Introduction to Architecture & Environmental Design
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this foundation course in designing the built environment, moving from the scale of a single object to a building to an entire territory. Architecture, urbanism, and landscape are treated as related design disciplines shaped by the arts and sciences. Lectures introduce design fundamentals and the design process, while design exercises push students to develop skills in spatial representation, analytical thinking, and design methodology. The course sets up a reference vocabulary for talking about architecture and environmental design that later, more specialized courses build on. Materials come from MIT's architecture curriculum and are free to access online, with no certificate attached. It suits anyone starting out in architecture, planning, or landscape design who wants a structured first look at how designers think about space at different scales.