Fourth Year

Research studio.

ASU

By the fourth year of study, students have been introduced to the principals of design and to building components. Multiple variables, influences and contexts can be overwhelming, and this is a nice moment in the curriculum to take a step back and look at the process of design itself. For students in a 4+2 program, with graduation imminant, it is also timely to look at untapped contributions of design within and outside of the profession of architecture.

We began with the question: So what is design research? After a month we exhibited our investigations, and discovered that each of the various studies brought out the unique ability of design to make visible the invisible connections between things.

Inspired by this way of working together and by our findings, we decided to take on two longer design problems: invisible science and intangible heritage.