Designed primarily for architecture and interior design students, but open to students from other majors, this summer abroad travel studio visits three locales in Mexico: Mexico City (and environs), Oaxaca (Oaxaca Valley), and Merida (the Yucatan). The studio weaves together cultural research, material exploration, and design innovation to explore the resonance between traditional craft practices (both indigenous and colonial era) and contemporary techniques of architectural design and production, with a special focus on sustainable and low carbon practice. Activities include workshops, onsite tours, fabrication facility visits, office visits, and guest talks by local builders, architects, and designers. The studio will culminate in a three-day charette in collaboration with Mexican architecture students from UNAM and Universidad Iberoamericana. We will learn from our immersion in Mexico’s rich material cultures and speculate how these practices can inform new ways of designing and making wherever one is living.

This traveling studio looks to the rich histories and cultural milieus of these three places as a way to develop a critical understanding of how traditional material practices can dovetail with contemporary techniques of design and fabrication. Special focus will be on earth-based materials: including stone, brick, rammed earth, compressed earth blocks, adobe, and cob; and natural fiber materials: such as bamboo, reeds, palm, and agave.

Students wishing to register for this course need to first obtain instructor approval by emailing the instructor (instructor emails are listed with a more detailed program description in portal: cca.edu/abroad). Once a student is approved, registration must be done online during a special registration appointment for study abroad students.

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