Invisible Cities

 Your blog comments will be due on Wednesday, August 21st at 10:00 am.  You may draw from these questions for your posts, or develop your own response to the readings.

1)  Trace some of the ways in which Calvino constructs the city.  What are some of the themes he explores?  What issues does he examine?  In what ways do the constructions of these various cities reflect the imagination of the narrator? Of how we imagine the city?

2)  All of the cities are named after women.  Draw connections between this novel and The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffman and explore the ways in which architecture and urban planning can be gendered and informed by the complex nature of desire.

3)  The title of this text is Invisible Cities. In what ways are cities “invisible”?  Use this text to draw connections from texts we have previously explored in this class. 

Harlem is Nowhere and Seeking Spatial Justice

 Your blog comments will be due on Wednesday, August 14th at 10:00 am.  You may draw from these questions for your posts, or develop your own response to the readings.

1)  How do both Ellison and Soja suggest the ways in which we internalize spatial identity?  Use examples from both texts to support your answer.

2)  In Soja’s prologue, he suggests that the BRU victory could have had the potential of forcing any public work having to pass a “justice test.”  What does he mean by this “justice test”? Do you think public works should abide by such standards?  Consider your own work as an architect. Would your work pass a “justice test”?  Should it?  Use examples from the text to support or defend your answer.

3)  What does Soja mean by the term “spatial justice”?  We began this session reading the works of two architects—FLLW and Le Corbusier—who, in their own ways, sought to remedy the social ills of their time through space and the built environment.  How would Soja critique their efforts?  What does spatial justice mean for the 21^st century?  Use examples for the text(s) to support your answer. 

Occasional Work and Seven Walks from the Office of Soft Architecture

 Your blog comments will be due on Wednesday, August 7th at 10:00 am.  You may draw from these questions for your posts, or develop your own response to the readings.

1) Even though Robertson presents her readers with a “manifesto” on Soft Architecture, the exact definition of this term remains elusive, perhaps intentionally so.  Trace Robertson’s references to “Soft Architecture” in this book and define in your own words how you perceive the concept.  Make sure to quote from the text to support your analysis of this term.

2) Robertson’s prose engages a great deal in the idea of the city, specifically her native city Vancouver.  What are some of the ways in which she engages in issues dealing with the city in her prose?  Consider the ways in which Robertson explores ideas of memory, nostalgia, surfaces, globalization, urban decay, and renewal.  Make sure to quote from the text support your analysis.

3)Robertson explores several themes that echo many texts we have read in this course:  utopias, memory, the suburbs, the city, ideology, capitalism, imagination—just to name a few themes.  Find a quote from Robertson’s text and draw relationships between her ideas and that of an author we have previously read in this course.  Make sure to quote both authors directly in your analysis.