ARCHGEN 721 : Special Topic: Designing with Resilience Thinking

Even though resilience in the built environment is a subject of prime interest in developed and developing countries what resilience is and how to achieve it is still unclear. Designers of the built environment, like architects and landscapers, that have to deal with disturbances emerging from everyday life could benefit from the use of resilience in the urban and architectural realm. The theory behind ecological resilience offers designers the possibility of understanding the built environment as a complex adaptive system, whose change and persistence depends on its resilience. By implementing this point of view, designers could focus on analysing and developing strategies to enhance the resilience of the built environment to issues produced by the development of its own complexity. Nevertheless, this theme is often overlooked. For this reason, the present seminar wants to highlight the importance of a deeper understanding of resilience for designers. In order to achieve these goal students will be introduced to the universe of resilience thinking by reading and reviewing the original theory that produced the ideas of resilience in ecology. Moreover, students will be encouraged to produce their own contributions to the knowledge of resilience in architecture by making their own research about the subject.

Semester 1, 2020

Dr. Emilio Garcia

Where a student has been unable to attend to their studies for a period of time in the semester they may apply for an Extension of Time. Late submissions will be considered on medical and special grounds when supported by a health or other professional, and when the application is made according to the procedure below. Coursework not received by the due date, and for which no extension of time has been approved, will receive the grade ‘DNC’ (Did Not Complete). Requests for extensions of time must be submitted and approved before the due date unless there are exceptional circumstances. Students applying for an extension of time must obtain an Extension of Time Form for Coursework Submission from the School of Architecture and Planning Office (6th Floor of the Architecture Building, Building 421, 26 Symonds Street) and complete the required details. Late submission forms must be signed by the appropriate faculty staff.

The seminar is a research-led teaching where students will be confronted with problem-based case studies that will encourage the development of critical thinking to use interdisciplinary fields and learnings. The individual work of the students will benefit from the collective advice and feedback provided in each class. The course follows the structure of a seminar course with four lectures at the beginning of the semester. The following classes are about discussing, presenting, evaluating and developing writing skills to improve and advance the individual works towards the submission of assignment 1.

The course will help students to develop a new way of understanding the social and environmental crises and to reflect of the possibility to apply this knowledge to design courses. The material and techniques taught in this course will be essential to prepare students to develop research in architecture and to write about it, skills that are useful to have at hand when doing the March. Prof. The content of the seminar will be a strong foundation for students doing Advance Design 2 in the second semester of 2020. 

Students will be introduced to the resilience theory and the theory behind collapse using knowledge and evidence from ecology, environmental science, anthropology, economy and urban design and architecture. Students will also learn original methods developed to measure in a quantitative and qualitative way the resilience of urban landscapes. 

The structure of the seminar is based on a cumulative and iterative process. Students will be developing their research using the lecturer and students feedbacks. A roll will be taken each week. The seminar sessions consist in presentations that show the progress done by each student. These are quick presentation between 3 to 5 min that have to be properly structured. Presentations will happen every week. All students are expected to engage with each other’s work in a positive and constructive manner. Students will provide written and oral comments to their fellows after they finish their presentations. Written comments have a minimum of four points: two points dedicated to encourage improvements and two points that celebrate good practices, originality and strengths of the presentation. Students are encouraged to profit the tutorial time for working actively in the development of their research. Therefore, it is suggested to bring their laptops, tablets or any other preferred device to work in class. 

The PowerPoint or written work presented in class will be updated to Canvas so it is available to everybody. Writing sessions are exceptional events dedicated to practice techniques to improve the writing skills of the students. 

This course is a standard [15] point course and students are expected to spend 10 hours per week involved in each 15 point course that they are enrolled in.

For this course, you can expect [1] hours of lectures, a [1] hour tutorial, [4] hours of reading and thinking about the content and [4] hours of work on assignments and/or test preparation.

Students are expected to attend to class and lectures weekly. Since the seminar is based on a cumulative change and iterative process attendance is strongly suggested. The bibliography suggested for each class should be acknowledge because it will help students to use lectures classes as spaces for consultation and obtaining a deeper knowledge of the theory presented. Emails will be answered from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm during weekdays. Emails will not be sent or answered during the weekends. Any emails received after 5:00 pm will be answered within 48 hs counting from the next day. Written feedbacks will be provided according to the dates stipulated in the guidelines for assignment 1.