ARCH /ID 202
Spring 2013
T.TH 9:10-10:25
The Built Environment Syllabus
www.arch.wsu.edu/classes/arch202
•
Professor: Ayad Rahmani
arahmani@arch.wsu.edu
• Office tel.#: 5-7393
• Office #: 534: In Carpenter Hall
• Office Hours: MW 11:00-12:00
• TAs:
Sarah Eystad: seystad.arch202@gmail.com
Travis Heim: theim.arch202@gmail.com
Ashley Swanson: swanson.arch202@gmail.com
The class will be divided into 3
groups based on last names.
Each will be led by a different
TA
• Group one by Sarah Eystad A-H
• Group two by Travis Heim I-R
• Group three by Ashley Swanson Q-Z
Professor and TA’s Responsibilities
• My responsibility will
be to prepare and
present lectures
• Prepare quizzes,
exams and final paper
• Respond to inquiries
• Offer advice towards
research and other
issues related to class
material
• Grade extra credit
papers
• The TAs responsibility
will be to grade
quizzes, exams and
final paper
• Respond to inquiries
about grades and
research
• Serve to relay
concerns between
student and myself
• Offer advice
• Record participation
Objectives
• The objective of the
course is to examine the
factors responsible for
shaping the built
environment.
• To explore and discuss
the values that it
represents.
• To elevate awareness of
the importance of the built
environment and how we
play a role in shaping it.
The thesis of this Course
• This course is built on the thesis that what shapes the built
environment in the United States is less the love of democracy
and more the desire for liberty.
• That a rural ethic pervades the making of the American built
Environment.
• That even when we design and build buildings such as
highrises and malls, we do so only to seek freedom and
independence and less equality and beauty etc.
What Kind of Built
Environment
• While it would be useful
and important to learn
about the built
environment across the
world, this class will focus
on the one as found in
the US, starting with its
origins in rural settings
and then as it evolved in
the city, the suburbs and
finally today as it has
been transformed in and
by cyberspace.
The class will be divided into 4
Segments • The first segment will be
devoted to the origins of the
built environment in rural
settings.
• The second, to urbanization
and the rise of the city.
• The third, to the
development of suburbs,
before and after WWII.
• The fourth, to contemporary
developments including the
effect of globalization on
space and place.
The first segment
• In the first segment
the class will focus on
the way the early
thinkers and
forefathers found in
rural settings the
perfect ground on
which to build their
political and social
principles.
The second
segment
• In this segment, the
class will look at the
urbanization of America
and how certain factors
such as immigration and
industrialization shaped
the American city. We
will also look at the way
planning tools and
inventions in
transportation
contributed to that
shaping.
The third segment
• In this segment focus will be
devoted to the rise of the
modern suburb and how it
represents both a personal
desire for a certain type of
lifestyle but also an
opportunistic move by
developers to grow
economically. We will look at
some of its iconic components,
such as the garage and the
mall, and analyze the way they
contributed to its social and
cultural formation.
The fourth
segment
• The world has been
changing rapidly; with the
digital world well
underway, much of the
thinking that had once
shaped design is now
under revision. In this
segment the course will
address some of the
current forces that are
shaping how we
understand and relate to
the built environment
including the question of
sustainability. Is place
important anymore, and,
if so, in what way?
Schedule
Week
Tuesday
Thursday
1 Jan 8 &10
Welcome & Syllabus
Discussion
2 Jan 15 & 17
Rural origins
Jefferson’s impact
3 Jan 22 & 24
Downing, Beecher,
Olmstead
Rural enclaves;
communal living
4 Jan 29 & 31
Emerson and Wright
Exam
5 Feb. 5 & 7
Expo 93
Garden cities, City
Beautiful movement
6 Feb. 12 & 14
Zoning and the rise
of the planning
Profession
Highways and
Highrises
7 Feb. 19 & 21
Department stores
and museums
Exam
8 Feb26 & 28
Early and post WWII
suburbs
Movie
9 March 5 & 7
The Suburban Mall
The House
10 Spring Break
Spring Break
Spring Break
11 March 19 & 21
The Garage
Current issues related
to suburbs
12 March 26 and 28
Exam
Recent technologies
and the city
13 April 2 and 4
Suburbanization of the The Home in the Age
city
of electronics
14 April 9 & 11
Landscape urbanism
in a GPS world
Cafés, Museums and
Airports
14 April 16 & 18
Main St. USA and the
Heritage Industry
Sustainability and the
B.E ( Final Paper
Assigned )
15 April 23 & 25
Movie
Final Discussion (Final
Paper Due)
Evaluations
Students will be evaluated based
on the following:
Attendance and
Participation:
Quizzes:
Exams:
Final paper
15%
25%
45%
15%
Extra Credit
15%
Attendance and
Participation
• Pop quizzes
• Participation during class:
I will leave some time at
the end of each lecture
for this purpose
• Online participation: there
will be an opportunity for
you to demonstrate
participation online
through the “Forum” link
on the class’s website.
Each time you speak up
or make an entry you
earn 2%.
Quizzes
• There will be a total of 7
quizzes given throughout
the semester; only the
best 5 will be taken into
consideration
• These quizzes will come
in the form of pop and
may appear at the outset
of the lecture or at the
end of it
• No Make-up quizzes
Exams
• There will be three exams
given in this class.
• Each exam will cover one
segment of the course.
• One class period will be
devoted to each exam.
• The students will be expected
to arrive already having
purchased a blue book.
• All exams will be closed- book.
• None of the exams will be to
the effect of testing your
memory but your ability to
synthesize the various lessons
of the course.
Final Paper
• The final paper will be to the
extent of looking back at the
entire course and putting it in
perspective.
• You will be given a choice of at
least two questions from which
you will be expected to choose
one and write an answer about
it.
• The objective of this paper will
be to evaluate your
understanding of the class and
the degree to which you are
able to analyze and synthesize
the material in it.
Books and other reading
material
This class is reading
intensive; some of the
readings will come from
the books assigned to the
class (listed here), others
from other various sources,
such as daily papers and
scholarly journals.
Whatever I don’t assign
from the books I will copy
and insert in the class’s
website and which you will
be able to access through
the “Reading” link.
Books
• Building Suburbia by
Dolores Hayden
• How Cities Work by
Alex Marshall
• City Life by Witold
Rybczynski
• Redesigning the
American Dream by
Dolores Hayden
Make up Quizzes or Exams
• There will be no make up exams or quizzes.
Please do not put me in the difficult position of
having to refuse your request for make ups.
Make sure that you take advantage of the extra
credit opportunity.
• In case of extreme and unforeseen conditions,
come see me and I will work with you on
finding a solution.
Extra Credit: 15%
There are intellectual events going on around campus all the
time; lectures, presentations, symposia etc. Some of them may
be directly related to our subject matter in this class and some
not so much. For this extra credit opportunity I would like you
to attend one such event and write about it linking it to the
class.
I am here looking to see how engaged you are in campus life
and to what extent you are able to see in this class an impact
on the way we live and relate to reality. The event may be on
economics or art or media; whatever it may be on I will expect
you to be creative in seeing in it a potential cause for a better
built environment or the other way around.
Feel free to talk to me about your ideas beforehand; I would be
happy to help you establish an outline.
Computers and
Cell phone
• Please turn off your cell
phones when you get into
class; it is disruptive to
the flow of the class when
they ring.
• Computers will be
allowed in class but only
for taking notes. If you
surf the internet, check
your facebook or email
you will be given one
warning and then be
asked to leave the class.
Discussion Assignment for
Thursday
For Thursday I would like you to do three things. First read chapter
one in the book City Life. Second go on a walk in a place in Pullman
that I will assign you. And three, connect the two. Chapter one in
City Life is entitled “why aren’t our cities like that?” In it the author
speculates on the reasons as to why North American cities look
nothing like European cities and especially Paris. Even though
Pullman is not a big city and perhaps not a good representative of
what a typical American city is, let us still use it to answer similar
questions as the author of city life is asking. Why does it look the
way it does? Why does it look so different from the Paris he is
describing in the book? Think of the following?
•
•
•
•
•
Who generated/commissioned the places you see on your walk?
Why do the structures look the way they do? (height/materials etc.)
What is the nature of the spaces between buildings?
What is the nature of the space between the street and building?
What role does transportation play in shaping the built environment
on your walk?
Groups and walks
• Group One: Walk the distance
between Main and Stadium Way on
Grand
• Group Two: Walk the length of
Bishop Boulevard or at least the area
around Safeway
• Group Three: Walk up and down
Itani Drive on Sunnyside Hill; to get
there go up Crestview Dr. from
Grand (this is a new residential
neighborhood, so be discreet)