Advanced Landscape as Digital Media: Fabricating Grounds

The course is aimed at fostering a conceptual as well as technical approach to the introduction of digital design and fabrication techniques within landscape design and construction processes. We will dedicate the semester to develop a project that takes advantage of a number of emerging and established digital techniques and processes in order to develop prototypes for new landscape systems that reshape and reorganize surface and topographical ground conditions.This focused project will be the means through which a wide range of skills and approaches towards the utilization of digital design and fabrication techniques may be introduced and developed to inform and enrich the process from design conception to the development of various application scenarios and finally prototype fabrication of landscape construction and material systems. Students will be guided to follow a process from initial concept design right through to physical fabrication of scaled prototypes or models. The course will cover and develop digital design skills in 3d modeling, parametric tools as well as digital fabrication. Existing precedents of construction and material systems will be studied and considered during the course in order to inform and inspire the development of the projects that are encouraged to address novel expression as well as performance (topographical, hydrological, modalities of mixing hard and soft landscapes etc). The course will meet once a week and will be conducted in the computer lab and will make use of the fabrication laboratory. It is encouraged that applicants to the course have some basic to intermediate level skills in digital tools. Enrollments will be limited.