RPI SOM



Home
What we do
People
Sponsored Research
Graduate Programs
Contact
Press





OVERVIEW
Although the discipline of architecture has a strong and complex knowledge base, its essential nature causes it to synthesize the knowledge produced in many other fields from sociology and history, to information technology and the performance of materials. This program is aimed at producing a context for advanced study and research between architecture and appropriate areas of science and engineering — and with the new technologies and methodologies that these disciplines are creating.

Design Research: Complementary to existing advanced degree concentrations in Architecture, the Built Ecologies concentration is a design research graduate program focused on developing integrated design responses that bear on the built environment. The development of systems will focus on their operation and potential in the context of the forces and phenomena at work in natural systems.

Design Culture & Strategies: The aim is to develop performance driven design techniques and solutions to building system design based on an understanding that the built world can and should operate synergistically within larger ecologies, and that it also may act as one. It positions architectural design as the creation of built ecologies and pursues an understanding of its participation in larger systems as an opportunity to inform a more intelligent and operative architecture.

Design Strategies: The program aspires to go beyond conventional graduate design programs through intensive collaborations with researchers in emerging technologies. The goal of the program is to create an intensely creative and experimental environment whereby the design project or thesis serves as a catalyst for more radical technical innovation than is possible when designers conventionally work separately from those who are pushing the envelope of science and technology. The core of the program involves the development of an individual thesis project, evolved in close collaboration with a thesis adviser.

Interdisciplinary Issues: A wide variety of transdisciplinary issues can be investigated, provided that there is a good connection with the research of faculty members that are available to guide the specific study. Applicants are strongly encouraged to express their specific interests upon application.

The concentrated interdisciplinary one-year degree options are designed for either a recent professional graduate interested in developing expertise in progressive design research, or for the returning professional Architect or Engineer to acquire a deeper and more progressive knowledge of emerging technology than is possible within the confines of practice, while creating the opportunity for them to radically experiment with new design strategies that are technologically innovative and ambitious. The core of the program involves the development of an individual thesis or research project that is related to current interdisciplinary research and evolved in close collaboration with a thesis advisor. A wide variety of trans-disciplinary issues can be investigated, provided that there is a good connection with the research of faculty members that are available to guide the specific study.

PhD Option: Pursuant to the Masters, a PhD option provides opportunity for advanced investigations leading to the development of new knowledge, techniques, and systems. Candidates will pursue studies that contribute to the innovation of performative systems that respond to complex ecological environmental paradoxes and unresolved or unrealized opportunities for change or development.

The degree option is targeted toward candidates with a professional degree in architecture or engineering and qualified candidates with degrees in related design fields of science and the humanities, including but not limited to Industrial and Urban Design.
PROGRAM
Building on common knowledge set and summer readings, a four-course core provides the interdisciplinary mix of students with two knowledge-based seminars complemented by two research/ methods seminars. The research/methods seminars combine Built Ecologies students with those from Acoustics, and Lighting. The remaining seminars are specific to the program and support a more advanced understanding of energy, the environment, scientific principles, available and emerging technologies and materials and methods. Together these constitute roughly 30% of the curriculum.

A common core knowledge-base will establish the foundation for informed interdisciplinary research and investigation in divergent and complimentary studies, design and research. A substantial part of the curriculum consists of concentration electives that customize a program to meet the specific field of inquiry desired by the student. To that end, the curriculum complements seminar based learning with interdisciplinary design/research experiences as well as in individual project / thesis investigations.

I) M.S. in Architectural Sciences / BUILT ECOLOGIES

a. Length of Program: 30 credits to be completed in a minimum of 12 months (30 credits applicable towards Ph.D.)
    i.Two full time course semesters
    ii.Summer thesis / project completion
b. Mode of Study: Multi-disciplinary design research
    i.Core Seminar Courses: To broaden awareness of parallel investigations and potential for interdisciplinary study
    ii.In-depth concentration study [9]
    iii.Interdisciplinary design research project [4]
    iv.Thesis or Project (developed in conjunction with faculty) [7]
    *depending upon individual plan of study and dissertation topic.

2) PhD in Architectural Sciences / BUILT ECOLOGIES

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Architectural Sciences involves multidisciplinary research and scholarship across the many topics arising from the theory and practice of architecture and the built environment. The purpose of the degree is to support research and scholarship across the many topics arising from the theory and practice of architecture and the built environment.

The objective of the Built Ecologies concentration is to advance knowledge in the area and applications of integrated technologies that enable a more ecologically based and progressive design of the built environment, increase its performance, and enhance quality of life. There are three essential characteristics to doctoral study in architecture at Rensselaer:

- It is framed by issues arising from architectural and urban environments, spatial and physical, virtual and real;
- It actively brings knowledge and method from across disciplines to these contexts, and;
- It is directed to developing new knowledge able to effect and transform the design of the physical world.

a. Length of Program: 72 credits to be completed in a minimum of 6 semesters in residence, including:
    i.Full-time in residence for minimum of 4 additional semesters (beyond MS or M.Arch II)
    ii.Summer research residencies determined on the basis of the individual thesis/project.

b.Mode of Study: Inter- and multi-disciplinary design/research study (Beyond MS or MARCH II)
    i.Interdisciplinary and Disciplinary Research Seminars [8cr]
    ii.Concentration and/or interdisciplinary research investigation(s) [0-22 cr *]
    iii.30 Credits of thesis / dissertation [30-52 cr *]
    *depending upon individual plan of study and dissertation topic.
CURRICULAR PLAN

Architectural Sciences, Built Ecologies Curriculum M.S. (30 credit hours)


Fall
Course
Credit Hours

ARCH-6810
Research Design Seminar
2

ARCH-6xxx
Topics in Environmental Hist & Theory
3

ARCH-6xxx
Materials Systems and Productions
3

ARCH-6xxx
Topics in Built Ecologies 1
3

ARCH-6xxx
Design Research Studio
4

Spring



ARCH-6900
Graduate Thesis Seminar
2

ARCH-6963
Interdisciplinary Research / Studio
4

ARCH-6xxx
Topics in Built Ecologies 2
3

ARCH-6990
Master's Thesis
6


Or

ARCH-6980
Master’s Project
6


Summer
Thesis Completion + Presentation
Total 30 Hours

CONCENTRATION AREA RESEARCH/DESIGN COMPONENT

CONCENTRATION AREA (CONC)

[ 9 credits ]

Each student is required to develop a focus area concentration comprised of three related depth seminar courses approved by the program committee.


INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH / DESIGN COMPONENT (R/D)

[ 4 credits ]

Each student is required to participate in an interdisciplinary team-based project in the Spring Semester [4 cr]. The Interdisciplinary Research Studio is comprised of a design research investigation, and may consist of an interdisciplinary faculty led group project, or be part of an ongoing interdisciplinary faculty research project approved by the program committee. Unique among programs surveyed, these will be both interdisciplinary and design research project based. Together with the concentration courses, this represents approximately 35% of the curriculum.

THESIS/PROJECT COMPONENT

THESIS / PROJECT COMPONENT

[ 7 credits ]

Each student is required to participate in an interdisciplinary team-based project in the Spring Semester [4 cr]. The Interdisciplinary Research Studio is comprised of a design research investigation, and may consist of an interdisciplinary faculty led group project, or be part of an ongoing interdisciplinary faculty research project approved by the program committee. Unique among programs surveyed, these will be both interdisciplinary and design research project based. Together with the concentration courses, this represents approximately 35% of the curriculum.

Each student is required to propose, develop and complete a thesis or research project. The thesis project component, developed with an advisor represents 7 credits and is expected to be completed in the summer following the completion of coursework.

1. Students may choose to complete either a project or thesis.
2. As part of the graduate Research Methodologies seminar, each student is expected to develop an acceptable thesis or project proposition.
3. As part of the Graduate Thesis Seminar each student will discuss and review their progress in relation to diverse range of thesis projects.


CASE / Center for Architecture Science and Ecology, 14 Wall Street 24th Floor, New York, NY 10005 p.212.618.3965 f.212.667.0042
© copyright 2008 CASE. this site is best viewed with firefox, chrome or safari. built with blueprint.