Imprint 02 by MIT Architecture

2021

MIT Architecture

Lee, So Jung

206

Levi, Eytan

250, 262 28, 196

Abou Ras, Ous

255

Adebiyi, Thomas Aguilar, Chucho (Jesús)

24 236

Cousin, Tim

250

Guo, Katherine

238

Covarrubias, Juliana

241

Gupta, Sejal

196

Cunningham, Joel Austin

246

Haile, Nebyu

252

Hirt, Natasha

Holley, Claire

147, 156

Ocampo

Curth, Sandy

Ahuactzin-Garcia, Emilio

Daftarian, Reza

Alhajri, Maryam

259

de Maille, Austin Charles

261

Hong, Rihn

146, 150

Alkhayat, Latifa

239

Desta, Kaleb

206

Hoyle, Benjamin

Allen, Christopher

265

Dominguez, Maria Risueno

214

Huangthanapan, Eakapob

Donovan, Inge

212

Ichikura, Ryuhei

116 67, 162

AlMulla, Nada

87, 124

Li, Wuyahuang

253

Liu, Clare

Liu, Jingyi

Liu, Wa

100

Lu, Bowen

239

Lu, Kerri

260

Ludgin, David Austin

252

Luk, Artemisia

162

May, Sam

265

Mazumder, Michael

272

McCann, Tess

48, 148

McIntosh, Ana Merzaban, Mandy Mohan, Sahil

168

Moyers, Ruth Blair

220

Sheng, Siyuan

132

224

Nahleh, Mohamad

193

Sim, Jinyoung

91, 140

Nelson-Arzuaga, Chloe

235

Slavin, Danielle

242

Soltan, Meriam

89, 136

257, 259, 266 50

Nisar, Hasan

248

Nwigwe, Alexandra

190

Oh, Yoonjae

80 102

O’ladipo, Yesufu Oikonomaki, Elina

Sunshine, Gil

164

Wood, Ellen

Swagemakers, Jitske

238

Wornell, Joshua

243

Wu, Jessica Wu, Melody

146, 184

189

Xu, Zhifei

160

Pipitone, Vanessa

255

Tang, Sandra

178

Xu, Zhicheng

263

Prince, Jared

190

Tasistro-Hart, Benjamin

218

Xu, Ziyu

Jiang, Weihan

240

Purvis, Michaela

254

Thomson, Kyle Jeffrey

Xu, Jackie Qianyue

Titova, Alena

Yacoby, Yaara

222

Torres, Lynced

Young, Elizabeth Lyn L.

Tung, Lee Tzu

204

Younker, Andrew

Ugorji, Amanda

194

Zanders, Gabriela Degetau Zeng, Iris

Elnozahy, Mariam

250

Jacobsen, Nicole

86, 118

Amstutz, Caroline

Fan, Zekun

242

Jiang, Tianze

168

Arenas, Ana

Feickert, Kiley

248

Avila, Mariana

Flynn, Aidan

247

Jie, Tianhui

264

Qiu, Lingyi

253

Bacher, Katharine

Freeman, Maggie

248

Jones, Faith

245

Quinn, Hailey

234

Baltin, Viktor

Gaitan, Sabrina

Jurczynski, Emma

158

Rajkumar, Vijay

Gatta, Audrey

108

Kaadan, Rania

104

Bilotti, Jeremy

146, 176

Geltman, Julian Escudero

106

Kang, Wonki

150

Boscolo, Arthur

147, 177

Gerritsen, Patricia Dueñas

237

Kaur, Harmanpreet

121

Gideonse, Lauren

257

Kelley, Emma

192

Brearly, Jonathon

122

Giorgis, Adriana

244

Kiley, Emily

128

Brice, James

264

Gomez, Marlena

247

Kim, Christina

210

Carmeliet, Dries

202

González-Cervantes, Marianna

168

Kim, Jayson

Carriker, Bella Carmelita

248

Green, Juliana

161

Koskey, Katie

Chee, Grace

172

Griffin, Danny

250

Kramer, Noelle

Chen, Sophia

237

Gronda, Annalysse

267

Kwak, Rachel Seo Yeon

Chi, Pohao

167

Gruber, Paul

256

Lee, Courtney

164, 270

Rau, Lasse

90, 137

94, 138

Reinhard, Ellen Marie

248

Umubyeyi, Carene

131

Rodrigues, Carol-Anne

258

Vasikaran, Sangita

147, 181

235

Rodriguez, Catalina Monsalve

200

Velez, Luis Alberto Meouchi

129

Rotman, Katie

194

Vijaykumar, Mona

254

Zhang, Maggie

127

Schnitzler, Jenna

236

Volpe, Daniel

112

Zhang, Xiaoyun Margaret

Scott, Brandon

216

Waddle, Marisa Concetta

240

Zhao, Katherine

188

Searight, Tristan

234

Waft, Catherine

186

Zhao, Mengqiao

244

Serio, Allison

241

Waft, Sylvia

Shafa, Jabran

110

Waller, Alexandra Lee

96, 133 146, 174

MIT Architecture

Brazier, Justin

Wong, Erin

182

Tan, Michael

Amanfu, Caleb

246, 248

208

250

85, 256

260

Sunder, Aarti

Parakh, Meenal

Igarzabal, Lucas

97, 117

Winget, Ainsleigh

265

216

88, 126

262

245, 248

Dubbs, Katie

243, 250, 261

Williams, Susan

Song, Alice Jia Li

170

Tan, Evellyn

Berzolla, Zachary

Wen, Collin

162

Alvarez, Xio

Wang, Yiqing

Pankhurst, David

Idowu, Jola

146, 170

Wang-Xu, Mackinley

120

164

93, 134

McKinlay, Sasha

Tam, Carolyn

Door, Angie

166

180

228

Li, Kwan Q

Ong, Bryan Wen Xi

Alvarez, Eduardo Gascón

Imprint

152

Li, Felix

226

147, 154

Imprint

Lee, Keith J.

130

MIT Architecture

258, 263

95, 119 26

Zhang, Daisy Ziyan Zhang, Jenny

Zhong, Calvin Zhu, Emma (Yimeng)

Volume 01 Issue 02

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Imprint is a publication designed and compiled by graduate students at MIT Architecture. A collective document that makes space for every student who chooses to participate, Imprint privileges breadth and inclusion. It is a material trace that documents the Department of Architecture over the course of one semester. Each issue encapsulates current critical and creative work produced across discipline groups and formats.

MIT Architecture

2021

Volume 01 Issue 02

MIT Architecture

Imprint 02 is a single link in a chain of many, the entirety of which finds itself tethered to the urgency of the present. Where the inaugural issue was a first impression, a handshake of sorts, Imprint 02 firmly grasps the work of its predecessors in its efforts to create a future-minded archive. Work across the Department is both many and varied, and it is through Imprint 02 that common threads—both past and future—might become discernible. This issue folds increasingly dispersed instances of time and space into the following pages in the hopes that even the most disparate work might be put into conversation together. The Department is, after all, our common denominator and Imprint will always try to capture the spirit of its most recent iteration. With the hopes that this issue might be the last virtual link in a series of very real conversations and handshakes, Imprint 02 is offered as an impression of what we have built and continue to shape, together.

Imprint

Imprint 02 Advisors Miko McGinty + Nicholas de Monchaux + Amanda Moore Designers & Editors Bella Carmelita Carriker + Carol-Anne Rodrigues + Meriam Soltan Fonts Designed By Contrast Foundry Printed and bound in Italy © MIT Architecture All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher. Course descriptions were provided by the instructor of the course or studio; project descriptions were provided by students. All text has been edited by the editorial team. Visual material was provided by the author unless otherwise stated. Contact Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Architecture and Planning Department of Architecture 77 Massachusetts Avenue Room 7-337 Cambridge, MA 02139 arch-pub@mit.edu

Content Index Foreword ¶ Nicholas de Monchaux Letter from the Editors Lecture Series

→ → → →

004 006 007 010

Art, Culture and Technology History, Theory and Criticism Building Technology Computation Architecture + Urbanism Undergraduate

→ → → → → →

018 036 060 082 114 230

Extracurricular Work Summer Workshops Venice Biennale Selected Research Acknowledgments

→ → → → →

268 274 278 284 294

Art, Culture and Technology ¶ Through an integrated approach to pedagogy, public events programming, exhibitions, and publications, ACT builds a community of artist-thinkers exploring art’s complex relationship to culture and technology. History, Theory and Criticism ¶ This program aims to produce leading-edge scholars and intellectuals in the field of art and architectural history through a strong emphasis on historiography and analytical methodologies.

Building Technology ¶ This is a group of students, faculty and staff working on design concepts and technologies to create buildings that contribute to a more humane and environmentally responsible built world.

Architecture + Urbanism ¶ A+U actively pursues interdisciplinary collaboration, being keenly aware of the necessity to learn and borrow from, as well as to instigate exchange, with other disciplines.

Computation ¶ This program inquires into the varied nature and practice of computation in architectural design and the ways in which design’s meaning, intentions, and knowledge are constructed through computational thinking & making.

Undergraduate ¶ The Department of Architecture offers two undergraduate majors, Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Bachelor of Science in Art and Design, providing a deep and broad undergraduate education in the fields of architecture, art and design.

Imprint 02

152

Abou Ras, Ous

Door, Angie

106

Kang, Wonki

255

Adebiyi, Thomas

Dubbs, Katie

237

Kaur, Harmanpreet

Aguilar, Chucho (Jesús)

Elnozahy, Mariam

257

Kelley, Emma

Fan, Zekun

244

Kiley, Emily

Ocampo Ahuactzin-Garcia, Emilio

Feickert, Kiley

247

Kim, Christina

Alhajri, Maryam

Flynn, Aidan

168

Kim, Jayson

146, 150

Alkhayat, Latifa

Freeman, Maggie

161

Koskey, Katie

Allen, Christopher

Gaitan, Sabrina

250

Kramer, Noelle

Gatta, Audrey

267

Kwak, Rachel Seo Yeon

256

Lee, Courtney

236

116 67, 162 76 228

243, 250, 261

Alvarez, Eduardo Gascón

146, 176

Geltman, Julian Escudero

Alvarez, Xio

147, 177

Gerritsen, Patricia Dueñas

Lee, Keith J.

Amanfu, Caleb

121

Gideonse, Lauren

130

Lee, So Jung

86, 118

Amstutz, Caroline

122

Giorgis, Adriana

206

Levi, Eytan

168

Arenas, Ana

264

Gomez, Marlena

250, 262

248

Avila, Mariana

202

González-Cervantes, Marianna

253

Bacher, Katharine

248

Green, Juliana

226

Li, Wuyahuang

234

Baltin, Viktor

172

Griffin, Danny

253

Liu, Clare

Berzolla, Zachary

237

Gronda, Annalysse

Liu, Jingyi

104

Bilotti, Jeremy

167

Gruber, Paul

Liu, Wa

150

Boscolo, Arthur

250

Guo, Katherine

100

Lu, Bowen

Brazier, Justin

241

Gupta, Sejal

239

Lu, Kerri

192

Brearly, Jonathon

246

Haile, Nebyu

260

Ludgin, David Austin

128

Brice, James

252

Hirt, Natasha

252

Luk, Artemisia

210

Carmeliet, Dries

Holley, Claire

162

May, Sam

88, 126

28, 196

Li, Felix Li, Kwan Q

Carriker, Bella Carmelita

261

Hong, Rihn

265

Mazumder, Michael

Chee, Grace

206

Hoyle, Benjamin

272

McCann, Tess

Chen, Sophia

214

Huangthanapan, Eakapob

48, 148

McIntosh, Ana

Chi, Pohao

212

Ichikura, Ryuhei

Cousin, Tim

164

Idowu, Jola

238

Covarrubias, Juliana

216

Igarzabal, Lucas

93, 134

196

Cunningham, Joel Austin

250

Jacobsen, Nicole

168

Moyers, Ruth Blair

Curth, Sandy

242

Jiang, Tianze

224

Nahleh, Mohamad

Daftarian, Reza

97, 117 260 246, 248 22 147, 156

index

AlMulla, Nada

85, 256

004

166

Jiang, Weihan

147, 154 52

257, 259, 266 50

McKinlay, Sasha Merzaban, Mandy Mohan, Sahil

Nelson-Arzuaga, Chloe

259

de Maille, Austin Charles

247

Jie, Tianhui

239

Desta, Kaleb

248

Jones, Faith

248

Nwigwe, Alexandra

265

Dominguez, Maria Risueno

Jurczynski, Emma

190

Oh, Yoonjae

87, 124

Donovan, Inge

146, 170 108

Kaadan, Rania

Nisar, Hasan

O'ladipo, Yesufu

102

Oikonomaki, Elina

94, 138

Ugorji, Amanda

Ong, Bryan Wen Xi

248

Umubyeyi, Carene

120

Pankhurst, David

258

Vasikaran, Sangita

265

Parakh, Meenal

200

Velez, Luis Alberto Meouchi

160

Pipitone, Vanessa

194

Vijaykumar, Mona

263

Prince, Jared

236

Volpe, Daniel

240

Purvis, Michaela

216

Waddle, Marisa Concetta

264

Qiu, Lingyi

234

Waft, Catherine

245

Quinn, Hailey

241

Waft, Sylvia

158

Rajkumar, Vijay

110

Waller, Alexandra Lee

Rau, Lasse

132

Wang-Xu, Mackinley

164, 270 96, 133 146, 174

Reinhard, Ellen Marie Rodrigues, Carol-Anne

91, 140 242 89, 136

Wang, Yiqing Wen, Collin

235

Rodriguez, Catalina Monsalve

129

Rotman, Katie

262

Winget, Ainsleigh

127

Schnitzler, Jenna

208

Wong, Erin

Scott, Brandon

164

Wood, Ellen

188

Searight, Tristan

238

Wornell, Joshua

244

Serio, Allison

243

Wu, Jessica

Shafa, Jabran

245, 248

Wu, Melody

Williams, Susan

220

Sheng, Siyuan

189

Xu, Zhifei

193

Sim, Jinyoung

178

Xu, Zhicheng

235

Slavin, Danielle

218

Xu, Ziyu

Soltan, Meriam

Xu, Jackie Qianyue

Song, Alice Jia Li

Yacoby, Yaara

Sunder, Aarti

Young, Elizabeth Lyn L.

182

Sunshine, Gil

204

Younker, Andrew

Swagemakers, Jitske

194

Zanders, Gabriela Degetau

180

Tam, Carolyn

131

Zeng, Iris

162

Tan, Evellyn

147, 181

250

Tan, Michael

258, 263

255

Tang, Sandra

254

Zhang, Maggie

190

Tasistro-Hart, Benjamin

112

Zhang, Xiaoyun Margaret

254

Thomson, Kyle Jeffrey

240

Zhao, Katherine

Titova, Alena

186

Zhao, Mengqiao

170

146, 184

90, 137 222

Torres, Lynced

Tung, Lee Tzu

95, 119 26

Zhang, Daisy Ziyan Zhang, Jenny

Zhong, Calvin Zhu, Emma (Yimeng)

005

Foreword

foreword + letter from editors

The volume you are holding is a companion to one produced in January of 2021. Together, they contain the work and efforts from the MIT Department of Architecture during a year spent — mostly — in exile. In the spring semester of 2021, MIT continued, as in Fall 2020, allowing narrow, three-hour shifts of careful occupation in studios and workshops, a bare minimum of access, and engagement, with the spaces of making and thinking that define our community. ¶ As this volume appears at the beginning of the fall semester, our exile is not, quite over. We now understand how fortunate we are to operate more freely in the spaces that MIT’s Covid protocols have opened up. But, as I wrote in a letter of welcome for the Fall of 2020, in our cautious return there is also that sensation of queuing for a ride at Disneyland; a spatial theater in which one’s truly desired destination reveals itself, again and again, to be further away than expected. ¶ We, likely, will be in a space of tentative return and arrival for some time. In that space, revealed quintessentially in all the work displayed within these pages, we are making a home nevertheless. From the spatial implications of native title, through the interface of technology across distance, to new experiments in domestic computer-controlled fabrication, we are querying the new spatial structures of our world just as surely as we teach and create more traditional building. ¶ The English word foyer has its origin in the word for an illuminated hearth or home, that one passes into from outside. To find our home in a space of perpetual entry — most of all, to find and connect with each other — remains our shared task. Particularly for this past academic year, a space of media — whether virtually or even more strategically, this printed commemoration — has been our home together. And while our entry, or reentry progresses in physical space, it will leave its ongoing trace in lasting transformations to our work together — including the continued, yearly publication of Imprint. ¶ Envisioning this printed record has been a shared effort, with dozens of students joining workshops, lectures and conversations on print and architecture, and undertaking the conception and layout of what you hold. Thanks go to our guests and collaborators in these conversations in the spring of 2021, including Allison Arieff, Cynthia Davidson, Geoff Manaugh, and Dung Ngo. Thanks go also to Amanda Moore, Communications Strategist in the Department of Architecture, to Aidan Flynn, who joined this work as a postgraduate fellow in its final stages, and to Lecturer Miko McGinty, who facilitated and supported these conversations, beginning in the summer of 2020. And thanks finally to the students who conceived and created this publication, and all the work within.

006

With appreciation,

Nicholas de Monchaux Department Head Cambridge, August 2021

Letter from the Editors

As we look forward to the fall semester, we can’t help but take one last chance to think about just how much has changed this past year. The first issue, Imprint 01, addressed our community in a moment riddled with uncertainty. There was little clarity in regards to vaccine status, and the idea of holding in-person classes was questionable at best. Where we began the year is quite different from our current reality, and likely different from what lies ahead. And yet, in the face of this near constant change, we are reminded that, in a lot of ways, things are still very much the same. ¶ Amidst efforts to get a handle on the pandemic, forest fires and flash floods continue to ravage the country. The relentless rise in temperature and sea levels prove that, much like the pandemic, climate change isn’t some distant, dystopian future— it’s now. And while the world has just demonstrated its ability to both suddenly and drastically find solutions to global crises, radical action has still not been exercised in regards to climate change.

¶ Reframing our approach to crisis is key to tackling these issues. No singular phenomenon is inherently negative, including climate change, but rather offers a set of characteristics to be observed, analyzed and designed for. Flooding threatens our communities not because it is inherently bad, but because the buildings we live in are not yet designed to account for changing environmental conditions. We must evolve to exist and interact within this multi-faceted, multi-scalar framework. Until then, the impact of these disasters will be felt everywhere, and they will impact our most vulnerable populations most intensely. ¶ The pandemic is not other to climate change, nor does it exist outside of our fight against racism, or our work towards various other matters of social justice. These issues make and shape each other, and to work on one is to address them all. It is across the following pages that we hope to draw work from across the department into these larger conversations with the understanding that immediate, effective change is possible. Only then might we collectively envision a future premised on the possibility and opportunity of the challenges we face.

Sincerely,

Bella + Carol-Anne + Meriam Cambridge, June 2021 007

Together Again

Photos courtesy of Daisy Ziyan Zhang, Amanda Ugorji and Bella Carmelita Carriker.

008

009

Spring 2021 Lecture Series NAMA and the architecture of the Amazon A research studio conversation with Marcos Cereto, Angelo Bucci, & Xhulio Binjaku Architecture and Urbanism

02.25 Cereto presented his research of Severiano Porto’s architecture, the “Architect of the Amazon.” Presenting his buildings alongside his legacy from these new architectures, Cereto posited that these works express architectural decisions that use the skills of local labor in the management of industrial and forestry techniques with the tradition of modern Brazilian architecture.

Clockwise from Top Left: Marcos Cereto, Xhulio Binjaku, Angelo Bucci, Cristina Parreño Alonso.

Mohamed Kamal Elshahed “Surveying Modern Architecture: The Case of Cairo” Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture

Clockwise from Top Left: Nasser Rabbat, Mohamed Elshahed, Manar Moursi.

010

03.04 Historians tend to be preoccupied with questions of style, influence, and genealogy. Cairo, like many cities across the world, particularly across the ‘Global South,’ presents challenges to such approaches. As architects often operate anonymously as part of state institutions in autocratic regimes, styles are the exception not the norm, and architectural history is best read as a networked set or relations rather than a linear progression.

Christiana Moss “Joy Within” Building Technology

Left to Right: Christiana Moss, Cristoph Reinhart

Future Blueprints of Justice A research studio conversation with Oana Stănescu, Sheriece Perry, Virgil Abloh & Nóra Al Haider Architecture and Urbanism

03.11 Christiana Moss, FAIA, NCARB presented the viewpoint and work of Studio Ma, an architecture firm focused on designing inspiring environments for all. Beginning with the concept of ma — understood in Japan as “the space between” — the firm’s approach explores the aspect (function) and the felt aspect (joy) of any space. In this way, ma is both a perspective and a dynamic relationship between object and environment. Attending to this relationship allows a balancing of the given approach, guiding the studio’s work toward the highest possible value for all.

03.18 In 2020 the justice system, predicated on conservatism and hostility to innovation, was forced into change. The unusual set of circumstances enabled the instantaneous digitization of the courts, creating a ripple effect that will continue to reverberate over the coming years, if not decades. The studio looked at the Massachusetts Court System and aimed to take stock of this moment of change and investigate a future for the hybrid, virtual and physical spaces of justice. This conversation, an early milestone for the studio, touched on the research and documentation done thus far and set the tone for how to redesign blueprints of justice, and, with that, the system itself.

Clockwise from Top Left: Oana Stănescu, Sheriece Perry, Virgil Abloh, Nо́ra Al Haider.

011

WAI Think Tank “Conversations on Care” Critical Broadcasting Lab

Left to Right: Ana Miljacki, Cruz Garcia, Nathalie Frankowski.

Mariam Kamara “How We Narrate Our Yesterday Determines How We Imagine the Future of Architecture”

Clockwise from Top Left: Mariam Kamara, Kiley Feickert, Nada AlMulla, Nicholas de Monchaux, Mohamed Ismail.

012

03.25 WAI Architecture Think Tank is a planetary studio practicing by questioning the political, historical, and material legacy and imperatives of architecture and urbanism. Founded in Brussels during the financial crisis of 2008 by Puerto Rican architect, artist, curator, educator, author, and theorist Cruz Garcia along with French architect, artist, curator, educator, author and poet Nathalie Frankowski, WAI is one of their several platforms of public engagement that include Beijing-based anti-profit art space Intelligentsia Gallery, and the free and alternative education platform and trade-school Loudreaders.

04.08 Mariam Kamara is an architect from Niger who studied architecture at the University of Washington. In 2013, she became a founding member of architectural collective, united4design, which collaborated on Niamey2000, a housing development that was awarded Architect Magazine’s 2017 R+D Award for innovation. In 2014, Kamara founded atelier masōmī, an architecture and research practice that tackles public, cultural, residential, commercial and urban design projects. Kamara believes that architects have an important role to play in creating spaces that elevate, dignify, and provide people with a better quality of life.

Happening Now A research studio conversation with Catie Newell, Virginia San Fratello, Brandon Clifford & Zain Karsan Architecture and Urbanism

Left to Right, Top: Zain Karsan, Virginia San Fratello, Brandon Clifford. Left to Right, Bottom: Catie Newell, Daisy Ziyan Zhang, Tristan Searight.

Azra Akšamija “Future Heritage” Art, Culture and Technology

04.15 The act of making is a powerful method for thinking and designing. Yet, the complexities surrounding fabrication often act as barriers to entry for students of architecture, especially during a pandemic. Through their research, work, and teaching Catie Newell, Virginia San Fratello, Brandon Clifford, and Zain Karsan are working to re-imagine the relationships between education and fabrication. Together, they shared their own experiences with material production and the range of approaches they each take in manifesting transformative work. In conversation with students, they reflected upon how the pandemic has shifted this territory and their approach to research and teaching.

04.22 In this lecture, Akšamija presented the recent work of the MIT Future Heritage Lab, an experimental laboratory that invents creative responses to conflict and crisis by working at the intersection of art, culture, and preservation technologies. Facilitating transcultural exchange and collaborations across borders, the lab brings together a wide network of individuals and organizations from various places to jointly imagine utopian programs, perform ameliorative gestures, and realize transformative projects. The lab’s work rests on the belief that culture is an essential human need.

Clockwise from Top Left: Azra Akšamija, Sean Anderson, Ulrike Al-Khamis.

013

The Hospital “The Allure of Complexity” 30th Arthur H. Schein Memorial Lecture

Clockwise from Top Left: Christine Binswanger, Jason Frantzen, Eytan Levi, Hashim Sarkis, Latifa Alkhayat.

Joseph Kunkel “Bridging Boundaries in Native and Non-Native Communities: An Architecture for Wealth-Building and Equitable Opportunity” The MIT NOMAS Lecture

Clockwise from Top Left: Joseph Kunkel, Amanda Ugorji, Naré Filiposyan.

014

04.23 For far too long hospital design has been an exclusive discipline of healthcare specialists. While functionality and technical requirements are large components of hospital architecture, there is great space for creativity. From mediating between various stakeholders, to navigating technical requirements, to imagining how a patient room can contribute to healing and how better connections between medical departments can increase doctor collaboration; the architect, inherently fascinated with complexity, is the perfect ‘generalist’ for the job. As a typology, the hospital is one of the most pressing to address; hospital stock is aging and in need of replacement. Within this context, Christine Binswanger and Jason Frantzen discuss the hospital as a healing habitat and its role as an integral organ of the city. Starting with REHAB Basel, which opened in 2002, Herzog & de Meuron are developing a reputation for designing hospitals that care — for patients, for relatives, for employees, for cities, and for their surroundings.

04.29 Joseph, a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, is a Principal at MASS Design Group, where he directs the Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a community designer and educator, focused on sustainable development practices throughout Indian Country. His work includes exemplary Indian housing projects and processes nationwide. His professional career has centered on community-based design, materials research, fabrication, and construction.

Engineering Independence “Concrete Architecture in the Global South” Building Technology

Clockwise from Top Left: Baba Oladeji, John Ochsendorf, Aziza Chaouni.

Felecia Davis “Seams: Race, Architecture and Design Computing” Design and Computation

Clockwise from Top Left: Felicia Ann Davis, Lavender Tessmer, Elina Oikonomaki.

04.30 Engineering Independence: Concrete Architecture in the Global South explored the global dynamics and local factors that shaped the work of structural designers in the Global South, highlighting significant contributions largely omitted from conventional western scholarship. The symposium was organized and developed by students and faculty in the 4.s48 Collaborations in Concrete seminar, led this spring by Caitlin Mueller and Mohamed Ismail. During the second half of the twentieth century, countries throughout the Global South gained independence from colonial rule. Subsequently, many newly-formed nation states commissioned grand architectural monuments that declared their newfound position on the global stage. At a time when material costs far outweighed the costs of labor, architects and engineers worked in close collaboration to realize these iconic and, quite often, materially efficient structures. A growing understanding of concrete’s structural potential paired with the widespread availability of its component materials meant that many of these architectural visions were realized in concrete.

05.06 Felecia Davis’ work in computational textiles questions how we live, and she re-imagines how we might use textiles in both our daily lives and architecture. Computational textiles are textiles that are responsive to cues in the environment, using sensors and microcontrollers on textiles that use the changeable properties of the material itself to communicate information to people. In architecture, these responsive textiles used in lightweight shelters are transforming how we communicate, socialize, and use space. Davis is interested in developing computational methods and design in relation to specific bodies in specific places, engaging social, cultural and political constructions.

015

Anna ArabindanKesson “Vision and Value: Cotton and the Materiality of Race” History, Theory and Criticism

05.13 This talk examined the visual relationship between the cotton trade and the representation of the Black body in American culture, using historical case studies and contemporary art. Juxtaposing contemporary interventions with historical moments, it examined how cotton materially influenced the way Black bodies were seen, and how Black Americans saw themselves as both enslaved and free Americans. It argued that tracing this relationship deepens our understanding of the intersections of vision, value, and subjectivity in the production of racial identity in both nineteenth-century America and today.

Left to Right: Anna Arabindan-Kesson, Hampton Smith.

Hawai‘i Non-Linear A research studio conversation with Chris Leong, Dominic Leong, Sean Connelly & Sanford Kwinter Architecture and Urbanism

Left to Right, Top: Sean Connelly, Dominic Leong, Sanford Kwinter. Left to Right, Bottom: Christopher Leong, Jola Idowu, Sam May.

016

05.20 Hawai‘i is the most remote landmass in the world on the frontier of the COVID and climate crisis. This talk aimed to reintroduce the concept of Hawai‘i to the United States, technically and spiritually, as part of an ongoing exploration to empower indigenous Hawaiian knowledge and the local ecologies of guardianship that Mary Kawena Pukui described as “utilizing the resources of sustenance to a maximum.” The talk foregrounded US settler colonialism not as a singular historical event of the past but as a dynamic militarized system of occupation that continues to impose ecological devastation upon the Hawaiian Islands while perpetuating racial injustices against Hawaiian people (Kānaka Maoli). Whereas, the current grassroots efforts to restore the indigenous systems of land use, governance, and cultivation contrast existing urbanism as well as the US military’s spatial occupations of the Pacific since 1898. Importantly, Hawai‘i presents an example where indigenous knowledge is a lifestyle; a mountain-to-ocean connection; a nutrient system; a spatial configuration; a technology; and a way of interaction that is uniquely oceanic. Through the concepts of this work Hawai‘i Non-Linear suggests a new phenomenology for architecture and future possibilities of what it means to be an architect.

Hawai‘i Non-Linear: Hawai‘i Atlas Islands. Image courtesy of Sean Connelly.

017

ACT Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Through an integrated approach to pedagogy, public events programming, exhibitions, and publications, ACT builds a community of artist-thinkers exploring art’s complex relationship to culture and technology.

Selected Course Descriptions

Art Culture Technology

4.390 Art, Culture and

018

Technology Studio • Critics: Azra Aksamija and Gediminas Urbonas • TA: Alice Song

ACT Studio explores the theory and criticism of intersections between art, culture, and technology in relation to contemporary artistic practice, critical design, and media. Students consider methods of investigation, documentation, and display while exploring modes of communication across disciplines. Students develop projects in which they organize research methods and goals, engage in production, cultivate a context for their practice, and explore how to compellingly communicate, display, and document their work. Regular presentation and peer-critique sessions, as well as reviews involving ACT faculty and fellows, and external guest reviewers provide students with ample feedback as their projects develop.

→P. 024

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

019

aartisun History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Aarti Sunder SMACT Candidate ¶ 4.390 ACT Spring 2021 ¶ Critics: Azra Akšamija, Tobias Putrih, Gediminas Urbonas

“

A Location in Parts ¶ My practice over the last two years has attempted to re-think and re-align fictions that can be born out of investigating specific material situations and asks if these fictions help us re-think the ways in which we understand technology and our relationship with it. Projects include contemporary labor practices, fictional edges of protest, myth, and digital-terrestrial play. The attempt is to chart out a socio-cultural and creative apparatus — where individuals, graphics, work, and play coincide. Here ‘play,’ ‘plot,’ and ‘site’ interact with labor, data-sets, the virtual, and collective imagination.

”

020

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

021

chipohao Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Pohao Chi SMACT Candidate ¶ 4.390 ACT Spring 2021 ¶ Critics: Azra Akšamija, Tobias Putrih, Gediminas Urbonas

“

Harmony in Precarity is about making an augmented musical interface to explore unfamiliar moments free from verticality. The rootless state in parabolas is a metaphor and generative method for ‘precarity.’ Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day introduces precarity's original meaning as ‘depending on the will or pleasure of another,’ which comes from the Latin for prayer. Precarity is everywhere, it seems. Perhaps it is, as Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing writes, ‘the condition of our time.’ It is also the defining feature of an entire class of people, the precariat. ¶ In outer space, the remnants of artifacts are becoming the relics of a new frontier. I regard the precarious spatiality and materiality as an emerging form of sonic thought and imagination on space exploration. ¶ The musical interface can function as a wearable medium that reacts to the operator’s body dynamic or as an autonomous device with weightlessness. It simulates "rainstick," an ancient musical instrument used by natives of South America to summon wind and rain and avoid drought. With multiple stick-piezo connected to extended springs inside plastic tubes as a contact microphone, the system captures piezoelectric signals when particles hit and transmit vibrations and collisions of fragmented debris inside the device to a customized sonification program during weightless periods.

”

022

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

023

chocampo Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Chucho (Jesús) Ocampo Aguilar SMACT Candidate ¶ 4.390 ACT Spring 2021 ¶ Critics: Azra Akšamija, Tobias Putrih, Gediminas Urbonas

“

How to Never Walk in a Straight Line Again is an ongoing research project aimed towards formulating a methodology to reimagine new ways of experiencing the environment and our relation to more-than-human entities. Using erring as a tool to try to understand found structures — the physical, architectonical, visual and sonic — the project seeks to disrupt linear narratives in the built environment and the bureaucratization of the environment to challenge preconceptions around scale, use-function, migration, bureaucracy, citizenship, and movement.

”

024

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

025

emmazhu Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Emma (Yimeng) Zhu SMACT Candidate ¶ 4.390 ACT Spring 2021 ¶ Critics: Azra Akšamija, Tobias Putrih, Gediminas Urbonas

“

Space in-between the Lines ¶ This research project explores the creative use of machine learning in proposing and narrating alternative world models. Counter to the ways that machine learning has tended to maximize efficiencies, or the ways that computational ‘brute force’ techniques have been used to analyze and categorize enormous ‘data sets,’ I am proposing a type of ‘machine imagination’ that offers a way to converse and think collectively.

”

026

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

027

que Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Kwan Q Li SMACT Candidate ¶ 4.390 ACT Spring 2021 ¶ Critics: Azra Akšamija, Tobias Putrih, Gediminas Urbonas

“

Insomniac/Amnesiac (2021) is a mixed-media VR installation that meanders the boundaries of human and artificial intelligence, dream and allegory, cinematic and virtual realities. ¶ The multimedia manifestation is speculative fiction in which an advancement of machine dreaming and the prevalence of an insomniac population have rewritten the biological and temporal protocols of day and night.

”

028

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

029

tzutung Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Lee Tzu Tung SMACT Candidate ¶ 4.390 ACT Spring 2021 ¶ Critics: Azra Akšamija, Tobias Putrih, Gediminas Urbonas

“

Failures of Fathers ¶ Vee’s father once obtained the entry permit to Taiwan issued by Kuomingtang (KMT, lit. Chinese Nationalist Party). However, he eventually got married in Hong Kong and stayed till he passed away. In the play, Vee’s absent father(s) had finally come to Taiwan — without any political boundaries. Vee would have the chance to realize her nostalgia as well as fantasy, to play and to talk with the man again.

”

030

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

031

waliu Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Wa Liu SMACT Candidate ¶ 4.390 ACT Spring 2021 ¶ Critics: Azra Akšamija, Tobias Putrih, Gediminas Urbonas

“

Late Night Savage ¶ My project focuses on a critical and artistic research on plants at three closed cities where nuclear weapons were developed during the Cold War. While the three sites were guided by conflicting political ideologies, each plant represents a distinctive form of non-human knowledge that contributes to the fundamental relationship between humans and nature.

”

032

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

033

weihanj Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Weihan Jiang SMACT Candidate ¶ 4.390 ACT Spring 2021 ¶ Critics: Azra Akšamija, Tobias Putrih, Gediminas Urbonas

“

Riverbed is composed of several vignettes and fictional anecdotes that work together to create a nonlinear spatiotemporal narrative that floats through the river, where the artificial boundaries are questioned. Ambiguities overflow from the porous riverbed that refuses to be demarcated. As we are moving into the future with dried up cities and submerged lands, we can also embrace the pluriverse.

”

034

035

HTC Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

This program aims to produce leading-edge scholars and intellectuals in the field of art and architectural history through a strong emphasis on historiography and analytical methodologies.

Selected Course Descriptions

History Theory Criticism

11.494 Cities of Contested

036

Memory• Critic: Delia Wendel

Explores relationships between built environments and memory to consider the spaces and spatial practices in which the future of the past is imagined, negotiated, and contested. Focuses on three areas of critical importance to understanding the nature of memory in cities today: the threats that rapid urban development pose to the remembrance of urban pasts; the politics of representation evident in debates over authorized and marginalized historical narratives; and the art and ethics of sensitively addressing the afterlives of violence and tragedy. Emphasizes group discussions and projects as means to explore collective and counter memories, the communities that are formed therein, and the economic, social, and political forces that lift up certain memories over others to shape the legacy of the past.

→P. 042

4.640 Advanced Study in

Critical Theory of Architecture: Architecture and the Political Economy of Development• Critics: Arindam Dutta • TA: Manar Moursi

Advanced seminar. Looks at architecture and planning doctrines in what has come to be known as the development decades, the high period of state intervention into so-called Third World economies under the aegis of the Bretton Woods exchange system (c. 1945-1971), followed by its aftermath in the dismantlement and restructuring of state power to aid so-called

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52 privatization and austerity doctrines. The course will take up various components that intersected with architectural thinking in this era of development: land and tenure, infrastructure, housing, finance, administration, relating them to influential economic doctrines of the time as well as the ideological tendencies of governments in the Third World. Particular attention will be paid to the circuit of technocratic experts patronized by the Bretton Woods organizations as well as the neocolonial politics of foreign aid. Attention will be paid to how architects and related experts on questions of space responded to the bureaucratic and institutional frameworks of international and

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other national development. Also of interest is the intersection of the latter history of architectural modernism with the social sciences, from anthropology, econometrics to systems theory, etc. Requires original research and presentation of oral and written report.

→P. 048

4.677 Advanced Study in

the History of Art — Landscape Experience• Critic: Caroline A. Jones • TA: Indrani Saha

This seminar explores land as a genre, theme, and medium of art and architecture of the last five decades, working with the concept of lamination – layerings of political, juridical, aesthetic, economic, and other habitations, uses, claims of ownership, rightof-way, or rituals that traverse shared terrain. Examining major works of land art (aka Earthworks) in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, we will also endeavor to visit laminated landscapes and more modest land art accessible from Cambridge. Our focus is largely on the United States, but students are welcome to broaden this purview through shared research and presentations in seminar. In

choosing the US, we will seek to understand how the use of land in art and architecture is bound up with complicated entanglements of property and power, settler colonialism, legacies of non-EuroAmerican traditions, and how the term landscape is variously deployed in the service of a range of political and philosophical positions. The work of artists, architects, and writers on art and architectural theory can offer rich insights into the tangled nexus of phenomenology, pilgrimage, and property development that has been conjured by landscape, in history and at present.

→P. 050 037

mariame Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Mariam Elnozahy SMArchS Candidate ¶ AKPIA ¶ 11.494 Cities of Contested Memory ¶ Critic: Delia Wendel

The Hospital as a Site of Counter-Memory in Mosul, Iraq In envisioning the hospital as a site of countermemory, I seek to trace the contours of concepts in memory discourse such as trauma, healing, rehabilitation, and restoration, specifically in post-war contexts. The hospital is not only an integral cornerstone in post-war reconstruction architecture, but a monument to victims of warfare, and a commitment to a peaceful future. The hospital, as opposed to a graveyard, a wartime monument, a statue, or a manifesto, is a generative monument, one that commemorates resilience through rehabilitation, and remembers violence through efforts to heal individual members of post-war populations. In wartime contexts, hospital typologies often take the form of emergency architecture or makeshift architecture. Temporary structures such as field hospitals and medical tents are a testament to the immediacy of countering wartime violence, and, moreover, the immediacy of erecting counter-memory structures. These structures center acts of reconstruction, rehabilitation, and restoration, in a simultaneous effort to restore physiological health and produce memories oriented towards reconstructive futures. The entrypoint to this study is Hisham Munir’s 1964 construction of the Ibn Sina Teaching Hospital in the city of Mosul: the first project he completed upon his return to Iraq after graduating from the University of Southern California. The hospital was one of many initiatives carried out by Munir in partnership with The Architects Collaborative (TAC) to usher in a vision of modernist advancement in architecture and infrastructure in Iraq. The Ibn Sina Teaching hospital built by Munir was damaged by US airstrikes in a battle for control of

038

the old city of Mosul in 2016–2017. In Hisham Munir’s archive is a 2015 architectural drawing entitled ‘Sketch of an unbuilt system of concrete canopies at the University of Mosul Teaching Hospital,’ a curiously timed sketch that prompted further investigation into the history of hospital architecture in Iraq and beyond.1 In the Ibn Sina Teaching Hospital, the concrete canopies marked the entry way of the hospital. Munir’s initiation of plans for a new hospital — which never came to fruition — were intriguing both in form and symbolic value. In his drawing, the harsh ragged lines rise from the ground to elevation while the diagonal line — often used in architectural sketches to indicate movement — situating the rising canopies, points to a sort of kineticism. The dynamism contained in the preliminary sketch of the entryway is gerundic in form, not dissimilar to the linguistic function of the word ‘beginning,’ an apt likeness for a proposed hospital entryway. There is a notable amount of literature on the development of post-war architectural typologies for hospitals in America. Following the Hospital Survey and Construction Act (also known as the Hill-Burton Act) in 1946, federal funding was available to communities of all sizes to build hospitals all over America.2 Over one thousand two hundred hospitals were made possible by federal funding, signifying a typological shift that preferred office-like structures that mimicked ideal health conditions to the pre-war pavilion-like structures that sought to integrate the environment into the hospital, in hopes of channeling healing properties of sunlight and fresh air.

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Munir’s hospital structure tackles key methodological debates in approaches towards health architecture and infrastructure, situating Mosul within an architectural discourse happening seven thousand miles away, in the United States. In America, the transformation in ideological conceptions of architecture and health was well underway; whereas in pre-war hospital contexts, the environment was seen as a key factor in medical rehabilitation. In post-war hospital contexts, the environment was rendered secondary to modern medical technologies, pharmacological advancements, and doctors’ expertise.3 Munir’s structure carried all of these ideals, and more: in bringing new, modern conceptions of health infrastructure to Mosul, Munir thrust Mosul into the world, tightening the seven-thousand mile gap that had previously situated Mosul ‘behind’ the United States. In Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela’s work ‘Aesthetics of Memory, Witness to Violence and a Call to Repair,’ she writes about ‘Remembering Through the Body,’ in reference to Truth and Reconciliation Commission testimonies such as those of Nomonde Calata, wherein she lets out a scream in remembrance of her husband, whose body was desecrated by apartheid security forces. Gobodo-Madikizela discusses the visibility of trauma in the violent movement of Calata’s body, as it is thrown back in remembrance of horrors past.4 If we are to adopt Gobodo-Madikizela’s analysis of embodied trauma and embodied remembrance, we can perhaps begin to think of bodily healing as an effort to complement, perhaps even, idealistically, counter, corporeal trauma. In formulating bodily healing as a counter-memory effort, the hospital then becomes both site and witness. As a site, the hospital makes space for processes of rehabilitation and healing, specifically in post-war contexts such as Mosul. As a witness, the hospital documents, records, and validates post-war injuries. In doing so, it renders trauma empirical, and renders statistics — such as numbers or percentages of reported deaths, mortality rates, injuries, and disappearances — human.

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Above: Sketch of an unbuilt system of concrete canopies at the University of Mosul Teaching Hopsital, Below: Ibn Sina Teaching Hospital, Both images courtesy of the Hashim Munir Archive; AKDC@MIT.

Hisham Munir Archive, Aga Khan Documentation Center,

MIT Libraries (AKDC@MIT) 2 KISACKY, JEANNE. "Postwar Hospital Design Trends." In Rise of the Modern Hospital: An Architectural History of Health and Healing, 1870-1940, 338-46. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017. 3 Ibid. 4 Gobodo-Madikizela, Pumla. “Aesthetics of Memory, Witness to Violence and a Call to Repair.” Post-Conflict Hauntings, 2020, pp. 119–149., doi:10.1007/978-3030-39077-8_6.

039

msoltan Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Meriam Soltan SMArchS Candidate ¶ AKPIA ¶ 11.494 Cities of Contested Memory ¶ Critic: Delia Wendel

Remembering Memories with My Family “On the basis of some information, and a little bit of guesswork, you journey to a site to see what remains were left behind and to reconstruct the world that these remains imply.” Toni Morrison, ‘The Site of Memory,’ p. 192

wheelchair in January and step carefully towards that same cushioned seat on the terrace. “Just like always,” she’d said with a shaky smile, and we laughed, happy not just to have her home, but to have her chair filled again.

My grandmother’s home is dark and poorly ventilated, but it has this magnificent terrace that overlooks the entire village. It only has enough room for a table, some chairs, and a couch, but it’s where I remember spending most of my summers. Parched and tired after long games of hide and seek, it’s where my cousins and I would lay a cheek to its cool terrazzo tiling and sip at sweet, pinapple flavored bonjus. Family would step over us on their way into the kitchen, only to reemerge with glasses of tea and Turkish coffee. They’d pull out the plastic green chairs and side tables tucked into the corner beneath the TV and seat themselves along the balustrade that overlooked Tata’s garden. One aunt would reach out a hand to the lemon tree and pick one to slice up for their mint tea, while another passed around a box of old chocolates and strawberry candies my grandmother insisted she unearthed from the closet in her bedroom.

I’d started this project wondering if memory could be scaled, if it could move across time and space, from the personal, to the collective, and maybe even back again. Because if memory is immortalized at the scale of the monument, could it not also exist here, at the scale of a plastic green chair on the terrace of a family home? Rebecca Solonit says that “To love someone is to put yourself in their place… which is to put yourself in their story, or figure out how to tell yourself their story.” And a big part of that will always be what Marianne Hirsch frames as “remembering other people’s memories.” What follows is my attempt to tell my Tata’s story by remembering her memories, the ones she has passed down to her children, who now pass them on to me. I receive them in fragments, from parents that don’t much like to remember a childhood marred by war and displacement. But with Tata’s permission, I place myself in her cushioned seat and follow her across the highway to the home she’d raised my father in. It is there that we together trace a path into the past through the spaces that continue to embody it. The short stories that follow bring together sketches, conversations, and photographs in an attempt to make sense of the fragments through which our shared story is related to me. Although brief, the short stories detailed herein are envisioned as entry points for potential future research on displacement, solidarity, and memorialization.

The chairs and tables would be rearranged to allow for the arrival of more neighbors and friends, but the only constant on that terrace was my Tata’s chair. Sturdy and cushioned, its where she’d take her meals and have her cigarettes. There she’d pick through lentils, stuff cabbage, and press olives for her children, now grown and moved far, far away. And even when she spent the better part of last year in the hospital, it was around that empty chair that we gathered, and it’s to it that she eventually returned. I remember watching her ease out of a

040

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Above: Backyard of family home Left: Rooms and corridors across the family house Photos by Author, 2021

041

maggiefr Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Maggie Freeman PhD Candidate ¶ AKPIA ¶ 11.494 Cities of Contested Memory ¶ Critic: Delia Wendel

Numen Inest: A Poetic Un-Essay on the Bedouin, the Built Environment, Orientalism, and Ghosts I. Introduction

Qusayr ‘Amra drawn 1902 by Aloïs Musil, in Kuṣejr ’Amra Und Andere Schlösser Östlich von Moab: Topographische Reisebericht.

to study the races which inhabit these wilds is an objective of deep interest and scientific import in my notes I recorded what they spoke their imaginations vivid but not creative the Bedouin point it out to me: the road to an ancient town buried beneath the sands allegedly according to their tradition II. The Bedouin wanderers desert dwellers tent dwellers camel breeders uncouth uncultured unsophisticated unlearned loafers of the very worst class

042

rootless shiftless practically useless a stout nomad nature hardy and virile poor and benighted Ishmaelites the desert spirit the wild tribes living in heavy black tents a man apart imagine being driven perpetually from pillar to post living in tents tombs caves the ruins of temples time means nothing to them

III. Qusayr ‘Amra I first heard tell of the castle in the Moab a forsaken settlement where a ghost is said to dwell where the wheel is still unknown and the tribes know the authority of no ruler or prince we approached at dawn a cloud enveloped the castle gloomy as if it were forsaken by heaven itself a grotesque structure gray desolate no wonder the Arabs attribute such a place to none but the ghoul

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118 inhabited by an evil spirit no Bedouin would pitch his tent there but they bury their dead in shallow graves round the castle or they abandon their bodies inside the walls a number of desiccated corpses owls circle over the graves to the Bedouin these are the jinn they also call them mother of ruins

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52 a meeting place of considerable importance aloof from fear by day only in the night a long, strange wailing round the towers outside what is it? the dogs of the Beni Hillal quested the six towers each night for their dead masters the mythical builders of the fort no Bedouin would lie outside in wait for the mystery

IV. Qasr al-Azraq a ruin of the Roman period made by a prince of the border a desert-palace for his queen the Arabs believed talking of the wars songs passions of the early shepherd kings who had loved this place

their ghost-watch our ghostly guardians it remained a legend a man has died of cold we buried him in the little graveyard

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other we spoke of superstition and of fears that clutch the heart at night there are certain places where the Arabs would never venture after dark haunted wells ruins hollows to which thirsty men dared not approach where the weary would not seek shelter bad camping grounds for the solitary what did they fear? who could tell what men feared every Arab in the desert fears the other fears the smoke the desert always looks terrifying from the outside

VI. Conclusion

V. Qasr Kharana

vague memories of a past age

magically haunted each stone or blade radiant with half-memory

ruin? or castle? indifferently, the Arabs call it either

they know how to rejoice in the great spaces or at least they used to

a famous palace, queen of these oases beautiful as ever empty of Arabs Azrak the remote

every stone like the ghost of a hearth in which the warmth of Arab life was hardly visible

Bedouin ways a death in life numen inest there is a spirit here

043

jackiex3 Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Jackie Qianyue Xu SMArchS Candidate ¶ HTC ¶ 4.640 Architecture and the Political Economy of Development ¶ Critic: Arindam Dutta

The Politics of Malnutrition and the “Malnutrition” of Politics: The Discovery and Maintenance of Malnutrition as a Field of Nutritional Science in Africa In the 1935 edition of League of Nations: Quarterly Bulletin of the Health Organization, member states were explicitly urged to investigate the nutritional status of their respective colonial subjects: “the fact that the greater part of the population of Africa and Asia... suffers from insufficient or faulty feeding is no longer a secret, and there is more honor to be gained in attempting to improve the situation than in concealing it.”1 The statement was an anchoring of the 1933 full Assembly of the League of Nations, where a Report on Nutrition and Public Health was considered. Summarizing the nutritional surveys done in member countries in the previous years, the report proclaimed that, based on the solid evidence shown in the compounded surveys, attention should be paid to nutrition as an integral part of public health policy and administration. Together, the aforementioned claims and call for action signaled the nutritional awakening in “developing” colonies and the emergence of nutrition as a field of study in its own right. Focusing on colonial and internationalist nutritional intervention in Africa in the mid- and late-nineteenth century, this paper examines the “discovery” and maintenance of malnutrition as a field of nutritional science in the continent. I will be looking at the constructedness of kwashiorkor, which was attributed to protein deficiency in local diets, and the corresponding obsession with protein that led to what Donald S. McLaren branded as “the great protein fiasco.”2 I also argue that the life and death of agencies situated in what James E. Austin terms “the International Nutrition Institutional Network”3 and the coordination (and the lack thereof) of nutrition care and aid

044

between them mirror the ostensibly technicalized yet essentially rhizomatic and chaotic dietetic malnutrition these agencies were grappling with—what I call the “malnutrition” of politics. The following questions regarding experts, criteria of measurements, the learning ability of systems, etc., will be asked along the way: What agencies were responsible for the “discovery” of malnutrition in developing regions? What is at stake when the complex etiology of malnutrition is reduced to a single dimension of the quantity of protein in one’s diet, the cure of which can be framed in narrowly technical terms? Is there a stickiness of earlier colonial conception of malnutrition that extends into postcolonial nutrition care in former colonies? If so, what are its manifestations in the approaches and solutions formulated and tried? Throughout the paper, I echo the positionality taken by John Nott when investigating an ethically complex topic like the one of malnutrition: while not dismissing development and progress made, it should be acknowledged that “inroads against malnutrition have often more accurately reflected Western political anxieties than contemporary understandings of best practice.”4

Etienne Burnet and Wallace Ruddell Aykroyd, “Nutrition

and Public Health,” League of Nations: Quarterly Bulletin of the Health Organization 4 (1935): 452. 2 Donald S. Mclaren, “The Great Protein Fiasco,” The Lancet 304, no. 7872 (July 1974): 93-96. 3 James E. Austin, “Institutional Dimensions of the Malnutrition Problem,” International Organization 32, no. 3 (Summer 1978): 811–36. 4 John Nott, “‘How Little Progress’? A Political Economy of Postcolonial Nutrition,” Population and Development Review 44, no. 4 (October 2018): 791.

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Manufactured by the French company Nutriset, Plumpy’Nut is an example of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food marketed to address severe acute malnutrition at home. Still available on the market today, the product echoes the long history of commercialized neoliberal nutrition care through synthetic therapeutic foods. Capitalizing on the protein gap narrative, Euro-American corporations like Nestlé, Coca-Cola, and British Petroleum partnered with local governments in the 1970s to develop synthetic protein-rich foodstuffs using fish protein concentrate, soya, peanut, sesame, algal protein, sunflower, and synthetic amino acids. At a time when heavily constructed foods served as a prop in dystopian fictions in the so-called developed countries (examples include the amphetamine-laced milk in the 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange), the “protein gap” was still giving birth to high-modernist technical fixes for the malnourished in the developing regions while reeling in profits for transnational Euro-American corporations through restrictive licensing.

045

bos Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Brandon Scott PhD Candidate ¶ HTC ¶ 4.677 Landscape Experience ¶ Critic: Caroline Jones

On Water’s Land A concluding excerpt of an essay by the same name.

I’ll end here, by doing what I often have, which is beginning. Or seeming to begin. This painting is perhaps the closest Frankenthaler ever comes to wanting to represent the world at its origins. Subject and expression perhaps only completely saturate each other in two moments. In the moment just before the Chasm when all was one and whole, but also in the moment when two things cross to create a third, as when earth and sky make water in Hesiod.1 This kind of moment may be called that of Eros. Arcadia as the title suggests is the world made new by more generation not the world collapsed back into total unity. But its name must not be mistaken for idyll and fête champêtre nor must its Eros be mistaken for romance and love. That would twice impair the work by attenuating its relational landscape capacity by sublimating it into the “Greenbergian pastoral” as Caroline Jones calls it, and it would bind the erotic force of the work by wresting its desire into a monogamous binary (between the paint and canvas).2 There is a tradition of Arcadia that is all sensuality, confection and ease. Leo Marx would call it “sentimental” and contrast it to another “counterforce” pastoral, which can be experienced in Poussin’s Et in Arcadia Ego that landscape, at once sensual and verdant but also inhabited by death, which in turn affirms the chance for life—and so it is a live place like Odum’s pond and like Frankenthaler’s Arcadia.3 The large dark blue

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feathers out into its turpentine veils vibrating with lush feeling that pools into more dispersed forms from its euphoric center, splatting and spitting outward as an orgasmic sun. The small blue to the left is cooler in feel, color, and form, a heavy fruit that yet seems to float in its afterstain. Between them is that which links this Arcadia to Poussin’s. We scratch our heads at the black, just like the shepherds do before the tomb. They see things which register not as “nature” but as “mark.” They follow it with their fingers. What does it say? What does it mean? It is not for them to know but to one day experience. The gods are there but silent. And just so, the black registers not so much as stain but as mark. What does it say? What does it mean? It is not non-semic but asemic. Yet in its tight form and low position even if we do not know exactly what it means, it gives a feeling of threat the longer we look, as if this “primordial starkness” which is just getting going could wizen and wither—a risk as close as the black is to the green. But it does not occur. Arcadia survives and flourishes into the world of The Bay a year later, a relation we might imagine expressed in blue and green, but foremost in the reddish brown flesh stain that appears between them. The latter work “comes as a shock” to Elderfield because it seems that the “bare, white canvas” that is “so essential” for her art is “gradually becoming concealed.” The Bay “leave[s] only fragments of bare canvas in the upper corners.”4 But the canvas is not “concealed,” it is stained. The “fragments” are not fragments of the canvas’s pure body, but rather that body has changed, enlarged, deepened. The body charged not by the strictures of romantic (Romantic?) love but by a fervent, hungry, roving Eros. The same Eros that Helen had shown her flesh fully saturated by in Scene with Nude (1952).

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Fragonard type love is but a paltry appetizer here. This is the Eros of Hesiod, who we must harken back to once more, for he did not leave the beginning after the Chasm as a stillborn binary between Earth and Tartare. The whole verse is:

First came the Chasm; and then broad-breasted Earth, secure seat forever of all the immortals who occupy the peak of snowy Olympus; the misty Tartara in a remote recess of the broad-pathed earth; and Eros, the most handsome among the immortal gods, dissolver of flesh, who overcomes the reason and purpose in the breasts of all gods and all men.5 As generative and generous as this love is, it is also threatening. The Greek for “dissolver of flesh” alternatively translated as “limb-melter” is also used to describe sleep and death by the poet. Hesiod indeed is suspicious of this kind of love for it threatens “reason and purpose.”6 Yet, it reappears as the “greatest good” when Phaedrus quotes these very lines from Hesiod in Plato’s Symposium—the difference in opinion seeming to be that as long as this love is not pent up but given guide to come out is what matters most.7 In that case, why not seek it? Eros, “the dissolver of flesh” doing away with line so that the bodies of things might spill and touch and stain each other not merely on water’s land, but in it through and through.

The line is: “But then bedded with Heaven, she bore deepswirling Oceanus” See: Hesiod, 7. 2 Caroline Jones, Eyesight Alone: Clement Greenberg's Modernism and the Bureaucratization of the Senses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005, 329. 3 Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden. London: Oxford University Press, 2000. 25-26. 4 Elderfield, Frankenthaler, 166. 5 Ibid, 6. 6 For the alternative translation and more on Hesiod’s conception of love as Eros (which he contrasts to love as Aphrodite) see: Glenn W. Most, “Eros in Hesiod”, (in Erôs in Ancient Greece). London: Oxford University Press, 2013, 172. 7 For a thorough analysis of the Phaedrus speech see: Strauss, Leo. Leo Strauss On Plato's Symposium. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003, 156–65. 1

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anamc Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Ana McIntosh MArch Candidate ¶ 4.677 Landscape Experience ¶ Critic: Caroline Jones

Interrupting the Scenic Experience: Alternative Histories of Yosemite through Audio Intervention This project challenges the romanticized scenic view of Yosemite National Park, offering alternative audio narratives in the physical location of the visitor points along Yosemite Valley. It borrows from Lydon’s archeological approach to landscape, which calls for a constant reflection on landscapes where histories of the European conquerors erased lived experience and “valorized the culture of the conquerors above the memories and experiences of the defeated.”1 This is the condition found at Yosemite National Park. There are detailed accounts from the journals of white men who “discovered” and “conserved” Yosemite, that have driven the current narratives of the park presented today. Interrupting the Scenic Experience prioritizes more inclusive narratives, particularly those related to indigenous histories that go unnoticed. Again, in the words of Lydon, this project provides an alternative reading where the “Western distinction between natural and cultural dimensions of place [are dissolved] by recording the interdependence of spiritual, ceremonial, harvesting and kinship relations with the landscape, focusing on the intangible heritage of place.”2 While the first audio interventions presented focus on the construction of the wilderness myth and the extremely troubling relationship of the Native peoples with the United States and the National Park Service, these stories are only the beginning. The proposal invites future participation of the Native nations and those who lived in the valley to relay their experience, sharing these as the primary narratives presented at Yosemite Valley. It particularly seeks to honor those still present and active in the region today, highlighting their voices in the re-telling of a landscape scarred by violence and removal.

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Starting with the wilderness myth, the project looks back at how prominent readings of Yosemite have been shaped by photographic representation which eventually impacted legislation related to conservation. The production of these photographs and the conservation of not just the place, but the scenic view itself, guided the park management of Yosemite and greatly contributed to the erasure of the lived experiences of the indigenous peoples of the valley, both before and after the valley was visited by white men. Muir’s writings claim that before the white settlers, the valley was uninhabited wilderness, an example of the true erasing of the occupation of the native peoples living there. Dr. Lafayette Bunnell, the Mariposa battalion doctor, also includes writings describing a sublime experience of landscape.3 These accounts of the conqueror’s reconstruction and experience have been strengthened through the art and photography of the region which fueled an approach to conservation that would set the tone for much of the United States and the rest of the world at the expense of the native inhabitants. The series of interventions along the scenic viewpoints in the valley challenge the narratives of the Yosemite “wilderness” that are consumed and perpetuated with each tourist stop at the scenic overlook. They reveal the technics of the constructed view and impart stories about the troubling relationship of the National Park Service with the Native Americans of the region. Although there are seven tribes and groups that are recognized as having inhabited Yosemite, most of the scholarship on these tribes and discusses the Miwok and Paiutes.4 In many of

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these accounts they are collectively referred to as the Yosemite Indians or the Ahwahneechee. Mark Dowie describes the Ahwahneechee as a band of the Miwok tribe under Chief Tenaya in 1851, at the time of the invasion of the Mariposa battalion.5 Five audio interventions existing at different points in the Yosemite Valley developed as part of this project to interrupt the scenic experience. At each location there is a curated reading from a different source that provides an alternative narrative to accompany the scenic view or the history as represented by the National Park service. These interventions are fragments that do not claim to represent a complete history and are only the beginning of narratives presenteed at each tourist spot in the park experience, inculding voices from both the past and present. Through the memory of these auditory experiences manifested in each physical location, the visitor may develop a more complete understanding and complex reading of the landscape that will challenge them to reflect on how their biases and perceptions have been unknowingly shaped by culture and the dominant stories told. The use of audio as opposed to an image or printed text is crucial in the effort to contrast the visual mode of thinking, describing and consuming landscape. In her essay “Contested Landscapes – Rights to History, Rights to Place: Who Controls Archaeological Places?” Jane Lydon describes the relationship between culture and nature and how the Western intellectual tradition privileged the visual and how Western art since the Renaissance has represented landscape as visible, passive and “natural.” Lydon describes how archaeologists working in contested landscapes have worked to “unsettle the primacy of modernist visualism by developing alternative analyses of place that reintegrate subject and lived context in reconstructing past meanings of landscape.” This project seeks to do just that.

Locations of audio interventions proposed in Yosmeite

The Yosemite Valley, from the Mariposa Trail, photographed by Carleton E. Watkins ca. 1871 Lydon “Contested Landscapes—Rights to History, Rights to Place: Who Controls Archaeological Places?” 656. 2 Ibid., 656. 3 Dowie, Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples. 4 Us, “Surviving Communities - Yosemite National Park (U.S. National Park Service).” 5 Dowie, Conservaiton Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples. 1

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nisar Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

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Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Hasan Nisar SMArchS Candidate ¶ AKPIA ¶ Harvard HAA.229P: Word and Image in Persian Painting ¶ Critic: David Roxburgh

Capturing Nuances of Place-Making Through a Socio-Economic Lens; Case of Manek Chowk, Ahmedabad, India In a beautiful illustration of Khusraw and Shirin being entertained by musicians (opposite page), the artist Manohara depicts the initial moments of the blossoming of love between the two protagonists in a palatial setting. The first two illustrations of this chapter find these characters fraternizing within elaborate architectural settings, intercepted then by two illustrations where the episodes depict these characters in the natural environment and finishing the chapter with two further illustrations returning to built palatial architecture. Khusraw’s hunting party is greeted by the gatekeeper at the arched entrance to the palace which is shown with the perspectival view of the receding wooden roof. Inside the two lovers are seated in a central pavilion surrounded by a garden. Beyond the palace walls, there is another arched gateway that presumably leads to the hazy town in the distance on the upper left corner of the painting. This dialogue between the natural and the built environment is omnipresent in not just singular illustrations of the manuscript, but can be traced in the wider illustrative and iconographical program. This illustration is axiomatic of the wider patterns of construction of space in the illustration program of this manuscript. Here I am concerned with the construction of space in two ways that I hope to explore in this paper: firstly, the construction of space that becomes the setting for these characters embodied by these complex negotiations between nature and architecture, and secondly, the construction of the pictorial

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space itself, i.e., how is the scene composed and how is the space on the page itself utilized where the pictorial plane is created. And by tackling these issues of spatiality, my intervention aims to demonstrate that the artists at Akbar’s court were carefully combining borrowings from other artistic traditions with their own ingenuity to cater to their larger aesthetic concerns of spatial negotiations on a pictorial plane and issues of composition. Finally, I hope to signify that these robust negotiations with issues of spatiality, as seen in the Khamsa paintings, allowed the Mughal artists to transport the Persian characters to a distinctly crafted and allegorical representation of the Mughal world and the Mughal court. Returning to the illustration in discussion, Khusraw and Shirin sit in a central pavilion as Shirin hands a cup of wine to his guest, perhaps foreshadowing the mutual intoxication of love that is to follow. While in most manuscripts, the illustrative cycle shows the first meeting of the two lovers in the natural hunting ground, the artist here instead has chosen to start with a courtly scene set inside Shirin’s palace. Many such creative liberties were taken throughout the illustration of this manuscript, often departing from traditionally illustrated scenes or capturing a different moment within a traditionally chosen scene, maintaining a sense of novelty and innovation. If we are to locate a commonality in the visual symbolism in these paintings as George Minnisale has argued in his book, Images of Thought: Visuality in Islamic India, whereby objects and characters become bearers of complex meanings and trans-temporal signifiers1, we can see

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Manohara work within such a generative visual code in this painting. The central sandstone pavilion, the highly ornate carpets, the half-drawn curtain, the gatekeeper, the wine-bearers, the musicians, the plantain tree, the cypress trees, and the city in the distance can all be seen as markers that contribute to the construction of the allegory of the Mughal court. Minnisale approachese these artists’ works as, “concepts and archetypes, not to mention wider social customs and mythical structures present in the work of art not as a result of the opinion and belief of the artists but arising from a tradition of pre-established language in which the artist speaks.”2 He offers this approach to counter the western-centric notions of heightened individuality, as indeed many scholars have focused on identifying the artist’s hand or making attributions where inscriptions are lacking by making stylistic comparisons, to ascertain whether Mughal artists, in their anti-illusionist ideology of painting, were working with a shared visual and symbolic vocabulary. The Mughal painter, at this time in the late sixteenth century, is not interested in naturalistic renderings of their surrounding, as Minnisale has argued, nor was it expected of him.3 These apprehensions lead to questions about the role and agency of the artist in the Mughal court and processes of cultural syncretism and hybridity that become definitive characteristics of the manuscripts produced during this time. The arrival of the Jesuit mission at Akbar’s court in Lahore, and with them the arrival of Netherlandish engravings and prints, is often cited as the reason for the increased attention paid to perspective, depth and three-dimensional modeling. Unfortunately, this type of chronological determinism is replete in historiography of Mughal painting, which strips the artists of any agency and projects them as passive receivers of influence with the underlying assumption that the presence of Europeans at the court significantly altered the way these artists viewed themselves, their world, and their own artistic production.

Above: Khusraw and Shirin being entertained by musicians, Ascribed amal-i-manohara, Folio 51a, Walters Art Gallery (W.624)

Minissale, Gregory. Images of Thought: Visuality In Islamic India, 1550–1750. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007 2 Ibid., pg. 4 3 Ibid., pg. 6 1

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merzaban Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

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Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Mandy Merzaban SMArchS Candidate ¶ AKPIA ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Renée Green ¶ Readers: Jesal Thakkar Kapadia, Lara Baladi

“

Scripting Inclusion ¶ Efforts to bring underrepresented modernist women artists of Arabic speaking countries into the scope of Western art exhibitions has been on the rise, particularly since the early 2000s. Who decides what artists get shown and how their stories are told? What are the power structures guiding their inclusion? I inspect the consequences of the prevailing power dynamic through a feminist lens. This thesis is meant to offer a way of reviewing these systems of power so they can be more explicitly analyzed and discussed in tandem with how art is inscribed into Western discourse.

”

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Below: Walid Raad, Yet More Letters to the Reader, exhibition view, Fondazione Volume, 2017, © 2016 Federico Ridolfi, courtesy of the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery Beirut / Hamburg Opposite Below: Video still: Imane Belle. Saloua Raouda Choucair – From Beirut to Tate Modern, 2013.

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rdaftari Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Reza Daftarian SMArchS Candidate ¶ AKPIA ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Nasser Rabbat ¶ Reader: Kristel Smentek

Fractured and Dissolved, Architecture Ablaze: Towards an Understanding of Ayeneh-Kari in the Early Modern Palace of Iran Ayeneh-kari (lit. ‘mirror-work’), a term that refers to a surface encrusted with fragmented mirrored glass, is a form of architectural ornament found in myriad historic monuments across Greater Iran. This decorative medium first emerged in the celebrated palatial structures of the Safavids (r. 1501–1722) and culminated in the intricate geometric mosaics that became the preferred decorative schema for both palaces under the Qajars (r. 1789–1925). Despite this preeminence, at its zenith ayeneh-kari was largely denigrated by foreign visitors to Iran as garish and a feeble emulation of European ‘culture,’ an attitude which has unfortunately permeated a preponderance of the scant scholarly literature into the subject both in English and Persian. In response to the cursory inquiries dealing with the ornamental form, the present work examines the emergence of ayeneh-kari in early modern Iran and traces its evolution as both an ornamental form and an ideological mechanism. How did this medium evolve from an obscure ornamental program of Safavid palaces to a conspicuous decorative schema that became ubiquitous in Qajar monuments? What was the sociopolitical climate in which this peculiar surface ornament flourished, and how was it reflected by the self-conscious use of ayenehkari in palatial architecture? Herein lies the crux of the present study, which will treat ayeneh-kari as a multisensory art form in its own right and as a dialogic instrument wielded to simultaneously forge and enunciate the mystique, splendor, and authority of a sovereign figure. By tracing the transformations in composition, location, and scale of ayeneh-kari and contextualizing such shifts

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within their respective socio-historical moment, we can recognize how nearly four centuries of Iranian rulers have employed this ornamental form as an ideological contrivance. Ultimately, I contend that on account of its material, sensory, and symbolic qualities, ayeneh-kari was methodically availed in the architectural programs of the Safavids, and especially the Qajars, whose imperial enterprise was contingent upon a symbolic linkage to their predecessors, to convey a distinctively Perso-Shi’i configuration of kingship.

Above: Mirrors and ayeneh-kari bands in the vertical interstitial space between Talar-e Ayeneh’s windows. Photo by Nazanin Pourshiravi, 2017. Opposite: Detail of a pendentive of Kakh-e Asli’s vaulted entrance adorned with a combination of fretted and eslimi ayeneh-kari. Photo by Nazanin Pourshiravi, 2017.

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aflynn Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

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Aidan Flynn SMArchS Candidate ¶ HTC ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisors: Kristel Smentek, Jodi Cranston ¶ Readers: Caroline A. Jones, Lauren Jacobi

Surveilling Sin: Locating Sodomy in the Early Modern Florentine Bathhouse This thesis examines the carnal sin of sodomy in early modern Florence, Italy (1432–1600) by investigating one particular locale: the San Niccolò bathhouse. Domenico Cresti’s (called ‘Il Passignano’) oil painting, Bathers at San Niccolò (1600), depicts a contemporaneous scene of all-male bathing, imbued with homosexually suggestive acts within a locatable urban space. What can this particular image tell us about the lived realities of sodomy in early modern Florence? When examined alongside topographical, legal, health, and religiopolitical archives, Bathers illuminates the intricacies of same-sex pleasure and punishment. In identifying this specific site along the Arno River, and combining Bathers with various written documents, one can better achieve a history of sexual persecution, its surveillance, and institutional efforts to control illicit sex across the urban landscape. The bathhouse, a simultaneously public and private space, was a center for relaxation, sociability and health, but also an arena for homosexual encounters. Sodomy was blasphemous, generating anxiety throughout early modern Italian city-states. Citizens feared for their safety: a sodomite in their midst could provoke divine wrath, as it had in the biblical narratives of Sodom and Gomorrah—sexual sins could lead to urban destruction. Police forces were created to surveil and punish such abominable acts in order to maintain the sacrality of the urban interior. While these magistracies policed every parish, the Florentine bathhouse was more challenging: it permitted nakedness and, as such, often resulted in unsavory interactions between men. How might topographical and painterly representations

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of water, wantonness, and punishment allow the historian to check written accounts (legal, religious, literary) of sexual encounters within specific architectures—and vice versa? Looking at and beyond the figures in Bathers, this project investigates the represented backdrop in which sodomitical activities are depicted. In so doing, this project engages with larger historiographical issues, namely the ways in which studies on premodern sex and gender have and have not been mobilized through postmodern theories. This thesis combines Passignano’s artwork with other visual and written materials to challenge and expand on the ways in which sex, space, art, and society functioned in Renaissance Florence.

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Domenico Cresti (called ‘Il Passignano’), Bathers at San Niccolò, 1600, private collection. Source: Sotheby’s New York, 25 January 2017, lot 36.

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kpdubbs Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

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Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Katie Dubbs SMArchS Candidate ¶ HTC ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Arindam Dutta ¶ Reader: Mark Jarzombek

“A GREAT CIVILIZING AGENT” : MIT Architecture, Drawing Education, and Boston’s Cultural Elite, 1865–1881 This thesis examines the origin of architecture as an American discipline and its relationship to the concurrent promotion of public drawing education in the second half of the nineteenth century. In postbellum Massachusetts, textile manufacturers and their professional networks took control of local drawing education. Part of the perceived antidote to national disunity — as well as a justification for growing financial inequality — was the control of design knowledge through the creation of pedagogical programs and cultural institutions. Drawing simultaneously negotiated a multifarious identity as an industrial skill, a leisure activity, and a specialized profession. Bolstered by the rise in disposable wealth, Boston-based elites invested in drawing as a symbol of class status and industrial control in an increasingly stratified city.

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This development coincided with the mid-century emergence of architectural education in American universities. In 1865, architectural educator William Robert Ware was hired to create the architecture department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the first architecture department in a university and the oldest architecture program in the country. For the duration of his tenure, Ware was part of a powerful network of arts patrons and professionals in Massachusetts who ascribed a civilizing purpose to art, an idealized category which included architecture. As part of this effort, he was not only the founder of MIT’s architecture department but also a founding instructor at two other cultural institutions in Boston. Underpinning these elite ambitions, in Ware’s case, were both economic and intellectual aspirations to elevate architecture as a profession and to cultivate the architect as a cultural connoisseur. This thesis argues that Ware capitalized on the evolving status of drawing — as a manual labor, a contractual document, a cognitive act, and a cultural marker — to craft architectural education as an intellectual undertaking worthy of its university setting. This history is illustrated through Ware’s contemporaneous involvement in the promotion of local drawing education, his advocacy for professionalism in architectural education, and his design of new printed material.

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Drawing class in MIT’s Architecture Department. Photograph. 1870s or 1880s. From: MIT Museum. Cambridge, Massachusetts

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BT Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Our work ranges from fundamental discovery to full scale application. Strategies employed toward these ends include integrated architectural design strategies, resource accounting through material flow analysis and life cycle assessment, structural design and optimization, building and urban energy modeling and simulation, human comfort analysis, control design and engineering, and other technologically-informed design methods.

4.236 / 11.463J Low Income Housing in Selected Course Descriptions

Building Technology

Developing Countries • Critic: Reinhard Goethert

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Examines dynamic relationships among key actors: beneficiaries, governments, and funders. Emphasis on cost recovery, affordability, replicability, user selection, and project administration. Extensive case examples provide basis for comparisons.

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4.s48 Collaborations in

Concrete: Designing and Engineering Post-colonial Architecture in the Global South• Critics: Caitlin Mueller and Mohamed Ismail

Design in the built environment necessarily entails collaboration across disciplines, especially when there are aspirations for innovation in geometry, materials, and construction technologies to support and contribute to an architectural vision. Indeed, many of the most significant achievements in buildings have been empowered by important and synthetic contributions from architects and structural engineers working together closely. In 4.s48, we will critically examine key characters in collaborations of these types, investigating their relationships, communication styles, tools, design processes, and legacies. We will focus specifically on ambitious reinforced concrete architecture of the 1950s–1970s from the Global South. These projects include diverse formal development and structural innovation, from thin concrete shells to complex space frames

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Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52 to soaring spans. Our goal is to extract examples and principles of productive collaborations from this context and consider how they might be applied going forward. In this seminar, we will discuss the global dynamics and local factors that shaped the work of several structural designers in the Global South. These designers include engineers like Indians Mahendra Raj and Binoy Chatterjee, and architects like South African Julian Elliott and Pierre Goudiaby Atepa of Senegal. We hope to highlight significant contributions largely omitted from conventional western scholarship.

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jshafa Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Jabran Shafa DUSP Humphrey Fellow ¶ 4.236J / 11.463J Low Income Housing in Developing Countries ¶ Critic: Reinhard Goethert

Overview of Rural Development & Climate Resilience Project in GilgitBaltistan, Pakistan The overall goal of the project is to contribute to improving the sustainability of living conditions and resilience to climate change and natural disasters of Gilgit-Baltistan households and communities. The project bears the ambition to engage local populations into a more endogenous sustainable development path through increased participation into the development of sustainably managed basic services related to water, sanitation, housing and energy. The objective is to revive the concept of autonomous management of mountain communities by introducing a model of community owned, managed and maintained social infrastructure projects that address critical needs while reducing the dependency on governmental subsidies. The objective of the project is to be attained through the achievement of the seven following outcomes: 1. Accessibility to clean water for drinking purpose has increased and quality of grey waters released in local streams has improved. 2. Climate and Natural Disasters’ resilience and conditions of local habitat has improved. 3. Access to sustainable, affordable and lowcarbon electricity for households and local Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) has increased. 4. Climate resilience and gender-sensitivity of governance, planning, and investment of local government and communities has improved.

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5. Access to inclusive, sustainable and regulated financial services for local households has increased. 6. Local private sector providing sustainable habitat services and equipment related to housing, water and energy is strengthened. 7. A coordination system is in place to ensure transparent and efficient implementation of the project. Although the project components include water and sanitation, micro hydro-power generation, and housing, only the housing component is briefly discussed here: In Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) — a province of Pakistan — the vast majority of houses are non-engineered, built by the residents themselves with support from skilled and unskilled daily workers, depending on the households’ financial and human capacities. The prevailing issues related to the habitat are: 1) lack of thermal comfort in existing houses, 2) improper ventilation and illumination, 3) absence of seismic elements in housing structures, 4) disappearance of indigenous and endogenous knowledge. In order to mitigate these building related issues, Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, Pakistan (AKPBS, P) started its Building and Construction Improvement Program (BACIP) in 1997. BACIP aims at providing, at scale, a range of practical solutions to improve housing, from various perspectives: energy efficiency, earthquake resistance, appliances, comfort… Starting with an exhaustive review of the issues at stake, a catalogue of about 60 solutions had been developed, maximizing the use of locally available materials and skills. The approach followed by BACIP of proposing not one solution, but a range of such, addressing several issues usually met by GB households, such as energy inefficiency, improper ventilation, dampness, or vulnerabilities to

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earthquakes and other natural disasters, should be pursued. Considering the vulnerability levels of the populations, in particular in rural and remote areas, it is also necessary to adopt a differentiated approach between vulnerable and non-vulnerable households. The tool used to assess vulnerability will be the Poverty Score Card, which has proved relevant in the GB context already and which is well mastered by Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) teams. The RDCRP aims at developing sustainable valuechains, through technical and business training, marketing and awareness raising campaigns, business planning services, and access to finance for MSMEs. The issue at stake is to contribute to the development of businesses in capacity to provide, with the required level of quality, the goods and services (energy efficient and earthquakeproof building techniques, heating and cooking appliances…) which are, to date, provided almost exclusively by development agencies or by the private sector, not tied to quality criteria and therefore delivering suboptimal products and services.

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• House Insulation — enhances thermal efficiency, saves firewood, conserves heat, provides clean environment • Solar lighting products — environmentally friendly, reduces fuel-use, enhances household-based income generated through micro enterprises • Double Glazed Windows — enhances thermal efficiency, saves firewood, conserves heat, provides a clean environment • Passive Solar Heating — use of maximum solar heat for thermal efficiency of houses 2. Basic Energy Efficient products plus seismic retrofitting of 3000 non-vulnerable households in 10 districts of program area — to strengthen the existing houses for seismic resiliency — to life saving level of performance-based design 3. 700 new seismically resilient and thermal efficient houses will be constructed in 10 districts of program areas — structural design and construction following national building codes for seismic resilience and thermal efficiency 4. Hazard Vulnerability Risk Assessment (HVRAs)

The scope and technical parameters of Energyefficient and seismic resistant housing are as follows: 1. Basic Energy Efficient Products will be installed in 7000 vulnerable households in 10 districts of program area (GB) The range of products is below: • Roof Hatch Windows (RHWs) for traditional houses — to avoid heat-loss through roof openings; protects from rain and dust and provides ventilation and increases illumination • Fuel-efficient stove with Water Warming Facility — saves firewood up to 50%, improves hygienic practices, decreases workload

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sgaitan Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Sabrina Gaitan Master of Engineering Candidate ¶ 4.236J / 11.463J Low Income Housing in Developing Countries ¶ Critic: Reinhard Goethert My thesis this semester explores the viable geometries of earthen vaulted floor systems for low-cost residential construction. Typical structural floor systems consist of a reinforced concrete flat slab, which is problematic as concrete and steel are expensive, carbon-intensive materials. As urbanization rates increase globally, informal and structurally inadequate settlements become more ubiquitous as a result. Vaulted structural floor systems can be constructed from earthen bricks to reduce cost and environmental impact. This thesis aims to investigate equilibrium solutions of barrelvaulted structures through the use of local earth materials in emerging economies, with a particular focus in Central and South America. While artisans have been replicating vaults for centuries as roofing systems, this thesis investigates the highly indeterminate structural behavior and design of shell structures to broaden the scope of their application such that they can also serve as floor systems. Through the lower bound principles of masonry structural design, the spanning limits of this structural form are presented for adobe, compressed earth blocks (CEB), and compressed stabilized earthen brick (CSEB). The analysis of unreinforced masonry vaults is further explored in three dimensions through form finding methodologies that implement linear optimization to investigate viable load paths within a defined area under specified boundary conditions. The application of threedimensional analysis introduces two-way behavior within the vault, decreasing the reactions forces, and ultimately reducing the cost of construction. This thesis shows the range of possible spans using unfired adobe, CEB, and CSEB for vaulted earthen floor systems in the residential sector. The Structuring Low-Income Housing Projects in Developing Countries class tied in well with

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my thesis as it explored the dynamic relationship amongst beneficiaries, governments, funders, and communities to assess the affordability and sustainability of a site and service project as well as the pros and cons of different projects around the world. In conjunction with this, the class analyzed how site-and-service projects have changed over time. These issues are important as data suggests that the world’s population will double and urban areas will triple in size in the next 20 years, leading to an impending housing demand. This class taught me the importance of minimizing the distance between funders, the government, cities, implementing agencies, and communities to facilitate a successful project. The power and control of each of these actors defines how a project will perform. It is necessary to obtain a common understanding of the desires of everyone as well as the cultural background of the community. Often times there are barriers, such as language, that prohibit successful implementations. With this in mind, I decided to centralize my thesis on creating affordable housing to mitigate the increasing urbanization rate through the use of vaulted earthen floor systems. Locals in developing communities live in low quality houses that lack security, and migrants are being forced to find temporary settlements built from inadequate materials in public areas that tend to lack sanitation and clean water. In Central America, informal settlements serve as housing for 29% of the urban population, and up to 45% in countries such as Guatemala and Nicaragua. I propose the use of earthen vaulted systems as a substitute for flat concrete slabs in floor systems in order to save material costs and create sustainable housing opportunities. These floor systems are to be built out of adobe, compressed earth blocks (CEB), or compressed stabilized earthen brick (CSEB). Vaulted structural floor systems can

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be constructed from earthen bricks to reduce cost and environmental impact. The use of vaulted structures is a technique dating back to approximately 3500 years ago. This technique was revived beginning in the 1940s by Hassan Fathy (1900–1989), an Egyptian Architect commonly referred to as the “Architect of the Poor.” My proposed system, Figure 1, will successfully promote the creation of sustainable structures. Looking at the three pillars of sustainability (social, economic, and environmental) this system touches on each of these aspects to offer a viable solution to the housing crisis. Environmentally, this system reduces the effects of stressors such as pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions through the use of local earthen material. The construction process does not jeopardize the air quality standards and will not pollute the air, as earthen products have low embodied carbon. Looking at the system from the economic aspect of sustainability, it will not only reduce the costs of building houses but will also implement local labor that will create new job opportunities within communities. Lastly, from a social aspect, the system will create a community environment that engages people in the development, planning, and building process to promote sustainable living. Local communities will be educated on constructing floor systems themselves and learning to develop this traditional building technique. While it does take an expert builder to supervise, it is possible to engage communities in the construction process itself. This methodology of constructing infrastructure through vaulted earthen floor systems has been used in the construction of the Mapungubwe National Park in South Africa. As discussed in class, there still lies issues for this system that can be investigated further. To begin with, communities may be reluctant to adopt these systems due to the aesthetics of using earthen material. However, this can be combatted by explaining to local communities the immediate positives they will gain from using these structures, and not just the long term gains. Additionally, by incorporating vaulted earthen floor systems

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

primarily in public buildings, they can function as demonstrations of the positive impact that this technology can have on communities. It would also be useful to further analyze how long it would take to build these systems through a construction timeline analysis. Lastly, the point was made that this building technique requires very skilled labors. However, after speaking with local builders in Mexico, it is possible to teach this technique to others, and it is really necessary to have at least one skilled worker that can guide others in the right direction. In conclusion, my thesis topic serves as an interesting alternative to building housing opportunities in developing economies that can have reduced economic costs and lower environmental impact. This class helped me merge the engineering technicalities of building houses with the social and planning sector of a site-and-service project. It has taught me the importance of engaging funders, the government, cities, implementing agencies, and communities to facilitate a successful project.

Figure 1: Proposed vaulted system

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mjomairi Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Maryam Alhajri SMarchS Candidate ¶ Design and Computation ¶ 4.s48 Collaborations in Concrete: Designing and Engineering Post-Colonial Architecture in the Global South ¶ Critics: Caitlin Mueller, Mohamed Ismail

Seismic Codes and Architecture: Influences of Agadir Normes 1960 on Jean-François Zevaco It was 11:40 PM February 29, 1960 when seismic waves made their appearance through Agadir’s crust. Fifteen seconds of tectonic plates’ slippage and collision was known as the deadliest and most destructive earthquake in Moroccan history. With a magnitude of 5.7 Mw on the Richter scale, it displaced 35,000 people, killed 15,000, and obliterated roughly 70% of the built environment. (The Agadir, Morocco Earthquake, February 29, 1960, n.d.) The magnitude 5.7 Mw, a relatively moderate earthquake, raised many questions and incited curiosity; what were the structural and material deficiencies of these buildings? What were the construction flaws? How can we establish preventative measures? And how can we instill trust between a building and a user once more? These are critical questions that would aid in rebuilding the city. Soon afterwards, a series of reports were released by investigators and building committees. For instance, the American Iron and Steel Institute had made recommendations to apply the building standards utilized in California which can accommodate higher magnitude seismic activity. (The Agadir, Morocco Earthquake, February 29, 1960, n.d.) French experts made recommendations to adopt the AS 55 code, which was established in 1954 after an earthquake in Algeria. The Ministry of Public Works then assigned a committee to formulate Normes d’Agadir in 1960 based upon the released reports, the committee included members from the Union of Moroccan Entrepreneurs, Order of Architects, Construction Industry, and representatives of Morocco’s Labor Unions. (Williford, 2017) In January 1961, the 34-

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page document outlining standards for materials, building construction, and workmanship was published. The newly issued building code would serve as a guide for the reconstruction of Agadir and was less strictly implemented beyond the periphery of the city. Jean-François Zevaco was a Moroccan-French architect born in Casablanca, Morocco. In 1945, he graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, moving thereafter to Morocco to establish his own practice in 1947. Upon his return, Morocco was undergoing a “golden age” in which “the areas built annually tripled between 1947 and 1952” (Cohen & Eleb, 2002, 274). During that period, Zevaco worked on a series of residential villas, governmental buildings, and educational facilities. (Jean-François Zevaco, n.d.) Zevaco’s early career (1947–58) is marked by an eclectic collection of buildings produced, visibly an attempt to formulate an architectural style and expression. With the development of Normes d’Agadir 1960, influences of construction and style are apparent, as during that time period, Zevaco’s buildings seem to be more consistent in terms of material palette, form, and structure. The consistencies are found not only in Agadir, but also in Sidi Harazem with the Thermal Bath Complex completed in 1975, which utilizes similar material palettes and construction techniques. It can be assumed that Zevaco has had major influences throughout his practice, by members from the GAMMA group, the magazines in which he was subscribed to, as well as construction codes developed in 1960 that ultimately shaped some of his most emblematic buildings today.

nalmulla Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Nada AlMulla MArch Candidate ¶ 4.s48 Collaborations in Concrete: Designing and Engineering Post-Colonial Architecture in the Global South ¶ Critics: Caitlin Mueller, Mohamed Ismail

Collaborative Structures: Vladimir Bodiansky and Vann Molyvann Cambodia’s 1956 independence from the French rule called for a renewed national identity. Driven by the architectural glory of its past, the young Prince Norodom was adamant on reviving the cultural significance of Cambodia and asserting its place internationally (Fauveaud 2020, 138). As part of this resurgence plan, international competitions and invitations brought to the country major figures in the field of architecture and construction, such as Vladimir Bodiansky and Gerald Hanning, among others. The capital, Phnom Penh, was to be the site for major urban projects and state institutions, following a new architectural style that adapted modernism to the traditional Khmer buildings (Molyvann 2003, 157–60). One prominent example was the “Olympic Stadium” by Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann and Russian engineer Vladimir Bodiansky, a grand structure located in a former horse racetrack from the colonial period, with an area of 100 acres. The stadium was designed and built in two years to host the 1963 Southeast-Asian games, but due to the political turbulence in Cambodia, the games were instead held in Indonesia. Even though the structure was never part of the Olympic games, it was informally known as the “Olympic Stadium” (Iwamoto 2017, 66-89).

This research investigates the lives of Vann Molyvann and Vladimir Bodiansky and their collaborative work together, focusing on reinforced concrete projects in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, particularly Phnom Penh’s National Stadium, a structure that was designed to hold a crowd of one hundred thousand for the 1964 Southeast Asian Olympic games. The second structure is the recently demolished White Building in Phnom Penh, a municipal housing project built in 1964.

Figure 1: Phnom Penh National Sports Complex (2016) (Photo: Antal Gabelics)

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adoor Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Angie Door MArch Candidate ¶ 4.s48 Collaborations in Concrete: Designing and Engineering Post-Colonial Architecture in the Global South ¶ Critics: Caitlin Mueller, Mohamed Ismail

Constructing Paulistano: the Collaborations of Architect Paulo Archias Mendes da Rocha and Engineer Siguer Mitsutani The Brazilian Pavilion at the 1970 Osaka Expo signified the end of Neimeyer’s era of Brazilian modernism and the growing impact of the more Brutalist Paulistano school based out of São Paulo. The light modernist pavilions built for previous Expo’s in 1939 by Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer, and in 1958 by Sérgio Bernardes, informed the aesthetic expectations of the Osaka Pavilion in 1970 (Zein 2010). The construction of the Pavilion in Osaka did indeed meet some of this expectation of continuity but was also an end and a beginning in the development of Brazilian architecture and nationhood. The pavilion signaled the end of freedom at home in Brazil as the Fifth Institutional Act gave the President full dictatorial powers, (Momsen, et al. 2021) freezing the architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha's ability to do any public projects during its instatement (Zein 2010). It was also a high point in collaborations between da Rocha and the engineer Siguer Mitsutani, both life-long inhabitants of São Paulo. Their relationship signified the evolving forms of architectural and engineering pedagogy in São Paulo, as well as the impact of local and federal policies that affected the demographics and education of the city’s inhabitants. Before the Military regime began in the mid-1960s, da Rocha and Mitsutani’s families were both integral to constructing modern Brazil in their contributions to energy and transit infrastructure, academic institutions, and agricultural cooperatives that honed the output of commodities to feed and sustain cities like São Paulo.

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Their architectural collaborations show strategic construction amidst the constraints of the regime, where public architecture was designed through alternating acts of concession and resilience. Around six years into the Fifth Brazilian Republic, the Brazilian Pavilion at the 1970 Osaka Expo both represented the optimism of formal ideals by the designers and the rigid conservatism of the regime. The project was also the introduction of a pre-stressed construction technique in Japan that Mitsutani, da Rocha, and Fujita engineers (including Katsuhiko Sato) developed for the structure. The long spans of the project made possible by Mitsutani’s expertise made the completion of the doorless, wallless pavilion above-ground possible and provided a technique that the Fujita team would go on to use in other projects in Tokyo. The project created what da Rocha researcher José Paulo Gouvêa describes as a signifier of intellectual freedom that Brazilians did not have at the time, creating a prophecy for openness that Brazil would one day have again (Gouvêa first interview, 2021).

curth Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Sandy Curth PhD Candidate ¶ Design and Computation ¶ 4.s48 Collaborations in Concrete: Designing and Engineering Post-Colonial Architecture in the Global South ¶ Critics: Caitlin Mueller, Mohamed Ismail

Affonso Eduardo Reidy and Carmen Portinho: A Shared Life in Public Works Over the course of a twenty-year collaboration, architect Affonso Reidy and engineer Carmen Portinho left a lasting impact on the urban fabric of Rio de Janeiro and helped create the Brazilian Modernist movement, all from their shared offices in the city planning department. As lifelong civil servants, their achievements have often remained unrecognized beyond Brazil. However, in Brazil their impact as both designers and urbanists is visible from nearly any street corner of Rio de Janeiro, with housing and municipal building projects across the city still occupied today. Perhaps most notable is Portinho’s role as the driving force for this work, both a politically savvy administrator and as a highly skilled civil and structural engineer. It was her study of post WWII reconstruction in reinforced concrete that facilitated the pair’s first large scale concrete projects and the creation of Department of Popular Housing in Rio that would shape policy to this day.

The complex structural details of Reidy and Portinho’s projects are in themselves a commentary on the relationship between available labor and available material in 1950s Brazil. Rebar is carefully conserved through many uniquely shaped and dimensioned pieces, a strategy impractical in the US at the time, where the cost of labor often outweighed the cost of steel in the eyes of structural engineers, leading to simplified, repeating modules. In many ways, this relationship between labor and material facilitates the unique characteristics of their collaborative projects, the curvy profile of Pedregulho and Gavea necessitating many unique details, the structurally complex frames of MAM. Throughout their work together, Reidy and Portinho shared a common rigor and dedication to making not only highly functional architecture but also lasting architecture which would continue their work as public servants well after their passing.

Figure 1: Facade of the Exhibition Building (May 1961) by Aertsens Michel, MAM Rio, courtesy of Google Arts and Culture

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feickert Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Kiley Feickert SMArchS Candidate ¶ Building Technology ¶ 4.s48 Collaborations in Concrete: Designing and Engineering Post-Colonial Architecture in the Global South ¶ Critics: Caitlin Mueller, Mohamed Ismail

Nigerian Campus Architecture: Augustine Akhuemokhan Egbor and Select Collaborators The independence of Nigeria from British colonial rule in 1960 ushered in a period of prolific building in the West African country. A major contributor to this period of building was the architect Chief Augustine Akhuemokhan Egbor. Before opening a private practice, Egbor and Associates, Egbor served as the Director of Public Buildings for the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing in Lagos from 1954 to 1970. In both roles, he oversaw the design and execution of numerous landmark projects, particularly educational institutions throughout Nigeria. Although his contributions are great, “only scant information regarding Egbor is presently available” (Ben-Asher Gitler, 2011). This research attempts to highlight his contributions and presents a brief historical overview of Nigeria’s independence from British rule, the history and role of educational institutions, and practicing Nigerian architects following independence, in order to situate Egbor’s projects within this context. It presents the numerous projects he was involved in and examines how these landmark buildings were made possible through both the collaborations he established and the use of concrete as International Modernism spread globally. Academic institutions were previously utilized as tools by the colonial administration to educate individuals in support of it, including the first University in Nigeria, University College Ibadan, by Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew. In his role as the Director of Public Buildings at the Federal Ministry of Works & Housing, Lagos, Augustine Akhuemokhan Egbor played a significant role in the development plans of the newly freed nation, however there is very little published highlighting

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his contributions. He acted both as an agent of the state and as a private business person, establishing collaborations with Arieh Sharon and A.M.Y. to build the University of Ife, the first university in Nigeria following independence. The project was facilitated by foreign aid alongside professional services from Israel and served as an opportunity for Sharon and A.M.Y. to experiment with various structural typologies through the use of concrete. Egbor similarly experimented with other structural and climatic typologies through his own projects, after he opened Egbor and Associates in 1970. In private practice, he continued to design and build prolifically, contributing to the modernist landscape of buildings throughout Nigeria.

Figure 1: Ahmadu Bello University Library, Zaria, 1975 (Egbor & Associates)

ceholley Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Claire Holley Master of Engineering Candidate ¶ 4.s48 Collaborations in Concrete: Designing and Engineering PostColonial Architecture in the Global South ¶ Critics: Caitlin Mueller, Mohamed Ismail

Kanvinde, Rai, & Chowdhury and the White Revolution Architectural modernism was largely introduced to India through colonialism. However, that does not mean that modernism could not become part of a national architectural identity through adoption by resident architects and synthesis with local architectural traditions. Even after independence from Britain in 1947, foreign architects—such as Le Corbusier, Jane Drew, and Maxwell Fry—headed projects of national import, bringing with them the approaches designed by and for a European context. Such was the case for the Chandigarh Capitol Complex, though the practicality of which was augmented by the Indian structural engineer Mahendra Raj. As the years went on, more native architects and engineers adopted modernism and its structural medium, concrete, and applied it in conjunction with knowledge pertinent to the local environment to projects on large scales throughout the country. Many of these buildings were designed by the group Kanvinde, Rai, and Chowdhury, which was initially started by the architect Achyut Kanvinde and the engineer Shaukat Rai. Kanvinde was born in 1916 in Achra, Maharashtra, and studied architecture at Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai from 1936–1941. He then apprenticed at an architecture firm in the same city before joining the architecture program at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard in 1946, where he studied under the tutelage of Gropius and was exposed to the European Bauhaus school. Returning to India after a year and a half, Kanvinde started working for the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, a governmental organization tasked with developing science and technology. While being involved in designing new research laboratories for them,

he attributes learning the “criticality of functional usage in planning and building design” from this experience. In 1955, Kanvinde and the civil engineer Rai founded their own private practice in New Delhi, both being inspired by the Bauhaus, and with their initial projects helped establish the International Style in India. Though there is much less information about Rai than Kanvinde, it is known that he was the grandson of Sir Ganga Ram, a prominent architect and engineer during the British Raj. Rai was trained at Roorkee as a civil engineer and met Kanvinde during their US tour. During their partnership, he not only worked on the engineering, but also handled the project management and business aspects of the projects. A third partner, Morad Chowdhury, joined the firm in 1969. The prolific firm worked on a plethora of projects over several decades, many of them commissioned by governmental organizations and institutions.

Figure 1: Exterior of Dudhsagar Dairy Complex. © Massachusetts Institute of Technology, courtesy of Peter Serenyi

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keithjl Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Keith J. Lee PhD Candidate ¶ Building Technology ¶ 4.s48 Collaborations in Concrete: Designing and Engineering PostColonial Architecture in the Global South ¶ Critics: Caitlin Mueller, Mohamed Ismail

Influence and Compromise in Post-War Korean Architecture The second half of the twentieth century, which coincided with the rise of concrete as an economic and expressive building material for structural designers, was a period of extreme political, economic, and social change in South Korea. After freedom from decades of colonial Japanese rule at the end of WWII came the immediate and persisting occupation by US and Soviet military forces on the Korean peninsula. This ultimately resulted in the Korean War, the almost complete destruction of existing cities, and the division of the country into separate nations. The 1950s presented a challenge to the newlyformed South Korea. “Independence” was at the cost of a destroyed capital, poverty, and the displacement of millions of citizens; economic aid was contingent on the implicit cooperation with the United States and its military, and self-sustaining trade came with required diplomatic relations with their nearest neighbour and past colonizer: Japan. As such, the political class that led the country during the post-war period was necessarily highly aligned to both the previous and current occupying nations, which was not a sentiment shared by all.

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These challenges in political and economic growth had direct impacts on the development of Korean architecture and the rise of the modernist Korean architects. Architects and engineers, with their own personal relations to Japan and the US, designed and constructed new buildings, monuments, museums, and civil infrastructure under the guidance of the state. This research attempts to explore the intersection of the two occupying countries, the government of South Korea, and the rise of modernist concrete architecture in two key figures: Kim Swoo Geun, and the legacy of his Japanese architectural education and his relationship with the ruling elite class that was the cause of both his quick rise to prominence as well as his own internal struggle for independence; and Kim Jong Soo, trained by US architects and engineers, who explored economic forms of concrete as a method of rebuilding his nation.

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Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Left: A model of the Expo ’70 Korean Pavilion, 1970, Space. Below: A panorama of Expo ’70, Wikimedia Commons

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bryano Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Bryan Wen Xi Ong SMArchS Candidate ¶ Building Technology ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Caitlin Mueller

“

Machine Learning for Human Design: Developing Next Generation Sketch-Based Tools ¶ Formal computational approaches in the realm of engineering and architecture, such as parametric modelling and optimization, are becoming increasingly powerful, allowing for systematic and rigorous design processes. However, these methods often bring a steep learning curve, require previous expertise, or are unintuitive and unnatural to human design. On the other hand, analog design methods such as hand sketching are commonly used by architects and engineers alike. They constitute quick, easy, and almost primal modes of generating and transferring design concepts, which in turn facilitates the sharing of ideas and feedback. In the advent of increasing computational power and developments in data analysis, deep learning, and other emerging technologies, there is a potential to bridge the gap between these seemingly divergent processes to develop new hybrid approaches to design. Such methods can provide designers with new opportunities to harness the systematic and data-driven power of computation and performance analysis while maintaining a more creative and intuitive design interface. This thesis presents a new method for interpreting human designs in sketch format and predicting their structural performance using recent advances in deep learning. Furthermore, the thesis demonstrates how this new technique can be used in design workflows including performance-based guidance and interpolations between concepts.

”

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Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

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egascon Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Eduardo Gascón Alvarez SMArchS Candidate ¶ Building Technology ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisors: Caitlin Mueller, Les Norford

“

Structural Shading ¶ As decarbonizing the building sector becomes increasingly urgent in the context of the global climate crisis, opportunities for considering the integration of design strategies and systems are emerging as an important area of research. This thesis specifically focuses on the design of building components that interact as both structural elements with embodied energy and thermal systems with an impact on the occupants’ comfort. ¶ The design of lightweight, thermally massive construction systems offers the

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opportunity to simultaneously tackle two of the main challenges currently faced by the built environment: the need to reduce the use of concrete, responsible for 5–8% of global carbon emissions, and the mitigation of heatwaves events, which are already becoming more and more recurrent worldwide. This thesis presents new methodologies and results related to the dynamic thermal behavior of structurally optimized slabs and considers the ability of the thermal mass and ceiling’s geometric shape to flatten daily temperature fluctuations, and, as a

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Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

result, improve the occupants’ thermal comfort. At the same time, activating these floor systems by, for example, embedding water pipes is yet another opportunity of integrating functions and further improving the performance of these systems. ¶ The results obtained demonstrate the possibility of designing shaped slabs that, in addition to a 55% embodied energy reduction relative to conventional prismatic solutions, can still increase by 6.5% their passive thermal mass performance and by 14.5% their active cooling capacity. Moreover, the implementation of multi-optimization techniques allows for the exploration of Pareto-optimal designs that can further improve their thermal behavior up to 9.5% (passive) and 28% (active), at the expense of slightly lowering the material savings achievements to 38%.

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Right: Selection of Pareto-optimal design. All of the geometries considered outperform conventional flat concrete slabs both structurally and thermally. Opposite: The shaped ceiling acts as a room-sized heat exchanger that increases its passive and active thermal performances through an optimal geometric distribution.

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elyoung Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Elizabeth Lyn L. Young SMArchS Candidate ¶ Building Technology ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisors: Caitlin Mueller, Les Norford

“

On the Relationship Between Spatial-Temporal Outdoor Thermal Comfort Simulations and Bike Ridership ¶ The United Nations estimates that by 2050, 68% of the global population will reside in cities. As of 2019, the transportation sector in the U.S. accounts for 29% of U.S. greenhouse gasses (GHGs), making it the largest contributor among various sectors. To decarbonize local traffic and encourage human-powered forms of transportation such as walking or biking, pedestrians’ and cyclists’ safety and thermal comfort in transit must be addressed. The latter is increasingly important as temperatures rise in cities due to climate change. ¶ Predicting resident comfort throughout a city over time and predicting the impact of these thermal sensations on mobility mode choice is an essential part of encouraging urban planners and policy makers to promote and implement thermal comfort concepts. The Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) is a biometeorological index that has been linked to outdoor activity patterns and used to evaluate the effectiveness of urban

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interventions to improve thermal comfort. However, calculating the UTCI at high resolutions in urban spaces is complex, as it requires inputs such as the ambient temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and mean radiant temperature at the point of interest. ¶ This thesis investigates how simulating the urban environment at increasing levels of spatial refinement impacts calculated UTCI values along three bike routes in Cambridge, MA. As a baseline, UTCI is estimated using data from a local weather file. Then, shading from buildings and trees along the routes are considered. Next, local wind speeds are incorporated from computational fluid dynamics simulations. Finally, surface temperatures of the surrounding environment are included. Subsequently, with the UTCI simulations and publicly available bike ridership data from Bluebikes, Boston’s bike-sharing program, the relationship between bike ridership patterns and UTCI values along each route is studied. Supervised machine learning models are applied to predict bike ridership based on UTCI and other predictors.

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jingyil Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Jingyi Liu SMArchS Candidate ¶ Building Technology ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisors: Les Norford, Jeremy Gregory, Randy Kirchain

“

Early Design Stage Building Lifecycle Analysis (LCA) of Cost & Carbon Impact ¶ Our research developed a workflow that recommends sustainable building solutions in the early design stage, based on the minimization of lifecycle cost ($) and carbon impact (kgCO2eq). Most LCA tools rely on detailed models, which take time to build. However, our workflow analyzes conceptual geometries and generates recommendations in two aspects: sustainable building attribute features & optimal detailed design solutions. Cutting-edge technologies are applied, including machine learning, optimization, and data visualization. Our workflow is developed in Grasshopper, a code-friendly platform in the conceptual design software Rhino. ¶ The workflow helps save ~10% on cost and ~20% on carbon in the U.S. on average by following the recommendations. Take a medium office in the U.S. as an example: a 10% cost saving corresponds to ~$6 million. The workflow also reduces its analysis time to ~30 minutes, whereas building a detailed model takes hours. As for attribute

features, three results are delivered. One is the optimal ranges of numerical attributes. Another is the rankings of categorical options. The other one is their sensitivity analysis. Although the level of importance varies with the weather, the cost-carbon ratio, and the analysis period; the window-to-wall ratios and equipment efficiencies are considered the most influential numerical factors. The categorical choices of wall type and façade type are notably influential, followed by glazing types and equipment systems. Apart from these, the workflow also recommends solutions with detailed construction schemes. ¶ This workflow is unique because it delivers strategies during the early design stage with high flexibility. Ranges and rankings give users freedom when following recommendations. The workflow also allows users to customize the boundary values for numerical attributes and select their favorite categorical options to tailor the design needs. A third factor, distance, is then quantified to add diversity among multiple construction schemes when recommending detailed design solutions.

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ygo Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Yesufu O'ladipo SMArchS Candidate ¶ Building Technology ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Les Norford, Reader: Leon Glicksman

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Evaluating Overheating Preventative Measures in Residential Buildings and Passive Survivability ¶ Buildings that are thoughtfully planned for future climate scenarios, designed well, and properly maintained have the potential to provide thermally comfortable environments. These same buildings can significantly reduce energy consumption and decrease CO2 emissions. This research evaluates the impact of the use of natural ventilation and modifications to the exterior wall to decrease the probability of heat-related illness and overheating. Assessments within this research are within residential buildings. The outdoor weather data selected for the assessments is from Boston, MA, and New York, NY during an extreme hot week. Assessments made within this research are intended to give guidance on the selection of the most appropriate combination of exterior wall properties and natural ventilation strategies within a well-insulated and tightly sealed building.¶ The daily operations of buildings and the number of occupants in buildings generate internal

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heat loads. Additionally, indoor air temperatures are impacted by solar heat gain from glazed openings and heat transmitted by conduction through exterior wall surfaces. Natural ventilation strategies can reduce indoor air temperatures and increase air velocities close to the skin. Increasing air velocities close to the skin can supplement an individual’s thermoregulatory system. Air flows near the skin allow the body to expel heat in a manner that reduces the necessity of skin wettedness. Skin wettedness aids in reducing the surface and core temperatures of an individual through the dissipation of heat. Both surface and core temperatures can help to indicate the level of heat stress encountered by an individual. Two of the metrics used in this research are the thermal sensation scale predicted mean vote (PMV) and standard effective temperature (SET). SET incorporates heat loss to the environment and an evaluation of it is currently recognized by LEED as a measure to promote passive survivability.

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zbz Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Zachary Berzolla SMArchS Candidate ¶ Building Technology ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Christoph Reinhart

“

Using Urban Building Energy Modeling to Meet Carbon Emission Targets: A Case Study of Oshkosh, Wisconsin ¶ Jurisdictions around the world are striving to meet aggressive emissions reduction goals in a short timeframe. This paper lays out a six-step process to meet emissions reduction goals using urban building energy modeling to identify a combination of building energy efficiency and renewable energy deployment strategies. The process involves key decision makers in each jurisdiction working with a sustainability consultant to build up a model of their building stock and test various scenarios to meet the desired emissions reduction goals. Through a case study of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the six-step process is tested and a concrete action plan to meet their 80% emissions reduction

goals by 2050 is presented. The final recommended solution involved upgrading all residences in Oshkosh to EnergyStar Home standards, installing cold climate heat pumps to displace fossil-fuel based heating, and deploying solar over an area equivalent to most of the available rooftops. To aid in the final step of the process, implementation, the city-wide strategies were broken down into actions individual homeowners could take and what the cost and payback periods for these actions would be. In order to meet global emissions reduction goals, the six-step process presented in this paper will need to be carried out in jurisdictions around the world. The approach has been shown to be flexible and applicable to any jurisdiction with emissions goals and access to building footprint and characteristic data.

”

Screenshot from a presentation of the case study results to the Oshkosh, WI Sustainability Advisory Board. This presentation shared the concept of town-wide energy efficiency retrofits as crucial to meeting Oshkosh’s emissions reduction goals and sought the board’s feedback on the proposed strategies. Going forward, the board will be instrumental in supporting any programs to reduce Oshkosh’s emissions.

081

COMP Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

This program inquires into the varied nature and practice of computation in architectural design and the ways in which design meaning, intentions, and knowledge are constructed through computational thinking & making.

4.117 / 4.118 Creative Computation •

Computation

Selected Course Descriptions

Critic: Axel Killian • TA: Ous Abou Ras

082

Dedicated to bridging the gap between the virtual and physical world, the subject embraces modes of computation that hold resonance with materials and methods that beg to be computed. Students engage in bi-weekly exercises to solve complex design problems. Each exercise is dedicated to a different computation approach (recursion, parametric, genetic algorithms, particle-spring systems, etc.) that is married to a physical challenge, thereby learning the advantages and disadvantages to each approach while verifying the results in physical and digitally fabricated prototypes. Through the tools of computation and fabrication, it empowers students to design as architects, engineers and craftspeople.

→ P. 092

4.520 / 4.521 Visual Computation •

Critic: Terry Knight • TA: Lavender Tessmer

Introduces a visual-perceptual, rule-based approach to design using shape grammars. Covers grammar fundamentals through lectures and in-class exercises. Focuses on shape grammar applications, from stylistic analysis to creative design, through presentations of past applications and through short student exercises and projects. Presents computer programs for automating shape grammars.

→P. 100

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

4.s52 Advanced Workshop on

Immersive Media & Virtual Production • Critics: Cagri Hakan Zaman and Deniz Tortum

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52 In this workshop, students develop independent projects in immersive media as it relates to architectural design and spatial storytelling. We will consider technologies of immersion including VR/AR, web-based experiences, sound installations, and virtual production workflows. We will explore the field of immersive media through readings, precedent artwork,

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other and hands-on experience with production tools. We will specifically focus on the production pipelines that use real time simulations and game engines. Students are encouraged to work on the aspects of their studio projects and thesis. The workshop will provide a studio environment for the students to collaborate and provide feedback to each other.

→P. 102

083

allench Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Christopher Allen MArch Candidate ¶ 4.117 / 4.118 Creative Computation ¶ Critic: Axel Killian

“

Through actuated mirroring and path recording, a visor and phone-mirror provide an experience not only of being locked in a staring contest with oneself, but one that becomes a playful, and at times disorienting, experience of seeing oneself contained, disembodied, and reproduced only by way of following select aspects of previous interactions with the image of the self.

”

084

camanfu Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Caleb Amanfu Undergraduate ¶ 4.117 / 4.118 Creative Computation ¶ Critic: Axel Killian

“

The Translation of Space From Environment to User Interaction: The relationship an object can have with an environment can tell a lot about the makeup of a space. This object attempts to establish this relationship.

”

085

camstutz Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Caroline Amstutz MArch Candidate ¶ 4.117 / 4.118 Creative Computation ¶ Critic: Axel Killian

“

Haptic Timekeeping ¶ Exploring a new experience of time reactive to a user’s interactions, Haptic Timekeeping engages with time as an individual experience, and physical timekeeping as a terrain of memory through actuation governed by a finite state automata.

”

Left: Exploded axon parts, materials, and assembly. Below: Composite Finite State Automata, diagram, and states.

086

idonovan Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Inge Donovan MArch Candidate ¶ 4.117 / 4.118 Creative Computation ¶ Critic: Axel Killian

“

The Choreography of Opening uses pose estimation neural networks and capacitive touch technology to equip an object with both vision and capacitive touch. The installation was a choreography between a single human observer and an actuated object across multiple senses, exploring themes of intimacy, touch, and memory, culminating in a haptic encounter between human and object.

”

087

jbrazier Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Justin Brazier MArch Candidate ¶ 4.117 / 4.118 Creative Computation ¶ Critic: Axel Killian

088

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

susanwil Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Susan Williams MArch Candidate ¶ 4.117 / 4.118 Creative Computation ¶ Critic: Axel Killian

“

Trying to capture both the tactility and invisible qualities of the human breath through inflatable textiles. Activated by human touch, the object comes ‘alive’ and begins to breathe upon interaction. The object plays with material properties of both the exterior textile and interior bladder fabrics to control different rates of inflation.

”

089

titova Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Alena Titova MArch Candidate ¶ 4.117 / 4.118 Creative Computation ¶ Critic: Axel Killian

“

Upon a simple touch, the Mimosa pudica (shy plant) family’s leaves furrow and iteratively shut upright as a protective mechanism. Here, I attempt to capture this delicate movement of cascading closure while also using movement as a means for projecting emotions toward the human who is interacting with the object to hopefully elicit a response back.

”

090

yiqingw Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Yiqing Wang MArch Candidate ¶ 4.117 / 4.118 Creative Computation ¶ Critic: Axel Killian

“

Choreographed behaviors are applied to a deformable material to bridge the scale gap between prototype and digital architecture, challenging the notion that a safe construction must be stable and fixed.

”

091

leesoj Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

So Jung Lee MArch Candidate ¶ 4.520 / 4.521 Visual Computing I ¶ Critic: Terry Knight

092

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

sdmohan Computation 4.117 / 4.118 4.s48

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Sahil Mohan MArch Candidate ¶ 4.520 / 4.521 Visual Computing I ¶ Critic: Terry Knight

“

This project was interested in testing the acting potential of geometry through placing the geometry in multiple scenarios with distinct atmospheric qualities. The abstract geometry begins to tell us what its function may become. The geometry acts like a totemic operator in standing reserve, waiting for its environment to illuminate the potential of its function.

”

093

ugorji Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Amanda Ugorji MArch Candidate ¶ 4.520 / 4.521 Visual Computing I ¶ Critic: Terry Knight

“

Playing with Power is a two player game that uses shape grammars and visual computing to explores the relationship of power between individuals. The computation parameters are aimed to empower the person in the more ‘vulnerable position’ to make the next move. A critic suggested this might be a good children’s classroom or workplace tool to explain the nuances of power dynamics. I look forward to exploring these possibilities.

”

094

czhong Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Calvin Zhong MArch Candidate ¶ 4.s52 Advanced Workshop: Immersive Media ¶ Critic: Cagri Hakan Zaman

“

ARChives ¶ Drawing upon early Internet studies, postdigital architectural studies, and popular culture, this project seeks to develop Instagram as a serious medium for matters of architectural concern. The platform’s potential lies in its lowcost, low-barrier-to-entry augmented

reality interactions through its proprietary SparkAR software, enabling large scale proliferation and social media interaction, while its backend technical support for building augmented reality applications and effects enable anyone to produce immersive media

experiences. It co-opts social media to expand architecture’s somewhat limited scope and uses it and its features to explore ideas of media virality, the quality of the medium, and the potentials of augmented reality and effects as event-based media for digital exhibition and discussion.

”

095

rellen Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Ellen Marie Reinhard MArch Candidate ¶ 4.s52 Advanced Workshop: Immersive Media ¶ Critic: Cagri Hakan Zaman

“

In this immersive VR experience the viewer can virtually dive into the alternate world that showcases some of Etienne Louis Boullée's unbuilt works in real-time. Several monuments are placed within this virtual world where the viewer can move around them, walk inside, climb up, and fly around them. The VR headset provides insight into some of Boullée’s thoughts on the origins and designs of these buildings and the atmosphere he wanted them to radiate. Moving beyond the conventional way of experiencing, drawing, and representing architectural buildings, this piece enables the viewer to experience these works through their own lens which creates a new narrative to the understanding of the buildings. Additionally, viewers can create their own virtual monument that allows them to reflect on how VR changes the perception of monumentality, how it eliminates time and how it extends the boundaries of space that are beyond the imaginable.

”

096

bellac Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Bella Carmelita Carriker MArch Candidate ¶ 4.s52 Advanced Workshop: Immersive Media ¶ Critic: Cagri Hakan Zaman

“

Solidarity does not exist — Everything is made up of smaller elements; everything is movable; everything eventually flows past. This project seeks to establish a relationship between the hard bodies of built scaffolding structure, the soft bodies of the mesh which they are enveloped by, and the fluid properties of water. This is an exploration of shapeshifting elements, the entanglement of seemingly disparate objects. Intentionally utilizing a technique intended for solid volumes, photogrammetry was instead implemented to scan liquid water and porous scaffolding mesh. The resulting forms therefore dissolve solidity, introducing a fluid relationship between built structure, particles, and bodies of water within an animated world. In a time of extreme disconnection and environmental crisis, the work attempts to describe pasts and futures in which water has been (and will be) a universal point of both disruption and connection.

”

097

yacoby Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Yaara Yacoby MArch Candidate ¶ 4.s52 Advanced Workshop: Immersive Media ¶ Critic: Cagri Hakan Zaman

“

In March of 2020, the global pandemic finally reached me in Cambridge, MA, and the world as I knew it came to a halt. I found myself stuck in a 200 square foot room with Matt, my partner, as the rest of the undergraduate dorm in which I work as a Graduate Resident Advisor was emptied. Attempting to continue my work online, I found myself displaced between a virtual and physical space. In this film, I sought to document the experience of losing myself in virtual space as well as losing connection with the physical space around me. The project began as a meditation on the space itself — taking careful inventory of what was there and where it came from: a couch, lamp, fridge stand, and bookshelf from the previous tenant; and a fridge, desk, curtain, and rug donated from friends and family. I assembled these objects and reconstructed a 140 square foot portion of the room in Rhino. I chose this part of the room, since it was the public portion of the space: our workspace, dining space, and, before the pandemic, hosting space for students. The room is small, cramped, derelict, filled to the brim with objects. However, importing this model to Unreal Engine, I finally saw what this room could be — curated, clean, crisp, with the sun always shining at the perfect angle. In fact, the more I stared at that room, the more I realized I hate my room. Perhaps what I wanted most was to upload myself and live there, not here. But as I began contrasting the Unreal room with the Real room, I started feeling a sense of loss. I started seeing the absence of life that didn’t bother me.

”

098

yz3535 Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Iris Zeng MArch Candidate ¶ 4.s52 Advanced Workshop: Immersive Media ¶ Critic: Cagri Hakan Zaman

“

At the beginning of the pandemic, I encuntered a room sealed with blue tape and a temporary stair entrance without lights. In January 2020, I spent four days as the first ‘covid suspicious’ patient in a district with one million people to be kept in a quarantine hospital in Chongqing, China. This project stitches together footage taken during those days of mandatory confinement. Through film, the narrative is constructed, while the process of editing and production informs the spaces created in the virtual world.

”

099

bwl Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Bowen Lu SMArchS Candidate¶ Design and Computation ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: George Stiny ¶ Reader: Paul Keel

“

Networking Knowledge and Experience: An Instrumental System for the Personal Development of Individual Designers ¶ Pursuing novelty and diversity, designers are trained through a wide spectrum of different disciplines, absorbing a tremendous amount of explicit knowledge and implicit experience. With design being extremely divergent and complicated, the insufficient development of design abilities is magnified in a fast-growing world of information, especially at the individual designer level. On one side, design education still depends on an apprenticebased practice that slowly forges personality into subconsciousness. On the other side, the technology surge of computer-aided design increases productivity but limits our imagination with a predefined structure and framework. There is not yet a promising method or technology that facilitates design thinking and creativity, especially in the long-term accumulation for individual designers. ¶ In this thesis, I propose a new theory of design ideation and develop an instrumental software system as the implementation of design technology. In constructing a personal network of knowledge and experience for design purposes, the system incorporates both science and art, including the symbolic structure of combinatoric objects in problem-solving as well as the ambiguous perception of unrestricted imagination in visual calculating. Moreover, it provides a

100

unified representation of a network where valuable knowledge and experience can be easily collected, retrieved, and transformed to create new ideas. The software is designed as an augmentation of design thinking, sharing designers’ cognitive burden of memory and attention. Taking verbal notes or visual sketches, human designers and computer systems collaborate and express each other’s strengths in more efficient learning and more creative designing. ¶ This research offers a human-oriented scope across design and technology by demonstrating a computationally augmented intelligence as networked knowledge and experience. The system has more potential in expanding the way we think, and future designers may benefit from this integrated approach of computing, both symbolically and visually.

”

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Opposite: Network Visualization: Personally accumulated knowledge and experience in a network of more than 15,000 nodes, including Conceptual nodes (purple, 1794), Episodic nodes (yellow, 13026), and 10 types of connections (50382). Below: System Interface: Graphic interacting system including inbox, viewer, and widgets that incorporates explicit knowledge (verbal) and implicit experience (visual) in order to fulfill the continuous workflow of input-storeretrieve.

101

elinaoik Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Elina Oikonomaki SMArchS Design and Computation + MS Computer Science Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Terry Knight ¶ Readers: Arvind Satyanarayan, Andres Sevtsuk, George Stiny

“

Sonic Urban Transformations: A Computation Model to Study and Represent Temporal Changes in the Walking Experience ¶ Cities are dynamically changing, complex environments, especially during an unpredictable event like the global pandemic, where parking lots and sidewalks evolve to become restaurants at certain times of the day. Yet, the current urban models used by planners and designers include only static representations of the city that rely on visual information such as maps and images. These static representations of the city are incapable of capturing, representing, and accounting for the changing condition of cities and peoples’ lives. Thus, urban design and planning

102

decisions remain insensitive to the social and spatial conditions that are in constant flux. ¶ Urban spaces are ephemeral, temporal, and ambiguous in their nature and are best perceived in motion and through time. The thesis, I propose, forms a computational model for understanding and representing the temporal changes in the walking experience through sound. Sound offers a more dynamic representation of everyday life in the city as it can convey information about the changes in the practices, actions, and events that take place in the space. These temporal changes in the practiced space constitute not only spatial transformations but also sonic transformations that shape the walking experience.

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

The development of a novel system of representation to enable the effective comparison between different walking experiences is a key component in this work. ¶ A specific walking route around Harvard Square was used as a case study to capture how the different phases of the pandemic changed the walking experience at street level and the spatial conditions over time. By collecting visual, audio data and geolocation data, captured over a three-month period in the afternoons and evenings, the comparative model was built. Urban planners can use this model to understand how planning decisions affect the walking experience and inform their decisions by the temporal multimodal representations of city life.

”

103

jcb432 Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Jeremy Bilotti SMArchS Design and Computation + SM Computer Science Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Terry Knight ¶ Reader: Stefanie Mueller

“

A Machine Learning Model for Understanding How Users Value Designs: Applications for Designers and Consumers ¶ People value furniture designs in subjective and multifaceted ways. Understanding these nuances helps designers develop intuition for creating new designs. And yet, while an abundance of furniture designs already exist, our ability to access and leverage data about how users value them is limited. If our goal is to continually improve the outcome of how users value furniture designs—whether through design practice or commerce—we need a framework for collecting and interpreting user feedback at scale. ¶ In this thesis, I demonstrate a number of advances toward developing a machine learning (ML) model of how designs are valued. The model can be used to better understand the implications of furniture design decisions, as well as for commercial strategy. ¶ Existing ML systems have been trained on the physical and aesthetic features of completed designs. These top-down methods do not capture the nuances of how users actually value the various functions of their furniture. To improve on these methods, I first develop a framework for ingesting and classifying user feedback about how designs are valued. Next, I conduct a user survey to test this framework, generating a bottom-up, labeled dataset which requires no post-processing. Finally, I develop a framework for the computational analysis of this data. The framework is based on a probabilistic ML model trained on the real user data collected. ¶ Through visualizations, I demonstrate

104

how the ML model can be used to show an overview of large data sets of user feedback, model the preferences of new users and augment existing data sets. The model’s efficacy is evaluated by comparing results to a test data set split from the original data set. ¶ This framework represents a step toward a future in which datasets for furniture—and other design domains—are more accessible. By making user feedback available to designers at scale and establishing methods for collecting this data, we can accelerate the development of designer intuition and deliver significantly greater value to users.

”

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

105

kwkng Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Wonki Kang SMArchS Candidate ¶ Design and Computation ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Axel Kilian ¶ Reader: Arvind Satyanarayan

“

Sonic Others: Metaphorical Sonification of Collective Events ¶ The year 2020 has brought many long-running global crises into light. The climate crisis has become more tangible than ever, and the pressures of the global pandemic further escalated racial injustice. Trying to make sense of such phenomena is overwhelming, and the efforts of journalists and data scientists to explain them in words or visual representations have repeatedly

106

failed to evoke empathy from people. The reason is likely that global crises are hyperobjects, as defined by an ecological theorist Timothy Morton, objects that are in-experienceable due to their vast distribution in time and space beyond human’s perceptive capability.1 Hyperobjects inevitably involve remarkably different temporalities than the ones relatable to human beings. Central to the thesis is the questioning of how hyperobjects can

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

be made experienceable. In doing so, I suggest a new way of engaging with hyperobjects by bringing forward listening that has been considered as a mere backdrop of our experience. The thesis is delivered threefold. First, an overview of historical examples of how different senses have been utilized to raise empathy is conducted, and further argue how the auditory sense works best in doing so. Second, I propose a scalable framework to construct a sonic metaphor of a set of events that constitutes the hyperobject. The sonic metaphor is a conceptual metaphor, constructed through the conceptual blending of the sounds we are already familiar with. I describe collective events through the structure of meaning making that is deeply ingrained in how humans learn abstract concepts based on their

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

prior knowledge. Finally, the proposed framework is demonstrated to deliver multifaceted concepts of Black Lives Matter protests that have taken place in thousands of cities across the globe. By collecting and reconstructing the audio footage that has been recorded on site, I deliver an experience that is engaging and evocative. The ultimate goal of the thesis is to validate a hypothesis: hyperobjects are better heard than seen.

”

Timothy Morton (2013). Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World. University of Minnesota Press.

Left: constellation of sound events projected onto semantic space. Right: the story delivered through navigating the sematic space

107

rkaadan Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Rania Kaadan SMArchS Candidate ¶ Design and Computation ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Terry Knight ¶ Readers: Lorena Bello Gomez, Nicholas de Monchaux

“

Untold Narratives ¶ How is a designer’s creative identity to be developed? How can design students question design assumptions and experiment with a range of design practices that allow them to decide which intentions to amplify, discard, or replace? In this thesis, I examine the objective and subjective interest in finding our voices by introducing personal narratives as a design tool to emancipate design students’ agency through worldmaking exercises. In the practice of both introspective and performative design protocols, students cultivate a personal sense of one’s narrative, methods of representation, design language and their embodying unique socio-cultural, political and environmental identity. As an architect and a designer, this work has emerged from my own experiences, on one side, a student aware of mediated biases; and on another, an educator attempting to resist and mediate her own biases in design studios, hence avoiding a loss of students’ agency in developing a personal design language, geometries, and visual imagination. Through a series of worldmaking exercises, students harness narrative evidence of their own stories, their own imagination, captured through a reflexive and performative practice of self-discovery. In this regard, this thesis does not offer theories of how to design or seek to constitute a curricula review. Rather, it is an alternative contribution to a relationship that flows through interwoven narratives and sequences of time. That is on the one side political and on another personalist, the latter being a theory derived from the person or personality as a key to an interpretation of one's reality — a story of a long process challenging the limitations of colonized narratives to motivate transformation, a tale of designers’ voice realization.

108

”

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Below: A representation of a designer’s flow in an interwoven sequence of personal narratives.

109

walleral Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Alexandra Lee Waller SMArchS Candidate ¶ Design and Computation ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Lawrence Sass ¶ Reader: Terry Knight

“

Monstrous Space: Architectural Production in an Age of Algorithms ¶ In the last half-century, much attention has been paid in the fields of architecture and design towards developing methods of interfacing with machines and to the production of objects in space through digital technologies. As a result of these efforts, the evolution of these technologies has advanced the field of architecture and design forward, enabling new and powerful methods of representation, novel approaches to fabrication and construction, and unparalleled exploration of architectural form in space. ¶ This thesis provides an expanded understanding of the consequences of digital processes in architecture and design by investigating the way space itself is reconfigured as a byproduct of ubiquitous computation. It claims fertile territory for investigation: the physical-digital hybridization of domestic space and cloud-based peer-to-peer video communication platforms. ¶ As a result of domestic-digital hybridization, raw architectural fragments are shown to be created. Critical parallels surface between the material qualities inherent to these fragments and those belonging to spolia, architectural fragments produced through the ruination of existing architecture and repurposed as material in new constructions. A conceptual framework is developed which situates domestic-digital space in cross-disciplinary dialogue with other concepts and processes of hybridity and aligns

110

the aesthetic qualities of domestic-digital space within the lineage of the grotesque in Western art and architecture. ¶ A methodology for architectural production is developed in response, including a structure for hybrid human-machine design collaboration, and approaches to material creation, organization, and assembly. A fragment catalogue is produced, documenting and organizing a collection of digital spolia, and a series of speculative domestic architectures is constructed utilizing fragments from the catalogue. Differing approaches towards assembly are tested with the goal of producing spatial qualities resonant with grotesque expression.

”

Opposite: Digital Spolia, Image by Author Below: Collage, Draughtsman Making a Perspective Drawing of a Reclining Woman, (Albrecht Dürer, ca 1600)

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

111

xiaoy698 Art Culture Technology 4.390 4.241 / 11.330

History Theory Criticism 11.494 4.640

Building Technology 4.236 / 11.463J 4.677

Xiaoyun Margaret Zhang SMArchS Candidate ¶ Design and Computation ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Takehiko Nagakura ¶ Reader: Axel Kilian

“

Envisage: Investigating Design Intentions, Visual Perception through Eye Tracking of Architectural Sketches ¶ Are we able to perceive an architect’s intention through the observation of his or her sketches? Yes, but it requires a probing process of observation. I propose a method to utilize eye-tracking as a translator between the graphics and the architect’s perception of three types of intention: shape, composition, and circulation. My hypothesis is that we can perceive how architects represent these intentions — through the means of graphics, which allow a more ambiguous and dynamic translation between intention and sketches, we can probe the underlying process by observing a viewer’s eye movements. Furthermore, heat maps, obtained from eye movements, can be adapted to a machine learning algorithm — Image-conditioned Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). I use this algorithm to translate the raw sense of space and visual gesture to capture human-level information acquisition of these intentions. ¶ To demonstrate the work, I first discuss the history of visual power in design and a shift towards units and segmentation, covering the development from the emergence of design drawings to innovation in parametric design. I then proceed with an eyetracking study where I asked graduate architecture

112

students to observe sketches by Louis Kahn. I study how the graphics of heat maps from eye-tracking decode the participants’ perception of intentions in sketches based on a shared educational background in architecture. Then, I propose a framework of utilizing such a representation system to train machines to predict human-level view patterns. Finally, I examine how effective this system will function with an image-to-image machine learning algorithm known as the image-conditional GANs. ¶ The study demonstrates that mechanical eye-movements imply a shared visual-thinking procedure that has been unconsciously practiced by human designers. Such procedure, if learned by machines, will facilitate a creative process that utilizes such informal dynamics derived from eye movement in visual representation in design.

”

Computation 4.s48 4.117 / 4.118

Architecture + Urbanism 4.520 / 4.521 4.s52

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THG Other

Opposite: Sketch Credit, Kahn, L. I. Morris residence: Detail plan. Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania

113

MArch, Year 1 Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Selected Course Descriptions

Architecture and Urbanism: MArch, Year 1

The second semester of the MArch program follows a project-based learning approach. A central project is addressed by each student, guided by a range of disciplinary approaches.

114

4.152 Architecture Design

Core Studio II • Critics: Cristina Parreño Alonso, Matt Bunza, Silvia IlliaShedlahl • TAs: Laura Gonzalez, Rania Kaadan, Zhicheng Xu

Builds on Core I skills and expands the constraints of the architectural problem to include issues of urban site logistics, cultural and programmatic material (inhabitation and human factors), and long span structures. Two related projects introduce a range of disciplinary issues, such as working with precedents, site, sectional and spatial proposition of the building, and the performance of the outer envelope. Emphasizes the clarity of intentions and the development of appropriate architectural and representational solutions.

→ P. 124

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

115

allench Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Christopher Allen MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

The Return of House to Parcel R-1 through domestic scale and familial program. The programmatic emphasis on family is realized through a multigenerational gradient of spaces. The overlap of these spaces become flexible-use areas which foster the intergenerational exchange of knowledge and information, such as technological literacy workshops, storytelling events, and language classes in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and other minority or endangered languages. The selective opacity and introverted orientation of the library’s massing is meant to evoke a sense of refuge and sanctuary for neighborhood residents, as well as signal to the rest of Boston that Chinatown community is here to stay.

”

116

bellac Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Bella Carmelita Carriker MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

The Library as Forest proposes a community space and public library for Boston’s Chinatown, maintaining separate flexible programs linked through a common corridor and courtyard. The project functions on multiple scales, incorporating a diverse community of generations, languages, and cultural values into a larger ecological community of animal and plant life, organized through an open structural system in timber. The structure contains three levels of vegetation: 1) Ground-level bioswales, rain gardens, and trees for flooding remediation 2) Rooftop community gardens for urban agriculture, medicinal herb cultivation, and nutrition education 3) Vegetated roofscapes for migratory animal life and urban heat island reduction.

”

117

camstutz Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Caroline Amstutz MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

Woven Exchange Library ¶ The project encourages multi-directional inscription, valuing spaces where knowledge is exchanged, absorbed, and created. A warp and weft emerge from the site forming continuous, ramping volumes. The programmed ramps, interstitial landings, and destination floors weave, pierce, and slide past one another creating moments of visual, auditory, and knowledge exchange.

”

Above: Unrolled Section. Below: Café Perspective.

118

czhong Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Calvin Zhong MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

This library for Chinatown asks for an alternative method of representing and displaying Chinatown that does not rely on aesthetic trope but rather leverages a recognizable space type that reproduces familiar rituals and taps into the idiosyncrasies of an ethnic enclave.

”

Left: Interior rendering of views through wall, courtyard, program Below: Interior rendering of Hutong between program

119

dpankhur Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

David Pankhurst MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

Landforms of Knowledge ¶ This proposal provides a library, gallery space, and garden for the community of Chinatown. It seeks to act as the extension of an urban landscape and highlights the intersection between cultural and environmental resiliency.

”

Left: Perspective, Library Reading Room Bottom: Perspective, Ground Floor Gallery & Atrium

120

gideonse Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Lauren Gideonse MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

This proposition for a library in Chinatown resituates the institution as a productive respite, a central point of return for the expanded community that supports the production of new and more whole resources that reflect the community and assist in their aims. The library operates cyclically; explicit spaces and support for the addition of community individual’s resources, data, and memories feed a culture of preservation. Those preserved archives, when accessed, enable new considerations, collaborations, curatorial moments, which in turn lead to the production of new materials to feed the archive or to be displayed. The design of the library facilitates this process while also drawing a threshold between the library and its context, to eliminate spectatorship and encourage participation.

”

121

giorgis Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Adriana Giorgis MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

122

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

“

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Thinking Ahead ¶ This project utilizes the lens of architectural timescales and longevity as defense mechanisms against the political, climactic, economic and social pressures being exerted on the Chinatown neighborhood and

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

community. ¶ Architectural elements are evaluated and scattered throughout the building on scales of permanence in order to enable a structure capable of evolving through the coming centuries.

”

123

idonovan Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Inge Donovan MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

As the regime of text is interrupted, new forms of knowledge emerge. A library for such forms requires an archival logic, an architecture, an archive texture. My project elevates these ‘alternate’ forms of knowledge by proposing a library designed around four central archives, elevating material, sound and visual intelligence.

”

124

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

125

jbrazier Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Justin Brazier MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

Architecturally, this project approaches the idea of library and social infrastructure from two aspects — as a place to extend the reach of the current social fabric and create green outdoor space for Chinatown while staying within and reimagining its local building context. ¶ In plan, the library meets the ground along three bars laid across the site from East to West, creating and framing outdoor spaces of porosity and flexibility juxtaposed by informal community spaces like a small auditorium beside a flexible community space, café, history gallery, reading room, and resource space for community consultation. ¶ The more traditional library spaces above house

126

books and media, study spaces, a media lab, a small group of rooms and classrooms for financial literacy for young adults as well as a conference room for more formal public meetings. These spaces are contrasted by occupiable roof spaces that offer moments of repose, reflection, and gathering. ¶ At the very top level there is a community kitchen, greenhouse, and urban roof garden. At the heart of every culture, identity, and lineage is food and agriculture, and the idea is to use culinary and agricultural practices as a vehicle for cultural learning between various age groups and ethnicities while promoting healthy food habits.

”

jschnitz Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Jenna Schnitzler MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

Solidifying Social Infrastructure ¶ This proposal is the solidification of a social infrastructure network that already exists in Boston’s Chinatown, prioritizing the public amenities and services that the existence of a library enables. Media, service, and commons are collaged on top of each other, excavated and then re-covered to form an assemblage of permanent infrastructure.

”

127

jvbrice Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

James Brice MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

This proposal aims to interrogate how social infrastructure can act as a catalyst for community interaction; the library as growth medium— encouraging the emergence of both ecological and social phenomena at the population level through the interspersing of programmed microclimatic spaces in a pixelated gradient across the site.

”

128

krotman Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Katie Rotman MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

A library that floats and burrows ¶ The design is driven by the phenomenological, where sensory cues aren’t superimposed on the site, but cultivated through architecture. They emerge in relational spaces — materialized as simple walls, windows, or extruded volumetric space — as moments of connection and intrigue. These moments represent story buds; hints of narratives; threads to follow.

”

129

leesoj Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

So Jung Lee MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

Library of Love ¶ ‘He who knows nothing, loves nothing...But he who understands also loves, notices, sees...The more knowledge is inherent in a thing, the greater the love.’— Paracelsus ¶ This project argues that knowledge and love are closely related and that the architecture of libraries can make love visible for the community. Visiting a library, searching for information on the web, and reading books are all signs of love. An architecture that devises a sense of belonging can empower immigrant families who suffer from disconnection.

”

130

yz3535 Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Iris Zeng MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

This provocation proposes a combination of media archiving and display space as the site of reflection, where archiving and displaying hidden diaspora narratives of the immigrant community happen. It is providing access to history, identity, services, and restoring individuals’ social connectedness and belongingness that create social capital.

”

131

mwangxu Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Mackinley Wang-Xu MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

The project conceptualizes a Chinatown branch library that centers elders and their role in the cultural resiliency of the neighborhood through intergenerational exchange. The building seeks to resolve the elements of roof, core, and ramp in hopes of juxtaposing old and new conceptions of the library.

”

132

rellen Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Ellen Marie Reinhard MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

Rather than going the conventional way of designing a library that maximizes the surface area on the plot, this library aims to use the potential of the existing urban void of the site to foreground the qualities of Chinatown’s neighborhood. The geodes that contain all communal activities are nested within the void itself. All other non-communal infrastructural programs of the library are pushed to the border to form a ring that captures the void.

”

Left: Program diagram highlights the urban void surrounded by all communal activities. Bottom: View when standing within the large open void in the middle of the library.

133

sdmohan Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Sahil Mohan MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

In response to the site conditions and needs voiced by the community, this project proposes a library that is library + park. The two twist up against one another, where void becomes park and solid becomes library, forming a metaphorical knot.

”

134

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Opposite Above: Interior view Opposite Below: Exterior view Right: Figure Ground Section Bottom: Section

135

susanwil Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Susan Williams MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

A conventional library is normally opened for limited hours of 9–5. These restricted hours only serve a small portion of Boston’s Chinatown community. This library operates during typical business hours but is also designed for the late night user.

”

136

titova Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Alena Titova MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

This proposal for the Chinatown Public Library Branch sets out to empower community members through the provision of spaces for access, learning, and making. I avoid delineating programmatic areas through harsh edges and instead let the noise and light permeate through and against the natural boundaries and constraints of the site.

”

137

ugorji Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Amanda Ugorji MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

Librarians and the library itself are conduits for cultural information dispersal from large institutions to localities, from individual to collective. This library makes space for cultural preservation and community resilience, not stagnantly but actively. The archive creates a constant and immersive event that centers a set of stories local to Chinatown.

”

138

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Wu Meiling heard the new Chinatown branch library was collecting cultural artifacts to share with the youth, so she decided to add her photos to the collection. The librarian packaged the documents in a capsule and placed it in the chute.

139

yiqingw Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Yiqing Wang MArch Candidate ¶ 4.152 Core II Studio ¶ Critics: Cristina Parreño, Silvia Illia-Sheldahl, Matt Bunza

“

The uneven distribution of urban furniture and the tight-knit Boston Chinatown community triggers an intervention bridging the gaps. The robust cores, rooted and growing, are turned into social infrastructures, serving the community as a hub of intersections, standing and watching the ebb and flow of civic life.

”

140

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

141

MArch, Option

Selected Course Descriptions

Architecture and Urbanism: MArch, Option

Art Culture Technology 4.120

142

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Offers a broad range of advanced-level investigations in architectural design in various contexts, including international sites. Integrates theoretical and technological discourses into specific topics. Studio problems may include urbanism and city scale strategies, habitation and urban housing systems, architecture in landscapes, material investigations and new production technologies, programmatic and spatial complex building typologies, and research centered studies.

4.120 Furniture Making

Workshop • Critic: Christopher Dewart • TA: Marisa Concetta Waddle

4.154 Architecture Design

Option Studio: Hessen Instititue, Towards a Carbon Ontology • Critic: Mark Goulthorpe • TA: Dimitrios Chatzinikolis

Provides instruction in designing and building a functional piece of furniture from an original design. Develops woodworking techniques from use of traditional hand tools to digital fabrication.

→ P. 170

CarbonHouse is an on-going research initiative funded by ARPA-e (the advanced research projects agency of Dept of Energy) that involves MIT and 8 groups of international scientists, researchers, composite fabricators, all focused on emerging forms of carbon for their holistic use in benign, highperformance buildings. The lead MIT architecture team is tasked with inventing a new material/production potential as a means to supplement hydrogen production at vast scale: only the building sector can absorb carbon at the scale of C21 projected global energy production.

→ P. 172

4.154 Architecture Design

Option Studio: Hawai‘i Non-Linear • Critics: Christopher Leong, Dominic Leong, Sean Connelly • TA: Mark Anthony HernandezCornejo

This studio is part of an ongoing social practice in architecture project conducted in collaboration with Honolulu-based Pacific Islander American artist-architect and activist Sean Connelly, to radically re-imagine the future for architecture in Hawai‘i, the most remote island in the world on the frontier of the COVID and climate

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J (continued)

4.154 Architecture Design

Option Studio: Blueprints of Justice • Critic: Oana Stănescu • TA: Marianna González-Cervantes

4.154 Architecture Design

Option Studio: Positions and Scenarios • Critics: Miho Mazereeuw, Rosalyne Shieh • TA: Luis Alberto Meouchi Velez

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG crisis. The studio will explore a trans-scalar and trans-temporal approach to understand an indigenous concept of ground (‘āina) as the basis to interrupt existing US urbanism through a network of pedagogical sites (hālau) for indigenous knowledge (‘ike) at an architectural scale. The organizing conceptual framework of the studio aims to empower indigenous Hawaiian knowledge and the local ecologies of guardianship (ahupua‘a) in a way that Mary Pukui described as “utilizing the resources of sustenance to a

Course 4 Undergraduate Other maximum.” Following an intensive agenda focused on Hawaiian culture, social justice issues, and indigenous knowledge, the studio will conclude design for a "living memorial" operating among a constellation of pedagogical sites, or “academies for ahupua‘a recovery.”

→ P. 185

In 2020 the justice system, predicated on conservatism and adversity to innovation, was forced into change. The unusual set of circumstances enabled the instantaneous digitization of the courts, creating a ripple effect that will continue to reverberate over the coming years, if not decades. The studio aims to take stock of this moment of change and investigate a future for the

hybrid, virtual and physical spaces of justice. Specifically we will be looking at the Massachusetts Court System and working across different scales, spanning from immediate interventions into the Lynn District Court, to designing a new courthouse in Quincy, a project currently under development.

Many of us are interested in alternative visions for how we live together and care for each other in ways that implicate space, building, and infrastructure. This option studio starts with the premise that personal experience is the source of our humanity, and must not be bracketed out from our professional, disciplinary, or technical selves. Agency and engaged activism can flow along the lines of how personal knowledge connects with and augments disciplinary actions. This

studio will begin with examining, establishing, and situating each participant’s personal experience within the discipline — a positioning, if you will — then follow with a series of event-based design scenarios through which each participant will develop a catalog of techniques for enacting architecture and urbanism to reparative and restorative ends.

→ P. 191

→ P. 196 143

MArch, Option Art Culture Technology 4.120

4.154 Architecture Design

Option Studio: Amazonia, 12,000 Years Towards Cultivation • Critics: Angelo Bucci, Xhulio Binjaku • TA: Eytan Levi

4.154 Architecture Design

Option Studio: IN-HOUSE • Critics: Zain Karsan, Catie Newell, Virginia San Fratello • TA: Joel Austin Cunningham

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Amazonia is typically considered as a single, massive, green forest. However, this vision hides the deep history of civilizations that have cultivated each piece of it for over 12,000 years, who have actually been ‘building’ that nature. Amazonia conjures a stereotypical image which holds two diametrically opposed views: first, that of a lush forest capable of sustaining multiple forms of life; and second, a territory that is totally empty of human civilization. This vision is a fallacy that has been perpetuated for too long. ¶ Colonizing powers found it very useful to erase the forest, with all of its forms of life. Conveniently, Western history has designated the forest as the opposite of civilization, its antithesis as the shadow of architecture. This studio is proposed right against that notion.

This studio will use recently uncovered archeological evidence to argue that Amazonia should be understood as a space of intense human cultivation rather than a singular entity. With this, we argue that Amazonia is more a garden than a forest.

The premise of the studio is simple, to use the machine to build an interior intervention larger than the machine itself. This studio will focus on process, therefore the deliverables consist of the intervention and a two minute video explaining the process of its construction. The intervention should be particular to your context and can range in program and intent. The only proviso is the volume of the intervention should be large enough to have spatial implications. The intervention

can be a piece of furniture, a wall or ceiling condition, a domestic object, or a sculpture. It should address issues of assembly, part-to-whole relationships, and perhaps most importantly, context.

→ P. 198

→ P. 204 144

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

4.163J Urban Design Studio:

BOSTON CROSSINGS • Critic: Alexander D'Hooghe • TA: Dries Carmeliet

4.173J China Urban Design

Studio • Critic: Brent D. Ryan

4.247J Urban Design Ideals and Action • Critic: Brent D. Ryan

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

The promise of car based concentric mobility networks to create seamless connectivity and lively streetscapes has failed. Congestion, air pollution and obnoxious commutes urge for a radical rethinking of moving through cities in the 21st century. This studio will research the shape, form, technical challenge, cultural narrative, and typological innovation presented by multimodal mobility networks in an urban context. ¶ Actual mobility patterns are in full flux and change, with many new tech innovations and business models complementing traditional vehicle

flows and mass transit systems. The studio cannot predict the future, but students will be provided with the recent state of the research about emerging trends. The fast rise of light e-vehicles (electrified bikes, etc.) is central to our work. This brief also unlocks a question about the relation between urban infrastructure (fixed, lasts # forPage decades) and evolving flow technologies. In this sense, this exercise is about organizing infrastructure with an eye on potential obsolescence. How can a network be ready to host a series of unpredictable futures?

Design studio that includes architects and city planners working in teams on a contemporary development project of importance in China, particularly in transitional, deindustrializing cities. Students analyze conditions, explore alternatives, and synthesize architecture, city design, and implementation plans. Lectures and brief study tours expose students to history and contemporary issues of urbanism in China. Offered each spring at MIT in parallel with urban design studio at Tsinghua University, Beijing, involving students and

faculty from both schools. In Spring 2021 the studio will have a special topic and site: the reconstruction and restoration of civic space in the Karantina neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon. This neighborhood was badly damaged in the August 2020 port explosion. Students will pursue ‘social urbanism’ strategies to promote social equity and connectivity to the larger city. Partners for Spring 2021 will be the urban design program at American University Beirut and an urban design studio at Tsinghua University, China.

Examines the relationship between urban design ideals, urban design action, and the built environment through readings, discussions, presentations, and papers. Analyzes the diverse design ideals that influence cities and settlements and investigates how

urban designers use them to shape urban form. Provides a critical understanding of the diverse formal methods used to intervene creatively in both developed and developing contexts, especially pluralistic and informal built environments.

→ P. 216

→ P. 220

→ P. 222 145

4.120 Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Furniture Making Workshop Critic: Christopher Dewart

Julian Escudero Geltman

Jitske Swagemakers

Emma Jurczynski

Carol-Anne Rodrigues

Latifa Alkhayat

146

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Tim Cousin

Sasha McKinlay

Daisy Ziyan Zhang

Patricia Dueñas Gerritsen

147

anamc Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Ana McIntosh MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Hessen Instititue, Towards a Carbon Ontology ¶ Critic: Mark Goulthorpe

“

This project uses the existing oil drilling site of the Oregon Basin in Wyoming as an infrastructure for a Carbon Institute. The architecture, half embedded and half suspended, supports a production facility for experimentation of new building materials made of solid carbon, extracted and processed from hydrocarbons.

”

148

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

149

latifa+aboscolo Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Latifa Alkhayat Arthur Boscolo MArch Candidates ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Hessen Instititue, Towards a Carbon Ontology ¶ Critic: Mark Goulthorpe

“

Carbon Form denotes a set of abstracted systems of production and maintenance embodied in a spatial configuration; it describes much of the built environment as it currently exists. A close anatomical analysis of Carbon Form reveals an appendage of enlightenment thinking, a willfully overlooked assumption that ‘environment’ exists as a non-exhaustible background condition that can abstract any collateral of productive activity into itself. The Root Institute folds into a Cabon Imaginary, a model of settlement that is both geographically tied to its material source and finite. Located on Carter Creek, Wyoming, it is a sublimation of the dark substance, resulting from an on-site methane extraction and pyrolysis process. The settlement grows from the well, forming a constant reminder of the source of material and energy.

”

150

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

151

ous Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Ous Abou Ras MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Hessen Instititue, Towards a Carbon Ontology ¶ Critic: Mark Goulthorpe

“

This project is a documented narrative about the Making Hessen Institute that brings different experts together to research MAKING. The reporter shares his favorite spots, baroque architecture, student work, the making strip, the scattered labs, and how this institute is always making itself — as he links it to Carbon politics.

”

152

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

153

sashamck Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Sasha McKinlay MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Hessen Instititue, Towards a Carbon Ontology ¶ Critic: Mark Goulthorpe

“

The Hessen institute situates itself in a new Climate Future where the extended parliamentary system represents the interests of humans and non-humans in global decision making. Here, scientists are able to ‘put questions’ to the environment, addressing the questions of a new geological age of profound human responsibility.

”

154

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

155

tcousin Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Tim Cousin MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Hessen Instititue, Towards a Carbon Ontology ¶ Critic: Mark Goulthorpe

“

The project’s premise is based on the research of an MIT transdisciplinary initiative that looks at the possibility of deploying Carbon at scale as a building material, sourcing it from a clean process of natural gas pyrolysis yielding hydrogen and solid Carbon. ¶ The Carbon Institute is a commentary on the ethics of this deployment, striving to balance the potential and virtues of this new building technology with more fundamental concerns regarding matter, energy, and landscapes. ¶ The off-grid building consists of a single large roof seating in the slope of the desertic landscape of Wyoming. It acts as a large photovoltaic surface and embeds wind turbines while being linked to a geothermal source. ¶ The architectural language balances the tension between the ethereal plasticity of the high-end carbon manufacturing and the terrestrial plasticity of the raw earth. ¶ Among the programmatic

156

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

landscape of the research institute hosted under the roof, three moments — the tunnel, the hill, and the cave — propose a sensorial experience in relation to carbon matter, energy, and landscape. These material and spatial ‘accidents’ are deployed to punctuate the daily experience of the in-residence scientists and maintain them in a more caring relationship with non-human things. ¶ If Carbon is set to be the future or matter and energy, and the institute the place where we articulate and engineer this nascent industr, then the building’s walls will strive to reminds its residents to look at matter, energy, and landscapes not only as externalities in a technical problem but also as essential things towards which our capability to develop affects might condition the shift toward a sustainable mode of inhabiting the earth.

”

157

vgr Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Vijay Rajkumar MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Hessen Instititue, Towards a Carbon Ontology ¶ Critic: Mark Goulthorpe

“

The Carbon Institute is situated within a landscape of similarly carbon-built aeolian instruments which unfold across the Big Horn Basin that, played by the wind alone, generate an infinetly complex ambient soundscape. The institute is a vessel that contains numerous labs, each addressing specific challenges in relation to combating climate change, whether economic, cultural, or scientific, which exist for various durations. A CAD/CAM manufacturing logic allows for these labs to be highly customized in scale and form, while expressing the unique possibilities

158

of an ultra-lightweight CNT-composite built architecture as isolated volumes. Rails of near invisible (and electrically conductive) CNT yarn support and power mobile circulatory platforms and the programmed volumes, and are reconfigurable as labs are replaced, reorganized and discarded over time. The commons of the institute becomes a space in which each of these unique volumes resonate in relation to each other, opening the possibility for the necessarily complex solutions to climate change to emerge.

”

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Right: Carbon Institute (Exterior) Below: Carbon Institute (Interior) Opposite: Aeolian instruments in the landscape

159

pipitone Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Vanessa Pipitone Undergraduate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Hessen Instititue, Towards a Carbon Ontology ¶ Critic: Mark Goulthorpe

“

This project explores the form of carbon composite structures in the Hessen Institute of Carbon, a campus for carbon research in the disciplines of biology, chemistry, and geology. Resonant with the prehistoric marine archaeology of the site, Big Horn Basin, WY, the institute assumes the form of a lost artifact of natural history, excavated and adapted for human program.

”

160

kkoskey Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Katie Koskey MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Hawai‘i Non-Linear ¶ Critics: Christopher Leong, Dominic Leong, Sean Connelly

“

In this remediated landscape, the wetland becomes a habitat for native Hawaiian plants and animals, replacing the existing golf course and impervious ground alongside the Ala Wai Canal in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. This watershed provides an abundance of material for future site development.

”

161

evellyn+sammay+nalmulla Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Evellyn Tan Sam May Nada AlMulla MArch Candidates ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Hawai‘i Non-Linear ¶ Critics: Christopher Leong, Dominic Leong, Sean Connelly

“

As part of a collective studio exploration on recovering Aina (land) in Hawaii, the architecture assembly team developed a material palette of a standard set of building assemblies and details made of local Hawaiian plants and assemblage techniques based on Hawaiian practice and indigenous knowledge. Our material assembly research focuses on exploring the hybridity of coupling traditional Hawaiian Kauhale construction with structural properties and logic of a tensile cable structure. The material palette is then deployed to different possible ground conditions on sites, the Kalo field and the fishpond, at different scalar conditions.

”

162

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

163

lrau+ellenjw+midowu History Theory Criticism 4.152

Art Culture Technology 4.120

Building Technology 4.154

Lasse Rau Ellen Wood Jola Idowu MArch Candidates ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Hawai‘i Non-Linear ¶ Critics: Christopher Leong, Dominic Leong, Sean Connelly

“

Mediating the edge conditions between site and context, ground and inhabitants, ‘Aina and pedagogy, and Makai and Mauka, we propose an approach that through specific spatial interfaces — emerging from the movements and experiences of the human and non-human inhabitants of the site — constitute the porosities of an Ahupua’a urbanism.

”

Right: Pedagogical interface between ‘Iolani School and Kalo field. Below: Linear and cyclical processes of maintenance. Opposite: Coded thresholds constitute the edges of a porous urbanism.

164

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

165

zekunfan Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Zekun Fan MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Hawai‘i Non-Linear ¶ Critics: Christopher Leong, Dominic Leong, Sean Connelly

“

The drawings focused on the Hawaiian education system related to urbanism, ecological systems of Ahupua’a, food serving capacity, demographic information, students’ activities, and the site access analysis.

”

Below: School access and food distribution

166

pgruber Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Paul Gruber MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Blueprints of Justice ¶ Critic: Oana Stănescu

“

Open House ¶ There is no current blueprint for a physical/digital hybrid courthouse. Open House reconfigures the court into a truly public space by providing access to people, access to court services, and access to digital technology, challenging traditional standards of the courthouse, while accommodating the needs of those who have barriers accessing justice.

”

167

arenasa+jok+rmoyers Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Ana Arenas Jayson Kim Ruth Blair Moyers MArch Candidates ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Blueprints of Justice ¶ Critic: Oana Stănescu

“

New Court(Yard) ¶ This project imagines the future of Lynn District Court as a public space, with three small courthouses spread across the site, surrounded by public spaces for information, a daycare, restorative justice, and outdoor programming. It serves as a possible starting point for a larger process of de-centralization, in which justice can become more open, accessible and specific to place.

”

Above: New Court(Yard) Overall Axonometric Opposite Top: View from Washington Street Opposite Above Right: View of Inner Courtyard Opposite Right: View of Legal Services Center

168

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

169

emmajur+jlsong Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Emma Jurczynski Alice Jia Li Song MArch Candidates ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Blueprints of Justice ¶ Critic: Oana Stănescu

“

PublicHouse is both an extension to the Lynn District Courthouse and an alternative model to justice following the restorative justice model. Under the roof of the PublicHouse, courts will serve the community that it is embedded within and beyond the immediate terms of the judicial system. It will transform with the needs of the community.

”

170

Below: The PublicHouse includes a daycare to serve the needs of the court users as well as the greater community of Lynn. Opposite: Restorative justice operates as a conversation where all parties involved have a chance to speak. Everyone sits around the same table, the victim and other residents, to talk about what happened and why. Together they decide how the defendant can remedy the harm they have caused in the community.

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

171

dgr History Theory Criticism 4.152

Art Culture Technology 4.120

Building Technology 4.154

Danny Griffin MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Positions and Scenarios ¶ Critics: Miho Mazereeuw, Rosalyne Shieh

“

Dream Lawn uses the medium of an illustrated children’s book to reflect on the American Dream, using a lawnmower and lists of chores as worldbuilding devices in a fantasy narrative. With suburbia as a backdrop, the book recasts lawn care as environmental care, questioning ideals of property, maintenance, and ecological succession.

”

172

Above: llustrated Map, showing the different characters along the edges of the yard. Opposite Above: Illustrated Vignette, atop the compost pile. Opposite Below: Illustrated Axon, showing an overgrown suburb, completely reclaimed by stickers of the yard inhabitants.

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

173

carodrig History Theory Criticism 4.152

Art Culture Technology 4.120

Building Technology 4.154

Carol-Anne Rodrigues MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Amazonia, 12,000 Years towards Cultivation ¶ Critics: Angelo Bucci, Xhulio Binjaku

“

Monte Alegre is a natural state park in Pará, Brazil full of indigenous rupestrian art and threatened by external forces. To address these threats, a series of interventions are situated in between the two mountain ranges, Serra Da Lua and Serra Paituna, that create an ecological corridor that will protect and conserve the area from future harm. By creating open structures that open up to native plants species in the park, there is an intimate relationship created between the trees and the visitors. A sense of stewardship is learned as the trees are free to grow in these spaces, allowing nature to overtake architecture.

”

174

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

175

geltmanj Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Julian Escudero Geltman MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Amazonia, 12,000 Years towards Cultivation ¶ Critics: Angelo Bucci, Xhulio Binjaku

“

Cognitive Etching considers how we relate to the past as a means of understanding how we are a part of landscape. Within a paradigm of salvage capitalism in Amazonia, cognitive etching brings individuals into a close friction with the earth, drawing close attention to all forms of disturbances, whether human or not in origin. This is done through encouraging three forms of looking: looking up, looking down, and looking within.

”

176

pduenasg Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Patricia Dueñas Gerritsen MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Amazonia, 12,000 Years towards Cultivation ¶ Critics: Angelo Bucci, Xhulio Binjaku

“

Monte Alegre State Park is an archaeological site in Pará, Brazil established through a process of removal and exclusion in the name of protection. On Maintenance and Trees is a proposal that combines maintenance of rupestrian art with cultivation and harvesting of trees in order to promote trust. Different paradigms of conservation that promote interdependence between social practices and ecological networks have strong precedents in Amazonia. For millennia, useful plant species in the Cerrado region have been domesticated as part of broader forest management strategies. This proposal consists of three architectural interventions: trees, a shaded footpath, and a workshop space. This modest plan echoes Lina Bo Bardi’s anthropological approach: what we want is to maintain and amplify what we’ve found here — nothing more.

”

177

xzc Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Zhicheng Xu MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Amazonia, 12,000 Years towards Cultivation ¶ Critics: Angelo Bucci, Xhulio Binjaku

“

As our understanding of the meaning of wilderness and the environment continues to expand, we understand that the forest of Amazonia hardly resembles a terra nullius. This project argues that the extraction of resources and prehistoric rock art in Monte Alegre State Park constitutes the environmental history of the forest and attempts to showcase such knowledge through architectural interventions.

”

178

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

179

chitam Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Carolyn Tam MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: IN-HOUSE ¶ Critic: Zain Karsan

“

This project asks the question: how can we leverage digital fabrication to create bio-receptive matters? Through designing an organic composite for the 3-axis extrusion machine, this enables 3D print products to sprout plants in a variety of sizes and forms — allowing us to design from the start of the seed.

”

180

Building Technology 4.154

daisyz Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Daisy Ziyan Zhang MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: IN-HOUSE ¶ Critic: Zain Karsan

“

This project is an exploration of modifying a CNC machine into a controlled wax welder through 3D printed hardware connections and software programming. It takes advantage of the material property of wax — light, soft, amorphous, easily transformable, and shaped by heat — to fabricate tiny wax bricks that forms a spatial intervention with minimal damage in a rented apartment, one that transforms the experience of passing by a spatial threshold.

”

181

gils Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Gil Sunshine MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: IN-HOUSE ¶ Critic: Zain Karsan

“

Out House is an actuated bending-active structure that is at once an inhabitant and habitat. Dancing across a range of venues on campus, the structure puts on a performance for no one (or very few), taking up space simply because it can in a de-densified pandemic context.

”

182

Building Technology 4.154

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

183

jswagema Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Jitske Swagemakers MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: IN-HOUSE ¶ Critic: Zain Karsan

“

The Tiny-Z enables a design process that is more adaptive to the material, making new shapes and species of wood available to construction. This project examines the tectonic potential of wood. Hyper local and highly eccentric wood is softly standardized and assembled into a self-supporting wire frame structure.

”

184

Building Technology 4.154

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Right: Branch form and Tiny-Z adaptation. Opposite: Photo of full scale structure.

185

mengqiao History Theory Criticism 4.152

Art Culture Technology 4.120

Mengqiao Zhao MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: IN-HOUSE ¶ Critic: Zain Karsan

“

The intervention is an expansion of a robot’s body through the construction of new parts and new functions. It also creates privacy for a robot and functionality for a human, allowing Tiny Z to view the world through multi-directional apertures from inside a chamber and the human to manipulate the machine — a co-inhabited space that meets the physical and emotional needs of both.

”

186

Building Technology 4.154

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

187

triss Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Tristan Searight MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: IN-HOUSE ¶ Critic: Zain Karsan

“

Meatless treats extruded by Tiny Z, eaten by big T.

188

”

Building Technology 4.154

zhifei Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Zhifei Xu MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: IN-HOUSE ¶ Critic: Zain Karsan

“

This project is a system of furniture products that share the same logic of joint, made in-house, out of bamboo. This series of bamboo project designs implement a simple system of joint discovered through material testing and failures, utilizing the injured bamboo, and taking advantage of the two different qualities that bamboo can achieve — hard with great strength when being the pole and soft with strong elasticity when cut into slices. The continuous hollow joint emphasizes the hollow nature of the bamboo poles, and every member is in a state of active bending and constantly in tension, finding the balance between themselves. The form of bamboo pieces extending, interweaving and holding up each other becomes also the manifestation of the force inside. With the help of the customized CNC machine for bamboo milling, the form and detail of this project achieve the quality that’s unique for this customized digital fabrication, which is hard to achieve in the traditional way of crafting.

”

189

bath Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Benjamin Tasistro-Hart MArch Candidate ¶ 4.163J / 11.332J Urban Design Studio: BOSTON CROSSINGS ¶ Critic: Alexander D'Hooghe

“

The Reading Railroad is a proposal for a transit hub in downtown Malden. The project anticipates both the decline in reliance on the single-owner automobile and its replacement by the sharing economy of both bicycles and automobiles. By incorporating a combination of community and mobility programming this project suggests an urban transit hub that replaces a single-use attitude towards transportation infrastructure.

”

190

ohyj Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Yoonjae Oh MArch Candidate ¶ 4.163J / 11.332J Urban Design Studio: BOSTON CROSSINGS ¶ Critic: Alexander D'Hooghe

“

The building environment is changing due to changes in automobile ownership behavior. The future of driving is going to be very different, as car ownership is perceived to be inefficient due to the advent of car-sharing services and self-driving cars. With the rising popularity of ride-share apps and car hailing services, the need for parking is gradually decreasing, and the need for demolishing or repurposing existing parking structures is rising. Amid these changes, the Reservoir carhouse idea emerged from the questions: What are the current conditions of transit hubs in Boston? Are the infrastructures ready for change? Which part of the infrastructure needs to be upgraded or repurposed to become a multimodal hub suitable for the new mobility era? ¶ The Reservoir Carpet is a renovation project of the Reservoir carhouse focusing on which area of the infrastructure needs to be upgraded or repurposed to become a multimodal

hub suitable for the new mobility era. The project is situated in an area where multiple modes such as bus, light rail, car, and bike locations are scattered closely, but the intersection between each mode is relatively inefficient. A continuous carpet-looking roof structure that goes above the rails and the carhouse will be a transportation and cultural hub for the Reservoir neighborhood, facilitating multimodal trips and strengthening the development of a new cultural center within the neighborhood. Tenants of the newly-renovated station will benefit by being located between two green line stops, while having access to charging stations lowers the barrier to EV adoption.

”

191

jgbrear Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Jonathon Brearley MArch Candidate ¶ 4.163J / 11.332J Urban Design Studio: BOSTON CROSSINGS ¶ Critic: Alexander D'Hooghe

“

Pinch Point builds on a hypothesis that a series of large nature reserves and parks act as a geologic boundary to Boston’s metro density. Powerful flows of rail and car infrastructure pass through these pinch points creating impassable torrents of movement towards Boston. Conceptualizing the pinch points as a center provides an anchor for hyper-density from which density can radiate The primary architecture that facilitates these opposing pinch point flows is the multi-modal transit hub and associated transitoriented development.

”

192

jysim Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Jinyoung Sim MArch Candidate ¶ 4.163J / 11.332J Urban Design Studio: BOSTON CROSSINGS ¶ Critic: Alexander D'Hooghe

“

This project is a multimodal hub that acts as an extension of public gathering space in the Somerville area.

”

193

monavjay + gdegetau Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Mona Vijaykumar Gabriela Degetau Zanders SMArchS Candidates ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.173 J / 11.307J China Urban Design Studio ¶ Critics: Brent Ryan

“

As one of the most impacted neighborhoods of the August 2020 blast marking major infrastructural erasure and displacement of people, Karantina raises questions of what will be of this re-incarnated fabric? Will it get engulfed as an extension of the port, fall victim to developers, or carve a livable space for its people? ¶ The project, by reflecting on Karantina’s existing social, physical and symbolic landscape, envisions a shift in its urban identity from an isolated industrial neighborhood to an integrated residential neighborhood. The project intends to re-envision Karantina based on three systems — community, ecology, and market — to create a neighborhood that is economically productive, ecologically regenerative and affordable to live, by weaving the fabric, inducing anchors and empowering the community.

”

194

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

195

que+joelaust Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Kwan Q Li Joel Austin Cunningham SMACT Candidate + SMArchS Architectural Design Candidate ¶ 4.247J / 11.337J Urban Design Ideals and Action ¶ Critic: Brent Ryan

“

Afloat is a multi-dimensional bridge that aims to reinforce the health of both humans and surrounding environment. The proposal is situated at the opening of the Kai Tak channel and connects the former runway to South Apron Corner, which is now the site of the first and only Children’s Hospital in Hong Kong and will soon be home to a new acute hospital which is scheduled to open in 2025. ¶ Aligning with the latest governmental plan for a recently revised multi-modal transportation service for the district, Afloat offers more than a generic bridging solution. In this project the connotation of ‘bridge’ extends to a multitude of connections between people and the surrounding natural context, and aspires to resonate with the future strategic health zone of Kowloon East. ¶ In an incremental approach, the only permanent component of the proposal is a footbridge that offers a new 200m walking route between the green spaces of the Kai Tak runway

196

and the centre of Kowloon Bay. The meandering form of the bridge then creates a series of pockets which can host a series of flexible and economically constructed floating structures. These installations can be specified to host a panoply of functions under a collective goal of improving the district’s health. These include human oriented spaces which promote an active lifestyle, enriching our cultural quests, and re-channelling the calming power of water for meditation and reflection. Yet, they can also feature elements that look to improve the health of the natural environment and connect the local community to it. This can be achieved through devices that monitor and cleanse the water quality through biological intervention, or an art-tech element that visually communicates the monitoring of the water below with distant viewers, creating an inspiring atmosphere that extends to the residents of the broader neighbourhood, especially those

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

located in the district’s hospital. ¶ The bridge has been designed to accommodate a wide range of floating structures which can be commissioned by local institutions and community groups. This form of participatory design not only responds to the evolving needs of the district, but continuously aggregates different local groups and engages them in reimagining the development of their social fabric. Serving a wide spectrum of users, from hospital visitors to general residents, this urban intervention strives to exemplify an understanding of health and accessibility in diverse formats: physically, sensorily, and sustainably. For Kowloon East, this bridge provides an infrastructure that not only connects the community, but allows it to grow, change and stay afloat in dynamic waves.

”

197

MArch + SMArchS, Thesis

Architecture + Urbanism: Thesis

Art Culture Technology 4.120

198

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

4.THG Graduate Thesis

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Program of research and writing of thesis; to be arranged by the student with supervising committee. Required of all graduate degrees except SMACT.

→ P. 226 199

ameouchi Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Luis Alberto Meouchi Velez SMArchS Candidate ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.THG GraduateThesis ¶ Advisors: Lorena Bello Gomez, Nicholas de Monchaux ¶ Reader: Diane Davis

“

Collecting Ideals: Re-Envisioning Ejidos as Climate-Action Platforms ¶ Established by constitutional decree in 1917, ejidos were considered one of the most successful outcomes of the Mexican Revolution’s fight to redistribute land back to indigenous populations in a collective land tenure system or ‘commons.’ After decades of operation in which neoliberal critics claimed that ejidatarios were insufficiently productive, the Mexican authorities reformed the constitution to allow privatization of ejidal lands. The 1992 NAFTA agreement further incentivized the commodification of such lands, and many ejidos were dismantled or transformed into private property. While ejidos have been studied by many disciplines, from agrarian law or social-economics to ethnography, urban scholars who have examined their impact urbanization have focused primarily on ejidos in the periphery of large cities, arguing that ejidal transformation is a key determinant of urban sprawl and intensifying metropolitan inequality. In this thesis, I argue that ejidos have played a major role in the urbanization and development of more rural settings in Mexico, particularly in regions with small towns. I further argue that ejidal dynamics in such regions have their own peculiarities — particularly in terms of the potential impacts of ejidal privatization on the natural and built environment, and thus that planners need special tools to manage and guide the impact of ejidal production on urbanization in such settings. ¶ More specifically, I hypothesize that ejidos — which still comprise 52% of Mexico’s land — could play a major role in Mexico’s fight to confront climate change in the twenty-first century in a manner that is fair and equitable to its common owners, particularly if the question of water supply is solved. To support this claim, my thesis uses mapping as a critical device to first spatialize and visualize the different outcomes of ejido

200

privatization. Using the case of Apan, Hidalgo — in the Pachuca sub-basin region — I propose a series of measures to guide ejidal development in quasi-rural settings. After developing the Latourian concept of a critical zone to guide such processes, I propose the development of a common platform for stakeholder engagement that could help visualize different scenarios and accommodate common interests to ensure water sovereignty for all.

”

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Below: Tina Modotti’s photography, “Campesinos leyendo el Machete”. The header reads “All the land, not pieces of land” 1926.

201

annairam Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Marianna González-Cervantes SMArchS Candidate ¶ Architectural Design ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Liam O'Brien ¶ Readers: Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack

“

Velvet Garage: Narratives of an Education in Architecture ¶ If you had to share the work you’ve produced in architecture school with your family, what would you say about it? Could you speak about it with the same conviction you do in front of your jury at a final review? Would the things you value in architecture translate to someone who doesn’t study or practice it? ¶ Velvet Garage : Narratives of an Education in Architecture is an exploration into many

202

things, most obviously garages and architecture education, but perhaps, most importantly, the unexpected repercussions of studying architecture: spatially, technically, but also emotionally. This thesis admittedly looks backward as it reflects on old work and past experiences, some dating up to ten years, but it does so by re-representing them in a new way that attempts to talk about architecture differently, in a more accessible manner. ¶ The

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

thesis, then, is two-fold: As a response to the current remote conditions we find ourselves in due to COVID-19, this thesis transforms the domestic garage of my childhood home in El Paso, TX into a center of architectural production, where the Velvet Garage then allows for the reframing of architecture pedagogy as visual narratives in the form of a short film that incorporates both found and designed objects. ¶ This thesis believes that we unconsciously embed ourselves in our work, but

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

that our work is also embedded in us. When we share our work, we also share a part of ourselves, and when we can’t, we fail to communicate a large part of what makes us who we are. Velvet Garage : Narratives of an Education in Architecture attempts to share stories that haven’t ever been shared before with the very new audience of my own family.

”

203

ayounker Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Andrew Younker MArch Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Azra Akšamija ¶ Readers: Mark Jarzombek, Nida Sinnokrot

“

Top: Pile of stones Right: Monuments and watersheds.

204

Building / Unbuilding ¶ Waves of recent protests across the US confronting structural racism demand a reckoning with colonial and Confederate histories, which, far from being relegated to a distant past, continue to influence material, social, and cultural formations in the present. There is a growing awareness of unstable environments where past constructions of history are losing their power to define national narratives for the masses and where the not-so-distant future is clouded with apocalyptic visions. The present is haunted by both the past and future. ¶ Reciprocal networks of memory building and unbuilding are inscribed upon the surface of the land, or buried below, out of sight and out of mind. National monuments and parkland infrastructures stand as attractor points in these networks, reifying hegemony and reaching simultaneously into the past and future to both define and control certain relationships between water, land, humans and nonhumans. ¶ This project traces the wake of westward expansion through three of these sites and the watersheds from which they were constructed: first, the Washington Monument which sits at the center of the National Mall, constructed from the wetlands of the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers; second, the Jefferson Expansion Memorial, also known as the Gateway Arch National Park, which sits on ground stabilized by a levee at the meeting of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers; and third, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, also known as the Shrine to Democracy, blasted and carved into ancient granite formations in the headwaters of the Missouri River. ¶ The apparent inevitability and permanence of these monumental sites are challenged through a kind of counter-tourism that builds the unbuilding left in the wake of progress. These projects reveal inconsistencies that lie at their foundations and open up space to engage with both the terror and beauty overwritten by the ongoing and incomplete project of settler colonialism.

”

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

205

benhoyle+elevi Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Benjamin Hoyle Eytan Levi MArch Candidate + MArch & MSRED Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Ana Miljački ¶ Readers: Marc Simmons, Susanne Schindler, Kairos Shen

“

Clockwise From Above: 1:200 models of renovated I-467 series buildings in Riga, Latvia; Moscow Russia; and Surgut, Russia respectively.

Still Standing: Cooperative Strategies for the Renovation of Soviet Mass Housing ¶ Mass housing across the former Soviet Union is in varying states of disrepair, having lasted much longer than it was expected to when built in the 1960s. Treatment of the buildings varies greatly depending on context, as some are replaced, others are renovated, and many are neglected. But in most places, residents own their apartment units, having obtained them at a minimal cost following the collapse of the USSR. While this leaves many apartment owners responsible for common amenities that they don’t have the means or incentives to maintain, it also puts them in a position to leverage the latent value of the Soviet structures in which they live. ¶ Current trends do not take full advantage of these circumstances, and it is often external developers who manage to profit from the land value of Soviet housing, leaving residents with inadequate compensation. No matter what happens to the buildings, the legacy of mass housing is deeply entrenched and will continue to shape the built environment for generations to come. We argue that it is essential to keep the original structures — with modifications and updates — to create agency for residents in how this legacy is carried into the future. ¶ This thesis demonstrates three scenarios in which residents of the same type of prefabricated modernist housing — in sites spread across the former Soviet territory — collectively leverage their apartments to create renovations that serve their common interests. Using contemporary mass timber construction technology and taking full advantage of local real estate markets, residents can self-organize to improve their living spaces.

”

206

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

207

erinwong History Theory Criticism 4.152

Art Culture Technology 4.120

Building Technology 4.154

Erin Wong MArch Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Sheila Kennedy ¶ Readers: Rania Ghosn, Nida Sinnokrot

“

Heirlooms: In Search of the Fifth Ecology ¶ Deep in the bowels of an icy mountain on an island above the Arctic Circle lies a resource of vital importance. It is not oil, or coal, but seeds. Opened February 26, 2008, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault holds the world’s largest collection of agriculture biodiversity. The seeds lying in the deep freeze of the vault include wild and old varieties, many of which are not in general use anymore and do not exist outside of the seed collections from which they came. Remote and inaccessible, the seed vault protects and preserves, while the seeds are hidden away, sleep, waiting to be woken. ¶ It is time for a new type of heirloom seed institution, one that is decentralized and accessible, one that designs for the entire lifecycle of the seed. Therefore, this thesis asks how this new kind of ‘seed library’ could be constructed. Where once in nature, heirloom seeds found ways to move by themselves — by wind, by ocean current, in the bellies of animals, or by ballistic dispersal —they must now be supported by new types of civic architecture. Vaults will no longer be the sole keepers of seeds. ¶ Set in the near future, in a period that has become known as the Awakening, this project investigates how the current food system in LA might be transformed. Here, in downtown LA, interventions in existing extractive urban infrastructures are designed to sponsor new practices of heirloom seed tending and the cultivation of new relationships between communities, food, and land.

”

208

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

209

driescar Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Dries Carmeliet SMArchS Candidate ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Rania Ghosn ¶ Readers: Sheila Kennedy, Alexander D'Hooghe

“

Third Landscape ¶ The global energy sector accounts for over 60 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Over the last decades, many studies from various perspectives have been conducted on its decarbonization, yielding a range of strategies and policy proposals. Putting these theories into practice however, has proven more difficult. The field is littered with failure, stalled projects and public opposition to the top-down implementation of renewable energy policies. The aim of this research is to investigate the agency of bottomup approaches and local initiatives in the creation of renewable energy landscapes. Therefore, renewable energy projects are not just considered as technological challenges, but as complex political, sociological, spatial, and financial constructs that face barriers in each of these sectors. The most challenging barrier for a decarbonized society is the enormous spatial requirement of renewable technologies. Inevitably, these become visible and present in the landscape through their scale. The question thus shifts from what we can do about climate change, to how these technologies can be deployed and why various stakeholders would support them. ¶ To answer these questions, this research examines different typologies for wind and solar infrastructures that strive towards a symbiotic relation with the existing human, animal, and plant lifeforms in Massachusetts. It imagines how these technologies become present in the landscape and are perceived by the local residents. Therefore, an anatomy of wind and solar technologies is constructed that considers all different manners these infrastructures might impact their environment. Considering this anatomy signifies a fundamental shift from the top-down developer-led projects that aim to maximize profits, to a bottom-up approach of local government led

210

projects that center sustainability. Therefore, the design typologies should be seen as a starting point to spark a public conversation and iteration, rather than as end products. They are meant to be changed by the process of community participation in order to build a broad base of support. ¶ Finally, the implications are considered should such bottom-up energy projects become widespread. A strategy is proposed to make the US Northeast into a cohesive energy region that produces nearly all of its energy renewably and locally. In response to the barriers of siting new transmission lines, a landscape approach is proposed, using the region’s large rivers as spines to construct a new grid. This research breaks with the binary divide between natural and mechanical landscapes, and proposes a third landscape of symbiotic cohabitation of lifeforms and technologies.

”

Opposite Above: Spatial requirements of renewables. Apposite Below: Barriers blocking the implementation of renewables.

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

211

ichikura Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Ryuhei Ichikura SMArchS Candidate ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Miho Mazereeuw ¶ Readers: Kairos Shen, Susanne Schindler

“

Mokumitsu Districts in Tokyo: Urban Renewal by Housing Cooperatives against Disaster Risk ¶ Mokumitsu is a feature of urban districts in Japan and means ‘densely built-up with wooden structured buildings.’ Many of these buildings are categorized as substandard housing because they were built legally in the last century but no longer fulfill the latest building codes. Mokumitsu districts are considered severely unsafe in case of an earthquake because the houses are structurally weak, combustible, and built very close each other. Especially since the

212

disastrous Kobe Earthquake in 1995, Tokyo’s Mokumitsu districts in particular become one of the most serious issues for the nation, due to the districts’ large area and the high probability of earthquake. ¶ Urban renewal — or the demolition and reconstruction of so-called susbstandard housing — is one of the fundamental measures for disaster mitigation in Mokumitsu districts. It is also significant for the existing residents to keep living in the same community after the renewal, in terms of disaster preparedness. However, the current

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

policies for the Tokyo’s Mokumitsu districts are not sufficient to facilitate this renewal. The subsidy for the developers hardly incentivizes design for the residents. Even with the direct subsidy for the residents, they face difficulties to rebuild their own houses that they would prefer on the small individual lands that would become even smaller and thinner after the road widening in the renewal. ¶ Accelerating the renewal in the Tokyo’s Mokumitsu districts by housing cooperatives, this research aims to understand how renewal that is driven by consultants of housing cooperatives can grasp the residents’ design preferences while also being financially feasible and scalable. The author conducted on-site interviews with the residents to ask their design preferences, tested the design of the renewal, and analyzed the financial feasibility from the perspective of real estate.

”

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

Townscapes of Mokumitsu Districts

213

eakapobh Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Eakapob Huangthanapan SMArchS Candidate ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Miho Mazereeuw ¶ Reader: Roi Salgueiro Barrio

“

Mediating Chana: Seeding Synergies Between Doves and Development ¶ For almost a century, domestication of zebra doves for birdsongs has given Chana the reputation as the emerging Southeast Asian capital of zebra doves. In this rural district in the southern coast of Thailand, the doves are not only worth more than gold but also hold higher values in the local society and in the community stewardship to the environment. In 2019, the national government of Thailand put forward a 6,000-acre plan to build an industrial metropolis and deep seaports in the area. If realized, this project will transform the pristine beaches and agricultural landscapes of Chana into special economic zones and the largest industrial complex in the south of Thailand. ¶ The forces driving this development are twofold: first, the centralized government has framed the project as a way to promote national growth through an opportunistic global trade. Second, the plan is also driven by a national-security agenda aimed at quelling the on-

214

going ‘separatist insurgencies’ along the southern borders to Malaysia. The plan is not new; it is seen as another reproduction of large-scale projects deployed under the highly centralized government. These plans often deepen regional impasses by prioritizing economic development and simplifying other complex socio-cultural and environmental dimensions. ¶ The thesis is looking at this tension between the two forces of globalization and the local culture. Drawing on the investigation of the unique relationships between humans and nonhumans in Chana, the thesis focuses on the doves, among other local assets, as the potential mediator in this contested site. The thesis presents insights from field research and proposes a series of design scenarios to preserve the local culture, regenerate the local assets, and project future industries. Countering the top-down plan, the study’s goal is to move beyond the impasse by mediating the synergies between the cooing doves and the impending development.

”

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

215

mwaddle+lucasiga Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Marisa Concetta Waddle Lucas Igarzabal MArch Candidates ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Hans Tursack ¶ Readers: Axel Kilian, Marie Law Adams Alegal ¶ This thesis investigates “theConectividad rapid rate at which the changing of ownership,

production, and policy has affected the Bay of Havana. In 2009, the Cuban government designated a single free port on the island just 40 kilometers west of the Bay. The Mariel marked an era of economic restructuring, a common occurrence in the past century. These policy changes aim to ease the day-to-day lives of Cuban citizens but also leave

216

them vulnerable to foreign industries that seek to mine the area for its unregulated resources, cheap labor, and proximity to US trade flows. The Bay, as a site of this intense geopolitical speculation and aging infrastructure, is emblematic of Cuba as a whole. ¶ The Bay, bracketed by an inoperable oil refinery and a degrading thermoelectric plant, is currently characterized by abandoned industry. While these forgotten sites restrict pedestrian access and foster

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

pollution, they provide a critical connection to the shoreline, and therefore to the world at-large. The project is a speculation of a future that aims to return this site to its citizenry. It argues for the Cuban philosophy of resolver to leverage the resilient culture of Havana’s citizens against foreign opportunism. It explores the transformation of the site over the next five decades, as it adapts to the ever-changing economic, social, and political

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

landscape of the country. The project salvages key components of the site, as opposed to depleting it of its resources. It develops new industries along the entire shore, adapted from abandoned factories, which circumvent material scarcity and access restrictions. The thesis operates between Havana’s historic ebb and flow of scarcity and surplus, defining a new vernacular of grassroots urbanism.

”

217

xuziyu Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Ziyu Xu MArch Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Axel Kilian ¶ Readers: Cagri Hakan Zaman, Nicholas de Monchaux

“

Space of Mind: The Hidden Architecture in the Time of Pandemic ¶ The thesis sets its background in the current and post pandemic context, where cognitive activities have outranged the imagination of static architecture. The virtual work environment raised a lot of questions to the physical rooms we are inhabiting in. The definition of location and space are blurred and gradually disconnected from programs, productivity, and memories. In this project, architectural spaces are envisioned to be the echo of actions and the extension of one’s state of mind. With the approach to worldbuilding based on cognitive activities and accumulated work traces, three virtual scenes are proposed to reveal the spatial construct we are not aware of: Follies of Cognitive Labor, Field of Imagery, and Garden of Data. Each of the scenes starts with a specific element of digital materiality and adopts its own growing mechanism. After the process of recording and translation, forms of spatial notations in response to mental activities would expand into these experiential scenes. ¶ In a similar way to making physical architecture, the methodology of making virtual architecture addresses three questions. Firstly, how to collect building materials? Secondly, what and how to

218

construct? Thirdly, how can the built objects be perceived and navigated? The method of digital construction provides the potentials of enhancement or decay of the created loci (built objects) based on interactions such as refocusing and recalling. Essentially, the work aims to explore general ways and tools to materialize productivity and memories and the design part will be presented through the lens of my perception as an example. ¶ Following this narrative, different design results may emerge in different times of day, and under various situations. The making of these architecture and scenes are impacted by individuality, randomness and time factors, while leveraging invisible daily activities into a non-linear virtual construction.

”

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

219

shengsy History Theory Criticism 4.152

Art Culture Technology 4.120

Siyuan Sheng SMArchS Candidate ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Brent Ryan ¶ Reader: Roi Salgueiro Barrio

“

Made in Rural China ¶ While informal economics are treated as the ‘sickness’ of the cities, they have their own treasure part to retain. In the era of great construction and rebuilding of the cities, developing countries may take the informal economic site as a great chance to reap the benefits brought by the community. They are often mentioned as a problem that needs to be solved, and, in most cases, that means reconstruction. Vested interests are happy to integrate these resources and announce that the threat to the cities is finally eliminated. They benefit not by the plunder of capital, but by the elimination of the social subjectivity of those who have created value. ¶ E-commerce villages are one of those communities. They seized the opportunity of e-commerce development to make profit and also make the online economy grow rapidly and vigorously. The informality and the ‘unintegration’ of those areas led to the reconstruction of them. However, the reconstructions are tending to take the existing urban pattern of residential areas as their template. This is the easiest and fastest way of thinking and not problematic in most of the cases but made the e-commerce villages lose their locality since the templates do not actually fit the operating mode of those villages. The thesis is proposing a possible choice for those villages based on the research on the local social relation and business mode by taking one of the villages as an example, trying to make the areas more economically efficient and more livable at the same time.

”

220

Building Technology 4.154

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

221

lyncedt Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Lynced Torres MArch Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Sheila Kennedy ¶ Readers: Gediminas Urbonas, Lorena Bello Gomez

“

M.I.celium mexicanus: Rejecting Modernity through Zapotec Futurism ¶ M.I.celium mexicanus is an entry point for architects and humans to consider transforming their relationship to the Earth’s critical zone through reconciliation with mushrooms to cultivate fungal allyship. The thesis examines and reimagines a future of building that drives towards the biological, against that which is mineralized and controlled through unempathetic forces such as extraction through mining, greenwashing renewable energy to sustain mining production, and commercialization of architecture and planning practices. These elements are contaminants in the culture and lives of the Zapotec community residing in Juchitan, Oaxaca and perpetuate a historical system of colonization and exploitation by not only foreign powers, but also their own country and people. ¶ The city itself currently as of 2021 has not completely been able to rebuild after the damage faced in the event of the 2017 hurricane that struck in the southern coast of the Isthmus de Tehuantepec. Government aid is minimal and services towards westernized modular building units like the concrete block, which are not ideal given the hot climate, serve as a unitized symbol for economic status, a symbol that is also susceptible to destruction. ¶ The house and temple of the future embeds all the ideals, values, and actions that it may collectively take to revitalize the very soil and territory that offers itself as a substrate for life. The actions reflect and respect the rituals of the people, as they are no longer considered inhabitants of the past, incapable of appreciating and forging technology for the modern world. Rather, in an act of architectural and environmental anarchy, they guide the future away from extraction and towards circular economies through their collective wisdom of the past, experience in the survival of countless apocalypses, and with their close ties to mushrooms.

222

”

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

223

nahle Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Mohamad Nahleh SMArchS Candidate ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Sheila Kennedy ¶ Readers: Mark Jarzombek, Nasser Rabbat

“

Nightrise: Through the Valley of Jabal ‘Amil’s Shadow ¶ This thesis is about the night, and particularly about nightrise, which I propose here as the social and cultural construction of the nocturnal landscape. It sites itself along a twentysix-night walk across the Lebanese hinterland that I made in August 2020, where moving shadows begin to awaken amorphous subcultures capable of weaponizing their formlessness in the name of self-preservation. Because the night resists the reign of any solitary subculture, these nocturnal cohabitations often rely on unspoken rules of civility all but invisible to strangers. And it was on the sixth night of this walk into the heart of Jabal ‘Amil – what is today known as South Lebanon – that my transgression of these rules was matched with an act of hostility that, strangely, culminated in the opportunity to imagine and implement an architecture of nightrise: a path on the southern border of Lebanon between a mountain and a river. If a path for the day seeks to impose the lone

224

perspective of a single direction, then this path for nightrise revels in the unseen, in the ability to interrupt, and perhaps invert, the ubiquitous association between eyesight and insight. The erasure of the unidirectional line comes to propose a series of scattered stations that whisper, hint, and conjure countless variations of the same path in the minds of its visitors. These stations draw out the nocturnal qualities inspiring some of Jabal ‘Amil’s oral myths and legends, and the politics that are deeply rooted within them: from distressing celestial appearances to the imaginal world of the Jinn, and from tales that follow the spread of Shi’ism to the darkness surrounding the famous proverb, ‘Look under any stone in Jabal ‘Amil and you will find a poet.’ Unfolding across the pages of this thesis is thus a peripatetic journey of two nocturnal voyages, one that begins in the past with the stories of my walk across Lebanon, and another in the future, on the Path of Nightrise, which will be implemented in the months following the submission of this work.

”

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

225

wyhli Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Wuyahuang Li SMArchS Candidate ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Mark Jarzombek ¶ Readers: Rosalyne Shieh, Henriette Steiner

“

To Build Home and To Live In (U)Hygge ¶ Since the nineteenth century, Danish society has established a standard of normality through the building of bourgeois homes. To write about Danish homes is to write an ethnography of hygge, a nationalized domestic aesthetic encapsulated in the sense of comfort, togetherness, and wellbeing. Meanwhile, in mainstream media and scholarship, the homes of minorities are largely represented as ‘ghettos,’ distinct urban territories characterized by social dysfunction and unemployment. ¶ This thesis looks at the home as the site in which citizenship is produced and performed through household objects, furniture, and architecture. With an archive that builds on lived experience collected from minorities living in Denmark, it looks at precarious bodies and nonnormative modes of living and loving to articulate uhygge — the strange, foreign, otherly, and unhomely — as the queerness in heteronomative discourses of nation, a spatial form of being together that keeps the histories of diverse struggles intact. ¶ To Build Home and To Live In (U)Hygge is the production of a three-act play that reconstitutes the cultural meanings of uhygge through acts of passing, turning, and arriving. The play unfolds the narratives of home and belonging along scales of homeland, house, and body. Act I To Pass, or Nobody Passes positions the migrant and the queer of color as intersecting vectors of uhygge that haunt an essentialist Danish identity in order to re-evaluate the failures in assimilating social norms. Act II The Politics of Turning reflects on both the struggles of turning away from majoritarian projects, such as hygge, and the different coalitional publics that this ‘turning’ enables. Finally, Act III A Home Around Uranus arrives at a hybrid orientation between assimilation and marginalization to imagine a refuge built with jouissance, one that delights in pain and danger.

”

226

A Remote Casting in Copenhagen: Call for Uhygge (for both images) Design by Wuyahuang Li; Photo by Francesco Martello

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

227

xio Art Culture Technology 4.120

History Theory Criticism 4.152

Building Technology 4.154

Xio Alvarez MArch & MCP Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisors: Miho Mazereeuw, Larry Vale ¶ Readers: Nicholas de Monchaux, Garnette Cadogan Houseful(l)ness of Public Space ¶ This thesis “takes up the role of architects and urban designers

in houselessness, not through our positions on affordable housing, but by considering the ways that they play a part in perpetuating the privatization of domesticity. Domestic life — the programs and functions most closely associated with housing and home — has been largely programmed out of

228

the public spaces of cities in order to make them inhospitable to unhoused residents and the urban poor more broadly. Most visible in the form of socalled hostile architecture, these anti-domestic practices result in public spaces that discourage lingering or gathering, in which it is difficult to spend time. In doing so, they center a longlasting definition of the socio-political project of

Architecture + Urbanism 4.THG

Computation 4.163J / 11.332J

Course 4 Undergraduate Other

‘the public,’ which defines membership through one’s proximity and access to property. Public spaces of the city are then further policed in order to discourage uses and occupations that are discordant with the recreational, ordered dominant use case. ¶ Despite this, the public spaces of cities are made house-full by unhoused residents. Lacking access to the programs packaged in housing, unhoused residents piece together different rooms and play out different routines of necessity and joy throughout the city. Attempts to design unhoused people out of public space have resulted in a universally hostile public realm whose impacts are unevenly felt. Unhoused people are closest to this problem and bear the brunt of its violence. In this thesis I consider what public space begins to look like when it changes its agenda. What could the public realm look like if we expanded its domestic possibilities rather than restricting them, and how can we center the domesticities of unhoused residents in that expansion? What happens when public space is seen as housefull?

”

229

UG Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022

Building Technology 4.024

The Department of Architecture offers two undergraduate majors: Course 4 leads to a Bachelor of Science in Architecture, and Course 4-B leads to a Bachelor of Science in Art and Design.

Selected Course Descriptions

Course 4 Undergraduate

4.021 Design Studio: How to

230

Design • Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley • TAs: Nare Filiposyan, Carolyn Tam

Introduces fundamental design principles as a way to demystify design and provide a basic introduction to all aspects of the process. Stimulates creativity, abstract thinking, representation, iteration, and design development. Equips students with skills to have more effective communication with designers, and develops their ability to apply the foundations of design to any discipline.

→ P. 260

4.022 Introduction to Design

Techniques and Technologies • Critic: Jeremy Jih • TAs: Maryam AlHajri, Ngai Hang Wu

Introduces the tools, techniques and technologies of design across a range of projects in a studio environment. Explores concepts related to form, function, materials, tools, and physical environments through project-based exercises. Develops familiarity with design process, critical observation, and the translation of design concepts into digital and physical reality. Utilizing traditional and contemporary techniques and tools, faculty across various design disciplines expose students to a unique cross-section of inquiry.

→ P. 269

4.024 Architecture Design

Studio II • Critic: Marlena Fauer • TA: Erin Wong

The studio seeks to question the role of a contemporary observatory and speculate on its potential to expand beyond its programmatic connotations and astronomical constraints. After engaging in a series of ‘observations,’ the studio will posit how architecture can be observant, i.e. something that both observes and is observed, and

Computation 4.032/ 4.033

(4.024 continued)

Architecture + Urbanism 4.041

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.043 facilitates further dialogue around selected issues and previously neglected actors, within and outside of the building.

→ P. 278

4.032/ 4.033 Design Studio:

Information and Visualization • Critic: Benjamin Fry • TA: Christopher Moyer

Provides an introduction to working with information, data, and visualization in a hands-on studio learning environment. Studies the history and theory of information, followed by a series of projects in which students apply the ideas directly. Progresses though basic data analysis, visual design and presentation, and more sophisticated interaction techniques. Topics include storytelling and narrative, choosing representations, understanding audiences, and the role of designers working with data.

→ P. 278

4.041 Design Studio: Advanced Product Design • Critic: Carolien Nieblint • TA: Aikaterini Lamprou

Focuses on producing a small series of manufactured products. Students develop products that address specific user needs, propose novel design concepts, iteratively prototype, test functionality, and ultimately exhibit their work in a retail context. Stemming from new research and technological developments around MIT, students try to imagine the future products that emerge from new materials and machine intelligence. Provides an in-depth exploration of the design and manufacturing of products, through narrative, form, function, fabrication, and their relationship to customers.

→ P. 282 231

UG Art Culture Technology 4.022

History Theory Criticism 4.024

Building Technology 4.032/ 4.033

The Department of Architecture offers two undergraduate majors: Course 4 leads to a Bachelor of Science in Architecture, and Course 4-B leads to a Bachelor of Science in Art and Design.

Selected Course Descriptions

Course 4 Undergraduate

4.043 Design Studio: Advanced

232

Interactions • Critic: Marcelo Coelho • TA: Jeremy Bilotti

Overview of core principles and methodologies for the design of interaction and behavior across objects and spaces. Students develop high-fidelity, interactive prototypes that can be deployed and experienced by real users. Topics include the history of human-computer interaction, behavior prototyping, augmented and virtual reality, haptics, internet of things, and smart materials. Provides a foundation in technical skills, such as physical prototyping, animation, coding, and electronics, with a particular focus on creating highly responsive and robust interfaces. In particular, this semester we will be collaborating with Ecal (www.ecal.ch) and creating interfaces that can connect students across the USA and Switzerland. Lectures from interaction designers and industry experts will help expand and contextualize the topics covered in the course.

→ P. 285

4.110 Design Across Scales

and Disciplines • Critic: Lee Moreau • TAs: Yaara Yacoby, Sasha McKinlay, Xio Alvarez

Today, designers are no longer exclusively creating autonomous objects, but are working — both individually and collectively — on everything from fabrication methods to transportation systems to clean energy sources. We are asked to interpret data, build networks, embed social frameworks, and consider what it means to be at all times mobile. We are tasked with producing

Computation 4.041

(4.110 continued)

Architecture + Urbanism 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.110 sustainable products, with constructing resilient cities, and with imagining a future not yet seen. We are asked to work across scales, between disciplines, and beyond expectations.

→ P. 287

233

baltin, catewaft Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

Viktor Baltin Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley

“

SongBox ¶ The purpose of this device is to measure and display the patterns in the bass frequencies of audio files; the ones we can otherwise experience by feeling air and materials vibrate, those that make us want to bang our heads to the melody of the sound.

”

Catherine Waft Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley Awe is a light mediator inspired by the “emotions elicited from a beautiful sunset. Using

colored tissue paper and black craft paper, Awe creates the appearance of two layers of circles, however by turning one’s head the illusion is revealed as each colored circle sits at a different height.

”

234

catamon, dslavin Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

Catalina Monsalve Rodriguez Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley

“

Home in a window — Light Enclosure Project ¶ Being Colombian is a very important part of my identity. I have always had a flag in my room since moving abroad. I proudly wear the flag colors, and on national holidays I try to make myself feel at home by buying good coffee. Home in a window is a decoration for my room that is incorporated into the window frame of my dorm in New Vassar. I wanted to create lighting that would represent the colors of my flag but also be embedded into the furniture of my room.

”

Danielle Slavin Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley

“

Silver Lining ¶ The goal of this project was to experiment with the translucent properties of paper. As the color of light inside the fixture changes, the different colored shapes become more or less visible.

”

235

dvolpe, eahuactz Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

Daniel Volpe Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley

“

I designed a polygonal shape that appears simple and blank while off and transforms into a complex geometry when turned on.

”

Emilio Ahuactzin-Garcia Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley Light ¶ This project is an exploration “ofFolding the ways simple geometric actions can build

to form much more complex forms, looking at the ways that light can illuminate hidden detail, doing so by way of a paper lamp made of multiple repeating subunits.

”

236

grondaa, hkaur Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

Annalysse Gronda Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley

“

MEASURE ¶ Forget-Me-Not Habit Training Bouquet.

”

Harmanpreet Kaur Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley 3D sculpture of light enclosure made from “paper. ”

237

juli1cov, jwornell Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

Juliana Covarrubias Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley

“

This device can be used to determine the exact color of an object by breaking the color down into its red, green, and blue components then recombining them with a reference book.

”

Joshua Wornell Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley The project is a light enclosure that has many “boxes that can move around like Legos to manipulate light. ”

238

kalebd, kerrilu Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

Kaleb Desta Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley

“

A crescent shaped sundial which has been modified with an analemma to account for the changing position of the sun during different months of the year. This project was made as an alternative way to measure time where the user can interact with their surroundings and develop an understanding of light and shadow.

”

Kerri Lu Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley

“

This device measures media consumption over time, both quantitatively (amount of media consumed) and qualitatively (types of media consumed). By comparing the consumption of different types of media, the balancing board helps users maintain a balanced media diet and represents digital media consumption in the form of a physical object.

”

239

kzhao02, michae Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

Katherine Zhao Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley

“

Light enclosure made out of paper. Blooming bulb. Can open and close by adjusting belt.

”

Michaela Purvis Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley

“

The final product of my light modulator, Water Web, a site-specific installation.

240

”

sejalg, swaft Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

Sejal Gupta Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley

“

Due to the virtual environment in both our work and personal lives, many individuals spend many hours at their desk. Posture is crucial to a healthy spine and higher productivity. However, when you are spending several hours in a chair, it can be very easy to slouch out of the correct position. In the past, my parents would periodically come into my room and remind me to fix my posture. Now, I have to remember to fix my posture on my own. Thus came the inspiration for my measuring device: a posture indicator.

”

Sylvia Waft Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley

“

This is a light mediator is inspired by stainedglass windows. Constructed from opaque card and translucent paper, the dodecahedron gives a gentle glow. I explored different shapes of ‘glass shards’ and color options. The striking contrast between my enclosure in the dark and light gives the object two different lives.

”

241

tjiang, wenc Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

Tianze Jiang Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley

“

The Eroded Candle is the light enclosure of a burnt paper with a burning candle inside. As the outer layers burn and tear down, we see through those burnt windows the fallen Christ in black and white inside.

”

Collin Wen Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley

“

Glowing Icosahedron ¶ Using laser cut cardstock folded modules, the icosahedron was assembled using hot glue, then an LED strip was used as a light source in the center.

”

242

wujl, agatta Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

Jessica Wu Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Paul Pettigrew, Michael Stradley

“

The light fixture I made is a ceiling light, which highlights the range of shades between colors using translucent shapes.

”

Audrey Gatta Undergraduate ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Jeremy Jih

“

Through the Physics Fabricator project, I explored the duality of hydrophobic and hydrophilic materials (wax and soap) and how these materials interact. Additionally, I was interested in seeing how water erodes these materials differently, potentially revealing intricate lattice structures as hydrophilic components dissolve.

”

243

aserio, ejkiley Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

Allison Serio Undergraduate ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Jeremy Jih

“

Indexing forms of melted sugar and sugar substitutes as dish ware: experimenting with baking corn syrup.

”

Emily Kiley Undergraduate ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Jeremy Jih

“

Salt Deposition explores how different materials and geometric structures affect the growth of salt due to the evaporation of salt water. After material and geometric experimentation, the final result utilizes a combination of a copper wire looped structure for growth inhibition and cotton embroidery floss for optimal growth.

”

244

hquinn, melody_w Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

Hailey Quinn Undergraduate ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Jeremy Jih

“

Constrained Inflation ¶ Explores how the layering of balloons affects the elasticity of the surface and directs air to different locations during inflation in order to create shapes that can act as models for a system of customizable seating.

”

Melody Wu Undergraduate ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Jeremy Jih

“

Freezing Fluid Branching ¶ Capturing branching effects and growth was the particular focus of this project which explored fluidic branching of melted isomalt sugar. The resulting effects captured are ethereal yet fleeting. An element of time is woven throughout the series as the isomalt sugar is cast over the melting ice.

”

245

nebyu, soche Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

Nebyu Haile Undergraduate ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Jeremy Jih

“

Taming the Wind ¶ This project seeks to recreate fascinating geological structures and patterns resulting from centuries of wind erosion by systematically creating ‘earthy’ blocks composed of plaster, sand, rocks, clays, ane salts, then subsequently deteriorating these blocks via sandblaster. The project has potential for facade design, topology studies, and fracture mechanics studies.

”

Sophia Chen Undergraduate ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Jeremy Jih

“

Generative Ascension ¶ An exploration of ascending fluid flow and resultant generative form through liquid densities. Melted wax was recursively extruded along the base of an aluminum foil structure submerged at varying water levels, creating an abstracted form composed of solidified dynamic architectures.

246

”

tjie, xtinakim Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

Tianhui Jie Undergraduate ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Jeremy Jih

“

Using wax as my artifact, I allow sound to perform its resonance on the material, creating pieces of art that record the ephemeral experience of internalizing the intimate relationship we have with the constant but everchanging range of sound around us.

”

Christina Kim Undergraduate ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Jeremy Jih Cracked Assemblies explores the controlled “deconstruction and reassembly of rigid

surfaces. Flat plaster surfaces were cracked into regular shapes then aggregated into multiple symmetrical assemblies that optimized stability. The project proposes the controlled deconstruction and upcycling of concrete walls as a low-energy method of repurposing abandoned concrete buildings.

”

247

cumubyey, avilam, acnwigwe, faithj, julianag, melody_w, soche Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

Carene Umubyeyi, Mariana Avila, Alexandra Nwigwe, Faith Jones, Juliana Green, Melody Wu, Sophia Chen Undergraduates ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Jeremy Jih

“

Intelligent Seating ¶ Creating connected, reconfigurable seating architectures that respond to increased or dynamic occupancy. Radial configurations become activated through sitting.

”

248

Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

249

miketan, nskramer, agatta, felixli, kathe, njacob23 Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

Michael Tan, Noelle Kramer, Audrey Gatta, Felix Li, Katherine Guo, Nicole Jacobsen Undergraduates ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Jeremy Jih

“

Explorations of folded joints in plastic inflatables in order to provide structure, rigidity, flexibility, and the opportunity for endless configurations.

250

”

Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

251

nhirt, aluk Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

Natasha Hirt Undergraduate ¶ 4.024 Architecture Design Studio II ¶ Critic: Marlena Fauer

“...”

Artemisia Luk Undergraduate ¶ 4.032/4.033 Design Studio: Information and Visualization ¶ Critic: Benjamin Fry

“

Will My College Relationships Last After Graduation? Exploring My Facebook Messenger History Data ¶ In college, I made 345 new Facebook friends and messaged 231 people individually. I decided to use my Facebook Messenger history data to predict which relationships might last after I graduate. This web interface reveals each relationship’s texting frequency, the distribution of messages, and the first and last message exchanged.

”

252

crate, ktbacher Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

Clare Liu Undergraduate ¶ 4.032/4.033 Design Studio: Information and Visualization ¶ Critic: Benjamin Fry

“

A collection of information representations made through Processing throughout the semester, including a variety of clock representations.

”

Katharine Bacher Undergraduate ¶ 4.032/4.033 Design Studio: Information and Visualization ¶ Critic: Benjamin Fry

“

This interactive data visualization allows me to better explore my injury history and analyze potential causes, such as high training volume or lack of off days. I can select a time range on the overview chart and hover over the bottom ones to see more details about my daily training.

”

253

kthomson, maggiez Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

Kyle Jeffrey Thomson Undergraduate ¶ 4.032/4.033 Design Studio: Information and Visualization ¶ Critic: Benjamin Fry

“

Attendance at sporting events were analyzed to determine if these lower rates due to Covid-19 resulted in an increase in player production in the NHL.

”

Maggie Zhang Undergraduate ¶ 4.032/4.033 Design Studio: Information and Visualization ¶ Critic: Benjamin Fry

art clock that draws a randomized “lineGenerative every time a second has passed. ”

254

stangs, tadebiyi Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

Sandra Tang Undergraduate ¶ 4.032/4.033 Design Studio: Information and Visualization ¶ Critic: Benjamin Fry

“

An alternative clock representation positions 'celestial bodies' in an analog clock position according to their corresponding unit of time, with position relative to the next largest unit/ body. The ‘shadows’ on the celestial bodies are another visual indicator of each unit of time’s value, scaling linearly with increasing time.

”

Thomas Adebiyi Undergraduate ¶ 4.032/4.033 Design Studio: Information and Visualization ¶ Critic: Benjamin Fry

“

A web app to compare performance stats of the player base on all the characters in the MOBA/ Battle Royale/Survival game Eternal Return: Black Survival. Available to view at https://erbs. tomadto.site/.

”

255

c0urtlee, camanfu Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

Courtney Lee Undergraduate ¶ 4.041 Design Studio: Advanced Product Design ¶ Critic: Carolien Nieblint

“

Sushi Shaped by Locality explores how the practices of sushi can be made sustainable. The recipes pair fish abundant and local to specific regions in combination with traditional methods to encourage mindful and diverse consumption.

”

Caleb Amanfu Undergraduate ¶ 4.041 Design Studio: Advanced Product Design ¶ Critic: Carolien Nieblint Lifestyle Packs create a set of bars that fit the “lifestyle and travel habits of a specific person or a specific group of people. ”

256

chloen, erk Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

Chloe Nelson-Arzuaga Undergraduate ¶ 4.041 Design Studio: Advanced Product Design ¶ Critic: Carolien Nieblint

“

This project aims to create a new chocolate bar through the use of 3D printing. Currently chocolate bars are limited to shapes created by prefabricated molds. This limits the interactions and experiences people can have with their chocolate bars. By using a 3D printer, different flavors can be deposited in specific areas of the bar. This new bar that utilizes this advantage to create new flavor interactions. Through molecular gastronomy, typically irregular flavors will be chosen as additions to the bar. This website is both a demo of this bar as well as a place where people can try to create their own bars.

”

Emma Kelley Undergraduate ¶ 4.041 Design Studio: Advanced Product Design ¶ Critic: Carolien Nieblint

“

Antagonist Yums aim to defy instinctual feelings of disgust towards food through playfully disturbing smells, textures and appearances. There are three snacks in the ‘Antagonist Yums’ series — Nut Fizz, Rot Rolls and Mite Balls.

”

257

jennyz, sangitav Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

Jenny Zhang Undergraduate ¶ 4.041 Design Studio: Advanced Product Design ¶ Critic: Carolien Nieblint

“

The project seeks to design and fabricate a packaging for snacks that captures the subtle timing that intuitively delays gratification in a satisfying way through visual cues for rituals. Packaging should naturally create a period of time for the snacker to slow down, focus, and be in the moment, enhancing the snacking experience. The world today is over dependent on instant gratification and people eat food too quickly which is unhealthy. My project provides a series of adjustments to existing packaging, encouraging snack companies to work together with their consumers for a healthier lifestyle and planet.

”

Sangita Vasikaran Undergraduate ¶ 4.041 Design Studio: Advanced Product Design ¶ Critic: Carolien Nieblint

“

This project showcases a palette of the versatile and beautiful capabilities of the potato. Through creating new compositions, textures, and flavors, we speculate how to engineer satiety in food.

”

258

chloen, demaille Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

Chloe Nelson-Arzuaga Undergraduate ¶ 4.043 Design Studio: Advanced Interactions ¶ Critic: Marcelo Coelho

“

Pointer combines the physical and digital worlds by allowing you to interact in a physical space while remaining virtual.

”

Austin Charles de Maille Undergraduate ¶ 4.043 Design Studio: Advanced Interactions ¶ Critic: Marcelo Coelho

“

Remotivate is a remote exercise device that tracks users as they perform their favorite workouts. Users in different locations can compete, collaborate, and share exercise experiences.

”

259

dludgin, graceche Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

David Austin Ludgin Undergraduate ¶ 4.043 Design Studio: Advanced Interactions ¶ Critic: Marcelo Coelho

“

Canvas-Connects is a build-your-own creative and interactive experience that allows parents and kids who are physically separated to connect by encouraging collaboration and communication in building unique and whimsical creations. The design is inexpensive and can be flat-packed, with the ability to be wiped clean for sustainable reuse.

”

Grace Chee Undergraduate ¶ 4.043 Design Studio: Advanced Interactions ¶ Critic: Marcelo Coelho Smell O Phone augments video calls with loved “ones by releasing scents from their location. It transports callers to another place or person when this is not physically possible, through the evocative power of smell.

”

260

rihn, agatta Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

Rihn Hong Undergraduate ¶ 4.043 Design Studio: Advanced Interactions ¶ Critic: Marcelo Coelho

“

Cooperative Cyberstories is a remote puppet show. The physical kit transforms any computer monitor into the stage of a collaboratively created world. Friends and families can interact from afar, re-experiencing the childhood joy of imagining and crafting their own stories.

”

Audrey Gatta Undergraduate ¶ 4.110 Design Across Scales and Disciplines ¶ Critic: Lee Moreau This assignment was to 'optimize' a critter by “creating one alteration to the critter everyday. In response to the pandemic, I designed a critter that would remove SARS-CoV-2 from the air by developing a new attribute everyday to help it perform its function and respond to environmental changes.

”

261

awinget, felixli Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

Ainsleigh Winget Undergraduate ¶ 4.110 Design Across Scales and Disciplines ¶ Critic: Lee Moreau

“

This project done in collage, follows the adaptation of a bivalve inspired critter as it adapts to an ice age and cares for a seed.

”

Felix Li Undergraduate ¶ 4.110 Design Across Scales and Disciplines ¶ Critic: Lee Moreau Data Exercise ¶ Acrylic yarn wound around “wood to display the number of songs re/

discovered in January 2021 (one spin for each song).

”

262

jennyz, jkprince Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

Jenny Zhang Undergraduate ¶ 4.110 Design Across Scales and Disciplines ¶ Critic: Lee Moreau

“

Critter: based off of a Muji water glass that I always have at my desk, I wanted to create a glass critter that acted like a multi-purpose support for existing Earth creatures. It collects fallen materials and heats them to create fertilizer for plants, provide warmth for cold-blooded animals at night, and even act as a night light for smaller critters.

”

Jared Prince Undergraduate ¶ 4.110 Design Across Scales and Disciplines ¶ Critic: Lee Moreau Leveraging the decision to get back into my “abandoned hobby of music creation for my mental health’s sake, I made a short track — under 15 seconds — and looped it. Each loop’s speed was modulated by my (attempted) weight loss journey results from each day of a week.

”

263

lingyi, marlenag Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

Lingyi Qiu Undergraduate ¶ 4.110 Design Across Scales and Disciplines ¶ Critic: Lee Moreau

“

This video shows the transitions of my critter — a form of grass — undergoing several environmental changes and evolutions.

”

Marlena Gomez Undergraduate ¶ 4.110 Design Across Scales and Disciplines ¶ Critic: Lee Moreau This project asks us to consider a creature as “it quickly evolves adapting to unforeseen climate changes over the course of 12 days. ”

264

meenalp+mrisueno+mazum Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

Meenal Parakh, Maria Risueno Dominguez, Michael Mazumder Undergraduate ¶ 4.110 Design Across Scales and Disciplines ¶ Critic: Lee Moreau

“

1) Game Mural: A community game designed to know more about the people around you. It contains a set of 36 questions for people to answer and leave their thoughts in a public space. The game also provides three additional opportunities for people to ask any questions they want to know others’ thoughts on. ¶ 2) Data Physicalization: The data for the properties of stones and pebbles is shown by arranging the stones and pebbles into clusters.

”

265

chloen Art Culture Technology 4.021

History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.024

Chloe Nelson-Arzuaga Undergraduate ¶ 4.THU Undergraduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Skylar Tibbits

“

Concrete Alternatives for Large Scale Additive Manufacturing ¶ Concrete additive manufacturing is a promising alternative to standard concrete construction, but the inability to print reinforcement as part of the manufacturing process is a significant limitation. This thesis proposes a method of extruding continuous fiber reinforcement during the 3D printing process. Reinforcement is important in the process of creating concrete structures because while concrete is strong in compression, it has almost no tensile capacity. Reinforcement compensates for this by introducing a high-tensile strength material such as steel rod into the concrete to give it tensile properties. ¶ Current methods of reinforcing concrete 3D printing mainly consist of manually adding rebar into cavities created during the printing process. Since the rebar has to be cast into place by hand, many of the benefits of having an autonomous process are reduced. This project designed an extruder for a continuous strand of Kevlar to be extruded alongside the concrete extrusion. Through controlling the speed at which the Kevlar extruder was linearly translated, different densities of Kevlar were created within two layers of concrete. These reinforced concrete pieces were then tested against a similar, but unreinforced piece. The results of this test showed an increase in the residual strength of the concrete as the density of Kevlar was increased. This proves the validity of Kevlar as a reinforcing material and could lead to a more flexible method of adding reinforcement to 3D printed concrete.

”

266

Building Technology 4.032 / 4.033

kwakseo Computation 4.041

Architecture + Urbanism 4.110 4.043

Course 4 Undergraduate 4.THU

Rachel Seo Yeon Kwak Undergraduate ¶ 4.THU Undergraduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Lee Moreau

“

Digital Narratives for Self-Therapy ¶ The process of building positive, healthy mindsets has been studied throughout many years, but today, it is something that should be emphasized more than ever before. Unhealthy attitudes seem to be much more prevalent in modern times; according to studies, our society may be experiencing a ‘narcissism epidemic.’ With COVID-19, social isolation has become a norm and has illuminated the need for accessible and everyday methods of emotional growth and healing. Digital products are a promising solution to making self-therapy methods more accessible and flexible to individuals’ lifestyles. ¶ Digital Narratives for Self-Therapy aims to explore specifically the application of digital narratives in encouraging positive and healthy mindsets in individuals. Storytelling has been a significant means of learning and growth throughout all of human history and across all cultures. The potential for reading personal stories to become a popular means of emotional comfort has already been experienced, such as through the success of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series. ¶ Turning personal, moving stories into digital experiences opens the opportunity to enrich them with audio, visual, animated, and interactive elements. It also makes possible a scalable and flexible system for lightweight self-therapy that can be accessed by many people around the world, at any time or location that fits into each individual’s lifestyle. The Digital Narratives for Self-Therapy project is meant to serve as a case study that can be expanded in the future to create a robust system for self-therapy through digital storytelling.

”

267

Extracurricular Work

This section highlights the student work outside of core classes that allows students to pursue personal research interests. Inclusion in Imprint was based on the responses to an open call facilitated by the editorial team.

268

Out of Frame

→ P. 272

Summer Workshops

→ P. 276

Venice Biennale

→ P. 280 269

Out of Frame “On Ice,”

by Lasse Rau

I write these words on the eve of yet another snow storm in New England. For the coming two days, meteorologists have projected that up to 24 inches of powdery snow might fall onto the North-Eastern coast of the United States and Canada.1 The imminent blizzard is the second one of this season, with a third storm in sight. But while snow has specific uses and cultural overtones, it is mostly seen as an impediment to road traffic. Snow accumulation is but a planning problem solved by snowplows and sprays of rock salt. ¶ As writing and editing processes “naturally” go, most of the white crystals exposed to the elements will have hardened through cycles of melting and freezing once this article is published. What remains are sheets of ice, thin layers of transparent solid, generally only registered as a hindrance when we almost slip on a spot of poorly salted sidewalk. Ice suggests that split second of instability, the shock of almost losing connection to the ground. Or dare say, we slip.

What makes ice slippery even well below its zero-degree Celsius melting point has been of scientific interest since initial experiments in the physics of regelation in the 1850s. 2 By applying pressure on ice through a looped rope pulled by a heavy weight, scientist Michael Faraday succeeded in letting the rope travel through ice, splitting it in two and freezing the sides together again. In his resulting paper published in 1859, he argued that a liquid layer coating the ice must be the reason for the observed phenomenon. Although frozen in place for almost a century by the reasoning of Faraday’s opponents, physicist C. Gurney recovered the findings.3 In 1949 he confirmed the existence of an unstable, disordered film at the surface of solid ice, prompting the formation of a pre-melted phase. This, he reckoned, made ice slippery: a slippery disorder. Yet to this day, the scientific community is studying the thermodynamic properties of the quasi-liquid layer of water molecules, as the origin of its disorder remains rather vague.4 Over the more than 160 years since the initial experiments, the exploration of the slippery properties of ice has provided the basis for the study of ice skating and road slips. It has also helped explain the cause of glacial movements.

270

Excerpted work previously published in outofframe.

It is 4 PM the coming day and snow has begun to fall.

Photograph by Author. Schwartz, John. “Forecast: Wild Weather In A Warming World,” The New York Times, 2021.

Rosenberg, Robert. “Why Is Ice Slippery?”. Physics Today, 58, no. 12 (2005): 50-54. doi:10.1063/1.2169444.

Gurney, C. “Surface Forces In Liquids And Solids,” Proceedings Of The Physical Society. Section A 62, no. 10 (1949): 639648. doi:10.1088/03701298/62/10/305.

4 Max Planck Society. “Scientists Characterize the Phase Transitions of Melting Ice Layers.” Phys.org. Phys. org, December 13, 2016.

5 Schwartz, John. “Forecast: Wild Weather.”

Meteorological sciences have determined that weather regulates on a planetary scale. Changes in one region of the world lead to effects in distant others through wind circulations, precipitation patterns, and oceanic currents. Disorder leads to all kinds of consequences. Scientists argued in a New York Times article that what New York, Montreal, Chicago, and all that lies between are experiencing might be the result of the warming of the Arctic.5 The melting of ice at the North Pole is thought to weaken the westerly jet stream that runs miles above the Earth’s crust. The circular wind entraps what is called the Polar vortex, a hub of icy weather at the upper stratospheric level. Disturbances and breaches of this circle send storms like the one I am currently experiencing southwards of the Arctic. But the melting of ice has much more local consequences. It is directly linked with the destruction of habitats and the rampant food insecurity of communities living in the North. Here in Boston though, the storm turns out to be calmer than expected. ¶ Although slippery, ice stands as a slowing of material, the crystallization and freezing in time (and space) of water molecules. A wintering of sorts. This property makes ice an essential element for logistics. It is used to preserve perishable goods on continental shipments, “put on ice,” but not quite frozen. More recently, new containers were developed to enclose doses of the SARS-CoV 2 vaccine, entrapping the cocktails of mRNA at -60 to -80 degree Celsius, prolonging their span of transport.

But freezing in time is not pausing. Ice is not static, but rather moving slowly. ¶ What can be observed on a microscopic scale on the surface of ice bears a resemblance to the larger processes revolving around ice melting and the movement of glaciers. Over the Arctic, the unstable layer of ice swells for miles into the atmosphere. No matter the scale, ice is two things at once, never quite certain. It is freezing and melting, moving and slowing down, slippery and crystallized.

271

Out of Frame “The Aesthetic Project of ‘The Wild’,” by Tess McCann [...] As a product of civilization, wilderness is, according to [William] Cronon, a powerful image that is positioned as “the ultimate landscape of authenticity.”1 He describes how the idea of wilderness developed from a Biblical image of a desolate and savage place, the place to which you were only sent against your will, “in fear and trembling.”2 These wildernesses are wastelands, barren and terrifying, unhuman. Already, in this Christian concept, the canker is in the rose: the wilderness is seen something other, something non-human, something outside ourselves. ¶ The religious origins of the image of the wilderness lasted into the eighteenth century and shifted, slowly, into rhetoric of the sublime. The sublime was physically manifested in vast and powerful landscapes, where mere man could sense his own mortality and, perhaps, glimpse god. But still, wilderness was something separate from humanity.3 Romantic poets wrote of majestic mountaintops; painters painted views of valleys covered in fog; there was a degree of wistfulness in the Romantic gaze on the natural world. They embraced nature, exalted it, even, but in a somewhat plaintive way. Roussau, perhaps surprisingly, also regarded the past with a degree of ruefulness in his

272

idea of the noble savage positioned the past, and specifically the wild past, as a simpler, better time. 4, 5 Through the nineteenth century, this notion persisted: nature was heralded as the best cure for modernity. ¶ The Rousseauian concept of primitivism was clearly compelling to Europe’s aristocratic elite. In the years following the Enlightenment, this concept of wilderness as the sublime solution for modern society was manifesting in the aesthetic pursuits of landscape designers. As Marcus Owens and Jennifer Wolch describe, “wilderness gardens” and “Rousseau islands” proliferated on English estates spread across Europe.6 Playing on themes of the picturesque, these landscapes showed a tamed nature that, although it was not “real wilderness,” nonetheless offered respite from modern, smog-filled industrial cities. The work of Humphrey Repton perhaps best epitomizes this moment. The babbling streams, shaded groves, and wildflower-strewn meadows he designed and recorded in his “Red Books” evoked wilderness — but a downright pleasant one.7 ¶ The aristocratic aesthetic trends of a tamed wild were brought to cities in the form of urban parks. Of course, the most famous practitioner of manicured urban wilds is Frederick Law

Olmsted, who designed parks in the biggest and smoggiest of American cities: New York, Boston, Detroit, and Buffalo. The open spaces he designed were positioned as remedies for poor air quality, the lungs of these cities, places where humans go to find relief from modernity.8 He also developed some proto-ecological practices at the Boston Fens, as Anne Whiston Spirn documents, where he incorporated some naturalistic water filtration systems that addressed human health and environmental well-being at the

Excerpted work previously published in outofframe.

same time.9 ¶ But more importantly to this present argument was Olmsted’s knack for designing parks that seemed to have always been there: preserved slices of pre-modern land. Walking through Central Park’s Ramble, for example, evoked meandering through woods; visitors were surprised and charmed by unexpected views over the Lake to the south. Along the Muddy River in Boston, citizens could step out of the city and into a wooded glen and feel a world away. Olmsted’s wilderness is thus both an experience and

an image: something to engage with and something to observe. It is its dual definition that makes Olmsted’s nature powerful and lasting: it is a version of nature that has been specifically designed for the optimal experience. 17 It’s a human intervention that is made to look natural. Without these aesthetic trappings, Olmsted’s projects look much more like a modernist “improvement” project than harmless little slices of nature. ¶ From this brief history of the aesthetic project of “the wild,” a gripping story emerges. Our protagonist, nature, finds itself in constant competition with the antagonist, modern civilization. Thus rewilding is a story of a hero’s return. It represents a denouement: at the point we thought all hope was lost and that our cities would be left vulnerable to the ravages of rising seas and stronger storms, the hero is here to save us. The trouble is, our hero isn’t entirely what it says it is: nature “hides its unnaturalness behind a mask that is all the more beguiling because it seems so natural.” 11 Enchanted as we are by this gripping story, we might not think to look for other ones—but indeed there are other stories to be told, and they can be uncovered, I think, by looking at some old maps.

Photograph by author. William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature,” Environmental History 1, no. 1 (January 1996): 7 – 28, https://doi. rg/10.2307/3985059, 16. 1

Ibid, 9.

Ibid, 10 – 13.

4 Surprising insofar as Romanticism as an aesthetic and ideological movement was positioned in direct opposition to the scientific rationalism of the Enlightenment.

Cronon, 13.

Marcus Owens and Jennifer Wolch, “Rewilding cities,” in Rewilding, Nathalie Pettorelli, Sarah M. Durant, and Johan T. du Toit, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 282, citing an exceptionally good book: Vittoria Di Palma, Wasteland: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014). 6

“Romantic Gardens: Nature, Art, and Landscape Design,” Exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum, 2010. https://www.themorgan. org/exhibitions/romanticgardens

9 Owens and Wolch 282; Anne Whiston Spirn, “Constructing Nature: The Legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted,” in Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature, William Cronon, ed., 1st ed (New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1995).

Interestingly, some rewilding projects do not embrace this idealized, beautiful image of nature. Prior and Brady (2017) observe that in some rewilding projects “there are likely to be practices that encourage less conventionally ‘pretty’ or ‘beautiful’ landscapes.” (Prior and Brady 2017, 14) In spaces that are not actively managed, “there will not be practices in place to preserve aesthetically-valued qualities.” (Prior and Brady 2017, 14) While we might still appreciate and engage with these newly non-human places, Prior and Brady argue that this form of rewilding is “aesthetically challenging” both because it is unscenic and also because there are few panoramic vistas that an unmanaged, forested wilderness affords.

11 Cronon, 7 (emphasis added).

8 “CENTRAL PARK.; The Lungs of the City.,” New York Times, April 9, 1909, http:// timesmachine.nytimes.com/

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Summer Workshops

4.s14 Slow Design Through Hand-Drawing: An Antidote to Digital Overload ¶ This pencil drawing based workshop will encourage students to take a step back from fast computer-aided design clicks and instead think through composition decisions using mark making, shading, blending, and erasing. 'Slow Design' includes short weekly lectures, inclass exercises, technique demos, and peer-to-peer reflections. The course begins with a sequence of out-of-class drawing assignments to build our vocabulary of rule making(/breaking), abstraction, scale, multiplicity, and color theory. Students keep a daily 10-minute drawing journal to develop a personal meditative routine of close observation.

Instructor: Alena Titova

274

4.s44 Resistant Matter(s): Propositions for Architectural Longevity ¶ When did buildings become disposable? The contemporary built landscape in the United States is an artifact of a marked devaluation of energy, material, labor, and time. The average lifespan of a commercial structure in the US today is about 50 years. ¶ This course is an opportunity to upend traditional decision-making hierarchies in the design process and experiment in methodologies that foreground longevity in the face of finite resources. The workshop explores questions of temporality, particularly around material and waste, as the primary discussion lens instead of an afterthought.

Instructors: Lauren Gideonse, Adriana Giorgis

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Summer Workshops

4.s24 COHABITATE: Entangling Architecture, Infrastructure, and Living Systems ¶ Architectural representation often fails to capture the complexity of the ecological and sociopolitical processes at play in the built environment. This results in the segregation of architecture, infrastructure, and living systems. In this course, we aim to develop strategies for translating scientific principles into a hybrid mode of cross-disciplinary communication. This allows for an accurate description of urban ecosystem dynamics and expands the agency of our non-human community co-inhabitants. ¶ Students in the course gain a brief foundation in ecology, biodiversity, geology and oceanography, with an emphasis on the urban environment; including readings and precedents from design and the life sciences. ¶ This course sets the groundwork for a more environmentally and socially sensitive conception of architectural practice. Instructors: Bella Carmelita Carriker, James Brice

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4.s54 FOR GRAPHIC PLAY ONLY: Mining Aesthetic Intuition By Playfully Uncovering Affordances in Graphic Software ¶ This course is for those who want to self-indulge in making graphic work for no other reason than its ambivalence and aesthetic interest. The course intends to treat the ‘classroom’ as a collaborative space to uncover affordances in graphic software to push a program in order to learn what secrets it may be hiding. The course is structured via tutorials, pin-ups, and very casual reviews. The tutorials not only teach the basics of the software, but they are also a way to open rabbit holes for students to explore. The coursework is a way for one to develop a portfolio to track, understand, cull, enjoy, and hone the power of their aesthetic intuition. ¶ The assignments and tutorials ask students to take strolls through the software, to iterate on their work using only aesthetic intuition as a metric for making choices. Instructor: Sahil Mohan

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Venice 2021 Biennale Amidst setbacks caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Venice Biennale's 17th International Architecture Exhibition was finally launched in May 2021. The work of 112 participants from 46 countries was inaugurated by the exhibition's curator, Hashim Sarkis, Dean of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning. ¶ As curator, Dean Sarkis asked creatives around the world to turn their attention to one central question: How will we live together? “Every generation asks this question, and every generation deserves to come up with its unique answers,” explains Sarkis. Posed long before the pandemic and perhaps now even more timely than ever, this theme informed the research and designs of professors and students alike at MIT.

Design Earth Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy of DESIGN EARTH In five geostories, The Planet After Geoengineering makes climate engineering and its controversies visible and public in a speculative planetary section that cuts from the deep underground to the surface, atmosphere, and into outer space. Each geostory — Petrified Carbon, Arctic Albedo, Sky River, Sulfur Storm, and Dust Cloud — portrays the Earth following the deployment of a specific technique and situates such promisory visions within a genealogy of climatecontrol projects ranging from nineteenth-century rainmaking machines to Cold War military plans.

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Design team: Reid Fellenbaum, Kelly Koh, Meng-Fu Kuo, Joude Mabsout, Jane Jia Weng; with contributions from Ayusha Ariana, Avery Nguyen, Michael Stradley Animation team: Anhong Li, Monica Hutton

These cautionary tales for the Anthropocene unsettle geopolitics to present a new politics of the Earth that brings forth questions regarding which lifeforms are in need of being safeguarded, from what threat, by which actors and means, to which ends, and at which costs. The premise of this work is that the architectural project, as a narrative speculative practice, can galvanize such an essential shift toward public communication that explains the climate crisis as it anticipates other possible worlds.

Graphic Title by Omnivore, Inc. All images provided by the authors &/or found on the Venice Biennale Website.

Satellights Angelo Bucci of spbr arquitetos Orbiting the Thin Layer of Human Life ¶ A perfect, stainless-steel circle built in the middle room represents the thin layer of human life on Earth. Its thickness is based on the inhabitable realm of the planet, a shallow zone given by the topographical difference of 5,098 meters between the highest and the lowest human settlements. Against the diameter of the Earth, at a scale of 1:5,000,000, the surface that humans occupy is only 1mm thick. This fine and fragile line is the field we can live in, the evidence of a project under construction for thousands of years, the very confirmation of modernity. Mirroring the planet’s surface at 37,786 km above sea level, another line, the so-called Clarke Orbit, maintains any object in its orbit aligned to any fixed location on Earth. It is in this zone that this project imagines the possibility of geostationary satellights artificial sources of light powerful enough to light entire cities. Taking São Paulo as a case-study, a pair of satellights of 250 megawatts orbiting on Clark would bring light to 21 million people, replacing millions of light bulbs, thousands of kilometers of cables, and hundreds of thousands of light poles.

Tower of Winds William O'Brien Jr. of WOJR Tower of Winds is concerned with the cultivation of shared experiences. The project makes visible aspects of the environment that are omnipresent, conditions that we all share in common. As an object watched from a distance, the fabric in this installation registers the movement of the air — a barometer of local winds informed by global weather patterns. As an environment, it is a vertically oriented room, a tall drum with a frame at the top. The drum is made of three tiers, each with an increasing number of facets. Transitioning from an octagon near the ground to a smoother figure above, the geometry suggests a confluence of individual perspectives into a collective or shared view of the sky. Simultaneously, the sectional condition offers a horizontal gaze, outward from under the drum, of the Giardino delle Vergini gardens beyond on the Biennale grounds.

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Moving Together Sheila Kennedy, Janelle Knox-Hayes, Miho Mazereeuw, James Wescoat at MIT Venice Lab

Growing Islands Skylar Tibbits, Schendy Kernizan, Jared Laucks of MIT Self-Assembly Lab, Sarah Dale, Hassan Maniku of Invena; Tencate As climate change progresses and sea levels continue to rise, island nations and coastal regions face a growing risk of going underwater. With more than 40% of the world’s population living near coastlines, it is imperative to find novel approaches to address this mounting threat. Through research on selfassembly and self-organization this project proposes to collaborate with the natural forces of ocean waves and the accumulation of sand to be able to grow sandbars, islands, and beaches over time. Typical attempts to fight coastal erosion rely on static physical barriers or continual coastal dredging, which attempt to resist constantly changing natural forces. Here, the goal is instead to work with the forces of nature, harnessing waves to build rather than destroy. Realized with collaborators in the Maldives, Building With Waves presents and deploys submersible devices that utilize wave forces to accelerate and guide the accumulation of sand in strategic locations. If this radical approach is successful, it has the potential to change the long-term viability of island nations and coastal regions.

280

A Gradient of Design Strategies for Voluntary Community Relocation ¶ In the next three decades 150 million people are projected to relocate due to environmental hazards and climate change. Living together increasingly means moving together. The world witnesses escalating processes of desperate migration, forced displacement, and failed resettlement. These processes of environmental migration are commonly unplanned, uncompensated, and reactive. How can communities move together — peacefully, justly, and productively — and how can planning and design help fulfill these aims? Research and Design Team: Nick Allen, Chris Cassidy, Charlotte Isabel D’Acierno, Alessandra Fabbri, Kira Intrator, Osamu Kumasaka, Clarence Yi-Hsien Lee, Joude El-Mabsout, Camila Ostolaza, Larisa Ovalles, Jitske Swagemakers, Dorothy Tang, Ben Widger, Jaehun Woo, Zhicheng Xu, and Elizabeth Yarina Collaborating Organizations: ENLACE (Puerto Rico), Isle de Jean Charles Native American Tribe (Louisiana), Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (Tajikistan), Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture (MIT), Kennedy & Violich Architecture, Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism (MIT), and Urban Risk Lab (MIT)

CarbonHouse Mark Goulthorpe The CarbonHouse Team was featured in the virtual Italian Pavilion, CityX, as part of this year’s Biennale. A series of six short videos were integrated into the team’s digital poster to frame key aspects of their recent research on the Carbon>Building initiative. Kii Kang, Dimitrios Chatzinikolis, Ziyu Xu, Shaoting Zeng, Cristian Calvo Barentin

Many Houses/ Many Worlds Mark Jarzombek, Vikramaditya ‘Vikram’ Prakash of GAHTC; Architecture Uncertainty Lab; University of Washington; Eliana Abu-Hamdi of GAHTC

Carbon To Rock Cristina Parreño Alonso, Sergio Araya Goldberg of Igneous Tectonics; Matěj Pěc of Pec Lab at MIT CarbonToRock is a volcanic rock architectural installation exhibited in the Biennale Architettura 2021. CarbonToRock starts with the premise that all the carbon in the Earth derives from rocks and will, eventually, end up in rocks, and brings awareness to new cutting-edge technologies which have radically shortened the timespans that turn CO2 into basalt. Carbon to Rock explores these new artificial manipulations of the geological timescales of the carbon-cycle, rethinking igneous rocks as a new resilient material for new high-carbon-capture architectures. Design: Cristina Parreño Alonso & Sergio Araya Goldberg. Fabrication: Cristina Parreño Alonso & Sergio Araya Goldberg with Cuellar Stone Company.

Many Houses/Many Worlds explores the entanglement between the planet and the cosmos. It looks at one recently constructed house in Seattle, WA and analyzes it according to four vectors, each of which is interpreted as a type of consciousness that is silenced once the owners get the keys to the front door: 1) Atomic consciousness 2) Production Consciousness 3) Labor Consciousness 4) Source Consciousness. The study showed not just the astonishing globality that is at play in making even a small house, but also the high degree of uncertainty in how even to describe the backstory of the building, though that backstory is foundational to the project of modernity. Artistic project and installation design: Paul Montie Students Angela Loescher-Montal, Olivier Faber, Thaddeus Lee, Kailin Jones, Sacha Moreau, Natasha Hirt, Ana Arenas, Arditha Auriyane, Melika Konjicanin, Ardalan SadeghiKivi, Sanjana Lahiri (Cooper Union) Research Assistant: Angie Door

Research Contribution by Pěc Lab and Carb Fix. Video CarbonToRock sneak peek. Concept: Cristina Parreño Alonso and Sergio Araya Goldberg. Assistant editor: Ruth Blair Moyers Igneous Dymaxion Map: Concept: Cristina Parreño Alonso and Sergio Araya Goldberg. Contributors from Sergio and Cristina’s studio: “Igneous Tectonics: CarbonToRock”class (Spring 2020): Tayloe Boes, Daniel Griffin, Melika Konjicanin, Florence Ma, Ana McIntosh, Jitske Swagemakers, Carolyn Tam and Lynced Torres Photos: Raul Betti and Adolfo Guiard Torre-Marín

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Open Collectives Cooperative Conditions Anne Kockelkorn, Susanne Schindler, Dorothée Billard of Monobloque, Rebekka Hirschberg, students of the MAS GTA, ETH Zurich Zurich is a center of global finance and exemplifies the associated pressure of a financialized real estate market. At the same time, Switzerland’s largest and historically most industrialized city has a century-old tradition of non-profit housing. Since the 1990s, the city’s cooperative movement — activists, city officials, architects — has re-appropriated this form of decommodified development. Today, twenty percent of the city’s housing stock is cooperatively owned, withdrawn from the for-profit sector. In the process, cooperatives have realized new and highly experimental architectural forms of living together that challenge the established understanding of the household and the dwelling unit. Cooperative Conditions presents projects that reframe the dimension and role of shared spaces, whether on the interior or exterior of the buildings. Zurich’s cooperatives thus demonstrate that non-profit housing can respond to very specific housing needs whose high material and socio-spatial quality remains exempt from commodification.

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Rafi Segal of Future Urban Collective Lab at MIT, Sarah Williams of Civic Data Design Lab at MIT; Greg Lindsay, Marisa Moran Jahn of Studio REVArchitecture for an Equitable Digital Economy ¶ Open Collectives is an immersive installation showcasing urban and architectural projects designed for new cooperatives, along with an online platform. Video and printed materials offer new perspectives on timely contemporary issues — the future of work, reputational economy, solidarity building, co-living, elderboom and the care crisis — while the platform will ask visitors to share their ideas, experience, and knowledge extending the Exhibition’s reach beyond Venice and past 2021. Open Collectives Installation Design: Rafi Segal A+U (Lead), Alina Nazmeeva Open Collectives Digital Platform: Civic Data Design Lab - Sarah Williams (Lead), Ashley Louie, Dylan Halprin, Prabhakar Kafle, Alina Nazmeeva, Angela Wang Open Collectives Film: Directed and Edited by Marisa Morán Jahn, Music by John Eric Steiner Research Team: Kelly Leilani Main, David Birge, Sarah Rege, Ana Paula Arenas, Adiel Alexis Benitez, Matt Bradford, Jonathon Brearley, Laura Cadena, Sydney Cinalli, Max Drake, Nisha E. Devasia, Darla Earl, Emelie A. Eldracher, Livia Foldes, Gabriela Romero Garibay, Charvi Gopal, Fiel Guhit, Dylan Halpern, Samuel H. Ihns, Effie Jia, Mengfu Kuo, Sheng-Hung Lee, Clare Liu, John Liu, Lesley Onstott, John Rao, Viviana Rivera, Carol-Anne Rodrigues, Vaidehi Supatkar, Evellyn Tan, Yegor Vlasenko

Modified Service Sandro Bisà of Bisà Associati, Nicholas de Monchaux and Kathryn Moll of modem; catalogtree and William Sherman of the University of Virginia Venice Program

Silk Road Works Azra Akšamija of MIT Future Heritage Lab; Lillian Kology and Kailin Jones of MIT Future Heritage Lab; Adriano Berengo of Berengo Studio In a world traversed by zones of contact in which lifestyle choices have become targets for reactionary forms of identity paranoia, wearing a headscarf or a beard in public can be perceived as a threat. Silk Road Works engages with subject positions defined by “otherness” and marginality linked to Islamic identity, aiming to counter cultural biases and propose a vision for architecture of coexistence. Inspired by Venice’s historical role as a cultural and commercial hub of Europe’s exchange with the East, the installation takes the form of a body-scale construction site for building an inclusive, pluralist society. Informed by the social and cultural history of Venice, architecture becomes a medium to visually deconstruct an essentialist idea of a homogenous, static identity, and to embody the leitmotif of cultural mobility.

Historically, Venice was not confined to the dense network of isola shaped from sandbars in the early Middle Ages and cleaved by the Grand Canal. Rather, it was an interlinked archipelago stretching the length and breadth of the lagoon, in which a variety of innovative, incompatible, or inconvenient functions were diffused. Today, communities in the lagoon and its margins — tourists, residents, and commuters — move separately along highly prescribed routes, yet rarely across the surface of the water that connects them. ¶ This installation is a collaborative project that provides the framework — and a catalyst — for new journeys and trajectories. Over the course of the Biennale, the project expands to encompass the research of students, critics, ecologists, and architects, culminating in a symposium at its conclusion.

Pattern development, prototyping and fabrication of vests: Azra Akšamija, Sophia Giordano, Lillian P.H. Kology Fabrication of glass helmets: Berengo Studio, Venice (glass mold blowing), Kailin Jones (research and laser cutting) Prototyping and fabrication of coveralls: Azra Akšamija, Lillian P.H. Kology. Material: Rubelli Venezia

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Selected Research

This is not an exhustive list of research initatives at the MIT Department of Architecture. Inclusion in Imprint was based on the responses to an open call facilitated by the editorial team.

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Research Initatives

→ P. 306

MIT SA+P Climate Action Proposal

→ P. 308 285

Research Initiatives Digital Structures Digital Structures is an interdisciplinary research group working at the creative interface of architecture, structural engineering, and computation, led by Professor Caitlin Mueller. Established in 2014, their work focuses on innovative design and construction methods for a high-performance, low-carbon built environment. Major research areas include performance-driven algorithmic design methods, the design and fabrication of low-carbon structural systems (especially in mass timber frames, reinforced concrete floor systems, and spatial trusses), and the history of architect-engineer collaborations.

Pluma | IASS Surrey 2020 Pavilion Competition | Received Commendation Pluma demonstrates how form can follow function across disciplines and performance metrics. The design features photovoltaic membranes suspended in a lightweight cable system, resembling a flock of birds in flight. The shape and orientation of the membrane ensemble is precisely tuned by an optimization algorithm to maximize solar radiation exposure and power generation on the site in Surrey. Its supporting frame consists of standard timber elements assembled into cruciform sections, with simple, repeated connection details that are cost effective. The foundation is a concrete slab hollowed out with compressed sawdust blocks as lost formwork, reducing the embodied energy compared to a typical slab by half. With a design framework applicable to any site in the world, the Pluma installation envisions a lightweight future where structures generate more energy than they embody.

‘Pluma’ was designed by Professor Caitlin Mueller, Demi Fang, Ramon Weber, Dr. Paul Mayencourt, Eduardo Gascon Alvarez and Mohamed Ismail in the Digital Structures Group.

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Office of (Un)certainty O(U)R ¶ Founded by Professor Mark Jarzombek & Vikram Prakash of University of Washington, Office of (Un)Certainty Research is a design research practice dedicated to rethinking architecture in terms of the emergent scientific, social and political parameters of the 21st century.

1by1 Land Acknowledgement Design Challenge O(U)R invited design proposals for 1 ft. by 1 ft. interventions, on individual property lots that ACKNOWLEDGE that ALL land in the United States was once and still is (and will always remain) NATIVE LAND. Like the land-acknowledgement signature lines and other literary observances now commonplace, O(U)R invites all residents to reexamine and re-inscribe their relation to property and its role in appropriating and erasing native relationship to land.

Mark Jarzombek , 1 BY 1: Design: One sq foot square mirror

“

I acknowledge that the house in which I live sits on land that was associated with the Pequot, the Massachuseuk, and the Wampanoag and the many other Peoples whose names are lost to history. As an immigrant who settled here, I have benefited and continue to benefit from the seizure of this land. I commit to naming their existence, because naming is an exercise in power when what is being named has been historically erased. I also commit to continue learning about the history of this land, to center and join the struggle of the Wampanoag and Indigenous peoples everywhere, and fight for Indigenous land stewardship and rematriation, today and every day. This solution is simple but has various reads: 1: It hides the ground from the colonial-settler gaze and in that sense is a preservation move. 2: In the shamanistic sense it is a portal to a world beyond. 3: In reflecting the sky and clouds it speaks to the transience of life. 4: It removes a piece of my property from the ideology of lawn maintenance.

”

1 2 3 4

Statements of Uncertainity

(Un)certainty is not opposed to certainty. (Un)certainty is the nature of certainty, the quality of knowledge.

Deconstructing the architectural object is akin to quantum research. The closer you look things become uncertain, not because your instruments aren’t strong enough or calibrated enough, but because things themselves are indeterminate, uncertain. The new post-ontological digitalized Social is no longer oriented around the troublesome I or the I around the troublesome Social, both of which are told in the old world to seek reform or improve themselves. The Troublesome I is now part of the Troublesome Social. We think we are designers, authors of note, with agency. But our agency is emplaced — and nominally enabled — by a complex pre-history that stretches millions of years, engages a vast array of industrial processes and complex social and cultural forces that puts the entire earth into play in ways that are well beyond our comprehension.

Location: 41 Willow St. Belmont MA 42 22 52.8 N, 71 10 30 W

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MIT SA+P Climate Action Plan “

”

per capita

MTCO2e from Business Travel (Metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions)

total mtco2e

The MIT School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) has announced the adoption of a schoolwide Climate Action Plan (CAP) designed to advance Institute efforts to address climate change and model local-level steps that could be taken throughout MIT to reduce carbon emissions through changes in procurement, waste tracking, airline travel, and other areas of operation.¶ Like many universities, MIT centralizes the provision of utilities — electricity, steam, chilled water, natural gas, phone lines, internet, data storage, and other energy-intensive services. As a result, individual departments, faculty, and students are often completely unaware of their energy use. Greenhouse gas emissions are highly variable, even within SA+P. The report thus begins with an analysis of the nature and sources of greenhouse gas emissions from SA+P activities.¶ The plan outlines opportunities for SA+P to reduce its direct and indirect carbon emissions. It lays out the process to both support and lead the Institute’s efforts toward carbon neutrality.¶ In developing the plan, the students and faculty sought to extend the school’s ongoing research in many areas related to climate change, including resilient net-zero cities, carbon-sequestering building materials, sustainable architecture, transportation, renewable energy systems, sustainable space industries, water infrastructures, restorative landscapes, trash tagging, and tools for personal health or carbon impact tracking.¶ ‘Achievements in research inquiry, design, planning, communication, and organizing advance how we think about climate change,’ say the plan’s authors. ‘But now is the time when our specific actions must advance, and not work at cross-purposes with, our scholarship and stated values.’

0.7 CRE

2.3 DUSP

5.4 ML + MAS

1.9 ARCH

11.6 DEAN

2.3 ACT

162

683 704

2595

Submitted to the members of SA+P School Council, by Professors David Hsu and Caroline A. Jones, with the research efforts of SA+P graduate students Ruoming

Excerpt from MIT News article. January 26, 2021.

Fang, Kailin Jones, Mariana Medrano, and Diego Hernan Castillo Peredo. In partnership with members of the MIT Office of Sustainability: Julie Newman, Jeremy Gregory, Brian Goldberg, Stuart Iler, and Steven Lanou.

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Total MTCO2e

per capita

per square foot

SA+P Building Energy Use Emissions, total and per capita

Total SA+P GHG Emissions, FY2019 24,795 MTC02e

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Opposite: August 12, 2021 3:30 PM Photo: Carol-Anne Rodrigues Below: August 12, 2021 3:45 PM Photo: Carol-Anne Rodrigues

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Thank You Congratulations Class of 2021. You are the ultimate reminder that, together, we can make it through given even the most difficult circumstances. After over a year and a half apart, we gathered once more in Killian Court to celebrate your journey, achievements and perseverance. May we carry that bright, infectious energy forward into a promising, more just future for us all. MIT Department of Architecture Graduation Photoshoot at Killian Court, June 27, 2021.

Courtesy of Daisy Ziyan Zhang

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Acknowledgments Archiving Team

Administration

Communications Team

Guest Speakers

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James Brice Jonathon Brearley Danny Griffin Matthew Harrington Duncan Kincaid Amanda Moore Anna Vasileiou Ellen Wood Zhicheng Xu

Jose Luis Arguello Kathaleen Brearley Stacy Clemons Marissa Friedman Doug Le Vie Inala Locke Tonya Miller Amanda Moore Andreea O’Connell

Ana McIntosh Amanda Moore Angie Door Carol-Anne Rodrigues Ellen Wood James Brice Daisy Ziyan Zhang

Allison Arieff Cynthia Davidson Dung Ngo Geoff Manaugh

Achiving Support by Spring 2021 Teaching Assistants Carolyn Tam Nare Filiposyan Aidan Flynn Maryam AlHajri Charles Wu Nada AlMulla Erin Wong Christopher Moyer Katerina Labrou Jeremy Bilotti Xio Alvarez Yaara Yacoby Sasha McKinlay Taylor Boes Ous Abou Ras Florence Ma Zhicheng Xu Rania Kaadan Laura Gonzalez Eytan Levi Dimitrios Chatzinikolis Joel Austin Cunningham James Heard Luis Alberto Meouchi Velez Marianna González-Cervantes Dries Carmeliet Lasse Rau Mohamad Nahleh Kimball Kaiser Rui Wang Maitha Almazrooei Olivia Serra Yesufu O’ladipo Johnathan Kongoletos Keith Lee Myles Sampson Alexandra Waller Lavender Tessmer Alexandros Charidis Walker Downey Nina Wexelblatt Delanie Linden

Imprint 02 Elizabeth Saari Browne Chantal El Hayek Phoebe Springstubb Caroline Murphy Manar Moursi Chelsea Spencer Nushelle de Silva Brandon Scott Olivia Houck Indrani Saha Alpha Yacob Arsano Mohamed Ismail Carolyn Tam Calvin Zhong Jesus Ocampo Aguilar Pohao Chi Tzu Tung Lee Emily Wissemann Emma (Yimeng) Zhu Jesus Ocampo Aguilar Ardalan SadeghiKivi Alice Jia Li Song Jayson Kim Vijay Rajkumar Kwan Q Li

Creative Support from Spring 2021 “Reflecting on the Architecture of the Page” Workshop Participants Inge Geraldine Donovan Patricia Dueñas Gerritsen Angela Loescher-Montal Vijay Gautham Rajkumar Carol-Anne Rodrigues Jenna A Schnitzler Meriam Soltan

This publication would not have been possible without the support from all of you. Thank you Nicholas de Monchaux for your vision & trust that encouraged us to further experiment with what Imprint could be. Thank you Miko McGinty for your editorial guidance and pushing us to experiment with graphic design where we could. Thank you Amanda Moore & Aidan Flynn for your intimate understanding of the Department and kind support as we wrapped up the book. Thank you to everyone who participated in the making of this book. Continuing off of the 2020 Summer & Fall Workshops, in the Spring of 2021 another workshop, “Reflecting on the Architecture of the Page,” was introduced to develop the framework of future editions of Imprint. Led again by Nicholas de Monchaux & Miko McGinty, students met each week with guest speakers working in the world of architectural publication to discuss and properly frame the editorial voice of Imprint. Through a series of intimate conversations, students were able to listen & distill how best they might create a publication that reflected more than just student work. The guiding principles of Imprint 01 continued on. First, this publication should be about the students. Second, this publication should publish material from every student who responds to an open call. However, this issue also took the chance to step back, to question how the work it features might speak to the global issues challenging our daily lives. Thank you to everyone who contributed work. This publication would not exist without your commitment — whether it be to research, making or writing — throughout the entire semester. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Editorial Team Bella Carmelita Carriker Carol-Anne Rodrigues Meriam Soltan

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Faculty + Staff, Spring 2021 This publication would not be possible without the continuous hard work of our faculty & staff. We would like to reiterate again — thank you for (still) keeping the office and lab spaces safe for us to use, for (still) fielding our endless questions about CovidPass, and (still) answering all the other little questions we had. Thank you for keeping our community together. Thank you for all the work we don’t see. Thank you for supporting us.

Department Head

Nicholas de Monchaux

Architecture and Urbanism

Cherie Abbanat Lorena Bello Brandon Clifford Marcelo Coelho Michael Dennis Christopher Dewart Rami el Samahy Antonio Furgiuele Deborah Garcia Antón García-Abril Rania Ghosn Reinhard Goethert Mark Goulthorpe Christoph Guberan Jeremy Jih Zain Karsan Sheila Kennedy Bo-Won Keum Axel Kilian Miho Mazereeuw Miko McGinty Ana Miljački Robert Mohr

Art Culture and Technology

Azra Akšamija Judith Barry Georgie Friedman Renée Green Marisa Jahn Jesal Kapadia Nida Sinnokrot Gediminas Urbonas

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Lee Moreau William O’Brien Jr. Cristina Parreño Alonso Paul Pettigrew Adèle Naudé Santos Hashim Sarkis Susanne Schindler Andrew Scott Rafi Segal Rosalyne Shieh Marc Simmons Anne Whiston Spirn Michael Stradley Hans Tursack Anna Vasileiou

Staff

Building Technology

Computation

History Theory and Criticism

Fabrication

John E. Fernández Leon Glicksman Benjamin Markham Paul Mayencourt Caitlin Mueller Les Norford John Ochsendorf Christoph Reinhart

Terry Knight Takehiko Nagakura Lawrence Sass George Stiny Skylar Tibbits Cagri Hakan Zaman

Arindam Dutta David H. Friedman Timothy Hyde Lauren Jacobi Mark Jarzombek Caroline A. Jones Nasser Rabbat Kristel Smentek James Wescoat

Darren Bennett Renée Caso Eduardo Gonzalez Gina Halabi Jim Harrington Matthew Harrington Duncan Kincaid Douglas Le Vie Tonya Miller Amanda Moore Andreea O’Connell Alan Reyes Cynthia Stewart Architecture and Urbanism Eleni Aktypi Christopher Jenkins Art Culture and Technology Marion Cunningham Darian Eck Marissa Friedman Kevin McLellan Nina Palisano John Steiner Thera Webb Building Technology Stacy Clemons Computation Inala Locke History Theory and Criticism José Luis Argüello Kathaleen Brearley Eliana AbuHamdi Murchie

Jennifer O’Brien Christopher B Dewart Zain Karsan Shah Paul

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Subject: Submit your Research to the Department Publication! To: Cc: arch-pub@mit.edu Date: Aug 04, 2021, 10:45am Hello, We hope you are enjoying the summer! We are writing to you because we are currently working on the second Imprint Publication for the Department of Architecture and wanted to reach out about including the work of research groups involved in the department. In Imprint 02, (the first one, found here), we are focusing on work that has been done this past Spring Semester and Summer through the lens of climatic change. The editors have come to this issue with the idea that though we are optimistic of what the future will bring, this past year has shown that global issues of climate change are very evident in the things we experience every day; from the different research groups in MIT to even the Venice Biennale, collective reflection & action is needed. Unlike the first issue, we would love to feature the different research groups that are working to tackle our everyday issues. We know it may be difficult to publish research work that is still in progress, but we wanted to reach out if you had any projects that you would like to publish in 1–2 spreads! It can range from process photos of research and prototyping from this past summer to even a brief summary of the different research projects you are leading! Let us know if you would be interested and we would be happy to work with you to showcase your work in the best way possible! We hope you will contribute! The MIT Architecture Publications Team arch-pub@mit.edu

If you are interested in working on the next issue, contact arch-pub@mit.edu

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT Architecture

2021

MIT Architecture

Lee, So Jung

206

Levi, Eytan

250, 262 28, 196

Abou Ras, Ous

255

Adebiyi, Thomas Aguilar, Chucho (Jesús)

24 236

Cousin, Tim

250

Guo, Katherine

238

Covarrubias, Juliana

241

Gupta, Sejal

196

Cunningham, Joel Austin

246

Haile, Nebyu

252

Hirt, Natasha

Holley, Claire

147, 156

Ocampo

Curth, Sandy

Ahuactzin-Garcia, Emilio

Daftarian, Reza

Alhajri, Maryam

259

de Maille, Austin Charles

261

Hong, Rihn

146, 150

Alkhayat, Latifa

239

Desta, Kaleb

206

Hoyle, Benjamin

Allen, Christopher

265

Dominguez, Maria Risueno

214

Huangthanapan, Eakapob

Donovan, Inge

212

Ichikura, Ryuhei

116 67, 162

AlMulla, Nada

87, 124

Li, Wuyahuang

253

Liu, Clare

Liu, Jingyi

Liu, Wa

100

Lu, Bowen

239

Lu, Kerri

260

Ludgin, David Austin

252

Luk, Artemisia

162

May, Sam

265

Mazumder, Michael

272

McCann, Tess

48, 148

McIntosh, Ana Merzaban, Mandy Mohan, Sahil

168

Moyers, Ruth Blair

220

Sheng, Siyuan

132

224

Nahleh, Mohamad

193

Sim, Jinyoung

91, 140

Nelson-Arzuaga, Chloe

235

Slavin, Danielle

242

Soltan, Meriam

89, 136

257, 259, 266 50

Nisar, Hasan

248

Nwigwe, Alexandra

190

Oh, Yoonjae

80 102

O’ladipo, Yesufu Oikonomaki, Elina

Sunshine, Gil

164

Wood, Ellen

Swagemakers, Jitske

238

Wornell, Joshua

243

Wu, Jessica Wu, Melody

146, 184

189

Xu, Zhifei

160

Pipitone, Vanessa

255

Tang, Sandra

178

Xu, Zhicheng

263

Prince, Jared

190

Tasistro-Hart, Benjamin

218

Xu, Ziyu

Jiang, Weihan

240

Purvis, Michaela

254

Thomson, Kyle Jeffrey

Xu, Jackie Qianyue

Titova, Alena

Yacoby, Yaara

222

Torres, Lynced

Young, Elizabeth Lyn L.

Tung, Lee Tzu

204

Younker, Andrew

Ugorji, Amanda

194

Zanders, Gabriela Degetau Zeng, Iris

Elnozahy, Mariam

250

Jacobsen, Nicole

86, 118

Amstutz, Caroline

Fan, Zekun

242

Jiang, Tianze

168

Arenas, Ana

Feickert, Kiley

248

Avila, Mariana

Flynn, Aidan

247

Jie, Tianhui

264

Qiu, Lingyi

253

Bacher, Katharine

Freeman, Maggie

248

Jones, Faith

245

Quinn, Hailey

234

Baltin, Viktor

Gaitan, Sabrina

Jurczynski, Emma

158

Rajkumar, Vijay

Gatta, Audrey

108

Kaadan, Rania

104

Bilotti, Jeremy

146, 176

Geltman, Julian Escudero

106

Kang, Wonki

150

Boscolo, Arthur

147, 177

Gerritsen, Patricia Dueñas

237

Kaur, Harmanpreet

121

Gideonse, Lauren

257

Kelley, Emma

192

Brearly, Jonathon

122

Giorgis, Adriana

244

Kiley, Emily

128

Brice, James

264

Gomez, Marlena

247

Kim, Christina

210

Carmeliet, Dries

202

González-Cervantes, Marianna

168

Kim, Jayson

Carriker, Bella Carmelita

248

Green, Juliana

161

Koskey, Katie

Chee, Grace

172

Griffin, Danny

250

Kramer, Noelle

Chen, Sophia

237

Gronda, Annalysse

267

Kwak, Rachel Seo Yeon

Chi, Pohao

167

Gruber, Paul

256

Lee, Courtney

164, 270

Rau, Lasse

90, 137

94, 138

Reinhard, Ellen Marie

248

Umubyeyi, Carene

131

Rodrigues, Carol-Anne

258

Vasikaran, Sangita

147, 181

235

Rodriguez, Catalina Monsalve

200

Velez, Luis Alberto Meouchi

129

Rotman, Katie

194

Vijaykumar, Mona

254

Zhang, Maggie

127

Schnitzler, Jenna

236

Volpe, Daniel

112

Zhang, Xiaoyun Margaret

Scott, Brandon

216

Waddle, Marisa Concetta

240

Zhao, Katherine

188

Searight, Tristan

234

Waft, Catherine

186

Zhao, Mengqiao

244

Serio, Allison

241

Waft, Sylvia

Shafa, Jabran

110

Waller, Alexandra Lee

96, 133 146, 174

MIT Architecture

Brazier, Justin

Wong, Erin

182

Tan, Michael

Amanfu, Caleb

246, 248

208

250

85, 256

260

Sunder, Aarti

Parakh, Meenal

Igarzabal, Lucas

97, 117

Winget, Ainsleigh

265

216

88, 126

262

245, 248

Dubbs, Katie

243, 250, 261

Williams, Susan

Song, Alice Jia Li

170

Tan, Evellyn

Berzolla, Zachary

Wen, Collin

162

Alvarez, Xio

Wang, Yiqing

Pankhurst, David

Idowu, Jola

146, 170

Wang-Xu, Mackinley

120

164

93, 134

McKinlay, Sasha

Tam, Carolyn

Door, Angie

166

180

228

Li, Kwan Q

Ong, Bryan Wen Xi

Alvarez, Eduardo Gascón

Imprint

152

Li, Felix

226

147, 154

Imprint

Lee, Keith J.

130

MIT Architecture

258, 263

95, 119 26

Zhang, Daisy Ziyan Zhang, Jenny

Zhong, Calvin Zhu, Emma (Yimeng)

Volume 01 Issue 02