Strange Acts: A Sequence of Material Spaces

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Designers don’t see the world how it is, but how it might be.   

Science fiction is a subject that deals with alternative ways of life. In literature, television, and film, science fiction explores the potential consequences of social, political, and technological innovations - this can often inspire wonder and imagination. So, the question for this studio is not ‘what is Architecture?’ but instead, what can Architecture be?

 

Problem solving isn’t enough. 

This studio is an introduction to buildings as material artifacts with specific expressive qualities.  Architecture must meet required standards to provide comfort and safety, but what about beauty, feeling, experience?  What about humor, conflict, and excitement?  When science fiction writers speculate imaginary worlds, the settings they envision can be utopian aspirations or dystopian warnings.

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The architectural projects for this studio look ahead and reflect on the present world, it can be about the hopeful future of artificial intelligence or darker outcomes of deforestation and other possible future pandemics.  Are there a set of standards that we can challenge for how we make architecture or how we experience buildings?  Does it have to be about comfort? What if we explore connections between storytelling and design to increase the possibility of what architecture can do?