The Social Art of Architecture

The Social Art of Architecture

R Lifchez

Syllabus

AUGUST 10, 2007

1/11

The Social Art of Architecture

Professor Raymond Lifchez

Fall Semester 2007

Friday: 3:00-5:00 pm

General Information

What is the social art of architecture in America? What was it historically, where is it now, where is it going - and why should you care? In "The Social Art of Architecture", we will explore contemporary and historic attempts to confront social needs through themes: Design by Professionals (Architects, City Planners, Urban Designers, Sociologists, Philosophers, Philanthropists), and Design by Laypeople (Squatters, Intentional Communities, Do It Yourself). The objective is to discharge the false dualism that has emerged in architecture between social concerns and creative design.

Course Requirements

Seminar Reports will be based on empirical data drawn from the field work carried out by students, working alone or in teams, who will be assigned sites (institutions, housing, and communities) and meetings with resource groups and individuals. Field work will broaden students understanding of the topics presented in class and in reading assignments and will be the basis for a (required) final paper.

Grading

Attendance and assigned readings: 20%

Fieldwork & Seminar Report: 40%

Final Paper: 40%

Week 1

1990-2007: Introduction: The Social Art of Architecture

Reading:

Students should read these short contextualizing texts before the first class:

Hawthorne, Christopher . “At Cooper-Hewitt, ‘Design for the Other 90%’ Thinks Globally,” Los Angeles Times (July 4, 2007).

Gutman, Robert. “Two Questions for Architecture,” in Good Deeds, Good Design: Community Service through Architecture, ed. Bryan Bell, 15-21. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003.

Piven, Frances Fox, with Annette Fuentes, “Poverty in a Gilded Age,” In These Times 24, no. 14 (June 12, 2000) <http:www.inthesetimes.com/issue/24/14/fuentes2414.html>.

Case Study: Please review the projects in at least one of the following:

Good Deeds, Good Design: Community Service through Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003.

Architecture for Humanity. Design Like You Give A Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crisis. New York: Metropolis Books, 2006.

Assign Seminar Reports

Week 2

1800-1900: Utopian Projects: Conceptual and Intentional Community

Reading:

Benevolo, Leonardo. "Nineteenth Century Utopias," in The Origins of Modern Town Planning, 39-84. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1967.

Hayden, Dolores. “Ch. 1. Idealism and the American Environment,” “Ch. 4. Heavenly and Earthly Space” (on Shakers), and “Ch. 8. Communes within Communes” (on True Inspirationists), in Seven American Utopias: The Architecture of Communitarian Socialism, 1790-1975, 2-7, 64-103, 224-259. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1976.

Crawford, Margaret. “Alternative Shelter: Counterculture Architecture in Northern California,” in Reading California: Art, Images, and Identity, 1900-2000, eds. Stephanie Barron, Sheri Bernstein, Ilene Susan Fort, 248-270. Berkeley; Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000.

Case Study: Jean Baptiste Godin, Plan of the Familistère at Guise, 1871. [see Benevolo, 67-73.]

True Inspiration Congregations, Amana Community, 1855-1862. [see Hayden, 232-233, 240-241, 249.]

Week 3

1890-1930: Philanthropic Reform Efforts: Progressive Era Housing, Urban Parks, Public Libraries

Reading:

Fairbanks, Robert B. “From Better Dwellings to Better Neighbourhoods: The Rise and Fall of the First National Housing Movement,” in From Tenements to the Taylor Homes: In Search of Urban Housing Policy in Twentieth-Century America, eds. John F. Bauman, Roger Biles and Kristin Szylvian, 21-42. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000.

Garner, John S. “The Garden City and Planned Industrial Suburbs: Housing and Planning on the Eve of World War I,” in From Tenements to the Taylor Home, eds. Bauman et al, 43-59.

van Slyck, Abigail A. "Ch. 1. Giving: The Reform of American Library Philanthropy," in Free to All: Carnegie Libraries and American Culture, 1890-1920, 1-43. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Cranz, Galen. “Changing Roles of Urban Parks: From Pleasure Garden to Open Space,” Landscape 22, no. 3 (1978): 9-18.

Case Study: Evolution of the New York City tenement. [see Richard Plunz, A History of Housing in New York City: Dwelling Type and Social Change in the American Metropolis, 49. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.]

William Field and Son, The Riverside Buildings for Alfred T. White, Brooklyn NY, 1890. [see Plunz, A History of Housing in New York City, 108-109.]

George B. Post & Sons, Eclipse Park, Beloit WI, 1915. [see Garner, 55-56.]

Week 4

1890-1930: Social Settlements, Cooperative Living, Non-Profit Cooperatives, and Self-Help

Reading:

Addams, Jane. “The Objective Value of a Social Settlement” (1892), in The Social Thought of Jane Addams, ed. Christopher Lasch, 44-61. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, 1965.

Hayden, Dolores. “Ch. 8. Public Kitchens, Social Settlements, and the Cooperative Ideal,” in The Grand Domestic Revolution: A History of Feminist Designs for American Homes, Neighborhoods, and Cities, 150-179. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981.

Dolkart, Andrew S. “Homes for People: Nonprofit Cooperatives in New York City, 1919-1929,” Sites (1989): 30-42.

Harris, Richard. “Slipping through the Cracks: The Origins of Aided Self-help Housing, 1918-1953,” Housing Studies 14, no. 3 (1999): 281-309.

Case Study: Springsteen & Goldhammer, United Workers Houses I, 1925. [see Dolkart.]

Herman Jessor, United Workers Houses II, 1927-1929. [see Dolkart; also Plunz, A History of Housing in New York City, 152.]

Week 5

1930-1940: WPA and the Beginnings of Public Housing in the United States

Reading:

Bauer, Catherine. “Preface” and “The Big Issues,” from A Citizen’s Guide to Public Housing, 1, 43-70. Poughkeepsie, NY: Vassar College, 1940.

Radford, Gail. “The Federal Government and Housing During the Great Depression,” in From Tenements to the Taylor Homes, eds. Bauman et al, 102-120.

Pommer, Richard. “The Architecture of Urban Housing in the United States during the Early 1930s,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 37, no. 4 (December 1978): 235-264.

von Hoffman, Alexander. “Why They Built Pruitt-Igoe,” in From Tenements to the Taylor Homes, eds. Bauman et al, 180-205.

Case Study: Oskar Stonorov and Albert Kastner, Carl Mackley Houses, Philadelphia, 1931-1934. [see Pommer, 240-242.]

Minoru Yamasaki, Pruitt-Igoe, Saint Louis, 1951-1956. [see von Hoffman, 182, 196; also “Four Vast Housing Projects for St. Louis,” Architectural Record 120, no. 2 (August 1956): 182-189.]

Week 6

1920-1950: Social Ethos of Modernism

Reading:

Ciucci, Giorgio. “The Invention of the Modern Movement,” in Oppositions Reader, ed. K. Michael Hays, 552-575. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998.

Gropius, Walter. “How Can We Build Cheaper, Better, More Attractive Houses?” (1927) in Form and Function: A Source Book for the History of Architecture and Design 1890-1939, eds. Tim Benton et al, 195-196. London: Crosby Lockwood Staples, 1975.

Gropius, Walter. “Eight Steps toward a Solid Architecture” (1954), in Architecture Culture 1943-1968, ed. Joan Ockman, 176-180. New York: Rizzoli/Columbia Books of Architecture, 1993.

Aalto, Alvar. “The Architect’s Conscience” (1957), in Architecture Culture 1943-1968, ed. Joan Ockman, 249-252.

van Eyck, Aldo. “Steps towards a Configurative Discipline” (1962), in Architecture Culture 1943-1968, ed. Joan Ockman, 347-360.

Case Study: Walter Gropius, Dessau-Törten Housing Estate, 1926-1928.

Walter Gropius and Konrad Wachsmann, Packaged House System, 1942.

Aldo van Eyck, Amsterdam Municipal Orphanage, 1957-1960. [see Francis Strauven, Aldo van Eyck’s Orphanage: A Modern Monument. Rotterdam: NAi, 1996.]

Week 7

1960s: Architecture and the Social Sciences: The New Humanism

Reading:

Frampton, Kenneth. “The Vicissitudes of Ideology: CIAM and Team X, Critique and Counter-Critique 1928-1968,” in Modern Architecture: A Critical History, 269-279. Revised edition. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1992.

“The Role of the Architect,” in Team Ten Primer, ed. Alison Smithson, 24-36. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1968.

Alexander, Christopher et al., "Using This Book," in A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, Center for Environmental Structure Series 2, ix-xliv. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.

From “Towns – Patterns”: "#12. Community of 7000," 70-74; "#13. Subculture Boundary," 75-79; "#14. Identifiable Neighbourhood," 80-85.

From “Buildings – Patterns”: "#95. Building Complex," 468-472.

From “Construction – Patterns”: "#205. Structure Follows Social Spaces," 940-945.

Hertzberger, Herman. "The Interaction of Form and Users," in The Scope of Social Architecture, ed. C. Richard Hatch, 12-19. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1984.

Erskine, Ralph. “Designing between Client and Users,” in The Scope of Social Architecture, ed. C. Richard Hatch, 188-192. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1984.

Case Study: Herman Hertzberger, Diagoon Houses, Delft, Holland, 1969-1971. [see Hertzberger, 12- 19; also “Commentary on Diagoon Houses; Five Families Speak Out,” in The Scope of Social Architecture, 20-21.]

Christopher Alexander, Howard Davis, Julio Martinez, and Don Corner, Mexicali Cluster Housing, Mexico, 1975-1976. [see Dorit Fromm, "Alternatives in Housing: 2 – Mexicali Patterns." Architectural Review 178, no. 1062 (1985): 55-58.]

Week 8

1960s: Urban Renewal: Reinventing City and Suburbs

Reading:

Jacobs, Jane. “Introduction,” in The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), 3-25. New York: Random House, 2002.

Weiss, Marc A. “The Origins and Legacy of Urban Renewal,” Federal Housing Policy and Programs, Past and Present, ed. J. Paul Mitchell, 253-276. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1985.

Biles, Roger. “Public Housing and the Postwar Urban Renaissance, 1949-1973,” in From Tenements to the Taylor Homes, eds. Bauman et al, 143-162.

Ballon, Hilary. “Robert Moses and Urban Renewal: The Title I Program,” in Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of New York, ed. Hilary Ballon and Kenneth T. Jackson, 94-115. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2007.

Case Study: I. M. Pei, Society Hill, Philadelphia, 1957-1964. [see Carter Wiseman, The Architecture of I. M. Pei, 64-65. London: Thames and Hudson, 1990.]

Robert Moses and the Mayor’s Committee on Slum Clearance, Plan for Washington Square South, 1951. [see Ballon, 98-99, 103, 109.]

Week 9

1960-1990: The Needs of Different Users I: Civil Rights and Desegregation

Reading:

Davidoff, Paul. "Advocacy and Pluralism in Planning," Journal of the American Institute of Planners (November l965): 331-338. [Reproduced in The City Reader, ed. Richard T. LeGates et al, 42l-434. New York, l996.]

Leigh, Wilhelmina A. “Civil Rights Legislation and the Housing Status of Black Americans,” in The Housing Status of Black Americans. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1992. [OR: Leigh, Wilhelmina A. "Civil Rights Legislation and the Housing Status of Black Americans: An Overview." Review of Black Political Economy 19, no. 3/4 (1991): 5-28.]

Hirsch, Arnold R. “Choosing Segregation: Federal Housing Policy Between Shelley and Brown,” in From Tenements to the Taylor Homes, eds. Bauman et al, 206-225.

Rosenbaum, James E. “Changing the Geography of Opportunity by Expanding Residential Choice: Lessons from the Gautreaux Program,” Housing Policy Debate 6, no. 1 (1995): 231-270.

Bennett, Larry and Adolph Reed Jr., “The New Face of Urban Rewnewal: The Near North Redevelopment Initiative and the Cabrini-Green Neighbourhood,” in Without Justice for All: The New Liberalism and Our Retreat From Racial Equality, ed. Adolph Reed Jr., 175-211. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999.

Week 10

1960-1990: The Needs of Different Users II: The Americans with Disabilities Act

Reading:

DeJong, Gerben and Raymond Lifchez, "Physical Disability and Public Policy," Scientific American 248 (June 1983): 40-49.

Davis, Cheryl. “Ch. 2. Disability and the Experience of Architecture,” in Rethinking Architecture: Design Students and Physically Disabled People, ed. Raymond Lifchez, 18-33. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.

Robinson, Julia W. and Travis Thompson, “Stigma and Architecture,” in Enabling Environments: Measuring the Impact of Environment on Disability and Rehabilitation, ed. Edward Steinfeld and G. Scott Danford, 251-270. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 1999.

Connell, Bettye Rose and Jon A. Sanford, “Research Implications of Universal Design,” in Enabling Environments: Measuring the Impact of Environment on Disability and Rehabilitation, ed. Edward Steinfeld and G. Scott Danford, 35-57. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 1999.

Case Study: ??

Week 11

The New Sociality, The New Urbanism

Reading:

Frampton, Kenneth. "Land Settlement, Architecture, and the Eclipse of the Public Realm" in The Pragmatist Imagination, ed. Joan Ockman, 104-111. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000.

Congress for the New Urbanism, “Charter of the New Urbanism,” <http://www.cnu.org/charter>.

Bressi, Todd W. "Planning the American Dream," in The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community, ed. Peter Katz, xxv-xlii. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993.

“Letter from the Secretary,” “Public Housing Transformation,” “Detroit, Michigan: Parkside,” and “St. Louis, Missouri: Vaughn Apartments,” in Transforming Public Housing: Building Community Pride, 1, 5-11, 20-21, 38-39. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 1995.

Kamin, Blair. “Public Housing in 1999: A Hard Assessment.” Architectural Record 187 (November 1999): 77-83, 200-201.

Case Study: Rebuilding the Gulf Coast

“Louisiana Planning Begins; Designers in Region Express Sharp Divisions,” Architectural Record 194, no. 4 (April 2006): 34, 36.

Architecture for Humanity, “Biloxi Model Home Program: Participating Architects and Designers.”

http://www.architectureforhumanity.org/programs/modelhomes/architects.php

Competition for single-family and multifamily residences for the Marigny section of New Orleans, 2006. [see James S. Russell, “Building a Better Gulf South,” Architectural Record 194, no. 6 (June 2006): 112-129.]

Week 12

Non-Profit Housing, Co-housing, Shelters

Reading:

Davis, Sam. “Ch. 4. Design: Things Big and Small, Far and Near, “ in The Architecture of Affordable Housing, 83-125. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

Fromm, Dorit. “American Cohousing: The First Five Years.” Journal of Architectural and Planning Research 17, no. 2 (2000): 94-109.

Davis, Sam. “Introduction,” and “Ch. 2. The Architect and Homelessness,” in Designing for the Homeless: Architecture That Works, 1-11, 23-55. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.

Case Study: Sanford Hirshen and Sim Van der Ryn, Migrant Flash Peak Camps, California, 1965. [see "Short-term Housing for a Long-term Problem," Progressive Architecture (May 1966): 167-173; OR David Wild, "Drop In," Architectural Design 39, (February 1969): 99-104.]

Fred A. De Santo and KMA Architecture and Engineering, Joan Croc Center, St Vincent de Paul Village, San Diego, 1987. [see Davis, Designing for the Homeless, 2-6.]

Week 13

Seminar Reports

Week 14

Seminar Reports

Week 15

Teaching Social Architecture

Reading:

Boyer, Ernest L. and Lee D. Mitgang, “Designs for Renewal: Goal One. An Enriched Mission,” in Building Community: A New Future for Architecture Education and Practice: A Special Report, 31-47, Princeton, NJ: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1996.