In the spring of 2012, Professor Lena Vassilev of the School of Architecture at Syracuse University ran a prototype course in Thinklab, the first course run in the new facility. The course, Connected Urbanisms was part of a transdisciplinary research endeavor that featured the work and design of graduate and upper level undergraduate students at the school.
Collaborations using think lab resources and methodologies were stored digitally as experimental data for the development of the Thinklab collaborative archiving system.
As well, students in the course produced the blog, Connected Urbanisms, as a database, catalogue, and forum to showcase student work in the course.
From the course introduction:
- Somewhere in 2008, humans became an urban species, with more than half the world population living in cities.
Our built environments are extreme energy intensive systems, completely out of balance with the natural environment. How can one begin to understand the complexities of our urban, political, and social systems and the ways in which they impact our planet? How can architects participate in the impending and necessary paradigm shift towards a more viable urban ecosystem?