Thirteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

Within the client-based nature of contemporary architectural practice, the academic design studio is ideally suited for speculation that impacts decision-makers within a broader arena, liberated from client agendas of cost, code, practicality, politics, and profit. Our influence as architects can be enhanced when we identify critical opportunities that not only meet learning goals for our students, but generate speculation within the larger community. In a “strategic site”, learning goals intersect with broader civic speculation. On the one hand, “strategic sites” can foreground understanding of public space with complex issues. On the other hand, individual student design proposals, at the scale of a single building, can address the basic pedagogical goals related to student learning: scale, materials, use, circulation, structure, spatial definition, and composition. Thus, the value of space can be simultaneously understood at the scale of architecture and the scale of the city. Further, students understand the simultaneous agency of a single building with a complex agenda within an urban context. Unlike the proposals of developers or property owners, a student proposal is interpreted as an idealistic view for a given context. Even the most “impractical” “outrageous” or “longshot” ideas can be discussed and debated. I will present a series of design studios in which I have identified “strategic sites” with an urban, spatial agenda. These spaces at the scale of the city are enriched by student research and design for public spaces at the scale of the building. Over the years, this work has impacted decision making.