From the course description:
In your college architecture classes and in your professional careers as architects, you will be required to think about space: how to contain it, how to create it, how to fill it, how to shape it.
While the practice of writing is much different than the practice of architecture, it shares some important similarities: the blank space of the page might be compared to an empty building site; an outline is a blueprint in written form; the construction of arguments with strong supporting evidence mirrors the construction of buildings with sturdy infrastructure; the inclusion of a well-shaped sentence in a piece of prose recalls the flourish of a well-placed architectural detail.
In recent years, the practice of writing and the practice of architecture have been reshaped by digital technologies. In each field, technology has altered both the processes through which work is produced and the kind of work that results.
In this course, we will think together about the ways in which both writing and architecture have changed in response to new digital environments, and the ways in which new digital environments have changed in response to both architecture and writing. As we work to improve our prose-writing skills, we will draw parallels between online writing spaces and various developments in architectural theories and principles, and we will do so in digital spaces that instantiate the very phenomena that we are considering.
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This course is part of a learning community called “Building Poetry” that includes ARCH 1140 and ARCH 1111. All three classes will encourage creative, original, and unorthodox patterns of thought that make possible new understandings of familiar forms, materials, structures, and ideas.
