Lecturer
(Visting Faculty Spring 2006)
Spring 2006 courses
| 4.242 Advanced Seminar in City Form |
| 4.628 Cultural Construction of Asian Cities Virtually all of the world’s expected population increase between now (6.3 billion) and the anticipated leveling off around 2100 (9.5 billion) will be in the cities of the developing world, mostly in Asia. China, India and Indonesia are already the first, second and fourth largest nations by population. Together with their neighbors, Asia is home to a majority of humanity and is becoming the most significant economic and environmental field of action. As the global center of gravity shifts to Asia, the ongoing negotiations of collective concerns (climate change, resource scarcity, violent conflict) are increasingly dependent upon a more inclusive perspective. The rapid urbanization occurring in the cities of Asia has taken place under conditions of extreme cultural diversity, vast demographic pressures, and unprecedented speeds of social change. The study of Asia from colonialism to nascent nationalisms, to more recent speculations on global phenomena has long provided vivid grounds for investigating important questions about the relationship between human societies and their built environments: What forces operating in the west account for the shifting definitions of “Asia” over time? How have visual and spatial representations played a role in this process? How has the design of the built-environment been used as an instrument for reproducing power relations? How have images and mythologies of the developed west played a role in the construction of space in Asia’s cities? An important premise of the course is that the special relationship between cultural forces and the built environment is more vividly revealed in the recent histories of architectural and urban formation in Asia than commonly found in other places and times. Of particular interest are the methodologies emerging in recent decades around the changing conceptions of “culture.” The literatures associated with the so-called “cultural turn” are developed and applied to our cases to critique and supplement the more familiar analytical tools of political-economy. Even for students never intending to operate in an Asian context, this course offers the opportunity to step outside of their own world long enough to look back and see it with a critical clarity otherwise difficult to attain. The sequence of readings is designed to posit a series of theoretical framings juxtaposed with relevant case studies drawn from the historic and contemporary accounts of specific contexts offered by the region. Class discussions will build upon the readings to test the various methodologies for their power to account for phenomena presented in each case study. In each case, we will examine the cultural operation of architecture and urban form within a specific context and how this operation relates to contemporary challenges in architecture and urbanism. Some of the issues examined include the concept of “development,” religious identity, colonial power structures, postcolonial nationalisms, the role of women, the rise of civil society, heritage conservation, national housing and “new town” efforts, tourism, mega-projects, globalization/counter-globalization, social dualisms, critical regionalism, and various phenomena of hybrid cultural formation. Each participant is required to develop an individual research project employing some aspect of the methodologies explored in the seminar. These projects may or may not be sited in Asia but should demonstrate the capacity for some methodology of cultural analysis to extend understandings of key phenomena. |