The Independent Research course is a research thesis preparation course. Students built upon known architecture research models to develop an individual research project proposal in an area of their interest related to architecture technology and sustainable design.

Research areas addressed innovative materials and assemblies, emerging and nontraditional building materials, low-energy and passive building energy strategies; and performance-driven computational design approaches, to list a few. Students in this class were able to engage with active and ongoing research projects while pursuing their own intellectual and career agendas.

The students attended bi-weekly meetings with the instructor and submitted a formal research project proposal at the conclusion of the semester including an abstract, a research plan, a literature review, a demonstration of the research approach, an annotated bibliography and contributions.

Each student was provided the support required to engage with scholarly material and form a potential thesis proposal that constitutes the intellectual interests and practical positions relevant to their studio practice.