Problem Description:

This project explores the relationship between literature and design, utilizing text as a source of inspiration for communicating architectural concepts through the exploration of materials and construction. The project is a collaborative enterprise between two courses: Architectural Design Studio II (taught by Julio Bermudez, Verl Adams & Mimi Locher) and Materials & Construction (taught by Ryan Smith). The students work in teams of four and are assigned, by lottery, one of five memos from Italo Calvino’s Six Memos for the Next Millennium. The memos are: lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility and multiplicity. Through a series of assigned exercises, the students design an installation that must be expressive of their interpretation of the assigned memo, as well as directly engage their particular site. The sites for the installations are strategically located throughout the college building. The final installations must be safe for the public, must not damage the building in any way and must not exceed a budget of $200.00 per team.