The New Practitioner:
Dialogue Tools And Techniques
4.237 (H), Units: 3-0-6, Spring Semesters
Instructor: Reinhard Goethert
The course focuses on tools and techniques necessary for effective dialogue with non-traditional client groups: communities, the poor and the generally excluded middle income. The purpose is to expose future professionals to a new paradigm of service-oriented practice and to develop a rudimentary awareness of interactive processes.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The course is biased toward the notion that dialogue not monologue is essential for an efficacious and creative design process. It accepts that active user involvement is essential to good architecture. In this context the design of tools and techniques is integral to the design of the building itself.
The course will provide an introduction to a new paradigm for practice and provides hands-on experience in dialogue with client groups. The course will explore both indirect dialogue tools (handbooks, how-to-do leaflets, videos, and home-user computer design programs) as well as direct interaction with clients and appropriate tools and techniques drawings, models, design kits.
We will study: New Practice Paradigms; Past Experience; Future Alternatives
We will review: Handbooks; How-to-do Leaflets, Self-Help Videos
We will experiment with: Interactive model games; Community workshop techniques;
DIY Computer Programs
We will visit: Community Organizations; Community Meetings; City Agencies; Practitioners
The course will meet once per week for 3 hours, with additional outside assignments. Emphasis is on practical hands-on experience supplemented by background readings. Fulfillment of several research assignments chosen by the student is required, as well as a short reflective essay on an aspect of the new paradigm of practice.
Throughout the semester resource professionals will be brought in to present and discuss their experience on specific tools and techniques.
Students are encouraged to continue their research into tools and techniques during the Spring semester.
Outline: THE NEW PRACTITIONER: DIALOGUE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES
I. The search for a new paradigm
INTRODUCTION
Why is there a problem? Should there be a change in practice? What is the current situation in the practice of architecture?
Basic goals and structure of course. General overview of material to be covered and what will not be covered. Administrative arrangements.
BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
What is the nature of housing today? How does housing differ in the Third World from the developed world, and particularly the US? What is the breakdown of housing sectors by income? How do self-builders feature in the supply of housing in the Third World as well as the industrialized countries? What technological approaches have been tried and what is the experience?
Positioning of the housing supply sectors by type and magnitude. Review of previous failures of formal responses based on professional as dominant. (Operation Breakthrough in the US, Habitat and PREVI Competitions in the Third World)
Assignment 1: Review and present to class selected context reports on the non-formal housing in both the Third World and the developed countries.
II. Tools and techniques
INDIRECT/PASSIVE DIALOGUE TOOLS
How do you participate? Who are the clients: users or companies? Are these really monologues and not effective vehicles for interaction with users? What is the purpose and audience of each tool? How effective are they? What are the alternative ways of reaching out?
Class 1: Passive/written: "How-to-do" Leaflets
Class 2: Passive/written: Handbooks.
Kenya LDP),
Assignment 3: a) Select handbook which informs users how-to-build their own house; b) Review the background/source, scope and detail, target user, and evaluate effectiveness; c) Write up and present to class.
Class 3: Passive/video: "How-to-do" videos
Class 4: User-active: home-user computer design programs
Assignment 4: a) Select one of the design-it-yourself disks that is available for under $50 or so.
b) Have another person (non-architecture student/person) design his/her dream house on a lake. Observe the process, and try to understand why and the sequence things were done., c) Write up observations (include final design) and present to class.
DIRECT/ACTIVE DIALOGUE
What is your role? Who are the clients? What are the most effective techniques? Action-planning. Participatory design. Which are best as dialogue-supportive and which could be used as active dialogue mediums?
Class 5: User interactive techniques: Models
Class 6: User interactive techniques: Games
Pakman,
Class 7: Interactive methodologies: Rapid consensus building/action planning.
Micro-Planning, DSNI Young Architects Project, Pakman, Planning for Real
Class 8: Supportive Tools
Techniques and tools that architects use to make clear their intent and to dialogue with communities and other clients.
Assignment 5: a) Identify a community meeting with architect involvement; b) Attend the meeting as passive observer and observe proceeding, noting particularly the architects involvement: his role, his contributions, and his techniques; c) write up your observations and present to class.
Class 9: Case Study Villa Victoria. Guest - Architect John Sharratt.
AFTER-THE-FACT DIALOGUE
What is the use once it is finished? What are good metaphors to assess? What techniques are most successful? How can users become involved in assessment?
Class 10: Professional and User-involvement Techniques: Professional tools: visual surveys, interviews; User-involvement techniques: drawings, surveys.
Assignment 6: a) Select a built environment and identify common users; b) Solicit 1-2 users and train them in carrying out a user assessment; c) Write up the assessment and present to class. Attach the user assessment results.
III. A New Practitioner
DIRECTIONS FOR A NEW PARADIGM
What has been the experience with alternative practice? What are the characteristics of the "new" practice? (what would you do) Who are the "new" clients? (who do you work with) What would be the vision of a new practice? How could a practice work when confronting practical office realities? How do tools and techniques influence and/or make possible a new way of working?
Class 11: Review of dialogue forms available to the architect. Exploration of potentially fruitful directions for the architect.
Assignment 7: Reflect on potential new roles for the architect and what this would imply in practice. Explore the nature of a new practice. Use examples from the class to illustrate what kinds of techniques he/she would need to be proficient in.
CURRENTLY NOT OFFERED
SIGUS AT OXFORD
SUSTAINABLE SETTLEMENT DESIGN
IN THE THIRD WORLD
A ONE-WEEK INTENSIVE WORKSHOP
OXFORD, ENGLAND
JANUARY
A SIGUS CENDEP PROGRAM HELD AT OXFORD
SIGUS is offering a one-week intensive program which explores key physical planning issues in the provision of low income housing developments through institutional intervention. Stress is on basic tools and techniques of sustainable planning appropriate to transitional areas. Topics are structured around measurement, modeling and prediction of design interventions, using evaluation as an entry into understanding good practice. The course is a joint MIT and Oxford Brookes University activity, held annually since 1989. It is offered by SIGUS Special Interest Group in Urban Settlement at MIT at CENDEP Centre for Development and Emergency Practice at Oxford Brookes University. Primary instructor is Dr.-Ing. Reinhard Goethert, MIT, co-author of Urbanization Primer, assisted by Oxford faculty. The program supports skills development of students and capacity building efforts of government ministries and municipalities:
- It provides technical training in site design, evaluation, and standards.
- It identifies issues and criteria for developing appropriate zoning, codes, and regulations.
- It explores the appropriate roles for private and public entities in efficacious development.
- It explores the links between development strategy and physical reality.
- It proposes a methodology for approaching land development issues.
- It offers a review of outgoing pilot projects and proposes modifications for improvement.
PROGRAM AND FORMAT
The course is structured in intensive, active, hands-on sessions over a five-day period. Sessions focus on tools, elements, strategies, and special cases. On the last day participants reflect and explore the role of professionals in rapidly changing contexts. Participants form in teams of 3-4, and use actual projects as references for design exploration. Although primarily group work, each team member is expected to make a substantial individual contribution to his/her group. The sessions of each day start at 9:00 and end at 5:00. Additional evening assignments are occasionally given to relate issues to physical reality.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
The course is targeted toward advanced graduate students in development studies and junior professionals. The course is appropriate for all professional fields concerned with development: planners, architects, engineers, lawyers, and administrators. No drafting skills are required. Participants who would benefit are those involved in site design, project review and approval, master planning and zoning, and standards development.
WHEN SHOULD YOU ARRIVE? HOW LONG SHOULD YOU STAY?
It is suggested to arrive the Sunday before, at the latest, and depart at the earliest Friday evening. It may be advantageous to arrive on Saturday to allow for acclimation and familiarization.
HOW IS ACCOMMODATION HANDLED?
Arrangements can be made to stay in the modest Wheatley Dormitory of Oxford or in the YMCA, when notified in advance. Bed and Breakfasts are also available, but at a higher cost.
WHAT ARE THE COSTS?
Tuition is free to students from MIT and Oxford. Tuition is £350 for others. Accommodation in dormitories is approximately £25/night and a minimum £30/day is suggested for meals and incidentals.
HOW DO YOU REGISTER?
Send a 1-page resume, current address, fax and email address to:
(Before December 20)
Dr.-Ing. Reinhard Goethert at SIGUS, MIT
Fax (617) 253-8993
email: sigus@mit.edu
or rkg@mit.edu
OR
(After December 20)
Prof. Nabeel Hamdi at CENDEP, Oxford Brookes
Fax [44] 1-865-483-298,
Tel [44] 1-865-483-413
email: vmkwalker@brookes.ac.uk
CENDEP
- The Centre For Development and Emergency Practice at Oxford Brookes University - combines interdisciplinary teaching, consultancy and research to foster Good Practice in development professionals. The Msc/Diploma in Development Practices is a post-graduate, practice-oriented programme, offering a unique opportunity to combine the study of urban development and humanitarian emergencies with courses in Housing, Shelter and Settlements; Complex Emergencies and Humanitarian Assistance; Planning for Refugees; and urban development and urban Management Planning.
SIGUS
- The Special Interest Group in Urban Settlement at MIT - explores the new professionalism emerging for architects and planners and addresses the needed shift in method, practice, and teaching. It offers workshops, short courses, and undertakes research stressing participatory method in promoting affordable and equitable housing. SIGUS grew out of a log experience in developing countries where new approaches were demanded requiring broader skills and expertise that straddles many fields.
What have been participant reactions?
(Comments from essays prepared in past workshops)
"The class gave me a platform from which to think about sustainable design from a realistic and practical point of view. It also made me realize that the ideas of professionals are pretty much useless if these ideas cannot be conveyed to the people who are supposed to follow, respect, and live within these ideas in order for a project to work." S.A.
"I learned a lot in those five days and I don't think I will ever look at a house the same way again." An anthropology graduate student, R.K.
"I think that 'Sustainable Settlements' was a valuable topic of study as it focused on community growth, cost and location issues related to settlement and house planning. Even through the study was primarily focused towards planners and architects in a urban development setting, I feel the course as very helpful for me as a development practitioner as I have encountered similar problems in my past relief and emergency experiences." A UN relief field worker
"I would like to say that the informality in the running the course made a pleasant change." R.G.
The Sustainable Settlements course gave us the chance to experiment with various projects, forcing us to design new layouts and to modify esxisting settlements, followed by analysis of our decisions. This process highlighted the complexity of the issues, and it was interesting to see how those groups which consisted of a mixture of architects, planners, and development workers would always produce a plan with a broad agenda, combining the rationale of efficient planning with ideas of capacity building and strengthening of communities. O.M.
"Overall, the course had a good mixture of both theoretical and practical work, which has been useful in providing starting-points and methodologies for future application to housing development work." M.L.
"After studying the topics of sustainable settlements, I feel that the ideas, assignments and explanations have allowed me to improve my understanding about the dynamics of settlement planning. Awareness of different design possibilities and identification of community needs can help to ensure that appropriate plans and realistic proposals can be implemented at the lowest cost and for the benefit of the targeted population." W.U.
"The large amount of practical design work and use of case studies allowed for further exploration of ideas and a greater understanding of issues in a chosen context." W.D.
"This course has certainly contributed to my professional career where I will try to use similar methods, tools and techniques in the design of settlements for low-income groups."
A.C., teacher abroad