Charles Pipal

The graduate level Thesis Strategies seminar-studio is offered in fall semesters and intended for graduate students in Architecture and Interior Architecture engaged in preparatory research work that will ground and inform the successful development and final resolution of thesis project work in a following semester. The class will offer content on research methods, project structure and execution, and clarify common art and design thesis conventions and research-through-design methods. Professors directing the pre-thesis and research practicum, together with external critics, will respond to core project concepts, the relevance of proposed thesis concerns and questions and help to structure a viable project proposition, a timeline and introduce primary references and case studies so that the final thesis results in a comprehensive integration of research, intent and project exploration.

A Graduate Thesis must make a contribution to the field and will be defended within a critical and reflective academic environment. The Thesis Strategies course prepares graduate students for this responsibility and allows for the translation of research into a personal position and informed platform from where thesis project work will develop.

Student performance criteria (SPC) that address the most recent National Architectural Accreditation Board (NAAB) requirements will be highlighted and form part of the coursework outcomes.

Readings, textual and visual case studies will vary, but always provide the background and theoretical grounding for individual research-through-design explorations and the crafting of a critical theoretical position.

Outcomes are a cumulative archive of the process of problem analysis, critical reading and discourse, and the initial design problem exploration. Combined, this body of work are the synopsis of insights into facts and ideas ? all being shared through text, diagrams, drawings and abstract models.

Thesis studio asks students to determine and research an original problem with pertinent issues, and design an innovative response to some aspect of architectural production.

Course Goals and Objectives
1) Give individual students the opportunity to discover, define, and research a significant aspect of architectural production in depth.
2) Develop a personal approach to an important issue of contemporary significance to the field of architecture and communicate it concisely.
3) Work with originality, clarity, and high production values at the end of an architectural education.