Critical Proximity: Uniting Community Engagement and Research in The Architectural Design Curriculum

Abstract

The architecture curriculum is usually divided into studio courses and lecture, or seminar courses where design and research, respectively, are separately pursued. Although the curriculum is crafted to unite the approaches of design, the humanities, and the sciences that together comprise the architectural endeavor, in practice, these forms of inquiry are divided along epistemic lines into separate courses that rarely intersect. Two structures common to architecture programs, however, avoid these divisions: the community design center, and the research studio. The first unifies design with community engagement and exposure to real-world issues, while the second incorporates humanistic or scientific research into the studio. In this paper, we present the work of a three-course Humanities Lab sequence recently taught at Miami University of Ohio that pursued methodological promiscuity by uniting community-based research and design. In so doing, we jettisoned the expertise traditionally claimed by the architect to create a more inclusive practice by centering on the lived experience, history, and expertise of community members instead of buildings. We engaged in what Eyal Weizman has called “critical proximity,” in which the distantiated position of the researcher is rejected in favor of working alongside and for marginalized communities. Over the course of three semesters, we explored the impact of critical proximity in three different endeavors–a seminar, a research studio, and in exhibition design–and engaged corollary pedagogical and methodological strategies that leveraged our critically-proximate position: thickness, community-based research, and decen-tered production. Together, these strategies allowed us to reimagine the role of the architect as a designer-re-searcher aligned with community interests.