ARC 333/383S
Site Design

Instructor: David Heymann
Time: T-Th 12.30 - 2.00
Place: GOL 3.120

Course Description

The purpose of site design is to positively mediate the impact of built form on the world. Site design is affected by many bodies of knowledge, including architectural design and its histories, landscape architecture and its histories, civil engineering, sociology, anthropology, geology, biology, real estate, planning, environmental planning, civics, government, and on and on down the line (because of this, it would perhaps make more sense to title this course "An Introduction to Site Design"). Also, "site" and "design" are terms which have been substantially redefined over the past twenty-five years; "site design" as an understood activity has also changed, and we will explore what the impact of these changes might be. The intentions of this course are:

- to explore what "site design" is becoming due to reconsideration of the value of landscape and the architect's concerns and responsibilities to landscape.
- to give you an overview of the factors and forces at work, with particular concentration on the various concerns which develop from the site.
- to provide you with necessary rudimentary technical knowledge and experience in the analysis and manipulation of site factors.
- to introduce you to the types of representations and documents associated with site design.
- to prepare you for the Site Design portions of the A. R. E., the licensing exam, which tests a specific type of site design ability.

Required Texts:

Reading is critical to this course. Much has been written about landscape and building relationships. The bulk of the reading will occur during the first half of the semester. During the second half the reading will be technical, associated with exercises. The structure of the course follows, and expands on, the Chapter Outline of its required text: Site Planning, 3rd ed., by Kevin Lynch (MIT Press, 1990). This book is the classic primer on site design, and you will find it an invaluable source of information and inspiration. It actually deals with site thinking at a slightly larger scale than I do in lecture (and than many architects ever do in design), but the issues overlap conceptually, and the reading is a separate track of thought in this course.

In addition, since most of the reserve readings are prefaced by one of the stories from Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino (A Harvest Book, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1974), I want you to buy and read that book as well. Both of these books are really basic reading in architecture - i.e., necessary. The third required text is Site Engineering for Landscape Architects, by Strom & Nathan (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 2nd ed., 1993). This is the textbook for the bulk of the second, technical, half of the course. All three books should be at the Co-op, but Strom & Nathan may not be available; it is being revised. If that is the case, either we will get together enough old copies, or go to the new edition if available.

There will also be reserve readers for the course, corresponding to its two parts. Reader 1 contains articles which will expand on topics addressed in lecture: these are crucial articles for your education. Reader 2 contains primarily technical information, and will be used for that part of the course concerned with primarily technical knowledge. For copyright reasons I cannot provide you with readers 1 and 2: you may however make your own single copies in the library.

Site Design and Course Structure:

As said above, site design involves positively mediating the impact of built form on the world. What differentiates site design from other kinds of design is the following: it is a form of design which, from its inception, is consciously engaged in conspiring with the various realities of the site to suggest or criticize form. Perhaps a good way of describing site design is this: site design includes all design done when the building - or any intervention - is not considered as an isolated object but as a specific piece of the world. The operations of site design are the bridge between the object and the world, and across this bridge information flows in two directions.

First, information flows from the site to the building: the site will limit possibilities (by culture, tradition, zoning, setbacks, topography, environment, etc.), and suggest probabilities to the designer. Think of the Villa Mariea, by Alvar Aalto; or "Falling Water", the Kaufmann House, by Frank Lloyd Wright; or "Sea Ranch", planned by Lawrence Halprin and Associates; or the "Casa Malaparte" by Malaparte and Libera. These are examples set in quite natural surroundings, but there are suburban and urban examples as well: think of some of Frank Gehry's work in Los Angeles, or the work of Liz Diller and Ric Scofidio, or that of Rem Kolhaas, or Herzog and DeMeuronm, etc., etc..

Second, information flows from the building to the site: the designer's intentions regarding a given program or building may condition the way we think of the site, or ask the site to behave in unexpected or unforeseeable ways. In such instances the agencies of site-design come into play in the technical realm of quietly preparing the ideal form in often hidden ways to meet the world: think of the Villa Savoie by LeCorbusier, or the Pyramids at Giza, or most of the villas of Palladio, or the Guggenheim in Bilboa by Gehry.

The above examples would suggest that site design occurs before (suggesting probabilities) and after (quietly preparing the ideal form) what we think of as building design. But no architect can really ever afford to ignore the constant impact of certain over-arching site realities: topography and drainage, soil stability and type, climactic concerns (esp. heat, light, wind, and moisture), and the study of these will make up a part of this course.

Buildings, complexes, and built landscapes differ vastly in the extent to which they are formally impacted by such explicit site concerns. Think again of the Casa Malaparte and the Villa Savoie. It would be possible to say that one "respects" its site more than the other, but in so saying we would immediately betray our own definition of "site", since either of these buildings can be said to respect its site quite well in its own way.

What is different in these two examples is how "site" is defined. At the Malaparte House it is the specific piece of land - its mythology, topography, events, scale, texture, and materiality - which is the primary operative site from which the house is drawn and to which the house is returned. The site is singular, so too is the house. The Casa Malaparte is a great example of an ancient and beautiful tradition of design which is of concern today, as we seek to find ways of making architecture meaningful at a time when the traditional value systems of architecture seem bankrupt.

At the Villa Savoie, the specific parcel of land, while having some impact on the location of the house, clearly is less of a form-giving factor than certain other concerns. LeCorbusier was engaged at that time with establishing repeatable prototypes for the new age - which is why the actual property, as only one of theoretically many possible sites, plays only a small part in the form of the house. Here the site was primarily history, tradition, function, style, and program. These played a far greater role in the final form of the house than the actual parcel. The house, designed in accord with certain pre-arranged form-giving rules, is brought to the actual site, which primarily affects the building by making quiet technical suggestions about grounding, locating, and orienting.

The Villa Savoie exemplifies another ancient and beautiful tradition, which is much maligned today, as many architects struggle to hold out against evident indifference to, or disrespect for, the varied landscapes of the world. But it is important to us in this course still, because what respect means - as far as a building "respecting its site" - is really a quite complicated matter. The site for any building has many realities associated with it, which include cultural, social, historic, and aesthetic concerns. In turn, any program also has such concerns associated with it, and these too form a "site" of sorts, and often this non-physical site has a more powerful impact on the building than the actual, physical parcel of land called the site (think particularly of the Vietnam War Memorial by Maya Lin). Also, after all, buildings do have their own rights: they do not have to be landscape.

If the LeCorbusier house seems less conventionally sympathetic to its own parcel than the Malaparte house, it none-the-less works very well in the site for which it was designed: think of its impact on history and style. At any rate, these are two extreme (and, as single objects, limited) examples: most designers work somewhere in between, drawing both from the actual site (which we will call the Domain) and from factors beyond the site (which we will call the Range). The Range acts in much the same way as the physical site. It too will limit possibilities and suggest probabilities to the designer.

We will begin the course (Part 1 of the course schedule) by attempting to give as broad a definition to the word "site" as possible, and will look at the consequences of this broad redefining on design. While this may seem odd, it is in fact quite appropriate. We tend to imagine that the processes of site design are used on certain kinds of sites, typically those where the ratio of land to building is quite large, or those where the site presents certain physical difficulties (like steep slope), or those set in fairly undisturbed natural surroundings. But the processes of site design apply to all sites, urban or rural, real or imaginary, physical or not.

In "site design", the specific architectural identity of the site is established by analysis, usually with a program in mind or in search of program, and architectural interventions are suggested or controlled as a consequence of that analysis. "Site design" actually describes a way of thinking (conspiring with the various realities of the site to suggest or criticize form) which is applied as much to a parcel of land in Westlake Hills as it is were you, for example, to be given only a story by Calvino as a site. During Part I of this course you will be doing extended reading into the nature of "site", and will be undertaking a series of analysis problems to further your understanding. Aside from the readings and exercises, there will be a written exam, just before Midterm, covering this portion of the course.

In Part II of the course we will concentrate on aspects of site design arising from the realities of the actual, physical site, including: legal definition and measure; topography and climate; soil and foundation conditions; access, utilities, parking, and site circulation; grading and drainage; materials; trees and planting; and how each of these determines inhabitation. The thrust of this portion of the course is to prepare you practically.

Many of the issues to be covered in Part II are in fact issues which do not translate well into lecture form. Grading, for example, is something you just have to learn by doing it. No amount of talking or explaining will make a difference. For that reason, the second part of the course has a split personality. On the one hand, there will be a series of lectures on technical topics (with exercises) and their architectural consequences. On the other, you will be working independently on several chapters and exercises in Site Engineering for Landscape Architects. The final exam will cover this part of the course: it is the last of the homework exercises (there is no scheduled final).

If we have time during the last week or two of the course, we will concentrate on current issues and case studies. We may have guest speakers during these classes. There is no work for this course in the last two weeks. We will only briefly be reviewing the history of site design in a conventional linear way in this course: there is, unfortunately, not enough time in this course to adequately cover history. But we will be looking at various historical examples throughout the course, in particular during weeks 5 and 6. Note that this is not a course in landscape architecture or landscape planning. The primary focus of this course is the relationship of buildings to their landscapes.

GRADES:

Your grade in this course will be based on the following:

1. Minutes of discussion groups (see below), total for 5 sets 25 pts.
2. Exercises, Part I, total for 4 exercises (see below) 60 pts.
3. Exam, Part I 30 pts.
4. Exercises, Part II, total for 10 exercises (see below) 100 pts.
5. Final exercise 30 pts.
6. Midterm project 25 pts.
7. - penalty for absenteeism (see below) (-)pts.
MAXIMUM TOTAL AVAILABLE POINTS 270 pts.

The points indicated above are the maximum available. Grades will be obtained from two curves (one for graduates, one for undergraduates), and will be posted 3 times - midterm, the last day of classes, and after the final - outside my office (GOL 4.116).

READINGS, AND DISCUSSION GROUPS: During the first session we will break the class up into groups of five. Each of these groups will be responsible for turning in "minutes" of a discussion that the group will undertake about the readings. These discussions will center on questions posed regarding the readings and lectures, and will be due on the day that the readings are relevant, as indicated on the course schedule. Minutes questions are to be found in the reader, with the relevant readings for that date. The minutes are only intended as a record of your discussion, with a short summary of your conclusions, not to exceed 2 pages total (1 page preferred). In order to receive credit, the minutes must be signed by all members of the group, and the minutes must be typed. Each group will be responsible for establishing a meeting time, and designating a recorder.

There will be two sets of groups: graduates and undergraduates. The readings themselves will be organized as follows: there will be certain readings for all groups. In addition to these, there will be an extra article which must be read by the graduate students. Undergraduates may join a graduate group, but any group with a graduate student is required to read the additional article. Finally, there may be optional articles included (There are many great authors who have written about the built landscape, and part of this course is to introduce you to those). The reading requirements will be explained on the cover sheet for each section of readings.

MINUTES: are due every Tuesday, at the beginning of class, during the first six weeks (starting the second week). Minutes will be given a 0 (for not turned in) or 5 points. They will be docked one point for every day that they are late. In order to get credit, the minutes must be signed by all members of the group, and they must be typed (which suggests that it does not make sense to meet on the morning of class).

EXERCISES: are due according to the schedule. Some will be done by your discussion group as a whole (these are indicated on the course schedule with a small g), some individually (indicated with a small i). All exercises in Part I are worth 15 points maximum, and will be allotted points as follows: 0 for not turned in, 5 for poor or incomplete, 10 for basic, decent and complete work, 15 for exceptional. All exercises in Part II are worth 10 points maximum, and will be allotted points as follows: 10 for correct and complete, withpoints deducted for mistakes. Many of the projects, particularly in Part I, will be qualitative in nature: such projects usually involve synthetic thinking and invention - often part of the project will be figuring out what the problem is about, then taking a risk. Points will be docked by one point for every class day that the projects are turned in late.

Note that the overall point structure may change.

EXAMS: There will be one exam, over Part 1, whichwill be short answer and essay, and will involve looking at slides. Although there will not be slide identification questions, you will be expected to remember basic facts about the major projects that we will be looking at: I'll let you know.

MIDTERM PROJECT: This group assignment involves designing a set of tools to measure the topography and primary physical facts of a site, then producing the site map using the tools. This project is worth 25 points.

ATTENDANCE: Your attendance in class is required. A sign-in sheet will be circulated at each class: be sure to sign this. After 3 absences (i.e., your fourth absence) your cumulative point total will be reduced by 5 points, and will be reduced by 5 points for each additional absence thereafter. If you have a serious and legitimate excuse for not attending class, please contact the TA.

Instructor:

David Heymann
heymann@mail.utexas.edu

Suggested:

It probably will make sense to take notes during class in something like a sketchbook: you should record as much of the visual information as you see fit, because the issues will be made evident in the slides. In addition, you might obtain a three ring binder to keep all of your notes plus handouts, etc., together. It will take some time for you to get a handle on the information in this course. Because it is both a grad and undergrad course, the nature of the information falls precisely in between. There will not be a lot of information that you will need to directly memorize. In general, because this is a general course, the bulk of this course is concerned with your understanding the underlying issues., and, many of the issues are discussed with reference to specific slides. Finally, I tend to lecture in what seems to be a very loose way (that is the only way I know to get you through an hour and a half without drifting off); things will sort of seem to make sense at the time, but at the time of the test you will be struggling to remember what the issue was. I would strongly recommend that you take 15 minutes after class to try to reconstruct the issues discussed in lecture.