The Architect's Final Exam

Subject: Architect's Final Exam

1. Design - God, in the Old Testament, had six days in which to design the
world. You have two hours. Be sure to refine, correct, update, and edit
this design.

2. History - The entirety of Architectural history - propose a hypothesis.
Be sure to include specific examples to support your thesis. You have ten
minutes. Do not use more than one blue book.

3. Technics - With the materials provided (three straws, a package of gum,
twine (3.5 feet), a mango, and 12' of sheet rubber), build a structural
model of Notre Dame.

4. Design - In the space of a 10' square cube, design, including adequate,
AIA-approved facilities, a day care center, a seminar room, and a
reception hall, a center for claustrophobics.

5. Biography - Redesign Le Corbusier.

6. Drafting - In a 3" square space in your book, draw Chartres Cathedral.
Be sure to include all windows, doors, surface contours, and a small
congregation protesting in front of the Western apse. This drawing should
be referential in nature, but should include enough detail so that a scale
model could be accurately built from it.

7. Rendering - Draw, in four-point perspective (includes the time axis),
the existance of the Villa Rotunda from 10:00 am on Wednesday, October 21,
1926 to 3:21 pm on Monday, June 5, 1984. Be sure to include the Villa's
location in relation to the rest of the universe. BONUS: plot the
trajectory of the Villa Rotunda through the known universe for the next
hundred years. Include illustrations of the Villa in three different
projections, as seen from Alpha Centauri. If this plotting ends before the
100 year span with the Villa engulfed in the heart of a star, continue to
plot the trajectory of the remains.

8. Theory - Space. Create it, and be prepared to hand it in with your exam.

9. Studio - Chronicle the effects of caffiene upon the nervous system over
the course of five days of wakefulness. Be sure to graphically illustrate
the loss of any body mass as a result of cutting board.

10. Design - Without reproducing any of their works, or incorporating any of
their ideas as precident, design a lunatic asylum for Le Corbusier, Mies
van der Rohe, Rietveld, and Lloyd Wright. Keep in mind that the inmates
will likely attempt to kill each other. Provide for this contingency.

BONUS QUESTION: Define the blue book's role in the spatial refinement and
structural development of French Gothic cathedrals.

Good Luck!