A Guide to the Design Thesis in Architecture
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2022
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A Guide to the Design Thesis in Architecture is an accessible and easy to understand guide for graduate students who must complete a design thesis project. Based on the author’s decade of teaching a thesis research course, the book’s contents have been developed from the teaching experience and carefully reexamined, curated, refined, modified and expanded in this book with significant original material added.
The content is also based on feedback from student’s questions and participation in brainstorming sessions. The collective knowledge creation and the articulation of a process to be followed to complete a design thesis project successfully, have evolved gradually over time and are now in a state to be distilled and shared.
Preface
CHAPTER 1: What Is a Design Thesis?
What is a design thesis?
Development of a design thesis
What is a useful framework for the development of a thesis narrative?
How is a design thesis different from theses in other disciplines such as the Hard Sciences, the Applied Sciences, the Social Sciences,
the Humanities, and the Arts?
What is the medium of inquiry in a design thesis?
How do you articulate a design thesis?
Relationship between the design thesis and knowledge
Truth Tables for Unary Operations
Truth Table for Binary Operations
Kinds of logic used in a design thesis
CHAPTER 2: The Design Thesis as a Form of Inquiry
How is a design thesis project a form of inquiry?
On deciding the boundaries of architectural knowledge
CHAPTER 3: Research Methods for a Design Thesis
Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods for research required for a design thesis
Philosophical framework
Theoretical framework
Strategies
Tactics
A GUIDE TO THE DESIGN THESIS IN ARCHITECTURE CHAPTER 4: Establishing the Context for a Design Thesis
The different contexts for a design thesis: historical, social, and the physical
The importance of studying precedents
CHAPTER 5: Gathering Information for the Design Thesis
Sources of information for a design thesis
Goals
Major elements and emphasis
Justification
Clients and inhabitants
Spatial program
Site information
CHAPTER 6: Analysis of Information for the Design Thesis
Site analysis
Various methods of analysis used in developing a design solution for a design thesis: spatial and nonspatial analysis
Geoprocessing techniques to analyze site data
CHAPTER 7: Performance Criteria for the Design Thesis
How to establish performance criteria for your design thesis project
Sources of performance measures, methods of analysis of the measures, methods of judgement
CHAPTER 8: Planning the Execution of a Design Thesis Project
Developing a methodology to execute the design thesis project
CHAPTER 9: Conclusions
What conclusions are possible in a design thesis project?
How does the design thesis project contribute to the summative education of a student of Architecture?
Glossary
Bibliography
Web Resources
Resources for student projects
Resources for information and analysis
Ganapathy Mahalingam is a well-established researcher in the field of computer-aided architectural design. His research focuses on using computer technology for the process of architectural design. Professor Mahalingam holds a Ph.D. in Architecture, which he earned at the University of Florida in 1995. For his doctoral dissertation, Dr. Mahalingam developed a computer-based design system for the design of proscenium-type auditoriums.
Created using the Smalltalk programming language and the VisualWorks software development environment, the Auditorium Design System represents the successful characterization of the process of designing the spatial enclosure of an auditorium as an algorithm. A pioneering implementation of object-oriented computing in architectural design, the Algorithmic Auditorium project continues to explore and explicate the computability of design.
Dr. Mahalingam is now exploring well-defined methodologies to discover computational structures in Architecture, to model buildings as networks (especially as energy networks), to model sensor and actuator networks for environmental control in buildings, and to articulate an architectural programming language.
Dr. Mahalingam served as the President of the Association for Computer-Aided Design In Architecture (ACADIA) from 2001 to 2003. ACADIA is the premier organization in the United States for educators, researchers and practitioners in the field of computer-aided design in architecture. In 2009, Dr. Mahalingam founded Digital Design Solutions LLC, a software company in the state of North Dakota to create software products for the design professions.
Dr. Mahalingam served as the Interim Chair of the Department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at NDSU from 2008 to 2012, and as the Architecture Program Director from 2002 to 2008. Having been on the faculty at NDSU for 30 years, Dr. Mahalingam brings a wealth of knowledge and skills to the aspiring students of Architecture at NDSU. He teaches the Design Thesis Studio, the Advanced Architectural Design Studio, a lecture course on Thesis Research, and a seminar on the Architecture of India.