Advanced Option Studio (AOS): Manahatta Interrotta • Manhattan Interrupted — Recontextualizing the Grid for Sustainable, Equitable Futures

This studio is about architectural and urban design concept and theory, design methodology, and critical appraisal of existing urban and architectural morphologies. A semester-long theoretical project for an extremely high-density mixed-use development in Manhattan is the vehicle for a design and research study of the island that established the paradigm for modern cities, seeking opportunities to recontextualize development within the grid for a more sustainable and equitable future. 

Growing populations and economies increasingly stress natural resources and ecosystems beyond their natural resilience, while entrenched social inequities perpetuate themselves through standard development practices. These practices typically favor cannibalizing undevel¬oped sites, whereas sustainable development focuses on redeveloping and Increasing density within established urban environments. 

Sites formerly considered too burdensome, such as railyards and brownfields, have now become among the most desirable development sites in the planet's most vibrant megacities. Such development is needed to address and respond to major environmental and climat¬ic changes which the built environment is affected by and in turn affects. It also presents the opportunity to address long-standing socio-environmental inequities typical development models often perpetuate.

AOS Catalog Course Description