Neotopia
A place after all places…

Can a community be… Invented? Transposed? Perfected?
Would that be a community of interest -or of joy?

A million expats are their own community -split into havens with a new world touch…
Some, late life migrants, looking for a refuge -or young souls with a taste for foreign shores.
So far, they’ve left their mark and built their islands -in San Miguel, Los Cabos, Mérida and more…

And yet, there may be a chance for a new option;
a place born of the dialogue -as a sum :
A village both authentic and organic, where cultures meet to build, and share -as one.

This course is such a quest -and a proposal,
to find a destination -and a way,
to build that space to flourish
-at the crossroads,
where old and new can meet,
and thrive, and play.

Aims (from an actual project):

Design a viable utopia (land of rest and inspiration) with us (Alberto Kalach (Taller de Arquitectura X) and Carlos Zedillo Velasco (Studio ZV/Pienza Sostenible), and with teacher Andrei Harwell) through;

a) research (historical and literary)
b) imagination (visualize your own)
c) travel (Yucatan peninsula: City, jungle and its Mayan past), then help us bring it all -together (and ready to build).

Required Reading

Thomas More (Utopia)
Francis Bacon (New Atlantis)
Tommaso Campanella (City of the Sun)


All Semesters

1103
Fall 2022
Oil, Land, People—The Challenges for Architecture
Claire Weisz, Marc de la Bruyère, Andrei Harwell
1103
Fall 2021
Advanced Design Studio: Restorative Practices
Alan Ricks, Caitlin Taylor