ARCH 1020

Sanda is a very interesting lecturer and super nice, but the projects were very time consuming, especially for non architecture majors

By far the most work I have ever had for a class, but Sanda is amazing and is so passionate about what she does, it makes it worth it. Even though I wouldn't suggest it for non architecture majors, it was one of the best classes I have taken.

Great for majors and those interested. Lectures are abstract and force you to think beyond your limits. Go to office hours and talk with your TA to get the most out of the class.

One of my favorite classes my first year! It is a wonderful class with a very knowledgable and renown professor. It is a lot of work that is done through numerous projects and iterations of those projects, but it is worth it. You learn a lot if you are willing to put the time and energy in. All of the discussion sections are at night which is annoying but you get really close with those students in your discussion as well as the TA leading the discussion, they are typically an undergraduate and ultimately decide your grade. I miss this class a lot, definitely a must take class for people interested in design.

Tons of work. I took this not as an architecture student and it was by far the class with the most work. Grades are kind of arbitrary but discussions were fun.

While I’m sure I’ll be able to look back on the class and appreciate the lessons learned, this class is basically inaccessible to non majors. If you don’t already basically live in the A school and have the time allotted in your schedule as most first semester a school students do, you will struggle. I’m a fourth year in the college and this class made me pull all-nighters and more importantly destroyed my love of creating things. Sanda is sweet and her lectures are great but you’ll need to get lucky and land a TA that’s not a pretentious snob devoid of empathy and eager to attack without providing constructive advice. The class is too big for Sanda to handle on her own so again, the TAs are given too much power in my opinion. If you’re an A school kid, I’m sure you’ll love this class, and I don’t doubt the information covered is incredibly helpful. If you’re not a major, by all means take the course but be very aware of the time it takes to do well. Take it during a light semester and try to get an empathetic TA that is willing to work with you. Also, this is by far one of the most expensive classes I’ve taken during my time here. If you’re a non major and want to learn to make things, take an art class. Don’t be fooled by the grading stats. It takes hours and hours of work and frustration just to finish an assignment, let alone refine it. Students coming in with art backgrounds are at a massive advantage.

Easier than expected. There is a TON of project work and they tend to grade harshly on that, but the grades on your projects don't necessarily add up to your final grade. Just put in some good effort and show artistic progression at the end of the semester and you should be fine. The class is so big that you will mostly be talking to the TAs, so make sure you have a good relationship with yours because they grade all the projects.

I took this course as an engineering major and it was way way more work than I anticipated. The weekly projects took hours each and were graded fairly harshly - if you’re looking for an easy breezy elective this isn’t the one. That said, I really enjoyed this course. The professors and TAs are really engaging and want to help grow your skills and ideas and help you succeed. This is less of an architecture class and more of an art and design class (something else I wish I would’ve known), and it really fosters creativity and cultivating ones own design process and style. At the end of the day, my final grade also didn’t reflect my project grades as I think they also factor in attitude and improvement (mine ended up being much higher than I anticipated). I would definitely recommend this class, but caution that it might not be what you think you’re getting into.

I had both Sanda and Belen for this course. Do not take this class unless if you are in the architecture school (it is required) or if you are thinking of transferring into the architecture school. This class takes so much time and energy. You have weekly projects that take 10-12 hours to complete properly. Throughout the course I felt like I was designing what the TA wanted to see instead of what I wanted to design just to get a decent grade. How well your grades are largely depends on your TA, but really they do not matter too much. At the end of the course Sanda and Belen will look at your work and the grade your TA has given you to see if it is fair or not. Essentially they have the power to raise or lower your grade accordingly. I found the majority of the lectures to be a waste of time. I understand introducing the project, but an hour and 15 minutes is far too much time. There were also multiple occasions when class was moved on Zoom for non Covid related reasons. This was an ineffective form of instruction and was not beneficial. I really appreciated the time they gave us in class to work on our projects.

This class is a lot of work in terms of hours spend outside the class but I think it a great class. The grades you get on each individual project don't really matter that much in terms of over all grade. On my projects my grades ranged from a B- to an A and I still got an A+ in the class. The grade is mostly based on improvement and dedication to the class, I think going to office hours is probably the key to getting an A+, you can work on your project there and advice from Sanda is helpful so why not go. It is a very subjective class and you will have to be able to handle so criticism.