In the first half of the term, a sequence of lectures surveys the conceptual concerns and technological factors of building: the origin and processing of the major classes of building materials; their physical properties, capacities, and vulnerabilities to physical and environmental stressors; the techniques used to work those materials; and the principles, procedures, and details of building assembly. Corresponding construction examples and case studies of mid-scale public buildings introduce students to the exigencies that so often influence decision making in the technical process and inflect (and potentially enrich) design intention—regulatory requirement, physical and environmental stress and constraint, procedural complication, labor and material availability and quality, energy consumption, and ecological impact. After spring recess and in coordination with the studio design phase of the Building Project, the course turns to the detailed study of light wood-frame construction. Five lectures with practical exercises track the stages of construction of the single-family house and supplement ongoing design development of the Building Project house. In both its direct technical application to the work in the studio and its exploration of more general themes in current construction practice, the course seeks to illuminate the ecological considerations as well as the materials, means, and methods that are fundamental to the conception and execution of contemporary building.
Physics
物理（Physics）是一门自然科学，也是绝大多数科学的基础学科，注重于研究物质、能量、空间、时间，尤其是它们各自的性质与彼此之间的相互关系。从广义来说，物理学探索分析大自然所发生的现象，以了解其规则。物理专业主要分应用物理、生物物理、原子物理、核物理、粒子物理、量子物理、凝聚态物理、等离子物理、高能物理、天体物理与宇宙学等多种专业分支。
