Architecture for the Poor versus the Desire of the Poor: The Ambivalent Reception of Hassan Fathy’s Architectural Legacy

Until the 19th century, architecture was primarily shaped by the collective taste and not the ingenuity of a single architect. Aside from monumental buildings and edifices associated with power, ordinary houses were built by ordinary people. During the 20th century and especially after the destruction of many European cities during the First World War, the social role of architects radically transformed. Le Corbusier, for example, represented the emblematic figure of the architect as a privileged agent of social change. Modernist architecture thus became the global model for development in the post-war era. Architects and politicians alike in North African and South American countries used European Modernism to express their desire for modernity and democracy. Hassan Fathy (1900-1989), however, is one of the early architects who contested white modernist architecture of the 1930s. Some historians have discussed the work of Fathy along Kenneth Frampton’s notion of critical regionalism. This paper opens a new window into Fathy’s ambivalent relationship with the public he committed to serve. He saw his responsibility to build with considerations for context, whether climatic, cultural, or tectonic. Yet, the public for whom he was building had an entirely conflicting desire for architecture. This is shown through Gourni’s refusal to relocate to Fathy’s New Gourna village, designed in upper Egypt in the 1940s. Through Jacques Rancière’s “The Distribution of the Sensible, between Aesthetics and Politics”, this paper compares the design philosophy of Fathy with the reception of his work by the general public, contemporary architects, and political entities in Egypt. It investigates the contradictory prevailing character of Fathy’s architecture and his aspirations for an architecture for the poor. It argues that architecture, with the architect as a sociopolitical catalyzer for a new world and way of living, promoting equality, holds a dominant character that persisted in Fathy’s practice

Contrasting Architectural Philosophies: Andrea Palladio and Adolf Loos Through the Lens of Ornamentation, Aesthetic, and Techniques

Through the eyes of ornamentation, aesthetic, techniques, this research investigates the contrasting architectural philosophies of Andrea Palladio ( 1508 -1580 ) and Adolf Loos ( 1870 - 1933 ) . Even though they were 4 centuries apart they builders represent opposing viewpoints that had a significant impact on how each time period developed. Loos who despised ornamentation at the start of the modernist movement, is known for saying that ornament is crime. Palladio\u27s Italian Renaissance development of Classical ornamentation was in complete contrast to Loos\u27s practical and stern aesthetics. Palladio used elaborate carved elements, columns, and pediments into his designs. Influenced extensively from the architectural style of the ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Stylistically Loos started a new minimalist way which coincided with his Raumplan concept of spatial planning, while Palladio revived and reinterpreted Classical orders and proportions. Loose dropped non-essential elements, preferring to use simple cubic forms and industrial materials like steel and glass. Inversely Palladio\u27s famous villas and churches gave the essence of elegance and refinement with their symmetry, correct proportions, and traditional masonry construction. Although the two architects had a philosophical difference both were admirers of the technological advances that broadened the scope of design. Loos applied construction techniques like reinforced concrete, whereas Palladio used the sophisticated stonecutting and structural methods that produced domes, vaulting and monumental scales that were impossible before ornamentation Loose and Palladio had opposing views. Loos aimed to rid architecture of excessive embellishments in order to place function at the forefront. Palladio on the other hand added decorative elements to achieve a classical feeling of grandeur and beauty. This comparison demonstrates the variety of ambitions that different historical periods have for architecture.This analysis reveals the diverging philosophies of ornamentation, styles, and integration of the contemporary methods as the movements of modernism and Renaissance go through their processes

Pruitt-Igoe RE-Imagined

My thesis explores the transformation of the Pruitt-Igoe housing project Demolished IN 1972, from a symbol of modernist failure to an Alternative vision for a collective living site. This transformation underscores the complexities of urban design, socio-economic challenges, and the potential for adaptive reuse in addressing contemporary housing needs. The first section of my study will delve into the history of Pruitt-Igoe, analyzing the factors that led to its failure and the issues present at its inception. Secondly, I will explore the intricacies of urban design and the socio-economic challenges that played a role in its downfall. This part of the thesis will illuminate the multifaceted issues that contributed to Pruitt-Igoe’s failure, and the obstacles encountered in its redevelopment. Thirdly I will look at how ecology and the elevation of nature as a priority in designing and how that can help foster a better community. Ultimately, the goal is to derive lessons from Pruitt-Igoe’s failures to inform the development of more effective housing programs

Bridging the Epochs of Ledoux and Da Vinci

Undergraduate Student: Nancy Sanchez Research Mentor(s): Ehsan Sheikholharam Mashhadi Bridging the Epochs of Ledoux and Da Vinci From two different periods of time, Claude-Nicholas Ledoux and Leonardo Da Vinci have transformed the history of architecture and art. Their work has helped shape the two eras they were a part of. Leonardo Da Vinci was from the 16th century and was coined as the ‘Italian Polymath of the High Renaissance era’, due to his extensive knowledge in engineering, painting, architecture, and science. Claude-Nicolas Ledoux was an 18th century neoclassical architect from France. Ledoux produced architecturally innovative work that influenced social changes in pre-revolutionary France. In particular, his most notable work, Salines de Chaux, helped represent the future of urban design by adopting utopian societies and ideology. This utopian ideology challenged the traditional concept of design and introduced a new standard of thinking in rational architecture. On the other hand, Leonardo da Vinci\u27s extraordinary methods and ways of thinking were reflected in his works of art, such as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper. His methods of drawing set new standards in forms of artistic expression. His thoughts and methods in science and technology were far ahead for his time, but were highly influential in Da Vinci’s era and in the subsequent modern period. By comparing the works of both Ledoux and Da Vinci, readers will have a better understanding of the significance their works had made in architecture and the artists’ receptive fields

Knowledge Distillation of LLM for Automatic Scoring of Science Education Assessments

This study proposes a method for knowledge distillation (KD) of fine-tuned Large Language Models (LLMs) into smaller, more efficient, and accurate neural networks. We specifically target the challenge of deploying these models on resource-constrained devices. Our methodology involves training the smaller student model (Neural Network) using the prediction probabilities (as soft labels) of the LLM, which serves as a teacher model. This is achieved through a specialized loss function tailored to learn from the LLM's output probabilities, ensuring that the student model closely mimics the teacher's performance. To validate the performance of the KD approach, we utilized a large dataset, 7T, containing 6,684 student-written responses to science questions and three mathematical reasoning datasets with student-written responses graded by human experts. We compared accuracy with state-of-the-art (SOTA) distilled models, TinyBERT, and artificial neural network (ANN) models. Results have shown that the KD approach has 3% and 2% higher scoring accuracy than ANN and TinyBERT, respectively, and comparable accuracy to the teacher model. Furthermore, the student model size is 0.03M, 4,000 times smaller in parameters and x10 faster in inferencing than the teacher model and TinyBERT, respectively. The significance of this research lies in its potential to make advanced AI technologies accessible in typical educational settings, particularly for automatic scoring.Comment: Accepted to AIED202

Student Barriers to Active Learning in Synchronous Online Classes: Characterization, Reflections, and Suggestions

As more and more face-to-face classes move to online environments, it becomes increasingly important to explore any emerging barriers to students' learning. This work focuses on characterizing student barriers to active learning in synchronous online environments. The aim is to help novice educators develop a better understanding of those barriers and prepare more student-centered course plans for their active online classes. Towards this end, we adopt a qualitative research approach and study information from different sources: social media content, interviews, and surveys from students and expert educators. Through a thematic analysis, we craft a nuanced list of students' online active learning barriers within the themes of human-side, technological, and environmental barriers. Each barrier is explored from the three aspects of frequency, importance, and exclusiveness to active online classes. Finally, we conduct a summative study with 12 novice educators and explain the benefits of using our barrier list for course planning in active online classes.Comment: Accepted in the Proceedings of the Eighth ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale (L@S '21