The current plan also calls for the demolition of the small seminar rooms on each studio floor. The increased space on each floor will give the more crowded undergraduate studios more breathing room and allow flexibility in sharing studio space among the three CED departments. The new rooms will provide well-proportioned breakout spaces near studios. Students and faculty can meet in small groups to discuss issues raised in class. Students can pin up drawings for informal critiques.
Visitors can come to speak to the studios.
Discussion sections for the department's large lecture classes can meet in rooms specifically designed for discussion, slides, and presentations. The two rooms on each floor can be combined to create a larger space suitable for reviews. It is not easily possible now for a faculty member or visiting critic to gather students together to discuss informally observations made at individual desks, and this, after all, is at the heart of studio-based design education. These rooms will require furnishings, good lighting, wall surfaces suitable for pin-up, darkout shades, and whiteboards. Some of the classrooms will require electronic teaching aids.