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NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURAL STUDIES (GENERAL) DEGREE – PART I
2020-21 ACADEMIC YEAR
AAR 1001 DESIGN STUDIO I - PROGRAM

SYNOPSIS OF COURSES
BAR 1001 DESIGN STUDIO I

Introduction
The teaching of architectural design in the studio is the core of the programme of architectural
studies, and is the foundation of the education of every architect. As a discipline architectural
design is a synthesis of the principles of composition animated by designer’s creativity, and the
functional requirements of human needs and purposes. Vitruvius, an architect of Ancient Rome,
identified the essential ingredients of architecture as:
COMMODITY, FIRMNESS and DELIGHT
The first two components require the architect to be a social scientist, knowledgeable about
and responding to human needs and the ordering of society and a technologist, capable of
ensuring that his buildings are structurally sound, and work efficiently; the final component,
delight, is less tangible, less easy to define. The capacity to create buildings that lift the spirit,
give pleasure to the user and the visitor, and that enhance the environment requires the
architect to be an artist.

Architectural students, therefore, need to acquire skills and develop capabilities in all three
areas, as social scientists, as technologists, and as artists: and to apply these skills and
capabilities holistically. All the theoretical and practical courses in our three-year Bachelor of
Architectural Studies General programme teach skills and develop capabilities in one or other of
these three areas. Design Studio in every year of the programme, not only nurtures the
architectural student as a creative designer, as an artist, but also draws all the areas of
knowledge, all the disciplines together in one indivisible whole.

DESIGN STUDIO STAFF:

Mr. C. Manyepa - chiedza.manyepa@nust.ac.zw; Mr. S. Zavirima - stephen.zavirima@nust.ac.zw;
Mr. F. Svinurai - flint.svinurai@nust.ac.zw; Mr. S. Mkandhla - sylvester.mkandhla@nust.ac.zw

Attendance to ALL scheduled Studio sessions and consultations with Studio Staff is compulsory.
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Aims of the Course

The aims of the Design Studio course are as follows:
• to introduce students to the creative and iterative natures of design
• to give students a range of skills of architectural representation and presentation including
the use of colour, modeling and alternatives to conventional graphics. Emphasis will be placed
on personal presentation skills both verbally and graphically.
• To introduce, through design projects, a basic knowledge of building construction.
• To introduce the notion of place as an architectural entity.
Through life drawing classes, students acquire an understanding of form and proportion, and the
ability to convey these in line and texture.
Through the course of this year you will be introduced to the basics of Computer Aided Design
(CAD) although the emphasis will remain on Hand Drawn Presentation and Modelling
Techniques.
In pursuit of these aims, projects may be set, during the year, along the following lines:

The Introductory Projects will introduce you to the foundations of design – to observe and
understand what you observe, to imagine, to and to create. This will be done through sketching
around campus; revealing an image of your ideal place and creating something new out of
something discarded.

Your next project will involve the design of pure forms in abstract landscapes enabling students
to manipulate and represent form without any figurative or representational content. We will
introduce the principal of design thinking, through the notion of Concept as a guide to the
decisions one makes during the design process.

The following few projects will require the student to understand the relationship between
ourselves and built environment. How we fit in to the buildings and objects that surround us. This
will include a closer study of some of the principal elements that make up a building and how
they function.

DESIGN STUDIO STAFF:

Mr. C. Manyepa - chiedza.manyepa@nust.ac.zw; Mr. S. Zavirima - stephen.zavirima@nust.ac.zw;
Mr. F. Svinurai - flint.svinurai@nust.ac.zw; Mr. S. Mkandhla - sylvester.mkandhla@nust.ac.zw

Attendance to ALL scheduled Studio sessions and consultations with Studio Staff is compulsory.
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The final project of the Semester is an opportunity to synthesize all that you have learnt in Design
Studio and your other courses through the design of a small Living Unit. Students will be expected
to consider the Vitruvius` 3 tenets of architecture, to achieve a design whose form, spaces and
envelope are functional, robust and delightful.

The Projects for the Second Semester will include the notion of Context and Site. Students will
observe, document, measure, abstract and respond to a given location while the complexity of
the programmatical requirements for the projects will evolve and be drawn up taking into
consideration students’ progress during the first semester.

At the end of the first year students would be expected to be able to understand design and
present simple building structures as well as both working and finished models. It must be
emphasized that attendance is mandatory at design studio classes and all other classes and
unexcused absences will not be tolerated.

Sketch Book
The Students will be expected to keep a current Sketch book at all times. These are primarily for
Design Studio and should include your Sketches, Notes, Thoughts, Doodles, Designs. You may
copy from them for presentations but they are to be your own personal record of what you
explore through the year. These are to be used in your Consultations, and are to be available at
Presentations and for your final Portfolio Review at the end of the Year.

Course Assessment
Continuous assessment through a series of coursework assignments: 67%
Portfolio review 33%
All students individually prepare their portfolios for the Final Portfolio Review and assessment by
the External Examiner at the end of Semester II. Students are therefore requested to take great
care of all their work as damaged projects may negatively affect your final mark.

Recommended Reading
Ching, Francis: Architecture, Form, Space and Order
Alexander, Christopher: Notes on the Synthesis of form
Fawcett, Peter: Architectural Design Notebook

DESIGN STUDIO STAFF:

Mr. C. Manyepa - chiedza.manyepa@nust.ac.zw; Mr. S. Zavirima - stephen.zavirima@nust.ac.zw;
Mr. F. Svinurai - flint.svinurai@nust.ac.zw; Mr. S. Mkandhla - sylvester.mkandhla@nust.ac.zw

Attendance to ALL scheduled Studio sessions and consultations with Studio Staff is compulsory.
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DRAWING EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS

for use in the Design Studio

Stationery for Design Studio and Architectural Presentation courses

1. Technical drawing pen Set – 0.25, 0.35, 0.50, 0.70mm (Rotring, Staedtler or Faber Castell)
2. Scale Rulers
3. Set Squares Adjustable and fixed (45 dg. and 60 dg)
4. T Square, Parallel motion or Drawing Machine(for attachment to drawing board)
5. Clutch Pencils (0.5mm & 2mm)
6. Leads H, HB, 2B
7. Pencil 3B, 4B, 6B
8. Drawing Ink. (black)
9. A1 Size Drawing Board
10. A3 Size Drawing Board
11. Erasers
12. Lettering Stencils 0.25 mm, 0.35 mm, 0.5
13. Measuring Tape - 3m *
14. Rotring Compass Set
15. Paper: Tracing, Cartridge, Bond, Butcher
16. A1/Size/AO Size Portfolios and/or Rolling Tube
17. A4 or A5 size sketchbook
18. Set of water colour paints and brushes
19. Set of coloured pencils or felt pens
20. Pocket calculator
21. Model making materials (glue, etc as advised by Design Studio staff)
22. Stanley Knife
23. Laptop
24. A copy of the Model Building Bye-Laws – available from PrintFlow in Belmont
25. High Capacity- Graphics Laptop.

Stationery for theoretical courses

26. Course files
27. A4 Pads of ruled paper and Files for keeping notes.

All students need to provide themselves with the above equipment and materials. The
Department will provide Drawing Boards for use in the Design Studio. Students are encouraged
to have their own drawing boards for use at home/lodging.

Computer and Printing Costs

In Part 1, students are generally expected to do their work by hand, however with the huge
technological advancements worldwide it is now imperative for architectural students to train in
various CAD softwares which we now introduce at first year. For research the Internet has
become indispensable. We therefore recommend students to acquire their own laptops as soon
as possible.

Students will be expected to pay printing costs for their computer generated drawings; however
these are relatively low in the first year.

DESIGN STUDIO STAFF:

Mr. C. Manyepa - chiedza.manyepa@nust.ac.zw; Mr. S. Zavirima - stephen.zavirima@nust.ac.zw;
Mr. F. Svinurai - flint.svinurai@nust.ac.zw; Mr. S. Mkandhla - sylvester.mkandhla@nust.ac.zw

Attendance to ALL scheduled Studio sessions and consultations with Studio Staff is compulsory.