Posed to the architect is a simple task: provide a solution that best fits the client's needs. And yet, too often architects over-complicate the problem by obsessing with theoretical and philosophical design ideas, producing architectural designs which are cerebral, impractical, and often laughable. This over-emphasis on architectural theory results in inactivity, as professionals design the most intellectually complex project for a magazine spread, not a building site.
Through a school design, this thesis attempts to develop a methodology of designing that reasserts the architect's control in the design process, while maintaining focus on the built product. The use of virtual animation and modeling software provides the designer with the possibility to experience space before construction and test any design theories. Thus, the architect can develop concepts and test them simultaneously, following the Marxian definition of Praxis: unified theory and practice.