UG2

UNDERGRADUATE  STUDIO
ARCH 322  -  WINTER 2022

Neal Robinson

Zain Abusier, Landon Carpenter, Yojairo Lomeli, Jen Maigret, Neal Robinson, Laura Walker

STUDIO THEME

Arch 322 is a tightly coordinated undergraduate studio that focuses on the social, physical, and cultural contexts (in which) we build. Specifically, how outdoor landscapes, their histories, material, and seasonal environs relate to and influence the design of architectural form. The semester includes fluency and skill-building exercises for understanding topographical representation, translation, and modification, as well as practical and speculative discussion of siting constraints, slope dynamics, content mapping, and the role of conceptual terrain.

The semester culminates with design proposals for a modest Visitors Center for the Matthaei Forest Preserve: a 500+ acre wooded "research" site owned by the University of Michigan at the eastern edge of Ann Arbor. Each student chose one of three curated sites for their proposal. The primary difference between sites is the degree of topographic animation. One is flat, fielded, and historically "farmed." One is sloped, scrubby, and snaked (literally). The last is ravined, heavily wooded, and hikeable by the physically fit. All sites are linked by an accessible trail spur completed in 2022.

The Visitor's Center program challenged students to locate their design empathies across a wide range of positions as it never stated on behalf of whom or what "visitation" is a presumed benefit. Some cared for the forest and its animate ecologies, while others embraced "nature" as an "other": foreign and wild. This situational conundrum proved critical to the accomplished designs presented here.