ARTT 006G. ARCH Design: Collective Living

Collective living continues to be an important subject for architectural experimentation in many parts of the world. New ways of living together implicate thinking differently about program, socio-economic diversity, construction systems and a building’s relationships to the city and its environment. The course introduces students to these questions through a close of analysis of contemporary collective housing projects from different parts of the world. Students will learn to use drawing and model-making to understand how the spatial and material organizations of selected projects relate to the issues identified above. This analysis will comprise a shared knowledge that will be gathered together in a mid-term publication with contributions from every student. This work and the identified issues will inform the design of a collective housing project. Students will work with a common program - for example, a student dormitory - and specific constraints for accessibility and fire safety to develop ideas about unit type, spatial configuration and a mix of activities. Through drawing and physical models, each student will elaborate their design and make an argument for what collective living can mean in the American city today. For interested students, the course includes a week-long, spring-break workshop at Westbeth Artists’ Housing in New York City’s West Village that explores intersections between architecture and dance.
Arts and Humanities.
1 credit.
Spring 2025. Devabhaktuni.
Catalog chapter: Art
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/art

Access the class schedule to search for sections.