Education is all about

trust. The best teachers embrace the future by trusting the

student, supporting the growth of something that cannot be

seen yet, an emergent sensibility that cannot be judged by

contemporary standards. A school dedicated to the unique

life and impact of the thoughtful architect must foster a way

of thinking that draws on everything that is known in order

to jump into the unknown, trusting the formulations of the

next generation that by definition defy the logic of the present.

Education becomes a form of optimism that gives our field a

future by trusting the students to see, think, and do things

we cannot.

This kind of optimism is crucial at a school like the GSAPP

at Columbia. The students arrive in New York City from around

55 different countries armed with an endless thirst for experi-

mentation. It is not enough for us to give each of them exper-

tise in the current state-of-the-art in architecture so that they

can decisively assert themselves around the world by produc-

ing remarkable buildings, plans, and policies. We also have to

give them the capacity to change the field itself, to completely

redefine the state-of-the-art. More than simply training archi-

tects how to design brilliantly, we redesign the figure of the

architect. Columbia’s leadership role is to act as a laboratory

for testing new ideas about the possible roles of designers in

a global society. The goal is not a certain kind of architecture

but a certain evolution in architectural intelligence.

Architecture is a set of endlessly absorbing questions for

our society rather than a set of clearly defined objects with

particular effects. Architects are public intellectuals, crafting

forms that allow others to see the world differently and per-

haps to live differently. The real gift of the best architects is to

produce a kind of hesitation in the routines of contemporary

life, an opening in which new potentials are offered — new pat-

terns, rhythms, moods, sensations, pleasures, connections,

and perceptions. The architect’s buildings are placed in the

city like the books of a thoughtful novelist might be placed in

a newsstand in a railway station, embedding the possibility

of a rewarding detour amongst all the routines, a seemingly

minor detour that might ultimately change the meaning of

everything else. The architect crafts an invitation to think and

act differently.

GSAPP likewise cultivates an invitation for all the disci-

plines devoted to the built environment to think differently.

Its unique mission is to move beyond the highest level of

professional training to open a creative space within which

the disciplines can rethink themselves, a space of specula-

tion, experimentation, and analysis that allows the field to

detour away from its default settings in order to find new

settings, new forms of professional, scholarly, technical, and

ethical practice.

The heart of this open-ended laboratory is the design

studios. All the overlapping and interacting programs at the

school — Architecture, Urban Design, Historic Preservation,

Urban Planning, and Real Estate Development — teach design

and are united in their commitment to the global evolution

of the 21st century city. Every semester, the school launches

more than 35 explorative studio projects that head off in dif-

ferent directions before reporting back their findings in juries,

exhibitions, and publications that stimulate an intense debate

and trigger a new round of experiments. With a biodiversity

of continually evolving research trajectories, the school oper-

ates as a multi-disciplinary think tank, an intelligent organism

thinking its way through the uncertain future of the discipline

and the global society it serves.

As in any other architecture school, the real work is done

in the middle of the night. Avery Hall, the school’s neo-clas-

sical home since 1912 — with its starkly defined symmetrical

proportions communicating to the world the old belief that

the secret of architectural quality is known, universal, and

endlessly repeatable — now acts as the late night incubator

of a diversity of possible futures. At its base is Avery Library,

the most celebrated architectural collection in the world, a

remarkable container of everything architects have been

thinking about in the past, neatly gathered within the tradi-

tional quiet space of a well organized archive. Up above are

the dense and chaotic studio spaces bristling with electronics

and new ideas. Somewhere between the carefully catalogued

past and the buzz of the as yet unclassifiable future, the dis-

cipline evolves while everyone else sleeps. Having been con-

tinuously radiated by an overwhelming array of classes and

waves of visiting speakers, symposia, workshops, exhibitions,

and debates, the students artfully rework the expectations of

their discipline.

The pervasive atmosphere at GSAPP, the magic in the air

from the espresso bar to the pin-up walls to the front steps to

the back corner of the big lecture hall, is the feeling of being

on the cutting edge, straddling the moving border between the

known and the unknown in our field. It is hopefully an open,

questioning atmosphere in which students are able to do work

that teaches their teachers. In the end, a school’s most pre-

cious gift is its generosity towards the thoughts that the next

generation has yet to have.

Now in the fifth year of its tradition of

constant change, Abstract again re-shuffles the GSAPP in

an effort to show the multiplicity of positions along with the

unexpected moments of clarity in the array of activity that

defines the school. This year, we worked with the notion that

the core of any academic institution — what makes a school

great — is not its size, location, or age, but rather the people

that flow through it, the work they produce within its walls,

and the conversations and ideas they exchange that bring it

to life. This issue of Abstract focuses on people — students,

teachers, researchers, critics, historians, academics, practi-

tioners, lecturers, administrators, visitors — and the myriad

things they do to enrich the life of the school.

The book is divided into three graphic parts: portraits,

text, and work. The portrait book presents some of the faces

we see around the school — lecturers, jurors, critics, and

students. The text book revisits in a more traditional struc-

ture the programs, courses, studios, and research that occur

at the school. These texts are what inspire and provoke the

excitement and dedication among the students to work so

hard and produce such accomplished work. The work book,

organized alphabetically by the person or people respon-

sible for each image, provides the opportunity to understand

each individual’s work, sometimes from a variety of different

classes, as a cohesive effort that is driven by that individual’s

motivations, interests, and talents.

Expanding on last year’s encyclopedic index of classes,

studios, and projects by key word, this year’s indices provide

at a glance an introduction to the people that make up the

school, the issues with which they are currently engaged,

and the ways they understand and define architecture.

Through a combination of the thematic organization of the

indices, the departmental or programmatic organization of

the text book, and the organization by author of the work

book, we hoped to show what goes on at the school in a more

comprehensive way.

Thanks to editorial assistants, Katie Shima and Brian

Brush, and to photographers, Mark Bearak and Jong Seo Kim.

It has once again been a joy to work with Stefan Sagmeister,

Joe Shouldice, and Richard The with assistance from Daniel

Harding at Sagmeister Inc., who continue to surprise us with

their fresh ideas and ambitious graphic sensibility. Special

thanks to Dean Mark Wigley for his clarity of vision and his

unceasing efforts to push the school beyond itself.

This year we suffered a great loss with the passing of our

dear colleague Paul Byard. There are so many beautiful

words that could be said — and have been said — to help us

remember and treasure all the things that were so special

about Paul, but all would fall short in the end, and it is in the

falling short that we understand the depth of our loss.

I only want to say here that basically Paul was in love

with buildings — deeply, sweetly, passionately, and elo-

quently in love. And at the heart of this unending affection

was a resolute, even militant commitment to the idea of the

public good. Paul championed the very highest aspirations

of our discipline. For this, and so much more, we all loved

Paul and will always love him.

Architects are united by a naïve yet irrepressible opti-

mism: the thought that even the smallest change to the built

environment creates the possibility of a better society. This

is why Paul was so important to so many romantic victims

of architecture.

We are united in celebration of a beautiful and impor-

tant voice. A voice that we were so lucky to hear for so long.

A voice that was so absurdly eloquent that we will never stop

hearing it.

The following is an address Paul made at the faculty

meeting in May. It was his way — dignified and hopeful — of

saying “good-bye” to us.

I am for my part in these days coming to the end of an extraor-

dinary opportunity for which I am grateful to you all, to bring to

a climax at least fifty years of thinking about architecture and

what it does for each of us.

As of course one learns only at the very end, this percep-

tion about architecture has been central to what I have been

practicing in the world as an architect and teaching here as

your colleague for the last thirty-five years and in the last

eight or so as Director of the Historic Preservation Program.

The perception about architecture is, if you will, a meta-thesis

about architecture, a theory behind the theories offered to help

us understand what in fact we are all serving together when

we serve architecture here. It will ideally be expressed in the

book “WHY SAVE THIS BUILDING: The Public Interest in Archi-

tectural Meaning” which I remain optimistic will be published

next year by Norton.

The thesis is simple. It sees architecture as a civic para-

digm. It sees each new building as an argument for itself by the

lights of its times, a proposition about our state and what we

ought to do about it — an opportunity we force upon ourselves

every time we build to see ourselves at our best and at our

worst and then to try to adjust and do better. Please note, first,

the basic critical truth about the paradigm, that it is indeed

the way we all first seriously react to architecture: how are we

doing? Then at the critical core of that reaction is the crucial

commitment to improvement, the fundamental irreducible

optimism of our enterprise. How can we do better? We don’t

do architecture to make things worse. We make architecture

in the passionate conviction that we have something to teach,

our way is the way to go. You grab the observer like the Ancient

Mariner, saying, listen, dammit, this is what you have to know if

you want to do better! And then you hold him for just as long as

you can and until your next colleague takes him ever so gently

away, saying, no, no, mine is the far better way to go.

This thesis — the view of architecture as a civic paradigm

about human improvement from which we all willy-nilly ar-

chitects and amateurs and ordinary citizens, powerfully and

critically learn — this thesis is what’s in it for all of us, say

I, in architecture. This is the public interest in architectural

meaning that ideally gives architecture its claim on all of us

as human beings and gives it the remarkable legal power I

have specially tried to help us to remember and exploit. It is

the common goal of all of us serving new and old architecture

— and at least the core of my insistence over these years that

in the School architecture and historic preservation are all in

it together. At our ends of the Hall, that is, we work on two

questions about the civic paradigm that grade seamlessly into

each other. We look at new architecture to see what’s proposed

now and how much we could be doing to do better now. What

wonderful possibilities we have! At the same time, we look at

old architecture as it ages into the past to see what we used

to think we should do to do better. When we look back, we

can sometimes see a certain comforting sameness. We can

dwell on sameness when we want to feel smug. But the real

revelation across time is in difference, in all that’s changed, in

all we need to do to keep on changing. Good heavens, we say,

we used to do THAT?

Again, we are all in it together here in the service of our

art and I very much hope we stay that way. These are not good

times for any of our ideals. On the other hand it does seem to

me a reason to believe we are not foolish in our optimism, that

I should be right now even now among you this noon, bringing

at last out of a lifetime yet another idea about architecture that

you might not have thought of before and that might in the end

lift us all just a little further along.

Thank you!

The three-semester Core Studio

sequence develops a capacity to work with skill and inven-

tion at all levels of architectural design. Studio methods vary

with each of the design critics, but there is a common desire

to re-think architectural and urban problems at each phase

of developing a project. Explorations include new organiza-

tions of building processes, new systems of manufacturing

and construction, and new considerations of use and pro-

gramming. In recent years the programming aspects of the

studio have become a focus of invention, and this year both

Core 1 and 2 focused on complex, program-intensive projects

— addressing highly defined programs in Core 1 and giving

specificity to “generic” programs in Core 2.

The Core Studios are taught by a group of faculty who

collectively guide each of the twenty studio sections that col-

lectively constitute the three semesters of the Core Studio

sequence. Each semester, the Core Studios are coordinated

by an individual faculty member who leads the group of six

or seven design studios.

Students and faculty work within emergent forms of

contemporary and historic New York urban life. Looking to

sites in the city, the studios seek to understand the texture

and public nature of their work, and to respond to the com-

plexity and diversity of New York constituencies. Employing

an array of both local and global data sets, analysing historic

urban form, and projecting the potentials of new program-

ming and redevelopment issues that are re-shaping the

city, the studios also aggressively coordinate work with new

means of fabrication, tectonics, and structure. Each faculty

member offers a unique form of exploring these issues as a

network of design potentials that are understood to be sus-

taining, but also re-defining the role of the architect.

As a whole, the Core is coordinated to give parallel

structure to the studios. The first two semesters consider

the conceptual implications of architectural space as a

form of speculative research. Core 1 and Core 2 consist of

a semester-long project divided into distinct phases and

exercises that fold into the development of an architectural

proposal for an urban site. With each phase of the project,

emphasis is placed on synthetic design processes that rigor-

ously address issues of site and program on both conceptual

and practical levels. The third and final semester of the Core

Studio sequence is focused on the design of urban housing.

Students work in teams of two and carry each project to a

high level of resolution in terms of materials details, ulti-

mately responding to demographics, social needs, and po-

litical realities. While the studio sites are within metropolitan

New York, the studio is equally based on a renewed analysis

of the history of housing policies both in New York and in

the United States. Students are asked to bring the analytical

expertise of the first two semesters to these issues and to

create a project that addresses a full spectrum of concerns

from the immediate detail to the larger urban and political

consequences of design.

Line, plane, surface,

and volume are mathematically bonded and interrelated.

In architecture, the geometrical properties of the line are

associated with columns and beams, the plane with walls

and floors, and surface and volume with the resultant space.

Many significant works of architecture provide examples that

allow us to understand the mathematical relations of these

elements in new ways.

The brief of the studio was threefold. First, melting ice

was documented in several iterative drawings. Second, stu-

dents designed a sleeping pod for climatologists, who work

36-hour shifts, to take naps while working. Finally, students

designed an outpost building for Columbia University to

house an atmospheric research lab, with domestic quarters

for two rotating lab principals. The focus of the research was

the existence and trajectory of particles in water and air. This

lab was to take regular samples of high altitude air using air

balloons and deep water samples, to register the chemical

composition of them. The site was on Pine Island, in Long

Island Sound.

Starting with the imperative to

design a spatial fabric from within by synthesizing material

and information infrastructures, the studio explored rich

resonances between highly informed intricate fields and

their capacity for retexturing existing forms of connectivity.

Departing from modernist conceptions of movement through

space, this version of spatial fabric exhibits its own behav-

ioral tendencies resonating with pervasive challenges of the

contemporary milieu. The capacity to compose spatial fabric

within emphatically complex conditions of probabilistic pro-

gramming is the alternative to the logics of low-resolution

bubble diagrams. Within a context of curatorial practice and

evolution of drawing, a deep multivalent interface grown

from such composure drifts through poly-scalar fabric

thresholds housing a multitude of drawing expressions and

ways of navigating them.

Initiating the process by learning from algorithmic

logics found in plant growth, which exhibit non-linear dif-

ferentiation and redundancy as alternatives to the more

deterministic optimization models found in typical building

structures, students set up generative machines via algo-

rithmic protocols and parametric fine-tuning, articulating

the behavior of discrete agents. This action-packed compo-

sure delivers expressions at different orders of scale. Design

is extended to the whole design ecology: designing tools (via

scripting), connecting to and informing modes of production

by understanding constraints as positive input for design,

and re-casting the designer’s role from the one who controls

from the top to the one who engages the participates in prac-

tice of design search. The increasing ability to trans-code

between different layers of this ecology through informa-

tion increases the potential to receive from and adapt to the

“host” conditions.

Materials and their meth-

ods of building are increasingly multiplying as our inher-

ent notions of material significance and signification are

increasingly challenged. This studio challenged the oppor-

tunities and limits of the material and immaterial nature of

architectural production. Building begins with a dialogue of

construction strategies between experience, interpretation,

and translation into program, structure, and representation.

Modes of material experimentation are utilized as a vehicle

through which to articulate and clarify the students’ concep-

tual position and strategies. These strategies for making are

discovered through a constant variable. As an idea William

Richard Lethaby puts forward: “…the building interest: the

delight in experimental construction, is the adventure into the

unknown… This adventure into the constructional unknown is

done by using an elegant technology.” As a Janosian condi-

tion, it reconciles the art of thinking with constructing. The

first “step” is devoted to the conjuring of “idea” as a visceral

intersection between the “eye of the mind” and the body of

building possibilities.

WHAT IS THE FIT BETWEEN STRUCTURE AND SPACE?

“Zero weight and infinite

span;” the structural engineer Robert Le Ricolais could

encapsulate the program of structure as a material com-

petition between extension and gravity. But the program of

space is a much more raucous exchange among subject, city,

material, and purpose. The contemporary museum, with its

mix of functions, variety of required spans (and seeming

imperative of unique sculptural expression), is a site con-

tested between structure and space. Sometimes structure

asserts its geometric and conceptual perfection (think of

the space frame, the long span truss, the geodesic dome).

Space is the remainder, left over and “universal”, evicting

impurities of program or site. Other times, architecture’s

specificity carries the negotiation, and structure is simply

called in to figure things out. Here, space retains its perfec-

tion, and structure must distort. A project for the Drawing

Center could explore what exists between structural order

and spatial contingency (and vice-versa), and re-program

structure and its performance norms in relation to space:

span vs. weight vs. fabrication vs. cost vs. a moving eye per-

ceiving a series of art works over an interval of time, in a

continuum of scale from body to city.

Drawing is line weight

Drawing is inscription and prescription

Drawing is making, re-making, and re-making again

Each mark and symbol contains cultural and physical attri-

butes that are elemental to program and space; the graphic

technique becomes the crucial liaison between these ele-

ments and the physical realm.

A combination of traditional techniques and digital

translation define the terms and limitations for the multiple

methods and opportunities for display within the public

realm. The limitlessness of drawing and therefore the lim-

itlessness of display go far beyond the scale of paper and

the screen; like drawing they are the innovation via the au-

thor’s “hand”.

The new home of The Drawing Center lies across the

boundaries of Chinatown, SoHo, and Little Italy. The influ-

ences surrounding the site are vastly diverse, culturally and

economically. The impact of each constituency was individu-

ally considered through the notion of public space (program

“X”) through which the studio’s proposals considered the

ideas of threshold, skin, and section. These components

were investigated; making, re-making, and re-making again

established the basis of architectural language developed

by each student.

Through the proposed process of editing and refining

these ideas, the realized work represented here attempts

to harness the power, beauty, and richness of the site en-

meshed with the vision of The Drawing Center, in hopes

of providing an edifying public epicenter within the city of

New York.

Architectural

drawings in contemporary practice shift back and forth

between classical forms of representation and an unfolding

of new material relations. This unstable position of the image

and architect is by now recognized as fundamental to archi-

tecture’s productive imagination. It proposes that the excess

of one moment becomes the material of another moment’s

image. In the studio, architectural drawing both supports and

resists direct instrumentality; the studio produces a steady

flow of excess and develops the alternative analytical means

of seeing this excess as already internal to architecture — it

attempts to provide the situation for an architect’s engage-

ment with and estrangement from drawing practices.

In the studio, the line is converted from a strictly divi-

sional and vectoral mark on a plane surface to a mobile and

flexural steel wire in dynamic relation to others and prior

to a surface. Surfaces are made of lines assembling and

shifting in responsive fields. Each person becomes expert

in a particular form of the lines’ assembly, organization, and

performance in an array of building, drawing, and occupa-

tion. Each works with the movement of the line to building

as an always re-negotiated act.

This drawing provokes a discussion with the Drawing

Center where the themes of the drawing’s performance

in and of the world were constant. The project mined the

several sites of drawing: one specifically architectural and

concerned with how drawing performs in the architectural

imagination between idea and building; another embedded in

the institution’s practices of exhibition, and finally the draw-

ing as a site and product of a specific artist’s performance.

Delineate: “To

show by drawing or description, portray.” That certainly could

be one concise definition of architecture. Show and tell.

The task: develop a spatial portrayal — the spatial

delineations of culture, context, and commerce of the mu-

seum as an architectural type. The Drawing Center, one

of the most engaged arts organizations in New York City,

having been drawn into the melodrama of Ground Zero

as one of its two sole cultural institutions, and then sub-

sequently rejected for refusing to sign the equivalent of a

Patriot pledge of allegiance not to exhibit any art that might

be politically critical, is planning to move and expand its cur-

rent Soho operation.

These are matters of portrayal of space and site, of

tectonic characters delineating programmatic exchanges

along the borders of inside and outside. Architecture as the

performance of delineation. Architecture in the act of show-

ing and telling.

In the ter-

ritory of our search, abstraction commingled with both real-

ism and idealism. Through expansive, intricate, and rapid

iterative material experimentation — episodic searches

within and against critical and conceptual fields — we jour-

neyed toward the development of extraordinary spatial

proposition. To transcend what we knew, we sought ways

to facilitate inspiration and exploration. Audacious investi-

gations revealed possibility — at times as diaphanous and

ephemeral as firefly wings — emerging from and informing

ideas robust with substance and conviction.

In a modified dynamic of the often uncanny Surrealist

exercise of the exquisite corpse, the adjoining of discrete

imaginations yielded utterly unexpected opportunities. We

maintained confidence — despite endless reasons for doubt

— open and receptive to interrogating strange and fluid as-

sociations and prospects which were awakened when multi-

ple, seemingly contradictory, potentials were pursued. Work

produced in this province provided a mirror to society — not a

pure reflection, but rather a distorted twist — avidly dissect-

ing and re-structuring realities, and enabling us to project a

kaleidoscope of complex spatial promise.

Our strong-minded pioneering was steeped in liminal

frontiers. The subtlety of this condition demanded calibra-

tion and judgment, modulating unpredictable terrain be-

tween the perception of the known and the ethereality of

potential. Grappling with the partial and uneven geographies

of poetic imagination, we embarked on a sometimes ardu-

ous, sometimes wild journey, pursuing the consequence of

our intellectual, visual, and visceral passions.

This core studio

explored how the act of delineation produces a state of

“between-ness” or differentiation, a condition resulting from

acts of drawing. Drawing forms a repetitive action whereby

the condensation of marks and gestures opens new figura-

tions upon a page or within a screen. But one might contend

that drawing is also a process of extraction that moves or

projects the specific characteristics of something into anoth-

er state. The studio operated in three dimensions (model and

construction), which afforded the opportunity for material

exploration at every stage of a project’s development. These

material investigations, which included the existing condi-

tions of the site, provided a kind of resistance and elicited

intelligence in the process of developing concepts and forms.

The project for the Drawing Center evolved through iterative

stages and relied upon the development of techniques of

fabrication, both analog and digital. The intellectual ground-

ing of the studio was mined through lectures, discussions,

and readings; these group debates allowed each student

to craft his/her own position relative to the agenda of the

studio. Architecture is by its very nature a site of human

exchange and the creation of a social act. Therefore, every-

thing over the course of the semester was contextualized

within a social sphere of practices, ideas, and events.

In the United States the number

of housing starts are a key indicator of the country’s eco-

nomic health. As a commodity, housing is understood to

produce value on behalf of investors at its point of sale, but

it also produces long and short-term forms of value in how

it is financed and how the debt associated with its purchase

is secured and traded.

Housing in the United States is a critical financial instru-

ment that is simultaneously laden with countless narratives

of private life, domestic rituals, and everyday life. The degree

to which these narratives can be jointly addressed has domi-

nated the production of housing design; that is, housing has

managed its financial risk in large part by managing the nar-

ratives of its visual and social roles. To this end it is possible

to say that housing has suffered a deep lack of technological

innovation as the financial risk associated with its production

and financing has been assuaged by its semiotic and linguis-

tic appeal and its pandering to memory. Despite the outward

appearances and figural qualities of housing design, few

architectural programs are as saturated by deeply rooted

forms of political, economic, and social thought — indeed

political and social ideologies — as housing.

The Decade-Long Federal Implementation of a New

Urbanist Prototype

In the United States alternatives to market-based housing —

i.e., public or social housing — have rarely found firm ground.

Housing is primarily a product of private markets, save for large

concentrations of federal public housing in the northeast and

in Chicago and Detroit. In New York City almost 400,000 people

live in public housing (8% of the city’s rental apartments are

NYCHA units), and today there is not a serious, or even minor,

backlash against public housing in the city; New York has been

a model of success for public housing. But New York is a rare

circumstance in the United States; there has been a steady

march in most cities towards reducing the role and presence of

public housing.

The 2007 Housing Studio at Columbia examined hous-

ing as a prototype, addressing unique sites and political his-

tories in New York City but also along a vector from a site in

the Bronx; to Armonk, New York (Westchester County) and

to Bridgeport, Connecticut (Fairfield County). The work was

primarily focused not only on the production of new proto-

types for housing but also on the re-invention of the term

itself: what is a prototype, how can it be deployed today, and

how does site affect prototype?

Re-Imagine these four sites; project a future housing site

and develop a prototype that can survive there.

Location 1 1937: The New York City Housing Authority

emerges as the largest Public Housing Authority at the dawn

of federal housing funding. Anticipating a great new stream

of federal monies, the city, and in particular Robert Moses,

position New York to receive more of this new funding than

any other city.

Location 2 1967 –75: New York is called the “Ungovern-

able City” and its mayor, John Lindsay, is characterized as

presiding over the fall of the city. In this turmoil housing is

not only called a “crisis” but it is also often called a “right,”

setting a stage for a battle that has never been far from the

center of any NYC Mayor’s agenda.

Location 3 1983: Post Modern Classicism manages to

“sample” the film of the destruction of Pruitt Igoe — the

troubled public housing block in St. Louis. The author of the

book — here un-named — a genius at riffing the conditions

of the moment — signals that modern architecture is not so

much the cause of Pruitt Igoe’s ills but that it can be “killed”

nonetheless. A broad and troubling message is given: mod-

ern architecture and its prototypes are discredited if not out-

right destroyed because the opportunity to do so emerged.

In Europe the closing of the door on modern architecture is

not so conclusive.

Location 4 1987: New Urbanism reverts to a simulacrum

of the past “town” plan — managing the real time fear and

paranoia of a society that realizes it has not been “home” in

some time. It gains a greater hold on the imagination of gov-

ernment and developers and becomes the significant force

in development.

Using actual data

to produce meaningful results, students designed proto-

types for housing that tested the city. Inverting the studio

imperative to work on a built object/prototype that might

adjust itself to a future site, this studio’s work involved cre-

ating a set of urban parameters for a prototypical Housing+.

Housing+ implies beginning with the premise that cities are

not constructed of built objects alone, but of networks of

networks that inscribe multiple kinds of spaces, near and

far, material and immaterial, political and social, public

and private, institutional and non-institutional, formal and

informal. Housing + projects are design environments, not

design objects.

If Superblocks stand in for typical modernist examples

of urban transformation and HOPE VI stands in for typical

post-modern urban transformation, what kind of city might

our prototypes predict? Students tested the city with housing

prototypes in an attempt to be provocative and cause a ripple

effect on a resultant map of the city. All architectural proj-

ects and descriptions inscribe data. In fact some drawings

and maps are produced and generated with data alone. Con-

ventions of mapping, urban analysis, and architectural de-

scription were reformulated over the course of the semester

to produce alternate and refreshed land-uses, landscapes

and hence cities — housing prototypes. What kind of city do

you want to inhabit?

“When your house contains such a complex of piping, flues,

ducts, wires, inlets, outlets, ovens, sinks, refuse disposers,

hi-fi reverberators, antennae, conduits, freezers, heaters —

when it contains so many services that the hardware could

stand up by itself without any assistance from the house, why

have a house to hold it up? When the cost of all this tackle

is half of the total outlay (or more, as it often is), what is the

house doing except concealing your mechanical pudenda

from the stares of folks on the sidewalk?”

— Reyner Banham, “A Home is not a House”, 1965

The goals of this

studio were: to radicalize and instrumentalize the relationship

between the mechanical and the social, the infrastructural

and the architectural; to deploy the technological artifacts of

infrastructure to interrogate architecture; to use the social or

operational qualities of architecture to complicate and corrupt

seemingly neutral or purely functional infrastructure.

Students obsessively and meticulously researched six

infrastructural systems (HVAC, power, water, parking, com-

munication technology, waste management) and the ways

in which they mediate, operationally and spatially, between

the apartment, the building, and the city. The conception,

construction, and corruption of these systems at urban and

domestic, public and intimate scales, led to a new under-

standing of housing and the relationship between housing

hardware and software, between social-political constituen-

cies and service-mechanical components.

Buildings

are always prototypes. Unlike other comparative objects

(cars, airplanes, industrial products, furniture, ipods, etc),

buildings are always unique. This is both an exhilarating and

challenging reality: exhilarating in that as architects, we are

always innovating, always designing something new, and

challenging in that the development associated with refining

an object through multiple prototypes that allow the actual

object to be perfect is simply not how buildings are built.

Components of buildings, on the other hand, can be devel-

oped through prototyping that assures a high degree of reso-

lution and refinement. The network of coordination associat-

ed with the assembly of components that comprise a building

is where prototyping becomes logistically impractical.

It is exactly this limit of (physical) prototyping that is

addressed, and partially overcome, with recent design man-

agement software that creates virtual prototypes capable of

coordinating entire buildings before they become actual. The

design of Boeing’s 777 passenger jet was a benchmark for

virtual prototyping as it marked the first time that a jet of this

complexity was fully designed without a physical prototype.

Over 10,000 engineers in 26 countries collectively worked on

a single computer model that became the instructions for

production. This also serves as a benchmark for architec-

ture as this type of integrated design process is just begin-

ning to emerge as the model for building production. It also

questions whether digital prototyping effectively eliminates

the need for physical prototyping and if not (which seems to

be the case with the recent resurgent interest in fabrication

among architects) then what is the relationship between the

two? There are important issues surrounding this develop-

ment that were central to our research into redefining pro-

totype for architecture.

Whether subsidized by

governments or produced through speculative develop-

ment, housing requires that the architectural object medi-

ate between the needs of individuals and the logic of groups.

It involves intelligence at urban and architectural scales

simultaneously, and thus the design of housing always

entails having a vision for future city life as well as for vari-

ous modes of private life. Housing operates according to

different logics at different scales: cultural trends, idiosyn-

crasies of the domestic space, financial and social power,

legislation, technological development, and the larger life

of the city, all determine (often in an uneven way) aspects

of housing. Therefore the studio began with researching the

systems that regulate the very conditions of the possibility

of housing today, both globally and in the US.

Our task in the studio was to engage in a type of projec-

tive coordination of these forces. Throughout the semester,

we concentrated on developing an intellectual and political

attitude towards the city and the role of architecture in it. The

extent to which we were able to articulate this position inevi-

tably produced implications for our ability to imagine hous-

ing. We not only tried to anticipate the future of the American

city, but also imagined how architecture might change the

status quo; how architecture — through its formal intelli-

gence, its programmatic figuration, its material propensity

and construction, or its visual instigations — could affect

daily operations of individuals and groups.

Housing

occupies a spatial and perceptual territory where the domes-

tic and the urban, the intimate and the collective intertwine.

Believing that a single optimizing logic would be inadequate

to address the complexity of urban housing prototypes, pliant

strategies and tactics of organization were developed to

negotiate individual domestic terrains, orchestrate aggrega-

tions and collective intersections, and choreograph networks

of exchange across urban landscapes and social fields.

Strategies were tested across uneven environmental and

social pressures — recalibrating noise, waste, wind, horizon,

surface, porosity, density, concept, and metaphysics.

Through iterative and meticulous exploration, resil-

ient and responsive tools and performative systems were

developed and designed. Investigations oscillated through

analytical, immaterial, and material regimes in the develop-

ment of conceptual drivers that propel innovation at every

scale. Projects engaged relations among domestic rituals,

the territories in which they are enacted, and the urban in-

frastructures and social organizations they imply.

The field of our work included the magic of the real

and the potent possibility of the not yet imagined. Harness-

ing the power of potentially prototypical design strate-

gies and ensembles of techniques, each team negotiated

the complexity and banality, the density and dynamic inde-

terminacy of aggregated domestic practices within the urban

terrain. Redefining horizons of aspiration, discrete systemic

logics were cross-pollinated in response to both prosaic and

exceptional circumstance, revealing latent possibilities in in-

spired constructions of new realities, and imprinting new

landscapes of relevant social contestation.

(When) does the proto-

typical set the highest standard?

This final three-semester sequence of

Advanced Studios in the architecture program builds upon

the Core Studio sequence but also diverges from it in signifi-

cant ways. Beginning in the fourth semester, the Advanced

Studios share a common imperative in addressing the design

of a building to house a small or medium-scale institution,

with an emphasis on experimentation. Each studio, however,

focuses on a different institution and site while exploring

unique means of redefining and inventing the role of public

and/or private institutions and their relevance for urban life;

through critical analysis of existing institutional programs

and the invention of new programs, the individual studios

re-appraise and re-define the potentials of an urban institu-

tion. This year, the various studios’ programs ranged from an

urban agri-center sited in Brooklyn to mixed-use twin sky-

scrapers in Dubai to a space hotel in low earth orbit. Despite

the speculative nature of the projects, each studio took on

an ambitious analysis of form, structure, and typology as

well as environmental impact and emergent technologies;

students working on the space-hotel, for example, worked

closely with NASA space station architects in realistic and

meaningful ways. The fourth semester studios are always

very specific in nature, directed by each faculty member, but

they share the exploratory nature that is key to the school.

The Advanced Studios extend the students’ capacity for

more independent and investigative thinking about architec-

ture. A wide range of topics and projects are offered each

semester, and critics present studio projects that relate to

their specific areas of research and expertise. Students take

on specialized individual design trajectories in Studios 5 and

6 with sites and programs often dispersed globally. In the fi-

nal semester, studios travel to sites that support their studio

research topic. Travel is supported by GSAPP funding in the

form of Kinne Travel Grants.

The fifth and sixth semesters of the Master of Archi-

tecture program are combined with the final two semes-

ters of the Advanced Architecture Design program, Master

of Science. Eighteen studios are offered for students in

both programs, and each is led by either a full time faculty

member at Columbia or a visiting professor, often in teams

that combine professional expertise. Studios address new

realms of urban development, focusing on environmental

remediation, energy use, water, irrigation, transportation,

and infrastructure, and the potential impact and effect of

major urban transformations worldwide. Certain students

also develop close associations with GSAPP Research Labs,

using these as a way to evolve and test their ideas in an envi-

ronment that extends beyond the bounds of the school.

The complexity of conceptual issues, programs, and

sites builds upon the basic skills gained in the Core Stu-

dio and summer AAD sequence. Students are exposed to a

greater number of studio critics and consultants and must

assume responsibility for structuring their goals. Students

from the M.Arch. and AAD programs often work together

in these studios, and the diversity of backgrounds, experi-

ences, and specialties they bring forges a collective energy

each year that affects the studio production.

The Advanced Studio sequence fosters an experimental

design culture sensitive to the many different roles played

by architects in contemporary society. The Advanced Studios

seek a new threshold definition for these roles; this innova-

tion relies on the energy and contribution of the students to

create a new benchmark with each graduating class.

Optimization is calling. As new software allows architects

to model and measure the performance of buildings — in

relation to environmental systems, structure, and flows of

air and water — we face a sea of promising and highly rel-

evant numbers.

But now what? How do we improve the numbers? When

do we stop tuning them? How do we negotiate between com-

peting objectives? Which aspects of architecture should be

optimized in the first place?

This is the territory of Proof Two. In this studio about opti-

mization and testing, we aimed to create architecture through

the design of experiments rather than the design of solutions.

Yet while we employed serious tools of engineering and

computer science, we did not limit our studies to numbers. We

also valued positions about culture and program that were dif-

ficult to quantify.

We applied our research to the design of twin towers in

Dubai, addressing issues of tall buildings and energy, as well as

requirements of a large project currently under development

in the city.

Over the course of the semester, we had an informed,

critical, and open-ended discussion about the future of opti-

mization and the future of architecture.

In a milieu of genome

mapping, terabyte-scale personal media management,

nano-scale medicine, and private space tourism, the major-

ity of Americans still believe in Creationism over Evolution.

America is not just a religious country, it is a country of reli-

giosity. Everything — shoes, cars, soda pops, diet regimens,

operating system preferences — is not just marketed; it is

evangelized. Here (perhaps especially in California) the inter-

twining of personal redemption and self-realization is deep

in the local character.

One reason America is good at designing new spiritual

products is because it is so good at creating the demand for

them. In this studio we designed a new Mega-church for an

evangelical, charismatic Protestant Christian congregation

in downtown LA. Students carefully studied Gothic religious

architecture (among the most beautiful spaces ever created)

to consider their success in marrying the social, spiritual,

political, and sensual into a single design. The studio im-

mersed itself in local Mega churches to directly empathize

with the needs of this varied, complex client base.

The contemporary Mega church is sometimes an op-

portunistic adaptive re-use, taking over basketball arenas,

warehouses, even parking lots as needed, and always inher-

iting some of the atmosphere of these. As forms, they have

scale but often insufficient sacrality; they don’t achieve the

same resolution of political and sensual grandeur of cathe-

drals of the past. Part of this studio’s task was to give a more

official, more contemporary, more fantastic form to these

emergent political bodies.

The studio proposed to re-examine the possibilities of

form generation as an autonomous entity. In the context of

these conditions, the studio focused on the generation and

production of mutant micro-behaviors that would accumu-

late to create species from systems.

The studio proposed an

investigation of laterality in the design of a creative wing for

the Sense of Smell Institute (SOSI) at the Fashion Institute

of Technology (FIT). “Since its inception, the Sense of Smell

Institute has explored new olfactory frontiers and supported

innovative research projects that integrated the study of

olfaction with current issues in developmental, perceptual,

social and cognitive psychology, anthropology, neurosci-

ence and related disciplines” (Sense of Smell Institute,

mission statement).

The studio constructed an intensive environment for

research of emergent technologies and their reciprocal re-

lation with the material conditions of constructing architec-

turally. Sensation provides a means of exploring the inter-

section between emergent technologies and design through

a logic of bodily intuition. In displacing, amplifying, and re-

circuiting the sensory limits of the body to the spaces and

objects that surround it, they provide an extended field for

critically rethinking the relation between the technological

and the material. Non-coincidence in the relations between

phenomena, sensation, and cognitive perception were exam-

ined to critically re-examine the legacies of phenomenology

and Gestalt.

The studio examined

the pathways, institutions, and built products of the infor-

mal global trade in money. How is the movement of money

manifested, and in what forms, in urban centers worldwide?

Taking New York as a laboratory for experiments with this

phenomenon, the studio used visual, analytic, and design

tools to understand the flexible forms and institutions that

emerge with informal patterns of global migration.

Rather than accepting the common presumption that

the West or the developed world establishes institutions that

dominate the developing world, documented and responded

to the reverse trend, in which the developing world estab-

lishes new patterns in its host cities, dollar by dollar, person

by person. The result is a massive, still growing, dynamic

global network of physical and communication spaces. Ar-

chitects need to learn how to recognize and how to deploy

the spatial definition of these patterns: what do they look like

now? How are they transforming the city? What might they

look like in the future?

The concept of World Heritage

defined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is exceptional in its uni-

versal application. Natural and cultural sites considered of

outstanding value to humanity are so designated and pro-

tected. Environments encompassing significant biodiversity,

archeological sites, and those evidencing acts of extraordi-

nary human achievement are deemed resources belonging

to all peoples of the world regardless of the territory in which

they are located.

This studio investigated the effects of climate change

on thirteen UNESCO World Heritage sites on the African

continent. Students sought to grasp the vast geological

and evolutionary time scales of these environments and to

understand the diverse but interrelated phenomena from

which these sites took form. An alternative energy source

available within each site was identified and the program of

tourism adopted as a means of intervention.

One

of the most provocative images of space exploration from the

19th to the end of the 20th century has been that of a space

station floating above the Earth to serve as a way station to

the universe. The visionary images for the space station as

they appeared in art, literature, and film greatly inspired the

imagination of scientists to probe the limitless territories of

the outer atmosphere and the eventual implementation of our

present-day and future galactic outposts. From early science

fiction projections it has been understood that once rocket pro-

pulsion could overcome Earth’s gravity and reach orbit, travel-

ers would be “halfway to anywhere” they might want to go.

From such a mythical concept one can imagine a hotel floating

in the LEO (low Earth orbit) serving as a transit point between

destinations on Earth, the moon, our galaxy, and beyond.

Based on current strong indications that ventures of

making new and competitive environments in LEO are eco-

nomically feasible and with a market growth analogous to

commercial air transport in the very near future, the studio

problem proposed architectural scenarios and artifacts for

LEO tourist environments. The broader research compo-

nent of the studio also investigated the known effects of

traveling and life in space with the essential elements:

space food, space suits, space medicine, space exercise,

etc. that informed the individual projects in order to offer

a total design package that accommodates a burgeoning

industry of space tourism.

The studio operated

through an opportunistic exploitation of limits, examining

the manner in which constraints can provide the catalyst for

architectural invention.

More specifically, the studio examined the potential

to rethink received architectural and urban formats

based on emergent socio-spatial conditions and new perfor-

mative criteria, engaging specific programmatic, environ-

mental, and physical imperatives to catalyze the architec-

tural imagination.

The focus of these investigations was the emerging

concepts of urban agriculture as a social and environmen-

tal practice and as a catalyst for re-organizing the relation-

ships between productive landscapes, buildings, and cities.

While engaging the broad cultural and spatial implications

surrounding the production, marketing, and consumption of

food in urban environments, the project entailed the design

of a highly specific architectural entity — a hybrid institu-

tion combining aspects of community center, information

clearing house, marketplace, and horticultural laboratory.

Conjoining engineered landscape and programmatic space,

the project acted as a demonstration site for urban agricul-

tural processes.

While its full potential and effects are yet to be evaluated,

the significance of the urban agriculture movement for the

studio resides in its capacity to dislodge imbedded concepts

of the constructed and the natural, provoking new spatial,

social, and programmatic possibilities. The studio asked how

urban agronomic practices might sponsor more imaginative

and sustainable built formations that synthesize the agrar-

ian and the metropolitan — wherein city and productive land-

scape are seen as contiguous and interrelated systems.

The Master of Science degree

in Advanced Architectural Design is a three-term program

consisting of summer, autumn, and spring terms.

The objective of the program is to provide outstanding

young professionals who hold a B.Arch. or M.Arch. degree

the opportunity to enter into an intensive, postgraduate study

that encourages critical thought in the context of design

speculation. Overall, the program emphasizes an experi-

mental approach to architectural design and research, rig-

orously grounded in multiple, complex realities. Specifically,

the program seeks to: 1) engage students in a worldly under-

standing of architecture that responds to the challenges and

possibilities of global urbanization by exploring the city in

all its forms; 2) articulate architecture as a cultural practice

that combines reflective thought, design experimentation,

and ethical responsibilities in an interdisciplinary milieu; 3)

produce architectural objects that reflect an open, critical

engagement with new and existing technologies.

The advanced studios frequently utilize New York City

as a design “laboratory” — a global city that presents both

unique challenges and unique opportunities. The required

summer lecture course, “Metropolis and After,” explores ar-

chitecture’s historical and contemporary role with respect to

changing notions of the city, while the accompanying sum-

mer elective courses are conceived as seminars in “strategic

thinking.” These are all designed to offer students a range

of approaches to working with complex cultural and tech-

nological issues. The program as a whole has long been a

site for young architects from around the globe to test new

ideas and confront changes that affect architecture and cit-

ies worldwide.

This studio sought to rethink the fabric of space

and its resolution in the context of algorithmic infrastruc-

ture and increased data populations applied to correspond-

ing emerging modes of production. On a global scale, the

studio worked on a proposal for ecology of micro-gardens

dispersed as series of climatic/sensorial inserts within

the existing city fabric. Within this framework the studio

expanded material explorations at various scales including

1:1 prototype fabrication and generative design via advanced

modes of scripting.

High-resolution and highly articulated yet adaptable spa-

tial tissue will release a series of micro-climatic conditions

in the city; new atmospheres. This internal ecology will nest

itself as an opportunity for participatory occupancy by its us-

ers. Students worked with the idea of production of space via

interaction of its inhabitants within the highly informed spatial

fabric. Drawing upon the material intelligence and non-linear

behavior of complex fabrics, the studio questioned normative

notions of hierarchical tectonics, instead encouraging the de-

velopment of networked or woven infrastructural ones.

Immense by way of their algorithmic origin, these sys-

tems are able to support probabilistic and improvisational

programmatic patterns. As a means of addressing a more

conventional understanding of architectural program, that

which fixes and regulates, the studio considered instead logics

of programming, those which are provisional and interac-

tive in nature and thus invested in processes of autonomy

and invention.

Simultaneously being an interface for unstable program-

matic occurrences, one experiences a creeping perception

of variations within the fabric itself. In its “genetic” memory

it is carrying potency for mesonic events. They reverberate

through space as intricate and interlaced fabric imprints. In

words of Brian Eno: the future will be like a perfume…

With the anticipated growth of

Manhattan in the next decade the studio set out by work-

ing through spatialised conceptions of making something

“a little larger”. The artificially constructed category of “not

necessarily spatial” served as the frame to the two driving

concepts: the idea of something like a thick digital drawing

pad that necessitates more than one person interacting with

it at the same time and the idea of intensifying the architec-

ture on a site with a limited spatial boundary. This intensifi-

cation was not seen in terms of making physically larger or

saturating experience, but rather constructing precise math-

ematical formulations, whose invented logics became the

material of construction of the thick drawing pad — enabling

a drawing that constantly evolves and changes in and of itself

— a drawing where there is no need of (re)presentation, but

in which things happen sometimes by themselves, always “at

the same time” and with absolute immediacy.

Multi-platforms — of “drawing/painting/image making

into architecture, and back again” — allowed the discourse to

be taken away from contemporary use of “teamwork” or “col-

laboration”, and more towards the strategic relation of “more

than one” and “more of the same.” This was a questioning of

not only how “new onto existing” can be thought about differ-

ently — outside of spatial or spatialised relations — but also

the specific ways in which to construct thought processes

that actively critique contemporary language of the genera-

tive, the evolutionary, growth, the parametric, etc.

This studio provided an open call

for preemptive, architectural action towards specific, pro-

ductive, beneficial, and constructive ends. Studio operations

systematically prompted productive explorations through

various collaborative modes. Immediately, the studio was

divided up into four groups, or collaborative clusters. Each

participant developed an initial stance into a proto-project,

then handed the developed stance off to another individual

within that specific collaborative cluster. Upon exchange, the

studio participant who just inherited another’s proto-project

took full, albeit temporary, ownership of that idea, and devel-

oped the project within a given timeframe. This exchange

occurred four times, until the project fell back into the origi-

nator’s hands. Through this high-performance engine, ideas,

techniques, strategies, and additional collaborative modes

emerged such that the breadth of projects developed through

the rest of the semester proved to be wide and diverse.

Further, this studio took the stance that fabrication is

an operational state of mind. In other words, the intent was

to simply add the Fabrication Lab’s machines to an existing

arsenal of tools through which one can work towards the de-

velopment and clarification of a project — to think through.

Navigating between traditional definitions of both “models”

and “prototypes”, and operating under the premise that any

particular construct physically generated through the Fab-

rication Lab should strive to demarcate a particular moment

of clarity with respect to a project’s overall thrust, ideas

(rather than machine capabilities) generated production.

What do hip-

pies and hunters have in common? One might think that

pacifist, vegetarian, long-haired idealists are at odds with

people who track and hunt animals and then stuff them

for display. However, a shared interest in nature preserves

and off-the-grid land use is creating unlikely alliances.

Environmentalists like the Sierra Club and hunters’ advo-

cates like Trout Unlimited have started to work together to

preserve wilderness and wildlife from encroaching housing

developments and industrial land use practices. Could this

signal a broader alliance between political movements?

For decades conservatives have accused environmentalists

of being anti-development, but this emerging cooperation

promises to frame the debate about sustainable land use in

a very different light.

Within this changing economic and political context,

wilderness is being reinvented. Wilderness promises a

place for escape, leisure, personal reflection, utopian ex-

perimentation, sublime awe, the challenge of the hunt, and

the threat of attack and exposure. To uphold this promise,

land must be constantly tended, reconstructed, regulated,

sold, and made profitable. What remains to be seen is how

emerging partnerships between government and business

will construct new definitions of wilderness, impact public

rights and access, and affect depleted natural resources

and global climate change. The focus of this studio was the

construction of wilderness amidst the contemporary context

of environmental crisis, market-oriented land development,

and government regulation.

The studio investigated issues of

excessive urban and architectural strategies in an extreme

climate, extreme economic and political context, and in an

environment of extreme and excessive implementation of

American style popular culture, as can be witnessed and is

currently in the making in cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Students examined the architectural strategies preva-

lent in contemporary urban development and excessive ar-

chitectural fantasies in places like the United Arab Emirates,

and developed architectural and urban strategies of their own

that critically responded to those conditions of (economic) en-

vironment, (architectural) culture and (body) politics. X-S City:

Abu Dhabi Capital Gardens is a utopia settling into reality.

For many designers across a range

of disciplines and scales, landscape has emerged as a

model for thinking about contemporary urbanism. At the

same time, huge leaps in technologies of landscape analy-

sis and representation have further expanded the edges of

the discipline. Today, landscape is integrally tied not only to

the urban realm, but also to the complex infrastructure of

mobile networks and geo-spatial information systems (GIS,

GPS, remote sensing, satellite imagery, Google geo-tag-

ging) that pervades our interaction with and representation

of “environment.”

In investigating this contemporary condition, this studio

tested new scenarios of imagining, building, and occupying

urban landscape form and the representation of nature. The

challenge of this studio was to invent hybrid architectural,

landscape, datascape, and urban patterns, reclaiming a

251-acre contaminated site on the New Jersey shore as a

new “public park.” In addition to interpreting the notion of

park, students investigated and designed a “visitors’ center”

relative to new interactive mapping technologies and exist-

ing social networks that link to lower Manhattan, the Statue

of Liberty, Ellis Island, and other nearby tourist landmarks.

Students were asked to design and choreograph the inter-

face — both physical and virtual — between visitor and na-

ture and to challenge traditional constructs and boundaries

of interaction between the two.

How do

you like your urbia? Sub- or Super-? In- or Ex-? Is it good

hi-rise, bad suburbia? Or is it good suburbia, bad hi-rise?

The sprawl, say in South Korea, of the ubiquitous hi-rise

tower communities or low-rise suburban spread?

How can we take the typologies of Suburbia and

Superurbia, of Ex-urbia or In-urbia, and develop new to-

pologies of exterior and interior — sub-surface and super-

depth, super-surface and sub-depth — in designing new

apartment towers in Shingal and a new low-rise subur-

ban development in Yangji. This performance of insides

and outsides, of social surface and depth, were explored

through the topologies of interior and exterior life — the

domestic drama and domestic comedy of life in houses

and life in apartments. Thus, these spatial topologies are

consequently psychological topologies, social topologies,

and political topologies.

ISSUES: ARCHITECTURE &

PHILANTHROPY, CELEBRITY, BEAUTY, LUXURY +

Carbon Footprint ‘Deep Compatibility’

Ecological ‘Sustainability’... In Every Way

Site: Astor Place_nyc

Then: Cooper/Carnegie/Hewitt/Mellon

Now: Brad/Angelina/George/Al/Bill/Leo/Julia

Program: Hotel (50 Suites)

Price: $2500 — 8000 Per Night

Restaurant/Lounge/Cocktail Bar/Smoking Room

Pool/Private Dining Room (50 - 150 Person)

Screening Room — Auditorium

GORGEOUS... in every way

Algorithms,

combined with the ever-expanding computational power of

machines, promise a new language for a new phase of fine-

tuned and unexpected architecture. They drive optimiza-

tion of building structure and environmental systems, they

generate complex forms and surfaces, and they control the

fabrication and assembly of building components. But their

scope and limits are still relatively unknown. This is the ter-

ritory of Proof, a collaborative, open-ended research studio

that explored new ground through the process of testing.

We learned by testing, and we tested by prototyping and by

drawing on the scientific method. We sought valid results by

iteratively generating hypotheses, designing experiments,

conducting controlled tests, and analyzing the results. We

sought verifiable results by documenting and sharing our

experiments publicly. More specifically, we used advanced

computational methods (genetic algorithms) and multi-

objective optimization software (modeFrontier), as well as

procedures of testing through computer simulation (compu-

tational fluid dynamics) and testing through physical proto-

types (digital fabrication and tow tank deployments).

Although we employed serious engineering and com-

puter science tools, we did not limit our studies to num-

bers. We applied our techniques toward efficiency and form,

while also applying them toward complex issues of culture,

infrastructure, and program that are difficult to quantify.

Throughout the process, we generated informed, critical, and

open-ended discussion about the future of architecture.

Urban Think Tank’s

S.L.U.M LAB has embraced the idea of teaching a studio

that develops a strategy of “urban retrofitting” rather than

demolishing the problem areas of the city.

Today one sees small medical centers, gyms, commu-

nity kitchens, and other small projects that create a sense

of pride and well being within the cities’ poorest areas, and

have a positive impact on the reduction of fear and crime.

The S.L.U.M condition, which we have coined as a Sustain-

able Living Urban Model is ad-hoc, complex, and extremely

contingent. We are working to compliment the programmatic

and social infrastructure of the slum with computational

analysis tools that can survey and categorize the physical

condition of the SLUM itself. We are also trying to propose

a set of tools that facilitate both analysis (de-contextualizing

and re-contextualizing) and the potential build-out of “slum-

technology”. We are trying to think of a technology transfer

both in AND out of the slum. The short-term goal was to

use the studio collaboration to author a platform for these

thoughts, tools, and methodologies. The studio goal is to

produce an association of architects, thinkers, students, and

builders that specialize in this “technology transfer” in all

forms of products, analysis, building structures, and modes

of exchange.

For most of its history Morocco

has been a destination as well as a transit point for migra-

tion streams of both political and economic refugees in both

directions. Casablanca in particular has absorbed rural Arab

populations and European ex-patriots alike, shaping its

cosmopolitan character. Dramatic increases in population

created opportunities for French planners and architects

to shape Northern African cities such as Rabat, Tangiers,

Algiers, and in particular Casablanca, where inventive new

housing solutions such as ATBAT-Afrique were executed in

the post war era of the early 1950’s.

With the acceptance of Spain into the European Union

in 1986, and Morocco being granted Associate EU status ten

years later in 1996, Morocco became the port of departure

of choice for Sub-Saharan Africans seeking an easy route

to Europe via Spain. Since 2003 under the open door policy

of the new Spanish Socialist Government, immigration to

Spain has reached a level of nearly 600,000 persons per year.

Recently, Spain has begun to exert more control over the

flood of immigrants via treaty agreements with Morocco and

other states to moderate the flow of Africans to southern

Spain. The new Spanish policy is to set up Migrant Reception

Centers within the host countries of origin where migrant

groups can be processed and receive one-year guest workers

visas. Building upon the reality of this situation, the studio

project proposed for the ATBAT-Afrique Site in Casablanca

was a joint Spanish-Moroccan Refuge/Reception Center for

African Migrants enroute to EU Countries via Spain.

The Architecture Of Possible Worlds

Proto Cells — Proto Organs — Proto Beings / Proto Nets

— Proto Neurons — Proto Bundles / Proto Types — Proto

Structures — Proto Strings / Proto Bots — Proto Genes —

Proto Species / Proto Space — Proto Worlds — Proto Life

> Compression < | < Decompression > / The Artificial

Worlds Of Protoarchitecture

How boring has

perfection become? Evidence of this lies in the fact that

our design obsessions are based on an appreciation for the

perversity of mutant form. Image-forms are the product of

speed up and slow down, slice and blend, fuse and separate

— repetitions of scenic rhythms learned from a lifetime of

being awed by cinematic affects. Micro-techniques for comb-

ing the thresholds of the horrific-becoming-beautiful and

the beautiful-becoming-horrific (grotesque) have imprinted

themselves as visual-temporal cues on my own design

retina. The importance of multiplicity has finally opened the

door for mutation as a permanent state of the present. This

is where the true transformation is happening. We are sub-

verting the logic of perfection: what used to be about mas-

tering the result of a non-perfect process is now about the

production of monstrosity and the grotesque through the

mathematical perfection of an evolving mechanism.

In the context of these conditions, the studio focused on

the generation and production of mutant micro-behaviors

that accumulate to create species from systems. The stu-

dio investigated perforations, nip tuck, bo-tox, fat, follicles,

hairs, and the subsequent deformations, evolving into an

investigation of exotic aesthetic isomorphism. The studio

explored the predominant effect of this “isomorphism” be-

ing the aggregation of diverse forms of design intelligence

into an almost universal condition of image production.

Perhaps some might see this as a triumph of superficiality

over depth, but it’s certainly also an intensification of the

conjectural and fictive logics of design. We see this as a real

and complex demand that global network culture makes on

producers of architectural content.

The New Jersey

waterfront is undergoing a significant transformation from a

derelict industrial working coastline into a cultural and rec-

reational amenity for the established and newly developed

adjacent residential and commercial communities. There is a

public desire to link these two waterfront initiatives with new

programs that negotiate between the ecological and urban

pedestrian landscapes.

The studio addressed the potential of rapid prototyping

techniques to develop both economically and environmen-

tally viable full-scale architecture. Through research and

exploration of emerging fabrication techniques with new

materials and their application to new architectural form,

students developed proposals for an architectural project

with potential prototyping capabilities using specific prod-

ucts and processes. New prototype recreational programs

were proposed for the floating projects, and students were

asked to create arguments and present evidence for their

viability at the site, co-existing with the regeneration of the

water’s edge at Liberty State Park. These programs and pub-

lic infrastructure require off-site fabrication and are ideally

suited to pre-fabrication techniques, as they would float,

cantilever, or span the cove inlet.

The studio worked towards full scale mock-ups, draw-

ings and the production of a fabrication scenario — utilizing

a technique and material relationship — positioned within

the architectural project.

The runAway project studio

reformats the process of architectural production in order

to broadcast architectural products. It is based on a com-

petition format with a series of design challenges evoking

the limits of architecture and combines aesthetic and social

programs. Each week a design challenge was reviewed and

a new challenge issued. Each challenge required students

to generate and commit to an architectural response in this

limited time frame. Each challenge was client- or context-

driven. Over the course of the semester, each student pro-

duced ten projects and a final studio catalogue.

EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS

On Friday, August 31, 2007 the NASA

Institute for Advanced Concepts closed its doors forever.

This think tank for science-based far-out concepts financed

research such as: un-manned self-replicating lunar facto-

ries, the space elevator, algorithmic based architectures

for self-healing spacecraft, shape-shifting spacesuits, and

system architectures for self-sustaining lunar colonies.

On August 5, 2007 a Russian-manned submersible went

to the artic seabed to plant a Russian flag, triggering a race

for land grabbing and a new territorial war between neigh-

boring nations. The flag was placed on a continental shelf

that the Russian government claims connects Siberia to the

North Pole. Under international law, no country can hold ter-

ritory in the North Pole or the surrounding Artic Ocean.

Two years ago, it took one hour for a 3000-year-old,

2 billion ton, 10-story ice island to break off the Canadian

ice shelf. The drifting island poses a threat to the shipping

and gas industries of Alaska, where it is expected to hit. The

ice island, slightly larger than Manhattan, is stable, and has

been explored many times since it was discovered to have

calved, or broken away from the coast.

Extreme environments are becoming everyday occur-

rences, and their extremities traverse the political, ecologi-

cal, and atmospherical. The extreme environment is one in

which all architects will soon have to operate.

What will new technologies bring to bear in extreme en-

vironments? How will biological life be sustained? How can

existing ecologies be preserved by our invasive presence?

What can architecture contribute to the already existing uto-

pian speculations of life in extreme environments?

Building for our physical neces-

sities is still often the main driving construction factor for the

development of cities. Nevertheless, today a few cities are

asking radically different questions which have more to do

with how much the virtual world is operating rather than the

physical world. How do we satisfy the pleasure of the mind,

“unlimited” capital, or our intention to exist as an idea, a

place, or a brand?

Those subjects are usually relegated to an afterthought

in most city planning, but not in a place like Dubai. Geopo-

litical investment and brilliant marketing have allowed the

small city of Dubai to become one of the major metropolitan

players in the architectural world. Fantasy and marketing

have become a way to attract capital, generating a city not

based on “demand” or “necessity” but on the satisfaction of

the materialization of a “virtual environment.”

We cannot consider anymore our reality without a con-

dition of the mental — or labeled differently the virtual — as-

sociated with the usual physical materiality. Reality is always

a combination of both, but in places where the virtual is so

powerful that it almost entirely generates the physical mate-

rialization, architecture imagination is seriously needed.

This studio built on the previ-

ous 13 studios into Not Not Architecture: an absolute posi-

tive, more architecture than Architecture = -1/X. We exam-

ined three ongoing re-definitions in the expanding field of

architecture: Architecture, Not Architecture, and Not Not

Architecture juxtaposed to the Merzbau of Egg City. This was

done through the production of a building every two weeks

on a site in Manhattan in, around, or elsewhere in counter-

point echo to the Hudson Rail Yards.

The Hudson Rail Yards act as a point of reference in

the double zero map of not not in Double Zero City, a hole

in the hole, a void in the void. The buildings were to be Pub-

lic Houses of any program, size, and site the student chose

made by drawing, painting, modeling, photographing, and/

or projecting by hand and machine.

We also studied a parallel investigation into Packed

Form via the Packed Book and the Packed House. Each stu-

dent made an analysis of a seminal packed house with its

packed book, or texts, forming paradigms for built manifes-

toes. This began with Wittgenstein’s House for his sister in

Vienna, included Chareau’s Maison de Verre in Paris, Ponti’s

Planchart House in Caracas, Venturi’s mother’s house in

Philadelphia, Eisenman’s House VI in Cornwall, Hejduk’s

Wallhouse II in Groningen, and ended with Arakawa and

Gins’ Bioscleave House II in East Hampton.

The studio dictum still stands: Sneeze, Blink, Build it!

This studio explored redevelop-

ment of the Oak Point industrial waterfront in the Hunts Point

neighborhood of the South Bronx. The program investigated

a new generation of “industry” in New York City, related to

the transformation from a biotic-based economy to a resto-

ration-based economy and from renewable to remediated

resources, using as a base line a feasibility study for an eco-

industrial park at Oak Point developed by Sustainable South

Bronx (SSBX) and the Greenworker Cooperative. This investi-

gation was coordinated with the goals of the NYC2030 Plan as

developed by the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and

Sustainability. Oak Point is one of the largest undeveloped

parcels of land in all of New York City. The studio questioned

current plans to build a new jail on the site, instead advo-

cating for an industrial recycling facility that would siphon

off reusable building construction materials such as scrap

metal, glass, and plastics that normally get sent to a land-

fill together with the rest of the waste flow passing through

the borough.

I’ve heard about some-

thing called (n)certainties (biotopes) 2.0 that builds up only

through multiple, heterogeneous, and contradictory sce-

narios — something that rejects even the idea of a possible

prediction about its form of growth or future typology.

It’s something shapeless grafted onto existing tissue,

something that needs no vanishing point to justify itself but

instead welcomes a quivering existence immersed in a real-

time vibratory state — here and now.

Tangled, intertwined, it seems to be a city, or rather a

fragment of a city.

Its inhabitants are immunized because they are both

vectors and protectors of this complexity. The multiplicity

of its interwoven experiences and forms is matched by the

apparent simplicity of its mechanisms.

The urban form no longer depends on the arbitrary de-

cisions or control over its emergence exercised by a few,

but rather the ensemble of its individual contingencies. It

simultaneously subsumes premises, consequences, and the

ensemble of induced perturbations in a ceaseless interac-

tion. Its laws are consubstantial with the place itself, with

no work of memory.

Many different stimuli have contributed to the emer-

gence of (n)certainties (biotopes) 2.0 and they are continually

reloaded. Its existence is inextricably linked to the end of

the grand narratives, the objective recognition of climatic

changes, a suspicion of all morality (even ecological), the

vibration of social phenomena, and the urgent need to renew

the democratic mechanisms. Fiction is its reality principle:

What you have before your eyes conforms to the truth of the

urban condition of (n)certainties (biotopes) 2.0.

The world is terrifying when it’s intelligible, when it

clings to some semblance of predictability, when it seeks

to preserve a false coherence. In (n)certainties (biotopes)

2.0 it is what is not there that defines it, that guarantees

its readability, its social and territorial fragility and its

indetermination.

The 75 pages of Tractatus

Logico-Philosophicus made Wittgenstein famous and, at

the same time, effectively misunderstood. Soon after, he

designed a house for his sister in Vienna (1926) that marked

a revision in his thinking. Language was no longer under-

stood as a perfect mirror of reality but capable of what he

described as a “language game”. These notions were elabo-

rated in 30,000 manuscript pages he wrote before his death

in 1951. Two years after his death, the Blue and Brown books

and Logical Investigation were published. Unfinished work

based on his notes, it is without technical terminology and

provides an insight into the construction of reality. There are

of course many examples of “Language Game”.

Raymond Queneau and the mathematician Francois Le

Lionnais created Oulipo (OUvroir de LItterature POtentielle).

George Perec and Italo Calvino were members. This group

believed that literature is the outcome of linguistic devices

such as numerical speculations, laboratories for invention,

inasmuch as they construct rather than describe. New reali-

ties are proposed. Indeed, it is in this spirit we would like to

explore the possibility of this project.

In 1938 with Austria taken over by the Nazis, Wittgen-

stein traveled to Berlin to secure the so-called Aryan papers

for his two sisters who refused to leave Vienna. He obtained

these papers against 1.7 tons of gold, which presented at the

time 10% of the Austrian gold reserve. What we proposed for

our program was to imagine that Deutsche Bank decided to

pay back this enormous sum. The family decided to create

a foundation dedicated to Wittgenstein Philosophical Inves-

tigation and the students were invited to envision program,

site, and project.

Our studios all begin

with a theorem or hypothesis that we then try to explore and

demonstrate. The first of the series of studios addressed the

notion of “concept-form.” The second one tested the idea

of “topo-types.” In this third installment, we investigated a

highly architectural particularity: “repetition.”

We started with the hypothesis that there is no architec-

ture without repetition: with its rows of windows, columns,

bricks, steps, etc, architecture inevitably is the art of orga-

nizing repetition.

More than any other art, architecture depends on the

nearly endless accumulation of similar elements. We would

like to argue that contrary to popular belief, the more repeti-

tion there is, the better the architecture becomes.

Far from being boring, repetition is exciting and chal-

lenging and can lead to new discoveries, provided that you

exceed a certain threshold. In other words, we suggest that

quantitative excess is actually qualitative.

Yet all good architecture is often singular. This means

that it cannot be endlessly reproduced or repeated. For ex-

ample, imitating the repetitive curtain wall pattern designed

by Mies van der Rohe will not necessarily be good archi-

tecture, while its original was. Hence our claim: the best

architecture is often the demonstration of both singularity

and repetition, or singular repetition. We will therefore argue

in favor of “one-of-a-kind” repetitions.

Since the Renaissance, architec-

ture has responded to new socio-cultural eras with utopian

and dystopian schemes. Such fantasies have not only served

to advance the discipline, but have also been a means by which

architecture can research, analyze, and investigate society.

It is our contention that we are living in a new era

defined by the network. During the last fifteen years, the

Internet has joined us together and gone wireless; comput-

ing has become mobile while applications are increasingly

network-based; the mobile phone has become the world’s

most successful gadget; virtually any form of publication has

become available to virtually everyone. But these technologi-

cal changes are only part of a broader shift in society. If in

Fordist modernity the individual was located in a hierarchical

system and if in post-Fordism the fragmented individual was

in a system of flexible production and consumption, today we

conceive of ourselves as networked individuals, assembled

out of flows of people and things.

By and large, architecture has failed to deliver visionary

proposals for this moment. This studio set out to remedy that

situation. Students responded to our contemporary situation

by studying an aspect of network culture in depth and produc-

ing schemes based on an exacerbation of that condition that

could be utopian, dystopian, or both utopian and dystopian.

This studio was the

second installment in a decade-long project whose aim is to

examine received ideas in contemporary architecture cul-

ture; that is, formerly novel ideas which, due to recurrent

use, have been depleted of their original intensity, and which

ultimately forestall thought as they perpetuate. This ongo-

ing series of design studios and theory seminars proposes

to disclose, define, and date — and in the long run classify

and archive — received ideas prevalent over the past decade,

both in the professional and academic realms, in order to

ultimately open up otherwise precluded possibilities for

architectural design and architectural theory. To that end, it

focuses on design strategies and conceptual formulations,

particularly in terms of the means of representation and the

lexicon through which they are respectively articulated. This

project takes as precedent Gustave Flaubert’s unfinished

project, Le dictionnaire des idées reçues. Just as the latter, it

sets out to detect and collect received ideas and provide defi-

nitions — or, rather, a user’s manual — so as to render them

self-evident and thereby undermine their perpetuation. Yet

as opposed to the latter, it also seeks to use that collection

as a repository — or, rather, a dissecting table — for the

formulation of new architectural devices.

Borrowing a cue from

the Situationists, who conceived of a new psychogeography

of the modern city based on event and appropriation, the

studio adopted their tactic of temporal/spatial drift to move

through the geography of the home. New digital technolo-

gies — mobile phones, laptops, the internet, iPods, smart

homes — have created a new spatial/temporal matrix, a

new space/time pressure. These transformations mate-

rialize as the spatialization of time, a preoccupation of

experimental filmmakers like Tarkovsky, and more relevant

to architects, the temporalization of space. This studio

examined how these technologies impact the making

and inhabitation of the domestic sphere. We considered

how new domestic activities such as tele-commuting, for

example, create unexpected “situations,” events within the

house, rendering archaic the spheres of the “master bed-

room,” “family room,” “garage,” and “kitchen.” Instead of

assigning static functions and compartmentalizing spaces,

we looked for “patterns of regular doings” or “situations”

within the house, as well as considered how domestic

activities such as telecommunication have shifted private

activities into the public sphere. We used digital video

and animation to analyze and produce new modalities of

time in architecture: interactivity-body/material/technology;

mediaspace-virtual space/time; haptic sensing-perception

of intensities, durations, and modulations.

This studio explored the possible relationships between

energy and data management in hybrid cars and intercon-

nected this with houses to examine energy management

in relation to wider systems in urbanism and building. This

was carried out by transcribing and re-writing the Eames

House and the Toyota Prius as newly linked instruments,

seeking new prototypes for energy management in archi-

tecture. The focus was on how these implications impact

local urban design and enable new forms of building. The

work examined two moments in our recent history during

which architecture and design were cast against and within

the public imagination of innovation in computing and tech-

nological efficiency. Imagined as overtly benign — concepts

of efficiency in building systems were leveraged against

this imagination.

Architecture programs have traditionally posed design

studios at levels that seek to show building technologies

and refinement in building systems and technology. How-

ever, studios even at their most advanced usually operate

at a level where the proadvances require a deep level of

skill and knowledge, suggesting that innovation would oc-

cur at a more technically sophisticated level — later in the

development process. It’s critical that an architect incor-

porate high-level technical knowledge immediately at the

outset of a design endeavor. This studio ups the ante on

what is possible in studio and sets the stage for later work

to explore this more fully or to change course and instead

focus on a wider range of social or cultural goals while

having a deep technical content to the skill set.

The context is

Paraisopolis, a 70,000 inhabitant city that is less a place or

even an alignment of places than a condition and perhaps an

orientation of what makes up today’s cities in the global south.

In a sense, the announcement of a global south is premature

as even now events are unfolding in real time towards ever

accelerating global and local conditions. As the studio title

implies, Urban Think Tank focuses on the culture of architec-

ture in Latin America, and the studio semester was particu-

larly oriented as a kind of advanced post-housing studio.

The U-TT studio is an attempt to develop complex so-

cial and architectural strategies that transgress with distinct

ambitions in the urban reality. From systematic propositions

of public housing to the construction of public spaces that

find no time for incubating in the traditional practice, U-TT

negotiates legal and illegal zones, as a reminder of the per-

vasive control to which designers are all subject. The Sus-

tainable Living Urban Model proposes that architects work

as connectors between the two opposite forces of top down

planning and bottom-up initiatives to make them interact

powerfully and productively.

The students worked with politicians, policy makers,

community groups, global corporations, and international

professionals. The studio believes that the opposition of “le-

gal” and “peripheral” urban areas, the rich and the margina-

lised, are equally constitutive, and therefore a new model

of city visioning must be implemented for developing cities.

Thus the studio work makes an argument to deliberately

shift away from the mono-functional housing type to a strat-

egy of using hybridity to resolve the tensions between con-

ceptual polarities of wealth/poverty and public/private.

In 2010 Brasilia turns 50, reminding

us of its founder President Kubitschek’s famous campaign

promise to achieve 50 years of development in 5. In the last

50 years, the world’s 5th largest country has evolved, yet

its capital city remains frozen in time. How can we update

Brasilia without spoiling it? Students designed new annexes

to the ministries, overlaying an alternate future for Brasilia’s

architecture upon the 1960 master plan. Each project consid-

ered how the locus of power and monument at the scale of

a city could be transformed through their specific architec-

tural interventions, based on three paradoxes:

Government ministry functions are decentralizing — an

unanticipated phenomenon in 1957 when Brazil established

its new center. The opportunity to occupy the void left behind

by the departing bureaucrats allowed the students to rein-

vent the ministry annexes — buildings originally designed

to absorb the now placeless back-of-house functions — as

buildings with an updated political and social agenda. “Back”

became the new “Front”.

Brasilia’s master plan is protected by UNESCO, yet its

individual buildings are generally not protected, so long as

replacements forever conform to volumetric dimensions es-

tablished by Lucio Costa. Our second paradox was to design

buildings that would resonate with the two Brasilia’s: that of

our time and the one that is superimposed.

Unlike its European counterpart, Brazilian Modern ar-

chitecture was almost exclusively produced with concrete,

deriving from it the seemingly opposing qualities of monu-

mentality, plastic expression, permanence, and gravitational

freedom. Our third paradox therefore was to use this tradi-

tionally heavy and massive material in an innovative way.

Reality can be thought of in one of two

terms: the discrete or the continuous. Attempts to bridge the

two invariably result in all kinds of conundrums filled with

paradoxes and undecidability. As Badiou has argued con-

vincingly, it is necessary to subtract the idea of God from the

concept of the infinite since only then is it possible to render

effective Nietzsche’s pronouncement of the death of God.

The modern secularization of the infinite as a mathematical

concept has profound implications in dealing with the nature

of thought and the world including architecture.

The gap between the finite and the infinite has come to

symbolize what Lacan once suggested in a different context

as a hole in knowledge that resists absolute penetration by

thought. These concepts may seem too abstract and far re-

moved from normal day to day existence since the history

of architecture is essentially defined by the deployment of

discrete forms and shapes. Only with the development of

topology in the early 20th century have architects, such as

Frederick Keisler, began to think in terms of topology in the

design of architectural form.

The project for the studio was to design a formal build-

ing structure that incorporated elements of the discrete and

the continuous as part of its morphology. Emphasis was on

the generative development of architectural form as op-

posed to interactive sculpting of three-dimensional shapes

be they biomorphic or otherwise. Although no programmatic

function is given, each project had to manifest itself as a

proposition of architecture and the question of formal rela-

tions have to be solved in relation to this proposition.

For the past three

years, this ongoing series of studios has developed ideas

about the pairing of emerging fabrication techniques with pro-

grammatic identity. The outcome is documented in the book

Constructive Practices due out in the spring of 2008.

The studio developed incrementally with the first proj-

ects being skin systems, the second developing volumetric

depth, and the third fully three dimensional systems. In

each studio, the best projects anticipated the next sequence

of development.

The proposal for this studio was to use these as a basis

and link it to investigations in light from earlier studios. In

contrast to the earlier light investigations which were visual

and experiential, this studio combined the visual/formal with

the systemic performance of light as an energy source. The

goal was to expand (co-opt) the individual/experiential to

encompass the collective/sustainable. Light is received by

architecture to create both physical and psychological en-

ergy. The studio used as a springboard the most developed of

the last studio projects, returning to the manageability of the

skin when starting an entirely new mode of investigation.

The studio merged ideas of skin, structure, sunlight,

and systemic order, into the fabrication of an architectural

surface. The surface was constructed out of a mitigated du-

ality that merges the logical and physical approach with the

emotional and perceptual approach combining experiential

data with analytic data.

The effects of global warming

are simultaneously a threat to and a promise for one of the

last un-claimed territories on our planet: the Arctic Circle.

The Arctic Circle sits within a temporal boundary set by the

summer and winter solstice, during which time this region

experiences 24 hours of sunlight and 24 hours of darkness

respectively. With the melting of the “ice cap”, this vast

wilderness, also home to 4 million people comprised of 10

distinct ethnic groups, holds an unknown amount of natural

resources to be exploited.

At the turn of the year 2000, the United Nations es-

tablished a set of eight Millennia Development Goals, the

current focus being the eradication of extreme poverty and

hunger, the achievement of primary education, and the com-

bat against disease. Of the eight, two goals were set aside to

ensure environmental sustainability and to promote global

partnership for equitable development.

This studio investigated the role of the UN as protector-

ate of an increasingly significant and rapidly shifting territory.

In laying claim to a UN Regional Outpost for the Arctic Circle

students were asked to define strategies and techniques to

bring global awareness to the issues at hand.

Our research ranged from the history of the region, its

people, cultures, resources, and wildlife to the history of the

UN, its structure, goals, and potential intentions related to

the controversial topics of global warming, global develop-

ment, and the preservation of resources. We interrogated

non-traditional methods of inhabiting and utilizing extreme

transitional environments from which students were expect-

ed to develop responsive architectural proposals.

The intersection of CRISIS

and POWER provided the material, social, and environmen-

tal context and defined the critical milieu in which the studio

worked. CRISIS was taken as an opportunity for architectural

invention in areas where architectural design is rarely a pri-

ority. Each student identified a setting that was demonstra-

bly in a state of CRISIS — there are many... The focus of the

studio was on the SECOND STAGE OF RECOVERY after the

immediate CRISIS had passed and with it the first stage of

intense individual, collective, NGO, and Governmental activ-

ity. “FOLLOW THROUGH” is inevitably difficult, extremely

problematic and in many cases enlarges rather than dimin-

ishes the CRISIS. The studio addressed this predicament and

designed small-scale infrastructures and developed strate-

gies for their implementation and use, monitoring, feedback,

and the assessment of their value in use.

To achieve this we worked in the disciplinary hinterland

where architecture as a relational practice meets architec-

ture as an autonomous intellectual discipline. We believed

that in this hinterland there is a place for design and re-

search that shares some of the qualities that Michel Serres

identified as a “North-West Passage” — a place with re-

markable environmental attributes, promising rich rewards

for the integrated thinking that remains unexploited and is

vital for the architecture of the near future.

* COOL AID: Architecture as Agent, the Architect as Activist

— because it’s worth it.

Las Vegas is using

up its energy and water sources at an alarming rate. In fact,

the Southern Nevada Water Authority predicts that in the

absence of remedial action, there will be no water for hun-

dreds of thousands of Las Vegas Valley residents in just three

years. In contrast, according to the Energy Department of

California, a 100-mile-square area of Nevada, if equipped

with solar devices, could supply the U.S. with all the power it

needs. Given this, here are some questions this studio’s proj-

ects posed: Is it possible for architecture and engineering to

intervene in this crash course to disaster? Could the design

and assembly of smart environmental systems, which both

produce and conserve energy and resources, be turned loose

in the desert wilderness? Could new programs for occupy-

ing this wilderness be charged with the additional task of

producing energy and conserving water and other resources

and be put to work to serve both as public space and new

renewable resources?

An extreme example of urbanism and suburban-

ism, Las Vegas is one of the fastest growing cities in the

US today. Las Vegas is a resort, not an ordinary city, and

it offers a way to study the compelling phenomenon of the

populist, sprawling, post-industrialist, car-oriented urban

culture. Because of its history of rampant and unrestrained

growth, and particularly its very recent shift into a kind of

mega-scale building, it is experiencing tremendous infra-

structural pressures. Using Las Vegas as the test site, this

design studio addressed the potential for new systems of

energy production to be leveraged against the large scale

development of new public space currently being enacted

on Public Lands in Nevada.

The

intention of this studio was to take advantage of the impend-

ing demand for great amounts of public housing to mobilize

such program for the transformation of the city.

Design Techniques

The real “subject matters” of the studio were the design

techniques, and the studio developed three parallel lines of

work corresponding to three scales of reflection converging

in contemporary practice:

1) the investigation of a collective dwelling unit pertinent

for our time;

2) the invention of new types of “infrastructural” mixed

buildings, in which housing is a non-excluding protagonist,

capable of repositioning the center of gravity of contempo-

rary urban peripheries, revising its absent personality and

its deficit of environmental quality;

3) the fine tuning of design instruments applicable in

the new scenarios generated by convulsive urban growth: a

“design project” for the participation of architecture in the

transformation of the city and for the production of alter-

natives to the purely speculative development and all the

banality and inefficiency associated with it.

Situation?

The site of the studio was a really big abandoned plot in the

southeast of Madrid, used until recently as a factory of rein-

forced concrete pipes. The work was intended to be simul-

taneously pragmatic and experimental. The initial conditions

were presented as opportunities more than necessities.

What was at stake was not to solve problems or to develop

a therapeutic attitude, but instead the mobilization of the

energy that, no matter what will be deployed to build this

place, would be for the production of a new reality, unexpect-

ed and impossible to achieve through conventional methods

of planning and development.

ANARCHITECTURE 2…The

studio studied an important historical exhibition that ques-

tioned what architecture is…”ANarchitecture, 1974” was

an exhibition co-curated by Gordon Matta Clark and the

ANarchitecture Group: Jene Heighstein, Suzi Harris, Richard

Nonas, Laurie Anderson, and Bernard Kirshenbum. The

original exhibition twisted and redefined architecture. A hole

in the ground that led to an underground area became archi-

tecture, a pile of trash became architecture…Jene Heighstien

said “to relate it to the human interaction was the key”. The

hole didn’t have to be big enough to get into — but if you could

put your mind into it, it became architecture.”

Projects like Saemangeum

require us to formulate a new reason to justify our design

proposals. With this project type, the design service we pro-

vide can’t be legitimized based on an argument of “economy

of means,” the efficient use of materials, or any other one

that values the sensible expenditure of money. This proj-

ect, which will likely be realized, is now relatively common:

there are billions of dollars of available investment capital

and the equivalent of hundreds of million more in lease and

tax incentives, all bundled together with central government

blessings and support. For this new context in which feasi-

bility is not a function of cost, our two proposals acknowl-

edged the desire that architects produce eye-catching work

that has popular appeal, while attempting to define for our-

selves a meaningful reason for being. For this incompre-

hensibly large site — 20 km x 20 km or the size of Paris plus

2 Manhattans — we imposed the constraint of certainty to

focus the ambition for urban development to a limited area

and focal point.

PROJECT:

With an ever

expanding economy, and a transition towards capitalism,

the Chinese population with disposable income is increas-

ing at an astonishing pace. In addition, many Chinese —

mostly those working at state-owned enterprises-retire at

very early ages to make way for their young replacements.

When this is considered with the fact that the Chinese are

living longer lives, it is easy to project that there will soon be

sprouting new cities throughout China accommodating the

ever increasing need for leisure. What opportunities will this

demand yield to reinvent notions of leisure? How is leisure

defined in a culture where “conspicuous consumption” has

not, until most recently, existed? What kind of new leisure

cities and architectures will this produce? The project for

the studio was to develop a prototypical resort hotel for 21st

century China.

The Library, the Archive,

is the technical solution we humans have deployed to solve

the challenge of amnesia; a technique that intends to keep

the supposed beast inside each of us at bay. Yet given our

contemporary global, political and technological situation, it

is impossible to consider the “Library” as an institution with-

out acknowledging that an absolute redefinition of power is

taking place.

If information in many ways equals power, and if

awareness and intelligence are ever more modulated by the

emerging infrastructure of free and wireless Net, then the

Library must radically reconfigure itself as a new institution if

it hopes to survive. In fact, there is little hope for the library as

a conventional bastion of power and law. By the time today’s

policy makers realize the extent of the technological revo-

lution, distributed networks and information reservoirs will

have self-deployed to such an extent that the traditional form

of the library will be extinct. The spatial relationships that

have defined the transfer of knowledge in the city, in the li-

brary as an institution, will also have suffered a sea change.

Today’s surveillance culture insists that global safety

depends on an all seeing eye, a total pervasion of information

visibility. Much theorized by thinkers like Virilio, we engaged

this idea of an extended visibility and the erasure of space, in

the consideration of how we can design a library that might

function adequately as a filter, bulwark or conversely an ac-

celerator in this coming new age of control.

How do we satisfy the

pleasure of the mind? How should we offer a space for who

we “think” we are? How to construct an idea, an image, a

brand, a place?

Building for our physical necessities used to be the

main driving construction factor for the development of

cities. Rational economical decision based on demand and

supply generates an expected product. Nevertheless, today

cities like Dubai are asking radically different questions that

have more to do with the virtual and the visual world, which

produces a physical world, almost as a by product.

Geopolitical investment and brilliant marketing have

allowed the small city of Dubai to become recently one of

the major metropolitan players in the architectural world.

Fantasy and marketing have become a way to attract capi-

tal, generating a city not based on “demand” or “necessity”

(there is absolutely no local population need) but on the sat-

isfaction of the materialization of a “virtual environment.”

In Dubai, every construction has a name, a story, a mar-

keting manager, an assigned lifestyle, a “virtuality”. And this

virtuality in every way codifies and generates its physical-

ity. In fact entire new neighborhoods are based on a single

“word” that’s marketable, sellable, and associated with a full

range of “virtual” life style connotations.

We cannot consider anymore our present reality without

the condition of the mental — or labeled differently, the vir-

tual — associated with the usual physical materiality. Real-

ity is always a combination of both. Nevertheless, in places

where the virtual is so powerful that it almost entirely gen-

erates the physical materialization, architecture strategies

need to be re-assessed.

No architect

is complete without a Monograph.

A monograph is your personal visual manifesto.

A monograph is not a portfolio.

A portfolio is comprehensive; a monograph is deliberately

incomplete.

A portfolio is objective; a monograph is subjective.

A portfolio explains; a monograph mystifies.

A portfolio speeds through; a monograph hesitates.

A portfolio is stable; a monograph is unstable.

A portfolio is graphic. A monograph is therapeutic.

This is the studio where you finally make your monograph.

It is going to be a dirty, papery studio.

There will be no pin-ups, no powerpoint, no projections.

Everything you do: drawings, renderings, models, research,

will be presented as part of your in-progress monograph.

If it’s not part of the book, it doesn’t exist.

1. Your Self

Every hero must have a story.

Every story must have a book.

You will invent this hero. You will become this character.

Through a process of highly experimental and intuitive steps,

you will synthesize self, story, and book.

You will document your own vision.

2. Your Home

Every building must have a book.

Every book must have a building.

You will invent this building. You will develop this architecture.

Through a process of highly conceptual and intuitive steps,

you will synthesize home, building, and book.

You will design your own house.

Your monograph will be You.

You will be well on your way to finally existing as an architect.

This studio dealt with the question of meaning and of

representation, with reference to an object that is, strictly

speaking, meaningless: Money.

The circulation of money depends on any number of

material infrastructures, each with their specific set of pro-

tocols and techniques. Among these are banks, which have

long been objects of architectural representation, often

in monumental form. To design a bank today is to engage this

tradition at a moment dominated by finance capital, when “all

that is solid” may seem long ago to have “melted into air.”

This studio therefore asked:

What does money represent, today? For whom and to

whom? How? Why?

What does a bank represent, today? For whom and to

whom? How? Why?

What does the architecture of a bank represent? For

whom and to whom? How? Why?

What does architecture (as such) represent? For whom

and to whom? How? Why?

What should architecture represent? For whom and to

whom? How? Why?

To address these questions, each student was asked to

design a regional headquarters for the newly formed Banco

del Sur (Banco dol Sul, or Bank of the South) in São Paulo,

Brazil. The Banco del Sur was set up by eight Latin Ameri-

can countries as an alternative to the World Bank and the

International Monetary Fund (IMF), as a lending source for

development projects.

Located in the center of the

Buenos Aires metropolis, Palermo is the fastest growing and

hippest area of BA. The National Hippodrome is next to the

bunker styled 1970’s American Embassy located in Palermo.

The Hippodrome, like the stallion is at once a symbol of a

faded aristocratic past and a possible new image of brave

national identity.

With 12 Million inhabitants, the metropolitan area of

Buenos Aires has an added constant influx of international

tourism. This tourism creates a new desire for “exotic” en-

tertainment, which young local “impresarios” such as Alan

Faena have quickly capitalized on, creating new neighbor-

hoods, hotels, entertainment venues, and night clubs that

take advantage of narratives such as Tango, Asado, or Polo.

Our studio approached the paradoxical search for “local

tourist attractions” and re-invested the Hippodrome with new

spectacle technologies to capitalize on international visitor

ship. As a program, we proposed Club Hippodrome, a mix of

the old program with something new. The Hippodrome has

mutated as a form of entertainment since Greek and Roman

chariot times and can transform once again to embrace newer

forms of enjoyment, a new house of fun, day or night.

This studio

was the third installment in a decade-long project the aim

of which is to examine received ideas in contemporary archi-

tecture culture; that is, formerly novel ideas which, due to

recurrent use, have been depleted of their original intensity,

and which ultimately forestall thought as they perpetuate.

This ongoing series of design studios and theory seminars

proposes to disclose, define, and date — and in the long run

classify and archive — received ideas prevalent over the past

decade, both in the professional and academic realms, in

order to ultimately open up otherwise precluded possibilities

for architectural design and architectural theory. To that end,

it focuses on design strategies and conceptual formulations,

particularly in terms of the means of representation and the

lexicon through which they are respectively articulated. This

project takes as precedent Gustave Flaubert’s unfinished

project, Le dictionnaire des idées reçues. Just as the latter, it

sets out to detect and collect received ideas and provide defi-

nitions — or, rather, a user’s manual — so as to render them

self-evident and thereby undermine their perpetuation. Yet

as opposed to the latter, it also seeks to use that collection

as a repository — or, rather, a dissecting table — for the

formulation of new architectural devices.

The Building Technologies curriculum is based on

the belief that architects benefit from having a basic knowl-

edge of technical systems, not only as utilitarian ends in

themselves, but also as a means to help develop a build-

ing’s spaces, forms, and expression. The six-course required

sequence begins by outlining the environmental conditions

to which habitable spaces respond, and describing the

physical determinants of technical building systems. Next,

individual building systems — including structure, building

enclosure, environmental conditioning, and information

management — are explored in depth. For each system

studied, various design strategies, materials, fabrication

techniques, and didactic built works are explored. Field

trips, laboratory demonstrations, and short design prob-

lems are used to augment in-class study. As both a qualita-

tive and a basic quantitative understanding of elementary

systems are mastered, the curriculum shifts its focus onto

increasingly complex systems serving entire buildings.

The sequence’s last two courses (Building Systems 1 and

2) develop an understanding of how technical-utilitarian

systems are resolved, integrated with other systems, and

inform a building’s spaces and formal expression — first

through in-depth case studies of entire buildings, and then

by the preliminary design of an industrial-loft block. In both

courses, students work in teams with structural, mechani-

cal, and building-envelope experts.

Throughout the Building Technologies sequence, stu-

dents are encouraged to apply their growing knowledge

to design problems posed in studio. Occasionally, studios

focusing on various aspects of the relationship between

technology and spatial and formal design are offered for

third-year students. The goals of the Building Technologies

electives are threefold: to explore the potential of techno-

logical systems to impact design; to understand historical

relationships among technology, philosophy, politics, and

architecture; and to take advantage of New York’s profes-

sional practitioners working with the technological “state

of the art.” The diversity of views regarding architectural

technology represented by the school’s design and tech-

nology faculty is reflected in, and thereby strengthens, the

elective offerings

The overall goal of this introductory course is to establish

a definition for structural design, distinguishing between

structural and architectural design and identifying specific

structural systems and components. The course familiar-

izes students with graphics and statics of structural analysis

and design, the performance and applications of structural

materials, and preliminary design using axially and trans-

versely loaded structural elements. Throughout the course,

developing a qualitative understanding and mastering basic

quantitative skills are stressed. All structural systems and

components studied are presented in the context of contem-

porary architecture. Whenever possible, examples of built

work serve to introduce a topic.

This course built on Structures 1, with a focus on the design

methods for different types of components and systems.

Topics included gravity and lateral systems, beams and

frames, trusses, and concrete and steel design. For each

topic, the principles of structural mechanics were exam-

ined, the governing code requirements were discussed, and

simplified methods of design were presented so as to focus

attention on the underlying design principles. Connections

between components in wood, steel, and reinforced concrete

were illustrated, and their qualitative design characteris-

tics were examined. Construction techniques and size limi-

tations were outlined. The course emphasized qualitative

understanding and basic quantitative skills.

The study of exterior building enve-

lope systems is introduced, in this course, by an overview

of environmental forces, followed by a study of exterior

wall construction techniques, within the context of struc-

tural behavior. Architectural, technological, and fabrication

constraints are considered in conjunction with the exterior

forces acting upon the enclosure systems. The class builds

on a series of exercises, culminating in a three-week final

project. In the final design problem, students design a façade

assembly and represent it in detailed construction draw-

ings, before attempting to construct a full-scale mock-up.

Primary design criteria included control of water infiltration,

heat loss/heat gain, constructability, formal expression, and

the relationship of exterior envelope to building structure.

In this course, students are asked to design and

analyze a variety of elements associated with the condition-

ing of inhabited space. Luminares, furniture, and enclosures

are all studied in relation to their visual, acoustical, and ther-

mal impact, as well as the ecological consequences of their

manufacture and maintenance.

Building Systems 1 builds

upon the discussion of basic structural systems begun in

Structures 2. Structural systems designed to ensure satis-

factory performance of an entire building in the face of gravity

and horizontal (wind and earthquake) loads are presented

for both framed or walled systems and non-framed systems.

Wood, steel, concrete, and masonry structural systems are

compared. The course culminates in a building analysis

project, in which groups of students document the materi-

als, construction methods, and performance of a post WWII

American project. Qualitative understanding and basic quan-

titative skills are stressed throughout the course.

The nine-

week problem is to design and detail a multi-story indus-

trial loft block. Students are asked to focus primarily on the

building’s technical utilitarian systems — including struc-

ture, enclosure, and environmental conditioning — and to

integrate their resolution into the building’s formal expres-

sion and spatial definition.

This course was part of a

new series of seminars in the building technology sequence

designed to engage current trends and ideas in the realm of

architectural science and their relationship to contemporary

design and theory. Intended to be a technical exploration

focusing on the research and development of team projects

towards a functioning prototype, the course included lectures

and discussions, topical experiments, individual work, and

visits with guest professors, lecturers, and industry advisors.

Contemporary architectural studio work often engages

the idea of dynamic space. Yet in many implementations,

the method involves technically difficult or aesthetically op-

pressive schemes to activate the architecture. This class

proposed that the control of lighting through the use of ma-

terials, devices, and controls could modify the program and

spatial aesthetics of architecture and offer new versions of

dynamic space.

Students focused on the innovative use of materials

that allow the general and selective transmission of vari-

ous forms of light (glass, water, acrylics, fabrics, papers,

gasses, and so on). Students also investigated systemic

programming of mechanical and computational devices and

luminaries to induce the dynamic activation of space and

architecture for a stated design goal. Experiments in class

looked at the interactions between various light sources

(incandescent, fluorescent, LED, laser, etc.) and advanced

materials, as well as the use of mechanical and computa-

tional controls.

The class was partially funded by industry partner Lu-

tron, who provided support, materials, and advisement to

the faculty and students so that the research of the seminar

could be deployed in a constructed experiment.

The constant

development of new materials and fabrication techniques

changes the ways in which architects and designers think

about standardization and construction. Since many digitally

driven fabrication techniques have short-circuited traditional

production systems, architects have the ability to completely

integrate processes from the design idea through fabrication

and installation. The focus of this course was to research and

explore emerging materials and fabrication techniques and

apply them to architectural program and form.

Materials cannot be separated from their physical prop-

erties and performance, and fabrication methods have inher-

ent limitations. New technologies are often born out of the

combination or hybridization of two or more existing materi-

als or processes. Through investigation and re-combination

of products and processes, students are asked to propose

and develop new composite materials and technologies.

The course is comprised of individual and team re-

search, student presentations, and design problems to

formulate architectural applications for new materials and

processes. The seminar also included presentations by, and

discussions with, a number of guests who are thinkers and

innovators in fabrication and new materials technology. The

final assignment involved the production of a fabrication

scenario — utilizing a technique and material relationship

— positioned within an architectural project.

The continued advance

of BIM, scripted processes, and computational design

has opened new territories of work for architects. These

opportunities reside not only in digital techniques for the

fashioning and deployment of material, but also for the

description and communication of these material relation-

ships. The class attempted to operate within a series of

digital and physical migrations: between different software

and geometric platforms, between design and documenta-

tion, and between extensive properties (weight, size, form)

and intensive performances. Focusing on a digital workflow

that could deliver true innovation in building systems, the

work of the class was supplemented through the facilities

of the Avery Fabrication and Carlton Laboratories to develop

proof-of-concept prototypes. To this end, the class present-

ed a framework for robust prototyping, using a plurality of

software to encourage students’ proposals through mul-

tiple stages of design, prototyping, and simulation. Projects

were encouraged to move towards a multi-modal operation

in both materiality and scales of production. Pluralism was

seen as a framework in which a manifold of software, mate-

rials, and manufacturing processes could be brought into a

productive nexus.

Advanced Curtain Wall

is the final offering in the GSAPP technology sequence and

offers an intense exposure to the custom curtain wall. It is

the intent of the course to provide graduating students with a

comprehensive understanding of the technical concepts and

specific skills necessary to undertake in actual practice the

design, detailing, specification, and construction administra-

tion of the custom curtain wall.

While the course emphasizes emerging technologies,

discussion of specific technical issues and methodologies

focuses on those aspects that directly inform contempo-

rary architectural design. Case studies of contemporary

examples are used throughout to illustrate the technical

content of the course. Students also explore hundreds of

mock-ups and samples at Prof. Heintges’ firm and visit proj-

ects under construction.

In the semester-long Technical Studio Design Problem,

students do not design ex nihilo. Rather, each begins the

project with a given, highly schematic architectural intent. In

executing this project, students are called on to integrate their

newly-gained technical expertise with their abilities to inter-

pret and develop an architectural design. Students prepare

detail drawings and outline specifications for a unique, custom

curtain wall design that they defend in a final formal review.

“Natural light is the only light that makes architecture

Architecture…” —Louis Kahn

This course focused on daylight as

a prime generator and articulator of architectural space.

Students explored the basic means by which daylight inter-

acts with both the environment and the building, the exterior

methods for the architectural mitigation and manipulation

of this interaction, and the various perimeter (lightshelves)

and core daylighting strategies (atria) that affect the building

skin as well as various advanced daylighting systems and

technologies. Students developed a working knowledge of

the Sun Angle Calculator, used for solar angle calculations

and the design of shading devices, as well as a familiarity

with the BRE Daylight Protractors, used for the calculation

of illuminance in simple spaces. While this was a technical

course, it explored daylighting technology and strategies as

they apply to the articulation of architectural space — mat-

ters of poetry and aesthetics.

This course focused on pragmatic energy and environmental

problem-solving methods and tools that address the issue of

human comfort in the built environment while addressing the

role and responsibilities of the ecological architect and sustain-

able architectural design in the broader social, economic, and

political context. The course combined lectures by the instruc-

tor and visiting experts with case studies and design assign-

ments that allowed the students to explore the experiential and

poetic implications of ecologically informed architecture.

How exactly do designs become buildings? First, relation-

ships must be forged among owners, architects, and con-

tractors, establishing the duties, obligations, rights, and

remedies of each. Second, all parties involved must consider

and abide by the public constraints and the public/private

relationships by which individuals have their rights limited

for the sake of the public good. The purpose of this course is

to give students an understanding of these transformational

processes — how to protect designs, from concept to realiza-

tion, and how to develop a sensitivity to the ethical and moral

issues of practicing architecture.

The History/Theory curriculum of the GSAPP stress-

es a broad social and cultural approach to architectural dis-

course. Architecture history is not seen primarily as stylistic

evolution, but rather as the consequence of a complex inter-

action between artistic, socio-economic, technological, and

ideological vectors. Most instructors of architecture history

at GSAPP have both professional and academic degrees. The

overall intent is to place the relationship between theory and

practice in a broad historical perspective.

The course offerings are structured to provide students

with an opportunity to acquire a general overview of contem-

porary architectural history and, at the same time, a degree

of specialized knowledge in areas of their own choosing.

Where the former is dealt with through a required lecture

sequence, the latter is met through specialized seminars.

The architecture history classes within the GSAPP are

supplemented by classes in the Department of Art History

and Archaeology. In this regard students are especially en-

couraged to take art history courses examining pre-1750

and non-Western topics. Students may also take courses

in other departments of the University, such as history and

philosophy, providing they meet basic distribution require-

ments of the GSAPP program.

The seminar concerned the relationship of architectural

form to urbanism and politics.

Autonomy is the deliberate act of deciding on a different

relationship between individuals and the inherited system of

knowledge. Since the Enlightenment, human evolution has

been shaped by a powerful system of knowledge and produc-

tion — capitalism — and autonomy has been the struggle

of politics and the arts against the heteronomy imposed by

that system. However, in recent decades the struggle has

seemingly lost its relevance. Politicians, artists, writers, and

architects no longer question their own intellectual integrity,

and “autonomy” is seen as a form of retreat. This is exem-

plified by the way the question of autonomy has generally

been understood in both architecture and art since the 1960s,

namely as autonomy of the “discipline” — an escape from

professional commercialization.

Against this interpretation, the seminar focused on a

different, more proactive idea of autonomy: architectural

thought as a mode of questioning architecture’s inevitable

complicity with power and its representations. In order to

sustain this alternative idea of autonomy, the seminar at-

tempted a genealogy of the concept of autonomy itself by

providing an integral and broad vision of its evolution as seen

through politics, poetics, and productions that have ques-

tioned, challenged, or reflected the cultural hegemony of

capitalism. A crucial issue at stake was the notion of form,

specifically architectural form, understood as a regime that

necessarily entails a definition of inclusion and exclusion.

U.S. housing policy has increas-

ingly moved toward less reliance on direct subsidy of low-

income and poverty rental housing during the past 20 years.

Between 1996 and 2001, more than 51,000 federal public

housing units were razed or converted to quasi-traditional

forms of market rate ownership housing. The scope and

speed of this transformation instigates a critical set of

questions and suggests that it would be advantageous for

U.S. housing to now be understood as parallel to conditions

in emerging economies worldwide, where the safety net of

public or state assistance has never been available to con-

stituencies struggling in the face of demanding and surging

market forces.

The seminar relied on student research and outside

advisors, including Nicholas Calace, Peter Hance, Nadine

Maleh, and Brian Loughlin, to examine how low-income

and poverty housing initiatives could expand their leverage

and their legitimacy by identifying and responding to hous-

ing needs in preventative ways. This course attempted to

forecast and reveal constituencies that are at risk and show

this in parallel to a wide range of world constituencies. The

ultimate goal was to justify the prevention of housing crises

by elaborating and making visible the complex set of other

social crises that result from unstable housing.

It is fashionable to render Modernist architecture in the

plural: Decorative Modernism, Vernacular Modernism,

Conservative Modernism, Domestic Modernism, Irrational

Modernism have all appeared in the recent literature.

Applying pluralism retrospectively to the modern move-

ment in architecture does disservice to the discourses of

the 1920s, which generally revolved around a central spine of

ideas. The problem is that these core ideas were not them-

selves coherent, leading to contradictory and incompatible

conclusions as well as different interpretations by the lead-

ing protagonists. It was left to the popularisers and theore-

ticians of the 1930s and afterwards to try to weld together

a coherent system of Modernist architectural theory and a

canon of buildings to represent it. And by then, the lead-

ing practitioners had already discarded the founding tenets

of Modernism.

This course was about the development of this retro-

spectively labeled Modernist architecture, in Europe, be-

tween 1918 and 1939. It sketched out the core ideas, most

of them well established before 1890, and then interrogated

the contradictory ways these ideas were interpreted at

different times in a series of case studies. To borrow

Venturi’s phrase, it looked for complexity and contradiction

within Modernism.

Using an interdisciplinary approach, this seminar explored

Japanese urbanism and Tokyo. Urban theories, history,

geography, fictions, films, sociology, and anthropology

along with cultural critiques helped situate the more per-

sonal experiences of the metropolis and the new “global

city.” In considering the formation of urban/geographical

entities, its infrastructure, and underlying ideologies of

these urban constructs, the course attempted to uncover

the mechanisms of the development of collective identities

and individual reconciliations. Theoretical readings — Henri

Lefebvre in particular — and traditional strategies for pen-

etrating cities were juxtaposed with literature, film, and

personal testimonies.

Tokyo was studied and situated in the seeming con-

tradiction of universalizing technologies and romantically

preserved particularities. The course focused on the mod-

ern city and the tension of western influence and modern-

ism. Topics included the importance of politics, the physical

(earthquakes), the formal, and the economic in exploring

the remarkable and rapid transformation of the city; the

dramatic solutions to the complexity of the modern city;

industries from tourism, cinema, advertising, and comics;

crime, safety, density, commodification, the informal and

the illegal, and growth and speed; the repressed and the

exploited quality of the city as it plays out the subway, shop-

ping, and entertainment. Through these investigations, the

course aimed to understand the factors behind the uses and

production of social space in the Japanese city.

Sweeping cultural changes at the end of the 20th century,

driven by the proliferation of information technologies

and service industries, have challenged the primary role

of history, theory, and philosophy in architectural, urban

design and planning discourse. Metaphors of chaos, com-

plexity, bio-urbanism, junk space, fluidity, transparency, and

dynamism have flourished. Yet the implications of this new

rhetoric on urban form, issues, and policy remain unclear.

Do these models effectively articulate the prefigurative

nature of capital, religion, and politics, or are they fashion?

This course considered the means by which architecture and

urban design can intercede in the complexity of contempo-

rary urbanism. This inherent critique of traditional practice

examines international examples of both normative fabric

and variant conditions including sprawl, generic landscapes,

informal settlements, preservation districts, marginalized

centers, and disused industrial zones. The seminar intro-

duced students to the logic of western market development

as it is applied globally and to the means and methods in

which contemporary urban fabric is conceptualized, created,

and controlled.

The first goal of this seminar was to try to under-

stand the critical shift in the cultural field of the interiority

of the discipline: from typology (fixed) to topology (dynamic,

evolving, mutations), and from the paradigm of the represen-

tation to the emergent condition of simulation.

The seminar explored techniques of aesthetics as the

ultimate condition of design.

Architecture is witnessing a biotechnological and

biopolitical shift in the vocabulary of tectonics: taxonomy,

ingestion, circulation, digestion, morphology, expression,

reproduction, prolapse, and affinity. Speciation, locomotion,

armature, orifice, membrane, interface, anthropocentrism,

actor-network, semi-living objects, genomic literatures,

biomimicry and its immolations, software and its latencies,

and camouflage. Learning from the “corruption” of film,

the aim of the class was to develop a critical, cinematic,

image-based approach to the production and thinking of

architectural form, embracing visual effect as the origin of

digital techniques.

Move away from the traditional discussion- or tutori-

al-based seminar organization toward production-based

research, the course looked at technique as a theory. The

main purpose of the seminar was to produce a critical

statement about the contemporary and near-future cultural

state of the discipline in relation to the production of affect by

focusing on the condition of the interiority or autonomy of

the discipline.

Teaching a survey of the history of architecture and devel-

opment in New York is a challenge because the city is so

rich in architecturally and historically interesting buildings

and neighborhoods. This class introduces most of the major

masterpieces of architecture in New York but increasingly

focuses on the city’s vernacular architecture — the everyday

buildings that comprise the basic fabric of the city and with

which residents and visitors interact on a daily basis. This

year, particularly close attention was given to the variety

of residential types that have developed in New York, from

the speculative row houses erected by Irish immigrants, to

German-built tenements, to the middle- and working-class

apartment buildigns erected by Jewish and Italian devel-

opers. Together these buildings create the neighborhoods

that lend character to the metropolis and have housed

generations of New Yorkers hailing from every corner of

the globe.

Public works, infrastructure — these terms connote less

things or objects, or even a class of objects, than the name

for an architecture of means, as totalizing as it is intermedi-

ary. In the realm of infrastructure, governmentality is mani-

fested as equipmentality: paths constituted by the tangled

relationships of welfare and expropriation, of economies

and biomes, of supports and shelters, of resources and

subjecthood. Each path appears to comprise a discipline at

odds with the other. Where is the basis and impact of public

works? Is it in the architectonic of decision-making? Is it in

the indirect production of demand by the creation of work?

Is it a mode of political inoculation against dissent? Or is it

related to the dilation of the money supply? Is it the articula-

tion of a technological rationality? In a manner of speaking,

public works is the apparatus through which the state makes

itself present, visible through building as the intersection of

these questions.

The course interrogated a number of these questions

and examined theories of public works from Daniel Defoe in

his Essay on Projects to the World Bank’s current delibera-

tions on infrastructure. A particular thrust of this course will

be its transnational, comparative focus. Through critical writ-

ings on infrastructure, this course examined this globalizing

force of infrastructural thought. Course readings included

key thinkers — Kant, Ruskin, Adam Smith, Patrick Geddes,

Heidegger — and their relationship to equipmental thought

and architecture. Case studies included Haussmann’s Paris,

the Tennessee Valley Authority, the British New Towns, and

the Ford Foundation Plan for Calcutta in the 1960s.

The second of the two-semester Architecture History

sequence, this course traces the history of modern architecture

through its transformation from 1895 to 1965 under the influ-

ence of two major forces: the process of modernization and

the development of ideology. The first of these derives from the

material changes brought about by technology and industrial-

ization; the second stems from the received idea of progress

and from the utopian legacy of the Enlightenment. The period

covered runs from the high point of the Art Nouveau to the

death of Le Corbusier. Rather than attempting a con tinuous

chronological account, the course is structured about a series

of thematic episodes — Futurism, Classical Rationalism, the

Deutsche Werkbund, Adolf Loos and Vienna, Frank Lloyd

Wright, Le Corbusier and Purism, Dutch Neoplasticism,

Russian Constructivism, the Weimar Republic and the New

Objectivity, Mies van der Rohe and the New Monumentality,

Italian Rationalism, the International Style in America, and

Alvar Aalto and Finnish Romantic Nationalism.

The title of this seminar derives from Hannah

Arendt’s study The Human Condition of 1958. It also makes

an allusion to Siegfried Gideon’s Space, Time and Architecture

of 1941. Apart from Arendt’s political philosophy, this seminar

deals with a series of themes derived from the essay topics in

Prof. Frampton’s book Labour, Work & Architecture, including

the work of such figures as Alvar Aalto, Pierre Chareau, Louis

Kahn, Tadao Ando, Le Corbusier, and Frank Lloyd Wright.

This lecture course attempted to trace the evolution

of the tectonic idea in modern architecture from the point

of view of the role played by structure and construction in

the development of 19th and 20th century form. The lecture

addressed itself to the poetics of construction as this has

made itself manifest over the past 150 years. The tectonic

suggests itself today as a critical strategy largely because of

the current tendency to reduce architectural form to a spec-

tacular commodity. This amortizable scenographic approach

has been accompanied by a dissolution of references in the

late modern world.

This seminar explored the fragmented, complex, and para-

doxical urbanism of contemporary cities outside the con-

ventional West. Do all cities have to resemble the urban-

ism of Western Europe and North America to be modern?

In an interconnected world of global flows, can these cities

be seen as modern, albeit, a different modern? This course

examined what happens when global modernity engages

with particular places, localities, and traditions.

The course began with the premise that modernity,

claimed and defined by the West, was fundamentally global

and that colonialism and modernity are connected. From

these perspectives students explored the cultural and sym-

bolic dimensions of spatial transformation. The seminar

focused on the ways in which globality and locality reconcile

when local settlement practices/spatial cultures encounter

global modernity. While recognizing the subjective position

of the Western academe, students critically examined duali-

ties such as “traditional” and “modern,” “West”, and “non-

West,” “Orient” and “Occident,” as culturally constructed

categories that frame professional understanding and in-

terventions in architecture and urbanism.

The course integrated a historical and cultural under-

standing of the architecture and urbanism of specific places

with theoretical discussions of concepts such as modernity,

tradition, culture, postcoloniality, globalization, representa-

tions, nationalism, and identity. Students investigated the

plural landscapes of ‘non-Western’ cities through the study

of spatial expressions such as historic quarters, public

spaces, colonial urbanism, planned capitals, squatter settle-

ments, the built environments of re-interpreted traditions

and cultural tourism, and the de-territorialized landscapes

of globalism.

This course was an examination of the various prac-

tices of C.A. Doxiadis (1913-1975) in relation to the cultural,

environmental, aesthetic, and theoretical milieu of the mid-

twentieth century. It began with his participation in the found-

ing of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945 and his

simultaneous launch of a traveling exhibition on the effects of

war and occupation in Greece. Following the success of this

exhibition and an almost constant series of media launches,

Doxiadis returned to Greece to establish an architectural

consulting firm that would soon have offices in 40 countries

and a university whose pedagogy was based on the invented

science of ekistics. Rather than being a chronological survey

of Doxiadis’ career, this course sought to find thematic reso-

nances between the practices of a long-dismissed and delib-

erately overlooked ideologue and contemporary politics of

“globalization.” Because the body of posthumous literature

about Doxiadis is relatively small, the course was arranged

thematically, using contemporary theoretical texts to ques-

tion the simple understanding of Doxiadis as an opportunistic

(and hugely unsuccessful) planner with a problematic attitude

toward the “developing” world.

Until quite recently in world history, Japan was a local and

rather invisible event. It was a slow, gentle, and gradual

evolution in an isolated island of the Far East for two thou-

sand years, compared with two hundred years in American

history of dramatic changes. In this isolation, the Japanese

have silently evolved their arts based on feeling rather

than reason. Their quest in arts was to realize what Nature

desired to be. There was Nature. Nature was with God, God

was Nature.

The Japanese often appear to be contradictory; their

culture remains very naive on the one hand and very so-

phisticated on the other. It appears to be simplest, and at

the same time the most complex.

It is an anti-Hamlet zone. It is the land of To-Be AND

Not-To-Be. So is Nature. So is Japanese architecture.

The history of architecture is one of the most durable,

fundamental, and complex facets of material culture. Apart

from agriculture, architectural production is one of the most

basic forms of social interaction requiring the organization

and mobilization of workforces. An examination of the de-

gree to which architectural production is systematized in any

historical period provides essential information concerning

the level of social stratification, centralization of power, and

ideological dominance. The Japanese carpenters completed

the highest degree of spatial and dimensional modulation so

that people could produce unlimited variations within a sys-

tem with the maximum degree of economy and aesthetics.

This is an untold secret of beauty behind traditional Japa-

nese architecture. It’s an ethic of living.

Cities today face unprecedented pressures

from the forces of globalization, the aftermath of the Cold

War, migration, technology, security, and climate change,

among other things. These forces are compounded by

effects of speed and media, which convert mere change into

rapid and even hyperbolic change. The effects — in terms of

poverty, the environment, health, exclusion, and violence —

are profound. In this disorienting landscape, there are lots

of opportunities for urban professionals. How to respond is

governed by ethical and political decisions, whether acknowl-

edged or not. Facing the questions of justice and ethics is

less a choice, then, than a matter of urgency — for multiple

disciplines — if there is to be any meaningful intervention in

contemporary cities.

This team-taught interdisciplinary seminar examined

a wide set of responses to and protests against the shapes

of the contemporary city and investigated various attempts

to create what might once have been called a better life in

the city. The seminar sought to juxtapose different visions

of what that life is, and foster debates between them. Be-

cause rather than being conclusions or absolutes, “ethics”

and “justice” are first and foremost questions for debate,

discussion, antagonism, and fundamental disagreements.

It is those challenges that the profession seems presently

to be avoiding, and it was therefore precisely where this

seminar was sited.

The modern metropolis —

cauldron of social transformation, technological innovation,

and aesthetic experimentation — is inseparable from the

equally modern notion of an international “avant-garde.”

However, in the course of their myriad encounters through

the twentieth century, both categories — the metropolis and

the avant-gardes — have become virtually unrecognizable.

In their place have emerged new configurations, new chal-

lenges, and new possibilities.

This course began and ended, therefore, with archi-

tectures that engage the city after “metropolis.” This is the

global city, the financial capital of advanced capitalism. But it

is also the city after the “city” — the result of massive urban-

izations stemming from regional and global migrations, as

well as massive dispersals (“sprawl”) that trace back to the

decades immediately following the Second World War.

Composed of virtualities (stock indexes, population

curves, desires), bodies (buildings, peoples, institutions),

and flows (money, traffic, power), the new city demands

attention at any number of levels. This course emphasized

architecture’s role in constructing cultural “imaginaries”

embedded in changing economic, technological, and politi-

cal circumstances. Of each piece of architecture and each

text examined, students were asked: what city or cities does

it imagine? For whom? How? To what end? In each, students

traced multiple, genealogical affiliations — the alliances it

forges, the subjects it conjures, the pasts it constructs, the

futures it projects, the others it excludes.

Much architectural

production of the past half-century has been haunted by

the ghosts of modernist utopias. Following a reformulation

of these utopias in the 1950s and 1960s, and simultaneous,

critical reactions to perceived modernist dogma, a collection

of practices and discourses emerged that were eventually

grouped together as “postmodern.” If these new directions

shared anything, it was an (often explicit) rejection of utopia-

nism in all its forms, in favor of eclectic, historical citation, a

new traditionalism, and/or a new populism.

This research seminar advanced the hypothesis that,

this rejection notwithstanding, the haunting persistence

of utopia’s “ghost” is an unrecognized hallmark of various

postmodernisms. This hypothesis was explored through in-

depth consideration of diverse works of architecture tradi-

tionally understood as postmodern. Students concentrated

on the projects themselves as bearers of discourse — built

contributions to a generalized, cultural postmodernism

that may also undermine or contradict the very same anti-

utopian currents they seem to represent.

The seminar therefore emphasized and developed tech-

niques of visual discourse. Its aim was to collect, document,

and analyze visual material for an actual museum exhibition,

mounted at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in

the spring of 2008. During the semester, the class also trav-

eled to Montreal for several days to work firsthand with the

CCA collections.

The objective of the two-semester Architecture History

sequence is to provide students with a basic critical under-

standing of major developments in European (and to a lesser

extent, American) architectural history during what is some-

times considered the modern period, from the late seven-

teenth-century to the post-World War II era. The course

emphasizes moments of significant change in architecture,

whether they be theoretical, economic, technological, or

institutional in nature. Each lecture usually focuses on a

theme, such as positive versus arbitrary beauty, enlighten-

ment urban planning, historicism, structural rationalism,

social utopianism, etc. Topics sometimes involve changes

generated by developments internal to architecture itself,

other times by events external to the discipline, at least as

it was conceived at that moment in time. The readings and

lectures stress the link between theory and practice, and

more generally, the relationship between architecture and

the broader cultural, social, and political context.

This seminar explored architecture theory from the

late seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century, a

period that challenged Renaissance canons of beauty and

composition as it explored alternative means on which to

base architecture. While these new approaches were many

and varied, most might be seen as attempts either to find a

rational basis for architecture (structural expression, type,

functionalism) or to grant new freedom to the architect,

whether on the basis of personal preference or a desire for

sensational effect. But these efforts are themselves often

ambiguous, challenging any simple dichotomy between rule

and license, or rationalism and intuition.

Joseph Rykwert has referred to many of the eighteenth-

century theoreticians searching for a new grounds for archi-

tecture as the “First Moderns.” Although his characteriza-

tion aptly captures the innovative and critical aspects of their

thinking, this seminar did not view these new theories in a

teleological or even progressive manner. They do not all lead

to the modern movement or later twentieth-century explora-

tions; nor can one theory be considered today as necessarily

“truer” than another. But the insights (and misleading direc-

tions) that they engendered are critical to both formal and

theoretical inventions ahead — and, most fundamentally, in

expanding the very limits of architectural practice. European

architecture changed from the late seventeenth century to

the late nineteenth century from being an idealist practice

that assumed one universal language and that was primarily

directed toward the creation of churches and palaces to a

more historicist one that embraced a multiplicity of aesthetic

solutions and a broad range of building types (most notably

the new public institutions, such as museums, libraries,

courts, and prisons) and urban scales (parks, boulevards,

and new cities).

Case Studies: Le Corbusier, CIAM, Team 10

This course explored ideas of urban planning that emerged

in the Modern Movement in architecture in the first half of the

twentieth century and their influence on both visionary and

realized projects in the second half of the century. The class

focused primarily on a lineage of ideas and proposals that

both influenced and were influenced by Le Corbusier’s and

CIAM’s urban doctrine. The last section of the class exam-

ined two divergent reactions to Le Corbusier’s and prewar

modern urban doctrine: first, the new urban capitals whose

development was deeply indebted to Le Corbusier’s urban

vision, Chandigarh and Brasilia, and second, Team 10 urban

doctrine, including the proposals of the Smithsons, Jaap

Bakema, Gian Carlo di Carlo, and Candilis, Josic, Woods.

Students who were interested focused their independent

research on drawings from the newly acquired archives of

Shadrach Woods in Avery Library.

There has been little consensus in the past decade

about the critical mandate of architectural practice and the

mandate of theoretical writing on it. It is precisely that lack of

consensus that this seminar took on as a challenge. The sem-

inar opened by examining several collective attempts at theo-

rizing the current situation in architectural discourse, pub-

lished recently in Hunch, Log, the last issue of Assemblage,

and in the Harvard Design Magazine. Drawing out the most

salient themes from these, the course was structured in

terms of six coupled themes: city/global economy, urban

plan/map of operations, program/performance (relations,

effects, atmospheres), drawing/scripting, image/surface,

utopia/projection. Each of these themes was examined in

terms of the recent history of the coupled subjects — as topics

that are in the process of definition, rather than as singularly

defined themes. Although the conclusions of this seminar

could be only provisional, as the material considered was in

motion, so to speak, the most important point of the seminar

was the very act of (and the students’ collective readiness to

participate in) constructing a map within which they too have

to imagine their place and their course of action.

Theory, specifically architecture theory, interfaces with

other types of knowledge; theory itself is a specific form of

knowledge, simultaneously analytic, speculative, and instru-

mental. In effect, theory both differentiates and is differenti-

ated by intersections of materiality, thought, and events.

While not an object in precisely the same manner as a

building or a drawing, architecture theory nevertheless is

equally productive of relationships, both internal (among its

components) and external (beyond its borders). Generating

not spaces or images but instead concepts, theory is vitally

useful for ascertaining what is taking place, what occurred,

and — most importantly—what yet could emerge.

The seminar involved three particular three-week

excursions, following an introductory blast-off session.

Theoretical texts served as guides and means of transport.

Each excursion was seen as a journey either into or out of

architecture’s disciplinary specificity. Through this structure

— and the overall course organization — various opportuni-

ties for linkage, differentiation, and movement between the

concepts and arguments contained in the chosen texts were

rendered available. It was hoped that by these means, no two

students would take precisely the same journey.

This course examined the spatial, structural, and formal

qualities of music — qualities that reveal the connections

between music and architecture. Topics included empty

space, resonance, and ma; approaches to the concept of

pitch; approaches to the concepts of time and form; Bartok

and the Fibonacci series; Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern,

and the 12-tone system; indeterminacy and interpenetration

— the principles of John Cage; Xenakis and Le Corbusier;

Morton Feldman and weaving; Olivier Messaien, rhythmic

cycles, and non-retrogradable inversions; spatial music, e.g.

Gabrielli, Monteverdi, Berlioz, and John Cage.

Has Brand has replaced Ideology as the dominant

engine of design? If dreams of the “total work of art” once

fueled an architectural imagination that spanned from the

“teaspoon to the city”, the contemporary brand manual is

the apotheosis of that fantasy. Branding is, to borrow Mark

Wigley’s definition, both explosive and implosive; it regulates

the hyper-controlled interior and creates a network to repli-

cate design ideas at every scale. The contemporary branded

environment assumes every gesture from the minute to the

universal must be controlled and leveraged.

The seminar attempted to look at the brand phenom-

enon at a variety of scales, from books and buildings to cities,

networks and nations. The class was comprised of presenta-

tions by a series of visiting designers, each dealing with the

subject from a different (non architectural) perspective.

Each student or student team worked as an editor with

one of the guests to develop their presentation into mate-

rial for an article. The articles taken together were then

coalesced into a publication to be finalized over the summer

together with Swiss publisher Lars Müller.

Despite the virtuosity of much recent architectural

form-making, rigorous formal thinking is increasingly

rare in an age of fast technologies, image saturation, and

challenging social, environmental, and political problems.

But can architecture abdicate its concern for form without

negating its identity as a discipline and mode of expertise?

Is it possible for architects to undertake serious aesthetic

work while also engaging with urban and social reality? How

might form be thought in relation to contemporary life, insti-

tutions, and politics? These were questions raised by the

seminar in an effort to move beyond received and reductive

views of formalism in architecture. Viewing forms as pro-

duced in specific contexts and having specific motivations

and consequences, the class began with the Enlightenment,

then went on to consider some of the most important — and

politically inflected — 20th-century aesthetic theories,

including Russian Formalism and the Marxist critiques of

the Frankfurt School thinkers and later Manfredo Tafuri. It

counterposed this lineage to the “apolitical” Anglo-American

tradition represented by Colin Rowe, Robert Venturi, and

Peter Eisenman, among others, and their counterparts in

literature and the visual arts. It also explored phenomeno-

logical, structuralist, and poststructuralist approaches, and

concluded with a set of debates bearing on architectural

form-making today. The seminar was at once intended to

offer a selected history of modern theories of form and

formal method, to sharpen students’ skills of “close read-

ing,” and, most polemically, to explore the potential of a

strategic new architectural formalism today.

During the quarter century of sociopolitical and

technological change from World War II to the end of the

1960s, spanning from postwar planning and reconstruction

to the events of ’68 and the emergence of postmodernism,

architectural culture underwent a process of profound reori-

entation, self-questioning, and restructuring. The seminar

traced this historical trajectory decade by decade, paying

particular attention to issues of periodization, the interre-

lationship between material and discursive contexts, and,

more generally, the question of how “architecture culture”

is produced and reproduced at specific moments. Among the

topics discussed were postwar debates on monumentality,

humanism, and regionalism; the effects of wartime research

and technology; the formulation of new theories of structure

and organization; the ideological and cultural ramifications

of the Cold War; the institutionalization of the International

Style and its critique; the rise of consumerism, suburbia,

mass culture, and mass media; the impact of decolonization

and the incipient “global village”; the rise of a counterculture

and neo-avant-garde; and the emergence of the paradigm

of postmodernism/postmodernity. Each student focused on

a significant theme or issue, selecting an exemplary built

or unbuilt work from each of the decades under study. This

research was presented in three sessions over the course of

the semester and integrated into a major term essay.

This seminar viewed New York City as a catalyst for

questioning those canons of architectural and urban histori-

ography that tend to overemphasize the isolated monument.

Students scrutinized the evolutionary history of anonymous

urban fabric, often created by the uncelebrated architect or

builder, that comprises the major building volume of this and

all cities. The focus was on the culture of housing with the

intent to grasp the political and tectonic devices that lead to

specific fabrics in specific urban contexts. The city becomes

a crucible to be understood both forwards and backwards in

time, from extant present-day realities to underlying forma-

tional causes and vice versa. This exercise in urban foren-

sics was played back for other global cities, translated from

New York by the participants who apply the technique and

values to case-studies embedded in their own local knowl-

edge, culminating in a forum in which comparative projected

architectural transformation of fabrics becomes the basis of

critical discourse.

Is landscape the space left between and around buildings?

Should buildings be subsumed to the natural world or should

they dominate it? This course explored these questions by

examining the relationship between buildings and the land

upon which they are sited and by discussing the various fac-

tors that influence the design of buildings in the landscape

and of the landscape itself.

While much of the subject matter included came from the

long-standing tradition of landscape design’s basis in natural

systems, starting with the work of Frederick Law Olmsted in

the 19th Century and continuing with the work of Ian McHarg in

the 1960’s, the course also considered broader topics of sus-

tainability and the importance of understanding how concern

for the environment can affect the places we design.

The basic curriculum was supplemented by guest lec-

turers, including Mark Bunnell, Andrew Moore, and Linnaea

Tillett, and by the work of the students themselves who pre-

sented their individual projects to the entire class.

Inspired by the insight that simply thinking of a certain

musical phrase affects one’s body no less than if one actually

hears it, this seminar set out to introduce the possibility of

an Archimedean point that allows each individual to extricate

him/herself from any set of conventions, preconceived ideas,

paradigms, etc. Each week a pair of dialectically connected

concepts was considered. Students practiced a conceptual

analysis — something in the spirit of Paul Feyerabend’s

“anything goes” on one hand, and the systematic medita-

tions of Husserl’s Phenomenological Reduction together

with Wittgenstein’s unsystematic empiricist reflection on

language on the other hand. Indeed, sometimes in more

recent writers — Paul de Man, Jacques Derrida — several

critical discourses and poetics can be found which were

derived epistemologically from Husserl’s insight, not unlike

an earlier generation of Russian Formalism, or Oulipo.

Above all, with the introduction of several poets and writers

together with architects and painters, the course aimed to

grasp more clearly the possibility of learning a measure of

Socratic irony in order to create other poetic strategies.

This lecture course focused on the period

from 1945 until the early 1990s, investigating how architects

and key architectural institutions (schools, museums, publi-

cations) responded to historical forces at work in a particular

historical context (aesthetic, socio-economic, political, tech-

nological, territorial). It also interrogated how and where one

can trace the legacy of this period of experimentation with

new programs, sites, materials, and media within current

practice, offering students both historical knowledge and

critical tools vital to positioning their own work within the

ever-shifting field of contemporary architecture. The class

covered both the continuation and transformation of modern

architecture after the war — including New Brutalism, Team

10, corporate modernism, regionalism, tropical modernism,

Neorealism, late modern formalism, and Good Design — as

well as the emergence of other practices that challenged the

modernist legacy or even set out to proclaim its end. Among

the latter were: the turn to systems theory and cybernetics of

the 1950s and important trajectories of experimentation with

prefabrication, computerization, and scientific method; the

experimental and “Pop” architecture of the 1960s, such as

Megastructure, Metabolism, and the development of notions

of “environment”; engagements with linguistic theory and

notions of “meaning,” the neo-modernism of the New York

Five, investigations into typology, and the rise of a seman-

tic and historicist postmodernism during the late ‘60s and

1970s; and the post-postmodern turn, from the architecture

of deconstruction to the architecture of “event.”

This seminar investigated what role architec-

ture and urbanism play (or might play) in current debates

over questions of political representation, human rights, the

organization of territory, surveillance, warfare, political con-

flict, defense, and cultural heritage as well as in questions of

citizenship, diaspora, humanitarian intervention, justice, and

democracy. Recent architectural publications were studied

along with key texts from recent debates within human

rights, political theory, and spatial politics in order to set

out a framework both for considering this work and through

which to identify new lines of research and further critical

prospects. If architecture has at times been identified with

ideals of social and political progress — being embraced by

the United Nations as having a role to play in rights issues

such as housing — the discipline has also provided techni-

cal support and spaces for colonization, apartheid planning,

encampment, and other forms of violence. The primary ques-

tion pursued during the course was how the architect might

position his or her work with respect to the complicated ethi-

cal and political questions raised by these fields of inquiry —

that is, how they might take responsibility. Sessions included:

National, International, Postnational; Democracy, Rights,

Justice, Public Space; Humanitarianism and its Discontents;

Extraterritorial Space/Camps; NonGovernmental Politics;

Media/Control Space/Networks; Technologies of Occupation

(Borders I); Technologies of Separation (Borders II); Public

Space/Protest/Political Acts; Cities at War; Urbicide; and

Responses to 9/11 and Terror.

Whether embraced under the rubric of their

progressive social and aesthetic potentials or rejected as

pernicious, even destructive forces, technological develop-

ments have played a significant role not only in architectural

production per se but also in the architectural imaginary.

This seminar traced important paradigm shifts from the late

eighteenth century to the present that emerged from the

discipline’s encounters with technology, particularly shifts

within formal, material, representational, and program-

matic characteristics as well as in understandings of the

human body, vision, space-time relations, environment,

techniques of power, and territorial organization. There are

many aspects of modern technology that formed part of this

story: the emergence of the industrial factory, thermody-

namic machines, electrification, and servomechanisms; the

impact of prefabrication and synthetic materials, advanced

ballistic weaponry, prosthetic devices, and biometrics; the

rise of the railway, automobile, airplane, and spaceship; and

the development of information technology (printing, pho-

tography, telephone, television, video) and computerization.

A key ambition of the seminar was to develop a historical

and theoretical framework for thinking critically and politi-

cally about the complex and shifting relationships between

architectural and technological transformation, one that

calls upon the architect and/or historian and theorist to take

responsibility for the implications of this shared archaeol-

ogy when making decisions regarding the nature of his or

her work.

This seminar set out to demonstrate that three

“operating platforms” within the field of architecture — exhi-

bitions, publications, and experimental forms of research —

have served as privileged sites through which the discipline

has addressed (or expressed) its relationship to historical

forces, frequently functioning as testing grounds at the very

forefront of its engagement with social, economic, aesthetic,

and technological transformation. Recognizing the domain

of architectural work as multi-faceted, as are the various

forms of practice and knowledge that reflect back upon it,

the course investigated what role these operating platforms

have played in the conceptualization and transformation of

architecture over the past century, identifying for instance

their contribution to seminal debates, to transformations

in architecture’s technical and aesthetic characteristics, to

the sponsoring of critical experimentation, as well as to the

careers of many architects. Through researching: publica-

tions, including magazines, reports, newspapers, and books

as well as the architects, critics, writers, and publishers

associated with them; exhibitions, whether in galleries,

museums, worlds fairs, expos, biennials, etc., and the archi-

tects, curators, and institutions involved; and paradigms of

research, including experimental and para-academic for-

mats and the collaborative arrangements, laboratories, and

institutes through which they function, the seminar identi-

fied a matrix of architectural expertise and modes of opera-

tion, as well as the diverse forms of public address to which

these have given rise.

This seminar examined how cities grow and develop over

time. It employed a theory of urban actors and conceptual

models as tools for the analysis of the city. Transformations

in these actors and models were mapped at various scales

over time in the course. Conceptual models provided a link

between the larger forces shaping a city network and the

physical, built city morphologies put in place by actors direct-

ing the resources at a particular moment in time. Students

constructed a city model of a city of their own choosing and

employed models derived from the course to illustrate the

structure and growth of that city, including its representative

public spaces and fabrics.

The course focused on the rules that generated the ini-

tial growth and on how they are transformed in later itera-

tions, innovations, or repetitions. A major focus was on the

relations between the public space in different growth pat-

terns in the city and the shifting/changing relations between

these growth centers. The seminar attempted to draw out

how these relationships develop over time and what impact

these changes have on specified areas of the city and its built

form, public space, or fabric. Various scenarios and city mod-

els were considered from around the world.

The course provided a historical overview of the major

figures of Italian Renaissance architecture from 1400 to 1600.

Stressing the dialectic of rule and invention implicit in the

revival of classical forms, the course explored the diverse

cultural and artistic factors in forging a new language based

on antiquity yet moving beyond its example. Topics included

the link between architecture and humanism; the role of

architecture in new urban strategies; the search for a new

type of canon that simultaneously presupposed and chal-

lenged the authority of Vitruvius and the study of ancient

buildings; the rise of new techniques of graphic representa-

tion based on orthographic and perspectival projection; the

emergence of the treatise and its articulation of universally

applicable theoretical norms; the transformation of archi-

tectural culture by printmaking, whose mechanical repro-

duction of image and text revolutionized the dissemination of

theory; the theorization of an architecture that drew both on

the precepts of nature and on the example of the other arts;

the assertion of unprecedented cultural status for the archi-

tect; and the relation of architecture to new uses of visual

representation that helped inaugurate the modern era.

This course traced the development of the European

city from classical antiquity to the threshold of the Industrial

Revolution. Focusing on the configuration of architecture in

urban space, the course followed the evolution of the city

through a complex series of interactions among typological,

morphological, and topographical factors. Beginning with the

typological transformation of the agora and acropolis and the

concomitant emergence of paradigmatic urban forms from fith

century Athens to the rise of the Roman republic, the course

went on to examine the formal and functional dimensions of

the architecture of the Roman Empire; the medieval period,

with its continuities and discontinuities between classical and

Christian concepts of the forma urbis; new urban strategies,

architectural languages, and discursive codes associated with

utopian schemes, aristocratic and communal uses of public

space, and the rise of new towns in the Italian Renaissance;

the emergence of new urban models and related architectur-

al interventions from the inception of the Baroque era to the

end of the ancien régime; the role of typological innovation

in the urban fabric of London from Inigo Jones to the Great

Fire of 1666; the Enlightenment debate on nature, reason,

and the city; and a comparison of the contributions to urban

form of Laugier, Ledoux, and Boullée to the urban projects of

George Dance Jr., L’Enfant, and Jefferson. The course ended

with a comparative analysis of the effects of industrialization

on the urban centers of Western Europe and the USA. This

was a rupture which, in concert with the demographic explo-

sion of 1800, propelled the city between traditional modes

of typological, morphological, and topographical synthesis

by contrasting the economic benefits of technical rationality

to the aesthetic and philosophical values of naturalism and

the picturesque.

What is sustainable design? The current skepticism about

this term on the part of many architects and critics risks

trivializing what is a very significant set of questions. As

vast areas of the globe rapidly become more urban in both

planned and ‘informal’ ways, while buildings contribute at

least 40-50% of the greenhouse gases that bring about the

warming of the earth, it is timely, if not urgent, for architects

to consider the relationship of design to the environment

in an open-minded fashion. By weaving together design

research, writings about nature and the environment, and key

moments of environmental policy and activism, this seminar

sought to provide students with the intellectual framework

to think of sustainability in relation to architecture. In addi-

tion, students looked at how contemporary architects and

critics have responded to the concept of sustainability. The

questions considered included the following: does sustain-

ability stand in opposition to architecture as an instrument of

development? Is “sustainable development” an oxymoron? Is

sustainability a way of preserving privilege for the developed

world while “outsourcing” polluting industries and “e-waste”

to poorer countries? How can the values of environmental-

ism and sustainability be integrated into the ways in which

architects think? Can these values provide creative opportu-

nities, and even formal rigor, rather than limitation?

Should architecture be judged based on its his-

tory? Does contemporary practice grow out of a genealogy of

forms? Or, on the contrary, do architects develop ideas and

concepts embedded in their culture and time?

If architecture is a practice of concepts and ideas, this

course suggested that practice may precede theory as often

as theory precedes practice.

Covering the period from 1968 to the present, the semi-

nar began with Italian Radical Architecture of the late sixties

and early seventies, together with its counterpoint in Rational

Architecture, and ended with an examination of the yet un-

built work of today’s newest architectural practices in rela-

tion to issues of post-criticality and utopian realism.

This course examined the late modernist architecture

of the 1960s and 1970s. Bracketed by Mies van der Rohe’s

Seagram’s building, the ultimate monument of high mod-

ernism, and Philip Johnson’s AT&T building, which declared

the advent of postmodernism, this period produced the vast

majority of the modern architecture currently in existence.

Tending toward large commissions for corporate and

institutional clients, late modernism is not avant-garde.

Nor could it be. While the heroic modernism of the 1920s

and 1930s argued for an imminent, Utopian (or, in Freudian

terms, oceanic) future and the high modernism of the post-

war era announced its arrival, late modernism operated after

modernism had begun to take damage in the court of public

opinion. Unsure of its position, late modernism sits between

high modernism and postmodernism, between Fordism and

Post-Fordism. Faced with the stark knowledge that after the

victory of modernism, the battle of the avant-garde was over,

late modernists attempted to find ways of practicing in an era

in which innovation had seemingly come to an end. Because

of its relation to capital, late modernist architecture is often

deeply compromised, but in those failures, there are also les-

sons, and — just perhaps — a key to the current condition.

Network City explored key urban areas as ecosystems

of competing networks. Transportation infrastructures,

telecommunications systems, and financial networks have

simultaneously centralized and dispersed cities within

larger posturban fields. Areas such as the Northeastern

seaboard and Southern California form the core of global

capital, producing the geography of flows that structures

economies and societies today.

A fundamental thesis of the course was that buildings

too, function as networks. Students explored the demands

of cities and physical and social networks on program,

envelope, and plan since the late nineteenth century, par-

ticularly in the office building, the site of consumption, and

the individual dwelling unit, and the reciprocal influences

of such changes in these typologies on the urban context.

Students also looked at the fraught relationship between

signature architecture — the so-called Bilbao effect — and

the post-Fordist city in which architecture increasingly

seems obsolete.

Network City treated the growth of both city and sub-

urbia (and more recently postsuburbia and exurbia) not as

separate and opposed phenomena but rather as intrinsi-

cally intertwined. For their final projects, students produced

books integrating visual and textual arguments.

This seminar researched architectural research.

Its hypothesis was that both despite and through the pro-

liferation of research obligations and methods at postwar

universities, the most significant architectural research has

occurred outside the studio, away from the university, and

on the road. Tracking a history of architecturally motivated

travel, from the Grand Tour to contemporary expeditions, the

seminar compiled evidence in support of this premise, while

critically interrogating the consequences and effect of these

tours and the discoveries they claimed.

Road trip and field work were used as a pair of terms

to press on this research from two directions, challenging

mythologies of liberation, sensation, and experience from

one side and assumptions about techniques of observation,

data collection, and empirical analysis from the other. To

supplement these terms students assembled a databank of

research operations and rhetorics of the road, organized by

the categories, bodies, vehicles, cities, and documents.

The seminar emphasized the formulation of an architec-

tural outside, constituted in this case by encounters with ex-

ternal locations, urban configurations, populations, and spa-

tial organizations. Whether the terms of this outside are held

in place, outside of architecture proper, or smuggled back in,

the seminar illuminated a pervasive architectural fixation on

the conceptual and structural importance of the outside, at-

tendant notions of context, reference and their aberrations.

Architecture emerg-

es out of passionate and unending debate. Every design

involves theory. Indeed, architects talk as much as they

draw. This class explored the way that theory is produced

and deployed at every level of architectural discourse from

formal written arguments to the seemingly casual discus-

sions in the design studio. A series of case studies, from

Vitruvius through to Cyber-Chat, from ancient treatises on

parchment to flickering web pages, was used to show how

the debate keeps adapting itself to new conditions while pre-

serving some relentless obsessions. Architectural discourse

was understood as a wide array of interlocking institutions,

each of which has its own multiple histories and unique

effects. How and why these various institutions were put in

place was established, and their historical transformations

up until the present was traced to see which claims about

architecture have been preserved and which have changed.

Influenced by the philosophy of Henri Bergson

and Gilles Deleuze, as well as cognizant of the global flows

of cultural artifacts, knowledge, and affects, filmmaker/art-

ists Chris Marker and Andrey Tarkovsky detach the image

from the forward advance of the narrative to capture what

Tarkovsky characterized as an image’s “time pressure.”

In the past thirty years, architecture’s interest in film has

focused on the linear sequencing of frames drawn from

the film theory of Sergei Eisenstein and made popular by

Bernard Tschumi’s influential Manhattan Transcripts. In

contrast, “time pressure” enables the flow of time to emerge

as a rhythm of filmic sequences. Through close readings of

Lev Manovich to Elizabeth Grosz, Joan Ockman to Patrick

Schumacher, this course investigated how time, shaped by

durations, time pressures, and memory, influences the phe-

nomenal experience of architecture and the manner through

which architecture is thought. To shift into the spatial realm,

students considered how the paradigm of the archive, as a

store of material artifacts, and the new virtual realm of the

database, as a store of information, have emerged as spaces

for the accumulation of time. While architecture and film are

fundamentally different in their material presence — film and

video being linear in time and a more controlled subjective

experience, whereas architecture is spatial and therefore a

meandering, uncontrollable, subjective experience — there

is nonetheless much to learn from these temporal forms and

how they capture the vicissitudes of contemporary life.

Vernacular architecture often seems the antithesis, even

the antagonist, of modernism. Yet every form of modern

art — architecture included — has drawn inspiration from

vernacular subjects. Modern architecture has been slow to

acknowledge its genealogy, suspicious of historicist or neo-

traditionalist sympathies. The aim of the colloquium was to

investigate this convoluted relationship.

As a linguistic term, a vernacular is a specific local

dialect or language, originally posed in contrast to the

“universal language” of Latin. The Latin term verna also

implied power, a slave tied to a place rather than a per-

son. Architects have extended this to mean a “traditional”

or non-elite language of construction, meanings, and use,

typically associated with a specific place but often a vague

universal vernacular. This class considered various, some-

times conflicting conceptions from primitivist fantasies to

political and social hierarchies, focusng specifically on the

twentieth century, when intonations of the term “vernacu-

lar”, both positive and negative, encompassed informality

and class distinctions, authenticity and authority, and radi-

cal modernization and supposedly unchanging traditions,

as well as issues of regionalism and environmentalism and

beliefs about purportedly “organic” social and ecological

harmony. Geographically and culturally the class’s frame

of reference extended from Europe to the United States,

Latin America, and the colonial/post-colonial world of Asia,

Africa, and the Middle East.

All cities respond to diverse forces: grand master plans,

unregulated “cowboy development,” multilayered politics,

amalgams of traditions, inventions, and inevitable unex-

pected contingencies. American cities exemplify this frenetic

dynamic, having embodied the modern metropolis around

the world for over a century. This modernism is not a sty-

listic idiom but one of processes, human experiences, and

formal typologies that that have much in common with our

contemporary world.

Certain patterns can be discerned, but no single formu-

la can fully describe these dynamic processes. American ur-

banity varies across time and space, even as it borrows from

and exports to other nations. Multiple analytic methods are

therefore required to understand both the particularities and

the larger issues. How does architecture relate to location

and surroundings? To infrastructure and open space? Who

decides what gets built? How does it change over time? This

class tackled such questions. Students looked at competing

arts and policy professions within the shared domain of the

city, changing centers and peripheries, the shape of nature

and infrastructure, redefinitions of public and private space,

various types of interventions, the effects of what exists and

what is remembered, and the iconic and the unexpected.

In the last fifteen years, architecture has

been exposed to a radical set of changes in its visual tool-

kits and its technological environments. New hardware and

software, often imported from other fields and emerging at

a dizzying pace, have digitized and automated techniques of

architectural drawing and modeling and production, mul-

tiplied networks of communication into diverse infrastruc-

tures and media, increased the accuracy of analytic imag-

ing, and expanded databases and methods of data collection.

Architecture, because its core techniques are not simply its

own, cannot wall itself off from the many other disciplines

and practices — ecology, the military, science, geography,

popular culture — with which it shares, and from which it

often borrows, its tools.

Today, what can be defined as visual in design has multi-

plied exponentially and forced us to rethink all of our projects

and practices. The new Visual Studies curriculum thus places

“projects” in the center of the circle, and moves architecture

to the outer circle with an expanded definition of practice.

Visual studies now spans all the disciplines of the GSAPP,

such that a wide range of tools, techniques, and disciplines

are available in an expanded matrix of courses. Putting proj-

ects at the core of the curriculum emphasizes collaboration

across and between disciplines, studios, and seminars.

Visual Studies is divided into three broad sets of work-

shops: Analysis and Representation, Design Environments,

and Fabrication.

The workshops are structured to enable navigation

through a matrix of courses over a student’s time at GSAPP.

The curriculum focuses on a combination of distributed

courses, which taken together are designed to expose stu-

dents to the potentials and limits of various visualization

techniques. This allows students to build a customized cur-

riculum calibrated to their design studios and seminars.

It provides students with a critical framework for making

discriminating use of the array of available tools across the

disciplines of architecture, urban design, urban planning,

and preservation.

The focus of this course was on rethink-

ing the resolution and intricacy of the fabric of space in terms

of algorithmic infrastructure and increased data populations

applied to corresponding emerging modes of production.

Scripted 2D patterns and their physical computational coun-

terparts were tested through the scale of the body — the most

intimate skin — and the scale of spatial accessories — inte-

rior-scale, semi-structural and structural fabrics. Students

worked on development of explicit options primarily in Rhino

scripting or alternatively in Generative Components, explor-

ing in both cases the fabrication constraints of laser cutting.

Material Potency is a recurring design research semi-

nar aimed at exploring advanced computational systems and

evolving modes of production in design. It is a subset of the

research group CONTINUUM, which brings together a series

of professional and academic participants from a variety of

disciplines with the intention of exploring and as a result

capitalizing on areas of shared research. The work of CON-

TINUUM and Material Potency class was recently published

in the AD issue on Network Practice.

For further information, visit: http://biothing.org/wiki/

doku.php?id=wearable_potency.

Since Di architectura decem libri, in which

Vitruvius devoted an entire book to the design and use of

machines, architecture has steadily shifted its mechanical-

theoretical focus from construction to that of aesthetic inspra-

tion. The digital computing machine has recently emerged

as a tool for architectural design, yet symptomatic problems

have arisen translating digital creations to reality. Recent

advances in quantum computation have sparked a resurge in

the study of hybrid analog-digital computation, leveraging the

massive parallel efficiency of “real-world” computation.

This workshop utilized the equipment of the Digital Fab-

rication Lab as a test-bed for the exploration of CNC pro-

duction’s role in contemporary architectural design theory.

Students created a series of analog computational mech-

anisms based on a set of constraints developed to frame

the research. The mechanisms had embedded controls

programmed to be articulated and utilized in the material

world, where nature becomes the decision maker. Through

an iterative transformational process, the designs were de-

veloped, fabricated, and tested using architectural materi-

als. By engaging computational manufacturing techniques,

in combination with traditional assembly procedures (me-

chanical fasteners, folding, sealant, adhesives, etc.), in the

production of full scale design mechanisms, potentials were

realized for the integration of digital design in architectural

theory and practice.

Formworks researched and developed techniques

of mold-making and dynamic formwork. Using the casting

facilities of GSAPP’s Fabrication Lab and Printshop, students

developed robust casting mechanisms capable of producing

small runs of cast parts. The course focused on repetitive and

system-based castings — on the tectonics of the system in

particular — and students were expected to develop a flex-

ible system, with integrated detailing, that could recombine

in multiple ways. In their explorations of dynamic formwork

systems, students attempted to develop systems that went

beyond repetition by integrating specific parametric variation

to the cast form. The class put an equal emphasis on the quali-

ty and quantity of cast parts as well as of the formwork itself.

All of the machines and resources of the Fabrication

Lab and Printshop were integrated with the final cast pro-

totype system. While Solidworks and Rhino were the pri-

mary mold-making tools, in some cases 3DsMAX and Maya

were employed.

Student work was driven by rigorous research and a

clear sense of purpose. Students were expected to clearly

document their process as if it were an experiment that

someone else could repeat. The research sited the projects

within a clearly defined context, outlining particular goals to

achieve and problems to solve. The class provided a histori-

cal and theoretical context for the research with examples

of important projects using casting.

Computation in design must seek to expand

beyond geometric, mathematical, and logical precision in

order to engage the “real world”. Production and assembly

provide a means to interrogate potential roles of comput-

ers and digital media in architectural practice, providing

feedback to rule-based methodologies and techniques that

evolved into contemporary software packages and pro-

cedures. This workshop attempted to discover the hidden

discontinuities in the progression from design to manufac-

ture to assembly, when work embedded within the precision

of the machine is forced to perform in the world of nature.

Production is the fitness test of contemporary digital design.

Rule-based generative morphologies become a tool for the

visualization of fabricated potentials that are embedded with

the “intelligence” of the material world.

This workshop utilized the equipment of the Digital Fab-

rication Lab as a test-bed for the exploration of CNC produc-

tion’s role in contemporary architectural practice. Students

developed parametrically controlled architectural assem-

blies based on sets of constraints that framed the research.

The designs had control mechanisms programmed to be

realized in the material world, where nature becomes the

decision maker. Through an iterative process, the designs

were developed, fabricated, and tested using architectural

materials at full scale. By engaging computational manufac-

turing techniques in the production of full scale creations,

potentials were realized for the integration of digital design

in architectural practice.

TimeZone was an intervention in public space involv-

ing a series of low-cost, interactive, lightweight, “building

blocks” that provided direct video communication between

individuals of socially and economically diverse backgrounds

whose daily routines were aligned along a single time zone.

The project addressed the potential for public spaces to

stimulate group dialogue and revitalize public activities

across cultures and languages. In its broadest sense, it is

considered a provocation to address the digital divide and

some of the enormous economic inequities that members

of the United Nations have identified between people living

in the northern and southern hemispheres.

The design and fabrication challenge sought to cre-

ate interactive TimeZone blocks with maximum durability

and interactivity at a minimum cost. Clusters of TimeZone

blocks contained data projectors, cameras, speakers, sen-

sors, microphones, and wireless interfaces. Images ap-

peared on the blocks’ highly durable, water- and scratch-

resistant flexible surfaces, which served as touch-screens.

Proximity and touch sensors facilitated interaction between

users. The blocks were demountable and able to be crated

to remote parts of the world where they would be assem-

bled and put to use. During the summer of 2008, prototype

TimeZone blocks were constructed, connected, and tested

in public spaces.

The scope of this course

focused on using the medium of architectural photography

as a critical tool, to enable the visual depiction of buildings,

both contextualized and decontextualized. Photography is

capable of intentional and unintentional deceits in terms of

scale, context, and physical condition. Photography has also

been proven an excellent tool for displaying the shortcom-

ings and sensations unidentifiable by plans and sections.

Architectural photography can reveal the architect´s ideas

and intentions and can provide insight into a building´s

potential meaning. It not only provides documentary evi-

dence; it also serves as a stimulant for the critical mind.

Students in this course

brought architecture to life. This hands-on laboratory unfroze

buildings and created functioning interactive environments.

Students were introduced to the issues of responsive kinetic

architecture and the techniques of designing with electronic

circuits, and by the end of the semester they built a range

of exciting full-scale demonstrations for an exhibit at the

school or at a New York gallery.

In the past fifteen years, some of the most vibrant ex-

periments in architecture have used computer technologies

to develop new types of geometries — with curves, facets,

and non-standard shapes — and to fabricate architectural

elements directly from digital files without working draw-

ings. Some of these digital processes are now completely

integrated into practice while others are still being devel-

oped and redefined. Building on these investigations, a new

type of post-digital experimentation has called into question

the “muteness and inertness” of traditional materials. Re-

cently, some architects have been using new technologies

to explore and realize radically different kinds of spaces

that respond to their environment in real time: responsive

kinetic architecture.

Using the standard building blocks of inexpensive sen-

sors, simple microcontrollers, and shape memory alloy

actuators, students were able to create interactive environ-

ments without extensive training or a laboratory infrastruc-

ture. Dynalloy, the manufacturer of Flexinol shape memory

alloy actuators, donated materials for the class.

This workshop explored generative design methodolo-

gies through the application of algorithmic techniques, look-

ing at fundamental coding principles (recursion, feedback,

modularity, and I/O) while teasing out a rich taxonomy of

algorithms. Artificial life, material intelligence, interactiv-

ity, and other second-order principles were approached

from the vantage point of “dynamics” and “search” — or the

introduction of directed intelligence into a dynamic process

of making. Based on “feedback” from previous iterations of

the course, this semester focused on the interrelationship

between “development” and “behavior”.

Behavior and development were understood to be a sum,

or aggregate, of a multitude of innocuous decisions. Each is a

“dynamic”, or a process “in time” that necessarily feeds back

and regulates procedures to promote higher levels of form,

organization, and movement. Students developed a focused

inquiry into a specific area of algorithmic dynamics. Here,

“dynamics” is meant as an inclusive term for all kinds of

activity; formal development, flocking, embryology, automata,

FEA, fractals, and L-systems are all examples of time-based

recursive practices. The class fleshed out a vocabulary and

structural understanding of a wide array of algorithms and

sought out correspondences among dynamics, mapping, and

search heuristics. By casting a wide net, the course hoped

to see opportunities for portability and the development of a

critical stance towards algorithmic “tooling.”

As the architect’s computer switches

modalities from a tool that integrates design and the pro-

duction of data for actualization, new processes, and tech-

niques to more capably take advantage of this shift must be

explored and skillfully utilized. This workshop challenged

traditional methods of drafting and physical model build-

ing and explored a more parametric approach. Virtual 3D

models were drafted, subjected to multiple iterative trans-

formations, tested for design fitness in the realm of the soft-

ware, and output for testing in real space. Results of this

study included practical knowledge of how certain geom-

etries affect the performance of designs. Virtual models

were embedded with intelligent criteria established by the

designer to produce more controlled and specific results,

moving away from the abstract results of the generative

formal experiments of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. The fre-

quent use of 3D printers and laser cutters ensured a close

relationship between the virtual parametric model(s) and

their physical counterparts, enabling the designer to test

design concepts in real space in a short time and adjust the

design(s) accordingly. Topics included understanding para-

metrics, understanding geometry types, advanced modeling

techniques, implementing pre-written scripts, modeling with

relationships, recycling geometry, exporting techniques, and

data extraction for fabrication.

What is the place of BIM in architecture? Is it meant

solely for production, or can architectural design benefit from

the real-time feedback available from Building Information

Models? BIM can and will change the profession, and this

generation is responsible for how that will be. The intention

of this workshop was to develop a thorough understanding of

BIM and, in particular, the ways in which architects can inter-

vene in the process to push beyond mere 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 architects learn from it

and re-apply those logics to other aspects of the design?

Students used Autodesk’s Revit to create a parametric archi-

tectural system with embedded variability. Once the system

was designed, Revit was used to create models that translated

into drawings for fabrication.

This workshop explored the multiple techniques and tactics

used to develop a short animation. As a means of communi-

cation, no other visual medium rivals the short animation in

its efficacy. It can make one laugh, cry, be horrified, believe,

and disbelieve, all within 30 seconds. Kinetic by nature,

animation can reveal aspects of architecture impossible to

represent in static images. 3D production software like 3DS

Max (the primary software platform for the workshop) is able

to explore the unique structure — linear time, filmic juxta-

positions, narrative, and abstract composition. This is the

“drawing” of contemporary architecture and design.

One part design project, one part technical instruction,

the workshop was structured around its project — a short

animation of an architectural space changing over time. Stu-

dents drew an animated sketch of an architectural space

using a 3D interface in combination with any other graphic

means necessary. The concept was then further developed

and refined through the use of advanced 3D techniques,

providing a broad-based knowledge of current digital anima-

tion practice.

This workshop

explored the multiple techniques and tactics of rendering:

sketch, visualize, analyze, quantify, synthesize. 3D software

such as 3DS Max (the primary software platform of the

workshop) allows the architect to navigate fluidly the con-

stant conception/representation oscillation of the design

process. The architectural rendering — whether abstract,

analytic, or photo-real — captures the energy of an idea

about space, while contemporary rendering techniques

have enabled the architect to embed more information,

with greater intent, into a single image.

One part design project, one part technical instruction,

the workshop was structured around the production of three

publication-quality images. Students sketched an architec-

tural space, using a 3D interface in combination with any

other means — 2D software, photography, hand drawing, etc.

— and presented that idea into three separate images. Once

formulated, the concept was further developed and refined

using advanced 3D techniques for modeling, lighting, mate-

rial application, and compositing, providing a broad-based

understanding of current digital rendering techniques.

Public awareness of environmental issues has increased

dramatically over the past few decades, and more and more

questions are being asked of designers and architects. Some

of these are answered at the urban scale with planning strat-

egies and creative infrastructure solutions, while others are

addressed at the micro level with advances in high-perfor-

mance materials. This workshop investigated the direct rela-

tionship between architectural form and adjacent environ-

mental conditions at the scale of the individual building.

Students began by working in the software of their choice

to develop an architectural proposal for a given program. This

proposal was then reconsidered, refined, or rejected using

Ecotect’s analytical functions for daylighting, thermal model-

ing, spatial visibility, and acoustics. Throughout the workshop,

students were encouraged to utilize rapid prototyping tech-

niques to better understand the relationship between vir-

tual models and physical output. Building on this foundation,

students used Ecotect not only as an evaluative tool but also

as a projective device. Working with some of the software’s

embedded scripting capabilities or directly from raw weather

data, students investigated formal proposals that addressed

specific environmental factors.

The relationship between the components

of structure and the components of enclosure is conven-

tionally considered to be mutually exclusive. However, in

an environment where material efficiency and speed of

fabrication is becoming more important, there exists an

opportunity for the designer to intervene within the fabrica-

tion process to assimilate both structure and envelope into

one hybridized system.

This course encouraged and enabled student designers

to use digital software as a generative tool and the laser

cutter, CNC Mill, plastic bender, and welder as a means to

bring virtual systems into the physical realm. The students

are asked to design a variable mesh of at least 15 cellular

components born from one complex tessellated surface.

Bridging the gap between digital conception and physical

construction, students used various digital platforms to

flatten the tessellated geometry into individual cells and

then shifted focus to the fabrication equipment where these

cellular forms where extracted from conventional acrylic

and aluminum sheet stock and reanimated into the digitally

generated, three-dimensional component system. The indi-

vidual cells were transformed using cutting, strip heat bend-

ing, welding, and folded manipulation in order to fabricate

a topological network of elements — a homogenous, self

supporting mesh. In effect, the students created structure

from non structure and complex systems from simple sur-

faces. Specific emphasis was placed on the development of

multiple systems of geometry and various materials within

the same structural network in order to discern elements of

surface and elements of connection.

The research objectives of this course encouraged

students to devise functional design applications, estab-

lish contextual relevance for their component systems, and

propose realistic fabrication scenarios based on quantifiable

material and mechanical constraints. Components were ex-

tracted from the digital realm, built at full scale, tested and

reevaluated, effectively taking them beyond prototype.

1. Agenda for Greener and Grander

After implementing environmental stan-

dards, why does green architecture look so bland? Passive

cooling, low flush toilets, and harvested lumber do not fore-

ground evocative design. During the last two decades, the

prevalent challenge for the sustainable design movement in

the United States has been to sluggishly modify the behavior

of the developers, architects, and planners responsible for

the sizable majority of new projects. What does it take to re-

create the “Bilbao effect” (artifact as stimulating catharsis)

ecologically? The profession has to restructure its pedagogi-

cal goals in terms of environmental studies. By educating

professionals on the sensibilities of green design, the ulti-

mate goal of this course was to make ecology visible.

2. Draw the Wind

Students were asked to choose an ecological system in

context and describe it, drawing or mapping in the factors

that were especially “unseen,” such as mapping flows of

gray water runoff in a parking lot, a flower opening for solar

income, sounds of highway traffic affecting bird habitat.

3. Exquisite Corpse

Like any ecological system, nothing is pure. Each individ-

ual, after accomplishing his/her task was asked to switch

with a partner. Students were asked to assist each other

in learning individual choices of media. All of the projects

were combined and recombined until the unexpected was

achieved. The prevailing goal for the final class product was

a visual representation of ecology as an “exquisite corpse”

of many competing systems. A collage of tiling environ-

ments onto environments.

Fabrication has always been a complex act

rooted in strategy, research, cumulative knowledge, intent,

collaboration, and expertise. Participants in this workshop

developed and documented procedures that took compo-

nents fabricated on the CNC mill(s) to a highly polished state

of finished refinement. In this workshop, “finishing” was

understood as pushing an intricate material development

process several steps beyond the CNC mill, towards some

articulately customized end. Fabulous composite effects

were systematically developed through the orchestration of

geometry, surface articulation, strategic tool-path combina-

tions and procedures, applied coatings, post-CNC processes,

and CNC feedback. Procedures and results were document-

ed in a standardized format and were compiled as a resource

for future reference within the Fabrication Laboratory.

The “time” of the institution, which organizes a kind

of monolithic memory structure on a political and cultural

level, contrasts dramatically with the time of the individual

subject, which is filled with myriad unpredictable details.

Similarly, the “time” of the built fabric of the city provides

an archetypal and shared memory which spans all cultures,

while the individual subject in his or her chance encounters

creates an absolutely unique memory that then cascades

into the urban form itself, in many ways. Urban morpholo-

gies are now on fast forward, as they adjust ever more rapidly

to global systems that provide individuals, collectives, and

institutions with constantly shifting ways to interact. The

global spaces of contestation for resources, identity, infra-

structure, military control, or desire that we see in films like

Demonlover (Assayas, 2003), Syriana (Gaghan, 2005), or Code

46 (Winterbottom, 2003) are not science fiction speculations,

but verifications of the wildly re-territorialized reality we

inhabit today.

Architecture operates as a key link in this dynamic rela-

tion, in its capability to slow down such time, unlike many

other disciplines tied into the practice of generating urban

morphology. This seminar studied these emerging “Post-

Empire” landscapes of control, systemic tendencies, and

new freedoms.

After a series of lectures, discussions, readings, and

film viewings, students created short films investigating a

particular aspect of the new urban archipelago. Conflating

fact and fiction, present, past, and future, these films were

problematized artifacts that challenged the idea of docu-

mentary filmmaking.

Researchers in fields like bio-

mimetics and systems engineering have discovered relation-

ships embedded within complex systems of seemingly unre-

lated components or, in the case of natural systems, plant and

animal life. These relationships (and dependencies) can be

shown to enhance the whole, perhaps improving the resiliency

of the system to changing conditions or improving efficiency

and reducing waste of limited resources. Another common

theme in complex systems, particularly natural systems, is

adaptive growth. They respond to specific demands and envi-

ronmental conditions present during their formation.

Research aimed at modeling natural systems resurged

in the 1980’s with “genetic algorithm” optimization tech-

niques showing promise. More fundamental to the notion of

adaptive design or generative design, however, is the ques-

tion of problem formulation. How do we build a system to

adapt? What does it adapt to?

This workshop investigated the formulation of an adap-

tive system based on optimization methodologies. Here, the

notion of optimality — generally understood to be a singular,

mathematical minimum — is reconsidered as a catalyst for

design. A rigorous definition of optimization was applied,

translating a “generalized design model” into a parametri-

cally controlled “performance design model.” Students

explored how the performance model is easily tested and

evaluated against a variety of performance measures, in-

cluding testing by structural analysis.

The existing zoning framework attempts to define

architectural potential as a set of static parts or modular

components. Rather than satisfying a range of possible con-

ditions, the collection of zones repeatedly fails to produce the

effects prioritized, even as new zones are generated. The

ubiquity of the “special” portends this failure as zones lose

any universal ability and become merely a lowest common

denominator from which specialization can occur.

Recognizing that professional city planners are in-

creasingly expected to edit and even produce 3D models,

the course explored such visualization techniques in rela-

tion to urban planning. Working from very basic geometric

components and using the New York City Zoning Resolu-

tion as a framework for investigation, students generated a

spatial system. This course was part of an ongoing project

that seeks to design zoning mechanisms capable of generat-

ing their own specificity. To accomplish this, the strategy of

parametrics was employed, making dynamic the field of pos-

sibility and allowing its logic to develop recursively. Feedback

loops and corruption became part of the system, not foreign

to it. Height limits, sky exposure planes, setbacks, side-

yards, and other points of spatial regulation were defined as

parameters in the production of a 3D system.

Recognizing drawing as the intimate

practice fundamental to the architect’s productive imagina-

tion, Drawing 1 worked with the several strands that sustain

the fragile links among architect, idea, and material. The

course introduced a process of questioning — in the work

itself — the relationships between measure and things that lie

at the center of architectural convention and representation.

The correspondences between drawing and building

are supported not only from the instrumental effect of one

producing the other but also through their mutual use of the

plane as a primary organizational structure and their perfor-

mative roles as mediating apparatuses. The course situated

drawing in ongoing discussions of media culture and the roles

of the instrument in producing object, fields, and effects.

Lectures and essays attempted to cut across these

zones of shared performance, making building and drawing

participating forms of knowledge and exchange while the

projects focused on the memory-intensive and speculative

practices of drawing. Projects, lectures, and readings were

organized around the distinctions of cutting into an ongoing

milieu, projecting from one surface to another, the traces

formed at a meeting of two surfaces, and the folding of one

surface into another.

Working between the surface constructions of drawing

and building, the course attempted to construct responsive,

even tactical, working spaces where insight corresponds

with the architect’s ability to adapt while maintaining a radi-

cally consistent view.

When one arrives to this city the fictional New York of cinema

is often wonderfully foreign and familiar to the New York that

one sees; it creates moments one occasionally confuses with

one’s own memories and experiences. It is undoubtedly the

city’s ability to re-characterize itself for every genre of film

making that leads to this confusion. Transcending between

action, drama, romantic comedy, sci-fi, documentary, thrill-

er, musical, it is a city made for everyone and every situation.

As this city suggests it can be all things for film, one cannot

help but wonder about all the different ways it could be re-

read for architecture.

Within the larger question of the role of animation in

architecture this course explored how the city can be re-

framed to communicate multiple agendas through moving

image. It sought to determine a cinematic language more

akin to architectural representation by re-presenting the city

back through an architectural lens. Reappropriating filmic

techniques that shift from the poetic to the analytical and

the explicative to the generative, students created moving

image works that projected and recalled memories embed-

ded within the city. Students spent time working with the

camera and understanding techniques of cinematography,

digital editing, narrative structures, and, where necessary,

post production work.

How can one represent the immaterial qualities of architec-

ture through current digital practices? As the greater role

of digital representation has been focused on the geometric

and formal order of architecture, the ambition of this course

was to review representational techniques so that they may

account for its symbolic, temporal, and invisible qualities.

Looking to other disciplines which are also heavily in-

volved in the nature of representation, such as photography,

sculpture, and cinema, it seems as though it is not through

verisimilitude but through deliberate manipulation of their

respective mediums that a heightening of the viewers’

senses and awareness is created. Examples of this can be

found in the manipulated images of Yves Klein’s “Leap into

the Void,” in Jeff Wall’s “A Sudden Gust of Wind,” and in the

visual effects of Jean Pierre Jeunet’s films that reflect the

emotional states of his subjects rather than simulating their

physical experiences. If other disciplines, using the same

software, are able to bring to the fore complex ideas and sen-

sations, why should architecture fail to take similar oppor-

tunities with methods of representation, instead choosing to

concentrate on “truthful” depictions of architectural form?

This course was about generating and critiquing moving im-

age compositions that require a deliberate manipulation of

both image and time in an effort to capture architecture’s

elusive qualities.

How can one represent the immaterial qualities of architec-

ture through current digital practices? As the greater role of

digital representation has been focused on the geometric and

formal order of architecture the ambitions of these courses

are to review representational techniques so that they may

account for its symbolic, temporal, and invisible qualities.

This course was a cinematic exploration of things archi-

tectural, focusing on narrative and content. Beyond the goal

of exploring architectural issues through a cinematic lan-

guage — like the Eames’ films from the 50’s to the late 70’s

— a further aim of the course was to counter the growing

presence of prosaic architectural flythroughs. Discussions

covered narrative structures which lead to polemical and nu-

anced views, the characterizing of architectural experiences

and (re)humanizing architectural ideas. Students focused

on representing the observations, concerns, and positions

pertinent to architecture that cannot be accounted for via

traditional methods of architectural representation.

The Carceri (Prisons) series of etchings by Piranesi marked

a significant turning point in the 18th century of visually

representing architectural spaces. Breaking from the rigid

mathematical rules of linear perspective that had dominated

architectural representation since the Renaissance, Piranesi

sought to focus on the evocative qualities of images rather

than the geometric order that was privileged by the conven-

tions of perspective. The theatrical nature of his etchings

have since been noticed by many outside the discipline of

architecture and were of great influence to film makers such

as Eisenstien and more recently Spielberg. Another such

visionary, Hugh Ferris, who also created cinematic render-

ings of architecture and also proactively distorted the linear-

ity of perspective, wrote in an article on the role of architec-

tural renderers: “… it would appear that he is not so much

permitted as actually required to slight incidental facts of his

viewpoint in favor of the essential facts of the subject which

he is viewing” (Ferris 1926). This course was interested in

the highly instrumentalized practice of digital representation

and aimed to explore methods that fracture the making pro-

cess of contemporary digital images in an effort to describe

the poetic aspirations of an architectural proposition above

its geometric description. For the culminating project of this

course, students created short animations through uncon-

ventional digital and practical techniques.

The prevailing model of professional book production

is firmly entrenched in the Fordist Assembly-Line. Writing,

design, production, printing, and distribution are each han-

dled discretely by specialists as the project proceeds through

a chain of command and production, where economies-of-

scale and their required capital investment necessarily limit

who and what can be published. Recently, laserprinters,

cellphones, photocopiers, page-layout softwares, instant

messaging, word processors, and increasingly fluid commu-

nications networks have facilitated the shift to a just-in-time

mode of print production; books can be produced by a wider

number of less-specialized individuals, design revisions can

be made on-the-fly, quantities can be smaller, and the dis-

tribution network can be more responsive. A book might rea-

sonably be written by the designer who begins a layout and

works with an editor who commissions a writer and sources

a printer to produce fifty copies by next Wednesday.

Coincident with this shift are opportunities for self-

publishing, economies-of-scope, and alternate networks

of distribution to form an accessible, powerful and portable

platform for modeling design ideas. This workshop provided

a background in the graphic design and production of short

books and explored alternative printing, publishing, and dis-

tribution strategies, including a number of new alternatives

such as Print-On-Demand, Online Archives, iPhoto Books,

PDFs, Digital Offset, and Subscription services.

This workshop introduced fundamental technical and

critical skills to engage the computer on its own terms,

fostering an understanding of the software, protocols, and

languages that construct a computer. Complex computer

programs can be (and usually are) built in an ad-hoc fash-

ion, using smaller pieces of existing or free software. It is

exactly this string and sealing wax approach, as British

designer Anthony Froshaug once described, that can yield

work that is not over-determined by existing commercial

software packages nor limited by production techniques.

To this end, students used existing Processing projects —

modifying, taking apart and re-using the code and structures

to produce their own projects. In the process, they gained an

understanding of fundamental programming methodologies

and a specific facility with Processing to explore concise pro-

grammatic experiments.

The software-savvy architect can reclaim an intimate

relationship not only with the design but also with the means

of production. The goal of the course was to understand the

computer as a simultaneous site of design, of production,

and of distribution; and this collapse of functions at one

place and in realtime allows the creation of computational

forms, models and organizations that are constantly rear-

ranging, re-configuring and recalculating.

The notion of program in graph-

ic design is inherently vague, and the functions demanded of

it are multivalent and often contradictory; graphic designers

sell something while appearing not to, demand conformity

while promising freedom, etc. But whatever the program-

matic demand, the graphic answer is almost invariably

narrative. Graphic design, in that it shapes texts, organizes

information flow, structures hierarchies, navigates spaces,

and is doled out in chunks that find their completion in an

imagined public.

This class examined the friction generated when graph-

ic design and architecture overlap (or when graphic design

is injected into or spread onto architecture). How is the epi-

sodic aspect of designed space changed, intensified, under-

mined, or reinterpreted by the graphic design that coexists

within it? How can the designer investigate and critique the

notion of the “visitor experience” and try to understand the

way in which graphic design is often the first filter through

which a public understands a building?

Students worked specifically on a proposal for the de-

sign of a space programmed as a tourist destination within

a new building in Beijing. Part 1 concentrated on the manner

of graphic narratives that unfold within architecture and how

designers conspire to affect an unseen and unknown audi-

ence. What kind of stories can be told in public space? How

are they parsed? And how can they both be motivated by,

and interpret, the essential sequence of the architecture that

frames them? Part 2 built on the proposals developed in Part

I and moved into the area of form and media: once a story has

been identified, what are the devices by which it is delivered,

how do those devices change the content, and how can they

be deployed within a given architectural space?

This class generated architectural work by drawing lines with

film or video cameras. Motivated by the virtual fly-through’s

freedom from gravity and Dogme Collective’s handheld

principles, this course used camcorders as primary tools

for making architecture. The course opened with a series of

film clips in which camera movement produced a provoca-

tive spatial effect as well as readings about cinematography

relevant to architecture and an introduction to some of the

more standard devices used for camera movement in the film

industry. Students were then asked to choreograph various

camera paths over a given location in New York City and to

design and build camera appendages corresponding to ideas

about movement. The class culminated in the creation of

short films with an emphasis on film production rather than

film editing.

This course examined the intersection of

geospatial and information-based mapping. The seminar

focused on methods of cartographic representation that

addressed the confluence of data and geography through

the mapping of political borders, natural resources, trans-

national infrastructures, and questions of extra-territorial-

ity. Special attention was given to mapping strategies and

instruments developed outside the field of architecture.

The format of the course was a combination of lectures

and discussions on assigned reading. Presentations focused

on emerging geospatial software such as ArcGIS. Google

Earth Pro, and NASA Whirlwind as well as contemporary

geospatial techniques and tools such as digital elevation

modeling, data interpolation (krigging), LIDAR scanning,

and advances in satellite imaging. Using these and other

techniques, students were asked to choose a site from which

to create analytical maps exploring ways to visualize dispa-

rate layers of information. Reading included the work of Eyal

Weizman, Derek Gregory, Manuel Delanda, and others.

In this workshop students explored

the generation of visual constructs dealing with the notion of

simulation and representation. Simulation was understood

as the origin of a reality, not as a representation of a formal

construct, by generating behavioral models and abstract

events without a tactile origin. The simulation gives origin to

sequential representation of an unknown event that progres-

sively yields to the generation of a tangible visual fabric.

The primary methods of investigation used in this

course were threefold. The first involved the notion that a

simulation could give origin to sequential representation. In

this case simulation was the unknown event that progres-

sively yielded to the representation of a tactile fabric. The

second used representational constructs to generate new

perceptive realities; a represented environment was bent

by anamorphic architectural events. Finally, visual narra-

tive was used as a generative formation of a simulation, an

environment without atmosphere or perceptive origin.

This workshop focused on the topological study of form.

Understanding form as a composite of mathematical data,

one can begin to investigate the underlying structure of post-

Euclidian geometry. Students also investigated fluid dynam-

ics as a morphological system, as opposed to the norma-

tive approach or regarding fluids as vector-based systems.

Finally, students looked at how the generative morphologi-

cal behavior of fractals could generate “structures” of form

that would incorporate space-form relations.

The two primary methods of investigation were gen-

erative geometry and generative perception. Generative

geometry can be based on the use of a line system to gen-

erate a “structure” of forms that incorporate space-form

relations. The morphology to be studied or animated can

also be based on an object, a system, or a network whose

morphology is in interaction with a topologically equivalent

entity. Generative perception can be based on time-based

material effects performing on pre-defined geometry. In this

case the morphology is revealed over time by animating vi-

sual properties of an object, a system, or a network.

This timely workshop offered students a unique

opportunity to participate in a spectacular global event by

working on the design of the costumes for the 2008 Beijing

Olympics Opening Ceremony to be presented on August 8th,

2008 (8/8/8) at 8PM in the “Bird’s Nest” Olympic Stadium

designed by Herzog & de Meuron. As a member of the

Opening Ceremony’s design team (including film director

and chief Zhang Yimou, set designer Mark Fisher, special

effects artist Cai Guo-Qjang, and adviser Steven Spielberg,

among others) costume director Eiko Ishioka established the

program, design, and production milestones for the class.

Reflecting the celebratory spirit of the Olympics’ and

Beijing 2008’s three main themes — Green Olympics, High-

Tech Olympics, and People’s Olympics — the students’ work

was intended to support the needs of the performers, inves-

tigating the human body’s most intimate architecture and

the future potential of its clothed form.

Dynamically alternating between phases of research,

design, critique, and production, the outfitted presence of the

ceremony’s cast and crew were developed and detailed head-

to-toe. Of paramount importance was the wardrobes’ visual

amplification, as live and televised performances from the

grand size of the stadium to intimate scale of the bodies up

close needed to be considered. The course served as a platform

for discussion, testing, and speculation between future tech-

nology, human needs, the global environment, and beyond.

This workshop examined the role of agency

within generative design processes. The course engaged

algorithmic techniques in the development of a computa-

tional methodology emerging from research into swarm

intelligence. While discussing the political and social role

of agency, the workshop focused on an abstract design

methodology, recasting simple decision-making ability into

agents capable of self-organizing into an emergent system.

Scripting formed the basis for algorithmic models that

enabled localized interaction of agents to generate proto-

architectural forms, structures, and articulation. Unlike

the typical application of swarm systems in design, this

workshop went beyond a simple mapping of these complex

systems, mining their self-organizing potential to negotiate

between complex sets of desires and parameters in the gen-

eration of architecture. The workshop operated through the

development of scripting and code, expanding on an existing

library of relatively simple functions and recombining them

to develop more complex generative algorithms.

Computational design is shifting away from a reliance

on heavy platforms such as Maya into lightweight scripting

environments, enabling the intensive iteration required for

emergent processes. In anticipating this shift, the workshops

focused on the newer, lightweight languages of Processing

and RhinoScript.

In this workshop, students looked at case studies, using video

work done for O.M.A., Gucci, and Oppenheim Architects.

Lessons covered video compositing and post-production

effects (green screen compositing, motion graphics tech-

niques, motion tracking, camera tracking, etc.) using a vari-

ety of software. Class assignments focused on using these

techniques to illustrate work being executed in the students’

studio courses.

Environmental simulation has been a marketable trade for

some time now. The popularity and practical utility of vir-

tual spaces has grown in direct proportion with the fidelity

of consumer technology. Today’s desktops and entertain-

ment consoles can maintain perfect fluidity while handling

sophisticated algorithms that add uncanny nuance a user’s

first-person experience.

Unfortunately, supplanting physical reality is still not

an option as the fidelity of the technology is still not quite

there. As such, the architect remains obligated to deal with

the familiar set of terms and obstacles before realizing his

or her vision. However, the current state of the art is not

without unique characteristics of its own, making it a candi-

date for a new form of expression. In addition, it is possible

to envision alternatives to the architectural paradigm given

its close resemblance to the physical domain without the

restrictions of physical law.

This workshop focused on the use of the Unreal game

engine to simulate physical environments and architectural

proposals in an interactive format. Students worked with the

software in conjunction with 3DS Max or Maya to develop

personal theses on the applicability of this technology within

the profession and/or a new definition for the practice of ar-

chitecture at large.

The most advanced engineering achievements of humans

pale in comparison to the very practical and sophisticated

systems of even the most common plants. Plants’ ubiquity,

even in New York City, offers the possibility of direct, visceral

study. This course used plant form as a basis for the appro-

priation of industrial design techniques into architectural

constructs. Details in everyday industrial objects surround

architects but are only rarely used in buildings. The use of

CNC and rapid prototyping technologies has expanded the

vocabulary of recent architecture to include industrial design

details. Puzzle connections, Velcro, snap fits, folding pat-

terns, and other common industrial design technologies

offer new possibilities to architects through their various,

mechanically performative qualities. While industrial design

techniques present an expanded set of tools for architects,

the use of these tools for buildings requires a substantial

translation from one set of constraints to another. This

translation of techniques was addressed in the course

through the appropriation of techniques and the physical

realization of architectural constructs. Students contend-

ed with such constraints as tolerance, fit, stretching, and

assembly sequence.

With the burst of

the Internet bubble in the late ‘90s, computing, cyberspace,

and the digital revolution were delivered a healthy dose of

fiscal responsibility. While certain divisions of technology

have been forced to readjust to the demands of the economy,

the architectural profession has largely been undaunted in

its use of computing. Computing in architecture has reached

such a level of now ubiquity that the idea of practicing without

it seems incomprehensible. It has altered the standards of

representation, retooled construction techniques, and made

communication of complex information instantaneous.

In this state of ubiquitous computing, the architect is

asked to not only grasp these new technologies but also to

integrate them into the built environment. As the edge be-

tween the virtual and real becomes increasingly thin, the

architect must not only be proficient in this interactivity, but

tool it toward new ideas and potentials that are rife within

this expanding territory.

While Fundamentals of Digital Design is an introduc-

tory course in computing, it builds on the student’s advanced

ability to question, shape, and interrogate space and time.

The course interrogates the computer as a design tool of

representation and analysis. This interrogation is framed in

the concepts, techniques, and methodologies of computer

aided design. Students study the operative relationship be-

tween 2D and 3D data and are asked to explore the reaches

of their potential.

“Model: a system of postulates, data, and inferences pre-

sented as a mathematical description of an entity or state of

affairs; also: a computer simulation based on such a system”

(Merriam Webster Dictionary)

The object of this workshop was a physi-

cally accurate model of light and, by extension, of material.

The goal was to make a real rendering by selecting an archi-

tecture as the subject of the model, taking photographic data

of a particular site under specific lighting conditions, gen-

erating a physically calibrated digital material library, and

using a rendering engine to synthesize these elements into

distinct images. A minimal number of class lectures intro-

duced important concepts and demonstrated their poten-

tial. The software included Adobe Photoshop, 3DS Max, and

multiple free shareware High Dynamic Range Image (HDRI)

processing programs.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are a

powerful tool for analyzing spatial patterns. Often referred to

as a system of spatial databases or visual databases, GIS is

used by many different fields to understand everything from

spatial clustering to management of natural resources. For

example, an epidemiologist might use GIS to determine the

source of a contagious disease while an economist might

use it to understand how industries cluster and if there are

environmental reasons for this clustering effect.

This advanced research seminar was designed to ex-

pand students’ knowledge of the tools available for spatial

analysis, enabling them to develop unique research ques-

tions and methodologies for answering those questions

using unique sets of software tools. With the ultimate goal

of teaching students how to develop quantitative research

methods, the course required each student to develop and

test a hypothesis through the use of spatial analysis.

Mapping is a key component of site investigation. Maps

reveal unexpected spatial relationships, allowing designers

to better understand their territory.

Data is the key component to making maps. The science

of mapping is based of the idea of translating data — wheth-

er found or collected — into a visually comprehensible form.

In other words, maps reveal the spatial nature of data.

GIS is a visual database. It allows one to easily interpret

and visualize vast quantities of spatial data. The output of

this visual data has traditionally been through GIS, but in

this course students combined GIS databases with a variety

of output options, including Google API, Google Earth, Arc-

Globe, and 3D modeling software. Exploring the collection,

creation, interpretation, and mediums for making maps,

students devised a “hack” to interpret site data.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a tool

for managing data about where features are (geographic

coordinate data) and what they are like (attribute data), and

for providing the ability to query, manipulate, and analyze

those data. Because GIS allows one to represent social and

environmental data as a map, it has become an important

analysis tool used across a variety of fields including: plan-

ning, architecture, engineering, public health, environmen-

tal science, economics, epidemiology, and business. GIS

has become an important political instrument, allowing

communities and regions to tell their story graphically. GIS

is a powerful tool, and this course introduced students to the

basics, gave them an understanding of its possibilities, and

enabled them to use it in their own research.

The Ph. D. program in archi-

tecture is oriented toward the training of scholars in the field

of architectural history and theory. Its structure reflects a

dual understanding of the scholar’s role in the discipline at

large, as a teacher and as a researcher making an original

contribution to the field, with an emphasis on expanding and

reinterpreting disciplinary knowledge in a broad intellectual

arena. Course requirements are therefore designed to give

entering students a solid foundation in historical knowledge

and theoretical discourse, with sufficient flexibility to allow

the initiation and pursuit of individual research agendas. The

program’s focus is on the history and theory of modern and

contemporary architecture and urbanism in an international

and cross-cultural context, from the mid-eighteenth cen-

tury to the present. Within this, a wide range of research

is supported through the varied expertise of the faculty

and through strong relationships with other departments

throughout the University and beyond. Students are resident

in the program for five years.

Since antiquity the term polis has captured both the idea

of city as physical settlement and that of city as community/

state. This thesis will explore this constituent ambivalence

as it took form in the early-modern period, tracing a series of

historical shifts in the way the city was envisioned in France

from the reign of Louis XIV until the Revolution. The proposal

is to study the urban imaginary of this period by comparing

the figures of the city produced by architects and utopian

writers to the ideas formulated under the rubric of “police

science,” the theory of the government and administration

of the city. The thesis will examine two historical phenom-

ena and their mutual relation: first, the emergence of a new

“rationality” of the city, as it developed in the discourse and

practices of the police, the institution that most controlled

urban transformation; and second, a profound cultural

change in the way the city, in both its material and political

sense, was conceived. The hypothesis is that the new ideas

and representations of the city that emerged in the eigh-

teenth century involved a fundamental re-articulation of the

relation between State and civil society; the police offers a

critical means to understanding that re-articulation.

This dissertation is a study of Marco Zanuso (Milan, Italy

1916-2001). The study will show how the methodology of this

architect and industrial designer, formed during the second

World War and the 1950s in Milan, emphasized the engage-

ment of current capabilities in production, inventive reuse

of physical and logistical structures, and attention to social

need. These themes will be explored through case studies

of individual objects, including factories, domestic buildings,

schools, and industrial design objects such as furniture and

televisions. Analytical comparisons to projects by contempo-

raries in the reconstruction mood of 1945-1960 will include

Milanese architects who made similar use of béton brut and

elementary construction systems, such as Vittoriano Viganò

and Figini and Pollini; and designers who shared Zanuso’s

proclivities for mass design and design with roots in pre-

existing cultural forms and productive capacities, notably

Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. The central chapters of

the study seek, through these investigations, to understand

Zanuso’s notion of “mass” design in architecture and design,

and to compare this notion to Reyner Banham’s “machine

age” idea entailing, on one hand, the application of technol-

ogy to the enhancement of everyday life and invention of new

forms of living; on the other hand, rejection of the formal

tastes associated with “academicism” in traditional archi-

tecture. Further, the study probes the limits of this età della

macchina, in particular the decline of the machine-age style

in Zanuso’s work amid the twilight of the industrial develop-

ment for which such projects were optimized, as industrial

production and cultural structures were replaced with those

of a “tertiary” economy and other post-industrial cultural

manifestations in the early to mid-1970s.

Chicago architect Dwight Perkins was a pivotal

figure in the progressive social and political reforms that

were especially strong in the Midwestern United States

during the opening decades of the twentieth century. He

had personal and professional connections with prominent

local reformers such as Jane Addams, John Dewey, Charles

Zueblin, and Jens Jensen. The contention of this dissertation

is that this milieu shared a set of socio-political ideals that

revolved around the goal of fostering a mutually responsible

social democracy in place of laissez-faire individualism and

that the realization of this goal took on architectural form

through Perkins’ designs for new social centers, namely:

settlement houses, public schools, playgrounds, parks,

and recreation facilities. Perkins and his compatriots envi-

sioned these spaces as loci of democratic exchange, and

when grouped together they operated as a town planning

formula for creating self-governing democratic communi-

ties. This dissertation seeks to explore: 1) the substance of

the social reforms desired by Perkins and his fellow progres-

sives, which touched on issues such as assimilation, the role

of public education in molding citizens, the importance of

group recreation and nature study in promoting democratic

behavior, as well as an emphasis on health, hygiene, safety,

and efficiency; 2) the way in which Perkins’ social centers

institutionalized certain middle-class values, especially

with regards to gender roles and economic class; 3) the way

Perkins realized and symbolized these agendas in his archi-

tectural designs.

The dissertation argues that Lima, Peru, 1945-

1975, functioned as a significant site of experimentation for

modern architecture and planning in developing solutions

for the effective provision of low-cost mass housing. It is

structured as a social history of the production of housing

innovation and focuses on three types of projects exempli-

fying the range of housing and urban solutions explored

in Peru in this period: barriadas, informal settlements

constructed without the assistance of design profession-

als; aided self-help housing schemes, where architects

provided technical assistance to the resident-builder; and

PREVI (Proyecto Experimental de Vivienda), a model neigh-

borhood deriving from an international design competition

that foregrounded questions of technological innovation and

aesthetic form. The dissertation examines the work of two

key figures involved in the creation and implementation of

these experiments, John F. C. Turner and Peter Land, as a

point of entry into building up an image of the networks of

professional associates, theoretical and political influences,

policies, and programs underlying these new approaches

to housing.

A key element of the approach will be to examine the

development of housing innovation through the interactions

of three main spheres: the conditions of possibility that

made Peru a fertile site for experimentation under a suc-

cession of very different political regimes; the influences on

architectural discourse that led to the development of alter-

native approaches to housing; and the context underlying the

emergence of new ideologies and practices of development

in this period, as witnessed by the growing professionalism

of international development agencies.

This thesis explores three architectural constructions

in wilderness areas associated with the transcontinental

railway system in Canada. The works were planned and

executed over a period of economic expansion, territorial

consolidation, and national self-definition in which wilder-

ness ideals played crucial roles in Canadian nationalism.

A series of town plans, a resort hotel system, and a totem

restoration project worked at different scales using distinct

strategies for inhabiting lands rendered newly accessible by

the railway. Beyond the physical occupation of territory, each

scale of intervention contributed to representing a specific

idea of a place. New grid-plan railroad towns, CPR hotels,

and totem poles emerged respectively as icons for prairie,

mountain, and Pacific coast landscapes. These then became

a set of interlinked reference points for the representation

of the nascent nation. Seen as inhabiting untouched land-

scapes, each project was conceptually framed and aestheti-

cally shaped by wilderness ideas. This close study aims to

elucidate the conception, construction, and representation of

these works and the ways in which they embodied Canadian

values — including ideas of resource exploitation, aesthetic

pleasure, and autochthonous origin — and claimed this

seeming synthesis as an embodiment of national values.

This dissertation claims that media conditions pose

such a challenge to modern art and theory in the postwar

period that it cannot be ignored. It is necessary to develop a

conceptual framework for modern art on the basis of a justi-

fied media vocabulary in a historical and theoretical sense.

Since such a vocabulary hardly exists, this dissertation will

engage in a conceptual history of a variety of media terms

(such as media, multi-media, mixed media, mass media, and

the so-called “new” media), as well as its singular form of

medium (which in art theory has primary significance), and

explore how they have been used and interpreted in modern

art theory from 1960 through the 1990s. With this ground-

work of media terminology, this thesis will confront the rival

theories that have developed in regard to the discourse of

media and medium (such as the antithetical discourse of

Clement Greenberg and Marshall McLuhan) around a cen-

tral theoretical problem: the aesthetic medium versus the

technological media, for example, or the debate between

“medium” and Bild (image). Although the impact of media

will primarily be shown in the field of art theory, the interdis-

ciplinary ambition of this thesis is to be relevant to other cul-

tural disciplines as well — in particular architecture, where

the question of architectural medium and its intersection

with other media is similarly raised.

The Confucian metaphysical philosophy devalued material

artifacts, and, as a result, architecture was not tradition-

ally seen as a scholarly field. Architectural study as an

academic discipline only began as a formal discipline in

the last decades of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) when it was

introduced by westerners. Since then, Chinese scholars

have produced a significant and culturally influential body

of architectural history, a thorough account of which has yet

to be done — either in English or in Chinese. The objective of

this analytical study is therefore to cover the writings of the

most important architectural historians that worked during

the first stage of the discipline’s development in China.

It is found that these historians actually interweaved

native learning skills and architectural history, a discipline

originated from the West, to fulfill the need for a national

identity caused by the asynchronous modernization. This

is particularly embodied in the methodologies and histori-

cal styles that they remodeled. Contrary to most prevailing

post-colonial theories, their methodologies and historical

styles exemplify a positive and confident local response to

foreign input. By scrutinizing these historical texts, this dis-

sertation provides a new perspective on the early history of

global architecture.

With an emerging global society reshaping archi-

tecture’s disciplinary imperatives to address such needs as

ecologically sustainable design or the varied demands placed

upon architects as they work within and create increasingly

complex public spheres, new graduates in architecture must

be prepared to navigate a multi-disciplinary profession.

Architects must not only design, but also must develop new

forms of expertise. Leading the field in innovation and exper-

imentation, the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning

and Preservation’s research laboratories focus on three key

interrelated initiatives: the development of new technologies

and fabrication methods, cultural analysis of local and global

conditions, and investigation of the urban and built realms.

To involve these research laboratories more directly in

the educational mission of the school, GSAPP offers a

one-year program in Advanced Architectural Research for

graduates who have completed degrees in the Master of

Science Advanced Architectural Design (MSAAD), Master

of Architecture and Urban Design (MSAUD), and Master

of Architecture (MARCH). AA Research places the same

emphasis on the research labs that the Masters Programs

place on the design studios. Students expand the knowledge

and skills acquired in completion of the master’s degree in a

setting dedicated to applied research. Students devise a two-

semester advanced architectural research project to inves-

tigate specific questions in the field of architecture. Under

the supervision of a lab director or faculty member, students

utilize their expertise to create innovative design responses

to address those problems. All research is experimental in

spirit, but nonetheless directed toward how this knowledge

can be applied to engage real issues concerning how archi-

tecture shapes the world.

This research project examined public spaces that are

home to conflicting political and religious interests. In a

public space, the encounters between diverse political and

religious interests of the people can result in rough social

relationships. What is the relationship between the materi-

ality of the public space and the conflict it hosts?

The three case studies examined were the Malmo East-

ern Cemetery in Malmo, Sweden, by architect Sigurd Lew-

erentz, the Gardens of Forgiveness in Beirut by Gustafson

Porter architects, and the Cañada Real Galiana Cattle Trail in

Madrid, Spain. These three cases illustrate the rough, some-

times hostile, encounter of the distinct interests of the local

administrations, private owners, and users.

The analysis yielded three possible interpretations: 1)

conflict in public space is a frame for democractic discus-

sion — for the imagination and vindication of new uses; 2) it

is a spectacle for the media — an object under the control of

those in power; or, 3) it is a tool with which the architect can

exercise control over design decisions.

With this methodology for the analysis of projects host-

ing political-religious conflicts, the research aimed to ex-

tract the principles that structure these landscapes and that

cause their failures and their successes, with the ultimate

goal that these principles may be applied in the organization

of other problematic landscapes in the world today.

Museums not only reflect societies, but also

have the ability to re-imagine them. As digital technolo-

gies bring profound changes to the relationship of society

to art, culture, and history, the museum institution seems

to not yet address them as a real possibility for reinventing

itself, while its emphasis is still oriented to the construction

of iconic buildings. The “Virtual Museum,” a common term

today, remains a static experience that uses the computer

as a mere viewing terminal. Given this context, one cannot

help but ask: what is the next museum?

This research project explored the possibility of an in-

teractive database museum that could use digital data sets

rather than traditional material objects as the repository for

memory. Institutions today have the capacity to store huge

amounts of digital data, and while raw data does not nec-

essarily have value for most people, relational databases

are able to transform it into information, which can have a

cultural value. As a result, digital databases have the latent

potential to build an institution’s collective memory — to

become its museum. Databases are also dynamic environ-

ments where the user can perform operations, adding a sec-

ond potential: interaction.

The next museum research project presents and tests

these hypotheses. m u s e (h) u b gsapp is the first prototype

of an interactive database museum, using the school’s video

archive of lectures as a testing ground.

This project experimented with several concep-

tual, bodily, and architectural dimensions, investigating the

ways in which bodily positions open up — and close down —

fields of communication. It attempted to create surfaces that

could in turn create relations among individuals.

The material chosen should combine both bodily and

social aspects in order to actively engage the users. It should

emerge from the body, and be adaptable, instantly likable,

and universally accessible. Something as simple (and po-

tentially silly) as water-wings become a vehicle of transfor-

mation of space and, more importantly, a social experience

of space. In short, through permutations of surface, the

designer can create specific experiences of the space that

affect relationships between people.

Inflating and layering the water-wings on the floor, then

folding them further into simple yet endless configurations,

the water-wing carpet provides a sense of infinite mobil-

ity. Intimacy itself unfolds (face to face), or folds and closes

(back to back). Through these strategies the social space

itself becomes intensified. The carpet not only transforms

itself but also transforms the conversation on it.

Colored Liquid Crystal (CLC) is a switchable mate-

rial that changes its optical properties when a low voltage

is applied, modulated and monitored by a microcontroller.

It performs both as a light filtering material and also as a

transparent information display. It has the potential to be

used in architecture as a façade and as an interior material,

as a scenic component for performing arts and as a material

for industrial design.

The invention relies on rethinking the technology used

for the manufacture of regular black and white liquid-crystal

displays to construct an architectural and design material.

The particularities of this new transparent material are that

its tincture level can be changed dynamically and that it is

“structurally” colored, meaning that the color is achieved

optically, by interference effects, rather than by pigments

or metallic depositions.

Morphologically it consists of three elements: the actual

CLC — a multilayered transparent film system — a micro-

controller, and a software interface. Sensors and actuators

can be also implemented to constitute a material that is not

only active but interactive as well.

The Bris Block is a precast concrete element to

be implemented as a bris soleil. While the bris soleil is a

sustainable element because of its ability to control envi-

ronmental conditions, the Bris Block is a single unit that

can adapt to control a wider range of conditions due to its

reconfigurability. Six different configurations are possible,

ranging from 33% to 73% porosity. Configurations can be

recombined with one another to create a dynamic bris

soleil. Each block weighs only 36 pounds and spans a total

of 42 inches (32-inch bond) with a height of 18 inches. The

material economy of the block enables construction to be

more environmentally friendly and easily installed. Using

polypropylene/polyethylene blended synthetic macro-fibers

as reinforcement allows replacement of structural steel and

economized cross-sectional material. After several itera-

tions, the block can be fabricated as thin as 1.5 inches at a

material cost of only $5.

The history of the Icelandic Turf farm dates back

to the first settlements in Iceland in the late 9th century —

a vernacular tradition that remained the principal form of

habitation in Iceland well into the 20th century, when Iceland

abruptly turned into a modern industrial society. Permanent

building materials, hygiene, and effective infrastructure

became the new rule, while the turf farm turned into a

symbol of a morbid past. The inherent design knowledge

of the turf farm tradition has ever since been underesti-

mated and even neglected with few important exceptions.

The research analyzed the turf farm as a building mode in

which landscape and building fuse together — architecture

that springs from the earth and blends into the natural sur-

roundings, utilizing the earth as protection from the wind

and to control temperature. Due to the ephemeral nature

of turf as building material, a considerable part of the turf

farms have found their origin again and fused with earth. The

first part of the research drew from the writings of foreign

visitors about the farms and built up to a second part, where

contemporary examples of turf farm-inspired architecture

was presented and analyzed. The analysis concluded that

the turf farm continues to be highly potent and plausible

in modern architectural context and that it merits further

research and rediscovery.

This project traced the genealogy of the last generation

of post-industrial glass — its architectonic and engineering

antecedents as well as the alterations that technical devel-

opment, environmental concerns, and “immaterial” culture

have produced.

Although the scope of the research covered the de-

velopment of new glass technologies that addressed static

issues, such as structural glass, and those that dealt with

questions of hazard and security, the main focus was on op-

tically advanced technologies, for three reasons. First, due

to their molecular-chemical manufacturing process, the

micrometrical scale of their components, and the variety of

functions that they perform, Advanced Optical Glasses (AOG)

embody a contemporary notion of materiality. Second, AOG

also belong to the group of present-day materials that would

be defined in terms of mass, energy, and information. That

is, not only do they have a material value; their performance

is their meaning. Finally, AOG also question the very notion

of transparency as defined in modern and contemporary

architecture; they open up a wider range of optical and me-

chanical interplay among the material, the light, and the

users that define a space. For instance, they have lost part

of their transparent nature in favor of expanding the possi-

bilities of thermal and visual light, as an architectural meta-

attribute. Their levels of transmission, reflection, diffraction,

translucency, transparency, and opacity can be dynamically

changed, and they have the ability to transform daylight into

electricity and transport it from one place to another.

“Through Glass” — a contribution to the Engineered

Transparency Symposium at GSAPP in September 2007 —

was an invitation to reflect on the unique implications of these

materials — constituted through the interaction of the human

eye with the multilayered glass — for the built environment.

Through a series of experiments, this study explored the

inherent properties of carbon fiber, in particular the mate-

rial’s performance. The experiments evolved in an iterative

fashion, each prototype testing for specific criteria.

The prototypes were fabricated by creating silicon rub-

ber molds, applying layers of resin and carbon fiber, and

removing the excess resin through a vacuum process to

increase the strength-to-weight ratio. The complexity and

detail of the project was achieved through the 3-axis mill

and the water jet. The following categories were established

to guide the development of each of the prototypes: extreme

curvature tolerance, refinement of surfaces, material thick-

ness through layering, and hidden connections using either

resin or embedded magnets.

The research resulted in new possibilities for the fabri-

cation and application of carbon fiber with relevance for the

field of architecture.

This project re-investigated American domesticity

through objects and their implications in space and rep-

resentation of the domestic realm. According to a study

released in 2005, the size of an average American house has

doubled since the 1950s. The cause of such drastic expan-

sion was attributed to the increasing demand of the storage

spaces due to the accumulation of the stuff; thus, the home

becomes a mere container.

The investigation was twofold: first, the project com-

piled an inventory of ideas and objects that have become a

part of evolution of stuff and its architectural implications.

The investigation focused on the kitchen and the bathroom,

examining compilations of standard and idealized objects

and images. The objects were mapped for their places in

storage (i.e. hidden vs. displayed) and for their travel routes

within a house at large. The stuff could then reorganize a

typical house through the ways objects travel, as objects

became more of the main inhabitant of the house.

This research was to serve as the base for the second

part of the project, in which the average American house

would be re-imagined using the organization of domestic

objects and storage in the design process.

The Historic Preservation Program once again offered

courses and programming to balance the theoretical and

practical natures of the discipline. The Fall Conservation

Workshop used the Van Cortlandt House, owned by the

Historic House Trust of New York, as a site for building

investigation, as well as the Paul Rudolph-designed Orange

County Courthouse in Goshen, New York.

Jorge Otero Pailos’ History/Theory Workshop on In-

terpretation used the Phillip Johnson Glass House in New

Canaan, CT as a site for analysis. Paul Byard and Craig Konyk

led the Joint Architecture & Preservation Design Studio and

traveled to Casablanca in September to imagine a new cen-

ter for rural immigrants in this very old city. With the support

of the Kress Foundation, and under the leadership of George

Wheeler, further improvements were made in the conserva-

tion curriculum.

Over the January break the Historic Preservation Pro-

gram and Avery Hall hosted the Third International Archi-

tectural Paint Conference. The event drew hundreds from

around the world who specialize in uncovering, restoring,

recreating, and documenting architectural finishes. Many

Preservation students assisted in the conference, and their

help is gratefully acknowledged as key to making this a suc-

cessful event.

In March, the James Marston Fitch lecture was held on

a Wednesday night as part of the GSAPP lecture series, with

Nikolaus Hirsch, a German architect who has worked inno-

vatively with new and old architecture. In April, Traditional

Building Magazine showcased the Historic Preservation Pro-

gram at the GSAPP in their “Pillars of Preservation” series.

In May, we graduated 24 students.

Studio is the core course of the first year, and revolves

around the study of a section of New York City. Students

began by documenting individual buildings, and moved

through the first semester by understanding and document-

ing ever-more complex elements of the built environment

in the study area. Students explored buildings from the

perspective of conservation, design, history, and planning.

Studio work included graphic presentations, written presen-

tations, and oral presentations.

Studio 2 continued the work of the Fall

Semester Studio 1 in the same study area within New York,

extending the understanding of that area from beyond its indi-

vidual building components to the neighborhood and region.

Issues of designing appropriate infill buildings on vacant or

underutilized lots were explored in a design charette at mid-

semester. Studio 2 culminated in a Preservation Plan for the

area, which evaluated the historic resources against local

zoning, economic realities, physical assets, and problems,

and members of the study area’s community, testing student

ideas against neighborhood personalities and politics.

This course examined the development of American archi-

tecture from the earliest European settlements to the cen-

tennial in 1876. Beginning with the earliest Spanish, French,

Dutch, and English colonial architecture, students explored

the American adaptation of European forms and ideas and the

development of a distinctly American architecture. The course

lectures and readings examined high style and vernacular

architecture in rural and urban environments throughout the

settled parts of the United States. The course was supple-

mented with tours and the examination of original drawings

and early architectural publications in Avery Library.

The course was devoted to the exploration of combina-

tions of old and new architecture to understand how the new

can extend the meaning of the old and how it extends that

meaning when the old architecture is said to be “preserved.”

Architecture of Additions understood combined works as

one of the most challenging and illuminating of the contem-

porary building types, one having special relevance to almost

all contemporary architectural practice.

This workshop was taught with the third-year Additions

Design Studio in the Architecture Program. The problem

for the studio was a major addition to an important modern

building that required an understanding of the meaning of

the old building — all of the ways its form and materials

express the values it sought to represent and serve at the

time — and the ways that meaning might or might not be

extended, enriched, and brought forward by the addition.

This course was a comprehensive introduction to the field

of preservation planning that examined the constitutional

underpinnings of landmarks regulation and the emergence

of historic preservation as a discipline analogous to urban

planning. Also addressed were the issues of applying preser-

vation planning tools, including local individual and historic

district designations, National Register nominations, special

zoning and neighborhood conservation districts, and pres-

ervation easements. Financial incentives for rehabilitation,

including investment tax credits, property tax incentives,

and revolving loan funds, were examined. Current issues

in preservation planning including open space preserva-

tion, combating sprawl, and preserving rural landscapes

were addressed. Guest speakers highlighted preservation

in Chicago and Pittsburgh, illustrating similarities and differ-

ences in practices in the field in other American cities.

Structures, Systems, and Materials 1 familiarizes students

with the structures and materials of traditional building,

beginning with wood framing and load-bearing masonry

walls. In addition to learning how buildings are made, stu-

dents also learn how buildings often fail and what can be

done about it. Fieldtrips to see the situations discussed in

class were integral to the course and occurred weekly during

the first half of the semester.

This course was designed to familiarize students with

the history of the major building types that comprise the

physical fabric of New York City. The development of building

types was used as a lens through which to examine various

New York neighborhoods and the ways in which they have

developed and changed.

The physical and stylistic evolution of these building

types were discussed, and, through walking tours in vari-

ous New York neighborhoods, students examined how these

buildings worked within the evolving form of the city and its

neighborhoods. Among other types of buildings, students

looked at the development of residential architecture, par-

ticularly row houses, townhouses, and multiple dwellings;

the changing nature of commercial architecture from mod-

est low rise structures to great skyscrapers; and the evolu-

tion of public and institutional architecture from the small

buildings of the early city to some of the great architectural

complexes of America. Also discussed were issues of design,

planning, and preservation in the neighborhoods visited.

This course engaged the principles and practices of archi-

tectural finishes conservation, preservation, and mainte-

nance. Students acquired the skills to know what questions

to ask about finishes conservation, and how to begin answer-

ing them. This course included lectures, laboratory, and site

work. Types of finishes covered in the course included paint,

plaster, stucco, murals, twentieth century composite wall

and ceiling finishes, tile linoleum, glass, and wallpaper.

This hands-on conservation course took place both

on site and in the laboratory, including documentation,

sampling, materials analysis, synthesis of information,

and recommendations for conservation. Two distinct sites

comprised the focus of the course. The first was the 18th-

century Van Cortlandt House Museum located in the Bronx.

This well-loved building has been reworked to incorpo-

rate elements of the Colonial and Federal periods at least

twice, exposed the students to issues of alterations and the

whims of interpreters. Students also investigated several

issues of concern to the museum, such as water infiltration

problems. Their work culminated in a presentation to the

owner and a report for the museum archives. The second

site was Paul Rudolph’s 1967 Orange County Government

Center, a Brutalist building in Goshen, New York. Unlike the

Van Cortlandt House Museum, this largely neglected build-

ing is plagued with deterioration issues and — students felt

— overall not well suited to its purpose as a court building.

Here, in addition to acquiring in-situ and off-site concrete

examination skills, students investigated issues of material

properties, performance, and deterioration mechanisms.

Recently there has been a greater demand for architectural

conservators at archaeological sites. As archaeologists

become increasingly aware of their ethical responsibility

to conserve the architectural remains uncovered, the need

for this type of expertise is acutely felt. The first part of

this course looked at philosophical and ethical differences

between structures that can be rehabilitated as architecture

and those that will be stabilized as ruins, while reviewing

the international organizations and charters that have been

set up for this purpose. The second part of the course dealt

with techniques of conservation, including site improve-

ments, recording methods, reburial, consolidation, protec-

tion, sheltering, materials analyses, and state-of-the-art

technology applicable to archaeological sites. Laboratory

sessions, guest lectures, and field trips in the New York area

supplemented lectures, readings, and projects.

Impetus for the preservation of cultural heritage has devel-

oped through the recognition of sites as non-renewable

resources. Training is readily available in the specific tasks

required to implement preservation, but far less attention

has been paid to the larger, more complex and compre-

hensive issues of management — the process by which the

individual components of preservation come together and

either succeed or fail. To address this lack of consistency,

the Australian ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments

and Sites) committee proposed the Burra Charter, which

expanded the premises of the Venice Charter. This docu-

ment revolves around the identification of site significance,

which is then used to define and guide the management

policy within ethical, scientific, social, political, and finan-

cial contexts.

This course utilized the conservation process outlined

in the Burra Charter as the basis for a rational approach

to managing cultural sites. The course had an international

focus and reviewed case studies — some presented by

recognized experts — from both historic and archaeological

sites. The course first focused on the compilation of back-

ground information and identification of the key interested

parties. It then progressed to the analysis of site significance

and assessment of existing conditions and management

constraints. Finally, the development of the management

policy and strategies for its implementation was reviewed.

The delicate balancing act between cultural enhancement

and exploitation was explored, as well as the need to periodi-

cally monitor and reassess management policy.

Students learned to critically evaluate the management

process and to recognize the needs of the various interested

constituents. The class explored the latest tools and the vari-

ous disciplines required to perform the series of tasks that

make up the complex mosaic of management.

This course was an introduction to the legal mechanisms

protecting historic resources in the built environment, focus-

ing on the legal principles underlying preservation laws,

including the constitutional issues relating to governmental

regulation or real property. Federal, state, and local historic

preservation laws and their complementary relationships

were studied in the context of relevant environmental and

other land use laws.

This course was a survey of American architecture since

the country’s first centennial. As America ascended to its

current position of hegemony during the late 19th and 20th

centuries, its architects helped refashion the built envi-

ronment to serve the needs of a growing and ever-diverse

population. Hand in hand with the satisfaction of pragmatic

requirements, American architects were called upon to ful-

fill deeper psychological wants, such as the country’s desire

to have a national history. The American complex about the

brevity, artificiality, and exterior dependency of its history,

structured, with varying degrees of intensity, the evolution

of the architectural discipline. Out of this deep-seated, and

by no means exhausted, anxiety about producing, preserv-

ing, and identifying American history, came a sophisticated

architectural culture — one capable of foiling, exploiting,

subverting, and manipulating the various contradictions

of modernity.

From the standpoint of this relationship between history

and modernity, the course analyzed the American architec-

tural struggle to be progressive and accepted, exceptional

and customary, and to simultaneously capture the future

and the past. Each lecture considered the production and

reception of built (and written) works by renowned figures

and anonymous builders. By considering American archi-

tecture’s successes and failures in terms of the engagement

between architecture and other disciplines over time, the

course aimed to gain a richer sense of the historical charac-

teristics that have informed its evolving nature.

Run as a seminar, this workshop provided an opportunity

for in-depth research and analysis of the built environment,

using the rich resources of New York City as the primary

source. The aim of this course was to explore contemporary

ways of understanding and transforming the built environ-

ment, particularly given the interdisciplinary nature of the

field. Traditional models relating theory and practice depend

on the closed teleological principle of striving towards com-

pletion and are therefore inadequate; these models ulti-

mately create the fiction that to be complete, theory must

exclude practice, and vice-versa. Students were asked to

consider alternative principles of openness for relating

theory and practice, and to explore the correlative ways to

imbricate the aesthetic and the intellectual in the production

of interventions and interpretations.

This seminar reviewed the structural and decorative uses of

metals in buildings and monuments. The metals reviewed

included iron and steel, copper and copper alloys including

bronze and brass, lead, tin, zinc, aluminum, and nickel and

chromium. The seminar examined the history of manufac-

ture and use; mechanisms of deterioration and corrosion;

and cleaning, repair, and conservation.

This course built on information introduced in Part I, bring-

ing the material up to the present in terms of understanding

modern building systems and materials. It addressed how

steel frame and concrete buildings are made and how they

often fail. The organization of the course relied upon not only

the study of the chronological development of the building

arts and sciences, but as each building system was intro-

duced, the discussion of the pathology modes and conserva-

tion approaches followed within the same week.

The Hudson River Valley has been described by the National

Park Service as “the landscape that defined America.” In

recent years, the valley was designated by Congress as a

National Heritage Area, by President Clinton as an American

Heritage River, and by New York State as the Hudson River

Valley Greenway. Yet the valley continues to face great chal-

lenges to its character and historic context through the

planned (and unplanned) development of cement plants,

energy facilities, destruction of historic buildings, and

sprawl. In this course, through readings, lectures, class

dialogues, case studies, and field trips, students examined

the history of the preservation of cultural and natural land-

scapes as well as preservation techniques, such as regional

planning, heritage tourism, and the use of conservation

easements, now in use nationally and internationally.

This course offered an introduction to the theoretical and

practical issues governing the practice of historic preserva-

tion. Students developed their individual points of view based

on lectures and group discussions on the principle facets of

the field — namely, the history of the profession, past and

present theory, basic research and documentation methodol-

ogies, technology, and professional practice. Such basic con-

cepts as values and significance in heritage conservation and

standards in the field were questioned, and selected examples

of contemporary practice were critically evaluated.

These laboratories comprised a three-semester sequence

designed to provide a basic understanding of building mate-

rials, to demonstrate how to identify these materials and

evaluate their conditions, and to show how to generate the

information and data necessary to propose and evaluate

conservation treatments. Through lectures, laboratory exer-

cises, and field trips, these three courses examined wood,

paint and other finishes to wood surfaces, concrete, mortar,

stucco, and plaster.

This thesis addressed the issues surrounding the con-

servation of dalle de verre (also known as faceted or slab

glass). A number of prominent buildings, as well as many

less architecturally significant structures contain panels

of this twentieth-century adaptation of stained glass.

Dalle de verre is defined as ¾" to 1" thick slabs of glass (or

“dalles”) set in a matrix of concrete or epoxy. It was widely

discussed in stained glass literature of the 1950s and 60s,

but little attention has been paid to this technique in more

recent decades.

Although a number of buildings featuring dalle de verre

panels have already required conservation or restoration,

there are no standard recommended treatments, and work

has always been conducted on a case-by-case basis. Con-

servation work has been performed by both stained glass

conservators and architectural conservators, although they

tend to approach the materials in different ways. This thesis

investigated the reasons that dalle de verre fails, its modes of

deterioration, and then focused on solutions to these issues.

In particular, previously applied or attempted conservation

treatments were evaluated and new possibilities discussed.

Issues of authenticity, architectural intent, and aesthetic

quality were investigated in applicable cases.

This thesis evaluated America’s aging shopping centers

as potential Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit projects.

Currently, many older shopping centers in inner-ring sub-

urbs are closed or struggle for business due to competition

with newer retail centers, the perception of an outmoded

design, and sprawl developments that draw the consumer

base. Most of these closed or struggling shopping centers

are subsequently abandoned, demolished, or extensively

renovated with little or no concern for historic character.

The results of this thesis suggest that the Historic Re-

habilitation Tax Credit Program offers a realistic alternative

to the typical design approach and financial structure ap-

plied to the redevelopment of these retail sites. Although this

approach should be considered only one element of a finan-

cial package, it is a potentially valuable tool with far reaching

effects. Monetary investment in the historic rehabilitation

of America’s first-generation regional shopping centers

extends beyond the preservation of individually significant

structures. It has the potential to aid in revitalization efforts

in declining and deteriorating inner-ring suburbs, while also

offering continued life to these important sources of social

and community identity that have become defining elements

in landscapes across America.

The New York City Landmarks Law seeks to ensure that

architecturally, historically, and culturally significant struc-

tures will be around for future generations. However, other

policies in the city, such as the zoning code, can either com-

plement or detract from the law’s provisions. The purpose

of this thesis was to investigate how New York City Zoning

Resolution (ZR) §74-711, which allows for bulk and use modi-

fications to historic landmarks, has affected architectural

integrity. This thesis examined a non-random sample of nine

§74-711 applications filed for properties within the Ladies’

Mile Historic District for the time period 1989–2008 and

found a positive effect on architectural integrity.

The purpose of this thesis was to determine whether a

preservation easement effectively preserves the architec-

tural and historical values of a modern residential interior.

Following the introduction, a general discussion about the

development of modern residential interiors and preserva-

tion easements set the background for an in-depth overview

of the case studies, modern residences protected with pres-

ervation easements including interior restrictions. The case

studies were the Henry B. Hoover House (Henry B. Hoover,

Lincoln, MA, 1937), the Ginzton House (Joseph Allen Stein,

Los Altos Hills, CA, 1948) and the Conger Goodyear House

(Edward Durell Stone, Westbury, NY, 1938). These case stud-

ies added depth to the broad overview, providing an oppor-

tunity to discuss the development of individual interiors, the

character-defining features and spaces, the preservation

easement restrictions, and any subsequent rehabilita-

tions. The case studies demonstrated preservation ease-

ments effectively protect the character-defining features

and spaces of modern residential interiors; however, the

restrictions are arbitrary and open to interpretation if the

easement-holding organization does not actively monitor

the restrictions or have the expertise to recommend appro-

priate design solutions. Furthermore, the best approach for

protecting a modern residential interior is through restric-

tions that blanket a character-defining space.

In the contemporary imagination, the notion of the artist

studio unconsciously provokes images of light-infused,

expansive, industrial spaces within older urban buildings.

This visual representation, as well as common discourse on

the subject, often points to 1960s artist colonies as the key

historical reference point for the birth of the modern urban

studio building.

Although the legacy of these stories is powerful and ap-

propriate within the overall history of artist studio buildings,

as well as historic preservation, it does not accurately portray

its roots. Present-day accounts of creatively preserving his-

toric buildings through conversions to artist studio buildings

can, in part, be attributed to well-publicized examples that

began to appear in the 1960s and 1970s. But it has unfortu-

nately masked a richer, more complex account of the long-

term relationship between artist studio buildings, cultural

values, urban development, and historic preservation that has

been actively developing since the mid-nineteenth century.

The objective of this thesis was to examine and identify

how the historic evolution of the artist studio building in the

United States continues to resonate in preservation today.

It recognizes from the outset that the “adaptive use — art-

ist studio building model” is a highly successful prototype

for the preservation of older, underutilized buildings. This

thesis explored the questions of why it became successful;

what events precipitated its development; and seeks clues

in the nineteenth century buildings that prefigured their ap-

propriateness for adaptive use.

Arte Mundit® cleaning paste has seen increased use for the

cleaning of stone building interiors. One significant advan-

tage to this product is the ease of removal and disposal of

the cured latex film that is part of the cleaning system. Arte

Mundit® is also generally effective as a cleaning system but

little work has been done that addresses the potential long-

term effects to stonework as a result of residue left after

cleaning. In response to this concern, this thesis explored

the following questions: Does Arte Mundit® leave residues

on or in the substrate it is meant to clean? Does the amount

of residue vary with the type of stone?

In order to answer these questions, an in-depth analysis

of the product and several stones used in architectural inte-

riors treated with Arte Mundit®, specifically granite, Berea

sandstone, Indiana limestone, Tennessee marble, travertine,

and Texas Cream limestone was conducted. Each sample was

examined by microscopy, under ultraviolet light measuring

capillary uptake. After the application and removal of Arte

Mundit®, the samples were tested for the presence of re-

sidual latex using Evolved Gas Analysis (EGA) and Pyrolysis-

Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (py-GC/MS). The

presence of absorbed electrolytes before and after treatment

with Arte Mundit® was measured using conductivity.

Based on the six interior stones tested, it can be con-

cluded that after treatment using Arte Mundit® residue

from the product remains on the stone. Within the sample

set, a correlation was noted between the presence of residue

and the overall surface topography.

This thesis explored the use of age criteria in historic pres-

ervation, focusing on how the fifty-year rule has contribut-

ed to the field’s current concept of the recent past. Within

contemporary governmental practice, preservationists have

largely concentrated on protecting the inherited resources of

previous generations. Now a rising constituency in the field

seeks not only to protect resources from the distant past,

but also those of its own lifetime, namely, the recent past.

This thesis examines how the notion of the recent past has

emerged in historic preservation, relating its development to

fundamental struggles with age, collective memory, and his-

torical objectivity. Relying on the passage of time to achieve

a level of objectivity, governmental preservationists have

instituted age criteria to differentiate the recent past from

the distant past and exclude it from consideration. However,

the rise of interest in the recent past among non-govern-

mental preservationists is evidence of the shortcomings

of the current age criteria. In particular, the fifty-year rule

has perpetuated age biases, facilitated the neglect of recent

resources, and impeded the ability to establish valuable links

between living collective memory and the built environment.

The benefits and drawbacks of current age criteria include:

the gain of claims to detachment and historical objectivity

versus the loss of resources and living collective memory. In

conclusion, this thesis asserted that governmental practice

should eliminate the fifty-year rule as a determining criterion

for evaluation, as well as suggest how the recent past might

be incorporated into the mainstream activities of historic

preservation.

Recognized internationally by UNESCO as a site of universal

heritage, Le Havre, France, is an ideal case for presenting

the utility of oral history to the field of Historic Preservation.

Reconstructed after World War II by Auguste Perret, the

city’s importance has, to this point, been defined by expert

scholars and institutions as it relates to the fields of archi-

tecture and urbanism. The detachment from a first-hand

understanding of Le Havre’s rebuilding has limited these

groups’ concept of significance. Through oral histories,

this thesis gave voice to Le Havre’s residents (the insid-

ers) and complemented the accepted outsider perspective

with a social dimension previously ignored, creating a more

complete history of Le Havre’s postwar reconstruction. This

thesis argued that oral histories do indeed provide an avenue

of historical research integral to the process of evaluating

a historical site’s meaning. Oral history can and should

be considered a primary tool by which to inform preserva-

tion’s work.

The act of providing water to the thirsty is considered

extremely noble in Islam. In Islamic civilization, this led to

the evolution of the sabyl, or charitable water dispensary. In

Cairo, the sabyl emerged in the fourteenth century, evolving

into an elaborate construction absorbing diverse architectur-

al styles. It attracted patronage from a wide range of wealthy

Cairenes who sought to perform a righteous deed fy sabyl

Allah (in the way of God) while asserting their social status.

Over the course of six centuries, sabyls dispensed water

from cisterns filled and replenished with Nile water by the

saqqys (water carriers). They were an integral component

of the water supply system of Cairo until the introduction

of piped water in the ninetieth century. For this reason,

as well as various social and urban changes that began

around the same time, numerous sabyls were razed or left

to deteriorate.

Today, over one-hundred sabyls survive in the UNESCO

World Heritage Site of Historic Cairo. While a few well known

examples have undergone conservation, most are unused

and in poor condition. This raises the question, how can the

sabyls of Historic Cairo be preserved? This study adopts a

multidisciplinary approach to answer this question, including

elements of history, design, conservation, and planning. It

concludes that sabyls are potentially useful buildings that can

be integrated back into the lives of Cairenes and play a role in

the revitalization of Historic Cairo. In order for this to be real-

ized, Egypt must reconsider its preservation policies.

The early to mid-century central station, identified today

as a power station or power plant, has intrigued communi-

ties, architectural historians and preservation organizations

alike, with chimneys soaring to the height of neighboring

church domes and imposing classical facades conspicuously

distinguishing themselves among a landscape of low-scale,

rather austere industrial buildings. Sited in historic indus-

trial zones once discrete from cities’ downtowns, power sta-

tions are now a part of the metropolitan core, as expanding

urban borders have engulfed these zones. This inclusion in

the downtown landscape has created increased development

pressure that frequently results in plans for the stations’

demolition. Their historical and architectural significance

has been well established and recognized. However, whilst

the equally-obsolete and significant industrial buildings that

surround them find new uses in the form of residences or

commercial spaces as post-industrial zones in downtown

redevelopments, the historic power station frequently rests

vacant and deteriorating; a brown-field site whose potential

for reuse is often overshadowed by its intimidating size.

The family farm retains a complex physical and social

identity in twenty-first century America. Even as fewer and

fewer people are directly involved in agriculture, the role of

farming in American life engenders debate as visions of red

barns, green pastures, and wholesome products clash with

industrial scale agriculture, rural sprawl, and processed

foods. Diverse policy discussions pertaining to land use,

cultural identity, public health, and environmental safety

have coalesced around the buildings, fields, and products of

the farm, creating multi-faceted connections — and tensions

— across the country.

Through four agricultural case studies in Wisconsin,

California, New York, and Vermont, this thesis evaluated

and critiqued the largely peripheral role the field of historic

preservation has assumed in these debates and argued that

preservationists can offer a critically important perspective.

The research explored new annunciations of historic signifi-

cance and authenticity that wed traditional discussions of

architectural form with other dimensions of historic con-

tinuity emerging from the foods and fields of the farm. By

better integrating preservation goals with those of farmers,

farming advocates, and agricultural policy-makers the work

forges a central role for holistic historic preservation plan-

ning in agriculture.

The Columbia MSRED program is an accelerated one-

year master’s degree offering special emphasis on core

competencies in real estate development, finance, enter-

prise management, and product implementation, combined

with frameworks for public policy partnerships and market

research methodologies.

The Columbia MSRED is the “D” School — not a “B” for

business school — as the entire emphasis is on the develop-

ment sector exclusively, and not on general business. The pro-

gram is unique in its curriculum, which offers two semesters

of real estate finance, and in that it focuses its core curriculum

on critical success factors and best practices for development,

including real estate law, market analysis, politics of develop-

ment, public/private partnerships, international development,

construction technologies, product development, architectural

development design, and asset/enterprise management.

Additionally, the MSRED program benefits from a

breadth of working professional adjunct professors to bring a

real-world and current practice set to campus. The program

has exposed students to a long-standing roundtable discus-

sion series that brings over 225 real estate industry leaders

to campus each year to discuss current trends in real estate

development. A continuing success within the program is

the Case Study Studio, which teams MSRED students with

GSAPP students in other programs to collaboratively explore

development approaches on a set of actual sites. Students

also benefit from the GSAPP’s Center for High Density Devel-

opment, a senior research lab and seminar on the fiscal, so-

cial, environmental, and investment benefits of high-density

development.

The GSAPP’s MSRED program, with its intensive core

curriculum and practitioner adjunct faculty, is uniquely suit-

ed to motivated individuals seeking to radically alter their

career paths with significant new employment options in the

real estate development industry.

The course objective was focused on training students

for rapid development decision-making and management of

team-based processes and critical success factors. Training

used real world case studies of actual development sites

that required defining new development plans and focusing

on essential feasibility. A series of four intensive team char-

rettes involved programming and design for selected sites.

Teams produced financial analysis, market analysis, and full

design documents for each case study.

Module 1: Brooklyn, Residential Infill

Located on Bergen Street at Classon Avenue,

this case study centered on creating a residential scheme

that responded to its context. The core issues focused on

developing the appropriate unit size, sales/rent per unit, unit

mix, and a feasible parking solution. Solutions included con-

textual and high-rise proposals and were marketed towards

a broad mix of demographics including: workforce, student,

and high-end residential product types.

Module 2: Newark, Mixed-Use

Sponsored by Cogswell Realty Group, this project

focused on urban revitalization. This site located adjacent to

the Broad Street Station in Newark, created an opportunity

for a market-driven, mixed-use solution. The major issues

included distance to Manhattan, a derelict site, and market

conditions. Proposals comprised office, residential, hotel,

retail, and community space.

Module 3: Harlem, Mixed-Use

This Kimco-owned site located at 125th St. and

Frederick Douglass Avenue was the subject for proposals

incorporating various mixes of uses including retail, residen-

tial, commercial, and hotel. Solutions sought to maximize

the site’s FAR while developing an appropriate tenant mix.

Module 4: 330 Lower Manhattan, Hotel

This Tishman Construction-sponsored module

focused on the adaptive reuse of a manufacturing building

at 330 Hudson Street. Solutions focused on renovation of

the existing and the addition of a new tower above to uti-

lize the site’s air rights. Schemes involved various mixes of

boutique hotel.

The intent of this course was to investigate the political

issues surrounding real estate development. Areas of focus

included interest groups and coalitions, fiscal analysis, and

the legal framework of development and the concept of

eminent domain, and how these issues are dealt with in the

press. More in-depth discussion of these issues unfolded in

a series of local case studies, including the High Line, Coney

Island, South Street Seaport, Atlantic Yards, Hudson Yards,

Moynihan Station, and Manhattanville.

Through lectures, written assignments, and case stud-

ies, students investigated new possibilities for the field of

real estate through turnaround strategies and new product

development. How will the re-positioning of assets affect

institutional ownership over the long term? What chal-

lenges face corporate executives with new workforce and

workplace issues? What new real estate products could

increase absorption or induce demand? What role will

architectural design play in the future? Topics included an

overview of marketplace and historical forces that shape

real estate form, fashion and functions; the process of

representation, with an emphasis on the relative accuracy

and utility of representational techniques and marketing

presentation formats; the psychology of the design process

and the developer’s role in recognizing and “managing” the

emerging design concept; site context issues, including

relationships of project design to site influences, scale and

grain, responsibility for design continuity, and respect for

traditional materials; the master planning process, its his-

torical precedents, and current efforts to create real estate

value; development programming and design management;

and turnarounds and repositioning strategies, including the

creation of new value from existing properties, stabilizing

under-performing special assets, improving yields on exist-

ing assets, and portfolio exit strategies.

This course was structured as a series of topically

oriented roundtable discussions with invited profession-

als appropriate to the topic. The weekly sessions were

selected to cover a wide range of building types and real

estate industry functions — most of which are not covered

in depth elsewhere in the MSRED curriculum. This was the

Tenth Annual Columbia Roundtable Series. Topics included

affordable housing; managing the relationships among bro-

kers, lawyers, and developers; capital markets and oversup-

ply vs. investment returns; careers in real estate; corporate

real estate and the sustainable workplace; alternative and

opportunistic investments and new sources of equity; sus-

taining market position and value in high-density residential

development; hotel development; trends in mortgage origi-

nation and security; pension funds, advisors, and alternative

investments; and REITs and institutional investors.

This course investigated the relationship between business

and design, aiming to cultivate a more integrated approach

to development. It introduced students to the fundamental

aspects of architectural design and how they relate to the

larger context of urban planning and urban development.

The approach of the course included hands-on design proj-

ects, lectures from visiting professionals, and walking tours

of the city.

This course explored the legal side of development. Topics

included purchase and sale agreements, examining the

key issues and problems involved in the sale of developed

real estate as well as the practical concerns of both the

seller and buyer; company organization and how to choose

an appropriate form of organization for real estate own-

ership and development; hazardous substances and the

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation

and Liability Act; contractual relationships between owner

and architect; methods for structuring construction projects

and the roles of the owner, architect, general contractor,

subcontractors, construction manager, and project man-

ager; ground leases and commercial leases; various meth-

ods of financing; multiple ownership properties; securitiza-

tion; affordable housing and various ways to structure such

developments; and development agreements and economic

development projects, exploring the evolving relationship

between the public and private sectors in the realm of eco-

nomic development projects.

“… by and large, developers as a breed have only one special-

ized skill not generally available in the population: they have

the ability to do fairly high-level arithmetic, in their heads,

while talking about a completely different topic. What devel-

opers do, fundamentally, is run the numbers. And the most

impressive number they run is the one in which they manage

to divide extremely large dollar figures by 43,560, which is the

number of square feet in an acre. By so doing they can and do

reduce much of the human experience — quite accurately, as

it turns out — to the Deal.”

—“Edge City”. Joel Garreau. Anchor, 1992, p. 224.

This course was an introduction to methods of financial anal-

ysis for real estate investments. Topics included methods of

valuation, cash flow forecasting, computer modeling, debt,

leverage, and deal structures. Emphasis was placed on the

financing of individual projects and was specifically oriented

toward numerical analysis, making use of case studies and

computer spreadsheet analysis.

This course provided a broad perspective on real estate

issues, trends, and opportunities in international econo-

my. Real estate development is at the nexus of the global

issues of rapid urbanization, economic development, public

policy, and capital flows, and it therefore provides insights

into both policy and financial issues. The course brought

together students of international affairs, real estate, eco-

nomic development, and public policy that wished to broaden

their exposure to the unique aspects of international real

estate development. Examples of projects in Asia, Europe,

and the Americas were used to demonstrate the processes

and risks involved in international transactions and invest-

ments in real estate. The course covered topics including

current and potential opportunities for investment and

development in international real estate markets, financial

and market analyses, capital flows, cultural, political and

social-economic considerations of doing business in inter-

national real estate development, and the respective roles

of public and private sectors.

This course explored public sector involvement in real estate

development and developed a set of skills and an under-

standing of resources necessary to manage the complex

blend of governmental powers and conflicting goals and

agendas that are inherent in public/private development.

Students examined the motivations, powers, and constraints

of public agencies, approaches to planning projects, solicit-

ing support, sustaining momentum, and structuring public/

private partnerships. Case studies were drawn from a variety

of projects, primarily in the New York metropolitan region.

The course focused on the following general themes: fun-

damentals of government initiative (public purpose and

political context as well as governmental resources, con-

straints, powers, and process); characteristics of public

sector development (multiple mandates and constituen-

cies; focus on process, equity, and precedent; short-term

political orientation versus long-term planning and invest-

ment horizons; political risk taking priority over capital risk;

motivation by public benefit rather than investment yield);

similarities with private development, elements of success

(entrepreneurship, market responsiveness, and intelligent

design); striking a balance between private goals and public

purposes (the fiduciary role in developing public/private

partnerships, governmental versus private planning initia-

tives, and promoting the public interest).

“Good design is good business” — the mantra of this course —

reflected the idea that the creation of a well-designed building

is critical to the success any development project. The course

was directed toward students in real estate development

seeking to learn the essentials of modern architecture and

the concepts associated with creative, practical architectural

design across various real estate product types, including resi-

dential apartment buildings, office structures, hospitality and

resort properties, and retail properties. Students investigated

the importance of urban design, sustainability, and preserva-

tion and acquired skills in reading buildings plans, negotiating

with zoning and code regulations, and selecting an architect

and design team. The course offered a real-life perspective on

architectural design issues, with evaluative exercises on built

examples and several class visits to top architectural firms in

New York City.

Market analysis is an essential component in real estate

transactions. Individuals and institutions use the analysis to

make critical decisions in markets that change frequently

and often unevenly. The year 2007 found a great deal of

uncertainty in the marketplace, in the U.S. and worldwide.

This course provided a basis for looking forward in the ever-

shifting markets to arrive at a reasonable determination of

real estate development and investment potential.

Decisions for financing, investing, development, public

policy formulation, and asset management and disposition

require comprehensive market analysis as one major step in

the development and financing process to: (1) reduce risk, (2)

achieve anticipated returns, and (3) make informed invest-

ment, development, and policy decisions. The analyses are

applicable to both the public and the private sectors, to both

non-profit and profit-based organizations.

Columbia’s Urban Design Program exploits the peda-

gogical potential of the studio as a form of design-based

inquiry. To explore how the city is thought, projects are seen

as critical instruments to focus on topics in contemporary

urban design practice. All three studios emphasize a multi-

scalar approach to the urban site (local, neighborhood, met-

ropolitan, regional, and global) and approach urban design

as an inter-disciplinary practice that engages with and nego-

tiates between different actors in the urban dynamic.

In general the curriculum is focused on the futures of

cities that have come of age in the modern industrial era

and now face the transition to new forms and meanings,

in dialogue with new cities in development. Particular em-

phasis is placed on questions of urban infrastructure and

urban ecology. A dialogue is woven between New York City

and other world capitals with analogous contemporary

conditions, moving between recent theoretical debates on

future urbanism and applied projects that directly engage

the realities of the transformation of the post-industrial city.

In this way, the program attempts to engage both the daily

reality of our urban condition and the theoretical abstrac-

tion of current academic debate. Within this position, urban

design is pursued as a critical re-assessment of conven-

tional approaches relative to questions of site and program,

infrastructure, and form-mass, as they have been defined by

urban design practice during this century. The urban design

curriculum is unique as a coherent pedagogic position on

the role of architecture in the formation of a discourse on ur-

banism at this moment of post-industrial development and

indeed, of post-urban sensibility relative to the traditional

Euro-American settlement norms.

By proposing an expanded architecturally-based teach-

ing model for urban design, the program advocates working

from the “ground up,” rather than adopting “a top down”

master-planning approach. It takes advantage of archi-

tecture’s traditional concerns for site specificity, spatial

experience, construction logics, economics of organization,

morphology, and physical form, while also engaging forms of

knowledge associated with disciplines such as urban plan-

ning, urban ecology, and landscape design. In this sense,

the program is considered experimental, exploratory, and

unorthodox in comparison to the established canons of the

traditional architectural design studio.

The sequencing of the studios is intended to build the

linguistic substructure that is essential to urban design

thought and practice. The use of language evolves from how

representation of the urban site determines the quality of

site knowledge (representation) to more specifically how

discourse on the city determines interpretations of its past

and projections of its futures (discourse) to the invention

of the strategic languages of public engagement involving

operational mechanisms for urban transformation at both

the formal and programmatic levels (public synthesis). This

sequence asserts that the grounding conditions of an urban

design project — site and program — are complex mecha-

nisms that must be actively and critically constructed rather

than simply accepted as “givens” beyond a designer’s control.

While each urban design studio presents students with dif-

fering urban conditions and programming opportunities, all

three semesters together reinforce the program’s commit-

ment to help individual designers to develop rigorous urban

design tools and methods, to acquire a working language to

communicate urban design ideas, and to enhance the critical

skills needed to test and refine urban design strategies.

Urban Design Students

As an interpretive framework,

the notion of the urban constellation directs attention to the

ever-shifting collection of physical and non-physical systems

that interact to configure urban experience. As a design activ-

ity, constellating focuses on assembling the array of physi-

cal forms, infrastructural interconnections, development

models, and social agents needed to create new forms of

public space. To create urban spaces that afford lasting value

while still maintaining capacity to accommodate change

over time, students manipulated the underlying systems

structuring urban experience to effect urban transforma-

tion through projects that aspired to more than polishing the

surface appearance of the city. Their work aimed variously to

amplify the local; discover profitability in wastelands; create

constructive interferences between urban systems; enhance

urban green stock; facilitate alternative occupations of public

places; and construe public space from intersecting social,

economic, and ecological sheds.

Twentieth century

New York enjoyed a reputation as a prototype for urban life,

in all of its cultural and industrial manifestations. However, in

the current global environment New York’s status as the global

“model city” is being challenged against a new set of localized

conditions. These include changes in land value, use and zoning,

shifts in various levels of policy, stewardship, and ownership

(public, private or public/private) to the reconfiguration and

implementation of complex and interrelated natural and man-

made systems. In fact, the flux and rapid change in both global

and local conditions and dynamics are being observed and

are provoking the design fields to engage the engineering and

science fields to embark on a common search to understand

and respond to the relations between macro trends and

micro behaviors that have large predictable and unpredict-

able consequences.

The Urban Design Fall Studio 07 re-envisioned New York’s

multiple scales and territories of operation to challenge an

underlying assumption that the coherence of traditional forms

of the city (core and edge) have been thrown into question by

processes of distribution and collection linked to broader

global transformations, such as changes in environment or

emerging economic forces. The design groups developed ur-

ban models, i.e. the studio’s collective explorations of the “new

model city,” with clear consideration and precise positioning

of site specific projects in relation to broader concerns such as

sources and resources, geography and cartography, capacity

and flow, density and intensity, quality and quantity, territory

and boundary, vitality and equity, etc…

In the con-

text of dramatic ecological threat, economic uncertainties,

and severely overcrowed road systems elevating tensions

between the city center and its periphery, the United Nations

Development Programme published Thailand Human

Development Report 2007: Sufficiency Economy and Human

Development. The report highlighted the stark contrast

between Thailand’s impressive overall economic and social

progress and the many deep-rooted development challeng-

es that remain. Incomes are highly skewed, many people

still live in poverty, and the provision of essential services

differs greatly in quality and quantity in different areas of the

country. At the same time the natural environment is under

great stress, and family and community life is strained by

migration and urbanization.

The Carbon Studio engaged the Sufficiency Economy

Model through a critique of an earlier BMA/MIT Bangkok

Master Plan along the Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem Canal

and at the Hua Lamphong Railway Station. The urban design

teams found new strategic, formal, and material pathways

toward a sustainable future, producing a final report (http://

www.lulu.com/content/2503696) that was presented to the

local university partner, Chulalongkorn University, and pub-

lic sector partner, The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.

The report organized the projects into three general themes:

projects that addressed density, currents, and movement in

the city, focusing on its density as well as the various services

supported by different infrastructure systems; projects that

implemented urban design models based on the research of

causes and effects of increased CO2 emission, on both local

and global scales; and projects that took a holistic approach

to address the role of carbon reduction in future urban de-

sign models, asserting that change can only succeed through

culturally and socially inclusive design strategies.

The focus of the Urban Planning Program is on future

physical, economic and social well being of the world’s cities.

The rapid pace of global urbanization has been accompanied

by an increasing polarization between the well off and the

poor in the cities of both the more developed and less devel-

oped nations of the world. Unless these polarizations and the

ensuing antagonisms are reversed, global urbanization and

the population migrations it has engendered will work to the

detriment and not the betterment of all of us. Developing the

capacity of the next generation of planners to adapt to and

address the social and environmental challenges brought

about by a rapidly urbanizing world is a central concern of

the Program. The Urban Planning program began this aca-

demic year with a new director, Robert Beauregard.

The Program was re-accredited by the Planning Ac-

creditation Board (PAB). The site visit occurred in the fall

semester and the decision to re-accredit was received in late

May. The Program had a number of visiting professors dur-

ing the year. Richard Tomlinson from Johannesburg taught

full-time to maintain the commitment to international de-

velopment and planning. Ana Baptista taught Environmental

justice in the fall semester. And Chester Hartman, a nation-

ally-recognized housing expert, taught Housing Policy and

housing studio in the spring semester.

On the faculty side, Peter Marcuse and Laura Kurgan

taught a course on ethics and justice in planning and ar-

chitecture. Stacey Sutton began a project on neighborhood

development in Korea. Smita Srinivas continued her work

in India with the Technological Change Lab. Sarah Williams

worked with an art project in Brooklyn to set up cell-phone-

available interpretation of sites of interest, identified through

GPS data. Elliott Sclar completed work with the Rockefeller

Foundation on poverty in the global south. Bob Beauregard

lectured at universities in Helsinki, Turkku, and London.

In addition, the program, with the help of Janet Foster,

made progress in establishing better management proce-

dures and providing a greater degree of transparency. The

students organized the weekly lecture series (LIPS) and pro-

vided helpful advice through the Program Council.

New York City has currently planned or has

underway a number of megaprojects (e.g., Hudson Yards,

the World Trade Center site, the Columbia/Manhattanville

development, East River: Manhattan, Brooklyn Parks, and

Governors Island) that will involve a great deal of construc-

tion activity. These projects pose logistic issues related to the

movement of construction materials into the city and onto

sites with little room for storage.

Moreover, the movement of construction materials by

truck generates traffic and safety issues and could be re-

directed to barges on a meaningful scale. The purpose of this

studio was to explore the economic, social, environmental,

and other aspects of the siting and design of construction

materials transfer sites along the NYC waterfront for the

movement of construction materials in and out of this island

geography. The client was the Regional Plan Association.

This studio addressed various issues facing

Manhattanville Homes, a large state-aided, high-quality

public housing project between Broadway and Amsterdam,

and 129th and 135th streets. Principal issues addressed

included NYC Housing Authority’s plan to capture/reuse

project open space (parking areas, recreation areas) and the

movement of several hundred units into the Sec. 8 program.

Related issues were the status and fate of small neighbor-

hood-service businesses on Amsterdam between 125th and

135th Streets threatened by gentrification. Clients were the

Manhattanville Tenants Association and the Manhattanville

Area Consortium of Businesses.

Stamford’s East Main Street and the sur-

rounding neighborhood are experiencing a rapid trans-

formation. From its prior role as a center for low-density

automobile dealerships and other automobile-related uses

comes a more intensive development profile with new rental

and condominium apartment buildings and pedestrian-ori-

ented retail stores among other new uses.

One of the critical challenges to this situation is to de-

velop a multi-modal transportation strategy for the corridor

that will encourage further redevelopment while preserving

and enhancing neighborhood quality of life. The goal of the

studio was to situate the corridor so that it complements the

major office and retail development of the downtown core.

The objective was also to make the corridor into a village

center with its own identity. The client for this studio was the

East Main Street Neighborhood Association.

The Tigre Delta is located about 20

miles north of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Once a collection

of small towns, agricultural farms, a few industries, rec-

reational activities, and informal housing populated mainly

by households in need, it is now filling up with tourist facili-

ties and gated communities targeted to upper-middle-in-

come households. Yet, the number of poor households has

remained unchanged. Moreover, the ecological sustainabil-

ity and economic feasibility of the area are uncertain.

The purpose of the studio was to address the develop-

mental challenges posed by the rapid (sub)urbanization of

the Tigre Delta. Particular attention was given to sustain-

ability and social justice issues. The client for this studio was

the Tigre Municipality/Local Development Corporation.

The client for this studio was the Greenwich

Village Society for Historic Preservation, which is the lead

organization in a consortium of community groups and orga-

nizations. The groups were concerned about the contraction

and development of St. Vincent’s Hospital on Seventh Avenue

and 11th, 12th, and 13th Streets in Greenwich Village in New

York City. The hospital plans to consolidate all of its facili-

ties into one building and sell all the rest to a developer for

market housing.

Because the entire hospital campus falls within the

Greenwich Village Historic District, any plans to demolish or

build must go through public hearings and be approved by the

Landmarks Preservation Commission. St. Vincent’s Hospital

is also governed by special zoning regulations, therefore the

City Planning Commission and the City Council must also ap-

prove any such changes after extensive public hearings. These

hearings were held during the winter and spring of 2008.

St. Vincent’s plans would be, by far, the largest devel-

opment ever in the Greenwich Village Historic District since

its designation, and the largest development anywhere

in Greenwich Village in at least 50 years. This studio consid-

ered many important planning issues: historic preservation,

density and zoning, urban design, traffic and transportation

issues, housing diversity, and open space. It also engaged

a number of important approval processes so it afforded stu-

dents an opportunity to learn about these processes directly.

The studio worked with recommendations, alter-

natives, changes, and modifications to the proposal but

also developed a greater vision for the best kind of plan

for this area. The expansion also raises important ques-

tions about how more than one social and public good can be

reconciled — the change and expansion of a valued health

facility and the preservation, livability, and development of a

historic neighborhood.

Cities are run by city-governments. These governments

are providers of infrastructure and goods themselves, and

they also regulate the provision of goods by private firms.

They promote health and welfare through land use and

environmental regulation, and they are charged with ensur-

ing that political power and economic resources will be

distributed equitably. Yet governments operate in societies

where resource allocation is governed primarily by markets.

Economics provides tools — often controversial ones — to

guide decisions about when and how government should be

involved in providing or subsidizing services and in shaping

market activity.

In evaluating whether to adopt a project, the following are

some of the factors the planner must consider. (1) Projects

often yield benefits and require costs over long periods of

time. Paving of a road, for example, must occur at the begin-

ning of the life of that road, whereas the benefits from the

road will occur for many years after the paving was com-

pleted. Do the benefits exceed the cost? (2) The benefits

from a project may be uncertain. For example, should the

government invest in a firehouse in a particular location?

(3) User fees for a particular project may not be sufficient to

cover the cost of providing the service. For example, should

the government provide a particular public transportation

services if the fares would not cover the cost of constructing

and operating the service? (4) A project may be designed

to achieve a particular result. For instance, the purpose of

including a work requirement in welfare programs is often

to enhance the earnings of welfare recipients after they

leave these programs. Does the requirement produce the

desired result?

This course explored the political, scientific, economic,

legal, and cultural impacts of environmental justice (EJ)

and risk analysis. Through theoretical and practical read-

ings, detailed case studies, media content analysis, and

an exploration of social movements, the course examined

how claims of environmental injustice are intertwined with

the politics of race, class, and gender inequalities, as well

as cultures of science, technology, and risk assessment.

The course analyzed the political implications of research

into disproportionate environmental impacts, EJ litigation

under the Civil Rights Act, and policy responses to address

claims of environmental injustices from the local to the

international level. The course also explored the impact

that community-driven actions, particularly those aimed at

addressing adverse health and environmental impacts in

communities of color, have had on the political, legal, and

cultural landscape of environmental politics and risk. Case

study topic areas included urban air pollution, community

land use planning, clean water access, occupational safety,

and international development.

This course weaved together the substantive history of

the planning profession in the United States with its intel-

lectual evolution. It focused on the planning function and

related planning roles. This course considered different

rationales for undertaking planning, alternative ways of

practicing it, the relationships between experts and citi-

zens, and the political tensions within planning practice.

Particular attention was given to the interplay of power and

knowledge; ethics and social responsibility; and issues of

race, gender, class, and identity.

This course taught digital methods of creating visual infor-

mation and was designed to build those skills fundamental

to understanding and communicating projects from the

scale of the building to that of the city. Classes observed

and discussed techniques of effective visual communication

and the methods and details of realizing such work using

the computer. Students were encouraged to bring design

studio projects to be measured, interpreted, outlined,

extruded, sliced, detailed, annotated, and displayed in a

pin-up and portfolio.

Many issues related to housing have vexed planners and

policy makers for decades. Why is there a shortage of

affordable housing? Should everyone be guaranteed a right

to decent housing? What is decent housing? When, if ever,

should the government intervene in the provision of hous-

ing? Does rent control really keep rents affordable? Should

policymakers concern themselves with what type of neigh-

borhoods people reside in? Introduction to Housing provid-

ed students with the analytical skills to address these and

many more difficult questions dealing with how to house our

diverse population. Students learned to analyze and inter-

pret the plethora of housing data available publicly in order

to assess housing market conditions in a particular locality.

With these skills students are better prepared to formulate

effective housing policies.

Planning in a Design Build World focused on the skills, prod-

ucts, tools, methods, processes, and relationships among

the variety of disciplines required to accomplish strategic

infrastructure design and real estate development planning.

The intense level of interdisciplinary coordination required

from concept through construction on any public/private

development project is overwhelming without exposure to

the professions integral in implementation of pro-formas

and policies. The course established a basic understanding

of who does what within the overlapping field of disciplines,

how projects move forward, and who is making ultimate

decisions and with what information. The class also sought

to push boundaries; for those with design, economic, or

environmental backgrounds: what keeps us from achieving

our sustainability goals and recommend actions to remedy

these. In what ways can the environmental review process be

leveraged as an innovative urban design tool? How does one

discover a place for creativity or even make a positive differ-

ence in a field predominantly defined by market demands,

bureaucrats, and egotists? With the belief that New York

City has had a unique way of defining and answering such

questions throughout its history (most recently with the

PLANYC2030 effort), students investigated these topics and

visited field offices and development sites, and honed visual

and verbal communication skills.

This course served as an introduction to how public entities

(cities, states, public benefit corporations) finance urban

development by issuing public securities. Beginning with an

examination of how public entities leverage limited capital

resources through the issuance of debt, including a review of

statutory and political considerations as well as limitations

put on such debt, the class explored the limitations of tax-ex-

empt financing and the kinds of development that can qualify

for such financing. By examining different kinds of develop-

ment financing, including mass transit, health care facilities,

schools, public utilities, airports, and housing, students were

able to see the major forms of tax-exempt financing that are

available. The class also delved into rating agency require-

ments, security disclosure rules, market dynamics, and the

mechanics of offering bonds for public sale. Students dis-

cussed criticism of public financing and looked at failures

and bond defaults. Students were expected to review offer-

ing statements and related financial information for actual

financings being marketed in the public markets. The course

consisted of a mix of lectures, guest lectures from practitio-

ners, discussion, and group presentations.

Today, for the first time in human history, more than half

of the world’s population lives in cities. With increasing

urbanization, uneven economic development, and deplet-

ing resources, cities in the 21st century demand serious

consideration in order to appropriately manage them. The

idea of minimizing human impact on the natural environ-

ment is now a generally accepted goal. At the same time,

exploiting resources, both natural and cultural, is accepted

as necessary to achieve the goals of economic development.

While consensus is possible on the broad objectives of urban

sustainability, the approaches, and efforts at accomplish-

ing them vary widely. Debates rage between revolution and

reform, more technology and less, to embrace urban density

or abandon city life. Meanwhile, the universal goals of sus-

tainable development have to be reconciled with the particu-

larities of a place, its history, culture, and social institutions.

This course explored the diversity of contemporary debates

around sustainability and the city and investigated the man-

agement of change in the urban environment to nurture

positive and enduring relationships amongst the natural and

social worlds, and the built environment. The objective was

to work towards a framework for making cities sustainable.

Topics included sustainability and the crisis of urban devel-

opment; perceptions of nature and urbanism; globalization,

culture and politics; tourism and heritage; innovations to

promote sustainability including mixed use and transporta-

tion, green building and urban greening, water and energy

resources; disasters; climate risks; housing, community,

equity, and gender.

Although many urban planners see this subject as formulas,

models, and attempts to predict travel behavior, it is more

understandable when one seeks to relate land use and the

potential transportation connection. The hierarchy of trans-

portation modes begins with the shortest distances between

two points — walking, usually up to a distance of a mile or

20 minutes and biking which takes one a bit further. The

automobile and various modes of transit, such as the bus

and rail, are much more regional and are part of a network.

In dense urban areas, where space is at a premium, transit

is the way to travel because more people are moved more

rapidly. However, America’s love affair with the automobile,

furthered by major funding for highways across a mostly

low-density environment, does not always relate the most

appropriate mode of travel to land development. This course

contrasted the rise, fall, and latest attempts at knitting tran-

sit into the metropolitan fabric while trying to improve the

dilemma of too many people taking to the road for the con-

venience of being stuck in traffic.

This course presented the fundamentals of land use plan-

ning as practiced in the US today and gave students the

opportunity to develop and design a land use plan for a small

hypothetical city. Prior to developing the HypoCity, students

studied contemporary land use planning issues, including

urbanization and urban growth trends, ethics, quality of

life indicators, ecological land use planning, and inner city

revitalization. Attention was also given to what constitutes a

comprehensive plan, principles of good plan-making, where

to start, specific steps to take, information needs, and how to

choose methods to accommodate a range of community sit-

uations. Through case study analysis of several large-scale

planned developments in New York City, students learned

analytic and synthetic skills, practiced oral, graphic, and

written communication skills, and participated as effective

members of a planning team.

Each team determined the socioeconomic, cultural, en-

vironmental, and political aspects of their HypoCity to form a

context for planning that allowed them to pursue particular

issues of interest. Teams assessed existing and emerging

community conditions; formulated goals; translated pro-

jections of economic and population change into their land

use implications for land, location, and community services;

determined the suitability of land and locations for various

land uses; and applied computer technology to specific plan-

making tasks such as map presentations, land suitability

analyses, and the drawing of plans. The tangible result of

the semester’s work was a professional-grade land use plan

that incorporated the fundamentals of land use planning and

the particular innovations created by the planning teams.

The nineteenth century development of urban planning as

a profession and academic discipline had its basis in public

health initiatives designed to improve the quality of life of

urban dwellers. Contemporary environmental challenges

are once again uniting the fields of urban planning and

public health. In the next 50 years, urban planners seeking

to improve the quality of life for increasing numbers of urban

residents throughout the world will grapple with major social,

political, economic, and environmental issues that affect the

physical structure of cities and the health of their residents.

Topics range from increases in urbanization and population

growth in poorer regions of the world, to the global spread of

infectious diseases and the creation of new refugee popula-

tions brought about, in part, by global climate change.

Working together, scientists and professionals from ur-

ban planning and public health may better ensure that new

communities are built and old communities are revitalized to

be more egalitarian, sustainable, and, ultimately, healthier

for all residents. The goal of this course was to provide the

ideas and information necessary to integrate environmen-

tal viability and sustainable development with other primary

concerns of urban planners and public health scientists and

practitioners, namely, social justice, human rights, environ-

mental integrity, and health in the broadest sense, to include

well-being and quality of life.

The physical shape of cities at each moment in time is a

reflection of social choices. These choices are constrained

by history, social values, technology, population change,

and economic opportunities. Clearly, issues of power, social

equity, and cultural sensibilities are embedded in these con-

straints. The ways in which these constraints operate are

both powerful and complex. Although they play themselves

out differently in different places, there are still strong simi-

larities in the patterns among various places. This course

explored the dynamics through which the physical shape of

urban settlements emerge. Students sought to compara-

tively understand how urban space is organized in both the

developed and the developing world. In this they were guided

by an attempt to understand what is place specifically and

generically in each case. The goal was not to develop a one

size fits all theory of urban space, but rather to develop the

ability to read how the dynamics of urban space play them-

selves out in specific cases.

New York City appears to be in a state of great transforma-

tion. At this time, New York is viewed by many as a place

where a mature American city can re-shape itself through

comprehensive planning and design of its built environment,

infrastructure, transportation, and neighborhoods. What are

some of the distinctive problems that make New York unique

and, at the same time, a potential model for other cities?

The course provided an understanding of the collabora-

tions, conflicts, tools, and strategies surrounding planning in

New York today. It focused on a selection of current planning

projects, small and large, ranging from the Hudson Yards

in Manhattan to the Atlantic Yards plan in Brooklyn, and

from Jamaica and Willets Point in Queens to Hunts Point

in the Bronx. The students’ inquiry centered on the Mayor’s

PlaNYC, examining its goals and recommendations and as-

sessing the challenges to its implementation.

There is probably no other activity that links people and place

in more complex ways than work. Work remains a primary

locus of human identity and mobilization. Even with labor

migration between cities and across countries, urban work

continues to anchor people to their surroundings in multiple

ways. Particular labor markets have specific characteristics.

Furthermore, the changing division of labor appears to dra-

matically affect the manner in which people participate in

social, economic, and political facets of urban and national

life. The increasing inter-connectedness of sectors across

national boundaries complicates the governance of work.

Since work is a major influence on urban transportation

systems, housing, other public infrastructure, processing

zones, and factories, these trends are of particular interest.

In this course, students critically examined the institutions

that create markets from work, as well as paid and unpaid

work. Understanding how work is structured and governed

today around the world provides a better grasp of the every-

day functioning of city-regions and an appreciation of how

they can be planned and governed to promote economic

development and equity. It also provides a historical and

contemporary theoretical context within which to enquire

about scales and types of governance.

This advanced seminar for Ph.D. students focused on under-

standing the State. Students looked at its component orga-

nizations, institutional underpinning, norms, rule-making,

and other processes of administration, but also addressed

issues of symbolism and power. The course covered diverse

topics such as: the state as policy arena, democracy and

types of governance, organizational theory, questions of

bureaucracy, rationality and planning, the emergence of

informal and formal institutions, rule-making, behavioral

and cognitive frameworks for state action, state sanction

and legitimacy, and public sector reform.

Political economy can be described as the study of institu-

tions and modes of governance. It attempts to capture dif-

ferent models of how society’s politics and economy are

intertwined. It is also a discerning look at the language,

models, and actual history of social change. There are many

“schools” within the field of political economy attempting

to describe issues such as the role of the state, the opti-

mal path to development, and the most equitable forms of

redistribution. These also comprise strong behavioral and

institutional assumptions about locality and nationality and

how to run urban and other development projects.

On a regular basis planners are called upon to either col-

lect original data or obtain data from secondary sources.

Therefore, planners must be comfortable summarizing,

analyzing, and presenting quantitative data, and be comfort-

able developing logical empirically based arguments using

statistical techniques and analytic methods. Additionally,

urban planners are often called upon to review quantita-

tive analyses and assess the validity of arguments made by

others, as well as design independent research studies to

test various hypotheses and make effective decisions. This

course prepared graduate students in urban planning to

critically review analyses prepared by others and to conduct

basic statistical data analyses independently.

Mega-events are events that a country and city can expect

“to host” once only in the space of some decades. There

are essentially three types of mega-events: World’s Fairs/

Universal Exhibitions/EXPOs, the Olympics, and the FIFA

Football World Cups. These events are located in a host city

(World Fair and the Olympics) or host cities (Football World

Cup) and involve a tremendous amount of investment in

infrastructure, hospitality services, marketing of the coun-

try and city and, of course, tourism. As such, mega-events

can have profound urban impacts. An interesting and recent

feature of mega-events is that they are now also occur-

ring in developing countries, for example, the 2008 Beijing

Olympics, the 2010 Shanghai Expo and the FIFA 2010 Football

World CupTM in South Africa.

This course betrayed a special interest in mega-events

in developing countries but included references to mega

events, past and present, throughout the world. This in-

cludes the bidding process to host a mega event, which has

become inordinately expensive. New York’s bid for the 2012

Olympics is a case in point. The purpose of the course was

to examine the impact of mega-events on cities, their infra-

structure, economy, and management.

To a considerable degree urban policy in developing coun-

tries is formulated and propagated by multilateral and

bilateral development agencies, global development con-

sulting firms, foundations, and academics who consult to

all these agencies. A significant feature of these agencies

and academics is their working with host governments, from

national to local, to engage in “knowledge sharing,” “best

practice,” and “policy development based on what works.”

In addition, specialist agencies have been constructed to

enhance public-private partnerships and privatization and

to increase “deal flow.” In the last decade or so, along with

notions of “best practice” coming to include working with

NGOs and CBOs, have arisen local, regional, and interna-

tional NGOs such as Shack/Slum Dwellers International

(SDI), Homeless International and the Centre on Housing

Rights and Evictions (COHRE) that promote a “rights-based”

approach to urban policy.

The purpose of the course was to explore the formu-

lation of urban policy in developing countries, the influ-

ence of these institutions on urban policy, and the role of

the web in “knowledge sharing.” The course included case

studies on particular policies in a number of countries and,

inter alia, “knowledge sharing,” “best practice,” “hints,” and

“housing rights.”

The National Environmental Policy Act and the several state

or local regulations requiring environmental impact assess-

ment — including the New York State Environmental Quality

Review Act (SEQRA) and the New York City Environmental

Quality Review (CEQR) process — require public decision-

makers to consider potential short-term and long-term

environmental effects of projects or actions. These regula-

tions and processes set forth specific procedures or method-

ologies to follow in the preparation of environmental assess-

ments or environmental impact statements. The regulations

also require incorporation of public participation and agency

coordination at several steps in the process. This course

explored the key procedural elements of NEPA, SEQRA, and

CEQR; examined the key analytic techniques used in impact

assessment; and investigated how application of environ-

mental impact assessment affects project outcome.

For the built environment to operate properly, engineered

service systems and roadways are needed. For it to be

healthful and pleasant, modern utility networks and support

facilities have to be developed. To move human settlements

toward sustainability, advanced technology and sensible use

of natural processes should be put in play. The institutional

and financial frameworks, within which service systems have

to be implemented and maintained, need critical attention.

Within this context, the practical scope of the course

encompassed what is generally known as subdivision de-

sign and municipal engineering. Subdivision design deals

with the most common form of city building during the last

half-century in North America. While frequently dismissed

as sprawl, new attitudes and practices can create attractive

communities in balance with the natural environment and

municipal infrastructure. Municipal engineering has been

a concern in human settlements since ancient times. Dirty

water, abysmal sanitation, and lack of mobility have plagued

city residents for centuries and persist today in much of the

developing world. Only in the last century have workable

systems been developed that can handle livability problems,

albeit through heavy investment in engineered systems. New

approaches seek to minimize fiscal cost by relying more on

natural processes.

It is not enough for professional planners and design-

ers to just appreciate these concerns; they must be able to

work actively and responsibly in the structuring and imple-

mentation of the base systems and new concepts.

Vibrant commercial corridors are the lifeblood of a neighbor-

hood. This thesis focused on how local community groups

affect the vitality of commercial corridors. Much research

has been done on how business improvement districts and

empowerment zones affect retail corridors, but little atten-

tion has been given to those communities that do not ben-

efit from these initiatives. Focusing on one neighborhood in

Queens, New York, the research indicated that commercial

corridor vitality is as much a result of the entrepreneurial

spirit of the residents who live there as of how the incentives

given by non-profits and government agencies are shaped.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg set a target in

PlaNYC 2030 to cut by 30% New York City’s carbon dioxide

emissions by 2030. Forty-nine percent of that reduction is

predicated on improving the energy efficiency of the building

sector. This thesis examined the implementation barriers

for a municipal-level policy on demand-side energy reduc-

tion. The findings suggested that the policy environment

poses three barriers. First, the City government does not

have full jurisdiction to regulate energy efficiency in build-

ings. Second, energy efficiency is a negotiating tool of the

political marketplace. Third, financial and human resourc-

es limit the City’s capacity to implement effective policy.

Millions of homes are expected to enter into foreclosure

over the next year. This thesis focused specifically on the

needs of localities that are affected by high rates of mort-

gage foreclosure. Interviews with policy-makers and fore-

closure experts in three localities that have been hard hit by

mortgage foreclosure — Detroit, Michigan; Cleveland, Ohio;

and Stockton, California — were used to determine specific

problems facing localities. Comparing this data to President

Bush’s Foreclosure Prevention and Mitigation Plan, it seems

that the President’s proposal fails to solve key problems that

localities cannot resolve without federal intervention. These

findings have implications for the ability of cities to respond

to the mortgage foreclosure crisis.

South Africa adapted the concept of the developmental state

to demarcate its role in directing economic growth, develop-

ment, and the redistribution of social and economic resourc-

es to redress systemic poverty and repression. Through the

Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) 1994,

housing provision for the poor and marginalized segments

of the population became a primary example of the govern-

ment’s commitment. Housing provision has produced over

two million units, yet beneficiaries in some urban contexts

have chosen to be relocated to informal housing and to sell

these units.

This thesis asserted that unsustainable provision has

resulted in this condition. The central question is whether

housing provision has resulted in unsustainable housing for

the urban poor. The hypothesis asserted that this is the case

and that it is necessary to address the needs of the urban

poor particularly with regard to employment. The research

traced relevant policy frameworks and models regarding

housing and economic development and integration to un-

derstand the rising phenomenon of unsustainable housing

for the urban poor. The results of this research concluded

that integrated development is a useful mechanism in link-

ing housing and employment to increase sustainability for

the urban poor, yet more needs to be done to deepen the

level of integration.

In response to the threat of atomic devastation of American

cities during the Cold War, several federal agencies studied

urban vulnerability and put forth recommendations for sur-

vival under an attack. Chief amongst these was dispersal of

population and industry from dense urban areas. In 1950, a

group called Associated Universities undertook a federal

study, Project East River, which imagined an atomic bomb

detonating in Manhattan. This thesis examined how federal

recommendations for dispersion for civil defense were articu-

lated at the city level in New York in order to illustrate the

historical relationship between density and security.

E-grocery stores, like FreshDirect in New York City, hold

the potential to greatly impact the way that urban food mar-

kets function, yet they remain largely unstudied. Empirical

accounts suggest that the sudden increase in food choice

that e-groceries provide in neighborhoods underserved by

bricks-and-mortar grocery stores, which are often low-

income and minority areas, fuels gentrification. This thesis

tested that observation by spatially analyzing FreshDirect’s

deliveries by zip code from 2002–2007 in relation to the

variables of income, rent, property value, and number of

supermarkets, as well as by surveying FreshDirect cus-

tomers. The quantitative analysis revealed little correlation

between FreshDirect deliveries and demographic indicators

of gentrification, yet the qualitative analysis suggested that

people do use FreshDirect for better food options in gentrify-

ing neighborhoods. These findings help explain the relation-

ship between food retail and neighborhood appeal and have

broad implications for urban food access.

When economies are over-dependent upon their natural

resources as a growth stimulus, their innovative capacity

can lag during a resource boom from a misallocation of capi-

tal away from traditional sectors like manufacturing. As the

resource diminishes and investment is re-directed, there is a

danger of finding technology-dependent sectors in obsoles-

cence. In a time when resource endowment appears to be a

curse upon economies, it is relevant to cite examples which

have defied this trend by curtailing manufacturing disinvest-

ment using resource upgrading as a stepping stone towards

further diversification.

In East Texas there has consistently been interplay be-

tween the business community and the state and national

level government. This dynamic was first instrumental in

securing Department of Defense research and manufactur-

ing contracts in resource-based industries like refining and

petro-chemical upgrading. The resulting downstream supply

chains and highly skilled engineering labor pool associated

with this same refining process eventually contributed to fur-

ther diversification into the aerospace and semi-conductor

industries. Provincial, regional, and local policy-makers in Al-

berta are currently leveraging their oil sands wealth to mimic

the integrated clustering of Houston’s refining industry out-

side of Edmonton in order to retain the value-added revenues

within the province. As similar refining facilities continue to

come on-line in the Middle East and East Asia, however, the

same linchpin of subsidized innovation that proved crucial

to Houston’s sustained economic growth may be critical in

securing both Houston and Edmonton’s economic future.

Considering the backdrop of industrialization and demo-

cratic transition in South Korea, the following question

comes up: how was public participation institutionalized

in South Korea after the change of government from an

authoritarian military government regime to a participatory

democracy? Considering the strategy of development in

terms of the extent or degree of the government’s involve-

ment, what types of public participation have arisen since

the post-military government? How far can public partici-

pation affect the outcome of development strategy under

the democratic government, compared to its effect on the

outcome under the military government?

The research used several urban redevelopment

cases and examined specifically institutionalized partici-

patory types in South Korea and the state’s position. The

research concluded by claiming the state’s strong position

in South Korean development in both military and demo-

cratic government, and suggested several issues to plan-

ners: planners should fully understand the locally embed-

ded characteristics for regional, national, and international

development. In addition, as far as the meaning of public

participation for South Korea, “is the democratic way al-

ways the best way?’”

The increased use of synthetic landscape elements to

replace natural ones throughout New York City combined

with recent concerns regarding the potential environmental

and public health risks associated with these elements pose

a possible environmental justice threat. This thesis exam-

ined that threat through a spatial analysis of the geographic

location of synthetic turf fields along with anecdotal evidence

gathered through interviews and surveys. Incomplete infor-

mation about synthetic turf also presented the opportunity

to analyze risk perception of policy-makers and users when

a knowledge gap exists. The findings begin to hint at an ineq-

uitable distribution of synthetic turf in environmental justice

neighborhoods and reveal that risk perception differs based

on access to information and option availability. These find-

ings led to a set of policy recommendations including careful

planning of the placement of future synthetic landscape ele-

ments, increasing access to information about synthetic turf,

and expanding opportunities for community involvement.

The contest over urban public space, both physical and polit-

ical, is central to the debates over street vending in India.

With the liberalization of the Indian economy and the 74th

Amendment to the Constitution, discourses of public/par-

ticipative space, civil society and its institutions like the Civil

Courts have implicitly disempowered these workers in the

informal economy. This thesis attempted to identify the ways

in which street vendors in Mumbai have claimed urban space

(both physical and political) from State institutions. Street

vendors engage in interactions that range from formal/

legal/secular politics to informal tactics. These include:

jurisprudence and negotiation of the law through civil courts,

formulation of policies through the activities of organizations

like NASVI, claims of welfare through organized activity and

protests, and informal tactics. Thus, participation of street

vendors in public space needs to be analyzed with respect to

different scales, actions of the leadership, daily interactions

with the State, and the particular working class and ethnic

politics of Mumbai.

The Ph.D. Program prepares students for careers in

teaching, research, and advanced practice in the fields of

urban planning and urban policy. The program has as its

specific field of inquiry the articulation of space (under-

stood as material form, not mere geographic territory) and

the socio-economic, political, and physical urban processes

that produce and reproduce the built environment. These

investigations take place at various spatial scales from

the neighborhood to the global and focus both within and

outside the United States. Organizing this inquiry are ques-

tions related to the efficiency and effectiveness of planning

practices, social justice, and deeper questions related to the

growth and development of societies.

Ph.D. Candidates

The shift toward more expansive forms of digital production

within the design and construction industry affords oppor-

tunities of not only reconfiguring the relationships between

the key players, but also incorporating industry sectors not

typically associated with building construction. At the core of

this shift is the integration of communication through vari-

ous forms of digital networks, CNC fabrication being just one

among many, with the ambition of developing a comprehen-

sive, well organized, easily accessible, and parametrically

adaptable body of information that coordinates the process

from design through a building’s lifecycle. This is the broader

context for the goals of the Avery Digital Fabrication Lab.

The intent of the new fabrication lab is twofold: first,

to develop techniques for merging design and fabrication

through digital networks (an organizational goal), and sec-

ond, to develop new building systems using CNC technology

for prototyping full-scale components that structure the

logic of larger assemblies (a material goal). What distin-

guishes CNC technologies for architecture is the opportunity

it affords to reposition design strategically within fabrication

and construction processes such that what architects actu-

ally produce — drawings — shifts from loose representa-

tions of buildings to highly precise sets of instructions that

are coordinated and integrated into a full description of a

building. At a more modest level within this comprehen-

sive organizational picture, CNC has also influenced design

methodologies as architects begin to respond more directly

to the conditions of digital production as a means for both

pragmatic concerns like cost and efficiency and more con-

ceptual potentials like variability and customization. These

are the topics of research and experimentation for the lab.

During the past year, the Lab has embarked on a number

of initiatives and projects. The Lab has been working closely

with the Engineering Department on the submission of joint

CU-RISE and NSF-IGERT grants. The Lab has recommitted

itself to its research goals by modifying its access policy to

that of providing a Lab for proposed student research and

studio projects. The Lab has continued in its work with Nata-

lie Jerimijenko on the Urban Space Station project to design

and build greenhouses for rooftops in NYC. One USS will be

installed with the design and prototyping help of the Lab and

its students this summer on a building on the NYU campus. In

addition, the Lab and it’s students produced a set of modular

silicone molds for a project that is being cast in Toulouse,

France, for the office of Anzalone+Bayard Architects, as a

continuation of applying the research to full scale architec-

tural projects on Columbia’s campus each summer. The Lab

is in the process of compiling a book documenting the last

three years of digital fabrication at the GSAPP.

In the context

of ubiquitous computing — as tiny, inexpensive, networked

computers literally disappear into the woodwork of our

buildings — the exploration of living architecture becomes

ever more interesting and important. During the past year,

the Living Architecture Lab launched several new full-scale,

functioning, responsive prototypes that address energy,

environment, and ubiquitous computing.

LIVING CITY

Living City (www.thelivingcity.net) is a platform for build-

ings to talk to one another. With the support of the Van

Alen Institute New York Prize and a grant from the Graham

Foundation, the Lab installed a wireless sensor network

on the facade of the Empire State Building and another

on the facade of the Van Alen building. Each network col-

lected interior and exterior air quality data and shared it

with the other building. Then a prototype building facade at

the Van Alen Gallery breathed in response, controlling air

flow and making visible environmental conditions. With the

facade as a location of sensors, of wireless communication,

and of responsive actuators, the city acquires a new level

of interactivity. For a second version of the project, Living

City was simultaneously installed for the shows “Vapor” at

Southern Exposure Gallery and “Feedback” at Eyebeam Art

and Technology Center, allowing a building in San Francisco

to communicate with one in New York.

LIVING ARCHITECTURE: RESPONSIVE KINETIC

SYSTEMS LAB

In two more semesters of this Visual Studies workshop, stu-

dents created full-scale functioning prototypes that built off

of the projects in previous years and left open source docu-

mentation for those in the future. In the spring, students

explored the use of environmental sensors and presented

work in progress in a public charrette at Eyebeam, as part of

the Feedback exhibition.

LIVING LIGHT

In May 2008, the Living Architecture Lab won a competi-

tion sponsored by City Gallery to design a permanent public

installation in Seoul, Korea. The proposal, Living Light, is a

map of the city bent into a 40’-wide semi-enclosed pavil-

ion. Different neighborhoods of the map glow and blink in

response to both data about air quality and interest in air

quality. The pavilion will be constructed by November 2008

in a busy plaza at the city’s major bus terminal.

REVOLUTION DOOR

In further development of this project by Fluxxlab, affiliated

with the Living Architecture Lab, a full-scale prototype of

the Revolution Door was showcased at Eyebeam’s Feedback

exhibition in spring of 2008. Gallery visitors entered through

the Revolution Door, converting metabolic energy into elec-

tricity and illuminating the LED entrance signage for the

show. Fluxxlab is also working on a new prototype called

Powerslide that converts the sliding motion of common

building components such as doors, windows, and drawers

into a source of energy.

The CHDD is a Research Lab found-

ed in 2003 within the Master of Science in Real Estate

Development Program to explore the benefits of density.

The Center’s objective is to encourage high density develop-

ment by promoting research and analysis of both benefits

and critical success factors for urban and suburban high

density development, to demonstrate that developments of

high density are the most economically fertile, operationally

effective, fiscally responsive, environmentally responsible,

and culturally supportive environments.

The work of the Center is carried out in the CHDD semi-

nar, each of which builds upon the research done the previ-

ous year. This year, students were organized into teams to

investigate selected research topics in each of five modules

through weekly reading and written assignments, surveys,

and final presentations. The Center also reaches out to the

larger community through its website, field trips, publica-

tions, and conferences.

VISUALIZATION RESEARCH MODULE

Design industry surveys established the need for the cre-

ation of a searchable online database of images of best-in-

practice developments. The search criteria for the database

were the result of a survey completed by over 100 design

professionals.

EQUITY GROUP RESEARCH MODULE

A survey of high-profile pension funds, opportunity funds

and private equity groups showed that High density proper-

ties suffer less occupancy loss in down markets, have more

stable cash flows, rebound faster during down markets and

are better recognized by investors during fund raising.

DEMOGRAPHICS RESEARCH MODULE

Interviews and research show that Baby and Echo Boomers

create demographic waves that coincide with ideal ages to

live in multifamily housing creating a more demand for that

product type. An opportunity exists to develop new housing in

dense areas to accommodate the specific needs of boomers

living in city centers.

METRICS RESEARCH MODULE

Research collected in collaboration with Cushman and

Wakefield revealed that higher density CBDs lead to: higher

rents, higher sales, lower cap rates and lower volatility in

asset values.

POLICY RESEARCH MODULE

Interviews, research and case studies revealed that cities

that implemented policies to stimulate density achieved

increased property values and fiscal revenues and spawned

additional development.

The convergence of computation and biogenet-

ics, an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of human

civilization, has ushered in a new ontology of existence —

one that entails a new modality of architectural thought

and production. The Institute for Genetic Architecture is a

response to this challenge, bringing forward a new paradigm

of architecture: genetic architecture based on the philo-

sophical notion of genesis understood in the most general

and far-reaching sense of the term with references to both

abstract and concrete domains of instantiation.

Theoretical impetus for the Institute is founded upon

the idea that information is the currency that underlies ev-

erything; it manifests itself in various scalar and specifica-

tion regimes of organization. The general economy of infor-

mation ranges from one bit, conceived as a minimal unit of

a self-replicating system, to the dynamics of co-evolutionary

systems such as the Internet with its second-order phase

transition looming in the near future — a Global Ubiquitous

Computing (GUC) System that will, once it is fully incorpo-

rated into its infrastructure, saturate the planet Earth with

a monadic concept of the global brain. With this in mind,

the Institute for Genetic Architecture is directed toward the

generative construction of possible worlds engendered as

well as mediated by computation. The Institute is a multi-

disciplinary enterprise with a two-fold intention: research

and development into genetic architecture and its dissemi-

nation into the cultural domain. The program for research

and development focuses on (1) theoretical issues pertaining

to a philosophical genetics of architecture, (2) formal meth-

ods of computational morphogenesis, and (3) construction

of physical as well as virtual proto-species of genetic archi-

tecture. At the level of morphogenesis, genetic architecture

is concerned with the instigation of the autonomy of the gen-

erative, which serves as the constitutive basis for the logic

of appearance or emergence: self-replication and mutation

that are the basis for the formation of complex organization.

As such, it is informed by developments in automata theory,

artificial life, artificial intelligence, algorithmic information

theory, complex adaptive systems, molecular and develop-

mental biology as well as by complex forces that led to the

history of architectural production. The program for com-

municative action addresses (1) cultural and philosophical

issues raised by the new paradigm including a reconception

of the conditions of possibility of the discipline of architec-

ture and (2) problems as well as opportunities induced by

the emergence of demiurgic capitalism — radicalization of

the concept of culture through capitalization of the logic of

evolution. To this end, the Institute functions as a catalyst

and venue for research and development into the forma-

tion of new concepts and formal models for the generative

construction of possible worlds. The ambition is to foster a

symbiosis enabled by the ecology of computation with the

aim to engender diverse species of genetic architecture: one

that is viable and essential in the formation of a brave new

world that is utopic in its aspiration.

C-Lab, is an experimental re-

search unit devoted to the development of new forms of com-

munication in architecture, set up as a semi-autonomous

think and action tank at the Graduate School of Architecture,

Planning and Preservation.

Since 2005, C-Lab has collaborated with Archis and

AMO on Volume, an independent bimonthly for architecture

to go beyond itself. The first issue edited exclusively by C-

Lab, Volume 10: Agitation!, was released in January 2007,

followed by Volume 13: Ambition in September 2007.

Since then, C-Lab has moved into other media. The lab

created an immersive graphic for the New Museum that vi-

sualizes charitable donations to arts and culture around the

world, as well as an installation for the Walker Art Center in

Minneapolis about waste management in suburbia. C-Lab

has also contributed to the magazines Urban China, Domus,

and Perspecta.

C-Lab is currently editing a forthcoming issue of Volume

on “Content Management.” Similar to online content man-

agement, architecture is designed to have a public surface

and a protected interior, to encourage visitors and at the

same time limit the use of the property inside, to provide

problem-free navigation yet direct and track visitor move-

ment, and to mark out what content is accessible and what

isn’t. The issue will be available in the fall of 2008.

Over the next 25 years, it is projected that

China will account for 50% of the world’s new construction.

The majority of this construction will occur in existing cities

or newly formed urban areas. It is the mission of the China

Lab to become actively engaged with this rapid urbaniza-

tion and spatial production occurring in China, through both

research and design. By forming strategic collaborative rela-

tionships with institutions, private practitioners, developers,

governments, etc., the lab intends to cultivate a productive

exchange that has the potential to yield unpredictable and

vital outcomes that will provide alternative urban strategies

for the increasingly urbanized world.

GOLF CITY, HAINAN, CHINA

During the summer of

2007, China Lab participated in an urban design workshop

organized by USC Dean, Qingyun Ma. Three institutions (USC,

Tongji University and Columbia University) collaborated on

the master plan of a new resort city for 30,000 inhabitants

on the tropical Chinese island of Hainan. China Lab was rep-

resented by five GSAPP students (Johnna Cressica Brazier,

Tat Lam, Sid Wichienkuer, Egbert Chu and Tom Wu) and two

post-graduates (Mercy Wong, MArch 07, and Li Xu, MArch 07)

and was directed by Jeffrey Johnson.

EXPORTING CHINA FORUM

China Lab organized its first symposium during

the spring 2008 semester. China Lab invited three influential

Chinese architects (Yung Ho Chang, Qingyun Ma, and Doreen

Heng Liu) and a leading critical thinker on Chinese culture

(Ackbar Abbas) to discuss the influence of Chinese architec-

ture, urbanism and culture on global spatial practices.

MEGA-BLOCK STUDENT COMPETITION

China Lab sponsored its first student competition during

the spring 2008 semester. The objective of the competition

was to reconsider the Chinese mega-block development.

Mega-block housing developments — at a rate of over 10

new superblocks completed each day — are taking over the

fabric of Chinese cities. Twenty-three student teams from a

half-dozen institutions submitted alternative proposals for

Mega-Block development?

The Spatial Information Design Lab was created in 2004, as

an interdisciplinary research unit in the Graduate School

of Architecture, Planning and Preservations at Columbia

University. It is a think- and action-tank specializing in the

visual display of spatial information about contemporary

cities and events. Spatial Information Design is a name for

new ways of working with the vast quantity of statistical and

other data available about the contemporary city. By reor-

ganizing tabular data using unique visualization techniques

and locating it geographically, the goal is to correlate dis-

parate items of information and picture the patterns and

networks they create. Putting data on a map can open new

spaces for action and new options for intervention, as the

often-unseen shapes and forms of life in the city become

visible through this process.

Over the last year the Spatial Information Design Lab

has exhibited widely, developed a series of publications re-

lated to ongoing work, and developed new collaborations.

“Architecture and Justice” was exhibited in Design and

the Elastic Mind at MoMA in February and was acquired

for the permanent collection. This work was also exhib-

ited in JUST SPACE(S) at the Los Angeles Contemporary

Exhibitions(LACE), and at the THINC gallery in Syracuse New

York. “Architecture and Justice” has also resulted in three

SIDL/GSAPP publications that are available for distribution at

the GSAPP. SIDL is currently completing an extensive report

on “Justice Reinvestment” in Central City, outlining a plan for

Prisoner Reentry and Community Rebuilding in Post-Katrina

New Orleans. The team testified before the New Orleans City

Council in July of 2007, and as part of the Crime Summit in

August 2007 and has also initiated an extensive social net-

working project to facilitate participatory design strategies

linking policy initiatives to design initiatives.

SIDL is near completion of a GIS database for Nairobi,

Kenya. This database will have a profound impact on the Nai-

robi planning community as it will be provided at no-cost,

allowing stakeholders to work easily with rarely accessible

data. The release of this data will set a precedent for infor-

mation provision in the developing country context by putting

data directly in the hands of those who can make decisions

about its future. The Lab has also started a new research

initiative that looks at the unique spatial clustering patterns

of cultural industries. Relationships continue to be made

with New York City agencies regarding data sharing and

recommendations for spatial analysis, including a project

that analyzed the spatial patterns of services complaints for

the New York City Department of Sanitation. GSAPP GIS re-

search continues to be supported by the Spatial Information

Design Lab. New tutorials have been developed for the web

site, workshops have been provided for Architecture and Ur-

ban Design Studios, and the Lab has acquired new datasets

for world cities including Las Vegas and Beijing.

Research Fellows:

Research Assistants:

The Urban Landscape Research Lab is an inter-

disciplinary applied research group at Columbia University

in the City of New York. It focuses on the role of design in the

analysis and transformation of the joint built-natural envi-

ronment and studies ecological processes and urban sys-

tems as hybrid phenomena through targeted pilot projects,

practical strategies, and experiments.

This landscape/ecology-based approach to urbanism

brings together a wide range of disciplines such as archi-

tecture, landscape architecture, urban design, preservation,

civil engineering, conservation biology, economics, climate,

and public health, to focus on specific environmental and

development issues as they relate to built form.

The Lab’s teaching and research interests share a com-

mon objective: to effect positive change in the urban land-

scape in terms of biodiversity, climate change, water quality

and access, waste, and sanitation. The Lab focuses on the

physical design of infrastructures, landscapes, and dense

urban fabrics as change agents in a collaborative, interdisci-

plinary working model that involves feedback, exchange, and

monitoring efforts with scientists and engineers.

Projects range from retrofitting existing patterns of

land settlement with habitat and wildlife corridors, to the

public reclamation of brownfields and restoration of wet-

lands, to green roofs and mitigation of heat island effects,

to the visualization of new development models for waste

handling and processing. Issues are explored through joint,

interdisciplinary studio formats, and through funded re-

search projects in partnership with scientists, government

agencies, and community activists.

A parallel goal is to evolve the design disciplines at the

GSAPP in response to current environmental contexts and

technologies, and to marshal the design expertise of the

GSAPP toward the engagement of policy makers and the

public in the reshaping of the 21st-century urban landscape.

ENVISIONING GATEWAY

The Lab completed a report for the National Parks

Conservation Society as part of an effort to revitalize Gateway

National Park, a 26,000 acre recreation area in the NY-NJ

harbor under Federal jurisdiction. The project explored what

it means to be a national park today, and how to create a new

interface between one of the most vital cities in the world and

its immediate environment. The research involved mapping

critical habitat, transport, and historic fabric, among other

components, and explored the larger potential of Gateway

as an ecological, cultural, and recreational resource for

the region. The study delineated future directions for the

Park’s transformation and is targeted towards both decision

makers and the public-at-large. Van Alen Institute was inte-

grated into the process and subsequently hosted an interna-

tional design competition. These efforts were underwritten

by the Tiffany & Co. Foundation.

AUDUBON DESIGN GUIDELINES

The Lab, through a grant from the US Fish and Wildlife

Service, directed the production and publication of Bird Safe

Building Design Guidelines in collaboration with the NYC

Audubon Society. As researcher Daniel Klem has observed,

collisions occur “wherever birds and glass coexist,” although

night lighting, transparency to vegetation indoors or to sky

beyond, and the mirroring of adjacent habitats are primary

indicators of potential strikes. As the popularity of glass as

a building material continues to rise in urban and suburban

areas, it becomes ever more urgent to find ways to mitigate

this impact on neo-tropical migrants, a population already

in severe decline due to habitat loss and other factors. The

Guidelines examine the apparent causes of bird mortality in

the built environment; convey the ecological, economic, ethi-

cal, and legal justifications for bird conservation; advocate a

series of preventative and rehabilitative strategies describe

precedents for regulatory initiatives; and explore new glaz-

ing technologies. They are intended for use by architects,

landscape architects, planners, glass technicians, build-

ing managers, the construction industry, state and federal

agencies, and the general public. The Bird-Safe Building

Guidelines received the 2007 NY Chapter ASLA Award in the

field of Planning, Analysis, Research and Communications.

Kate Orff addressed the 2008 USGBC’s National GreenBuild

Conference on this topic.

AAR(ie)L is an international forum for archi-

tects, artists, critics, curators, and theoreticians whose

primary aim is to establish points of intersection between

different disciplines and domains of knowledge. By engaging

faculty and students at all levels and from different depart-

ments and disciplines both within Columbia and beyond,

AAR(ie)L simultaneously provides a locus for intellectual

ferment, encounter and exchange and an opening to the

broader architectural and art community. AAR(ie)L seeks to

increase the scope and enhance the non-linear perspective

of both art and architecture. This will serve to enrich and

amplify the modes of knowledge that constitute these dis-

ciplines, both as they are translated across and within their

respective fields and in relation to other areas of inquiry.

AAR(ie)L reflects and at the same time fosters the inter-

action that occurs amongst individual artists and architects.

Case studies of architect collaborations with artists is a fo-

cal point for ongoing post-graduate student involvement and

research (e.g. Richard Serra and Peter Eisenman; Frederick

Keisler and Richard Hamilton; Walter De Maria and Steven

Holl; Le Corbusier, Edgar Varese and Yannis Xenakis). The

Lab not only provides a framework for the study of past in-

stances of such interaction but even more so, is dedicated to

the initiation of future points of intersection between artists

and architects. At the core of the Lab is not a historical or

archaeological outlook but instead, a look towards important

precedents of the past only to increase the perspective of the

present and to take part in shaping the future.

The Lab draws from the widest possible range of prac-

titioners, both within the US and abroad, individuals and or-

ganizations alike. From this it participates in and encourages

an ever-widening sphere of practice that furnishes the Lab

not only with its knowledge base, but enables its members

to articulate subjects of common interest. In this way, the

members themselves help direct the functioning and pro-

gramming, as well as its publications, colloquia, exhibitions,

and seminars.

Programs, competitions, and specific projects are eval-

uated and analyzed on an ongoing and comparative basis.

The various projects, exhibitions, and events are accompa-

nied by publications. Already slated and in the process of

being executed is an exhibition on the work of Austrian archi-

tect and artist Walter Pichler, to open at the end of 2008.

The Technological Change Lab is a re-

search and advisory program associated with Columbia’s

University’s Urban Planning program within the Graduate

School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. The

research and philosophical engagement of the Lab is with

the nature of technological and industrial change, and the

manner in which efficiency, equality, and conceptions of

equity are instituted and play out in practice. The Lab’s focus

is on the social and employment relationships within which

technological change is embedded — from pharmaceuti-

cals to construction to communication technologies — and

the nature of markets and corresponding regulation of the

economy. The Technological Change Lab emerged from Prof.

Smita Srinivas’ research on several aspects of technological

change in India and Europe and has since expanded rapidly.

TCL’s research aims to engage several practice, theory, and

philosophical dilemmas that affect national and city-regional

economic development and social policies.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Currently, projects exist on multiple industrial sectors and

their employment and welfare realities, and regions with

ongoing and planned projects across several countries.

There are three ongoing core projects at the TCUSP Lab

using quantitative, qualitative, and visual techniques: 1) the

Employment and Social Protection Institutions study engag-

es the economic, spatial, and industrial sectors and is part of

an ongoing book project of Prof. Srinivas; 2) the Cooperation

by Design study integrates technology, cooperation, and

diffusion models, economics, planning, computer science,

and engineering and is led by Prof. Srinivas and Fred Weber

of the Earth Institute; 3) the Technology Employment and

Regional Inequality project study in India and Brazil looks

at economics, statistics, employment and health analysis,

and regional indicators and is led by Prof. Srinivas and Dr.

Luciana Pereira.

PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICITY

There have been many speaking invitations and invited plenary

presentations in the U.S. and overseas for Prof. Srinivas and the

Technological Change Lab, including the following events:

Joseph Stiglitz’s Columbia University IDG/IGERT

Development and Globalization Third Annual Symposium to

speak on “Globalization and Labor Standards”, April 2008

United Nations/UNESCO (Latin America and Caribbean

Region), a plenary presentation in Montevideo on Science,

Technology, Innovation, and Social Inclusion, March 2008

International Labour Organisation, as an invited speaker to

workshop in Bangalore, India, Nov 2007 and as contributor to

a book on Global Production Networks and Decent Work

Rutgers University Centre for Innovation Studies, to speak

on Health access, and Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology

sectors in India, April 2008.

The Centre for the Advanced Study of India, University of

Pennsylvania, an invited op-ed for “One in six globally, but

is India counting its own workers?” (India in Transition); the

editorial is syndicated in the Hindustan paper with an approx.

circulation of 5–10 million readers

Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, as a panelist

for the Women in Design ”International Practice” panel with

Saskia Sassen, Farshid Moussavi and others, March 2008

National Academies of Science, Prof. Srinivas spoke on

S&T vs. Social Policy in the Global Economy: Challenges of

National Industrial Governance to the NSF sponsored Urban

Institute workshop in Washington D.C, Sept. 2007 on India,

China, U.S.

International AIDS vaccines Initiative, New York: completion

of work in 2007 on Vaccine R&D Models of all vaccines to date

and organisational and industrial implications

Advisory Board

Student Research Affiliates

Special thanks to Dean Mark Wigley and Associate Dean

David Hinkle for their support and enthusiasm for the Lab’s

continued expansion and impact and to the GSAPP Finance

office for its assistance.

For more information, please see:

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/TCL

In a complex

city in which cultural scenarios overlap, interconnect, and

sometimes collide; in which the temporal dimensions of

each citizen’s experience are dissimilar; in which local and

global, physical and virtual dimensions co-exist, it is nec-

essary to identify a set of design tools that could respond

to design complexity. In the last fifteen years, architects

adopted advanced digital tools such as algorithms, dynamic

relationships, parametric systems, mapping, morphogen-

esis, cellular automata, and bifurcation with broken sym-

metry in order to address this need. The goal of the NSU

is to consolidate research in the field of complex systems

in architecture.

NSU encourages large-scale, interdisciplinary efforts

in which architects, urban planners, engineers, acoustic

engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, and neu-

roscientists can be brought together for collaboration. In

its theoretical analysis and development of research tools,

the NSU has focused on using Complex Adaptive Models for

architecture and on the digital implementation of previously

developed computation methodologies and their transfor-

mation into simple architectural modelling tools. By means

of concrete examples and simplified case studies, inter-

disciplinary teams evaluate individual tools that have the

capability to respond to formal, managerial, and structural

problems in an architectural context. The research work is

integrated into the GSAPP curriculum; research seminars,

symposia, and publications act as the environment for es-

sential components of the experiments.

RECENT PROJECTS

PROTOTYPING THE CITY

The Politecnico di Torino, the Architectural Association,

and Columbia University worked together to produce this

architectural design project. The project involved students

in workshops at the Torino World Design Capital Summer

School and culminated in the invention and production of

a temporary structure for the event Designing Connected

Places. Parametric design systems were used to conceive

this experimental public space.

The research project was developed as a partnership with

Impresa Rosso, creating a direct connection between the

advanced computational design techniques studied in an

academic setting and the reality of professional practice. The

project focused on the qualitative and quantitative under-

standing of algorithmic responsive devices as applied to the

constructed reality of a women’s hospital façade system.

The goal of this study was to develop a project responding,

simultaneously, to interior programmatic shifts as well as

to external site information. The solutions were combined

and mediated between mathematical performance data and

empirical architectural applications.

PARAMETRIC BOOKSHELVES

This project was developed for the Italian Fashion Firm

GB Sportelli, in collaboration with Nuova Ordentra. It was

a system of aggregated units responding physically to a

variety of spatial requirements. The project investigated

the relationship between a conceptual model and its local

application. The Bookshelves were made using very simple

techniques (2D CNC cuts), allowing for the production of end-

less configurations.

APPLIED RESPONSIVE DEVICES: MESUREABLE AND

NON-MESURABLE FIELDS OF ARCHITECTURE

ARD‘s objective is to develop a direct connection between

the expression of a specific expectation (functional, formal,

and aesthetic) and its achievement through the development

of a code-based model. ARD innovation includes the way in

which quantitative and qualitative parameters (i.e. social,

physical, sensorial, cultural, and economic) are aggregated

in order to emphasise the concept of formal adaptation.

From a methodological point of view the ARD process

takes advantage of research done in other scientific fields.

In ARD methodology the first step consists of articulating

goals, analyzing existing conditions, and translating them

into inputs for a digital model. From an epistemological

perspective ARD’s research operates as an heuristic device

aiming to challenge the boundary existing between the mea-

surable and non-measurable dimensions in architecture.

CONFERENCES + EXHIBITIONS

Politecnico di Torino

Non Linear Design Strategies, Architecture and Complexity

www.polito.it

Emerging Possibilities of Testing and Simulation Methods

and Techniques in Contemporary Construction Teaching,

Faculté Polytechnique de Mons

http://www.eaae.be/eaae2/documents/event_associated/

event40CallForWorkshop.pdf

Institut Architectura Avancada de Cataluna

Applied Responsive Devices

www.iaacblog.com

Ghent University, International Conference

ANALOGOUS SPACES

http://www.analogousspaces.com/default_analog_hp.aspx

Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture

EAAE/ARCC 2008: Changes of paradigms in the basic under-

standing of architectural research

http://www.karch.dk/uk/Menu/The+School/Events/EAAE+%

2F+ARCC+2008:+Changes+of+paradigms+in+the+basic+und

erstanding+of+architectural+researc

University College Falmouth

Network of Design

www.networksofdesign.co.uk

Creating an atmosphere

http://www.conferencealerts.com/seeconf.mv?q=ca1x0xsm

Established in September 2006,

the Network Architecture Lab investigates how computation,

communications, and changing social networks impact

architecture and the city. Over the last quarter-century as

technology, economics, the public sphere, culture, urban-

ism — even subjectivity — have mutated, the network has

emerged as the dominant cultural logic. The Netlab seeks to

understand the consequences of these changes and develop

appropriate architectural and urbanistic responses. In doing

so, the Netlab embraces the studio and the seminar as

venues for architectural analysis and speculation, explor-

ing new forms of research through publications, new media

design, film production, and environment design.

During the 2007–2008 academic year, the Netlab

brought to fruition a sustained series of analytic projects.

Published by ACTAR, Infrastructural City: Networked Ecologies

in Los Angeles examines a radically changed urban landscape

of out-of-control complexity. Using Los Angeles as a case

study, fifteen essays accompanied by maps by Netlab as-

sociate Leah Meisterlin examine the contemporary city at

three scales of landscape, fabric, and objects. Throughout,

we understand the city as the product of an assemblage of

networked ecologies, e. g. dynamic systems composed of hu-

man, biotic, and artificial agents linked not only by proxim-

ity but also by social, natural, and technological networks.

Networked Publics, done in collaboration with the Annenberg

Center for Communication at the University of Southern Cali-

fornia and published by MIT Press, explores how new and

maturing networking technologies reconfigure the way that

we interact with content, media sources, other individuals

and groups, and the world that surrounds us. Netlab director

Kazys Varnelis also edited The Johnson Tapes: Conversations

Between Robert Stern and Philip Johnson, an oral history

of the twentieth-century architect produced by the Temple

Hoyne Buell Center for American Architecture.

While completing this series of projects, the Netlab is

launching the Network City project. In collaboration with

ACTAR, the Netlab will analyze the last decade of the con-

temporary city, in particular how broadband and wireless

networking technologies and the increasing forces of glo-

balization are transforming the way we regard the global

urban condition. Increasingly, it is common for us to dwell

in multiple spatial conditions at once, to connect to mul-

tiple, dispersed networks for purposes of work, information,

consumption, (social) connection, and play as we physically

navigate the space of the city. In a related book-length work

entitled Network Culture, Varnelis builds on his conclusion to

Networked Publics to explore how new socio-technical condi-

tions frame our world.

The Historic Preservation Program

was started by James Marston Fitch in 1964 and by 1974 had

grown to become an independent Master of Science in the

Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

In 1977, when Norman Weiss joined the program’s faculty,

architectural conservation was first established as an aca-

demic discipline in America. From those beginnings the

Conservation Sector now comprises eight faculty members,

led by its Director of Conservation, Dr. George Wheeler, and

offers over eleven courses.

The broader goal of the sector is to provide students

with a basic understanding of the historical technologies

involved in the production and/or fabrication, modes and

manifestations of deterioration, and means and methods

of maintenance, repair, and conservation of the materials

of architecture. Based on this broader knowledge, specific

skills are developed in field examination and documentation,

analysis, and both laboratory and field testing and evaluation

of conservation treatments and repair methods.

THE CURRICULUM

Exposure to historic technologies and to the properties

of materials of architecture begins in the two-semester

Structures, Systems, and Materials sequence and is further

developed in the three-semester Architecture Conservation

sequence. In this later sequence, maintenance, repair,

and conservation techniques are also explored. Teaching

methodologies include lectures, site visits and field dem-

onstrations, training sessions, and laboratory testing and

analysis. The Conservation Workshop focuses on site-

specific field documentation of structures, materials, and

their conditions, field and laboratory testing and analysis,

and developing recommendations for treatment. In the past

two years, the Workshop has focused on properties in New

York City’s Historic House Trust — The Bartow-Pell Mansion

and The Van Cortlandt House Museum. The collaboration

has been supported Samuel H. Kress Foundation. The above

core offerings are augmented by lectures, seminars, and

laboratory courses in Conservation of Archaeological Sites,

Architectural Finishes in America, Analytical Methods in

Architectural Conservation, Architectural Metals and

Conservation of Architectural Stone. In addition, a twelve-

week summer internship and a thesis are required. A list of

recent thesis titles is given below.

Core Courses

Structures Systems and Materials 1 + 2

History of Technology of Architecture

Principles of Materials Science for Architectural Materials

Principles of Engineering for Architecture

Architecture Conservation 1, 2 + 3

Technology, Deterioration, Evaluation, and Conservation of

Architectural Materials

Advanced Courses

Architectural Metals

Technology, Deterioration, and Treatment

Architectural Finishes in America

Technology and Conservation

Conservation Archaeological Sites

Problems of Conservation in Archaeological Environments

Analytical Methods in Architecture Conservation

Advanced Instrumental Analysis

Conservation Workshop

Documentation and Field Work

Conservation of Modern and Contemporary Architecture

(in development)

Engineering Diagnostics and Conservation of 20th

Century Architecture

RECENT THESIS TITLES

Lime Mortar Models, Curing and Conservation: Fort

Laramie National Historic Site, Wyoming

Borates as a Wood Preservative

Let It Grow: Climbing Vines Do Not Have To Be Removed

From Buildings

The Electrical Resistance Moisture Meter and Infrared

Thermography: Assessing the Effectiveness of Two

Non-Destructive Techniques for Moisture Diagnosis in

Structure Contaminated by Hygroscopic Salts

Natural Extractives as Wood Preservatives: The Potential

of Phytochemicals in Preservation

Proprietary Alkoxysilane Systems and their Efficacy on

Fine-Grained Marble

Casein as a Modifier for Lime-Based Grouts

Physical and Intangible Palimpsest: Making a Case for

Graffiti Preservation

Calcium Bicarbonate as a Consolidation Material for

Calcareous Stone

Biological Growth and Historic Garden Sculpture: the

Case of Villa La Pietra

Lincrusta-Walton: History of a Versatile Embossed

Wallcovering

An Evaluation of Adhesives Used for Marble Repair

Ethyl Silicates as an Alternative Binder for Grout and

Mortar for Use with American Sandstones

Creep and Fatigue in Stone Adhesives

An Evaluation of Pinning Materials for Marble Repair

Cleaning Historic Building Interiors: The Question of

Residue Using Arte Mundit® Cleaning Paste

Conserving Dalle de Verre: New Approaches to a

Modern Material

The Space/Time interface Lab was founded

in 2007 as a means of experimenting with new temporal

technologies that influence both the experience and pro-

duction of space, whether architectural, urban, or virtual.

As a research unit of the GSAPP, this interdisciplinary lab

brings together research and methods from the fields of

film and video, social history, visual cultural studies, infor-

mation visualization and database design, and urban and

spatial mapping to examine the changing role of percep-

tion, memory, and space in our current digital age. If the

museological turn of today’s culture — that is the storage

of massive quantities of information on-line and in hard

drives, the archiving of images and artifacts by museums

and individuals, and the preservation of entire urban dis-

tricts and pristine landscapes — has had a profound effect

on how places are lived in and transformed, then how might

a more nuanced understanding of these new temporal forces

assist the architects, planners, and artists who shape our

environment? The Space/Time interface Lab’s experimental

projects seek to bring together institutions and designers to

innovate new ways of visualizing and presenting the cultural

memory and history of under represented publics.

VISIBLE HISTORY PROJECT

A forthcoming STiL collaboration, the Visible History Project,

creates a virtual museum whose database houses images

and documents from little known nineteenth- and twentieth-

century black museums and expositions in the United States.

Expandable and flexible, the navigable database extensively

catalogues these previously invisible institutions and events

from the period of Reconstruction to the present. The new

virtual museum will re-present the curatorial ethic of those

who crafted the exhibitions whose ideological messages

ranged from racial uplift to Pan Africanism to Civil Rights

to Black Nationalism. Detailed information will be available

about particular exhibits, thus highlighting the relevance of

visual and material culture in the development of black his-

toriography. As a database the collection offers the prospect

of navigating the virtual space of the exhibition and visual-

izing the content of the exhibits in ways unimagined by those

who crafted the original expositions and buildings.

The Shape of Two Cities: New York/Paris Program is designed

to develop a student’s critical appreciation of urban forms,

their genesis, and the role of architecture, preservation, and

planning in the creation of the contemporary urban environ-

ment. As a one-year intensive liberal arts program with a

strong studio component, the curriculum focuses on both

design issues and the urban history and theory of these two

cities. In addition the program provides an introduction to

the disciplines of architecture, urban studies, and planning

for highly motivated undergraduates who have completed at

least two years of study at their home institutions. Previous

study in these disciplines is not required for admission to the

program, allowing students from a broad range of academic

and professional backgrounds to participate. The program’s

curriculum is designed to provide students with a better

understanding of the design and urban studies disciplines

as they are practiced in both New York and Paris, offering

a unique context that engages students as well as critics

and instructors from architecture, urban studies, and other

fields with a critical dialogue across cultures using two of

the world’s great cities.

New York and Paris are important global cities, each

still representative of its highly unique culture. For students

these cities offer an ideal opportunity to explore the histori-

cal, social, and political development of urban form, and to

clarify the roles of architects, planners, and preservationists

upon it. During the first semester the students are enrolled

at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Pres-

ervation in New York and enjoy the resources of the School

and Columbia University. In the following semester students

are based at Reid Hall, Columbia University’s center for

French cultural studies, located in the center of the Mont-

parnasse district in Paris. Reid Hall offers reading rooms,

lounges, a 4,000-volume library, administrative offices, and

an extensive network of activities to help students bridge the

gap between American and French cultures. The program

offers two studio options, Architecture and Urban Studies,

with a core curriculum supporting both concentrations. The

core curriculum consists of lecture courses and seminars

that help ground research projects in the physical, intel-

lectual, historical, and cultural contexts of both New York

and Paris, providing students with critical analytical meth-

ods with which to interpret the development of urban form.

Course work is supplemented by visiting lecturers and critics

representing both the professional and academic communi-

ties in each city. Students who elect the Architectural Design

Studio pursue a series of increasingly complex studio proj-

ects that focus on the analysis, creation, and representation

of urban architecture. The Urban Studies Workshop engages

students with a studio-based approach to the issues and

discourse of the contemporary city by exploring a variety of

conceptual, analytical, and design tools for understanding

and operating within urban contexts.

The Shape of Two Cities draws students from colleges

and universities across the nation, with new schools elect-

ing to participate each year. The program offers thirty-two

course credits applicable toward Bachelor of Arts or Bach-

elor of Architecture degrees granted by participating institu-

tions. Enrollment is limited to 35 students and provides an

excellent preparation for graduate and professional study.

Upon graduating from their respective institutions, many

students are admitted to graduate programs in architecture,

urban planning, and historic preservation at universities in-

cluding Columbia, Harvard, M.I.T., Pennsylvania, and Yale.

In the fall semester of the New

York/Paris program students created a dense emergent

surface, a matrix of 16 panels that informed a final design

proposal. The semester began with a one week design

problem: creating a path linking two of Central Park’s great

museums — the American Museum of Natural History and

the Metropolitan Museum of Art — and a pavilion housing

an artifact of interest to both: Olmstead’s Greensward com-

petition entry drawing. At the end of the semester students

revisited and transformed this path and pavilion, re-pro-

gramming it to house a café/bodega.

Intervening between these two design projects was the

bulk of the students work, a matrix of panels. Each panel

represented one of twelve one-week analysis and design

projects. These projects, a tactical survey of drawing and

demonstrating, manufacturing and mapping, hopscotch

back and forth between two cities — an actual site in New

York and a virtual site in Paris — and ascended and descend-

ed along a scale of six different operational dimensions:

clothes, chair, room, building, street, and city. The project

emerged as one of sampling and re-mixing, sequencing and

re-sequencing, figuration and reconfiguration, all at intimate

and urban scales.

A wide range of material practices and representational

techniques, from metal-forging to orthographic manipula-

tion, were deployed. Inspired by Perec, Cortezar, Calvino, and

other literary practitioners of misdirection, students aimed

for intensities, densities, and the shapes of two cities.

Using New York City as a model, the Urban Studies studio

aimed to investigate and challenge limitations of the con-

temporary instigators impacting the development of the

new urban landscape. Twentieth-century New York enjoyed

a reputation as a prototype for urban life, in all of its cultural

and industrial manifestations. However, in the current global

environment New York’s status is being challenged against

a new set of localized conditions. These include changes in

land value, use, and zoning, shifts in various levels of policy,

stewardship, and ownership (public, private, or public/pri-

vate) to the reconfiguration and implementation of complex

and interrelated natural and synthetic systems. The studio’s

initial ecological and sociological research investigated the

role of these fields in the critical configuration and manipula-

tion of both physical form and abstract space. From the con-

sideration of natural ecologies and economic trends toward

regulation of density and urban form or the negotiation of

the history and culture of a place, New York’s Waterfront

City in the making today allowed the Urban Studies studio to

explore and test the potential impact of our environmental

choices on the urban and the larger region facing ongoing

new transformations.

This semester the Paris

Design Studio reflected upon two orthogonal coordinates:

X, represented by the Périphérique ring road and acting as a

physical, cultural, and sociological demarcation line between

Paris and its suburbs; and Y, represented by the North/South

geographic meridian of the Enlightenment, passing through

the Paris Observatory and exemplifying the power of reason

and abstract thought. Structured by these two physical and

conceptual coordinates, a strip, two miles long and half a

mile wide, was selected, starting at Place Denfert-Rochereau

and ending in suburban Gentilly, beyond the Périphérique.

Tools were devised to observe, explore, and analyze the site

in view of establishing a programmatic and spatial scenario

for design: 1) layers of factual and phenomenological maps

leading to geographic, historical, and perceptual briefs for

selected urban “moments;” 2) machines that are the codi-

fied and abstracted spatial and tectonic transcription, and

the manifestation of the architectural DNA of four iconic

Parisian buildings; 3) the figura, an urban profile intended

to reveal and articulate the program’s typical spaces, atypi-

cal spaces, and structure, in relation to the site’s capacities

and potential for saturation. Students selected a portion of

their figura to be developed architecturally, using the map-

ping briefs and the machines as tools to inform the project

and test its spatial and urban assumptions.

The spring urban studies workshop aimed at developing criti-

cal tools to approach contemporary urban issues and site spe-

cific research. Through a sequence of exercises or “frames”

combining different modes of analysis (empirical, icono-

graphical, historical) students engaged with selected themes

or issues related to chosen sites, but also with the manner in

which perception of the city is conditioned by different forms of

representation (maps, photography, cinema, advertising, etc.).

This reflexive dimension of “reading” the city was a central

issue throughout the course of the studio, accompanying and

informing each student’s personal site research.

Investigations focused on the Saint Blaise quarter in

the 20th arrondissement of Paris, which is currently part

of a major urban renewal project sponsored by the French

State. The task was to observe and analyze the interplay of

different actors, uses, and social and spatial conditions so as

to elaborate critical models for future development. Special

attention was devoted to community-based initiatives as they

pertain to the design and use of public space.

Architecture holds a unique position in a liberal

arts curriculum, and a liberal arts education in architecture

holds a unique position in relationship to the discipline. In

recent years, architecture has expanded its role in the world

to become as much an intellectual practice as a technical

practice. If the goal of a professional education in archi-

tecture is to prepare students to participate in the world as

practicing architects, a liberal arts education in architecture

introduces the student to the scope and range by which that

is possible. It explores the vast and continuously evolving

landscape of architectural ideas and practices, whether

related to the built environment or to related disciplines. It

establishes a mind-set; an intellectual foundation for under-

standing architecture before the practice of architecture

even begins. The purpose of an undergraduate education is

to teach students to think about and through architecture as

a way to understand the world.

In architecture courses, we establish an intellectual

context for students to participate in the ongoing construc-

tion of knowledge about the relation of form, space, and

materials to human life and thought. We cultivate models

of inquiry that engage speculation on the built environment

and its potentials and teach students how to use many dif-

ferent media to represent their ideas. Students learn to see

architecture as one of many forms of cultural production,

and their work as inquiry into the larger ideas and issues

that animate a liberal arts curriculum: what is the relation

of people and the structures they make to nature and the

environment, to specific sites and needs, to the micro and

macro forces that influence our experiences, to the forces

of history, politics, or economics, and to the ideologies and

aesthetics of the day?

Barnard and Columbia Colleges offer a major in archi-

tecture introduced through a series of studio and academic

courses that explore the multiple relationships between ar-

chitectural design, history, theory, and criticism. Students

are expected to develop technical skills, design excellence,

and a critical understanding of architecture as part of our

visual, social, and political history and culture. There are

two tracks to the architecture major: the first, while incor-

porating lectures, seminars, and scholarly research, is more

strongly studio-based and; the second, while incorporating

introductory level design studios, is focused on the history

and theory of architecture, and is more strongly allied with

the Art History departments.

The required sequence of courses begins with two in-

troductory design studios, Architectural Representation:

Abstraction and Perception, and the introductory lecture

course Perceptions of Architecture. Together, these cours-

es provide a foundation of material both majors continue to

build upon. The studio-based major requires Architectural

Design I and II, a two-semester design studio that introduces

students to more rigorous conceptual, social, and theoreti-

cal study through comprehensive design projects. Senior

course work includes senior seminars, an advanced elective

design studio, or independent research, and a thesis for stu-

dents completing a history/theory major. The curriculum for

both majors requires that students complement their work

in the major with related course work in other disciplines,

providing a link between architecture and other social and

cultural issues.

All departmental courses are developed by faculty in

relationship to overall curricular goals and evolving depart-

mental pedagogy, with many courses team-taught. While

most courses are longstanding traditions, each year the

department is intentionally infused with new input from

the Special Topics in Architecture courses and the interests

fore-grounded by the Emergent Architect Visiting Faculty po-

sition. The department is committed to continually strength-

ening its relationship to NYC and has therefore developed

this adjunct visiting teaching position as a bridge to the city

— an opportunity to expand our dialogue with our colleagues

and a chance to support emerging architectural talent.

The major, while independently directed by Barnard

College, is closely linked to the Graduate School of Archi-

tecture, Planning and Preservation through both on-going

pedagogical discussions as well as through our teaching

assistants who are current students from various gradu-

ate programs. Courses in the major, as well as field trips

and other events, take full advantage of our location in

New York City, and many of our students gain experience

through internships in the city. The major has an active stu-

dent club, Architecture Society, that supports workshops

for students and links students to the larger community.

Those majors who choose to apply to graduate school are

regularly accepted at the most competitive graduate pro-

grams in the country.

This course served as

an introduction to architectural design as an analytical,

representational, and productive act. Emphasis was placed

on an understanding of iterative and informed process and

the development of a methodology for both working and cri-

tique. Students were asked to work through various analyti-

cal and conceptual approaches in order to critique existing

and potential visual, spatial, and programmatic conditions.

Students worked through various modes of representation

(collage, sketching, orthographic drawing, physical model

etc.) and were encouraged to experiment with ways of

making. Ultimately, the class explored the “what,” “why,”

and “how” involved in the generation of design.

This course was specifically designed for students

majoring in departments other than architecture. Students

were encouraged to fold their individual academic interests

into their work and class discussions, in the hope that a

cross-pollination of ideas and perspectives would enrich the

overall architectural discourse in its various contexts (social,

historical, spatial etc.).

This course explored the conventions of

the representational language of architecture. Both two-

dimensional orthographic projection (plan, section, eleva-

tion) and three-dimensional elaborations (axonometric,

model) were used to analyze space and were investigated for

their abilities to reveal and conceal relationships in space.

Particular emphasis was placed on the revelatory value and

limitation of this abstract language — a language that is both

a concise method for abstracting architectural space (as an

analytical tool) and a generative method for speculating on

design (a conceptual ignition).

The course posed a series of challenges that allowed for

the sequential development of both technical skills and con-

ceptual thinking. While developing independent approaches

and projects, all sections of this course incorporated a proj-

ect that used either an existing building or urban space as

the subject for a field of inquiry concerning the making and

the meaning of abstract architectural representation. That

investigation involved three projects designed as a process

for critical analysis and production: documentation, analy-

sis, and invention/intervention. All projects required creative

thinking and precise execution with refined craft in the ser-

vice of ideas.

This course introduced

visual perception as a catalyst for the critique, representa-

tion, and design of architecture. Students learned to use and

analyze various spatial media to invent and represent archi-

tectural space. Emphasis was placed on developing a criti-

cal understanding of how space is perceived as well as how

different media can be deliberately manipulated, controlled,

and constructed as part of a creative and inventive design

process. While the course reflected on the historical and cul-

tural production of visual perception, it primarily conducted

this inquiry through making, drawing, and building. Issues

of inhabiting and experiencing a specific space, such as the

activities performed, the perception of that performance,

and the physical attributes of the space, were explored as

part of the creative development of projects.

Source media included photographs, drawings, films,

videos, models, objects, games, texts, and virtual and real

spaces. This material provided both the focus and the me-

dium of the analysis and design. The multiple methods of

analytical and representation skills that students developed

functioned as generative tools in continued design work,

forming the basis for critiquing existing space and media,

and for generating new spaces and their representations.

In this two-semester sequence, students investi-

gate architectural design as a mode of cultural communica-

tion as well as imaginative experimentation. As the studio

sequence evolved, emphasis was increasingly placed on the

relationship between material, tectonic, and programmatic

organization and the social and cultural contexts of a site

of investigation.

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN 1: CENTER, PERIPHERY,

DENSITY + DISPERSAL, END/BEGIN?

“It is not given to every man to take a bath of multitude...”

—Charles Baudelaire, “Crowds,” Paris Spleen, 1869

“The sound of gates gives way to the clatter of data banks...”

— Paul Virilio, “The Overexposed City,” 1991

The city of den-

sity and proximity may not be the only way to understand

cities like New York, but Baudelaire’s image of the urban

intensity remains at the heart of many urban and non-urban

projects, even as a simulation. Yet lest we fall into the trap of

romance by taking Virilio’s statement as a mere lament that

the drastic changes to the physical and social fabric of the

city somehow signal the “end” of the city, architects must

continually reconsider how the older layers of the city will

operate under new ways of looking and thinking. Mindful of

the changes wrought by telematics, we might still look upon

the unavoidable if not quite knowable corporeality of the city

with a new sense of possibility. The spaces and politics of

the city might still generate new interventions. This semes-

ter examined two of the many layers that make up cities

and regions — the dense fabric of the mid-block passages

of midtown Manhattan and the frayed edges of the island’s

changing waterfront. What is possible in these familiar yet

changing sites? Students took on the tensions and possi-

bilities first of the mid-block passages with the design of an

insertion for a new type of exchange or interaction, then at

the water’s edge with the design of a bike-share station.

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN 2: THE EXPANDED LIBRARY

The New York Public Library branch system, planned

and built with money from Andrew Carnegie in 1901, exempli-

fied, at its best, an ideal of distributed access to knowledge

that would “improve” those that partook of a library’s offer-

ings. Today, the 85 branch libraries are perhaps one of the

rare instances of (legally) public interior space, and these

facilities are used by a wide cross section of the population.

In addition to their traditional role of offering books and peri-

odicals, the branches serve as community information nodes

and computer centers. These new roles challenge, redefine,

and enrich the tradition of local access to knowledge. This

semester was intended to push further the ongoing changes

and possibilities for the branch library in an increasingly glo-

balized social realm.

The programmatic detail is a small-scale design in-

vestigation into the connections among material, program,

and physical and psychological space. The programmatic

detail is the transformation of static, determined program

elements into integrated, dynamic space(s) that materially

engage and chart the relationship between the body in space

and its movement in time. It may be a building block or mor-

phological code and is generative of a more complex spatial

system or architecture; it may be one instance of a larger

whole yet to be determined. Building on their programmatic

details, students designed an expanded branch library that

would not only provide all the opportunities of a branch li-

brary in the New York Public Library System but also include

facilities for a unique program, the Center for Urban Peda-

gogy (CUP), that would engage students, the larger public,

and professionals in projects about the urban environment.

Sited in Lower Manhattan, this project transfigured the

students’ research into the activities of a library — read-

ing, searching, consuming, borrowing, meeting — and the

building systems that support them — enclosure, structure,

aperture, security, display. The programmatic detail was an

intensification of these relationships, un-sited and fragmen-

tary. The expanded library project was the development of

those relationships into a sited whole.

The development of new technologies

and the design strategies they have fostered have allowed

two prevalent notions of design practice to be challenged.

Architectural documentation no longer needs to be

understood as representing a designer’s intentions. More

than ever before, architects have the opportunity to simu-

late their virtual intentions and test them prior to actualiza-

tion. Simulation packages allow for virtual testing, such as

finite element analysis (FEA), and computer numerically

controlled machines (CNC) allow for the scaled physical

output of ideas. These possibilities allow the architects

greater control over the materials and resistances the work

will encounter when actualized.

These opportunities allow for closer collaboration

with the consultants and trades that, previously, assumed

responsibility for integrating building systems, such as

structure, the conditioning of air, life-safety, etc. into the

architect’s design intentions. The result many times was a

compromised or value-engineered built condition. This no-

tion of systems integration had largely been outside of the

academy’s scope of architectural education.

Can a building be thought of as a measured construct

of the multiple systems that give it form — a calibrated and

performance-based organization? The idea here is that ar-

chitecture is not a slave to building systems; rather, each

system becomes architectural in its spatial configuration

and its ability to produce effects.

The Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American

Architecture was founded in 1982. Its mission is to advance

the study and appreciation of American architecture, urban-

ism, and landscape. A separately endowed entity within the

Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation,

it sponsors lecture series, conferences, exhibitions, publica-

tions, fellowships, and awards programs.

Over the last two years, the Buell Center’s program has

been focused on the FORuM Project, dedicated to rethink-

ing the relationship of architectural form to urban and con-

temporary life. The project culminated this spring with the

launch of a six-book publication series, the presentation of

an exhibition entitled “Form as Strategy,” and a symposium.

A highlight of the exhibition was Guy Debord’s original Game

of War, shown for the first time in the United States.

The Buell Center also inaugurated the Paul and Naomi

Goodman Fellowship this year, an award of up to $20,000

for a graduating student to carry out a project of social

significance related to the interests of Percival Goodman

in the year after graduation. Goodman (1904–89) was an

architect, planner, and social thinker who taught at Colum-

bia for twenty-five years. The fellowship is underwritten by

Raymond Lifchez, a GSAPP alumnus. The first recipient is

Avik Maitra, whose project, “Radecology: Malawi,” is aimed

at finding new ways to prevent and contain malaria in Malawi

through improvements in organizational systems and build-

ing techniques.

Joan Ockman stepped down as director of the Buell

Center in June after fourteen years. Reinhold Martin was

named her successor.

BUELL EVENTS

Lectures

Panel Discussion

Debate + Book Launch

Book Launch

Located on the lower floors of Avery Hall and its exten-

sion, the world’s leading architectural library supports the

work of students and faculty at the School by providing,

within a series of spaces designed for study and learning, a

wealth of research materials and outstanding reference and

access services. Orientation tours of the library, offered to

students at the beginning of the fall and summer semesters,

are strongly recommended.

The Avery Architectural Library was founded in 1890,

following a gift to Columbia by Samuel Putnam Avery. The

university’s Fine Arts Library was added in 1978 and the re-

named Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library now holds

over 400,000 non-circulating books and periodicals related

to architecture, urban planning, art history, archaeology,

historic preservation, and the decorative arts.

The Library’s recently updated web site offers the best

introduction to its collections and services (www.columbia.

edu/cu/lweb/indiv/avery/index.html). The book collection

begins with the first printed text devoted to architecture,

Leon Battista Alberti’s De re aedificatoria (Florence, 1485),

and continues with holdings of unique depth and extraordi-

nary range through to the present. Avery also includes the

Ware Memorial Library, a circulating collection of over 9,000

books on architecture, urban planning, and real estate.

Over one million documents make up Avery’s Draw-

ings and Archives collection, including original drawings

by masters such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier;

original photographs by Lewis Hine, Joseph Molitor, Samuel

Gottscho and others; and the complete or partial archives of

many major American practices, such as Richard Upjohn,

Alexander Jackson Davis, Greene & Greene, Warren & Wet-

more, Harold van Buren Magonigle, Stanford White, Wal-

lace K. Harrison, Gordon Bunshaft, Philip Johnson and the

Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company. The collection

is a major source for historical exhibitions and for primary

research in architecture. Available by appointment, the col-

lection welcomes students, scholars, and professionals.

Avery Library also produces the Avery Index to Architec-

tural Periodicals, now an operating program of the J. Paul

Getty Trust. Begun in 1934, it is the most extensive periodical

index in the field of architecture, and provides citations to

over 600,000 articles in architectural and related periodi-

cals. The Avery Index is accessible to students as one of the

databases offered on LibraryWeb.

Avery Library began a long-awaited process of reno-

vation and expansion in 2003. Phase one mainly consisted

of the creation of a new Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Study

Center for Art and Architecture, equipped with new storage,

processing and study facilities for Avery’s Drawings and

Archives collection and for the University’s art properties.

Avery’s ground floor reading room, designed in 1911 by Wil-

liam Mitchell Kendall of the McKim, Mead and White firm,

has also been renovated and renamed the Miriam and Ira

D. Wallach Reading Room. It is linked to the Wallach Study

Center by a 1970s underground extension designed by the

late Professor Alexander Kouzmanoff.

The School is the beneficiary of a consid-

erable bequest from the late William Kinne Fellows and has

at its purpose the enrichment of students’ education through

travel. Traditional procedures of disbursement include indi-

vidual, non-competitive grants for summer travel for second

year architecture and first year preservation and planning

students, third year achitecture studio trips, and a limited

number of competitive scholarships for two to three months

of travel open to all graduating students in the school.

The GSAPP Committee on Fellowships and Awards

decides each year how to disburse the annual interest of

the William Kinne Fellows Trust, according to the following

procedure: available funds are divided among the programs

in the school, proportionate to the length of each program

and the number of students enrolled.

This year the

Publications Department of the GSAPP produced a series

of publications that together represent the interdisciplinary

activity of the school and its embrace of experimental prac-

tices. Major publications include Living Archive 7: Ant Farm

(ACTAR), edited by Felicity Scott as part of a series of publi-

cations that reassess prominent archives related to seminal

moments in architectural production.

The New Urbanisms series also continued with the

publication of New Urbanisms 10: Designing Patch Dynamics,

edited by Brian McGrath, Victoria Marshall, Richard Plunz,

Joel Towers, M.L. Cadenasso, J. Morgan Grove, and S.T.A.

Pickett. The work of the Spatial Information Design Lab led

by Laura Kurgan published three pamphlets of their innova-

tive research: Scenario Planning Workshop, The Pattern, and

Architecture and Justice. Serial publications include Volume,

produced by C-LAB, Archis, and AMO as well as Future Ante-

rior, and the Real Estate Roundtable series. The publications

program also continues to support the work of GSAPP stu-

dents in studios and seminars, as characterized by Kathryn

Dean’s Constructive Practices — Between Economy and De-

sire and the latest in the series of collaborations between

the Department of Architecture and Historic Preservation,

Building on Templo Mayor. Forthcoming publications include

Engineered Transparency — The Technical, Visual and Spatial

Effects of Glass (Princeton Architectural Press), a volume

generated by the interdisciplinary conference held in the fall

of 2008; Part Animal, a book that emerges from dialogues

generated by two conferences convened by Catherine Ingra-

ham; Living Archive 5: Gordon Matta-Clark, the next volume in

the Living Archive series which invites reexamination of the

Anarchitecture group; the launch of the Research Notebook

series, a publication generated by the research initiatives

of the Ph.D. program which begins with a reconsideration

of Shadrach Woods’ Paris-Nord project; and The Colors of

the Brain, a book that represents the three-part collabora-

tion between The Museum of Modern Art and Studio Olafur

Eliasson in the spring of 2008.

The major exhibitions mounted at the GSAPP

this year continued two series of projects. Ant Farm:

Radical Hardware and “Build in Uncertainty”: Unpacking

the Shadrach Woods Archive exhibited in the Arthur Ross

Architecture Gallery add to The Living Archive, a growing

body of exhibitions that interrogate and open pivotal archi-

tectural archives to public view and to conceptual reexami-

nation. Michael Meredith: Glimmering Noise continues a set

of exhibitions of contemporary architectural experiments

with media forms and strategies.

ANT FARM: RADICAL HARDWARE

Ant Farm: Radical Hardware presented

an early period of work by the experimental architecture col-

lective Ant Farm. Curated by Felicity Scott and Mark Wasiuta,

the exhibition tracked Ant Farm’s prescient and critical

encounter with the spaces and apparatuses of the “video-

sphere” across a range of projects and media ecologies.

The exhibition pursued the question of how this young

group of radical architects would begin to experiment with

video as a form of environmental research and architectural

production, and how their early projects would begin to en-

gage and subvert official media networks to offer alterna-

tives to an emerging telecommunications space saturated

with administered images. Appropriating both military and

media strategies Ant Farm waged an “image war” through

various “image technologies.” Among other targets, obso-

lete spaces, infrastructures, and outmoded forms of inhabi-

tation were under attack.

Reflecting the wide-reaching practice of Ant Farm, the

exhibition included 35 mm slides, video footage, projected

films, do-it-yourself manuals, and plans for van conversions,

as well as the “linear media” of architectural drawings, blue-

prints, photo collages, letters, mail art, and other archival

materials. The exhibition brought together documents from

the collection of Ant Farm patron, Marilyn Oshman, from the

Ant Farm archive at the Berkeley Art Museum, and from Ant

Farm members Chip Lord and Curtis Schreier.

At the core of the exhibition were thirteen early Ant Farm

video projects, from the diaristic Ant Farm’s Dirty Dishes, to

the environmental data recording of World’s Longest Bridge

to the Ant Farm collaboration with TVTV (Top Value Televi-

sion) and their alternate coverage of the 1972 Republican

and Democratic conventions. An important opportunity for

the exhibition was to participate in the Ant Farm video res-

toration project with Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film

Archive. Several of the videos appeared in the exhibition as

result of this shared project.

Through the video work and other early projects the

exhibition focused on the imbrication of Ant Farm’s media

practices and their spatial propositions. In Electronic Oa-

sis psychedelic images were projected as background for

Ant Farm’s performances. In Truckstop Network, inflatable

nodes, animated by 35 mm slides and video images, would

help organize alternate communities and economies built on

“energy credits.” In The House of The Century the domestic

interior was infiltrated by communication devices and media

archives. Yet Ant Farm image technology not only posited

spaces intensely occupied by images but also offered a rec-

ognition of a newly formed media environment distributed

across several networks and regimes of power. Ant Farm’s

projects claimed their own image power and argued the ne-

cessity of occupying the temporal, spatial flux of the media

environment, while proposing a recoding of those networks

and infrastructures, out of which would emerge new ecologi-

cally oriented spaces and for which radical hardware would

have to continually evolve.

“BUILD IN UNCERTAINTY”: UNPACKING THE SHADRACH

WOODS ARCHIVE

“Build in Uncertainty” marked the

arrival of the Shadrach Woods papers at Avery Library from

the generous donation of Val Woods. The exhibition col-

lected key documents from this archive, sampling a range

of material from the early years of Woods collaboration with

his partners at the office Candilis-Josic-Woods, to his own

later writing and independent design practice.

The curators stressed that for Woods the call to “build

in uncertainty” was a provocation to work within an uncer-

tain social and urban environment and toward an uncertain

future. The exhibition allowed an additional uncertainty: the

relation between Woods’ large scale planning and architec-

tural projects, and his later speculations on the social role

of architecture, articulated in his theoretical texts, Urbanism

is Everybody’s Business and Man in the Street.

The tensions among these various uncertain rela-

tions and modes of work helped structure the exhibition.

Documents around the perimeter of the gallery mapped the

historical evolution of Woods’ work through several major

phases and projects. A timeline beginning with work for the

Atelier des Batisseurs (ATBAT) moved through designs for

housing in France, the Berlin Free University, major urban

planning schemes, and other episodes of the Candilis-Josic-

Woods office, and ended with Woods’ own practice, his stud-

ies of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, and other projects

for New York City in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. At the

center of the gallery documents exhibited the development

of the “stem,” the “web” and other of Woods’ most impor-

tant conceptual and formal strategies. These documents

reveal Woods as not only an important architect, but also as

an important intellectual contributor to pressing post-war

debates on the questions of form, urban organization and

social space. A collection of related documents and texts

from Woods’ research, lectures, and other writings opened

up Woods’ role as pedagogue.

Curated by doctoral students Elsa Lam and Brad Wal-

ters the exhibition benefited from the contributions of many

participants. The initial impetus for the exhibition came from

Mary McLeod and was given important direction through the

work of students in her doctoral seminar, organized around

study of the Woods archive. A series of contemporary pho-

tographs of projects by Candilis-Josic-Woods, taken by Mat-

thew Worsnick in conjunction with a research trip for the

seminar, was exhibited in Avery Hall concurrent with the

exhibition in Ross Auditorium.

MICHAEL MEREDITH: GLIMMERING NOISE

Michael Meredith’s video project, Glimmering Noise,

recalls the media experiments of architectural practices from

the 1960’s and 1970’s, and their critical encounters with film

and video. At the same time the project is equally in conversa-

tion with a more conventional form of media — network televi-

sion — and associated forms of public performance.

The video stages an anachronistic encounter between

Meredith and a television talk show host, modeled on Wil-

liam F. Buckley from the 1960’s era of his program, Firing

Line. A conceit of the project is that the host’s dialogue is

assembled from quotations of Meredith’s own texts. The host

appears both as Meredith’s other voice, and as throwback to

the fraught political era of late 1960s. Meredith cites his “re-

pulsive fascination” for Buckley and his aggressive telegenic

performance. The video plays on this ambivalence through

the asymmetry of the dialogue; the Buckley character deliv-

ers a stream of Tafuri citations, exhortations to beauty and

lamentations on architecture’s obscurity while Meredith,

hesitant and uncertain, sits in near mute response.

The project at once establishes and erodes a connec-

tion between the two characters and between historical pe-

riods. While the video is entranced by the performance of the

host, by his generational power, and by the conviction of his

declarations, the interruptions register most clearly. Glim-

mering Noise is ultimately positioned around questions and

expressions of doubt. Acting through the gaps, stammers,

and breaks in Meredith’s dialogue, this doubt impinges on

the formation of architectural knowledge and the techniques

and spaces of self promotion and publicity into which archi-

tects are increasingly interpolated.

CONFERENCE INSTALLATIONS

Two installations in Avery Hall, conceived in relation

to GSAPP conferences, served as important critical supple-

ments. In conjunction with, Engineered Transparency, AAR

student Rosana Rubio-Hernández designed and installed,

Through Glass, an exhibition that traced a genealogy of

recent “post-industrial glass.” The project examined the

transition from early glass technologies to recent Advanced

Optical Glasses and commented on the architectural signifi-

cance of the evolution toward the dynamic, transformable

character of new glass material. The exhibition asserted that

new forms of glass reveal a range of optical conditions and

scopic possibilities that question the presumed inertness

and simple transparency of architectural glass in both its

modern and recent incarnations.

For the symposium, The Colors of The Brain, faculty

member and Director of publications Jeannie Kim, with the

help of M.Arch students Troy Therrien and Cheryl Wing-zi

Wong, installed a complex geometric landscape. The sym-

posium examined current theories and scientific studies of

color in and around the work of artist Olafur Eliasson. Where

Eliasson might work with retinal after-images or other per-

ceptual effects, the installation manipulated space percep-

tion by overlapping, and interleaving competing perspectival

views, creating a space of optical illusion that altered and

fluctuated as viewers moved past the installation and came

into focus only from certain defined locations.

Exhibitions Crew:

The school offers a wide range of events in the form of

evening lectures, lunchtime lectures, debates, conferences,

symposia, colloquia, and informal discussions that reflect

the diversity and interests of its programs. Intended to fur-

ther enrich the GSAPP experience, school events are gener-

ally open to the public — inviting all who attend to engage in

the ideas explored and contribute to discussions.

There are more than 250 guest speakers at the school

in a typical semester. The Wednesday evening lecture series

brings internationally prominent practitioners, historians,

and theorists to the school to speak on issues of architec-

ture, planning, development, and urbanism. Often live feeds

broadcast the lectures to many of the rooms throughout the

building and informal receptions follow so that the audience

can continue their discussions on the issues presented.

Monday nights typically feature public debates on major

questions facing the disciplines or discussions of recent

exhibitions, books, and films. In addition, the Architecture,

Urban Design, Planning, Preservation, and Real Estate

Development programs maintain their own lecture series

that are open to the entire school community. The school

and its programs sponsor special symposia and large-scale

conferences — often in collaboration with other universities,

museums, and cultural institutions — drawing prominent

guests, faculty, and students together to discuss issues of

timely and historical importance. There are also impromptu

lunchtime lectures scheduled throughout the semester fea-

turing the recent work of important visitors to New York City

or young practitioners and scholars.

In the 2007-2008 academic year the main GSAPP events

program alone featured roughly 30 lectures, 20 debates, 10

conferences, colloquia and symposia, and book launches

and screenings in addition to many other specialized events

sponsored by the school’s various programs. It is a testa-

ment to the energetic culture of the school that, despite the

fact that (out of necessity) the events are held in the evening,

on weekends, and during lunch, they are typically filled to ca-

pacity, often even exceeding the space that they are intended

for and spilling into hallways and vestibules of the school.

The result of this overwhelming array of events requires

students, professors, and visitors to invent an itinerary,

constructing and refining their own curriculum.

FALL

Lectures

Book Launches

Screenings + Debates

Debates:

Conference

Tech Talks

Screenings

Debate + Exhibition Opening

Discussion + Exhibition Opening

Buell Lectures

SPRING

Lectures

Debates

Book Launches

Debate + Book Launch

Conferences

Symposium

Tech Talks

Screening + Debate

Discussion + Exhibition Opening

Buell Debate + Book Launch

Buell Panel Discussion

Buell Lecture

Buell Book Launch

GSAPP End-of-Year Exhibit

The GSAPP Office of

Development and Alumni Relations, established in 2005, is

dedicated to building a strong framework for alumni com-

munication, collaboration, and networking, and to establish-

ing a strong base of support for the school, its students, and

its programs.

GSAPP ALUMNI SCHOLARSHIP FUND AND THE AVERY

HALL SOCIETY

The Avery Hall Society was created in recognition of GSAPP

annual donors. All Avery Hall society members are acknowl-

edged in the annual GSAPP Alumni Scholarship Fund

Newsletter, and Alumni Leaders receive a special invitation

to the annual Alumni Leaders Dinner with Dean Wigley and

the scholarship recipients. Alumni Contributors donated

$250-$499, Alumni Patrons $500-$999, Alumni Leaders

$1000+, and GSAPP Partners $10000+.

Gsapp Alumni At A Glance

~ 9,060 living GSAPP alumni

Alumni by Program

M.Arch + B.Arch: 2,628+

MsAAD: 1,420+

MsAUD: 681+

MsUP: 956+

MsHP: 802+

MsRED: 914+

Ms ArchTech: 254+

Certificate HP: 5+

Ms Planning/Housing Design: 60+

Ms Health Services Planning/Design: 30+

Alumni by City

2373 New York City

143 San Francisco, CA

123 Los Angeles, CA

92 Chicago, IL

86 Washington, D.C.

63 Philadelphia, PA

63 Seattle, WA

60 Miami, FL

48 Portland, OR

42 Atlanta, GA

THE ONLINE ALUMNI DIRECTORY

The GSAPP Online Alumni Directory was launched in

September, 2006. Membership in the community is free and

available exclusively to GSAPP alumni. The directory allows

alumni to stay in touch with each other, conduct professional

networking, and update their contact and employment infor-

mation. For more information, visit: www.arch.columbia.

edu/alumni

2007-2008 GSAPP ALUMNI EVENTS

Alumni Weekend, October 26-27, 2007

During Alumni Weekend 2007, alumni and friends returned

to Columbia for the School’s third annual Alumni Weekend.

The Class of 1957 celebrated its 50th anniversary alongside

members of the most recent graduating class; the Cohort

of 1968–1975 came back to celebrate their time at GSAPP

and share their extraordinary accomplishments; and we cel-

ebrated Associate Dean Loes Schiller’s commitment to the

School and to our students over the last 37 years. This special

event emphasized this important relationship, and several

new scholarship funds were launched by our ever-generous

alumni to help support current and future students.

The closing dinner was an emotional and unforget-

table evening. As each of the new scholarship funds was

announced, especially those devoted to underrepresented

communities, a sense of history and a deep bond between

generations of graduates of the school intensified. It culmi-

nated with the presentation of the Loes Schiller Endowed

Scholarship Fund and a series of moving tributes to Loes

and her dedication to the School.

EVENTS AND PARTICIPANTS INCLUDED

Keynote Lecture & Reception: On Community

Alumni Leaders Dinner

Special annual event for the Alumni Leaders of the

GSAPP Alumni Scholarship Fund

Panel: Forty Years After the Insurrection

Panel: Manhattanville: The Columbia Expansion

Panel: GSAPP: Urban/ism and Community?

Featuring GSAPP faculty:

DISCUSSIONS & TOURS

Avery Library

Avery Digital Fabrication Laboratory

Manhattanville Walking Tour

Dinner Honoring Associate Dean Loes Schiller

Included a dinner celebration, the announcement of new

awards and scholarship funds and the presentation of the

Loes Schiller Endowed Scholarship Fund.

DEBATE

The Enlightened Developer?

An exploration of the cutting edge where development

meets design.

Young Alumni Lecture: Pitch Black

The Class of 1957

The Architecture Class of 1957 celebrated its 50th

Anniversary during Alumni Weekend 2007. GSAPP would like

to acknowledge this milestone and thank the Class for their

generous contributions to the Class of 1957 Scholarship.

Team Gleam

For one night only, 120 blown glass lanterns were

assembled to light the Alumni Weekend Dinner, honor-

ing Associate Dean Loes Schiller. The glass pieces were

distributed among the departing guests at the end of the

night. The project formed part of an ongoing investigation

into the meeting of digital design and artisan production.

Team Gleam is interested in those qualities and effects,

which, whilst digitally generated, have a material richness

and depth that lie beyond the anemia of digital rendering.

www.gleamlab.com

Special thanks to Associated Fabrication for their generous

donation to GSAPP in support of the Team Gleam project.

Thanks to Phillip Anzalone, Danny O’Shea, and 160 Glass.

STRUCTURES AND SURFACES

“The Furniture of Poul Kjaerholm and Selected Artwork”

Gallery Talk with the Curator

LECTURE + BOOK LAUNCH + RECEPTION

“Modern Architecture: A Critical History, 4th edition:

Architecture in the Age of Globalization”

CAREER DAY

GSAPP’s second annual Architecture Career Day

took place on Friday, March 28 and Saturday, March 29.

Sixteen firms from across the country came back to Avery

Hall to meet and interview current students. Thank you to

all the alumni and firms who joined us and to GSAPP Career

Services Assistant, Amy Finley (M.Arch 2008).

Alumni and representatives from the following firms at-

tended: 5Design, Gensler, Brennan Beer Gorman, Kondylis

Design, Cetra/Ruddy Incorporated, Panelite, dbox, Perkins

+ Will, Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn, SB Architects, FLAnk,

SMWM, Freelon Group, Stephen Yablon Architects PLLC, FX-

Fowle, workshop/apD.

MsRED ALUMNI CAREER EVENT

MsRED Class of 2008 officers co-organized an MsRED

Alumni Career Event on April 14th at Havana Central (for-

merly The West End). MsRED alumni in various sectors par-

ticipated in round-table discussions with the students. Many

thanks to the MsRED alumni who attended, and congratula-

tions to the 2008 class officers, Rachael Gray Shipkin and

Bryan Ramm, for organizing such a successful event.

Alumni from the following firms attended: The Hudson

Companies, Athena, Jonathan Rose Companies, Forest City

Ratner Companies, Rockrose Development Company, The

Drivin Group (formerly Pulte Homes), The Setai Group, The

Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd., ESPAIS New York Corpo-

ration, The Related Group of Florida, SL Green Realty Corp.,

Vornado.

GSAPP IN PARIS

Alumni Reception with Dean Mark Wigley

Sunday, September 30

Pierre Chareau’s Maison de Verre

“No house in France better reflects the magical promise of

20th-century architecture than the Maison de Verre. Tucked

behind the solemn porte-cochere of a traditional French

residence on Rue Saint-Guillaume, a quiet street in a wealthy

Left Bank neighborhood, the 1932 house designed by Pierre

Chareau challenges our assumptions about the nature of

Modernism. For architects it represents the road not taken:

a lyrical machine whose theatricality is the antithesis of the

dry functionalist aesthetic that reigned through much of the

20th century.”

—Nicolai Ouroussoff/M.Arch 1992, “The Best House in

Paris”, The New York Times, August 26, 2007

A special thank-you to Robert Rubin/GSAS 1989, Architecture

Ph.D. Candidate, and Stéphane Samuel for their hospitality

and generosity.

GSAPP IN BOSTON

During the AIA National Convention Alumni Tour and

Reception with Dean Mark Wigley and Charles Renfro

(MsAAD 1994), Partner, Diller Scofidio + Renfro May 15, 2008

Boston Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA)

GSAPP IN SAN FRANCISCO

Alumni Tour, Discussion and Reception with Dean

Mark Wigley and Henry Urbach (M.Arch 1990), Curator of

Architecture and Design, SFMOMA

June 4, 2008

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Master of Architecture

Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design

Master of Science in Urban Design

Master of Science in Historic Preservation

Master of Science in Urban Planning

Master of Science in Real Estate Development

Lucille Smyser Lowenfish Memorial Prizes

Chosen by each critic for best design problem in final semes-

ter of Advanced Studio, (open to M. Arch, AAD, UD).

Bangkok Carbon Studio: Living Thai-pologies

Bangkok Carbon Studio: Amphibious Bangkok

Slum Lab — 002 Micro Ideas for a Big World

Saemangeum Urban Planning Proposal

Closing the Loop, Energy and the Development of

Public Lands

Bangkok Carbon Studio: Delta Ecotone

Anarchitecture 2

A library for the Multitude

The Discreet and the Continuous

Closing the Loop, Energy and the Development of

Public Lands

Think Tank 2.2: Money

Systemic Skins

Resort China

LOT-EK Monograph Studio

Central Areas of Mixed Use in the Periphery

Annex: Brasilia 2010

Cool Aid v 2.0 — Crisis Ethics

The Dictionary of Received Ideas

UN on Ice

Building Virtual Realities — Dubai Studio III,

Wild Horses/Educated Men: Club Hippodrome

WILLIAM KINNE FELLOWS MEMORIAL

TRAVELING PRIZES

Experiments in “New” Living: Documenting the

Sustainable City (or “Our Utopia?”)

InBetween: Nuanced Conditions in the US-Mexico

Border Zone

Glass & Architecture: Intersection in Glass Technologies

Between the Industrial and Artisanal

Spectrum of Control: Digital and Handcraft in Japanese

Building Culture

Go West: Crises of Megacity Identity and the Great

Opening of China’s West

Post-Olympics Boom: The Projected Development of the

Architectural Identity of Beijing after the 2008 Olympics

The Reciprocal Urban Scenarios in Japanese Cities

Shao W. Deng (AAD)

The Disappearance of the Façade in 20th Century

Architecture Through the Lens of Japanese Essentialism

Dirt and Domesticity: Hakka Earthen Structures

What can brown(field) do for you?

Paving for Development

SCHOOL-WIDE KINNE AWARDS

Invisible Urbanism in West Africa

New Domestic Landscapes: Urban Innovation in the Era of

Suburban Decay

Preservation of Fascist Architecture in Contemporary Italy

Some Disassembly Required: An Investigation into the Local

Impact of Teak Procurement in Northwestern Thailand

TRASH: Economy of Waste in Garbage City, Cairo

Watering the Thirsty: Preserving the Sabils of

Historic Cairo

Experiments in Water Management in Peru: One nation,

Three diverse geographies

Crossing the Line: The Qinghai-Tibet Railway

The Theme of Death in Italian Architecture from WWII to

the Early 1970s

Wading the Waters: Exploring Malawi’s Infrastructure of

Water and Health

BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES HONOR AWARD

To the student who most demonstrates an ability to incorporate

building technologies into the issues of architectural design

VISUAL STUDIES HONOR AWARD

For innovative use of computing media in architectural or

urban research, design, and fabrication

SCHOOL SERVICE AWARDS

For outstanding service to the School and contribution to

student life.

School Service

Student Life

HONOR AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE IN DESIGN

In recognition of the high quality of work in the design stu-

dios during the student’s program of studies

GSAPP PRIZE FOR EXCELLENCE IN URBAN DESIGN

To recognize the student whose work in the Urban Design

Program has been most outstanding

ALI JAWAD MALIK MEMORIAL HISTORY AND THEORY

HONOR AWARD

In recognition of high quality of work in the history and

theory sequence.

CHARLES MCKIM PRIZE FOR EXCELLENCE IN DESIGN/

SAUL KAPLAN TRAVELING FELLOWSHIP

To recognize the student whose work throughout the stu-

dios has been outstanding, funded by a bequest from Saul

Kaplan (M.Arch ‘57); the prize is for travel and study follow-

ing graduation

WILLIAM WARE PRIZE AND SAUL KAPLAN

TRAVELING FELLOWSHIP

To recognize the student in the Advanced Architectural Design

Program whose work throughout the studios has been out-

standing, funded by a bequest from Saul Kaplan (M.Arch ‘57).

The prize is for travel and study following graduation.

Alpha Rho Chi Medal

For leadership and service to the School and promise of

professional merit

New York Society Of Architects’ Matthew Del

Gaudio Award

For excellence in total design

American Institute Of Architects’ Certificate

In recognition of scholastic achievement, character, and

promise of professional ability

American Institute Of Architects’ Medal

In recognition of scholastic achievement, character, and

promise of professional ability

BUELL CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF AMERICAN

ARCHITECTURE AWARDS

Catherine Hoover Voorsanger Writing Prize

Awarded by the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study

of American Architecture for an outstanding essay on

American architecture

PERCIVAL AND NAOMI GOODMAN FELLOWSHIP

To carry out a project of social significance related to the

interests of Percival Goodman

Radecology: Malawi

CATHERINE HOOVER VOORSANGER WRITING

COMMENDATION (a School-wide award)

Awarded by the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study

of American Architecture for an outstanding essay on

American architecture

STUDENT NOMINATED AWARDS

To the student whose dedication and resiliency within an

urban design collaboration has significantly contributed to

the team’s collective efforts, and in doing so has earned the

respect of the graduating class

To the student whose ridiculous commitment within studio

and the School at large has earned the respect of the

student body

To the students whose relentless optimism within the

studio and the School at large has earned the respect of the

student body:

To the student whose work questions the standards of archi-

tecture and promises to change the profession

HISTORIC PRESERVATION PROGRAM AWARDS

Robert C. Weinberg Prize for Excellence in Preservation

Planning and Design

“Watering the Thirsty: Preserving the Sabils of

Historic Cairo”

Robert Weinberg Prize for Historic Preservation Theory

and Interpretation

“Mind the Gap: Historic Preservation and the Recent Past”

Conservation Sector Prize

“CLEANING HISTORIC BUILDING INTERIORS:

THE QUESTION OF RESIDUE USING ARTE MUNDIT

CLEANING PASTE”

Historic Preservation and Oral History Prize

“GROUND UP: ORAL HISTORY AND THE INTERPRETATION

OF LE HAVRE, FRANCE”

Historic Preservation Design Prize

“THE FRAMING OF PATRONAGE IN MEXICO CITY’S

HISTORIC CENTER: PROJECT FOR THE CENTRO

FOUNDATION IN THE EX-ROYAL CONVENT OF

JESUS MARIA”

Preservation Planning Prize

“DORMANT SMOKESTACKS AND SILENT TURBINES:

THE ADAPTIVE REUSE OF EARLY TO MID-TWENTIETH

CENTURY POWER STATIONS”

Historic Preservation Student Peer To Peer Award

To the student whose wild participation in Preservation has

earned the respect of the student body

URBAN PLANNING PROGRAM AWARDS

Outstanding Leadership Award

For outstanding leadership in the Planning program

Charles Abrams Thesis Award

For a masters thesis that best exemplifies a commitment

to social justice

“RE-ENTRY AND THE ROLES OF BRIDGE PROGRAMMING:

RECONNECTING FORMER PRISONERS AND THEIR

COMMUNITIES”

Planning Challenge Award

For a masters thesis that makes a substantive contribution

to our understanding of a contemporary planning issue

“MUNICIPAL ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

PLANNING: MOTIVATIONS, IMPLEMENTATION,

DOCUMENTS, AND IMPACTS IN HIGHLAND PARK,

NEW JERSEY”

Planning Research Design Award

For a thesis that exemplifies a commitment to research

methodology and/or planning techniques

“THE FRESHDIRECT EFFECT: HOW DOES FOOD CHOICE

AFFECT A NEIGHBORHOOD’S APPEAL?”

American Institute Of Certified Planners Outstanding

Student Award

For outstanding attainment in the study of Planning

New York Chapter Of The American Planning

Association’s Robert C. Weinberg Award

For academic excellence in Urban Planning

Urban Planning Student Peer To Peer Award

To the student whose dedication, reliability, and sheer

willingness to help others has earned the respect of the

student body

This catalog has been produced through the Office of

the Dean, Mark Wigley. The archive of the student work,

containing documentation of projects selected by the

studio critics at the conclusion of each semester, is

utilized in the making of ABSTRACT.

Copyright 2008 by the Trustees of Columbia University

in the City of New York

All rights reserved.

Published by the Graduate School of Architecture,

Planning and Preservation of Columbia University.

New York, NY 10027

Editor: Scott Marble

Assistant Editors: Katie Shima, Brian Brush

Design: Sagmeister Inc., New York

Photographers: Mark Bearak, Jong Seo Kim

Printing: Asia Pacific Offset, China

(ISBN) 1-883584-56-6

The Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American ArchitectureColumbia University

FORUMPROJECTFINALE

Des

ign: W

illi K

unz

Stu

dio

Friday,April 46:30pm

Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall

Columbia University

BIOPOLITICS AND THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN ARCHITECTUREBuell Evening Lecture sponsored by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Sven-Olov WallensteinProfessor of Philosophy, University College of Södertörn, and of Architectural Theory,

Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm

Author, Den moderna arkitekturens filosofier (The Philosophies of Modern Architecture, 2004);

Bildstrider: Föreläsningar om estetisk teori (Image Wars: Lectures on Aesthetic Theory, 2001);

editor-in-chief, SITE magazine

with responses by Reinhold Martin, John Rajchman, and Anthony Vidler

Saturday,April 53:30pm

Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall

Columbia University

FORuMPROJECT PUBLICATIONS BOOK LAUNCHwith presentations by Pier Vittorio Aureli, Svetlana Boym, Brian O’Doherty, McKenzie Wark and Alex Galloway,

Brian Evenson and Deborah Natsios, David Reinfurt of Dexter Sinister, Enrique Walker and

the Automatic Architecture School (Marcella del Signore, Aimee Duquette, Cristina Goberna, Chris Kroner)

and excerpts by Pellegrino D’Acierno from

THIRTEEN WAYS OF CROSSING THE PIAZZA

6:30pm

South Gallery, Buell Hall

Columbia University

FORM AS STRATEGY EXHIBITION OPENING AND RECEPTIONExhibition dates: April 7 through April 26

with works by Archizoom, Alice Becker-Ho and Guy Debord, Peter Eisenman, Will Insley, Ilya Kabakov,

Brian O’Doherty (Patrick Ireland), Hermann Nitsch, Radical Software Group, Martha Rosler, and Bernard Tschumi

The FORuMPROJECT is a two-year program dedicated to exploring the relationship of architectural form

to politics and urban life. It was initiated in fall 2006 and has been carried out under the auspices

of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, and the Berlage

Institute, Rotterdam. Project conceptualization: Joan Ockman and Pier Vittorio Aureli

The FORuMPROJECT Publications are copublished by The Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study

of American Architecture and Princeton Architectural Press. For information and book orders, please go to

www.papress.com.