Cultural Cartographies: Visualizing Cultural Narratives in the Built Environment

This seminar explores the intersection of spatial visualization and cultural storytelling. In this course, students will investigate how qualitative and quantitative data specific to the built environment can be spatialized and visualized to reveal underlying narratives, inequities, and opportunities within architectural and urban spaces. Through readings, discussions, and hands-on visualization projects, we will critically examine issues of power, inclusion, and social justice as they manifest in the physical spaces we inhabit. We will look at various case studies and examples that highlight how architects, landscape architects, urban planners and designers can use data visualization as a powerful tool to address these pressing issues and foster more inclusive environments.

Students will gather, analyze, and communicate spatial data through various architectural representation techniques, including mapping, diagramming, and 3D modeling. We will explore how these visualizations can be crafted to tell compelling stories about the social, cultural, and political dimensions of the built environment, as well as understand the impact of these narratives on public perception and policy. 

The course will engage in topics such as housing inequity, accessibility, environmental justice, and the uneven distribution of resources and amenities in cities. We will examine how these topics intersect with broader societal issues, including racial inequality, economic disparity, and climate change. Students will have the opportunity to research specific architectural or urban issues and produce their own creative spatial data portraits that render visible the often unseen dynamics shaping these environments. Additionally, students will be encouraged to think about how their work can influence real-world change and the ways in which spatial data storytelling can be impactful to a range of design interventions. By the end of the course, students will have developed comprehensive tools and techniques to craft powerful, engaging narratives about the built environment, fostering a greater awareness of the potential of architecture to influence positive social outcomes.