Course overview
Theme: site/context/place. This foundation course introduces design as a speculative process of inquiry and experimentation. It involves knowledge acquisition and the preliminary development of skills to conceptualise, resolve and present well-reasoned landscape and architectural ideas through analogue drawing and physical model-making. The course introduces the design process as well as techniques of analysis and critique of design outcomes. Fundamental engineering principles applicable to architecture and landscapes are introduced with emphasis on the manipulation of the ground plane. This course engages students with learning to design through iterative processes integrating considerations of site and topography, placemaking, precedent, human scale, principles of site engineering and material and physical data. Students will complete compulsory training in the Innovation and Creation Studios of the Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology. Design Studio I students are required to complete 2 Hot Courses on safety induction (approximately 20 minutes online) and Hand Tools (3 hours) in a supervised environment in fully-equipped workshops as a foundation for future design studios.
Course learning outcomes
- Research, analyse and synthesise knowledge about a specific site in the development of a design response, with particular attention to topography, landscape character, users, sensory information and climate.
- Apply fundamental design principles (primary elements, composition of form and space, proportion and scale, ordering principles) to their assessable work.
- Work productively in a studio environment and, in turn, develop inter-personal skills, verbal communication skills and critical thinking through small group discovery activities and formative studio exercises.
- Communicate critical design thinking according to disciplinary conventions; drawings, models and graphics.
- Explore creative processes and idea generation and demonstrate critical evaluation of these processes in their assessable work.
- Appraise how design can impact, interact with, and improve environments.The knowledge and skills acquired in this course provide a fundamental basis for your understanding of architecture, landscapes and cities. This knowledge and the related skills constitute a seminal part of your design education in the Bachelor of Architectural Design. The skills acquired are the foundation stones of your future career as a designer.