UN3400: Environmental Visualization of NYC | K. Baxi, M. McLagan

Architecture
Undergraduate Seminar
W 4:10-6PM

The goal of this seminar + workshop course is to develop new visual representations of impact of environmental issues on New York City. We will focus on two catastrophic events and sites: Greenpoint Oil Spill (1978), Newtown Creek; and Hurricane Sandy (2012), Lower Manhattan; and examine related toxic histories, environmental damage, impacted communities, clean-up and protection efforts and planning and design possibilities. Resourcing historical maps, on-site documentation and future design proposals, the class will explore environmental crises and their impact on the built environment and on the social, cultural and political life of the city. Students will conduct research at The Map Division of the New York Public Library, meet with environmental and design experts, and visit sites in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Based on this research, students will use digital mapping techniques, 360 video, VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) technologies to create compelling experiential, spatial, analytical, critical, and reflective reconstructions of catastrophic events and remediation. Course readings further examine environmental issues and climate change from four unique perspectives: mapping and urban/ecological histories; design research reports; global and planetary views; and graphic, audio-visual imaginaries.

Prerequisites: ARCH UN1020, ARCH UN3101, or ARCH UN3103. 

Link to Vergil
Note: only courses offered during the two previous semesters have active Vergil links.