student work
Students in Critical Conservation pursue advanced studies in the history and theory of architecture, landscape and urbanism, including but not limited to analyses of building and landscape technologies, materials and construction, the politics of global heritage, property rights and justice, tourism, the social life of cities, the public experience of significant sites, and anthropological perspectives on architecture conflicts.
Current projects include proposals for the adaptive reuse of industrial structures in the American Rust Belt, regional preservation strategies along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and research into the architectural significance of national identity and politics in the Middle East.
Somayeh Chitchian (MDesS ’13)
Somayeh Chitchian considers the reuse and renovation of existing buildings in Boston—schools, industrial parks, and churches—that become sacred spaces used by different Muslim communities in diaspora. While historic preservation tends to focus on architectural landmarks, Chitchian turns her attention to marginalized places.
Cosper, Christopher L. (MDesS '12)
Time-Honored Versus Bigger and Better: Critical and Strategic Conservation in Post-Katrina Mississippi (Master's thesis).
