“Urbanisms of Sociality”

Urbanisms of Sociality will ask the question: what new forms and formats can be introduced to return the architecture, landscapes, and spaces of our collective lives to common access? We will reimagine traditional spaces of sociality as spaces of liberation, democratic engagement, and exchange, asking how might these spaces build toward an inclusionary, egalitarian, and open-source urban commons? As the semester opens, students will research case studies of social infrastructure, commoning, collectivity, and cosmopolitanism including cultural spaces, urban farms, transformed infrastructures and institutions, and pop up events in the US and abroad. We will study their design, context, governance models, financial supports, and relationship to established institutional settings with a focus on how these shape and are shaped by their specific urban environments and communities. We will travel collectively to Chicago to visit examples such as The Sweetwater Foundation, Rebuild Foundation, and the Experimental Station, before embarking on a proposition for a site of the student(s) choosing. The second half of the semester will be devoted to the extended development of these propositions through: programming; architectural, landscape, and/or urban design; and potential scenarios for the projects’ execution. Students will be encouraged to work in small, interdisciplinary teams. Workshops and interactions with other studios will take place throughout the semester.