History of Environmental Art, Architecture and Design

Semester and Year	SP 2010
Course Number	ELEC-GG2622
Section	001
Instructor	Peder Anker
Days	Wed
Time	6:20 PM - 9:00 PM
Units	4.0
Level	G
Foundation Requirement

Notes/Restrictions

Open to qualified undergraduates with the permission of the instructor, Peder Anker (pja7@nyu.edu).

Description

This history of architectural attempts to live in harmony with nature starts with turn of the century admirations for the health of primitivism and ends with the cyber punks designing new environments online. The course will first review philosophers' arguments in favor of healthy living in primitive huts, back-to-nature lovers' efforts to live according to their teaching, and the wilderness tourist industry's ability to benefit from it. The next meetings focus on various modernist schemes for healthy homes in harmony with nature, and why these attempts often failed. The rest of the course is devoted to topics such as building ideal ecosystems for astronauts in outer space, efforts to bring space technologies (such as solar cell panels) back to Earth, alternative environmental designs of the counterculture, cyber environments, sick building syndrome, biomimetics, earth art, and other attempts to design with nature. The class will study film and artwork, and include readings by designers such as Walter Gropius, Richard Buckminster Fuller, Ian McHarg, Jon Todd, as well as scientists and commentators such as Julian Huxley, Eugene Odum, and Stewart Brand.

Course Type

Graduate Electives (ELEC-GG)