NYIT Design 7 and 8: Introductory Statement

NYIT Design 7 and 8: Introductory Statement


Coordinators: Professors Matthias Altwicker and Nader Vossoughian

October 2009



I. The Thesis Sequence: What it is, and what constitutes a successful thesis



The thesis sequence is the capstone course of the B.Arch. program at NYIT. It summarizes and demonstrates the competencies required for the professional architectural degree. It allows students the chance to conduct original, independent research on topics they develop in collaboration with their critic. It also permits them the opportunity to confront architectural problems that are meaningful to them personally, and which bear relevance to the field of architecture as a whole.



What is an architectural problem, and what constitutes a successful thesis? There is no single way of answering the first question – definitions of architecture vary greatly, and you and your instructors should be clear about what this term means at the outset of the semester. There are, however, standards for evaluating a successful project, and we can boil them down to three basic criteria: rigor, originality, and relevance. These are not the only criteria that matter in architecture. They are also not definitive (there are lots of other things that are important, and your critic will clarify them to you). They should serve, however, as a starting point through which to frame and make accessible some of the values that are important to advanced undergraduate architectural study. Again, your thesis critic will be responsible for defining in more careful detail what each of these terms means.



First a statement about rigor. A successful thesis is about something. It tells us a story. It makes an argument. It concentrates on issues and interprets them. What are the issues that matter to you? What is your particular attitude toward the issue or set of issues you are interested in? How do you arrive at your interpretation (i.e., what processes, research methods, and/or strategies will guide your investigations)? How can architecture give expression to the things you are interested in exploring? How can you best communicate what your thesis is about? Will others understand what your thesis is about, and if so, how do you know?



Now to originality and relevance. What makes my thesis unique? Do I know something about the history and context behind my thesis? What makes my thesis different from what others have done? Why does my thesis matter? Why do I care about my thesis? Why should architects (or students of architecture) care about my thesis?



If you can answer all the questions above by the end of your first thesis semester, you are not guaranteed to succeed; you will, however, be well on your way, particularly if you address these questions in a visually, spatially, and verbally rich and inventive way.



To help you get started, you are encouraged to read widely, see lots of stuff (e.g., exhibits and buildings), think hard, and take chances. You are encouraged to visit the 2009 thesis exhibition in Education Hall on the Old Westbury campus. (What did they do well? What did they not do as well?) You should also document your dialogue with your instructor, your classmates, your own work, and the world at large (a blog or sketch book could be very useful in this regard!)



II. What You Will Be Expected to Produce in Thesis



This year will be unique from prior thesis years at NYIT in that you will be required to produce both a publication and an exhibit. The exhibit is what you have always already been doing since you arrived, but with a twist: it is a two, three, and/or four-dimensional explanation of your thesis. It is presented, however, in a manner that is appropriate to your audience, i.e., it has to be legible and comprehensible to a jury. You need to think about form (how you communicate your ideas graphically and rhetorically) and not just content (what your thesis is about). You will also need to produce a 30” x 40” board that synthesizes the main arguments of your thesis, and the precise area of your analysis, and that will need to be submitted for the Design 7 and Design 8 walk-thrus prior to the end of the semester.



The publication part is unique in that it should, on its own, without you standing in the room, make accessible the intentions, ideas, arguments, and conclusions of your thesis in a succinct, two-dimensional format. It should be something you can potentially upload onto the web. It should be something that could readily be adapted to become part of your permanent portfolio. It should be a document that you would be proud to leave behind at the NYIT Architectural Library in Education Hall or the 1855 Broadway building so that other students can refer back to it.



On the opening page, there should be a (i) abstract or project statement (maximum 250 words) that describes what your thesis is about. Apart from that, we ask that you include in your booklet a section that (ii) gives some background to your project, (iii) a project description/documentation tied to the concept for your project, (iv) photographs of models and drawings (titled and properly cited) for your project, (v.) a conclusion statement, and (vi.) an acknowledgement section.



Your publication (and the abstract in particular) will be reviewed by the thesis Coordinators between the final review of Design 7 and the start of Design 8.



Both your publication and exhibit should show give evidence of your skills as an aspiring architect, at least as outlined by the Performance Criteria of the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) (speak to your critic for more information about what this means).



As far as length is concerned, your publication can be as comprehensive as you like. Your exhibit, however, should include only the most vital information – it should be something that any reasonably well-educated, advanced student can see and understand in under 10 minutes. In the past, jurors have dedicated inordinate amounts of time to simply understanding what students are after. This year, we would like to have you work on clarifying and distilling your ideas before you come to the jury so that more time can be dedicated to discussion and open dialogue.



We would also like to reduce the amount of time that juries as a whole absorb. Juries are, indeed, an extraordinary opportunity for students and faculty to come and share their thoughts in a public way. They can also be an unbelievable drain on one’s time unless they are focused and directed. In the real world, time is money, for good or for bad, and proposals need to be presented succinctly and crisply to clients. Why can’t we also expect the same thing in an academic setting? Why do we not spend more time honing how we want to say what we say, and not just what we say?





III. Thesis: What should be Produced When



Your thesis publication and exhibit will both need to be produced jointly over the course of the academic year; that is to say, you should make progress on both simultaneously over the course of Design 7 and 8. Here are some guidelines that should help direct your progress.



First, design and agree to a schedule for completing both your publication and exhibit in partnership with your critic. Break down your publication and exhibit into parts, and ask yourself what will be produced when. By when will I have my thesis abstract ready? By when will I outline a draft for my thesis? By when will I outline the history and context for my thesis? By when will I document its relevance? Obviously, your responses to all of these questions will change over the course of the semester (they should change, actually). What they will give you, however, is a set of references points you can come back to modify and rethink your thoughts and arguments. They will also give you and your critic a set of clearly outlined goals and expectations you can refer back to in order to figure out what you need to work on and develop.



By the end of the first semester, you should be able to say in five minutes or less what your thesis is about, why it is relevant, why we should care, and why it is original (though not necessarily in that order). You should also have a draft of your publication prepared, and that draft should at the very least document the research you have produced thus far. In your publication and juried presentation, you should be able to offer a vision for how you will execute your completed thesis during Design 8.



In Design 8, your completed project – both the juried presentation (or “exhibit”) and the booklet – should explain visually, spatially, and verbally what your thesis is about, why it is relevant, and why it is original. Critics or jurors should be able to evaluate and understand the publication without you standing in the room explaining it. It should be written in clear and compelling terms.



IV. Thesis: What Students Can Expect, What Critics can Expect



Students can expect that critics will state clearly and in writing the specific ambitions and expectations for their specific thesis studio. They will also provide a statement to you about what rigor means, what originality means (to the extent that it can be defined), and what relevance means. Conversely, critics can expect that students will state clearly and in writing their personal goals for thesis studio (i.e., what are you actually interested in?), how they intend to achieve their goals, and by when they intend to achieve them.



Furthermore, both students and critics will be able to call upon studio coordinators – as well as their classmates – for support and feedback. To facilitate receiving support, critics are encouraged to help students establish blogs (private or public blogs) that allow them to document their work; there will be a series of events and gatherings over the year in order to allow students the chance to meet other critics and the coordinators.



Thesis Coordinators will also be holding office hours. Professor Vossoughian will primarily (though not exclusively) act as coordinator for Thesis critics and students on the Manhattan campus; Professor Altwicker will do so on the Old Westbury critic, again primarily though not exclusively.



Professors Vossoughian and Altwicker will also be available to answer questions and concerns by email. Professor Vossoughian can be reached at nvossoug@gmail.com. Professor Altwicker can be reached at maltwick@nyit.edu.



V. Important Dates



What are the important dates that students and faculty need to bear in mind? The final reviews of Design 7 and Design 8 are of course the most important deadlines. For the Fall Semester, reviews will fall on December 21 (for Manhattan students) and December 22 (for Old Westbury students). The walk-thru, moreover, will be held on December 18th.



Aside from those, we ask that students draft and submit for review an abstract (again, in 250 words or less) describing their thesis project by the midterm review of Design 7 (in other words, during the week of October 18-23). The abstract will need to be approved by your design instructor. It can obviously be modified over the year – it should be modified, in fact – but it is important that you make this first important step toward formulating and developing a thesis, and early on in the process, if possible.



In addition to the reviews, we intend to organize a series of events to promote discussion and interaction amongst the studios and the two campuses. One important date that you can already mark on your calendar is Saturday, November 14th, 12-3pm – that’s the date when we will be making a group outing to the MoMA to see the new Bauhaus exhibit that is about to open there (we will meet at 16 W. 61st Street on the 11th Floor).



V. Thesis Will Be Difficult but Fun



Thesis is the the capstone course in the studio curriculum at NYIT. It is not your magnum opus. It reveals what you have learned, and what you still need to learn. It It should be extraordinarily challenging. It should also, at some point, be fun. You are going to spend 9, maybe 10 months on this project, so it is vital that it be personally meaningful to you, as well as something that demonstrates your capacities as a designer and architect.