48-111 Exploring Pittsburgh

3 units, Carnegie Mellon University

The city of Pittsburgh is at once our (permanent or temporary) home and the site of many of our studio projects. In this class the students will start exploring Pittsburgh: as built environment in which their work might be situated, as cultural context they need to interpret, and as creative material for their own work. The class is designed to give the students a deeper understanding of the relevance of the historical context on the physical changes they observe in the urban fabric, starting from their studio site and neighborhood. By learning about key moments in Pittsburgh's urban history, critically engaging with evidence (from maps to archival material to everyday objects) and participating in occasional site and museum visits, the students will learn to read cities as complex and layered, shaped by invisible forces as much as by visible ones.

Prerequisites: none listed

Offered: Spring 2027, Spring 2026

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