Global Arc

Zoning has preemptively defined what is possible to build, occupy, and design in the largest cities in the United States for over one hundred years. In the 21st century, zoning also enters cities and regions as a means of interpreting and defining effects of climate change, parameters of protest, movement of water, and economic investment. This course introduces students to zoning as an urbanistic tool related to representation, classification, and design. Readings investigate zoning as a form of both ideation and technology.

Urbanism requires anticipatory and transdisciplinary thought about the future, which is uncertain by definition. Scenario planning and futures studies provide the techniques and conceptual frameworks for developing strategy in spaces of uncertainty. This seminar will provide an introduction to fundamental techniques and concepts from the practices of scenario planning and apply them to specific questions about the future of cities and metropolitan areas.

This course bridges the gap between pedagogy on Western cities, and that on cities of the so-called Global South, to compare urbanization and social movements across the Americas and South Asia. Specific course units will examine the development of informal settlements, urban segregation, enclave urbanism, privatization of public spaces, evictions, gentrification, homelessness, and the criminalization of the urban poor. Attention will also be paid to social movements focused on the right to the city. It asks how these processes and phenomena are similar, different, and / or interconnected across contexts.

Housing ideas and urban projects of architects and social scientists since the mid-19th century as a response to industrialization, the development of the welfare state, the rise of professionalism, and the dispersion of democratic culture. Material drawn from architecture, urban planning, political theory, sociology, and social psychology. One three-hour seminar.

Selected issues in relationship to the development of architectural history and theory as critical disciplines, emphasizing the historiography and methodology of these disciplines. Course focuses on particular critics through a close reading and analysis of selected texts. One three-hour seminar.

Examines architecture as cultural production, taking into account its capacity to structure both physical environments and social organizations. A specific problem or topic area will be set by each studio critic, and may include a broad range of building types, urban districts or regional landscapes, questions of sustainability, building materials, or building performance. Studio work will include research and data gathering, analysis, and program definition. Students are expected to master a full range of design media, including drawing, model-making, and computer-aided design.

Introduction to concepts of energy utilization and conservation in building. Course presents the physics of building thermal performance, including quantitative methods, and discusses conservation strategies in building design and source energy. Passive design and alternative energy sources, including wind and solar-thermal, will be covered. One three-hour seminar.

An examination of the connection between the evolved structure of the human brain and the demands made on it to metabolize the environment for survival through: 1) examination of the history of the Great African Rift Valley over 3 million years; 2) a survey of the pioneering work of early 20th century neurologists and theoretical biologists who speculated on how the nervous system produces coherent form of actions and behavior; 3) development of a synthesized approach for a design prototype of a mobile, single-person housing unit to be in the Laikipia District in northern Kenya, working across architecture, neurology, geology and landscape.

This seminar is an effort to use design tools as a way to gain understanding of how physical infrastructure affects and can influence social organization and ideologies. The course will survey the general topics and specific case studies to develop an understanding of the contexts and forms of civil works and infrastructures.

This seminar explores the intersection between building technology and architectural history through building envelopes. We will describe the building enclosure from within, as an embodiment of cultural, social, and technological processes. The aim is to help students to develop an integrated critical view, a balance between technology and culture. The main part of the seminar will present three façade types in detail: curtain walls, rain screen façades, and panel façades. Technical topics will be introduced during a weekly two-hour lecture; the last hour will be devoted to the discussion of case studies and team work.