This is a vertical elective combining students in their fourth and fifth year of the BArch program with students from the architecture graduate programs. The content of the elective options varies from year to year.Section Description:This elective will explore the many untapped potentials found in architecture that is exceptionally awkward. Defined as lacking the right proportions, proper attributes, or accepted ideals of grace, our shared architectural story is in many ways framed by iconic buildings that fit this description for awkwardness. More importantly, these attributes can be understood as a useful way to challenge conventional approaches to architectural design. Students who are curious about alternative practices, or gravitate towards architects who have found ways to transcend creative and aesthetic boundaries, will have an opportunity to dig deeper into the histories, theories, and methodologies for what we’ll call the ‘good, the bad, and the ugly’. As we will see, it is often at the margins of the field where design opportunity lurks and the rules of engagement can be more readily challenged. Course content will span from architecture legacies to discussions on contemporary buildings, technologies, and new media. Awkward examples are many: the classic Pantheon intentionally leaks indoors every time it rains, and the facade of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice is composed with mismatched columns taken from other buildings. Readings will leverage strategies that tap uncharted cultural territories: calling it ‘no-good architecture’ Atelier Bow-Wow uncovers design sophistication in Tokyo’s anonymous buildings, where already existing combinations defy logic, yet make perfect (and humorous) sense. Architects/theorists Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown assign high disciplinary value to ironic materials, low budgets, and disposable media. And Pritzker Prize architect Wang Shu stacks wall materials with intentional irregularity, disharmony, and a touch of chaos. What links these pursuits is an approach to architecture that embraces the odd, awkward, or out of control as meaningful tools for design and human engagement.Awkward Architecture will be part wild idea think-tank, part visual workshop, part investigative seminar, and part urban exploration. Students will complete a series of well-crafted visual documentations throughout the semester to apply course topics. Our working methods are meant to open new paths of discovery as you enter the profession, and the ideas and methods are intended to resonate with your other studio courses at CCA.

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