This elective will find creative potentials for architecture that is inherently awkward. Defined as lacking the right proportions, proper attributes, or accepted ideals of grace, our shared architectural story is framed by numerous iconic buildings that fit this description. More importantly, these attributes can be understood as a meme that challenges conventional behavior in architectural design today. Students who are curious about alternative ways of practicing, or gravitate towards architects that find ways to work across non-standard creative and technological disciplines, will have an opportunity to dig deeper into 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. We will leverage creative strategies that tap uncharted cultural territories, such as architects/theorists Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, who assigned high disciplinary value to ironic materials, low budgets, and found signage. Calling it ‘no-good architecture’ Atelier Bow-Wow uncovers design sophistication in Tokyo’s anonymous buildings, where strange building combinations defy logic, yet make perfect (and humorous) sense. And Pritzker Prize architect Wang Shu stacks wall materials with intentional irregularity, disharmony, and a touch of chaos. What links these pursuits is architecture that embraces odd, awkward, or out of control qualities as meaningful tools for human engagement. Awkward Architecture will integrate new writings on emergent technology and the mediated landscape: futurist writer Kevin Kelly reminds us of how closely unpredictability and inefficiency are a part of our everyday present. The course is organized as part wild idea think-tank, part visual workshop, part investigative seminar, and part urban exploration. Students will complete a series of well-crafted and experimental drawings throughout the semester as a means to apply course topics. Our working methods are meant to open new paths of discovery as you enter the profession, and the topics and methods are intended to resonate with your other studio courses at CCA.

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