Advanced Design Studio, Krier

In the Downtown District of Washington, D.C. lies an eight acre empty building site voided by the demolition of DC Convention Center. After years of public controversy it is still undecided what should replace it. The current mix of surface parking and eco-bio-landscaping is a demonstration, within a few block of the White House, of the political indecision which has been the hallmark of the national capital’s planning history.

In his brilliant essay, Grand Avenues, Scott Berg gives an account of America’ political leaders endemic incomprehension regarding urban and architectural matters. L’Enfant’s was indeed a work of genius and had his master-plan and development strategy been obeyed, Washington D.C. would surpass many capital cities in beauty and commodity. It would indeed have become a model for modern cities across the globe. The world would be a different place. Instead of an ordered sequence of growth and refinement, the Capital City became a battleground for irreconcilable interests. It is due to the heroic and unduly exhausting efforts of rare men of vision and dedication that DC displays at least some of the original features of L’Enfant’s plans. However, the extraordinary symbolic power and radiance of the major national monuments is little served by the obesity and artistic indulgence of the standard modern building blocks. It is as if Washington was condemned to grow from and underdeveloped suburban sprawl to an over-dense metropolitan fabric, without ever finding the right scales, variety, sizes and language if and enduring urban fabric.

And yet the city contains all the lessons, all be it in a fragmented tableaux, of what needs to be undertaken to make it into the beautiful city in the world.

The studio is going to develop the downtown site according to a master-plan and guideline drawn up by Leon Krier. Each student will develop a public library in the classical style and two mixed-use building blocks in a vernacular style. Technologically these buildings will be conceived and constructed in natural building materials, only using reinforced concrete for foundations and floor slabs. The travel week will be spent half in D.C., to record in situ a lexicon of traditional classical architectural elements and half in a studio charrette. Professor Krier will hold brief seminars on basic notions of typology, tectonics and technology of natural materials, tuning of vernacular and classic elements in urban and architectural composition, etc.

For the final jury, elaborate architectural models of each building in 1/8 scale will be fitted into the common model base and will be judged not only on its own design merits, but above all how its design contributes to a form and attractive urban and architectural context. A lot of effort and will of in producing powerful, hand drawn and painted urban vistas.