A situation is the manner in which objects and/or people are disposed in a particular location and time. To describe the situation is often to speculate on the various possibilities for actions or consequences given the circumstances.

A pedagogical experiment, the Situation Studio introduces a range of design strategies and representational techniques, with the ambition to test architecture’s capacity for sponsoring activities, calibrating processes, anticipating scenarios, and producing material effects. The course, subdivided into a series of four discrete exercises, focuses on interrogating the relationship between program, material, and place, but varied in scale, velocity and framework. In the spirit of collective research, projects will rely on different combinations of individual and group work, tackling as-found conditions, civic spaces, and urban events, all within the messy territory of opportunistic experimentation.

Over the span of a semester, students test new media, construct scenographies, throw parties, make collective drawings – all the while considering program outside the limitations of both prescriptive and indeterminate paradigms. The Situation Studio kicks off with a week long workshop where students produce 'exercise videos', a quick and dirty exploration of what it means to collaborate and create vibe.

SITUATION STUDIO

Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning, 2013-2015

Coordinator: Anya Sirota

Collaborating Faculty: Meredith Miller & Thom Moran

Enabler: John McMorrough

Animations: Pyramid the Pound Fuzz, Sirota studio; Heard It Through the Chaotic Monotony of the Digital Vine, Miller studio; Chamakay Yoga Dance, Moran studio