FORM STUDIO
3G2 - ARCH 412 - FALL 2024
FORM

GRADUATE  STUDIO

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN3G2 - ARCH 412  -  FALL 2024


COORDINATOR

Adam Fure


PROFESSORS

Adam Fure, Tess Clancy

The Form Studio investigates the relationship between building form and social formation.  


The semester begins with a series of abstract formal exercises and ends with the design of a collective living community. To begin the final project, students discuss the nature of domestic space and what it means to share and care for each other above a sense of individual ownership and comfort. After this initial programming phase, students collectively determine a constituency for which they plan to design. Students then transition into an individual design phase where they develop their neighboring sites in detail. In this stage, students focus on the needs of the people that would live there and the qualitative aspects of their designs.

The site is a neighborhood block of formerly zoned single-family plots that the students rethink in terms of how space can be shared rather than divided. In addition to learning basic concepts of site design, such as circulation, core-periphery, scalar relationships, etc., students are asked to think critically about how space is allocated at the scale of city planning, allowing them to critically examine problematic notions such as “private property” and single-family zoning.

Through their work, students come to understand form in a multitude of ways, from the abstract relationships of geometry and space to the concrete effects of the built environment on social relations.

Temporary Permanence
STUDENTS

Ryan Dickey, Nick Grosh, Amber Mortzfield


PROFESSORS

Adam Fure, Tess Clancy


By definition, temporary housing is designed for temporary occupancy. However, for people who have been displaced from their homes, “temporary” often fails to meet their needs. Our communal housing project explores how form can afford a space for collective living, capable of rapidly fluctuating levels of occupancy relative to community need. A shelter meant to become a permanent home but also a permanent home that can provide shelter. Three clusters, each with different formal languages overlapping at points of intersection and entry, all revolve around a collective green space, and central mission of providing housing to those in need.














Forms of Refuge
STUDENT

Ryan Britain


PROFESSORS

Adam Fure, Tess Clancy


"Forms of Refuge" creates a variety of elevated and sunken sanctuary spaces that perch above and connect between the existing mixed-use residential/commercial site. The project's early stages involved extensive form-finding and model-making exercises, resulting in the accompanying parti diagram used to guide the collective living intervention. Shared housing units are lifted above the existing structures and arranged with a spatial proximity that echoes the familiar neighborhood arrangement. These units feature overhanging pitched roofs, central stairs, and sunken patios that penetrate through a buffer zone—a lifted interior space containing shared amenities and enabling movement between units.    












Housing for Nightshift Workers
STUDENT

Keon-Ho Lee


PROFESSORS

Adam Fure, Tess Clancy


Night shift workers face several challenges due to irregular schedules. They suffer from physical health issues and mental health concerns. To address these problems, it is crucial to provide spaces that ensure high-quality sleep.

The unit design incorporates three key features: buffer zones, indirect apertures, and air gaps between rooms. These elements are specifically designed to enhance sleep quality.

Overall, the peripheral layout of this collective housing includes two courtyards, with most windows facing inward toward these courtyards rather than outward toward the surrounding environment. This design aims to create semi-private spaces for residents while offering protection from external disturbances.
















Patchwork Dwelling
STUDENT

Krzysztof Lower


PROFESSORS

Adam Fure, Tess Clancy


This intergenerational housing scheme for a sprawling suburban neighborhood stitches together youths’ delight in fashion and thrifting and elders’ devotion to mending and craft arts. Patchwork interventions are modest and humble to the existing fabric of the neighborhood, somewhere between an ADU and a spare bedroom. Collective, enclosed spaces emerge between patchwork dwellings, and existing commercial structures adapt to the textile scheme affording common labor spaces, a display gallery, and retail storefronts. Both literal and figurative, the textile scheme takes the form of quilted partitions, building insulation, and entrepreneurial opportunities; as well as historical record, cultural education, and intergenerational values.