Immaterial Limits: Process and Duration
Course facts
- Payment: Free, no certificate
- Credits: Non Credit
- Learning style: Self-paced, start anytime
- Resources: Projects with Examples
MIT OpenCourseWare details
- As taught in: Fall 2002
- Department: Architecture
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An architecture studio on materials and duration: full-scale fabrication, then proposals for a former quarry and Superfund site in Chicago.
Buildings are usually seen as resisting decay, but this architecture studio treats materials and landscape as processes that change over time. Students design and fabricate full-scale material constructs using casting, weathering and erosion, along with CNC and rapid prototyping. They then translate those studies into proposals for a former quarry and Superfund site in Chicago, reworking the landscape over time.
What You Will Achieve
- Investigate a material’s properties through full-scale fabrication
- Use duration as a design strategy
- Develop models and drawings across scales
- Propose architectural interventions for a post-industrial landscape
Program Overview
Out of Joint
The first problem works with materials directly.
- Introduce studio issues and problem
- Fabrication
- Introduction to a quarry
Duration and Depth
The second problem moves to the site.
- Leave for Chicago
- 3 models
- Defamiliarization representations
Extreme Geology Center
The third problem develops a final project.
- Scale jump models and drawings
- Mid review
- Final review
Course Completion
Job Outlook
This approach serves architects and landscape designers who work with fabrication, reclaimed sites and long-term change.
Good for: Advanced architecture students, and those curious how a design studio can use material experiments to drive an idea.
Keep in mind: Almost everything here depended on the studio, fabrication tools, site visit and critiques. The site offers the description, a schedule and three student projects, and no technical instruction.
Bottom line: A useful brief for design teachers and students, not a course you can complete alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the site?
The 23-acre Stearns Quarry in Chicago, excavated to 350 feet, later used as a dumping site for incinerator ash and construction debris and designated a Superfund site.
Which fabrication methods are named?
CAD-CAM, CNC and rapid prototyping, as well as investigations of casting, stressing, weathering, eroding and corroding.
Is student work available?
Yes. Student projects by Aaron Wittkamper, Charles Austin and John Braddock are published on the projects page.
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