architectural exclusion

Bibliographic Annotation 4 and 5

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Bibliographic Annotation #4: Where It All Went Wrong

Monroe, Doug. “Where It All Went Wrong.” Atlanta 52.4 (2012): 86-98. Master FILE. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.

This article is a concise article that takes you through a vision of MARTA from its early creation, struggles it had with funding and to where it is now is at. The article gives great insight into the struggles the lack of a proper public transit system is doing for Atlanta as a city. For example, on page 96, Christopher B. Leinberger, a professor at Georgetown who has watched Atlanta rise and fall, clearly states that our cities biggest failure was not allowing the public transit to thrive within the limits and perpetually connect our city. This article was completely valid to the topic of rhetoric in the built environment; because it demonstrates the struggles Atlanta has with its inability to attract a new workforce due to our mediocre transit system.  I have found no flaws in this article; it connects our lack of a proper built environment and even connects the dots on the racial struggles that the city faced while the development of our public transit system. I believe it could have been more relevant, since it is nearly 4 years old and we have been pushing leaps and bounds since then to advance our system, but the information provided was a direct link to the struggles Atlanta’s Public transit has on connecting users from throughout the state in a cohesive manner.

 

Bibliographic Annotation #5: “Making Marta… Cool?”

Burns, Rebecca. “Making Marta… Cool?” Atlanta 54.10 (2015): 17-20. MasterFILE Elite. Web. 19 April. 2016

This article is a plan of expansion to MARTA and the issues MARTA’s CEO Keith Parker has in developing a “cool” transit system that promotes a fun and safe environment but most importantly makes people think of public transit first instead of last. I was able to draw evidence of future growth to the population of areas nearby MARTA that helped me understand the built environment. It is beginning to shape the routes of MARTA and demands growth of the transit system. This source was chosen because it clearly demonstrates the struggle of our transit system and also it gives you hope that MARTA’s CEO is doing whatever he can to turn this around and help it to thrive in the city of Atlanta. No weaknesses were

Reading Summary #4: Kathleen G. Scholl and Gowri Betrabet Gulwad – “Recognizing Campus Landscapes as Learning Spaces”

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Reading Summary #4: Kathleen G. Scholl and Gowri Betrabet Gulwad – “Recognizing Campus Landscapes as Learning Spaces”

 

In today’s day and age, the human being is exposed to a high traffic volume of people, places and things. It has increasingly diminished our capacity to remained focus in the institution level on tasks at hand and has forced us, as students, to find ways to retain focus and trick our mind from mental fatigue. This article, by Kathleen School and Gowri Gulwad relates early campus landscape to current campus landscapes and how “attention fatigue” is rising. They also give us evidence in how a holistic approach to campus landscape will allow a more direct or indirect exposure to “nature” and inhibit our ability to remain focused for a longer period of time.

 

Kathleen and Gowri first start their claim by explaining to us how historically campuses were designed to be almost a community within a community. They explain how in the early years of universities, campus’ were a place where kids would have “safe havens” and direct exposure to nature. It was a place where they could continuously learn and maintain the proper mental energy to keep focus. This is a time where only the wealthy were predominantly found on college campuses. It worked for them, but now since the demographic has changed new ways of holistic thinking is necessary for adoption to adapt to the ways the current college student requires. Now, more than ever students are on all sides of the spectrum from first generation college goers, to even single parents battling multiple jobs and still finding time to commute from the suburbs for a mid-day class.

Fight Traffic to Make it to Class on Time

Fight Traffic and Busy Streets to Make it to Class on Time

This is why attention-fatigue is rising. Students, nowadays, do not have the same everyday “problems” that were once seen when institutions were first established. School and Gulwad explain how we need to loosely define “nature” to its respective audience to allow us to determine what direct or indirect type of attention can help explain the fatigue. Parents and kids are battling jobs and traffic in a bustle to reach some urban campus’ and then are expected to turn their brain off from a high rate of motion and quick thinking to sit in a chair for an hour and listen to a PowerPoint in a dark room where the outside isn’t visible; knowing in the back of their mind that they are going to have to battle these same hurdles once leaving class. This is the exact reason why safe-havens or holistic campus’ are crucial for the current student. They need an area of “freedom” that can help them see the beauty of the world and trick their mind into natural energy and help remain focused on the task at hand.

 

In conclusion, School and Gulwad, are completely right in that we need to re-evaluate campus landscapes to a holistic approach to welcome sustainability to the new day of college students. The current student, who is battling daily, the high-impact stresses of overpopulation, technology, work and traffic. College students need and require an area of mental freedom to de-stress and forget about the daily obstacles and allow the mind to breathe and let information flow smoothly. If we don’t start thinking about these types of architectural exclusion then it will make for a very difficult place to learn the lessons required to exceed in life.