Architecture Studio VI: Urban Design

Catalog description

Emphasizing the capacity of design to shape the built environment across multiple settings and scales-from site planning and urban systems to building form and assemblies-the studio engages complex public programs that require responsiveness to context, circulation, spatial hierarchy, and environmental performance. Through a research-driven and service-learning framework, students collaborate with community partners and stakeholders to address real-world challenges. Design proposals are informed by site analysis, programmatic needs, environmental systems, passive strategies, and ecologically oriented theory as generative forces in shaping form and planning. Students integrate zoning, topography, circulation networks, and environmental constraints into cohesive proposals that advance sustainability, human health, safety, and welfare. By situating architectural inquiry within civic and community contexts, the studio reinforces architecture’s social responsibility while preparing students to synthesize urban systems, environmental performance, and technical resolution into comprehensive architectural solutions.