Through a series of presentations by scholars, scientists, poets, popular writers, architects and other passionate observers, the course will engage the students with a meaningful dialogue concerning one's position and obligation to a specific place. The region as both a physical and cultural landscape, as well as the cultures it has formed and sustained, will be the primary focus. Each class will cover a separate topic such as ecology, archaeology, geography, history and myth, architecture, folklore, music and additional subjects, all relevant to the Sonoran Region. While always designed for the general student, when possible, the presentations and discussion will be made pertinent to the disciplines of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Planning. There will be three required self-guided field trips, selected from a choice of eight options, along with contemporaneous field notes.
Time is more geologic than biologic.
It accumulates layer upon layer, incrementally slow until all at once the pattern reverses. Ripping through the strata, erosion lays open the past, exposing the raw edges of history -Scott Thybony, Burntwater O'odham architecture, moreover, was a practical consideration in an arid land. Mesquite, grass, ribs of saguaro cacti, and similar plant materials were used in building structures. To build them was not labor intensive and to give them up, either permanently or temporarily, caused no great sacrifice to individual or community. O'odham, who slept and cooked out of doors except in inclement weather, rested lightly upon their landscape.