Architecture & Social Practice- Global Exchange
- PGAR 5680 - Architecture & Social Practice- Global Exchange (Spring 2008)
Architecture and Social Practice - Global Exchange: Mumbai, Hong Kong/Shenzen, Bangkok, and New York
There has been a surge in interest in the global exchange of students and scholars around the world, yet little discussion about what background and skills these travelers bring to the field. This course is designed to prepare students from AIDL, International Affairs and Communication Design for international exchange projects in grass roots social organization and design. The emphasis will be on developing rapid assessment techniques based on transdisciplinary skills culled from architecture, the social sciences and communication design. Investigation skills and contextual analysis will be in the service of developing immediate and practical design solutions for a wide variety of urban problems in the developing world within the dense discursive field of non-government organization practice.
Students will collaborate on urban research and design methodologies in preparation for field projects and the global exchange of information, analysis ideas, and solutions for today’s pressing social and environmental issues. The course will include in depth analysis of four global cities: Mumbai, Hong Kong/Shenzen, Bangkok and New York as regional urban ecosystems, as well as the development of methodologies of cross comparison. Three methodologies of comparison will structure the course: spatial heterogeneity, material processes and flows, and adaptability. Three disciplinary lenses - anthropology, urban design and communication design - will be presented, but the goal is to develop transdisciplinary and transnational practices bridging sectors that will benefit from new information and communication technologies.
Concentration:Cities and Urbanization