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ARCH /ID 202Spring 2013
T.TH 9:10-10:25The Built Environment Syllabus
www.arch.wsu.edu/classes/arch202
• Professor: Ayad Rahmani
• Office tel.#: 5-7393
• Office #: 534: In Carpenter Hall
• Office Hours: MW 11:00-12:00
• TAs:
Sarah Eystad: [email protected]
Travis Heim: [email protected]
Ashley Swanson: [email protected]
The class will be divided into 3 groups based on last names.Each will be led by a different
TA• Group one by Sarah Eystad A-H
• Group two by Travis Heim I-R
• Group three by Ashley Swanson Q-Z
Professor and TA’s Responsibilities
• My responsibility will be to prepare and present lectures
• Prepare quizzes, exams and final paper
• Respond to inquiries • Offer advice towards
research and other issues related to class material
• Grade extra credit papers
• The TAs responsibility will be to grade quizzes, exams and final paper
• Respond to inquiries about grades and research
• Serve to relay concerns between student and myself
• Offer advice• Record participation
Objectives
• The objective of the course is to examine the factors responsible for shaping the built environment.
• To explore and discuss the values that it represents.
• To elevate awareness of the importance of the built environment and how we play a role in shaping it.
The thesis of this Course
• This course is built on the thesis that what shapes the built environment in the United States is less the love of democracy and more the desire for liberty.
• That a rural ethic pervades the making of the American built Environment.
• That even when we design and build buildings such as highrises and malls, we do so only to seek freedom and independence and less equality and beauty etc.
What Kind of Built Environment
• While it would be useful and important to learn about the built environment across the world, this class will focus on the one as found in the US, starting with its origins in rural settings and then as it evolved in the city, the suburbs and finally today as it has been transformed in and by cyberspace.
• The first segment will be devoted to the origins of the built environment in rural settings.
• The second, to urbanization and the rise of the city.
• The third, to the development of suburbs, before and after WWII.
• The fourth, to contemporary developments including the effect of globalization on space and place.
The class will be divided into 4 Segments
The first segment
• In the first segment the class will focus on the way the early thinkers and forefathers found in rural settings the perfect ground on which to build their political and social principles.
The second segment
• In this segment, the class will look at the urbanization of America and how certain factors such as immigration and industrialization shaped the American city. We will also look at the way planning tools and inventions in transportation contributed to that shaping.
The third segment
• In this segment focus will be devoted to the rise of the modern suburb and how it represents both a personal desire for a certain type of lifestyle but also an opportunistic move by developers to grow economically. We will look at some of its iconic components, such as the garage and the mall, and analyze the way they contributed to its social and cultural formation.
The fourth segment
• The world has been changing rapidly; with the digital world well underway, much of the thinking that had once shaped design is now under revision. In this segment the course will address some of the current forces that are shaping how we understand and relate to the built environment including the question of sustainability. Is place important anymore, and, if so, in what way?
ScheduleWeek Tuesday Thursday
1 Jan 8 &10 Welcome & Syllabus Discussion
2 Jan 15 & 17 Rural origins Jefferson’s impact
3 Jan 22 & 24 Downing, Beecher,
Olmstead
Rural enclaves; communal living
4 Jan 29 & 31 Emerson and Wright Exam
5 Feb. 5 & 7 Expo 93 Garden cities, City Beautiful movement
6 Feb. 12 & 14 Zoning and the rise of the planning Profession
Highways and Highrises
7 Feb. 19 & 21 Department stores and museums
Exam
8 Feb26 & 28 Early and post WWII suburbs
Movie
9 March 5 & 7 The Suburban Mall The House
10 Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break
11 March 19 & 21 The Garage Current issues related to suburbs
12 March 26 and 28 Exam Recent technologies and the city
13 April 2 and 4 Suburbanization of the city
The Home in the Age of electronics
14 April 9 & 11 Landscape urbanism in a GPS world
Cafés, Museums and Airports
14 April 16 & 18 Main St. USA and the Heritage Industry
Sustainability and the B.E ( Final Paper Assigned )
15 April 23 & 25 Movie Final Discussion (Final Paper Due)
Evaluations
Students will be evaluated based on the following:
Attendance and
Participation: 15%
Quizzes: 25%
Exams: 45%
Final paper 15%
Extra Credit 15%
Attendance and Participation
• Pop quizzes • Participation during class: I
will leave some time at the end of each lecture for this purpose
• Online participation: there will be an opportunity for you to demonstrate participation online through the “Forum” link on the class’s website. Each time you speak up or make an entry you earn 2%.
Quizzes
• There will be a total of 7 quizzes given throughout the semester; only the best 5 will be taken into consideration
• These quizzes will come in the form of pop and may appear at the outset of the lecture or at the end of it
• No Make-up quizzes
Exams
• There will be three exams given in this class.
• Each exam will cover one segment of the course.
• One class period will be devoted to each exam.
• The students will be expected to arrive already having purchased a blue book.
• All exams will be closed- book.• None of the exams will be to
the effect of testing your memory but your ability to synthesize the various lessons of the course.
Final Paper
• The final paper will be to the extent of looking back at the entire course and putting it in perspective.
• You will be given a choice of at least two questions from which you will be expected to choose one and write an answer about it.
• The objective of this paper will be to evaluate your understanding of the class and the degree to which you are able to analyze and synthesize the material in it.
Books and other reading material
Books• Building Suburbia by
Dolores Hayden• How Cities Work by
Alex Marshall• City Life by Witold
Rybczynski• Redesigning the
American Dream by Dolores Hayden
This class is reading intensive; some of the readings will come from the books assigned to the class (listed here), others from other various sources, such as daily papers and scholarly journals. Whatever I don’t assign from the books I will copy and insert in the class’s website and which you will be able to access through the “Reading” link.
Make up Quizzes or Exams
• There will be no make up exams or quizzes. Please do not put me in the difficult position of having to refuse your request for make ups. Make sure that you take advantage of the extra credit opportunity.
• In case of extreme and unforeseen conditions, come see me and I will work with you on finding a solution.
Extra Credit: 15%There are intellectual events going on around campus all the time; lectures, presentations, symposia etc. Some of them may be directly related to our subject matter in this class and some not so much. For this extra credit opportunity I would like you to attend one such event and write about it linking it to the class. I am here looking to see how engaged you are in campus life and to what extent you are able to see in this class an impact on the way we live and relate to reality. The event may be on economics or art or media; whatever it may be on I will expect you to be creative in seeing in it a potential cause for a better built environment or the other way around. Feel free to talk to me about your ideas beforehand; I would be happy to help you establish an outline.
Computers and Cell phone
• Please turn off your cell phones when you get into class; it is disruptive to the flow of the class when they ring.
• Computers will be allowed in class but only for taking notes. If you surf the internet, check your facebook or email you will be given one warning and then be asked to leave the class.
Discussion Assignment for Thursday
For Thursday I would like you to do three things. First read chapter one in the book City Life. Second go on a walk in a place in Pullman that I will assign you. And three, connect the two. Chapter one in City Life is entitled “why aren’t our cities like that?” In it the author speculates on the reasons as to why North American cities look nothing like European cities and especially Paris. Even though Pullman is not a big city and perhaps not a good representative of what a typical American city is, let us still use it to answer similar questions as the author of city life is asking. Why does it look the way it does? Why does it look so different from the Paris he is describing in the book? Think of the following?
• Who generated/commissioned the places you see on your walk?• Why do the structures look the way they do? (height/materials etc.)• What is the nature of the spaces between buildings?• What is the nature of the space between the street and building?• What role does transportation play in shaping the built environment
on your walk?
Groups and walks
• Group One: Walk the distance between Main and Stadium Way on Grand
• Group Two: Walk the length of Bishop Boulevard or at least the area around Safeway
• Group Three: Walk up and down Itani Drive on Sunnyside Hill; to get there go up Crestview Dr. from Grand (this is a new residential neighborhood, so be discreet)
