Nine Squares Grid Game

Nine-square-grid marks the start of the course teaching progression. We begin with an exercise that provides a link to the working methods introduced in the first year and serves as the entry point to the sequence of the second-year studio. The buried Nine-Square Grid, a reinterpretation of a classic exercise in architectural education, is conceived as an exercise in spatial abstraction in which students work with fluid spaces, horizontal and vertical connections, basic architectural components and light. Structure and modulation are introduced in an abstract way, through 3-metre spans and a three-dimensional structural grid. The exercise connects the basic concepts acquired in the first year with a greater degree of complexity in terms of programme, together with a deeper technical and disciplinary understanding of structure and enclosure.
To start the course, we propose a modified version of the classical exercise.The buried 9 × 9 metre cube eliminates the need for an external skin, forcing students to think about a space in which zenithal light expands through spaces of varying heights and widths around an initially static structure. Through this spatial exploration, students should begin to identify architectural strategies that they find compelling and to develop those aspects that they find intellectually engaging. These ideas must be explained coherently so that students become aware of why they are interested in them and are able to continue developing them. The exercise is a form of spatial introspection in which students seek out spatial experiences they find meaningful, reflect upon them, explain them and give them a coherent architectural form.