Open course ware

PROF. WAMPLER: Well, the Cuba Studio last spring, which was a level two studio, the overview follows my philosophy about architecture. And that is that I don't believe students should just be at MIT inside these walls designing for people around the world. I think the issue is maintaining identities of people, of cultures, being sensitive to climate conditions, architecture, where we are, where they, in this case, may be working. So the theory behind it is to take my students to a place that they don't know, immerse them into that culture as quickly as possible, let them talk to the people, let them move around the city, let them absorb what there is about that place so that when they design, it was a design project, they are coming from the point of sensitivity to the people and to the culture. Not from some Western notion about what architecture should be or not from some intellectual position, although that is important, but they are coming from understanding t...

PROF. PATRICK WINSTON: Well that's the Kodo Drummers. They're a group of about 30 or 40 Japanese people who live in a village on some island off the coast of Japan, and preserve traditional Japanese music. It's an unusual semi communal group. They generally run about 10 kilometers before breakfast, which is served at 5:00 AM. Strange group. Wouldn't miss a concert for the world, although they, alas, don't seem to be coming down to the Boston area very soon. If you go to a concert from the Kodo Drummers--and you should-- and if you're no longer young, you'll want to bring earplugs. Because, as we humans get older the dynamic range control in our inner ear tends to be less effective. So that's why a person of my age might find some piece of music excruciatingly loud, whereas you'll think it's just fine. Because you have better automatic gain control. Just like in any kind of communication device there's a control on how intense th...