nomad town

> art center/ department of environmental design / topic studio
> fall 2000

this design studio will:
-address our contemporary nomadic and transient society. the idea for the studio is a nomad town. the students will drive the direction of the project.
-start with the big questions of culture and society to find new models for dwellings, communities and the human habitat.
-be a fusion of the various design disciplines: architecture, product, furniture, interiors, transportation, entertainment, urban and landscape. the studio will provide a forum for these disparate fields to learn from each other.
-look to animal habitats, space stations, primitive dwellings, popular culture and contemporary artists for guidance through the design process.
-follow an initial project guideline and scheduled set of weekly goals for the progression of the design project.
-allow students to work together on the first day to develop an over-all conceptual framework for the town project.
-allow students to work independently on their own projects within the town design.
-produce a 1.) a written summery of the project including conclusions, solutions and propositions put forward by the design 2.) a final site model of the town and 3.) a set of presentation models and drawings by each student.

some questions:
-why are most contemporary american buildings built to last 30 years at most?
-why are buildings becoming obsolete so fast, and demolished so soon?
-how permanent does a building have to be?
-what could architecture learn from the design of computers and space capsules?
-how could a building be like a car?
-what could contemporary architecture learn from the tipi?
-could disposable architecture be environmentally and economically sound?
-what is our desire for the stabile and permanent in architecture?
-how does popular culture create a stabile global "architecture" or community?
-what does "town" mean? what does "community" mean?
-what does a community need that a town provides?
-what is the fugitive or transient part of a town? what is stabile?
-how did humans evolve from nomadic peoples to settlers?
-are we as a society becoming more settled or more nomadic?
-what could designers learn from the homes of animals?
-if european cities build for the ages, do american cities build for the moment?
-how does climate, history and landscape inform our town designs?
-how many towns, countries, apartments have you lived in?
-how have they been the same? and different? how have they changed you?
-how can we, as designers, make communities for living in a society where people move from place to place freely and often?

program:
the design for the nomad town will be divided among students by program.
students will be given the responsibility to design one piece of the town
from the following programmatic categories:
-home / dwelling
-work / office
-retail / shop
-religion / worship
-entertainment / theater
-garden / park
-education / school
-government / civic
-art

production:
class brainstorming session
topic research projects
artist or architect biography presentations
inspiration boards and books
program diagrams and research
concept development drawings and writings
schematic design sketches, diagrams and massing models
field trip
design development plans, elevations, perspectives and study models
detail development and full scale mock-ups
final presentation renderings, models and conclusions

class time:
each class may consist of:
-weekly presentation by a student on a designer, artist or animal habitat
-weekly group critique
-in-class sketch problem, assigned at the beginning of class and due at the end
-guest critic and lecturer
-in-class work time and desk crits
-brainstorming sessions and discussions of reading material
-a field trip t.b.d.

research:
during the course of the term each student will give 2 presentations. one will be on a contemporary designer and the other on an animal home. read
as much as you can on the subjects and gather slide images. at the beginning of each class a student will present their findings to the class. presentations should be around 20 minutes, which will be followed by questions and discussion. select one subject from each list that you are interested in:

designers:
-atelier von lieshout
-archigram
-archizoom associati
-shigeru ban
-buckminster fuller
-lo/tek architecture
-william mcdonough
-diller scofidio
-the shakers
-superstudio
-lebbeus woods

animal habitats:
-weaver bird nest
-bower bird nest
-termite tower
-beaver dam
-bee hive
-ant farm
-hermit crab shell
-nautilus shell
-spider web
-coral reef