Preview of Select Fall 2024/Spring 2025 Courses
SPRING 2025 ADVANCED RESEARCH STUDIOS
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ARCH 4020_ALAR 8020
DESIGN-BUILD STUDIO
JOHN COMAZZI
Course Time:
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 – 5pm
Description:
This advanced research studio is open to graduate students in architecture and landscape architecture (ALAR 8020) and undergraduate students in architecture (ARCH 4020). It is part of a multi-year partnership with Albemarle County Parks and Recreation and provides a unique learning experience that leverages the power of collaborative community-based design. At its core, it integrates the ideas, skills, and practices of students, faculty, practitioners, and industry partners for the design and construction of several small-scale outdoor structures to be sited within Biscuit Run Park in Charlottesville. Biscuit Run is the newest part in Albemarle County’s park system, scheduled to open this fall 2024. Building on the foundations of a design-build project/studio, the work will be highly collaborative. Students will be working in small groups to prepare detailed construction documents, material prototypes, code analysis, full scale mockups and fabrication diagrams for the final assemblies to be produced in the summers of 2025 and 2026. For the spring 2025 research studio, students will work on both new design proposals and refinement of last spring 2024 proposals, with the possibility of installing some of those designs.
Support:
The studio is supported by a UVA Jefferson Trust Grant that will be funding the final installations.
Travel:
Local site visits
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ARCH 4020_ALAR 8020
EARTH-DWELLING: FROM YUANYANG TO VIRGINIA
ZHANG KE, THOMAS JEFFERSON VISITING PROFESSOR
SHIQIAO LI
Course Time:
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 – 5pm
Description:
"Dwelling on Earth" is undoubtedly one of the most eternal subjects confronting human beings. Even with SpaceX's aspiration of making human civilization multi-planetary, the ultimate goal remains about reaching and making other planets dwell-able just like our earth. Earth, for our ancestors, contemporaries, and future generations alike, means also one of the most basic and sustainable materials for building.
The terraced rice fields and villages in Yuanyang are among the most inspiring examples of earth-dwelling. Here we could rediscover the miraculous equilibrium between architecture, agriculture and nature, the continuity between artificial and natural landscape, and the sustainable integration of local eco/water systems into human settlements and agricultural production. The boundless rice paddy terraces carved out of mountains and clusters of dwellings embedded in them are entirely made of earth and other local materials.
Is it possible to learn from Yuanyang and utilize some of the knowledge for Virginia, which also has a rich and diverse history in agriculture? Is it possible to learn from the collaborative co-living tradition of various ethnic groups in Yuanyang, and reflect on the history of enslaved labors in Virginia? Is it possible to make contemporary architecture with sustainable basic materials such as Earth and Timber in Virginia?
The studio will have two sites in Yuanyang and one site in Virginia, UVA’s Morven Farm, to work on. Students will undertake the challenge of designing a series of projects related to the subject of earth-dwelling, and to investigate possibilities of creating community spaces as catalysts of local economy and social interactions to enhance the living/co-living conditions of local communities.
Departing from research on vernacular farmhouses and layouts of local settlements both in Yuanyang and in Virginia, and analyzing problems and potentials of the given sites at Morven Farm, students will make conceptual designs in the first 2-3 weeks - finalizing the site selections and program proposals (e.g. a community kitchen/library, a winery and visitor center, a prefabricated barn house prototype, or a hostel) by end of week 3.
Starting the 4th week, students will start to further develop their concepts and designs, either individually or start to form groups. Projects will be reviewed in small-scale conceptual models and later in large-scale material studies or detail mockups.
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ARCH 4020_ALAR 8020
ADAPTIVE SHELTER HEALING LANDSCAPE
EARL MARK
Course Time:
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 – 5pm
Description:
This studio focuses on the needs of forcibly displaced people relocated to a rocky peninsula in Downeast Maine, within a separated part of Acadia National Park. Learning from local fabrication methods (sailmaking, wood boat building, and tension membrane construction), students will design adaptive, lightweight, collapsible structures with a small environmental footprint that can be rapidly deployed and customized to meet the evolving needs of at-risk communities and their living patterns. Following best practices in shelter and settlement aid, the residents' involvement in developing their shelters and caring for the coastal environment fosters a two-way healing process, where stewardship of the ecology aids their psychological and physical recovery from the trauma of displacement.
In addition to human displacement, members of the studio may wish to expand their scope to include non-human species. Dean and Landscape Architect Adrian Parr Zaretsky’s "transspecies" design principles, promote a non-anthropocentric approach to regenerating and replenishing the natural environment. Students may explore how the healing process can extend to non-human species facing migration or extinction.
Participants are encouraged to research a displaced population of their choice, develop their independent interpretation or thesis of the studio brief, and to design responses to this historically expanding global issue. On site studies and planned engagement with research scientists and local fabricators are highlights of a funded trip with a stay at Acadia National Park in March.
Support:
The studio has received a Foundation grant to support the studio travel (see details below). Airfare, local transportation, and lodging in Maine is covered.
Travel:
Site visit to the Maine Coast, including Moose Island (part of Acadia National Park) on the Schoodic Peninsula. Travel will take place just prior to and overlapping with the first weekend of Spring Recess, March 2025 (subject to change).
Studio Details:
https://web.arch.virginia.edu/adaptiveshelterhealinglandscape/
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ARCH 4020_ALAR 8020
DESIGN FROM TREE TO TIMBER: BUILDING NON-PLANAR FUTURES
KYLE SCHUMANN
Course Time:
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 – 5pm
Description:
Wood construction constitutes more than 90% of new homes in the United States and construction and building operations account for 39% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Meanwhile, 48% of harvested timber is unusable in construction in its whole state due to irregularities. This advanced research studio addresses this context and will pioneer the future of sustainable timber construction by expanding the agency of architects and designers into the early stages of building construction. Students will interrogate the production of timber buildings and wood building products, beginning with the milling of logs into lumber. The course asks: How might the irregularities present in trees be strategically incorporated into production and design processes? How can novel fabrication technologies facilitate the understanding, evaluation, and use of this material? What radically different futures for timber architecture are possible if construction is not limited to planar boards, straight columns and beams, and flat sheets? To investigate these questions and more, students will make use of an entirely new timber construction technology – a robotic sawmill invented by an interdisciplinary team at the University of Virginia. Students will not just design but invent and construct — developing full scale prototypes. Studio participants will conduct applied research to optimistically and pragmatically develop solutions to the pressing climate crisis.
Support:
The courses is supported by the 2024 Timber Education Prize from the Softwood Lumber Board and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. More details at: www.arch.virginia.edu/news/kyle-schumanns-advanced-research-studio-wins-2024-timber-education-prize
SPRING 2025 SELECT SEMINARS + SPECIAL TOPICS COURSES
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ARCH 2070_EDHS 3070
DESIGN + THINKING: _mpathic design
ELGIN CLECKLEY
Course Time:
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:30 - 4:45pm
Instructor Permission
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ARCH 5500_DRAM 4597
THE ART OF THE MOVING CREATURE
MELISSA GOLDMAN + ANNIE TEMMINK
Course Time:
Tuesdays, 9:30am - 12pm
Instructor Permission
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ARCH 5500
INTERSECTIONS: ARCHITECTURE + CINEMA
ISAAC ALEJANDRO MANGUAL-MARTÍNEZ
Course Time:
Thursdays, 4 - 6:30pm
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ARCH 5500
DESIGNED TO BUILD: WHO BUILDS WHAT WE DRAW
OZ OZBURN, HUGO FENAUX, BRITTANY OLIVARI
Course Time:
Fridays, 1 - 3:30pm
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ARCH 5500
AESTHETICS OF RESILIENCE
STACY SCOTT
Course Time:
Tuesdays, 6 - 8:30pm
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ARCH 5500
CAMPUS LINEAGE: SPATIAL KNOWLEDGE AND NETWORKS
PETER STEC
Course Time:
Wednesdays, 6 - 8:30pm
FALL 2024 ADVANCED RESEARCH STUDIOS
Watch the preview videos to learn more about each studio's travel component, tentative or fixed dates of travel, additional requirements, and/or estimate out-of-pocket expenses.
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ARCH 4010_4011 / ALAR 8010
THE DIALECTICS OF THE LIMIT
ALEJANDRO GUERRERO AND ANDREA SOTO, ATELIER ARS (VISITING SHURE PROFESSORS)
SAWYER DAVIES
Studio Visit to Philadelphia and Glenstone Museum
October 23-25
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ARCH 4010_4011 / ALAR 8010
INFRASTRUCTURAL WILDNESS
BRADLEY CANTRELL
Studio Visit to Barcelona, Spain
September 21-29
Studio trip expenses will be subsidized, and students should expect to have out of pocket expenses of approximately $475.
Students will need to have a valid passport to travel to Spain and UVA's International Studies Office will assist in the logistics to obtain travel visas for international students.
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ARCH 4010_4011 / ALAR 8010
CITY BUILT ON THAWING GROUND
LEENA CHO
MATTHEW JULL
Studio Visit to Utqiaġvik, Alaska
Dates TBD, Late September or Early October, with return prior to the start of Fall Break
Air travel to Utqiagvik, Alaska from Washington Dulles and accommodations (lodging) during the trip are covered by the NSF studio grant for students. Out of pocket expenses associated with the trip include a $150 fixed fee, as well as meals and incidental expenses.
Grant-Funded Support: National Science Foundation Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) Program
This studio fulfills the Urban Design Certificate requirement.
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ARCH 4010_4011 / ALAR 8010
COMMUNITY + PRIVACY: A PLACE TO LIVE AND THINK AND WORK
A RESIDENCY FOR PAINTERS AND WRITERS
WG CLARK
Studio Site: Richmond, VA
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ARCH 4010_4011 / ALAR 8010
HYPER REAL
MONA EL KHAFIF
JESS VANECEK
Professional Critics and Academic Collaborators —
Colin Curley (Senior Associate, Field Operations)
Nicole Emmons (Partner, Hart Howerton)
Sanket Korgaonkar (Assistant Professor and Crum Real Estate Fellow, McIntire School of Commerce)
Studio Visit to New York City, NY
October 7-11
Transportation and hotel expenses are covered by a UVA Real Estate Center studio grant
Grant-Funded Support: White Ruffin Byron Center for Real Estate (CRE) at UVA
The studio will further have an additional budget to support expenses for workshops, guest lectures or model expenses. Specifics will be discussed at the beginning of the semester to allow for student input.
This studio is specifically suited for students pursuing the Urban Design and/or Real Estate Design and Development graduate certificate programs, the Master of Urban Design, or the undergraduate minor in Real Estate. It is open to any student enrolling in ARCH 4010/4011 or ALAR 8010 that is interested in design strategies that address the complex dynamics of our cities.
This studio fulfills the Urban Design Certificate requirement.
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ARCH 4010_4011 / ALAR 8010
ENVISION RESILIENCE CHALLENGE: PORTLAND + SOUTH PORTLAND, MAINE
BACK COVE'S CIVIC INFRASTRUCTURE
MICHAEL LUEGERING
Studio Visit to Portland and South Portland, Maine
Date TBD, Likely End of September
Transportation, hotel expenses, and meals for the studio visit are covered by the Program Organizers
Estimated out of pocket expenses for materials/printing, etc: $250
Grant-Funded Support: Envision Resilience and Remain
This studio fulfills the Urban Design Certificate requirement.
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ARCH 4010_4011 / ALAR 8010
WOOD AT SCALE
KATIE MACDONALD
Estimated out of pocket expenses: $275 – 375
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ARCH 4010_4011 / ALAR 8010
CADIZ. A CITY IN THE ERA OF HYPER-TOURISM
INÉS MARTÍN ROBLES
Studio Visit to San Juan, Puerto Rico
Date TBD, Early to Mid-November
Air travel, accommodations (lodging), and transportation between the hostel and the airport are covered for students. The total estimated out of pocket expenses for each student is $250 (this includes all meals, other transportation needed to get around San Juan for optional sites/visits, and required entrance fees/tickets. Required entrance fees/tickets total ~ $20. Food is very affordable.) In addition to these out of pocket trip expenses, the estimate of $250 also includes the cost of materials and printing for the studio.
This studio fulfills the Urban Design Certificate requirement.
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ARCH 4010_4011 / ALAR 8010
SHIELDED SEAS. THE FORTIFIED CARIBBEAN CITY, SAN JUAN DE PUERTO RICO
LUIS PANCORBO
Studio Visit to San Juan, Puerto Rico
Date TBD, Early to Mid-November
Air travel, accommodations (lodging), and transportation between the hostel and the airport are covered for students. The total estimated out of pocket expenses for each student is $250 (this includes all meals, other transportation needed to get around San Juan for optional sites/visits, and required entrance fees/tickets. Required entrance fees/tickets total ~ $20. Food is very affordable.) In addition to these out of pocket trip expenses, the estimate of $250 also includes the cost of materials and printing for the studio.
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ARCH 4010_4011 / ALAR 8010
DWELLING: DREAM, PLAY, BUILD
SCHAEFFER SOMERS
Professional Collaborator —
Bobby Vance (Principal, Vance Design Company and Practitioner Fellow, UVA Environmental Institute)
Grant-Funded Support: Enivronmental Institute (EI) at UVA