Students come to the University of Idaho in search of a degree but find more as they get closer to graduation. In a senior architecture design course, students don’t just learn about buildings, but they learn a perspective about being a human being.
Xiao Hu is an associate professor teaching upper-level architecture classes. Getting his bachelor’s at Chongqing Jianzhu University in China and earning his Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska, Hu says that looking at architecture as just buildings limit it.
“This is all part of architecture,” Hu said. “Limited the shape of architecture, in a certain way is about a human being. Because architecture is to provide a good environment for human use.”
Rather than designing spaces, architects design people’s lives, Hu said. Living in an apartment, most people may not think about the layout design of the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room.
“Architects provided the space to the users, so that the users will develop a certain pattern to use it,” Hu said. “So that’s why we design this space, actual realities and people’s lives.”
And in Architectural Design VI, students are doing just that, understanding life’s functions and designing a post-pandemic future.
As we progress, people rely more on technology than traditional functions. With the pandemic at hand, it makes things harder to meet someone physically. Hu uses Zoom as an example, as we can overcome a physical barrier, still have physical engagement within support of technology.
In the course’s project, students will have the freedom to define their design and implement what they think will improve human life.
Their design will focus on services around someone’s neighborhood, including transit, health services, public amenities and the environment. Growing more digital, it can be challenging to go to physical spaces. This can include revamping transportation, how people move around in a public space and how it may look different for families.
Being in a global pandemic, hospital capacity is important and there are ways to improve the current healthcare supporting system. Hu thinks it is possible to have medicines delivered and healthcare available close to home, so patients don’t overload the hospital’s capacity.
Hu describes the course as a different focus compared to architecture’s similar abilities. Students gain experience in this course that refers to what most architects do in jobs at a similar level. Being a step in their bachelor’s degree, students will continue to a graduate-level degree program.
Based off of a relevant issue the idea of the project came from an optimistic view of past pandemics.
“I think a limit for this was a pandemic to change everyone’s lives today,” Hu said. “So I think a lot of the reason I like students, because everyone will get a suffer stress by a certain difficulties. But if we look around history, we can find out that the pandemic is a contributor that causes a lot of positive changes to our human life, particularly if we’re talking about the built environment.”
Emily Pearce can be reached at [email protected].