This five-week intensive design studio presents a comprehensive and intensive experience in architectural design. In the mornings, students are invited to participate in optional lectures and discussions on making, technology, the environment, faculty firms, and portfolio workshops. In the afternoon or evening, students are required to attend the 3-credit design studio—an educational method unique to architecture—where they are given intensive training in the skills and critical thinking involved in architectural design. Students work in small groups directly with one studio instructor, toward studio goals.

In the studio, students engage with the means and methods of architecture that are made possible and essential by dwelling online. Here they will interrogate concepts of placemaking, the production of space, and the creation of community—with a virtual embodiment. They learn about the role of the architect as a facilitator of connections between people, and as interpreter of the spaces both physical and nonphysical.

Design work, teaching, and reviews occur in platforms conducive to live sharing and feedback—some established, some experimental. These forums provide an opportunity for students to receive comments and criticism from invited architects, design professionals, and professors. Together, the studio, workshops, and lectures present an introduction to architecture as a venue for new forms, new places, and new approaches to our contemporary critical culture.