Advisor: Abingo Wu

Koolhaas’ systematic romanization of the countryside may be controversial. But one thing he is right, countryside is an ignored realm in the field of  architecture. In the past century, cities, especially western cities have been the main locales for architectural knowledge harvest. To correct this imbalance, I invite thesis students who interested in countryside to work together in this thesis group. Here, countryside is a spatial condition and a set of economic and social constructs. More importantly, it is a productive arena for architectural designers to reinvent practices and reflect the field of architecture at large.

Students will expect to work on three major modulars:

  1. trace the genealogy of design theories and practices of countryside across the world;
  2. learn and practice methods, such as ethnography, archival research, humanistic mapping, GIS mapping, new media representation;
  3. finally, develop research-design projects to speculate on countryside locales across the globe.

Students are encouraged to explore how varied forces, such as hybrid economic modes, state power, village organizations, rising civic spirits, new forms of collectivities, human initiatives, etc., co shape new forms of space, new methods of design, and new ways of living in today’s countryside.

wednesday, may 3, 1:30 - 5 pm, room 402

Internal Critics: Goode, Newsom

1:30 PM Neha Tummalapalli
Mela
2:20 PM Qingyang Fan & Yuxuan Wang
To Hear
3:10 PM Abigail McCarthy
Up in Flames
4:00 PM Guanting Jack Chen
(re)Discovering Rural
4:50 PM Yian Liu
The Epitome of Urbanization