Check out the Spring 2024 electives! 
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Blind Design Workshop - Each spring, the Virginia Tech School of Architecture, in collaboration with the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired (DBVI), hosts an immersive design workshop for blind and visually-impaired learners. Students will embark on an intensive study of making through a series of experimental, prototype, and fabrication projects. They will have the opportunity to engage in the full spectrum of constructive thinking, from conceptual drawing to modeling, testing, and final execution. LIGHT: THINGNESS and OBJECTIFICATION is an exploration into the various roles that light can play in design and placemaking. Class presentations are meant to introduce thoughts concerning those roles that then become prompts for explorations by students. The course approaches Light as an element of design while also considering how Light affects one’s health and well-being. Questions of Perception through mind and body interactions form the foundation to the course. This course explores the possibilities of movable, portable, and transformable architectural systems. Students will study the design principles, concepts, and practical applications of these dynamic structures. The course places particular emphasis on the integration of knitted textiles as a means of enclosing and containing space, enabling students to understand the potential of fabric materials in architectural design. Through a combination of digital study, hands-on projects, and collaborative work, students experience prototyping and refining their innovative designs. This course fosters playful thinking, problem-solving skills, and an understanding of the latest advancements in architectural innovation. By the end of the course, students will have acquired the knowledge and expertise to engage large-scale build of their structures. well-being. Explore the world of integrated computational design and fabrication in this course. Develop expertise in Grasshopper 3D as a computational design tool, create your own design algorithms, and learn digital fabrication techniques. With hands-on experience and access to cutting-edge facilities, you'll design and fabricate your own unique installation, unleashing your creativity while acquiring valuable skills at the intersection of technology and design. Biomaterials for Eco-Design & Prototyping focuses on exploring alternative design processes using biomaterials to reduce the environmental impact caused by widespread plastic usage. Its objective is to implement unconventional practices that strike a balance between industry and the environment, rejuvenating ecosystems, and habitats through bioplastic production. Simultaneously, it aims to educate students in alternative design technologies that promote the use of renewable sources. This course explores the complicated issues surrounding the preservation of buildings, monuments, and landscapes associated with difficult histories. Buildings constructed during problematic political regimes, the landscapes of relocation camps, monuments to now-reviled individuals, and other historic but uncomfortable places -- this course will examine them all in the context of how (and whether) to preserve what many would rather forget. A seminar focused on the origins of modernism: Modern Literature, Modern Music, Modern Art, and of course Modern Architecture. We will begin with humanist thinkers from the Renaissance who displaced the role of mere craftsmen, and became capable of theorizing space, domesticity, life, the cosmos. We will discuss key historical figures up until the explosion of 20th century industry and culture. There will be light readings each week, accompanied by in class discussions and slideshow lectures.