The Catholic UNiversity of America

School of Architecture and PLanning Cultural Studios 2006

Native American Studies Studio Critic Stanley Ira Hallet, FAIA

IIt is the rather ambitious intent of the Cultural Interventions Studio to explore the variety of theoretical positions and architectural strategies that can be taken when we are obliged to intervene architecturally in arenas of great cultural context. The dilemma of relating the exigencies of our "time" to the traditional forms and rituals of the past are only further complicated by a situation where once identifiable cultural groups have now been thrown into disjunction, discontinuity and disarray.

Thus, the often irreconcilable debate between "natural state" and chaos, between a nostalgia for the past and the "crisis of modernity", between critical regionalism and international style, become but a few of the issues the studio will attempt to examine. Rather than a single site or program, the cultural intervention studio encourages a variety of venues, both cultural as well as physical, selected from a collection of proposed studio problems or from suggestions drawn from the experience of individual students.  Consequently, over the past several years, topics for study have increased in variety, scale and scope, involving studio projects as diverse as an urban settlement proposal for Afghan refugees to memorials to the removal of the Berlin Wall. However, during the past years, the studio has pursued generic themes in an attempt to further focus the diversity of the projects involved and further bridge over the distinct differences of view posited by varying geographies and cultures. For example, several years ago, the studio focused on the issues of Settlement and Displacement, in particular, the act of habitation and the problem of displacement. How have diverse cultural groups inhabited the land?  How do they define their territories, edges, boundaries and layers of both social as well as sacred space. The studio also explored the Sacred Landscape, examining theological concerns and studying their effects on community gathering and ritual, on artifact and architecture. More recently, we have studied issues of the Landscape, broadly defined as the Found, the Worked, and the Reworked Landscape, and explored how these markings of the land were determined and in turn determined cultural texts. 

In the context the continuing emergence of Native American tribal identities, we will limit our investigations this year to the Native American culture, selecting tribal groups for study from a large geographical swath extending from the north of Canada and Alaska to the mountains of Mexico and South and Central America.

In as much as the resulting student problems will continue to vary greatly in size, complexity, and place, a shared unfolding of the studio experience within a multi-staged format will assure the studio a commonality of intent and discourse.  Thus, a wide range of studio topics or proposals will be subject to a certain uniformity of questions, where one underlying theme will unite the studio; the emphasis on cultural/landscape relationships as a determinant or manipulator of architectural and urban form.

The selection of a single Native American tribe but only after submitting sufficient evidence to the studio critic of the availability of supporting descriptive materials of the selected site, history, and culture.  See: Native American Architectureby Nabokov and Easton. (on Reserve/CUA Library)

The gathering of pertinent materials describing the existing or historic landscape set, the physiognomy of site, climate, local ecosystems, land settlement patterns, the descriptive use of the land, architectural and urban form, and a further analysis of customs, rituals, and belief systems especially as related to the manipulation of land.

The deconstruction of the historic landscape set possibly in a series of aerial studies varying in scale and/or issues compared. Such studies should observe and comment upon the various battles waged on the earth’s surface, recording the passing of time, the historic weathering of the landscape, settlement, and the inevitable re-ordering of the land for subsistence, surplus, or pleasure.

The gathering of pertinent materials describing the historic and existing cultural conditions of the settlement site; the physiognomy or geography of site; the growth and mapping of the settlement, its internal organization and structure, typological studies of specific habitations and their supporting structures for ceremony, gathering and work; and an analysis of customs, rituals, and belief systems that ultimately gave form to the habitat.

These materials could be organized around the several scales of examination, each scale providing a discussion of relevant issues affecting the physical form of habitat. These scales could vary from the greater context of the local geography and climate to the minute details affecting material assembly of habitations, furniture, and artifacts. For the possible publication of these investigations the studio might make standard the aerial picture frame to be examined, for example, a 10" x 10" squarecould be used. All documentary materials and should be consistently presented by the student using a graphic format decided upon by the student or by the studio in case of a studio exhibition.

The Catholic UNiversity of America

School of Architecture and PLanning Cultural Studios 2002

Cultural Interventions in Afghanistan Studio Critic Stanley Ira Hallet, FAIA

Unlike previous years, this year the graduate studio exploring cultural interventions will focus on a single country, the battle torn countryside of Afghanistan. Taking advantage of the studio critic’s experience in Afghanistan where he was a Fulbright Lecturer in Architecture in 1970/01, the studio has been gathering a vast array of information describing the historic architectural language of the country, especially found in the rural areas.

Once assembled, individual students will propose the design of specific prototypes addressing the needs to construct schools, medical clinics, orphanages and traveler serais in the rural areas. These proposals, each coming in small, medium and large sizes will be developed to take full advantage of local labor and material supplies, build upon systems of construction and prefabrication already available in the local bazaar and be adaptable to a variety of sites. They will also further divide the country into four geographic regions to better reflect the diverse topographies, climates and local populations.

While the entire process and the final proposals will be fully documented in a circulated workbook, the final form of the proposals will take the form of large models that will be sent to Kabul. After expected refinement by collaborating groups in Afghanistan, these models will be of sufficient size and detail to enable local contractors and fabricators to take measurements directly from the model and construct the first test buildings.

Juries during the studio process will involve Afghan architects and engineers in the Washington, D.C. area as well as other former Fulbright Lecturers in Architecture now teaching in the United States. We are still seeking financial support to pack and send the models to Kabul.