Janine Henri and Alivia Zappas University of California, Los Angeles Arts Library
Like many faculty who have been teaching with images for several decades, UCLA Art History Professor Dell Upton’s office is filled with slides. There are drawers upon drawers of images of Quaker meeting halls, Machu Picchu’s ruins, and Jean Nouvel’s Institut du Monde Arabe. In spring 2011, UCLA Architecture, Design, and Digital Services librarian Janine Henri supervised library science graduate student Alivia Zappas, and collaborated with Professor Upton to upload and create records in SAHARA for over 400 of these images, digitized from slides.
The collaborative nature of this project was very much in line with the principles upon which SAHARA was built. SAHARA, the Society of Architectural Historians Architecture Resources Archive was conceived to
“…provide an opportunity for the leaders of SAH, architectural historians, librarians, publishers, technologists, and higher education administrators to study, develop, and implement educational and discipline-based strategies to advance scholarly communication in the context of the ongoing digital revolution in the field of architectural history.”[i]
The collaboration between a professor, a librarian, and a graduate student, enriched the experience and enhanced the image records. The creation of an image’s descriptive record often necessitates research. For images of well-known buildings or sites, minimal research needs to be done: the needed information can be gleaned from consulting a book or authoritative source. Other less known buildings require a great deal more research.
Professor Upton’s records provided building name and location information only. Janine Henri and Alivia Zappas resorted to creative and rigorous reference work to track down appropriate additional information such as dates, materials, and structural elements. Zappas was then able to build up the records with detailed technical and descriptive metadata: a feature which will greatly increase the retrievability of the records. Henri and Zappas relied on their knowledge of architecture students’ research needs (gleaned from experience answering reference questions) to determine the appropriate amount of descriptive data needed for each image.
Creating image records in SAHARA turned into a valuable learning experience. An unexpected, but enjoyable benefit of the research undertaken in order to describe images was the opportunity to learn about monuments and sites or the history of construction techniques and built works. The mosques of Cape Town were particularly fascinating. Describing these images involved an exploration of the history of the Bo-Kaap, or Malay Quarter, of Cape Town.
The most rewarding aspect of this project was also one of its most interesting components. Professor Upton’s wide-ranging and high quality slides offered some incredible images. Many feature vernacular architecture or provide visual information that is not readily available elsewhere. Making these images available, discoverable, and useful through descriptive data was a productive and satisfying project that will help enhance the teaching and study of architecture. Increasing access to these images (and as a result to architectural information) was addictive, challenging, and delightful! We encourage other groups of faculty, librarians, and graduate students to take on similar projects and contribute further to SAHARA.
[i] Whiteside, Ann, “SAH Architecture Resources Archive: A Collaboration in Changing Scholarship,” Art Documentation, 28 (1) 2009; 4-8.
Lois Weinthal, Associate Professor and Graduate Adviser for the Master of Interior Design Program recently presented a paper, titled “Embedded Emotions in Objects of the Architectural Interior,” at the interdisciplinary conference, “Objects of Affection: Towards a Materiality of Emotions,” at Princeton University. Associate Professor Lois Weinthal also participated on a panel at the Dallas Center for Architecture, organized by the AIA Dallas Women in Architecture Committee.
Dr. Nancy Kwallek, director of the Interior Design Program, published a paper, titled “Ellen Swallow Richards: Visionary on Home and Sustainability,” in the summer 2012 issue of Phi Kappa Phi FORUM. better living”).
The firm Alterstudio has been busy this year. The firm includes Associate Dean Kevin Alter, Ernesto Cragnolino [B.Arch. & B.Arch.Eng. ’97], and Tim Whitehill [B.Arch. ’02].On August 8, the “Hillside Residence” will be the setting for one of this year’s “Discover Design Over Dinner,” presented by the Austin Foundation for Architecture. The “Elizabeth House” won a 2012 AIA Austin Design Award and, in January, was open to the public as part of the Austin Modern Home Tour. The recently published book, 21st Century Architecture: Designer Houses, includes a feature on the “Windsor East Residence” (the only building included from Texas). The firm’s design for the “Three Court House” was featured in an article in Austin Home Magazine‘s spring 2012 issue.
Alter presented a lecture on current work in Boston, in concert with the opening of an exhibition of five recent houses titled “Looking for Trouble.”
Senior Lecturer and Architectural Conservation Laboratory Director Fran Gale and independent conservator Casey Gallagher [MSHP ’09] will assist with an evaluative study of the effects of the 2011 Bastrop fire on Bastrop State Park’s historic structures, which were built in the early 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The study is funded by a $25,000 grant to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department from the National Park Service.
In June, Dean Fritz Steiner traveled to Turkey. Steiner and landscape architect Charles Waldheim, of Harvard University, were invited by Osmangazi Municipality, in Bursa Province, and Anadolu University to participate on a panel with local experts on devastating earthquakes that struck several regions in Turkey in 2011.
Student Alex Froehlich (B.Arch) will be attending the upcoming “Structures for Inclusion” conference in Minneapolis, March 23-24, as a representative of designBridge. This conference is hosted by Design Corps, whose mission is to create positive change in communities by providing architecture and planning services.
Adjunct professor Michael Pyatok, Principal at Pyatok Architects, was awarded the AIA Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture for his contribution to improving the quality of design for affordable housing and community planning. Pyatok also wrote a chapter in the recently published book Beyond Zuccotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space. The chapter describes his competition-winning design for the Oakland City Hall Plaza and Park in 1985 and how it was able to serve the recent Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. And in November, Pyatok spent a week in Taipei as an invited charrette leader helping their affordable housing advocates and the City government of Taipei to develop plans for the restoration and expansion of a 3300-unit public housing project.
Associate Professor Hajo Neis, Ph.D., Director of the Portland Urban Architecture Research Laboratory (PUARL), finished a book with Professor Christopher Alexander as the main author and HansJoachim Neis and Maggie Moore as contributors and co-authors. The book is entitled: The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth, and is published by Oxford University Press, November 2012. While the main title implies a larger perspective on our current state of life on earth, the subtitle of the book A Struggle between two World-Systems suggests that there is dispute and opposition between two fundamentally different ways of shaping and forming our world. One system places emphasis on life, feeling, the process of adaptation, and subtleties, as well as fit and finesse in the local context. The other system is concerned with efficiency, money, power and control, stressing the more gross aspects of size, speed and profit.
Dewey Thorbeck, Adjunct professor of architecture and director of the Center for Rural Design: Thorbeck’s book Rural Design: A New Design Discipline was named by Routledge as one of its 15 best selling architecture books in 2012. The book formed the basis for a Rural Design Exhibit displayed in the College of Design at the U of MN that will be transformed into a pop-up traveling exhibit. Thorbeck has also been invited to speak about rural design at the University of Manitoba School of Architecture; Manitoba Planning Conference in Winnipeg; Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio; and the American Planning Association national conference in Chicago.
Associate Professor John Comazzi (architecture) published a book on the life and career of Balthazar Korab, one of the most prolific and celebrated architecture photographers working in the second half of the twentieth century. The book, Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography (Princeton Architectural Press, 2012), gives a detailed account of Korab’s circuitous path from his roots in Budapest Hungary, to his migration through war-torn Europe and his eventual move to the United States (1955) to work as designer and photographer in the office of Eero Saarinen and Associates (1955-58). The images in the book feature numerous portfolios of mid-century modern architecture and previously unpublished images of industrial and vernacular architecture from around the world. The book was partially funded by a Graham Foundation Grant and was recently listed by the Guardian UK in their list of “Best Architecture Books of 2012”
Architecture Faculty Awarded Imagine Fund Grants: Numerous members of the Architecture Faculty at the University of Minnesota secured Imagine Fund Grants of $5000 for research and project development. Below is a list of awardees and their grant titles:
Assistant Professor Blaine Brownell (Architecture) – Architectural Frontiers in China Associate Professor Arthur Chen (Architecture) – Typological Study of Swahili Public Squares Professor Renee Cheng (Architecture, Head) – Architecture in Modern China: Lost Art or Strong Tradition? Assistant Professor Greg Donofrio (Architecture) – Market Forces: The History Behind the Infrastructure of What We Eat Assistant Professor Benjamin Ibarra-Sevilla (Architecture) – Stonecutting Indigenous Artistry: the Sixteenth-Century Ribbed Vaults of la Mixteca, Mexico Professor Lance LaVine (Architecture) – Analysis of Architectural Design Constructs 1927-Present Assistant Professor Ozayr Saloojee (Architecture) – Constructing Muslim Space and Image in Cape Town (1794-1868) Associate Professor Marc Swackhamer (Architecture) – Var Vac Wall System: an Installation in the School of Architecture
The School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota will celebrate the centennial of its founding. As we look past over our 100 years of education, we will also look forward to the next century of achievement and development. Weekend events will include architecture tours, lectures, exhibitions, and time to catch up with friends during celebration activities both on and off campus.
The College of Design at the University of Minnesota will host Public Interest Design Week – March 19-24, 2013 – set to take place on the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus. The University’s College of Design, in conjunction with Design Corps and PublicInterestDesign.org, announced last month what will be one of the largest gatherings public interest design advocates. In addition to keynotes by thought-leaders such as New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman, D-Rev: Design Revolution CEO Krista Donaldson, and Liz Ogbu of California College of the Arts’ Center for Art & Public Life, among others, the inaugural Public Interest Design Week will feature a variety of events, symposia, and workshops.
The School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota launched a new MS in Research Practices Degree Program. Starting this spring, the School of Architecture will offer a new concentration in research practices within their master of science in architecture degree (MS-RP) for students starting the fall of 2013. The program aims at halving the amount of time from high school to licensure for architects–from an average of 14.5 years to 7. By offering this model, the School of Architecture nudges the profession toward true culture change, one that expects all students to be licensed upon graduation, regardless of their final career choices. It also takes advantage of recent changes to the National Council of Architectural Registration Board’s Intern Development Program and Architect Registration Examination, and leverages the historically strong connection between practice and academy in the Minneapolis/St Paul community. The new MS-RP was recently featured in articles that appeared in both Architect Magazine and Design Intelligence (written by Department Head, Renee Cheng).
The Architecture program at the University of Minnesota hosted another round of its yearly Catalyst program during the Spring Term 2013. The Catalysts program is an innovative feature of the School’s graduate M.Arch curriculum during which professional degree students in architecture step out of the day-to-day curriculum to work with small teams of faculty that encourage high-risk work. Each workshop is led by a host UMN faculty member in conjunction with an invited guest instructor from outside the University. The visiting faculty help provide novel insights and techniques for students, and they are typically recognized leaders within their field or specialty. Each guest also delivers a public lecture during the week. This year’s Catalysts are organized under the broad theme of “”1913/2013/2113.”” The theme is inspired by the School’s upcoming Centennial in 2013, and guests included: 1. Daniel S. Friedman, Ph.D., FAIA, Dean of the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington 2. Nathan Miller, Director of Computational Design at CASE 3. Kiel Moe, Assistant Professor, Harvard GSD 4. Billie Faircloth, AIA, Research Director at KieranTimberlake 5. Karen Lewis, The Ohio State University 6. Barry Kudrowitz, Assistant Professor of product design, University of Minnesota
This spring the College of Design at the University of Minnesota expanded its program in Istanbul, Turkey to a full-semester course. Architecture and landscape architecture students, led by Associate Professor OzayrSaloojee (Architecture) and Lecturer Brad Agee (Landscape Architecture), spent their first 5 weeks in Rome, Italy, after which they will travel to Istanbul, where they’ll spend the next 11 weeks exploring the architectural and landscape fabrics of the vibrant, historical city. In development since 2006, the program’s evolution into a full-semester was made possible with gifts from Mark and Nedret Butler (both B.Arch ’72), Peggy and Dave Lucas, Paul and Mary Reyelts, Ertugrul and Karen Owen Tuzcu, Vickie Abrahamson, and Dan Avchen (B.Arch ’72).
Professor MARY COMERIO received the United Nation’s Green Star Award, from the U.N.’s Environment Programme, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Green Cross International. Comerio’s primary focus for last 25 years has been the seismic safety of housing and post-disaster recovery. Her research on the costs and benefits of seismic rehabilitation for existing buildings has been widely published; she is an internationally recognized authority on post-disaster reconstruction. Most recently, Comerio provided invaluable advice on UNEP’s post-disaster engagement in Sichuan Province China, evaluating new sustainable building prototypes, and in Haiti, advising UN early-recovery teams on challenges related to damaged structures.
Assistant Professor Maria Paz Gutierrez has been named to the 2011-2012 Fulbright Regional Network for Applied Research (NEXUS) Scholar Program as part of a 20-member team working to promote best practices in fighting poverty and inequality in the Western Hemisphere. She will work in her native Chile on a sustainable and affordable housing prototypethat also could be deployed in an emergency, particularly a flood. Working with her on the project in Chile will be UC Berkeley graduate research assistants Kylie Han and John Faichney. (For more, see http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/04/25/architect-fulbright-nexus-scholar/)
Gutierrez also received the university’s 2011Sarlo Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring Award (Junior Faculty). And was named Bentley’s Educator of the Year. (See the latter here: http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Community/Academic/Networking+and+Development/BE+Awards/2011+Winners.htm)
CRANZ, along with ASSOCIATE Professor RAVEEVARN CHOKSOMBATCHAI and ASSISTANT PROFESSOR RONALD RAEL contributed to a show of novel outdoor seating at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center which opened in June. Called SEAT, the yearlong exhibition curated by artist and landscape designer Topher Delaney, of Seam Studio, includes work by more than 40 designers, artists, and architects. Each team was given a site on the former Fort’s 13-acre waterfront campus, which now serves as an arts and culture venue.
The College of Environmental Design Library’s Head LibrarianElizabeth Byrne received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Service Award at commencement in May. After joining the Environmental Design Library as its Head in 1984, Byrne established the library as one of finest architecture, landscape, and planning libraries in North America. She also recently co-edited the book Design on the Edge, which traces the history of architectural education at Berkeley.
ASSOCIATE Professor DANA BUNTROCK and Professor SUSAN UBBELOHDE brought a team of graduate students and energy specialists (including a number of alumni now working in Ubbelohde’s firm, Loisos + Ubbelohde) to Tokyo for a four-day energy conservation workshop in June, funded in part by the university’s Center for Japanese Studies. Participants in the workshop included Kengo Kuma, Kazuyo Sejima, Jun Aoki and designers from organizations such as Nikken Sekkei, Takenaka Construction and Kajima; leading academics from the University of Tokyo, Keio, Tokyo Fine Arts University and Tokyo Metropolitan University were also involved.
BUNTROCK was also awarded a one-semester Faculty Residential Research award for Spring, 2012, by the university’s Institute of East Asian Studies, for research titled “Shaped by Disaster: Architectural and Engineering Practices after 3/11.” BUNTROCK’S book, Materials and Meaning in Japanese Architecture was a finalist for the EDRA “Great Places” award and she also recently wrote two book reviews, on Yasuhiro Ishimoto’s photographs of Katsura, for the on-line L.A. Review of Books (http://lareviewofbooks.org/post/7336308794/the-eyes-think) and the May issue of Visual Resources.
GREG CASTILLO was awarded an Associate Professor Fellowship from the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities for 2011-2012. The program enables faculty members to devote a Spring semester to research while participating in a weekly roundtable composed of senior and junior faculty members and Graduate Dissertation Fellows. Greg’s research project, “Toward an Emotional History of German Reconstruction,” will examine postwar German architecture through methods pioneered by contemporary historians of emotions.
ASSOCIATE Professor Mark Anderson received an Honor Award from the AIA-SF for his “Lips Tower.” (http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/archives/15288#more-15288)* In July, Anderson brought two student teams to Singapore for the Vertical Cities Competition (http://www.verticalcitiesasia.com/). Dean Jennifer Wolch is participating in a related symposium.
ASSISTANT Professor Nicholas de monchaux was a featured speaker at the 2011 “Urban Systems Symposium” in New York City in mid-May and as part of the “Ultra Exposure Forum,” at Little Tokyo Design Week in mid-July with Sylvia Lavin, Elizabeth Diller, Rene Daalder, Machiko Kusahara and Hiroki Azuma.
De Monchaux also spoke about his new book in a number of very cool settings:
ASSISTANTProfessor Ronald RaeL’s firm, Rael San Fratello, is one of ten finalists in a Van Alen Institute competition considering the environmental, cultural and economic impact of high-speed rail. The finalists were exhibited at the National Building Museum, and participants will engage in panel discussions throughout the country this summer.
Rael also published his project “Border Wall as Architecture” in the refereed journal Environment and Planning D, vol. 29, issue 3 and his review of the book The Masons of Djenné by Trevor H. J. Marchand. (Bloomington: Indiana University
Designs for Living in Upper Volta (1985), written with Trinh Minh-ha. Rael also presented the paper Border Wall as Architecture at the International conference “Fences, Walls and Borders: State of Insecurity?,” at the University of Quebec at Montreal and held in association with the Association for Borderlands Studies in May.His firm Rael San Fratello Architects published their 2010 sukkah, now titled “Homeless House” in the new journal SOILED’s debut edition. (http://cartogram.org/soiled.html)
Emeritus Professor Marc Treib a grant form the Graham Foundation for a research project entitled, “National Modernism: The Landscapes of Christopher Tunnard and Sutemi Horiguchi.” (http://grahamfoundation.org/grantees/3973-national-modernism-the-landscapes-of-christopher-tunnard-and-sutemi-horiguchi)
Professor Nezar Alsayyad spoke at New Castle University in March.
And he was also in the news a great deal, for his insights on the built environment in Cairo:
And IwamotoScott’s “Jellyfish House” is now part of the Architecture & Design Permanent Collection at San Francisco MOMA, exhibited until November in the show “The More Things Change.” Images of the recently reproduced 3D-printed model, its installation at SFMOMA, and the original project drawings are now viewable in a photoset on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/isar/sets/72157626799271833/
Working with 14 students as part of a year-long research studio for graduating M.Arch candidates, Associate ProfessorRenee Chow developed and tested a new paradigm in integrative urban design, sponsored by grants from the Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute and our own department. The project site was located along the edge of a historic district in Tianjin, China; the final projects and design processes were presented in Tianjin in June and have been selected for exhibition at the 2011 Chengdu Biennale in October.
In late May, Professor HARRISON FRAKER gave the Annual David Goldberg Lecture in Architecture to the Arts Council of Princeton.
Professor CRIS BENTON’s aerial photography was paired with the work of landscape photographer Chris Foster in an exhibition at the Pictopia Gallery in Berkeley in June.**
PROGRAM NEWS
1) A conference titled “The Death and Life of ‘Social Factors,’” took place at the University of California Berkeley April 29 to May 1. The conference questioned the status, the boundaries, and the future of social and behavioral research in environmental design. It was organized by Berkeley doctoral students Lusi Morhayim, Georgia Lindsay, and Jonathan Bean, and brought together 200 participants from 35 countries.
PROFESSORSGalen Cranz, Margaret Crawford, & Michael Southworth led keynote panel discussions. Paper sessions covered topics such as special needs populations, design for health, sustainability, perception, place identity, theoretical explorations within the field, and the practice of socially conscious architecture. The digital proceedings are now available at http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/events/conf/deathandlife.
The Journal of Urban Design will also publish a special issue devoted to papers first presented at the conference, and a Facebook group, “The Death and Life of Social Factors,” will act as a discussion board for continuing conversations and information about the field; membership is open to all.
2) An exhibit entitled “Gardens for Peace” opened in the College of Environmental Design’s Library, in June and runs through late September. The exhibition commemorates a 1985 competition for a National Peace Garden, to be built in the nation’s capital, and was curated by Gar-Yin Lee (MLA ‘11).
3) The Environmental Design Archives was honored with a certificate of appreciation by California Assemblywoman Fiona Ma. The certificate read:
UC Berkeley Environmental Design Archives
Honoring consistent dedication and commitment to perpetuate the maintenance and growth of the history of California’s built environment, and for promoting scholarly research, teaching support, preservation, and public service, thereby benefitting all the people of the City and County of San Francisco and the State of California.
In addition, Curator Waverly Lowellpresented work on Greenwood Common to the Society of California Archivists Annual Meeting. Lowell was also invited to participate in a multi-campus Research Group focusing on California Architecture and Design that has received funding from the UC Humanities Research Institute.
Visual Resources collection Librarian Jason Millerwill be serving as the Production Editor for the eVRA Bulletin of the Visual Resources Association.
Associate Professor Elizabeth Mueller has been elected to serve a three-year term on the governing board of the Urban Affairs Association (UAA). Dedicated to creating interdisciplinary spaces for engaging in intellectual and practical discussions about urban life, the UAA is the international professional organization for urban scholars, researchers, and public service professionals.
Dean Fritz Steiner was on a panel of professors from both sides of the Pacific talking about the amazing cultural exchange happening between American and Chinese universities and the rising stature of landscape architecture in China.
A dream course team of Architecture and Interior Design students from the College of Architecture and Visual Communications students from the School of Art and History presented their ideas for a new development in Norman. The semester long project focused on creating easier movement between the University of Oklahoma campus and the city of Norman, which the campus calls home. The dream course was led by Associate Professor of Architecture Hans Butzer, Assistant Professor of Interior Design Janet Biddick, and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Programs at the School of Art and Art History Karen Hayes-Thumann.Read more.
Meagan Vandecar, a student in OU’s Urban Design studio in Tulsa, is working with the Institute for Quality Communities and Urban Design Studio Director Shawn Schaefer to improve rural communities in Oklahoma. Learn more on her student blog.
A student team in the Division of Landscape Architecture, led by Associate Professor Dr. Reid Coffman, was recognized as a finalist in the International Waterworks Parkitecture Design Competition. See their project.
Inspired by Oklahoma’s own scissor tail, the SkyDance Bridge designed by a collaborative team co-directed by Associate Professor of Architecture Hans Butzer is beginning to take shape in downtown Oklahoma City. See photo below.
Architecture Professor David Seamon attended the 30th annual International Human Research Science Conference, held in Oxford, England, July 27-30, 2011. He organized a symposium, “Lived Relationalities among Place, Space, and Environmental Embodiment.” The three symposium presenters were health sociologist Dr. Andrew Moore, a research associate with the Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre at Keele University in Staffordshire, England; Dr. Sam Griffiths, a Lecturer in urban morphology and theory at University College London’s Bartlett School of Architecture; and Seamon, whose presentation was entitled, “‘Seeing’ Merleau-Ponty’s Perception: Possibilities in the Urban Photographs of New York City Photographer Saul Leiter. Seamon also presented “Homeworld, Alienworld, and Being at Home in Alan Ball’s HBO Television Series, Six Feet Under,” a blind-reviewed paper presented at the 7th annual Religion, Literature, and the Arts conference held at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, August 27. The conference theme was “Uncanny Homecomings: Narrative, Structures, Existential Questions, Theological Visions.”
Professor Donald Watts joined more than one hundred former Peace Corps Volunteers who had served in Afghanistan as part of the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Peace Corps in Washington D.C. He represented our college at a special reception for former Peace Corps Afghanistan volunteers hosted by His Excellency, Ambassador Eklil Hakimi at the Afghan Embassy in Washington. Watts served as the architectural coordinator of the Kansas State University / Kabul University Partnership Program occurring between 2007 and 2010.
Assistant Professors Nathan Howe and Sam Zeller with the help of fourth-year studentsEthan Rhoades, Hana Havlova, Matthew Whetstone and Scott Davis entered and won the international design competition The 2011 Friends of Seger Park Playground Sprayground in Philadelphia, PA. This competition was to look at the site of their existing water feature and envision a design that would be contemporary, interactive and provide an icon for their park. The team has now been commissioned to produce a promotional model and construction documents while Seger Park continues to raise funds for the project’s implementation.
Greg Sheldon, James Pfeiffer, and Rick Schladweiler from the Kansas City-based firm BNIM are co-teaching a fourth-year design studio this fall. The trio is quite enthusiastic about diving into teaching design. Sheldon, associate principal at the firm, and 2006 Architect of the Year for the AIA Kansas City chapter, taught building construction techniques to beginning students at the KC campus of the University of Missouri, but has never taught studio. The trio intends to fold verifiable design techniques into the studio’s semester-long project.
Contemporary Follies, a new book by Keith Moskow and Robert Linn, lists Associate Professor Frank Flury‘s 2009 design/build studio project among its outstanding examples of contemporary design that address our place in nature.
The Field Chapel project was designed and executed by students in Flury’s advanced design/build studio for an ecumenical church cooperative in Boedigheim, Germany. Under Flury’s direction, the students developed “an interdenominational chapel, a space for people who are in a search for God – a place for quiet reflection, but also one that welcomes hikers and cyclists who appreciate a rest stop that has a sense of beauty.”
In a dramatic step forward for the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s research department, steel giant ArcelorMittal has awarded the CTBUH a $300,000 grant to study the life cycle of structural systems in tall buildings. The two-year study, announced during the 9th World Congress dinner in Shanghai, will focus on different aspects of the long-term sustainability of different frameworks of towers more than 300 meters. “At the end we hope to have a tool to reassess the sustainability of tall buildings,” said Jean-Claude Gerardy, manager, commercial sections sales and marketing for ArcelorMittal.
Chicago Architectural Club‘s latest project, “2012 Chicago Prize Competition: Future Prentice” generated 81 new visionary proposals for Bertrand Goldberg’s Prentice Women’s Hospital. The effort was led by CAC co-presidents Brian Strawn and IIT College of Architecture Adjunct Associate Professor Karla Sierralta, in collaboration with AIA Chicago and the Chicago Architecture Foundation.
The project asked for alternative solutions for one of Chicago’s most architecturally significant modern buildings, Bertrand Goldberg’s Prentice Women’s Hospital, now slated for demolition by its owner, Northwestern University.
Work from the Future Prentice competition is featured in the exhibit “Reconsidering an Icon” currently on display at the Chicago Architecture Foundation until February. The work will also be featured in a forthcoming publication, “100 Ideas for Prentice.”
The purpose of this month’s column is two-fold. First of all, I wish to draw your attention to a new digital cultural heritage project. Project CHART’s Brooklyn Visual Heritage has just been launched by the Brooklyn Public Library. This website provides access to newly digitized 19th and 20th century photographs and related material from the collections of the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Public Library. The project is to be lauded for its collaborative nature.
At the same time, this new project reminds me of an important work edited by Fiona Cameron and Sarah Kenderdine. Theorizing Digital Cultural Heritage: A Critical Discourse was published in 2010 by MIT Press and consists of twenty essays covering different aspects of the presentation of cultural content in a digital format. Navigating Brooklyn Visual Heritage illustrates the changing nature of visual research. While cultural heritage websites have long enabled researchers to become familiar with archival content before visiting the institution(s), today’s sites serve as more than surrogates. The sites allow for interpretation of content and can create their own “story”.
In Theorizing Digital Cultural Heritage, Cameron and Kenderdine present essays which address this topic as well as discuss examples of how technology can be used to further the user’s interaction with digital content. “Hyperdocuments” and inverse engineering which teams up archaeology and computer technology to advance research are two of the methods presented in this text as applications which can enhance the user experience.
Brooklyn Visual Heritage, while interdisciplinary in nature, is still an example of a more traditional site. But as you navigate this site as well as others focusing on cultural artifacts, consider how technology can and will allow for different experiences with archival material.
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