ARCH 6816 - Public Interest Design Build

This graduate course provides a focused examination of the emergent alternative architecture practice known as public interest design/build (PIDB). Through its investigation students will learn how this approach seeks to reconcile the schism that exists between contractor and architect, while in the service of a larger social agenda. In studying the history, theory, and practice of PIDB students will come to understand the sublimating impulses that have surfaced as a reaction to vacancies not otherwise serviced in current predominant pedagogical and professional models. In addition students will evaluate the concept of the "well intentioned outsider"; questions of appropriate technology; with special attention to Navajo cosmology relevant to the DesignBuildBLUFF studio.