Instructor: Eddy Man Kim
MWF • 1:25-4:15pm • In-Person • 15 units

This studio will investigate the role and process of architectural design as three critical acts: to see, to empathize, and to deliver.

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Instructor: Jon Holmes
MW • 10:30-11:20am • In-Person • 3 units

This course introduces basic material assembly methods and the use of workshop machinery, hand and power tools, preparing students to participate in a wide range of subsequent building and fabrication projects.

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Instructor: Heather Workinger Midgley
R • 1:25-2:45pm • In-Person • 3 units

The main objective of this first-year seminar course is how students learn, develop, and make decisions as they transition into architecture education.

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Instructor: Doug Cooper
TR • 9:05-11:55am • In-Person • 6 units

This is an introductory course in free-hand architectural drawing. Its central learning objective is building a capacity for visualizing three-dimensional space through freehand drawing.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Architectural Representation and Visualization, Architecture (non-majors)

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Instructor: Matthew Huber
TR • 9:05-11:55am • In-Person • 6 units

This is the first in a two-course sequence that introduces digital drawing and image production as both generative and communicative processes.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Architectural Representation and Visualization, Architecture (non-majors)

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Instructors: Valentina Vavasis, Kai Gutschow
T • 1:25-2:45pm • In-Person • 3 units

This course is aimed at first year architecture students as an introduction to social justice and design ethics. Throughout the course, we will discuss how architecture is embedded in these issues and how architects might address these issues in current and future practice, both as citizens and as designers.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Architecture (non-majors)

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Instructor: Laura Garófalo
MWF • 1:25-4:15pm • In-Person • 18 units

This studio will explore morphology in relation to patterns of climate, programmatic organization, and sociocultural and ecological context.

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Instructor: Gerard Damiani
MWF • 10:10-11:00am • In-Person • 9 units

This course introduces and examines the fundamentals between design intent and construction materials, the science of materials (performance) and their assemblies.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Architectural Technology (non-majors)

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Instructor: Nathan Sawyer
T • 10:10-11:30am • In-Person • 3 units

This course introduces fundamental concepts of building physics. Knowledge and skills from this course can be applied to studio projects and beyond, improving building design and performance through standard methods of evaluation and simulation tools.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Architectural Technology (non-majors)

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Instructor: Joshua Bard
Asynchronous • 9 units

This course introduces students to the fundamentals of generative modeling using computer aided design as practiced in the field of architecture.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Computational Design

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Instructor: Heather Bizon (Coordinator)
MWF • 1:25-4:15pm • In-Person • 18 units

Instructor: Vivian Loftness
TR • 11:50am-1:10pm • In-Person • 9 units

This course introduces architectural design responses for energy conservation and natural conditioning, human comfort, and the site-specific dynamics of climate.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Architectural Technology (non-majors)

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Instructor: Stefan Gruber
TR • 10:10-11:30am • In-Person • 9 units

This course introduces students to urbanism and explores architecture as situated and relational practice subject to broader social, political, economic, ecological, and cultural forces.

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Instructor: Nina Baird
TR • 8:35-9:55am • In-Person • 9 units

This course focuses on active systems in commercial buildings and strategies for their successful integration with passive components.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Architectural Technology (non-majors)

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Instructor: Francesca Torello
MW • 1:25-2:45pm • In-Person • 9 units

This seminar is designed to prepare students planning to work on a thesis project in the B.Arch or M.Arch programs. The seminar will help you refine the scope of the thesis argument, define appropriate research methods, and sharpen communication about thesis work in all of its phases.

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Instructors: Gerard Damiani, Hal Hayes, Stephen Lee, Jill Swenson
TR • 12:30-4:20pm • In-Person • 18 units

These studios are focused on Building Integration, where architectural designs demonstrate the integration of building envelope systems and assemblies, structural systems, environmental control systems, life safety systems, and the measurable outcomes of building performance.

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Instructor: Stefan Gruber
TR • 12:30-4:20pm • In-Person • 18 units

Commoning the City is a yearlong research-based design studio on social justice and community-led urban transformations. Here, students explore design as an agent of change and how to support citizens in claiming their Right to the City.

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Instructor: Mary-Lou Arscott
TR • 12:30-4:20pm • In-Person • 18 units

This studio will take conventional stereotypical construction scenarios and design a progressive series of upsets to it, using and creating disruptive contexts.

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Instructor: Bill Bates
TR • 12:30-4:20pm • In-Person • 18 units

This studio will examine the limited privileges and rights of marginalized communities to occupy and own shelter and the impacts on their quality of life as well as the broader societal implications.

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Instructor: Theo Issaias
TR • 12:30-4:20pm • In-Person • 18 units

This studio will turn to queer practices that have carved possibility not where repression has inscribed it. We will explore stories, archives, and everyday rituals that challenge the normative and normalizing habits of architecture.

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Instructor: Jeremy Ficca
TR • 12:30-4:20pm • In-Person • 18 units

This studio seeks to explore the contemporary potential of stone as a primary building material. It will research the evolution of the material’s use and the current circumstances of its global extraction and processing to understand how this plentiful natural resource may open new types of architectural expression while coming to terms with its environmental and human impact.

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Instructor: Steve Lee
TR • 12:30-4:20pm • In-Person • 18 units

This is the first semester of a yearlong design/build studio for a farmer’s market building at Hazelwood Green. This studio will consider the broader community and urban questions but be laser focused on the issues of building integration.

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Instructor: Christine Mondor
TR • 12:30-4:20pm • In-Person • 18 units

This studio will examine the legacy of the social justice advocacy of artist Maxo Vanka through the design of a visitors’ center campus to complement the artist’s murals in Millvale, PA.

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Instructor: Kai Gutschow
Day TBD • Time TBD • In-Person • 3 units

This course explores the material and digital cultures of architecture to introduce contemporary topics of architectural design, research, and practice.

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Instructors: Jeremy Ficca, Joshua Bard
Day TBD • Time TBD • In-Person • 9 units

Instructor: Jeremy Ficca
TR • 12:30-4:20pm • In-Person • 18 units

This studio seeks to explore the contemporary potential of stone as a primary building material. It will research the evolution of the material’s use and the current circumstances of its global extraction and processing to understand how this plentiful natural resource may open new types of architectural expression while coming to terms with its environmental and human impact.

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Instructors: Sarosh Anklesaria, Jonathan Kline
MWF • 1:25-4:15pm • In-Person • 18 units

Praxis 1 considers architecture as a broad framework for Worldmaking across political, social, and ecological contexts. It unpacks architecture’s entanglement with historical worldviews of extraction and capital to locate praxis as a mode of architectural agency and design ethics.

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Instructor: Kai Gutschow
TR • 3:05-4:25pm • In-Person • 6-9 units

This graduate seminar explores the most important theories, issues, and ideas being discussed in architecture today.

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Instructor: Vivian Loftness
TR • 11:50am-1:10pm • In-Person • 9 units

This course introduces architectural design responses for energy conservation and natural conditioning, human comfort, and the site-specific dynamics of climate.

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Instructor: Nina Baird
TR • 8:35-9:55am • In-Person • 9 units

This course focuses on active systems in commercial buildings and strategies for their successful integration with passive components.

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Instructor: Francesca Torello
MW • 1:25-2:45pm • In-Person • 9 units

This seminar is designed to prepare students planning to work on a thesis project in the B.Arch or M.Arch programs. The seminar will help you refine the scope of the thesis argument, define appropriate research methods, and sharpen communication about thesis work in all of its phases.

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Instructor: Stefani Danes
MWF • 1:25-4:15pm • In-Person • Units TBD

As the first semester of the design studio sequence in the Master of Urban Design program, the Urban Places Studio introduces students to the fundamentals of urban design with a particular focus on the nature and making of urban places within an ecological systems thinking framework.

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Instructor: Paul Ostergaard
W • 10:10-11:30am • In-Person • 3 units

This MUD Graduate Seminar introduces students to the practice of urban design. Six elements of practice will be examined including multi-disciplinary teams, public participation, engagement of major stakeholders, context and heritage, design communication, and implementation tools.

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Instructor: Jared Abraham
M • 10:10am-12:00pm • In-Person • 6 units

This course introduces students to media and representation in urban design, a cultural practice in which the built environment is composed of ecological, social and political issues and interrelationships.

Instructor: Ray Gastil
T • 7:00-9:50pm • In-Person • 3 or 6 units

This seminar focuses on the connections between policy, planning, and the design of regions, cities, and neighborhoods, down to the scale of the individual project.

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Instructor: Jonathan Kline
F • 9:05-11:55am • In-Person • 9 units

The course explores core urban design methods and theories organized into three themes intended to give students a foundational understanding of urban design, examine key critiques of urbanization, and explore emerging modes of design agency.

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Instructor: Stefan Gruber
TR • 12:30-4:20pm • In-Person • 18 units

Commoning the City is a yearlong research-based design studio on social justice and community-led urban transformations. Here, students explore design as an agent of change and how to support citizens in claiming their Right to the City.

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Instructor: TBD
TR • 10:10-11:30am • In-Person • 9 or 12 units

The Environmental Performance Simulations (EPS) course outlines a series of environmental design principles with emphasis on evidence-based design approaches and reviews of building case studies.

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Instructors: Azadeh Sawyer
Day TBD • Time TBD • In-Person • 12-18 units

This course ensures a delineated, focused scope, with refined timeline and deliverables for the Fall Synthesis effort. Design-research thesis projects are situated at the intersection of design, material lifecycle and computation, addressing multicultural aspects of ecological thinking, while enabling actionable expertise in sustainable design methodologies.

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Instructor: Erica Cochran Hameen, Azadeh Sawyer
MW • 10:10-11:30am • In-Person • 12 units

This course is an introduction to the importance of the indoor environment and human health and productivity. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the correlations between IEQ and energy consumption, health, productivity, and equitable design.

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Instructor: Joshua Lee
MWF • 1:25-2:45pm • In-Person • 12 units

This course is designed to apply the diverse knowledge and skills that AECM students have acquired during the program to a critical public interest issue related to the built environment. We will build upon last year’s research on deconstruction and investigate the potential for circular construction in the City of Pittsburgh more broadly.

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Instructor: Steve Quick
MWF • 3:05-4:25pm • In-Person • 12 units

Transdisciplinary Thinking is a compendium of Architectural, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) practice, methods, and theories with an emphasis on how the AEC professions can more effectively work together by understanding each other’s roles, responsibilities, and professional perspectives.

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Instructor: Nina Baird
TR • 11:50am-1:10pm • In-Person • 9 units

This graduate course focuses on heating, cooling, ventilation, and power supply systems for new and future commercial buildings. It provides an introduction to HVAC and power supply needs and to system choices likely to produce comfortable and healthful buildings that help us move toward a zero-carbon future.

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Instructor: Vivian Loftness
TR • 8:35-9:55am • In-Person • 9-12 units

This course explores the relationship of quality buildings, building systems, infrastructures and land-use to productivity, health, wellbeing, and a sustainable environment.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Building Science

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Instructor: Valentina Vavasis
TR • 8:35-9:55am • In-Person • 9 or 12 units

This course teaches the fundamentals of real estate development in the U.S. You will learn about the real estate development process and the social, economic and regulatory context in which land use and development take place.

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Instructor: Daniel Cardoso Llach
W • 9:05-11:55am • In-Person • 9 units

This graduate-level course examines the emergence of computation as a pivotal concept in contemporary architecture and design through a selection of design theories and practices responding to the so-called “computer revolution.”

Fulfills minor requirements for: Computational Design

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Instructor: Jinmo Rhee
TR • 1:25-2:45pm • In-Person • 10 units

This course introduces students to basic scripting in a geometrical modeling environment with a focus on algorithms related to form making and to reinforce and extend basic concepts of parametric modeling.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Architectural Representation and Visualization

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Instructor: Kristen Kurland
TR • 10:10-11:30am • Remote • 9 units

This course is designed to introduce a student to 3D software tools, including AutoCAD 3D, Revit Architecture, and 3D Studio MAX.

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Instructor: Joshua Bard
MW • 2:30-4:20pm • In-Person • 9 units

Fulfills minor requirements for: Architectural Design Fabrication, Computational Design

Instructor: Daragh Byrne
TR • 11:15am-1:05pm • In-Person • 6 units

This course will chart the emergence of the now “connected world” to explore the possibilities for future products and connected spaces with the Internet of Things (IoT). This introductory, hands-on course invites students to create connected products without any knowledge of programming, electronics, or systems.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Computational Design

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Instructor: Daragh Byrne
TR • 10:10am-12:00pm • In-Person • 6 units

This seminar examines how smart and connected technologies can be designed for neighborhoods, what considerations are involved, and what effects such technologies create for communities.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Computational Design

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Instructor: Daniel Cardoso Llach
R • 4:40-6:00pm • In-Person • 6 units

With the notion of “critical technical practice” as a touchstone, this graduate-level seminar draws from across design, media, and science and technology studies to cultivate an awareness of the discursive and political dimensions of technology in design, and to guide participants in the formulation of a graduate thesis.

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Instructor: Doug Cooper
W • 8:00-10:50am • In-Person • 9 units

This course provides practice in the use of color to depict architectural surroundings. Following preliminary exercises using pastels, watercolor is used for most of the course.

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Instructors: Eddy Man Kim, Matthew Huber
Remote • 3 units (Mini 1, meets in summer)

This is a summer course for incoming SoA graduate students to establish a baseline of technical skills appropriate to the expectations of the design culture at SoA.

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Instructor: Sinan Goral
TR • 7:00-8:20pm • In-Person • 9 units

Possibilistic Design is a project-based design seminar that concentrates on how critical design theory and powerful storytelling might pave the way for a more responsible, equitable, and exciting future.

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Instructor: Zaid Kashef Alghata
MW • 6:40-8:00pm • In-Person • 9 units

This project-based seminar explores the use of machine learning and other software to create a speculative future for Braddock, Pennsylvania.

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Instructor: TBD
F • 10:10-11:00am • In-Person • 3 units

Instructor: TBD
F • 9:05-9:55am • In-Person • 3 units

Instructor: TBD
Day TBD • Time TBD • In-Person • Units TBD

Instructor: TBD
Day TBD • Time TBD • In-Person • 3 units

Instructor: Diane Shaw
TR • 10:10-11:30am • In-Person • 9 units • Qualifies for the Architectural History Requirement

This architectural history course examines the development of American house and housing choices between circa 1850-2000. This course is not a history of famous houses or styles, but a history of housing types and settings and their historical context.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Architectural History

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Instructor: Diane Shaw
TR • 3:05-4:25pm • In-Person • 9 units • Qualifies for the Architectural History Requirement

In this course we examine various histories of the design and redesign of cities, and the reasons for those interventions, and explore the relationship between form and culture by considering the political, cultural, social, economic, and aesthetic forces that have shaped the public realm of urban and suburban spaces.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Architectural History

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Instructor: Nida Rehman
F • 2:30-4:00pm • In-Person • 3 units

In this seminar, we will examine the histories and definitions of environmental racism, environmental injustice/justice, and environmental unfreedoms and critically assess architecture’s role as a mechanism of environmental inequities and injustices, and learn from social movements for radical and hopeful change.

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Instructor: Francesca Torello
MW • 10:10-11:30am • In-Person • 9 units • Qualifies for the Architectural History Requirement

In this seminar we will look at the history of the architecture of the last two centuries by following the thread of the history of materials. We will discuss the ways in which buildings of the past and the practice of architecture were affected by which materials were available, how they were produced, and the craft required to work them.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Architectural History

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Instructor: Tommy Yang
M • 10:10am-12:00pm • In-Person • 9 units

The City Unsettled is a design-research seminar that tells stories by exploring comics, mapping, intensive actor-network drawings, documentary work, visual journalism, graphic memoir, interviews, and investigation.

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Instructor: Laura Garófalo
W • 10:10am-12:00pm • In-Person • 9 units

This seminar questions how we perceive, represent, and reconstruct our world in relation to evolving concepts of “nature” and their manifestation in architecture, art, and landscape.

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Instructor: Paul Pangaro
MW • 11:50am-1:10pm • In-Person • 9 or 12 units

This course blends readings, lectures, discussions, and prototyping as a means for students to experience the history of Interaction Design (IxD) as if firsthand. To explore IxD’s future, students are invited to invent it—to prototype their individual future vision of interactive experiences.

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Instructor: Nida Rehman
F • 10:10-11:30am • Remote • 3 units

This course will introduce incoming graduate students to a range of research approaches through introductions to and conversations with SoA faculty, PhD researchers, and other invited guests.

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Instructor: Jeremy Ficca
MF • 9:05am-10:35am • In-Person • 9 units

This course foregrounds the topic of architectural component customization to understand its manifestations within contemporary practice while introducing students to a host of prototyping and design for manufacturing methodologies.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Architectural Design Fabrication

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Instructor: Daniel Cardoso Llach
R • 2:30-4:20pm • In-Person • 6-18 units

This project-based course explores the confluence of robotics and artificial intelligence methods and its potential applications to design, architecture, and construction.

Fulfills minor requirements for: Computational Design

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Instructor: Joshua Lee
MW • 10:10-11:30am • In-Person • 9 or 12 units

The inability of our buildings and cities to adapt to shifting circumstances has led to an enormous amount of waste. We will explore the various types and scales of change and review various concepts through a wide array of built precedents and products that have attempted to respond to these forces over time.

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