ARCH399/ARCH499 Requires prior faculty approval and full deposit of $500 to Marywood's Cashier's office to be included. Receipts for deposit, should be dropped off at the Marywood International Affairs Office, Liberal Arts Center 220, along with the paperwork for Insurance and Agreement attached to this website under documents. No student will be included without the submission of these requirements.

This class will be cross-listed as an undergraduate and graduate course primarily for students in the Architecture and Interior Architecture programs, although other students from other departments are welcome to take the class as a general elective.
With an emphasis on Experiential Learning, Marywood's Architecture faculty are offering this May term class hoping to cultivate, through travel to Stockholm, Sweden, an integration of holistic design in adaptive reuse. The goal of implementing experiential learning in this class is to facilitate an international travel experience that raises the social consciousness, fiscal responsibilty and environmental awareness combined to create sustainable in design as fostered by a different culture.

Architects can choose to become leaders who can solve the very complicated problems of society today. Not because these problems are all three-dimensional or design-oriented, but because architecture is a profession that understands how to integrate very disparate, competing interests into complicated systems that ultimately serves everybody. Mockbee presents architecture as a discipline rooted in community and shares his mission statement, incorporating design with environmental, social, political and esthetic issues while showing students they can make a difference.

The implementation of Socially Responsible Architecture is a chance to prove that sustainable architecture can be applied and be successful on multiple levels. Here, it can be argued that the architecture will be environmentally sensitive while programmatically socially thoughtful; that design can be developed to create interesting and invigorating spaces; that it can provide positive economic stimulation; and that it can all be balanced to form a cohesive unit.

For today, socially responsible architects must serve as a bridge across borders, to develop architecture that responsibly serves people and their communities without imposing arbitrary restrictions - an architecture that understands real human needs, such as privacy, space, as well as freedom and an architecture that balances design with sustainable consciousness. It is the responsibility of the contemporary model of architectural education to incorporate high design standards, promote self-reliance as well as innovation via architecture.

Stockholm was one of the destinations that co-founded the ICCA Scandinavia Sustainability Index, today called the Global Destinations Sustainability Index, assessing and reporting on the sustainability performance of destinations around the world. We will visit Stockholm to expose students to a culture where sustainable design is the bellwether by which responsible design is measured, implemented and executed. Actual sustainability can only result from a much more holistic approach where every aspect of environmental, economic and social impact is part of the equation.