CONSTRUCTION AND CULTUREA BUILT ENVIRONMENT

INTRODUCTION:

Due to the rapid evolution of construction, and an increased specialization and sophistication of technology in terms of materials, equipment, methods and processes, the construction industry continues to have an ever increasing impact on human kind. Crises such as the proliferation of hazardous waste and the pollution of the environment, as well as the overloading and deterioration of the infrastructure that supports humanity on a worldwide scale, find both their genesis and their solution in the "built" environment. :CON 101 is designed to address the effect that construction has had on our human and cultural values. Approximately one third of the course will be devoted to an historical analysis of the beginnings of construction. By studying the evolution of this profession from the great works of antiquity, to include perhaps the pyramids of Egypt, the temples of Luxor, the roads and aqueducts of the Rome, the great Wall of China, the Cathedrals of Europe, the cities of the Incas, and the temples of the Mayans, the student is given an understanding of the centrality of the built environment in the evolution of culture and of the effect that human values and culture have had on the actual construction process as a whole. It is imperative that we study these civilizations as a method of learning from past successes and errors.

The remaining two-thirds of the course will blend the historical review into contemporary cultures. By analyzing the breadth of the construction profession today, from both an historical and a global perspective, the Freshman student will better understand the physical world in which he/she lives and establish ethical and aesthetic standards to adjust to this world. Just as we can no longer ignore the impact previous generations have had on the cultural and human values of modern civilization, neither can we (the U.S.) neglect the major influences that foreign construction firms have had on these same values within the industry. With the increased participation of these firms in the U.S., we need to become acutely aware of the innovative and challenging philosophical changes that are taking place.

DEVELOPING THE COURSE PHILOSOPHY:

CON 101, "Construction & Culture: A Built Environment", is intended to give the beginning student an overview of the origins of construction such that they might better relate to the physical aspects of the industry. Unfortunately, the perception that the majority of people have of "construction" is that it is simply a vocationally or "trade- based" industry, which has an impotent set of ethical guidelines, and is ofttimes an irritation and inconvenience to their lives. CON 101 will stress the importance of construction as a profession - one in which a strong code of ethics is becoming increasingly more important and one that has had an immense impact on the moral and cultural values of people down through the ages and in all parts of the world.

UNIVERSITY CRITERIA:

In order to put things into perspective, it is important that the reader understands the university criteria and expectations for approval as a Humanities (HU) and/or Global Awareness (GA) course, and exactly where these two areas of study fit into the overall catalog requirements. All students at ASU are required to complete a minimum of 35 semester hours in "General Studies", which includes the following five core areas:

These areas provide training in basic academic skills and assure that students are introduced to the traditional branches of knowledge.

In addition to the above core, two awareness areas, which contribute to the development of an international perspective and foster an understanding of current human events by study of the past, must be included in the student's overall Program of Study. These are:

These awareness requirements may be satisfied concurrently by any of the courses in the core area; in other words, a course approved for Humanities & Fine Arts may contain the proper information to satisfy dither the GA or HA requirements, but not both. In addition, a course may not be used to satisfy requirements in two different core areas simultaneously. However, such a course can be used to satisfy both General Studies requirements and the Department's major core program. Such is the case with CON 101. It has been included in the Department curriculum and is included within the student's overall 132 semester hours required for graduation. We also have two other core courses, CON 453, "Construction Labor Management", and CON 495, "Construction Planning & Scheduling", which satisfy General Studies requirements in the Historical Awareness area and the Numeracy area, respectively.

To give the reader a greater appreciation for what is entailed in the rationale and objectives of a Humanities course which encompasses the Global Awareness requirements, the following has been extracted from the university's "Criteria Checklist" for approval in these areas.

HU: "The humanities are concerned with questions of existence and the universality of human life, questions of meaning, knowledge, and ways of thinking and knowing, and questions of moral, aesthetic, and other human values. To probe these matters, we consider both the present and the past and make use of philosophy, foreign languages, linguistics and communication studies, religious studies, and literature and fine arts. The fine arts constitute the artist's creative deliberation about reality, meaning, knowledge, and values. The humanities and fine arts form a central part of the General Studies Program since they allow students to search out how these questions have been probed in the past and how they are dealt with across cultures today. Students can relate their findings to their own evolving personal philosophy or set of ideals and beliefs, and to issues of our time. This General Studies core area should encourage students to bring new resources and new questions to any consideration of basic values, assumptions about our world, and the interpretation of the experiences of human beings."

G: "Human organization and relationships have evolved from being family and village centered to modern global interdependence. The greatest challenge facing us in the nuclear age is developing and maintaining a global perspective which fosters international cooperation. While our modern world is comprised of politically independent states, we must transcend nationalism and recognize the significant interdependence among peoples of the world. The exposure of students of different cultural systems provides the background of thought necessary to developing a global perspective. Cultural learning is present in many disciplines. Any exposure to contemporary art, business, engineering, music, and the natural and social sciences supports the view that intercultural interaction has become a daily necessity. The complexity of our society forces us to balance regional and national goals with global concerns. Many of our most serious problems are world issues and require solutions which exhibit mutuality and reciprocity.

No longer are hunger, ecology, health care delivery, language planning, information exchanges, economic and social developments, law, technology transfer, philosophy, and the arts solely national concerns; they impact all the people of the world. Our very survival may be dependent on our ability to generate global solutions to some of our most pressing problems.

"The word university, from universities, implies that knowledge comes from many sources and is not restricted to local, regional, or national perspectives. In today's world, and in the one which will evolve, universities must recognize the need to integrate into the curriculum courses which foster an understanding of the values, elements, and social processes of other cultures. Learning which recognizes the nature of other cultures and the relationship of our cultural system to generic human goals and welfare will help create the multicultural person necessary for effective interaction in the human community.

"Courses which meet the requirement in global awareness are of one or more of the following types: (1) area studies which are concerned with an examination of culture-specific elements of a region of the world, (2) the study of foreign language, (3) studies of international relationships, particularly those in which cultural change is facilitated by such factors as social or economic development, education, and the transfer of technology, and (4) studies of cultural interrelationships of global scope such as the global interdependence produced by problems of world_* ecology."

Although the above are somewhat lengthy descriptions, it is important to understand the stringent requirements incorporated into the rationale and the objectives of such courses, especially for a course within a construction curriculum. The review process requires a completed application defining the following:

The application, with documentation, is forwarded to the General Studies Council in the Office of the Provost. An Articulation Coordinator screens the applications and sends to the appropriate sub-committee(s) (Humanities, Global Awareness, Social Science, etc.) for their review and comments. After approval/disapproval by the sub committee(s), they are then returned to the General Studies^, Council for final action.

THE HISTORICAL IMPACT:

Construction began with man's first efforts to utilize the elements provided by nature and build upon these as a means to survival. Later, the objectives became more sophisticated as the refinement of his tools and materials, along with an increase in knowledge, evolved. Soon these new discoveries became a major factor in influencing and/or modifying the social and cultural customs of a civilization, as increased emphasis was placed more on human values (e.g., comfort and aesthetics) than on mere survival. Even today we see that the "built" environment within which we carry on our day to day lives biases our decisions for future generations. Societal involvement in the construction process per se is becoming more and more apparent as we recognize the impact that development and construction have had on what we might classify as a "quality of life." If an individual's quality of life is to be one of the principles by which we quantify our standard of living, then we can unequivocally state that construction/development has played a major role in establishing the values that we will accept. One could debate whether the construction process is the cause or the effect in establishing human values; however, if it were not for continual technological improvements in this process, it is unlikely that we would see some of the cultural and societal changes that have occurred. A very simplistic example, such as the incorporation of air conditioning into the work place and residences by the mechanical contractors, could be used to illustrate how vast regions of the world were opened to populations that would have previously considered these areas as uninhabitable. An analysis of the recent controversy surrounding the construction of a hazardous waste facility in Mobile, Arizona, profoundly demonstrates the fact that anything that might be constructed, which severely impacts our quality of life, is going to be challenged. Yet this is not surprising when we consider that there is really a genuine cultural bond which is linked to construction and it has existed for centuries. To illustrate: an entire set of human (and spiritual) values, aside from those dealing with the labor issues, was formed around the philosophy of building and "individualizing" the pyramids of Egypt for the pharaohs, as it was felt that the immortalization of a pharaoh could be accomplished only by preservation in a virtually indestructible atmosphere. The Great Wall of China is an example which symbolized the isolationist movement and cultural repercussions of that era and was built to literally keep people "out". In contrast, the Berlin Wall was constructed to literally keep people "in", reflecting an entirely different societal philosophy. If one researches the early Grecian approach to construction, they will find a tremendous tendency to finish even the unseen (or hidden) details of a building. To them, the act of building was an act of worship, as the gods could easily see under and/or behind an eave, arcature, or corbel. However, the Roman approach to detail was much more pragmatic, or secular, in the sense that they would likely eliminate any detail that would be unseen. We can also readily discover that the Gothic cathedrals of Europe, in all of their magnificence, reflected - in addition to the skills and personal characteristics of the Master Builder - the religious-based culture of the middle ages. Even in our lifetime, we have seen the effects that communal-type projects, such as Paolo Soleri's Arosanti complex near Cordes Junction, Arizona, have on the human and cultural values of a society.

In all of these examples, "something" was built in response to a human requirement that was dictated by a change in, or modification to, accepted cultural practices. Whether these practices involved religious beliefs, defensive concerns, social mores, or environmental considerations, is irrelevant. What is important is that customs and values have been changed by, supported by, and influenced by the evolution of the overall construction process. Yet, as mentioned previously, no one is absolutely sure whether the construction practices of an era reflect the culture of that period, or affect it. Most likely, it does both.

THE GLOBAL IMPACT "FACTOR":

The global awareness concept will deal with contemporary issues, rather than the historical aspects of construction. Yet, we need the historical foundation in order to link the past with present-day cultures and societies as a method of emphasizing the impact that these former events, methods and practices have had on today's values.

The whole purpose of the Global Awareness requirement is to assist our students to take a broader view of the current issues, to understand contemporary social, technological, ethical, political, or environmental problems as international problems in a shrinking world. We will present a comparative analysis of the contemporary "built environments" around the globe as they relate to culture, technology, the natural environment, and each other.

The influence of rapid (instant!) communications have shrunk our world; therefore, we need to concentrate on the cultural impact that construction has had from this global perspective. By studying the effects that ethical and human behavior, as related to construction, have had on all societies, we hope to leave the student with a greater appreciation for these values. Our ultimate goal is to expose the Freshman student to construction from an entirely different perspective such that this may instill in them a desire to develop their own personal set of moral and ethical standards.

This course will provide the framework for inter-societal comparisons of the cultural aspects of construction activity and study construction as a sub-culture which could be mainstreamed into our own culture and those of other societies, both in a temporal and a geographical environment.

As such, we want to explore the global impact of environmental, political and judicial events and trends on society as a whole. Each of these in turn has a significant impact on the business and economic climate within the construction industry. We want to identify those critical global issues and focus attention on the significant forces and problems that shape our industry. Harold Stussman, Editor-in-Chief of the Engineering News Record (ENR), recently said it best: "World events shape construction and construction, in turn, shapes the world".

The primary textbook selected for the course, Building Construction Before Mechanization, by John Fitchen (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA), deals with the historical aspects of construction, at all times being careful to concentrate on the effects that construction had on culture and avoid the issues dealing with design, aesthtics and architecture.

There are numerous sources of information available that deal with the human issues of any large construction project, and we will be incorporating these into CON 101. One of them, the five-part "Skyscraper" video series, based on the novel by Karl Sabbagh deals with the construction of the 770-foot "Worldwide Plaza" tower in downtown Manhattan during the mid­eighties. We feel that this series is especially suited for giving the Freshman student a glimpse of not only the overall construction process, but more importantly the intense range of human emotions and personality conflicts that emerge when hundreds of people become involved in a high pressure project that tests the limits of each individual ego and personal ambitions. Another very timely source of data that will stimulate their thought processes is the current Engineering News Record (ENR) "World Projects" department which began in August, 1990. Articles devoted to monitoring the overall "global construction scene" will be featured on a monthly basis, and many of these contain humanistic, cultural and aesthetic issues that are exactly what we need to deal with. As an example, an article on the construction of a new terminal in Munich, Germany, in the August 23, 1990, issue addressed the environmental controversies and the political ramifications of the region and the impact this new terminal will have on the European Community at large. Other articles have dealt with similar topics in the Soviet Union, Hungary, Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia, etc. We need to bring this information into the classroom and stimulate discussion over issues that this Department has never really dealt with before in an academic environment..

CONCLUSION:

ASU's Department of Construction is taking somewhat of a risk by offering a course in "Construction & Culture: A Built Environment", as it is such an extreme departure from our more standard "how-to" courses. Yet we feel this new venture is well worth any risk and will produce abundant dividends in the future. We want to stimulate their creative and conceptual skills and allow them to THINK about other issues related to construction rather than the typical physical entities of design, materials, methods, financial control, and management.

An unforeseen byproduct from CON 101, which has emerged from the Spring '91 semester class (which is the inaugural one), is the excellent mix of students from across the many disciplines on campus. The course reached the maximum enrollment of 35 during pre-registration and of these, only 17 are Construction students. The remaining are majoring in Architectural Studies, Finance, Economics, Political Science and Management. This creates two very positive effects: 1) the merging of students from varied areas of study cannot help but create an atmosphere in which there are an exchange of ideas, bringing an entirely new dimension to the construction classroom; and 2) it may just serve as one of the best recruiting techniques that this Department has ever employed!

Instructors identified to teach this course will be screened very carefully for such things as: background in industry and academia; interest in teaching such a course; ability to work with a diverse grouping of students; knowledge of, and interest in, the historical beginnings of construction; knowledge of, and interest in, the global issues facing the industry today; and their own personal motivation and creativity. In addition, we wanted this person to be a member of the Department of Construction faculty without relying on shared instruction from other

disciplines on campus. We were very fortunate in identifying just such an instructor, one who has been able to obtain an extremely high interest level among the students by demanding classroom participation and stimulating the students' imagination. A periodic sampling of student reaction, by the author, to this course during the Spring '91 semester has been very positive They feel that, in addition to being highly innovative, exciting and stimulating, it is also anything but "tedious", "boring", etc.!

Finally, I should mention that several academicians throughout the university were involved during the Humanities and the Global Awareness review and approval processes. The positive results from these encounters most certainly enhanced the Department's image as a viable discipline within this community.

A course outline has been attached for the reader's perusal.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

The author would like to thank the following individuals for their help during the literature research and their assistance in shaping the content of CON 101, Construction & Culture: A Built Environment:

Dr. William H. Akins, Professor of Theater, ASU

Dr. Foster M. Burton, Assoc. Professor of Construction, ASU

Dr. Zoila Gamero De Tovar, Office of the Provost, ASU

Dr. Jerald L. Rounds, Professor of Construction, ASU

Dr. David E. Schwalm, Assoc. Professor of English, ASU

REFERENCES:

NOTE:                      SCHEDULE SUBJECT TO CHANGE DURING THE SEMESTER!