Visionary Architecture
This seminar will take a selective approach to French Visionary Architecture in the late 18th century. We will focus on some of the significant motifs, themes, and conceptions of architecture that course their way through the works of Étienne-Louis Boullee (1728–1799), Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736–1806), and Jean-Jacques Lequeu (1757–1826), among others. Our starting point will be Emil Kaufmann’s important study, published in 1952, which put these so-called revolutionary architects on the map and posited the Enlightenment as the crucial starting point for understanding modernism in architecture. We will consider such issues as the role played by drawing for presenting largely unbuilt structures, the impact of theorists such as Marc-Antoine Laugier, the relation of architectural form to philosophical categories such as Nature and the Sublime, the emergence of concepts such as architecture parlante, and the dreamed rapport between utopia and the organized city. Readings include the architects in question as well as excerpts from period texts (Burke, Durand, Kant, Laugier, Mercier, Morelly, Rousseau, and the Marquis de Sade) and modern scholarship (Braham, Etlin, Gay, Herrmann, Pérouse de Montclos, Picon, Rosenau, Vidler, and Vogt).
Course format:
Final grade based on class participation, short written responses to readings, oral presentation, and a research paper.
Prerequisites: None.
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.
Preparation of Doctoral Thesis Proposal
Independent study with doctoral advisor to produce a preliminary literature review.
Prerequisite: Enrollment in GSD DDes program.
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.
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.
Constructing Visual Narratives of Place
The seminar explores the representation of identity and memory in the city and its territory. The case study is Boston in its large surrounding area, the so-called Greater Boston, whose memory and identity are directly connected to the perception of its inhabitants and visitors. Such memory and the history that has characterized it since 1960—the year in which The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch was published—has influenced and conditioned the way we look at cities all over the world, the way we perceive those cities’ expansion, and how we acknowledge their new horizons.
The course aims to use this memory and identity to make visible not only the city of Boston but also the larger scale of the Greater Boston metropolitan area.
The complexity of this territory and its imageability is still something that requires deep research and interpretation. The seminar will especially consider the emerging topics of climate change adaptation, sea level rise, and their implications for the displacement of individuals and communities across physical, social, and political levels.
The observation of this area is based on two principles. The first is to define the field of survey, starting from the geographic systems and the big environmental area. The other is to have a richer and more complex picture of the inhabitants of this territory and to focus more on their collective memory and identity.
The final goal of this research and work is twofold: first, we will visually define the public image of the city on its larger scale. Second, we will explore possible future scenarios for Greater Boston, starting from the observation of the present conditions, predictions, and projections of climate change. The course intends to provide tools of observation, reading, and interpretation of the territory and it has the will to communicate stories about different visions of this metropolitan area in a more narrative way. The students will use a variety of media: mapping, drawing, collaging, shooting, and storyboarding.
The work will be divided into three sections:
1. The Big Map: Postcards by Greater Boston.
2. Short movies: The life of Greater Boston.
3. Storyboards: A new narrative for possible future scenarios in the Greater Boston area.
Integrated Design & Planning for Climate Change
This advanced research seminar in Miami-Dade County, Florida, is thematically focused within the integrated practices associated with designing and planning for climate change at an urban and regional scale. The seminar will geographically focus on urban to exurban communities—running east-west along Calle Ocho from Brickell Avenue in the City of Miami to the Tamiami Trail in the unincorporated community of Tamiami. The seminar will seek to explore the various economic and planning conventions that have paradoxically created a built environment that on one hand supports a majority of the county’s population, yet on the other hand is otherwise defined by high exposure to surface flooding, traffic-clogged streets, and an increasingly unaffordable housing stock for lower- to middle-income populations.
The seminar seeks to challenge and explore:
1. Metrics of urban service delivery;
2. Synergistic land use and housing production models in rapidly densifying districts;
3. Processes for effective and fair managed retreat;
4. Strategic obsolescence of infrastructure;
5 Novel models for strategic economic development of workforces and their associated workplaces; and
6. The designed adaptive capacity of architecture.
Course format:
Within the context of accelerated climatic, environmental, and social change, students will be required to independently select and develop a research agenda that demonstrates a command of the associated disciplinary literature framing the inquiry. In addition, each student will be required to develop analytical framework(s) that demonstrate the student’s competence for not only understanding the problem(s) but also utilizing such frameworks for practically engaging locally defined problems and stakeholders. In partnership with local stakeholders, students will travel to Miami to conduct field work to support their research. The seminar will culminate in the production of a project (e.g., memorandum, multimedia, etc.) that memorializes the analytical outcomes as well as a normative position for advancing future policy, planning, and design decisions.
Evaluation:
Students are evaluated on one survey presentation and the final research memorandum/media. Each student is required to lead discussions on relevant literature/data shaping their research as well as periodic updates concerning their research progress. Students are encouraged to utilize the seminar to ground complementary existing research for ongoing theses and dissertations.
Travel Note:
With the generous support of the Knight Foundation, some students in this seminar will travel to Miami to conduct field work and engaged local stakeholders. The enrollment for the seminar is limited to 20, and 8 of those students will be selected to travel to Miami, FL. The 20 students will be selected via the limited enrollment course lottery. The first 8 students on the list will be selected for the traveling spots, with students waitlisted for travel thereafter. Students enrolled in the option studio 1304: Adapting Miami – Housing on the Transect are encouraged to take this seminar in conjunction with the studio, but must select the course first in the limited enrollment course lottery in order to be considered for enrollment. These studio students will only travel on the studio portion of the trip. The 8 students selected to take part in the trip will be term-billed $100 and travel September 25 – September 27. Students may travel in only one course or studio in a given term and should refer to traveling seminar policies distributed via email. As part of this initiative, students may have the opportunity to continue the research developed in this seminar beyond the end of the term.
The enrollment for the seminar is limited to 20, and 8 of those students will be selected to travel to Miami, FL. The 20 students will be selected via the limited enrollment course lottery. The first 8 students on the list will be selected for the traveling spots, with students waitlisted for travel thereafter. Students enrolled in the option studio 1304: Adapting Miami – Housing on the Transect are encouraged to take this seminar in conjunction with the studio, but must select the course first in the limited enrollment course lottery in order to be considered for enrollment. These studio students will only travel on the studio portion of the trip. The 8 students selected to take part in the trip will be term-billed $100 and travel September 25 – September 27. Students may travel in only one course or studio in a given term and should refer to traveling seminar policies distributed via email.
Green Cities: Health and Environmental Planning
How are health and environmental planning actually done? Solution-oriented, this class focuses on key areas where physical planning and associated programs and policies are important in shaping the future of neighborhoods, cities, and regions. It examines two sets of methods. Analysis approaches enable planners and others to understand the problems they are dealing with by assessing landscapes, developing scenarios, using indicators, and assessing impacts. Implementation tools are where planners make a difference in land use planning, densification, green infrastructure, conservation, resiliency, food systems, energy, and waste. This is not just a how-to class, rather the course focuses on analyzing what planners are able to do and whether they can make a difference. It also examines how research evidence can help planning. Visiting speakers will provide case studies.
Evaluation: short papers and a longer case study or practical project.
Learning Objectives:
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
– Understand basic approaches to assessing places in terms of health and environmental issues.
– Appreciate the strength and limitations of the approaches.
– Critique the major styles and methods of implementing green and healthy cities considering both social and environmental dimensions.
– Evaluate research related to health and environmental planning methods.
– Comprehend the potentials and limitations of using research to create evidence-based interventions.
Appreciate the roles of different disciplines, and of local knowledge, in working on issues connecting health, environment, and place.
Contemporary Developing Countries: Entrepreneurial Solutions to Intractable Problems (at FAS)
This course will provide a framework (and multiple lenses) through which to think about the salient economic and social problems of the five billion people of the developing world, and to work in a team setting toward identifying entrepreneurial solutions to such problems. Case study discussions will cover challenges and solutions in fields as diverse as health, education, technology, urban planning, and arts and the humanities. The modules themselves will be team-taught by faculty from engineering, the arts, urban design, healthcare, and business.
The course will embrace a bias toward action by enabling students to understand the potential of individual agency in addressing these problems. All students will participate in the development of a business plan or grant proposal to tackle their chosen problem in a specific developing country/region, emphasizing the importance of contextualizing the entrepreneurial intervention. The student-team will ideally be comprised of students with diverse backgrounds from across the university.
Prerequisites: None.
Jointly offered courses: Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) as SW47, Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) as DEV-338, Harvard Graduate School of Design (DES) as SES 5375, and Harvard Law School (HLS) as 2543.
Location: Sever Hall Rm 113.
Open to cross-registration for students from other schools and universities. May accept a limited number of auditors, pending instructor approval.