4th Year - Architecture Department

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2009-2010 Design Studio Offerings

The fourth-year design faculty is looking forward to working with you and anticipates an exciting, creative, productive and successful year. The table provides an overview of the faculty members who will be teaching during the coming academic year. This is followed by information on the faculty members and the studios that they will be teaching. The information will be updated each quarter.

ARCH 451 Architectural Design 4.1
ARCH 452 Architectural Design 4.2
ARCH 453 Architectural Design 4.3
ARCH 443 Professional Practice (fourth or fifth year)
ARCH 420 Architectural History, Theory, Criticism Seminar (fourth or fifth year)

The following teaching assignments are contingent on budget, student enrollment, and space availability.

Fall: ARCH 451	Winter: ARCH 452	Spring: ARCH 453
Margot McDonald	Margot McDonald	Margot McDonald
Jonathan Reich	Jonathan Reich	Jonathan Reich
Richard Beller	Chuck Crotser	Christopher Yip
Ansgar Killing	Mark Cabrinha James Doerfler Tom Fowler	Mark Cabrinha James Doerfler Tom Fowler
	Randy Dettmer

Richard Beller

Email: rbeller@calpoly.edu

Go to Beller's Architecture Faculty web page

Teaching Philosophy

Course Activities

Brief Bio.

Chuck Crotser

Email: ccrotser@calpoly.edu

Go to Crotser' Architecture Faculty web page

Teaching Philosophy

Course Activities

Brief Bio

Randy Dettmer

Email: rcdettmer@charter.net

Go to Dettmer's Architecture Faculty web page

Teaching Philosophy

Course Activities

Our focus for the Winter Quarter will be the design of a dwelling and associated support facilities for use by a disabled veteran injured in the line of duty for our country. Those wounded in battle and returning to the USA with missing limbs have many obstacles to overcome, not the least of which is to get around with missing body parts, and perhaps work through Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSS). Integrating back into society requires shelter and a means to be productive. The goal of this quarter is to design an “off-the-grid”, “sustainable” & “green” home for such a veteran to be located on rural land near Yosemite, CA, whereby he or she (and family) can live, train, and work. The designs produced in this studio will be incorporated into a real project to be built in the summer of 2010. Also included in our focus will be the preliminary planning of a future campus at the Yosemite site to support research & training activities for other disabled veterans such as a dormitory, offices, heavy equipment maintenance facilities, and associated buildings.

The studio will be visited by Mr. Bob Barron, owner/developer of the land where the project will be built, and Mr. Jon Monett, Quality of Life Plus (QL+) founder and Chairman of the Board. In addition, members of QL+ along with disabled persons, and experts in accessibility & “universal design” will participate in the studio. A field trip to the site near Yosemite may be arranged during the quarter. One or more students will be invited to continue with the project for the Spring 2010 quarter in preparing working drawings and construction documents under the direction of Prof. Dettmer for purposes of acquiring a building permit for the construction of the project. Participating students will receive internship (IDP credit) or co-op (studio credit) for their work under Prof. Dettmer’s direction. It is anticipated that construction of the project will begin during the summer of 2010. Selected students will be invited to participate in the Construction Administration phase of the project for additional credit to be determined.

Note: Quality of Life Plus (QL+) was founded to generate research, development and innovations to aid and improve the quality of life for those injured in the line of duty for our country. Please see www.qlplus.org

Brief Bio

Margot McDonald and Prof Nick Watry

Email: Margot McDonald mmcdonal@calpoly.edu
Email: Nick Watry cwatry@calpoly.edu

Go to McDonald's Architecture Faculty web page

Teaching Philosophy

This is a collaborative design studio coordinated between the Departments of Architecture, Construction Management, and Architectural Engineering (in Fall 2009, Landscape Architecture (LA) was also represented on the team). In this course, students will learn and experience a design process that involves working as an integrated team to develop solutions for a client, building program, and site.

Course Activities

For Architecture students, there are several main differences that distinguish this course from a traditional 4th Year design studios. First, the design project is approached in interdisciplinary teams that are formed based on individual strengths and weaknesses as well as work styles. Second, students are co-located with their team members to facilitate communication on the project. Third, the class format includes micro-workshops covering a range of topics both to develop deeper knowledge in relevant areas (e.g., sustainable design) as well as what may be less familiar topics such as cost estimating, project management, constructability, and scheduling.

Students completing this course – whether coming from ARCH, CM, ARCE, LA, CRP, or other majors – emerge as “design-build integrators” who share knowledge and passion for integrated building design and construction solutions through an integrated project delivery process.