UDIST300 Engage/Eco: T.Ur.F Studio
SPRING 2012

Interdisciplinary Studios extend a student's cross-school experience from Core Studio up into his or her upper division years. 3 units of Interdisciplinary Studio are required of all majors and must be completed in the junior or senior year.

This class explores design for sustainable urban agriculture both as subject of creative practice and means to environmental and social justice. Students will investigate the role of local agriculture and food production in sustainable urbanism and human wellness, and the opportunities for incorporating food crops into buildings, backyards, and interstices in the urban fabric. We will examine the changes in form, scale, technology, and modes of production necessitated by the urbanization of farming. We will consider the political and theoretical underpinnings of agrarianism and the local/urban food movement, and look at contemporary urban agricultural projects (conceptual and working landscapes), including field trips to local sites. Finally, through interdisciplinary collaboration, discussion, research, and studio practice, students will propose and develop urban agricultural installations, devices and systems, both site-specific and deployable - to cultivate, and communicate the value of, an urban agricultural infrastructure.