School has officially started. No more workshops, no more downtown studio, and no more pass/fail grading.

This week has been an exciting introduction to the first semester of the M.Arch core sequence. For the 40 of us who do not have advanced placement we will take three courses: Structures, Themes, and Design Media.

Structures, is taught by structural engineer Annalisa Meyboom. It explores quantitatively and qualitatively statics, materials, and the flow of force through structure. Annalisa gave a fantastic intro presentation to the class with a slideshow featuring a number of buildings and projects that used structural elements to enhance their design.

Daniel Millette teaches Architectural Themes. It is seminar on the many issues that concern the planning, design and understanding of the built environment. The course has had a reputation of overwhelming and often impossible reading assignments. This year the course package is still very large but the readings seem to have been reduced to one or two articles per class, and the topics seem very organized and cumulative, so I am looking forward to getting started.

Design Media is taught by John Bass and Matthew Soules it explores the variety of ways we can communicate through design. We have already been given a drawing assignment, which seems like a synch after the drawing workshop. However, we will also be using Vectorworks, Rhino, and the Adobe Creative Suite for later assignments.

Finally, the courses this semester will be rounded off with Arch 500, the first year studio. There are three studio groups of 12-13 people each, instructed by one of John Bass, George Wagner, or Oliver Neumann. I will be working in Oliver’s group and will report back shortly on our first design project.