Students in Woodbury’s MSArch concentration in Materials & Fabrication spend three-semesters immersed in research into architectural tectonics, robotic construction, hybrid materials, 3D printing and digital fabrication, and historical craft techniques. The program prepares graduates for careers in architectural design offices as well as in the rapidly expanding network of specialist consultants, fabricators, job shops, materials engineers, detailing specialists, installation designers, and design-build offices. Graduates will also be equipped to pursue advanced degrees leading to academic careers.
Rather than treating materials as merely the molecular building blocks that enable larger architectural visions, students investigate the capacity for research at the smallest scale of architectural design to produce large-scale spatial, formal, and tectonic repercussions. In this sense, graduates of the program are encouraged to think of material research as a form of architectural authorship, whether at the building or urban scale.
MSArch students who concentrate in Materials & Fabrication are encouraged to work closely with The Institute of Material Ecologies (T-IME). T-IME offers a focused curriculum built around a set of ongoing faculty research projects that explore materials as they transgress the limited boundaries of the building component and connect to larger issues of landscape, ecology, cultural association, craft, labor, and politics.
ARCH 691 Material Ecologies Design Topic Studio
ARCH 680 Graduate Research Methods Seminar
URBS 322 The Global Metropolis (or other Urban Studies elective)
ARCH 5702 Contemporary Issues (or other Digital Techniques elective)
ARCH 692 Graduate Research 1: Material Ecologies Lab
INAR 259 Material Logic (or other Interior Architecture elective)
URBS 312 The Infrastructural City (or other Urban Studies elective)
ARCH 5702 Contemporary Issues (or other Digital Techniques elective)
ARCH 681: Graduate Research 2 – Material Ecologies Lab
Building 1: Matter and Making
Figuring Space 1 (Material Logic)
Visualization 4: Evolving Media
Contemporary Issues: Practice and Theory
Grasshopper Workshop
Digital Fabrication Workshop
Urban Ecology and Los Angeles
The Infrastructural City
Sculpting the Earth
Introductory, Intermediate, and Advanced Programming
Mixed Reality (AR/VR)
Interactive Prototyping
Artificial Intelligence
Game Design Fundamentals
Introduction to Game Engines
Animation Principles
Introduction to Stop Motion
Animation Production Techniques