SUPERHEROES

If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.

-Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister of the U.K.

Women in History
This semester, we will explore architecture in support of women who have impacted the course of culture, society, and history.  Our goal is to provide design solutions that reflect the legacy and impact of women’s ideas and actions across the world.  An introductory project will allow students to explore the semester theme and introduce concepts to serve as building blocks for the rest of the semester. This early work will expand in scope and complexity to a larger project, allowing students to express ideas in greater depth and complexity.  

Proposed Projects

Music Experience Pavilion
To begin the semester, students explored the music of a specific artist and created an architectural response to the sound, emotions, and thoughts they experienced.  From this response, students designed a building for the public to immerse themselves in the sounds and compositions of the artist.  
The completed pavilion allows students to explore architecture as a translation of the characteristics and experiences of music through form, space, structure, material, and light.

Musik Haus
Following the music experience pavilion project, students must meet the request to…”design my dream home”.  The client is an enthusiastic "superfan" of the music pavilion artist.  Utilizing a residential lot in the local community, students will design to meet the client's ambitions to live daily in reverence of their favorite music artist.  The life’s work of this musical artist has fueled the client’s dreams, and they desire a space in their new house to live out their deep appreciation for this person.  Students will design an innovative home for the 21st century that acts as a reflection of and vehicle for their “obsession”.

Woman's Memorial
Throughout history, women have made significant contributions and impacts to the course of events unfolding before humanity.  However, when we look back, our collective recollections often overlook their important work and success.  Reading through our history books and examining our architectural remembrances (monuments and memorials) reveals a shortage of recognized contributions from women, collectively or individually.
To begin this project, students were instructed to select a female client following a list of criteria.  After studying the client's life and historical significance, students will design a memorial, using architectural form and space to communicate the ideas and contributions of a significant WOMAN from history.  One of your primary responsibilities as designer will be to determine the scope of the memorial’s program and how it will function for visitors.

Public Foundation
In their first project, students designed a memorial for a woman who significantly contributed to our history and culture.  Using this client and their memorial as inspiration, the second project will investigate the design of a public foundation to promote and sustain this woman’s legacy in perpetuity.
The architectural design of the foundation should educate the public about her legacy and promote that legacy to influence our future global culture.  Spaces within the museum should facilitate and promote the following:

• An “education space” for understanding the woman’s importance
• Public “action space” to continue the woman’s legacy in a global culture
• Permanent “service space” for foundation staff to manage and publicly communicate the work of the foundation
• Protected “memory space” for documents and other artifacts produced by the woman or others that are part of her legacy.  

​The foundation will also support research fellowship activities within the architectural design.  This program element will take the primary form of an apartment or residence for a single research fellow and his/her family within the space of the foundation.  

Museum of Women in...
Practicum students were given the prompt to design a museum dedicated to women in a particular field.  With a focus for a specific program and content, students developed a relevant site somewhere in the world that demonstrated a strong connection to the subject.  Design efforts centered around the design of building form, organization, and space to reflect the characteristics of the women who were the subject of the museum's mission, the overall objective to communicate to the public the importance and influence of the women to which the museum was dedicated.

See the website describing the museums here.