Constructing Architectural Theory: A pedagogical framework for engaging the logic of precedents with shape rules

This paper argues for the pedagogical reframing of architectural theory as a constructive endeavor within an undergraduate architecture curriculum. Defining theory as a construct empowers students to engage in their own theory-making through a series of analytic and synthetic studies that activate understanding of the principles, practices, and procedures embedded in architectural precedents and their representations. The pedagogical research outlined here presents an approach in which a second-year undergraduate course introduces architectural theory by engaging a corpus of Paul Rudolph’s early Florida houses, completed between 1946 and 1962. A series of four exercises focused on decoding, transforming, blending, and curating guides the conversations in the course. Uniquely, these exercises rely on the shape grammar formalism, a discourse that bridges the gap between analysis and synthesis, paving the way for students to connect architectural ideas and their numerous interpretations to the rule-based, constructive thinking that is fundamental to computation and design.