Architecture Design Studio: Praxis Studio I

Typically, studios conduct site research and then design an intervention for that site. However, this is a studio where the design research part of the semester becomes the project itself. We do site research and correlate it with the information we can find. We make unconventional models and experiment with how we construct a network of sites through sets of relationships, and linguistic, computational and visual descriptions. In principle, we're going to think critically about how we construct the identity of a place through its cultural, social and ecological systems, and develop procedures for doing so. We will investigate Pittsburgh as a collective site. Over the course of the semester, we will develop a "necklace" or circuit of sites that address event, housing and infrastructure. The “Steel Necklace” will be a composite of these three different architectural/urban interventions to address the cultural, social and ecological issues of Pittsburgh. Just as the urban condition is a network of shared expressions, lived experiences and relationships, our studio will be a collaborative course, exchanging and intermixing projects. Students detail into the collective network, developing in high resolution a housing component relative to infrastructure and event spatial interventions.