The Department of Urban Design & Planning, Community, Environment & Planning still has space available in BE 498A: Disasters by Design: Resilience in the Built Environment for Autumn quarter 2016. This course no longer requires an add code for freshman and sophomores to enroll, and has no prerequisites.
BE 498A "Disasters by Design: Resilience in the Built Environment" is a pilot seminar for pre-majors/pre-minors interested in exploring the Built Environmental disciplines (Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Construction Management, and Urban Design & Planning) through the lens of disasters, natural hazards and resilience. The course examines how natural phenomena such as earthquakes, landslides and flooding become disasters, or don't, for humans depending on social choices, policies, use of land, and the design of buildings and infrastructure. The course counts towards either the Natural World or Individual & Society requirement, depending on student need. The class size is limited to less than 20 freshmen and sophomores, who will work with a small group of professional masters students and undergrad majors in the College of Built Environments to develop scenarios of risk and resilience in actual neighborhoods in/around Seattle. Mondays and Wednesdays the class will feature lectures by faculty and guest speakers from various disciplines; Fridays will be devoted to readings discussion, team project work, quizzes or other activities. This is the first time we are offering the course, as a pilot for a larger lecture course in future years. It's a rare opportunity for pre-majors to work in a small group with more advanced students and close interaction with faculty!