Historic Preservation Studio I
Studio I is in three parts:
(i) Reading Old Buildings: Architecture’s Argument
Each student addresses in the field an assigned old building to understand, explain and evaluate the argument it made for itself by the lights of its time and what we stand to learn from it now. The exercise begins the process of understanding what we get from the experience of old architecture for purposes of historic preservation and the development of tools to record, analyse and represent the meaning that experience uniquely conveys. In one-on-one and group Studio sessions. Studio staff directs and the Studio Workbook helps organize the process of inquiry and the development of graphic and written presentations of facts and meaning. The outcome of the exercise is a first cut at an effective presentation of a building as something that should or should not be saved.
(ii) Getting History: What Old Architecture Was Arguing About.
Each student addresses in the field another assigned old building with particular attention to the history it illuminates and to the documentation of its attachment to that history. The second presentation of a building and its meaning is further developed from the first and anchored and enriched by an understanding of the building’s times from relevant readings in history and by a disciplined documentation of the facts of its existence.
(iii) Making the Case: Why this Proposition Should be Saved
Each student addresses in the field a third assigned old building or artifact in an effort to establish the importance of its meaning and make the case for saving it. The third presentation adds to a complete presentation of significance – what the building helps us learn about its times and about ours – an attention to the need for advocacy, the development and practice of skills that persuade.