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Cities, Architecture & Society
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COURSE OUTLINE People identify strongly with the life, the economy and the environment of a city. Irrespective of our personal experiences, interests, and disciplines, we all share the need to protect our bodies, the desire to shelter our souls, our minds and our spirits, and the eagerness to imagine the future of our cities. For centuries, these motivations have led human beings to significantly alter the environmental conditions of places where we live, work, learn, recover, etc. Created with or without the involvement of an architect, the built environment sets the stage for collective life and individual endeavors. This course will provide an inter-disciplinary framework from which to understand the multiple links between the physical environments of cities and contemporary cultures that thrive within. This is a writing-intensive course, open to both architecture majors and non-majors and has no pre-requisites. AIMS 1. To open up the narrow definition of "architecture" for architecture majors. 2. To encourage non-architecture majors to critically assess their environments and places. 3. To provide a forum for the continued re-assessment of Cities, Architecture & Society in Asia and the Pacific region. STRUCTURE This course is structured to accommodate both Lectures (2-credit) and Seminars (1-credit) format. Each enrolled student will have to attend all Lectures and fulfill the requirements of one of the several Seminar Groups. Students should register for the appropriate Course Number to accommodate the meeting time of the Seminar group of their choice: L: On Wednesday evenings, a total of 12 invited speakers will present their views on the generative forces and schemas of assessing the environment. These speakers will include internationally recognized architects, urban designers, planners, economists, community and environmental activists. In addition, invited researchers from different academic disciplines at the University of Hawaii will also address key issues in the study of the built environment. All lectures will be held in the SoA Auditorium.S: On Thursday and Friday afternoons, seminar tutors will guide discussions, with the help of short exercises, on the previous evening's presentation. They will help students understand the positions and embedded attitudes of each speaker, and the significance of their approach to contemporary cities, architecture and society. The maximum enrollment in each seminar group is limited to 20 participants.EVALUATION CRITERIA Lecture Reports (40%) | |