Designed for students writing a thesis in Urban Studies and Planning or Architecture. Develop research topics, review relevant research and scholarship, frame research questions and arguments, choose an appropriate methodology for analysis, and draft introductory and methodology sections.

Program of research and writing of thesis; to be arranged by the student with supervising committee. 

Program of thesis research leading to the writing of an SB thesis. Intended for seniors. Twelve units recommended.

Research and project activities, which cover the range represented by the various research interests and projects in the Department.

Research and project activities, which cover the range represented by the various research interests and projects in the department. Students who wish a letter grade option for their work must register for 4.URG.

Archive Fever: Theory and Method deals with how architects, artists, historians, urbanists, and social scientists have faced the myriad archive fevers and archival turns of the 20th and 21st century.

This period as seen a marked shift between archives being understood as ‘source’ to archives becoming a subject of critical inquiry. Critical scholarship asks which ‘rules of classification, rules of framing and rules of practice’ determine the contents of an archive and enable ‘knowledge’ to be recognized (Tuhiwai Smith, 2021). And these questions are motivated by the argument that political power is inextricably linked with who can create, access, participate in, and interpret the archive and by extension, an institutionalized collective memory (Derrida, 1995). The course thus, interrogates the ways in which “the architect and the archive are inseparable” and how seeing the “city-as-an-archive” can help us attend to contested memories and denied histories embodied within its buildings, infrastructures, and architectures (Wigley, 1995; Borgum, 2020). Through visits and hands-on research in architectural and urban archives, students will develop a critical methodology that can be applied to their research and practice. Students will learn to interpret and triangulate primary sources, such as texts, films, maps, blueprints, correspondence, documents, photographs, illustrations, and master plans. And weekly readings will cover concepts like the archival gaze, archival science, the imperial archive, postcolonial archive, counter-archives, community-based, ethnographic, photographic, film, parafictional archives, and AI datasets.

MIT Certificate Protected Syllabus

A seemingly ordinary substance, water is at once a fount of life and a terrible force of destruction. Across time and space, human societies have sought to manage its paradoxical qualities by harnessing and designing its natural flows, from the scale of the domestic household to that of the larger urban settlement and region. Because of its vital utility, water has also been a carrier of symbolic and ritual meaning in cultures across the globe. This seminar will study how human-water interactions have given shape to the built environment in the era before industrialization, focusing on architectures, infrastructures, and landscapes of water supply, irrigation, transport, energy, health and sanitation, and flood mitigation, among other functions. Throughout, we will remain attentive to the aesthetics, sacred meanings, and political economies of water as they emerge in our case studies.

The foregoing themes will be examined comparatively using examples from across the globe, with an emphasis on the Mediterranean world and Europe during the Middle Ages and early modern period (ca. 1000–1750 CE), the times and places that I know best. On occasion, we will look deeper into the past, at ancient precedents, as well as engage with canonical scholarship on our theme that brings us into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Such a vast chronological and temporal range will help students to appreciate both continuity and change in how water has been managed over the longue durée, and to gain insight, in turn, into the potential effects of present water policy and design decisions on our built environments and political and economic systems into the future. Another goal is to expose students to a broad range of humanistic approaches to water from the perspectives of architectural, art, and environmental histories, as well as anthropology and science and technology studies.

MIT Certificate Protected Syllabus

While design is frequently deployed as a problem-solving instrument, it can unintentionally result in ethical dilemmas and unanticipated outcomes. This course uniquely combines the critical lens of art with the innovation framework of DesignX, promoting introspection and thoughtful deliberation before diving into design interventions. This transdisciplinary class initiates a collaboration between ACT and the Morningside Academy of Design through DesignX. Students design and present visual representations on the social impact area they choose to innovate and explore on. Undergraduates are welcome.

MIT Certificate Protected Syllabus

8/30/24 - note room change to E15-466

How do you go from a moment of obligation to starting or accelerating a movement?

This course explores the difference between innovation, social innovation, and systems change for social impact. Students interested in navigating complex environmental and social problems will explore frameworks and case studies from real systems change innovators to develop a more comprehensive view of complex problems and the systems they are part of —systems that often keep those problems in place.

In the course, you will apply experiential tools and methods to interrogate your own call to action, strengths, and gaps to address complex problems or needs. You will gain an understanding of the importance of understanding problems from the impact target’s perspective and explore innovative ways to create a scalable movement that ultimately can change a system. The final deliverable from the course is writing a case study on system change based on detailed actor mapping and interviews where you share your deeper understanding of a system you care about.