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Architecture in the Southwest

Anne Taylor, Ph.D., Hon. AIA, Professor
School of Architecture & Planning
2414 Central SE
Albuquerque, NM 87131-1226
Phone: 505-277-2903 Fax: 505-277-0076

Seminar Description
In order to better understand Southwest Architecture this seminar will use a lecture and studio design format. The content of Southwest Architecture will be taught, discussed and viewed. At the same time we will use studio visual-spatial hands-on projects as a means for helping participants understand the design process inherent in architecture and related design fields as well as historical and contemporary architecture of the Southwest.

Besides the content of Southwest Architecture, we will also examine as content, the psychology and pedagogy of the design studio format for learning. Group conferences during and after the third class each week will examine the design studio as a model for the American classroom.

Students all over America are that their education be real. The studio format for learning can act as a real-life model of education for American schools. Students deal with real problems, observe, collect data, apply the data to creative problem solving in design projects that can relate to their communities. Visual spatial learning will be part of the seminar.

The class will use the built, natural and cultural environments of the Southwest as a window to study the origins and development of so called "Southwest architecture". State standards in math, science, social studies and art will be correlated with this integrated course of study.

Session 1         Seminar meets to organize, discuss class format, reading materials and studio format for learning. Taylor will show slides.

Session 2        Curriculum unit discussed.
                        A strategy for writing the curriculum is discussed and a preliminary prospectus is written and submitted for written responses.

Session 3         Overview of seminar content: first readings discussed. Unit prospectus returned with comments.

Session 4        Introduction to Southwest architecture and the Design Studio model of learning. Schematic drawing exercises. Architectural conventions using S.W.  Anne Taylor       architecture. Light shade and shadow – a way of perceiving architecture. How to keep a visual-verbal journal.

Session 5         Southwest Architecture and its development from its Native American and Hispanic Roots (Humanities) Geography as a design determinant. Adobe                           construction and why it is so prevalent in New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico. Model building exercise.

Session 6        John Gaw Meem, a Southwest Architect and his derivative architecture. A walking-sketch photography tour of the UNM campus to better                          understand form, style and adaptation to modern architecture – Visit to the Meem Room, Zimmerman library. Reflection and documentation of                           work in progress and its application to curriculum writing.

Session 7    Studio graphic techniques for tracing and studying forms of architecture. Helping your students make visuals for reports.
                        The slide projector and its use for visual tracing in the classroom.
                        The light table as a tracing tool.
                        The tracing box as a drawing tool.
                        The overhead projector as a tracing tool.
                        Trace Paper   
                        Drawing and model making exercises of an historic building. Reflection on the processes and application to secondary.

Session 8    Landscape Design in the Southwest.
                        Xeriscaping
                        Using concepts from organic systems as a way of designing your school grounds as a "learning landscape".

Session 9    The significance of Contemporary Southwest Architecture
                        Trip to Santa Fe to see Fine Arts Center
                        Mexico and New Mexico, Arizona
                        John Gaw Meem, Architect
                        Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect
                        Luis Barragan, Architect
                        Legoretta, Architect
                        Paolo Soleri, Architect and Futurist
                        Others
                        Geometry and modern architecture design studio
                        Reflection on the history of Southwest Architecture and the studio process for studying the themed topic

Session 10 Research on a Southwest Architect
                        Writing the history of a famous Southwest architect
                        Replicating drawings or a model of a Southwest Architect of your choice
                        Presentation boards. How to do them visually and verbally.
                        Continuation of the studio for visual verbal reports on Southwest Architect

Session 11 Teaching Southwest History through Architecture to at Risk Youth
                        Content and Process
                        Reflection on the studio and its use in making visual –spatial -verbal reports on topics related to history

Session 12 Presentations

Text:

Taylor, Anne Southwest Architecture and Children,
Albuquerque, School Zone Institute 1990

Supplementary Bibliography and References

Bunting, Bainbridge John Gaw Meem, Santa Fe: School of American Research, 1983.

Ching, Frank Architecture, Form, Space and Order, second edition New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1998.
Markovich, Nicholas, Wolfgang F.E. Preiser, Fred Sturm

Pueblo Style and Regional Architecture, New York: Van Nostrand 1990.
Soleri, Paolo Arcosanti, An Urban Laboratory, San Diego: Avant Books 1983.

Taylor, Anne Southwestern Ornamentation and Design: The Architecture of John Gaw Meem, Santa Fe: Sunstine Press, 1989.