PICK
SPRING 2013
UVA SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE ELECTIVES AND STUDIOS
ELECTIVES
ARCH 5760 DRAWING AND SKETCHING Pam Black
ARH
SARC
SARC 5555 BIM AND REVIT Seth McDowell
SARC 3301 THE ARTS & THE ENVIRONMENT George Sampson
SARC 5555 BREAKING BIM Seth McDowell
ARCH 1020/7020 INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE: PART II Shiela Crane
SARC 5500 THE IDEA OF VENICE IN THE UK AND US John Casteen
SARC 5555 CHIAROSCURO 1-2 Charlie Menefee
ARCH 2753 ARTS AND CRAFTS SLAVE SOUTH Louis Nelson & Maurie McInnis
SARC 5500 DESIGN ENTREPRENEURSHIP Kim Tanzer & Warren Buford
SARC 5555 FIELDWORK Robin Dripps & Ghazal Abbasy-Asbagh
SARC 5500 EVERYTHING I: GEOLOGY, EARTH DYNAMICS, AND ARCHITECTURE Matthew Jull
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ARH 3103 ON HAJ WITH IBN JUBAYR: RECONSTRUCTING THE 12TH CENTURY MEDITERRANEAN Lisa Reilly
SARC 5500 INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN THINKING George Sampson SARC 5500 DESIGN CENTER PROJECT: MOMA PS1 YAP 2013 Matthew Jull, Leena Cho & Seth McDowell
VISUALIZATION MODULES SARC 5555 PHOTO ESSAY John Quale SARC 5555 SURFACE FX Brian Osborn
ARCH 1010 LESSONS OF THE LAWN Peter Waldman ARCH 5342 ENERGY PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP Peter Waldman ARCH 5424 DIRECT CINEMA MEDIA FABRICS Earl Mark ARCH 5500 EXPERIMENTS IN SPATIAL STRUCTURE Robin Dripps ARCH 5500 SAMBO RECONFIGURED Mara Marcu ARCH 5500 HEALTH IMPACT + DESIGN Schaeffer Somers & Matthew Trowbridge ARCH 5590 SPECIAL APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY Eric Field
LAR 5230 CULTURAL LANDSCAPES SEMINAR Elizabeth Meyer LAR 5330 SITE & SYSTEMS: URBAN MORPHOLOGY & METABOLISM Jorg Sieweke LAR 4130/5130 HISTORY OF LANDSCAPE DESIGN II: ENLIGHTENMENT TO THE 20TH CENTURY Michael Lee LAR 5250 LANDSCAPE AND NARRATIVE Michael Lee LAR 5380 PLANTED FORM AND FUNCTION Teresa Gali-Izard
ARH 3602 WORLD BUDDHIST ARCHIECTURE Yunsheng Huang
LAR 5590 ARCTIC FRONTEIR Leena Cho
ARH 3704 20TH-21ST CENTURY AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE Richard Guy Wilson
LAR 6420 REPRESENTING LANDSCAPE II Adalie Pierce-McManamon
ARH 5403 WORLD CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE Shiqiao Li
LAR 7350 WATERWORKS: SYSTEMS, TECHNIQUES & DESIGN Leena Cho
ARH 5500 UNESCO AND ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE Yunsheng Huang
PLAC/PLAN
ARH 9540 TRANSNATIONAL MODERNISMS Shiela Crane
USEM 1570 RIGHTING UNRIGHTABLE WRONGS Frank Dukes
LAR
PLAC 5500 DESIGN + TRANSPORTATION Kathleen Galvin
LAR 4010/5140 THEORIES OF MODERN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Elizabeth Meyer
PLAC 5850 COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEMS (CFS): FOOD JUSTICE Tanya Cobb
PLAC 5860 GREEN CITIES: GREEN SITES Karen Firehock PLAC 5580 COASTAL PLANNING/ADAPTATION TO SEA LEVEL RISE Tim Beatley PLAC 2110/5110 DIGITAL VISUALIZATION FOR PLANNERS David Phillips PLAC 3030 NEIGHBORHOODS, COMMUNITIES, AND REGIONS William Lucy PLAN 3250/5250 MEDIATION THEORY & SKILLS Frank Dukes PLAN 4500 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA HISTORY: RACE AND REPAIR Frank Dukes PLAN 5130 ADVANCED GIS Guoping Huang PLAN 5470 COMMUNITIES AND APPROACHES TO LAND DEVELOPMENT Fred Missel PLAN 5500 PLANNING IMPLICATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE William Lucy PLAN 5580 ADVANCED HOUSING SEMINAR Suzanne Moomaw PLAN 5840 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY Tim Beatley
ELECTIVES SARC SARC 3301 THE ARTS & THE ENVIRONMENT George Sampson T & R, 5:00-6:15pm, 3 credits This Lecture Course is the 7th in an annual series, “The Arts in Context,” each of which offers a broad investigation into the relationship between multiple art forms and a context, in this case, The Environment. With our complicated human relationship to water as a key focal point, this course will challenge scientists and artists, architects and engineers and others to re-think how we and our artists relate to the Environment. SARC 5500 THE IDEA OF VENICE IN THE UK AND US John Casteen T & R, 6:30-7:45pm, 3 credits Venice has engaged the English (and Americans) since the first travel narratives. Venetian civic life, social hierarchies and rituals, commercialism, and even militarism influence us. The city’s isolation on its 118 islands; its exotic physicality; its urban plan and buildings; its Moorishness and Gothicism; and its commercial and political pursuits inform our daily lives. We will read samples of English and American literature reflecting this engagement with Venice, view films and related texts as well as works of art and architecture, including urban designs, and seek to build theses about what Venice has come to be in our common imaginations and how Venetian images and ideas work in the world around us.
SARC 5500 DESIGN ENTREPRENEURSHIP Kim Tanzer & Warren Buford M, 9:00-11:30am, 3 credits As the business of the world changes, architects’ and other designers’ ability to effect substantial, sustainable change hinges on their ability to participate in the flow of business. This includes the skill to realistically assess financial prospects and to act in nimble and creative ways to seize opportunities. The model of professional practice wherein a designer waits by the phone (or computer) for a client to make contact is giving way to new modes of creating and initiating projects. This course will explore both the mindset of entrepreneurship and develop basic tools necessary to engage the world in an entrepreneurial fashion. This special topics class aims to accomplish three objectives: 1) to provide select students an opportunity to explore the concept of design entrepreneurship in highly collaborative relationships with world-class scholars and entrepreneurs, 2) to work with the A-School’s leadership to address the intersection of design and entrepreneurship while addressing real world problems, and 3) to assist local ventures within the School and by our partners, by providing creative yet considered solutions to business, management and/or financial challenges. SARC 5500 EVERYTHING I: GEOLOGY, EARTH DYNAMICS, AND ARCHITECTURE Matthew Jull 2 credits This Lecture Course is the 7th in an annual series, “The Arts in Context,” each of which offers a broad investigation into the
relationship between multiple art forms and a context, in this case, The Environment. With our complicated human relationship to water as a key focal point, this course will challenge scientists and artists, architects and engineers and others to re-think how we and our artists relate to the Environment. SARC 5500 INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN THINKING George Sampson T & R, 11:00-12:15pm, 3 credits This combination Studio – Seminar course is the introductory course for the School of Architecture in a continuing curriculum in Design Thinking to be broadened and deepened in the Fall, 2013 semester. The course uses studio techniques, input from multiple domains of knowledge, including the use of “abductive reasoning” to solve complex problems, usually in group settings, using Architecture and the Arts as exemplars of creative problem solving. SARC 5500 DESIGN CENTER PROJECT: MOMA PS1 YAP 2013 Matthew Jull, Leena Cho & Seth McDowell 3 credits This course gives students an opportunity to work on a design competition with TempAgency, a collaboration between Kutonotuk (L. Cho/M. Jull) and mcdowellespinosa (R. Espinosa/S. McDowell), who have been shortlisted as one of five finalists for the 2013 MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program in New York. Students will participate in research, concept, design development, and production - leading to a final presentation at MoMA PS1 NYC on Feb. 7, 2013.
VISUALIZATION MODULES SARC 5555 PHOTO ESSAY John Quale W, 3:45-6:30pm, 1 credit The earliest surviving photograph is a view from the photographer’s window, documenting the surrounding landscape and the rooftops of adjacent buildings (JosephNicephore Niepce in 1827). In fact, the vast majority of early photographs are images of buildings or landscapes. Photographers have always been interested in documenting their surroundings, and interpreting them for others. The underlying theme of these photographs is inevitably the presence (or absence) of humankind. Light, whether natural or artificial, is the primary tool employed by these artists – whose artistry is seen in the way they capture that light “permanently” on a photographic medium. Students will be encouraged to develop a sharp eye and an intellectual framework for their photographic studies. The primary investigation will involve the capturing and interpreting of light in the environment. The emphasis will be on developing a clear, coherent photographic vision. Students will create a photo essay on a topic of their own choosing, somehow related to the built environment (just to be clear: this is not about portraiture). Consistent progress throughout the four weeks will be required. Students can use any photographic medium, but there will not be any instruction about developing or printing, or about photo editing software. This is a course about learning to use your eyes to carefully observe your surroundings, and to craft a photo essay
with a coherent idea. Feel free to integrate this photographic work into your studio projects or other classes, if relevant. SARC 5555 SURFACE FX Brian Osborn W, 3:45-6:30pm, 1-3 credits Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Manufacturing (CAM) technologies afford increased ability to manipulate geometry and to produce highly articulate form toward both performative effect and experiential affect. This course will explore potentials for retooling digital techniques for Landscape Architectural applications through the production of Landscape Surfaces. Landscape Surfaces, such as paving, drainage, and retaining and erosion control systems, are thickened by an inexorable interaction with the flow of environmental processes over, through, and under them. The necessity to consider physical form relative to ecological processes requires a reciprocal consideration for performance in terms of mutability, durability, and longevity in the development of materials and manufacturing methods for landscape applications. This course employs associative (parametric) and or animation based 3D modeling software in tandem with Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) fabrication equipment toward the modulation of material effects with respect to site conditions that change over time. Students will develop individual research trajectories born from class exercises and discussion and leading to material and landscape process driven site assemblies. The seminar will build on accrued student knowledge of site systems and assembly while stressing an iterative design approach and computational design models.
SARC 5555 BIM AND REVIT Seth McDowell W, 3:45-6:30pm, 1 credit What is the place of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in architecture? Is it only meant for production, or can architectural design benefit from the real time feedback available from Building Information Models. BIM can, and will change the profession. This generation is responsible for how that will happen. This visualization module offers an introduction to the principles of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and the interface and workflow of Autodesk’s Revit. Topics include the BIM interface, parametric objects, parametric families, file organization, workflow, working with levels, modeling, drawing setup, sheet setup, scheduling and output techniques. After completion of the course students will be familiar with the fundamental tools and typical workflow of BIM in the professional architectural office. SARC 5555 BREAKING BIM Seth McDowell W, 3:45-6:30pm, 2 credits What is the place of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in architecture? Is it only meant for production, or can architectural design benefit from the real time feedback available from Building Information Models? BIM can, and will change the profession. This generation is responsible for how that will happen. This visualization module is the second component in the Building Information Modeling (BIM) sequence and serves as an advanced study of the principles of BIM. Emphasis will be on the exploitation of parametric tools and data within BIM software for specific design agendas. How can we intervene in the process to not let it be strictly about efficiency? How is the time
gained from these tools re-appropriated? How can the concepts of parametric modeling infiltrate the design process? Using software that forces rigor can we learn from it and reapply those logics to other aspects of what we do? Students will use Autodesk Revit, to create a parametric architectural system with embedded variability. Topics will include data management, scheduling, energy analysis, curtain wall components, hosting, irregular grids, adaptive components, and advanced outputting techniques. SARC 5555 CHIAROSCURO 1-2 Charlie Menefee W, 3:45-6:30pm, 1-3 credits Designers, and in particular architects, most often use lines to note edges of forms when drawing or sketching. Yet we all see in not in lines like a wireframe but in tones like a painting or rendering. Is there a way to incorporate tonal representation into the repertoire of our sketching “toolbox”? If so, what are some of the possible ways this could be done and to what level of success? Work of the course uses the technique of Chiaroscuro to guide the practice of representing places or conditions. Session 1 will concentrate on drawing objects while the Session 2 will use buildings/places to continue the experiment. It is assumed that every student will have been successfully introduced to the basics of depicting form through drawing. Some knowledge of photography will be helpful, as would having the use of a camera. SARC 5555 FIELDWORK & MAPPING MANHATTAN Robin Dripps & Ghazal Abbasy-Asbagh W, 3:45-6:30pm, 1-3 credits Modules will introduce strategies for finding, creating & manipulating three dimensional fields within the Grasshopper environment
so that the logic of internal structure is able to be responsive to external disturbance. The module will develop an iterative process of sketch diagramming, pseudo-coding & modes of parametric response. This module will be especially appropriate for those planning to enroll in the Monster studio.
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to apply their knowledge to individual projects, real case studies, and active research in the school.
ARCH 1010 LESSONS OF THE LAWN Peter Waldman T & R, 9:30-10:45, 3 credits
ARCH 5424 DIRECT CINEMA MEDIA FABRICS Earl Mark T & R, 2:00-3:15pm, 3 credits
The Lawn, a UNESCO World heritage Site, is at the immediate crossroads of daily life at this University. Jefferson intended for his architectural project to be at the core of a fine arts curriculum. The Lawn still serves as a Model Text, or Primer guiding students toward architectural literacy. For Jefferson, architectural literacy was essential to life as a citizen. In this course the Lawn serves as a starting point in analyzing civic values in a series of case studies to develop architectural literacy, and examining the Academical Village is the basis for developing a universal analytic method based on linguistic models to read, then interpret and finally to engage architecture as Citizens and Strangers.
Direct Cinema Media Fabrics is an interdisciplinary workshop and seminar that combines documentary moviemaking and video input with virtual and physical media output. Video and sound recording or a motion capture body suit may be used to collect initial data. The data may be translated to facilitate the making or movement of physical objects. Or, the data may be translated to figure creatively in virtual representations such as used in motion picture production. There are three overlapping phases to the class:
ARCH 5342 ENERGY PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP Eric Field T & R, 2:00-3:15, 3 credits This is a workshop on developing energy performance analysis for buildings and sites. Using a range of building simulation and climate study software, this workshop will teach and apply the principles and practice of building performance simulation, with a focus on passive design and passive vs. active energy optimizations. Our intent is to assess, understand, and develop an intuition for energy performance issues in design. Software will include predominately Ecotect, Climate Consultant and Energy Plus, with portions of IES Virtual Environment, and Tas Ambiens introduced for their individual strengths. We will also use thermal imaging, portable anemometers, and other measurement tools for a broad range of study of energy performance issues. Through this workshop students will have the opportunity
Phase 1: Direct Cinema: Workshops explore a documentary moviemaking style helpful to spontaneous discovery and observation. Subjects may include people and their environments, phenomenal studies of light, air, and water changing over time, or other elements of story and place. Techniques emphasize freedom of camera movement, intimate recording, portable video and sound equipment. Screenings of class exercises and other movies provide a critical perspective. ARCH 5500 EXPERIMENTS IN SPATIAL STRUCTURE Robin Dripps R, 2:00-4:45pm, 3 credits Relationships between new modes of representation and spatial structure are interestingly complex. This seminarworkshop will allow participants to explore the possibilities of generative software to initiate new spatial relationships as well as its capacities to enable spatial form that has been imagined yet not made manifest in any effective manner. Selected readings and discussion will initiate
a series of short sequential projects. These will begin with transformational operations on respected precedent that open up unexplored possible futures under the agency of new processes of spatial generation. This will lead to the experimental generation of spatial structures based on relational strategies typically outside of architecture. Work is expected to be highly experimental and yet rigorous. Risk is essential. We will be working within the Rhino/Grasshopper environment so a working knowledge of these programs will be important.
archaic. A rather pristine structure illustrating parametric modulation will be invaded by what some would consider disposable, throw away material insertions, seen as leftovers of human behaviors that have somehow embedded traces of contemporary mythology and mark time as consumption. The ideas explored encompass transiency and decay, while almost creating an archeological site, a repository for the release, or discharge of symbolic content. No previous knowledge of CATIA is required. Assistance will be provided to all. Previous experience with MasterCAM is a plus.
ARCH 5500 SAMBO RECONFIGURED Mara Marcu R, 3:30-6:00pm
ARCH 5500 HEALTH IMPACT + DESIGN Schaeffer Somers & Matthew Trowbridge W, 9:00-11:45am, 3 credits
Viewed through the lens of Eliadean philosophy, this research full scale fabrication seminar uses Charlottesville as a laboratory, while taking advantage of UVa’s fabrication facilities and using Catia’s versatile parametric environment as new cognitive opportunity. Computer-aided design and manufacturing methods have extensively permeated fabrication environments for the production of architecture. Symbolic representations in architecture, on the other hand, have widely become obsolete in the unanimous understanding of our globalised society, to the detriment of traditions and heritage. This seminar introduces students to the fundamentals of CAD/CAM, with a particular focus on the function of myths and subsequent applications in architecture, tectonic details, interior furnishings and the realm of products. The research will result in a full-scale installation, which distinguishes itself from an architectural model investigation, which is usually meant to be scaled up and study predictability, in that it captures the behavior or DNA, if you wish, of our present society in a one to one scale representation. The installation will speculate on the cross pollination between CNC fabrication and utilitarian, landfill materials, between the old and the new, between the avant-garde and the
Health is a universally held priority of society, but it is not necessarily reflected at all levels of public policy and decision-making that shape the built environment in which we live. Failures to address health in the design of the constructed environment have led to a range of effects including exposures to physical and toxic hazards, urban sprawl, segregation, concentrated poverty, degraded food environments, traffic injury, loss of public space and social capital, and global climate change. The design of a built environment that meets the needs of humanity today, but works within the ecological limits of our planet requires solutions that cut across the traditional boundaries of professions and disciplines. The future of practice requires a new generation of architects, urban planners, and health professionals who embrace an interdisciplinary understanding of the impact of design, policy, and planning on the health of communities, and how to apply this knowledge to real world situations. Through a combination of teambased project work and class discussions we will explore the edges of standards and best practice in search of performance measures for human health that operate at multiple scales from the city to the building. The course operationalizes the approach
through interdisciplinary projects to design and plan interventions in the local built environment. Working in teams students analyze the health environment using elements of a process emerging from public health domain, the Health Impact Assessment (HIA). The HIA is a combination of procedures, methods, and tools that systematically judges the potential and sometimes unintended effects of a policy, plan, program, or project on the health of a population. Students will selectively apply methods and tools of the HIA to map the health environment of a community and develop logic models for health pathways based on evidence available in scientific literature. Tools developed by the San Francisco Department of Public Health including the Sustainable Communities Index (formerly HDMT) and the Pedestrian Environmental Quality Index (PEQI) will be introduced and applied to survey and map the physical and health environment of the project site. The research and assessment work culminates in a proposal recommending policies and design interventions with the goal of creating positive health outcomes for the effected populations. The project for the Spring 2013 session is the analysis and design of the Emmet Street Corridor from UVA Central Grounds to the Barracks Road Shopping Center as a “green” street accessible to a visually impaired population of citizens. ARCH 5590 SPECIAL APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY Eric Field R, 1:00-3:30pm, 3 credits This course is an independent research seminar for students wishing to explore and apply topics in advanced technology that are above and beyond what can be investigated in a standard course. Students would take this course to pursue new independent research or to extend a topic they are working on in another course or studio. The focus of this seminar is a topically applied exploration in a selected problem or technology. The course is essentially an independent-study within a group seminar environment, oriented toward problem solving through the use of
advanced technologies. Each participant in the seminar will identify a specific topic or problem along with a technology to apply to the study of that problem. The semester will be spent working through the problem with advice from the instructor and other seminar participants, and collaboratively reviewing, discussing, and learning approaches and solutions. ARCH 5760 DRAWING AND SKETCHING Pam Black T, 3:30-6:00pm, 3 credits This course covers the fundamentals of drawing with a focus on the human figure. The various assignments will address the composition of line, tone, volume, space, scale and proportion. The analysis of the human form will be applied to the rendering of still life, architecture and landscape. Various media will be used to convey the drawing objectives with an emphasis on “process.” The following will be considered in the final evaluation: artistic growth, resourcefulness, receptivity to new ideas and methods, active participation, regular attendance, preparation.
ARH ARCH 1020/7020 INTRODUCTION TO THE ARCHITECTURE: PART II Shiela Crane T & R, 2:00-3:15, 3 credits
HISTORY
OF
This course aims to introduce important monuments in the history of architecture from the sixteenth century to the present, as well as tools for analyzing the built environment. Focused on important monuments, we will consider the process of their design and use, their relationship to architectural theory, and the aesthetic, social, cultural, and institutional situations in which they developed. While the course focuses particular attention on interactions between Western and Islamic worlds, our investigations will also expand the scope to select monuments across the globe. Our focused investigations in lecture will expose students to a variety of methodological approaches in the study of architecture, to highlight the multiple interpretations single buildings have inspired and to introduce the varied dimensions of historical work. Discussion sections will serve as a forum for discussing the readings and as an important laboratory for developing skills in architectural analysis, critical reading, and writing. ARCH 2753 ARTS AND CRAFTS SLAVE SOUTH Louis Nelson & Maurie McInnis M & W, 2:00-3:15pm, 3 credits “Arts and Cultures of the Slave South” is an undergraduate, interdisciplinary course that covers the American South to the Civil War. While the course centers on the visual arts— architecture, material culture, decorative arts, painting, and sculpture—it is not designed as a regional history of art, but an exploration of the interrelations between history, material and visual cultures, food ways, music and literature in the formation of Southern identities. The course will cover subjects
ranging from African American spirituals to creolization and ethnicities in Louisiana, from the plantation architectures of both big house and outbuildings to the narratives of former slaves. In the process, students will be introduced to the interpretive methods central to a wide range of disciplines, from archaeology and anthropology, to art and architectural history, to material culture, literature, and musicology. In addition to two weekly lectures by co-faculty Maurie McInnis and Louis Nelson, students will also attend weekly discussion sections and special events including guest lectures, field trip, a movie night, and samplings of traditional southern foods. ARH 3103 ON HAJ WITH IBN JUBAYR: RECONSTRUCTING THE 12TH CENTURY MEDITERRANEAN Lisa Reilly T & R, 2:00-3:15, 3 credits Our seminar will embark on a journey around the Mediterranean with Ibn Jubayr, a twelfth century Spanish Moslem who recorded his experiences during his pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina in remarkably lively and detailed first hand account. From his shipwreck on the coast of Sicily to his performance of the rituals associated with his visit to Mecca, Ibn Jubayr provides an unusual perspective on the built environment, culture and people he encounters throughout his travels. We will read the translation of his travels as a class with background lectures provided on the visual culture of the sites he visits, such as Palermo, Damascus, Alexandria and Mecca. Integrated with our discussion of the twelfth century travels of Ibn Jubayr will be an introduction to digital humanities tools such as Neatline (www.neatline.org) and Google Earth which we will use to analyze the history of this critical region and its built environment.
ARH 3602 WORLD BUDDHIST ARCHIECTURE Yunsheng Huang T, 3:30-6:00pm, 3 credits This course deals with the architecture and it’s development in the Buddhist world. Related art, together with Buddhist cultures will also be discussed. Among the three major world religions Buddhism created the earliest work of art and architecture. Buddhist architecture spreads over the vast Asian lands which are occupied by half the world population. Buddhist architecture deeply reflects the Asian cultures. This class is a thorough architectural survey of the Buddhist world. It ranges from the world roof plateau to the Pacific islands. The building forms include masonry and wooden temples, stupas, pagodas, and artistic grottos. Great monuments will be discussed. The world renowned examples include Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Borobudur in Indonesia, and Ananda Temple in Burma. The modern designs and Buddhist structures in Western world will also be included in class. The general philosophy and principles of Buddhist belief are introduced for better understanding Buddhist architecture. Major schools and sects are also to be introduced in relation to the architectural forms. The sacred geometry in the Buddhist designs is to be discussed in class. ARH 3704 20TH-21ST CENTURY AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE Richard Guy Wilson M-W, 9:00-10:15am, 3 credits A survey of American Architecture from approximately World War One to 2013 is the course’s time span. The course will stress the multi-dimensional nature of architecture in the United States over this 90+ year period. Themes to be considered include the rise of modernism (in its several varieties), the continuity of traditional design,
and alternatives such as Postmodernism, Decon, New Wave modern, along with Levittown, and Disney. Attention will be paid to foreign influences, social and cultural issues, landscape and city planning, and the rise of the automobile and where possible related developments in furniture, industrial design, and painting. Among the figures to be considered include Frank Lloyd Wright, Paul Cret, Bertram Goodhue, Mies, SOM, Venturi, Gehry, and others. ARH 5403 WORLD CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE Shiqiao Li As the construction of cities redistributes its activities across the world in the twentyfirst century, this course considers the ways in which architecture and architects are changed by a complex shifting field of forces. These forces include critical and ethical discourses, digital media, global finance and trade, developments in materials science, environmental awareness, and geo-political strategies. This course will discuss the resultant features of architecture and cities around the world and prepare students for an increasingly multi-disciplinary and multicultural arena of architectural scholarship and practice. ARH 5500 UNESCO AND ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE Yunsheng Huang R, 3:30-6:00pm, 3 credits This seminar studies international issues in built and natural environment, in particular, the sustainable situation in some international regions, with an emphasis in the case of China. It deals with the social and cultural topics related with urban and architectural environment, both historical and contemporary. UNESCO has missions in global management in social and cultural development. Especially, the determination of the selected items on the list of world heritage provides guidance for the effective work of historic preservation. China has more than forty sites on the world
heritage list. The rapid growth in economy brought dramatic changes to the nation, but challenges the environment in many ways. This seminar provides discussions most related cultural and historic preservation. Cities, towns, and villages will be studied. The ways of preserving architectural heritage of international significance will be compared. ARH 9540 TRANSNATIONAL MODERNISMS Shiela Crane F, 10:00am-12:30pm, 3 credits This seminar considers how movements of materials, objects, architects, and architectural knowledge across national, geographical, and cultural boundaries have transformed architectural practice in the modern period. We will pay close attention to the methodological and theoretical frameworks that historians (of art, architecture, and cities) have used to investigate interactions between local clients and foreign designers, while paying close attention to the cultural and political dynamics of these encounters in colonial and postcolonial contexts. While the seminar will focus particular attention on architecture and cities, students are encouraged to pursue individual research projects attuned to their interests, which may examine similar dynamics outside the chronological and geographical parameters of the course and may more directly engage material culture or art historical concerns.
LAR LAR 4010/5140 THEORIES OF MODERN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Elizabeth Meyer M & W, 9:00-10:15am, 3 credits This three-credit course explores the modern designed landscape as a distinct mode of cultural production while underscoring landscape architectural theory’s interconnections with changing societal constructions of nature, environmentalism and the modernizing city. The lectures and readings examine: late 19th21st century design treatises, and manifestos; contemporary theoretical writings from outside the design fields: and designed gardens and urban landscapes that are motivated by, or that motivate, those writings. The course recovers the theory (and practice) of modern landscape architecture from its marginalization as an antiurban aesthetic of open spaces. Instead, it reveals how landscape architects re-imagined the modern city-as-landscape and landscapeasinfrastructure. Unlike the narrow and limiting way that landscape practices were characterized in many mid 20th century historical narratives and theoretical texts, the actual theory and practice of modern landscape architecture was not anti-urban, passive or open space. Rather, it was engaged in creating new hybrid forms of urbanism/suburbanism and new modes of expression located at the intersection of scientific (19th c geology /20th c ecology) and artistic discourses. By examining this hybrid design language and its resultant full spaces, students will expand their understanding of what constituted modernity. Since recent criticism of mid-twentieth century modernism has focused on the ethical and aesthetic limitations of those mainstream concerns, knowledge of these “marginal� late 19th and 20th century landscape theories and practices is germane to design, history and planning students who are interested in green urbanism,
landscape urbanism, operations and process, ecology and technology, public space, and sustainability as well as feminist theory and criticism. LAR 5230 CULTURAL LANDSCAPES SEMINAR Elizabeth Meyer T, 11:00-1:30pm, 3 credits Cultural landscapes, landscapes created by human culture and technology, have distinct spatial patterns and settlement practices that are shaped by social routines as well as geographical conditions. Cultural landscape is also a way of seeing, thinking and interpreting urban, suburban, rural and industrial places. It applies rich and productive crossdisciplinary approaches that entangle history, cultural practices, and bio-physical systems in the pursuit of uncovering the form, meaning and processes that differentiate one cultural landscape from another. Over the past quarter century, cultural landscape has become an increasingly important lens through which geographers, architectural historians, landscape architects, preservationists, anthropologists interpret and manage the built and shaped environment. This seminar will introduce the concept and practice of cultural landscape, in the US and abroad, through a series of focused readings and discussions, a set of conversations with designers, historians and planners who are renown for their contributions to cultural landscape theory and practice in the United States, and several field visits to cultural landscapes in the region. LAR 5330 SITE & SYSTEMS: URBAN MORPHOLOGY & METABOLISM Jorg Sieweke W, 9:00-11:30am, 3 credits Once we shift the perspective from the more familiar urban morphology to the urban metabolism we find ourselves in the unknown. We seem to be more acquainted governing
the city by its form than by its flows. The urban metabolism has become a neglected afterthought effectively and discretely managed by specialist. More recent matters of concerns in sustainability, green infrastructure, urban agriculture/gardening share one objective; they cannot be resolved by formal considerations alone, but they need to account for their flows. Water, waste, soil, carbon, nutrient are the media; floods, draughts, storms, abundance or scarcity of supply are the events that bring the significance of the urban metabolism to our attention. Once we do identify and address the potential of these hidden flows they offer surprising opportunities. Unaccounted streams of resources can be tapped, to harvest nutrient or energy; projects discover valuable resources. How can we close the cycles of carbon, nutrient and waste and water streams discarded as discharge today? How can the “end” of one project be understood as the tap for the new project? How can a critical and holistic perspective of landscape architecture begin to synthesize urban metabolism and morphology that have been so rigorously separated in the past 150 years? Mapping and diagrams will be utilized as graphic tools to begin lift these potentials. LAR 4130/5130 HISTORY OF LANDSCAPE DESIGN II: ENLIGHTENMENT TO THE 20TH CENTURY Michael Lee T-R, 9:30-10:45, 3 credits This course examines gardens and landscapes of the modern period, tracing the complex relations between innovation in landscape design and social, technological, and ideological developments of the past two hundred years (1800-2000). Case studies focus on the United States, Europe, and Latin America with thematic emphasis on the rise of the bourgeoisie, the public park movement, modernism, environmentalism, the postwar consumer society, and the influence of environmental/land art.
The first half of the course will be in lecture format; the second half will be a student-led seminar based on individual term projects. Students will develop a critical vocabulary for interpreting landscape designs of the modern period, explore the role of studio skills in historical research, and acquire greater facility with research methods and academic writing standards (e.g., Chicago style). LAR 5250 LANDSCAPE AND NARRATIVE Michael Lee M, 9:00-11:45am, 3 credits This seminar explores the role of narrative in creating, experiencing, and representing landscapes, along with the use of landscape in the narrative arts, including the novel, drama, and film. Case studies include built landscapes where narrative inscriptions and sequential movement play a crucial role; and landscapes that are based, at least in part, on literary works. As counterpoints to these built works, we will analyze novels in which gardens are central to the narrative strategy (e.g., Rousseau’s Julie, Goethe’s Elective Affinities, Austen’s Mansfield Park); plays such as Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia (1993); and films (e.g., Mon Oncle (1958, Jacques Tati), Last Year at Marienbad (1961, Alain Resnais), Blow-Up (1966, Michelangelo Antonioni), The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982, Peter Greenaway), and The Fall (2006, Tarsem Singh)). Class sessions will focus on group discussions of primary texts and critical essays, and will include film screenings. Students will learn to analyze landscape as a generative form within the narrative arts, as well as to refine their understanding of sequence, pacing, framing, point-of-view, and “storyline” in built landscapes. LAR 5380 PLANTED FORM AND FUNCTION Teresa Gali-Izard T, 2:00-5:45pm, 3 credits This course builds on LAR 5370 shifting
emphasis from plant description &identification the most important parameters and qualities to making design propositions using plants. Lectures, field experiences, reproduction of historical patterns, alternate with short planting design exercises & research into creating plant palettes for different site conditions. Students learn how planting designs move through various stages of the design from conceptual, to schematic, to design development, &construction documentation.
and investigate a variety of representation techniques to examine the site, and to communicate design intention. The course will be taught as a mixture of workshops, desk crits and lecture sessions.
LAR 5590 ARCTIC FRONTEIR Leena Cho T, 2:00-4:30pm, 3 credits
This course explores critical issues, concepts, and techniques fundamental to urban hydrology, water infrastructure, aquatic ecology and water management. Ranging across multiple scales and contexts, emphasis is placed on: 1) land-water morphology and dynamics, 2) engineered waterworks, 3) purification/restoration techniques, and 4) planning initiatives and design case studies – that shape the formal and performative parameters of design as well as our phenomenological relationship to water. The course will involve lectures, field trips, in-class exercises, case studies, reading discussions, and individual final projects.
The arctic is undergoing radical changes due to warming climate, resulting in thawing of the vast permafrost belt, realignment of global shipping, and international disputes on sovereignty and natural resources. Within the framework of Arctic Frontier, this seminar will act as a think tank to examine a set of interrelated forces that are shaping the region and the potential modes by which landscape architecture and strategic planning can act within this rapidly evolving domain. Through a set of individual research projects, the course will focus on current and alternative futures of the northern territories. The outcome of the seminar will be published as a book. LAR 6420 REPRESENTING LANDSCAPE II Adalie Pierce-McManamon R, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits This required course is taught in conjunction with the second year spring semester landscape studio. The class will explore, through representation, the dynamic systems governing urban landscape interventions. Students will test design ideas and develop a command of both scale and precision through iterative drawings in 2D CAD, 3D programs and in freehand. The class will engage issues of graphic legibility, layering information, line weights and hierarchy. Students in the course will build on their digital representation skills
LAR 7350 WATERWORKS: SYSTEMS, TECHNIQUES & DESIGN Leena Cho R, 9:30-12:00pm, 3 credits
PLAC/PLAN USEM 1570 RIGHTING UNRIGHTABLE WRONGS Frank Dukes F, 2:00-3:50pm, 3 credits From indigenous peoples pursuing a return of lands and sovereignty, to JapaneseAmericans memorializing the experience of internment during WWII, to South Africans coming to terms with apartheid, to Americans seeking redress for slavery and its aftermath of segregation and discrimination, many groups have sought to right past harms and ongoing injustices. Can individuals, communities and nations ever make right what appear to be irreparable wrongs? This course examines that question for problems ranging from genocide and slavery to environmental contamination and racial discrimination. The closing theme of the class will be the question of the legacy of slavery and segregation at the University of Virginia and its impact on the surrounding community of Charlottesville-Albemarle. PLAC 5500 DESIGN + TRANSPORTATION Kathleen Galvin W, 3:00-5:45am, 3 credits Students will analyze Charlottesville in terms of its pedestrian-orientation and transit-readiness, simultaneously honing down skills and understandings essential for place-making and multi-modal transportation-planning. Three goals are: 1.) To understand “Neighborhood” as a physical entity with discernible urban design characteristics. 2.) To rethink “Corridor” and “thoroughfare” as critical elements of public space. 3.) To learn the principles of “transportation planning” and the design implications of planning for transit. Two projects at different scales will be
undertaken. (1) Using the City of Charlottesville, three “teams” of students will conduct a physical investigation of settlement pattern, open space infrastructure, and transportation networks. (2) Individual students will then select one neighborhood (defined in terms of “pedestrian sheds,) to redesign. PLAC 5850 COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEMS (CFS): FOOD JUSTICE Tanya Cobb T, 9:00-11:45am, 3 credits This course will build upon the previous 7 years of community food system class research, to conduct an assessment of food justice for the City of Charlottesville. Student findings will be submitted to the city for consideration in its new Comprehensive Plan and neighborhood plans. Students will learn and use best practices for community engagement while working with six selected Charlottesville neighborhoods to conduct (and test) a newly developed “food justice audit.” They will interview neighborhood leaders and community residents about their experiences with hunger, access to fresh, healthy food, their perception of food justice, impacts of local food initiatives, and ideas for advancing Charlottesville’s food justice. In addition to conducting research on food justice policies, students will do their field work at the grassroots level, gaining important skills in cultural diversity, observation, listening, and will synthesize their experiences in project papers and presentations of research findings to the city, as well as ethnographies guided by advisory faculty, Dr. Kendra Hamilton. By the end, students will have gained important skills in community-based planning and policies, which are now considered essential for numerous professions. PLAC 5860 GREEN CITIES: GREEN SITES Karen Firehock W, 9:00-11:45am, 3 credits Many U.S. cities were built prior to requirements for stormwater management
and have altered significantly the natural drainage patterns, vegetation, local climate and habitats. Problems from these alterations include untreated urban land runoff that contaminates surface waters and accelerates flooding, increases stream temperatures from paved surfaces and decreases the availability of natural habitats for animals and people. In developed areas, public access to contaminated waterways can cause problems as these waterways may carry pollutants from street runoff, broken sewer lines, illicit discharges or other polluting land uses. This course focuses on urban storm water management from a local context; using Virginia sites and cities as test cases for studying principles and techniques of green design—transforming water from a waste product to an urban resource. Students will be introduced to critical issues in stormwater management and learn how better water management can improve community health, safety, aesthetics, save money and restore natural elements to the urban fabric. Students will study a pilot watershed and design a stormwater retrofit plan for a downtown site – finding ways to infiltrate and clean the water using low impact development principles. Students will draw on case studies from other cities. The completed design ideas will be proposed to the city and client for possible adoption. PLAC 5580 COASTAL PLANNING/ADAPTATION TO SEA LEVEL RISE Tim Beatley Coastal communities around the world (and their planners) face unprecedented challenges, as climate changes, sea levels rise, and storms increase in frequency and intensity. Much of the East Coast of US can expect to see rises in sea level approaching one meter by 2100, resulting in new levels of flooding, storm surge, and damage to natural and built environments. These impacts are exacerbated by significant urbanization trends and a variety of existing stresses placed on
ecological systems and infrastructure. As the nation and planet become ever more coastal AND urban, there is an unprecedented need for new and creative thinking about how cities and communities can adapt and respond (and a need for deliberate planning for long term shoreline retreat). Few coastal communities have seriously confronted these issues, and few adaptation plans or strategies have been prepared. This PLAC will forge new ground by helping one or more coastal communities in Virginia better understand the nature of the threats and the range of policy and planning options available to them. This course will be open to small number of Planning students (around 5) interested in undertaking research on innovative coastal adaptation measures and strategies and working closely with one or more coastal localities to develop and apply these ideas. Students would work in a small team, with guidance and weekly meetings with the instructor. Most of the class will focus on the research and project work, with relatively limited in-class lectures. PLAC 2110/5110 DIGITAL VISUALIZATION FOR PLANNERS David Phillips M, W, F, 12:30-1:45pm, 3 credits Digital technology for representing and analyzing planning data will include skill development in photo-editing, web page design, 3-D digital sketching, geographic information system mapping, spreadsheet modeling and document layout and production. A series of exercises will apply these digital skills to two- and three-dimensional representation of spaces common to planning: streetscape, neighborhoods, communities and regions. Representation of the past, the present and prospective futures to both professional and citizen audiences will receive critical attention. Representation and beginning analysis of social space as well as physical space will be introduced drawing upon principles of urban analysis. Lecture/workshops will introduce both the substantive concepts of analysis and
spatial representation and the way software facilitates that analysis and representation. The Friday Workshop and outside of class students will work on a series of projects applying these concepts and skills. Students will also be asked to be reflective about their learning and problem solving experiences. PLAC 3030 NEIGHBORHOODS, COMMUNITIES, REGIONS William Lucy T & R, 12:30-1:45pm, 3 credits
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PLAN 3030 is about the economics, governance, and sociology of neighborhoods, communities, and regions in metropolitan areas in the United States. The course will draw on recent research about conditions and trends in 35 large metropolitan areas. Students will conduct research on one of these 35 metropolitan areas and write two analytic papers about them. Students also will conduct field observations in Charlottesville-Albemarle and write a report about their discoveries and interpretations. Guidance about sources and research methods for each of these three projects will be provided in class. PLAN 3250/5250 MEDIATION THEORY & SKILLS Frank Dukes 1/19 & 1/12, 9:00-5:00pm Many of our experiences with conflict are not positive. Conflict can destroy relationships. But conflict can be studied and understood, and it need not always proceed in destructive ways. This highly interactive one-credit, pass-fail course will introduce students to the principles and practices of mediation, with an emphasis on inter-personal conflict. Through readings, role plays, and a variety of exercises, students will develop competency in mediating a variety of issues, such as neighborhood or roommate disputes. Students will also examine the theoretical basis of mediation and develop a capacity to assess the strengths and weaknesses of different models of mediation.
PLAN 4500 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA HISTORY: RACE AND REPAIR Frank Dukes T, 3:30-6:00pm, 3 credits This special topics class will focus on the University and the surrounding community of Charlottesville. Students will explore the racialized history of the University from its founding and construction to the early twentyfirst century, exploring both the documented history and the community’s perception of that history. Topics include: the early role of the enslaved workers; the evolution of the student body and surrounding communities in the era of Reconstruction and Jim Crow, as well as the values of southern Progressivism; the place of eugenics at U.Va.; early efforts at racial and gender diversity and administrative responses, and the eventual acceptance of African American students and their support from the Black Charlottesville community; employment practices at the University as well as issues of growth and their impact on communities; and how this history is (mis)represented on Grounds and throughout the built environment. This course will invite and encourage community members who have worked or lived in the surrounding area to help construct the forgotten or buried histories of University/ community relations from their perspective. Students enrolled in the course will develop projects that actively engage members of the community, and will develop final products that serve the wider community needs for revealing and understanding this history.
analysis, modeling and visualization. Class time is divided by multimedia lectures, handson demonstrations, project status updates from students, and diagnostic discussions. Each project cycle includes the follow steps: background introduction and problem statement, conceptual plan of the project; literature and data review, detailed plan of the project; data preparation, quality improvement, geodatabase organization; analysis methods review, testing, and refinement; preliminary results review, visualization design. PLAN 5470 COMMUNITIES AND APPROACHES TO LAND DEVELOPMENT Fred Missel Comprehensive Land Development and Site Feasibility provides an introduction to the fundamentals of the urban and suburban land development process. The course will begin with a variety of case studies and discussions relating to the more subjective subjects relating to land development. These subjects form the foundation of strong, understandable and livable communities. The class will analyze multiple community styles and typologies both historic and contemporary. Discussions will include why the community is or is not successful. Students will be asked to identify characteristics that make a strong community and will be asked to critique existing developments using those criteria. Other foundational topics to be discussed include sustainability, livability, and pros and cons of design guidelines and standards implementation.
PLAN 5130 ADVANCED GIS Guoping Huang W, 7:00-9:45pm, 3 credits
PLAN 5500 PLANNING IMPLICATIONS CHANGE William Lucy M, 9:00-11:45am, 3 credits
This course focuses on case studies of real world GIS applications. Three projects covering urban and environmental planning at different scales will be introduced. To address these projects, students will learn advanced GIS skills in geodatabase design, data editing, spatial
Planning Implications of Climate Change has a coping dimension and a preventive and limiting dimension. Whether climate change is human caused or accelerated or is occurring without human influence, coping with the changes it will bring will be unavoidable. If climate change
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is human influenced, as nearly all mainstream scientists believe, then human societies and individuals have the challenge of changing behavior and activities that will slow, halt, or reverse climate changes. PLAN 5580 ADVANCED HOUSING SEMINAR Suzanne Moomaw M (1/16-3/6), 10:00-11:30am, 1 credits This seminar will explore in-depth the key issues that are critical to a cohesive national housing policy including housing finance, affordability, density, design, and accessibility. Students will read and critique current articles and research studies and lead class discussions. The final project will be a new housing strategy that has access to quality, sustainable, and safe housing as its primary goals. PLAN 5840 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS SUSTAINABILITY Tim Beatley T, 2:00-4:45pm, 3 credits
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At the center of most environmental policy debates are basic conflicts about which environmental values in society should prevail. Too often environmental planners and policy makers focus on technical issues without addressing underlying ethical and value dimensions. Moreover, societal decisions about how we use and relate to our environment are pervasive, and increasingly complex and difficult. Whether the issue is setting appropriate pollution standards, deciding the fate of an old-growth forest, or resolving conflicts between coastal development and wetlands protection, planners are often in the position of clarifying, mediating and balancing different environmental values. The extent of global environmental degradation requires all of us to reassess our relationship to our environment and to consider a new, more sustainable ethical framework or value structure. Sustainability is ultimately an ethical concern, and much of the class will involve examining the ethical and value underpinnings of sustainability.
STUDIOS UGRAD RESEARCH STUDIOS ARCH 3020 MONSTER Robin Dripps & Ghazal Abbasy-Asbagh ARCH 3020 FORMS OF CONCRETE Alexander Kitchin ARCH 3020 AN INSTITUTE FOR MATERIALS RESEARCH Shiqiao Li ARCH 3020 DESOLATED YET MONUMENTAL: BETWEEN THE THICK AND THE THIN Mara Marcu ARCH 3020 DOWN EAST STUDIO: SCHOODIC POINT, MAINE Earl Mark ARCH 3020 TRASH TECTONICS Seth McDowell ARCH 3020 PARAMETRIC FICTION Lucia Phinney ARCH 3020 MANUFACTURING + STRUCTURAL SURFACES Jeana Ripple
STUDIOS UGRAD RESEARCH STUDIOS ARCH 3020 MONSTER Robin Dripps & Ghazal Abbasy-Asbagh The concept of “deviating from the normal shape, behavior, or character”, suggests the existence of a normal condition. The premise of this studio is to re-consider this normal condition and explore various hybrid conditions that would result in an abnormality. Building on the premise that the “normal” -- the current modes of urbanism -- are no longer sustainable ecologically or socially, this studio will be an investigation in hybridities -cultural, phenomenal, economical, ecological, programmatic, spatial, formal, and others -- as vehicle for new urbanisms. Cities are places of transaction where information, goods, cultural production, etc. all form an active network of negotiation. The subsequent frictions among a set of varied urban actors constitutes the vital economics, political, and cultural pulse of cities. While the stability of enduring rituals, modes of being, accommodating as well as generating spatial structures are important systems of reference, it is the encounter with the unknown, the other, the foreign that will catalyze the most substantial forms of cultural advance. Density and multiplicity are crucial to its working. Cities are places of dwelling. This complex condition of public encounter and private domesticity also requires a richly variegated field of relationships. Density and connectivity are critical. The intersection and engagement of the city of transaction
and the place of dwelling is the basis for urban hybridities. These two ideas of urban relationship have different but interestingly interwoven spatial typologies. The cellular, repetitive nature of habitation must engage the fluid and open connectivity of transactional space. Boundaries between the two need to operate more as rich ecotones where the greatest diversity will be found. These will of necessity become thick, layered liminal zones of cultural, social, and political action. In a climate where cities are shrinking, noncities are becoming the centers of human activity, and dormitory neighborhoods have become the norm, we propose to investigate density as a possible way to generate new modes of urbanism; and further propose to challenge existing codes and practices by way of exploring new hybrid conditions. As the first in a series of research studios, this studio anticipates to test out this agenda in different urban conditions. While the overarching pedagogical agenda of this studio is to examine hybridity as vehicles for highdensity housing, we contend that different urban conditions -- dense city, shrinking city, industrial/post industrial city, and the non-city -- will require different hybridities that will potentially result in a variety of responses in the production of high density housing. ARCH 3020 FORMS OF CONCRETE Alexander Kitchin The spring studio will advance the module ideas and skills by reintroducing the studio to the shop research. We will take a look at the history or concrete architecture, and then explore today’s cutting-edge uses of concrete as building components and systems. The intention is to explore forms and applications that are uniquely concrete. This will require some technical knowledge, but this research will focus on exploring the tactile and formal
potential of the material, and therefore its significance in a larger context. We will consider the scale of the person – our oneto-one interaction with the material, and the scale of the city as concrete realizes a place in a new architecture. Concrete was introduced in ancient roman times, but then lost for about 1400 years, and did not start to truly find its own architectural form (instead of mimicking other building systems) until the early 20th century. In the last 10-20 years it has changed to a whole new material that will not only alter its applications and construction methods, but should produce buildings, landscapes and environments unlike any before. These advances in its chemistry, combined with its natural tactile properties will be the inspiration for this design research. ARCH 3020 AN INSTITUTE FOR MATERIALS RESEARCH Shiqiao Li We seem to relate to materials in three ways: economic, experiential and artistic. We tend to stress experiential and artistic relationships with materials in design, and deservingly so, as they are fundamental to the human psyche and intellect, understood through science, phenomenology and critical theory. The economic relationship with materials, on the other hand, is much less discussed in relation to design.
possibilities: economy, experience and art. Programmatically, it contains a goods workshop, a school of craft, and a resident artist studio. By merging all three into one single entity, this Institute aims to demonstrate a “full potential of materials” and to advance a “new economic life” which attempt to readjust the distortion and alienation of the capital in relation to human life and the equitable rights of things in the environment. “Unnatural Selection” provocatively inserted a center for the genome project at Wall Street in New York in Fall 2012, linking implicitly the connection between humans and the capital; this studio examines the selective power of the capital through the complex relationship between humans and materials. ARCH 3020 DESOLATED YET MONUMENTAL: BETWEEN THE THICK AND THE THIN Mara Marcu While considering specific architectural affects such as monumentality and desolation this studio proposes to reassess and challenge an actual definition of the building retrofit. We will consider interventions that mitigate between the sterile and the specific, between horizontality and verticality, between the thick and the thin.
We live at a time when the economic relationship with materials is monopolized by global capital; through division of labor, return on investment, spatial and temporal displacement of capital, all materials production seems to have become “profit center”, which returns in the form of goods of convenience and fast deterioration. The debasement of the economic relationship with materials, as a kind of alienation, becomes the debasement of the experiential connection.
Monumentality can be described possibly as seen in Washington DC which maintains Jefferson’s vision of a Paris like city with “low and convenient” buildings on “light and airy” streets, despite inflated rents, limited affordable housing and considerable traffic problems or, perhaps, monumentality as seen in the Communist unlit promenades of the Romanian capital from where I used to watch the ludic spectacle of the only lights bursting out through the eyes of the tilt up concrete walls tunneling my way home. This is the anonymous monumentality with buildings that are equal, grey and alike.
This Institute of Materials Research aims to work simultaneously with three material
Desolation could perhaps be considered in relation to the run down enclave of the NY
Alphabet City or to the anomalous interventions currently infiltrating the Romanian architectural scene, which nevertheless have the honorable intent of exploring possibilities within the remains and legacies of the post-utopian, yet disenchanted Soviet Constructivism. In line with the Athens Charter, the utopia of Le Corbusier’s ‘ville radieuse’ has found an unexpected echo in the architecture and urban planning of the Eastern European block. This research documents discrete, yet rigorous lightweight insertions within a rather rigid infrastructure to address a hypothetical society set in a speculative future where the sensible coexists with the monumental and which reestablishes a healthy relationship between places and social identity. ARCH 3020 DOWN EAST STUDIO: SCHOODIC POINT, MAINE Earl Mark The protection of coastlines and climate change may cause a paradigm shift in how buildings near oceans are made and occupied. Schoodic Educational Research Center (SERC) at Schoodic Point within Acadia National Park in “Down East” Maine is situated within a dramatic pink granite coastal setting, a place of abundant ocean life, seabirds, powerful waves, undersea fjords, and the mixing of water currents from the Canadian Maritimes and the Gulf of Mexico. Less than 10 people live at SERC in winter. During warmer months SERC may lodge 300 people overnight. During the summer Schoodic Point attracts roughly 250,000 daytime visitors. The studio will travel to SERC and design low impact, retractable lab space and lodging for educators, visiting scientists, artists, and k-12 students. We will examine the heritage of local wooden boat building and sailmaking relevant to tension membrane fabric and lightweight architecture construction. The primary focus is four retractable lab/residential buildings of 1000 square feet. The small scale provides an opportunity to detail and prototype building
components. The studio will also consider at a schematic level the development of a larger residential conference center that uses similar building approaches. Each student will develop a project thesis that considers their design’s visual and ecological impact on plants, seabirds and other animals, the health of the coastline and intertidal areas, and that responds to the potential of a rising ocean level. ARCH 3020 TRASH TECTONICS Seth McDowell Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials and products into new materials of better quality and environmental value. TRASH TECHTONICS will be a design studio structured as a construction laboratory investigating the opportunities for upcycling waste and post-consumer products for spatial and architectural purposes. The ecological mandate of the work is to develop methods and processes for remediation by transforming waste into building materials. Emphasis is placed on developing energyefficient methods for material transformation rather than relying on energy intensive procedures that reprocess the material compositions. Thus, a ready-made approach is prioritized and transformation is achieved by low-tech and innovative strategies of assembly. Upcycling is about the way we remake things. TRASH TECTONICS will examine three conditions of material waste: the discarded, the outgrown, and the remains. We will view these forms of material waste as raw material. The Discarded: These are the throw-away materials that package the products we consume. They have no specific function beyond transporting the items we use. Examples of the discarded include plastic packaging, expanded polystyrene packaging, bottles, cans, cartons, boxes, packaging peanuts, bubble wrap, pallets, etc. The Outgrown: These are the products and materials that are time sensitive and are
abandoned after their performance is deemed outdated or inadequate. This form of waste has been accelerated by the short life cycles of electronics. Examples of the outgrown include cell phones, televisions, computers, toys, clothes, tires, etc. The Remains: These are the leftover materials from industrial, manufacturing and construction processes. It is the material that is removed during the processing and formatting of materials and objects. The remains include scraps, debris, dust, chips, shavings etc. ARCH 3020 PARAMETRIC FICTION Lucia Phinney The dystopian and semi-abandoned cities of the 2st century America, with their dependence on vulnerable supply networks and an increasing susceptibility to weatherrelated calamity, will form the territory for a re-telling of Homer’s Odyssey. Many careful speculative re-readings of this text will lead to urban landscapes and other constructs for Odysseus’ American homecoming. Through the semester, textual themes, structures, and descriptions will form the baisis for a sequence of projects addressing: the nature of narrative from verbal to spatial, waste, dystopia, resilience, evolody and conservation, chronos and hora, atmospheric phenomena, and human conceptions of nature. ARCH 3020 MANUFACTURING + STRUCTURAL SURFACES Jeana Ripple Advances in material science and in digital manufacturing have enabled the combination of structure and skin into single systems. Composite or layered materials can be engineered to meet performance criteria in increasingly thin, light sections. In addition, new software plugins make structural analysis more accessible during the design process. This studio will combine an investigation of
composite material systems, rigid structural surfaces, and local manufacturing potential. We will make, refine, and prototype our designs in three phases. Phase 1, MAKE, will involve a two-week grasshopper workshop followed by research and prototyping of wood structural components, such as composite panels and reciprocal framing. Phase 2, REFINE, includes visits to wood manufacturing facilities and communities in SW Virginia, structural testing of components, and analysis of rigid structural systems such as one-way shells, folded plates, and membrane structures. Phase 3, APPLY, will allow students to make a case to their peers for the capacity of their structural / material system, including the potential for partnerships with Virginia manufacturers. The group will choose one or more systems for further development, analysis, and full-scale mock-up.