ARC3015Y F
Instructor: Joyce Hwang
Meeting Section: L0106
Tuesday, 9:00am - 1:00pm; Friday, 2:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: TBD

Consider the proliferation of pigeons in Venice, Italy and their role in the tourism of Piazza San Marco; the nightly spectacle of watching over 1 million bats emerge from under the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas; the logistical and infrastructural coordination of migrating red crabs on Christmas Island, Australia; and the cultivation of cat tourism in Houtong, Taiwan. Beyond producing clear ecological impacts, the intensified, ‘extreme’ presence of non-human species in these cases also take on cultural and economic agency as well, as attractors of tourism and provocateurs of human curiosity.

In parallel, the extreme presence of animals in cities also produces frictions between humans and the environment. In urban settings, animals – especially in large concentrations – are often considered as nuisances or pests. In some of these circumstances, cities have shown sweeping responses to these frictions. The mayor of Mosquera, Columbia, for example, revealed his intention to kill all stray dogs in the city, a plan which was subsequently met with public outcry. Conflicting attitudes toward the notion of animal ‘excess’ often results in the orchestrated displacement of animals to shelters or other locations outside of the city. Venice’s city’s feral cat population, for example, has dwindled substantially due to its relocation to a ‘cat sanctuary’ on another island in the Venice Lagoon, an effort run by Dingo, a Venetian animal-protection organization.

While one can understand the logics of ‘pest management’ in many cases, the (often misunderstood) notion of urban-animals-as-pests does little to aid our global health, especially during a time when increasing urbanization, continuing resource depletion, and the many effects of climate change threaten our planet’s fragile ecologies with habitat loss. Tactics of “rewilding” are being introduced to cities, in efforts to bolster populations of threatened species, but is that enough to counter the deleterious effects emerging in the Anthropocene? How might we, as designers, cultivate a shift in attitude toward co-habiting the world with other species?

This studio will explore the socio-cultural, ecological, and spatial frictions produced by the presence of animals in cities – not as ‘problems’ to solve, but rather, as sites for, and instigators of architectural responses. We will explore the tactics of zoos – tapping into the effects of non-human charisma and spectacle, for example – to bring awareness to the significance of urban ecologies. Projects will address fundamental questions in reconciling ‘nature’ and ‘culture,’ not as two separate spheres but as a complex and dynamic milieu.

We will begin with a series of exercises focusing on materializing research and speculation through processes of making and drawing. These exercises will lead to a project to propose zoological interventions in Toronto at multiple scales.