Construction detailing is one of the basis for architectural design, it is not a part of the work that can be held when the design itself is finished. Construction thinking must be present from the beginning of the project as it is a powerful design tool sited in the core of architecture. The course is designed to become a “critic tool cage” that enables the student to measure the validity of details in 3 levels: semantic, pragmatic and syntactic.

The course starts with the presentation of the “critical tool box”. This is a set of basic critical tools that the student must implement during the course. This will allow the student to make a Critical evaluation of the construction details based on the criteria listed above.

The course follows with a study of precedents selected by the students according with their interests for future projects. Each of these precedents will be analyzed critically in their general construction systems. After that, each student will draw a set of details of the building that allows having a complete constructive information from footings to covers, detailing each particular joint of the building. With this set of details, the student will develop a critical constructive alternative to them and a complete constructive axonometric view of a part of the complete building. This process will be done through the application of the “critical tool box”.

The final work of the course will be the detailing of a projects that the students are developing in the 2016 Spring Studios. The objective of the course is to draw a complete set of constructive details, one partial constructive axonometric views of the building and a set of constructive axonometric views showing the construction process along time.