48-610 Between Mountains and Seas: Detailing Architecture and Folklore
9 units, Carnegie Mellon University
This design research seminar explores vernacular and folklore as a point of departure to frame the theoretical position of the architect as an integration of socio-ecological systems. While the conventional "detail" in architecture and urban design normalizes professional values, we will look to myths, the mundane, to nurture a critical appreciation of material culture, landscapes, stories, and people. We will dwell into theories of informality and in turn produce a series of experimentations through fabrication, aesthetics, and precarities to challenge conventional architectural order in favor of storytelling, ethnographies, and ecologies. There are three phases to this course: (1) developing questions, (2) appraising theoretical frameworks, (3) drawing and prototyping architectural details. Researchers in this course will gain skills in craft, design through storytelling, fabrication, detailing, and vernacular design research. Tools we will learn are ethno-ecological drawings, operational fabrications, toys, puppetry, and filming prototypes. Our journey "Between Mountains and Seas" will curate a volume of sketchbooks, mock-ups, and artifacts which will be showcased at the end of the semester through an exhibition.
Prerequisites: none listed
Offered: Fall 2025
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