Graduate Studio I

Graduate Studio I is where you learn to treat design as a research problem rather than a styling exercise — framing a question worth asking, defending it through literature, and building a defensible theoretical position before anything spatial gets drawn. The semester runs in three phases (divergent, convergent, evaluative): you read widely, present sketch models, write a commentary bibliography, and end with a draft research report that articulates organizational, spatial, and environmental criteria for your chosen problem. It's the methodological backbone of the MFA/MA track, setting up the thesis work that follows by forcing you to argue, cite, and revise like an academic, not just a designer.