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Pennsylvania State University

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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Marcus Shaffer, associate professor of architecture, and two architecture graduate students in the Stuckeman School have joined the efforts of the worldwide additive manufacturing community in 3D printing face shields that could potentially be used by doctors, nurses and healthcare workers, who are on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shaffer, along with the husband and wife team of Julio Diarte and Elena Vazquez, who are both doctoral students, are 3D printing the headbands and hand-cutting the shields from transparent sheets from their respective homes in State College. They are using the online guide created by architect Jenny Sabin, which Shaffer found when researching ways he could use 3D printing to help during the pandemic.

Sabin’s lab and the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University – where Sabin is the Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture – are collaborating with other Cornell departments to address the need for personal protective equipment (PPE) at Weill Cornell Medical Center in an initiative called “Project PPE.”

Shaffer said he was compelled to help because he knows how design enriches all of our lives. “Many of my friends are artists, designers, architects . . . and this period of isolation has made clear how rich our lives are because we can be productive by making things that are beautiful, useful or both,” said Shaffer. “As a person who spent a significant time of my life as a designer working in New York City, I just felt compelled to turn my tools and machines toward potentially helping that city.”

Having lived in New York during the 9/11 attacks, Shaffer said that the feelings of loss and uncertainty, coupled with the city as a whole coming to a standstill back then, are still fresh in his memory.

“When I found Jenny Sabin’s website and Project PPE, I turned on the 3D printer in my little factory here at home and it literally has not stopped,” added Shaffer.

Diarte, one of Shaffer’s advisees, said he and Vazquez felt compelled to assist with the effort after reading about the MASC initiative at Penn State.

“Elena and I borrowed a 3D printer from the FORMAT Lab in the Stuckeman School to continue our research at home, so we figured, ‘why not print some headbands in the downtime when we’re not working?’” explained Diarte. “We take turns at home – one works on their research and the other prints – and then we switch.”

As of Thursday, Shaffer, Diarte and Vazquez had printed 70 headbands and the trio expects to print another 100 this week.

Pennsylvania State University

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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Low Design Office (LOWDO), an architecture and integrative design studio that was cofounded by DK Osseo-Asare, assistant professor of architecture and engineering design at Penn State, has been named to Domus magazine’s 50 Best Architecture Firms in 2020 list.

This is the second year that the leading Italian design and architecture publication has released a “best of” list. The first edition, in 2019, focused on the 100 most important architecture practices in the world while this second edition, according to editors, “…identifies the world’s 50 most creative, interesting and promising emerging architecture practices.”

LOWDO was informally established in 2006 by Osseo-Asare and Ryan Bollom while they were classmates at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The firm – which is based in Austin, Texas and Tema, Ghana – explores the links between sustainability, technology and geopolitics through its work.

Domus lauds LOWDO’s work for how “construction content and technology of buildings by interweaving into the warp and weft complex materials and systems” can advance sustainable design strategies through inventive approaches to building construction. The firm does this by considering “architecture as part of a dynamic and heterogeneous ecosystem” and for integrating solutions for ventilation, solar shading, livability and energy performance into new models of co-living.

The editorial board for the 2020 Domus list was comprised of experts including Wowo Ding, Luis Fernández-Galiano, Lesley Lokko, Rahul Mehrotra and Sarah M. Whiting. The board states that 50 selected firms “could lead [us] to thoughts on what our houses and cities can and should do to represent and improve a world whose dramatic fragility no longer eludes us.”

Florida Atlantic University

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2020 Virtual Interiorities Symposium

Florida Atlantic University | School of Architecture
Fort Lauderdale,  Florida USA
October 17—18, 2020

Symposium Chairs
Dr. Shermeen Yousif | Florida Atlantic University
Dr. Vahid Vahdat | Washington State University

virtual interiorities offers a critical forum for presenting creative practices and scholarship of historical, theoretical, realized, and speculative work involving virtual reality, architecture, and design. More specifically, it promotes innovation in design theory, pedagogy, research, and practice. The symposium invites interdisciplinary research and collaborations that include, but are not limited to architecture, spatial design, interior architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, urban design, adaptive reuse, preservation, computer science, media studies, and the performing arts.

Suggested Themes:

  • VR as an Architectural Medium
  • Virtual Simulations
  • Virtualizing Architectural Research Methods
  • VR and Sustainability
  • Histories of Virtuality in Design
  • Theorizing Virtual Space
  • Virtual Reality and Architectural Pedagogy
  • Virtual Ecologies
  • Urban Virtualities
  • Interdisciplinary Collaborations

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

virtual interiorities accepts the following forms of scholarship:

  • Paper Presentations
  • Poster Presentations
  • Pecha Kucha Presentations
  • Virtual Projects/Installations

Submission Deadline: 23:59pm EST on June 28, 2020. For more info:

http://virtualinteriorities.org/

info@virtualinteriorities.org

ACSA108 Notice - A Message Regarding COVID-19

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To the ACSA Membership:

I am writing to follow up our previous emails about the 108th ACSA Annual Meeting. The ACSA Board of Directors met online last week to review our plans regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and ways to help our member schools respond to their local conditions.

Virtual Format
Since we announced our decision to move the conference to an online format, the ACSA staff has been developing models for holding a virtual event that would preserve the dissemination of peer-reviewed content and other previously scheduled panel sessions.

Registration Fees
We will offer options for your registration fees, including a refund and the option to apply your fees to the virtual conference or a future conference.

We ask for your patience as we finalize our next steps. Thank you for your continued support, and we will be in touch as soon as possible.

Additional Resources Online
Last week ACSA held a series of open online conversations about pivoting to online learning. HERE is a link to find recordings of the sessions that took place as well as links for future discussions. We invite you to share these resources with colleagues.

Sincerely,
Rashida Ng, ACSA President

Message: March 7, 2020

To the ACSA Membership:

I am writing to inform you that the 108th ACSA Annual Meeting will not take place in San Diego next week. The Board of Directors reviewed public health data about the coronavirus and its impact on travel and our conference venues, and determined it would be an unacceptable risk to hold the conference and related activities at this time. We regret having to make this decision, but determined we must prioritize the health and safety of our conference attendees.

Recognizing the scholarly work that is shared throughout the conference is important and timely, we are exploring alternate options to deliver the conference content by virtual means. We will work with our staff and the Annual Meeting Committee to determine how best to do so over the next two weeks.

We will also revise our refund policy for conference registrations in light of these extraordinary circumstances. We ask for your patience as we finalize these details as quickly as possible.

What to do now.
If you are not going to travel to San Diego, please take steps to cancel or change your hotel reservation. The reservation policy for our conference hotel block requires 72 hours notice before arrival to avoid a penalty. Don’t forget to change your transportation arrangements. Many airlines are altering their cancellation and change fees.

We will continue to update you on our plans. We appreciate the feedback and support we have received so far and look forward to continuing to serve you in the future.

Sincerely,
Rashida Ng, ACSA President

 

Message: March 5, 2020

To the ACSA Membership:

As a follow up to our communication on February 27, we are contacting you about the 108th ACSA Annual Meeting. In light of the public health emergency declared by the governor of California, we have called a meeting of the ACSA Board of Directors tomorrow to discuss how best to proceed.

The health and safety of our conference attendees remain our primary concern.

We continue to review the facts from credible public health sources, such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the San Diego County Government, and the State of California Department of Public Health. We are also collecting more information about travel restrictions and are exploring alternatives to deliver a meaningful scholarly meeting despite these unexpected circumstances.

Please continue to update us on any changes in how your university is managing travel, particularly travel within the United States, so we can follow that trend as well.

We will be in contact with you no later than Saturday with a further update.

Sincerely,
Rashida Ng, ACSA President

 

Message: February 27, 2020

To the ACSA Membership:

With the 108th ACSA Annual Meeting in San Diego two weeks away, we want to let you know that we are monitoring the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says on its website that COVID-19 is a public health threat but “individual risk is dependent on exposure.” The immediate health risk is low to “the general American public, who are unlikely to be exposed to this virus at this time.”

We want you to know that the health and safety of our conference-goers are of paramount importance. We monitor the situation daily, using the CDC as our primary source of understanding about potential public health risks.

We will continue to communicate with you over the next two weeks about the situation. At the same time, we encourage you to monitor how your university is managing travel, particularly travel within the United States.

Please feel free to contact us with questions or feedback.

Sincerely,
Rashida Ng, ACSA President

Pennsylvania State University

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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Felecia Davis, who has gained widespread recognition for her work designing lightweight textiles that change properties in response to their environment, is one of 10 architects, designers and artists that will be featured in an upcoming Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) show examining contemporary architecture in the context of how systemic racism has fostered violent histories of discrimination and injustice in the United States.

Opening Oct. 17, “Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America” is described by organizers as “an investigation into the intersections of architecture, Blackness and anti–Black racism in the American context.” The exhibition will feature a series of 10 newly commissioned works that will, according to the MoMA “explore how people have mobilized Black cultural spaces, forms and practices as sites of imagination, liberation, resistance and refusal.”

The show is the fourth iteration of the museum’s “Issues in Contemporary Architecture” series, which began in 2010. As with previous exhibitions in the series, community workshops and panel discussions will be held next spring that will delve into each contributor’s work.

An assistant professor of architecture and director of the Computational Textiles Lab (SOFTLAB) in the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing, Davis is developing textile systems for use in architecture that can sense and respond to the world around them through digital electronic programing and sensors. These systems can also be programmed by using the natural transformative quality of the material itself in connection with environmental cues, such as humidity, temperature and light.

The purpose of the textile systems – or “architextiles,” as they are referred to – is to use the responsiveness and sensual qualities of the material to communicate information or, in other words, to tell a story. An example of these systems are soft walls that elicit emotions from people in a space or to help a person who is not in touch with their emotions be able to communicate to a caretaker, doctor or nurse in non-verbal way.

Yolande Daniels, co-principal of Studio SUMO and a speaker in the Stuckeman School’s 2019-20 Lecture and Exhibit Series, will also be featured in the MoMA show.

“Reconstructions” will be on view from Oct. 17 through Jan. 18, 2021. More information can be found via the MoMA website.

University of New Mexico

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The University of New Mexico’s School of Architecture and Planning has announced that the Tres Volcanes Collaborative Community School, by Jon Anderson Architecture has been selected as the winner of the 2020 Jeff Harnar Award for Contemporary Architecture. This innovative building is located on the west side of Albuquerque. Each year, the winner of this award receives $10,000.

The award ceremony was held on Friday, Feb. 28, at the UNM School of Architecture and Planning and included a lecture from Jury Chair Alberto Kalach.

The 2020 Jury included Alberto Kalach, Principal at Taller De Arquitectura “X”; Rafael Longaria, Professor of Architecture at University of Houston; Dale Rush, Principal at Hazelbaker Rush; Fransciso Uviña Contreras, Director of UNM Historic Preservation & Regionalism Graduate Certificate; and Emily Vogler, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture and Rhode Island School of Design.

For the third year, the awards ceremony also included the Jeff Harnar Awards for Unbuilt Design.

The recipient of the Jeff Harnar Award for Unbuilt Architecture was Ke Vaughn Harding, a recent graduate of the Master of Architecture at the University of New Mexico.  His design was entitled “Aguas Efimeras,” sited in Xochimillco, Mexico City. Harding received $250 for the award.

The recipient of the Jeff Harnar Award for Unbuilt Landscape Architecture was Ryan Franchak, a recent graduate of the Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, for his project “Reimagining the Griegos Drain,” sited in Albuquerque, NM. Franchak also received $250.

The Jeff Harnar Award for Contemporary Architecture, established by the Thornburg Charitable Foundation, is considered to be the most prestigious recognition for contemporary architectural design in New Mexico.

The Harnar awards and program are organized by John Quale, Chair of the UNM Department of Architecture, and sponsored by the Thornburg Foundation, who have supported the award since 2007. For more on the awards, please visit: http://www.jeffharnaraward.com/

 

University at Buffalo

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Department of Architecture, University at Buffalo.

ACSA News February 2020.

Assistant Professor Julia Jamrozik received a 2020 ACSA Award. The JAE Best Article Award recognized her contribution ‘Growing up Modern – Oral History as Architectural Preservation’ as one of the best published works in the preceding academic year.

Professor Korydon Smith, Chair of Architecture, was a co-editor of Transforming Global Health: Interdisciplinary Challenges, Perspectives, and Strategies. The book, published by Springer in January 2020, is the first comprehensive text on global health to emphasize the role of the built environment. Keith Martin, executive director of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, wrote the foreword. Pavani Ram, a physician and epidemiologist currently working with USAID, served as co-editor.

Associate Professor Hadas Steiner’s essay ‘Limbs of Nature’ was published in the catalogue for the exhibition Neri Oxman:Material Ecology’ which opened in February 2020 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York..

Associate Professor Beth Tauke is directing The Architecture + Education Program in Buffalo. The program enables UB students to work with local architects and public school teachers to assist students in math, science, history, art and technology within the Common Core Curriculum at five Buffalo Public Schools, raise awareness about design and foster appreciation of the built environment.

ACSA Voices Opposition to the U.S. Government’s Potential Executive Order on Federal Architecture

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The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture stands firmly behind statements from the architecture profession in opposition to the potential Executive Order requiring that all Federal architecture be designed in a neoclassical style.

As the American Institute of Architects (AIA) states, architects work with communities to assess the most appropriate architecture for projects. Enforcing a style for Federal architecture ignores input from the people who would be affected by these projects. Such standards would make decisions about buildings before the appropriate programming and design processes happen, leading to increased costs carried by U.S. taxpayers.

We support the statement from the National Association of Minority Architects (NOMA) that the predetermined choice of a neoclassical style privileges a set of cultural experiences that are not shared by everyone. The style of such buildings can “stand as symbols and painful reminders of centuries of oppression and the harsh realities of racism.”

Finally, ACSA echoes the AIA’s call for the continuation of the General Services Administration’s Design Excellence Program, which establishes a style-neutral approach that focuses on community-centered decision-making, demonstrated architectural skill, and public input.

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