Assemblage | Form Tectonics Materiality

Kennesaw State University, Architecture Department, 640 Polytechnic Lane, Marietta, GA 30060, USA

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Abstract

Assemblage is a design-build course for upper-level architecture students that integrates design thinking and fabrication skills to propose small-scale interventions capable of effecting significant urban change through tactical urbanism projects, as pop-up, ephemeral and temporary structures in public space to foster social cohesion with wide-reaching effects that bridge pedagogy and practice [1]. Utilizing both analogue and digital tools, students critically examine design concepts to address complex geometries and investigate form, space, materiality, and tectonics through sketches, models and projection drawings “…the drawing proposes a free space for the construction of architectural thought.” [2]. Design-build courses function as exploratory laboratories in which students, through observation and analysis, develop a discourse on the contribution of design to the material production of space by creating modular, colorful structures as artifacts. These artifacts can be scaled as playful interventions, ready for deployment, or serve as speculative entries for design competitions. This paper documents and analyzes the design process as a cognitive tool, tracing the progression from concept to development as an iterative process that translates geometric shapes into formal strategies engaging materiality and tectonics, culminating in an assemblage suitable for prototyping and ready and fabrication.