This option studio explores public works of water infrastructure–local and territorial, intimate and extensive–in the landscapes lying below the Continental Divide in Colorado. Over the course of the twentieth century, massive complexes of tunnels, pipes, and reservoirs ruptured regional geology for agriculture and urbanization, estranging ecosystems from atmospheric and ecological cycles. These mega-diversions are large in size but limited in scope. Against this context of altered regional hydrology, this studio seeks other states and behaviors of water that are less responsive to big, brittle infrastructure–not only runoff and creekflow, but also vapor, steam, ice, and slush. We will speculate on minor public works for new forms of physical encounter with the landscape, new programmatic possibilities of the interpretive center, and close-range, attentive modes of visual storytelling. Three coexistent and alternative kinds of public “diversions” structure the studio’s approach:

Diversion 1: Recreation. Major and minor public waterworks are crisscrossed by recreational infrastructure–hot springs, hiking trails, ski resorts–drawing millions of residents and visitors annually. How will the effects of a dramatically changing climate (e.g., altered snowpack and streamflow) alter the relationships between these infrastructures? Students will design new thresholds, broadly at the scale of human experience, that anticipate and choreograph these transitions.

Diversion 2: Managed Concealment. The landscapes of the Continental Divide are strewn with artifacts that attempt to translate the invisible conditions of the immediate environment (interpretive signage, visitor centers, etc.). These artifacts operate within the tradition of the landscape picturesque, diverting attention from evidence of human intervention, negative externalities, or banal functional adjacencies–such as parking lots and comfort stations. Students will design alternative forms of interpretation through landscapes and structures that stage new encounters between unsettled human and nonhuman worlds.

Diversion 3: Divertissement. Twentieth-century images of this region were made strategically for distant consumption. The scenic photograph and the park brochure–which often captured the landscape in panoramic views–perpetuated the idea of this land as wild and vacant, redirecting attention away from embedded forms of indigenous habitation, mineral extraction, and phenomena that were then suited poorly to the camera. Students will explore producing short videos as site research: slow-moving images that demand close, sustained attention and serve no explicit promotional or economic agenda.

We will travel to Colorado, visiting sites of infrastructure, recreation, and design (such as the Herbert Bayer Institute). Guest lecturers will offer guidance on hydrology, videomaking, and regional issues of design and ecology. Our trip will include visits to unpaved, relatively undeveloped landscapes. Also note that we will be at high elevations (+/- 5000 feet or 1700m above sea level) on exposed sites that may experience rapidly changing weather. Students will work independently, though participation in group workshops is integral to studio pedagogy; pairings will be considered upon discussion with the instructor. The studio’s output will include measured design drawings, small study models, renderings, and short videos.

This studio is supported by the Koji Yanai Innovative Infrastructure Initiative Fund and the LUMA Landscape and Ecology Research Series.