This course is the second of a two-semester survey of architectural history and theory. Rather than adopting chronology and survey as structuring frameworks, the two courses study the built environment through six thematic modules. The aim is to introduce students to a range of case studies through some of the many lenses through which one might understand architecture and its history as critical practices and political forms.

This is the first of seven technics and planning courses in the Master of Architecture program and explores technics in the broadest sense of the term from building materials and methods to intellectual processes underpinning architecture. The course examines how ecology, culture and technology converge within the warp and weft of architecture so that students are better able to contextualize their design thinking to responsibly address our common future. 

This course introduces the fundamental concepts behind modern building science, and applies these to the performance of materials and methods of construction for traditional and contemporary building systems. The course deals with building science theory, and its practical application. The increasing importance of building performance for architectural design will be reviewed in the context of changing codes, standards, and increasing building owner/occupant concern for the environmental implications of buildings. 

Introduction to the principals of structural analysis and design. The course focuses on structural systems and loading, including gravity and lateral load paths, basic construction methods and review of structural documents.

Rotating elective on the theme of Design. For current offering please see faculty website. 

The Integrated Urbanism Studio is an opportunity for architecture, landscape architecture and urban design students to discover the shared aspirations that underlie all design disciplines while recognizing the specific responsibilities of each field. By cooperating, they implicitly model the collaborative process needed to work through urban projects addressing today's complex political, social, cultural, environmental, formal, and infrastructural demands. 

The fourth and last in the sequence of core studios, the Comprehensive Building Project takes on integrated design practices to arrive at advanced building design as inseparable from the design of its site, urban, cultural, and environmental contexts. One great building, its tectonic assertion, its cultural expression, its performance, its contextual position, its environmental stewardship, and its place in today's world, will be the central pursuit of this studio.

Students will study urban form, public space, routes, landscapes, architectural works and infrastructure vis-à-vis different histories & theories of urbanism and of the location, test those against a range of global references, and relate them to broader political, social, cultural and environmental contexts and challenges present in contemporary cities. They are also encouraged to use architectural drawing and other representations as tools to explore the location and project on its unseen and/or future layers, tectonics, infrastructure, and everyday life.

A summer semester travel experience open to all graduate students interested studying built and natural environmental design topics. See Daniels faculty website for more details. 

This course is an introduction to the methods of architectural research. First, the course introduces the practice of research design and aims to provide a lexicon, set of concepts, and tools for students to understand research as a conscious activity. The course then investigates the relationship between the varied research questions that architects ask and their choice of research methods. 

This course introduces students to computational design methods rooted in the notion of environmental performance and learning from data. ARC2023 expands on ARC1022 by introducing new methods of computational analysis, data management, and visualization for architectural decision making. As contemporary architects manage more of their environmental (and structural, signage, emergency, HVAC, etc.) portfolio, these skills are complimentary to the creation of holistically performing works of architecture.Students will use geospatial information system (GIS) software, daylighting, and thermal environmental simulations to computationally assess the performance of designs, using these tools to develop new geometries and systems for architectural design.

This course offers an introduction to grading concepts and techniques, with an emphasis on the interrelationship between technical and design issues. Short exercises and project assignments will introduce site engineering principles in grading and storm water system design. Site design requires the comprehension of multiple processes, existing and proposed. All landscape and architectural design relates to a site in some way.

Introduction to principles of structural design and materials such as steel, concrete, and wood,
including design loads, solid mechanics, and representation of building structures.

Environmental systems are the methods employed in buildings and built environments to help buffer, condition, and design the environmental quality of our habitable spaces. Architectural spaces frequently use environmental systems to obtain desired spatial and economic outcomes related to heating, cooling, daylighting, acoustics, and energy consumption. This course will examine those systems, the methods of analysis to determine order of magnitude environmental metrics, and processes for adapting building design to improve performance for both users and sustainability. 

This course focuses on contemporary passive building enclosure systems and reviews appropriate system and component selection, environmental relevance, performance, construction sequence and coordination with related active building systems.The integration of the building envelope system and related systems will be actively reinforced through practical applications coordinated with the Comprehensive Building Project Studio.

An intense travel program led by an instructor to allow graduate students to spend time in a foreign locale, conducting fieldwork, experiencing local design programming, and connecting with professionals.

An opportunity for graduate students in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design to work on an intensive design-build project.

Option Studio is a set of advanced studios on various topics chosen by faculty based on their research and design interests. Topics vary from year to year.

The goal of this course is the production of a research document – the master’s thesis.
Students will be expected to develop research questions, develop/use appropriate methods of testing these questions, and produce final architectural designs that incorporate their new knowledge. Throughout the semester students will be individually tutored in research planning, experiment design, drawing and model production, design reflection, experimental analysis, and prototype production. As a key part of research is dissemination, a large part of the focus of the semester will be the communication of research results - through written work, drawings and models, and verbal presentation – and students are expected to develop skills in these areas.

This is an architecture design studio with a focus on research. By the end of this studio and seminar, students should have: an awareness of a discrete set of research methods and methodologies in architecture, be able to identify the need for research in different situations, the ability to develop suitable research questions, choose appropriate research methods, carry out architectural design experiments, analyze and discuss results, and document and disseminate results.

In this course, participants are encouraged to, and may study aspects of computation, performance simulation, and digital fabrication as used in architectural design. These methods will be applied in a series of research and design exercises. It is expected that students will engage in the digital modelling of complex geometric form, parametric design, computer programming, digital fabrication and rapid prototyping, and performance simulation. Students should be able to carry out appropriate precedent studies and literature reviews. When examining buildings and research projects in contemporary practice, students should be able to critically reflect on their design, use of digital design tools, simulation, building performance, and digital fabrication.

Thesis Research Seminar consists of one semester of independent research pursued under the guidance of a thesis advisor. The goal of the course is to complete a program of research that will define the parameters of the thesis project to be carried out in Thesis Studio during the following semester.

How do we halve the greenhouse gas emissions of the GTHA’s housing stock this decade? The Half Studio begins answering this complex question by establishing an understanding of the current state of residential construction to first answer “half of what?” Over the course of studio students perform “cradle-to-gate” assessments existing residential projects across the GTHA, engaging leading practices in the process to understand the material and cultural drivers of each project and utilize Life Cycle Assessment tools to calculate the embodied impacts associated with each project. Students then focus on design proposals that illustrate unique approaches to design that embodies an approach to answering the question of "half".

In Thesis Studio, students work under the direction of a faculty member on a thesis project that is a synthesis of intellectual and design objectives.

This course allows students to independently pursue a topic through in-depth reading and research in close consultation with a faculty member.