Marianne Holbert’s research focuses on environmental design, architecture, and integrative design pedagogy. As a licensed architect, she has experience working on diverse projects including award winning net-zero, fossil fuel free & LEED accredited projects. Her design work furthers community-centered, sustainable, and innovative housing solutions. Her research examines the sociocultural, theoretical, and historical foundations of architecture and environmental design. Current research projects explore cross-cultural understanding in design pedagogy and the cultural dimensions of learning in the design studio.
keywords
architecture, architectural design, environmental design, design pedagogy, modern architecture history, architectural theory, affordable housing, net zero construction, renewable energy, sustainability, community engagement, LEED, freehand sketching, culture, education
ARCH 2100 - Studio 1: Foundations of Architecture
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020 / Spring 2021
Provides a framework for students to learn the basic strategies and techniques of architectural design. This project-based studio focuses on concepts of medium-scale building design, site, and climate. Through multiple design exercises, students learn how these factors assist in shaping our buildings. Recommended corequisite: ARCH 2115.
ARCH 3100 - Studio 2: Intermediate Architecture
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2020 / Fall 2021 / Fall 2022 / Fall 2024
Emphasizes the interaction of form, programmatic use, human behavior and context in creating structure. May include a client-based community engaged project, real world applications, and result in a physical product. Students work across analog and digital platforms to produce designs that provide solutions to contemporary challenges. May be repeated up to 12 total credit hours. Recommended corequisite: ARCH 3114.
ARCH 3214 - History and Theory of Architecture 2
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020 / Spring 2021 / Spring 2022 / Spring 2023 / Spring 2024 / Spring 2025 / Spring 2026
Picking up after the Industrial Revolution and continuing through to today�s Contemporary Architecture, history is taught thematically to cover important structures, key figures, and movements that have shaped our modern world. Recommended prerequisite: ARCH 3114 with a C- or better.
ARCH 4100 - Studio 3: Capstone in Architecture
Primary Instructor
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Summer 2020
Engages students in complex design challenges such as integrating building technology, structural systems, user experiences, and environmental sustainability. Students will focus on contemporary architectural issues within the profession and produce design proposals that address key topics such as climate-resilient, human-centric, and systematically responsive design solutions. Recommended corequisite: ARCH 4115.
ENVD 1010 - Studio 1: Introduction to Environmental Products of Design
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019
Introduces students to concepts and techniques related to the design of products at a human scale. In an immersive project-based studio environment students develop the foundation of design communication and thinking through a series of hands-on projects with physical outcomes. Course is part of a co-requisite sequence: ENVD 1010, Studio 1: Introduction to Environmental Products of Design is taken the first 7-weeks of the semester, followed by ENVD 1020, Studio 1: Introduction to Architecture, taken in the second 7-weeks of the semester, along with ENVD 1002, Technology 1: Applications for Environmental Design, a 14-week class that is taught alongside the two 7-week studios.
ENVD 1020 - Studio 1: Introduction to Architecture
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2022 / Fall 2022 / Spring 2023
Introduces students to strategies and techniques of architectural design and communication in a hands-on studio environment. Students explore architectural form-making and design opportunities through an iterative design process culminating with a small-scale architectural project that responds to environmental, contextual and programmatic needs. Course is part of a co-requisite sequence: ENVD 1020, Studio 1: Introduction to Architecture, an 7-week class which is taken in the second half of the first semester. ENVD 1010, Studio 1: Introduction to Environmental Products of Design, taken during the first 7-weeks of the semester, and ENVD 1002, Technology 1: Applications for Environmental Design is a 14-week class that is taught alongside the two 7-week studios.
ENVD 1030 - Studio 1: Introduction to Landscape Architecture
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2024
Exposes students to concepts and strategies inherent to the practice of landscape architecture. Students design for biodiversity, climate resilience and human and beyond human physical and mental health within an urban context. Course is part of a co-requisite sequence: ENVD 1030, Studio 1: Introduction to Landscape Architecture, taken the first 8-weeks of the semester, followed by ENVD 1040, Studio 1: Introduction to Sustainable Planning and Urban Design, taken in the second 8-weeks of the semester, along with ENVD 1012, Technology 2: Visual Communications, a 16-week class that is taught alongside the two 8-week studios.
ENVD 1040 - Studio 1: Introduction to Sustainable Planning and Urban Design
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2025
Explores concepts and strategies related to urban planning and design. Students collaboratively develop a design solution to a small-scale problem within an urban fabric using basic skills of analysis and design iteration. Course is part of a co-requisite sequence: ENVD 1040, Studio 1: Introduction to Sustainable Planning and Urban Design, an 8-week class which is taken in the second half of the first semester. ENVD 1030, Studio 1: Introduction to Landscape Architecture, taken during the first 8-weeks of the semester, and ENVD 1012, Technology 2: Visual Communications, a 16-week class that is taught alongside the two 8-week studios.
ENVD 1052 - Design and Communication 1
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018
Using both lectures and drawing exercises, this class extends understandings of the representational conventions used by the design professions through its introduction to the possibilities offered by emerging digital techniques for the depiction of designed artifacts and environments, allowing students to extend and enhance their understandings of advanced practices for design visualization, representation and communication. Recommended corequisites: ENVD 1004 and ENVD 2001.
ENVD 1102 - Design and Communication 2
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Spring 2019
Using both lectures and drawing exercises, this class extends understandings of the representational conventions used by the design professions through its introduction to the possibilities offered by traditional techniques for the advanced practices for design visualization, representation, and communication. Recommended corequisites: ENVD 1104 and ENVD 2003.
ENVD 1120 - Studio 2: Fundamentals of Environmental Design 2
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019 / Fall 2020 / Fall 2023
Explores the core principles shared across environmental design disciplines, including Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Environmental Product Design, and Sustainable Planning and Urban Design. Through a multidisciplinary studio approach, students engage in spatial problem-solving, sustainable design strategies, peer-to-peer collaboration, and design thinking. Hands-on projects challenge students to apply foundational tools and methods to real-world challenges, considering social, environmental, and cultural impacts in both built and natural environments. The course is part of a co-requisite sequence: ENVD 1120, Studio 2: Fundamentals of Design 2, a 7-week class which is taken in the second half of the first semester. ENVD 1110, Studio 2: Fundamentals of Environmental Design 1, taken during the first 7-weeks of the semester, and ENVD 1022, Technology 3: Intermediate Applications for Environmental Design, a 14-week class that is taught alongside the two 7-week studios.
ENVD 3009 - Special Topics in Environmental Design
Primary Instructor
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Summer 2018 / Summer 2019 / Summer 2021 / Summer 2022 / Summer 2023 / Summer 2024 / Summer 2025
Seminar or design lab on special issues in environmental design, including study abroad. May be repeated up to 21 total credit hours. Variable topic class.
ENVD 3100 - ENVD Interdisciplinary Design Studio
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2023
Explores a sequence of investigations that lead to the development of design concepts for critical evaluation and discussion. Students analyze intermediate to advanced design practices that are common to the disciplines of architecture, planning, urban design, landscape architecture, and product design through an interdisciplinary design project.
ENVD 4100 - Advanced Design Lab 1
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018
Design lab exploring new and emerging themes in design. May be repeated up to 12 total credit hours.
ENVD 4300 - Advanced Design Lab 2
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Spring 2019
Design lab exploring new and emerging themes in design. May be repeated up to 12 total credit hours.
ENVD 4979 - Honors Thesis
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Spring 2019 / Fall 2021 / Fall 2025 / Spring 2026
Working with an advisor, students prepare, complete, and defend a research-based honors thesis project, in an area of Environmental Design. May be repeated up to 3 total credit hours.
