Auburn University

Read the most recent issue of StudioAPLA, the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture’s newsletter.  StudioAPLA features current news about Auburn APLA faculty, alumni and students. The Winter Issue typically focuses on the many travel opportunities available to APLA students, either abroad or in studio-related field studies.

Izumi Kuroishi, PhD, Professor of Architecture Theory and History at Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan, will present the final lecture in the APLA’s Spring 2016 Lecture Series: “Small Houses with Large Dreams: Technology and Design of Prefabricated Houses in Postwar Japan.” Professor Kuroishi’s research focuses on material culture and ethnographies of architectural space as well as on the idea of interior, and on the relationship among technologies, rituals, and mathematics in the designing of buildings.

Associate Professor and Director of the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture’s International Studies Program in Rome, J.Scott Finn, has been invited by the Institute of National Architects in Italy (INARCH), to speak at a seminar in Rome that creates a dialogue between Roman designers and visiting designers.  

Illinois Institute of Technology

 

MIES CROWN HALL AMERICAS PRIZE ANNOUNCES MCHAP.emerge 2014/15 FINALISTS

 

Five to be Celebrated at April 1, 2016
MCHAP.emerge Symposium

 

Chicago, Illinois – March 18, 2016 – Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) College of Architecture Dean Wiel Arets and Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) Director Dirk Denison announced the MCHAP.emerge 2014/15 Finalists. The finalists will be celebrated at the April 1, 2016 MCHAP.emerge Symposium and Award Dinner at which the MCHAP.emerge 2014/15 recipient will be announced.

Earlier in March, MCHAP announced the MCHAP 2014/15 Nominees and Jury. MCHAP also outlined the main events within the second cycle of the biennial prize including the MCHAP.emerge Symposium and the October 19, 2016 MCHAP Symposium.

MCHAP is a biennial prize that acknowledges the best built works of architecture in the Americas. MCHAP.emerge is the corresponding biennial prize for the best built work from an emerging architecture practice. MCHAP was created by Dean Wiel Arets who, in his 2013 inaugural address, offered “Rethinking Metropolis” as a strategic device for the college, for research, for the development of knowledge and skills, for taking part in design exercises, for debate, and for making. Dean Arets outlined his plan for a revitalized curriculum in NOWNESS, a publication in which he announced MCHAP among other initiatives. MCHAP was officially launched in February 2014 at an event hosted by Phyllis Lambert at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal and which featured Kenneth Frampton, President of the inaugural MCHAP Jury.

The MCHAP.emerge 2014/15 Finalists were selected by the MCHAP 2014/15 Jury, led by Jury President Stan Allen, from among the 55 MCHAP.emerge 2014/15 NOMINATED WORKS of architecture in the Americas, realized between January 2014 and December 2015, which have been put forward by 95 nominators from throughout the Americas. Nominations were received in January and February and were included in the MCHAP 2014/15 Exhibition held at S. R. Crown Hall on March 4th and 5th at which time the jury held its first jury session.

The five MCHAP.emerge 2014/15 finalists are:

C.I.D.; Road to Ayquina, Chile; Emilio Marin & Juan Carlos Lopez Arquitectos

Haffenden House; Syracuse, United States; Jon Lott, PARA Project

 

OZ Condominiums; Winnipeg, Canada; 5468796 Architecture

 

Pavilion on the Zocalo; Mexico City, Mexico; Productora

 

San Francisco Building; Asunción, Paraguay; Jose Cubilla & Asociados

 

The MCHAP 2014/15 Jury includes Jury President Stan Allen, architect and former Dean of Princeton University’s School of Architecture (New York); Florencia Rodriguez, editorial director of Piedra, Papel y Tijera publishers (Buenos Aires); Ila Berman, Professor of Architecture, University of Waterloo (Waterloo); Jean Pierre Crousse of Barclay & Crousse (Lima), and Dean Wiel Arets (Chicago).

The MCHAP.emerge 2014/15 Symposium and winner announcement will be held on April 1, 2016 at S. R. Crown Hall. In afternoon sessions the practices of the finalist projects will present their work and engage in substantive discussions with the jury, the IIT Architecture faculty and student body, as well as the larger MCHAP Network and Chicago architecture community. The MCHAP.emerge 2014/15 recipient will be announced at the evening award dinner. The authors of the winning project will be recognized with the MCHAP.emerge Award, the MCHAP Research Professorship in the College of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology for the following academic year, and funding of up to $25,000 USD in support of research and a publication related to the theme of “Rethinking Metropolis.”

MCHAP Finalist Announcement in late June

The MCHAP Jury will announce the finalists for the MCHAP 2014/15 in late June after the jury tour of the finalist sites. The tour will include visits with members of the MCHAP Network of architects, academics, and schools and is part of a strategy to build a vibrant network that unites architects working in the Americas and opens the discourse with others around the world. The exact date of the finalist announcement is to be determined.

MCHAP Symposium and Winner Announcement on October 19, 2016

IIT ‘s College of Architecture will host a day-long symposium including sessions for students, faculty and the architects and clients of the finalists in dialogue about the nominated works and how they contribute to the college’s continuing conversation — Rethinking Metropolis. Later in the afternoon, the general public will be invited to a moderated discussion between the architects and jury about the context of contemporary practice. At the end of the day of activities the winner of the Americas Prize 2014/15 will be announced at the MCHAP Award Dinner. The author of the MCHAP winner will be recognized with the MCHAP Award, the MCHAP Chair at IIT College of Architecture for the following academic year, and funding of up to $50,000 USD, in support of research and a publication related to the theme of ‘Rethinking Metropolis.’

For more information about MCHAP and MCHAP.emerge, MCHAP.student, their purpose, process and timeline, visit http://www.mchap.org.

To access photos of the MCHAP.emerge Finalists and access other resources please visit our MCHAP.emerge 2014-15 Finalist Electronic Press Kit.

 

About MCHAP – The America’s Prize

 

The Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) is a biennial prize that acknowledges the best built works of architecture in the Americas. MCHAP was created by Dean Wiel Arets who, in his 2013 inaugural address, offered “Rethinking Metropolis” as a strategic device for the college, for research, for the development of knowledge and skills, for taking part in design exercises, for debate, and for making. Dean Arets outlined his plan for a revitalized curriculum in NOWNESS, a publication in which he announced MCHAP among other initiatives.

The first cycle of this award culminated in 2014 with the selection of seven finalists and then two winners, the Iberé Camargo Foundation in Porto Alegre, Brazil, designed by Alvaro Siza and the 1111 Lincoln Road the mixed use parking structure in Miami Beach, Florida, USA, designed by Herzog & de Meuron. Visit www.mchap.org.

About IIT Architecture Chicago

IIT Architecture Chicago welcomes students, faculty, and guests from around the globe who share our interest in “Rethinking the Metropolis.” We conduct research; we analyze existing phenomena; we learn from other disciplines. We question the roles of architecture, landscape, and urbanism in our changing world.

 

IIT Architecture’s curriculum is structured around our innovative “horizontal Cloud Studio” introduced by Dean Wiel Arets—a school-wide design and research laboratory in which students from all degree programs work together on topics related to the metropolis.

With a history of design excellence and technical expertise, an unmatched professional studio curriculum, and inspiring surroundings in S. R. Crown Hall designed by Mies van der Rohe, IIT Architecture is one of the schools most respected by architectural firms around the world. The College offers a five-year Bachelor of Architecture degree, four different Master’s degrees (M.Arch, M.L.A., M.L.A./M.Arch., MS.Arch.), and the only Ph.D. in Architecture offered in Chicago. Visit www.arch.iit.edu.

 

About Illinois Institute of Technology

 

Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university with more than 7,300 students in engineering, sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment. Visit www.iit.edu.

 

The Mobile Library: Taking the Collection on the Road

AASL Column, March 2016
Barbara Opar and Lucy Campbell, column editors

Column by Robert Adams, Acquisitions and Reserves coordinator, BAC Library

In the past, library collections were often locked up behind brick and mortar, only available to those patrons bold enough to enter. Recently the Boston Architectural College Library, better known as the BAC library, undertook a new initiative to better integrate library resources into studio culture and change the way students accessed the collection. Library staff saw an opportunity to reach out to students who might not be using the library, increase circulation, and boost the library’s visibility with senior administration.

At the beginning of each semester, the BAC hosts an event called Studio Lottery where Faculty pitch their studio classes to the student body. Library staff has been attending these meetings to better understand the core concepts from each studio. Hearing it straight from the faculty, as opposed to seeing it on a syllabus, provides greater insight on future reference questions. The library staff saw additional opportunities–for acquisitions to the collection, outreach for instruction, and creation of specific online course guides.


Studio Lottery

Studio Lottery showed us there were students who had never visited the library. How could we put our great resources in their hands and help them succeed?

A trusty old library cart was liberated and a plan hatched to make book displays mobile. We targeted studios for which we knew we had great resources, over studios where the focus was more on using the woodshop or the materials lab. Each faculty member was emailed a tailored online guide and photos of the proposed mobile library cart stocked with helpful and appealing books. After a ten minute visit that allowed students to check books out right from the cart, we wheeled out of studio, leaving their hands filled with great books to kick off their research.  On average, half the books on the cart were checked out by the students and faculty.


Engaged students and a picked over cart.

With this very successful first effort we achieved our goal of reaching students who were not regular library users. Students actually told us how helpful this was–especially international students who felt uncomfortable searching the library catalog in English. In addition, informal polling of participating instructors revealed our Mobile Library visits improved the quality of student work.

One of the surprising outcomes was impact on our Reserve Collection. Prior to the Mobile Library, studio faculty would visit the library and pull books they knew on the topics they were teaching. This often resulted in dozens of books going on reserve in the hope that students would reference them. It was our experience that few would. The few students who did were faced with the sad fact that the book was on reserve and could not be taken home.

Mobile Library visits introduced faculty to additional resources on their topics, which, combined with the fact students were actively checking out books, caused faculty to rethink their reserve strategies. Instead of placing books on reserve, they are now borrowed, passed around, and better absorbed by more students. This has also cut down on the work load for the Reserves Department, and freed up two whole shelves of Reserve space.

Word has spread about the success of our Mobile Library visits. We have given presentations to the Education and Administration staffs at the college. This has prompted our Interior Architecture and Landscape programs to inquire about visits as well. The fall semester will find us rolling into both studios and classrooms.  Now if only we had a better book cart…


Students working in class with their newly acquired books.

Tips

  • We found it best to not over-pack the cart. We provide a sampling, not the whole collection. The students are less overwhelmed. They are then more motivated to visit the library to see what else we might offer.
  • Having an engaged faculty member makes the difference on how many books get checked out. One who points out why certain books are helpful to a student gets them to check books out.
  • We work in teams of two, so that one person can engage the users and answer questions.

Kennesaw State University



From 44-architecture students, 9-students were short-listed to move forward to participate in a competition where they presented a 3-minute oration outlining their individual thesis projects with one slide.  As coordinator of thesis prep, research & studio, Liz Martin-Malikian organized the international 3-Minute Thesis Competition at Kennesaw State University School of Architecture. Judges included: Rick Fredlund (Cooper Cary), Alex Paulson (Randall Paulson), Lisa Tuttle (Fulton County Public Arts), 
Julie Newell (KSU) and Todd Harper (KSU). 
  AWARDS ANNOUNCED Finalist: Landon Clark ($1,000); Summer Travel Grants (split): Paa Kwesi Amponsah ($600) and Asta Varneckience ($400); and People’s Choice: Kris Goettig ($200). Sponsored by: Cooper Carry, Inc.; Randall-Paulson Architects; and Tony Rizzuto, Chair School of Architecture.
Photo attached showing architecture student competition participants (left to right): Jonathan McConnell, P.K. Amponsah, Jun Xu, Landon Clark, Asta Varneckience, Kushal Patel, Kris Goettig, Michael Diaz, and James Logan Patterson. 

Philadelphia University

In the fall of 2015, Assoc. Professor Chris Harnish was invited to South Africa for the International Trans-disciplinary Workshop “Transforming Johannesburg: Reshaping Socio-Ecological Landscapes Through Collaborative Practices” in Johannesburg, where he led a research group on Eco-incremental Housing.  He also presented a lecture at the University of Witswatersrand titled “Housing as an Incremental Process: Designing for Customization and Adaptability”.

Assoc. Professor Kihong Ku led a cross-disciplinary team of faculty and practitioners that was awarded a 2015 NCARB Award to develop strategies for architectural textile composites for building envelopes.  Dr. Ku’s team received $34,208 in funding for an interdisciplinary and experimental architecture design studio to explore innovative approaches to architectural textile composites.  Dr. Ku was also named the Volpe Chair for Architectural Innovation by Philadelphia University

New Assistant Professor Jeffrey Kansler will be joining the architecture faculty from UIUC in the fall of 2016 to coordinate and teach the structures curriculum.

Assoc. Professor David Kratzer is leading a community outreach studio in which his students are working with Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) on a proposal for a new train station for the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia.

John Hubert, adjunct professor, has had four teams from PhilaU (out of a total of 30 national participating teams) selected as finalists in the US Department of Energy (DOE) 2016 Race To Zero Student Design Competition that asks students to generate creative energy efficient design solutions for sustainable homes in four separate housing categories.

Professor James Doerfler, Director of Architecture, is hosting a special session at the 2016 International Conference on Structures and Architecture (ICSA) in Guimaraes, Portugal titled “Beyond Disciplines: Building Transdisciplinary Teams” 

As result of speaking as a panelist at the 3rd Hemispheric Meeting of Deans in Guatemala, Assoc. Professor Craig Griffen’s article “The Online Studio Problem: Assessing the Role of Distance Learning in Design Pedagogy” was published in the UNAM, Mexico City journal Bitacora 30.

University of Texas at Austin

On November 6, Professor Juan Miró, FAIA, accepted the 2015 Edward Romieniec Award for Outstanding Educational Contributions from the Texas Society of Architects. This award was presented to him during the First General Session at the 76th Annual TSA Convention and Design Expo in DallasThe TSA award is the second educational award Professor Miró has been honored with this year; he received the University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award this spring.Additionally, Miró Rivera Architects’ (MRA) Chinmaya project graced the cover of Texas Architect‘s September/October 2015 Design Awards issue. The Hindu temple and educational building are the first phase of the mission’s new campus in North Austin.

Austin-born advertising and graphic design firm, GSD&M, stopped by the Field Constructs Design Competition (FCDC), which featured emerging designers, architects, landscape architects and artists from all over Austin and beyond. This artistic collaboration inspires cutting-edge innovation through installations that intertwine with the natural and cultural aspects of Austin.FCDC co-founders Catherine Gavin and Associate Professor Igor Siddiqui, as well as Assistant Professor Kory Bieg, who designed a featured piece in the competition, spoke to GSD&M about the innovative and collaborative spirit of Austin. 

Associate Professor Danilo Udovi_ki-Selb‘s recent and upcoming scholarly activities include:

  • Edited O’ Neil Ford Monograph 6: Narkomfin: Moisej J. Ginzburg, Ignatij Milinis, jointed published (fall 2015) by the School of Architecture, Center for American Architecture and Design, __usev State Museum of Architecture, and the O’Neil Ford Chair in Architecture.
  • Authored the lead chapter, “L’Exposition de 1937 n’aura pas lieu: The Invention of the Paris International Expo and the Soviet and German Pavilions,” In Architecture of Great Expositions 1937–1959, London: Ashgate, 2015. Editors Vladimir Paperny, Alexander Otenberg, and Rika Devos.
  • Chapter in edited Festrieft book in memoriam of Russian / Soviet architecture historian S.O. Khan-Magomedov, Moscow 2015.
  • As official critic/correspondent of the Giornale dell’Architettura, Torino, published report in its special issue, “Architecture Beyond the Image,” an article on architect David Adjaye‘s Sugar Hill affordable housing development in Manhattan, and a retrospective about Post-Modernism on the occasion of Michael Grave‘s passing.
  • Presented a paper at this year’s annual conference of the Society of Architectural Historians in Chicago, April 2015, “Reinventing the ‘City of Light’ at the 1937 Paris World Fair.”
  • Published an essay, “Reinventing Paris: The Competitions for the 1937 Paris International Exposition,” in the Journal of Architectural Historians
  • Presented a paper, “Kaganovich’s Grupirovka: The Lenin Library Competition and the Invention of the VOPRA,” at the annual conference of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.
  • With Alla Vronskaya will lead a panel on “Reassessing the Historiography of Socialist Architecture”, annual conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Pasadena, 2016.
  • Invited presentation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on “Filippo Brunelleschi: Between European Renascence and Florentine Renaissance.”

University of Southern California

Vinayak Bharne has been appointed Executive Editor of the India and Netherlands based quarterly, “My Liveable City.” In this capacity, he will help expand its global reach and direct its future issues and themes. He was also a speaker in the USC Urban Growth Seminar Series at the Price School of Public Policy. His talk titled “Urban Design: The Pluralism of Practice” elaborated on his ongoing projects in the United States, Panama, China, India and Japan. Bharne is currently editing “The Companion of Global Heritage Conservation,” for Routledge Press, London. This 40-chapter volume examines the relationship of heritage conservation planning with the specific agencies, governance structures and cultural expectations across the world. The volume is slated for release mid 2017. 

Steven Ehrlich
will be speaking at the AIA National Convention in May, in Philadelphia as part of the College of Fellows 2 + 2 program. The program supports mentorship by showcasing the work of two Fellows alongside the work of two recent national recipients of the AIA Young Architects award. The work of Steven Ehrlich and Takashi Yanai was recently recognized by the Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Awards, two projects (John M Roll Courthouse and McElroy Residence) were awarded for their achievements in design. The projects will be part of a traveling exhibition titled “New Los Angeles Architecture” which will be opening in June of 2016.

Jose Sanchez has released Block’hood, a city-building simulation video game that focuses on notions of ecology, decay and coexistence. The game was released on the Steam platform getting a very positive review from the media and the community. The game will enable research on crowdsourcing, problem solving, systems education and how games can impact reality. The game will continue development for the rest of the year.

Rob Berry’s essay “In Defense of the Drought” was published as an op-ed in the Winter 2016 issue of the LA Forum Newsletter. This spring he is serving as a juror on the review panel for the Cavin Family Travelling Fellowship. With his practice Berry and Linné, he recently completed two collaborative public space projects: a parklet in Rancho Cucamonga, in collaboration with utopiad.org, and Todos Juntos, a public plaza at the Benjamin Franklin Public Library in Boyle Heights, in collaboration with Lyric Design + Planning.

Assistant Professor Travis Longcore (Landscape Architecture program) was an invited speaker for a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine workshop panel on Ecology, Physiology/Human Health and Light at the Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences & Engineering in Irvine, California.

University of Calgary

Professor Graham Livesey has been appointed as the Associate Dean Academic – Architecture in the Faculty of Environmental Design. Professor Graham Livesey was elected as Chair of the Canadian Council of University Schools of Architecture (CCUSA).

Mauricio Soto-Rubio has been appointed as the Assistant Professor. He joined us from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, where he taught comprehensive building design studios, building technologies and seminars related to lightweight and membrane structures.

Professor Branko Kolarevic is recipient of the 2015 ACADIA Society Award of Excellence, which is given by the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture for the overall contribution to the field and the association.

Professor Brian R. Sinclair received the “Exemplary Leadership in Education Award” from the International Institute for Advanced Studies in Systems Research and Cybernetics, in Wurttemberg Germany, August 2015.

Professor Branko Kolarevic delivered a keynote lecture at the 2015 SIGRADI Conference held in Florianopolis in Brazil. He was also the keynote speaker at the “On Architecture: Reworking the City” International Conference held in early December at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade.

Professor Brian R. Sinclair delivered a keynote address at the 27th International Conference on Systems Research, Informatics and Cybrnetics, held in Baden Baden in Germany, in 2015.

Professor Branko Kolarevic and Assistant Professor Vera Parlac co-edited a book “Building Dynamics: Exploring Architecture of Change”, which was published in June 2015 by Routledge. The book launch at the University of Calgary featured a guest lecture by David Benjamin.

Graham Livesey published a three volume anthology entitled “Deleuze and Guattari on Architecture” with Routledge in 2015, in the Critical Assessments in Architecture series.

Professor Brian R. Sinclair published a chapter entitled “Devising Design: Agility, Aptness, Equilibrium, Imperfection”, in Building Dynamics: Exploring Architecture of Change (Editors: B. Kolarevic + V. Parlac). Routledge: London, 2015.

Professor Branko Kolarevic and Assistant Professor Vera Parlac published a chapter entitled “Architecture of Change: Adaptive Building Skins” in The Routledge Companion for Architecture Design and Practice: Established and Emerging Trends (Editors: M. Kanaani and D. Kopec). Routledge: London, 2015.

Associate Professor Jason Johnson has received a funding of $ 250,000 from the University of Calgary for a research cabin in the Sheep River Provincial Park. This project will be designed and built by students. Assistant Professor Caroline Hachem-Vermette and Assistant Professor Maricio Soto will be joining the project team to provide expertise in energy and structural analysis and design.

Assistant Professor Vera Parlac received University of Calgary Teaching and Learning Grant for the project titled “Pursuing Innovative Design in an Interdisciplinary Research Studio”. The grant of $20,000 will enable a deeper engagement of engineering and computer science faculty and students in the “Responsive Architecture” research studios that Vera will teach over the next two years. 

Associate Professor David Gissen from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco was the 2015 Gillmor Theory Seminar Lecturer. He led a weeklong course focusing on exploration of the alphanumerical character and abstracted language as a component of architectural representation. 

Chris Sharples of SHoP was the 2016 Somerville Visiting Lecturer. He led a weeklong design course focusing on concepts for deployable, adaptable housing modules utilizing the Laneway or Arcade as a way to increase urban density while promoting more interactive exchange and richer quality of life for city dwellers. 

Assistant Professors Ellie Abrons and Adam Fure from the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning were the 2016 Taylor Visiting Lecturers. The seminar investigated exaggerated solidity. Through casting and photogrammetry students produced aesthetically experimental environments.

Strategies for Planning Successful Information Literacy Assignments for Architecture Students

Barret Havens, Digital Initiatives Librarian and liaison to the School of Architecture, Woodbury University

Barbara Opar and Barret Havens, column editors

The NAAB and Architecture Librarians Agree on the Importance of Information Literacy

If you’ve spent any time with your campus architecture librarian, you probably know that we think information literacy is really important. But we’re not the only ones! The National Architectural Accreditation Board does too, and has mandated that the architecture schools assess students’ information literacy skills. They have articulated this explicitly in the Student Performance Criteria (A.3) listed in the 2014 Conditions for Accreditation: “Investigative Skills: Ability to gather, assess, record, and comparatively evaluate relevant information and performance in order to support conclusions related to a specific project or assignment.”  Student Performance Criterion A.3 is a very familiar realm for us architecture librarians—it describes the types of activities we help students accomplish more effectively as teachers and as curators of architectural collections.  Another reason that criterion A.3 sounds familiar to librarians is that it reads like a paraphrasing of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ most recent attempt to define information literacy:

“Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning.”

But What Does Information Literacy Actually Look Like?

The definition of information literacy above suggests a variety of processes that scholars from a variety of fields engage in. But what does it really look like when our architecture students do it? The discovery, evaluation, and synthesis of information into “new knowledge” such as an architectural model may take place in the studio, at reviews, or even in a dorm room. But often, the process begins in the library, where students gather information to inform the design process, such as books or journals containing architectural drawings of relevant precedents. Many students struggle with assignments that require the application of information literacy skills and end up seeking out the help of a librarian. Based on my experience working with students in those types of situations, and my examination of hundreds of research-intensive assignments I would like to offer faculty some strategies for designing successful information literacy assignments.

Strategy #1: Work with your architecture librarian way ahead of time to ensure that adequate resources for the assignment are in place

Though architecture librarians do their best to anticipate the needs of architecture students and faculty and strive to develop their collections accordingly, most of us will admit that we aren’t perfect. Occasionally we’ll overlook an important publication or the works of a lesser-known architect. Sometimes, books and journals go missing without our noticing right away. Our budget limitations might prevent us from purchasing important resources. These occurrences may leave little holes in the collection. Providing your librarian with the parameters of assignments such as precedent lists will help to ensure that when your students come to the library, they’ll find what they need. Since receiving and processing items at most libraries can take several weeks, it helps us to have those details at least a month ahead of time.

Strategy #2: Have an architecture librarian provide a hands-on workshop

At most campuses, librarians are available to provide your students with an instruction session geared specifically towards the objectives of any upcoming research-intensive assignments. Often, these sessions will take place in a hands-on environment such as the library’s computer lab where students are able to test drive resources like the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, ArtStor, and the library catalog. Not only will such a session impart skills and techniques that will help your students produce higher quality work, it will also serve to establish a rapport between students and their architecture librarian, who can continue to support their efforts long after the session ends and throughout their academic life. Even if the architecture students at your school are required to take a credit-bearing information literacy course, they will need refreshers throughout their academic trajectory in order to retain what they have learned. A hands-on instruction session can serve to reedify those skills.

Strategy #3: Give students enough time to take advantage of your library’s inter-library loan service

Many academic library catalogs are capable of searching the holdings of thousands of other libraries. Likewise, the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals will display records for journals your library may not own. Through inter-library loan programs, libraries are able to obtain these items from other libraries faster than ever. But, even though articles may arrive in as little as 2 days, some items such as books can still take 10 to 14 days to arrive. If you will require your students to do in-depth research using a wide variety of sources, it will benefit them greatly to have enough time to take advantage of this service (and to be forewarned that thorough research takes time!).

Strategy #4: Require that students use a variety of sources to ensure that they engage with different formats and perspectives

If students aren’t required to seek out academic and professional sources, they tend to rely heavily on their old friend Google. Don’t get me wrong–there are some great sources of architectural images from reputable sources on the open web, such as the images of the rock-cut churches at Lalibela available through the Zamani Project. But we all know the pitfalls students can fall into while researching on the open web. (For instance, trying to make sense of architectural images posted on Pinterest with absolutely no metadata to suggest which project is depicted, whether the drawing is to scale, whether it is the version that was actually built, etc.) To ensure that students engage with reliable resources, it may be necessary to spell out for them explicitly the gamut of sources they are expected to use to inform their work. For instance, 3 architecture periodicals, 3 books, 2 blogs by experts in the field, etc. Requiring students to locate a variety of sources also exposes them to different perspectives on a topic offered by different types of sources and gives them a more well-rounded understanding of the research process.

Strategy # 5: Encourage your students to explore their library’s physical and online collections

Physical libraries and digital libraries are arranged for the maximum possibility of serendipitous discovery! Encourage your students to spend time exploring both. There’s no telling what they might find, or how it might inform and inspire their design work.

Strategy #6: Invite your architecture librarian to reviews, student presentations, and other exhibits of student work

When librarians can experience the final product of all the research that your students have been doing, they gain an understanding that will help them to focus their efforts most effectively on guiding students through the research process in future iterations of the course. Librarian attendance at such events may also help to reinforce, for students, the idea that their architecture librarian is involved and engaged in the culture of their school, and that we librarians are not just there to save students from defeat, we are there to celebrate their victories as well!

Auburn University

Auburn University’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture’s (APLA) Urban Studio interim director Alex Krumdieck, and Prof. John Pittari, have been working with twelve students to develop urban design plans for the “innovation district” downtown, which includes part of the Birmingham civil rights district. A team from the Rose Center for Public Leadership, also considering a development project in the civil rights district, visited the Urban Studio to review student work.  The Rose Center team included some of the student projects in their presentation to Birmingham’s mayor and credited Urban Studio and the students – publically recognizing the studio as a valuable asset for the City of Birmingham.

Rural Studio’s 20K House is having a moment. Rural Studio has had the opportunity to field test the 20K House plan with real world constraints of codes, financing, and construction methods. The highly successful outcome is two 20K houses that have been built as artists’ residences in Serenbe, a luxury sustainable living community outside of Atlanta, Georgia. The project is garnering a lot of attention locally and around the world: 

Digital Trends  I  Elle Netherlands   I   Brisbane Times   I   Azure Magazine, Toronto   I   Builder Online  I   Trend Hunter   I  The Age, Australia   I  This Is Money, UK   I   Q Daily, China  I  OkeZone, Jukarta   I   Pro Builder  I  Yellow Hammer  I   Ontario Assoc. of Architects  I   FastCo   I   House Beautiful   I  Nehnutelnosti   I  AL.com  I  Inhabitat  I   BeltLandia  I  Atlanta Magazine  I  ArtsATL

APLA Third Year architecture student Sarah Curry was recently profiled as an “Auburn Youth Program Success Story.” She was first introduced to Auburn’s Architecture program in high school when she attended Auburn University’s Youth Programs Architecture Camp.

The Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) has awarded Associate Professor and Chair of the Graduate in Landscape Architecture Program, Charlene LeBleu, FASLA, AICP, the designation of “LAF Research Fellow.” LeBleu is one of six faculty chosen nationally for this honor.  LeBleu will work with LAF’s Case Study Investigation (CSI) program to document and test the landscape performance of three Alabama landscapes, and record them in to the nationally case study data-base. The projects are Fairview Environmental Park, Montgomery, AL / Design Firm: 2D Studio, Judd Langham, Auburn, AL;

Samford Park at Toomer’s Corner Landscape, Auburn, AL / Design Firm: HNP Landscape Architecture, Tommy Holcomb, Birmingham, AL; Railroad Park, Birmingham, AL / Design Firm: Tom Leader Studio, Emily Leader, Berkeley, CA

Prof. Tarik Orgen, Program Director of the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture’s (APLA) International Studies Program in Istanbul, was recently inducted into Auburn University’s Global Teaching Academy, a University program that recognizes and celebrates selected members for exceptional teaching in an international context.

Auburn Alumni, Al York, FAIA, BARCH ’88, and Principal of Austin, Texas-based McKinney York Architects, has been elevated to the prestigious College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).