Thesis Abstract_V8_10/21/11
The primary architectural interest of this thesis is to test the power dynamics of space using the vehicle of education. The structures of power that surround learning environments in the US have created what Michel Foucault calls docile bodies - people that become subjected, used, transformed and improved by the disciplining machine that is the institution. For the purpose of this reseach, the definition of education has been expanded to encompass a more broad term ‘cultural exchange’ and the school has become simply the places where this exchange happens.
The questions I am asking are: how can architecture create learning environments that reject the production of the docile body? In what ways can architecture mitigate the power of rank or hierarchy within learning environments? And how is it possible for architecture to expand the meaning of education?
The site for this investigation will be Greenville, CA. A rural town in the High Sierras with two schools whose test scores are both falling below the State median. The schools, Greenville Junior/Senior High School and Indian Valley Academy, are radically different pedagogically and after a Foucauldian analysis that difference is shown in one being a more restrictive disciplinary machine than the other one. That said, however, they are both falling behind, so perhaps the problem lies not with the pedagogic model, but with the institution of ‘The School’.
Ivan Illich, in his book Deschooling Society (1970), critiques contemporary schools as intitutionalised systems that lead to “physical pollution, social polarization and psychological impotence”. He propounds that everybody has something to teach someone, and proposed an internet-like web to create learning networks which overcome the primacy of the academy.
In analysing a broad range of places of cultural exchange, the research revealed the importance of informal elder/novice and peer-to-peer learning as extremely liberal in its disciplinary outlook. Community becomes a major driver in the exchange of culture and presents novel learning opportunities that rely on proven techniques for knowledge retention.
The thesis proposes a new typology of school that embraces peer led community learning, but rejects a prescribed structure for learning timelines and opens every role within the ‘school’ to everyone. The school is combined with the community centre, which is combined with the salon-era coffee shop.
