Real Estate and City Making in China

Real estate has increasingly become a compelling force in the process of city making, one uniquely capable of leading and guiding multiple steps in the construct of vital urbanism: from conceiving an idea to constructing complex structures; from sourcing funding to creating master-planned communities; and from negotiating design forms to implementing urban public realms. A country like China is at once experiencing rapid urbanization while undergoing unprecedented transformation in the mechanism of city making: the forces of real estate and the shifting roles played by public and private sectors are constantly challenging conventional city building models, while defining and redefining their positions in the production of the built environment. 

This course, conducted as a research seminar, focuses on the interdependence between real estate and city making. It addresses both theoretical and empirical investigations on the concepts and paradigms that have shaped and are still shaping real estate practices and their impact on contemporary Chinese cities. It analyzes emergent real estate and urban development strategies, their respective financing structures, underlying domain expertise and organizational hierarchy. Students will work independently and in teams on selected themes to identify critical forces in real estate development and investment: how key real estate players, domestic or international, have formed their central business strategies, interacted with capital markets, and participated in the city-form process to facilitate or drive the formation of the built environment; and how emergent private sector leaders are integrating human capital, financial capital, and design capital to reshape the design, form, and composition of China’s urban centers. With the investigative research framework set at the beginning of the semester, students will proceed to examine the city making process through the lens of real estate, in parallel with readings and class discussions, to anticipate the trajectory for contemporary real estate development, investment, and city making in China. 

Independent Thesis in Satisfaction of Degree MArch

The Thesis Program encourages students to take advantage of the wide range of resources and research initiatives of the Graduate School of Design and its faculty to make a thoughtful contribution to the discipline. Thesis is a required component of the March I program, and an optional track for the March II program.

Each student works on a final thesis project based upon the interests and research done in the semesters leading up to the final term and under the guidance of a designated faculty advisor, with whom s/he will meet regularly throughout the course of the term.

The final thesis project, having attained a sufficient standard of completion, will be presented and defended at a final, open review consisting of a panel chaired by the thesis advisor and composed of members of the faculty and invited critics.

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.

Thesis Extension in Satisfaction of Degree Doctor of Design

Thesis extension in satisfaction of the degree Doctor of Design.

Thesis in Satisfaction of Degree Doctor of Design

Thesis in Satisfaction of the degree Doctor of Design.

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 secure approval of their advisor and of the faculty member sponsoring the study.

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

Survey of Energy Technology (at SEAS)

Principles governing energy generation and interconversion. Current and projected world energy use. Selected important current and anticipated future technologies for energy generation, interconversion, storage, and end usage.
Course Notes:
This course must be taken Sat/Unsat. Cannot be used for SEAS concentration credit. Students may not take both Engineering Sciences 229 and Engineering Sciences 231 for credit.
Recommended Prep:
Calculus of a single variable, one semester of college-level physics, and familiarity with chemistry at the high school advanced placement level.

This course is jointly offered as SEAS ES 299/231 and GSD SCI 6277.

Developing for Social Impact

This field studies course will use a combination of readings, lectures, class discussion and a focused development exercise for a Boston site to explore how to align financial feasibility and social purpose in real estate development.

Profit-seeking and mission-oriented real estate development, once distinct endeavors, are converging in their methods and aims.  Mission-focused non-profits in social housing, cultural and economic development and place-making are increasingly results-based and entrepreneurial, as the philanthropists and public agencies that fund them expect them to be. Governments increasingly look to harvest surplus land for development that serves social policy goals, and broader recognition of the social and environmental consequences of real estate development has led them to adopt an increasingly rigorous overlay of land use planning, policy and regulation to address potential development impacts and to harness private investment to produce public goods.

Recognizing that they are viewed as de facto city-builders, developers seek ways to become responsible civic actors and to advance social policy goals that go beyond their project boundaries, such as housing affordability and climate resilience. Yet it can challenging to reconcile two sets of objectives that are often in tension, and there are no commonly accepted methods to achieve this alignment. To address this gap, the course will feature readings in social impact investing, social impact assessment, responsible property investment and related fields, along with class visits by leaders of for-profit and non-profit organizations to describe projects that seek to harmonize financial and social returns. 

Material, Atmosphere and Ambience

This seminar introduces an understanding of atmosphere and ambience within the discourse of material practice in architecture. The materials are a contextual and cultural manifestation of architecture.  In addition to their pragmatic function—as the basis for construction means and methods—materials also carry a long history of human civilization and tradition. This seminar aims to embed material practice into the history and culture of its origins, resource utilization, craftsmanship, fabrication and its role in performance within building assembly. We will look at the materials through the lens of various global crises such as environmental issues, economy, the politics of manufacturing, use of natural resources and its life cycle. Examples and precedents will be introduced to the seminar to discuss strategies and techniques for adaptation, rehabilitation, restoration, conservation, regeneration and preservation of buildings.  Material practice carries affects such as ambience and atmosphere. It impacts acoustics, lighting, tactility and aesthetics. This seminar aims to bring forth more comprehensive, complex and holistic understandings of material and materiality which varies in impact at different event scales—from personal to communal and local to global.

Additionally, we will look at a range of materials and their fabrication methods—handmade, mechanical and digital—within different economies, from vernacular building materials and techniques to new and advanced material explorations.

The seminar is meant to be a survey of diverse material practices. Thus, each student will be expected to choose one material of focus for research, exploring its application and the possibilities for its role, meaning, effects and message in contemporary practice.  The class will meet once a week on Wednesday mornings and will consist of a lecture on the topic in first half, followed by discussions and presentations with and by the students based on weekly topics and assigned readings. Evaluations will be made based on class participation and the quality of the final project—cumulative through the semester—on material research.

  

Entanglement of Movement and Meaning: The Architect, Spatial Perception and the Technological Body

One century ago, Schlemmer conducted a sequence of seminal experiments merging the body/design, movement/architecture, emotion/technology to break the relationships between body and space. Schlemmer saw the modern world driven by two main currents: the mechanized (human as machine) and the primordial (depths of emotional and creative urges). Today's contemporary technologies– including the virtual, synthetic, augmented, dematerialized, the data driven- challenge designers with new relationships between the body and space.

Marking the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus School of Design, this special seminar-workshop continues the historic work of Schlemmer, and invite students to investigate the body as a medium for design.  This seminar will examine how contemporary technologies and scientific discourse surrounding the body, the mind, and perception can change our relationship to space and architecture.  Integrating design, fabrication, movement, and performance, the course will explore new bodily and spatial interfaces culminating in a public performance planned by the GSD and the Harvard Museums in celebration of the Bauhaus anniversary.

In the transdisciplinary Bauhaus spirit, we will visit the ideas of philosophers, designers, choreographers, artists, and neuroscientists, within the context of advancements in wearable media, prosthetics, bio-technology and the evolving discourse in gender and body-politics.  The historic Bauhaus performance program continues to be an important reference and inspiration towards the creation of new artistic and design responses, and we will take it as a launching point for critical re-actualizations, re-interpretations, re-visions and counter-visions.

The students of this course will have an opportunity to develop skills in human scale design, industrial design, physical computing and fabrication while considering bodily movement and action.  There will also be opportunities to learn sensing and responsive technologies (including hardware/software integration, sensors, micro-projection, biometric sensing, etc), while applying them to critical social discourse.

The course will include visits to research groups specializing in prosthetics, artificial intelligence, and soft robotics at Harvard and MIT Media Lab. There will also be special visits by choreographers, musicians, and neuroscientists.

Practical work will be combined with readings, presentations, and discussions involving examples of relevant art and design. Projects will be documented and disseminated through social media, a special website, and a publication. The course is open to students from GSD, VES, School of Engineering and others, although GSD students have priority for enrollment.