ITERATION. To iterate – or, to “say or do again” – is a fundamental issue in this studio. In this context, the word iteration, when used as a singular noun, refers to an instance - an artifact - produced in the oscillation between abstract and concrete. It is expected that students will produce multiple iterations of drawings and models, whether physical or digital. At each meeting with the instructor, a newly produced, substantial set of iterations (i. e., a minimum of three instances) of each in-progress drawing or model must be ready for discussion.

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REPRESENTATION. “In the most profound sense, representation is not about depicting reality, but about making knowledge.....representation is not about getting reality right as much as a matter of constructing forms of knowledge that can deal with multiple realities." (Andrea Kahn)

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CONCRETIZATION. In the context of this studio, the operations of architecture are understood to oscillate between abstraction and concretization. To CONCRETIZE is to make something specific, yet concretization is an architectural act only at those moments when it is provisional. Abstraction, then, is necessarily a departure from the specific, yet as an architectural operation, it always sets forth a field within which concretization occurs. (Paradoxically, in architecture, we depend on an ability to make our most esoteric acts of abstraction concrete.)

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COLLABORATION. Whatever else architecture may be, there is no doubt that it is a collaborative endeavor. This studio assumes that students will achieve a competent, professional, meaningful, and influential architectural synthesis of a wide range of ideas and influences, including the productive critique offered by peers. To this end, students are expected to engage actively in productive critique both during and outside of studio time.