This is a vertical studio combining students in their second and third year of the march program with students in the maad program, and those in the final semesters of the undergraduate architecture program. The students may choose from a diverse range of options of study proposed by different faculty members. In general the studio options are grounded in a conceptual basis that invites theoretical and/or programmatic innovation. These studio options may vary from year to year.Section description:the recent academic discourse on the notion of care has seen renewed energy and urgency, no doubt due to a bubbling anxiety from the current state of affairs. Forums such as conversations on care, produced by critical broadcasting lab and Ana Miljacki at mit, brought a range of academics and practitioners into a discussion of the various dimensions and manifestations of care in architecture. Papers such as Shannon Mattern's maintenance and care, and Joan C. Trontos An Ethic of Care come to the fore, asking us to reflect on our problematic relationship with issues including health, labor, gender, race, and climate. The promise is that, moving forward, perhaps we might make architecture more carefully.In a parallel world, the institutions - or industrial complex - of care are thriving, likely unaware of the debate at architecture schools. Access to healthcare continues to be a challenge in the wake of the covid era, as insurance and drug corporations dictate the fate of many. With the general population getting older, and as the baby boomer generation ages, senior care facilities have been flourishing and rewriting the conventions as they vie for affluent customers looking to retire with dignity and amenities. On the other end of the spectrum, child rearing is increasingly a privilege of wealth. Along with higher expectations and demand for childcare and early education, learning methods like montessori, waldorf, and newer intergenerational approaches, are offering alternative models of care.What perhaps ties these spaces of care together is not necessarily a philosophical orientation towards care, but rather a strict set of regulatory constraints - legal, building codes - that ultimately shape these places for caregiving. Interestingly, architects are similarly beholden to a professional code of conduct defined as the standard of care. It stipulates that those performing architectural services must demonstrate competence comparable to other professionals performing the same task. So at the most basic level, to care as an architect is to know what you're doing - one must know the nuances of accessibility compliances, fixture counts and occupancy type, egress requirements, etc. Professional care is rooted in competence rather than ideology.With these differing dimensions of care and a productive tension in mind, this studio will investigate notions of care for a new day care located in San Francisco's Chinatown, home to a tight knit and robust minority community. A day care is typically a non-residential facility that provides supervised daytime care for children, seniors, and/or those with chronic disabilities. Each constituent has very specific requirements that will shape the kind of spaces needed. Students will be asked to balance the pragmatic constraints around institutional day care occupancies, while finding opportunities for exploration, interaction, and community. How can we design spaces that spark curiosity and growth for children? How can we design welcoming and inclusive spaces for seniors? How can a space provide meaningful connections to its context, and to the outdoors?Importantly, as students of architecture and potential future caretakers of the world, how might we grapple with these different definitions and necessities of care as we build our future world? What should we care about? How can we manifest that care - architecturally or otherwise?Footnotes:https: //criticalbroadcast. Net/projects/conversations-on-care/mattern, shanno. Maintenance and care. Places journal, november 2018. Https: //placesjournal. Org/article/maintenance-and-care/tronto, joan c. An ethic of care. Generations: journal of the american society on aging, vol. 22, no. 3, ethics and aging: bringing the issues home (fall 1998)aia architects handbook of professional practice, fifteenth edition, page 992

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