Designing How We Live: Why Architecture is More Than Just Building

Catalog description

Think about the spaces you visit daily: the dorm room that shapes every interaction with your roommate, the coffee shop that somehow makes you feel focused, or the museum that forces you to walk more slowly. Anyone with an engineering degree can calculate the weight a pillar can hold, but it takes an architect to ask: How will this very pillar shape the ways people live around it? In this seminar, we are moving past the myth that architecture is just about choosing fabrics for a new living room. Instead, we will treat it as a revolutionary activity that, starting in the 20th century, transformed modern lifestyles. We'll dive into big, pressing questions: How can a neighborhood's design improve mental health? What does a truly climate-resilient home look like? And are skyscrapers really the only way to meet the demands of overpopulation? You don't need any prior background to attend this course, just a curiosity about how the world around you is shaped and how it could be different. To understand the difference between good and bad architecture, we will make full use of the many resources right here on campus. We'll explore historical maps, learn how to read blueprints, and deconstruct the hidden psychology of our own campus buildings. By the end of this seminar, you will never look at a room or a corner shop the same way again. You'll walk away with a toolkit to critically read the built environment, understand the deep intersection of design and societal ideals, and possess the foundation to start imagining the future spaces of our world.