The objective of this course is to provide a broad overview of the discipline of architecture: its history, theories, methodologies; its manners of thinking and working. Rather than a chronological survey, the course will be organized thematically, with examples drawn from a range of historical periods as well as contemporary practice. Through lectures, readings, and discussions every student will acquire a working knowledge of key texts, buildings and architectural concepts.

The course focuses on the social forces that shape design thinking. Its objective is to introduce architectural and urban design issues to build design and critical thinking skills from a multidisciplinary perspective. The studio is team-taught from faculty across disciplines to expose students to the multiple forces within which design operates.

This course introduces a history of architectural theory by way of architectural production in the "western" world from antiquity through 20th century modernism. While we will examine an evolution of architectural thought through architectural developments that occurred primarily in Europe and the Americas, those architectures will be contextualized within a broader global history of built environment traditions and practices, and framed around recurring themes in the history of architectural production.

In preparation for a fluid and evolving contemporary design practice, this course introduces physical prototyping and computational design strategies for an era of environmental transformation and climate crisis. Across platforms and instruments, exercises and readings emphasize process development as a core competency in architecture. A lecture component provides a technological overview, situated in a long-term cultural perspective and a theoretical framework. Focused lab modules provides exposure to a range of prototyping and fabrication resources at SOA, where students gain hands on experience.

The semester will focus on the design of an addition (a graft) to an existing unused masonry structure along the Delaware Raritan canal, approximately 3 miles from Princeton University's campus. Students will consider how people use and perceive this piece of infrastructure, how it defines the landscape and identify opportunities for its transformation through operations. Specific assignments will include sketching, hand and digital drawings, a site model and 3d representations. Projects should reflect knowledge of the existing site and project spatial conditions that encourage human interaction, contemplation, exercise or other activities.

This elective studio will allow students to expand their skillset and broaden their repertoire of design techniques. A special emphasis will be given to understanding structural systems and the relationship between systems of construction and environmental issues. Exercises will allow students to learn new drawing and modeling techniques that foreground the art of building.

This course introduces the fundamentals of robotics through the lens of creativity, exemplified through robotic painting and artistic machine creation. Students will learn robot kinematics, toolpath planning, and the basics of robot simulation and control, tailored for architecture and digital fabrication applications. Students will apply these concepts to personalized robotic drawing and painting techniques to gain an understanding of different robot control methods and investigate the potential of machine creativity.

This course introduces the fundamentals of immersive design through the interplay of audiovisual elements, emphasizing real-time interaction and spatial simulation. The course is designed to help students recognize the value of interacting with virtual elements and environments as a fundamental aspect of design practice, enhancing their understanding of spatial experience, user engagement, and immersive storytelling. Through a hands-on approach, students will gain proficiency in game engines and interactive visualization techniques tailored for architectural and digital design applications.

The Advanced Design Studio examines architecture as cultural production, taking into account its capacity to structure both physical environments and social organizations. A specific problem or topic area will be set by each studio critic, and may include a broad range of building types, urban districts or regional landscapes, questions of sustainability, building materials or building performance. Studio work will include research and data gathering, analysis and program definition. Students are expected to master a full range of design media, including drawing, model-making and computer-aided design.

This course prepares seniors to write a thesis by conducting novel research on a topic in the history and theory of architecture. The principal aim is to engage in a sustained dialogue about the nature of architectural discourse and its modes of inquiry as a means of analyzing architectural research methods, sources, and genres of writing. You will engage methods of research and modes of analysis related to the discipline of architecture first by critically engaging historiographic and methodological texts on architectural research, then by setting out your own research agenda and crafting your thesis project.

Design Studio

Explores architecture as a social art and the spatial organization of the human environment. Projects include a broad range of problem types, including individual buildings, groups of buildings, urban districts, and landscapes.

ntegrated design studios approach architecture from a synthetic perspective. Considerations of structure, environmental technology, building materials and systems, exterior envelope, and site design are integrated directly into the design process through the participation of technical faculty and outside advisors in critiques and reviews. Projects are developed to a high level of detail. At least one course is required for professional M.Arch. students.

Integrated design studios approach architecture from a synthetic perspective. Considerations of structure, environmental technology, building materials and systems, exterior envelope, and site design are integrated directly into the design process through the participation of technical faculty and outside advisors in critiques and reviews. Projects are developed to a high level of detail. At least one course is required for professional M.Arch. students.

The Vertical Design Studio emphasizes site organization, the development of building plans, and the accompanying expression of architectural character in three dimensions.

The Vertical Design Studio emphasizes site organization, the development of building plans, and the accompanying expression of architectural character in three dimensions.

The Master of Architecture Thesis is an independent design project on a theme selected by the student, incorporating research, programming, and site definition.The Fall semester begins with written thesis proposals and culminates in thesis declaration and an open review. Students complete the work toward thesis declaration primarily with their individual thesis advisors.

After having taken this class, students are able to: 1) Recognize and explain how external forces (due to people, wind, heat, etc) act upon rigid bodies (eg.a skateboard, bridge, cable and arches, frames, grids and plates, shells and membranes) in the real world, 2) Identify and apply the appropriate analytical approach to quantify how strong such a rigid body is under the applied loading, 3) Write an informed critique about prominent structural designs.

The first part of a sequence taught over two terms that provides a broad introduction to Building Systems, Environmental Control and Energy Conservation. Sustainable design themes and environmentally responsible practices are stressed throughout and form a backdrop to all the instructional material provided. The fall course focuses on fundamental concepts and provides an introduction to Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Lighting, Acoustical and Life Safety systems. ARC 515, taught in the spring, considers the design process and the integration of these systems into buildings.

This seminar will examine the relation of construction, structure and building services to the production of meaning through a series of case studies of buildings and bridges and as well as general surveys of the work of specific engineers and architects.

The course focuses on the intersection of architecture and film, and its crucial role in establishing the formal, hermeneutic, and semiotic parameters of both arts. We examine the visual implications and signifying functions of the evolving intermedium condition that joins them.This condition and the artistic practices it generates presuppose a set of spatial and temporal intuitions that extend from architectural form to codes, both narrative and spatial, for reading the city as a real, an ideal, and anti-ideal space (that is, as a potentially utopian and dystopian space).

This course studies uneven geographies of environmental justice across scales: outer space, the earth, nation, city and neighborhood. It examines the production of sacrifice zones of geo-engineering projects, petrochemical landscapes, material resource extraction, toxic waste disposal, containment of ungovernable bodies, and unjust real estate practices. How can architects and landscape architects address the territorializing zones of entangled matter and bodies? How can they move beyond exposing injustices and oppressive structures to a new level of creative ecologies of justice and equity?

Course prepares students to formulate a rigorous design hypothesis based on a critical position and rooted in original research that outlines a path toward a compelling architectural project. Largely focused on broad questions of method, each year the course also addresses a different theme of general concern to the practice and discipline of architecture. It establishes a collective discourse and body of knowledge related to the topic to serve as launchpad for independent student work. Classes are devoted to discussions of readings, workshops and student presentations, dialog with invited speakers and preliminary design development.

The seminar supports two parallel modes of thinking. The first mode investigates sets of case studies focusing on broad themes (such as tectonics, landscapes, urbanisms, etc.). These themes are examined as critical debates, whereby sets of theories, projects, and practices reflect historical positions. The second mode of thinking offers each student an opportunity to engage specific features of the case studies by conceptualizing and curating a final project. Our goal is to better understand how ongoing historical arguments become catalysts for redefining contemporary architectural projects and practices.

Introduction to the primary projective systems that form the foundations of architectural representation and serve as essential tools of formal analysis and design. Coursework is derived from a structured examination of key primary sources by Gaspard Monge, Brook Taylor and Girard Desargues.

The cultural discourse of architecture and cities is created and sustained largely by the writing of architects, critics, and historians. As an intellectual discipline, architecture requires writing to support and communicate its ideas, requires texts to position and expand upon its visual representations -- its images. The course introduces students to different models of writing through reading architecture and theory texts and through learning to read the city at its many scales. The goal is to give students the conceptual tools to form and write their own ideas and the confidence to present their writing in a public forum.

Architecture's relationship with Nature or Life is obvious and complex- associated with notions of site, climate, etc. Historically we have built in an almost reactionary way to these givens yet the human relationship with nature is increasingly complex. Notions of health and wellness have recently re-manifested in Architecture notably in Biophilia. Biophilic design principals theoretically stimulates a spectrum of physical, mental benefits which we shall interrogate this semester. We will look backwards and forward to discuss how the contemporary iterations of these concerns have always been central to Architectural discourse/ design.

The carrying out of architectural services goes beyond design and involves obligations to the public, to clients, to peers and employees. This course deals with the contracts, specifications, technical documentation, project management, and the construction administration phases of architectural services in designing and constructing buildings. The course is required for the Master of Architecture degree unless you have taken Professional Practice in a 5-year program.

From secret laboratories to monumental infrastructures and the many landscapes of war, energy, and waste in between, nuclear power is at the core of a vast and radically understudied array of 20th c. architectures. Central to the most iconic architectural images of the post-war era while also rendered invisible in apparently unseen wastelands, atomic weapons, nuclear reactors, and atmospheric fallout eventually attracted intense architectural attention. Drawing on multiple literatures, the seminar explores how the nuclear penetrated beyond warscapes to enter even the private spaces of the domestic realm and the human body.

This proseminar is a required two-part course for students in the PhD track in Computation, Energy, and Technology in the School of Architecture (open to other interested graduate students as well) and is organized as a research seminar to introduce the participants to scientific research methods in the context of design in Architecture and science in engineering. It is structured as a series of introductory presentations of exemplary methods based on case studies and a number of guest presentations from collaborating disciplines.

This course investigates a conceptual framework for architecture, which positions digital manufacturing as an integral part of the computational design process. This framework places assembly (putting together discrete elements) as the main generative driver for computation to bridge the gap between design and making. It requires breaking a building down into sub-assemblies and developing custom tools and assembly procedures to manufacture them. Moreover, it necessitates the implementation of custom algorithms, data structures, and digital workflows to generate, store, and seamlessly transfer design data to robotic assembly routines.

Recent monographs and thematic studies have shaped our understanding of Austrian architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky's life and work, but some aspects that speak to larger formations in the history of modern architecture have been persistently ignored. Namely, this was her engagement in international resistance networks, her work in the peace and denuclearization movements, as well as the international women's movement. The course revisits these themes in the context of debates in modern architecture to excavate multiple figures from Austria, Turkey, Poland, Hungry, Germany, and France, but also Mexico, Chile, Cuba, and the Soviet Union.

Michel Foucault has famously argued that 'life itself did not exist' in the eighteenth century and that it only came into being with the establishment of biological science after 1800. This course argues that this modern conception of life was informed by a series of architectonic parameters described by biological and architectural theorists during their common inquiry into the growth and spatial behavior of living organisms. Seminars focus on major evolutionary and environmental issues, including adaptation, optimization, and the spatial claims of natural selection, as well as the building settings of modern biological research.

The history of architecture is human history. In this course, we study the buildings, cities, and landscapes that societies have created over time, from ancient civilizations to the present day. We examine the architecture of our own campus and community with local field trips and walking tours. We explore key monuments from around the world, stressing a critical approach to architecture through the analysis of context, expressive content, function, structure, style, building technology, and theory. Assignments can incorporate drawing, photography, and debate as well as close reading and writing.

What was the Renaissance, and why has it occupied a central place in art history? Major artistic currents swept Europe during the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, an age that saw the rise of global trade, the development of the nation state, and the onset of mass armed conflict. To explore the art of this period, we consider themes including religious devotion, encounters with foreign peoples and goods, the status of women, and the revival of antiquity. We study artists including Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci as well as some who may be less familiar. Precepts visit campus collections of paintings, prints, drawings, and maps.

This course examines the architectural history and ethics of confinement spaces - mental asylums and prisons - which share common features and goals: security, isolation, and behavioral reformation through architectural control. Engaging with justice-impacted individuals, the course applies ethical discussions to real-world case studies, prompting critical reflection on the moral implications of designing spaces explicitly meant to restrict human freedom and agency. Through community dialogue, students confront the responsibility architects bear in institutional power dynamics.

The course presents global anthropogenic impacts on the environment and their relationship to sustainable design. It focuses on understanding principles of applied sciences, and how IoT and Digital Fabrication facilitates rapid and deployable sensors and systems to make and analyze designs. Part 1) Global Change and Environmental Impacts: studying influences on basic natural systems and cycles and how we can evaluate them to rethink building design. Part 2) Designing Sustainable Systems: address learned synergies between making buildings more efficient and less prone to disease transmission through alternative heating cooling and ventilation.

How did Montreal become the world's second-largest French-speaking city? How has its unique multicultural identity inspired generations of explorers, artists, architects, dancers, dramaturgs, and filmmakers? Spanning from its origins as Tiohtià:ke ("Where the waters meet") to New France and today's Créole-and Yiddish-speaking scenes, this course explores the city's cultural, environmental, architectural, and political history. We will examine colonialism, immigration, displacement, Québec-Canada relations, Francophonie, identity, religion, language, ecology, gender, queerness, and race in the 'Paris of North America'.

This seminar introduces urban studies research methods through a study of New York in conversation with other cities. Focused on communities and landmarks represented in historical accounts, literary works, art and film, we will travel through cityscapes as cultural and mythological spaces - from the past to the present day. We will examine how standards of evidence shape what is knowable about cities and urban life, what "counts" as knowledge in urban studies, and how these different disciplinary perspectives construct and limit knowledge about cities as a result.

This seminar introduces the study of gentrification, with a focus on mapping projects using GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software. Readings, films, and site visits will situate the topic, as the course examines how racial landscapes of gentrification, culture and politics have been influenced by and helped drive urban change. Tutorials in ArcGIS will allow students to convert observations of urban life into fresh data and work with existing datasets. Learn to read maps critically, undertake multifaceted spatial analysis, and master new cartographic practices associated with emerging scholarship in the Digital and Urban Humanities.

The great thing about drawing is you can do it anywhere! This course approaches drawing as a way of thinking and seeing. We'll introduce basic techniques while also encouraging experimentation, with a focus on both drawing from life and drawing as an expressive act. Students will be introduced to the basics of line, shading, proportion, composition, texture and gesture. You'll also maintain a drawing journal, and use it as a regular space for observation and personal expression. Through exposure to a variety of mediums and techniques, you'll gain the skills and confidence necessary to develop an individual final project of your choosing.

An introduction to the materials and methods of painting, addressing form and light, color and its interaction, composition, scale, texture and gesture. Students will experiment with subject matter including still life, landscape, architecture, self-portraiture and abstraction, while painting from a variety of sources: life, sketches, maquettes, collages, photographs and imagination. Students will progressively develop personal imagery that will inform an individual final project. Princeton will provide all materials for the painting class.

Notes on Color is a digital photography class that will address color photography, both analogue and digital, with the aim of unpacking and understanding the profound aesthetic and material sway over our habits of vision and culture color photography exerts. Beginning with the 19th century's two foundational texts on color theory for artists, Goethe's "Theory of Color" and Michel-Eugène Chevreul's "Principles of Color Harmony and Contrast," Notes on Color will explore how color transformed painting and photography from 1850 to the present.