The Urban Lab is an outreach program that works in existing urban neighborhoods, and/or in other communities in the Pittsburgh region. Our approach is a bottom up / grass roots effort, where community input is the most important reference for our work. Our final products are reports that contain policies, plans and graphics that capture projected visions for the future for these communities, and step-by-step recommendations for their implementation. There are 380 communities in the Pittsburgh region divided by topography, economics, class, and ethnic and racial differences. This fragmentation and separation has been and is a major regional problem. Such diversity, however, presents opportunities as well as challenges. In this project students will study both the factors that divide communities and those that promote connections between them, building upon the experience of the Urban Lab in studying regional issues on the local neighborhood scale.

This course is both an introduction to important models and methods of academic research particularly as they are related to building design issues and a forum for intellectual curiosity. During the initial ten weeks of the semester, the course presents an overview of the field and covers several models of research as they relate to the building design. These will include models of natural sciences, social sciences, sciences of the artificial, engineering and aesthetics in building design. During the final five weeks of the semester faculty both CFA and CIT will be invited to make presentations about their areas of research and the methods they use. These presentations correspond in many respect to those covered in lectures.

9 units

The School of Architecture has been awarded and selected in Sp'01 for their plus-energy-design proposal to complete in the U.S. Department of Energy's and National Renewable Energy Laboratory's "Intern. Solar Decathlon". Now, multidisciplinary student teams must design, engineer and build uniquely, a completely solar-powered two-story mixed- use house on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in October 2002. During the event, only solar energy available within the perimeter of each house may be used to generate the power needed to fuel the facility. Each team will also design a Web site and create printed materials explaining their structure, and provide house tours to the public. The projects will be judged on: design aesthetics and livability; presentation and simulation, graphics and communication, comfort zone, refrigeration, hot water energy balance, lighting home business and transportation. Preference will be given to students from related departments with knowledge in these competitive areas to ensure a hardcore working solar decathlon result.

Green Design Concepts and LEEDTM Buildings

Spring 2003: 9 units

Green building and sustainable design have been rapidly gaining acceptance in all sectors of the building market. Global issues of energy use, emissions, resource depletion, and land use are forcing building professionals to re-evaluate standard design and construction processes, and look to more environmentally friendly practices.

This course will provide students with background knowledge of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEEDTM) rating system, as well as referenced standards related to specific topics, and also firsthand experience with the LEED documentation of a project. The 'Building As Power Plant' Margaret Morrison addition will be used as a demonstration project to familiarize students with the details of the green building categories and technologies as well as the specifics of the point system.

Prerequisite: Environmental Systems: Climate and Energy or equivalent

This course introduces the concepts and methods of building diagnostics. It focuses on the empirical evaluation of the built environment (building components and systems, interactions between building, occupants and environmental conditions) in view of multiple performance criteria (thermal, visual and acoustic performance). Field measurement and assessment techniques will be introduced. The empirical methods of building analysis are commonly used to: describe/specify building components; study the real-time behavior of buildings; detect the causes of building failures; and gather data for model validation. The course will address these issues, both theoretically and practically, through the application of: field measurement techniques; physical modeling methods; and computer-aided building modeling. Computer-aided data processing techniques will be applied for the analysis and interpretation of the results of model and field studies. The role of building performance simulation in the area of building diagnostics will be investigated.

This course introduces fundamentals and computational methods in building performance modeling. Topics include: modeling and design, overview of thermal, visual, and acoustical domain knowledge, integration of performance simulation in computer-aided design, introduction to the application of advanced computational building simulation tools, case studies and design assignments on the application of simulation in the evaluation and improvement of building performance.

This course introduces the state-of-the-art and major innovations in building technologies and structural, enclosure, mechanical, telecommunications, lighting, and interior systems. The course continues the mandate for Total Building Performance, clarifying the full range of building performance mandates required in today's architecture, including building integrity, thermal quality, acoustic quality, visual quality, air quality, and spatial quality. The course proceeds to explore the relationships, opportunities and conflicts of these mandates and the comprehension and integration of building systems necessary to achieve performance in all areas. Given a thorough introduction in advanced building technologies, graduates of the department should bring leadership to multi-disciplinary design processes, towards sustainable environmental performance, and the long term integrity of integrated systems.

This course aims to incorporate the investment analysis (life cycle costs, net present value concept, etc.) into performance-related issues of building delivery process from project conception, construction and occupation to final building operation.

This course introduces theoretical foundations, computational approaches, and design methods in architectural acoustics (room acoustics, building acoustics, vibration control) and architectural lighting (daylighting, electrical lighting). Topics in acoustics include: o review of physiological and psychological acoustics o prediction of outdoor and indoor air-borne sound propagation o sound transmission between rooms o design methods in room and building acoustics o application of computer-aided simulation tools in building and room acoustics Topics in lighting include: o review of visual performance criteria and lighting psychology o analytical and numerical methods for the prediction of lighting conditions in interior spaces o lighting engineering and design methods o application of computer-aided lighting simulation tools in architecture

This course will focus on the office work environment, the requirements of the occupants, and the organization, the choices in: building systems, layout and space planning, technology (HVAC, lighting, control, networking, etc.), and the energy and ecological consequences.

Given the growing demand for green buildings by federal and private sector clients, professional practices are ?tooling up? all over the world to deliver high performance, environmentally responsive, ?green? buildings and communities. However, investments in green, high performance building solutions and technologies are still limited by first cost decision- making, and life cycle tools are still largely inaccessible to professionals. A new building investment decision support tool ? BIDS? - has been developed by the NSF/IUCRC Center for Building Performance at Carnegie Mellon University, with the support of the Advanced Building Systems Integration Consortium. This cost-benefit decision support tool presents the substantial cost-benefits of a range of advanced and innovative building systems designed to deliver ? privacy and interaction, air quality, ergonomics, lighting control, thermal control, network flexibility, and access to the natural environment - from field case studies, laboratory studies, simulation studies, and other research efforts. This course will explore the relationship of quality buildings, building systems, and land-use to productivity, health, and well-being. The course will engage students in the literature relating building design decisions to ten cost/performance impacts: energy, facilities management, organizational change, technological change, attraction/retention (quality of life) of employees, individual productivity, organizational productivity, salvage/ waste, tax/insurance/litigation, and health. Each student will then develop a "state-of-the-knowledge" paper in one of these key cost-benefit areas for key building design decisions in a system, building type, or land-use choice and profile a research project that could significantly enhance our professional knowledge about the relationship of quality of the built environment to productivity, health, and well-being.

A variety of courses will be offered periodically as demand warrants. Topics are taken from current research interests of the faculty. Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.

The main goal is to teach students how to use a popular, very sophisticated CAD system (Microstation by Bentley Systems) effectively. The course is practice-oriented, albeit attempts to go beyond a mere vocational training in the use of commands offered by the system. It stresses the underlying concepts and includes means to customize the system. In the end, students are expected to be able to use the CAD system effectively and intelligently, based on a clear understanding of the underlying concepts and at a certain level of sophistication. In addition, the knowledge gained is transferable to other CAD systems with functionalities that overlap significantly those offered by Microstation.

This course provides a foundation for the rational study of design processes. It starts with a survey of process models of architectural design, industrial design, cognitive psychology, computer science, and various engineering fields such as civil, mechanical, and electrical. It also surveys the methods used in developing empirical models of design and provides initiatives for learning these methods students are required to examine both the mechanics and the theoretical foundations of these approaches. They are to examine the purposes and outcomes of these models both from a practical and philosophical perspective. Prerequisite: Good standing in the graduate program of the School of Architecture. Undergraduate students can be admitted with the instructor's approval.

Databases and database management systems for CAE. Topics include: basic database concepts, database models, the relational model, engineering data models. Each student develops a prototype database application of his or her choice.

Prerequisite: 12-740 or equivalent advanced programming course.

Application of knowledge-based expert system methodology in CAE. Topics include: knowledge-based programming methodologies, knowledge-based engineering techniques, expert system development environments and representative expert system applications in CAE. Each student develops a prototype expert system for an application of his or her choice.

Prerequisite: 12-740 or equivalent advanced programming course.

Concepts of geometric modeling sufficient for creating simple geometric modeling systems. Topics include: representation of simple geometric objects, concepts of point set and algebraic topology, r-sets, 2-manifolds, constructive solid geometry (CSG), boundary representation (B-rep), algorithms for CSG and B-rep and introduction to the boundary representation of non-regular, non-manifold objects. Student work includes assignments and geometric modeling exercises.

Prerequisite: 15-211 or equivalent.

This course will be concerned with the study of the relationship between the user and the computer, which is now most frequently known as the study of human-computer interaction. The goals of the course are to combine a general introduction to HCI with pragmatic, hands-on experience in designing, implementing evaluation an interface through a project. The project will also be the vehicle through which special requirements, if any will be examined, that the design of interaction with CAD systems presents.

Grammar paradigms for design. Topics include: fundamentals of grammars from formal language theory, shape grammars and other spatial grammars and their application to design and representations and algorithms for shape grammars. Student work includes assignments and projects involving either or both grammar composition and grammar interpreter implementation.

Prerequisite: 15-211 or concurrent registration in 15-211 or equivalent advanced programming course.

This course focuses on the design and implementation of CAD systems. The emphasis is on software engineering of large-scale engineering applications, including documentation and design of systems using a variety of programming methods. The course includes project work in the design and development of a complete application.

Prerequisites: 15-211, 212 and at least 2 of : 48-742, 48-743, 48-744, 48-745, 48-746, 48-747.

This course is offered periodically, as demand warrants. Topics are taken from current research interests of the faculty and may include: (a) advanced computer methods, (b) object oriented programming, (c) modeling and knowledge representation and (d) advanced topics in graphics, grammars, databases and interfaces.

Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.

The course is intended to explore overlapping realms of design, computer modeling, and interactive multimedia. It is primarily a project-based course comprising readings and projects of increasing complexity in interactive media.

The course intends to use computational mechanisms, especially shape grammars and architecture. Historical precedents and common "architectural languages" will be introduced to demonstrate the approach. Students will be asked to conduct similar investigations on their own. We will attempt to create a computer-based laboratory to experiment with architectural forms and formal principles. The main focus will be on architectural issues, not in computing techniques.

This course extends the approach underlying our Microstation-based course Strategic Use of CAD to the task of object-oriented application development in CAD. The motivation is the realization that the switch from procedural application programming languages to object-oriented ones requires a significant cognitive retooling on the part of developers, who must know more than the syntax and semantics of the new programming language to be used: they have to be able to employ appropriate strategies that are specifically appropriate for the new paradigm. The software platform supporting the course will be JMDL, ProjectBank and the CustomObjects framework offered by Bentley Systems, which actively supports the course.

Goals (a) to introduce and test strategies of object-oriented application development in general and in the context of Microstation (b) to develop - as a course team project - an interesting application that illustrates our findings (c) to document our approach and findings so that others can learn from them.

Prerequisites: Programming experience in at least one programming language.

This course deals with representational and algorithmic issues related to compositions of spatial configurations. The course looks at the constructive characterization of spatial designs, explores their configurational framework with respect to topological, geometric and symmetry properties. Exemplar problems include a range of spatial layout designs and published techniques for dealing with them. Prerequisite: Consent of the instructor.

The objective of this course is to explore the role and significance of visualization in the design process, in doing so, project from the current state-of-the-art to glimpse of the future. Modern technology -- multimedia + virtual reality -- has provided the impetus to radically improve the human designer's ability to see and understand physical reality. A range of technical visualization skills together with the conceptual basis make these capabilities meaningful and useful. The course is based on lectures complemented by exercises in the form of 'digital' charettes.

"Digital narratives" is an invitation to explore the digital equivalent of Pigafetta's writings - the goal is to provide a conceptually more significant approach to using computers in design, where collaboration plays a significant role, where interactive multimedia-based modeling and animation is employed in the context of design. Students are expected to experiment with synthesis of sound, light, motion, user interactivity, and modeling to construct environments that enable novel kinds of spatial narratives. Exemplars for experimentation will be cross-cultural that expose students to alternative worldviews. This course seeks to expand on the use of the computer as a means for design and presentation by exploring distance collaboration in a subject area where none exists. Exchanges between group members in the context of this course center around formulating a 'digital story' about a design that needs to be told, sequencing the 'motion' of and 'interaction' with this story and exploring - both philosophically and architecturally - the 'material, texture and color' that make up the fabric of the story. Ultimately, the focus of this course is on exploring novel ways of presenting architectural and design information. Students are assessed on a semester long multimedia project. Prerequisite: Junior level standing and prior course experience in computer modeling and design.

This course is intended to introduce students to the art and science of requirement modeling. While the target domain is in software engineering theory and cases from architecture are used to broaden students understanding of the issues and permit architecture students to collaborate with software engineering students. Requirement specification and modeling are two critical strategies used during the early phases of design that are becoming increasingly important for the successful delivery of software products. Studies conducted in the 90s have shown overwhelming evidence that significant proportions of design errors and failures are linked to poor requirement specification. Furthermore, the cost of recovery from these failures is proportionally greater than the same in any other stage of software development. The course will introduce approaches, methods and tools of "healthy" requirements development. It will attempt to sharpen student's skills in this area through case studies and hands on projects. Object oriented programming is the underlying paradigm assumed in this class.

The course will cover the following topics: a case study: Chicago Harold Washington Library competition; requirements management; the five steps in problem analysis; systems engineering; requirements elicitation methods - including, interviewing, requirements workshops, brainstorming, storyboarding, use cases, role playing, prototyping -- advanced use cases; refining use cases; vision documents and their champions; establishing scope; process models; software requirements; modern requirement specifications; quality measures; technical methods for specification; problem frames; validation; traceability, and managing change.

Both the USA and Germany face major challenges in new housing, planning, design, construction, and operation. In the USA, housing tends to be very affordable, land-intensive, and environmentally wasteful. In Germany, housing has become unaffordable to large segments of the population while being less energy and environmentally wasteful. This course intends to develop a comprehensive view of current planning approaches, financing mechanisms, regulatory requirements, design and construction standards and O&M processes. The goal would be to learn from the advantages and disadvantages of each system and to propose changes that would improve the economic, financial, social, and environmental performance of new housing in the USA as well as in Germany.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a system of hardware, software, and procedures designed to support the capture, management, manipulation, analysis, modeling and display of geospatially referenced data for solving complex planning and management problems. GIS applications use both spatial information (maps) and databases to perform analytical studies. Facilities management is the practice of coordinating the physical workplace with the people and work of the organization. FM integrates the principles of business administration, architecture, and the behavioral & engineering sciences. CAFM integrates various tools that demonstrate the use of software in facilities management to streamline operations, boost productivity and develop strategic planning goals for an organization.

Construction Kits Construction kits such as Lego, Zometool, Erector Set, and Lincoln Logs have long been part of the landscape of toys. They allow children and their adult friends to build models quickly and easily within a well-defined but large universe, using a limited set of parts. A well-designed construction kit, like a well-designed architectural system, makes the most of a relatively small number of components and allows for an interesting set of constructions. Students in Design and Manufacture of Construction Kits will: (1) study existing and past construction kits as well as some of the relevant literature (2) consider relevant design issues (e.g., modular coordination, connections, materials) (3) design and build the parts of a construction kit, using available rapid manufacturing technologies (paper folding, laser cutter, ABS plastic printer, etc.) Architectural Robotics Buildings with moving parts have been around since the door was invented, but recent advances in materials, microcontrollers, sensors, and other information technologies have ushered in a new generation of responsive buildings. Reconfigurable walls, color controlled illumination, windows made opaque with a flip of a switch; these are the elements of the new building yard. Students in Architectural Robotics will: (1) review past and current building projects that employ robotics technologies (2) become familiar with technologies relevant to responsive buildings; and (3) design and construct a working prototype of an architectural robotics system Participants in the course will be expected to read and review relevant literature as well as work in the laboratory to construct the working project prototype. Participants will learn and apply simple analog and digital electronics, programming, and mechanics.

This course is a preparation for the Master's Project. In the lecture part of this course we will explore the pros and cons of a number of different positions held with respect to systems, methodologies, and approaches that support design activities and Processes. Among the topics examined in this course will be: o types of support systems for design o decision- making processes and models for supporting decision-making o impact of models on various decision-making strategies o conditions and requirements for systems to support design o development of computational tools o interface design. In addition, some of the lectures will be devoted to the ingredients of preparing, developing, researching and presenting projects. The student will be expected to produce a proposal for their potential Master's project, identify and undertake some of the necessary background work and present their work in the forms of a technical project report and seminar presentation. A good passing grade in the course is a precondition for registering for the Master's project. Prerequisites: Completion of the first year of the Master of Science in Architecture Program.

This course is for students to undertake a major project in which knowledge gained in the core courses is applied to problems relevant to the field of architecture. Course must be taken under the advice of a faculty member teaching in the MSc-Ph.D. Programs. Master of Science Students who perform satisfactorily in the Graduate Research Seminar course are permitted to take the Master's project course. Prerequisite: completion of all core requirements and consent of the instructors of 48-790 and 48-791.

This course is for students who wish to pursue work independent of all other courses offered, but consistent with the direction of the MSc-Ph.D. Programs. Prerequisites: Written proposal for work by a faculty member teaching in the MSc-Ph.D. program, and his/her agreement to advise the student. Both student and faculty must be in residence.

This course is for Ph.D. students who have successfully completed their qualifying exams and are working on their dissertation work. The (7) units in this course are equivalent to a full load in the Ph.D. program.

Green building and sustainable design have been rapidly gaining acceptance in all sectors of the building market. Global issues of energy use, emissions, resource depletion, and land use are forcing building professionals to re-evaluate standard design and construction processes, and look to more environmentally friendly practices. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) developed a green building rating system entitled Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEEDTM) in order to define "green building" by establishing a common standard of measurement. LEED considers green building methods and technologies in several categories including site, water, energy, materials, and indoor air quality, and awards points towards an overall green building rating of certified, silver, gold or platinum. Currently, LEED registered projects make up 3% of the current U.S. commercial building market, and Pennsylvania is the third leading state with LEED registered projects. There is now a demand for design professionals with knowledge and experience not only in sustainable design but specifically with the LEED rating system as well. This course will provide students with background knowledge of the USGBC, the LEED system, as well as referenced standards related to specific topics. The course will benefit greatly from the large number of LEED projects in the Pittsburgh region, which will serve as case studies. Upon completion of the course, students will be prepared to take the LEED Professional Accreditation Exam, which is quickly becoming the standard of recognition for green building professionals.

Prerequisites: Environmental Systems: Climate and Energy or equivalent

This is a seminar series. Some of the topics include:

oTeaching-Learning Theory and Process

oUnderstanding Student Development

oThe Culture of the American Classroom

oResponding to Students' Work: Evaluation and Feedback

oLecture and Discussions Methods

oPutting Teaching Skills Together

oPutting Teaching and Research Skills Together in an Academic Job