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a vocabulary for the public school (for architecture)

terms to be found in a discussion about evading the limits of architecture. this text was originally written for common circular 4 – public school (for architecture) fall 2009.

itinerant: courses … will be organized throughout new york city as itinerant installations.

transitional

spaces in between

lobbies

corridors

vestibules

thresholds

institutional: we found that it would be more useful to consider re-programming existing typologies and institutional prototypes, than to propose new, explicitly, architectural solutions.

public institution

institutional architecture

public architecture

public space

public sphere

public school

public access

public knowledge

public: a public for the school and for architecture must be created, or create itself, by engaging in the potential for self-organization.

self-organizing

feedback

social systems

group collaboration

shared experience

collective intelligence

encounter

engagement

engage: acquire meaning through varied engagement of class participants.

participate

user

implicate

motivate

produce

actor

audience

student: “not something that can really be used by a student.”

pupil

learning

instructor

educator

explicator

teacher

critic

peer

architect: “i’m not an architect so maybe this is naive.”

architecture

discipline

disciplinary

inter-disciplinary

boundaries

community

field

practice

process: working to-scale in the built environment is a productive form of negotiation.

dialogue

discussion

exchange

discourse

equality

knowledge

exchange

forum

classroom: to install classrooms in semi-public transitional spaces.

teaching

learning

room

panel

workshop

lab

lecture

pedagogy: “the state of education today.”

curriculum

understanding

ignorant

knowing

unknowing

emancipation

unequal

equal

open: the lounge will be open to the public each wednesday.

openness

radical

openness

open

work

open up

open-ended

undetermined

unknown

future: the future of the public school (for architecture).

possible

impossible

more

continue

continuing

shape

free: “these practices are never free.”

free from

free of

free for all

set free

emancipate

consciousness

self-conscious

self-organize

community: reactivate community into a productive force that can begin to make sense of current cultural conditions.

groups

group

together

common room

common interests

common area

commons boundary

definition

the  public  school  (for  architecture)  new  york

common  circular  4  –  public  school  for  architecture new york  fall  2009

last updated November 5, 2024