COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
ARCHITECTURE 6965-001 SPECIAL TOPICS
CASE STUDIES IN CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE
Spring Semester 2004
10:45 am to 12:05 pm, TuTh
Arch 228
William Miller, FAIA, Professor
Office hours: 10:00-10:45 am TuTh, 1:00-2:00 pm MWF, and by appointment
Office phone: 581-7116; CA+P fax: 581-8217
email: ; web page: www.arch.utah.edu/miller
[How do you make certain choices about forms or materials in your buildings?] “That’s almost impossible to answer. To a very large extent the choices are unconscious but it’s also a question of the role of others: the client, the landscape architect, the structural consultant, cost factors, etc. The repertoire is far from unlimited, although your question suggests a freedom or luxury of choice even though very often within the process of a project you don’t have the same sense of luxury.”
Rem Koolhaas
There is an economics of design; the lending agencies have always been form makers. Design seems to advance by outwitting them.”
Esther McCoy
Course Overview
Contemporary architectural works in Salt Lake City and along the Wasatch Front present an invaluable opportunity to learn about a variety of issues and considerations informing contemporary architectural practice. By examining significant built works, this course will investigate the full scope of an architectural project: from design concepts, to the various forces affecting the project’s definition and realization, through construction and the final results. Close scrutiny of all the components and personnel engaged in the production of a piece of architecture will give a better understanding of the complex synergies, advanced technologies, and adept project teams necessary in creating successful architecture.
It is the premise of this course that important works of architecture rely on the designer’s formal visions or ideas. But formal ideas grow out of myriad forces and insights into non-visual issues. Conversely, no innovative design succeeds unless the project’s team, methodology and coordination navigate for strategic advantage through all the external forces impacting the final result. Thus, innovative design is a layered, synergistic and complex process.
Innovation in the design and building process involves taking risks, anticipating the future, and generating faith amongst the projects’ participants and recipients. One must understand the forces of capital, human nature, and public and business policies that condition possible outcomes. However, one must also be willing to challenge common assumptions about these forces and go beyond conventional wisdom. Best practices incorporate a deep respect for the lessons of history, sympathy for the perspectives of all who operate within the project’s dynamics (and an ability to communicate effectively with them), and wisdom about what works and does not work. Many, many other talents and skills contribute to a project’s excellence, and direct observation of significant projects open up for students a better understanding of the definitions and development of these skills within the context of contemporary practice.
Course Premises
In the disciple of architecture, education and practice are bound by a complex body of knowledge. When the processes of architecture are studied closely they reveal continuous and astute decision-making and provide students the opportunity to learn from each other. Each architectural project provides a different lesson in the process of decision-making: one project scenario may emphasize complex site or contextual issues, while another focuses on client interactions or community participation, and yet another on contract negotiation or firm management. Case studies provide orientation to the complexity of practice for the student. As a method, the case study connects the project to prior professional experience; explores new knowledge that has influenced the project; records the interrelationships of people, ideas, contracts, and product; recognizes the configuration and reconfiguration of design teams; and celebrates the talents, expertise, roles, and boundaries of each team member. For architecture students it provides clear models of professional activity and how the entire architectural services and building delivery system works and its important interactions.
The case study method is an appropriate tool for both the student and practitioner of
architecture. It is a means to learn from the experiences of others and a way to prepare for
understanding the many disparate and conflicting issues that an architect must resolve in the
course of making buildings. The intention of this project is to give students the experience in
preparing case studies that will provide a working format for a life of practice. It is also intended
to place the design process, essential in the making of architecture, in the larger context of the
many interrelated design decisions required in the conduct of an architectural practice.
Course Text and Readings
Each student will receive a copy of Case Studies in the Study and Practice of Architecture, developed by the Case Study Work Group of the American Institute of Architects. This document will provide the foundation for writing the case study. Additional readings or materials will be provided as required.
You are also encourage to check out the following web site for excellent examples of case studies: www.aia.org/education/casestudies . You can refer to the half dozen examples found on this site as you develop your case study.
Instructor Absence and Communication
Faculty members are involved in research, scholarly and creative endeavors, other teaching assignments, professional and theoretical practice, professional and university service, speaking engagements, and other activities. As such, the instructor may be absent from time to time during the semester. Every effort has been made to minimize the times away from Salt Lake City, and the “Semester Schedule” below shows the dates he is here and away (be aware that this may be subject to minor adjustments).
Email is an official means of notification for both the university, college, and this course. Please make sure you regularly check your college account, or have email forwarded from that account to your regular address, to ensure you receive all information concerning the conduct, meetings, and assignments for the course.
Course Requirements
Each student, as part of a team, will participate in the writing of a case study. Given the class size, this semester the entire class will use the Ethel Wattis Kimball Visual Arts Center at Weber State University by Prescott Muir Architects as the case to study. The team will be responsible for assigning responsibilities to each team member (at the end of the semester, each student will assess their team peers). There will be three intermediate submissions, and the final presentation and case study document. See “Semester Schedule” below for the submission schedule, and “Case Study Format” below for the content of each submission.
After each submission, the instructor will return the submission with comments, and devote a class period to a working discussion of the status of the case study. It is hoped that the final document will be of a quality to submit to the AIA Case Studies Initiative for consideration and selection to be published on the AIA’s website.
The class sessions will be devoted to either presentations by area professionals on specific topics related to contemporary design and practice, or visits to significant architectural projects for a tour and discussion of particular issues or conditions with the architect.
Grades will be determined by the quality of the case study document, student engagement in writing the case, and class participation.
Semester Schedule
Please note that the topics presented and the dates are subject to change, given the schedules of the professionals involved.
Tuesdays Thursday
January
Week 1 13 – introduction 15 – meeting with Prescott Muir Architects
Week 2 20 – firm formation & evolution 22 – firm formation & evolution
Max Smith, MSJAA Mike Stransky, GSBS
Week 3 27 – firm formation & evolution 29 – Synopsis working session
Lynn Jones, MHTN
February
Week 4 03 – discussion of Synopsis 05 – working w/signature designers
Ross Wentworth, NWLA
Week 5 10 – working w/signature designers 12 – retrofitting/technology & design
Steve Crane, VCBO Eric Migacz, MHTN
Week 6 17 – Perspectives working session 19 – WM out of town (NCARB)
Week 7 24 – when things go wrong 26 – historic preservation
Kevin Miller, GSBS Peter Emerson, EDA
March
Week 8 02 – special building types 04 – Perspectives working session
Peter Emerson, EDS
Week 9 09 – Perspectives discussed 11 – historic preservation
Jack Brady & Burtch Beall
Spring Break – no classes
Week 10 23 – adaptive use 25 – retrofitting/technology & design
Jim Lewis, FFKR (at site) Marty Kemsley, GSBS
Week 11 30 – WM out of town (NAAB) 01 – historic preservation
April
Week 12 06 – working session 08 – working session
Week 13 13 – WM out of town (UI@U-C) 15 – WM out of town (SASS)
Substantive Analysis due via email
Week 14 20 – Substantive Analysis Discussed 22 – working session
Week 15 27 – Case Study presentation 29 – Final Case Study Due
Finals
The Case Study Format
The case study is intended to structure information across a broad range of experiences in order to provide a body of knowledge that is easily accessible. It is intended to provide clarity among issues of considerable complexity, accuracy in the data that effects decision making, precision in the descriptions of modeling behavior and outcomes, relevance to associated subjects of study, depth and breadth to give perspective to what is being studied, a logic describing the path leading toward the outcomes of the project , and a sense of the significance of the precedent under consideration.
I Synopsis (January 29th – 3 copies to be submitted by 5:00pm)
The case Synopsis is a project brief. It defines the particular area of interest and importance. This statement sets the context for the study while establishing the relative importance of the particular building under consideration. It is within this section that assumptions, implications and conceptual positions, and the test of such supposition is considered. It is the section which clearly states the question at issue. This section is to be no more than one (2) page (approximately 500 words). It provides the specific description of the case study.
Project Type
Building Type
Services Type
The Case Study: The specific subject of the conduct of rigorous observation.
A case study may vary from the scale of a specific building system to the evolution of an entire community. The perspective of buildings and the services that effect the realization of places.
· What is the case about?
· Where does the case fit in relation to each of the constituencies?
· Who was on the design team and what was their role?
· Who represented the client and what was the network used to communicate
within the client group and to the consultants?
II Perspectives (February 4th – 3 copies to be submitted by 5:00pm)
Practice precedent perspectives articulate the frame of reference of the study. It is this section that is best defined as the points of view from which the project history may be told. It may be considered the section of the study within which the purpose of the related critical thinking may be undertaken. Each perspective should be written so as to be no longer than two (2) pages (approximately 500 words). The entire case study perspectives section should be no longer than ten (10) pages (approximately 1000 words).
Protocols
Constituencies
Stories
Ideas
Measures
Open Verification
Protocols: The Web of Decision Making.
The established behaviors, verified by observation and documentation, indicating relationships and processes that may be replicated. For example, A senior partner controls the design process for a project. This generally means that all significant decisions must be approved through this individual. In some cases this translates to the most insignificant detail. In other cases a general direction is set and all other decisions are made by the team. The precedent study articulates which it is.
· The manner of decision making and its impact on the project
· The varying roles of increasingly complex clients and design teams
Constituencies: The Client Voice in the Realization of Projects.
Architecture and design practice is influenced by a complex network of constituencies from users to owners to neighbors and investors. Each of these constituencies have a significant impact on the process of design and fabrication or construction.
· The voice of the client
· The diversity and disparate nature of opinions
· The relative impact of the project in its varying contexts
Stories: The Scenarios and Episodes of Practice.
The stories of practice inform the interrelated nature of the events and people that cause buildings and places to evolve. Each case study presents another story.
· The generative metaphor of the project
· The personality of the project
· The oral history of the evolution of events, including practice war stories
· Lessons Learned
Ideas: Innovation in the Artifacts, Buildings, and Services of Architecture Practice.
Ideas and innovation are closely associated with the iterative process that defines the nature of design services. The underlying idea and the related ways and means of accomplishing the idea is often defined by a willingness to venture and therefore innovate. Much can be learned from the venturesome spirit in success and especially in failure.
· Innovation in Design
· Innovation in Ways and Means (Service and Technology)
· Innovation Discouraged (That’s not the way we do it)
For example, what code requirements, norms, client and/or consultant traditions were involved and how did these groups decide to change their “ways of doing business “ based on this project?
Measures: The measures of success of the Client, Office Culture, and the Individual.
The measures of success regarding the realization of a building or a service delivered extend beyond the personal satisfaction of a particular individual. Again, the voice of the client and the diverse constituencies of professional practice have an important influence over the notions of project success. This perspective also poses the question of how an individual, team or entire organization continually learns.
· Project Statistics:
What was the schedule for the project?
How many square feet of space were involved in new construction or renovation?