Pre-Architecture
Objectives
- Study contemporary and historic Scandinavian architecture and landscape architecture
- Understand how design shapes human experience through the manipulation of light, material, spatial proportion and sequence, and integration of landscape and architecture
- Develop sketching and note-taking skills for recording impressions of sites in a journal
Previous Activities Have Included
- Visits to religious architecture: Skt. Petri Chapel at Klippan, the Woodland Cemetery near Stockholm, Chapels of the Holy Cross and Resurrection in Turku, and Myyrmäki in Helsinki
- Tour through works by Alvar Aalto including Jyväskylää University, Saynätsalo, Muuratsalo, Paimio Sanatorium, the Academic Bookstore, Finlandia Hall, the Aalto Studio and Home in Helsinki
- Explorations of different patterns of urban development in Stockholm and Helsinki
Description
The long study tour to Sweden and Finland forms an integral part of the studio curriculum by exposing students to high-quality historic and modern architecture and urbanism in Scandinavia. Students see city spaces and significant buildings in Stockholm, Helsinki, and Turku, as well as architectural patterns of inhabitation in the more natural settings in central Finland. Particular emphasis is given to innovations in spatial organization, constructive and material expression, and the treatment of daylight in public buildings, museums and libraries, funerary chapels.
These sites, as sensory architectural experiences, provide students the opportunity to develop their critical observation skills and diagrammatic and representational proficiency. Simultaneously, the students are equipped with a vocabulary of design concepts, strategies, and materials, which can then be applied in their own creative work in the studio and beyond.
