Florida Atlantic University School of Architecture (FAUSoA) is pleased to announce that the National Architectural Accrediting Board has granted a full 6-year accreditation term to the FAUSoA Bachelor of Architecture Program.

FAUSoA is also pleased to announce that Keith Van de Riet (PhD Candidate) will be joining the faculty in the Fall semester of 2012. Keith Van de Riet comes to FAU from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and The Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology (CASE). Prior to joining RPI and CASE, he worked in construction and architectural practice in Kansas and New York on projects that integrated green roof and photovoltaic technologies, with emphasis on the interface between building envelope and environmental context.

Keith has particular interest in the use of integrated bioremediation strategies to address the environmental challenges of large-scale urban development. He is working in the Tropical Coastline Remediation research area with faculty at CASE and in collaboration with international biologists, ecologists, geotechnical and structural engineers, and experts in ecosystem modeling. Keith received a Bachelor’s degree in architecture from The University of Kansas in 2004 and has a Master’s in Science of Architectural Science from the Built Ecologies program at Rensselaer.

Anthony Abbate AIA, NCARB has been promoted to Professor at the School of Architecture and Associate Provost for the Broward Campuses at Florida Atlantic University.  Mr Abbate, Rosemary Kennedy, Senior Lecturer at Queensland University of Technology (Australia) and Kasama Polakit, Ph.D. Assistant Professor at FAU School of Urban and Regional Planning have co-edited the Proceedings from the biennial international conference, Subtropical Cities 2011, held in Fort Lauderdale last Spring.

Associate Professor Francis Lyn has been appointed Director of the Broward Community Design Collaborative (BCDC). The mission of the BCDC is to build interdisciplinary collaboration to develop smart urban design oriented solutions at multiple scales, with the objective to address the global challenges of climate change, help build healthy communities in south Florida that are walkable, livable, and equitable. While the focus of our efforts is on the local context, the geographic center of a metropolitan region with a population of approximately 6 million, our academic mission is to look at sustainable design solutions within an urban and suburban sub-tropical setting.  Mr. Lyn has also been appointed as Thesis Phase Coordinator for the School of Architecture.

Associate Professor Philippe d’Anjou has recently published a series of articles in three prominent journals.   These include: “An Alternative Model for Ethical Decision-Making in Design: a Sartrean Approach” in Design Studies; “An Ethics of Authenticity in the Client-Designer Relationship” in The Design Journal; and “An Ethics of Freedom for Architectural Design Practice” in Journal of Architectural Education. These articles are part of professor d’Anjou’s ongoing research in design philosophy and ethics that aims at articulating new theoretical foundations of design and architecture.

Assistant Professor Henning Haupt has received a grant from Broward County to realize an installation of his research.  This Color-Space Construction will be installed in January of 2012.