48-657 Infrastructural Landscapes I: Design Histories

3 units, Carnegie Mellon University

This variable-credit seminar course is situated at the intersection of global infrastructural history and architectural world-making across the modern era. Students will explore how infrastructures—understood as the material, technical, and social systems of connectivity and relationality that establish the foundation for other forms of power to operate—are woven through space and sedimented in overlapping temporal layers. Together we will research how infrastructures like energy grids, flood management systems, and digital communications networks facilitate place-making by connecting (or disconnecting) people and resources across vast spatial distances. While imagined and constructed by populations in historically specific spatial, political, and material conditions, they endure as powerful—if often hidden—contemporary actors shaping how designers and communities respond to present-day challenges and work to bring about more sustainable futures.

Prerequisites: none listed

Offered: Fall 2026, Fall 2025

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