Geologies of Making, Cornell AAP, 2024py

Geologies of Making

Cornell AAP

Fall 2024

Students study geological transformation as a model for architectural thinking, learning how time, matter, and environmental forces create form. The course frames architecture as an interconnected system influenced by landscape, culture, ecology, and history, including acknowledgment of the Indigenous homelands. The semester is structured around three assignments. Students learn to design through making and to work with environmental transformation as a generative force.

Assignment 1 introduces spatial systems by extracting patterns from geological processes. Through iterative drawing and paper modeling, students translate rules of erosion and formation into logics of organization.
Assignment 2 shifts from paper to wood. Students use specific tools to “mark” and “erode” a wooden block, producing physical models and drawings.
Assignment 3 synthesizes the semester’s research into a multi-scalar proto-architectural formation. Students refine ideas from Assignment 02, develop speculative drawings, build study models, and produce documentation that links landscape, architectural, and human scales.

Program:
1^st Year B.Arch Studio

Instructors:
Caroline O’Donnell*, Manuel Bouzas, Fany Kuzmova, Michael Jefferson, Catherine Wilmes, Ryan Whitby.

Students (Bouzas):
Katherine Cha, Sutra Chakma, Brian Cocero, Stella Vass, Daniel Park, Nathan Rivera, Sevara Khojamuratova, Jimmy Wang, Erynn White, Melania Vorona, Blake Zimmerman.