College of Design Spring 2027 Electives

Tues/Thurs 3:00-5:00 p.m. (and some weeknights) | Instructor: Martin Summers

This course introduces students to computer visualization in architecture, focusing on 3D modeling, rendering, and animation software for architectural projects. This course consists of a series of workshops, from which students participate in four, which are graded. The course also includes readings and discussions about the last 30 years of computational advancements and their impact on architectural tools, techniques, and discourse.

Tues/Thurs 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m. | Instructor: Jordan Hines

Designed for non-majors, this course provides a foundation for understanding architecture's formal, spatial, social, and environmental aspects, focusing on the scale of buildings. Students will develop an ability to think critically about architecture by learning how to analyze buildings and the larger forces that shape them. Through lectures, fieldwork, and varied assignments, students will learn how to communicate their ideas effectively using fundamental architectural vocabulary and drawing methodologies. We will study architecture as a physical outcome of cultural processes.

Thursdays 1:00-3:30 p.m. | Instructor: Angus Eade

The course examines the behavior of light produced by relationships of materiality, geometry, fabrication, assembly, and time. Coursework combines architectural precedent analysis and discussion with digital and physical experimentation, exploring how luminous spatial effects can support architectural function and experience. Students will investigate optical materials and constructed assemblies that transform natural and electric light, documenting investigations with photography, animation, and video. The course develops practical knowledge and design strategies for day and night lighting, solar control, energy harvesting, and adaptive building envelopes. No previous experience with lighting design, environmental simulation, or engineering is required.

Wednesdays 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. | Instructor: Regina Summers

This course explores how natural systems, like patterns, materials, and spatial structures, can inform architectural design through biomimicry and computational processes. In this course, students will analyze Kentucky’s native species to develop original, nature-inspired patterns translated into digital collages, parametric models, and wearable designs. Through workshops in Grasshopper and AI image tools, as well as iterative digital fabrication, students will produce a final project that transforms natural logic into personal, body-scale expression.

Thursdays 10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. | Instructor: Stan Harvey

This course will introduce students to the form and function of cities, contemporary issues in urbanism, methods of analysis and representation, and foundational approaches to practice. Organized as a workshop, the course will utilize readings, case studies, and exercises to inform a visualized urban district and articulated design program. 

This course is appropriate for upper-level undergraduate students and graduate students from the design disciplines as well as other disciplines with instructor permission. This course meets the requirement for electives in the Schools of Architecture and Interiors and is required for the Graduate Certificate in Urban & Environmental Design. Graduate students interested in pursuing the Certificate should contact jeff.fugate@uky.edu.

Thursdays 2:30-5:00 p.m. | Instructor: Jason Scroggin

Fabricating Play is a design build course focused on the design, development, fabrication, and assembly of architectural constructs from scale of models to design installations. The course begins with individual investigations of material and form and then moves forward as a team to select the elements, aesthetics, forms, and methods to fabricate the final construction(s).

Wednesdays 9:00-11:00 a.m. | Instructor: Bill Massie

This detailing course explores innovative building construction techniques through their assembly. It includes weekly lectures focused on contemporary methodologies and student-led research presentations. Students will spend the semester researching an architect or building, examining both its construction and conceptual details and ultimately producing a written and graphic contribution to the seminar detail book.

Fridays 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. | Instructor: Gary Rohrbacher

This elective offers a semester-long, independent project in computational drawing with a project that culminates in a body of machine-plotted drawings. We will approach drawing as a generative system whose outcomes are discovered rather than predetermined. Projects may develop tools and interfaces in dialogue with Claude, allowing others to generate drawings through adjustable parameters, or explore deeper coding techniques and material possibilities of ink, paper and mixed media. Instructor permission required for admission.

Mon/Wed/Fri 12:00-12:50 p.m. | Instructor: Sarah Barbosa

This course will explore the relationship between color, design trends, cultural change, and consumer behavior. Students will examine how color influences perception and experience, how cultural and societal shifts shape design preferences, and how trends emerge and evolve across fashion, interiors, and the broader design industry. Through lectures, case studies, and discussions, students will investigate color theory, trend forecasting, consumer research, and the use of color and materials to communicate identity and influence purchasing decisions. The course will also explore sustainability, planned obsolescence, and greenwashing, encouraging students to critically consider how trends shape our environments and products and how designers can create more thoughtful, meaningful, and lasting design solutions.

Tues/Thurs 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m. | Instructor: Hannah Dewhirst

Students will explore material, light, color, movement, and atmosphere through collaboration with dance/choreography/costume design students in the Department of Theatre and Dance. Students will design and build full-scale experimental environments, sets, and textile elements for live performance using sublimation dye printing, fabric manipulation, tensegrity, and other fabrication processes. The course culminates in a dance performance - dance and choreography students will activate the work through movement. This is an upper-level elective open to undergraduate and graduate students across the College of Design, but enrollment is capped. Students should have an interest in performance, material, light, and color, and a willingness to experimentally test ideas at full scale.

Tues/Thurs 9:30-10:45 a.m. | Instructor: Maynard Leon

HP 300 is a 3-credit undergraduate course that examines the relationship between sustainability and human environments, with emphasis on building design and construction, building operations, and community planning and development.  Topics considered include green building and design, embodied and operational energy, adaptive reuse, life cycle assessments, energy-efficient retrofitting, social and environmental justice, and the role of heritage in encouraging stewardship of built resources. 

Online | Instructor: David Kaiser

This course examines historic preservation as a driver for economic development, addressing its intersection with societal concerns like poverty, low-income housing and gentrification. It covers revitalization strategies used by planners and developers such as government programs, the National Trust’s Main Street Program, and real estate decision-making tools.

Online | Instructor: Julie Riesenweber

Open to undergraduate and graduate students, this course explores the history, theory, identification, documentation, and management of cultural landscapes, examining how human interaction, shaping, and perception of the physical environment form part of our heritage and historic preservation practice.

Online | Instructor: Dan Vivian

This course examines the history of American architecture and landscape design, providing students with foundational knowledge to make informed decisions regarding the care, maintenance, interpretation, and revitalization of historic properties.

Mondays 1:00-3:30 p.m. | Instructor: Travis Rose

This course explores the theories, methods, and practices of historic site interpretation, emphasizing the ways historic places communicate their significance to diverse audiences. Students will examine the role of interpretation in historic preservation, public history, and heritage tourism, with particular attention to historical research, storytelling, community engagement, and the presentation of complex and sometimes contested histories. Through case studies and applied projects, students will evaluate interpretive strategies and develop approaches to communicating the cultural, architectural, and historical significance of buildings, landscapes, and sites. The course emphasizes inclusive, accessible, and engaging interpretation that connects the past to contemporary audiences while fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of historic places.

Tues/Thurs 9:30-10:45 a.m. | Instructor: SK O'Brien

Design did not begin in Europe. This course surveys visual systems from cultures around the world, including Islamic geometric pattern, Japanese packaging, Ghanaian Kente cloth, Andean khipu and Mexican papel picado. Each week pairs the history and cultural context of one tradition with a hands-on studio project. Students build a portfolio of design experiments and a broader vocabulary for their own work. The course treats these traditions as living practices rather than sources to borrow from. Projects ask students to understand the principles behind each system and to credit its makers, rather than reproducing sacred or culturally restricted imagery.

The course is open to all students throughout the University.  Students who are not in the College of Design will need to secure alternative access to a 3D printer and laser cutter.