Thesis in Satisfaction of Degree Doctor of Design

Thesis in Satisfaction of the degree Doctor of Design.

DDES stduents should search the my.harvard course catalog for their advisor's name and enrol in the appropriate section.

Independent Thesis for the Degree Master in Design Studies

(Previously "Open Projects”) Prerequisites: Filing of signed "Declaration of Advisor" form with MDes office, and approval signature of the program director. A student who selects this independent thesis for the degree MDes pursues independent research of relevance to the selected course of study within the MDes program, under the direction of a Design School faculty member. Only stuents in the MDES Areas, not Domains, can enroll in this course, and with the noted approvals.

Independent Study by Candidates for Master’s Degrees

Students may take a maximum of 8 units with different GSD instructors in this course series. 9201 must be taken for either 2, or 4 units.

Prerequisites: GSD student, seeking a Master's degree

Candidates may arrange individual work focusing on subjects or issues that are of interest to them but are not available through regularly offered coursework. Students must submit an independent study petition, and accompanying documentation as noted on the petition, after securing approval of the faculty member sponsoring the study.

The independent study petition can be found on the Documents tab in my.Harvard. Enrollment will not be final until the petition is submitted.

Independent Study on Multi-Cultural Design Environments

An examination and comparison of design practices in a professional setting.

This course is open only to students who will be undertaking an internship or conducting research in a country other than their own, during the summer between academic years, or in their final semester of study, with further restrictions. Students who wish to enroll in this course should contact the Registrar’s Office, [email protected], for the required forms that must be submitted for enrollment.

 

 

Territorial Commons: Mapping Narratives in the Shifting Extractive Landscapes of the Antipodes

The relentless pursuit of economic growth has historically propelled an ever-expanding reliance on natural resources, shaping and altering cultures while transforming landscapes. This pursuit of power has led to deforestation, drilling, mining, and extensive terraforming of the planet. As a consequence, biodiversity zones have been devastated, communities displaced, and profound racial, social, and economic disparities have emerged issues inherently intertwined with environmental changes. This condition presents an opportunity to perceive and redefine natural resources and their infrastructure as an interconnected process that does not segregate substance from significance, or nature from culture.

The seminar is centred on mapping as an investigative act that unveils the conflicts and productive rights of more than human entities and matters associated with the extractive landscapes of the Antipodes. Access to a range of Australia’s National archives will enable the creation of an extensive composite map supported by archival papers and artifacts. The objective is to analyse the enduring material flows and metabolic transformations in this region over time, exploiting the evolving perceptions and value attributed to land and its non-human counterparts through periods of colonisation and capital growth.

The continual and extensive exploitation of land in the Antipodes as a resource subjecting it to the will of commodification, consistently disrupts the intricate natural processes, leading to significant environmental consequences. Historically, this has exacerbated racial, social, and economic disparities, inherently interconnected with the land. These extractive landscapes ultimately benefit a select group of individuals who wield power over others and the non-human inhabitants, confining them within structured systems of exploitation driven by particular economic imperatives.

The course framework introduces and explores new value systems for the environment and alternative definitions for productivity, ground, and land. This project-based seminar is structured around three phases; Phase One: From Above, Phase Two: From Within, and Phase Three: From Below.

The teaching and learning schedule includes a series of guest lectures aligned to the different phases of the seminar.  A range of investigative mapping tools and approaches will be explored in order to represent and communicate a visual account of these extractive landscapes in the Antipodes (primarily Australia & New Zealand) through compelling ‘composite maps’ of palimpsest histories.

The work produced in the seminar will be included in an exhibition on extractive landscapes at the National Museum in Australia and at Harvard Natural History Museum.

Independent Study by Candidates for Doctoral Degrees

9502 must be taken for either 2 or 4 units. 

Under faculty guidance, the student conducts an independent reading program and formulates a thesis proposal. The course is intended for doctoral students. 

In addition to enrolling in the course, students must download and fill out the independent study petition, which can be found on my.Harvard. Enrollment will not be final until the petition is submitted. 

From Inception to Realization: Three Museum Case Studies

The process of design is continuous. At the inception of a project, we sketch, analyze with scale overlays, and develop preliminary massing models. Months later, we sit with expert consultants debating the appropriate technical solution for a steel node detail or a skylight. On site, in a supervisory role, we continue to design solutions for those challenges that arise over the course of construction. From the initial sketch of an idea to walking through the building alongside the public, it is a journey which involves a considerable accrued knowledge over time, and the ability to orchestrate diverse teams of collaborators.

In three lectures, each followed by a discussion, we will provide a step-by-step analysis of the design process, from inception to realization. In each case, we will explore the process from the initiation of program, site analysis, development of a concept, and its technical evolution through to construction.   

The case studies will be three museums delivered by our practice, devoted to three different subjects, located in three different geographic settings, and utilizing three different construction technologies – the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas; Yad Vashem in Jerusalem; and the ArtScience Museum in Singapore.

The diversity of program, setting, and construction technology will enable us to focus on common denominators of design, development, and realization, from embryonic concepts to shop drawings and construction details.

To follow the three lectures, we will invite course participants to the Safdie Architects studio in Somerville to see drawings, models, and other artifacts from the Safdie Archive, and to discuss the projects in detail with the firm’s Architects that were central to the design teams.

To receive credit, students will be required to attend all four sessions. After each lecture there will be a discussion session.  At the end of the course, students will prepare a paper on their findings from the course.

This 1-unit course meets four times: February 28, March 6, March 20, March 27.  Attendance is required.

This course is not open for cross-registration.

GSD students who would like to take this course should add it to their Crimson Cart but not officially enroll. These students will automatically be enrolled in this course by the Registrar’s Office on Monday, February 5th. GSD students do not need to obtain departmental permission for taking this one additional unit, however, additional fees may apply if enrollment exceeds maximum credits.

EMBODIED CARBON- Material Cycles, Circularity, and Advances in Reverse Engineering

At a time when urgent action is needed to avert the climate crisis, it is very difficult to take an idealistic approach when considering key materials in building construction. Designers can play an important role in the race to de-carbonize the built environment and this course will touch on how we got to where we are and how we can move forward in practice with the lessons that we have learned. Through a series of conversations and presentations, including from external experts, we will engage in inversing the design process by utilizing newly available tools. We will demystify regulations, terminology, and popular language, and examine how the predominant materials for construction, which are unlikely to go away soon, can be improved and implemented in design and construction to promote a low carbon economy.

Adaptive re-use, retrofit, recycle, regenerative design, conservation, resilient development: these are just some of the common and generic terms that need to be more closely understood in the context of other processes that are now emerging in practice. To do so, we need to trace previous understandings of methods and construction. The city as an object has a rich history of being constructed and reconstructed. We need to grasp the progress that has been made in construction throughout history and retreat from relying on theoretical works alone where formal concerns dominate.

The course will offer opportunities to discuss evolving technologies, periodic advances in codes of practice, shifts in material supplies, and “hacking” policies and regulations where possible. At the same time, we will consider an amalgam of building types in continuous transformation as the city builds upon itself and new cities rapidly emerge in the Global South.

Many ancient methods are going through an accelerated revival where capacity, building codes, and technical specifications, such as fire and acoustics, empower architects to take back control as Design Team Leader. But we must also resist demonizing the more recent materials without looking at how to “clean” them. Consequences to embodied carbon, social interaction, maintenance, durability, textural qualities, tactility, heat absorption parameters, insulation, and indoor air quality come into play. The Architect is trained and skilled sufficiently to predict and control these variables. The course will cover supply chains, procurement, and crafts, and touch on specific cases that work towards “reversing” the steps taken over the last 100-1,000 years.

The seminar will be held both remotely and in person with group discussions at the end of each class. You are expected to attend all class meetings. See the course syllabus for details regarding the schedule.

Data Science for Environmentally Responsive Buildings

Objective: With extensive high-fidelity measured data collected from modern buildings, data science has become a promising tool for optimizing building performance and design, enhancing the built environment, and reducing environmental impacts. Data science and Machine Learning (ML) techniques have wide-ranging applications across the building life cycle, encompassing everything from the initial design phase to ongoing operation and maintenance stages. It is important to understand and practice how data science and ML technologies could enhance building design and automation, leading to more environmentally responsive and efficient buildings. The course will start from data science fundamentals, ML modeling techniques, and extend to their applications in the architecture domain.

This course aims to provide students:
   1. Understanding smart and sustainable building systems, performance metrics and challenges
   2. Use of computational simulation tools for data generation
   3. Acquire skills for building data analysis, visualization, and system modeling using Python
   4. Hands-on experience with ML model training and application in performance/design optimization

Class format: The class meets for three hours every Monday, consisting of lectures and workshops. The workshops will recap and practice what is taught during the lecture while learning coding and simulation skills required for building domain applications.

Class content: The first part of the class covers building system operations and energy flow dynamics, providing a foundational understanding of performance metrics critical to environmentally responsive buildings. The second part focuses on data collected from buildings with emphasis on techniques for data cleaning, analysis, and visualization. The third part will introduce various ML techniques for model training. Students will understand and compare the performance of different ML methods and gain the ability to find the most suitable model for a given task. In the last part, students will learn how to utilize the ML models to optimize the design and performance of environmentally responsive buildings.

Class resource: The class will utilize open-source building-related data and some available resources from HouseZero®. According to the interest and final project topics, students will have the opportunity to test their final project outcome at the HouseZero® ‘live lab’ located on the third floor.

Prerequisite: Basic understanding in environmentally responsive (a.k.a. smart, green, and high-performance) buildings and coding skills in Python will be helpful.

Native Americans in the 21st Century: Nation Building II (at HKS)

This community based research course focuses on some of the major issues Native American Indian tribes and nations face in the 21st century. It provides in-depth, hands-on exposure to native development issues, including: sovereignty, economic development, constitutional reform, leadership, health and social welfare, tribal finances, land and water rights, culture and language, religious freedom, and education. In particular, the course emphasizes problem definition, client relationships, and designing and completing a research project for a tribe, tribal department, or those active in Indian Country. The course is devoted primarily to preparation and presentation of a comprehensive research paper based on work with a tribal community. In addition to faculty presentations on topics such as field research methods and problem definition, students will make presentations on their work in progress and ultimate findings.

This course is offered by the Havard Kennedy School as DEV 502, and is also jointly listed with Graduate School of Education as A-102, and the Faculty of Arts and Science as EMR-121., and the Graduate School of Design as SES 5427. For students interested in additional courses on Native America please also see HKS DEV-501M “Native Americans in the 21st Century: Nation Building I” (Joseph Kalt and Angela Riley) and HKS SUP 625/GSD SES 5439  “Land Loss, Reclamation, and Stewardship in Contemporary Native America” (Eric Henson, Philip Deloria, Daniel D’Oca).

This course meets at HKS in room Wexner 330. Please see the HKS website for information regarding first class meetings.