Jean Paul Bourdier

Job title: 
Professor
Department: 
Architecture
Bio/CV: 

Professor Bourdier is the co-author of African Spaces and Drawn from African Dwellings. Production designer and co-director of seven films directed by Trinh T. Minh-ha. Painting exhibitions and photographs of ephemeral sculptures and body art widely exhibited nationally, winning fourteen national and international competitions. Awards include Guggenheim, American Council of Learned Societies, NEA Graham, UC President's Humanities, and Getty. Practice: see his slides (in Architecture Visual Resources Library). Teaches design studios and seminars on topics ranging from vernacular architecture around the world to poetics of inspiration and the drawn image. Currently working on a new film, installations, a book on West Africa, on land art and body art and a book for children.

Research interests: 
Role: 

Books/Publications:

African Spaces, designs for living in Upper volta, with Trinh T. Minh-ha
Drawn from African Dwellings, with Trinh T. Minh-ha
Dwellings, Settlements, and Tradition: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. With Nezar AlSayyad (1989)

Courses:

ARCH 101: Case Studies in Architecture
ARCH 201: Case Studies in Architecture
ARCH 209A: Seminar in Architectural Theory
ARCH 269X: Airship and Inflatables Technologies
VIS STD 186X: Special Topics: Photography
VIS STD 187X: Special Topics: Drawing

Philosophy:

The ideal would be to have a school in which teaching incorporates the intense questioning—from both students and teachers—of our own locations and practices. To see and to create our environment from the inside (the self) out and the outside (the other) in requires more intimately from us as a collective than propositions and solutions from any model architect can ultimately offer.

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