This course introduces students to the relevant topics, themes, and sites that help us understand the conception, production, and evolution of designed and found landscapes throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, with a focus on North America. We aim to build an understanding of landscapes as both physical spaces and cultural constructions at the nexus of art and science. We also explore how our understanding of landscapes contributes meaning to our relationships with nature and more-than-human species.
The course examines the deep history and development of the designed landscape in the United States, beginning with Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia (1785) and foregrounding the entangled roles of the plantation economy, Indigenous knowledge, and settler colonialism. The study of Andrew Jackson Downing and Frederick Law Olmsted presents an entry point for examining immigration, the landed gentry, and the laboring classes through Olmsted’s nineteenth-century journalist’s perspective in The Cotton Kingdom (1861) as well as the development, displacement, and public health narratives that emerged with the construction of Central Park on the cusp of the Civil War. The early twentieth-century development of national parks and the narrative of the American wilderness are considered as parallel to the ongoing displacement of Indigenous peoples; the course also examines contemporary scholarship on traditional ecological knowledge and Indigenous worldviews. Literature, poetry, and performance art are included as part of a holistic approach to reading and exploring land practice. Register
ARCH 1020 fulfills a course requirement in both the architecture major and minor. This
course introduces architectural representation and design thinking skills, developed
around each student's capacity to observe the built environment, interpret design
possibilities, and translate concepts into a three-dimensional form engaged within its
context.
Software tutorials in the course will introduce fundamental skills necessary for observing,
describing, projecting, and fabricating a design project. Tutorials include freehand
sketching, orthographic projection, illustrator, photoshop, and digital drawing programs
(Rhino/CAD) required for producing three-dimensional architectural models. Register
To study the built environment of the Americas is to deal with an inherent contradiction. While our disciplines of architecture, urban design, landscape, and planning share the fundamental belief that spaces matter; an overwhelming majority of our knowledge comes from another continent. As reminded by Edward Said in the classic “Orientalism” of 1974, European culture developed narratives about all other societies on Earth and as a result established itself as the center of human knowledge. According to the Eurocentric narrative, the Americas were a vast continent empty of sophisticated cultures and ready to be conquered by superior knowledge of the self-proclaimed “old world”.
More important and much more challenging than acknowledging our Eurocentric roots is the task of
reconstructing the immense amount of knowledge lost in the bonfires or the smallpox devastation that followed the encounter. Indeed, our continent has a unique synthesis of spatial knowledges.
This course looks into an array of spatial concepts developed by Americans (understood here of course as anyone who is rooted in the continent, from Chile to Alaska); in order to provide Penn undergraduate students with the intellectual tools to understand such spaces. Register
How do architects transform ideas into visual representations that resonate across cultures and
time? This course explores the influence of architectural representation as both a storytelling tool
and design strategy.
Through a combination of readings, lectures, tutorials, and discussions, the class will study the origins
and contemporary applications of architectural representation techniques. Students will engage in
weekly drawing exercises to experiment with new methods in relation to their design work. The final
project will involve selecting a representation from concurrent studio work, critically evaluating its
architectural possibilities, and proposing innovative revisions.
Key Topics:
• Architectural Representation as a Storytelling Medium
• The Intentionality, Theory, and Invention behind Architectural Drawing
• Mediums, Methods, and Distribution of Architectural Drawing Types
• The Cultural Impact of Architectural Drawings
• Inclusion of Diverse Voices and Perspectives in Architectural Imagery
• Application of Drawings Strategies: apply techniques to projects ranging from diagrams and
concept collages to AI-generated imagery, texture mapping, and real-time rendering.
This course is ideal for students looking to enhance their design drawing skills and understand the
cultural significance of architectural representation. It is well-suited for architecture, visual studies, or
design majors/minors, as well as anyone interested in the intersection of art and design, offering
valuable insights into history, theory, and practical experience. Register
This course will consider the architectural model as an interrogatory, exploratory, documentary, and/ or revelatory device through historical and contemporary lenses. Intended for both majors and non-majors, this introduction to the role of making in architectural production will provide students with a foundational understanding of the ways in which architects interpret, understand, and develop their work through tactile engagement with the material world. A focus on three dimensional representation will encourage students to consider the work of others while building individual skills in, and familiarity with, the workshop as a place of production, exploration, and possibility.
The class will be divided between a seminar / lecture component and a weekly laboratory session. Seminar discussions and lectures will situate the act of making in architectural production with a focus on the hand made. Lab work will engage the School of Design Fabrication Lab facilities to build critical skill sets through focused assignments tailored to develop familiarity with various production processes, tools, and media. A final project will allow students to put skills developed into practice through a case study of an architecturally prominent building documented in three dimensions. Register