Spring 2009 Environmental Design Courses Print

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ENV DES 1
PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
DE MONCHAUX

(3) Student will receive no credit for 1 after taking 4. Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week. Environmental awareness and environmental design. Survey of relationships between people and environments, designed, and non-designed. Emphasis on activism and sustainability. Interpretations of architecture, landscapes and urban planning, and introduction to their literature and professional practices. 

ENV DES 11A
INTRODUCTION TO VISUAL REPRESENTATION AND DRAWING
SLUSKY

(4) Three hours of lecture and twelve hours of studio per week. Prerequisites: 1 or 4. Introductory studio course: theories of representation and the use of several visual means, including free hand drawing, to analyze and convey ideas regarding the environment. Contour, scale, perspective, color, tone, texture, and design. 

Extended Course Description

Objectives of the course are the development of skill and confidence in the use of freehand drawing and related forms of representation as a means of understanding and describing the environment. The course is an introduction to freehand drawing, perspective, and design, with particular emphasis on the use of visual means for investigating the environment. Teaching methods consist of lectures, studio projects, discussion sections, group critiques of student work. 

ENV DES 11B
INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN
PLYMALE

(4) Three hours of lecture, six hours of studio, and one hour of seminar per week. Prerequisites: 11A. Introduction to design concepts and conventions of graphic representation and model building as related to the study of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, and city planning. Drawing in plan, section, elevation, axonometric, and perspective. Design projects addressing concepts of order, site analysis, scale, structure, rhythm, detail, culture, and landscape. 

ENV DES 100
THE CITY: THEORIES & METHODS IN URBAN STUDIES
ROY

(4) Three hours of lecture, one hour of discussion, and three to four hours of reading, analysis, and research per week. This course is concerned with the study of cities. Focusing on great cities around the world - from Chicago to Los Angeles, from Rio to Shanghai, from Vienna to Cairo it covers of historical and contemporary patterns of urbanization and urbanism. Through these case studies, it introduces the key ideas, debates, and research genres of the interdisciplinary field of urban studies. In other words, this is simultaneously a "great cities" and "great theories" course. Its purpose is to train students in critical analysis of the socio-spatial formations of their lived world. 

Extended Course Description

This course is an advanced-level introduction to the interdisciplinary domain of urban studies. It is open to students, undergraduate and graduate, in all departments and has no prerequisites. However, it is an intense course with a heavy reading load and assignments that require critical analysis. Students must be prepared to do quite a bit of work in this class.

The course has three objectives. First, it familiarizes students with the study of cities as pursued in various social science disciplines such as sociology, geography, and anthropology. In this sense, it is a “classics” course providing coverage of key texts, theories, and methodologies in urban studies.

Second, it introduces students to real cities. Organized around compelling case-studies, it is also a “great cities” course. While mainstream urban studies is primarily focused on EuroAmerican cities, this course expands the repertoire by studying cities of the developing world. Not only is the urban future of the new millennium located in the global South, but also some of the most interesting critical theories of our time are emerging from this context. The class thus encourages students to know and study the “canon” of urban theory but to also disrupt, dislocate, and displace this canon by giving serious thought to new geographies of knowledge.

Third, the course provides a historical perspective on urbanization. From medieval cities like Bruges and Baghdad to 19th century modernization in cities like Vienna and Cairo to contemporary debates about postmodern Las Vegas, the course examines various moments of urbanism. Quite deliberately, the course material is organized not as linear history but rather as themes that indicate continuities and congruences between cities of different time-periods and locations.

Each week introduces students to a city or set of cities, a theoretical framework, and related methodologies.

Course requirements include weekly readings, attendance of weekly discussion sections, a midterm and final examination, and an analytical book review paper for which students must select and discuss a key book in urban studies.

ENV DES C169B
AMERICAN CULTURAL LANDSCAPES, 1900 TO PRESENT
GROTH

(4) Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week. Introduces ways of seeing and interpreting American histories and cultures, as revealed in everyday built surroundings--homes, highways, farms, factories, stores, recreation areas, small towns, city districts, and regions. Encourages students to read landscapes as records of past and present social relations, and to speculate for themselves about cultural meaning. Also listed as American Studies C112B and Geography C160B. 

ENV DES 170
THE SOCIAL ART OF ARCHITECTURE
LIFCHEZ

(3) Two hours of seminar per week. Credit option: Course may be repeated by students working on thesis or dissertation. What is the social art of architecture in America? What was it historically, where is it now, where is it going--and why should you care? In this course, we will explore contemporary and historic attempts to confront social needs through themes: Design by Professionals (Architects, City Planners, Urban Designers, Sociologists, Philosophers, Philanthropists), and Design by Laypeople (Squatters, Intentional Communities, Do It Yourself). The objective is to discharge the false dualism that has emerged in architecture between social concerns and creative design.

The Social Art of Architecture; Reading and Composition

Overview
What is the social art of architecture in America? What was it historically, where is it now, where is it going - and why should you care? In "The Social Art of Architecture," we will explore contemporary and historic attempts to confront social needs through themes: Design by Professionals (Architects, City Planners, Urban Designers, Sociologists, Philosophers, Philanthropists), and Design by Laypeople (Squatters, Intentional Communities, Do It Yourselfers. The objective is to discharge the false dualism that has emerged in architecture between social concerns and creative design.

Four field trips (East Bay and San Francisco) to visit outstanding examples of building designs to meet social needs.

The agenda for the two weekly meetings will vary between illustrated talks and seminar exchanges. A modest number of critical readings to which students will respond by addressing questions posed to guide reading and discussion.

Topics
Advocacy and the Social Art of Architecture
Utopian Projects Conceptual and Intentional Communities
Social Settlements Cooperative Living Non Profit Cooperatives Self Help
Company Towns
Great Depression and the WPA
The Concept of Public Housing
Modernism and the Social Sciences; The New Humanism
Urban Renewal; Reinventing City and Suburbs
Civil Rights and Desegregation
Needs of Special Users; Americans with Disability Act
New Sociality; New Urbanism
CoHousing and Shelters
Teaching a Social Perspective of Design

Class size: Ideally 12-15 Upper Division Students.

Professor R Lifchez
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Office Hours: Wednesdays, 3-5 p.m., 474 Wurster

ENV DES 195
SENIOR THESIS

(4) Enrolled students are required or have elected to write an undergraduate thesis. The objective of the course is to assist with this process by defining a topic and constructing a research agenda by which the topic is explored and developed as prose. Directed study leading to preparation of a senior thesis.

ENV DES 195 SEC 1
SENIOR THESIS
LIFCHEZ

ENV DES 195 SEC 2
SENIOR THESIS
STAFF

ENV DES 252
URBAN PLACE STUDIES
SOUTHWORTH

(3) Three hours of seminar per week. Prerequisites: Students must be in the Master of Urban Design program or obtain consent of instructor. Seminar focuses on individual urban design interests, the design and research work that students are pursuing in other courses, and development of thesis or final design projects. 

SEARCH CED
Department of Architecture
University of California, Berkeley
232 Wurster Hall #1800
Berkeley, CA 94720-1800
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