Course Description

MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Joint Program in City Design and Development Spring, 2001

4. 259/11.945 (1-2-6) MW 9-11:00 AM & M Lecture 5:30-7 PM

Visiting Professor

Gregory Beck AIA, Pratt Institute

Professors

Dennis Frenchman,

Hiroshi Ishii,

Mark Schuster,

Eran-Ben Joseph, MIT

This design workshop will be a collaboration between the Joint Program in City Design and Development and the Media Lab at MIT. The course will be open to students in architecture, planning, and media arts and sciences. Sponsors include: The Boston Redevelopment Authority; Urban Data Solutions, New York, NY; and Handspring Corp., San Francisco, CA.

Our goal is to explore the opportunity for media technologies to influence the physical character and meaning of civic places. The workshop will look at how information technologies including personal digital networks, intelligent building materials, and the Internet can shape the intellectual and emotional content of the city experience. We will use a storyline about downtown Boston recently developed by a private group convened under the auspices of the BRA. This Œscript¹ has identified several areas for interpretive development on sites being reclaimed by the Central Artery project

The workshop will begin by asking: What should the City be saying ­ to its residents and visitors? We will then consider how city design and development concepts may be combined with emerging communications media to convey an "urban narrative." Techniques may include computer-directed building surfaces, Internet-fed environmental graphic displays, and pedestrian-activated information points.

Finally, we will develop specific proposals for a key site on the surface of the Central Artery as part of a network of media-enhanced places in the city. Design proposals may involve museum-like environments, landscape treatments, programmed events, or media elements that will interpret and disseminate civic information: local histories, folklore, way-finding, and current events. The products of the workshop will be exhibited and published in architectural journals. Our intent is to help shape the thinking of civic leaders on how to develop a new kind of "museum" of the City of Boston.

The workshop will experiment with use of the "Luminous Table", a 3D design visualization tool being developed by the Media Lab and the City Design and Development group. Using video projection and geographical software, the system allows rapid manipulation of architectural and urban infrastructure models. Directing the studio will be Visiting Professor Gregory Beck AIA, a New York-based architect and professor specializing in media technology, with the involvement of Professors Dennis Frenchman AIA, Mark Schuster and Eran Ben-Joseph, and Professor Hiroshi Ishii of the Media Lab.

A guest lecture series, open to the public, will parallel the workshop, featuring innovators in design and communications technologies.

WORKSHOP ORGANIZATION

Depending on class enrollment, work on the exercise will be done in teams of 2-3 students. Teams should be interdisciplinary, that is, include at least two of the skills represented in the workshop: architecture, urban planning, or media design. Teams should sign up and be formed prior to our field trip on Saturday, Feb 10.

The workshop will meet Monday and Wednesday, 9-11 AM in Room 10-485, beginning on Wednesday, February 7. We will conclude with a final review on Wednesday, March 21, with an Exhibition of our work. Since the workshop is only for 1/2 semester, will be required to attend the evening lecture series on Media and Civic Space, where many important concepts and content will be introduced. Grades in the subject will reflect individual attendance and participation in the workshop and lecture sessions, and the quality of the final product of your team.

The workshop and lecture series will take place over the first 1/2 of the spring semester, 2001; students will be expected to attend both workshop and lectures.