ARC3016Y S
Instructor: Mauricio Quirós Pacheco
Meeting Section: L0111
Tuesday, 2:00pm - 6:00pm; Friday, 2:00pm - 6:00pm
 

“[…] Lapham wrote it as if the convention had already happened […] unfortunately, the magazine arrived on subscribers’ doorsteps before the convention had even taken place, forcing Lapham to admit that the scene was a fiction. He apologized but pointed out that political conventions are drearily scripted anyway.”
- Taking Aim, by Jennifer Senior

top·ic
/ˈtäpik/

noun
plural noun: topics

1. Anxiety

Defining a topic for a thesis is often an unsurmountable task. And, just to be clear, it is equally insurmountable for the faculty under whose auspices it comes about - even while it is undeniably the students who are asked to think, write and speak originally about what a thesis is and, above all, communicate their response proficiently to a disciplinary collective.

2. Relief

How liberating it is then to be reminded that “in the midst of their discussions, Newton acknowledged that he had only arrived at his conclusions because of the pioneering work done by Descartes and Hooke. He went on to say, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”

3. Giants

Lapham’s Quarterly, a literary magazine founded by former editor of Harper’s Magazine Lewis H. Lapham (1935), embodies the belief that history, in dialogue with the present, is the appropriate framework for all forms of knowledge, whether scientific, literary, political, economic, or – as this studio will argue, architectural. Accordingly, each issue of the Lapham’s Quarterly addresses a topic by "bringing up to the microphone of the present the advice and counsel of the past."

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Topic is a sort of readymade-research studio that couples the anxiety that comes with defining one’s own research interests and the permission to stand on someone else's shoulders in order to overcome what has come before or, at least, to see further. In this case, the studio will stand on the intellectual work of Lewis H. Lapham. Students will start by selecting a topic, and leveraging the editorial, curatorial and literary work of a Lapham’s Quarterly issue (meaning both the problem at hand and the topic as given) and developing its architectural equivalent.

Topic welcomes students who are interested in researching the architectural implications of the worlds of war, money, nature, learning, eros, crimes & punishments, travel, medicine, religion, arts & letters, sports & games, the city, celebrity, work, food, the future, family, means of communication, magic shows, politics, intoxication, animals, the sea, death, comedy, revolutions, youth, time, foreigners, swindle & fraud, philanthropy, fashion, spies, disaster, luck, flesh, home, discovery, fear, music, states of mind, law, water, rivalry & feud, night, trade, happiness, or climate.

2. Assurance (from Mark Jarzombek)

"A good thesis […] will recognize the debate and position itself within the ongoing polemic that is at the heart of everything architectural. [I]f done well, the thesis gives something back [...] gives not only fresh perspectives on old problems, but a sense of energy and commitment that will be necessary if architecture is to maintain its relevance to our world."