ARCH 409, Section 4

Transforming the Built Environment (Copenhagen)
Spring 2023
Instructors: Bryan Boyer
Term: Spring 2023
Section: 4
Class Number: 409
Credits: 3
Required: No
Elective: Yes
Meets: Arranged
Course Brief:

How can architects, designers and planners fundamentally transform the built environment? In this studio, we will design physical things, but emphasize the user experiences and invisible systems that make those things sticky, scalable and transformative. Each of us will choose an urban system (such as energy, waste, agriculture, housing) and analyze the “operating system” behind it. In Amsterdam we will experience new and alternative operating systems, discovering how they give rise to very different hardware (buildings, technologies) and software (user experiences). Returning to the US, we will collaboratively design a city block in Detroit. A game-based challenge framework will require us to negotiate, layer, and interconnect each of our projects, producing not only design schema but also a strategic plan for bringing it to life. This studio will augment your architecture, urban planning and urban design capacity with a new design vocabulary: UX and strategic design.

  • Department permission required to enroll. Permissions are only issued to those students who complete the balloting process and submit a deposit per program directions.
  • This course is cross-listed with ARCH 506. Undergraduate students must enroll in the ARCH 409 section.
  • This course does fulfill the architecture (300/400-level) elective requirement for the BS in Architecture degree.