Tutorial for ARCH 400G: Graduate Architectural Design Studio I
Web page created by Patti Cossard, Architecture, Planning, & Preservation Librarian
Patricia Kosco Cossard, M.A., M.L.S.
Office Phone: (301) 405-6316
Office: Architecture Library
Office Hours: by appointment
Email: pcossard@umd.edu
FAX: (301) 314-9583
Lara Otis, M.A., M.L.S.
Office Phone: (301) 405-9260
Office: Architecture Library
Office Hours: by appointment
Email: lotis@umd.edu
FAX: (301) 314-9583
Course Instructors: Julie Ju-Youn Kim, RA, Lecturer
The University of Maryland Libraries have many resources that will help with research. If you need additional information, please e-mail Patti Cossard or e-mail Lara Otis or speak with a Reference Librarian at either the Art or Architecture Library's Reference Desk.
Because of licensing agreements, access to bibliographic databases and electronic journals is restricted to UM faculty, staff, and students. These may be accessed from off campus; consult Remote access for further information. For a complete list of electronic resources available to University of Maryland faculty, staff, and students, as well as information about the full range of library materials and services, consult the UM Libraries' home page.
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OVERVIEW: This class is a foundational studio course for the study of architectural design, designed to introduce students architectural conventions and principles in relation to the process of architectural design.
SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF LIBRARY INSTRUCTION CLASS:
The University of Maryland Libraries have many resources that will help with research for ARCH 400G. Library research is a key component in learning. This class will provide students with an understanding of key research tools and review information literacy skills appropriate for subject-specific research.
OUTLINE
- Books
- Theses
- Directories
- Websites
- Newspapers
- Journals
- Maps
- Codes
- Image Resources
- Materials Resources
- Inter-Library Loan and other borrowing arrangements
- Research Port: libraries portal to electronic resources
- RefWorks: a bibliographic management system
- Interlibrary Loan: when we don't own a resource you need
- Using the Find It button: when you want to see if the library owns a resource
Basics Here are selected group of the type of Reference Sources you will need to complete your thesis:
Research Skills you will learn in this library instruction session:
Just as development of a design requires a first sketch and then repeated editing and redrawing, the development of a good piece of research requires a first search and then repeated researching at deeper levels and finding new sources. return to top- Descriptive Considerations: site selection, topic and project, scope, and location
- Contextual Considerations: architectural, cultural, social, economic, technological, and other key considerations relevant to the thesis topic
- Books: If site is prominent use Guides, Encyclopedias, Almanacs, Monographs
- Websites: Google the site, county/municipality/city, architect
- Newspapers: If site is less prominent use current and historical newstories
- Journals: Useful when researching a specific theme, narrow topic, and/or site is less prominent
- Websites: Google the county/municipality/city to identify what office to go to in order to obtain
- Websites: Google the local jurisdiction’s departments of planning and zoning, public works, and transportation where you can usually obtain base maps at diverse scales for sites in cities and counties.
- Books: For surrounding area look for published "Master Plans"
- Websites: Google the site, county/municipality/city, architect
- Directories: If you are doing a project on a site currently being studied for development by architects and engineers, they or their clients may be able to provide you with base maps and site data.
Precedents: (no less than four) Once you have anylized your chosen site, you are ready to begin to solve its design challenges. The first step in doing this is to identify and analyze precedents that point to applicable strategies of formal typology and composition; functional patterns and spatial organization; materials and details of assembly; technical systems; scale and proportion; color and texture; sensory perception; cultural meaning; and even construction costs.
- programmatic (i.e. functional)
- formal (pertaining to stylistic language, composition, geometry, structure, materials etc.)
- strategic site/urban design relevance
- understanding of the nature of the project, including client and users, site and context
- Where: site description and analysis
- functional program and building typology
- Where:
- Books: building types and architects who build them
- Once building type and/or architect is chosen, use Newspapers and Journals, if the type/architect is less prominent use current and historical newstories
- Where:
- Formal considerations: style, symbolism, spatial character, facade composition
- Where:
- Once style and/or corresponding architect is chosen, use:
- Books: Guides, Encyclopedias, Almanacs, Monographs, if style or architect is prominent
- Newspapers and Journals, if the type/architect is less prominent use current and historical newstories
- Once style and/or corresponding architect is chosen, use:
- Where:
Site and programming analysis are essential to successfully completing this course. Both are built upon a strong site description and contextual understanding. It includes identifying building type, programmatic attributes, design challenges based upon cultural or functional contexts, as well as relevant influences, problems & opportunities of site. The object of analysis is to identify possible precedents, design strategies and to develop an architectural program. Analysis is original work.
- Functional analysis identifies the range of physical possibilities for accomodating a function's need. The object of this analysis is to provide a variety of alternative approaches and provide a systematic process for decision making based upon client values, goals, and requirements.
- research site planning strategies showing relationship to existing context (urban or otherwise), buildings, roads, landscape, other features
- implications of design goals and conceptual approach
- It is based upon the research process described above in the Precedents section.
Citation and Bibliography: You are honor bound by the University's Code of Academic Integrity to provide proper attributions, source citations and footnotes related to anything that is not your own work. This includes paraphrasing and quotations of ideas or texts and reduction of images (drawings, photos) produced by others.
- The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White.
- A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Kate L. Turabian
- Writing for Design Professionals, Stephen A. Kliment
How to get to the sources you need
Planning your research (general history, the site, the type of building):
- Subject headings for Books:
- Architecture – history
- Architecture – theory
- Building sites
- Buildings (has many narrower terms for types)
- Place (Philosophy) in architecture
- Subject headings for Avery:
- Architectural design
- Historicism
- Building sites – [location]
- Comprehensive plans
- Context/contextualism
- Authenticity
- Urban design – theory
Inter-Library Loan (ILL) and Other Research Privileges: if you find that the UM Libraries don't have much in your area, you may get book, journal, newspaper articles from other libraries. Most database will have a link to the Inter-Libary Loan service through the find it button. However, you may initiate an ILL loan:
