311
McPherson, Kimberly
152
Medrano, Mariana
48
Merzaban, Mandy
122, 143
Mohan, Sahil
148
Moreau, Sacha
26
Moursi, Manar
202
Moyers, Ruth Blair
326, 332
Nahleh, Mohamad
312 60
Imprint
Nguyen, Gary Nisar, Muhammad Hasan
303
Nwigwe, Alexandra
72
O'ladipo, Yesufu
32
Ocampo Aguilar, Chucho (Jesus)
160
Oh, Yoonjae
196
Ow, Inez
52
Pacheco, Antonio
98, 137
Pankhurst, David
16, 326
Papadopoulou, Athina
220, 297
Song, Alice Jia Li
322
Parsons, Olivia
322
Sonner, Jessica
176
Pearl, Natalie
224
Sun, Yutan
318
Pipitone, Vanessa
278
184 70 262
30
Sunder, Aarti
126, 139
Prachasartta,
194
Sunshine, Gil
17, 46
Jariyaporn
224
Swagemakers, Jitske
156, 336
Wang, Yujie Weber, Ramon White, David Williams, Susan Winston, ElDante C Wissemann, Emily
190, 332
Tam, Carolyn
220
Wong, Erin
Rajkumar, Vijay
313
Tang, Sandra
256
Woo, Jaehun
Rao, John
148
Tasistro-Hart, Benjamin
224
Wood, Ellen
278, 288
Rau, Lasse
314
Teichner, Nicole
338
Wu, Charles
120, 142
Reinhard, Ellen Marie
340
Then, Eva
204
Wu, Jie (Ryan)
Roberts, Zachary
314
Timmons, Meghan
321
Wu, Melody
306 38, 180 317
322 232, 243, 326
Quinn, Hailey
Rodrigues, Carol-Anne
128, 140
Titova, Alena
160, 338
238
Torres, Lynced
Rotman, Katie
312
Toye, Katherine
208, 247
Xu, Zhicheng
304
Rubin, Dana
308
Tumkur Mahesh, Prajwal
210, 338
Xu, Zhifei
310
Rutherford, Emma
Ugorji, Amanda
145, 282
Xu, Ziyu
24
Šabanovic, Faruk
114, 140
164 17 110, 140 58
SadeghiKivi, Ardalan Saha, Indrani Schnitzler, Jenna Scott, Brandon
180
Searight, Tristan
304
Seguin, Alexander
276, 286
Shi, Huiwen
130, 143, 326
Vasikaran, Sangita
216, 332, 335
Yacoby, Yaara
274, 292
VijayKumar, Mona
316, 326, 338
Yang, Catherine
84 216 338, 340 118, 141, 338 320 160, 338
Vlavianos, Nikolaos Waddle, Marisa Concetta
Zanders, Gabriela Degetau Zareno, Kaitlin Zeng, Iris
Wang-Xu, Mackinley
156, 338
Zhang, Daisy Ziyan
Wang, Ashley
321
Zhang, Davide
Wang, Chloe Yun
319
Zhang, Jenny
Wang, Edward
332
Slater, Rebecca
306
Wang, Ivy
311
Smerekanych, Eva
332
Wang, Yiou
MIT Architecture
307 134, 145
244
132, 144
274, 284
Waitz, Isabel
Sim, Jinyoung
Soltan, Meriam
Wu, Wendy
309
198
50, 332
323
Wu, Stewart Haotian
Rogers, Marina
320
Wang, Yiqing
200, 290 96, 138 34, 326, 338 338
Zhao, Mengqiao Zhong, Calvin Zhu, Emma (Yimeng) Zhu, Ziyuan (Zoey)
Volume 01 Issue 01
MIT Architecture 164 176, 326
Abou Ras, Ous Alkhayat, Latifa
90, 136
Allen, Christopher
28, 152
AlMulla, Nada
66 19, 326, 332 94, 137 230 242, 250
Alvarez, Eduardo Gascón Alvarez, Xio Amstutz, Caroline Arenas, Ana Auriyane, Arditha
318
Avila, Mariana
319
Barakat, Layal
308
Basinger, Nathan
327
Bayomi, Norhan
332
Beltrame, Daniela
248
Benitez, Adiel
212
Boes, Taylor
164
Boscolo, Arthur
76 106, 138 236, 326, 336, 340 112, 141, 330, 332 92, 136 80 317, 338
Bowen, Lu Geltman, Julian Escudero
266
Konjicanin, Melika
Brearley, Jonathon
100, 139
Gideonse, Lauren
172
Koskey, Katie
Brice, James
102, 139
Giorgis, Adriana
Brazier, Justin
Carriker, Bella Carmelita
156
332
Chatzinikolis, Dimitrios Chen, Jacqueline
86
307
Chen, Karen
192, 332
282
Chen, Yufei
252
276, 298
Lan, Xuan
González-Cervantes,
326
Landez, Daniel
Marianna
256
Lee, Clarence
Gonzalez-Rojas, Paloma
316
Lee, Dong Nyung
Griffin, Danny
124, 144
Lee, Sesil
168
Gruber, Paul
116, 145
Lee, So Jung
Chu, Chen
322
Guo, Xiangyu
206, 338
270
Cinalli, Sydney
276
Ha, Ji Ye
340
Levi, Eytan
212
Clement, Ryan
78
Haridis, Alexandros
305
Li, Diane
176, 340
Cousin, Tim
54
Heard, James
17, 19
Cobb, Dariel
322
256
D'Acierno, Charlotte
315, 340
234, 326
D'Agostino, Ginerva
168, 330, 336
254, 336
Dannin, Isadora
152 104, 142 212 56, 326 148, 246 180, 340
20, 330
Ismail, Mohamed
Li, Sandra
82 315, 326
Li, Wuyahuang Li,Stephanie
321
Liu, Clare
68
Liu, Jingyi
Iwasaki,Ibuki
Donovan, Inge
268
Jhaveri, Nynika
338
Liu, Wa
Door, Angie
305
Jones, Faith
338
Liu, Yanjun
264, 336, 338
Jones, Kailin
280, 294
Dubois, Samuel Dueñas Gerritsen,
220
Jurczynski, Emma
Patricia
326
Kaadan, Rania
Faber, Olivier
309
Kang, Terry
82
64, 326
Fang, Demi
44, 330
303
Idowu, Jola
Li, Kwan Q
313
326
Fan, Zekun
42, 326
Huttemann, Nina
36, 82
DeGiulio, Zachariah
184 240
Hinkley, Ian
Lee, Thaddeus
Kang, Wonki
164
Lo, Kuang-Chun Loescher-Montal, Angela
108, 142 176
Ma, Jingyun Marshall, William
Keller, Eliyahu
216, 332
Matthai, Charlotte
Filiposyan, Nare
326
Kettner, Katharine
168, 296
May, Sam
Flynn, Aidan
310
Kim, Christina
228, 332
McIntosh, Ana
Gatta, Audrey
172
Kim, Jayson
172
McKinlay, Sasha
311
McPherson, Kimberly
152
Medrano, Mariana
48
Merzaban, Mandy
122, 143
Mohan, Sahil
148
Moreau, Sacha
26
Moursi, Manar
202
Moyers, Ruth Blair
326, 332
Nahleh, Mohamad
312 60
Imprint
Nguyen, Gary Nisar, Muhammad Hasan
303
Nwigwe, Alexandra
72
O'ladipo, Yesufu
32
Ocampo Aguilar, Chucho (Jesus)
160
Oh, Yoonjae
196
Ow, Inez
52
Pacheco, Antonio
98, 137
Pankhurst, David
16, 326
Papadopoulou, Athina
220, 297
Song, Alice Jia Li
322
Parsons, Olivia
322
Sonner, Jessica
176
Pearl, Natalie
224
Sun, Yutan
318
Pipitone, Vanessa
278
184 70 262
30
Sunder, Aarti
126, 139
Prachasartta,
194
Sunshine, Gil
17, 46
Jariyaporn
224
Swagemakers, Jitske
156, 336
Wang, Yujie Weber, Ramon White, David Williams, Susan Winston, ElDante C Wissemann, Emily
190, 332
Tam, Carolyn
220
Wong, Erin
Rajkumar, Vijay
313
Tang, Sandra
256
Woo, Jaehun
Rao, John
148
Tasistro-Hart, Benjamin
224
Wood, Ellen
278, 288
Rau, Lasse
314
Teichner, Nicole
338
Wu, Charles
120, 142
Reinhard, Ellen Marie
340
Then, Eva
204
Wu, Jie (Ryan)
Roberts, Zachary
314
Timmons, Meghan
321
Wu, Melody
306 38, 180 317
322 232, 243, 326
Quinn, Hailey
Rodrigues, Carol-Anne
128, 140
Titova, Alena
160, 338
238
Torres, Lynced
Rotman, Katie
312
Toye, Katherine
208, 247
Xu, Zhicheng
304
Rubin, Dana
308
Tumkur Mahesh, Prajwal
210, 338
Xu, Zhifei
310
Rutherford, Emma
Ugorji, Amanda
145, 282
Xu, Ziyu
24
Šabanovic, Faruk
114, 140
164 17 110, 140 58
SadeghiKivi, Ardalan Saha, Indrani Schnitzler, Jenna Scott, Brandon
180
Searight, Tristan
304
Seguin, Alexander
276, 286
Shi, Huiwen
130, 143, 326
Vasikaran, Sangita
216, 332, 335
Yacoby, Yaara
274, 292
VijayKumar, Mona
316, 326, 338
Yang, Catherine
84 216 338, 340 118, 141, 338 320 160, 338
Vlavianos, Nikolaos Waddle, Marisa Concetta
Zanders, Gabriela Degetau Zareno, Kaitlin Zeng, Iris
Wang-Xu, Mackinley
156, 338
Zhang, Daisy Ziyan
Wang, Ashley
321
Zhang, Davide
Wang, Chloe Yun
319
Zhang, Jenny
Wang, Edward
332
Slater, Rebecca
306
Wang, Ivy
311
Smerekanych, Eva
332
Wang, Yiou
MIT Architecture
307 134, 145
244
132, 144
274, 284
Waitz, Isabel
Sim, Jinyoung
Soltan, Meriam
Wu, Wendy
309
198
50, 332
323
Wu, Stewart Haotian
Rogers, Marina
320
Wang, Yiqing
200, 290 96, 138 34, 326, 338 338
Zhao, Mengqiao Zhong, Calvin Zhu, Emma (Yimeng) Zhu, Ziyuan (Zoey)
Volume 01 Issue 01
Massachusetts Institute Of Technology
2020
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.
Volume 01 Issue 01
MIT Architecture
Imprint 01 is a handshake—a first impression—that is simultaneously a memory. This inaugural issue, conceived of during a dispersed and mostly virtual semester, relies on a future commitment to transform into an ongoing archive. Although the Department is currently untethered to a single place, building or region, Imprint 01 is a reflection of a place in time. Collecting and binding together work from all five branches of the school allows us a vantage point that had remained inaccessible even when our hallways and studios were full of energy and conversation. It is a partial portrait of people illustrated through their work. Admittedly, our peers cannot be fully encompassed through the pages of this book, but still this issue is a purposeful supplement to the many interactions transmitted through the blue light of our screens. Sprinkled throughout this issue are traces of our usual circumstances, but more importantly, and in spite of everything, Imprint 01 is an impression of what we have built together.
Imprint
Imprint 01 Advisors Miko McGinty + Nicholas de Monchaux + Amanda Moore Designers & Editors Patricia Dueñas Gerritsen + Carol-Anne Rodrigues + Alice Jia Li Song + Emily Wissemann Fonts Designed By Contrast Foundry ISBN 000-00-0000000-6-5 Printed in Canada Printed in Italy © MIT Architecture All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced in any form of 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 Lecture Series
→ 002 → 008 → 016
Art Culture Technology History Theory Criticism Building Technology Computation Architecture + Urbanism Undergraduate
→ → → → → →
Student Groups Acknowledgments
→ 324 → 342
Art Culture 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 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.
022 040 062 074 088 300
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 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.
001
Imprint 01
164 176, 326
Allen, Christopher
28, 152
AlMulla, Nada
19, 326, 332 94, 137 230 242, 250
Alvarez, Eduardo Gascón Alvarez, Xio Amstutz, Caroline Arenas, Ana Auriyane, Arditha
212 56, 326 148, 246 180, 340
Door, Angie
310
Kim, Christina
Dubois, Samuel
172
Kim, Jayson
Dueñas Gerritsen,
266
Konjicanin, Melika
Patricia
172
Koskey, Katie
Faber, Olivier
276, 298
Lan, Xuan
184
Fan, Zekun
326
Landez, Daniel
64, 326
Fang, Demi
256
Lee, Clarence
Filiposyan, Nare
316
Lee, Dong Nyung
240 42, 326
Flynn, Aidan
124, 144
Lee, Sesil
116, 145
Lee, So Jung
318
Avila, Mariana
303
Gatta, Audrey
319
Barakat, Layal
156
Geltman, Julian Escudero
308
Basinger, Nathan
100, 139
Gideonse, Lauren
340
Levi, Eytan
327
Bayomi, Norhan
102, 139
Giorgis, Adriana
305
Li, Diane
332
Beltrame, Daniela
248
Benitez, Adiel
212
Boes, Taylor
164
Boscolo, Arthur
76 106, 138 236, 326, 336, 340 112, 141, 330, 332 92, 136 80 317, 338
index
Alkhayat, Latifa
90, 136 66
002
Abou Ras, Ous
332
González-Cervantes, Marianna
86 192, 332
Gonzalez-Rojas, Paloma Griffin, Danny
206, 338
Lee, Thaddeus
36, 82
Li, Kwan Q
313
Li, Sandra
82 315, 326
Li, Wuyahuang Li,Stephanie
Bowen, Lu
168
Gruber, Paul
321
Liu, Clare
Brazier, Justin
322
Guo, Xiangyu
68
Liu, Jingyi
Brearley, Jonathon
276
Ha, Ji Ye
338
Liu, Wa
338
Liu, Yanjun
Brice, James
78
Haridis, Alexandros
Carriker, Bella Carmelita
54
Heard, James
Chatzinikolis, Dimitrios Chen, Jacqueline
322 315, 340
Hinkley, Ian
280, 294 164
Huttemann, Nina
Lo, Kuang-Chun Loescher-Montal, Angela
307
Chen, Karen
168, 330, 336
282
Chen, Yufei
20, 330
252
Chu, Chen
326
Iwasaki,Ibuki
216, 332
Matthai, Charlotte
270
Cinalli, Sydney
268
Jhaveri, Nynika
168, 296
May, Sam
212
Clement, Ryan
305
Jones, Faith
228, 332
McIntosh, Ana
Jones, Kailin
172
McKinlay, Sasha
Idowu, Jola Ismail, Mohamed
108, 142 176
Ma, Jingyun Marshall, William
176, 340
Cousin, Tim
264, 336, 338
17, 19
Cobb, Dariel
220
Jurczynski, Emma
311
McPherson, Kimberly
256
D'Acierno, Charlotte
326
Kaadan, Rania
152
Medrano, Mariana
234, 326
D'Agostino, Ginerva
309
Kang, Terry
48
Merzaban, Mandy
254, 336
Dannin, Isadora
152 104, 142
DeGiulio, Zachariah Donovan, Inge
82 44, 330 326
Kang, Wonki Keller, Eliyahu Kettner, Katharine
122, 143
Mohan, Sahil
148
Moreau, Sacha
26
Moursi, Manar
202
Moyers, Ruth Blair
148
Tasistro-Hart, Benjamin
326, 332
Nahleh, Mohamad
314
Teichner, Nicole
Nguyen, Gary
340
Then, Eva
Nisar, Muhammad
314
Timmons, Meghan
312 60
Hasan 303
128, 140
Titova, Alena
Nwigwe, Alexandra
238
Torres, Lynced
72
O'ladipo, Yesufu
312
Toye, Katherine
32
Ocampo Aguilar,
308
Tumkur Mahesh, Prajwal
Chucho (Jesus) 160
Oh, Yoonjae
196
Ow, Inez
130, 143, 326
Ugorji, Amanda
309
Vasikaran, Sangita
274, 292
VijayKumar, Mona
52
Pacheco, Antonio
84
98, 137
Pankhurst, David
216
16, 326
Papadopoulou, Athina
338, 340
Waddle, Marisa Concetta Waitz, Isabel
322
Parsons, Olivia
176
Pearl, Natalie
318
Pipitone, Vanessa
278
Prachasartta,
244
Wang, Edward
Jariyaporn
306
Wang, Ivy
Quinn, Hailey
332
Wang, Yiou
306 38, 180 317
Rajkumar, Vijay Rao, John
278, 288
Rau, Lasse
120, 142
Reinhard, Ellen Marie
322 232, 243, 326 320 114, 140
Roberts, Zachary Rodrigues, Carol-Anne Rogers, Marina
118, 141, 338
Vlavianos, Nikolaos
320 160, 338
132, 144 184 70 262 126, 139 17, 46 156, 336
Wang-Xu, Mackinley Wang, Ashley Wang, Chloe Yun
Wang, Yiqing Wang, Yujie Weber, Ramon White, David Williams, Susan Winston, ElDante C Wissemann, Emily
Rotman, Katie
220
Wong, Erin
304
Rubin, Dana
256
Woo, Jaehun
310
Rutherford, Emma
224
Wood, Ellen
24
Šabanovic, Faruk
338
Wu, Charles
SadeghiKivi, Ardalan
204
Wu, Jie (Ryan)
Saha, Indrani
321
Wu, Melody
164 17 110, 140 58
Schnitzler, Jenna Scott, Brandon
160, 338 323
Wu, Stewart Haotian Wu, Wendy
180
Searight, Tristan
208, 247
Xu, Zhicheng
304
Seguin, Alexander
210, 338
Xu, Zhifei
Shi, Huiwen
145, 282
Xu, Ziyu
276, 286 198
Sim, Jinyoung
216, 332, 335
Yacoby, Yaara
332
Slater, Rebecca
316, 326, 338
Yang, Catherine
311
Smerekanych, Eva
50, 332 220, 297
Soltan, Meriam
274, 284 307
Zanders, Gabriela Degetau Zareno, Kaitlin
Song, Alice Jia Li
134, 145
Zeng, Iris
322
Sonner, Jessica
156, 338
Zhang, Daisy Ziyan
224
Sun, Yutan
321
Zhang, Davide
30
Sunder, Aarti
319
Zhang, Jenny
194
Sunshine, Gil
200, 290
224
Swagemakers, Jitske
96, 138
190, 332
Tam, Carolyn
34, 326, 338
313
Tang, Sandra
338
Zhao, Mengqiao Zhong, Calvin Zhu, Emma (Yimeng) Zhu, Ziyuan (Zoey)
003
Cambridge, MA USA 914139336 Cambridge, MA USA ZYZHUX
Somerville, MA USA OFABER St. Martin, Caribbean SMOUREAU
Cambridge, MA USA CMATTHAI Seattle, WA USA EVASMERE
Cambridge, MA USA JSWAGEMA Somerville,MA USA 926393630
004
Boston,MA USA OHYI Busaiteen, Muharraq, Bahrain LATIFA
Steamboat Springs, CO USA NPEARL
Cambridge, MA USA CHCAMPO
Boston, MA USA NAREF Dayton, OH USA DFANG
Cambridge, MA USA
Cambridge, MA USA
AYRIANE
XIO
005
Cambridge, MA USA Cambridge, MA USA
unknown
KKOSKEY
Cambridge, MA USA UGORJI
Somerville MA, USA GELTMANJ
Cambridge, MA USA Cambridge, MA USA
JLSONG
CARODRIG
Cambridge MA, USA ANAMC
Wuxi, Jaingsu China
006
923359354
Cambridge, MA USA EWISSEMA
Boston, MA USA VGR
Cambridge,MA USA MSAMP
Cambridge, MA USA unknown
Princeton Junction, NJ USA
Cambridge, MA USA
PDUENASG
ERK
Hong Kong, China CHITAM
007
Foreword
foreword
On March 12, 2020, a few days before MIT went into lockdown, a group of faculty, students, and staff members stood at a distance from each other in Killian court, to bid a physical farewell, and affirm a sense of connection and shared purpose. That day began a journey—apart, but together—that continues through the present day. That conversation contained, in miniature as well, all the themes of our life and work since— of care, of concern, of understanding, and re-examining, the role of design, and place in a world transformed by crisis.
008
¶ Thanks to herculean efforts, and similarly olympian levels of patience, MIT’s Department of Architecture began to be able to, once more make use of its physical space this past fall semester. But the socially distanced use of studios on narrow, three hour shifts—predicated on the specific weight of virus particles and their clearance from the air—is a barely warmed-over substitute for the creative energy of spaces we usually inhabit. ¶ Even now, nine months into the pandemic, we continue to face an essential loss in our ambient and active engagement with each other’s work in the physical world. This gap lies most of all in the way in which good work is collective—informed by those around us whether in direct collaboration or not. It is to mark this absence as well as to try to fill it that the publication you hold was imagined.¶ Advancing architecture through print and other media is not new; across cultures, text and drawings have shaped our profession as much as individual buildings. Today, our creative and professional discourse is endlessly mediated, in ways both ephemeral and enduring. Within the Department, and within the last nine months, however, much work had to be done to make this publication happen. While crucially framed and organized by the Department’s staff and faculty, the heat and light of creativity that illuminates the shared spaces of our department is provided most directly by our students. And it is they who have shaped what you hold the most. In workshops over the summer and fall of 2020, they diagrammed possibilities, assessed alternatives, and acquired the skills necessary to manage this
effort. I am particularly grateful to them, as well as to Miko McGinty, faculty and design lead for these workshops, and Amanda Moore, the Department’s communications director, who has helped supervise this experiment.¶ The fact that you are holding a physical object is deliberate, and essential. For the students who have shaped it, the materiality of our efforts a deliberate rejection of the distancing ephemerality of the Department this year. At the same time, it represents a commitment to ensure a record of this time and this place exists, practically, into the future. Like the best parts of any community of learning, however, this publication is a living conversation. We are publishing two issues this year, and plan to continue these efforts, in modified form, going forward, and going back, into the physical life of our studios, libraries, and offices that—just now— begins to seem possible. ¶ As we have distanced ourselves from each other, it is perhaps natural that the best and most essential conversations—captured in the pages you hold—have been about what connects us in spaces and communities. From the unequal effects of the current pandemic on institutions and communities, to the larger inequities in our society and institutions underlined in the last year’s debates and conversations, this is a time we have considered what unites us—from a distance. My best hope for this Department is that these conversations continue, even as the separations and injustices that inspired them are engaged and improved by all of our efforts together.
With thanks and welcome,
Nicholas de Monchaux Department Head Cambridge, January 2021 009
010
Above: Killian Court March 12, 2020 12:36 PM Photo: Olivier Faber
011
Opposite: Studio 3-415 October 18, 2020 6:35 PM Photo: Daisy Ziyan Zhang
Below: Studio 7-432 March 15, 2020 10:08 AM Photo: Olivier Faber
012 Opposite: N-51 Woodshop January 21, 2021 3:41 PM Photo: Emily Wissemann
013 013
Right: Infinite Corridor November 05, 2020 6:18 PM Photo: Olivier Faber
015
Opposite: Model Assembly, Kailin Jones December 29, 2020 4:59 PM Photo: Emily Wissemann
Fall 2020 Lecture Series Derek Ham "Forming Spatial Narratives" Design and Computation
Our Fall 2020 online public program was a series of conversations on where we are now. We talked about systemic racism and approaches to support art and design in Black communities; pandemics, inclusion, and history; democracy and data; architecture, power, and democracy; designing for resilience; the refugee crisis; art, slavery, vernacularism and diplomacy in an increasingly transnational, yet divided, world.
09.18 In building VR experiences, Derek Ham draws on his architectural education as well as theoretical approaches found in design and computation. Together they enable him to develop a methodology for VR storytelling different from most. His storytelling follows a system of variables, rules, and schemas. As a result, the virtual narratives he creates evoke strong emotional responses from viewers. 08m22s ↘ "...when I look to develop these VR experiences, asking first and foremost, what does it mean to read this space from these different cultural lenses."
Clockwise from Top Left: Derek Ham, Athina Papadopoulou, Lawrence Sass, Nicholas de Monchaux
Veronica Cedillos "Designing for Disasters Before They Happen: A Focus on Underserved Communities" Building Technology
Clockwise from Top Left: Caitlin Mueller, Veronica Cedillos, Danniely Staback Rodriguez
016
10.08 GeoHazards International focuses on developing locally-appropriate mitigation and preparedness measures informed by the latest science, engineering, policy, and social science. These include risk-informed planning and growth, disaster-resistant design and construction, planning of post-event functionality of critical infrastructure like hospitals, and scienceinformed preparedness. Programs are designed to be a catalyst for lasting impact by building local capacity, creating local ownership, and empowering communities. The vision is a future where communities can thrive despite natural hazards. 60m53s ↘ "Strong local engagement is critical to ensuring lasting impact and this is because no one is better placed to speak on whether a certain solution or process is feasible than local people themselves."
Sara Jensen Carr Michael Murphy "Embodied Environments" Architecture and Urbanism
Clockwise from Top Left: Michael Murphy, John Ochsendorf, Sara Jensen Carr, Rania Ghosn
10.15 Our changing understanding of the reciprocal relationship between the environment and the body is reflected in the palimpsests of our urban landscape. Concepts of wellness, disease, and treatment have influenced urban design from the Industrial Revolution to today, and the results have ranged from successful to unintended incubations of the next generation of illnesses. As we face a rupture in the parallel histories of public health and the public realm, examining our built environment through this lens is necessary to frame today’s most urgent questions. This talk looked to the past in order to offer meditations on how the urban landscape must shift again to address the intertwined issues of our pandemic present, social justice, and climate change for a healthier future for all. 39m06s ↘ "I’ve been asked what the supposed pandemic city looks like. We don’t know yet. We also need to realize that the built environment can’t address the failures of our health system [or] inequities in treatment."
Charles Davis II
"Black Material Culture in the Round" History, Theory, and Criticism
Clockwise from Top Left: Charles Davis II, ElDante C Winston, Indrani Saha, Dariel Cobb
10.22 This talk analyzed the racial politics that subtended the Museum of Modern Art’s 1932 International Style exhibition, which polemically defined modern architecture as a progressive social project of the EuroAmerican avant-garde. The artificial polarities that were established between so-called “primitive” and “modern” world cultures has subsequently trapped the cultural productions of people of color in a never ending loop of outright dismissal and cultural appropriation. Revising this definition to accommodate the modern subjectivities that people of color have created in the interwar and postwar periods breaks this loop and opens new grounds for a revisionist history of architectural modernity. 14m36s ↘ "[Architecture] takes cues from and works in tandem with many forms of cultural production, particularly within African American community, where we’ve seen advances in artistic culture, in dance culture, in our expressive cultures, and different forms of material cultures..."
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The Architecture of Democracy In collaboration with colleagues from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Left to Right, Top: Huma Gupta, Nicholas De Monchaux, Yasmin Vobis. Left to Right, Middle: Mark Lee, Iman Fayyad, Michelle Chang. Left to Right, Bottom: Rafi Segal, Azra Akšamija.
Eddie Opara Eric Chang
The Ahmad Tehrani Symposium
Clockwise from Top Left: Eddie Opara, Eric Chang, Miko McGinty, Nicholas De Monchaux.
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10.28 In the week before the U.S. general election, Harvard and MIT shared a public discussion on the role of architecture in a representative democracy. Azra Akšamija, Michelle Chang, Nicholas de Monchaux, Iman Fayyad, Huma Gupta, Mark Lee, Rafi Segal, and Yasmin Vobis joined in dialogue on the profession’s role in supporting democratic society, now and in the future. 12m41s ↘ "Both the practice of architecture, as well as space itself, have the agency to facilitate and encourage democratic thinking, and democratic behavior at various scales. As architects, our highest responsibility is to design for people. Our actions and decisions do make a difference. With respect to the process of design, democratic architecture is one that actively seeks out and mirrors society’s wants and needs."
11.05 This symposium explored intersections of design and architecture with a focus on media’s capacity to bring people together in public space and its role in society and in civic design. How do architecture and graphic design communicate to communities, alone and together? The conversation evolved out of a collaboration between Opara and Chang, a dynamic seven-story digital installation at MahaNakhon, Bangkok‘s tallest tower. While rooted in a specific collaboration, the conversation’s themes of diversity, identity, media, and public space are particularly relevant at a time in which all these issues, and their intersections, are being re-examined and re-thought. 15m33s ↘ "...the idea of brand is basically really affecting us within our spaces today—how it becomes really an important factor of building narrative. And the reason why this is the case in point is that one looks at graphic design as oh, you just do logos. Oh, you put a sign on a building. And that’s not the case anymore, if we really think about it. We really are embodied within every type of space..."
Ikem S. Okoye "Elusive Things: Materialities and Spatialities in the Vicinity of Nigér" Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture
Clockwise from Top Left: Ikem S. Okoye, Dariel Cobb, Nasser Rabbat.
Walter Hood "Hybrid Landscapes" The 26th Pietro Belluschi Lecture
Clockwise from Top Left: Walter Hood, Dayna Cunningham, Xio Alvarez, Nicholas de Monchaux, Lizzie Yarina.
11.12 Architects, architectural historians, and conservators from across three continents, all pursuing their own agendas and interests, have worked rather more intensively in the Sahel over recent years than in the past, African practitioners included. The context is one, however, in which architectural histories that are only ever partial, produced here under constraint, can leave unreliable interpretations of the architectural past to which at least some architects and conservators refer, or from which they seek inspiration or direction. Overcoming the reading of historical architecture through the lens of the traditional conceptualizations of space and medium with which architectural knowledge has worked, in favor of critical engagement with dynamic intersections of spatiality and materiality, and their forms of situatedness, offer superior ground not only for historical reconstruction, but for contemporary architecture and conservation. This might be especially true, if we do so imagining the possibility of architectures and historiographies of decoloniality.
11.19 10m48s ↘ "With this idea of the hybrid, I’ve always been interested in why certain landscapes look a certain way. And why as designers, we’re always trying to go back to an origin. And particularly in this country, this moment, helps us to understand that because in this post-colonial moment, we’re always referencing the colonial." 12m04s ↘ "I’ve developed these two ideas that I would like to share the first part of the lecture. This idea of the intentional hybrid and the organic hybrid, which comes out of linguistics particularly Bakhtin’s work. But this notion of can we look at this post-colonial landscape today and be critical of, linguistically, how culture has actually transformed space. Then as designers, can we be part of that dialogue? And this notion of this collision between different points of view that this internal dialogical idea of fusing the unfusible by putting two things together is really about difference. And I do think that that’s a way that we can begin to start to think about how we want to live together."
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Teaching Tech The Edward and Mary Allen Lecture in Structural Design
Clockwise from Top Left: Bill Baker, Christine Theodoropoulos, Caitlin Mueller, Mohamed Ismail, John Ochsendorf.
11.30 This year’s Allen lecture is dedicated to Edward B. Allen (1938-2020), who together with Mary Allen, endowed this lecture series a decade ago. The panel discussion focused on the teaching of building technology to architects and engineers—Ed’s great passion and his great contribution to the field of architecture. Honored by the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education, Ed Allen’s numerous seminal textbooks place design first and foremost at the center of teaching technology. Through presentations and discussion among five panelists who were heavily influenced by Ed’s teaching and research, the panel identified challenges and opportunities in the teaching of architectural technology. 23m51s ↘ "We are, as educators, not there to present packages of information, but we are there to create memorable experiences. And in his own teaching, he modeled the teaching through materials, through the hands on experience of materials and structures, that has become really internationalized as best practice in teaching architectural technologies."
Black Reconstruction Collective "Black Futures"
Left to Right, Top: Felecia Davis, V. Mitch McEwen, Sekou Cooke. Left to Right, Middle: Olalekan Jeyifous, Amanda Williams, Mario Gooden. Left to Right, Bottom: J. Yolande Daniels, Germane Barnes, Emanuel Admassu
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12.03 The Black Reconstruction Collective is Emanuel Admassu, Germane Barnes, Sekou Cooke, J. Yolande Daniels, Felecia Davis, Mario Gooden, Walter Hood, Olalekan Jeyifous, V. Mitch McEwen, and Amanda Williams. ¶ This livestream event featured members of the 10-person Black Reconstruction Collective responding to the question: What is the architecture of Black futures? Audience participation was invited in real-time across multiple platforms. 07m37s ↘ "The Black Reconstruction Collective commits itself to continuing this work of reconstruction in Black America and these United States. We take up the question of what architecture can be. Not a tool for imperialism and subjugation, not a means for aggrandizing the self, but a vehicle for liberation and joy. The discipline of architecture has consistently and deliberately avoided participation in this endeavor, operating in complicity with repressive aspects of the current system. That ends now."
Opposite: Long Lounge 7-429 January 21, 2021 2:07 PM Photo: Emily Wissemann
ACT Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
History Theory Criticism 4.390
4.412
Building Technology 4.619
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.
4.323 Introduction to Three-
Selected Course Descriptions
Art Culture Technology
Dimensional Art Work ¶ Critic: Tobias Putrih ¶ TA: Ardalan SadeghiKivi
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We will look into the history of art, computation, and computational art. We will dive into the world of fictional classifications, unreliable predictions, and simulations of unpredictability. We will also try to broaden our fuzzy understanding of how a computer was and could be (mis)used to make art in the future. ¶ The first goal of the class is to assemble personal material libraries or idiosyncratic collection of things. The second goal is to conceptually grasp how AI’s strategies and techniques are influencing contemporary art or could be used to produce objects and spaces. We will examine personal libraries’ characteristics and parallelly perform time-based experiments, choreographed operations, and tutorials, using motion graphics, physics engines, agent-based models, and machine learning. ¶ The class’s final assignment is to employ these strategies for individual projects to design and fabricate threedimensional objects.
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4.362 Performance Art
Workshop ¶ Critics: Jesal Kapadia, Marlena Fauer ¶ TA: Ruth Blair Moyers
Performance Art Workshop will study performance in relation to our body as a space of resistance, as well as the collective body and its powers. Exploring performance art in its expanded sense, we will enact gestures of care, commoning and conviviality, a call and response—in the tradition of Ivan Illich, Gayatri Spivak, Silvia Federici, Fred Moten and many others—through a collective praxis
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tied to the creation of decolonized acts in preparation for shifts in ways of relating to the social and to epistemic performances are the tasks we will perform. each other. Constructing a space for an engaged playful dialogue around radical listening, retrieving attention to details of our dreams, reclaiming our sources, our here →P. 026 and now, and converting everyday
4.390 Art, Culture and
Technology Studio ¶ Critics: Judith Barry, Nida Sinnokrot ¶ TA: Jitske Swagemakers
4.s33 Synchronization of the Senses ¶ Critic: Reneé Green ¶ TA: Emma (Yimeng) Zhu
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 and explore 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.
Synchronizations of Senses (SOS), a seminar/workshop/ studio/study group/conversation, is a complement to Cinematic Migrations. This class invites in-depth examination of sense percepts, noting nuances, and articulating specificities. A generative focus is placed on the practices of varied practitioners– film directors, artists, musicians, composers, architects, designers– whose writings relay a process of thinking and feeling integral to their forms of material production. ¶ Using prompts suggesting varying contexts, such as The Film Sense, written by Sergei Eisenstein, and The Cinema Interval, written by Trinh T. Minh-Ha, in addition to other writings by Eisenstein and Minh-
Ha and others, the intention of this course is to create a space for experimentation, exploratory discussion and productions via aesthetic inquiry into perceptions of all senses.
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faruk Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
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Faruk Šabanovic SMACT Candidate ¶ Independent Research Touch Fiction ¶ Touch became an endangered “sense in 2020. How do we preserve it? How do we
keep in touch? During the pandemic in 2020, I moved to LA from the MIT campus. These were some of the loneliest days of my life. Using web technologies, touchscreens, and microcontrollers connected with home-found objects like gloves, paper clips, straws, and pencils, I started building an automaton theatre on my desktop. I wanted to host a tangible scenery beyond the flat cold screens, inviting my friends around the world to my living room. I asked them to reach for their screens, and the touch will
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be transmitted for thousands of miles in real time to move a glove blown up with my own breath and mimic that touch in LA. ¶ Using animation principles and math of inversed kinematics, I connected four straws with needles and paperclips to create a painting robot that would interpret their motion and store these gestures on a scroll of paper. Then I multiplied the same construction in an array of straws that could reach any point in space above the contraption and expanded the algorithm to create a complex choreography from simple motion and data. ¶ This growing maquette is an automaton theatre, a pop-up book, a kinetic sculpture, shadow theatre, a robotic streaming platform for stories of all senses. The point of contact between the mind and the paper transforms the imagination into action that is compressed, transported, unpacked, and felt on the other side.
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mmoursi Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
History Theory Criticism 4.390
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Building Technology 4.619
Manar Moursi SMArchS Candidate ¶ AKPIA ¶ 4.362 Performance Art Workshop ¶ Critic: Jesal Kapadia In this work, I am considering the materiality of air, our connection and continuity with this medium— thinking through this work of notions of collective agency and interdependency—on an environmental and extended body scale.
PROMPT 1: To begin, find a comfortable position. Become aware of how your body feels. Take a deep breath in, and as you exhale, Let your body begin to relax. Scan your body. With the next inhalation, if you notice that your top and bottom teeth are touching, part them. If your tongue touches the roof of your mouth, soften it down and away And your eyebrows, might they rest too? Or if not, notice if you can feel their weight for a moment Like your bottom teeth, tongue, eyes, and eyebrows, notice your shoulders can there be any amount more space between your shoulders and ears Can your shoulders let go a little with each exhale? Any amount is good. Notice if this next exhale can last any amount longer than the last. Your exhale will always follow your inhale and your inhale will always follow your exhale. Maybe put one hand on your belly or chest to feel your breath in your body. Maybe feel breath above your lip or below your nose Tingling the hairs of your nostrils. Relax your eyebrows again, Your jaw Your ears. Maybe listen to the sound of your body breathing Notice all the parts of you that rest to any surface like the floor, chair, or bed Notice all the parts that don’t. Scrunch your face together Pull all your facial muscles tightly to the center. Make a sound And then release all your facial muscles. If you are standing, notice how your shoulders can soften towards your feet and your feet into the floor.
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Take another deep breath in. This time, visualize the air entering your body. Does it have particles? What do they look like? Now imagine the journey of one of these particles through your body as you inhale. Exhale deeply, maybe through your mouth. Did that particle make it out? Has it changed after entering your body? Now imagine your body dissolving slowly and gently into the air. You release your skin, your organs, everything is lighter And floating in air. You are now the air, you are the surroundings. You engulf everyone. You can be penetrated by a person, or a plane. Did a flock of birds just fly through you? You are transformed by something. Something has changed your nature. Is it smoke? Are you cold? Are you humid? Are you heavy? Do you smell? What do you smell of? What color are you? What sounds do you make? Listen to the sounds around you. You are wind. How many directions are blowing at the same time? Gravity is pulling you down, But you move across space quickly. You arrive with dust to a town. You make the inhabitants sleepy. Exhale deeply. Sigh. Open your eyes. Close them again. Scan your body. Where did this air go?
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nalmulla Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
History Theory Criticism 4.390
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Building Technology 4.619
Nada Almulla MArch Candidate ¶ 4.362 Performance Art Workshop ¶ Critic: Jesal Kapadia
Walking Anew x Nada: A Short Story
I. The year was 1957. Adjacent to a quiet street in the west of Paris stood a rustic red door that opened to a room all its own. The walls were dressed in a filigree of gears and desiccated peonies, an assortment of kintsugi plates spread below the gilded cornices, and adorning the center was an exquisite, broken pendulum clock that told the truth twice a day. The space was a celebration of four walls supporting one another and a wealth of histories inscribed within a collection of found parts—a sanctuary of modern ruins. Not a spot on the walls was left uncovered by an object brought back from the dead. The room was their space of redemption after a life spanning the short-lived desire of a society. The room was their space to right the wrongs of modernity by transforming into mechanical remedies that could mend society’s ailment. This was a space of a gleaner. The gleaner was called Anne Rosseau.
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II. Anne Rousseau found herself in Paris by way of her great grandparents moving from Morocco to France in 1845, following the 1844 Bombardment of Tangiers by the French navy. She grew up with a borrowed memory of a home beyond the sea, but made of Paris a home by constructing a world of her own. One cold evening, as she was walking back from her gleaning ritual following a path new to her, Anne found herself treading a wet street in the same direction as a group of women and men. This stroll home put into words a thought that had lived in the back of her mind for a long while; the cognizant deconstruction of modern society. Anne found a lot of commonality between their tenets and her expectation of the world, as she had always found no sense in how her mother spent her youth working at a textile mill, making linen she could not afford, for people who did not care to know her name. Anne frequented that same path every night following. III. On her table of creation sat her latest project: bearings, camshafts, and the remnants of an automobile engine—parts found by the mouth of a nearby river in a halo of iridescent oil. On her table sat stories of estrangement and lost desires. The parts spoke their past, they were but a mediator of human interaction, a commodity colonizing life and stratifying society. They spoke of the dissolution of laborers from their thoughts, their agency, their humanity. Anne had a plan; this was to be a helmet of expression. With the gear twists and bearing rolls comes a state of clarity, of deconstruction and realization of one’s agency. The helmet was to collect its own stories—its own victories.
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aartisun Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
History Theory Criticism 4.390
4.412
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Aarti Sunder SMACT Candidate ¶ 4.390 Art, Culture and Technology Studio ¶ Critics: Judith Barry, Nida Sinnokrot, Katarina Burin We Owe Each Other Everything ¶ This film is “interested in the question of labor and exhaustion
and is set around conversations with Uber/Lyft drivers, aquarium attendants, restaurant workers and IT professionals in Dubai. The film relies on the metaphor of the fish and the aquarium as a means to bridge the gap between human and non-human fatigue. This work is an attempt to craft a counterviewpoint, using the very material of excess: exhaustion that ensures repetitive inertia, where the fatigued already seem artificial.
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chocampo Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
History Theory Criticism 4.390
4.412
Building Technology 4.619
Chucho (Jesus) Ocampo Aguilar SMACT Candidate ¶ 4.390 Art, Culture and Technology Studio ¶ Critics: Judith Barry, Nida Sinnokrot, Katarina Burin
Interfaz aims to formulate a methodology to “reimagine new ways of experiencing not only the
city but our relation to more that human entities, infrastructure, law and sense making apparatuses. ¶ The ongoing set of Interfaces try to understand found structures (physical, architectonical, visual or sonic) from a series of drifts to create new narrative combinations and structures. The intention of this exercise is not only to be able to disrupt linear narratives from our experience of the built environment but also preconceptions around scale, use, function, migration, citizenship and movement.
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Top: Photogrammetry as Maps. Left: Interfaz 01 moving duplicator. Opposite Top: Interfaz 04 radiestesic and water finding interface; Interfaces 02,03, and 04. Opposite Bottom: Spectral frequency display.
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emmazhu Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
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Building Technology 4.619
Emma (Yimeng) Zhu SMACT Candidate ¶ 4.390 Art, Culture and Technology Studio¶ Critics: Judith Barry, Nida Sinnokrot, Katarina Burin ¶ 4.323 Intro to 3D Art Work ¶ Critic: Tobias Putrih The In-between Space ¶ This research project “presents the process of exploring the in-between
space of human and machine imagination. A pre-trained GAN2 human face model is re-trained with a dataset of architectural plan diagrams. The images and videos generated from the training are then taken onto an endless trip of dialoguing between machine and human.
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Top: JPEG-DWG-3DM-STL-GCODE (aka 3d printer). Opposite Top: MP4-JPEG-RCP-PTS (aka photogrammetry). Opposite Top: JPEG-JPEG/PNG/MP4 (aka StyleGAN2). Opposite Bottom: JPEG-DWG-3DMJPEG (aka rendering engine).
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que Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
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Kwan Q Li SMACT Candidate ¶ 4.s33 Synchronization of the Senses ¶ Critic: Reneé Green O is a 11-minute stop-motion video. Narration “scripts are excerpted from a corresponding essay
revolving around notions of amnesia, tragedy, lunacy, poetry and insomnia. Images used in the video were collected during a real-life metro journey when stations were abruptly shut down due to social unrest, putting passengers into an endless loop.
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vgr Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
History Theory Criticism 4.390
4.412
Building Technology 4.619
Vijay Rajkumar SMACT Candidate ¶ 4.s33 Synchronization of the Senses ¶ Critic: Reneé Green Light as a Wave and Experiment 715 are two “projects conducted through the Iridescence
Research Lab in 2020. The lab facilitates a collaborative practice that explores, through a variety of formats, the possibilities of material and cultural "iridescence." These experiments open architectural and artistic processes to engagements with uncertainty, blurriness, improvisation, and constructive interference (i.e dissonance) as tools, among others, for defense, attraction and creative agency.
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Bottom: Light as a Wave is an autobiographic reflection on proximity and memory during the year 2020, composed from found video and audio from a personal archive. Opposite: Experiment 715 is a time-specific 3-channel video installation composed of a livestream sandwiched between footage of the same scene displaced by 1 minute recorded on a previous day.
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HTC Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
History Theory Criticism 4.390
4.412
Building Technology 4.619
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
4.619 Historiography of Islamic
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Art and Architecture¶ Critic: Nasser Rabbat ¶ TA: Manar Moursi
The class is a Critical review of literature on Islamic art and architecture in the last two centuries. Analyzes the cultural, disciplinary, and theoretical contours of the field and highlights the major figures that have influenced its evolution. Challenges the tacit assumptions and biases of standard studies of Islamic art and architecture and addresses historiographic and critical questions concerning how knowledge of a field is defined, produced, and reproduced. ¶ It is essentially a historiography class with a focus on Islamic art and architecture. Methodologically though, the readings, discussions, and requirements are designed to help graduate students in general, not just those studying Islamic architecture, think about some questions: how do areas of inquiry come into being and evolve; how interpretations are formulated in specific contexts and within specific intellectual and political frameworks, how do ideas and narratives grow, transform, and spread over time and through which agency; how and when do they become disciplines with established traditions, modes of thinking, and accepted forms of inquiry; and finally how can we critique, revise, or build upon established disciplinary traditions.
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4.661 Theory and Method in the
Study of Architecture and Art ¶ Critic: Caroline A Jones ¶ TA: Delanie Linden
Architecture + Urbanism 4.s52 4.s33 Studies theoretical and historiographical works pertaining to the fields of art and architectural history. Members of seminar pursue work designed to examine their own presuppositions and methods. In our pandemical fall semester, we formed "solidarity
Undergraduate Other cohorts" and worked on critical race theory, and eco-criticism, as bibliographies we could build together. We also innovated "passion votes" for works in these fields that changed our own.
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aflynn Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
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Aidan Flynn SMArchS Candidate ¶ HTC ¶ Independent Research
On Positionality: Postmodern Musings on Early Modern Art What do you see in Domenico Cresti’s Bathers at San Niccolò? On the surface, most viewers encounter the same event: men swimming and lounging along the Arno River in Florence, Italy. Is this a snapshot of Renaissance bathing culture? Or, is this a gay cruising spot for my early modern predecessors? To me, the picture functions much like Alice’s looking-glass through which I happily and hesitantly fall through. It is a boundary between two worlds that are one in the same—time is almost meaningless, while the queer-identifying viewer’s affect means everything. I see two proleptic queer epochs: 1600 is 2021, and vice versa in an experiential, emotional sense for the queer viewer. A provocative statement, indeed, but this entry seeks to question, not answer, our queer experiences across time and space. Despite the historical fissures within our linear conceptualization of time, what is the difference between same-sex eros then and now? Do love and lust change over time? Is the premodern queer person’s experience— their anxieties and fears of public surveillance and punishment for ‘deviant’ sexuality—any different than now? Can my life experience today—a collective queer consciousness of the 1970's and 80s bathhouse raids—be reflected back through a painting completed over four hundred years ago? This personal essay seeks to abandon rigid historiography and discourse in an effort to highlight, embrace, and question issues of queer positionality that the academy often deems anachronistic. This is not to say that postmodern readings of early modern images are inherently sound and not anachronistic. Indeed, this subject matter is a thin line to traverse in the academic world and careful considerations, punctuated by explanatory footnotes, must be made. That being said, in this experimental essay I
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Above: Domenico Cresti, Bathers at San Niccolò, 1600, private collection
ask: can my positionality as a gay man contribute to a new, perhaps more generative reading of Bathers at San Niccolò? Cresti (called Passignano) invites us to join his bathers in a seemingly jovial moment. We can imagine ourselves splashing about on a hot summer’s day, enjoying the weather and company of friends. In the middle ground, we encounter a bathhouse with towels hanging to dry, and bathers moving up and down a staircase as they enter and exit the muddy waters. The built structures are contrasted with a lush, seemingly untouched landscape. Trees populate rolling hills that meet the horizon and a cloudy sky. Is a storm approaching? There are no women, only men. They move like dancers across a liquid stage. At the left foreground, men stack themselves on top of each other, feet supported by shoulders, bodies linked by holding hands, as if playing an early modern version of ring-around-the-rosie. Their counterparts on the far right also link arms, wading through the inky waters in a circular motion. These naked and nearly-naked bodies resemble antique statues, sculpted and beautiful—an ideal. Passignano carefully uses light and shadow to illuminate tantalizing musculature, revealing and concealing the buttocks, chiseled
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biceps, triceps, calves and pecs. Male-male desire and intimacy is potent, beautiful, exciting. Was the premodern viewer to be aroused or revolted? The couple in the foreground emphasize this sexualized tension. The two are locked in ardent gaze: swimmer and sitter. The latter’s bright flesh draws in our attention. His skin contrasts with overcast skies, dark waters, and shadowy buildings. Seated on silky fabrics and crowned with a straw hat, the sitter is intimately met by his swimming counterpart. Their hands nearly touching, the swimmer shoots upward like a dolphin, gazing into the sitter’s face with his torso pushed up against his partner’s crotch. Does this moment of contact suggestively simulate the moments before oral sex, or is he simply saying ciao? The couple’s sensual encounter is disrupted, however, by the seated man’s gesture: he motions upward. Where is he pointing? Most art historians have suggested the sitter’s gesture as a guiding directive to his partner and the viewer: look toward the bathhouse. To me, however, the spatial motion is not so clear; rather, the sitter’s pointed hand suggests fear, silence, surveillance. I hail from Toronto, Canada. In February 1981 the Metropolitan Police arrested nearly 300 queeridentifying men in bathhouses within the same neighborhoods (‘gayborhoods’) that I frequent today. Here, the “bawdy-house” laws that proscribed sexual persecution were not overturned until 2019.1 When I see Bathers, I interpret the foreground figures as anxious queer men, questioning: are we safe here? Is there somewhere we can love in safety? These questions are magnified by Patricia Lee Rubin’s thoughtful connections between premodern Florentine bathing culture and the arrests made by the Ufficiali di Notte (the magistracy charged with prosecuting sodomites). A boy reported that his friend “taught him how to swim – and sodomized him many times during their lessons on the Arno.”2 Can we consider the sitter’s gesture as one of anxiety? Is he motioning to safety, as if to suggest that the two cannot express love in such a public space? The sitter clearly engages with his swimmer, but not as longingly as the latter. Does my positionality as a gay man remind me of this fearful
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gesture? I empathize to my own modern extent. I traverse the city with or without a partner constantly wondering, “are my jeans too tight? Do I look gay? Are my partner and I safe in this neighborhood? Can we safely hold hands? Will today be the end?” It is sad to ponder such questions, but these are my experiences. Seeking an understanding of such positionality, I defer to art historian James M. Saslow, a selfidentified gay man working on Renaissance art. Saslow, in an essay on an infamously ‘sodomitical’ Italian painter, writes, I have sought in Sodoma [Gianantonio Bazzi] not a mirror-image, but a family resemblance. He is ‘usable’ as our ancestor: someone with whom we share an identifiable lineage of desire and self-expression, in whose...life we can recapture the origins of an increasingly prominent familial trait [of the queer community].3
Is Passignano a ‘usable’ ancestor? Perhaps not with his identity but his subject matter. I encounter Bathers as a bather. That is to say, I behold the image as a descendant within a challenging queer lineage. Is this an early modern testimonial on queer love and persecution? Leaving identity politics aside, does this picture necessitate a queer reading? Can we productively invoke the writings of Foucault, Butler, Sedgwick in reading this object? Is 1600 Florence also 1981 Toronto? There are differences, challenges, huge temporal expanses, but in the end: is persecution and the viewer’s identifiable relationship with the image (then/now) any different? Let us converse, explore, challenge.
''An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Department of Justice Act and to make consequential amendments to another Act, SC 2018, c 29,'' https:// canlii.ca/t/53j9v. 2 Patricia Lee Rubin, Seen from Behind: Perspectives on the Male Body and Renaissance Art (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018), 109; Michael Rocke, Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Ufficiali di Notte 30, fol. 61v. 3 James M. Saslow, ''Gianantonio Bazzi, called ‘Il Sodoma’: Homosexuality in Art, Life, and History,'' in Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in Renaissance Italy, eds. Jacqueline Murray and Nicholas Terpstra (New York: Routledge, 2019), 203. 1
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ekeller Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
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Eliyahu Keller PhD Candidate ¶ HTC ¶ Dissertation Research ¶ Advisor: Timothy Hyde ¶ Committee Members: Ana Miljački, Mark Jarzombek
Drawing Apocalypse: Architectural Imagination in the Nuclear Age This is an excerpt of a longer piece by the same name.
In front of you is a collaged photo from a volume published by the United States government, and titled ‘Bombs at Bikini: The Official Report of Operation Crossroads.’ The book, which came out shortly after the conclusion of the 1946 nuclear experiments in the Marshall Islands, collected images and text with the sole purpose, according to the publication’s director, of presenting ''facts on the origin, planning, and execution of the joint enterprise.''1 Supported by technical descriptions and documentary footage aiming to reinforce its scientific nature, the volume, somewhat surprisingly, ends with an apocalyptic revelation: this image, the last of 32 plates, the only clearly manipulated photograph in the entire book.
nuclear cloud is juxtaposed against the world’s tallest building, itself centered in the middle of the biggest city, of what was then the world’s greatest empire. The architecture, in its pale comparison, provides a kind of reason to fall back onto, a moment of comprehension in face of the most devastating weapon humanity has ever devised. A symbol of American exceptionalism and financial power, this architectural icon is not only physically threatened by the image of the explosion. Rather, situated against the destruction yielded by the very same positivistic progress, it becomes a measure not of the nation’s power, but of the inherent destructiveness that comes hand in hand with it; a paradoxical architectural sign, with the help of which, one can understand the sublime, immeasurable, incomprehensible scale of nuclear devastation. Architecture is no longer a representation of progress, innovation, capital or even shelter; architecture is a measure of apocalypse.
Now rather than speaking to its clear content, I would like to focus on the way this content is delivered. Namely, its already noted context—the propagandist, yet supposedly scientific document—but more importantly, the representational technique which it employs to convey its meaning—in this case, scale. The caption here is cardinal. It reads: ''Composite photograph roughly comparing the Test B cauliflower cloud with New York skyscrapers. An exact comparison would be even more extreme. The cauliflower cloud, nearly two miles in diameter, would overshadow a considerable portion of Manhattan. It requires little study to appreciate catastrophic destruction.''2
What we see then is not merely an image of potential destruction but rather a comparison that employs architecture in a project of sublime representation. The incomprehensibility of the
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Preface by W. A. Shurcliff, Historian of Joint Task Force One in Bombs at Bikini: The Official Report of Operation Crossroads (New York: W. H. Wise & CO: 1947), iii. 2 Bombs at Bikini, Plate 32. 1
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Below: Shurcliff, William A., and United States Joint Task Force One. Bombs at Bikini; the Official Report of Operation Crossroads. W. H. Wise, New York, 1947.
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eldante Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
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eldante c winston PhD Candidate ¶ HTC ¶ Independent Research ¶ Advisor: Lauren Jacobi
Palazzo Punishment: Architecture and Execution in Renaissance Italy This is an abstract of an essay by the same name.
Above: Palazzo del Podesta, Bologna (2019). Image by Author. Opposite: Illustration of the Execution of Hugh the Younger Despenser, from a manuscript of Froissart (Bibliotheque Nationale MS Fr. 2643, folio 11r).
The Italian Renaissance palazzi, characterized by their symmetrical and well-ordered facades of classically ordered pilasters, illustrate a clear departure from fortified medieval structures and have come to represent the humanistic tenants of elegance and decorum. Moreover, the Renaissance Palazzo has become synonymous with Renaissance wealth and status; their owners were lauded as patrons and benefactors of a new age. Yet, such narratives overlook how palaces were sites where violent acts, indicative of the cultural and social milieu of the Renaissance, occurred. The family patriarch wielded fierce power and authority, sanctioning punishments as a means of justice. The most egregious practices included vendetta assaults and public executions by hanging; when men dangled from windows of famed Renaissance palazzi, the bodies purposefully left on display for hours. British architectural historian Robin Evans has argued that architecture embodies contemporary realities and functions; palazzi, therefore, can be said to instrumentalize violence. This essay examines three Renaissance palazzi as architectures of punishment—punishment understood as the infliction of pain and even death. The executions that occurred at these palazzi— Palazzo del Podestà in Bologna, the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, and the Palazzo Farnese in Piacenza—are viewed as violent enactments of punitive justice. This vision of punishment not only calls into question legitimacy but also draws attention to the perception of social relationships. Author David Riche argues that the legitimacy of violence depends
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on one’s position as either performer, victim, or witness. The concept, however, fails to consider the physical space of violence. Adding space as a factor to this triad, I argue that architecture aids in the determination of legitimacy, yet also raises the question of morality; particularly for the witness—the citizen gathered in the piazza viewing the atrocity. Attention is drawn to the window; it is more than an instrument of vision, like a door, it is both spatial and liminal. The static body of the victim framed within it marks the moment when the architecture is set to
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produce pain and thus assumes moral judgment. The Italian Renaissance palazzo, when recognized as a vehicle for corporal punishment, becomes symbolic of Renaissance morality, rather than just ideas of authority, justice, and legitimacy.
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merzaban Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
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Mandy Merzaban SMArchS Candidate ¶ AKPIA ¶ Thesis Research ¶ Advisor: Renée Green ¶ Reader: Jesal Thakkar Kapadia
Walid Raad aka Suha Traboulsi: On feminist methodologies and the discourse of Modern Arab Art
Raad remained the spokesperson of The Atlas Group for a few years before it was revealed not to exist. And after this initial revelation of trickery, it has become an expectation in his work that his anecdotes and materials toggle truth and fiction. The expanse of this project treads this rather non-binary relation to question the very nature and veracity of historical records.
Suha Traboulsi is the name of an avant-garde Arab female modernist artist that does not exist. She does exist however in the imagination of an established Lebanese-American artist, Walid Raad, who has invented her as his avatar. In 2014, she emerged within Raad’s practice and is among a roster of invented personas he has offered over the course of a thirty year career. Traboulsi is presented as an Palestinian conceptual artist working in painting and performance that has seemingly eluded historicization. One of my own interests in Raad’s multidisciplinary body of work, particularly pieces that summon the name of Suha Traboulsi, is how to consider this artist-avatar relation through a feminist lens. One that attempts to locate how women's labor is considered, used and perhaps even repressed in this manner of use. What does it mean for a simulacrum of a woman artist to operate within a male practice that is lending itself to a fictionalized feminine one? Can this inquiry be useful in thinking about the ways women artists are inscribed into the canon of modern Arab art? Walid Raad’s practice primarily involves installation and lecture-performance. The underlying operation of these practices frequently pivots on constructing meta-narrative critique. He is most well known for two significant bodies of work, the first called The Atlas Group (1989-2004) and the other Scratching on things I could disavow: A History of Art in the Arab World (2007- present). The first, of which he is most well known, is a fictive Beirut based foundation of researchers who collect, document and analyze materials of the Lebanese Civil War (19751991). The project contains collections of archival documents, photographs, notes and videos to create a fictional archive.
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Raad’s work contains a myriad of moving parts. Sometimes these moving parts are bodies. The invention of characters sometimes serve as proxies for the artist, and they come and go as stand-ins and collaborators, who corroborate his research and anecdotes. The second body of work, Scratching on Things I Could Disavow: A History of Art in the Arab World, is where we sometimes find Suha Traboulsi. In this series Raad traces the ways in which the art of the ''Arab world'' is being codified and circulated in global art institutions, particularly since the early 2000s. The early 2000s is also a period of time that is densely populated with events that enveloped public attention toward the Arab world that include the attacks of September 11th, the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2004, the Arab Uprisings of 2011 onward, among many others. The initiation of this project in 2007 aligns with the proliferation of art institutions and the acceleration of the Middle East art market. Considerable attention in Scratching...pivots on the emergence of Western satellite museums, such as the Louvre Abu Dhabi, opened in 2017, and the amassing and displays of art collections that have proliferated in the Arabian peninsula. This emergence is also close to me as a researcher, having been a minor agent within this development. Particularly in the formation of a private regional art collection shaped around the notion of an ''Arab art'' 1
Ahmed, Sara. Living a Feminist Life. Duke University Press, 2017, pp. 27. Ibid., 23.
2
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based in the United Arab Emirates.
In this work for instance, maximized replicas of the same collection are painted on large, empty crates that are stacked against each other. As the fiction goes, these crates were found in Rome in 2002 and after a great deal of research Raad was able to uncover their maker, Suha Traboulsi. Interviewing her in 2012, he learned that between 1952 and 1974 she was the Chief Registrar of Public Collections of the Lebanese Ministry of Culture, as political figures swindled art from the national collection. The missing works, meant for the never realized albeit fictional Museum of Modern Art in Beirut, provoked Traboulsi to paint a replica of each one that disappeared on a wooden crate. And in a superstitious attempt to attract the exiled paintings back, she shipped them to countries she thought the paintings were taken against their will. The impetus of my own inquiry with this particular manifestation summons in me, what feminist scholar Sara Ahmed calls a ''feminist gut''. Whereby, ''a feminist gut might sense something is amiss. You have to get closer to the feeling; but once you try… how quickly it can recede.''1 My niggling contention with the invention of this avatar begins with this sense of something being amiss within this gendered relation and my own body’s unarticulated familiarity. In a sense this is an exercise of putting a ''body into words''.2 Traboulsi’s emergence echoes the writing of histories around the discourse of modern Arab art that has gradually increased since the early 2000s. This includes art historical scholarship, but perhaps even more so in major museum exhibitions, art criticism and art market. Various art institutions have proliferated in the MENA region, particularly in the
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Arabian peninsula, that include museums, private collections, galleries, art centers, biennials, fairs and auction houses. Meanwhile an emerging recognition of global art modernisms has taken place and more attention on artists outside the Western canon have entered a field of view in art historical scholarship. One of the key premises of Raad’s Scratching... project critiques the ways art institutions codify the artistic output of the Arab region into seemingly distinct categories of ''modern'' and ''contemporary art''. At times the way Raad draws attention to the normative power of codification is to exaggerate or de-naturalize what is seemingly neutral or expected in a museum setting. Underlying this critique is a concern with an obliviousness to the implicit, often Orientalist structures that frame cultural objects, particularly as they circulate. Traboulsi echoes missing links in the recognition of women’s labor and women artists represented in the canon of Modern Arab art. So the question is, who is Suha Traboulsi? One answer is that she is Walid Raad. She is also a manifestation of an art historian or curator’s desire to uncover ‘lost’ artists. As an invention, she raises certain questions about the ways this invocation of a missing history is contained within the search to historicize and exhibit artists outside the Western canon. Much of the critical attention and reverence around Raad’s work pivots on his ability to offer prompts for questioning institutional and inherited knowledge. Often to the extent that there is a way of speaking about him that is immersed in the various well orchestrated theoretical registers operating in his work. As Raad tells us, Traboulsi greatly influences his practice and was once considered ''the witch of contemporary art'' in the 1970s. Seemingly rescuing her from oblivion, she is also beholden to the architecture of his artistic output. In stepping out of this ruse ever so slightly, I’d like to parse the power dynamics at play in the invention and occlusion of Traboulsi rather than accepting her as a mere device in a complex production.
Top: Raad, Walid. “Yet more letters to the reader.” Scratching on things I could disavow, 2015. https://www.scratchingonthings.org.
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msoltan Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
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Meriam Soltan SMArchS Candidate ¶ AKPIA ¶ 4.619 Historiography of Islamic Art and Architecture ¶ Critic: Nasser Rabbat
Imperial Fictions: Historical Fabulation & The Thousand and One Nights The following is excerpted from a term paper exploring William Harvey’s illustrations for Edward Lane’s heavily annotated translation of The Thousand and One Nights. The paper in its entirety explores the design methodology suggested by these images and questions how drawing might be explored as a space of intervention. What happens when the erotic is naturalized, when the mundane is made fantastic? And how do such visualizations concretize a fantasy? Undo a reality?
[ … what does it mean when Harvey, in illustrating Lane’s translation, created engravings that borrowed heavily from archives and surveys of Egyptian and Moorish architecture? Upon closer observation, it becomes clear that Harvey’s headpiece for the ''Story of the Porter and the Ladies of Baghdad'' is borrowed, or rather copied, from Girault de Prangey’s surveys of the Alhambra. The stylized geometry and calligraphic script framing the central illustration echo the meticulous formatting of Prangey’s technical drawings. If Prangey’s column details and floral accents are meant to instructively supplement a grand, central drawing, Harvey’s embellishments around the main image come together in an oriental mise-en-scène – a collage of disparate geometry, costume, and script that, together, are meant to evoke the exotic. But perhaps most out of place in this medley is the central gateway. In referencing Prangey’s surveys of Andalusia, Harvey produces a drawing in which a ninth century porter in Baghdad is made to traverse through what is undoubtedly the mihrab of the Great Mosque of Cordoba. Although meant to simulate an authenticity conducive with the ethnographic realism projected by the text, this illustration instead arguably upends the timestream as we know it. It rearranges space and time to create a vision of the East suspended both within, but also very much outside of history.
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Questions of atemporality and timelessness in Orientalist art are raised by Linda Nochlin in her analyses of Jean-Léon Gérôme’s paintings in ''The Imaginary Orient.'' Much like Lane and Harvey, Gérôme was similarly famed for his attention to detail and extensive preliminary studies of architecture, furniture, costume, and the like. The Snake Charmer, his 19th century painting of Orientalism fame, both faithfully and elaborately details representations of Turkish tiling, Arabic calligraphy, costume, stonework, and basket weaving. The juxtaposition of these authentically rendered artifacts extend credibility to the performance in question, to the exploitation of cultural representation and the existence of an audience, an entire people, contentedly captivated by that very act. In fabulating a fiction through carefully detailed artifacts imported into the scene from the real, Gérôme manages to project a vision of the East very much other to the political reality of the time. As is emphasized by the headpiece for ''Story of the Porter and the Ladies of Baghdad,'' Harvey’s illustrations similarly gather artifacts from the real to craft elaborate imaginaries. The characters of the Nights encounter tombs capped with Mamluk domes centuries before the dynasty’s arrival to the region and navigate palaces that draw on built symbolism very unlike those that actually defined the values and customs of the period. A collage of both the mundane and the abstract, Harvey’s illustrations thus locate the distinctly fictional and fantastical within the tangible, the real. Comparisons to paintings of the Gerome type emphasize that illustrating the Nights and the actual Orient were one and the same. And yet dismissing these representations merely as iterations of Orientalism denies the significance of these works as political documents, as carriers of meaning, might, and ambition.1]
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1 Linda Nochlin, “The Imaginary Orient,” 59. Below: Deconstruction of illustration for the “Story of the Porter and the Ladies of Baghdad,” Drawing by Author.
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apachec Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
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Antonio Pacheco PhD Candidate ¶ HTC ¶ 4.661 Theory and Method in the Study of Art and Architecture ¶ Critic: Caroline Jones
Genius Distributed: How Paul Philippe Cret Concretized Beaux-Arts Pedagogy Through American Public Buildings During the New Deal Era This is an abstract of a essay by the same name.
How important is architectural style in public buildings? And relatedly, how do public buildings reflect the aesthetic, tectonic, and political objectives of architectural pedagogies within specific cultural and historical contexts? In exploring the relationship between the pedagogy of the École des Beaux-Arts and a collection of New Deal-era architectural works designed by French-American architect Paul Philippe Cret, this paper seeks to investigate the visual, formal, constructive, and symbolic linkages between academic architecture and built form within the context of the public building programs of the New Deal.
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Born in 1876 and educated at the École des Beaux-Arts under the tutelage of esteemed Beaux-Arts educator Jean-Louis Pascal, Cret moved to the United States in 1903 where he would go on to execute a variety of notable New Deal-affiliated commissions. Throughout this time, Cret worked to develop and propagate a new architectural manner harnessing the composition and competition-focused nature of École des Beaux-Arts architectural training for a uniquely American architectural context during a dramatic era of modernization and nation-building. He did so through design commissions; while providing oversight and expertise over public building projects; via his involvement with professional and artistic organizations; as an author and critic; and as a professor, highlighting a deep, broad, and calculated effort to influence and guide public building design during this era. With a keen eye for composition, Cret was able to harness the generative potential of the design competition to experiment with
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architectural style, developing a synthesis of classical and modern architectural vocabularies that helped lend a signature mode to a pragmatic architecture. By bringing together architectural and cultural markers of authority, timelessness, and grandeur with burgeoning experiments in modern construction, Cret’s building projects mark a compelling episode in the birth of the Modern movement of architecture.
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Opposite Left: Central Heating Plant: Interior view of the Central Heating Plant in Washington, D.C., designed by Paul Philippe Cret. Opposite Right: Central Heating Plant: Aerial photo of the Central Heating Plant with the Washington Monument in the background. Below Left: Masonry detail of the Central Heating Plant with a sculptural terracotta panel depicting the heating plant's machinery. Below Right: Central Heating Plant: Photo of the Central Heating Plant in Washington, D.C., designed by Paul Philippe Cret.
In large part, Cret’s influence was exerted through a series of winning competition entries and through collaborative efforts between Cret and teams of administrators, patrons, design juries, and associated design teams. In this paper, I seek to draw connections between the concours of the École and those of the New Deal to highlight how these simultaneously collaborative and distributed forms of design execution helped shape the ''period style'' of New Deal architecture through the analysis of four Cret-influenced projects. Using an in-depth formal and historical analysis of the New Deal ''period style'' Cret helped synthesize, I seek to bring to light how this style concretized École des Beaux-Arts teachings in America and how, in turn, these teachings were absorbed and reinterpreted by architectural and public audiences in the United States.
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jheard Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
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James Heard SMArchS Candidate ¶ HTC ¶ 4.661 Theory and Method in the Study of Art and Architecture ¶ Critic: Caroline Jones
Locating a Marxist Aesthetic: American Modernism, 1892 - 1954 This is an excerpt of a essay by the same name.
To understand why it is useful to construct a history of Marxist aesthetics in American modern architecture, it is helpful to know exactly what Marxist aesthetics is. The name Marxist aesthetics is clear in the sense that Marxist aesthetics is fundamentally a Marxist interpretation of aesthetics; however, what that entails is not intuitive. Part of the difficulty in nailing down a precise definition of Marxist aesthetics, or tracing its history in the United States, is the long and proud tradition of the internecine left. Schism after schism has split left wing movements, each fork rejecting the other on an ideological basis. Orthodox Marxists reject the reformist Marxists who both reject the anarchist communists. To navigate the multiplicity of definitions for and realizations of Marxist aesthetics that have resulted from the fractious left, this paper has followed the methodology outlined by Lee Baxandall in his 1968 Marxism and Aesthetics: An Annotated Bibliography, summarized as: ''Decisions as to whether some writings ‘really’ were Marxist had no place in the compilation of this volume. When in doubt the compiler opted to include rather than exclude.'' This has been applied to the boundary between aesthetics and politics as well, the important and complicated question of whether art produced by a professed Marxist is necessarily Marxist art, although touched upon, will not be thoroughly explored by this paper. The architecture included here is Marxist by association and affiliation, and is representative of an influence exerted by Marxism on the architecture aesthetically or the architect ideologically.
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The increased availability in recent years of narratives which were previously peripheral, such as those from Central and Eastern Europe and the Global South, have begun to show the fragility of the modern canon as it stands.1 This presents an opportunity to reconstruct the global legacy and influence of socialism and communism, and return to Marxism once again as a generative force for design. This paper will focus specifically on the American context — one which has been historically inimical to the Marxist ideology. The history of Marxism in the United States is the history of a marginal movement populated with marginal figures. The limited availability of Marxist aesthetic texts in English narrows this marginal history further, and means that Marxist influence in the United States largely occurred indirectly. It is a study of footnotes and anecdotes which invites, and in some instances requires, speculation. I indicate whenever this is the case throughout the essay with the intention of offering, in the words of Saidiya Hartman, a ''critical reading of the archive that mimes the figurative dimensions of history.''2 Piecing together fragments, a narrative of an ideology that punches above its weight class takes shape and provides ground for Marxists to begin the process of reclaiming their integrity to the narrative of American architecture. The term aesthetics as we know it was first appropriated by Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, a German philosopher, from the Greek aisthesis, in his 1735 thesis Philosophical Meditations on some Matters pertaining to Poetry. In his thesis he proposes that knowledge gained from the senses — although still subservient to reason — could constitute a science, the ultimate goal of which is the perfection of the arts to represent the beautiful.3 Marx’s own method, approaching the idealism of the utopian socialists scientifically, isn’t so far from Baumgarten’s, though it is not immediately evident how their ideas intersect.
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Although Marx himself never explicitly outlined an aesthetic method, he was personally interested in the arts and had prepared notes for an eventual work on aesthetics.4 For this reason, there has been no single canonical Marxist aesthetic. Art is treated by Marxist theory as a product of intellectual processes and therefore as ideological, despite being ultimately determined by economic conditions.5 This means that within Marxist theory art has been interpreted to momentarily transcend its economic materialism through its communicative capacity. Another frequently influential aspect is the eventual egalitarianism achieved through class struggle as predicted by Marx. Marxist adherents have interpreted the latter to favor progressive art movements (though socialist realism is a notable exception) and the former to privilege the written word, murals, architecture, illustration and other art forms which can reach a wide audience.6 Although Marx’s utopian egalitarianism has broadly inspired the work of many artists, the uniquely Marxist aspects of Marxist theory have also influenced aesthetics. These include economic and historical materialism, historical and social organicism, the dialectical process, and class conflict.7 However, making the connection between Marxist aesthetics and art is often difficult. Just because there is evidence that an artist has engaged with Marxist theory doesn’t mean that theory is integral to their artistic practice. Even when an artist is explicitly a Marxist, as in the case of Diego Rivera, the degree to which their art can be considered to represent a Marxist aesthetic is questionable.8 Despite including Lenin among his painterly subjects, Rivera was not particularly well read in Marxist or socialist thought, was described as a political amateur, and was stylistically comparable to other muralists of his period who were not necessarily as ideologically committed.9 This connection becomes even more complicated when beginning from a work of art, as style itself doesn’t possess ideology, nor does it have consistent ideological meaning. Regarding the international style in architecture, Meyer Schapiro writes, ''[t]he technical, aesthetic form is not enough to ensure the social value of this architecture. For like any
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technique this one may be used for good or evil.''10 The paradoxical situation that stems from this is that not all Marxist art is produced by Marxists, and not all Marxists produce Marxist art. If identifying art as Marxist is so difficult and the art that has been identified as Marxist, at one point or another, includes diverse and contradictory movements, then what purpose does Marxist aesthetics serve? By reclaiming a narrative that demonstrates the influential role of Marxism in the development of modern architecture in the United States, Marxist aesthetics is able to become a generative theory for the critique and development of contemporary aesthetics in architecture, giving them both historic grounding and theoretical weight. Even if Marxist aesthetics is broad and inconsistent, this can be said of other aesthetic categories as well — beauty and ugliness are notoriously unstable. However, unlike beauty, Marxism provides clear criteria by which art can be judged to determine whether aspects of it hew to Marxist principles. Marxist theory provides fertile ground for artists to reconceive basic relationships fundamental to artistic practice, such as the labor relationship between subject and object, and place their work in the world. It provides orientation rather than instruction.
Miljački, Ana. The Optimum Imperative: Czech Architecture for the Socialist Lifestyle, 1938-1968. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017; Stanek, Lukasz. Architecture in Global Socialism. Princeton University Press, 2020. 2 Hartman, Saidiya. “Venus in Two Acts.” Small Axe, vol. 12, no. 2, Duke University Press, July 2008, pp. 11. 3 Baumgarten, Alexander Gottlieb. “Aesethetics and the Sublime.” Art in Theory 1648-1815: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, edited by Charles Harrison et al., Blackwell Publishers, 2000,pp. 487. 4 Egbert, Donald D., et al. Socialism and American Life. Edited by Donald D. Egbert and Stow Persons, vol. 1, Princeton University Press, 1952, pp. 637. 5 Ibid., 637-638. 6 Ibid., 638-639. 7 Ibid., 637. 8 Ibid., 725. 9 Ibid.; Egbert, Donald D. Social Radicalism and the Arts, Western Europe: A Cultural History from the French Revolution to 1968. Alfred A Knopf, 1970, pp. 731. 10 Schapiro, Meyer. “Looking Forward to Looking Backward: A Dossier of Writings on Architecture from the 1930s.” Grey Room, edited by Felicity D. Scott, vol. 6, Jan. 2002, pp. 66–109. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1162/152638102317406506, pp. 68. 1
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Samuel Dubois PhD Candidate ¶ HTC ¶ 4.661 Theory and Method in the Study of Art and Architecture ¶ Critic: Caroline Jones
A Formal Analysis of Montréal’s Biosphere The Biosphere is a sphere-shaped building designed by the American architect and engineer Richard Buckminster Fuller. Originally designed as the United States pavilion of the 1967 International and Universal Exposition (Expo 67), the building is one of the few structures from Expo 67 that are still standing today. In the 1990s, the former exhibition pavilion was converted into what is now known as the Biosphere: a museum and environmental observation center dedicated to water and sustainable development. As an institution, the Biosphere is composed of two physically independent structures: 1) a sixstory orthogonal inner structure designed by Cambridge Seven Associates and in which the entire architectural program of the museum is contained; and 2) a sphere-shaped outer shell designed by Buckminster Fuller and whose original purpose was to cover the partially open inner structure and its occupants. Both structures feature a distinctive architectural signature, yet they both form a conceptually inseparable whole (Fig. 1). The Spherical Form From the visionary projects of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and Étienne-Louis Boullée, the spherical form has fascinated many architects, not only because of the sphere’s unique properties as a geometrical shape, but also for its multiple metaphorical meanings. The construction of a sphere as a building, however, was an arduous task until the development of geodesic domes in the mid-twentieth century. A geodesic dome consists of a series of triangular elements that are structurally rigid and that equally withstand and distribute the structural stress throughout its auto-generated
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Above: Collage illustrating the metaphorical relation between the Biosphere and the Earth (Sept 2020) Image by Author.
spherical-shaped structure (Rothman, 1989). Although Buckminster Fuller is not the original inventor of the geodesic dome, he popularized the idea and even received a U.S. Patent for it in 1954. The geodesic dome that Buckminster Fuller designed in Montréal is 62.8 meters in height, 76.2 meters in diameter and has a volume of 189,724 cubic meters. The dome was originally covered with transparent acrylic panels that were linked to a solar-powered system of motors that could control the interior temperature. When the shades were completely open, the transparency of the acrylic panels created an almost invisible barrier between the inside and the outside. Unfortunately, the building's acrylic panels went up in smoke in 1976 because of a fire accident that was caused by structural renovations involving welding. Despite the fire, the hard steel truss structure remained intact. The Biosphere’s geodesic dome somehow substantiates the theories of the English architectural critic and writer Reyner Banham. In his 1969 book ''The Architecture of the WellTempered Environment,'' Banham claims that the best architectural form is an expression of its technology and that buildings should employ the
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latest technology (Banham, 1969). Observing the technologically innovative and newly patented geodesic dome of the 1967 Biosphere, one can argue that the building’s technology-enabled form is, following Banham’s view, an expression of the best architectural practices of its era. The Architectural Style Long before the contemporary attention paid to sustainability and eco-criticism in art and architecture, Buckminster Fuller – already in the early 1960s – was concerned with how architects could use technology as a tool to ameliorate and advance the human condition. He even wrote that his research was ''to view the universe as an organization of regenerative principles'' (Government of Canada, 2015), with references to rebirth and reproduction. Transposed into an architectural language, Buckminster Fuller’s ideas unsurprisingly manifested themselves in forms such as the sphere. Today, we would postulate that sphere-shaped buildings have a futuristic ‘style.’ When the American government decided to commission Buckminster Fuller to design the shell of the U.S. pavilion of Expo 67, the spherical form that followed was not a random causality. The sphere was deliberate. In fact, Buckminster Fuller’s spherical pavilion in Montréal housed hundreds of artifacts and works of art testifying to American genius, notably in relation to the Apollo Program (1963-1972) and its lunar missions. The direct relationship between the spherical shape of the U.S. pavilion’s outer frame and the Apollo-related content of the exhibition is reminiscent of art historian Erwin Panofsky’s vision of form and content as two inseparable notions. Panofsky affirms: ''In a work of art, ‘form’ cannot be divorced from ‘content’: the distribution of […] volumes and planes, however delightful as a visual spectacle, must also be understood as carrying a more-than-visual meaning'' (Panofsky, 1970: 205). Using Panofsky’s iconographic theory as analytical lens, one can retrieve the symbolic and allegorical meanings embedded in Montréal’s Biosphere. At the time of its inauguration, the sphere-shaped building
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is the architectural manifestation of its content, which pertains to aerospace exploration. Here, we thus have a planet-shaped pavilion containing a planet-related exhibition. Figure 2 is a collage that illustrates this metaphor by creating a visual dialogue between the building’s form and content. The collage features the superimposition of two historical photographs: one of the Earth seen from the moon during one of the Apollo missions, and the other of the Expo 67 U.S. pavilion on the day of its inauguration. The Past & Future Expo 67 occurred during a pivotal period in Québec’s history known as the Quiet Revolution (1960-1970). This period was characterized by a grand project of modernization, notably through major social, economic, and political reforms that were intended to usher in a new welfare state. In a way, Expo 67 is the architectural and cultural embodiment of Québec’s leap into modernity. Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome became the landmark of Expo 67 and marked a consequential moment in the history of contemporary architecture not only in Québec, but worldwide. Despite being 25 years old, the Biosphere remains today one of Montréal’s most iconic architectural landmarks. Nevertheless, the Biosphere has been struggling to attract visitors in recent years. Has Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome become over time – in the words of Panofsky – a visual spectacle? In order to alleviate its contemporary tribulations, many argue that the 1967 spherical structure needs architectural reimagining to make it carry a ''more-than-visual meaning,'' a reimagining to make it as culturally evocative as it used to be.
Banham, Reyner. The Architecture of the Well-tempered Environment. London: The Architectural Press, 1969. Government of Canada. “Richard Buckminster Fuller: A Visionary Architect.” Last modified July 2, 2015. https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climatechange/ services/biosphere/about/buckminster-fuller.html. Panofsky, Erwin. Meaning in the Visual Arts. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970. Rothman, Tony. Science à la Mode. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.
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Brandon Scott PhD Candidate ¶ HTC ¶ STS.430 History of Plants and People ¶ Critic: Kate Brown
Taeda, taeda Pt.1 This is an excerpt of a longer piece by the same name.
I Strong wind. Chimes. Orange pink breath off the tops of pines. A small moon burning through dusty blues. The blue jay singing sharp through cicadas. Porch lights put on, free cats to roam. Almost home’s last evening. On the road, a car crushed cone. Pieces of pieces of pieces, as the jar on the hill but fallen, shattered. A wish to put them all back together. Whose wish? It is of human want to need things remain whole. But of cone? Destroyed and yet enabled. Out of it now, a myriad seeds, their chance to do. But do what?
II I could give names to them all. Grand and thick, I might call the largest Ramses II, erect over road and home. Far enough away from that pharaonic domain, are three others, princesses perhaps princes, probably both, each patiently awaiting each day their crowning by the sun. Come closer away from the edge that they line, and onto the grounds where I and Michael and Grant used to play, and there two more, which I could only half appropriately call Scylla and Charybdis for they gate a path, though the only danger there was of surprise attack during one of our more warlike games. In pursuit, being chased by them, where to run? Around the house. But now where? To the Four Graces, four being better than three anyway, making it that much easier to imagine a sanctuary walled by air and floored by dirt—''Base!,'' I say. And the Grace? That is in their rough thread robes which even in mild winds always mingle. Less known to me
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for years where the two always at my mother’s aid, helping her raise my washed grass stained clothes to lighten and to dry. Walk further back, so distant from window sight and find there my strange uncle, neither unkind nor unwelcoming, but so charitable that he lets many things grow on him, which seems a kindness gone too far for those of us who think a body should be unadorned with other bodies. And last a distant friend, really a relation by so much familiarity. I trim and wash her old feet, placed half in our and half in another land; she always gives us music which she plays through her arms in accompaniment to every breeze.
III Well I did not name them all. Three others I forgot, like cousins you meet in middle school and find again later mid-life.
VII Cicadas chant purple-brown, a looping shape that first seems cornered but proves edgeless as it volleys through the day. Courting wrens flit flecks of precious metal near light as falling leaves through August air. Ghosts shuffle on the forest floor to turn an eye here then there at their encroaching presence soon embodied and demystified as the rustling ramble of rodents—squirrels. Heartbeat bass of hummingbird, to the high-pitch clip of circular saws churning. Screen doors slam to check the hunting hound of horseflies. Courted wrens now mated, new beaks bicker for the bodies of grubs. Momma delivers and darts back off into the woods. Trucks of pigs who squeal at the break (and smell on the nose), broken tree limb thuds on ground. Owls inquire—''Who? Whoo? Whooo?'' Neighbors answer, ''Essie May, Eldrich’s aunt!'' The small beaks now wail—momma’s not returned. But their tune seems barely sustained in air, petering out on
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the sides of pines, overwhelmed by high noon hawk operas and even evening cricket serenades. They’d need silence here for her to hear them but is silence I wonder just a sanitizing sound we play to not have to listen or to scream. Dusk past. Night fall. Floodlights yawn like a lazy guitar below the crash-smack-clack of insects drunk on incandescent luminance. The wrens don’t wail. Did momma return or maybe Moon put her finger on their tongue. ''Shhh, until morning.'' And meanwhile, deep, deep in the forest, if a tree fell…— oh, oh come now with that all too human non-sense… there’d be that and a thousand other sounds and a thousand other ''ears'' to hear them.
X Hurricane. Atmospheres of fury. The wolf could not blow a brick house down, but these winds could. Night scrapped from sky, as dark paint off metal, a scowling gray is all this morning. I go out to move just painted pots already toppled and woodwork already soaked. This rain hurts. All around a pervasive howling, like someone suddenly unable to see so now shouting to remain visible. I look up and glance them as they tremor, twist and flare, bodies not attempting to withstand but rather to go with the gale, as if they
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might uplift—portable colossi who I trust won’t trip. I go back to sleep. Later the familiar double silence, part after storm quiet, part the hush of electric things with no line power. The ditches now minor moats of cool water, mossy mud, crayfish and larvae of tomorrow’s mosquitoes. The driveway now a wet sheet pasted with feline faces of tulip tree leaves, toothy stars of sweetgums and the tattered currency of oaks. The yard now a finished battlefield of forlorn limbs left behind which I and momma gather. We’ll carry them all, some slender and fresh, others near dead before the struggle, already showing rot and donning bright green-blue medals of lichens; others still bear a curious fungus growing round and soft in lobed C’s so that they look like hearing organs, hence the name Tree’s Ear—Auricularia auricula. No longer to hear the sound of the heights of air, they listen now to our footsteps and then-on, after piled near the back woods, to the slow hum of earth embracing and breaking them into restful deafness.
This is one of three interrelated essays done for STS.430 on loblolly pine trees (Pinus tadea). Below: Image by Author.
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Muhammad Hasan Nisar SMArchS Candidate ¶ AKPIA ¶ Harvard HAA.266 Art Writing in Persianate Culture ¶ Critic: David Roxburgh
Portraiture Under the Mughal Emperor Jahangir This is an excerpt of a longer piece by the same name.
In her article ''Jahangir as Francis Bacon’s Ideal of the King as an Observer and Investigator of Nature'', Ebba Koch characterizes Jahangir as, ''an acknowledged naturalist if ever one sat on the throne''.1 For her Jahangir embodies Bacon’s ideal for the king on account of his predilection towards the observance and recording of nature whereby he combines scientific curiosity and inquiry with political thinking. The continued learning in rulership is what would lead to an ideal of kingship. Koch also cites Count Hermann Keyserling, according to whom the Mughal kings embodied grossartige Menscheitsunthese or a ''superior human synthesis'' in their personalities2.
and more interestingly his observance of the mating patterns of cranes, all highlight Jahangir’s curiosity towards nature. This paper would extend this curiosity from the realm of scientific inquiry to the arts of depiction. Looking at the Dying Inayat Khan (fig. 1), a painting attributed to Balchand held in the Bartlett Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, a portrait of Shah Abbas I (fig. 2) attributed to Bishndas in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of the Harvard Art Museums, would allow us to compare Jahangir’s proclamations and personal apprehensions on the art of painting in the Jahangirnama with the work being produced in his reign. The commissioning of these portraits further exemplify Jahangir’s self-fashioning as a naturalist in the Jahangirnama and these paintings further highlight his peculiar attention towards nature, whether through the literary recording of cranes’ mating patterns or the commissioning of paintings that capture the likeliness of a starving person on the brink of death.
From the Jahangirnama, a history authored in the autobiographic style by Jahangir, there can be observed many examples that evidence Koch’s hypothesis of Jahangir being a naturalist or Keyserling’s hypothesis on Mughal rulers’ multifaceted personalities. It is a remarkable source, not just because it provides us with a chronological account of Jahangir’s reign complete with details of political strife, diplomatic endeavors, militaristic campaigns, and archival information on gifts, weapons, animals etc., but more importantly it provides peculiar insights into Jahaangir’s idiosyncrasies as a Mughal emperor. His observance of the flora and fauna of India, much like his ancestor Babur in his own autobiographic account Baburnama, which Jahangir would have had access to because Akbar had it translated into Persian and turned it into an illustrated manuscript,
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Above: ''Dying Inayat Khan'', Attributed to Balchand, c. 1618-19, Northern India, Museum of Fine Arts Boston Opposite: ''Portrait of Shah Abbas I'', attributed to Bishndas, c. 1617, India Arthur M. Sackler Museum at the Harvard Art Museums.
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Jahangir records the dreadful condition of Inayat Khan prior to his death, ''skin stretched over bone''3 and also gives an account of the progression of his disease. He writes, ''it was so strange I ordered the artists to draw his likeness''.4 This anecdote and the painting left behind, probably by Balchand, shows that Jahangir had found something of use to him out of the plight of this man. Jahangir’s remorse for the tragic condition of Inayat Khan is unmistakable as he quotes this melancholic verse,''if my shadow doesnt hold my leg, I wont be able to stand until Doomsday/ My sigh sees my heart so weak that it rests a while on my lip''.5 He even gives him a 1000 rupees for his journey ahead. It is important to note this here to avoid any implications of Jahangir being a cruel researcher who only saw dying men as subjects of inquiry, both scientific and artistic.
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cushions and awaiting death, but also signifies the virtuosity of artists at Jahangir’s court. Jahangir tells us and the artist shows us that the painters and artists at Jahangir’s court were engaged in painting directly from nature or attempting to preserve an essence of it. While thinking of images of starvation from history, one is certainly reminded of the many images of the starving Buddha where the artists exaggerate the ribcages or the hollowness around the eyes to signify the starved state. However, in contrast both Jahangir and the artist here demonstrate an inclination towards realism which further helps our understanding of the arts and artistic practices during the reign of Jahangir.
Therefore, even though he orders the artists to capture the likeness of the unique physical state of this man and avoid any exaggerations, as often artists do while drawing skinny people as he observes, his intentions are not malicious and any readings of cruelty should be avoided. The inclusion of this anecdote in the Jahangirnama and the commissioning of the painting, is anomalous since it is of no wider consequence to the history of the Mughal empire or Jahangir’s reign specifically. However, not only does it give us a window into the historiographic practices of Jahangir and he thought warranted discussion in a history of his reign, but more relevant to our purposes his personal attentiveness to nature and its recording through painting. In other instances in the Jahangirnama, the phrase, ‘I ordered the artists to draw likeness’ appears frequently as Jahangir orders his artists to draw likeness of an impressive lion he had hunted at one point, or ugly monkeys the likes of which he had not seen before. The artist seems to have followed the instructions of Jahangir and rendered quite a naturalistic painting of a starving man. The hollowness around his shoulder bone, the clearly defined ribcage, the skinny arms and hands, and the drapery over his legs, all showcase the attempt and arguable success to stay close to naturalism. Here is a picture that not only captures the misery of this man, reclined against
Koch, Ebba. “Jahangir as Francis Bacon's Ideal of the King as an Observer and Investigator of Nature.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 19, no. 3, 2009, pp. 293–338. 2 Ibid., 294. 3 Jahāngīr. Jahāngīrnāma. Wheeler M. Thackston, trans. and ed. The Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India. Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1999. 4 Ibid., 280. 5 Ibid., 280. 1
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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.
4.412 D-Lab Schools: Building
Selected Course Descriptions
Building Technology
Technology Laboratory ¶ Critic: Les Norford ¶ TA: Yesufu O'ladipo
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Focuses on the design, analysis, and application of technologies that support the construction of less expensive and better performing schools in developing countries. Prepares students to design or retrofit school buildings in partnership with local communities and NGOs. Strategies covered include daylighting, passive heating and cooling, improved indoor air quality via natural ventilation, appropriate material selection, and structural design. Investigations are based on application of engineering fundamentals, experiments and simulations. Case studies illustrate the role of technologies in reducing barriers to improved education.
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Demi Fang PhD Candidate ¶ Harvard GSD 6338: Introduction to Computational Design ¶ Critic: Jose Luis Garcia del Castillo Lopez TopEval is a Grasshopper component that “calculates a topology’s conformity to a vector field,
enabling live feedback during design. With TopEval and an effective visualization workflow, designers can both compare and improve structural topologies during early-stage design without the need for iterative structural analysis.
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Above: Given a vector field across a continuum domain. Evaluate a topology's conformity with the vector field. Learn more: https://demifang.github.io/2020/12/11/Flow-topology/
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Eduardo Gascón Alvarez SMArchS Candidate ¶ Building Technology ¶ D-Lab Schools: Building Technology Laboratory ¶ Critic: Les Norford Pandemic-resilient, thermally comfortable “K-12 schools: Madison Park High School ¶ This
Left: Classroom Retrofit Section. 1) Add insulation layer to facade’s interior. 2) Integrated heat recovery ventilation unit. 3) Deployable roof insulation (seasonally exposed thermal mass. Below: Students gathering in front of the prefabricated concrete façade designed by Marcel Breuer. Source: “Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston.” Mark Pasnick, Michael Kubo and Chris Grimley.
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work tackles the challenge of reopening K-12 schools during the current COVID-19 pandemic and analyzes Madison Park High School, located in Boston’s neighborhood of Roxbury, as a study case. The school, originally designed by the Hungarian architect Marcel Breuer, presents a large central courtyard that connects several of its main buildings. The outdoor thermal comfort of this space is assessed both with in-person data measurements and computational tools. Finally, an energy use analysis is conducted on the interior spaces. A pandemic-resilient classroom requires to increase the ventilation rate from 2 to 5 air changes per hour, which translates into a 240% increase on the energy use intensity per squared meter. This work proposes a set of interventions to bring this consumption below pre-pandemic levels: interior insulation, exposed thermal mass during summer time and heat recovery ventilation units integrated inside the prefabricated façade panels.
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Top Left: Sensors indicated in floor plan. Top Right: Sensor 1a. Middle Left: Sensor 2. Middle Right: Sensor 3. Bottom Left: Sensor 4. Bottom Middle: Sensor 5. Bottom, Right: Sensor 6.
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Jingyi Liu SMArchS Candidate ¶ Building Technology ¶ Independent Research Project at MIT Materials Systems Laboratory with the Department of Building Technology ¶ Advisor: Les Norford Buildings have a long lifetime, from the embodied “stage, including manufacturing and construction, all
Above:: Develop a new workflow in Grasshopper to recommend optimal design solutions during the earlydesign-stage, considering both the embodied and operational stages. Design uncertainty and diversity are emphasized using cutting-edge technologies such as surrogate modeling, genetic optimization, and big data visualization. Solutions are optimized with three objectives: minimized cost ($), minimized impact (kgCO2eq) & maximized diversity.
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the way to the operational stage when we are using the buildings. To explore optimal design solutions with minimized cost and carbon impact, we need to analyze buildings through life-cycle thinking. ¶ There is some existing life cycle analysis (LCA) tools on the market, but improvements are still needed. The research will start from the product comparison between existing LCA tools and propose innovative improvements needed in a new LCA workflow, followed by introductions of technical details. ¶ The workflow can analyze conceptual geometries in Grasshopper, making LCA a seamless addition to the Rhino design process. It also considers earlystage design uncertainties and users’ flexibility to choose from diverse design solutions. The workflow recommends not only sustainable features of building attributes but also optimal detailed design solutions. Key results include recommended ranges of numerical attributes such as Wall R-value and Glazing U-value; rankings of categorical choices such as Insulation Material and Equipment Type; sensitivity analysis of building attributes; distributions of life-cycle cost and carbon impact; and a 3D Pareto front diagram that shows optimal design solutions with three axes: cost, carbon
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impact, and diversity (how spread-out are the recommended results). ¶ On average, the workflow helps save costs by around 10% and the carbon impact by around 20%. Take an office building as an example (10 stories, 900 m2 floor areas), 10% cost saving corresponds to around 6 million dollars. With different weights assigned on three objectives, users can emphasize cost or impact and control diversity. Designers from two local firms, Payette and Goody Clancy, also tested the beta version of this workflow. Positive and inspiring feedback was received, such as suggestions regarding user experience.
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Above and Opposite Bottom: Early-design-stage Building Lifcycle Optimization of Cost and Environmental Impact.
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reweber Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
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Ramon Weber PhD Candidate ¶ Building Technology ¶ Sustainable Design Lab / Digital Structures Group ¶ Advisor: Caitlin Mueller ¶ MAS.S68 Recreating the Past ¶ Critic: Zach Lieberman Structural Shading investigates how “computational optimization strategies and design
space exploration methods can be combined with both structural and energy simulations to create high-performing shading elements. The inherent link of form, material, and environment unlocks new performative potentials and a new architectural vocabulary.
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Left: This image is an excerpt from coursework for MAS. S68 Recreating the Past, taught by Zach Lieberman. It is a snapshot of particle-based simulations created with the Open Frameworks programming environment. Inspired by Craig Reynolds artificial life simulations, thousands of color shifting digital boids are being traced on the screen.
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Yesufu O'ladipo SMArchS Candidate ¶ Building Technology ¶ Independent Research ¶ Advisor: Les Norford Mixed Mode Systems in Residential Buildings
Right: This photograph is courtesy of Walter Kale of the Chicago Tribune. The image depicts a life threatening building overheating event during the 1995 Chicago heatwave. The image is representative of a worst case scenario event where a power outage allowed buildings to overheat and occupants to become vulnerable to heat related illnesses. Mixed mode cooling strategies evaluated in this research are a measure to increase passive survivability. Below: The motivation for this research is to prioritize passive measures within mixed-mode systems in Passive House U.S. Certification Standards. This image depicts a single family home that is compliant with the 2015 certification standard. It shows the various layers of the exterior envelope that are critical to meeting the requirements for certification and achieving airtightness and high thermal insulation values.
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Below: One of the locations selected for this research is Boston, MA. This image displays the indoor air temperatures in a single room of a PHIUS certified building. It displays five options for reducing indoor air temperatures and represents the utilization of open windows for a period of time from 9pm to 7am during the month of July.
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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.s52 Introduction to Three-
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Selected Course Descriptions
Virtuality & Presence ¶ Critics: D. Fox Harrell and Cagri Hakan Zaman ¶ TA: Delanie Linden
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This course will explore established and emerging modes of producing ''presence'' in various cultural encounters, with an emphasis on the valuation of presence in creative practices that are both challenged and expanded by various XR encounters. From perceptual and temporal experiences in physical space to online representations, digital avatars, podcasts, and virtual and augmented reality, each mode of presence has a different set of constraints and potentials for representation, intention, and action. This course will explore these elements through a series of design exercises. The course will explore an interdisciplinary field of cognitive science, media studies, and design, and aim to discover new forms of remote-design practices that will be important for post-pandemic education.
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Bowen Lu SMArchS ¶ Design and Computation ¶ Thesis Research ¶ Advisor: George Stiny ¶ Reader: Paul Keel is a particularly valuable resource “forKnowledge designers who learn broadly across disciplines,
Below: Software interface providing accessibility to prior knowledge and abilities to create sophisticated structures using connections. Below: A network of knowledge representing acquired cross-disciplinary knowledge including furniture design, architecture, machine learning, and more using the developed system.
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requiring considerable time and effort to acquire. The amount of knowledge can easily go beyond our mnemonic capacity, then how can a designer retain and manage to use more knowledge to deliver better design? Historically, we have developed the writing system to externalize learned knowledge for future reference. This externalization, as known as hypomnema or note-taking, enables us to utilize more knowledge with extended memory and leads to deep thinking and innovation through constant communication with thoughts. Most of our tools, physical or electronic, are based on the logic of note-taking, which contain heterogeneous information scatters all over the place. Their hierarchical structure and tagging system become inadequate for management given the increasing amount of knowledge to acquire. They also pivot heavily on our own memory as the primary way
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to retrieve knowledge, which can be particularly unreliable. ¶ Originated from written language, semantic network or ontology is a powerful method to represent common sense knowledge as well as our semantic memory. As a network of concepts, it is adopted by many public projects and design systems for knowledge sharing and reuse. However, an ontology can be difficult to construct at personal level. It is also too rigorous and explicit to define for general knowledge acquisition. Most of its applications focus on reasoning tasks over public knowledge, and few contribute to personal growth of knowledge. ¶ Taking advantages of both methods, I propose a novel representation of hybrid ontology that includes both conceptual knowledge and episodic information as nodes, and a set of intuitive relationships as connections between nodes. Based on this representation, I develop a software tool with engaging interface that makes the construction of ontological network as easy as daily note-taking.
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I complete a productive workflow of input, storage and retrieval as the foundation of knowledge accumulation, as well as different interactive functions, such as displaying multiple nodes on screen as an extension of working memory, made possible by the responsive and ambient interface. I also propose mechanisms that keep learned knowledge active by constantly pulling relevant knowledge to us. Other approaches to trigger memory and inspire us to understand knowledge differently and creatively will also be investigated. This knowledge interacting system contributes to an attempt towards augmented intelligence that values a complementary integration of human and machine.
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Alexandros Haridis PhD Candidate ¶ Design and Computation ¶ Dissertation Research ¶ Advisor: George Stiny Determined by Line Drawings “¶ AThelineGeometries drawing can be represented as a finite set
of maximal line segments in the plane. The plane is usually understood as an ''ambient space''—that is to say, all-encompassing and continuous— surrounding all the objects that are drawn in it. In this sense, line drawings given as sets of line segments can be said to be surrounded by the same ambient geometric space. In this project, it is shown that every line drawing in the plane also gives rise to its own ''local space,'' which can be formalized and studied independently of the ambient space it may be contained in. The results obtained from this study provide important insights on the relationship between drawing and geometry, and by extension, design and mathematics. ¶ What is the ''local space'' of a line drawing? Sets of maximal line segments in the plane are called shapes (Stiny, 1975). Shapes are thus analogous to line drawings. Any shape is contained in a special arrangement of points and lines called, respectively, registration marks and construction lines. The construction lines are infinitely extending lines that partition the plane, while the registration marks punctuate the points in the plane where these lines meet. Examples of shapes and their underlying point-line arrangements are shown in Figure 1. ¶ The incidences formed between registration marks and construction lines (i.e. which line passes through which point), provide the necessary data for formalizing arrangements that contain shapes as geometric spaces. In particular, arrangements of registration marks and construction lines can be represented as incidence structures whose geometry can be characterized using mathematical ideas and tools from finite incidence geometry (Batten, 1997; see also Haridis, 2020a). Incidence structures are at the core of the study of finite geometry, with applications extending to computer science, experiment design, statistics, chemistry, and many other areas. ¶ An arrangement that contains shapes forms ''a
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geometry'' if it satisfies certain conditions (these are given in Haridis, 2020a). The most important one is that every construction line in the arrangement must be incident with at least two registration marks. This condition attributes to lines the typical characteristic that is usually associated with them: a line is formed by connecting at least two points. The classical notion of geometry as measurement is at the basis of this—to measure you need at least two points. Some arrangements satisfy conditions that give rise to special types of geometries called near-linear and linear spaces (for example, the familiar Affine and Projective spaces are examples of the latter). However, there are arrangements that contain shapes that do not give rise to any proper form of geometrical structure. More generally, the relationship of arrangements that contain shapes and finite geometries is summarized in the diagram in Figure 2. In Haridis (2020b), an enumeration of finite geometries determined by arrangements for shapes is given for small numbers of points and lines; Figure 3 shows a portion of this enumeration. ¶ The arrangements that constitute geometries, imply a local (geometric) space in which one can travel, that is to say, measure or compute distance, only along the available construction lines, by following the points incident with these lines. Such local spaces do not resemble the familiar plane, nor they behave as one. On the other hand, in arrangements that do not constitute geometries there must be some construction lines on which one simply cannot travel (measure or compute distance). However, such arrangements can still contain shapes (i.e. line drawings). ¶ This distinction between arrangements that constitute geometries and arrangements that do not, highlights that visual material like line drawings are not fully captured or described in the language of geometry. Geometry as measurement does not contain drawing. More generally, the results suggest that line drawings and other visual material used in design, are better served when they are
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studied as objects in their own right, by emphasizing their spatial-visual properties and behavior instead of reducing them in a language of abstract pointline incidences. ¶ This project provides the first study of arrangements that contain shapes from the standpoint of finite incidence geometry. A detailed presentation of this project and its results is published in Haridis (2020a; 2020b). There are a number of open research areas in computation that may take advantage of the mathematical framework of arrangements that contain shapes. To name a few of particular interest: comparison of shapes (similarity/dissimilarity); evaluation of the informational content (complexity) of shapes; and algorithms for non-parametric design space exploration.
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linear spaces
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near-linear spaces
arrangements for shapes
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Top: (first row) Examples of shapes. (second row) Pointline arrangements underlying the shapes. Above Right: Classification of point-line arrangements that contain shapes. Right: Enumeration of finite geometries on k ≤ 7 points which contain shapes (line drawings). L. M. Batten, Combinatorics of finite geometries, 2nd Edition (1997). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: UK. A. Haridis, Geometry of arrangements that determine shapes (2020a). arXiv: 2010.14250. A. Haridis, Some open problems regarding the number of lines and slopes in arrangements that determine shapes (2020b). arXiv: 2011.10700. G. Stiny, Pictorial and formal aspects of shape and shape grammars (1975). Birkhauser, Basel: CH.
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079
dchatzin Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
History Theory Criticism 4.390
4.412
Building Technology 4.619
Dimitrios Chatzinikolis SMArchS ¶ Design and Computation ¶ 6.849 Geometric Folding Algorithms: Linkages, Origami, Polyhedra ¶ Critics: Erik Demaine, Martin Demaine Cabinet of Curiosities is a selection of design “problems that explore the emergence of curvature from flat surfaces. ”
080
Computation 4.661
Architecture + Urbanism 4.s52 4.s33
Undergraduate Other
081
kwkng+meganp+que+wyhli Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
History Theory Criticism 4.390
Wonki Kang Megan Prakash Kwan Q Li Wuyahuang Li
4.412
Building Technology 4.619
SMArchS Computation Candidate + CSAIL Candidate+ SMACT Candidate + SMArchS Urbanism Candidate ¶ 4.S52/CMS.627 Virtuality & Presence ¶ Critics: D. Fox Harrell, Cagri Hakan Zaman Embodying a Narrative: Spatializing Multimodal “Media for Immersive Journalism ¶ Conventional
journalism from mainstream media spanning across television, prints and recently social media, nevertheless, focuses on visual-bearing, comprehensive information presentation. These might, however, fail to convey one of the core aspects of civil activism: a sense of ‘collective challenges [to elites, authorities, other groups or cultural codes] by people with common purposes and solidarity in sustained interactions with elites, opponents and authorities’. ¶ In this project, we investigate immersive journalism in augmented reality, adopting the Occupy City Hall protest for Black Lives Matter at New York city in the Summer of 2020 as the case study. A preliminary systematic review revealed that existing works of immersive journalism often spotlight one particular incident as the study subject, with common approaches focusing on first-person narratives and maximizing fidelity by restaging events. This project puts forward a speculative prototype that spatializes multi-sensory elements from a real event as an alternative means for immersive journalism, especially looking into augmented reality technology to be implemented within a domestic space to overcome environmental constraints that might be driven from public health concerns or personal
082
perceptual biases. ¶ As coined by Mexican-American journalist Nonny de la Peña, immersive journalism is ‘the production of news in a form from which people can gain first-person experiences of the events or situations described in news stories.’ A key role of immersive journalism is to reinstitute the audience’s emotional involvement in current events considering the indifferent effect induced by the influx of audio-visual information available in an explosive number of media outlets. This is achieved by heightening audience involvement through three factors: place illusion (strong sensation of being in the space depicted by the virtual-reality system), plausibility (dynamics of events and the situation portrayed and the fidelity to realistic happening) and virtual body ownership. ¶ Based on these frameworks, we orient our design goals towards: (1) To create an ambiguous interface where users experience an augmented space without guidance or narrative, inviting users to actively engage; (2) To demonstrate a spatial experience in AR within which users can forensically discover virtual environments, interact with elements and trigger effects; (3) To innovate a journalistic approach to events that may seem foreign or ''exotic'' to the user, by imposing the event on the user’s own environment, creating a provocation for engagement.
”
Computation 4.661
Architecture + Urbanism 4.s52 4.s33
Undergraduate Other
083
nv2247 Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
History Theory Criticism 4.390
4.412
Building Technology 4.619
Nikolaos Vlavianos PhD Candidate ¶ Design and Computation ¶ Dissertation Research ¶ Advisors: Takehiko Nagakura, Caroline Jones Spirituality through XR in Time & Space “¶ Utilizing state-of-the-art technology and
computation, the aim of this ongoing research is to record and simulate in XR real architectural spaces and humans’ motion, while collecting data and understanding the psychological and neural responses of humans in spiritual spaces. The presented photogrammetry models show the 3D reconstruction of the monastery of Simonos Petra in Athos Greece.
”
Bottom: Instagram screenshot of @mitarchitecture, ''after a quick flight to make a photogrammetry model of the dome...'' Opposite Top: South view of Simonos Petra monastery, point-cloud. Opposite Bottom: Birds-eye view of Simonos Petra monastery, point-cloud.
084
Computation 4.661
Architecture + Urbanism 4.s52 4.s33
Undergraduate Other
085
palomagr Art Culture Technology 4.323 4.362
History Theory Criticism 4.390
4.412
Building Technology 4.619
Paloma Gonzalez Rojas PhD Candidate ¶ Design and Computation ¶ Independent Research ¶ Advisor: Elsa Olivetti We created a new revolutionary material formula: “Woodpack. Construction is one of the most wasteful
industries, responsible for half of the global plastic wrap waste and its derivatives (200M Tons). Seventy five percent of that plastic waste ends up in landfills, damaging the environment and never degrading. The problem is: the Construction Industry needs single use plastic wrap for shipping lumber; protecting scaffolding, pallets, and materials; transportation, among others. This is a heavy duty, essential, and job creating industry that urgently needs to switch from petrol-based plastics to biodegradable ones. The solution is WoodPack, a 100% biodegradable protective wrap, capable of serving huge industries, without incurring new operational costs. WoodPack is similar to plastic woven poly tarp, but it is NOT plastic, it is completely natural. It is water resistant, strong, cheap and durable. It complies with plastic footprint regulations, it is an industry in transition. WoodPack can be disposed of in landfills for free, or used as soil filling saving our clients’ money, but most importantly, preserving our environment.
”
Our team is Paloma Gonzalez, a MIT PhD Candidate in Design and Computation from the Architecture Department, with materials science and construction expertise; Jose Tomas Dominguez, Universidad Federico Santa Maria Mechanical Engineer with Advanced Manufacturing expertise, Jose Antonio Gonzalez, Universidad Federico Santa Maria Industrial Engineer and MBA, with Company Building Expertise, and Alejandro Rey, MBA Student at La Frontera University.
086
Computation 4.661
Architecture + Urbanism 4.s52 4.s33
Undergraduate Other
087
MArch, Core I
Selected Course Descriptions
Architecture and Urbanism: MArch, Core I
Art Culture Technology 4.151
088
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
The first 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. This CoLab (Collaborative Laboratory) will bring together the disciplines of HTC, BT, Design, and Computation to provide circuits for exercising and exploring the central project.
4.151 Architecture Design Core
Studio I ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia, Jeremy Jih ¶ TAs: Clarence Lee, Rania Kaadan, Kimball Kaiser, Danny Griffin, Lavender Tessmer
This studio is interested in designing through methods of representation. It displaces the emphasis on product, by focusing on process. A central prompt asks how one might gather people on the Emerald Necklace in Boston. Through a series of circuits, students test design approaches against context, notions of picturesque, phenomena, story, composition, figure, and order. By repeating the central prompt through a range of these circuits, students build a robust position as to why and how design methods can shape the way architects project possible futures.
→ P. 090
4.210 Precedents in Critical
Practice ¶ Critic: Antonio Furgiuele ¶ TAs: Taylor Boes, James Heard
Through formal analysis and discussion of historical and theoretical texts, seminar produces a map of contemporary architectural practice. Examines six pairs of themes in terms of their recent history: city and global economy, urban plan and map of operations, program and performance, drawing and scripting, image and surface, and utopia and projection.
→ P. 136
Computation 4.210
4.464J Environmental
Technologies in Buildings ¶ Critic: Christoph Reinhart ¶ TAs: Alpha Yacob Arsano, Yu Qian Ang
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13 Introduction to the study of the thermal and luminous behavior of buildings. Examines the basic scientific principles underlying these phenomena and introduces students to a range of technologies and
Undergraduate 4.THG analysis techniques for designing comfortable indoor environments. Challenges students to apply these techniques and explore the role energy and light can play in shaping architecture.
089
allench Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Christopher Allen MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia of Assembly ¶ A combination “ofInstruments sonic tactics of protest and a participatory
program of storytelling and conversation creates a nodal network of interactive auditory interventions that comprise an urban discursive infrastructure. A variety of parabolic sound-reflecting shapes are combined and iterated to create an arrangement of unique rotating structures whose differences invite exploration and interaction and whose geometries and mobility enable a range of gatherings from one-on-one conversations to concerts and rallies.
”
090
Below: When rotated, sound-reflecting structures also replay annually-recorded anecdotes of urban and political experiences. Top Right: City Hall, Anti-Monument. Bottom Right: Emerald Necklace, Space for Gathering.
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
091
bellac Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Bella Carmelita Carriker MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia Jamaica Pond Glacier Springs ¶ Reviving the “glacial history of Jamaica Pond, as well as the
site’s tradition of combining water recreation and infrastructure, a new soft infrastructure is introduced to mitigate existing water concerns. A series of personalized bathing pools, 'iceberg' filtration structures and flood prevention systems insert architecture into geological time and space.
”
092
Above: Due to the inherent malleability and variability of water, pools of different sizes and shapes can function in a variety of ways to determine program. These can include thermal baths, ice skating, rollerblading or skateboarding, gardening, cooking, marketplaces and community gathering or seating. Top Right: A reflective pavilion in Jamaica Pond mirrors and distorts natural surroundings, inserting and immersing the viewer into the landscape. Bottom Right: Research into the geological, infrastructural, and social histories of Jamaica Pond reveal a renewed need to address multi-scalar issues within this aquatic ecosystem.
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
093
camstuz Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Caroline Amstutz MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia handbooks detail the events, activities, “andPartner architecture of the Wonder Walks—three
curated trails beginning and returning to a Nature Center. ¶ The Wonder Walk Handbook addresses children participating in the nature discovery experience, while the Nature Center Handbook documents the building constructed of rammed earth, timber, and gabion walls.
”
094
Above: Wonder Walk and Nature Center Handbook Covers. Opposite Left: Nature Center Plan. Opposite Right: Wonder Walk Trail Map. Opposite Below: Nature Center Renderings; Gabion Benches, Green Roof, Soil Viewing Tunnel.
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
095
czhong Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Calvin Zhong MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia Fermenting ¶ The picturesque “is Still challenged literally through cinematic
representation, and conceptually through an act of fermentation and placemaking. Its culmination is an annual event where the fruits of a collective labor are meant to be consumed in a bodily celebration for an activation of a public park.
”
096
dpankhur Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
David Pankhurst MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia This project introduces three natural pools and “a subterranean cistern which house dual-use,
seasonally-dependent programs. These pools are terraced between two ponds sited within the Emerald Necklace and employ linked architectural typologies of water containment in order to create a self-sustaining system which collects, purifies and replenishes its source.
”
098
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
099
gideonse Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Lauren Gideonse MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia A series of responses considering the form and “cycle of an annual moment of bounty, or muchness,
on the Emerald necklace. The sequence of projects looks at rotting, and returning, recovery and digestion, consumption and construction. The materials exist in a cyclical lineage that incorporates a moment of dispersion, from one into many and back to one.
”
100
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
101
giorgis Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Adriana Giorgis MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia Moment of Notice ¶ The work from “thisA Shared semester investigated the formalization of the
intangible through different short projects. In this project, the intangible is created through sound and the shared experience of taking notice of an intrusive sound to the common noise found in a park. Through a system of six geometrically connected but physically scattered follies, this project is designed to host a small ensemble of instruments meant to meet at the park once a year.
”
102
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
Opposite: Clarinets Character Exploration. Above: Drum Set Character Exploration. Right: Site plan video screenshot with instrument legend. Right Below: Harps Character Exploration.
103
idonovan Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Inge Donovan MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia My project uses the ice house as a conceptual “starting point to propose an architectural
sequence that induces lag and sensory deprivation, constructing a viewing device to expose the temporal regimes of the site. It is an invitation for a temporal resynchronization and a recalibration of the collective public memory.
”
104
Above: Section details showing five different temporal regimes: digital, photochemical, diurnal, annual and geological. Opposite: Axonometric view situating the project at Jamaica Pond. Opposite Below: Section Timeline.
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
105
jbrazier Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Justin Brazier MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia To buttress the efforts of local community “groups in anchoring what is now considered
Boston’s Latin Quarter, the scaffold and fabric architecture that is centered around the Viva El Latin Quarter Summer Finale is intended to support the celebration of the Afro Latin Heritage, history, and local economy.
”
106
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
Opposite: North/South Section of the larger pavilion viewing kiosks during the open market hours. Above: View of stage 1 during a night time performance. Right: View from the catering kiosks/dining area looking toward the large pavilion.
107
jingyunm Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Jingyun Ma MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia explores a playful way to interact “withThistheproject untouchable surfaces created by urbanism. It combines programs of graffiti and parkour within a connected series of follies in the Emerald Necklace. The miniaturized urban form provides abstracted forms of the city and encourages multiple ways of transgression.
”
Top: Surface study. Transgression on miniature urbanism. Above: Site plan. The railings open an entrance to the main road, welcoming the crowd of people and waiting for something irregular to happen. Opposite Top: Miniature high rise. Opposite Bottom: People can jump through holes on the wall and climb up to the top.
108
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
109
jschnitz Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Jenna Schnitzler MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia
Eye Catchers ¶ Traditionally, follies frame nature peacefully—in a solitary imaging experience. ¶ This “project explores how to repurpose natural images and create awareness of others and some alternative
intimacies between park goers. These four eye catchers reach a different part of the spectrum—what does it mean to have a surprising visual interaction?
”
110
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
Opposite Above: Plan analysis of one eye catcher. Opposite Below: Axonometric views of each eye catcher. Above: A Section analysis of one eye catcher.
111
jvbrice Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
James Brice MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia water collection systems, a bioswale, “anThree aqueduct, and a series of folded roof forms
encourage the growth of a new symbiosis between humans and ecological co-inhabitants. Each year, native species nurtured in greenhouses are planted, sowing the seeds for future stewardship. In 20 years time, what relationships will flourish?
112
”
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
Opposite: Satellite pavilion. Top: Main pavilion. Above: Main pavilion section.
113
krotman Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Katie Rotman MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia An Exploration In Sensorial Extremes ¶ Using “different media as separate starting points, this
project explores extreme sensorial experiences. The outcome of each investigation becomes the input for the subsequent exploration. Each experiment addresses forms of tension, issues of circulation and speed, and the sensation of discovery and wonder through visual, audio and physical cues.
”
114
Computation
History Theory Criticism
Undergraduate
115
leesoj Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
So Jung Lee MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia Mile-Far to Skin-Close ¶ This project suggests “a gathering space that evokes the feeling of
togetherness without the requirement of spacial adjacency. A trio of identical water infrastructures in different orientations are situated on a shore of Jamaica Pond. Each structure is developed into solid and piped surfaces that emits fog on one side and accommodates bathing on the other. For viewers from far away, choreography of fog provides a sense of shared ephemeral experience. In this case, fog acts as an agent to navigate you toward the structure. When close-by, the hyperbolic pools enable one to bathe or swim with strangers in foggy atmospheres that cater to degrees of privacy. Not knowing the source of the fog from a distance, the act of discovering the malleable edges resonates with Fredrick Olmsted's romanticist intention for the Emerald Necklace.
”
116
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
117
mwangxu Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Mackinley Wang-Xu MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia The project seeks to restring the Emerald “Necklace through a line that serves both as a
graphic device and as a physical conduit that transfers heat and vibrations. As one interacts with the line, one is aware of others interacting with the same line. People are alone together.
”
118
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
119
rellen Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Ellen Marie Reinhard MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia The park is known for its organized and spontaneous activities, “some of which no longer happen today. A track system is
introduced that revives the lost tradition of ice skating not on but rather around Jamaica Pond, with a rink as the central gathering spot. This deployable structure made of steel and textiles allows for a variety of other activities in warmer months.
”
Below: Collage of Jamaica Pond. Opposite Left: Site Plan of Jamaica Pond. Opposite Right: Structural Principles and Process.
120
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
121
sdmohan Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Sahil Mohan MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia This project asks how can we, as designers, “leverage design methods, particularly the acts
of constructing a drawing and representation, to centralize the use of water as a spiritually healing experience.
”
122
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
123
sesil Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Sesil Lee MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia cast by structures are often thought of “asShadows byproducts. In reverse, this project lets shadows
guide the formation of structures. Eleven pavilions placed across the field use pipes, surfaces and solids to create alternating shadows throughout the day that accommodate different patterns of play.
”
124
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
125
susanwil Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Susan Williams MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia project addresses the relationship between “theThis viewer and the viewed. Conspired as an
immersive experience, a pair of theaters on opposing ends of the Emerald Necklace are physically and visually connected through a performer/walker. The walker's journey from the North to the South theater is broadcast for both audiences. The viewing relationship dynamically changes throughout, touching upon the neutral, amorous, dominating and surveilled.
”
126
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
127
titova Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Alena Titova MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia Modular Community Library at the Pinebank “Promontory in Boston, MA ¶ This project
envisions the library as a collection of discrete parts embedded within the site’s undulating landscape. The Modular Community Library questions the importance of efficiency over experience as the spaced out components guide visitors through the site and encourage them to slow down and enjoy the outdoors.
”
128
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
Opposite Above: Administrative & Information Center—Circulation desk and book organization facility. Opposite Below: Library Subject Stacks—A series of buildings to house the ‘stacks’ of books, categorized by subject. Left: Reading ‘Room’ —Outdoor gazebo structures with workstations. Below: Site axonometric view.
129
ugorji Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Amanda Ugorji MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia society is crammed with architectures “thatCurrently, confirm the biases that it holds. Architectures that silently repeat to certain bodies that, ''you don’t belong here''. This short project explores techniques can we use to design an architecture that encourages belonging and soothes one’s anxieties.
”
130
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
131
yiqingw Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Yiqing Wang MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia Building Together ¶ Create a manual. Exchange “knowledge. Mount the towers. Test the materials. Shape the space. The project is turning the Emerald Necklace into an activated lab for self-organized construction where community members are able to gather, learn, and build.
”
132
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
133
yz3535 Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Iris Zeng MArch Candidate ¶ 4.151 Core I Studio ¶ Critics: Brandon Clifford, Rosalyne Shieh, Hans Tursack, Deborah Garcia Phase ¶ This project is about creating an event “in Inresponse to seasonal emotional vulnerability and seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Two inflatables will transform based on a schedule that is in synchronization to human physiological and psychological shifts. This project is interested in the amorphous state of the inflatable and its change through time. Through physics simulations, a series of studies provide an understanding of how an inflatable structure evolves and deforms and how it will perform with different materiality and physicality.
”
134
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
135
allench+bellac Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Christopher Allen Bella Carmelita Carriker MArch Candidates ¶ 4.210 Precedents in Critical Practice ¶ Critic: Antonio Furgiuele Scaffolding: (Infra)structure/Ornament ¶ “Because of scaffolding’s long history and regional
ubiquity, its capacity to function as a signifier often derives from the specificities and variations of its deployment, or subversions and reapplications of its form. This can include material specificity at the scale of a geographical region, flows of capital at the scale of a neighborhood, or the valuation of cultural or aesthetic significance at the scale of a single building.
”
136
Below Left: Hong Kong bamboo scaffolding reveals regional material flows. Below Right: Scalar disparity of new construction and existing context reflects influx of new wealth that is not reinvested into existing community. Bottom Left: Beautified scaffolding only seen in wealthier commercial and residential areas signifies a concentration of capital in these areas. Bottom Right: Beautified scaffolding only seen in wealthier commercial and residential areas signifies a concentration of capital in these areas.
camstutz+dpankhur Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
Caroline Amstutz David Pankhurst MArch Candidates ¶ 4.210 Precedents in Critical Practice ¶ Critic: Antonio Furgiuele Searching for Slowness ¶ is a new architectural “manifesto, taking form in a kit, asking participants
Below: Manifesto kit assembly materials.
to contribute to a common understanding of Slow Architecture. The kit invites readers to assemble a series of conversations into booklet format, analyze these conversations, and then reassemble and synthesize the text into thematic tenets.
”
137
czhong+jbrazier Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Calvin Zhong Justin Brazier MArch Candidates ¶ 4.210 Precedents in Critical Practice ¶ Critic: Antonio Furgiuele This field guide attempts to close the gap—to “promote actionable architecture and interventions
at the individual, local, and city level. Through a matrix of projects situated between the tactical and the formal and their interventions between individual and urban scales we hope to break down the most important characteristics in an effort to promote repeatability.
”
138
gideonse+giorgis+susanwil Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
Lauren Gideonse Adriana Giorgis Susan Williams MArch Candidates ¶ 4.210 Precedents in Critical Practice ¶ Critic: Antonio Furgiuele A trap is a designed device. A building is a “designed device. Traps have lures. Buildings have
The game can be played at https://leftorright.webflow.io/ but is not smartphone compatible.
destinations. Traps have triggers, components primed for interaction. Buildings have switches to flip, door handles to turn, windows to open, buttons to press. Both are static until you introduce a participant, and then are framed and function in response to circumstance and the physiological aspect of the user. ¶ With this project we conducted a study of trap typologies through the Indiana Jones movie franchise and interpreted those typologies in a mundane situation through this game.
”
139
jschnitz+titova+krotman Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Jenna Schnitzler Alena Titova Katie Rotman MArch Candidates ¶ 4.210 Precedents in Critical Practice ¶ Critic: Antonio Furgiuele Re-Assembly of the Shopping Mall ¶ We “performed a formal analysis of the mall, collaging
typologies onto a case study footprint. In doing so, we argue for the necessity of capturing the mall’s potential to serve another purpose. Our exploration points to the number of possible adaptations of the mall into re-assembled components for secondhand use.
”
140
mwangxu+jvbrice Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
Mackinley Wang-Xu James Brice MArch Candidates ¶ 4.210 Precedents in Critical Practice ¶ Critic: Antonio Furgiuele The Zoo often reflects a societal attitude towards “nature. Through the study of the historic trajectory and material construction of zoos, this dossier seeks to both unpack the problematics of the Zoo typology and reveal generative moments that yield speculative projects that reframe the relationship between humans and nature.
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141
rellen+idonovan+jingyunm Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Ellen Marie Reinhard Inge Donovan Jingyun Ma MArch Candidates ¶ 4.210 Precedents in Critical Practice ¶ Critic: Antonio Furgiuele The Tahoe Reno Industrial Center (TRIC) “hosts tech giants such as Google, Switch, Tesla,
Blockchains, and Walmart. This case study investigates how the industrial landscapes of computation create a test bed for novel utopian visions. Will these posthuman landscapes, which currently host pure flows of information, fail as soon as humans inhabit them?
”
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Below Left: Architecture of the Loop. Below Right: Architecture as Chassis.
ugorji+sdmohan Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
Amanda Ugorji Sahil Mohan MArch Candidates ¶ 4.210 Precedents in Critical Practice ¶ Critic: Antonio Furgiuele SIISIWSDM is a series of web diagrams that “were connected and then pulled apart to compound
Below Left: [SIISIWSDM] Key. Below Right: MIT's Financial Stability and the Devaluing of Peoples.
multiple accounts of money’s momentum and the values at MIT. From this investigation, it is apparent that transparency is not a goal, rather, money creates scaffolds to produce MIT’s ultimate value, novel knowledge.
”
143
sesil+yiqingw Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Sesil Lee Yiqing Wang MArch Candidates ¶ 4.210 Precedents in Critical Practice ¶ Critic: Antonio Furgiuele of Dwelling ¶ This project investigates “twoTaleself-growing settlements, Kowloon Walled
City and Fes, by re-reading the context and text from multiple sources to open up a chain story of dwelling. The extracted diagrams, inbetween fictional bridge, first-person diaries and photographs provide triadic projections of the narratives.
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144
yz3535+leesoj Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
Iris Zeng So Jung Lee MArch Candidates ¶ 4.210 Precedents in Critical Practice ¶ Critic: Antonio Furgiuele We started this project by tracing Eames Office “employees, their identity, their work, and their
career trajectories to understand how the Eames Office operated. We set out to investigate not only their process of creating work as a post-war interdisciplinary creative enterprise but also how the authorship was constructed as the structure of the office shifted.
”
145
MArch, Core III
Selected Course Descriptions
Architecture and Urbanism: MArch, Core III
Art Culture Technology 4.151
146
History Theory Criticism 4.154 4.153
Building Technology 4.163J
Core 3 is the concluding studio of the March Program at MIT and is co-taught with MIT 4.463 Building Technology Systems: Structures and Envelopes led by Professor Caitlin Mueller and her team. The Core 3 studio explores the architectural problem of designing a space of production that engages the changing relationships between natural ecologies and technological systems in the Anthropocene. Students create, test and develop an architectural design proposal with an integrated approach to program organization, building structure, envelope and energy performance. Students are encouraged to position their work with respect to climate change, and to test their proposals through hands-on investigations that explore the decarbonization of materials and construction methods in architecture.
4.153 Architecture Design Core
Studio III ¶ Critics: Sheila Kennedy, Rami el Samahy, Cristina Parreño ¶ TAs: Laura Gonzalez, Melika Konjicanin, Eytan Levi, Zhicheng Xu
With support from MIT J-WEL and the Department, Professors Sheila Kennedy, Cristina Parreño and Rami el Samahy focused Core 3 on the design problem of a cooperatively owned and operated seaweed farming plant in Maine. With its provisions for seawater access, a range of thermally conditioned spaces, circulation requirments and elevated drying areas, the program provided students with structural, thermal and daylight criteria, and emphasized design in section across changing temporal cycles of tides and seasons. ¶ The Core 3 studio utilized the media of architecture as a vehicle to think about regenerative ocean farming, seaweed production and FOOD— food security, food sovereignty and food heritage. In the service of this larger project, students worked in teams to research global seaweed harvesting infrastructure and practices, supported by online talks and visits from seaweed farmers from around the world. The studio research was then adapted to selected rural and urban sites in Maine. Studio guests provided their view points and discussed the work, with representatives from the
Computation 4.210
4.463 Building Technology
Systems: Structures and Envelopes ¶ Critic: Caitlin Mueller ¶ TA: Kiley Feickert
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
Penobscot Nation and members of local NGO’s the Cooperative Development Institute of Maine (CDI), and the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition (MIRC). ¶ MIT Core 3 Maker kits were sent to each Core 3 student and in the spirt of make/do the studio became a testing ground for iterative design processes with digital and physical work flows— exploring forces of wind, water, buoyancy, gravity and everyday materials, locally found. Studio work was supplemented by experimental SEAs (Seaweed
Experience Activities), optional probe projects where students could directly work with the multisensorial properties of seaweed as living infrastructure, food and building material. Visiting Engineer Pratik Ravel contributed lectures and discussions on climate design and Professor Mark Jarzombek cross-pollinated design thinking from his elective course MIT 4.607 Thinking About Architecture: In History and At Present.
Addressed advanced structures, exterior envelopes, and contemporary production technologies. Continued the exploration of structural elements and systems, expanding to include more complex determinate, indeterminate, long-span, and high-rise systems. Topics included reinforced concrete, steel and
engineered-wood design, and an introduction to tensile systems. The contemporary exterior envelope was discussed with an emphasis on the classification of systems, performance attributes, and analysis techniques, material specifications and novel construction technologies.
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bath+pduenasg+smoreau Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Benjamin Tasistro-Hart Patricia Dueñas Gerritsen Sacha Moreau MArch Candidates ¶ 4.153 Architecture Design Core Studio III ¶ Critics: Sheila Kennedy, Rami el Samahy, Cristina Parreño Alonso Staggered Ground embeds architecture in “processes of environmental remediation centering on
the capacity of seaweed to clean water, fertilize our food, and mediate relationships between water and land. It proposes the use of seaweed fertilizer in order to both support local farms on a regional scale and reduce harmful agricultural runoff into the Penobscot River watershed. ¶ Staggered Ground assumes a lack of control, critiquing the tabula-rasa site and picturesque gaze that render landscape static. Thick walls operate across a range of scales blurring the relationship between land and architecture.
”
148
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Opposite top: Kelp is brought in by boat from the Penobscot Bay and hung up to dry. Opposite bottom: Early detail model of multifaceted thick wall concept. Top: Nursery render with light filtering through trombe wall. Bottom: North elevation.
149
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151
degiulio+marmedr+nalmulla Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Zachariah DeGiulio Mariana Medrano Nada AlMulla MArch Candidates ¶ 4.153 Architecture Design Core Studio III ¶ Critics: Sheila Kennedy, Rami el Samahy, Cristina Parreño Alonso ME-A-L (Maine, Auburn-Lewiston) is “anMuseum adaptive reuse project that integrates the rapidly
growing Somali and East African community of Lewiston/Auburn into a program of regenerative farming and seaweed processing. ¶ The Museum ME-A-L utilizes a strategy of material mining and reconstruction that we’re calling Carve. Cast. Hold Fast. The existing bricks, concrete, boulders, and glass blocks constitute the materials necessary to transform this former mill building into a publicfacing seaweed growing and harvesting plant that demonstrates the possibilities of seaweed cultivation in Maine at present and in the face of climate change.
”
152
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
153
degiulio+marmedr+nalmulla Art Culture Technology 4.151
154
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
155
geltmanj+ewissema+daisyz Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Julian Escudero Geltman Emily Wissemann Daisy Ziyan Zhang MArch Candidates ¶ 4.153 Architecture Design Core Studio III ¶ Critics: Sheila Kennedy, Rami el Samahy, Cristina Parreño Alonso (Re)factory envisions a form of seaweed “production that not only disregards an
extractive mindset but instead emphasizes the interdependencies of species inhabiting the tidal zone. Accommodating vertical seaweed drying as well as a nursery, re(factory) is a tower composed of a thickened-walls that reminds us to slow down, to celebrate the quietness, and to extend our standards of care, kin and embrace.
”
156
Computation 4.210
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157
geltmanj+ewissema+daisyz Art Culture Technology 4.151
158
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
159
haotianw+ohyj+wangyun Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Stewart Haotian Wu Yoonjae Oh Chloe Yun Wang MArch Candidates ¶ 4.153 Architecture Design Core Studio III ¶ Critics: Sheila Kennedy, Rami el Samahy, Cristina Parreño Alonso Bailey Island Seaweed School (BISS) is a creator's “school where prospective seaweed farmers learn and personalize their farming strategy. The whole design is a ‘tidal workshop’, which borrows the power of nature to create distinct experiences during high and low tide. We aimed to diversify the learning experience through a 'shear' form to promote mutual caring between different user groups and leverage the distinct landscape experience between high and low tide.
”
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161
haotianw+ohyj+wangyun Art Culture Technology 4.151
162
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Building Technology 4.163J
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
163
aboscolo+angelalm+ardalan+ous Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Arthur Boscolo Angela Loescher-Montal Ardalan SadeghiKivi Ous Abou Ras MArch Candidates ¶ 4.153 Architecture Design Core Studio III ¶ Critics: Sheila Kennedy, Rami el Samahy, Cristina Parreño Alonso Barning, a verb that encapsulates an imagined “form of Architecture that can accommodate for
unordered and chaotic events in space. With Barning, this project is an ongoing discussion of adaptation, distribution, and collective activities that emerge from diverse and ritualized articulations of space— from sharing, taking, protecting and serving.
”
164
Computation 4.210
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165
aboscolo + angelalm + ardalan + ous Art Culture Technology 4.151
166
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
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167
midowu+pgruber+sammay Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Jola Idowu Paul Gruber Sam May MArch Candidates ¶ 4.153 Architecture Design Core Studio III ¶ Critics: Sheila Kennedy, Rami el Samahy, Cristina Parreño Alonso Joint Assembly ¶ This project borrows from “traditional Chilotan carpentry techniques to produce
a modular system for seaweed harvesting and processing. Individual modules allow Algueros to harvest wild Benthic seaweed independently while joints allow individuals to join together for communal and value adding processes.
”
168
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
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169
midowu+pgruber+sammay Art Culture Technology 4.151
170
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
171
jok+kkoskey+sashamck Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Jayson Kim Katie Koskey Sasha McKinlay MArch Candidates ¶ 4.153 Architecture Design Core Studio III ¶ Critics: Sheila Kennedy, Rami el Samahy, Cristina Parreño Alonso
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Depository dresses and undresses “withThetheSeaweed seasons, enabling users to tailor the thermal environment to the local climate and their unique needs. Insulation layers are maintained, rebuilt and recycled as needed, ensuring that the building is also committed to the conversion of cultural knowledge and craft.
”
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jok+kkoskey+sashamck Art Culture Technology 4.151
174
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
175
latifa+mearc+npearl+tcousin Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Latifa Alkhayat William Marshall Natalie Pearl Tim Cousin MArch Candidates ¶ 4.153 Architecture Design Core Studio III ¶ Critics: Sheila Kennedy, Rami el Samahy, Cristina Parreño Alonso On the coast of Maine's Mount Desert island, “home of Acadia National Park, and sacred land of
the Wabanaki people, an architecture that questions ownership is proposed.
”
176
Computation 4.210
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Undergraduate 4.THG
177
latifa +mearc+npearl+ tcousin
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ofaber+triss+vgr Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Olivier Faber Tristan Searight Vijay Rajkumar MArch Candidates ¶ 4.153 Architecture Design Core Studio III ¶ Critics: Sheila Kennedy, Rami el Samahy, Cristina Parreño Alonso SeaChange is a dual-program seaweed processing “facility and market co-operative located on the waterfront of Portland, Maine. Responding to the city’s rapidly diversifying population in spite of an exclusive waterfront, and the increasing importance of sustainable local food systems due to climate change, the project asks how architecture can facilitate cultural change through the formation of new adjacencies of people, food and materials. Intelligent thermal control and a bespoke
180
constructive system of inhabitable structural elements composed of accessible, low-carbon, local and off-the-shelf materials is central to this project’s design.
”
Computation 4.210
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181
ofaber+triss+vgr Art Culture Technology 4.151
182
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
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183
yujiew+zekunfan Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Yujie Wang Zekun Fan MArch Candidates ¶ 4.153 Architecture Design Core Studio III ¶ Critics: Sheila Kennedy, Rami el Samahy, Cristina Parreño Alonso explores the possibility of a new “typeThisofproject 'bargetechture'' by distributing programs
on floating barges on the sea. The barges can be released during the seaweed plant's on-season and attached to the hanger building in the off-season. The nine-foot tidal difference shapes different spatial experiences and accessibility between the barge and hanger.
”
184
Computation 4.210
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185
yujiew+zekunfan Art Culture Technology 4.151
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History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
187
MArch, Option + Thesis
Selected Course Descriptions
Architecture and Urbanism: MArch, Option + Thesis
Art Culture Technology 4.151
188
History Theory Criticism 4.154 4.153
Building Technology 4.163J
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.
4.154 Architecture Design Options Studio: MATTER TO DATA ¶ Critic: Antón García-Abril ¶ TA: Jaehun Woo
MATTER TO DATA explores the extraction of valuable creative resources from the manipulation of MATTER, and the exposure to the common forces and energies that constitute the spatial event, to be transformed into DATA, source to engineer, detail and prescribe an architecture documentation. This reverse process of design, will allow students to explore the immense complexities of play with MATTER, the observation and analytical outlook that architects develop to read the spaces that the game generates, and how to transform them into coded DATA to be studied empirically. Studio Playlist: https:// www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL XENcgPRslPX7n4H1dbz3GGuHQK Ri2-yE
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4.154 Architecture Design
Options Studio: Sowing Worlds, Growing Power ¶ Critic: Rania Ghosn ¶ TA: Mark Anthony Hernandez-Cornejo
The manufactured abundance of industrial agriculture has been paralleled by the rise in food insecurity and its disproportionate impact on communities of color. East Boston, the site of the studio, is one such urban area with limited access to affordable and nutritious food. In response, the studio "Growing Power, Sowing Worlds" makes visible the underlying inequities of food distribution and deploys the architectural imagination to begin the repair work in architecture and agriculture and design. In the first
Computation 4.210 (4.154 continued)
4.154 Architecture Design
Options Studio: Pandemic Studio ¶ Critic: John Ochsendorf ¶ TA: Charlotte D'Acierno
4.THG Graduate Thesis
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13 half of the semester, the students worked individually on a series of 4 prompts: "The Cook, The Philosopher, The Activist, and The Curator" to attend to the various agencies in food preparation and associated modes of representation. The Cook concocted a Subnature still life, a la David Gissen. The Philosopher positioned her dinner party in a worldview. The Activist charted the organizational structure and networks of a food related agency. The Curator, bringing together the above three actors, produced a situation that assembled a public around a food matter of concern in a site in East Boston. In the second half of the semester, the The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated our reliance on public schools, not only to educate our students, but also to provide key community services. ¶ The Cambridge Public Schools district has a number of aging facilities. This studio has examined six elementary schools and reimagined them for both the current moment and for a postpandemic future. ¶ Cambridge public schools not only serve their students through learning and transformation, but they also are important spaces for community service and engagement. These schools function as voting locations, community school
Undergraduate 4.THG students worked in groups of 3 to develop a project on a domainsite in East Boston. The "site" provocation was that East Boston was a "leftover" or "byproduct" of much infrastructural priorities— terraforming, highways, tunnels, airports, discharge, emissions, etc. Could these same (subnature) conditions—the Greenwaypublic lands, the Ted Williams Tunnel, Page # Chelsea Creek, and Logan Airport–be transformed into sites to grow food and the city and in the process challenge values embedded in food networks?
→ P. 212 program centers, afterschool childcare, pre-school childcare, as well as places for urban gardening. ¶ A growing body of research demonstrates that many strategies to reduce school energy consumption also positively impact student learning outcomes. Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic requires significant changes to learning environments, which should catalyze other essential changes to the quality and efficiency of schools in the US.
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Program of research and writing of thesis; to be arranged by the student with supervising committee.
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chitam Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Carolyn Tam MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Matter To Data ¶ Critic: Antón García-Abril Skin & Bones ¶ An interplay between the “man-made and natural. Situated at the Shing
Mun reservoir in Hong Kong, the project aims to keeps nature as an integral part of the overall plan, without felling a single tree. By utilizing the existing woodland, the project became a structural game between tree columns, man-made poles and the fabric facade.
”
190
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Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
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191
dgr Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Danny Griffin MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Matter To Data ¶ Critic: Antón García-Abril Home, Erratic ¶ Conventional construction “practices disrupt geological flows of matter,
contorting materials to fit inside of clean orthogonal walls. What if the innate properties of the material guided construction? This project investigates the act of transporting and pouring matter as a constructive process in itself, one which preserves ties to material origins.
”
Left: Isometric view entryway. Below: Section Model, Between sand and shell. Opposite Top: Transverse Section. Opposite Bottom: Site Model
192
193
gils Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Gil Sunshine MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Matter To Data ¶ Critic: Antón García-Abril From the early 19th to early 20th century, central “coastal Maine was a major source of granite for
the United States building industry. With the development of steel and concrete construction in the early 20th century, Maine’s granite industry, and the skilled labor required to keep it running, all but disappeared. Built from waste rock from the Crotch Island Quarry in Stonington, ME, Phanteric House is a home made of stone for an age without masons.
”
194
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
195
inezow Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Inez Ow MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Matter To Data ¶ Critic: Antón García-Abril A Gentle Parasite ¶ What makes a house, “a home? A house becomes a home when we
understand how it works, just as we strive to understand how our own bodies work. Like that of a body, the anatomy of a house comprises organs, vessels, bones, and skin. However, our estrangement from these vessels and organs of our houses prevents us from developing a relationship with them. We become reliant on others to diagnose, repair, and simply be concerned about the health of this very important space where we live, rest, recover, reflect, bond, aspire, and self-actualize. ¶ Our home is nestled on the rooftop of an existing shophouse in Singapore, gently tapping onto the existing supply and drainage ductwork rising from the back alley down below. The back alley is where the systems of the shophouses have been cast away. Not in our home. In our home, the anatomy of the home is put on display. After all, recognition is the first step to understanding — how the air around you is cooled, where your hot water is coming from, how your waste is carried away...and learning the source of that constant but comforting low hum that you hear before falling asleep every night.
”
Left Top: Physical model. Left Below: Interior. Opposite Top: The anatomy of a home is put on display. Opposite Bottom: A Gentle Parasite.
196
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
197
jysim Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Jinyoung Sim MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Matter To Data ¶ Critic: Antón García-Abril This project is about designing a home through “demolition. As the world constantly evolves around
social, cultural, and economic parameters, today’s construction should emphasize their adaptive structure to pursue diversity. This project illustrates a practical approach to a new understanding of architecture and humanity affected by expected change. As opposed to the traditional approach of constructing a new building upon demolition, this work renovates the past building structure through deconstruction. Concrete, as the only ingredient, results in a building balanced by gravity without mechanical assistance.
”
198
Computation 4.210
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199
mengqiao Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Mengqiao Zhao MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Matter To Data ¶ Critic: Antón García-Abril
“
One-Child Family House ¶ This project is a community residence for one-child multi-generation families in Beijing. It is a community, which allows these families to live together. Inspired by traditional co-living spaces in Hutong, this project takes barshaped living spaces and organizes them as a threedimensional collective living space.
”
200
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
201
rmoyers Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Ruth Blair Moyers MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Matter To Data ¶ Critic: Antón García-Abril is about the duality of home, as an “ideaThisandproject as a physical reality bounded to a place.
Both itself and an impression of itself, the house is made of both a concrete form and the timber formwork use to cast it. The two spaces are mirrors of each other.
”
202
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
203
ryanjw Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Jie (Ryan) Wu MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Matter To Data ¶ Critic: Antón García-Abril artists couple clients asked: ''We don’t want “toThe live together; we want to live in the vicinity of
each other.'' The clients, Mr. and Mrs. Flanders, want to live under the same roof, but do not want to share living spaces, fearing that cohabitation could erode their independent creativity. How can a house for a couple that also separates the couple be designed?
”
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205
thadd Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Thaddeus Lee MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Matter To Data ¶ Critic: Antón García-Abril
“
Oneiric House ¶ All this time spent indoors during quarantine has produced a kind of unending daydream. With this project, I try to bring this image of home into focus through the architectural elements of roofs and eaves. The resultant Oneiric House relishes in the slow passage of time and light.
”
206
Computation 4.210
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207
xzc Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Zhicheng Xu MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Matter To Data ¶ Critic: Antón García-Abril What constitutes a 'home' in the context of the “coastal landscape in Maine? Perhaps, for a site like
this, a concaved terrain surrounded by granite and tidal current, all it requires is a roof. While working with the native landscape, this project explores the possibility of building a house with no facade and a roof that becomes an extension of the coastal terrain.
”
208
Computation 4.210
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Undergraduate 4.THG
209
zhifei Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Zhifei Xu MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Matter To Data ¶ Critic: Antón García-Abril This project is about revisiting traditional “Chinese landscape gardens as the paradigm of
an ideal home and poetic dwelling. The project can be viewed as a blunt translation of traditional Chinese gardens through digital workflow (matter to data to matter) and contemporary construction techniques. It attempts to go back to the origin, finding sources of inspiration from traditional art and culture like landscape painting or garden, and rethink contemporary Chinese architecture without modernism and colonial influence.
”
210
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211
adoor+clementr+tboes Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Angie Door Ryan Clement Taylor Boes MArch Candidates ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Growing Power, Sowing Worlds ¶ Critic: Rania Ghosn ¶ The underground has the potential “tomyceliUS be a breeding ground for a new ecology of
nourishment, initially for fungi as it is suited to the deep, dank atmosphere. In existing and newly-dug tunnels we are free to grow food and build political movements safely. Over time we increase in number and support those in need with our crops, ready to re-emerge to face life above the surface.
”
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213
adoor+clementr+tboes Art Culture Technology 4.151
214
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
215
cmatthai+yacoby+mwaddle Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Charlotte Matthai Yaara Yacoby Marisa Concetta Waddle MArch Candidates ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Growing Power, Sowing Worlds ¶ Critic: Rania Ghosn Relation To is a project of a speculative future— “oneInwhere we re-examine our current modes of being and hypothesize on new rituals, behaviors, and architectures based on a system of values grounded in undiscriminating empathy and blurred boundaries between human, earth, and machine.
”
Left Top: “An Invitation to Dine.” Left Bottom: “Filter Landscape." Opposite Top: “Issue, Position, Strategy.” Opposite Bottom: “Mudscape.”
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emmajur+erinwong+jlsong Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Emma Jurczynski Erin Wong Alice Jia Li Song MArch Candidates ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Growing Power, Sowing Worlds ¶ Critic: Rania Ghosn ¶ The community of East Boston faces “foodLeftovers insecurity, environmental contamination, and gentrification. This project explores food insecurity and the various approaches taken to address it. We call for food justice as a reimagining of the current food system that goes beyond putting "band-aid" like assistance programs in place, to one that starts within the community for which it serves.
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Bottom: This scene imagines the planning of a network of civic hubs and their programming. Opposite Top: Newspaper clippings that address the SNAP program and Olmsted's Wood Island Park in East Boston that was demolished for the expansion of the Logan Airport.
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1969 Olmsted’s Wood Island Park was demolished.
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The ICA
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The Immigration Station
Above, Top to Bottom: Three curatorial proposals to take place in East Boston— a walking tour; ghost structures; a parade. Opposite, Top to Bottom: The composting stop in the walking tour under the highway; Suffolk Down Racing Track reassembled and cultivated; reimagined public school playgrounds that integrate food as a curriculum.
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The Boston Sugar Refinery
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DAY 1
YEAR 1
YEAR 1.5
YEAR 2
YEAR 5
LOCATE
SALVAGE
RE-ASSEMBLE
CULTIVATE
FUTURE
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jswagema+yutan+ellenjw Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Jitske Swagemakers Yutan Sun Ellen Wood MArch Candidates ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Growing Power, Sowing Worlds ¶ Critic: Rania Ghosn Right to the Air redefines the conception of “theTheatmosphere—the air that we collectively breathe
and inhabit. The conditions of the atmosphere are intertwined in the politics, economics, and ecologies of its embedded territories, globally and locally. With the increasing threat of climate change, the once ambiguous and invisible issues of the atmosphere need to take center stage in our proposal.
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Left Top: Zones of clean air formed by inflatable structures, expanding on the logic of the airbag system. Left Bottom: The Politics of Air—Climate Discrepancies between Boston Logan Airport and the East Boston Community. Opposite Top: Celebrating the Uncontrollable—Conditioning of egg. Opposite Bottom: Drawing from the Cyborg Manifesto by Donna Haraway, this strategy invites us to rethink the spatial organization of Logan airport in relation to the human and the non-human.
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anamc Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Ana McIntosh MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Pandemic Resilient Schools ¶ Critics: John Ochsendorf, Michael Murphy, Sara Jensen Carr This design proposal builds upon the primary “proposal with interventions to the existing building
and recommends appropriating the lot near the site for a new preschool and kindergarten classroom building. Key interventions include: 1) Carve ground and open facade along south of existing building to extend indoor eating space in the basement to the outside and create new play areas and performance space. 2) Create solar chimneys in existing building to improve ventilation for classrooms. 3) Reconfigure existing classrooms. 4) New twostory building on adjacent lot for preschool and kindergarten classrooms and solo nook spaces, with outdoor garden classrooms and natural play area, and connection to nearby Green-Rose Heritage Park
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arenasa Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Ana Arenas MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Pandemic Resilient Schools ¶ Critics: John Ochsendorf, Michael Murphy, Sara Jensen Carr Maria Baldwin is a preK-5 school located in the “Agassiz neighborhood in Cambridge between
Harvard and Porter Squares. This four-story building is nestled tightly into a residential neighborhood, fully surrounded by houses and apartment complexes. Its long side opens out to Sacramento St, a quiet one-way avenue with a playground across the street, which the school makes use of on a daily basis, and a park just to the west which teachers also regularly take their students to. ¶ The school site itself is tight, with the building taking up the majority of the property. While the school already reaches outside of its property lines to make use of the neighboring park and playground, this project proposes to maximize its presence on the corner of Sacramento and Oxford streets as a center for learning and living in harmony with the environment. ¶ This is founded on the concept of ecopsychology: the ideology that a close relationship with the natural world promotes physical and emotional wellbeing. It’s based on the concept that the human
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psyche is inextricably bound to the environment. As such, it argues that only by perceiving ourselves as an integral part of the natural world and committing to the health of our surrounding environment can we ourselves achieve full mental, emotional, and physical health. ¶ To that end, this project proposes to transform the Maria Baldwin Elementary School from a small school campus to an ecological living and learning habitat. The project intervenes 360 degrees around the building site as well as inside the building for a holistic approach toward an environmentally healthy and conscious place of learning. ¶ This series of interventions seeks to reduce the school’s carbon footprint, create a positive impact on its environment, and most importantly, integrate sustainability measures into the students’ daily experiences to create informal learning opportunities that will help shape childrens’ consciouses for a healthy and harmonious relationship with our non-human living home and family.
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carodrig Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Carol-Anne Rodrigues MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Pandemic Resilient Schools ¶ Critics: John Ochsendorf, Michael Murphy, Sara Jensen Carr This proposal reimagines the current “Cambridgeport school to introduce new ventilation,
create an engaging landscape and introduce new innovative learning spaces. By studying the current conditions, a ventilation system that used the existing cavities in the walls is proposed to promote air flow in the classrooms. The wall cavities are repeated again in the new extension that has cubbies for children to open and peer inside, allowing the architecture to also serve as a teaching tool. A green courtyard space is proposed between the historic building and extension to allow for increased sunlight in the communal spaces.
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Above: Playground Render. Left: Section through Historic Building. Opposite Top: Landscape Site Plan. Opposite Bottom: Section Perspective through New Extension & Courtyard.
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ginevra Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Ginerva D’Agostino MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Pandemic Resilient Schools ¶ Critics: John Ochsendorf, Michael Murphy, Sara Jensen Carr project proposes to take the logic embedded “in The the historic building as the point of departure for
Top: View of main entrance to school building and café on a snowy day. Bottom: View of science classroom showing how the basement has been altered and opened up to proposed outdoor planters. Opposite Top: View of site plan showing the new ground treatment and classrooms and section showing ventilation and renewable energy strategy. Opposite Bottom: View of proposed rooftop illustrating how students can learn from the intelligence embedded in the building.
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the intervention in order to allow for the building to breath. The expansion of the school considers demolishing the latest addition in favor of a series of shallow single loaded volumes that arrange themselves in different ways around the existing circulation axis. This is allows for further cross ventilation and enhanced daylighting conditions whilst still retaining the rhythm and technology of the ventilation shafts. The second fundamental strategy is a considered approach to the treatment of the remaining ground plane where both new courtyards are introduced as extensions of the classroom and the spaces buried in the basement of the existing building, are opened up by virtue of carving into the surrounding terrain. These then exist in varying relationships to the public realm and the way the school gathers, whether it is in a classroom or as a whole. The courtyard on the bottom right is really the way you enter the building and therefore acts as an extension of the public realm. For that reason the project takes into consideration the design of the whole right-of-way in front of the building extending the sidewalk, paving it in pervious material and introducing a variety of opportunities to move, sit, park a bicycle or even just wait for the bus under the shade of a canopy. ¶ The proposed site plan promotes a stronger connection between inside and outside. The cafeteria now is facing both courtyards integrating an open kitchen as well as learning kitchens. The classrooms can open up to the outdoors taking over circulation space transforming it into a learning area. The project also proposes a new roof to allow students to learn from the strategies embedded in the building such as the solar panels and the ventilation chimneys as well as adding an outdoor eating and resting area.
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jgbrear Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Jonathon Brearley MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Pandemic Resilient Schools ¶ Critics: John Ochsendorf, Michael Murphy, Sara Jensen Carr Sited at the Kennedy-Longfellow School, the “goals of these proposed interventions are to create
a learning environment that is not only pandemic resilient, but is healthy, is an exceptional learning environment, and is a place for togetherness within the school and community.
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lyncedt Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Lynced Torres MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Pandemic Resilient Schools ¶ Critics: John Ochsendorf, Michael Murphy, Sara Jensen Carr Fletcher Maynard Academy maintains a rich, “diverse population of teachers and students as it is
the Cambridge Elementary school that maintains a majority of African American students who come from economically disadvantaged homes and experience disabilities, particularly Autism Spectrum Disorder. Under the given protocols and issues experienced with COVID-19, the school’s future development is set through a series of staged interventions, including: the creation of a school front and face that allows for increased fundraising and support of existing programs; increasing the health and ventilation of shared spaces and classroom spaces so ASD students learn in a safe environment, without the use of masks at all times since this strategy is unrealistic for all kids; increasing desirability for the school amongst middle class families to further prompt future developments as often these parents are the drivers for change in CPS school systems; and lastly, establishing the school as a center and HOME for ASD learners.
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naref Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Nare Filiposyan MArch Candidate ¶ 4.154 Options Studio: Pandemic Resilient Schools ¶ Critics: John Ochsendorf, Michael Murphy, Sara Jensen Carr The rooftop addition proposed for Peabody Public “School in Cambridge, is a strategy for addressing
the school’s biggest concern—shortage of space. The project addresses the long term resilience of the school by providing richer environments for learning. The rooftop garden allows for integration of food into the entire curriculum.
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auriyane Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Arditha Auriyane MArch Candidate ¶ 4.s13 Building the Page: 2020-2021 MIT Architecture Publication Workshop ¶ Critics: Nicholas de Monchaux, Amanda Moore, Miko McGinty that was presented to Brielle “(agePart9)ofanda minigraph Maddie (age 11) as a target audience.
The minigraph tries to explain a project that was done for a studio, which was centered around challenging the structures of a museum. The book attempts to capture and direct the eye path to attract audience to certain parts of the drawing that explains the concept.
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carodrig Computation 4.210
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Carol-Anne Rodrigues MArch Candidate ¶ 4.s13 Building the Page: 2020-2021 MIT Architecture Publication Workshop ¶ Critics: Nicholas de Monchaux, Amanda Moore, Miko McGinty
first assignment challenged us to explain one “ofThe our studio projects to someone unfamiliar with our project. My target audience was an undergraduate student new to architecture. By formatting the project into a 'instruction map' with colorful visuals and encouraging advice, it allowed to project to be explained to someone who may not be familiar with architecture.
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edwardwa Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Edward Wang MArch Candidate ¶ 4.s13 Building the Page: 2020-2021 MIT Architecture Publication Workshop ¶ Critics: Nicholas de Monchaux, Amanda Moore, Miko McGinty The minigraph is a set of 4 posters designed as “activity sheets for my teenage cousin. ”
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Alice Jia Li Song MArch Candidate ¶ 4.s13 Building the Page: 2020-2021 MIT Architecture Publication Workshop ¶ Critics: Nicholas de Monchaux, Amanda Moore, Miko McGinty
A punk zine for highschoolers and a cutout book for “kindergarteners—both designed to teach kids about the history of the YMCA and the development of radical exercise.
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pduenasg Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Patricia Dueñas Gerritsen MArch Candidate ¶ 4.s13 Building the Page: 2020-2021 MIT Architecture Publication Workshop ¶ Critics: Nicholas de Monchaux, Amanda Moore, Miko McGinty on work done in Core II, most of which “wasBuilding done in collaboration with Jayson Kim and
Arthur Boscolo, I created a short book that redraws and reframes the project for an audience of one: my mom. The book refers to personal conversations and anecdotes alongside the intentions, process work, and outcomes of the project.
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Zhicheng Xu MArch Candidate ¶ 4.s13 Building the Page: 2020-2021 MIT Architecture Publication Workshop ¶ Critics: Nicholas de Monchaux, Amanda Moore, Miko McGinty The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically “changed our lives. Confined in one's apartment and
commuting only between the bedroom and the study, routines for living and working collide. The "fruit track" attempts to document one's daily fruit intake to maintain an optimistic and healthy lifestyle during this unusual time.
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abenitez Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Adiel Benitez MArch Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Miho Mazereeuw ¶ Readers: Susanne Schindler, Marisa Morán Jahn out of Paradise ¶ This thesis takes issue “withPriced the commodification of housing, and its
adverse effects on the vulnerable communities of greater Miami. It works to re-contextualize the cooperative ownership of housing within the Miami context, considering its deployment as an architectural response who’s programming and spatial organizations respond to both collective use and collective need.
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Left: Cyanotype 8.5x11''. Bottom: Project Section. Opposite Top: Ground Floor Plan—Community Programming. Opposite Bottom: Cyanotype 8.5x11''.
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auriyane Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Arditha Auriyane MArch Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Mariana Ibañez ¶ Readers: Les Norford, Kiel Moe Post-Arium is an exploration of new forms, “tectonics, and other ways to produce comfort. In
Post-arium, we question comfort: on whose and what terms are we basing it on? In the face of global temperature change, we need to challenge the boundaries of comfort, beyond solving for efficiency.
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Bottom Left: The extended Post-arium psychometric chart. Right Top: The village street, beyond what is materially seen. Right Below: Fish drying by the sunroom, beyond what is materially seen. Right Bottom: Designing for air buoyancy.
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chenchu Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Chen Chu MArch Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Miho Mazereeuw ¶ Readers: Nasser Rabbat, Delia Duong Ba Wendel To Know is to Empower: Chagos Institute of “Environmental Humanities ¶ Chagos Archipelago
was sanitized in the 1970s for a US military base on Diego Garcia, following a secret ''exchange of notes'' that escaped legislative approval. 1,500 Chagossian evictees, ''dumped'' in Mauritius and Seychelles, have since become surplus population dwarfed by the planetary-scale military-colonial network. Of all the denounced legal ammunition, the Chagos Marine Protected Area (MPA), along with its fiction of terra nullius, commits dual violence in legitimizing environmental fortification and denying 200 years of Chagossian inhabitation. The assemblage of the military, security and scientific institutions, by defining the Chagos MPA as an ''organic rationality,'' deploys a generalized and abstracted sense of ecological insecurity in aspiration for global environmental administration in opposition to traditional bodies of government. ¶ This thesis proposes the Chagos Institute of Environmental Humanities, a trojan horse with dual agency. While staging an apparent conformity to restrictions and regulations imposed by the UK-US alliance, the
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Institute quietly supports an undercover subversive project of decolonization. Beyond physical resettlement, it recognizes Chagossians’ sustained efforts in resisting colonialism and militarism. It remembers and foregrounds the forgotten 200 years of Chagossian inhabitation. To know is to reclaim. To know is to empower. The new system of environmental humanities rejects the nature-culture dichotomy. In problematizing the anthropocentric bias within our production of knowledge, it reveals the racist and colonialist othering of non-Western epistemologies. There is not a deficit in knowledge, in a quantitative sense, but a deficiency at the epistemic level. Rather than anxiously producing more, it is urgent that we reclaim prior Chagossian knowledge in the formation of the future. But not futuristic, the proposed Environmental Humanities is rooted in Chagossians’ past. We need the pluralist conviction that allows us to treat Chagossian and Western epistemologies equally and to merge them in a nuanced way. This is not an inconceivable revolution, as long as we have Chagossians with us through the journey.
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Opposite: The blue-washed Chagos as a territorialized node of de-territorialized powers. Below: Garden of Diaspora, East Point. Bottom: Rooting Heritage, Former Plantation.
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idannin Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Isadora Dannin MArch Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Mark Jarzombek ¶ Readers: Rosalyne Shieh, Azra Akšamija Seven Ways of Reading The House of the Seven “Gables ¶ Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote that fiction
''provides a way of being in the world without being of it.'' The House of the Seven Gables that he constructs does precisely that. This thesis looks closely at a house in Salem, MA with the same name, and asks where architecture stands in relation to that statement.
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Opposite: ''Chapter 2: Origins and Originals.'' Top: ''Chapter 3: A Mirror with a Memory.'' Below: ''Chapter 4: Solid Unrealities.'' Bottom: ''Chapter 5: An Impalpable Claim''
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cyhlee+dacierno+jaehunw Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Clarence Lee Charlotte D'Acierno Jaehun Woo MArch Candidates ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Mariana Ibañez ¶ Readers: John Oschendorf, Mark Jarzombek Ferrous Futures: Scenario Planning for Global “Steel ¶ 2 trillion kilograms of steel are produced
around the world on an annual basis, enough to construct 17,000 Birds Nest Stadiums, 31,000 Empire State Buildings, or 480,000 Guggenheim Bilbao skeletons. If all of this steel were to fill Central Park, this single ingot would be nearly 10 meters tall. If this steel were to wrap around the earth, it would circle the equator more than 3 times. ¶ As populations grow and urban centers densify, so too will our material dependence. This thesis combines methods from scientific research and scenario planning to develop a series of speculative futures as a response to this ever-changing and challenging environment. These scenarios provide plausible futures that operate within the confines of the current capitalist system; they highlight the absurdity of our current practice without becoming absurdly unrelatable.
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The goal of scenario design is not to produce an “alternative material but to question the consequences of our current practice, while acknowledging that we as designers operate within a larger geopolitical context. While there are many disciplines involved in the global steel industry, architecture is still culpable. At 56%, the built environment is the single largest consumer of steel.
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imagining these scenarios, we reconstruct “ourInmaterial culture and the effects that these
speculations might have in the complex networks in which this material is embedded. ''They allow us to prepare for the future...by providing a context for speaking about the unspeakable.'' While this thesis questions the pervasiveness of steel in the built environment, it is our hope that this reciprocal research-design methodology could be expanded or applied to other issues of global complexity.
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dawhi Art Culture Technology 4.151
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David White MArch Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Mark Jarzombek ¶ Readers: Brandon Clifford, Caitlin Mueller ¶ Henry David Thoreau writes in the “firstThorough chapter of his book, Walden, that before he
could begin work on his house by the pond, he first had to borrow an axe. ''Near the end of March, 1845, I borrowed an axe and went down to the woods by Walden Pond, nearest to where I intended to build my house, and began to cut down some tall, arrow pines, still in their youth, for timber.'' This passage, which marks the moment when Thoreau first turns to describing building his house, illustrates something surprising. Thoreau’s famous experiment in self reliance began with another man’s tools. As independent as Thoreau intended his enterprise to be, for Thoreau, borrowing is more rule than exception, appearing repeatedly and in varying ways throughout his account. He relies frequently on materials, knowledge, labor, etc. that are outside himself or his capacity to create. The nails he bought
from a blacksmith. The boards were recycled from an old shanty. The land itself and the trees on it were loaned to him by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson. Tools, natural resources, supply chains, help, etc. had to be bought, loaned, or scavenged in order for Thoreau to build and live, as he says, ''by the labor of his hands alone.'' This thesis is interested in that shortfall, where Thoreau’s ideals about how to build and live, which is represented in the Walden text, do not match the true constraints of building and living, which are represented in the architecture. Proposed here is a series of alternatives for Walden. Each carries with it as constraint and ideal of independence. Each exaggerates the effects of those constraints as a way to better uncover their inherent tensions. Together, the designs serve as a manual, playing out the implications in design of the limits that define them.
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Left: A reconstruction of Thoreau's cabin at Walden. The layers of the building have been pulled apart to show how Thoreau might have assembled it.
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kjj Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Kailin Jones MArch Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Azra Akšamija ¶ Readers: Hans Tursack, Mark Jarzombek Benjamin writes, "that which withers in “theWalter age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of
the work of art." In this thesis, I explore that which flourishes in the act of reproduction. This thesis examines the evolution of reproductive techniques in and transmissions of art and how it has affected artistic invention. ¶ According to Benjamin, aura is rooted in site specificity, ritual, uniqueness and nonreproducibility, failing to acknowledge the migration of objects, people and tools that have circulated throughout the world transmitting aesthetics and transferring skill and knowledge. In After Art, David Joselit asks for an expansion of the definition of art to "embrace heterogeneous configurations of relationships or links," freeing art from belonging to any particular time, space or medium. ¶ The ancient craft of beauty has never been stagnant or
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isolated from the act of reproduction. Rather, it is constantly evolving along with the innovations of technologies, the reach and speed of distribution networks, and changes in politics, economics, and culture. Artists such as Vermeer used reproductive techniques, such as using the camera lucida to assist in accurately rendering his images. ¶ The thesis uses China as a site of reproduction, both historic and contemporary, to reinforce the cultural complexities of reproduction. The sixth principle of Chinese painting,"传移模写" translates wordfor-word to "transmitting-transferring, imitatingwriting." The first two characters define the motivation for copying and the second pair address the method. The process of copying has the ability to transfer knowledge and skill from the original to the copier; the copy itself facilitates the preservation
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of the original from lootings and destruction; the proliferation of the copy alters the original’s accessibility and introduces new interactions and contexts. ¶ The sacred line between original and copy is not eroding. The distinction between production and reproduction has always been a blurry one. What motivates copying? How do we copy? What is a copy vis a vis an original? Through a series of experiments in copying, this thesis examines these questions by reproducing originals of objects of contentious origins and co-opting tools and techniques of reproduction.
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kmelika Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Melika Konjicanin MArch Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Cristina Parreño Alonso ¶ Readers: Sheila Kennedy, Azra Akšamija Factory of Coexistence ¶ Since the “fallThe of Yugoslavia thirty years ago, Bosnia and
Herzegovina’s once booming industrial system has left a landscape of its skeletons. Each town in the country that had been oriented around factory life now houses a ruin—a constant reminder of what once was. The negative effects of the fall of the country’s industrial system are experienced universally among its citizens, socially, economically, and environmentally. ¶ Once these industrial infrastructures brought prosperity to towns, though their environmental impact was neglected. Today they continue to exist on contaminated land, within the context of an ethnically segregated country, ruled by a nepotistic political elite. ¶ The complexity and corruption of the government’s inner workings implies the lack of any system in place to protect both its citizens and their cultural history, which includes the factories. ¶ Twenty-five years after
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the end of the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina is still rebuilding itself (or in most cases, failing to). ¶ This thesis proposes a modest first step towards an alternate approach of revitalization through the active healing of an industrial ruin. The defunct factory building will serve as both a locus for conversations of reflection on the nation’s past, and as a functional reminder that social, economic and environmental life cycles can be healed and renewed. ¶ The Factory of Coexistence is a new expanded architectural typology that reintroduces the industrial ruin back into cycles of life. Sited in the ruins of the first factory in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the first steel plant in southern Europe, the Factory of Coexistence exploits the transformative potential of the ruin in the rewriting of social, economic and environmental stories. In the Factory of Coexistence, architecture is a medium that reconnects us with the past, while acting in the present to transform the future.
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njhaveri Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Nynika Jhaveri MArch Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Azra Akšamija ¶ Readers: Lawrence Vale, James Wescoat of Resistance ¶ This thesis questions the “roleGardens of architecture in envisioning and engaging the tools of resistance in the context of political, urban capital centers. It narrates the stories of three actors as they reclaim the Mughal Gardens of Lutyen's New Delhi, re-inscribing criticality, imagination and introspection into the charged landscape through carefully crafted socio-spatial resistances, each in response to their own historical moments.
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scinalli Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Sydney Cinalli MArch Candidate ¶ 4.THG Graduate Thesis ¶ Advisor: Brandon Clifford, Deborah Garcia ¶ Reader: Cristina Parreño Alonso Reclaiming the Estranged: Imagining an “Architecture of Excess ¶ This thesis reframes
plastic waste as a resource rather than a contentious collection of artifacts. By speculating on its life beyond estrangement, this perversion is explored in three parafictions which conflate plastic’s lifespan with socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental conditions unique to the Hawaiian Islands.
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Below: plastic earth—graveyard. Bottom: we reap, they sew—construction. Opposite: plastic earth—artifact.
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SMArchS
Selected Course Descriptions
Architecture and Urbanism: SMArchS
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The Master of Science in Architecture Studies (SMArchS) is a twoyear program of advanced study founded on research and inquiry in architecture as a discipline and as a practice. The program is intended both for students who already have a professional degree in architecture and those interested in advanced non-professional graduate study.
4.163J Urban Design Studio ¶
Critics: Rafi Segal, Alan Berger ¶ TA: Mohamad Nahle
Throughout its history, Urban Design (and allied design disciplines with a capital "D") has been the practice of a privileged few. And as a manifestation of power urban design has assisted in translating client(s) desires to control the city through the shaping of objects and buildings, voids and landscapes, and infrastructural networks. Moreover, our accumulated urbanity parallels the constructions of cultural narratives reflected through what a society chooses to build and preserve, erase and destroy. Within the context of the American city, the protocols and processes through which cities are shaped, and their constituent urban elements and symbols, have served a world view of the parties in charge of the process, often not the majority of those affected by decisions. This studio addresses both the inherent and historic inequalities and exclusions which Urban Design entails as a discipline by asking the most critical and broadest of questions, yet demanding that physical plans—novel ‘typologies of equity’—be produced as the result of the process.
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Computation 4.210
4.228 Contemporary Urbanism Proseminar: Theory and Representation ¶ Critic: Roi Salgueiro Barrio ¶ TA: Qianqian Wan
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13 This critical introduction to key contemporary positions in urbanism investigates how to research, represent, and design territories that respond to the challenges of the 21st century. The course treats urbanization as a socio-spatial process of territorial structuring ultimately shaping the world at large. The class then mobilizes this planetary framework to investigate how the urban process has radically transformed previous spatial concepts, thus creating new spaces for action, but also new disciplinary responsibilities and
Undergraduate 4.THG uncertainties. With that purpose, instead of relying on an inherited, static vocabulary of spatial levels (such as city, metropolis, or region), the seminar explores what new categories can help designers to conceive the urban as a multilayered, dynamic and transcalar phenomenon, affecting environments and artifacts, humans and non-humans alike.
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gdegetau+monavjay Art Culture Technology 4.151
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Gabriela Degetau Zander Mona VijayKumar SMArchS Candidates ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.163 J / 11.332 J Options Studio: The Power of Design and the Design of Power: Equitable Urban Typologies Challenge ¶ Critics: Rafi Segal, Alan Berger The Co-mmune is conceived as a vision, instead of “a solution and looks to create livable urban commons where people—Co-Live, Co-Work and Co-Grow. It envisions to promote an urban environment where communities have access to shared facilities and services that are equitable and inclusive, which are spatially articulated on our site.
”
Top: The Co-mmune brings equity by integrating people based and placed based strategies. Left: The project houses social spaces and shared utilities for the residents and extended community. Opposite Top: The section reflects the pockets of spatial and visual connectivity that fosters interaction and livability. Opposite Bottom: By taking informed discussions from the urban fabric, the project connects the site by weaving through objects, networks, and voids.
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275
h_shi+xuanlan+jiyeha Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Huiwen Shi Xuan Lan Ji Ye Ha SMArchS Urbanism Candidates + MArch Candidate ¶ 4.163 J / 11.332 J The Power of Design and the Design of Power: Equitable Urban Typologies Challenge ¶ Critics: Rafi Segal, Alan Berger studying the relationship of power and space “in Byvarious contexts, the project eventually attempts to design an equitable housing and development strategy for Roxbury, Boston.
”
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Bottom: Section of selected housing development block. Opposite Top: Bird's-eye view of the GROW system. Opposite Bottom: Inner courtyard of GROW community.
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
277
jprac+lrau Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Jariyaporn Prachasartta Lasse Rau SMArchS Candidates ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.163 J / 11.332 J Options Studio: The Power of Design and the Design of Power: Equitable Urban Typologies Challenge ¶ Critics: Rafi Segal, Alan Berger
“
Non-Coherent Field Planning ¶ Through a speculative provocation for a variation on conventional urban plans that introduces spatial actors and breaks up the hegemonic coherence of the site, an equitable urban project emerges. An urban project that provides many people with the opportunities to shape the public realm, that is, the field.
”
278
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279
randylo Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Kuang-Chun Lo SMArchS Candidate ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.163 J / 11.332 J Options Studio: The Power of Design and the Design of Power: Equitable Urban Typologies Challenge ¶ Critics: Rafi Segal, Alan Berger Top: Buffalo Bayou is an important element of Houston. This mapping strives to reveal the vulnerability of the city such as flooding, pollution, and poverty by following the river. Left: This project aims to dismantle the history and power of Taipei through the urban fabric outside the Civic Center and relationships within the city walls. Opposite: Terracescape. To a certain extent, a single terrace is an elevated shared platform, which acts as an intermediate space connecting indoor and outdoor, public and private spaces. On the other hand, when this architectural element expands to the urban scale, it becomes a system that address urban relationships and redefines heights, inside and outside, and connectivity. Thus, spatially, Terracescape could be an equitable urban form which re-configures spatial and social relationships.
280
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xuziyu+chenyf Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Ziyu Xu Yufei Chen MArch Candidate + SMArchS Urbanism Candidate ¶ 4.163 J / 11.332 J Options Studio: The Power of Design and the Design of Power: Equitable Urban Typologies Challenge ¶ Critics: Rafi Segal, Alan Berger Roxbury Public Housing: Field of Equity ¶ An “overview of Roxbury’s housing typology reveals
the difference in accessibility to public resources and open space. Residential neighborhoods are segregated and clustered by type and housing rate. Adjacent to important public resources, such as schools and metro stations, our site offers an opportunity for a more equal typology in response to the dis-connectivity between dwelling and urban experience. ¶ In order to achieve a more equal framework, our response is to create a continuous low-rise housing fabric integrated with a mix of housing types and service programs. We aim for a dynamic play of solid and voids to break the rigidity of standardized public housing development and try to achieve equal and diverse dwelling experience.
”
282
Bottom: Small private courtyard. The smallest courtyards are assembled by single family housing modules. These courtyards are owned or used privately and are located at the boundary of the site, further from the central public spaces when compared to the large courtyard. Opposite: Large shared courtyard. Large courtyards are shared by units that has a mix of ownership types. The smallest units are arranged on the ground floor to ensure there are more door-to-courtyard benefits. Whereas the upper floor is arranged with larger units. Within these large units, there are features such as multiple small private bathrooms rather than one large shared bathroom to provide flexibility for collective living. The large courtyard also ensures the possibility for increasing density.
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
283
gdegetau Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Gabriela Degetau Zanders SMArchS Candidate ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.228 Contemporary Urbanism Proseminar: Theory and Representation ¶ Critic: Roi Salgueiro Barrio research investigates the current condition “ofThe oil extraction and the spatial transformations
occurring in the Ecuadorian Amazon, which are related to the philosophy and the political discourse of ''El Buen Vivir'' stated in the constitution. The ''Comunidades del Milenio'' project is taken as a case study to further understand the implications in the region.
”
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Below: The concept of “El Buen Vivir,” has been dissolved by the political rhetoric and high oil demands from the Chinese government. Opposite Top: There is an urgent requirement for a new model. Establishing a preventive framework that understands that oil wells are not eternal or infinite and looking into strategies to produce long term social and environmental benefits. Opposite Below: The investigation, questions the modern city's imposition and the urban planning process promoted by the Ecuadorian government as a sign of modernity and progress.
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
285
h_shi Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Huiwen Shi SMArchS Candidate ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.228 Contemporary Urbanism Proseminar: Theory and Representation ¶ Critic: Roi Salgueiro Barrio research intends to dissect Brazilian’s history “ofThis palm oil as ecological restoration. Approaching from history and the view of different stakeholders, especially the farmers, the analysis of the power struggles demonstrates the problematic past and uncertain future of the hinterland based on agricultural territories in a globalized economy.
”
286
Top: The modernity in palm plantations hides the heavy dependence on manual labor during planting and harvesting. Opposite Top: The nature of the hybrid economic selection of palm trees brings in efficiency and vulnerability for the locals. The casualty and benefited of this trade-off is the instability of the hinterland. Opposite Bottom: The unique mixture forms a pixelated texture of new urbanity in rurality. The sustainable challenge constantly evolves economy and environment, locality and connectivity.
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
287
lrau Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Lasse Rau SMArchS Candidate ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.228 Contemporary Urbanism Proseminar: Theory and Representation ¶ Critic: Roi Salgueiro Barrio Episodes in Landscape Compression ¶ This is “a story about time. It studies the Carbfix project
of carbon dioxide removal and underground sequestration in Hellisheiði, Southern Iceland, moving beyond the surface of its activities. It asks: how does the compression of a landscape contribute to the search for temporal references in uncertain climates?
”
288
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
289
mengqiao Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Mengqiao Zhao MArch Candidate ¶ 4.228 Contemporary Urbanism Proseminar: Theory and Representation ¶ Critic: Roi Salgueiro Barrio An Analysis of Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste “Repository ¶ This project focuses on a U.S. case
study by analyzing whether Yucca Mountain is an ideal geological repository site. It is a topic related to technology, geography, ecology, and politics. The impacts of nuclear waste management range from a single human body, to the cities we live in, to the entire country. This process and its influences are also related to time, ranging from the almost negligible nuclear reaction time to the whole nuclear waste decay period, which lasts more than 10,000 years.
”
290
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
291
monavjay Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Mona VijayKumar SMArchS Candidate ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.228 Contemporary Urbanism Proseminar: Theory and Representation ¶ Critic: Roi Salgueiro Barrio Landscape as a Record focuses on the relationship “between humans and the ephemeral landscapes
they constitute. Overtime the relation encompasses an enduring significance as vital forms of cultural landscapes. But in the current period of industrial capitalism and the exploitation of resources—ecology and labor, the notion of 'cultural landscapes' have become widely contested?
”
Left Top: The stark contrast between those who consume salt and those who are consumed by salt highlights the state of exception for salt workers who exist at the nexus between the politically qualified life and the life exposed to death. Left Bottom: The research attempts to investigate cultural landscapes-Little Rann of Kutch in India, through the lenses of labor, ecology, politics, production, and care. It documents and examines a region that is largely characterized by erasure, temporality, and movement, but that at the same time it is regarded as an indigenous landscape of cultivation with a strong cultural dimension. Opposite Top: The Agariyas are caught in the cracks of a geographic surface, forced to negotiate their survival between the land and the water. Opposite Bottom: The dynamics of landscape possess a unique challenge where the Agariyas relocate and search for new regions for salt cultivation at the beginning of every cycle. These are peculiar landscapes that are occupied and sculpted by people but can never be acquired.
292
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
293
randylo Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Kuang-Chun Lo SMArchS Candidate ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.228 Contemporary Urbanism Proseminar: Theory and Representation ¶ Critic: Roi Salgueiro Barrio
294
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
Mining represents the power of human “technologies and putative ''ecological'' creation of
landscape. The staggering rate of digital devices and electronics in our modern society has resulted in astronomical growth in critical mineral resources, especially cobalt. Democratic Republic of the Congo produces 60% of global cobalt resources which outproduces other countries by the amount of productions and reserves.
”
295
sammay Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Sam May MArch Candidate ¶ 4.228 Contemporary Urbanism Proseminar: Theory and Representation ¶ Critic: Roi Salgueiro Barrio Dissecting Westland ¶ This project analyzes “Westland, Netherlands as existing urban territory.
Westland sits within both the theoretical and built traditions of agrarian urbanism.
”
296
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
297
xuanlan Art Culture Technology 4.151
History Theory Criticism 4.153 4.154
Building Technology 4.163J
Xuan Lan SMArchS Candidate ¶ Urbanism ¶ 4.228 Contemporary Urbanism Proseminar: Theory and Representation ¶ Critic: Roi Salgueiro Barrio This thesis takes a critical investigation of the “Chinese bounded superblock—one of the most
rapid urban expansion modes—and reviews its origin and evolution. Shanghai is selected as the specific case study to reveal an evolved theme bounded superblock mode in the suburbs, which increased segregation in urbanization after the commodification of housing. Pujiang New Town, as the critical site, shows the multi-dimensional intervention of bounded superblocks on its spatial and social structure, and detailly reveals the sprawling conditions. This thesis also explores the emerging digital trade platforms as a possible catalysts for a new kind of urbanity.
”
298
Above: Pujiang Gated Community. Digital Connections and Physical Social Interaction. These virtual platforms from different businesses developed their own service stations, warehouses, supermarkets, and so on around the community and set up own logistics and public transportation system, including delivery riders, trucks and shuttle buses. Opposite Top: Pujiang New Town. Increasing Spatial and Social Segregation. In 2000, The municipal government of Shanghai aimed at adopting an Italian-style townscape to the enclosed Pujiang New Town. Opposite Bottom: ''One City Nine Towns'' policy (World City Vision) was announced by the Shanghai government in 2000 to introduce exotic townscape styles from major European countries to its suburban regions.
Computation 4.210
Architecture + Urbanism 4.228 4s.13
Undergraduate 4.THG
299
UG Art Culture Technology 4.021
History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.023
Building Technology 4.025
The Department of Architecture offers two undergraduate majors providing a deep and broad undergraduate education in the fields of architecture, art and design. Course 4 leads to the Bachelor of Science in Architecture, and Course 4-B leads to the Bachelor of Science in Art and Design.
Selected Course Descriptions
Course 4 Undergraduate
4.021 Design Studio: How
300
to Design ¶ Critics: Skylar Tibbits, Marlena Fauer ¶ TA: Dimitrios Chatzinikolis
This course introduces fundamental design principles as a way to demystify design and provide a basic introduction to all aspects of the process. It stimulates creativity, abstract thinking, representation, iteration, and design development and develops students’ abilities to apply the foundations of design to any discipline. This semester’s How to Design embraced making from home, as students conducted material tests and built prototypes from paper and found materials. Project 1 asked the students to design and fabricate light enclosures from paper. Project 2 asked the students to select something unusual to measure and create their own measuring 'devices'.
→P. 303
4.022 Introduction to Design
Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critics: Axel Kilian ¶ TA: Nare Filiposyan
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 projectbased assignments. 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 crosssection of inquiry. Limited to 25; preference to Course 4 and 4B
Computation 4.031
4.023 Architecture Design
Studio I ¶ Critics: Miho Mazereeuw ¶ TA: Joel Austin Cunningham
4.025 Architecture Design Studio III ¶ Critics: Michael Stradley ¶ TA: Juan Luo
Architecture + Urbanism 4.051 4.053
Course 4 Undergraduate Other
majors, Design and Architecture minors, and first- and second-year students. ¶ The 4.022 studio in the fall was adapted to support students working remotely, where the students prototyped physical interactive enclosures for one person. With the help of the department's fabrication shops, electronics and tool packages were sent to every student in order to support the prototyping aspects of the studio. The students experimented with a range of
easily available materials for their constructs, including cardboard, fabric, bottles, and even a few pair of socks. In the final presentation the enclosures came to life using various actuation approaches such as pneumatic, servos, LED's, and motors. Different strategies were deployed by students to develop the character of their enclosure and its relationship to the human inhabitant.
Elementary Studio -- delves into the design of public elementary schools to discuss hope during turbulent times—and, at the same time, exploring and emphasizing the need for change. We will be asking questions such as: How can we employ design as our toolkit for change? Who is impacted and how do we develop design empathy? Students will be encouraged to choose significant topics such as climate change and/or cultural diversity and explore them through the lens of tactile, playful, multiscalar, multi-sensory heuristic education. Learning from and engaging with practitioners and scholars such as Thaddeus Miles (Photographer and Community
Leader/Activist), Ceasar McDowell (Participatory Action Research/Community Activist and Practitioner), Edwidge Danticat (Award winning Author) and Erin Genia (Researcher and Practicing Artist), students will explore timely and critical discussions through photography, art, planning and writing. Readings from educational philosophers such as John Dewey, Loris Malaguzzi, Maria Montessori and environmental education such as David Orr, will be paired with guest elementary school teachers to inform student project proposals.
This is a studio for upper-level Course 4 undergraduates and provides instruction in advanced architectural design. Students develop integrated design skills as they negotiate the complex issues of program, site, and form in a specific cultural context. The Fall 2020 iteration of 4.025 takes color as its central architectural protagonist. The question of color in architecture extends far
beyond the purely formal and the aesthetic -- color is inseparable from questions of personal and group identity, representation, materiality, access, commerce, and politics. The studio will collectively wrestle with these questions through discussion, a series of collage exercises, a sequence of 2D-turned-3D-turned-animation studies, and ultimately through architectural proposals which
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→P. 314
301
UG Art Culture Technology 4.021
(4.025 continued)
4.031 Design Studio: Objects
and Interaction ¶ Critic: Marcelo Coelho ¶ TA: Rui Wang
4.051 The Human Factor in
Innovation and Design Strategy ¶ Critic: Lee Moreau ¶ TA: Yaara Yacoby
4.053 Visual Communication
Fundamentals ¶ Critic: Bo-won Keum ¶ TA: Emma Pfeiffer
302
History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.023 consider (and transform) the social, cultural, and architectural character of the MIT Campus.
Building Technology 4.025
→P. 316
This course is an overview of design as the giving of form, order, and interactivity to the objects that define our daily life. The course follows the path from project to interactive product, covering the overall design process, preparing students for work in a hands-on studio environment, and providing a foundation in prototyping skills such as carpentry, analog and digital fabrication, electronics, and coding. ¶ Topics include the analysis of objects; interaction design and user experience; design methodologies, current dialogues in design; economies of scale vs. means; and the role of technology in design. ¶ For the Fall 2020, students developed two functional objects—a lamp and a clock—that they were able use in their daily lives. Students were provided with
a kit of basic materials and tools to accomplish their projects, which could be equally realized remotely at home or in-person on campus. ¶ These apparently simple objects served as a lens for learning about industrial design history, the design process, conceptual development, and critique. In addition, students learned basic carpentry skills, folding as a fabrication technique, CAD, electronics, coding, etc which help prepare them for future industrial design work in a professional environment.
The Human Factor in Innovation and Design Strategy will expose students to the core methodologies used in humancentered design with a focus on understanding how it can be applied to solve real-world challenges. In the course, students will hear leading design
practitioners, thinkers, and business leaders explain how they approach design challenges, and how design brings value to human experiences and to the contemporary marketplace.
Provides an introduction to visual communication, emphasizing the development of a visual and verbal vocabulary. Presents the fundamentals of line, shape, color, composition, visual hierarchy, word/image relationships and typography as building blocks for communicating with clarity, emotion, and meaning. Students
develop their ability to analyze, discuss and critique their work and the work of the designed world.
→P. 318
→P. 320
→P. 323
acnwigwe, agatta Computation 4.031
Architecture + Urbanism 4.051 4.053
Course 4 Undergraduate Other
Alexandra Nwigwe Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Skylar Tibbits, Marlena Fauer of Light ¶ This project is meant to engage “theCircle user in a closed loop system in which the
light is turned on by unwinding the woven light enclosure and transforming it back into thread on a spool which can then be used to build up the light enclosure again.
”
Audrey Gatta Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Skylar Tibbits, Marlena Fauer For our project of designing a light enclosure, I “explored the use of static electricity to change the light intensity. My enclosure was created using paper shreds and a balloon. The user would be able to interact with the light by forming static electricity on the surface of the balloon, leading to the desired intensity of light.
”
303
aseguin, danaru Art Culture Technology 4.021
History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.023
Building Technology 4.025
Alexander Seguin Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Skylar Tibbits, Marlena Fauer
Pinhole camera to measure the sun’s movement. “Produces grid-imprinted images that can be used to measure the earth’s rotation relative to the sun. ”
Dana Rubin Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Skylar Tibbits, Marlena Fauer My project goal was to measure beautiful “asymmetry. Symmetry became a part of the beauty standard; there are many plastic treatments that aim to 'fix' asymmetry. My project critics this objective and exemplifies the fact that we are all asymmetric.
”
304
dianeli, faithj Computation 4.031
Architecture + Urbanism 4.051 4.053
Course 4 Undergraduate Other
Diane Li Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Skylar Tibbits, Marlena Fauer Vibrations ¶ A tabletop device “toConstructive visualize the progression and accumulation of
vibrations in a ''constructive'' way. The precipitation reaction between sodium hydroxide and copper sulfate solutions produces gel-like droplets. The size of the droplets relate to vibration magnitude and the color relates to time.
”
Faith Jones Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Skylar Tibbits, Marlena Fauer The Extent of a Stretch ¶ This wearable device “measures how far a person can stretch qualitatively. The greater the stretch, the more color the device reveals.
”
305
hquinn, ivyw Art Culture Technology 4.021
History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.023
Building Technology 4.025
Hailey Quinn Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Skylar Tibbits, Marlena Fauer Tempo ¶ This project aims to use tempo to create “a physical representation of music. The device’s user
taps a pedal in time with the music, punching holes in a moving strip of paper. A string is threaded through these holes to create loops whose sizes correspond to the song’s tempo.
”
Ivy Wang Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Skylar Tibbits, Marlena Fauer virtual connections and video calls take over, “it’sAshard to separate work from downtime. It’s even harder to check in consistently with friends and acquaintances. This vellum book, with pages activated by water-based ink, helps users check in with themselves and keep track of their mental wellbeing over time.
”
306
kchen52, kzareno Computation 4.031
Architecture + Urbanism 4.051 4.053
Course 4 Undergraduate Other
Karen Chen Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Skylar Tibbits, Marlena Fauer Orange Peel Packaging ¶ These images and “diagrams show a measuring device titled Reduce,
Reuse, Repackage. This bag/packaging is made from orange peels (nature’s packaging of the fruit), which reduces food waste and synthetic packaging, and also indicates to users when they are overconsuming or overpurchasing.
”
Kaitlin Zareno Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Skylar Tibbits, Marlena Fauer Deep Breathing aims to measure and model “sustained lung capacity. This project looks into the
act of breathing over an extended period of time by measuring the ability of the lungs to fill the chamber of the inflatable and modeling this ability through the inflatable’s deflated form.
”
307
nbase, prajtm Art Culture Technology 4.021
History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.023
Building Technology 4.025
Nathan Basinger Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Skylar Tibbits, Marlena Fauer has numerous properties that effect health “andLight wellness. Life is often filled with stressors
and externalities that constantly seek attention. This project aims to provide peace and escape by separating oneself from external stresses and introducing light. In effect, creating a personal light sanctuary.
”
Prajwal Tumkur Mahesh Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Skylar Tibbits, Marlena Fauer A tool for visualizing the projected effects of “climate change. The device uses falling water,
siphons, and tubes to draw a visual and tangible relationship between global temperature, sea level rise, risk to biodiversity, flooding in major cities, sea ice extent, and atmospheric CO2 concentration if climate-change is left unchecked.
”
308
sangitav, terryk Computation 4.031
Architecture + Urbanism 4.051 4.053
Course 4 Undergraduate Other
Sangita Vasikaran Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Skylar Tibbits, Marlena Fauer ¶ A cradle-to-grave lamp that grows to “fitAsyourI Grow personal lighting needs throughout your life, made out of structural and bioluminescent fungi. ”
Terry Kang Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Skylar Tibbits, Marlena Fauer made of malleable wires that when worn “onAthemask face, would physically prevent access from hands reaching the face. The user would have to physically move the wires. In this the mask can record when and how the user touches their face.
”
309
xtinakim, emmakr Art Culture Technology 4.021
History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.023
Building Technology 4.025
Christina Kim Undergraduate ¶ 4.021 Design Studio: How to Design ¶ Critics: Skylar Tibbits, Marlena Fauer Binding introduces a simple mechanism “forSelective manipulating a paper template to produce
customizable designs for decorative, 'do-it-yourself', light enclosures. With few required materials, a user-friendly fabrication process, and endless possibilities for enclosure designs, the project encourages personalization and inspires reiteration while making design accessible to anyone of any experience.
”
Emma Rutherford Undergraduate ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Axel Kilian My project aimed to create “a versatile enclosure from the
inversion of a solid shape by making strategic cuts and using pneumatic actuation to make it expand.
”
310
evasmere, kmcpher Computation 4.031
Architecture + Urbanism 4.051 4.053
Course 4 Undergraduate Other
Eva Smerekanych Undergraduate ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Axel Kilian A dynamic enclosure made of rotating columns “which responds to and choreographs the movement of a body by creating and destroying regions of negative space.
”
Kimberly McPherson Undergraduate ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Axel Kilian This project’s concept is an oversized suit “enclosure that senses the user’s actions within the
suit and displays them on the outside. It examines the relationship we all have with the clothing we wear, and how we interact with the space made by this everyday enclosure.
”
311
ktoye, nguyeng Art Culture Technology 4.021
History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.023
Building Technology 4.025
Katherine Toye Undergraduate ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Axel Kilian Nature ¶ Using local, natural material “andReeding shapes to create an enclosure, Reeding Nature
connects users to the surrounding nature and light. When a person is inside and enough light is detected to create shadows, end pieces turn towards each other creating a hyperbolic shape.
”
Gary Nguyen Undergraduate ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Axel Kilian Inspired by the imagery of marine life trapped in “single-use plastics, the Bottle of Awareness is an
enclosure constructed to replicate the experience at a human-level scale. Formed using recycled bottles, the membrane is integrated with circuitry that enhances the experience via acoustics mimicking the 'littering' of plastic.
”
312
sandrali, stangs Computation 4.031
Architecture + Urbanism 4.051 4.053
Course 4 Undergraduate Other
Sandra Li Undergraduate ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Axel Kilian This project involves the development of an “inhabitable micro-enclosure with an interactive
element. Iris creates a safe-space or haven that protects whoever or whatever is housed inside by opening and closing a window. A person can identify unoccupied enclosures and inhabit them while also having the freedom to move around with the enclosure they have claimed.
”
Sandra Tang Undergraduate ¶ 4.022 Introduction to Design Techniques and Technologies ¶ Critic: Axel Kilian deprivation meets rocking chairs in “thisSensory multipurpose, interactive rocking chair pillow, featuring a motion-triggered auto-adjusting curvature to ensure the user’s safety. The calm, repetitive motion combined with a dimmed enclosure provides a new perceived environment while using very little space—a quality useful for quarantine, napping, and thinking.
”
313
mtimmon2, nateich Art Culture Technology 4.021
History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.023
Building Technology 4.025
Meghan Timmons Undergraduate ¶ 4.023 Architecture Design Studio I ¶ Critics: Miho Mazereeuw, Cherie Miot Abbanat EssHouse argues for the reconceptualization of “elementary schools as providers of the fundamental
resources necessary for students, families, and their greater community to thrive, and offers a variant iteration of the elementary school archetype.
”
Nicole Teichner Undergraduate ¶ 4.023 Architecture Design Studio I ¶ Critics: Miho Mazereeuw, Cherie Miot Abbanat Friendly Elementary, located just outside “Richmond, Virginia, maximizes green space for
school-wide gatherings and individual discovery of the surrounding environment. The school allows for immersion with the outside from directly inside the classroom while also creating safe, private spaces for children to learn.
”
314
ninahutt, sli6 Computation 4.031
Architecture + Urbanism 4.051 4.053
Course 4 Undergraduate Other
Nina Huttemann Undergraduate ¶ 4.023 Architecture Design Studio I ¶ Critics: Miho Mazereeuw, Cherie Miot Abbanat
We know that we’re not likely to do much to “save anything that we do not love. ¶ Situated
along a trail next to Indian Creek in Hood River, OR, this school will augment existing local efforts to heal the riparian landscape while instilling values of environmental conservation in its students.
”
Stephanie Li Undergraduate ¶ 4.023 Architecture Design Studio I ¶ Critics: Miho Mazereeuw, Cherie Miot Abbanat
Situated on the border between Chinatown and the rest of Boston, this school is “intended to connect the two communities. Building a school in this location will allow
students from a diverse set of backgrounds to study and grow together, promoting greater cultural awareness.
”
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cyang21, dnlee Art Culture Technology 4.021
History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.023
Building Technology 4.025
Catherine Yang Undergraduate ¶ 4.025 Architecture Design Studio III ¶ Critic: Michael Stradley The New Walker ¶ The project aims to “reinvigorate the Walker Memorial at MIT campus, by
cutting through and adding structures to the site in two ways. The diagonal glass encasing bisects the existing building;. It not only creates an underground passage extending outward to the courtyard closely, but also remaps the existing programs in Walker. The metallic bubble devours the building’s top right corner, and introduces new floors and lookouts into Walker and to the campus.
”
Dong Nyung Lee Undergraduate ¶ 4.025 Architecture Design Studio III ¶ Critic: Michael Stradley This project aims to construct relationships “between landscape and architectural characters of
the MIT campus by referring to the geological forms of erosion, aperture, and density studied in the earlier exercises of sequential collage drawings and digital structure visualizations.
”
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jhsrao, jschen Computation 4.031
Architecture + Urbanism 4.051 4.053
Course 4 Undergraduate Other
John Rao Undergraduate ¶ 4.025 Architecture Design Studio III ¶ Critic: Michael Stradley This final project proposal is consisted of “three 'parasitic' volumes. A public art gallery
space employs the existing banquet hall as its only entrance and acts as an extension of MIT’s unique subterranean tunnel network. Two towers that house residential and pedagogical spaces respectively are latched on the external facades of existing buildings nearby. By submerging the most public program underground and placing the most private programs six stories above ground, this project also proposes a new relationship with the public. The formal language of the project is driven by a set of logics developed in the earlier collages and sculptural exploration while the color of each surface is dictated by the topography of the artificial landscape.
”
Jacqueline Chen Undergraduate ¶ 4.025 Architecture Design Studio III ¶ Critic: Michael Stradley In pursuit of increasing engagement with the “waterfront, the project takes advantage of the
existing sailing pavilion to attract new audiences. The tower, whose form takes on a collage of simple geometries and translucent and reflective materials, partners itself with a community of artists to exhibit and promote the arts.
”
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pipitone, avilam Art Culture Technology 4.021
History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.023
Building Technology 4.025
Vanessa Pipitone Undergraduate ¶ 4.025 Architecture Design Studio III ¶ Critic: Michael Stradley
Mariana Avila Undergraduate ¶ 4.031 Design Studio: Objects and Interaction ¶ Critic: Marcelo Coelho Made Whole is an Enzo Mari and Vera Molnar “inspired lamp symbolizing how our imperfections
lead to growth. The incomplete cubes are balanced to support the complete cube on top. Light shines from the complete cube downward, illuminating and emphasizing the beauty of the path it took to get there.
”
318
jennyz, layal Computation 4.031
Architecture + Urbanism 4.051 4.053
Course 4 Undergraduate Other
Jenny Zhang Undergraduate ¶ 4.031 Design Studio: Objects and Interaction ¶ Critic: Marcelo Coelho Endless exemplifies the unwavering passing and “cyclical nature of time. ¶ A spiral staircase sends a
marble down to the bottom of the clock. The user has to continuously turn a knob to push the marble back up, only for it to quickly roll all the way down again. ¶ The rhythmic tap, tap, tap of the marble rolling down the stairs, the calming mechanical brrrr that rewards you for your efforts, the user can take in these sounds to relax and reflect on their version of the meaning behind this task.
”
Layal Barakat Undergraduate ¶ 4.031 Design Studio: Objects and Interaction ¶ Critic: Marcelo Coelho Pendronome ¶ It’s often said that the good “times feel like they fly by, while the bad times feel
like they’ll never end. Pendronome is an interactive double pendulum, with the pendulums’ speeds controlled by two dials. With Pendronome, you can set the tempo of your life for whatever mood you’re feeling.
”
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morogers, ashleywa Art Culture Technology 4.021
History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.023
Building Technology 4.025
Marina Rogers Undergraduate ¶ 4.031 Design Studio: Objects and Interaction ¶ Critic: Marcelo Coelho ¶ Looking into someone’s eyes, you “canThetellWatcher if they are beginning their day or ending it. The Watcher mimics this human representation of time, waking and then growing tired as the day progresses. It serves as a gentle reminder of how our bodies react to the passing of time.
”
Ashley Wang Undergraduate ¶ 4.051 The Human Factor in Innovation and Design Strategy ¶ Critic: Lee Moreau An Interview Debrief through categories of “music, current times, virtual events, and life events. ”
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davidezh, melody_w+crate Computation 4.031
Architecture + Urbanism 4.051 4.053
Course 4 Undergraduate Other
Davide Zhang Undergraduate ¶ 4.051 The Human Factor in Innovation and Design Strategy ¶ Critic: Lee Moreau HeartSync is a set of experience “designs that seek to improve the emotional connection between the performer and the audience in the age of social distancing. The experience is comprised of a smart wristband that collects and transports heart rate information, an on-site projection, and a mobile or web application.
”
Melody Wu Clare Liu Undergraduate ¶ 4.051 The Human Factor in Innovation and Design Strategy ¶ Critic: Lee Moreau We presented Uconnectome, a virtual live “performance experience across digital and physical boundaries, connecting concertgoers and artists through lightsticks, which create a synced live performance experience. The lights beat along to the music or respond to signals from the artist and from the audience.
”
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oparsons+ihinkley+jsonner+zroberts, xiangyug Art Culture Technology 4.021
History Theory Criticism 4.022 4.023
Building Technology 4.025
Olivia Parsons Ian Hinkley Jessica Sonner Zachary Roberts Undergraduates ¶ 4.051 The Human Factor in Innovation and Design Strategy ¶ Critic: Lee Moreau the past semester, Fall 2020, the students “in During 'The Human Factor in Innovation and Design
Strategy' worked to design a solution for the Live Performance Industry. With the Rockland Bank Trust Pavilion as our client, we split into teams to create a systemic solution for the pavilion while adhering to the new COVID-19 requirements and lifestyle.
”
Carrier
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Welcome!
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Checked In!
Xiangyu Guo Undergraduate ¶ 4.051 The Human Factor in Innovation and Design Strategy ¶ Critic: Lee Moreau project is an immersive experience design “forThe online live performance featuring Cocreating,connection and collective memory. The scene can be automatically updated according to the music. The audience can interact with the singer, environment, and other audiences. Meanwhile the interactions of the audience contribute the key elements to this immersive environment.
”
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wendy528 Computation 4.031
Architecture + Urbanism 4.051 4.053
Course 4 Undergraduate Other
Wendy Wu Undergraduate ¶ 4.053 Visual Communication Fundamentals ¶ Critic: Jennifer Ashman Kids will be Kids: Military “Drills Performance ¶ Date: 2010, Fourth Grade ¶ Location: Yucai Second Primary School ¶ Dress Code: Camo Uniform ¶ Stories of choreographed school-wide events showcasing uniformity, told in moments of youthful individuality.
”
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Student Groups
This is not an exhaustive list of student group initiatives or organizations at the MIT Department of Architecture. Inclusion in Imprint resulted from an ArchAll open call.
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ASC
→ P. 326
NOMAS
→ P. 328
Film Series
→ P. 330
out of frame
→ P. 332
Group Project
→ P. 336
CSA+P
→ P. 338
Roofscapes
→ P. 340 325
Architecture Student Council Dear MIT Architecture,
student initiatives
We took on the role of ASC co-chairs in January 2020, right before the world felt as if it were collapsing on our shoulders, but only to rebuild itself. It has been a running joke that we felt like we were watching history in the making: that every minute seemed to mark itself as one of the most important minutes of our lives. We suddenly went from cochairs to a risk management team, and finally in the summer of 2020, we witnessed the strength and voice of our architecture community in its most rooted form. It is here that we want to pause and reflect.
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¶ It doesn’t seem like a year ago that we shared a phone call discussing the possibility of joining the Architecture Student Council. Jon was in Colombia, Ginevra was in Rome, and the realities of MIT seemed far away. To start, our conversations were abstract, lofty even. Anyone who has had the pleasure of a long conversation with Ginevra knows that ontological questions arise sooner rather than later. Our aspirations were to continue the legacies of Eytan, Nare, and Ben’s resolute student advocacy and to bring student work and thought to the forefront by means of lectures, publications, and student platforms. However, our first task was to figure out, with the generous help of the previous semester’s Happy Hour crew, how much beer, wine, and pizza to order for our regular Friday evening gatherings in Long Lounge. With our grand plans still in our head, it seemed that much of our time day to day was spent coordinating with Amanda on the department’s lecture series and Keller gallery openings and events. As we all remember, our to-do lists and calendars were abruptly truncated and suddenly our work had much less to do with happy hour snacks and more to do with a stress test of our community that was built over Friday beers. ¶ We recently were asked what it was like to be part of ASC and NOMAS efforts in the summer, specifically regarding
the sequence of town halls highlighting students' requests. Jon's answers went right to the heart of it : we had a minor role. It was the very clear and pointed requests that students and recent alumni wrote that allowed for and sparked a constructive conversation. We are thankful for all that students, staff and faculty have pushed ASC to pursue. Of course, there have been several moments where we felt unequipped to engage conversations and situations, at which point we turned to Nicholas and Andreea’s advice, both of whom have become mentors. Additionally, we have particular gratitude for the ASC Cabinet who rose to the occasion being conduits and advocates for each and every one of us; it was not a small task to undertake. ¶ We understand that we still have a lot of work ahead of us: as a society, as an institute, and as a department. Yet we are hopeful that, if we keep reflecting, communicating and finding solutions together, we will be able to achieve whatever goals we set for ourselves as a community.
ASC Cabinet:
With love, Jonathon Brearley Ginevra D’Agostino ASC Co-Chairs
Aidan Flynn, SMArchS Amanda Ugorji, MArch Athina Papadopoulou, PhD Carol-Anne Rodrigues, MArch Daniel Landez, BSA Demi Fang, PhD Ibuki Iwasaki, BSAD Katherine Kettner, MArch/MCP Latifa Alkhayat, MArch Mohamad Nahle, SMArchS Norhan Bayomi, PhD Rania Kaadan, SMArchS Samuel Dubois, PhD Stephanie Li, BSA Xio Alvarez, MArch/MCP Emma (Yimeng) Zhu, SMACT Catherine Yang, BSAD
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National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMAS) Do the Work: Demands for Action and Accountability in the MIT Department of Architecture
student initiatives
''Despite years of calls for change, whiteness remains the neutral background against which narrow visions of merit, education, and community are valorized at MIT and the Department of Architecture ...we need far more commitment from much more of our community. We continue to ask—what’s next? ¶ We as students and leaders in NOMAS can only do so much as we push for an actively anti-racist department and attempt to make architecture engaged with the lives and experiences of BIPOC communities... we can only host so many conversations, workshops, wikipedia edit-a-thons, and lectures. Without this work, itself an act of self-preservation, we struggle to see any place for ourselves as part of this community and discipline. But who in the Department would be doing this work
Text and images courtesy of MIT NOMAS. The text is an excerpt of a letter written to the MIT Department of Architecture on August 2020.
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otherwise? Whose burden would this be? ¶ The current conversation in the department clearly imagines the responsibility for this work falling on NOMAS members and our preexisting allies. Many members of our faculty community have consequently avoided personal responsibility. Where is your town hall? Where is your collective letter? Where are your workshops? Where is your solidarity with us? ¶ As we begin a new academic year, we see this letter as an opportunity to express our resistance against a return to normal... ¶ The faculty must recognize themselves as a body accountable for the production and perpetuation of culture within this department. You all have the responsibility to enact the demands below. We do not want your token gestures of support. We want your actual, practiced commitment to self-work. We want your time, energy, and expertise. ¶ You as faculty have individual and collective power, so use it. Trust is earned; you need to act.''
NOMAS MIT
August 28, 2020 nomas-exec@mit.edu • nomas.mit.edu
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Cinema and Architectural Imagination A Series of Conversations on the Intersections of Film and Architecture Never mere settings, the spaces in which cinematic stories take place have the capacity to invoke, represent, convey, and reinforce narratives. As spaces and landscapes intertwine with stories and actors, they make the tales of the world we know visible, and those of worlds we can only imagine possible and real.
student initiatives
Cinema and Architectural Imagination is a student-led series of conversations about the various ways in which the imagination of the built environment, architecture, landscape, and urban environments is mediated through film. Throughout the Fall 2020 semester, students, faculty and alumni of the MIT Department of Architecture came together in a series of virtual public discussions and explored films from various genres, periods, geographies, and cultures, and the power of architectural imagination within the world of moving images. Each film was chosen by one presenter, together with the director of the series. Presenters recorded a video introduction, while the films were made available for the MIT community, and were followed by a public Zoom discussion with the presenters, the Film Series organizers, and the public.
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For the first iteration of the series we presented and discussed four films. The series was launched with Julie Dash’s 1991 path-breaking film, Daughters of the Dust, which was presented by MArch Candidate Jola Idowu, and included a discussion about landscape stewardship, domesticity, cultural heritage and memory on the background of the Great Migration. Galo Canizers, an alum of the MArch program and a lecturer at the Texas Tech College of Architecture, presented Terry Gilliam’s 1985 film, Brazil, and led a conversation about the deep interiors of architectural systems, infrastructure, and the imagination of dystopian futures. Professor Arindam Dutta and PhD candidate Iheb Guermazi, both from the History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art Program, joined in conversation about Gillo Pontecorvo’s powerful reenactment the Algerian struggle for independence in his 1966 Battle of Algiers, and discussed the representation of the post-colonial city, as well as questions of politics, religion, and gender representation. The series concluded with Building Technology PhD candidate Mohamed Ismail presenting Ryan Coogler’s 2017 Black Panther, and a conversation about race and representation, afrofuturism, and the productivity of alternative forms of fiction in architectural imagination.
Sergei Eisenstein Sequence Diagram for Aleksander Nevsky (1939)
Creative Director: Eliyahu Keller, PhD Candidate Film Series Assistant: James Brice, MArch Candidate 331
Out of Frame Dear Reader,
student initiatives
One of the silver linings of this last year has been sitting up late, tea in hand, crackers and cheese on the side table as I read through the out of frame posts of the week. The array of interests and variety of voices, some familiar and some new, captivated my attention and never failed to teach me something new. Observations on street furniture around the block changed the way I noticed the benches in my neighborhood. The vivid description of a test kitchen in Chicago inspired me to listen to a new podcast that highlighted untouched and unknown architectural gems. I was fascinated by a recipe on how to grow one’s own leather-textured biomaterial, and another on how the co-creation of rugelach among peers revealed different cultural perspectives. Other noteworthy topics included a discussion on urbanism through Seoul’s curbside plants and thoughts on architectural decay through the language of cheese, just to name a few. My careful weekly readings turned into a collection of fragmented understandings that began impacting my thoughts as I moved through the city and reflected on my own work and interests.
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¶ Out of frame is a platform by students and for students that grew out of the need to share thoughts with one another—it was developed to voice our interests, ideas, hopes, and grievances. It was co-founded by MArch students April Gao and Ginevra D’Agostino and supported by the MIT Department of Architecture in response to the disconnect and hopelessness we often felt over the summer months of 2020. We were drained and restless, numbed from hundreds of hours of virtual calls and devastated by the racism and news of tragic events reaching our hand-held devices from all over the world. ¶ We needed a space to process the whirlwind by sharing with a community we felt close to, free of typical academic expectations and constraints. We wanted to produce work that was raw, accessible, provocative, and perhaps a bit messy. We wanted to talk about the histories, processes, and narratives existing within and around us. There was a deep need to connect during a time when we felt lonely and isolated from one another. Through out of frame, we came together to share the forgotten stories that make up who we are, what we do, and what we care about. ¶ My experience with out of frame has been extremely rewarding. I stepped into my role as editor at the
beginning of fall and have ever since found myself continuously humbled and challenged as I catch glimpses of the world through others’ eyes. The platform has started conversations and brought people together in ways I could never have imagined. I am always learning from and being moved by the thoughtful yet emphatic voices that make up the work we share. Writing, for many of us, can be a way to make sense of the world and explore our place in it. Like drawing and making, it is a way to discover new ideas and to find what drives us. It gives us the space to sit with a topic long enough to ruminate over it and to ask the hard questions.¶ I am encouraged by how out of frame has carved an online space for creativity and community with dedicated engagement from columnists and readers. So, I urge you to dive into the work, and if you are a student, to pick up your pen [or keyboard] and join us in our quest for growth and discovery through the sharing of stories.
Yours truly, Ana McIntosh 2020-2021 “out of frame” Editor
Xio Alvarez / Out of Space. “What are we really talking about when we talk about “public”? What is public anyway? What guidelines do we follow when we design “public” spaces? And who are they for?” Charlotte Matthai / The Rind. This column delves into the complex architecture and systems of and related to cheese. Self / Work is an extended group exercise. Participants spend time with each other’s work in a process that favors reflection and curiosity, and where the personal is a site and source of knowledge. Daniela Beltrame / Stand in a Sentence. Portraits of alternative urban planning through the embodied experience of women from self-organized urban poor communities..
Contributors Contributors include those with a full body of work on outofframe.mit.edu.
Marianna González-Cervantes / WIP-ish shares multiple works-in-progress that don’t necessarily have obvious ends but are considered “work” nonetheless by focusing primarily on process methodologies. Rebecca Slater / The Lonely Glove Phenomenon. A four part series dissecting the complex relationship between lost gloves and humans.
Mohamad Nahleh and Meriam Soltan / The South Our Parents Told Us About. This column narrates the shared histories and experiences of the authors embodied by the architecture of South Lebanon. Yaara Yacoby / The Food Between Us. In this column, the author’s food space is shared, drawing parallels with memories and histories, as well as thoughts and experiments on space creation and online connection with food as a medium. James Brice / Open-Source is a project to showcase and share knowledge, with emphasis on methodologies and techniques gained from outside the canon of architectural education—a love letter to messy layer organization, model scraps, and the things that inspire students.
Yiou Wang / Dangerous Circuit Board. Contemplative travels through space, art, culture, society and human imagination. Danny Griffin / To Be Automated. When is a job worth automating? Reflections and speculations from automating jobs. Carolyn Tam / Material Future. A collection of projects with newly engineered material composites, as well as unique application that can be achieved through the use of other materials.
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Out of Frame “Maybe it was a personal thing, but it took me a long time to realize that it wasn’t necessarily just me,” by Self / Work
student initiatives
Self / Work is an extended group exercise. Participants spend time with each other’s work in a process that favors reflection and curiosity, and where the personal is a site and source of knowledge. It is a platform to anonymously share process, dispatched in fragments of dialogue, as if overheard.
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B:
A: B:
“I feel like in most of the studio experiences I’ve had there’s a large disconnect between what you’re going for, and the feedback you get. They just don’t know what I’m doing, which I think is partly my fault because it’s my job to represent it accurately.” “When you approach design, it is subjective and it is about how you personally understand the problem at hand. Obviously we’re all going to struggle. Regardless of whether we can or cannot solve the problem, there’s going to be a struggle. That is just the process of design, but I think that sometimes when I thought that I was doing architecture ‘wrong,’ it was in large part due to a critic that didn’t know how to guide me or that was specifically trying to make me approach the problem that the way they would—and, like my brain doesn’t work that way.¶ Maybe it was like a personal thing, but it took me a long time to realize that it wasn’t necessarily just me—it was also like my critic. We didn’t click...”
“Already, ‘not knowing’ how to do architecture and then in addition to that, having a critic, that doesn’t understand me, and that I don’t see eye to eye with is like…It’s both of our faults. ¶ I really like the fact that there’s a class that is like kind of built around the assumption that you are right. You do know what you’re doing and you know how to best how to guide your own work. This is a community built around that, around the assumption the work you make is ‘right’ and the rest of us need to understand your goals, not ‘fix’ the work.”
Excerpted works previously published in outofframe.
“The Food Between Us,” by Yaara Yacoby Yaara Yacoby: “You decided to embark on an exploration of what you call your ‘existential anxiety’ around your identity as an Israeli Jew living abroad. Where did this come from originally?” In this self conducted interview, the author reflects on the food space she constructed across her posts, drawing parallels with memories and histories, as well as sharing her experiments of space creation and online connection using food as a medium.
YY: “Well, it emerged from a tension I was feeling out of growing up away from a community I’ve always been taught is of the most importance— my family. I struggled to put together all the different elements that made up my sense of identity because I couldn’t find a space to occupy and inhabit. I felt more like an observer. This disconnection was exacerbated when I moved out of my parent’s home and realized I value observing holidays to a greater extent than them and felt disconnected from any structure of identity-making. So I was compelled to find a way to anchor myself if that makes sense, and make a space that included me as well.” Yaara Yacoby: “Yes, that does make sense. In many ways, I relate. So as part of this exploration, you started with maps and calendars and ended up in recipes. Could you say a bit more about food? Why food?” YY: “That’s a good question, one I haven’t really thought through before. I started by mapping my family’s roots, documenting established and constructed histories as well as traditions and practices. This was an act of context-making, in a way. Why food? That interest likely started from a reflection on the traditions of observing holidays with my family. Since we are not particularly spiritual, the ritual itself centers around symbolic foods. It was a way of starting to answer the question ‘how do I practice identity’?”
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Group Project
student initiatives
Below: Porch swing prototype developed in a community design charrette with Growing Change (2018). Opposite Above, Opposite Middle: Wagram Site, North Carolina. Opposite, Far Right: Signage Installation. Opposite Bottom: Alex Bodkin and Youth Leader (2019).
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Group Project is an architectural design and planning collective that was formed in 2017 by students at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning. Today, it comprises current students, recent graduates, and its founding members, now practicing architects and planners. Group Project collaborates primarily with community-based organizations on adaptive reuse projects with a social justice orientation. Their mission, broadly speaking, is to work together with underserved communities in the US as a means to address the systemic socio-political issues that underlie much of the country’s built environment. Deeply committed to the notion of architecture as a right and long-term community engagement throughout the design process, their practice brings equitable access to design to the fore, towards a sensitive and incremental model of work. ¶ Initially structured around a collaboration with GrowingChange, a nonprofit based in rural Scotland County, North Carolina, the Group Project team undertook ongoing work on the transformation of a decommissioned prison into an agricultural community center. Together with GrowingChange’s youth leadership and local community stakeholders, they have operated at multiple scales: from site planning and long-term visioning, to design-build intensives, to a county-wide research project and report for the Architectural League of New York’s American Roundtable initiative.
More recently, Group Project has expanded their network to communities beyond North Carolina, working with artist Zeelie Brown in Lowndes County, Alabama (in collaboration with MIT student group NOMAS), on the problem of rural sanitation and the culturally-referent and contextually appropriate design of outhouses. They continue to seek projects local to their members in the Northeast.
2020 Contributors Morgan Augillard, MCP Alum ‘19 Alex Bodkin, MArch Alum ‘19 Jonathon Brearley, MArch ‘22 Isadora Dannin, MArch ‘21 Jola Idowu, MArch ‘23 Kailin Jones, MArch ‘21 Joey Swerdlin, MArch Alum ‘19 Emily Wissemann, MArch ‘23
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CHINA SA+P Student Association
student initiatives
The MIT CHINA SA+P Student Association is a student-led organization that aims to serve MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning and the schoolwide community at large to establish bridges with the market, industry, and public in China on topics pertaining to the different areas of research and studies within the school: Architecture; Urban Studies and Planning; Art; Culture and Technology; Real Estate, and Media Arts and Sciences.
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Members:
Zhifei Xu, MArch Kailin Jones, MArch Chloe Yun Wang, MArch Stewart Haotian Wu, MArch Ziyuan (Zoey) Zhu, SMArchS Emma (Yimeng) Zhu, SMACT Catherine Yang, BSA Daisy Ziyan Zhang, MArch Mackinley Wang-Xu, MArch Jacqueline Chen, BSA Yanjun Liu, BSA Mengke Wu, IDM Yuqing Zhang, MFin Wa Liu, SMACT Charles Wu, SMarchS Isabel Waitz, BSA
Left: Poster of MIT CSAP X Harvard GSD Mixer in Shanghai Below: Practice In China Interview series.
Hacking Chengdu: Urban Gamification by Zhifei Xu and Thaddeus Lee applies the strategies of urban gamification to address ghost city issues in China. Taking Luxelakes as our experimental grounds, this is a series of interactive add-on installations for A7 hotel island. It aims to invigorate communal spaces, encouraging interactions among visitors and transforming public places into shared, participatory forums and playgrounds.
Little Luxelakers by Yun Wang and Yi Yang focuses on the importance of ‘environment-based education’ by combining design with technology, encouraging play and exploration, while enabling children to interact with the living and non-living world. The research takes Luxelakes Eco-City as a practice field, and designs the community greenspace as an active research site that adopts an environment-based education plan.
Hacking Chengdu’s Biodiversity—to Design a More ‘Livable Garden’ City at Luxelakes by Eve Allen focuses on biodiversity, while introducing the concept of ‘novel ecosystem’ and ‘civic ecology’. The Patch-CorridorMatrix landscape model, divides the project into three practical stages: 1) education and ecological survey, 2) introduction of species and 3) the establishment of community-led inventorying and monitoring system.”
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Roofscapes
student initiatives
In 2020, MIT Architecture students Eytan Levi (MArch ‘21 + MSRED ‘21), Tim Cousin (MArch ‘23), and Olivier Faber (MArch ‘23) launched Roofscapes at DesignX, MIT SA+P’s venture incubator focused on the built environment. Roofscapes’ mission consists in creating accessible green roofs over mansard roofs in European city centers, as a way to mitigate the urban heat island effect, provide new outdoor spaces in cities, and support food production and biodiversity in urban settings. ¶ Throughout the fall of 2020, Roofscapes was selected by the City of Paris’ laboratory for urban experimentation to deploy and monitor a pilot project in Paris over 2021-2022. Roofscapes was also picked to build a pavilion at the 2021 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism to display its vision for urban resilience at the roof level.
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Below: Pilot green roof in Paris. Opposite Top: Samples of ongoing projects. Opposite Below: Roofscapes pavilion for the 2021 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. All images courtesy of Roofscapes.
The Roofscapes 2020 Team Jonathon Brearley, MArch ‘22 Tim Cousin, MArch ‘23 Olivier Faber, MArch ‘23 Nina Huttemann, BSA ‘23 Eytan Levi, MArch ‘21 + MSRED ‘21 Caroline Rosenzweig, BSA ‘20 Eva Then, BSc ‘22 Isabel Waitz, BSA ‘23
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Acknowledgments Administration
Archiving Team
Communications Team
Guest Speakers
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Jose Luis Arguello Kathaleen Brearley Stacy Clemons Marissa Friedman Doug Le Vie Inala Locke Tonya Miller Amanda Moore Andreea O’Connell
James Brice Jonathon Brearley Danny Griffin Matthew Harrington Duncan Kincaid Eytan Levi Amanda Moore Anna Vasileiou Ellen Wood Zhicheng Xu
Ana McIntosh Amanda Moore Angie Door Carol-Anne Rodrigues Ellen Wood James Brice Daisy Ziyan Zhang
Laura Allen Alex Fialho Kamilah Foreman Tina Henderson Melissa Levin Eddie Opara
Archiving Support by Teaching Assitants Taylor Boes Jonathon Brearley Dimitrios Chatzinikolis Charlotte D’Acierno Nare Filiposyan Laura Maria Gonzalez Danny Griffin James Heard Mark Anthony Hernandez-Cornejo Rania Kaadan Kimball Regli Kaiser Melika Konjicanin Eytan Levi Xuan Luo Christopher Moyer Mohamad Nahleh Emma Pfeiffer Qianqian Wan Rui Wang Emily Wissemann Jaehun Woo Zhicheng Xu Yaara Yacoby
Imprint 01 Creative Support from Summer Workshop and Fall Course Participants Arditha Auriyane Zachariah DeGiulio Patricia Dueñas Gerritsen Demi Fang Natasha Hirt Emma Jurczynski Vijay Rajkumar Carol-Anne Rodrigues Olivia Serra Alice Jia Li Song Lavender Tessmer Alexandra Lea Waller Edward Wang Emily Wissemann Zhicheng Xu Daisy Ziyan Zhang Mengqiao Zhao Emma (Yimeng) Zhu
This publication would not have been possible without the support of all of you. Thank you to Nicholas de Monchaux for your vision, persistence and trust. Thank you Amanda Moore for your intimate understanding of the Department and for all the thoughtful edits. Thank you Miko McGinty for being an endless source of knowledge and constantly laughing along with us over Zoom. Thank you to everyone who participated in the making of this book. This process began in a 2020 Summer Workshop taught by Nicholas de Monchaux, Amanda Moore and Miko McGinty and continued into the fall course,“Building the Page.” (See P. 242-247) Together the editorial team and students engaged the mechanics and skills of print publication—typography, grids, formats and distribution strategy—in order to frame essential strategic questions about audience, tone, and material. Conversations between students, professors, staff and guest speakers shaped the following guiding principles: First, this publication should be about the students. Second, this publication should publish material from every student who responds to an open call. We are grateful to everyone who laid the conceptual groundwork for this publication and we hope that we did your ideas justice. Lastly, thank you to everyone who contributed work and put up with our endless emails. 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 Patricia Dueñas Gerritsen Carol-Anne Rodrigues Alice Jia Li Song Emily Wissemann
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Faculty + Staff 2020 This publication, this semester and this community is indebted to the tireless work of the faculty and staff. Thank you for loading the printers, for fielding our questions about CovidPass, health insurance, jobs and student Visas. Thank you for buying us Creative Cloud. Thank you for meeting with us across time zones. Thank you for paying attention. Thanks for letting us into your living rooms. Thank you for all the work we don’t see and for consistently supporting us.
Department Head Architecture and Urbanism
Art Culture and Technology
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Nicholas de Monchaux Cherie Abbanat Lorena Bello Brandon Clifford Marcelo Coelho Michael Dennis Christopher Dewart Rami el Samahy Marlena Fauer Antonio Furgiuele Deborah Garcia Antón García-Abril Rania Ghosn Reinhard Goethert Mark Goulthorpe Christoph Guberan Mariana Ibañez Jeremy Jih Zain Karsan Sheila Kennedy Bo-Won Keum Axel Kilian Miho Mazereeuw Ana Miljački
Robert Mohr Lee Moreau Michael Murphy Miko McGinty William O’Brien Jr. Cristina Parreño Alonso Paul Pettigrew Roi Salgueiro Barrio Adèle Naudé Santos Hashim Sarkis Susanne Schindler Andrew Scott Rafi Segal Rosalyne Shieh Marc Simmons Anne Whiston Spirn Michael Stradley Hans Tursack Anna Vasileiou
Azra Akšamija Lara Baladi Judith Barry Mario Caro Lisa Crafts Georgie Friedman Renée Green Marisa Morån Jahn Jesal Kapadia Tobias Putrih
Nida Sinnokrot Rasa Smite Raitis Smits Gediminas Urbonas
Staff
Building Technology
Computation
History Theory and Criticism
Fabrication
John E. Fernández Leon Glicksman Caitlin Mueller Les Norford John Ochsendorf Christoph Reinhart
Terry Knight Takehiko Nagakura Lawrence Sass George Stiny Skylar Tibbits Cagri Hakan Zaman
Stanford Anderson (In Memoriam) Arindam Dutta David H. Friedman (Emeritus) Timothy Hyde Lauren Jacobi Mark Jarzombek Caroline A Jones Nasser Rabbat Kristel Smentek Jessica Varner
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 Marissa Friedman Mikaela Joyce Kevin McLellan Nina Palisano John Steiner Thera Webb Graham Yeager 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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Below: December 15, 2020 12:12 PM Photo: Oliver Faber
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Opposite: January 25, 2020 3:47 PM Photo: Emily Wissemann
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Subject: Submit your work to the Department Publication! To: arch-all@mit.edu Cc: arch-pub@mit.edu Date: Dec 17, 2020, 3:17pm Dear students, The Department is putting together a print publication and wants to feature your work! As a student in the department, you will have one page where you are invited to share what you’ve been working on this fall semester. Here’s how to participate: Choose your content: Please identify up to 5 (five) files (text or image: resolution 2000 px min) that you wish to be represented by on your single page of the department publication. Send us your materials by January 3, 2021: Please place your files (image files must include a corresponding text file with a project description of 50 words) into a dropbox or wetransfer and send it to the publications team arch-pub@mit.edu. Text file/s should include your name, any associated course number and name, the names of any team members if it was a group project. If needed to understand the images, please also include captions up to 8 words for each file. To learn more about the publication and what the publications team has planned, see this FAQ: https://architecture.mit.edu/news/faq-our-new-department-publication We hope you will contribute! The MIT Architecture Publications Team arch-pub@mit.edu
MIT Architecture
2020