Stitched into the American landscape are thousands of intercontinental ballistic missile silos dating from the Cold War. The assumed quietness of the bucolic American prairie once concealed some of the world’s most technologically advanced – and geopolitically sinister - landscapes.  While the American prairie was nipped & tucked with billions of dollars’ worth of military defense infrastructure in the form of ICBM missile silos (a kind of ‘technology in the garden’), cities across the US were also ‘fortified’ by rings of Nike Missile silos designed to shoot down incoming missiles. From San Francisco to Chicago to New York among many others, 9-15 missile sites encircle(d) metropolitan centers, offering the strangest form of “urbanism” (or perhaps, sub-urbanism). Today, as military defense strategies shift to other means, many of these sites lay idle, offering perplexing scenarios for reuse and speculation. On one hand, their remote splendor offers the potential for leisurely retreat into the ‘American garden’, while on the other hand their darker technological and geo-political histories beckon for critical forms of reuse and appropriation. These are sites with deep political histories -  and futures – as well as countryside frontier-scapes that have long captivated the spirit of the west.This studio considers the post-military missile site by proposing controversial interventions, appropriations, and adaptive reuse strategies emphasized by form, typology, materiality, and environmental sensitivities. Each student will be asked to address the use of the existing missile silo itself and its associated infrastructure, landscape, and perception through architectural interventions, as well as to consider/alter existing surface topography (plan) and sub-terranean conditions (section).In this studio, each student will work individually within their local missile site context, to be chosen by each student. There will be some aspects of individual work that feeds into group research, however each student will be asked to develop a theory of adaptive reuse and appropriation through a series of techniques regarding architectural form, material, and environmental consciousness in relation to broader cultural, social, or political contexts, and which manifests in the design proposal. Considerations for new imaginations for anachronistic types, such as bell tower’s, wishing wells, or belvedere’s (among others), sci-fi futures, and/or communally engaged typologies such as artist retreats or bath houses are encouraged in concert with current technological and environmental concerns.

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