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:In the face of resource challenges, thinking collaboratively is no longer optional—it is essential. While architecture is typically understood as a collaborative endeavor among people, this elective explores meaningful alliances with other kinds of participants. Gravitational forces, climate dynamics, living bio-matter, and entropic decay are treated not as constraints to be resisted or problems to be solved, but as ‘co-creators’ active in shaping architectural form, behavior, and aesthetics. By considering these conditions as generative agents, students will be encouraged to experiment with processes that push beyond conventional architectural definitions. Throughout this course we’ll propose future vernaculars: local responses that integrate natural and physical character traits into forward leaning architectural expression. Challenging the field to do ‘more with more’ requires curiosity, openness, and artful thinking on our part.Collaborative Matter blends elements of a think tank for bold ideas, an investigative research seminar, and applied experimentation. The course merges exuberance with speculation to envision new architectural vocabularies, with a particular focus on how buildings interact and communicate with their immediate surroundings—both tangible and ephemeral. It culminates in the proposal of experimental building surfaces that translate course themes into future-oriented ideas. Students drawn to non-traditional approaches or interested in pushing the boundaries of architecture will have the opportunity to explore theories and methods that foster our collaboration with physical phenomena. Design innovation often emerges at the edges—where norms are questioned, and the rules of practice are redefined. Our working methods are meant to open new paths of discovery as you enter the profession, and the ideas and strategies are intended to resonate with your other studio courses at CCA.

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