Course topics
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* people in the environment * sustainable development * urbanism and urban design * experiential/ design studio instruction |
* sociocultural issues and the environment * environmental design * research design * site materials and construction |
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Studio | Next: Building the Post-Carbon City (Spring 2016; Syracuse University Architecture)
People in the Environment (2011-2014; SUNY ESF) City Wild Seminar: Abandonment, Invasives, and Losing Control (2013-2015; SUNY ESF) Studio | Research + Design (2014; SUNY ESF) Studio | Next: Building the Post-Carbon City (Spring 2014; SUNY ESF) |
studio|next
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 Photo by Kerrie Marshall
studio | next
Building the Post-Carbon City Visiting Critic Studio Syracuse University School of Architecture ARC 407/408/608/609 Spring 2016. 6 credits. Prerequisites: B. Arch ARC 308 or 407; M.Arch I 607 or 608; or instructor consent Course meeting time: Tu Th 1:00 pm-4:00 pm Postindustrial cities currently face the challenge of climate change, failing infrastructure, and technological innovation. This wicked problem demands practical visions characterized by innovation and synthesis: aka design thinking. Emerging designers need to embrace these challenges as well, because these challenges – heat|neglect|data – will define the next decades of careers in environmental design. In this studio, we engage these challenges with the tools of urban design, addressing economic, political, and ecological issues through their effect on the urban environment and its residents. The choices we make about how to build, maintain and preserve the built environment directly impact these issues, as the post-carbon city materializes through built work. Our main project will harness the current moment of action on clean energy at the federal, state, and local levels to make the postindustrial city a better place for people. This studio targets students’ skills as professionals and peers, building confidence by applying design and technical skills to unconventional problems, and employing digital and virtual tools in these pursuits. These tools will include posts on my blog City Wild and readings posted via @susandieterlen using #citybynext. Studio Objectives • Development of peer-to-peer learning, in preparation for post-grad careers and independent thesis work. • Cultivation of professional decorum in keeping with the standards of design practice. • Refinement of various communication and presentation styles, including informal one-to-one presentations. • Mastery of the design process from conceptual design through design development, at a variety of scales. • Ability to work independently within a community of scholars. |
From Spring 2014 (SUNY-ESF Landscape Architecture)
LSA 470/670: Next thematic studio
Building the Post-Carbon City
Spring. 6 credits. Second-year MLA and Fifth-year BLA students only
Virtually all climate scientists agree that the global climate is changing.
Global oil production may have peaked in 2004.
In 2013 the American Society of Civil Engineers give the US electrical grid a “D+,” and our roads a “D.”
The US produced over 250 million tons of trash in 2011. Sixty million tons of this was generated by building construction and demolition.
In 2010 the population of the City of Syracuse was 66% of its 1950 population.
What’s a designer to do?
In this studio, we engage that question with the tools of landscape architecture, addressing large economic, political, and ecological issues in their effect on the landscape of cities. The choices we make about how to build, maintain and preserve the built environment directly impact these issues, and the post-carbon city is emerging piece by piece through built work, much of it in everyday places. Studio projects will explore the unique ability of design to weave together global implications with direct application, at a scale that is able to be implemented in an age of dysfunctional government and bankrupt municipalities.
The semester will include projects of various sizes, with an emphasis on individual work across multiple scales, including site-scale designs detailed to the design development level. The studio’s main project will focus on the district north of campus. This area includes the Genesee retail district, the emerging tech core of the Center of Excellence and Biotech Accelerator, and the Connective Corridor. It is on the cusp of major change, through the reconstruction of I-81and mixed-use redevelopment of Kennedy Square. This area is a prime candidate for re-densification, yet it struggles with vacancy, underuse, and low expectations. Students will investigate and balance these competing interests through a master plan for the district, an identity and design vocabulary for the area, and detailed designs for key sites. This effort will be assisted by input from real-world stakeholders, including the executive director of the Center of Excellence, Genesee Street merchants, and suburban corporate/research representatives that form the market for new tech job development downtown.
Other studio projects will include creative reuse of the existing elevated portion of I-81 to reduce the ecological footprint of the highway’s renovation, craft inspired spaces, and capture the history of this major contributor to contemporary Syracuse. The integration of clean energy generators into common retail and residential types in Syracuse will also be the focus of a smaller project.
This studio is for:
Students interested in connecting broad concepts to detailed physical site interventions, practicing the design process from site selection through design development (including materials, earthwork, and planting), and/or learning about work in postindustrial cities.
Note: Despite some overlap in topics between this course and LSA 496-2/696-8 City Wild Seminar, these courses may be taken individually, concurrently, or in sequence with each other.
LSA 470/670: Next thematic studio
Building the Post-Carbon City
Spring. 6 credits. Second-year MLA and Fifth-year BLA students only
Virtually all climate scientists agree that the global climate is changing.
Global oil production may have peaked in 2004.
In 2013 the American Society of Civil Engineers give the US electrical grid a “D+,” and our roads a “D.”
The US produced over 250 million tons of trash in 2011. Sixty million tons of this was generated by building construction and demolition.
In 2010 the population of the City of Syracuse was 66% of its 1950 population.
What’s a designer to do?
In this studio, we engage that question with the tools of landscape architecture, addressing large economic, political, and ecological issues in their effect on the landscape of cities. The choices we make about how to build, maintain and preserve the built environment directly impact these issues, and the post-carbon city is emerging piece by piece through built work, much of it in everyday places. Studio projects will explore the unique ability of design to weave together global implications with direct application, at a scale that is able to be implemented in an age of dysfunctional government and bankrupt municipalities.
The semester will include projects of various sizes, with an emphasis on individual work across multiple scales, including site-scale designs detailed to the design development level. The studio’s main project will focus on the district north of campus. This area includes the Genesee retail district, the emerging tech core of the Center of Excellence and Biotech Accelerator, and the Connective Corridor. It is on the cusp of major change, through the reconstruction of I-81and mixed-use redevelopment of Kennedy Square. This area is a prime candidate for re-densification, yet it struggles with vacancy, underuse, and low expectations. Students will investigate and balance these competing interests through a master plan for the district, an identity and design vocabulary for the area, and detailed designs for key sites. This effort will be assisted by input from real-world stakeholders, including the executive director of the Center of Excellence, Genesee Street merchants, and suburban corporate/research representatives that form the market for new tech job development downtown.
Other studio projects will include creative reuse of the existing elevated portion of I-81 to reduce the ecological footprint of the highway’s renovation, craft inspired spaces, and capture the history of this major contributor to contemporary Syracuse. The integration of clean energy generators into common retail and residential types in Syracuse will also be the focus of a smaller project.
This studio is for:
Students interested in connecting broad concepts to detailed physical site interventions, practicing the design process from site selection through design development (including materials, earthwork, and planting), and/or learning about work in postindustrial cities.
Note: Despite some overlap in topics between this course and LSA 496-2/696-8 City Wild Seminar, these courses may be taken individually, concurrently, or in sequence with each other.
LSA 496-2/696-8: City Wild Seminar:
Abandonment, Invasives, and Losing Control
Spring 2013-2015. 3 credits. Graduate or advanced undergraduate. Instructor consent required
In the shrinking city, this is a moment of increasing wildness, at the intersection of increasing invasive species, abandonment and vacancy, and an apparent loosening of control over public and private green space. Phenomena and trends from economics, politics, demographics, and the natural sciences converge at this effect: increasing disorder and decay, with a resurgence of nature and unkempt spaces. As humans, we have a long cultural and evolutionary history with wilderness and nature, narratives that continue to develop today, impacting how we react to, perceive and ultimately live within the wilder city.
In this course, we explore and create the construct of “wildness” by investigating material concerning the range of issues above and beyond. This interdisciplinary approach welcomes students from a variety of backgrounds and programs, and encourages synthesis across boundaries. Coursework incorporates the pragmatic and inclusive viewpoint of landscape architecture while welcoming those from non-design backgrounds.
Abandonment, Invasives, and Losing Control
Spring 2013-2015. 3 credits. Graduate or advanced undergraduate. Instructor consent required
In the shrinking city, this is a moment of increasing wildness, at the intersection of increasing invasive species, abandonment and vacancy, and an apparent loosening of control over public and private green space. Phenomena and trends from economics, politics, demographics, and the natural sciences converge at this effect: increasing disorder and decay, with a resurgence of nature and unkempt spaces. As humans, we have a long cultural and evolutionary history with wilderness and nature, narratives that continue to develop today, impacting how we react to, perceive and ultimately live within the wilder city.
In this course, we explore and create the construct of “wildness” by investigating material concerning the range of issues above and beyond. This interdisciplinary approach welcomes students from a variety of backgrounds and programs, and encourages synthesis across boundaries. Coursework incorporates the pragmatic and inclusive viewpoint of landscape architecture while welcoming those from non-design backgrounds.
LSA 650: People in the Environment
(aka Behavioral Factors of Community Design)
Fall 2011-2014. 3 Credits.
Graduate only (Motivated advanced undergraduates admitted with instructor consent!)
Three hours of lecture and discussion per week.
Do people need nature?
What makes a place feel safe or dangerous, interesting or confusing, welcoming or alienating?
What do these questions have to do with real places in Syracuse?
This course will answer these questions, principally by delving into the world of Environment and Behavior (E&B) research and the specialty of environmental psychology. E&B research provides a powerful body of evidence to inform and justify decisions about shaping places for people. Learning about the material in this course will help you design, enhance, and preserve places that make people feel comfortable, interested and safe, and minimize places that make users feel uncomfortable, bored or threatened. These objectives are central to successful design, planning, management, and policy. This course takes an applied view of E&B research, focusing on the “greatest hits” of the research.
No drawing ability needed - Graduate students from outside landscape architecture welcome!
(aka Behavioral Factors of Community Design)
Fall 2011-2014. 3 Credits.
Graduate only (Motivated advanced undergraduates admitted with instructor consent!)
Three hours of lecture and discussion per week.
Do people need nature?
What makes a place feel safe or dangerous, interesting or confusing, welcoming or alienating?
What do these questions have to do with real places in Syracuse?
This course will answer these questions, principally by delving into the world of Environment and Behavior (E&B) research and the specialty of environmental psychology. E&B research provides a powerful body of evidence to inform and justify decisions about shaping places for people. Learning about the material in this course will help you design, enhance, and preserve places that make people feel comfortable, interested and safe, and minimize places that make users feel uncomfortable, bored or threatened. These objectives are central to successful design, planning, management, and policy. This course takes an applied view of E&B research, focusing on the “greatest hits” of the research.
No drawing ability needed - Graduate students from outside landscape architecture welcome!
Fall 2014 Community Collaborators
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LSA 700: Design Studio V|Research + Design
Fall. 4 credits. Third-year MLA students only It sounds straightforward: that design can be based in research, or research can be conducted using design as a method. But the cloud of murky language used to label this idea – research-based design, design as research, even “research” as a casual synonym for design – signals that this is a site of controversy. Leaving aside the motivations and causes of this controversy, how do we do it? How do we connect research with design, without shortchanging either one? In this class we use the capstone – your capstones – as the focus for linking research and design in meaningful, authentic, and useful ways. Studio projects will focus on honing these skills essential to successful completion of the typical MLA capstone: • Critical review of literature and precedents, often from outside landscape architecture • Synthesis of directives for design from literature and precedent review • Rapid generation of conceptual designs • Project management, including setting and working to a schedule and breaking complex tasks down into smaller ones. We will also continue to polish various skills essential to the working landscape architect, including: • Development of peer-to-peer learning, in preparation for post-grad careers and independent capstone work. • Cultivation of professional decorum in keeping with the standards of landscape architecture practice. • Refinement of various communication and presentation styles, including informal one-to-one presentations. • Ability to work independently within a community of scholars. |
