3 Bridges

Course Description:
Through the lens of three international bridges along the Texas/Mexico border this studio will study the relationship between structure and building enclosure as it relates to program, site, situation and scale. The studio will fast forward to a future more extraordinary through a programmatic shift reflecting an international relationship which sees beyond transportation and defensive strategies to one that relates to human and ecological conditions. A bridge will not be a mere function of 20th century tectonic prowess rather a new spatial condition with implications that advance infrastructure to a role of cultural change in the 21st century.

Site:
The studio will test architectural ideas at three different sites, resulting in three different scales: El Paso/Ciudad Juarez, Presidio/Ojinaga, and Big Bend National Park/Boquillas del Carmen. Each site has contrasting scales of crossing, population, types of traffic flow, urban situations, geography and ecological underpinnings. The intent is for each student to develop a structural and organizational system which can shift to each bridge scale and context.

Program:
Less wall, more bridge. Texas/Mexico international bridges serve as functional artifices focused solely on security and circulation vis-a-vis “border wall” strategies. Evolving the conversation into the arena of potential, students will be challenged to imagine a future where an international bridge can respond not only to the geopolitical situations but to social and biotic conditions. Each studio will focus on a different program type, relating to services, commerce and environmental issues. Through each program type comes variations in organizational and circulation strategy [vertical, horizontal and diagonal] and building square footage which will impact the bridges structural systems. Each bridge is a building with occupiable and programed
space.

Course Structure:
This semester will be divided into three cumulative projects, meaning each project builds upon work from the previous project. Corresponding lectures will be integrated into the semester. Some of these lectures are listed in the syllabus, others will be scheduled throughout the semester. Required readings are listed in the syllabus and will be discussed as noted in the schedule.

Project 1- STRUCTURE: Precedent Aug. 27-Sep. 12  (15% of grade)

Project 2- STRUCTURE + ENCLOSURE: Component Sep. 14-Oct. 22 (35% of grade)

Travel- STRUCTURE + ENCLOSURE + SITE: Site Oct 12- Oct 15

Project 3- STRUCTURE + ENCLOSURE + SITE + SCALE: 3 Bridges Oct 22- Dec 3
(45% of grade)

Attendance and participation (5% of grade)

Textbooks:
The Architect’s Studio Companion: Rules of Thumb for Preliminary Design, Allen, E. and J. Iano (2012) 5thEdition. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley & Sons.

Building Construction Illustrated, 4th Edition. Hoboken, Ching, F. (2008) N.J., John Wiley & Sons. Ching, F. and S. R. Winkel (2012). Building Codes Illustrated: A Guide to Understanding the 2012

International Building Code, 4th Edition. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley & Sons.
Ching, F., Onouye, B. S., et al. (2009).

Building Structures Illustrated: Patterns, Systems, and Design. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley & Sons.

References:
Constructing Architecture: Materials, Processes, Structure, Deplazes, A. (2005)  Basel London, Birkhäuser.

Materials, Structures, and Standards: All the Details Architects Need to Know But Can Never Find, McMorrough, J. (2006) Gloucester, Mass., Rockport Publishers.

Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture, Frampton, K., J. Cava, et al. (1995) Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press.

The Structural Basis of Architecture. Sandake, B. N., A. P. Eggen, et al. (2011). Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, Routledge.

The Details of Modern Architecture: 1928 to 1988 (Volume 2), Ford, E. R. (2003) Cambridge, Mass., MIT
Press.