This interdisciplinary course teaches fundamental principles and skills shared by all visual fields through the acts of perception, analysis, and composition. Its title recognizes “making” as an act or process of creation, assembly, and construction. Before you begin this process, as an artist, designer, or architect, you must first observe the world around you. Following this careful appreciation and sympathetic discernment, you will examine, analyze, evaluate, and clarify what you have seen in order to compose a new version. In this class we will make drawings, paintings, collages, sculptures, and architectural models that reflect our view of the world and our relationship to past and present art and architecture concepts and examples. This exploration in “making” will expose you to the design process and instill the need for creative, responsible, and diverse solutions to the same design problem. Throughout the course you will re-present the principles presented in the class, through newly acquired skills. These skills will range from informal sketching to technical drawing and modeling skills, as well as from multi-sensory observation to analytical thought and communication.

This course also fosters a thoughtful, self-critical design process. Each product made in this course is the result of a process that is affected by our own experiences and memories. This design process requires application of the principles and skills taught in the class in balance with your own experiences, instincts, and the unforeseen and surprisingly wonderful events that may occur. The final goal of this course is to deepen your appreciation of your surroundings, resulting in a respect for the ideas and things around you while inspiring your responsibility to improve upon them and give others the opportunity to find awe and awareness among even simple and familiar conditions.

B.S.E. in Civil Engineering, Princeton University;
M.Arch., Princeton University
Associate Professor of Architecture and Art

Sanda Iliescu’s professional work spans the fields of architecture and art. After receiving her Masters of Architecture degree from Princeton University, she practiced architecture in New Jersey and taught architectural design at Princeton and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She concentrates her recent professional work in fine arts. Her paintings and drawings have been exhibited in New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Italy. She has taught drawing and painting at Princeton and the State University of New York. Currently her work is represented by Vagabond Gallery in New York (http://www.vagabondgallery.net/). Among her professional awards are The Rome Prize and The Distinguished Artist Award of the New Jersey State Council of the Arts. In 2004, she has been awarded the All University Teaching Award by the University of Virginia. At UVA Professor Iliescu teaches design studios as well as painting and drawing courses. Through her teaching, she seeks to deepen the dialogue between the School of Architecture, the Art Department and the broader university arts community.

B.S. in Architecture, University of Virginia;
M.Arch., University of Virginia
Lecturer

Erin Hannegan has had a paint brush in her hand since the age of four, learning early the lessons of perception and composition. After receiving her Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from the University of Virginia, Erin practiced at Ballinger in Philadelphia while concurrently volunteering with the Philadelphia Community Design Collaborative and with the Charter High School for Architecture and Design. After years focused on these endeavors, she returned to the University of Virginia for a Master of Architecture degree and centered her studies on the convergence of art and architecture. In her teaching, as well as her own work, she uses art as an exploratory medium in the design process and stresses its incorporation into the foundational techniques of representation. In addition, she emphasizes the importance of the poetics of architecture, specifically with respect to physical and cultural contexts, and strives to cultivate a respect and awe for the simple things around us.