Figure

1 Eric Parry pencil studies, in Clare Nugent blog, p.10. clarenugent.com

http://clarenugentdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/p2.jpg

The Citizen Architect Studio

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Building Capacity and Community Engagement in the Washington Park Neighborhood,
Milwaukee

Arijit Sen, Department of Architecture, UWM, in partnership with Wisconsin Humanities Council, Quorum Architects,
Washington Park Partners, Office of Undergraduate Research, UWM, Milwaukee Public Library (Washington Park Branch),
Urban Ecology Center, Our Next Generation, and Express Yourself Milwaukee, Amaranth Caf, Bus Stop Coffee Shop, ACTS
Housing, AWE Inc., GROW Milwaukee, Habitat for Humanity, BLC field school, neighborhood residents and business owners,
and students. We thank work done by students from Spring 2014 Arch 302 course and the BLC summer field school. Sister
studios include DANCE 491 - Repertory/Student Choreographer (Simone Ferro, instructor) and FA255/355/455 Public Art :
Social Practice (MIAD; Jill Sebastian, instructor).

Instructor: Arijit Sen; Office Hours: By Appointment; Studio meets at: AUP 306, TuThF 1:30 PM 5:20 PM

The Citizen Architect Studio is part of a consortium of three upper level art, architecture, dance and
design studios that explore how multidisciplinary design practice can engage professionals,
academics and local cultures and communities. Our collaborators and participants are listed above.
The Fall 2014-15 project focuses on Washington Park, a racially, economically and culturally diverse
neighborhood known for its artist communities and active neighborhood groups.

Why Sponsored Studio?
According to American Institute of Architects, a Citizen Architect uses his/her insights, talents,
training, and experience to contribute meaningfully, beyond self, to the improvement of the
community and human condition. The Citizen Architect advocates for higher living standards, the
creation of a sustainable environment, quality of life, and the greater good. This studio examines
methods and traditions to train a civic-minded architecture student to communicate, hear, listen and
work with local partners at the Washington Park neighborhood of Milwaukee.

Quorum Architects is a leading proponent of civic practice in the city of Milwaukee. The firms
philosophy begins with an understanding that our clients possess a comprehensive knowledge of
how their facility operates. We listen. We care. This ability to listen has influenced their engaged-
practice and is central to the core values of this studio. Quorum Architects staff will serve as mentors
for students and commit to attend design reviews. Design projects will be defined and generated
together with Quorum Architects staff members.
Our learning goals are:

1.

2.

Clarify Methods and Evidence: Traditionally design studios produce ideas in the form of
design proposals, development ideas and drawings. This is not adequate. In this studio we
hope to articulate the design methods and research information that underpin design
responses. We ask: How and why is design a social act? Who do we design for and how do
we design? What are the rules, moves, processes that constitute the language of design
practice?

Identify Ethics/building capacity: Along with our design explorations we hope to consider
ethical values and practices that guide our work. New ethical challenges confront
architectural scholars and practitioners in the 21st Century. First is the issue of equitable
engagement in which design addresses the myriad needs and expectations of end-users. In
the context of increasing social and economic inequities, declining urban communities, and
crumbling built infrastructure, cities like Milwaukee (also called legacy cities)1 serve as
examples or case studies where architects and designers can find innovative and resurgent
solutions. Second, the course will examine the important issue of producing architecture
that is resilient and adaptable. If we are to survive economic, climatic, and social disasters in
ways that are sustainable then we need to design buildings that accommodate and adapt to
change and diversity, a quality that N J Habraken calls building capacity.

3.

Improve Assess: We want to move beyond the one-day charrette as a mode of engagement
with communities and explore deeper forms of interactions such as being involved in the
community. We are interested in developing measures to evaluate success. That is, how do
we demonstrate that we have been listening?

We plan to accomplish the above course goals in the following ways:
1. Identify and document the thematic elements and spatial grammar of the built environment.
2. Demonstrate and document new strategies of design interventions in the 21st Century by
integrating community needs and knowledge in the architecture program. Enumerate and
evaluate our strategies and practices of civic engagement.
3. Document and disseminate best practices to implement the above goals within the context of
Washington Park, Milwaukee.
4. Show evidence of how we engage with community and measure success of such
engagements.

Course Texts:
John Brinckerhoff Jackson, A Sense of Time, A Sense of Place, (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1999).

Additional readings assigned during the semester (please note: additional readings may be assigned as
necessary)
Amos Rapoport, On the Cultural Responsiveness of Architecture, JAE 41 (Autumn, 1987), 10-
15.
Chapter 1, Analysis of Poetic Language, Umberto Eco, The Open Work, (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1989), 24-43.
Roger Trancik, Three Theories of Urban Spatial Design. In Finding Lost Space: Theories of
Urban Design, (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1986), 97-124.
Amos Rapoport, On Cultural Landscapes, Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 3:2
(1992), 33 47.
Nan Ellin, Integral Urbanism, (New York: Routledge, 2006).
Sue McGlynn, Ian Bentley, Graham Smith, Alan Alcock, Paul Murrain, and John Bennett,
Responsive Environments, (London: Architectural Press, 1985).

This term was coined by the 110th American Assembly held in Detroit in 2011. The Lincoln Land Institute Policy Report was
an outgrowth of the Assembly. One of the authors is a senior fellow at the CCP a co-sponsor of that Assembly.
http://americanassembly.org/project/reinventing-americas-legacy-cities
1

N. John Habraken, The Control of Complexity, Places 4: 2 (1987), 3-15.

Excerpt from Anne Vernez Moudon, Built for Change: Neighborhood Architecture in San
Francisco, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989).
Miwon Kwon, By Way of Conclusion: One Place after Another, One Place After Another: Site-
specific Art and Locational Identity, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004), 156-167.
Nato Thompson, In Two Directions: Geography as Art, Art as Geography, Experimental
Geography: Radical Approaches to Landscape, Cartography and Urbanism, (New York: Melville
House, 2009), 13-25.
Donald Barthelme, The Balloon, Sixty Stories, (New York: G. P. Putnams Sons, 1981), 53-58.
Cal Swann, Action Research and the Practice of Design, Design Issues 19:2 (Winter 2002), 49-
61.
Rachel Minnery, Public Interest Design, The Architects Handbook of Professional Practice,
(New York: Wiley, 2013), 117-166.
Additional readings for further clarification:
Emily Talen, Urban Design Reclaimed, (Chicago: APA Planners Press, 2009).
Amos Rapoport, "Systems of activities and systems of settings," in S. Kent (Ed.) Domestic
Architecture and the Use of Space (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 9-20.
Jan Gehl, Life between Buildings: Using Public Space, (Washington DC: Island Press, 2011).
Renee Y. Chow, Suburban Space, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002).
Karen A. Franck and Lynda H. Schneekloth, Ordering Space: Types in Architecture and Design,
(New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994).
Grading
In order to be successful it is necessary to be flexible, self-critical and be ready to evaluate and value
alternative perspectives, intentions, and positions than your own. This course encourages you to develop
intellectual curiosity, take intellectual risks, and suspend disbelief while trying out ideas that are different
and alien.
Grades are based on the following categories:
20% In class participation; regular timely attendance; completing assigned readings and assignments in
time, and leading discussions and sharing ideas
60% Projects, reviews and workshops
20% Final Documentation
Criteria
The A (4 points) grade indicates work of sustained excellence work that demonstrates a high degree of
technical quality, creativity and critical inquiry.
The B (3 points) grade indicates work of significantly better than competent quality work than
demonstrates above average technical skills, creativity and critical engagement.
The C (2 points) grade indicates satisfactory work work that demonstrates technical, creative and
critical competence. It reflects regular attendance, continuing improvement and successful accomplishment
of course objectives.
The D (1 point) grade indicates marginal competence in most or all areas of course study. Instructor may
also award the D grade to students who demonstrate minor academic deficiencies. The D grade is not a
substitute for the F grade and will be awarded only to students whose work indicates that they are
prepared to advance to the next level of course work.
The F (0 point) grade indicates unsatisfactory quality and/or quantity of work.
Late work and/or missed classes
There will be an automatic one full grade reduction per class on late assignment unless a written doctors
excuse or the equivalent is presented. Each unexcused studio absence will reduce your grade by grade
point.

Schedule

Figure 2: Leon Ferrari Heliographic

Schedule at a Glance

Wk
1

Date and Location

Tuesday September 2
SARUP

Scheduled tasks
Introduction and reading discussions

Thursday September 4
WP

Group meeting and discussion of goals

Friday September 5
SARUP
Tu September 9
SARUP
Th September 11
SARUP
F September 12
SARUP
Tu September 16
SARUP
Th September 18
SARUP
F September 19
WP
Tu September 23
WP

Desk critique and studio work

Project due
Complete readings before class
ALL COURSES MEET @ SARUP
FA255/355/455, Dance 491, ARCH 645/845,
URB PLN 858
ALL COURSES MEET @ WP
FA255/355/455, Dance 491, ARCH 645/845,
URB PLN 858

Reading discussions and desk critique

Complete readings before class

Desk critique

In class review
Project 2 handed out
Reading discussions and desk critique

Project 1 review

Desk critique

Meeting with community partners

Review at Quorum Architects

Th September 25
SARUP

Reading discussions and desk critique

Project 3 handed out

F September 26
SARUP
Tu September 30
SARUP
Th October 2
SARUP

Desk critique

Project 1 and 2 review today

Meet at Quorum Architects


Complete readings before class
Meeting with All classes at MIAD; GPS deadline
A paragraph

Reading discussions and desk critique

Complete readings before class

In class review at SARUP

F October 3
SARUP
Tu October 7
SARUP
Th October 9
WP

Desk critique

Project review
Sen out of town

Out of Town

Reading discussions and desk critique

Complete readings before class

Review at Quorum Architects

F October 10
SARUP
Tu October 14

Th October 16
WP

Desk critique and Project 4 (14 days) handed

out
Reading discussions and desk critique

Project 3 review today

Sen out of town
Meet at Quorum Architects

Sen out of town

F October 17
SARUP
Tu October 21
SARUP
Th October 23
SARUP

Desk critique

Complete readings before class

ALL COURSES MEET
FA255/355/455, Dance 491, ARCH 645/845,
URB PLN 858

Reading discussions and desk critique

SARUP REVIEW

Project meeting with community/

Desk critique

Review and Meeting

Complete readings before class

10

11

12

13

14

15

F October 24
SARUP
Tu October 28
SARUP
Th October 30
SARUP
F October 31 (Halloween)
SARUP
Tu November 4
WP/Quorum
Th November 6
SARUP
F November 7
SARUP
Tu November 11
SARUP
Th November 13
SARUP
F November 14
SARUP
Tu November 18
SARUP
Th November 20
SARUP
F November 21
SARUP
Tu November 25
WP
Th November 27
BREAK
F November 28
BREAK
Tu December 2
SARUP
Th December 4
SARUP
F December 5
SARUP
Tu December 9
SARUP
Th December 11
WP FINAL EXHIBITION AND
GALA

In class review
Project 5 (11 days) handed out
Reading discussions and desk critique

Project Review

Desk critique

Desk critique

Project review

Desk critique
Project 6 (8 days) handed out
Desk critique

Project 4-5 review today

Meet at Quorum Architects

Reading discussions and desk critique

Complete readings before class

Desk critique

In class review
Project 7 (11 days) handed out
Reading discussions and desk critique

Project review today

Desk critique

Desk critique

Complete readings before class

Project review at SARUP

Complete readings before class

Project review today

Meet at Quorum Architects


THANKSGIVING RECESS

Reading discussions and desk critique

Project 8 handed out
Production

Complete readings before class

Production

Production

Final Public Event and Review

Final Project display/REVIEW

FA255/355/455, Dance 491, ARCH 645/845,
URB PLN 858

 Detailed Schedule
This schedule is tentative. We may decide to change sections depending on the nature of in-class
progress.

Figure 3: Leon Ferrari, Pen and Ink

Day 1 readings:
Amos Rapoport, On the Cultural Responsiveness of Architecture, JAE 41 (Autumn, 1987), 10-15.
Chapter 1, Analysis of Poetic Language, Umberto Eco, The Open Work, (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1989), 24-43.

1.
Defining Context: Identifying constraints and opportunities at the land-use and tissue levels
Assignments: 1,2
Required Readings:
Roger Trancik, Three Theories of Urban Spatial Design. In Finding Lost Space: Theories of
Urban Design, (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1986), 97-124.
Amos Rapoport, On Cultural Landscapes, Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 3:2
(1992), 33 47.
Miwon Kwon, By Way of Conclusion: One Place after Another, One Place After Another: Site-
specific Art and Locational Identity, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004), 156-167.

Recommended readings for further clarification if necessary:
Emily Talen, Urban Design Reclaimed, (Chicago: APA Planners Press, 2009).
Amos Rapoport, "Systems of activities and systems of settings," in S. Kent (Ed.) Domestic
Architecture and the Use of Space (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 9-20.
Plan: Students will study the urban context and analyze transects within larger contexts. They will
consider the impact of the street grid. They will consider social, demographic and economic data, and
document the formal spatial as well as social character of their area of study. As a design question the
students will be challenged to show how the urban grammar (see Trancik reading for three versions)
of this neighborhood delineates constraints as well as creative opportunities to enhance capacity and
urban vitality.

Week 1:
September 2: Introductions and reading discussions. Planning discussion for final website,
monograph and exhibit. Assignment 1 handed out.
September 4: At Washington Park; Reading discussions.
September 5: Desk Critiques

Week 2: Neighborhood and cultural landscape studies. Student groups produce drawings related to
demographic, Built/unbuilt, experiential/place, and network analysis. They identify systems of
settings and activities for their case study areas.
September 9: Reading discussions/desk critiques
September 11: Desk Critiques
September 12: Review of neighborhood analysis; Assignment 2 handed out

Week 3: Infrastructure, topography, ecologies added to the systems identified by students.
September 16: Reading discussions/desk critiques; Landscape urbanism assignment (assignment 2)
discussion. Workshop scheduled in the resource center in order to examine precedents.
September 18: Desk critiques
September 19: Meeting with community groups in order to identify infrastructure/ desk critiques

Review: Tuesday, September 23, 2014 Review at Quorum Architects premises

2.
Examining landscapes of the in-between: Support level
Assignments: 3
Required Readings:
Nan Ellin, Integral Urbanism, (New York: Routledge, 2006).
Sue McGlynn, Ian Bentley, Graham Smith, Alan Alcock, Paul Murrain, and John Bennett,
Responsive Environments, (London: Architectural Press, 1985).
Nato Thompson, In Two Directions: Geography as Art, Art as Geography, Experimental
Geography: Radical Approaches to Landscape, Cartography and Urbanism, (New York:
Melville House, 2009), 13-25.
Additional readings for further clarification:
Jan Gehl, Life between Buildings: Using Public Space, (Washington DC: Island Press, 2011).
Emily Talen, Urban Design Reclaimed, (Chicago: APA Planners Press, 2009).
Plan: Students will examine, identify and document spaces that stitches, mediates and repairs a
broken neighborhood fabric. The designs should connect blocks, buildings and objects to create a
larger interconnected landscape, topography and flora. They will explore the in-between as a
productive asset and suggest ways that the in-between can serve as generative and regenerative
assets for the community.

Week 4:
September 23: Review at the Washington Park Partners premises.
September 25: Assignment 3 handed out, Reading discussions/desk critiques September 26:
Mapping and identifying support. Policy, community plans and regulations.

Week 5: Work in studio
September 30: Reading discussions/desk critiques
October 2: Review; Sen out of town
October 3: Desk critiques; Sen out of town


Week 6:
October 7: Reading discussions/desk critiques.
October 9: Review at Quorum Architects premises; Sen out of town
October 10: New Assignment, discussions; Sen out of town

3.
Building-Infill levels: Fitting programs
Assignments: 4-7 (ASSIGNMENT 4 HAS MANY PARTS)
Required Readings:

N. John Habraken, The Control of Complexity, Places 4: 2 (1987), 3-15.

Excerpt from Anne Vernez Moudon, Built for Change: Neighborhood Architecture in San
Francisco, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989).

Additional readings for further clarification:
Renee Y. Chow, Suburban Space, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002).
Karen A. Franck and Lynda H. Schneekloth, Ordering Space: Types in Architecture and Design,
(New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994).

Plan: This section focuses on design, analysis and documentation of building types that continues to
repair the broken urban fabric. It involves programming at the building and infill level. Using N. J.
Habrakens scholarship we will analyze propose building programs. Students will be asked to
propose models and templates for flexible and cultural responsive buildings in this neighborhood
thinking about alternate and new housing, institutional and commercial building types.
Week 7:
October 14: Reading discussions/desk critiques, Designing program and type. What kinds of
programs shall revitalize the neighborhood and where shall these programs be applied.
October 16: On Site meeting
October 17: Desk Critiques

Week 8:
October 21: Reading discussions/desk critiques
October 23: Desk Critiques
October 24: Review at SARUP, New Assignment handed out

Week 9:
October 28: Reading discussions/desk critiques
October 30: Desk Critiques
October 31: Desk Critiques

Week 10:
November 4: Review at Quorum Architects premises
November 6: New Assignment; Reading discussions/Desk Critiques
November 7: Desk Critiques

Week 11
November 11: Reading discussions/desk critiques
November 13: Desk Critiques
November 14: Review

Week 12:
November 18: Reading discussions from textbook and desk critiques
November 20: Desk Critiques
November 21: Desk Critiques

Week 13
November 25, 2014: Review at Quorum Architects premises

T H A N K S G I V I N G B R E A K
November 26-30, 2014 (Please note that Tuesday November 25 is a review day)

4.
Final exhibit and adding programming at room level
Assignment 8

During this period students will put together a final exhibit, website and monograph for the course.
Your final project has to respond to the following reading:

Required Reading:
Cal Swann, Action Research and the Practice of Design, Design Issues 19:2 (Winter 2002), 49-61.
Rachel Minnery, Public Interest Design, The Architects Handbook of Professional Practice, (New
York: Wiley, 2013), 117-166.

Week 14: Programming reviews.
December 2: Assignment handed out, Reading discussions from textbook and desk critiques; Finalize
final products and documents
December 4: Final boards and multi-media documents
December 5: Final boards and multi-media documents

Week 15: Production week
December 9: Reading discussions from textbook and desk critiques; Final boards and multi-media
documents
December 11: Final boards and multi-media documents

10

University Policies


1.
The university has a responsibility to promote academic honesty and integrity and to
develop procedures to deal effectively with instances of academic dishonesty. Students
are responsible for the honest completion and representation of their work, for the
appropriate citation of sources, and for respect of others' academic endeavors.
http://www4.uwm.edu/acad_aff/policy/academicmisconduct.cfm
2.
Disabilities: If you need special accommodations in order to meet any of the
requirements of this course, please contact me as soon as possible.
3.
Sexual harassment will not be tolerated by the university. It subverts the university's
mission and threatens the careers, educational experience, and well-being of students,
faculty and staff.
4.
All projects shall be designed to engage the environment in a way that dramatically
reduces or eliminates the need for fossil fuels, and to convey an ethical position in
regard to the use of non-renewable materials and materials that pose a threat to human
and environmental health.
5.
Religious observances. Accommodations for absences due to religious observance
should be noted. http://www4.uwm.edu/secu/docs/other/S1.5.htm
6.
Students called to active military duty. Accommodations for absences due to call-up of
reserves to active military duty should be noted.
http://www4.uwm.edu/current_students/military_call_up.cfm
7.
Incompletes. Generally no incompletes will be given in this course. A notation of
"incomplete" may be given in lieu of a final grade to a student who has carried a subject
successfully until the end of a semester but who, because of illness or other unusual and
substantiated cause beyond the student's control, has been unable to take or complete
the final examination or to complete some limited amount of term work.
http://www4.uwm.edu/secu/docs/other/S31.pdf
8.
Complaint procedures. Students may direct complaints to the head of the academic unit
or department in which the complaint occurs. If the complaint allegedly violates a
specific university policy, it may be directed to the head of the department or academic
unit in which the complaint occurred or to the appropriate university office responsible
for enforcing the policy. http://www4.uwm.edu/secu/docs/other/S49.7.htm
9.
Grade appeal procedures. A student may appeal a grade on the grounds that it is based
on a capricious or arbitrary decision of the course instructor. These procedures are
available in writing from the respective department chairperson or the Academic Dean
of the College/School. http://www4.uwm.edu/secu/docs/other/S28.htm
10.
Selected Academic and Administrative Policy 24.5, Firearms and Dangerous Weapons
Policy.

11

ASSIGNMENTS

Figure 4: Architecture of Madness, Leon Ferrari

12

Assignment 1: Defining Context

Time: 9 days

This assignment is based on issues described in the following reading:
Roger Trancik, Three Theories of Urban Spatial Design. In Finding Lost Space: Theories of
Urban Design, (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1986), 97-124.
James Corner, The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention. Mappings,
Denis Cosgrove, Ed., (London: Reaktion, 1999), 213-52.
Simon Sadler, Formulary for a New Urbanism, Rethinking the City, The Situationist City,
(Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998): 62-104.
Miwon Kwon, By Way of Conclusion: One Place after Another, One Place After Another: Site-
specific Art and Locational Identity, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004), 156-167.

The first assignment will focus on the delineation of site and context for the project. The assignment
requires you to compare and map site in two contrasting ways. Task 1 is to map the site as
property. Identify and map all available city owned properties (such as empty/open lots, foreclosed
and boarded up properties, parking lots). Create map overlays using demographic, climatic (wind,
runoff, soil quality), topographical, physical (figure-ground variations, objects, buildings, gates,
hardscapes and softscapes), transportation networks (bus-lines, streets, sidewalks) or assets.
Correlate one or more of these variables to craft a visual narrative to define this site. Refer to the
Trancik and Corner readings.

Task 2, designed by Professor Sebastian, is to map experience, affect, movement and emotions as a
way to delineate site. It requires you to be more experimental in your cartography. Using the phone
app EveryTrail (www.everytrail.com; The Bike Computer; or a comparable GPS tracking system)
create a GPS drawing that amplifies points made by Miwon Kwon or Simon Sadler. Consider a
description of this mediated medium by an early proponent. Jeremy Wood started GPS drawing to
explore the expressive qualities of digitally tracing his daily movements. His work binds the arts and
sciences by using languages of drawing and technology to present a personal cartography. By revealing
ones tracks the technology can introduce new approaches to travel, navigation and local awareness.
GPS drawing engages a range of creative applications and challenges perceptions of scale by traveling
as a geodetic pencil.

Some suggested strategies include:
1. A virtual journey: Plotting a course for others to follow with highlights and points of interest,
can contain photographs.
2. Drawing overlay: Journey of the possible/impossible. Draw over a map in advance with your
own iconography-maybe challenging to traverse.
3. Pre-planned working with the map: Extrapolate a route by studying a map ahead of time and
find premeditated image therein.

13

Open space as empty canvas: Turn on tracking in Everytrail and watch your phone as you
move making a trail or drawing in real timeallows engagement and interactivity as you
discover the site. This process challenges you to transform a affective experience into
something that makes sense to others.
5. Conceptual and experimental: Explore the creative potentials of technology.

Please work with your community mentors!

End products: Site analysis document, policy document, landscape maps showing asset categories
and GPS maps. In addition to final boards, please upload these maps and short descriptions on to the
blog-site.




4.

14

Assignment 2: Understanding the Logic of Integral Urbanism (Nan Ellin)

Time: 10 days

This assignment is based on issues
described in the following reading:
Nan Ellin, Integral Urbanism, (New York:
Routledge, 2006).
Nato Thompson, In Two Directions:
Geography as Art, Art as Geography,
Experimental Geography: Radical
Approaches to Landscape, Cartography
and Urbanism, (New York: Melville
House, 2009), 13-25.

Description
The second assignment will allow you to
research and describe your larger
development goals, landscape and
infrastructure layout, social and ethical
principles, cost-benefit analysis,
Figure 5: Planet, 1979. Stainless Steel, 51" dia, Leon Ferrari. programming strategy and long-term
Museum of Modern Art, New York
goals. Based on your conclusions from
Assignment 1, you will define and
delineate the scope of your project, the extents of your interventions, and the overall goals (not
specific design program and projects) of your semester-long project. You have to clearly state what
we should expect (socially, economically, culturally, and environmentally) once your project is
implemented.

Your conclusions will serve as your framing principles, process goals, and project evaluation criteria.
You will revisit these criteria at the end of the semester in order to evaluate the success or failure of
your design. Please make sure that your arrive at conclusions after extensive interviews with
stakeholders and discussions with professionals at Quorum.

And of course, work with your community mentors!

End Products: Goal statement, program strategy, cost-benefit analysis, principle/ethical statement. A
series of criteria that will define your project and process.

15



Assignment 3: Designing the In-between: Support level

Time: 3 weeks

Figure 6: Architecture of Madness, Leon Ferrari

Description

http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_burden_how_public_spaces_make_cities_work?language=en
https://www.ted.com/talks/janette_sadik_khan_new_york_s_streets_not_so_mean_any_more?langua
ge=en
http://www.ted.com/talks/natalie_jeremijenko_the_art_of_the_eco_mindshift

Task 1: Design the in-between
This assignment challenges you to design spaces in between buildings streets, sidewalks, niches,
backyards, alleys, rooftops, empty lots and open spaces. Any community is built on agreement and
trust. Based on the four principles of integral urbanism (hybridity, porosity, vulnerability and
authenticity) you are asked to design spaces in between buildings (edges, sidewalks, yards, alleys).
Consider multiple hierarchies of privacy as you design these spaces. Consider how the 5 ordering
systems (dimensions, structure, access, privacy, assemblage/tectonics, form, and light) may help you
design a system of outdoor settings in this neighborhood.

Task 2: Create a visual taxonomy chart
This project challenges you to identify and create taxonomy of outdoor and in-between spaces. In
order to do this,
1. Categorize a series of open spaces based on dimensions and proportions.
2. Identify and classify a series of open spaces based on micro-climates (that may include
eddies, topography, water runoff, flora and fauna)
3. Organize a taxonomy based on light

16

4.
5.

Identify spatial zones based on materials (soft, hard, concrete, grass etc.)
Define a series of place-types based on activities.

Task 3: Suggest rules of engagement and change
But just because you design a publicly accessible space, does it automatically mean that people will
come and use these spaces? No.
How then would your design encourage innovative and appropriate uses? How could you design for
long-term use and ownership? Clarify a series of rules/agreements that will define future
interventions. What could potentially happen over a 5 years, 10 years and 50 years period?
Remember, on the one hand, when agreements and rules are too restrictive and proscriptive, cultural
innovations, change, and diversity are stifled. On the other hand rules and agreements that are too
loose produce anarchy and a lack of identity.

Be very thoughtful. This assignment has major repercussions. The rules and agreements that you
create will rule your design moves in Assignment 4-7.

Dont forget to work closely with your community mentors!

This assignment is based on issues described in the following reading:
Nato Thompson, In Two Directions: Geography as Art, Art as Geography, Experimental
Geography: Radical Approaches to Landscape, Cartography and Urbanism, (New York:
Melville House, 2009), 13-25.
Philip Thiel, People, Paths, and Purposes: Notations for a Participatory Envirotecture, (Seattle:
University of Washington Press, 1996)

End products: Landscape design intervention documents, material and dimension systems diagrams,
visual taxonomy of place-types, 5-50 years plan, material and planting suggestions.

http://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/arch-showcase/files/2011/12/Loop-City_diagrams_copyright-dark-adept.jpg

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http://www.globalquakemodel.org/media/cms_page_media/98/findings-indonesia.png.1280x1024_q85.png

http://www.cudc.kent.edu/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/diagram_strategrams_1.jpg

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http://www.presidentsmedals.com/showcase/2010/l/2594_25144859619.jpg

New York Deconstructed: http://landscapeandurbanism.blogspot.com/2011/02/deconstructed-city.html

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Assignments 4-7: Building-Infill levels, Fitting programs

Figure 7: Levels of Decision Making, N J Habraken

This is a major project that will have smaller sub-projects. You will be programming and designing a
system of settings. These sub-projects are subject to change.

Time: 6 weeks

Description
This is the final set of projects that asks students to design a system of building spaces (and interiors)
into a system of settings. You may choose to suggest programs for a series of adjoining plots, a
network of dispersed sites, or a set of similar building types. Your programming ideas should repair
the sundered socio-spatial fabric and your programs should identify programmatic responses
beyond mere housing.

This assignment is based on issues described in the following reading:
N. John Habraken, The Control of Complexity, Places 4: 2 (1987), 3-15.
Renee Y. Chow, Suburban Space, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002).
Anne Vernez Moudon, Built for Change: Neighborhood Architecture in San Francisco, (Cambridge:
MIT Press, 1989).

End products: Building models, drawings, plans, sections, elevations, building type typology, detailed
programs, cost-estimation.

Assignment details TBA

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http://stoss.net/directus/media/thumbnails/09671ece33d221c6f9f9bf6d06cb80d8.jpg?w=1280&h=1024&c=false

Assignment 8

Time: 2 weeks
Description
The final assignment focuses on the production of the final exhibit, website and monograph. This
assignment will also require you to reflect on the action-research project and write a reflection
paper.

This assignment is based on issues described in the following reading:
Cal Swann, Action Research and the Practice of Design, Design Issues 19:2 (Winter 2002), 49-61.
Rachel Minnery, Public Interest Design, The Architects Handbook of Professional Practice, (New
York: Wiley, 2013), 117-166.

End products
Exhibit: Building models, drawings, plans, sections, elevations, building type typology, detailed
programs, cost-estimation
Website and monograph: Project description, reflection and analysis, process documentation,
drawings and models.

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