SPRING ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM
Temple University, Japan Campus

CORE ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM

The Architecture Program at Temple University, Japan Campus, offers the opportunity to learn from one of the world’s most resilient and ever- changing cities.  Immersed in life in Tokyo, students experience and learn about the diverse mix of tradition and modernity in the Japanese urban landscape.

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TUJ offers an architecture program as part of the spring semester study abroad program. The program is designed for Temple Architecture students in their third year in Temple University’s Architecture program but is also open to students from other universities (so please inquire with your school’s architecture department about attending our program). The program is designed for students majoring in architecture as well as facilities management, historic preservation, landscape architecture, and urban design/studies. Graduate students are welcome.

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Key Features
• Designed to open up the world of Japanese architecture – its history, traditions and influences as well as its highly unique contemporary forms, challenges, practices and innovations – to students.
• As a participant, you will gain an understanding of the history and sources of Japanese architecture and urbanism and become conversant in contemporary thought and practice in Japanese architecture and urban planning.

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Courses
• Students enroll in 12-18 credits.
• A six-credit design studio and a three-credit theory/history course form the academic cornerstone of the architecture program, which includes site visits throughout Tokyo, as well as guest lectures and critiques.
• You will choose your other courses from the broad range of TUJ’s offerings in various disciplines; Japanese language,  Asian studies, Art History  are recommended.

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Note: As the architecture program is a special spring semester offering, there is no permanent studio space at TUJ; a regular classroom is used, and slightly modified, to accommodate the studio course.

Architecture Design Studio in Tokyo

Arch 3233 (801)

Spring 2016

Instructor: JAMES LAMBIASI

Course Description:

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Tokyo offers a glimpse of urban situations that challenges how we define cities.  Knit tightly together by the most intricate public transportation system in the world, Tokyo is a matrix of several cities in one, each one with its own center and vibrant character. Dense population in this metropolis pushes even the smallest sites to accommodate buildings, often producing interesting and new solutions and designs. Whereas in most cities disparities among social classes generate physical barriers, the relative absence of this in Japanese society has allowed the city to mature and develop in a more fluid, delicate manner that blurs boundaries with great subtlety. Add to this the highly sophisticated construction industry and respect for building craft, one may refer to Tokyo as an “urban laboratory” that is constantly evolving.  It is the goal of this design studio to provide greater insight of this unique urban environment by engaging it directly with one’s own design proposals. 

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Design problems posed in this studio will require application of critical thought to this unfamiliar environment and to its larger context of Japanese culture. Writings, drawings, CAD plans, computer graphics, and models will be used by students to present their ideas. Projects should express creativity and new thought while simultaneously stressing the importance of responding to the human inhabitants they impact.

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This studio will be organized into two parts; the first stage will consist of an intensive analysis period to familiarize students with the unique characteristics of the Tokyo urban context, and the second stage of the semester will be a design intervention within Tokyo.  Students will be required to formulate their own design site and topic, therefore the time spent during the initial analysis period will become a very necessary knowledge base. 

Architecture and Urbanism in Japan

ARCH 3242 (801)/ ASST 3030 (801)

Spring 2016

Instructor: DEANNA MacDONALD

Course Description:

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We all have a vision of what is Japanese architecture. But what makes a style, a design or material Japanese? In this class, you will learn about the rich and complex history behind Japan’s celebrated  architecture and urbanism. We will examine individual buildings and landscapes, considering the historic, economic, socio-political, geographic and technological forces that have shaped both the historical and contemporary built environment.
 
We will start with early traditions of wooden structures including renewable Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, teahouses and urban and rural residences. The development of modern design methodologies and theories from the Meiji era onward will be explored, considering Japan’s interactions with the West and Modernist interpretations of architectural traditions. The repeated destruction of the urban landscape and the resulting effects on design and ecology will help frame our discussion of the 20th century. Throughout, the course will consider Japanese architectural history in its global context, considering the varied international influences on, and of, Japanese architecture, from Imperial China to Frank Lloyd Wright to the many "star" architects (Tange, Maki, Ando, Hasegawa, Ito, Sejima, Ban, Kuma, etc.) whose work spans the globe.

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The course is designed to complement the Architectural-Design Studio, offering students a fuller appreciation of contemporary architecture practice and design by grounding them in the history and theory of Japanese architectural and aesthetic history.

FACULTY

Instructor: Deanna MacDonald    

Deanna MacDonald is an art/architectural historian and author with a focus on global cultural history, in particular the long history of cultural interaction between Asia and Europe/the Americas. She has written extensively about art, architecture and cultural heritage in Japan, Europe and beyond as well as contemporary architecture in Japan. She received her MA from the Central European University, Prague, and her PhD from McGill University, Montreal. She has taught both art and architectural history at Temple University's Tokyo campus since 2013.