WS Degree Project Curriculum

Week 1 (Jan. 5- Jan. 11):
Vernacular Design and “Local” Innovation in the Twenty-First Century

(Develop/refine schedule)
Finish Asquith and Vallenga Text
Finish Rudofsky Text(s)
Review Turner Text
Review Davis Text
-Refine thesis premise/outline and begin Excess Humanity and Development Study
-Photo, Geographical, (etc) documentation of urban growth patterns during the Victorian era of Industrialization, compared to patterns during the modern era of globalized Digitalization.

Week 2 (Jan. 12-Jan. 18):
Technology: Uses, Perceptions and Evolution in the Built Environment

Finish Excess Humanity and Development
Tenner Text
Stafford and Terpak Text
Eglash Text
Dobereiner Text
-Draft Vernacular Science and Innovation in the Global City Study.
-Identifying the most common sources and applications of tech. refuse in the Global South and contemplating alternative applications and First World implementations.

Week 3 (Jan. 19 – Jan. 25):
Policy, Economics and Public Perceptions of the Twenty-First Century City

Freidman Text
(Kingwell Text)
(Silverstein Text)
Dobereiner Text
-Draft Makeshift Developments and Informal Economies of the Twenty-First Century City Study.
-Experimentation with density patterns, location of bldg sources, and how changes in peri-urban densities, and proximities to urban centers and to refuse sources affects the development of the communities and the effectiveness of their economies.

Week 4 (Jan. 5 – Feb. 1):
Debunking Nineteenth Century Assumptions of “Vernacular” design and Understanding its Evolution in the Twenty-First Century

Asquith Text
Davis Text(s)
Silverstein Text
-Case study analysis and proposals/interventions:
Bldg. typology, materiality, programs, densities, etc--understanding their successes and finding ways to “legitimize”/ “formalize” slum ingenuity.


Week 5 (Feb 2 – Feb 8):
Finding Common Denominators: Identifying Reoccurring Problems, Solutions and Ascribing Causality

Dobereiner Text
Eglash Text
Turner Text
Asquith Text
-Continuation of case study analysis and interventions with a more “formal” explication of what ought to be done to confront the problems that have been identified as the most central and formidable; does a universal strategy/solution exist? If not what methods/products/theories are readily applicable to other scenarios?


Week 6 (Feb. 9-Feb. 13): Edit works, prepare presentation…Summation of findings, and outline of Spring Semester objectives and procedures.