Architecture and Urban Design Lab I

Catalog description

This architecture and urban design LAB will focus on the systems that structure urban life in New York City. Whether we look at familiar systems, such as transportation, food provision, and waste management or other less, evident systems, such as zoning, water, power, or telecommunications, the class will take as its challenge an understanding of all these as “designed” systems that can be affected by strategic interventions. While traditional architecture and urban design courses focus first on streets and buildings and the spaces between them, a limitation of this established pedagogy is its failure to address the many interdisciplinary overlaps that occur in designing and occupying a city. The LAB will engage a wide range of formal and analytical assumptions that underpin existing systems, even as we speculate on new propositions and offer alternatives. Students will be asked to immerse themselves into design research with the goal of understanding the interlocking issues that emerge with any urban design proposal. Students will see that seemingly local problems connect to citywide, regional, national, and often global issues. The aim of this LAB is to produce original research and design proposals to advance a more livable, resilient, ecological, and equitable city. [Note: previous design experience (analog and digital) is recommended.]