'Architects are looking beyond the traditional boundaries of their discipline, appropriating materials, methods, and processes from other industries. This expanded interest is widening the scope of innovation, ranging from the development of alternative fabrication processes afforded by digital technologies to the inventive re-use of traditional materials. How are these processes reshaping the way we synthesize technique and practice? To what extent do these methods inform our design process? Material innovation is often the product of contemporary issues of efficiency, environmental conscience, mobility, lightness and ephemerality. What possibilities for form and space making are we imagining now? How are we inventing new processes?' New York Architectural League, Young Architect's Forum 2002'

This studio recognizes the latent opportunities that exist in materials. The aim is to explore transformed material and social conditions through a material propensity driven process. The studio will establish a framework of design strategies for creatively engaging materials in professional practice.

A Community Center for South Boston will be used as a catalyst program for investigation. Students will develop their material systems in conjunction with attitudes toward program, context, and professional practice. Material investigations and readings that reframe contemporary practice and research will inform the development of building components. Large scale models and drawings will be a key component of the studio work.