Course Introduction 4.196 Architecture Design, Level II Cuba Studio, Spring 2004
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...