Details : the expression of meaning and materiality in architecture

Humans experience life through a range of senses. Sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. These senses not only guide us through our life, but also link us to specific places and moments within it. Similarly, our experience of architecture is formed by what we see and touch and how we feel about it. We become connected to a place through physical contact. That same physical contact encourages mindfulness, focus, and memory.Architecture, no matter how well received by critics, cannot be considered successful if it does not spark that moment of conscious awareness when a person feels intimately connected to a place. Once the tactility of a material has opened a person to the experience of architecture, it is up to the craft of the construction to make it memorable.'Craft' is a handmade coffee table passed down from generation to generation. Craft is the careful attention paid by a group of volunteers to each brick used to lay the foundation of a Habitat House. Craft is a grandmother's handmade quilt wrapped around a newborn child. Craft is the point in life where the meaning and the construction are united for the first time.This focus on the tactility of material and the craft of construction will manifest itself in an architectural education facility in the historical Cranbrook Educational Community located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. This thesis proposes an expansion of the existing masters of architecture program. The hypothetical pedagogical underpinning of this school will be to foster the students' awareness/understanding of materials and craft as fundamental aspects of architectural design.