Winter 2011 Arch 505 & UP 515 Liquid Planning

Liquid Planning: Watersheds, Waysides & Wireframes ARCH 505 | UP 696 | WINTER 2011 A. ALFRED TAUBMAN COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING - THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Satellite image of the Great Lakes Watershed

Hydroponic machine, R&Sie(n), 2008

The buildings that we construct today and the cities we inhabit are the products of an accumulation of knowledge over the course of history. Furthermore, the most rudimentary living being on the planet is more complex and more intelligent than any building constructed at any time in history. Thus architecture and urbanism must learn from nature in a structural way to integrate the principles and values of environmental processes, the logics of natural ecosystems, and the anatomy or physiology of living beings and their material properties, which together have demonstrated a capacity for survival throughout history.

Vincente Guallart, “Geologics” (in) New Geographies 0 (2008)

COURSE INSTRUCTORS

Maria Arquero, Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning marquero@umich.edu Jen Maigret, Assistant Professor of Architecture maigretj@umich.edu

COURSE INFORMATION

Wednesdays (6:00pm - 9:00pm) Duderstadt pc training room 1 (unless otherwise noted) Website | www.liquidplanning.tumblr.com Group Email | liquidplanning@umich.edu

COURSE OVERVIEW

The course will look at the Great Lakes Watershed Basin and analyze the overall hydrological system from different disciplinary lenses. Throughout the semester, students will work in multidisciplinary teams to examine the implications of storm water management practices in the nested scales of the built environment, and will speculate on a new paradigm that moves from a water-proof urbanism to a water-prone set of disciplinary practices. In an attempt to contest the role of political boundaries in the liquid planning and design of our region, we will test our interventions in the area defined by Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River, and the contributing watersheds. This water line carries the international border between Canada and the United States, and its largely urbanized and industrialized shorelines.

The class will integrate readings, site visits, lectures and discussions with problem solving exercises (documents) and software tutorials (ArcGIS and Rhino). Lectures will include several invited specialists considering watershed resource planning and management from other disciplinary points of view including policy, cartography, ecology and engineering. Tutorials will teach how to use software critically, thereby enabling an innovative approach to input, analysis and output of data through the specific parameters of research questions. Visual representations will play a key role in providing a platform to organize and communicate information associated with complex problems with precision and clarity to a wider audience.

Assignments will be organized around group work and will engage analytical mapping and diagrams in order to cross-register scales and disciplinary concerns. Group work will ultimately produce design documents, three-dimensional models, material tests, and a short report documenting the work performed through the semester.

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Liquid Planning: Watersheds, Waysides & Wireframes ARCH 505 | UP 696 | WINTER 2011 A. ALFRED TAUBMAN COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING - THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

COURSE OBJECTIVES

1 interdisciplinary collaboration to support a model of group collaboration that places emphasis on multiple expertise and dynamic leadership roles 2 data and design to establish a transparent, generative relationship between quantitative data analysis and qualitative design processes 3 boundaries, territories and scale to recognize that watershed planning requires design processes that negotiate multiple deďŹ nitions of boundary (ex. political), geography (ex. social, economical, environmental) and scale.

4 visualization and communication to develop 2D and 3D visualization techniques (including digital fabrication) that: (a) enable clear communication between collaborators (b) deďŹ ne design ambitions and development (c) provide basis for participation across constituencies and disciplines

KNOWLEDGE + SKILLS

1 interdisciplinary collaboration ability to contribute productively in an interdisciplinary design team (architects + urban planners + landscape architects) with dynamic leadership roles understanding of models of group collaboration across diverse disciplines skills: disagree, communicate, listen, compromise, negotiate, contribute 2 data and design ability to apply concepts and principles (presented in lectures and reading) pertinent to team design objectives ability to establish a clear basis for selecting, editing and organizing and synthesizing data in support of team design objectives ability to establish clear design objectives explored with multiple approaches and developed iteratively through the productive consideration of well deďŹ ned parameters and constraints understanding of variability possible in relative data reliability, completeness and quality (rigor) skills: working knowledge of ArcCatalog, ArcMap, Rhino, basic hydrology terminology + concepts, computation and output devices (laser cutter, digital fabrication) 3 boundaries, territories and scale ability to identify scalar hydrophilic design strategies that have potential impact across the watershed understanding of variability in institutional, political and jurisdictional watershed management constraints skills: acquisition of local and regional regulations related to water management 4 visualization and communication ability to select appropriate materials and methods for 2d and 3d visualizations in support of design development understanding the opportunities presented by material selection and process sequencing skills: working knowledge of digital fabrication facilities (including laser cutters, milling machines, 3D printers and/or water jet cutter)

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