The Ecstasy of Influence: an urban Design Studio

research, teaching, and student work

Titled after Jonathan Lethem’s 2007 essay, “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism,” this graduate design studio investigates the uses and limits of precedent in architectural and urban design. Setting aside issues of originality, students use historical and contemporary precedents as direct source material for their design works. Combining overtly appropriated precedents with collage techniques, students explore alternative design methods toward the development of an heterogeneous and inclusive urbanism.

Design prompts require rapid design iterations: high-density housing, articulated municipal networks, ecological systems, and cultural spaces. Associated theoretical readings and historical precedents underscore the breadth and relevance of collage theory and technique in architecture.

Students given license to become ‘active readers’ of history, to work transparently and forcefully with precedent and engage the history of the discipline as a cultural commons of knowledge, reveal that appropriation enriches the range of their methods, resulting in transformed and, paradoxically, original works.

credits

Architecture 554 Studio: The Ecstasy of Influence, University of Idaho-Boise, Spring 2020, Dwaine Carver

Students:

Kayla Duclos

Samantha Jesser

Lauren Johnson

Elyse Hardesty

Kelsey Ramsey

Lyndsay Watkins

Adriana Zamorano-Gonzalez

Publications: “Precedent and Influence: An Urban Design Studio Project,” Architectural Research Centers Consortium – European Association for Architectural Education (ARCC-EAAE Resilient City 2022)