This past Friday, our studio got the chance to take a history walk around Charleston with our History and Theory III professor, Michael Maher. Our crew started out at Waterfront Park where Professor Maher gave us some backstory on the expansion of the peninsula over the years. We talked about potential flood zones and how flooding is currently being combatted and what the future for designing for floods looks like. We walked around the streets and Professor Maher explained how the city was originally planned out and how we continue to draw inspiration from the past’s ideas to design in the present and future.
We also learned about the design of the single house and why it was and is important to the way of life of Charleston residents. Though we may not have been actively designing for Community Build, the historical and physical context of the city is extremely important for us to study. Charleston finds a lot of its identity through its architecture and is a very key component on what makes the city unique. As we design for studio we should be able to draw from as large of a knowledge-base as we possibly can to design for justice for the future.