ARCH 509, Section 6

Why did our college choose urban technology for its newest degree? What might an architect want to know about this rapidly evolving domain? This seminar provides an easy way to understand and debate new directions in civic interactivity. The emphasis is experiential, asking how to take part in a city, not how to operate or simulate one. In particular we look at city reading, public authoring, and painting the world in data. The seminar runs on a simple rhythm made to play well alongside studio culture. Each week the seminar takes focus on one particular genre, for example public authoring, wayfaring, local resilience, biophilia, community process, or new mobili-ties. Once a month, three times overall, you then produce a simple poster pair on a chosen case study. These respectively take past, pres-ent, and future perspectives: the first more ethnographic, the second more journalistic, and the third more speculative— yet all of them about buildings, streets, and public presence. This enjoyable format has worked in a variety of course contexts in the college. This seminar, now in its third biennial outing, witnesses the rapid rise of urban technology in a way that can be useful to architects. With the professor having also created the initial gateway course for the urban technology pro-gram in the college, here is an unusual learn-ing opportunity. This is a simple 509, open to all, light in production demands, more about stretching your worldview