What is a thesis?

Two documents as you get started. The first is from Pablo Garcia's syllabus for Thesis Prep last year:

What Isn’t a Thesis? (It's sometimes easier to define what something isn’t.)


An Architecture thesis is not:

- A Written Paper. The Architecture Thesis is a project executed in analog or digital drawings, models, constructions, diagrams, with all the accompanying process work.


- A Device. You cannot say “My thesis is about light”. Light is a device through which architecture is manifest and perceived. It is not a thesis.


- A Question: You cannot ask “Why is architecture so cool?”


- An Announcement: “I will use architectural concrete in a new way”


- Vague Statements: “Modernism is bad”


- A Limited Subject: “Housing” “Libraries” “Hospitals”


- A List: “Light, Space, Form, Structure, Environment, and Architecture”


- An Autobiography: “A House for an Architecture Thesis Student’s Parents”


So what’s left?
A THESIS IS A POSITION. It is a claim or a speculation you make about architecture and its relationship to the world. You should be able to say: “Architecture is _____”, Architecture can ______” or “What if Architecture ______”. This is your chance to do more than demonstrate your accumulated skills—you are positing a direction for architecture, speculating on an aspect of the discipline, taking a stand on an architectural issue.

The second piece was sent to me by Luis Carranza, a good friend and mentor who teaches at RWU (actually, we stole the idea of this blog, and many other good ideas, from him). Written by Jose Luis Mateo of MAP, the article is entitled "How to Draw Up A Project." It's a good read, intended to provoke. I highly recommend that you read it, because responding to it is your first graded assignment. Let this piece provoke you into a verbal response, but also let it inspire you to create your first visual piece as well.