questioning of the three elements through the three supports allows the student, individually accompanied by the teacher, to grade their objectives for the Preliminary Study, the Preliminary Project and the Basic Project according to age analysis criteria (path study; arrangement; proportion; scale, light, materials, construction system, etc.) Architectural Project I introduces in practice some general questions of Architecture Theory in a gradual and progressive way, in continuous assessment, theoretical classes, and presentations in the form of debate.

CHING, Francis D.K., Arquitectura, Forma, Espaço e Ordem , Martins Fontes, São Paulo, 2002.

FOCILLON, Henri, A Vida das Formas , Colecção Arte & Comunicação, Edições 70.

VON MEISS, Pierre, De la forme au lieu ¿ une introduction à l¿étude de l¿architecture , Éd. Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes, Lausanne, 1998 [2ª ed., 2007].