Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-2006

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Architecture

Major

Architecture

Major Professor

Scott Wall

Committee Members

Timothy Hiles, Barbara Klinkhammer

Abstract

"Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context -- a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan." -Eliel Saarinen

The creation of the built environment today is highly complex. Hundreds of different professions come together to create what is, I would hope, creating a better environment for people to inhabit. Sometimes, and actually quite often, the players in this process do not work together effectively, if at all. Once the construction is over, the grand opening has come and gone, and the users of the building start their everyday lives in this setting. It becomes increasingly obvious that all the parts do not always work together. Unfortunately, it is an all too common occurrence, yet each of the professions carries on in the same manner that they always have, not realizing that the opportunity for collaboration was lost.

I would like to propose that the origin of this is education. Specialization and being educated in this way is an inevitable product of the way we work today, but somewhere in that education, we cannot forget that eventually there will be a confrontation with hundreds of professions relating to our own. In the case of the built environment, there is an intricate connection of professions. It should not be a linear and finite connection, but a network where items and ideas pass back and forth, and continuously build upon each other. Rather than simply passing it on to the next person to do as they wish, without really knowing the intentions of the former, the components can work together in order to unify the conception of the design.

This problem could be addressed through the design and curriculum of schools. These schools, as in some cases do not even have to be facilities solely for the arts. This thesis will study the school of Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, along with pieces from the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany and the University of Helsinki's new campus for the College of Art and Design in order to investigate the role that architecture and interdisciplinary teaching has with our professional lives. This is done in order to understand the ways in which one can learn by example, through the school's built environment, and how an initial education in the appreciation of different arts can lead to a more congruent understanding.

What will emerge as important is the encouragement of students to look at other fields of study experimentally and collaboratively not only through curriculum, but also through designs. which teach by example. This, in tum, will encourage an understanding of other fields and improve the way that those same people interact with other professions in the realized built environment and the ways that other unrelated fields relate to the appreciation of the applied arts. If, as at Cranbrook, from the beginning these people are aware of the implications and benefits of working closely together, and encouraged to do so, it can create a more interconnected, and therefore, more enhanced background for life.

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