SCI-TECH: A Fully Integrative Approach to Building Design, Culture and Technology

In 2002, the Department of Architecture at Iowa State University decided to radically restructure its Master of Architecture program. The new focus of the program needed to be on the integrative nature of architecture rather than a concentration of separate sub-disciplines. While this seems obvious as a general strategy, the graduate committee was given free reign to completely modify all coursework and credit hour distribution. We have literally been asked to start from scratch. A major part of this effort has been to find ways to ‘mainstream’ building technology, moving it from the lecture hall to the seminar room and studio. SCI-TECH is a pedagogical experiment designed to support simultaneous progress in building design and culture, emphasizing fluency in environmental, static and material knowledge, intuitive sensibilities about the relationships between these and architectural aesthetics, and a relentless ‘hands-on’ approach to student learning. As such, it may provide a model curriculum for architecture programs seeking to break not only the tradition of separating structural, technical and environmental learning from design, but also of separating design from the rest of an architect’s education.

Volume Editors
Marilys R. Nepomechie & Robert Gonzalez

ISBN
0-935502-54-8