Course

THE BOSTON ARCHITECTURAL COLLEGE                                                         

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

Collaborative Global Practice Design Workshop
   Instructor:  Karen L. Nelson, karen.nelson@the-bac.edu 
   Fall 2012 - Wednesday 4:00-7:00pm

Collaborative Global Practice Design Workshop

The globalization of the design fields is one of the most significant changes professionals have grappled with in the last ten years. With cross-cultural collaborations on the rise, how have design firms cultivated their own expertise in negotiating the complexities and challenges that arise in international projects?  This workshop - a combination of presentations, discussions and activities - examines fundamental questions about different understandings of collaboration, of global design theory, and case studies through diagrams, commentary and questions.   The course outcomes will be shared on the BAC and NCARB websites.   The development of this course is supported by a 2011 NCARB Grant for the Integration of Practice and Education in the Academy to the Boston Architectural College.

To explore collaborative global practice and to connect the visual and the verbal realms, this course considers design practices that span different locations and cultures.  This course investigates questions and how to form an articulate and coherent argument in response that is both verbal and visual.  Students select a subject that inspires and interpret the findings.  In parallel with these explorations, students focus on developing individual arguments.  Brief written responses will be based upon readings, videos and conversations.  The presentations of case studies with distinctive student commentary at the end of this semester are critical to a student’s success.

A. UNDERSTANDING GOALS OF THIS COURSE

At the completion of this course, students will understand how:

·         to practice and develop skills in making connections between different practices

·         to frame different types of questions;

·         to present an argument clearly;

·         to develop both critical thinking skills and an individual voice; and

·         to describe, distinguish, analyze and synthesize points of view, compare and contrast key assumptions of different practices

B. COURSE EXPECTATIONS AND POLICIES

All BAC academic policy for this course is outlined in detail in the course catalogue for the academic year 2012-13.  Please review the catalogue carefully to understand institutional policies. 

Attend all classes.  In case of an expected absence, please contact a peer or me in advance.  If you miss two classes with an unexcused absence or are late, your grade will be diminished. A student who misses three or more classes may be asked to withdraw depending on circumstance.  Scheduled appointments and professional responsibilities are not accepted as excused absences.  Students who are unable to fulfill course requirements should consult with the instructor by the first day of classes to develop alternative strategies for completing the class.  The BAC affirms the right of students to observe significant religious holidays; students should inform the instructor on the first day of classes if class attendance will be affected. Students must notify the instructor of any excused absences by the close of the class missed.

Academic dishonesty is defined as cheating on examinations either by copying other students’ work or through the use of unauthorized notes and materials; the fraudulent presentation of either the written or visual work of others, including that of other students, as one’s own (plagiarism).  Such actions may result in penalties invoked by the faculty member teaching a course and the Academic Standing Committee, up to and including expulsion.  To plagiarize is to attempt to pass someone else’s words or ideas as your own. It is unethical and essentially intellectual theft. Plagiarism can be intentional, such as knowingly using another person’s paper (with or without their permission), or unintentional, such as not being aware of correct research formats, thus failing to cite material taken from outside sources.  Regardless of intent, it is not acceptable.  To this end, all submitted work must be the original work of that student.  Any passages taken from outside sources must be clearly and correctly cited.  Any student found to have plagiarized will fail the assignment in question (regardless of whether plagiarism is intentional or not).  The student may also fail the entire course, and depending upon severity of plagiarism, can be brought up for further disciplinary action – including the possibility of expulsion.

Cell phones and PDA devices must be turned off during class; computers and PDA’s may be used for course-sanctioned research and requirements during class if the instructor grants permission.

GRADING CRITERIA

Your active involvement in the class will be weighted as follows:

·         30% class participation [be clear, add to the discussion, respond to the question or reading, and remain open to the ideas of others]

·         20% short essays [be clear, make a strong, specific argument, and write fluently]

·         20% questions posed throughout the course [ask open ended questions inspired by the readings]

·         10% oral presentation [be concise and communicate your thoughtful argument and research]

·         20% case study and commentary [be clear, complete, organized, analyze and interpret thoughtfully, write fluidly in your own voice]

More than two unfinished homework assignments will result in a grade reduction.  This grade is defined by the final evaluation terms defined above, consistency of work and completeness, as well as timely attendance and participation in group discussions.  Actively participate in class discussions and activities.  Readings will be distributed.  It is expected that all the materials will be read actively and students will be prepared to discuss.  Readings are due the date that they are listed in the schedule that follows.  Please bring the appropriate readings to each class.  During the course of the semester three short essays [200 -300 words] and one visual and verbal case study [500 words] will be assigned.  Each written assignment must be typed, double spaced with 1” margins and handed in the following week at the beginning of class.  Late papers will not be accepted.  Each written assignment must contain your name typed in the upper left corner along with your degree program and begin with the exact question to which you are responding. 

C.  COURSE OUTLINE AND ACTIVITIES

August 29^th               introductions, course, discussion of collaborative global practices and global culture

September 5^th           What is global practice?

September 12^th          What does collaborative practice look like?

September 19^th          What ethical questions arise in global practice?

September 26^th          How are firms defining global practice?

October 3^rd               Taking shape

October 10^th                          Visualizing practices

October 17^th              communicative action: practices

October 23^rd             communicative action: practices

October 30^th                         communicative action: practices

November 7^th           communicative action: practices

November 14^th          communicative action: practices

November 15^th          ArchitectureBoston Expo [ABX] symposium

November 21^st          Thanksgiving Day holiday

November 28^th         selected student presentations

December 5^th                        selected student presentations

D. WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

September 5^th               Commentary and Diagram 1: Global Culture is due.

September 19^th          Commentary and Diagram 2: Collaborations is due.

October 3^rd               Commentary and Diagram 3: Inquiry and potential case study topics are due.

October 17^th              Brief summary of your case study and oral presentation is due as well as a working bibliography.

November 7^th              Draft of case study and imagery [500 words] is due electronically and hard copy.

November 28th        Case study [500 words, images and diagrams] is due as well as student presentations.

SCHEDULE OF READINGS AND WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

August 29^th               introductions, course, in class readings, discussion

                                                                                

September 5^th                       Global Design Culture

Jilly Traganou, “From nation-bound histories to global narratives of architecture,” in Global Design History, edited by Glenn Adamson, Giorgio Riello and Sarah Teasley, New York: Routledge, 2011, pp. 166 - 173.

Lucia Allais, “Response: Global Agoraphobia,”in Global Design History, edited by Glenn Adamson, Giorgio Riello and Sarah Teasley, New York: Routledge, 2011, pp. 174-7.

Commentary 1: Global Culture

                                                                                

September 12^th                      Collaborative Practices

“Gregg Pasquarelli,” in Layered Urbanisms/Gregg Pasquarelli, Galia Solomonoff, Mario Gooden, edited by Nina Rappaport and Julia Stanat, New Haven: Yale School of Architecture, New York: Distributed by W.W. Norton & Co., 2008, pp. 11 – 16.

Peter Senge, “Team Learning,” in The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Doubleday: NY, 1990, pp. 233 – 272.

                                                                                

September 19^th                      Ethics and Global Practice                                                     

Guy Horton, “The China Construct,” viewed on 11 August 2012 <http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=6172>.

Graham Owen, “Introduction,” in Architecture Ethics and Globalization, edited by Graham Owen, New York: Routledge, 2009, pp. 1 – 13.

Commentary and Diagram 2: Collaborations

                                                        

September 26^th                     Defining Global Practice

Naoki Yoshihara, “Prologue” and “Ambiguity of Modernity and Globalization,” in Fluidity of Place: Globalization and the Transformation of Urban Space, translated by Minako Sato, Trans Pacific Press, 2010, pp. 1 – 24.

                                                        

October 3^rd                                       Taking Shape

T.J. Demos, “The Cruel Dialectic: On the Work of Nils Norman,” in Spatialities: The Geographies of Art and Architecture, edited by Judith Rugg and Craig Martin, Chicago: Intellect, The Univ. of Chicago Press, 2012, pp. 116- 143.

Jilly Traganou, “For a Theory of Travel in Architectural Studies,” in Travel Space Architecture, edited by Jilly Traganou and Miodrag Mitrasinovic, Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2009, pp. 4 – 26.

Commentary and Diagram: Inquiry

                                                        

October 10^th                          Visualizing practices

Paolo Tombesi, “A true south for design? The new international division of labour in architecture,”in Arq, Volume 5, Number 2, <http://journals.cambridge.org, 2001, pp. 171-80.

Anthony Vidler, “Diagrams of Diagrams: Architectural Abstraction and Modern Representation” in Representations no. 72, Univ. of California Press, Autumn 2000, pp.1-20.

                                                                    

October 17^th                          communicative action: practices

Marc Augé, “From Places to Non-Places” and “Epilogue” in Non-Places: An Introduction To An Anthropology Of Supermodernity, translated by John Howe, NY: Verso Press, 1995, pp. 75 – 120.

Eliasson, Olafur, “Your Engagement has Consequences” in Experiment Marathon: Serpentine Gallery, edited by Emma Ridgway, Reykjavik: Reykjavik Art Museum, 2009, pp. 18-21.

                                                        

October 24^th                                     communicative action: practices

Paul Virilio interviewed by Andreas Ruby, “Architecture in the Age of its Virtual Disappearance”, in The Virtual Dimension: Architecture, Representation, and Crash Culture, edited by John Beckmann, Princeton Architectural Press, NY 1998, pp. 178-87.

Brief summary of case study and draft bibliography are due]

                                                        

October 31^st                          communicative action: practices

Glendinning, Miles. “Joining Up the Pieces,” in Architecture’s Evil Empire: The Triumph and Tragedy of Global Modernism, London: Reaktion Books, 2010, pp. 134 -66.

                                                          
November 7^th                             communicative action: practices

                                                        

November 14^th                             communicative action: practices

                                                        

November 21^st                      Thanksgiving

                                                        

November 28^th                     selected student presentations

                                                        

December 5^th                        selected student presentations

**For a more detailed course syllabus click here**