Studio Mexico

Program Director: Juan Miro

1. Objectives
Studio Mexico is a comprehensive traveling studio that provides students the opportunity to experience Mexican culture and architecture through traveling, drawing, architectural research and design work. The program is structured to allow students a rigorous exploration of the rich legacy of Mexican pre-Columbian, Colonial and Modern architecture, as well as an enriching interaction with Mexican students. During Studio Mexico 2003 we will work with the School of Architecture of the prestigious UNAM University in Mexico City and the Univeridad de Veracruz.

2. Prerequisites
Studio Mexico participants must be eligible for Advance Design Studio. The program offers in addition to the Advanced Design Studio, a Visual Communication class and a History of Mexican Architecture class. Students joining Studio Mexico are expected to participate in all the requirements set out for the entire semester, regardless of the specific classes they are registered for.

Students must clear with Jeanne Crawford or Rosemin Gopaul their eligibility for the studio and establish their registration needs prior to joining the Studio.

3. Program Description
The program is divided into three parts.
3.1. First Part. (Austin)
Duration: 4 weeks.

History of Mexican Architecture
The first four weeks of the semesters will be intensively devoted to the study of Mexican Architecture and culture. There will be extensive reading requirements, as well as a series of lectures complemented with class discussions and presentations by the students. In addition, there will be outside guest speakers. We will cover the main periods of Mexican architecture: pre-Columbian, Colonial and 20th Century.

Presentations. Teams of two students will prepare two 30 minutes presentations, each one devoted to a site or building. You will choose from a list topics or sites that will be offered in the first day of class. You are encouraged to integrate graphic material, such as photographs or analytical drawings in your presentations. The use of visual information is especially suited for the skills of architects and it will be considered another research tool to present relevant arguments about buildings or sites. Each team will produce hand-outs for each presentation, including photographs and text, as well as drawings developed for their presentations.

See Third Part for required paper. See Item # 8 for Reading Packet and Text Books.

Site Model. The studio as a whole will produce a site model for the design project of this semester. The design will start during the trip but this model will be completed before we head to Mexico.

3.2. Second Part. (Mexico)
Duration: 4 weeks + 1 week optional.

We will spend the first part of the trip in Mexico City and vicinity. It will include visits to museums, pre-Columbian sites (Tenotchtitlán and Teotihuacan) historical buildings (churches and palaces in the historic district) and contemporary works including the University Campus and buildings by architects like Barragan, Legorreta, Felix Candela.

The next part of our trip will include visits to cities around the Central part of Mexico. In these towns and cities you will be exposed to different scales of colonial city making strategies. You will also study in situ numerous plazas, the very active communal spaces that still constitute the heart of city life all over Mexico. Before we head to Yucatan and Chiapas, the last part of the trip, we will stop again in Mexico City, where we will have a design review of the studio project with the Mexican students. In the Yucatan and Chiapas we will visit Maya sites as well as Colonial cities.

Students may extend their stay in Mexico for one week on their own during the Spring Break.

Sketch Book. All students will be required to produce an organized and well-documented sketchbook. There will be specific topics of investigation associated with the different sites that we will visit. At the end of the semester, all students must turn in three 11x17 ³collages² of their best sketches, organized in themes or geographically.

3.3. Third Part. (Austin).
Duration: 7 weeks

Design Project. The main focus of this part will be the design of a project to be located in Mexico. A detailed program will be provided before traveling to Mexico.

Paper. There is one paper due at the end of the semester on a topic chosen by each student. The paper should be a sort of graphic essay, incorporating 10 pages of text with newly produced drawings, photographs, analytical studies, iconography, etc. You will select possible topics during the first four weeks in Austin and then experience first hand issues relevant to your topics during the trip. Back in Austin, you will develop the essay in the final seven weeks. This final essay could be derived from topics of the presentations of the first part of the semester.

4. Cost
The total cost of the Studio Mexico is $ 1,750 per student, to be paid in full prior the departure to Mexico. It includes the following:
- Accommodation
- Two meals a day (except alcoholic drinks)
- Entrance to all museums and sites
- Transportation within Mexico

It does not include:
- Transportation back and forth from Austin
- Personal expenses (phone calls, film, etc.)

The school can provide scholarships of up to $600 for each student. Any money still available at the end of the trip will be refunded to the students.

5. Evaluation
All students are expected to participate in all the activities and comply with all the requirements for the whole program. Grades will be assessed on student performance as follows:

- Advanced Design Studio. Following a system commonly used in the school in other studios, the design project will be graded by the following breakdown.
- Quality and Integrity of Pursuit: 1/3
- Quality and Integrity of Product: 1/3
- Quality and Integrity of Grasp: 1/3

- Mexican History / Architectural Research
- Class participation 30%
- Presentations 25%
- Paper 45%

- Visual Communication
- Sketch Book 40%
- Graphic material from papers and presentations 25%
- Studio 35%

6. Attendance
Regular assistance and participation in class discussions is essential. You are expected to work in the Design Project in the studio. Students with three unexcused absences during the entire term, or two unexcused consecutive absences, may be dropped from the course without further notice. The minimal penalty for three absences is a full grade drop in the final grade.

The University of Texas at Austin provides, upon request, appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259, 471-4641 TTY.

7.- Office Hours
By appointment. My office is located at Godsmith, Gol. 4.116, my telephone number is 471 0182 and my e-mail is jmiro@mail.utexas.edu

8.- Reading List
A Course Packet prepared for the program must be purchased at Speedway in the Dobbie Mall (478 3334). Refer to Appendix I for required readings from books on reserve and from the Course Packet. The following three books will serve a ³text books² for the three periods of Mexican architecture (you can buy them at the Coop):

- The Art of Mesoamerica: From Olmec to Aztec, by Mary E. Miller
- Architecture and its Sculpture in Viceregal Mexico, by Robert J. Mullen
- Modernity and the Architecture of Mexico, Edward R. Burian(ed.)

These books are concise paperbacks that provide an overview of the three main periods of Mexican Architecture. You must bring them with you to the trip in Mexico to re-read them as we visit many of the places discussed in the books.

In addition to the text books, the following books are on reserve at the Architecture Library:

- Andrews, George. Maya Cities. Placemaking and Urbanization

- Angulo Iniguez, Diego. Historia del Arte Hispanoamericano

- Cetto, Max. Modern Architecture in Mexico

- Coe, Michael. Mexico
_______________The Maya

- Early, James. The Colonial Architecture of Mexico

- Gutierrez, Ramon. Arquitectura y Urbanismo en Iberoamerica

- Katzman, Israel. La arquitectura Mexicana. Precedente y Desarrollo.
________________Arquitectura del Siglo xix en Mexico

- Kubler, George. Mexican Architecture of the 16th Century
_______________ Studies in Ancient American and European Art.

- Marquina, Ignacio. Arquitectura Prehispanica.

- McAndrew, John. The Open Air Churches of the 16th century

- Toussaint, Manuel. Colonial Art in Mexico