Clemson School of Architecture (CSoA) celebrated its 100th year of architectural education with a symposium on “The Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization” on Friday, October 18. The keynote address was given by architectural historian-theorists Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre, who coined the term “critical regionalism” and who recently wrote a book with the same title, published by Routledge last December. Other speakers were noted Southeast-based practitioner-educators Marlon Blackwell (based in Fayetteville, AK), Merrill Elam (Atlanta), and Frank Harmon (Raleigh, NC).

Assistant Professor Peter Laurence, PhD, Clemson’s director of graduate studies and conference organizer, says that the school’s strong regionalist concern is “what made us seek out Tzonis and Lefaivre and three prominent regional architects to help celebrate our centennial.” Clemson, the only school of architecture in the state of South Carolina, also maintains a “Fluid Campus,” urban satellites offering to its nearly 400 students semester-long study in Charleston, SC, Barcelona, and Genoa, where the school has owned a villa since 1972. Off-campus study is in fact required of the school’s undergraduates. With the theme of “Southern Roots + Global Reach,” the centennial year also marked the 40th and 25th anniversaries of the Genoa and Charleston programs, as well as the 45th year of the school’s Architecture + Health program. 

The CSoA Architecture + Health Program brought 20 students to the Annual Healthcare Design Conference in Orlando and involved in the following activities:

– Five students participated in a design Charrette with Professor David Allison. The remainder of the students worked as volunteers at the Conference. 

– May 2013 graduate Minglu Lin received a National Healthcare Environments Design Award for her comprehensive project last year.

– May 2013 graduate Lisa Marchi presented her Thesis and AIA Academy of Architecture for Health Fellowship proposal at the Conference. 

– Associate Professor Dina Battisto and her PhD student Debbie Franqui presented their research on Post Occupancy Evaluation. 

– Professor David Allison with Frank Zilm from the University of Kansas conducted a panel session on MOOCs in architecture and health education.

Also, The Architecture + Health Program will be offering a summer study abroad program for academic credit in Northern Italy the last two weeks in May of 2014. It will explore the historic and contemporary healthcare architecture of northern Italy. 

Professor David Allison FAIA, ACHA, has been elevated to the Council of Fellows of the American College of Healthcare Architects position. The American College of Healthcare Architects provides board certification in the specialty area of architectural practice in health facilities design and advancement to fellowship is one of the highest honors the American College of Healthcare Architects can bestow upon a certificant. Fellowship is granted to architects specializing in healthcare who have shown distinction in fulfilling the Area of Expertise. Nominations should be based on the certificants contributions that impact the healthcare profession as a whole in fulfilling the Area of Expertise. Achievements should include those that are national in scope and have made substantial and positive contributions to the American College of Healthcare Architects as well as to architecture and society. The link to the ACHA organization and Fellowship is: http://www.healtharchitects.org/Member/fellowship_info.asp. Allison was also named by Designintelligence one of “30 Most Admired Educators for 2014,” a list that includes the 30 most admired educators in design, chosen from architecture, landscape architecture, industrial design and interior design. The publication states, “Thanks to his knowledge and connections to the workforce, he knows that his students are in demand, and pushes each one to be the best.”

Lecturer Nicholas Ault has been appointed the Professor in Residence at the Charles E. Daniel Center for Building Research and Urban Studies, Genoa. Ault also designed the Clemson Centennial Gallery Exhibit entitled Southern Roots + Global Reach. 

Keith Evan Green, RA, PhD, Professor of Architecture and Electrical & Computer Engineering, received an award of $199,995 from the National Science Foundation supporting the design, prototyping and evaluation of the LIT ROOM, an evocative, literacy support tool at room-scale. The LIT ROOM is a novel suite of user-friendly, networked, “architectural-robotic” artifacts embedded in the everyday physical space of the library. This physical-digital environment is transformed by words read by its young visitors so that the everyday space of the library “merges” with the imaginary space of the book: The book is a room. The test bed for the LIT ROOM is a ground zero for literacy: the Richland County Public Library of Columbia, South Carolina – the largest public library in the State. Green is Principal Investigator for the LIT ROOM research, joined by Co-PIs Ian Walker (ECE) and Susan Fullerton (Education). Green is PI as well for the NSF-funded Assistive Robotic Table [ART], the key component of his larger “home+” suite of robotic, networked furnishings supporting independence for clinical populations and those aging in place. With Mark Gross of CMU, Green is co-authoring Architectural Robotics forthcoming from MIT Press to further establish this subfield at the interface or architecture and computing.

Assistant Professor Sallie Hambright-Belue and Associate Professor Robert Silance have recently co-authored an essay entitled, Consecrated Community: The Indian Field Methodist Campground which will be published in the Unpublished issue of the journal CLOG coming out later this year. The essay describes the unique morphology of the early Christian campground and its importance in defining a culture’s place in the world.