SARAH COWLES PORTFOLIO: DESIGN, ARTWORK, TEACHING OCTOBER 2017
THE PROCESS OF MAKING ART IS FINDING THE SWEET SPOT BETWEEN INEPTITUDE AND SELF-FLAGELLATION. Drawing made before departing for residency. 2008.
SARAH COWLES UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE ASSISTANT PROFESSORSHIP IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE APPLICATION PORTFOLIO JANUARY 2016
BETA LAYDOWN SNAGGED THE SALT MOUNTAIN DISTURBANCE ELEGANTLY WASTED CONTINUOUS GARDEN ALTERED DAILY
PROJECT NARRATIVES Describing space with our hands, then a finger on a map: there. These pages narrate how gestures to site loop into works. Loops around sites, loops from home to site, tighter loops of observation and loops of iterative making. These pages document the seeds of instigation: drinking coffee on cold desert mornings with collaborators, the sketches on airline tray tables. Drifting in unfamiliar landscapes, seeking both the patterns and erratic moments, seeking the unusual, the exemplary. A haptic focusing, like a rubbing, a pattern emerges—these are the scaffolds for interpretation. Traversing, hunting and harvesting the grammar & vocabulary of interpretation. Landing, location scouting, logistics is craft; our itineraries instruct steps in negotiating new territory. Hostel, a homestay, hotels, host institutions. Travel, dwelling, eating & making together liberate us from the contracts of our routines. These projects involve students and technicians, conducting research, drawing, revising, building, getting it wrong, editing, resolving. These pages depict the artifacts of collective experiences and expansions of networks. We recall the times of investigation and making with fondness, laughter and incredulity.
SARAH COWLES 2016
1
BETA LAYDOWN
BONNEVILLE RACEWAY
UTAH
LAYDOWN MANIFOLD
NEVADA
WENDOVER
CLUI BASE POTASH EVAPORATORS WENDOVER AIRPORT
2
INTERSTATE 80
PROGRAM CENTER FOR LAND USE INTERPRETATION WENDOVER RESIDENCY SITE WENDOVER, UTAH YEAR 2008 COLLECTION CLUI WENDOVER ARCHIVES
Beta Laydown is an interlocutor landscape articulating surplus capacity within a mineral reclamation system. In Beta the reciprocity between slow, geological processes of evaporation mining are linked to the exceptional velocities of land-speed trials. PROJECT OVERVIEW In 2008 I was a resident at the Center for Land
Use Interpretation’s Wendover Field Station. The residence is located adjacent to the Wendover air field, on the edge of the Bonneville Salt Flats and potash evaporation ponds. Extensive pumping of the shallow brine aquifer for potash mining has depleted the salt crust of the Bonneville Salt Flats Raceway. I proposed a site work interpreting the Laydown Project, a public-private project to restore the salt crust at the Bonneville Salt Flats Raceway. The proposal linked parametric modeling with satellite-controlled excavation and grading equipment. Parameters in the script varied the shape and depth of excavations in the salt flats.
About Potash Mining 30,000 acres of salt flats east of Wendover are carved into channels and solar evaporation ponds to gather potash for fertilizer. A series of pumps, at the toe of the Silver Island Mountains north of Interstate 80, lift brine from the aquifers below the salt flats. The brine flows south to the evaporation ponds. After evaporation, the operators harvest potash precipitate with bulldozers, and transfer it to a mill for further processing and shipping.
SARAH COWLES 2016
3
Brine pump for potash mining Ohio State’s Buckeye Bullet, holder of the US land speed record for an electric vehicle (508.485 km/h) Credit: Denis Boussard/Venturi Automobiles. Gypsum dike and salt crust
Across Interstate 80 is the Bonneville Salt Flats Raceway, another important economic force in the region It is the site of land speed records and a favorite location for film and TV commercials. The two operations are hydro- and geologically linked. Brine pumping depletes the aquifer, which in turn causes the depletion of the salt crust that supports the raceway operations. The Bureau of Land Management engineered the Laydown Project to re-distribute mineral-rich brine onto the salt flats. They created basins to re-suspend brine, a pump system, and a manifold to spread the brine northward to the raceway. This essential hydrological and geological remediation apparatus was nearly invisible in the great scale of the salt flats landscape. I was intrigued by this additional layer of technology that bridged the needs of the very fast—the salt flat racers—with the very slow—the potash evaporation operations.
How is this place work? How is it organized? How might we work with the existing elements, processes, and apparatuses? The salt flats landscape is made of basic elements and processes: gypsum soils, minerals, water, wind, sun. These elements interact with one another at varying scales of time and visibility. Though the salt flats are a very arid place, the territory has been engineered with channels and dikes to accommodate periodic flooding, potash production, and transportation infrastructure. Subtle elevation changes created large-scale effects. Artifacts adjacent to brine outflows were covered in crystals; armatures influencing how processes were revealed.
4
METHODOLOGY: SITE INTERPRETATION
DOMESTIC GEOLOGY: TRAILER. SUMI INK ON PAPER
POTASH EVAPORATOR LANDSCAPE
RUBBLE FOOTHILLS
DOMESTIC GEOLOGY: THE STEPTOE MESS, SUMI INK ON PAPER
COLLAPSED TRAILER
WIND EROSION POOLS IN GYPSUM
WITNESS
DECAY
DESIGN OBSERVATIONS
During my residency, I covered Wendover on foot and by bicycle, after an unfortunate series of events left me without a car. I began sketching and photographing two themes in the landscape: decay and depressions.
The first involved processes of decay. The extreme environment of the desert caused the structures of the former air base to decay into splintered, monochrome piles. These piles are represented in a series of sumi-ink drawings of the Domestic Geology series.
Alongside the roads I took note of the small depressions in the gypsum, how the profile of the depressions were shifted by wind erosion, and the brilliant reflective qualities of water on the salt substrates. These observations formed the seed of the project: manipulations of the substrate to collect water and register the effects of wind and water erosion on that field.
SARAH COWLES 2016
5
METHODOLOGY: SCRIPTING & TEST PIECES
LANDSCAPES OF FRACTIONAL CRYSTALLIZATION
SALT DEPOSITION & SUBSTRATE TESTS
PROCESSING STUDY OF SHALLOW DEPRESSIONS IN SALT CRUST
SALT DEPOSITION ARMATURE TEST
SCRIPTING
DEPOSITION
I studied the Processing language to model field patterns on paper to translate to a proposal for an excavated intervention in the vast salt flats. I experimented with varying excavation depth, shape and size through gradients between black and white. I converted these black and white images to height fields in Rhino to generate a series of topographic surfaces.
Outside, I created a series of test pieces—influenced by Eva Hesse’s studio studies of the interactions between materials—to observe saline deposition patterns. I created wire mesh armatures and left them in baths of brine to reveal crystal deposition patterns.
6
GYPSUM MODEL OF EVAPORATION POOL SUBSTRATES
Sketch of brine suspension pool, laydown manifold and field of depressions in the salt crust
Proposal These studies led me to a proposal for site work, made in between the potash field and the raceway, and peel off a portion of the energy materials of the laydown system to create an earthwork as interlocutor between the evaporator and the raceway: a pattern of shallow craters distributed in the salt flats from the interstate to the north. Rendering of depression in salt crust
SARAH COWLES 2016
7
1. BRINE PUMPS 5. BETA LAYDOWN
4. LAYDOWN MANIFOLD
3. SUSPENSION POOL
2. POTASH EVAPORATORS
8
BETA LAYDOWN 1) Brine flows via pumps in the shallow brine aquifer to the 2) potash evaporation ponds. Brine is then re-suspended in a 3) pool and 4)pumped through the laydown manifold across Beta Laydown: the field of salt crust depressions.
A FIELD OF SEVERAL HUNDRED DEPRESSIONS IN THE SALT FLATS-OF VARYING DEPTHS AND DIMENSIONS, FROM 1030 FEET WIDE AND 6 TO 12 INCHES DEEP.
THE POOLS FILLED BY THE FLOWS FROM THE LAYDOWN MANIFOLD, AND SHAPED BY THE EROSION OF PREVAILING WINDS.
EROSION AND DEPOSITION PROCESSES WILL FILLED WITH WATER AND REFLECTING THE SKY, THE FIELD
EVENTUALLY ERASE THE INTERVENTION.
OF MIRRORS ARE VISIBLE TO PASSING MOTORISTS AND RAILWAY PASSENGERS.
SARAH COWLES 2016
9
SNAGGED
10
EXHIBITION RUBIN CENTER UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS EL PASO SITE US-MEXICO BORDERLANDS YEAR 2010 WITH ALAN SMART JUSTIN BRAUN JOHN ALSO BENNETT LUIS PORRAS ADVISOR TOM LEADER
Snagged interprets the new landscape of the US-Mexico border zone, and how these changes affect both nations. It is comprised of two parts. Fence Ditch Repeat is set of diagrams, drawings and maps documenting the history of changes to the border landscape, both physical and legal, and contemporary landscape effects of border hardening. The Flying Ditch is a sculptural installation distilling and articulating the material and ambient qualities of borderland space.
PROJECT OVERVIEW The landscape of US/Mexico borderlands is a text
that reveals conflict in the relationship between the two nations and the global economy. The border zone is a series of exchange points between the nations. The series of paired cities along its length serve as both points of mixing and points of tension. Things and systems that historically crossed the border—capital, goods, water, workers, students, wildlife and livestock—have responded to the current border conditions by improvising new practices and strategies, from the absurd to the deadpan, to the tragic and transcendental. In the early 21st century, the US federal government has made capital investments to secure the border. Large scale changes to the landscape of the US-Mexico border include new fences, surveillance systems, modernized ports of entry, plus a tripling of the border patrol workforce. Most large-scale federal landscape projects support the free flow of goods or energy: the Interstate Highway System, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Mississippi River Navigation System. Conversely, investments in US-Mexico borderlands stop, or at least slow, the goods and people from moving between the countries. This landscape has a fraught identity; as heroic as the aforementioned continental landscape projects, it stands as a leviathan monument to a failure of political imagination.
SARAH COWLES 2016
11
METHODOLOGY: SITE RESEARCH
DIVERSION DAM AT THE NEW MEXICO-CHIHUAHUA-TEXAS BORDER
STUFFED DITCH MODEL
LEAKY BODIES AND DRONES SCHEME
SITE VISIT TO RIO GRANDE FLOODWAY IN JUÁREZ
SITE RESEARCH In the summer of 2009 we began research on the landscape and politics of the US-Mexico borderlands. We visited El Paso and Ciudad Juárez with Knowlton and UTEP students, seeking the “unusual and exemplary” moments that defined the harsh landscape. We studied the history of cultural production surrounding the border, and began a series of models highlighting the stark material conditions of the border zone. We discussed ways 12
HISTORIC MAP TRACING RIO GRANDE RIVERBED SHIFTS
to interpret this complex landscape, Its technology and ambient qualities. We settled on dividing the project— Snagged—into literal and abstract components, that eventually became Fence Ditch Repeat, a series of mappings documenting border conditions; and The Flying Ditch, a sculptural installation.
DRYING IT OUT In the drawings of Fence Ditch Repeat we sought to dry out our depiction of borderland conditions. Much borderland artwork is visceral, emotional, a response to the militarization, violence and division of what was once a shared landscape of exchange. We focused our efforts on a literal interpretation the borderland’s design, the dimensions and materials, the setbacks and zones defining the tactical space and specific hardware
ROOM WITHIN ROOM SCHEME
of the landscape. The drawings simply catalog the border elements, the fenceditch-repeat sectional permutations of fencing, smuggling tunnels, surveillance and canals. We created a time line of USMexico immigration relations as manifest at the border; and two detailed maps of the region, one depicting the twinned cities and transportation networks along the length of the shared border, and another focused on El Paso and Ciudad Juárez.
Two maps in the exhibit depict the geography of the twinned cities of the borderlands. In this map of El Paso and Ciudad Juรกrez, the abstract lines dividing the states of Texas, New Mexico, and Chihuahua are minimized to direct attention to elements and zones specific to the borderlands; checkpoints, customs zones, maquiladoras, worker housing colonias, and distribution centers. SARAH COWLES 2016
13
METHODOLOGY: BUILDING
FULL-SCALE MOCKUPS
FABRICATING THE DITCH
TAKING FORM On a return flight to CLUI Wendover, Smart and I continued sketching ideas for the installation. We sought a work that was harsh yet permeable, something that could trap and display what was snagged inside. At some point, angel wings appeared on a sketch of the ditch profile. A flying ditch. Absurd and inscrutable. We sketched an extruded ditch section, the length of the gallery, suspended from the ceiling. At Wendover we drew 14
TESTING MATERIALS
RUNNING CABLES FROM UNI-STRUT
plans and elevations of the scheme. In Ohio, we worked with fabricator Justin Braun and made mockups of ditch sections in different materials. Our in-house attempts to form the gabion were unsatisfactory. A gabion fabricator in Northern California offered to bend the eight-gauge wire gabion mesh to our specifications. The Flying Ditch was in production.
RAISING THE DITCH IN THE RUBIN CENTER
LEARNING AT 1:1 We originally discussed “stuffing� the gabion mesh with objects found along the border. After gathering samples of borderland materials such as e-waste and cotton bolls, were not convinced we could stuff the work with requisite elan in time for the opening. As we lifted and hung the ditch from airline cables, it hovered gracefully in the volume of the gallery, charging the surrounding void. It was obvious that stuffing the ditch would
mute the transcendent qualities of the work. Yet the work was missing a countergesture, an element that could trigger material dialog and oscillation.
Raw cotton hanging from the bottom of the work pools on the floor like a cloud. It contrasts with the transparent yet harsh gabion structure and represents borderland water issues: water is diverted at the border from Mexico into a series of canals that irrigate cotton fields. Today, raw American cotton is shipped to China for spinning and textile production and returns to the US as finished apparel.
SARAH COWLES 2016
15
BORDERLAND LANDSCAPE CONDITIONS These sections depict the unusual and exemplary conditions at the borderlands, including infrastructure and fencing, surveillance systems, rescue systems, diversions and subversions of border controls such as smuggling tunnels. Installation view of The Flying Ditch.
16
SARAH COWLES 2016
17
RAIL TO CLEVELAND
STOCKPILE B
STOCKPILE A ROUNDHOUSE RUIN STORMWATER DITCH
THE SALT MOUNTAIN DISTURBANCE: SURPLUS AND HAZARD
18
RUDERAL FOREST
EXHIBITION ARTISTERIUM KARVASALA MUSEUM TBILISI, REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA SITE COLUMBUS, OHIO YEAR 2010 WITH JUSTIN BRAUN KIRK HIATT ABIGAIL DOWNS JESSE HARTMAN
The Salt Mountain Disturbance, a site work proposal exhibited at Artisterium in Tbilisi, drew from field research on the vegetation and substrates of a salt stockpile site in Columbus. Through subtle grading changes and vegetation management, Salt Mountain converts what was a hazardous surplus—road salt—and channels it into a striking urban landscape of mineral gradients and salt tolerant ruderal species.
SARAH COWLES 2016
19
DYSFUNCTIONAL BUT DIFFERENT Playing on the numeric categorizations of landscapes by landscape architect Gilles Clément, historian John Dixon Hunt and ecologist Stephen Kowarik, I proposed an alternative categorization to include design interventions within sterile, engineered structures. The goal is to not restore ecosystems to their precontrol state, but rather incubate novel ecological activities and allow for public access within the control system armature. Dysfunctional but different casts aside the aspirations and “naturalization” tendencies of ecological restoration practice to stimulate new aesthetic and ecological approaches.
PROJECT OVERVIEW The former Pennsylvania railroad yard at 20th
street in Columbus, Ohio is now a site of ruderal meadows and woodlands. A mountain of road salt anchors the western edge of the site. The salt stockpile is a Columbus landmark, visible to motorists approaching Columbus from the airport. Saline runoff precipitates at the toe of the slope in feathered gradients of color. New crystal gardens form as rainwater evaporates. The runoff follows a ditch, draining into the storm sewers. The site’s surplus—the saline rich solution— created a water quality hazard downstream. Nothing blocked the runoff from entering the storm system. Over a period of a few weeks in the fall of 2009, I created a series of drawings interpreting the site and surroundings. These observations of vegetation and finely detailed saline precipitation patterns led to a turn in my thinking about how a landscape architect might approach material surpluses site hazards: rather than efficiently divert the saline runoff from the storm sewer, I proposed re-grading the site into a series of subtle slopes to create saline precipitation gardens, visible at two speeds: site visitors on foot and passing motorists.
20
METHODOLOGY: VEGETATION & SUBSTRATES
THE SALT MOUNTAIN AND RUDERAL MEADOW
VEGETATION INVENTORY
OBSERVING GRADIENTS Our team returned to the site with a new perspective on this site’s particular dynamics. We considered three scales of observation, interpretation and design: The scenic: how monumental salt stockpile operates visually in relation to its surroundings and as a foreground to the center of the city and how to create swaths of brilliant white precipitate visible to passing motorists The inhabitable: how to shape existing
HELIANTHUS GIANTEUS
EXPLORING RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE
vegetation patterns to create legible spatial conditions and textures (groves, meadows, allées, wetlands) and new habitats for humans and other species The intimate: how to affect the patterns of crystal precipitation through fine manipulations of substrate texture and slope—that is, how to create armatures that reveal processes.
FRACTIONAL CRYSTALLIZATION OF SALTS
FRACTIONAL CRYSTALLIZATION OF SALTS ON ASPHALT AT TOE OF SLOPE
RUDERAL VEGETATION Our team inventoried the vegetation at the rail yard: solidago, eupatorium perfoliatum, and lonicera japonica, typha and carex emerging in wet depressions left by heavy equipment. Salt tolerant plants like phragmites line the remnant pools and channels. Stands of populus deltoides and grow in less compacted soils, following the lines of the railroad tracks. The research showed that substrate conditions (wet, dry,
compacted, flat or sloped) determined emergent vegetation patterns.
SARAH COWLES 2016
21
A series of larger drawings illustrate the sectional and spatial aspects of each test plot. In each of these works, the mountain is present as an anchoring form. The second element of each composition is vegetation, illustrating play between the openings, thickets and groves and the tipping piles. The third element is a detailed pochĂŠ that depicts subtle slopes on the surface and delineates the different soil types: existing, saline, compacted, loose fill, and enriched, high organic matter soil.
22
METHODOLOGY: DIAGRAMMING DISTURBANCE
DISTURBANCE STUDY MODELS
MILLED TEST PLOTS
STUDIES OF DISTURBANCE PHASING
DISTURBANCE REGIME DIAGRAM (FROM GROSSE-BACHLE, 2005)
DIAGRAM OF BRINE FLOW AND VEGETATION
THE COMMISSION
TEST PLOTS
In summer of 2011 curator Lydia Matthews invited me to participate in Artisterium, an international exhibition in Tbilisi, Georgia. I suggested we present our work on the rail yard and salt stockpile. The limits of the project were a short timeline, and a 70 kilo weight limit for flying the artwork in our personal luggage. I enlisted fabricator Justin Braun to join me in production and installation in Georgia.
Our initial studies were in cardboard and found objects; expedient for working-outideas, yet too ambiguous and imprecise to tell a story. Given the constraints of transporting the exhibition to Tbilisi, and the compressed time frame the models we felt the models should exhibit a high level of craft and detail because of their size - they would be objects as much as models. We retained the idea of test plots in
the final series of models. We imagined 5 different plots. Elements of each plot were drawn from found conditions on-site and invented conditions that might redirect or amplify existing site phenomena. »» Salt “vanes” diverting runoff at the toe of the slope, with a removable dam to re-direct flows »» The meeting of two runoff channels with a removable dam »» An emergent meadow cut into an
HAND TOOLING TEST PLOTS
asphalt pad »» The intersection of a road and abandoned railroad grade »» A channel between a paved and unpaved plateau above a wetland.
SARAH COWLES 2016
23
1
2
3
4
24
The wood models are “frames� depicting the cycles of disturbance and successional response. The complete exhibition included 25 milled and handtooled models: 5 test plots at 5 stages: setup, initiation, disturbance, response, and re-disturbance. Milling allowed the precision in slopes to emphasize the fractional crystallization of the rich brine runoff. Hand tooling provided texture of ground planes. A few examples: 1. 2. 3. 4.
An access road is retained on site for circulation but holes drilled in the asphalt of a former access road allow pockets of vegetation to emerge. A compacted swale is scored with small depressions to trap saline runoff in a dappled pattern and a metal weir divers runoff. An asphalt plane is slopes gently to an interceptor swale that divides into several furrowed vanes. Holes are drilled in an asphalt plane to allow for emergent vegetation. The asphalt plane is cut to create a swale and a shallow wetland is dug to create a salt marsh.
SARAH COWLES 2016
25
ELEGANTLY WASTED: A FASHION FORWARD ECOSYSTEM FOR THE HOOSIC RIVER
Detail of transect model Models of Bigger Management Practices
26
EXHIBITION I AM SEARCHING FOR FIELD CHARACTER MASS MOCA NORTH ADAMS, MA YEAR 2011 SITE HOOSIC RIVER WITH ABIGAIL DOWNS NICK GOTTHARDT KIRK HIATT ANDREW BARRINGER
Elegantly Wasted is a platform for testing new theories about urban ecology. This novel aesthetic approach to landscape form and process draws from punk rock, civil engineering, fashion, and contemporary art. The Ecological Prosthesis leverages the surplus dimensions of the Hoosic River floodway in North Adams, Massachusetts. The prosthetic is comprised of armatures —both hard and soft—that support the selforganization of a novel, third ecosystem insinuated within the floodway channel. The ruderal armatures are sacrificial: designed to fail in a catastrophic water event, and will biodegrade if swept downstream.
PROJECT OVERVIEW North Adams, once an industrial center in New
England is a former manufacturing city that is being re-tooled for the 21st century. Now the center of culture and tourism for the Northern Berkshire region, the city’s mills have been re-purposed for cultural uses, such as the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as artist lofts and light manufacturing. However, the urban fabric and green infrastructure of the city remains fragmented and dysfunctional. The Hoosic is a troubled river. Channelized in the early 20th century to prevent flooding the city and its mills, the Hoosic is currently a dead zone in the city. The profile of the channel is foreboding: comprised of a confection of damaged chain link fences and rusting guardrails, it resembles an open sewer. Aside from flood control, the river provides no social, ecological or cultural benefits to the citizen or visitors to the city. Taking the channelized river as an objet trouvé, I examined ways to retrofit a single-use, pragmatic, engineered structure with a multiplicity of social, ecological and material possibilities. The proposal brings life back river by physically reconnecting the city and retrofitting the channel with an ecological prosthesis while simultaneously preserving the channel’s flood control utility. E SARAH COWLES 2016
27
Bureau For Open Culture Workshop at Building 8 at MASS MoCA. Field Guide Cover.
SOCIAL PRACTICE Elegantly Wasted was a component of I Am Searching for Field Character, a series of public, performances, installations, workshops with a slew of artists, writers, designers and thinkers visiting North Adams curated by James Voorhies of Bureau for Open Culture. Elegant’s summer program engaged social aspects of the river and featured a lemonade stand and picnic, a Ditch-In Theatre night featuring films about water infrastructure, and public tour of the Monuments of the Hoosic and a field guide.
BEAVER REPATRIATION PARADE Beaver that wander into the floodway and become stranded must be trapped and relocated by the Department of Fish and Game. Temperatures in the channel are too hot for trout due to a lack of riparian shade. The ecological prosthesis addresses these impediments to travel for a host of species. To draw attention to the plight of these species, Nick Gotthardt, Andrew Barringer and walked the length of the channel as dressed as bears, beaver and trout. . Beaver and Trout costume construction: Andrew Barringer, Nick Gotthardt.
28
METHODOLOGY: SITE COMPONENTS
ROOTWAD AND LARGE WOODY DEBRIS “WALL SNARL”
GEOTEXTILE BEAVER MATTRESSES IN CHANNEL
SITE STUDY MODEL
DITCHING I began work by tracing the length of the floodways in North Adams noting the unusual and exemplary conditions and created a catalog of the engineered and spontaneous elements of the channel. In material research, I drew references from artists such as Barry LeVa, Heringa Van Kasbleek, and Olafur Eliasson whose subject matter involves time-based and ecological processes.
GEOTEXTILE “WALL HANGING” ON FLOODWAY WALL
FLOODWAY WALL POCKET STUDY
SITE STUDY MODEL
I inventoried materials used in largescale ecological restoration projects and imagined ways to hack, bundle and hybridize them in new combinations to both create habitat and establish a visual identity for the work. These included river bed mattresses, geotextile pockets, and woody debris snarls.
SARAH COWLES 2016
29
Site plan of the Ecological Prosthesis at former Sprague Electric/MASS MoCA site. Study models of the Ecological Prosthesis.
30
Interventions in the upper half of channel create shade to cool water. The channel bottom is fitted with pockets, pools and eddies for fish, and jetty-like structures to intercept debris, sediment and seeds. Above all, portions of the system are resilient: designed to give way in a flood event. Some structures are suspended from above, and others tethered to the canal bottom. Catwalks and fire-escapes provide periodic access to the floodway, re-linking the city to the river. A system of storm drain interceptors slow and treat stormwater runoff and hydrate hanging pocket gardens. Diagram of layered systems of geotextiles and debris snarls.
SARAH COWLES 2016
31
Improvisation is crucial. I want the work to be the experience of something live, to have this feeling that it was improvised. That you can see decisions happening on site, the way you see a live sports event, the way you hear jazz. The spontaneous is always where it is most interesting. As an artist you can spend a lot of time conceptualizing and thinking it over and then its usually in the actual making and the process where there is something spontaneous, that after all that planning you had no ideas was going to happen, is where it is interesting. When experience the piece when you thinking about its making you think about its demise, and you feel like when you come to it its actually a moment in time. You’re feeling the process as it happens; the outcome is not clear. —artist Sara Sze on the role of improvisation in her installations.
CONTINUOUS GARDEN ALTERED DAILY
Detail of transect model Models of Bigger Management Practices
32
PROJECT GARDEN PROPOSAL COMPETITION JARDINS DE MÉTIS GRAND-MÉTIS, QUEBEC, CANADA YEAR 2015 WITH MARITT VAESSIN ALEX KELLEY CAITLIN BRETT ANASTASIA BETSCH
In what way, in your view, will your project contribute to the renewal of the art of the garden ?
Continuous Garden Altered Daily (CGAD) manifests the play between working and reconceptualizing that is innate to gardening practice. The project develops day by day: the first day of the festival our team will initiate, construct, and complete a new 3m x 5m test plot. The second day, we will repeated the process, adjacent to the first plot, and so on. Each plot learns from the previous plot; thus the completed composition is a physical record of a responsive and improvisational gardening practice.
PROJECT OVERVIEW Continuous Garden Altered Daily foregrounds the
improvisation innate to garden-making. Aesthetically, we’re drawn to the textures of nascent states of ecological restoration, when the live stakes and seedlings are leafing out, when the geotextiles and artifices of ecological restoration are visible. In this scheme, each plot is research—a test plot—for the following garden, that accrues into a series of garden cells united by a material palette. We’re interested in the practice of garden-making and re-making, rather than the complete garden picture.
SARAH COWLES 2016
33
In 1969, artist Robert Morris initiated Continuous Project Altered Daily in a warehouse gallery. Each day for three weeks, he created and photographed a new composition with a consistent suite of materials—felt, soil, clay, timber. Morris’ work is a reference site for Continuous Garden Altered Daily, which manifests the play between construction, maintenance and reconceptualizing that is innate to gardening practice. Our material palettes are those of ecological restoration: geotextiles, seed mixes, live stakes, rootwads, and soils. Each day we will prepare the soil bed within a 3m x 5m plot, and construct armatures to host new plant communities. Our project is not the materialization of a rendering. It is a script, a prompt. We will use the local, daily knowledge we gain from working each plot corroboratively to inform the next. Subsequent plots may differ in composition, or it may be a technical refinement or reinterpretation of the previous day’s work.
Clockwise: project materials and techniques: crib walls, live stakes, willow whips, rootwads, willow wattle, round bales, rootwads, straw bale. Robert Morris Continuous Project Altered Daily. Material studies for models.
34
Early visitors will observe our construction process. Later visitors will trace the evolution of the garden, divining clues about how each test-plot iteration influenced the next, and watch as plants colonize the armatures with their own logic.
METHODOLOGY: PROJECT SIMULATION
GEOGRID, ROOTWAD, COIR MAT, WILLOW WHIP
STRIPS OF COIR MAT, BUNDLED WILLOW WHIPS
GEOGRID WRAPPED WITH WILLOW, HELD IN PLACE WITH LIVE STAKES
HYDROSEEDED GEOTEXTILE OVER LIVE STAKES
CONTINUOUS ITERATION In the studio we gathered materials to represent our ecological restoration palette, and created bases to represent each plot. We then improvised compositions of the materials in each plot.
SARAH COWLES 2016
35
TEACHING MATERIALS: SYLLABI EXCERPTS & EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK
BIGGER DARBY
36
TEACHING MATERIALS: SYLLABI EXCERPTS & EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK
PROGRAM FORMAT SITE DURATION WITH
KNOWLTON SCHOOL EXHIBITION STUDIO BIG DARBY WATERSHED SEMESTER NICK GLASE SENIOR LANDSCAPE STUDIO: NATHANIEL CARVIN TYLER CHANDLER WESLEY COGAN MICHAEL DAVIS ASHLEY EFAW JEFFREY CHAMPION ALYSSA GARCIA ERIC HANNEKEN BROCK HELLER AMADU JALLOH ALEXANDER KELLEY ZACHARY MESSINGER TAMARA MONIN NICOLE OTTE TIMOTHY PERKINS BLAKE REA PHILIP PRETE EVAN RIMOLDI MARITT VAESSIN CHRISTOPHER WATKINS MCKENZIE WILHELM HALEY WOLFE HUIWEN ZHU
FARM/NEIGHBORHOOD SCALE: BIG DARBY AT PRAIRIE OAKS At the 1:1000 m scale two parcels were investigated in greater detail. Studies at this scale provided a means to explore overlaps, adjacencies between land uses and enabled the modeling of edges over time
Bigger Darby is a planning proposal for the territory within the Big Darby Creek watershed. Conceived as an exhibition studio, the proposal examines the scenic and ecologically intact Big Darby Creek in Central Ohio and investigates the ways in the skills and design tactics of landscape architects can contribute to a conventional watershed planning project. PROJECT OVERVIEW The Big Darby Creek watershed is 25 kilometers
west of Columbus, Ohio. Here the westernmost suburbs of Columbus interface with the dominant agricultural texture of western Ohio. Landscape typologies within the boundary include row crops, restored prairie, oak savannah, woodlots, old field succession, strip development, residential cluster development, wetlands and riparian corridors. The Big Darby Accord, adopted in the mid 2000s, unites public and private interests to guide current land use and future development to protect the Big Darby Creek and its tributaries from non-point source pollution. The area defined in the Accord covers about 30 km on the north-south axis and 10 km on the east-west axis. SARAH COWLES 2016
37
The Big Darby Accord planning documents, include land use, hydrology, and geology and soils data. These documents also specify development guidelines and best management practices (BMPs) for agricultural, suburban, and conservation lands within the watershed. Specific plant palettes, watercourse setbacks, river restorations, and earthwork and drainage tactics all result in material, spatial, and subsequently aesthetic changes to the landscape. In time, a de facto and de jure landscape identity will define the lands within the Big Darby Accord boundaries, as BMPs, codes and design guidelines are physically implemented. Our charge as designers is to disentangle this landscape from the banality of due diligence, and tease out loopholes within the time and territory allotted to bring forth a rich and legible new landscape. The first project will focus on the amplification of the existing landscape to invent a new intermediate landscape, between agriculture and public space, within the territories governed by the Big Darby Accord. This intermediate landscape will perform the function of improving water quality in the Darby Creek Watershed, provide a public space network, and imbue the region with an original landscape character.
Big Darby Creek Watershed region at the edge of suburban development. Note skewed parcels of the Virginia Military grid.
38
TEACHING MATERIALS: SYLLABI EXCERPTS & EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK
METHODOLOGY: LANDSCAPE LEXICON
TREE CLUMP
BILLABONG
OLD FIELD SUCCESSION
BOG
COPSE
SNOW FENCE
OAK SAVANNA
RIPARIAN CORRIDOR
TIPPING PILE
CHERRY STAND
ROW CROPS
ALLÉE
HAHA
GLADE
FOLLY
LANDSCAPE LANGUAGE We began with a lexicon exercise to gain familiarity with spatial and textural conditions of rural landscape typologies. These models were mounted on the walls of the studio as a tactile reference for later design iterations.
SARAH COWLES 2016
39
Watershed scale model detailing landscape enhancements.
View of proposed forested boulevard.
40
TEACHING MATERIALS: SYLLABI EXCERPTS & EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK
METHODOLOGY: STUDIO ITERATION
STUDIO PRODUCTION MEETING
STUDY MODEL: FOREST HOUSING
MAKING We integrated the mark-making experiments with the lexicon studies by creating models depicting borders between land uses within the Big Darby watershed: between residential development and creeks; agricultural fields and woodlots; wetlands and recreation areas. A small group created a series of analytical models depicting stages historic agricultural patterns of development.
MODEL PRODUCTION
At times, these tactile artifacts began to overwhelm the space of the studio. However, their physical presence was invaluable -one could reach for a study model to quickly communicate a concept to an individual or group. The atmosphere was joyous, open and experimental. We rearranged the studio with large worktables and large stockpiles of modeling materials; the tables were places to work, converse, experiment, and gossip. Design iteration
LAYERED PERSPECTIVE CONSTRUCTION
STENCIL TESTS
STUDY MODEL OF WETLAND EDGES
STENCIL TESTS
and gallery production in the studio was visible, tactile and collaborative, unlike many environments where participants work individually at workstations.
SARAH COWLES 2016
41
METHODOLOGY: BIGGER MP-S
HEDGEROW: 5 YEAR
HEDGEROW: 30 YEAR
OLD FIELD: 5 YEAR
OLD FIELD: 30 YEAR
WOODLOT: 5 YEAR
WOODLOT: 30 YEAR
AGRICULTURAL WETLAND INTERCEPTOR: 5 YEAR
AGRICULTURAL WETLAND INTERCEPTOR: 30 YEAR
DETAILING SURPLUS These models detail enhancements to surplus landscape edges and in-field treatments of fallow lands. Dubbed Bigger Management Practices (BIG-MPs), these management practices include the added requirement of reinforcing landscape character in addition to solving for ecological, watershed, or farming issues. Using diverse implementation strategies that could be realized through aDetail rangeofoftransect public-private model
partnerships, they tested the BIG-MPs at 1:200 scale for their potential to shape and define the greater landscape and addressed the priorities beyond those specified in the BDAWMP, including (1) riparian reinforcement, (2) preserving the open fields, (3) enclosing development with forestry, (4) providing recreational access, and (5) developing a stronger sense of place. We addressed multiple scales including the neighborhood / farm (1:1000), transect (1:3000), and
Models of Bigger Management Practices
42
TEACHING MATERIALS: SYLLABI EXCERPTS & EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK
regional (1:10,000), physical modeling tested possible outcomes of specific BIG-MPs combinations when inserted into the landscape. From strategic overplanting along a rural road to encourage reforestation of subdivisions, widening of hedgerows to include bike paths, or the creation of riparian wetlands, we saw that small practices could “scale up” to accomplish larger aims of regional coherence.
PRODUCTION To expedite production of models and drawings the exhibition, one team created standardized mark-making tools. These tool makers taught the mark makers how to create textures at a range of scales. The “tool makers” made stencils for spray-painting the models using a laser cutter. The “mark makers” rotated and combined the stencils to create richly-layered patterns
FARM / NEIGHBORHOOD SCALE: HELL BRANCH RUN AT WALKER ROAD
SARAH COWLES 2016
43
SCOUR: THE TAUM SAUK INCIDENT
SYLLABUS: RUDERAL AESTHETICS PROGRAM WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY COURSE ARCH 500-600 YEAR GRAD 3 FORMAT STUDIO SITE JOHNSON’S SHUT-INS STATE PARK DURATION SEMESTER
44
TEACHING MATERIALS: SYLLABI EXCERPTS & EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK
Scour: The Taum Sauk Incident tasks participants with the design of a postcatastrophe landscape in the Ozark Mountains that integrates both the space and debris of the scour event, and taps into the surplus water of a pumped storage hydropower plant.
Project Brief
Scour path, after reservoir failure on Profitt Mountain,, 2005
On the morning of December 14, 2005, a malfunction of control systems at the Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Power Station caused water to breach the walls of the reservoir, subsequently releasing of over a billion gallons of water down the slopes of Profit Mountain within the Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park in the Missouri Ozarks. A 600-foot swath of vegetation was stripped from the mountain during the flood, exposing the complex underlying geomorphology. Massive amounts of debris and silt were discharged into the Black River. During the four years following this “disturbance,” the environmental cleanup firm MASTEC led a massive restoration effort of the park, funded by Ameren UE, energy utility that operated the facility. Disturbance, as defined by ecologists, is an event or process that disrupts relationships within ecological systems. Ecologist Stewart Pickett defines disturbance as a discrete event in time that disrupts community structure though killing, displacements, or damaging of individuals. Disturbances result in spatial and formal outcomes, such as the clearing left by a mower or the voids of the quarry. Disturbances operate at many temporal scales, from the instantaneous to the epochal. SARAH COWLES 2016
45
Diagram of pumped storage hyrdopower system. (Source: Ameren UE Electric)
The Scour site at the Johnson’s’ Shut-Ins State Park is the subject of this landscape architecture studio. Through design development, research and discussion, students will develop a critical position on issues of “ecological restoration” and post-disturbance landscape intervention. We will begin the semester by visiting the site to study the geomorphology of the scour path, tour current restoration projects in the park, and meet with members of the restoration team. We will observe how colonization patterns of the emerging ecosystems are informed by the underlying “accidental geomorphology” of the scour as a means to be- gin our design investigations. During the remainder of the semester, participants will propose ecological, hydrological, mineral and architectural interventions in scour landscape at a range of spatial and temporal scales.
Performance evaluation and grading The following criteria will be used in evaluation of a participant’s progress during the semester, and will be used to determine the participant’s final grade. Students are REQUIRED to perform a self-evaluation at the mid-term and close of the course using this criteria. The instructor will meet with students individually to discuss their self-evaluations.. »» Conceptual development: did your design project engage the theoretical topics presented in precedent research and readings? »» Productive experimentation & risk taking: did you consistently draw, model, and test ideas? Are there a clear series of experiments that led to moments of resolution? Did the participant produce both rigorous, scaled study models and drawings with new iterations ready for each class meeting? Did they resolve the studies into legible presentation materials when needed? »» Participation and collaboration: did you engage in productive collaborations with other students? Did the student act as a leader, or were they a very diligent follower and indispensable team member? »» Response to criticism: did you interpret and develop their work based on feedback? »» Self-direction and ambition: did you actively seek information and resources outside of the examples and assigned readings presented in the studio by the professor? »» Exploration: did you return to the site periodically to ground-truth design concepts?
46
TEACHING MATERIALS: SYLLABI EXCERPTS & EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK
Irene Compadre, MLA
Exercise: Armatures and Processes Landscape processes are open ended, and some results can be controlled to a degree while others cannot. Armatures are structures or systems that may reveal, redirect, or be affected by processes. The art of landscape architecture is in the play between armatures and processes. In this next assignment, you will witness the unfolding of form as a result of processes. Working in pairs, you will create a series of experimental yet rigorous models and drawings Form-making is intrinsic to our discipline. In landscape project development, site analysis provides the initial parameters for form-making. Project boundaries, soil depths, existing topographic signatures all control and influence built form. In addition, project briefs outline program requirements; some programs require specific square footages or geometries. Yet the art of the discipline lies in making the transition from the parameters of analysis and program requirements, to the creation of a landscape. In this phase, like it or not, you must show your hand. You must be decisive: how big, what color, what material, how and where to delineate—or not—boundaries between conditions. Modeling and sketching are intrinsic to testing the spatial, aesthetic, and material implications of your decisions. How we draw something—be it a with a sharpie or software—will have a substantial impact on the form of what we build. In general, these mark-making tools are precise and deliberate. SARAH COWLES 2016
47
Irene Compadre, MLA
48
TEACHING MATERIALS: SYLLABI EXCERPTS & EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK
But these devices are less effective for “working out” and representing the formal potentials of landscape processes, those involving chance, gradients...and accidents. In drawing, we often focus only on expediency, what we’re comfortable with, and what is within arm’s reach, rather than what’s appropriate for the drawing task. To counter these tendencies, in this assignment you will create a series of drawings and models using “fluid” materials that may provide unpredictable formal results. You will create a series of models that are experiments in modeling the play of landscape processes against site armatures An armature refers to a framework or skeleton. An armature may change or it may be removed or replaced. In general, an armature is durable-it remains unchanged for an extended period of time in contrast to the processes that play against it. Processes may affect the armature, through structural or gradual means. An example of an armature is the low-head dam near 5th Avenue on the Olentangy River that was recently removed. The dam induced both spatial and ecological effects; it created a larger area of inundation and slowed water velocity, affecting plant and animal communities. Its removal resulted in a large-scale reorganization of the territory it once influenced. A Process is a series of actions that leads to changes in conditions. Landscape processes include words ending in -ion: erosion, deposition, inundation, excavation, fertilization. Disturbances are a type of process, often due to a release of energy on a given site. Fire is the agent of incineration; drought is a prolonged period of desiccation, and flooding is the inundation of land by an increase water. Disturbances alter spatial conditions, biological communities, and result in aesthetic changes to landscapes.
Helen Schneider, M-ARCH/MLA
SARAH COWLES 2016
49
Final project: Michael Naucas, Helen Schneider, M-Arch
50
TEACHING MATERIALS: SYLLABI EXCERPTS & EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK
Mike Naucas, Helen Schneider, M-ARCH/MLA
SARAH COWLES 2016
51
Mike Naucas, Helen Schneider, M-ARCH/MLA
52
TEACHING MATERIALS: SYLLABI EXCERPTS & EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK
SARAH COWLES 2016
53
RUDERAL ACADEMY
Drawing: Nona Davitaia, Chiatura, 2012
RA001 2009 RA002 2009 RA003 2010 RA004 2010 RA005 2011 RA006 2011 RA007 2011 RA008 2012 RA009 2014
54
HALOPHILIA FENCE DITCH REPEAT SALT MOUNTAIN PARALLEL RUDERALS ARMATURES & PROCESS ELEGANTLY WASTED SCOUR WE COME IN PEACE QUARRY RULES
SAN FRANCISCO BAY SALT PONDS EL PASO / CIUDAD JUÁREZ COLUMBUS HACKNEY WICK LONDON BATON ROUGE NORTH ADAMS MISSOURI OZARKS CHIATURA KAVTISKHEVI
TEACHING MATERIALS: SYLLABI EXCERPTS & EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK
“Stephen Dillemuth summarizes that he prefers to see the Academy: »»as self-organized and temporary. not as an institution but »»as a form of communication, and »»as an activity, making academy, »»which means the reciprocity of teaching and learning, »»as a process of self-empowerment. Stephan Dillemuth. “The Academy and The Corporate Public”. in Wesseling, Janneke. See It Again, Say It Again: The Artist As Researcher. Amsterdam: Valiz, 2011. Print.
Ruderal Academy is an itinerant school, providing sitespecific educational programs on techniques of landscape analysis, interpretation and design. The given landscape serves as both the campus and the primary text. Sites of investigation include: hypersaline lagoons in the San Francisco Bay, a reservoir breach in the Missouri Ozarks, a channelized industrial river in the Berkshire region of Massachusetts, and the landscape of the US-Mexico border in El Paso and Juarez. Ruderal is an ecological term that refers to species that are adapted to thrive in conditions of scarcity and disturbance. Ruderal species are often called pioneer species in that they hold territory in advance of more stable species. The ruderal suggests a means of practice that begins with the given. To work from the ground up, to work fast, iteratively and with minimal means. As such, Ruderal Academy lands in sites of transition and disturbance, places with rich political, historical social, industrial and ecological contexts. The school is open to students, professionals and local citizens from all disciplines who are interested in both gaining analytical skills and creating interpretive works in an intensive collaborative setting. Participants in Ruderal Academy programs address the particular place at the particular time, and establish a temporary community of learning, exchange and dwelling. Lectures and tours are provided by local professionals and scholars, and participants receive feedback in critiques from designers, artists, and professionals. Ruderal Academy programs are comprised of three phases: »» »» »» »»
Site inventory, archival research and documentation Analysis and interpretation of research Development and execution of site-specific interventions, design proposals, or studio artwork Learning at Ruderal academy has both horizontal and vertical implications; participants gain both transferable skills in landscape analysis, and an in-depth knowledge of site and situation enhances subsequent projects in the region.
SARAH COWLES 2016
55
REPRESENTING ECOLOGY AND ANTHROPOGEOMORPHOLOGY PROJECT MODELING THE ECOTONE SKILLS SURVEYING, INVENTORY MEDIA MIXED
SKILLS WORKSHOPS
I-Ling Lai, MLA
Ecotones are the transition areas between two distinct plant communities such as the edge between a meadow and woodland, or the edge between a river and its floodplain. These edges are important for habitat, and are generally much richer in quantity and diversity of species than more homogeneous regions. For this final project we would like you to map and model various ecotones within Glen Echo and Walhalla Ravines. This means that you must first identify adjacent plant communities and then map their edges paying particular attention to the species that are present within each community, and to how those species begin to mesh at the edges.
Please look beyond typical modeling materials for this exercise. Suggested materials include: wood, homasote, plexiglass, acrylic, plaster, acetate, foam, unit based materials (straws, bristles, toothpicks, nails, etc) Survey a section of the ravine taking particular note of changes in eco-tone. Together with your group members prepare a work plan that sets out your model ideas, its construction and materials, and a work plan documenting how you will accomplish the model.
THE MODEL
Daniel Shmitkons Steven Kolarik Nicholas Gotthardt & Abigail Downs Yushi Li and Kirk Hiatt Jesse Hartman & Ethan McGory
Referring to the lecture in class plan and construct an analytical model that explains the ecotones you have observed. You model will be accomplished in groups of three and should be no less than 18�x 36� in base size. 56
TEACHING MATERIALS: SYLLABI EXCERPTS & EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK
SARAH COWLES 2016
57
REPRESENTING ECOLOGY AND ANTHROPOGEOMORPHOLOGY PROJECT MODELING TOPOGRAPHY SKILLS CLAY MODELING MEDIA PLASTILINA
This workshop provides an introduction to the formal, spatial, and functional aspects of earthworks through a series of modeling and graphic exercises. Participants will explore the dialog between the sculptural aspects of landform modeling and dynamic landscape processes. We will begin with a series of skill-building exercises in sculpting basic forms. Participants will develop skills in modeling clay landforms and in translating physical models to digital and conventional two-dimensional representations.
Clockwise from left: Kirk Hiatt, Jeff Jackson, Kirk Hiatt, Steven Kolarik, Jesse Hartman, Robin Quisenbery
58
TEACHING MATERIALS: SYLLABI EXCERPTS & EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK
MATERIALS LIST At least 1/4” thick 1’x 1’ base working base (wood, masonite, chipboard) At least four (4) 2lb packages of Roma Plastilina Modeling Clay: Medium Basic clay modeling tool set. Wire end clay modeling tool set. PREPARE On your 1’x 1’ base prepare a one inch thick slab of plastilina. The one inch thick layer of plastilina should cover the entire surface of the base, should be completely level, and completely smooth. The edges must be trimmed carefully to match the base (should be 90 degrees.)
Irene Compadre
SARAH COWLES 2016
59
COURSES TAUGHT Period Offered
School
Course Number and Title
% Taught, Role
AU 2015
OSU
Studio
4960 Design 6
80%, Co-led by visiting critic Thierry Beaudoin. Conceived studio focused on 150-acre sportspark on brownfield. Wrote syllabus and assignments
AU 2015
Seminar
8990 Proseminar
100% Developed course on Ruderal Aesthetics, wrote syllabus
SP 2015
Studio
4960 Design 7
100%, Conceived studio focused on 150-acre sportspark on brownfield. Wrote syllabus and assignments
SP 2015
Workshop
2420 Landscape Technology
80%, Co-led by Auxiliary faculty Karla Trott. Developed course on analog to digital workflow techniques and working drawings, wrote syllabus, exercises
AU 2104
Seminar
3597 Sustainability and You
100%, Created course, exercises, wrote syllabus on campus sustainability issues in energy and environment
SP 2014
Independent
7193 Independent Studies in Landscape Architecture
100%, Led independent study group on landscape materials.
SP 2014
Thesis
6999 Thesis in Landscape Architecture
30%, Committee member for Thomas Ludwig and Raylee McKinley
SP 2014
Studio
4970 Design Studio VII: Synthesis
65%, Lead instructor. Co-led by visiting critic Nick Glase. Conceived studio focused on large-scale watershed management practices. Wrote syllabus and assignments. Led exhibition development and gallery installation.
SP 2014
Studio
4999H Honors Design Studio
65%, Lead instructor. Co-led by visiting critic Nick Glase. Conceived studio focused on large-scale watershed management practices. Wrote syllabus and assignments. Led exhibition development and gallery installation.
SP 2014
Seminar
7890 Seminar in Landscape Architecture
60%, Wrote syllabus and assignments. Coordinated visits with Glimcher visiting professor Michel Desvigne.
AU 2013
Studio
7950 Design Studio V: Design in Detail
100%, Course combined 3430 led by visiting critic Rob Holmes. Wrote syllabus with Holmes. Designed assignments. Led field trip to Pittsburgh to visit salient reclamation projects.
AU 2013
Thesis
6999 Thesis in Landscape Architecture
30%, Pre-thesis advising for Thom Ludwig and Raylee McKinley. Committee member.
AU 2013
Workshop
6430 Workshop III: Advanced Analysis and Communication
100%, Course combined with 3430 . Wrote syllabus and designed assignments. Lectures on representation techniques; digital and analog methods.
SP 2013
Studio
Urban Landscape Interpretation
100%, Developed concept for course. Wrote syllabus and assignments.
AU 2012
TSAA
Studio
Urban Landscapes
100%, Developed concept for studio. Wrote syllabus and assignments.
AU 2012
Thesis
Landscape Interpretation
100%, Developed concept for field school. Wrote syllabus and assignments. Located host family and services for field school in Chiatura, Republic of Georgia.
Workshop
Landscape Workshop
100%, Created new course for topographic modeling. Created syllabus and exercises.
Workshop
431 Design Elective
100%, Wrote syllabus and assignments. Organized field trip to Chicago to visit salient projects and studio visit to Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects. Led field trips to local projects and producers.
SP 2012
Studio
A48-502L Urban Landscape Design Studio
100%, Developed concept for studio. Wrote syllabus and assignments.
AU 2011
Studio
ARCH 500-600 Advanced Option Studio
100%, Developed concept for landscape design studio focused on environmental accident in Ozark Mountains. Wrote syllabus, developed assignments.
AU 2012 SP 2012
60
WU
TEACHING MATERIALS: SYLLABI EXCERPTS & EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK
SP 2011
OSU
Workshop
622 Design Implement 2
100%, Course combined with Larch 323; assisted by Jason Brabbs . Wrote syllabus, developed all course assignments including new modules on landscape on structure
SP 2011
Studio
754 GRAD LAR Design: URBAN
100%, Developed design studio on urban design for Hoosic River in North Adams MA at Mass MoCA contemporary art museum. Wrote syllabus and assignments. Led field trip to MASS MoCA in North Adams and Center for Land Use Interpretation in Troy, NY.
WI 2011
Workshop
672 Larch Graphics 2
100%, Course combined with Larch 272 led by Jacob Boswell. Developed new syllabus and course assignments focusing class on topographic modeling and analysis. Organized and co-led field trip to Pittsburgh, PA to visit salient projects.
WI 2011
Studio
633 Planting Design
100%, Led studio in development of schematic design for artist residence in Republic of Georgia. Wrote syllabus. Presented student work at Europe House in Tbilisi, Georgia and Washington DC to Georgian Embassy.
AU 2010
Seminar
760 Eval & Critc Larch
100%, Led seminar on topic of the role of public art in urban redevelopment initiatives. Presented case studies and discussed pivotal cases. Designed assignments pertaining to real-world public art competition in Hackney, UK for 2012 London Olympics. Presented student work in London, UK.
SP 2010
Studio
643 Accel Arch Design 3
50%, Course combined with ARCH 844 + LARCH 754. Course co-taught with Ann Pendleton-Jullian Led landscape aspects of course; gave lectures on urban ecology and mapping. Co- led field trip to Shanghai, China.
SP 2010
Studio
LARCH 998 Thesis In Larch
100%, Advised in completion of thesis for Masters candidate Susan Noblet. Edited thesis.
WI 2010
Studio
633 Planting Design
50%, Co-developed studio with Jason Kentner. Wrote new assignments, participated in pin-ups and crits; graded students. Arranged for noted horticulturist Peter Del Tredici to lead students on field trips and 3 lectures on urban planting.
WI 2010
Workshop
622 Design Implement 2
100%, Course combined with Larch 323; assisted by Jason Brabbs . Wrote syllabus, developed all course assignments including new modules on landscape on structure, arranged field trips to projects under construction in Columbus and Oberlin, OH; arranged guest lectures.
WI 2010
Workshop
LARCH 672 Larch Design Comm 2
100%, Led 672 section that was co-taught with Jake Boswell/LARCH 272. With Boswell created new course focused on relationship of ecological systems to development. Created assignments with Boswell. Gave lectures on information design and mapping. Led field trips to Ohio History Museum and Geology library.
WI 2010
Thesis
LARCH 998 Thesis In Larch
100%, Developed research plan and guided thesis development for Masters candidate Susan Noblet.
AU 2009
Seminar
760 Eval & Critc Larch
100%, Developed seminar topic and researched readings and case studies on environmental justice and design. Wrote syllabus. Invited film director Allyson Hunter to present basics of documentary film-making. Guided production of award-winning documentary produced by students.
AU 2009
Workshop
670 Graphic Techniques
100%, Primary instructor of graduate course. Course co-taught with LARCH 271 led by Jacob Boswell. With Boswell wrote syllabus and re-designed course to focus on urban ecology; specifically land and water interfaces. Created new assignments to develops students’ “landscape literacy” - the ability to read, draw, and interpret the built and natural environment. SARAH COWLES 2016
61