Teaching Post

Tell Me A Story: Conversations on Mythmaking in the Built Environment

Harvard Graduate School of Design, J-Term (2022): The course examined the embedded forces of power in the built environment on a global scale. In many cases, we see that the ‘myth’ of a places, created and sustained by these forces, shapes the formation, design, and perception of our surroundings. Through discussions and short Zoom lectures given by invited scholars and practitioners from China, Turkey, the US and Saudi Arabia, we aim to uncover myths related to heritage narrative, identity construction, and underlying power structures in a cross-cultural manner by comparing and contrasting findings from our respective contexts. This course also serves as a starting point for students to reflect upon and examine their daily observations, providing them with a different lens through which they can analyze myth making in their familiar context.