Course Assignments

Readings
Readings support and contribute to the theoretical base of the course and provide concepts for discusions. Reading assignments will be defined as the course progresses.

School Lectures
Attendance is recommended at all CAED and Department of Architecture lectures scheduled during the quarter. Lectures will be announced in class as far in advance as possible but it is your responsibility to be aware of their scheduling.

Projects
Projects address a number of issues and provide an opportunity for you to demonstrate your understanding of the course content, skills, and creativity. There will be a series of projects during the quarter. Some will be a week or more in length, require outside work, and have preliminary assignments associated with them.

Project Grading
The evaluation of each project will be based on four aspects: Completion, Craft/Presentation, Process, and Concept/Design. Completion recognizes that time is an important element in design; process recognizes the degree to which you are engaged in the problem; communication (craft/presentation) recognizes the skills, care, and planning required to make visible an idea; and design recognizes the effort required to generate and develop ideas/concepts. The grading is based on the criteria for evaluation developed from these aspects plus progress. Completion, craft, and design have to do with the product produced, process and concept have to do with how your design thinking is carried out, and progress gives credit for improvements made. For a design course, product is most important, process is second, and progress is third. See "Grades" for more explicit criteria.

Completion
Completion recognizes your ability to manage your time and accomplish the assigned task on schedule. It also defines the penalties for the late completion of a project. No project will be accepted for grading unless it is complete.
On time. All projects are due at the beginning of class unless otherwise specified. A letter grade is lost for each day the project is late. Note: If the project is due on Friday and you do not turn it in until the next class day (Monday) it will be counted as three days late.
Work will not be accepted unless it is complete. Bring it in for crits, but not for grading. The moral of the story is to do the work on time or take your lumps for turning it in late. Exceptions are made only for illness or other exceptional circumstances.

Craft/Presentation
Craft/Presentation is concerned with the appropriateness, quality, and skill with which you present an idea. It is concerned with both the tiny details and the overall impression. The evaluation of craft is based on the following issues:

The degree to which all presentation requirements are followed and met.

To degree to which the presentation is clean, precise, accurate, aligned, joined, and durable when viewed from a distance of twelve inches.

The degree to which graphic choices (size, shape, surface, location, and orientation) are appropriate, consistent, and legible when viewed from ten feet.

The degree to which presentation techniques and skills are appropriately and consistently employed.

The degree to which the presentation exhibits an overall visual quality, style, and presence.

The degree to which the presentation exhibits compositional considerations — explores and establishes appropriate relationships between the elements of the presentation.

Process
Process recognizes your ability to engage in the inquiry that the problem presents, to work with me and with other students to improve your design and your design thinking. It also acknowledges your ability to think through the problem from different viewpoints (some of which may have been unfamiliar to you in the past), and to develop different conceptual alternative solutions.

Concept/Design
Concept/Design is concerned with imagination, appropriateness, inclusiveness, and development. It is concerned with both the overall idea and its development and the extension into details.

The evaluation of design is based on the following issues.

The degree to which design requirements are followed and/or met.

The degree to which the design addresses the problem and manifests an appropriate and clear concept.

The degree to which the concept is inclusive — it addresses or encompasses all problem requirements and issues.

The degree to which the concept is developed — carried to its logical conclusion and is visible in both overall and detail decisions.

The degree to which the design explores and stretches the project's possibilities.

The degree to which the design stretches your capabilities.

The degree to which the design is imaginative.

The degree to which the presentation exhibits an overall design/layout concept.

Each project will be weighted according to its relative importance in the quarter. Your Grade for the quarter is based on the accumulation of all project grades.

UNITY

The recognizeable singularity of purpose.

Unity is also a sense of wholeness, a nameable feature, a sense of nothing needed — nothing too much.

EXERCISE: What do you see as the single purpose in each photo above? Give a name to each image.