Landscape Architecture II
The studio will explore how we might reimagine cemetery landscapes of the future in response to the challenges of the climate crisis, and the clear and present issues of social inequality. These issues are extensively shifting the ways we live, and, at the very least, are the uninvited corollary through which we might imagine new expressions of the cemetery.
As sites of remembrance, cemeteries may be considered as ‘places where memory crystalises and secretes itself as part of an ongoing construction of history’ (Pierre Nora 1989), whilst simultaneously acting as ‘settings in which memory is a real part of everyday experience’ (Michael Rothberg 2010). They are spaces that are socially produced and made productive in social practice (Lefebvre 1974), whilst also being highly logistical practical settings created in the absent presence of the body (Ken Warpole).
Just as death is a necessary part of life, cemeteries are sites of contrast, yet it is perhaps through the very preservation of this tension of contradiction that they exist as some of the most enduring landscapes across cultures around the world.
Often perceived as a space ‘apart’ from the city as a consequence of their physical traits and phenomenal characteristics, cemeteries none the less play significant roles within the life of the metropolis as biodiversity hotspots offering ecosystem services in the form of thermal regulation, stormwater management, and carbon absorption. They provide significant social functions such as spaces for people to seek sanctuary, reflection and play, and healthy spaces for individuals to contemplate in the context of a natural landscape.
Cemeteries, capable and perhaps charged to carry multiple meanings, are paradoxical spaces described by Foucault (1967) as ‘heterotopias’, a no place that, nonetheless, is. The studio will be exploring what the urban and social significance of the cemetery of the future could be, and ask what are the forms and cultural expressions the urban cemetery might project? How might the articulation of the material and physical space reinterpret the temporal experience of the cemetery, and how might the increasingly rich cultural diversity of a progressive society be celebrated through ritual and mediated through disparate processes of burial and internment? How might the cemetery critique and address the extensive environmental and social issues that are before us by proposing alternative organisational patterns and expression, a place that celebrates diverse beliefs and rituals, and a space as an important contribution to the city’s natural systems?
Untangling Climax Change
Departing from the book Climax Change! How Architecture Must Transform in the Age of Ecological Emergency, this seminar proposes to untie and explore the many aspects of the current climate and ecological crises, particularly in their interrelated implications for the future practice of architecture, urban planning and landscape. Within the curriculum, this seminar intends to bring to center stage existential threats and impacts of the ecological emergency, which today are still relegated to an accessory role in the creative processes of design and planning.
Ranging from decarbonization to degrowth, from climate justice to interspecies design, from magical thinking to green new deals, or from ecocide to the potential of regenerative practices, the seminar investigates a diversity of topics concerning what is often described by scientists as a wicked problem – a complex problematics that cannot be addressed with simple or easy answers.
Based on readings and AV presentations extending the book's contents, this approach will allow students to get a holistic, contemporary perspective of the interconnected consequences of a man-altered environment, while providing them with tools to envision the possibility of change in their future action as designers. Discussions will revolve both around content presentations and essay abstracts proposed by students, which expectedly expand on themes and issues suggested by the book.
No prerequisites.
Urban Governance and the Politics of Planning in the Global South
This course starts from the premise that urban politics and governance arrangements shape the character, form, and function of cities as well as the planning strategies used to make them more just, equitable, and sustainable. Using a focus on cities in the developing world, the course examines an array of governance structures (centralized versus decentralized institutions; local versus national states; participatory budgeting, etc.) and political conditions (democracy versus authoritarianism; neoliberal versus populist versus leftist party politics; social movements) that are relatively common to cities of the global south.
The course is structured around a comparative analysis of theories and cases that give us the basis for documenting the ways that politics affect urban policy and the built environment of the city more generally. The course’s critical approach to case studies and policy prescriptions will also prepare students to formulate relevant planning strategies in the future. Among a range of policy domains, special attention is paid to transportation, housing, mega-project development, land policy, and environmental sutainability, with most examples drawn from Latin America, South and East Asia, and Africa.
Real Estate Private Equity and Capital Markets [Module 2]
Through lectures, case studies, and expert panel discussions, this module will explore the evolution of institutional real estate capital markets with a particular focus on market activity over the past seven years. Capital markets embody a complex ecosystem of public and private equity and debt funding for real estate companies, property acquisitions, transformations, and new developments. The business model and investment objectives of capital purveyors depend on a variety of factors. Case studies will be used to highlight key real estate investment concepts such as identifying opportunities, public/private valuations, distressed investing, risk management, asymmetric investments, and alignment of interests. Industry experts will discuss the current macro environment, key market concerns, capital availability, cost of capital, acquisition and development economics, and opportunistic and thematic investment strategies. By the end of the module, students will have gained a functional framework and understanding of how real estate private equity and capital markets work under current and future circumstances.
MRE students who want to take this course should enter the Limited Enrollment Course Lottery and will be automatically enrolled.
Climate Change, Real Estate, and Public Policy [Module 1]
Climate change is increasingly affecting people and cities worldwide. The impacts of sea level rise, storms, heat waves, droughts, and wildfires are growing. Yet, while progress is being made, the world still remains on track to exceed global greenhouse gas emissions limits that could mitigate the damage. Today, buildings account for more than a third of total global greenhouse gas emissions. And in urban areas, where the majority of people live, buildings can account for as much as two-thirds of a city's greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, equitably tackling the climate crisis and adapting to climate change requires focusing on the policies and practices that will urgently improve public and private approaches to real estate and urban development.
In this interdisciplinary course, students will analyze development projects, portfolios, and policies in the United States and internationally, to develop and present their own recommendations for how the organizations they studied could have more effectively integrated climate change considerations into their work. Through assignments, lectures, discussions, and guest speakers, adaptation approaches such as building retrofits, strategic relocation, revised land use regulations and building codes, grey and green infrastructure, and regional climate governance are explored. Mitigation approaches such as building-scale emissions limits, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and building electrification will also be examined.
Additionally, students will participate in a facilitated multi-party negotiation simulation focused on understanding the competing interests, perspectives, and challenges of urban development in a changing climate. And students will have opportunities to hear directly from leaders in public housing, healthcare, affordable housing, and universities who work at the intersection of climate change, equity, and buildings. Lastly, after class each week, students are welcome to attend an optional brown bag lunch on campus to continue class conversations, discuss climate-focused careers, and network with guest speakers and other guests.
This course will equip students with an overview of key themes and career pathways at the intersection of urban development, public policy, and community needs shaped by the climate crisis.
MRE students who want to take this course should enter the Limited Enrollment Course Lottery and will be automatically enrolled.
Learning From Failure 2 [Module 2]
It’s all too easy to learn from success. This course explores how real estate stakeholders can learn from concepts and examples of failure. The course is divided into two modules, which can be taken together or individually. The first module examines common denominators of failures in commercial real estate activities involving investment, capital formation, development, acquisition, management, and governance. The second module presents cases of real estate restructurings and distressed debt that involve risk analysis, legal considerations, and negotiation from the considered perspectives of owners, investors, lenders, tenants, employees, employees, policymakers, and society.
MRE students who want to take this course should enter the Limited Enrollment Course Lottery and will be automatically enrolled.
International Real Estate and Urban Development
Real estate, in the international realm, is anchored at the intersection of economic activities, capital flows, and the spatial transformation of the environment. While different locales may entail distinct contextual elements embedded in real estate and design practices, fluid cross-border capital operation and increasingly connected institutional actors at the global scale constitute a formidable force in shaping and guiding the formation and operational mechanism of the built environment.
Through lectures, case studies, charrettes, and class discussions, this course provides students with knowledge and insights about the process and analytical frameworks of real estate development and investment from a comparative and trans-regional perspective. It begins by introducing institutional parameters that measure the comparative forces and disruptions framing the current landscapes of international real estate. It then proceeds to examine analytical frameworks assessing the risks, opportunities, and performance of international real estate based on asset types. The course concentrates on real estate practice models and emerging asset types that shape urban development and are deployed in selected locations of the world. Real estate financing strategies, institutional features, operational tactics, and physical design maneuvers of real estate projects located in countries and regions of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas are analyzed and interpreted through a lens of the decision-making process at the project and urban dimensions.
The pedagogical goals of this course are threefold: 1) to establish conceptual frameworks for understanding international real estate development and investment at both macro and micro scales; 2) to help students grasp the fundamental logic and business models embedded in various real estate asset types and urban development typologies; 3) to help broaden students’ understanding of capital and risk when investing in international commercial properties, international REITs, and land markets; and 4) to expand students’ sensitivity and perspectives about commonalities and differences embedded in the real estate practices across various localities in the international realm.
Students will work independently and in teams on assigned cases and participate in organized charrettes. Students’ deliverables include an in-class presentation and a final research paper based on the investigative research framework set at the beginning of the semester. The class meets once a week and is open to registered students from the GSD and other Harvard Schools.
Students who took PRO 7452 in Spring 2022 cannot take this course for credit.
MRE students who want to take this course should enter the Limited Enrollment Course Lottery and will be automatically enrolled.
Learning From Failure 1 [Module I]
It’s all too easy to learn from success. This course explores how real estate stakeholders can learn from concepts and examples of failure. The course is divided into two modules, which can be taken together or individually. The first module examines common denominators of failures in commercial real estate activities involving investment, capital formation, development, acquisition, management, and governance. The second module presents cases of real estate restructurings and distressed debt that involve risk analysis, legal considerations, and negotiation from the considered perspectives of owners, investors, lenders, tenants, employees, employees, policymakers, and society.
MRE students who want to take this course should enter the Limited Enrollment Course Lottery and will be automatically enrolled.
Creating Environmental Markets
The Laredo Resilience Project
There is a way out of the climate box we have created, though resistance to the necessary ecological transformation remains intense. This semester, Creating Environmental Markets will examine alternative means of achieving environmental restoration and climate adaptation through economic incentives and jobs using Laredo, Texas, as our case study. Laredo is the largest inland port along the US/Mexico border and the nation's third-busiest port among more than 450 airports, seaports, and border crossings, with $299.4 billion in total trade with the world in 2022. It is a mid-sized city of approximately 300,000 located on the Rio Grande River and hosts tens of thousands of trucks daily hauling the robust commerce between the U.S. and Mexico
A south Texas community, Laredo also faces the consequences of a heating climate, including extended drought, increasingly hot and occasionally catastrophic temperatures, source water insecurity, heat island impacts, rare but increasing flood events, and significant issues around environmental justice. A heating planet is also forcing people to migrate. Laredo receives thousands of migrants a day seeking asylum into the US. A 2021 study by the Texas Water Development Board and Texas A&M University concluded the city will face severe water shortages by 2040. In 2022, the two reservoirs on which Laredo and surrounding smaller communities depend, the Falcon Reservoir in Zapata County and the Amistad Reservoir in Webb County, were at 9% and 19% of capacity due to drought. Add that politics in Texas, particularly for environmental projects and justice as well as for a community whose population is 95% Hispanic with 45% below the poverty line, is difficult.
As a project for the spring semester 2024 Creating Environmental Markets class, Laredo, Texas, presents both significant environmental challenges and opportunities to explore innovative market-driven approaches that synthesized through design strategies will attempt to envision a more resilient future in Laredo. Working directly with the Rio Grande International Study Center (RGISC), the regional environmental advocate, we will investigate the historical context of Laredo, particularly focusing on its environmental past, its current environmental challenges, and the anticipated consequences of climate change. We will investigate how arroyos, wetlands, grasslands, surface water, and ground water once worked, how the city grew, why and where its commercial and industrial centers grew, the history of the Rio Grande, sources of water supply, ground water stores, and the consequent environmental context of the city and the region.
From this base and using the tools of environmental restoration and sustainability provided in class, we will construct a water resilient plan for Laredo in a Project Report that will enhance water security while restoring natural systems and habitat, generate income as an aspect of restoration, reduce heat island effect, increase flood management and control options, and provide new job opportunities.
Students will travel to Laredo and will investigate issues in teams. Together, using your skills, we will produce a case study for the City and RGISC, recommending a prioritized path forward for the City. The cost will be $200 (term-billed) plus meals and incidentals. Travel will take place February 18-23.
This course has a travel component. Please see the GSD Travel and Safety Guidelines website for relevant policies.
Modern Housing and Urban Districts: Concepts, Cases, and Comparisons
This course deals with ‘modern housing’ covering a period primarily from the 1900s to the present. It engages with ‘urban districts’ in so far as the housing projects under discussion contribute to the making of these districts and are in turn shaped by the districts in which they are placed. Cases draw from an international survey with emphasis on Europe, North America, and East Asia, although also including examples from the Americas, South and Southeast Asia, North Africa, the Middle East, and Oceania. The course introduces approximately 240 cases along with frameworks for organizing and thinking with this corpus.
We begin with two broad surveys of concepts germane to the discussion and design of contemporary housing, including 1) ideas of community and what constitutes a neighborhood across historical contexts and cultural milieu, and 2) territories, types, interiors, and other landscapes dealing with the constraints and dimensions of the external context and internal life. These are followed by cases, organized by key characteristics of the building or external context they engage. In each, contemporary examples provide the primary focus, while precedents within and adjacent to architecture are introduced to contextualize historical circumstances and trace the evolution of ideas. In Spring 2024, the categories include: 1) urban block shapers, 2) superblock configurations, 3) tall towers, 4) big buildings, 5) mat buildings, 6) housing and landscapes, 7) infrastructural engagements, 8) infill and puntal interventions, 9) housing special populations, and 10) temporary and incremental housing.
Each class is organized around a i) lecture, ii) student presentation, and iii) discussion. Beyond weekly participation and contribution to in-class discussions, the main deliverable of the course is the research, analysis, and presentation of case study projects. Students will be paired and assigned the cases at the beginning of the semester. The presenting students will meet with the instructor one and two weeks before the presentation. Short readings may also be assigned to augment weekly discussions.