Architecture Design Studio: Poiesis Studio II — Radical Empathy in Architecture

This studio nurtures a way of making and thinking in design that cultivates the practice of architecture as an act of creative citizenship. Cultivating an approach to appraise cross cultural study of how people perceive and manipulate their environments can help us understand architecture from different and diverse perspectives. Together, we become detectives to interrogate the contemporary and historical tissue of Pittsburgh through occupations and working lives at the scale of a neighborhood. These stories elevate ordinary folks and trades that continue to foster how our city functions and create spaces of belonging. We appraise and use architectural tools as a basis of inquiry to speculate and allow us to transform the way we view our world — with empathy for ourselves and those around us.

The structure of the studio follows three projects that explore narrative modalities by using precedent analysis, site analysis, archival research, spatial compositions, and tectonic exploration. We explore these techniques to produce a hybrid multigenerational house focused on acts of care in Pittsburgh. Students are introduced to critical proficiencies, learn new techniques of representation, and adapt rigorous fabrication skills in the production of a project that is rooted to its context. We learn tools including rigorous hand-craft modeling, Rhino, Adobe Creative Cloud, and preliminary skills in GIS. These practices in documentation, design and storytelling help us spatialize the way our city situates itself, its ecological relationship, and social scenes in an accessible way for diverse audiences. This studio advocates for knowledge built around relationships, interdependence, lived embodiments, and responsibilities.