This course will be offered in January, May, and September. You may contact the FST Student Success Centre at 1-855-362-2870 for confirmation of other offerings.
ADST 200: Foundations of Design I is intended for students enrolled in the BSc (Architecture) program at the RAIC Centre for Architecture at Athabasca University.
Overview
Architectural Design Studio 200: Foundations of Design I is the first of 10 studio courses that will prepare you for work in an architect’s office. This course explores the creative design process through a series of composition, abstraction, and design projects. The aim of ADST 200 is to familiarize you with the creative application of sound analytical skills, imaginative conceptual thinking, and form-making abilities.
You will be introduced to a design process based on original thinking, in which you will synthesize collected information and draw conclusions based on established premises. The course will also demonstrate how to generate a number of design alternatives, and evaluate and select the most appropriate one.
Outline
ADST 200 consists of five projects and two presentations. Each week, you will be asked to share your work in progress with your instructor and the other students in the studio. This weekly session is the equivalent of a desk critique (a session during which the architecture student sits down with their instructor to review their designs) given in a face-to-face studio.
These interactive meetings will be held in an online environment that includes video conferencing, audio conferencing, and social media, and will allow the instructor to provide feedback on your work. This type of session is intended to be a productive working session much like you would experience in an architect’s office. Upon registration, you will receive a full set of instructions for connecting to the virtual studio.
Learning outcomes
After successfully completing this course, you should be able to
Comprehend: Establish a basic understanding of design thinking, exploration, and communication.
Analyze: Explore and examine the following topics:
primary elements
form
space
organization of primary elements, form, and space
circulation through space
program
proportion and scale
ordering principles
Apply: Understand and apply basic design principles in the process of design development through critical thinking.
Apply: Begin to build a community of practice by working with other students.
Evaluation
To receive credit for ADST 200, you must achieve a cumulative grade of at least 67 percent. Your work in this course will be evaluated based on five projects. Note that your participation in discussions and your sharing of resources will contribute to your grade.
The weighting of the projects is as follows:
Activity
Weight
Complete by
Project 1: Two-Dimensional (2D) Graphic Composition: Points and Lines
15%
Week 2
Project 2: 2D Composition
15%
Week 4
Project 3: Translation from 2D to 3D; midterm presentation
30%
Week 7
Project 4: Exploring Solids and Voids
30%
Week 10
Project 5: Final Presentation: Reflecting on What You Have Learned
10%
Week 13
Total
100%
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.
Materials
Ching, F. D. K. (2015). Architecture: Form, space, and order (4th ed.). Wiley. (eText)
You must provide a digital camera for your own use, as well as a few other tools. The items you will need to provide are listed below:
Photography Tools
Smartphone with camera, or digital camera (SLR preferable)
Drawing Materials
35.56 cm × 43.18 cm (14” × 17”) Strathmore 300 series acid-free drawing paper
22.86 cm × 30.48 cm (9” × 12”) Strathmore 300 series sketchbook
white or beige 2-ply card stock
trace paper
Drawing Tools
0.30 mm precision felt pen (or similar)
2H to 2B pencils or mechanical pencils
coloured markers and/or pencil crayons
compass
protractor
ruler
drawing board (recommended)
Modeling Materials
white or beige 2-ply card stock
clear plastic sheet
Modeling Tools
self-healing cutting mat: 18” × 24” (45.75 cm × 60.96 cm) or larger preferable
metal-edge cork-back ruler (various sizes)
stainless steel knife
masking tape/painter’s tape
white glue
modeling set square
Use of Computers
While this is an online and virtual studio, you are asked not to use a computer in preparing your projects. Hand drawing and modeling skills remain essential to the development of an architect, and the first studio courses in this series are designed to help you improve those skills. It is understood that you will need to use a computer to scan, arrange, format, save, and upload your final submission for each project, but you must complete all your drawings and models for this course by hand.
Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice. Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized study counterparts.