LDAR Advanced Elective Studio

Rhode Island School of Design

Faculty: Larissa Belcic
[email protected]
Class Time: TUE: 9-11am + 12:00-4:00pm and THUR 12:00-4:00

Darkness as a Medium of Vision

Expanded site design for ecological crisis, emotion & change

“The only lasting truth is change.”

-Octavia Butler, The Parable of the Sower

SCOPE & Method

In this studio, we will approach questions of change and emotion in a moment of ecological crisis.
Whatever one might think of today’s era, “change” is infused throughout; indeed, one of the predominant
forces shaping contemporary politics is named after change-- climate change. As planetary weather
systems shift and their ramifications play out across spheres, the world is in the grip of a full-bodied
process of change that implicates many dimensions -- the ecological, cultural, economic, political, etc.
Throughout the semester, we will interrogate this moment of change, through the application of design,
through design research, and through interrogation and self-determination of our roles and responsibilities
as practitioners (and people) alive in this moment.

Adaptation is the process of reconfiguration in response to changing conditions. Often when landscape
architects approach questions of climate change adaptation, or meeting other challenges of ecological
crisis and transformation, it is through a lens of reshaping the social-technical landscape in order to better
tune to shifting ecological conditions. In this studio, we will expand the scope of the landscape architect in
the face of ecological crisis and transformation and reach into the emotional dimensions of environmental
degradation, loss, and climate change adaptation as made manifest through cultural practice and
place-making.

Underlying climate change is a well of cultural conditions and histories that give rise to today’s
anthropogenic levels of impact on planetary and local systems. Indigenous activists across the world have
long argued that climate change is a result of imperialist ontologies and colonization campaigns that aim
to control and exploit land and peoples, leaving complex legacies of violence, trauma and disconnection
both between peoples and between people and environment. To address climate change and design for
change in our environmental relationships is to dive into this well.
The growing field of climate psychology and sociology is demonstrating to the Western world what many
other cultures have long understood- that addressing climate change is not just about finding technical
solutions, but necessitates facing cultural behaviors derived from complex emotional responses.
Sociologist Kari Norgaard uncovered that widespread non-response to climate change is fueled by
“socially-organized denial:” a system of cultural codes that enable members of a society to maintain
emotional and existential distance from the often-overwhelming realities of climate change. Without
cultural support for collective emotional engagement and meaning-making, individuals are left grappling in
isolation with today’s dark realities, and without resources for collectively and proactively creating new
possibilities.

It is clear -- climate change is a culturally-specific, emotional experience that we face as a collective and
as individuals, each of us in different ways in accordance with our geographies, political & economic
identities, and ancestral ties to the legacies that have brought us to this moment. Addressing these
diverse and specific experiences is essential to creating the conditions needed for adaptation. In this
studio, we will bring our skills and tools as landscape architects to bear on this reality.

We will work to design new modes of cultural place-making and activity that address the
emotional conditions brought about by ecological crises and that support communities in making
just, restorative transformations. We will infuse traditional landscape architectural practice with
techniques from experience design, designing not only site but the collective practices and
experiences that structure a community’s inhabitation of site.

In our design work, we will draw from precedents within landscape architecture and place-making that are
designed to support a community’s collective emotional and cultural life; sites such as cemeteries,
memorials, temples, festival grounds, and reflective gardens. We will also dive into expansive
understandings of “landscape” as the domain of human-nonhuman relationship, understanding site to be
not only material systems and structures, but the sets of cultural practices and beliefs that exist in
mutually-influential relationship with them, as made manifest through cultural forms such as ritual and
festival. As outlined by philosopher Carolyn Merchant, a community manifests and activates its
philosophy of the non-human world in part through its ritual practices. Cultural forms such as harvest
festivals and solstice rites all work to structure the conversation between a community, its modes of
production and reproduction, land, and the non-human.

A concurrent project of the studio will be interrogation and self-determination of our roles and
responsibilities as practitioners (and people) alive today. In this moment that necessitates a reshaping of
political possibilities, the deconstruction of existing systems and the creation of new systems, we must be
critical of the discipline itself, the ways in which it inherits and perpetuates historically harmful attitudes
and dynamics, and make our own decisions about the work that must be done and the ways in which we
want to do it, as informed by understandings of the legacies we inherit.

We will explore this through readings, reflective exercises and discussion, and through design and design
research. The latter portion of the studio will be devoted to design research interrogation of our own
ancestries and geographies. We will work to understand the ways that climate risk, environmental
degradation, and change, and their attendant cultural and emotional challenges, manifest in our
self-defined ‘homes.’ Finally, we will use design as a tool to projectively design place and community
practice that provides social resource for our home communities in facing challenge and change.
SITE
The studio will work with two sites throughout the semester. In Phase 1, we will collectively engage
Warren, RI, a coastal municipality about 12 miles south of Providence. Warren, RI is proactively planning
for risks and changes projected due to sea level rise and other climate change impacts. However, there is
a gap between the Planning Department and the community’s readiness to prepare for climate change.
We will engage with the barriers of communication as we design for supporting the community in
preparing for change. Together, we will dive into the emotional aspects of how a community prepares to
face projected loss due to sea level rise. How does a community grapple with the potential reality of losing
its home? What kinds of resources and structures can the designer construct to address the attendant
emotional challenges and empower a community in dreaming of new possibilities?

Phases 2-3 will kick off with an exercise derived from work by the architectural practice Hawai`i
Non-Linear. We will dive into a process of self-determination of our own geographies, ancestries, and
ideas of home. From this process, we will each identify a site to work with that in some way we identify as
‘home,’, understanding site to not be only a place, but a set of cultural-environmental dynamics. We will
work within this context for the rest of the semester.

The last site of the studio is ourselves. Through readings and responses, discussions, and creative
exercises, we will dive into our thoughts and feelings on being alive in a time of ecological crisis and
planetary-scale change, and on entering into landscape architectural practice at this time. Throughout the
semester, each of us will compile our archive of reflections into a collected, multimedia document.

STUDIO Aims
Goals

● Deepen understanding of the role of design, specifically landscape architecture, in addressing

emotional and cultural aspects of ecological crisis, climate adaptation, and resilience.

● Investigate the role and responsibilities of the landscape architect in light of the underlying
political, economic, cultural, and geographical dynamics of ecological crisis and our contemporary
moment.

● Explore our own geographic, cultural and ancestral identities in the context of our landscape
architectural practice, and engage these dynamics both when working in a “local” context and a
“non-local” context.
Objectives

● Build skills for researching, understanding, and representing complex cultural-environmental

dynamics.

● Strengthen abilities for self-reflection and self-determination in landscape architecture practice.

● Practice moving fluidly between research and design in the design process.

● Practice landscape architectural site design.

● Expand design thinking into the design of cultural place-making activity such as festival, ritual,
and group experiences

● Utilize multi-disciplinary techniques, methods, and concepts in the design process.

● Practice multi-media representation using drawing, modeling, prototyping, audio, etc. to convey
research and design ideas.

● Practice skills for collective conversation and reflection.

Studio Schedule
Schedule is subject to change based on the needs of the class.

PhasE 1: Warren, Ri

WEEK 01: Sept. 08

Studio introduction
Group reflection
Presentation of Assignment 1 and first steps

WEEK 02: Sept. 13

AM: Presentation of Phase 1 Assignment
PM: Field trip to Warren, RI;
Meeting w/ Bob Rulli, Director of Planning and Community Development

Sept.15
Desk crits

WEEK 03: Sept. 20

AM: Guest lecture from Merritt Juliano, JD LCSW on Climate Change Psychology
Discussion/Reflection
PM: Desk crits
 Sept. 22 [Remote]
Desk crits

WEEK 04: Sept. 27

AM: Lecture on Place + Ritual
PM: Desk crits

Sept. 29
Group pin-up and discussion

WEEK 05: Oct. 04

AM: Final Prep + Setup
PM: PRESENTATION

Phase 2: Self-Determination + Design Research

Oct. 06
PM: Presentation of Phase 2

WEEK 06: Oct. 11

AM: Lecture + Discussion: Colonialism + Climate Change
PM: Desk crit

Oct. 13
Desk crit

WEEK 07: Oct. 18

AM: Lecture: Self + Practice
Discussion/Reflection
PM:Desk crit

Oct. 20
PM: Pin-up

WEEK 08: Oct. 25

AM:
PM: Desk crit

Oct. 27:
PM: Guest visit w/ Sean Connelly (lecture + crits)

WEEK 09: Nov. 01

AM: Final prep + set-up
PM: Mid-Review
Phase 3: Design

Nov. 03 Lecture: Phase 3

[remote class)

WEEK 10: Nov. 08

AM: Guest lecture: Michelle Shofet, Sound + Experience (date may shift)
PM: Desk crit

Nov. 10
PM: Desk crit

WEEK 11: Nov. 15

AM: Desk crit
PM: Desk crit

Nov. 17
Desk crit

WEEK 12: Nov. 22

AM: Pin-up
PM: Pin-up

Nov. 24: NO CLASS THANKSGIVING

WEEK 13: Nov. 29

AM: Desk crit
PM: Desk crit

Dec. 01 [Remote]
Desk crits

WEEK 14: Dec. 06

AM: Discussion
PM: Desk crit

Dec. 10
FINAL REVIEW!
COURSE LOGISTICS

(Catherine Hilgers, Rave Ethics, 2016, online zine)

This class is yours as much as it is mine. We will all get out of it what we put in (and hopefully more). The
final outcome is something that we will create together. At our best, we will be able to come together in
the spirit of compassion, creativity, and purpose and make something that
illuminates some corner of this complex, often confusing world. As your instructor I will do my best to
make that happen, and I warmly invite each of us to do the same.

The sections below outline standard RISD academic policy as pertains to this class. Above all, it is my
goal to teach this course with compassion and honesty; in that light, please consider that we can work
together to find fluidity in these policies as needed. You are always welcome to talk with me about any
matter that may be intruding upon your ability to thrive in the class.
EVALUATION

Student performance will be evaluated on evidence of competency in the conceptual and technical
content of the course. Daily studio performance--in both process and product--is key to a successful term.
The following criteria will be considered when grading: (1) strength of ideas; (2) articulation and
development; (3) technical competency, clarity, and craft; (4) clarity of presentations; (5) participation,
commitment, effort and improvement. Class attendance is mandatory and more than two absences in the
semester will result in a half grade-point reduction per absence, unless discussed with the instructor and
the situation is navigated together. All requirements and deadlines must be completed in a timely manner.

Students who fulfill course requirements in a manner that displays competent conceptual and technical
mastery of the course content as described above will receive a B. Work that exceeds or fall short of that
standard will be graded accordingly. A grade of B- indicates need for improvement. A grade below B- is a
probationary grade. Midterm evaluations will assess progress. Any students performing below the
requirements for a B in the course will be given a warning at that time and must meet with their faculty to
discuss ways to improve their standing.

GRADING

A (excellent) exceptional performance; strongly exceeding the requirements of the course, showing strong
academic initiative and independent resourcefulness.

B (good) performance above the norm; accurate and complete; beyond the minimum requirements of the
course; work demonstrates marked progress and initiative.

C (average) satisfactory work that adequately meets minimum requirements and demonstrates
satisfactory comprehension, communication skills, and effort; demonstrates little initiative to investigate
the problem without substantial prodding of the instructor; work shows little improvement.

D (inferior) unsatisfactorily meets minimum requirements; demonstrates minimum comprehension,

communication skills, and effort at an inferior level; initiative lacking; improvement not noticeable

F (failing) does not meet minimum requirements; fails to adequately demonstrate comprehension,

communication skills, and effort.

CLASS POLICY

All RISD academic policy for this course is outlined in detail in the course catalogue for the 2022-2023.
Please review the catalogue carefully to understand the institutional policies. Students should refer to the
policies defining academic standing, academic dishonesty and all academic conduct that are outlined in
the Course Announcement Catalogue.
ATTENDANCE

Scheduled appointments and professional interviews will not be accepted as excused absences. Students
must notify faculty of any excused absences in advance or as soon as possible on the day of their
absence. Faculty contact information is located at the top of the course syllabus. RISD affirms the right of
students to observe significant religious holy days. Students should inform their instructor on the first day
of class/studio of such circumstances if class attendance will be affected.

DISABILITY

Students who are unable to fulfill the requirements of the course or course schedule should consult with
the course instructor before or in the first week of class to develop alternative strategies for successfully
moving through the class. If at any time in the semester, medical or personal problems arise that begin to
affect a student’s ability to attend class or complete work, they are encouraged to speak with their faculty
as soon as possible to discuss their options for completing the course successfully.

CELL PHONE, SOCIAL MEDIA, AND INTERNET

Cell phones and PDA devices must be turned off or set to silence during class. Students who use their
cell phone for translation services must advise their faculty of that need at the beginning of class.
Computers shall be utilized for course-sanctioned research and requirements during class hours.

DOCUMENTATION

All original drawings must be retained and submitted at the end of the course. All work should be stored
flat in a dedicated portfolio case. It is recommended that the scanning of drawings happen frequently
during the semester rather than at one time. All course work must be submitted to the department as a
digital file at the close of the semester. Failure to submit proper documentation of work will result in an
incomplete grade for the course.
REFERENCES
Butler, Octavia E. 2019. Parable of the Sower. London, England: Headline Book Publishing.

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy. London: Granta, 2008.

Merchant, Carolyn. Ecological Revolutions: Nature, Gender & Science in New England. Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989.

Morton, Timothy. “Guilt Shame Sadness: Tuning to Co-Existence.” In Volume Magazine, Issue
31. Amsterdam: Archis, 2012.

Norgaard, Kari. Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life. Cambridge: MIT
Press, 2011.

Shofet, Michelle and Larissa Belcic. “Party: Ecological Architecture for Intimate Relations.” In
Thresholds No. 46 Cambridge: MIT Press, 2018.

Solnit, Rebecca. Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities. Chicago: Haymarket
Books, 2016.

Tuhiwai Smith, Linda. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. London:
Zed Books, 2002.

Wilson, Shawn. Research is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods. Black Point: Fernwood
Publishing, 2008.

Wray, Britt. Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis. Toronto: Knopf
Canada, 2022.

Other intellectual Credits include

Sean Connelly & Dominic Leong (Hawai`i Non-Linear), Tada Hozumi, Lama Rod Owens,
adrienne maree brown, Robert MacFarlane, Michelle Shofet, Joanna Macy, bell hooks, and
many more that we shall discover as we move through the course.