What is “the environment” and how do we mobilize it as a category of action in design? How does “the environment” relate to nature? To place? When is the environment “built”? How do humans interact with environments and when is the human body itself an environment of concern? Whose environments count as “the” environment?

This class will explore the environment as a “promiscuous concept,” in order to grasp how it is historically contingent, culturally situated, politically mobilized, and in many cases contradictory. The class starts from the premise that environmental categories in design are a constellation of knowledge largely dictated by Western epistemologies. We will therefore interrogate environmental practices as historical artifacts and explore how these entanglements limit the possibilities for more just, inclusive futures. To decenter these forms of knowledge, we will study their histories alongside radical critiques and non-Western conceptions of nature, place, and community. The goal of the class is to offer you an alternative canon for designing more-than-human environments that can begin to repair the violence that hegemonic conceptions of the environment have wreaked on landscapes, communities, and the planet.

This is a history and theory class, which prioritizes reading, writing, and discussion. Course participants will be required to submit weekly reading responses, to contribute to discussions online and/or in class, and to develop an original research project over the course of the semester.