Architecture Backwards & Forwards: Transforming Old Buildings for Contemporary Culture

Architecture Backwards & Forwards: Transforming Old Buildings for Contemporary Culture is a Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies course taught by Gretchen Schneider.

This course satisfies Division I requirements.

Course Description
What does it mean to recycle a building? Even though Hampshire was born in the 1960s, its buildings include some of the oldest in Amherst, and its grounds extend far beyond Cole or the Mods to include numerous farms and fields. Before cheap oil and modern AC, vernacular structures depended on a close connection to their environment; what can designers learn from these as we unabashedly aim for the future? Focusing on Hampshire?s overlooked structures and spaces, this studio-based course will adopt an evolutionary attitude, using the campus as a laboratory to explore contemporary issues of architectural renovation & adaptive reuse, green design, and innovative approaches towards defining ?place? for the 21st century. Lab Fee $100, Field Trips $25.

Learning Goals

 * Expressive
 * Project-based
 * Presenting
 * Reading