LA 4008 Advanced Topics Studio: Synthetic Urban Ecologies
The fall 2013 “Synthetic Urban Ecologies” advanced topics studio emphasized site-specific urban and industrial influenced ecological systems. Students were charged to develop divisive interventions for the Port of Oakland, Oakland Army Base, and neighboring West Oakland communities, a site where environmental conditions have presented severe health risks and environmental impacts as well as social and environmental injustice due to the concentration of air pollution in the form of particulate matter. Using the innovative work that Urban Biofilter is pursuing through Adapt Oakland, a project that develops standards and policy recommendations for green urban infill at both city and state levels, the studio took advantage of the unique opportunities the site presents for adaptive design within a working urban and industrial landscape.
Advanced topics studios in landscape architecture address research and projects in the profession and make up part of the landscape architecture program’s travel requirements. The studios are a vertical mix of fifth-year undergraduate students and third-year graduate students.
