Courses
Storm Ecology - LARCH 414-002
Spring 2023 | Tuesday Thursday 1:35-5:35
Coastal landscapes are continually reshaped by storms and rising seas. Many coastal ecologies depend on this dynamism for their very existence. Species adapted to the intertidal zone and coastal lagoons depend upon storms to create and maintain unique habitats. Shorebirds rely on a variety of conditions created by over-wash and other storm related phenomena that lead to a mosaic of vegetative conditions that the birds exploit. The first part of this studio will introduce students to these dynamic coastal environments and contemplate ways to support current human occupations in ecologically functional, storm dependent areas without compromising our responsibility to the evolving coastal landscape. The second portion of the studio will consider more urbanized conditions where ecological functions have been more heavily suppressed and ask students to consider how best to address change in light our responsibilities to the landscape and each other. Both projects include questions of equity and justice, for instance, access to traditional resources and recreation. Course study sites are co-located with real-world research sites, giving students high levels of access to information from interested parties and expert data while allowing student work to potentially contribute to research and decision-making outcomes. This work will include engaging with outside experts, and conditions permitting, multi-day travel to an east coast site.
Storm Ecology FAQ
How “specified” is the problem? Does the project have a highly detailed program of use we have to address?
The studios I teach are typically ask very challenging questions in an open-ended way. I will provide some optional prompts that are more specified for students who feel they need a more tightly configured problem to be productive.
How creative can we be?
We will begin the semester with a ‘simple’ (not simple) design problem of shaping and crossing a landscape that moves and shifts in different time scales. The initial experiments will invite model making and experimentation, so that you can “play” while we gradually engage with physical processes and ecology.
Is there group work?
There are not going to be assigned groups—you will have the opportunity to pair up with a peer should you both choose to work together, however, it is not required. I did an experiment last semester that allowed people to pair and unpair freely last spring, and it worked very well. If you do choose to pair, I will ask you and your partner to complete peer evaluations.
Where is the site?
We will work on two sites that are current research sites. Our first site will be Charlestown, Rhode Island. This site has a highly dynamic coast, and we have access to a multitude of experts. We will explore a second research site in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Virginia, the final location of the second depends on available resources from our research partners.
What about travel?
Travel is being planned now, and will likely occur after Spring Break due to limitations of expected weather along the coast.
Defusing Doomsday - LARCH 297
Fall 2022 | Monday Wednesday Friday* 1:25 - 2:15
*Friday is a reading day, set aside for course work and individual attention when needed.
Landscape Architects, Graphic Designers, And Scientists are engaged in complex societal questions regarding natural and technological risks and the effects of environmental racism. Students will create semester-long media projects (e.g., YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, sticker(s), poster(s), pod-tour) that leverage their unique social and cultural perspectives, concerns, and expertise with readings and seminar discussions that ground their work in the social science of risk perception and communication. This combination of practice and theory is designed to help students navigate effects of cultural values and factors that cause communications to fail or backfire.
Course-mode | All disciplines and all levels welcome!
This course employs seminar readings, analysis of real world examples in relation to seminar readings, and gradual development of a modest media project that applies this knowledge. Advanced readings are supported by extensive online study guides and presentations so that students of all levels can engage and understand primary source literature.
More will be posted soon!
Five Easy Pieces - LARCH 414-03
Spring 2022 | Tuesday Thursday 1:35 - 5:35
Coastal communities face challenges like vulnerability of the tax base to sea level rise. They also have opportunities such burgeoning shellfish aquaculture made possible by the improving ecological health of some estuaries. Equitably adapting to climate change and accommodating diverse uses while maintaining or improving ecological function invariably involves difficult tradeoffs. This studio engages students in exploring these tradeoffs through a series of vignettes examining adaptation in a real-world context. Student learning will be supported by engaging with outside experts doing advanced research on topics such as submerged breakwaters and dune restoration. The vignette studio format is designed to promote effective iterative design processes.
Water Related Resilience - LARCH 297
Fall 2021 | Monday Wednesday Friday (reading day) 1:25 - 2:15
The summer of 2021 has seen drought, flood, wildfire, crop failures and countless other water related calamities. Water related resilience re-imagines the human relationship to water to foster the continued function of ecologies on which life and society depend, to ensure equitable access to clean water, and to ensure human systems, cultures, and economies can maintain their essential functions in the face of evolving water related hazards. This interdisciplinary seminar will ground you in the physical and social science of water related resilience and give students in all disciplines the foundation to engage and apply their own disciplinary knowledge to build equitable, ecologically sound, and resilient futures.
Coastal Margins - LARCH 414-04
Fall 2021 | Tuesday Thursday 1:40 - 5:30
This experimental studio explores how human responses to sea level rise and other changes at the coastal margin—the ecologically rich zone where the land and the water meet—can dynamically adapt to uncertain future conditions for the benefit of ecologies and human habitation. It seeks to move conceptions of climate mitigation and ecological stewardship away from preservation of the status quo to resilient conditions that dynamically accommodate physical, biological, and social uncertainties. It proposes a larger philosophical shift away from a local crisis mind-set to creatively supporting regional and global social-ecological systems.
Defusing Doomsday - LARCH 424-510
Fall 2020 | Monday Wednesday 1:25-3:20
Landscape Architects, Graphic Designers, And Environmental Scientists are engaged in complex societal questions regarding natural and technological risks and the effects of infrastructural and environmental racism. This course is designed to support the creation of non-traditional forms of real-world science communication addressing these topics. Students will create a semester-long project that leverages their unique social and cultural perspectives, concerns, and expertise with readings and seminar discussions that ground their work in social science research and criticism. This combination of practice and theory is designed to help students navigate Effects of cultural values and other factors that alter perceptions of scientific communication. Students will engage with real ethical dilemmas of scientific rhetoric, create persuasive communications, and make a difference in our world.