Architecture and Urbanism in Ecology, Media and Culture

Abstract

This book is a portfolio that consists of the work of my studios and TI elective coursework based on my territory of investigation- Architecture and Urbanism. It is the reflection of my understanding of architecture and urbanism supported by my work of studios and elective coursework. Due to the variety of my studios and courses, I have divided the reflection mainly into three aspects and tried to elaborate my understanding of the relationship between urbanism and ecology, and media, and culture respectively. In the ecology part, I mainly focus on the construction material issues and try out a new method of urban design- from material properties to aggregation and finally to urban design. In the media part, I try to challenge the traditional urban viewpoint and put the urban issue in a highly variable and complex digital context. I intend to apply more advanced technology to explore its potential to deal with increasing uncertainty in the contemporary urban environment, which is supported by one studio and the cybernetic course. In the third aspect, culture, I regard urbanism as a cultural phenomenon to read the multi-cultural influence and cultural continuity and evolution in two architecture history courses. I use some examples of American cities and Japanese architectural cultures to illustrate this relationship. From these three aspects, the book gives a comparatively comprehensive recording of my work during the study of the M.S.AAD program at Cornell.