INTRODUCTION
I taught the Junior design studio for the first time in 1996. This course
emphasizes
theories of design applied to housing, community and recreation problems
at the intermediate scale. Issues of particular concern were conservation
or open space subdivision, neighborhood design based on the ideas termed
New Urbanism, design process and public participation, and
community revitalization through recreation and tourism development. The
primary texts werre The New Urbanism - Katz and Open Space
Subdivision - Arendt.
The pedagogy for this course was based in part on the historical
relationship with the department of architecture. For many years
students and faculty in
landscape architecture and architecture jointed together to work on a
project. In 1996, this collaboration was extended to two projects in the
last 2/3 of
the course. Associate Professor Wendy McClure was a great asset
to me and the students. She brought years of professional and
academic experience to the course. She had experience with team
teaching and with this studio in particular. She identified both of the
projects and secured funding for the second.
Students worked in
interdisciplinary teams in the second
project. The third project involved both team and individual effort
while the first project of the semester required individual effort without
support of
architecutre students and faculty. The course was linked to the
construction studio since the design sites were used as the basis of
stormwater runoff calculations and constructed wetland sewage treatment
designs.
Supporting the course was a field trip to Los Angeles conducted by Gary
Austin and attended by the Junior landscape architecture students.
Particularly, germain to LArch 359 was the visit to the Center for
Regnerative Studies at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
The technical achievements and failures of the architecture and landscape
systems were explained by a resident of the experimental facility. The
students also attended a half day of paper presentations at the Center.
DISCUSSION AND EXAMPLES OF STUDENT PROJECTS - 1995
MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING IN SPOKANE, WASHINGTON
The first project had two major goals. The first was creation and
application of a rational design process to the design of a housing
project. The second goal was design a neighborhood which enhanced the
ecological values of the site and addressen the aspirations of the
residents.
Readings from the The Design for Human Ecosystems by John Lyle and
the method refined by William Ramsey at the University of Georgia were the
basis of design process models which the students created for the project.
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