SUMMARY: Eight projects on the topic of All-Inclusive Engagement in Architecture will be selected by peer-review and will be included in an upcoming publication edited by Farhana Ferdous and Bryan Bell.
The case studies sought should present sociallyengaged architecture as a broad project that demonstrate new innovative modes of architectural production that serve through architecture a multitude of “others” – those who live in poverty, are being victimized, forced into being refugees, suffering famine or homelessness. The book terms this work, taken as a whole, all-inclusive engagement.
The proposed book offers a framework of scholarship to understand various aspects of an emerging architectural culture broadly through critical discussion of theoretical, methodological and empirical evidence. Variously termed as public interest design, humanitarian architecture, pro-bono architecture, participatory architecture, and/or community architecture, the modernist utopia— architecture as an instrument of social change has returned to recent architectural discourse with a vengeance to the degree that it conceives a radical reformation of the profession and its relationship to society. While much of the available scholarship on social engagement in architecture is portrayed as a sheer pragmatic response to the economically divisive world, the proposed volume argues that this emerging trend requires a deeper theoretical analysis.
Current literature presents a disjunction between action-based community-engaged projects and theoretically based scholarship as a major gap in knowledge in the education of Architecture and Public Interest Design. To fill this gap, we seek field-based case studies that also establish a theoretical foundation to assess the scope, limitations, diversities, and possibilities of their social engagement. Although there are a number of good books on this topic, which is evidence of the burgeoning market of readers of the subject, most focus on discussing the working methods, techniques, and various pragmatic aspects of socially engaged architecture. This book will fill the lacuna by giving an in-depth analysis of all-inclusive engagement from socio-cultural contexts that framed the practice, as well as address the inadequate theoretical discussion on the topic.
Two case study projects will be selected for each of the following four topics:
I. Design Pedagogy
II. Theory and Scholarship
III. Contemporary Practice and Digital Engagement
IV. Community Health and Engaged Urbanism
SCHEDULE: 10 January 2018: Submissions due by author including name, institution/organization, project title, 300 word abstract, 8-10 images (med/low resolution). Select one of the four topic areas from list above and include as first key word.
5 February 2018: Editors shortlist the project, send the invitation to submit the draft chapters
1 March 2018: Author submits 1500 words chapter with maximum 10 high-resolution images with copyright permission and release by each subject included
31 March 2018: Editors send the chapters for the peer-review process
15 April 2018: Editors send the reviewers comments to the authors
30 May 2018: Author submits the final chapter to the editors
The College of Architecture announces the hiring of three faculty members: Nathan Bicak, Assistant Professor of Interior Design; Cathy De Almeida, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture; and Daniel Piatkowski, Assistant Professor of Community and Regional Planning.
Before coming to UNL, Bicak served as an assistant professor with the Department of Design at Radford University in Virginia, where he received grant funding to implement an interdisciplinary, tiny house design/build class and established maker spaces across campus. Working collaboratively with the Radford University Environmental Center and an interdisciplinary group of faculty and students, Bicak contributed design, prototype development, digital fabrication and sensor automation to a research project focused on the construction of a food waste bioreactor.
He has presented his work at national conferences including NeoCon, the Environmental Design Research Association and the Interior Design Educators Council. Bicak has spoken on a wide variety of topics, notables include the utilization of drones to enhance construction education and monitoring, residential criteria for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and the efficacy of making and prototyping for the enhancement of spatial understanding in interior design education.
Bicak plans to continue his research studying the social, ecological and economic impacts of small-scale living solutions, particularly through the interdisciplinary design/build delivery method. Possible future projects include an exploration and needs analysis for small-scale, housing in the rural environment.
Furthermore, Bicak gained valuable practical experience as an architectural designer with Narrative Design Studio in Lincoln as well as with Dwellings Co, an affordable housing start-up based in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Bicak will be teaching courses in education design, material application, building codes, construction methodologies and construction documentation.
Before joining the College of Architecture, De Almeida was a landscape architecture lecturer with Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She taught undergraduate and graduate design studios that focused on waste reuse processes in brownfield transformation. The concept focused on the creation of multi-layered, hybrid landscapes that were economically generative, ecologically rich, cultural destinations.
She was also an associate at Whitham Planning and Design in Ithaca, where she worked as a landscape architect and planner on numerous urban infill projects, including the transformation of a deindustrialized, superfund site into a mixed-use district known as the Chain Works District.
De Almeida’s research and design interests focus on material and energy reuse in diversified site programming to promote resilience, adaptation and flexibility in design. She is particularly interested in designing landscapes that allow waste streams from one system to become fuel for other systems. Her landscape lifecycles design-research synthesizes lifecycle approaches with concepts of industrial ecology and urban metabolism. These interests promote the restructuring of local and regional infrastructural systems to reclaim vulnerable sites and territories associated with perceived undesirable conditions, and explore the relationships between environmental justice, waste and brownfields. She is ultimately interested in how humans interact with ecological systems and resources and how design can improve these relationships by establishing symbiotic, hybrid bio-cultural systems. In addition to waste, De Almeida is also interested in intangible and ephemeral forces such as heat, wind and humidity – as media of design.
De Almeida has lectured about her work at Cornell University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, SUNY ESF and the DredgeFest: Great Lakes Symposium, and will present a forthcoming paper at the Landscape Architecture as Necessity Conference in September hosted by the University of Southern California.
De Almeida will be teaching materiality, design making and alternative landscape-based design strategies for brownfield redevelopment.
Piatkowski comes from Savannah State University where he was assistant professor of urban studies and planning. Prior to that position he was an NSF-IGERT trainee earning his PhD with the Civil Engineering department at the University of Colorado, Denver.
Piatkowski’s research focuses on how land use and transportation planning can foster equitable and sustainable communities. Piatkowski is particularly interested in the ways in which planning for walking and bicycling as viable modes of transportation can transform communities. Recent work includes: the interaction between “carrots and sticks” in travel behavior decisions, social media tools and equitable community engagement and the phenomenon of “scofflaw bicycling” – why bicyclists break the rules of the road. His research has been featured on National Public Radio, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and CityLab’s “Future of Transportation” series.
Piatkowski has been published numerous times in peer review journals including The Journal of Travel Behaviour and Society, Transport Policy, Journal of Urban Planning and Development, Journal of Transport and Health, Urban Design International, and the Journal of Transportation of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. He has presented his work nationally at the Congress for the New Urbanism, the Transportation Research Board and the International Association of Travel Behavior Researchers. Future scheduled presentations include the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning’s Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon, where he will present his research on “scofflaw bicycling” and serve as a session panelist for historic preservation and livability.
At UNL, Piatkowski will teach land use and transportation, urban design and research methods.
“We are fortunate to have these three talented individuals join our College, to continue their academic careers and exciting research paths, and to contribute to the rich curriculum and content we provide our students,” commented Katherine Ankerson, College of Architecture Dean.
College of Architecture Students Work with UNMC and MMI on Facility Design Concepts
Nothing is more exciting to a design student than the possibility of their designs actually being used in real-world situations. The work of UNL interior design and architecture students this past semester has set the groundwork for a new facility at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC).
When College of Architecture Instructor Sheila Elijah-Barnwell had heard that UNMC was considering a new facility for Munroe-Meyer Institute (MMI), a healthcare facility that focuses on individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, she jumped at the opportunity. She approached Dr. Wayne Stuberg, Professor and Interim Director of MMI, and Ron Schaefer, Interim Executive Director, Facilities Planning & Construction, with a proposal to involve her students in selecting a site and developing design concepts.
MMI welcomed the idea; in fact, a new facility had been on their radar for several years as part of their strategic campus plan and the idea of involving College of Architecture students in their strategic campus plan seemed like a great idea.
“Since we are part of the training institution of Nebraska, this was an ideal way to have UNMC collaborate with UNL on a project that would benefit the students as well as the families we serve,” said Dr. Stuberg.
“The facility is quite outdated, having first been built in the 50s and having been added on to twice,” commented Dr. Stuberg.
The College of Architecture and its students were equally excited, but they had their work cut out for them. This wasn’t just a weeklong project for these students. They spent a great portion of their semester researching multiple subjects related to this project even before developing design proposals.
In the beginning the students got to know MMI, who MMI was, what services they provided and who their clients were.
Next, students worked on site selection. They analyzed the UNMC campus and presented site proposals to the MMI administrators. Feedback from the MMI team was crucial to the students as they developed their preliminary designs further.
“Since we are multi-faceted in what we do, it was important for the students to understand how we should best be position within the new building,” Dr. Stuberg commented. “From these conversations, the students gained an understanding regarding the relationships between the departments and how to strategically locate those areas that shared clients or education and research interests.”
MMI met with the students again to go over their preliminary plans. “We had some key requirements to be carried through for all conceptual plans such as a central reception area,” Dr. Stuberg said.
A centralized location would allow for multi-disciplinary evaluations and reduce the need for the client to move from one departmental area to the next.
The culmination of the entire process came at last in early December when the twelve teams presented their final proposals to the MMI administrators and directors. MMI representatives were impressed by the teams’ creativity and said they had come a long way during this process.
“They needed to understand the needs of a complex population including the clinicians, staff members, researchers, students, clients and client families,” Elijah-Barnwell explained. “They did a great job of processing all those needs and client requirements and created some -thoughtful design proposals.”
“We hit the ground running with our research,” explained Luke Abkes, fifth-year master of architecture student. Abkes said even before he put pen to paper, he did hours of research on the client and the Institution.
MMI was the ideal partner according to the faculty and students.
“MMI was great with communicating their ideas and giving us feedback; they were very generous with their time,” Abkes added. “MMI was as invested in this project as we were which created a mutual excitement for everything that was going on.”
The students appreciated input from outside of the classroom for a different perspective and experience. “We were excited to finally have a real client and a real building that we were working on and they were excited because they were getting all of these brand new ideas from students who were thinking outside of the box, where as an architect, that they hire in the future, might be a little more bound by budget,” Abkes added.
Interior Design Instructor Stacy Spale thought having a real “client” pushed the students to excel. “The students did great with the client experience. I think the students always care more when it’s a real client, and it has real potential. In five or six years, some of the ideas our students presented might end up in the real new Munroe-Meyer Institute. That’s really exciting and inspiring. It gave them a since of purpose and direction. It’s not just an academic exercise, it has the potential to really change things.”
The average visitor might not understand the level of planning that goes into designing a building and all the considerations that are taken into account. However, these student teams thought of everything down to every material they chose and the reason for it. For example, they chose clear glass in areas where light can inspire people and open up a space and translucent or opaque glass in other areas where privacy was important.
Ashley Wojtalewicz, fourth-year interior design student and Luke Abkes’ interdisciplinary project partner, said the interior design students were assigned to detail out the recreational therapy area and the main lobby space. Both the architectural and the interior design students placed a great amount of consideration into the needs of MMI’s disabled patient population.
“With our material choices, the concept doesn’t really feel clinical at all but yet it still supports clinical activities, and that’s what we were going for as a team, we didn’t want the clients to feel like they were in an institution,” Wojtalewicz added.
Material choices were important to Wojtalewicz for user comfort. For example, many interior designers chose carpet in appropriate spaces not only for comfort but also the acoustics in the room.
Interior design finish materiality was also useful to guide the user through the facility in an intuitive, seamless way, also known as “wayfinding,” which was a common theme woven into many of the student proposals.
“Using materiality, there are different ways that we can give visual cues to the patient; so if they can’t read, they still know where to go,” commented Wojtalewicz. Wayfinding is spatial problem-solving using landmarks or visual cues. The interior design students used their material selections to intuitively lead patients through the building. In one proposal, all blue lines on the floor lead to the front desk and all red lines lead to physical therapy, etc. In another proposal, all the levels of the building have different wall colors to assist the visitor with wayfinding.
Both Wojtalewicz and Abkes, said their instructors were key contributors to the project’s success.
“My instructor, Stacy Spale, has given us really great feedback as we moved through the process,” commented Wojtalewicz. “She has a great deal of background in healthcare design.”
Abkes concurred and added, “My instructor Sheila is actually an adjunct professor who also works at HDR. She’s very well connected with a lot of the healthcare industry around Omaha. She was able to bring in real-world experience.”
From MMI’s standpoint, “It’s a win-win situation,” Dr. Stuberg said.
The students presented themselves and their ideas well and were very professional through the whole project. Dr. Stuberg admitted at times, the students would bring up ideas that MMI hadn’t even thought of yet. Dr. Stuberg said he can see components of the student designs being incorporated into the final facility. He added that their designs and research will definitely be part of the foundational document they give the contracted architectural firm.
When asked if he would partner with the College of Architecture again given a similar opportunity, Dr. Stuberg responded, “I would do this again in a heartbeat!”
Now available — Public Interest Design Practice Guidebook
Public Interest Design Practice Guidebook: SEED Methodology, Case Studies, and Critical Issues introduces the standards and rigor that are needed to build public interest design into a practice that has a major global impact. Writings by Thomas Fisher, Heather Fleming, Michael Cohen, Michael P. Murphy Jr., Alan Ricks, and others cover topics such as professional business development, increasing positive impact, design evaluation, capacity building, and many more.
Themes, including public engagement and project assessment, are presented throughout the book and provide clear methods for an informed practice. Included are a step-by-step methodology and other tools for professionals to grow their public practices with new clients, new fee sources, and more meaningful design solutions. Groundbreaking is an Issues Index that categorizes 90 critical issues addressed by design which are clearly documented by an array of community projects focusing on global challenges.
This comprehensive manual also contains a glossary, a case study locator atlas, and a reading list, integrating research and techniques so that you can design community-centered environments, products, and systems. Whether you are working in the field of architecture, urban planning, industrial design, landscape architecture, or communication design,this book will inspire a public interest design practice that is informed and inclusive.
University of Oklahoma Division of Architecture: October 2014
DesignIntelligence (DI) Magazine has named Director and Professor and Director Hans Butzer, AIA and Assistant Professor and Associate Director of Student Development Dr. Stephanie Pilat as two of DesignIntelligence’s 30 Most Admired Educators for 2015.
In association with the Bruce Goff Chair of Creative Architecture, Assistant Professor Dr.Catherine Barrett, AIA chaired the 2014 Creating_Making Forum, November 5-7. Sessions, keynote speakers, and student workshops built upon discourse introduced at the inaugural 2010 Creating_Making Forum. Featured speakers included E.B. Min, principal at Min|Day, and Kristen Murray, principal at Olson Kundig Architects. Both Min and Murray collaborated with select students in 1-1/2 day workshops that generated ideas for art installations within downtown Norman’s Main Street.
Associate Professor David Boeck, AIA is leading a 4th year studio class to New Orleans this semester to explore the Claiborne Avenue site related to the 2015 NOMA Student Competition. The project allows Architecture and Interior Design students to collaborate with OU’s NOMAS chapter. The 3rd year Interior Design students are designing a restaurant within the complex.
Professor and Director of The Center for Middle Eastern Architecture and Culture Dr. Khosrow Bozorgi recently returned from a sabbatical in the Middle East where he visited, surveyed, and documented 27 architectural sites of various historical nature and size particular to Iranian desert architecture. He is currently working with professional filmmakers in Oklahoma City and New York to assemble and edit hundreds of hours of video into three documentaries focused on courtyard architecture, historical wind catchers, and ancient technology to bring subterranean water to remote locations. For more information about CMEAC, vist: http://www.ou.edu/content/architecture/centers/CMEAC.html
Professor and Director Hans Butzer, AIA, through his practice Butzer Gardner Architects, recently received an Honor Award from AIA Central States Region and an Honor Award AIA Central Oklahoma chapter for the “SLIVR” Building.
Associate Professor and Associate Director of Student Development Marjorie P. Callahan, AIA recently authored Teaching Leadership Skills: “Practice” Coursework in Architecture Education Program in theJournal of Social Sciences Collection. Marjorie was also an invited Conference Facilitator on Leadership Issues at the recent State of Oklahoma Women in Higher Education Conference. She also collaborated with Professor Debra Reisweber on the 2014 published book Sooner State of Mind: Forging Leadership Legacies North of the Red River.
Associate Professor and Associate Director of Curriculum Development Anthony Cricchio, RA and Associate Professor Lee Fithian, AIA helped lead OU’s 2nd annual C5 Capstone Collaborative Competition. Ten interdisciplinary teams, consisting of senior Architecture, Interior Design, and CNS students partnered with JE Dunn Construction and architectural firm ADG. The two-week competition focused on an urban infill rehabilitation scenario in Oklahoma City’s Bricktown. Through the use of BIM and other collaborative technologies, students presented comprehensive and interior concepts along with cost estimates and schedules for the client group.
Director of Small Town Studios Associate Professor and Director of Small Town Studios Ron Frantz, AIA collaborated with the CoA’s Division of Regional and City Planning to host the recent American Planning Association (APA) Oklahoma Chapter Conference. Ron was also a guest speaker in OU’s recent inaugural Placemaking Academy.
Long time DivA supporter and award winning architect John Ward, AIA, principal at TAP Architecture in Oklahoma City, recently joined the faculty as a Professor of Practice.
Associate Professor Jay Yowell, AIA has been working with Hornbeek Blatt Architects on the 21c Museum Hotel in Oklahoma City. New York-based Deborah Berke & Partners are the design architects. The project is an adaptive reuse project transforming the historic Fred Jones building into a boutique hotel that will showcase permanent and rotating artwork.
Additional news includes:
Architecture, Urban Design, and Landscape students are collaborating on a design competition to re-imagine a section of historic Route 66 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Design teams are challenged to change perceptions of the stretch of road by redesigning the streetscape and cultural experience. Teams are also developing new ideas for signage along Route 66 which draw from the legacy of the legendary road’s neon signs. Led by Director of Urban Design Shawn Schaefer and Director of Regional and City Planning Dr. Dawn Jourdan, the faculty team includes Assistant Professor Dr. Stephanie Pilat, Assistant Professor Scott Williams, and Associate Professor Jay Yowell, AIA. The project has been supported by a $10,000 grant from the Signage Foundation, Inc. Each student on the winning team will be awarded a travel grant to support a Spring 2015 trip to Chicago.
Jerri Hodges Bonebrake, Bruce Goff’s long-time assistant, sadly passed away late 2014. The CoA’s Jerri Hodges Bonebrake award will continue to recognize outstanding staff. A newly developed student scholarship in her name is being developed to reward outstanding creative students.
The Department of Architecture and Interior Design is pleased to announce Mary Ben Bonham and John Humphries have been promoted with tenure to the rank of Associate Professor.
Associate Professors Mary Ben Bonham and Scott Johnston won the 2013 Interior Design Educators Council Media Award. “Lighting Across the [Design] Curriculum, “ a multi-disciplinary, multi-university approach to lighting education initiated by a group of educators and funded by the $50,000 Twentieth Anniversary Grant awarded by the Nuckolls Fund for Lighting Education. The Nuckolls Fund awarded a total of more than $695, 000 to institutions and individuals to support and encourage lighting education in the US and Canada. Bonham and Johnston collaborated with the following colleagues nationally: Katherine S. Ankerson (project lead) and Neal Hubbell of Kansas State University; Betsy Gabb, Lindsey Ellsworth-Bahe, Timothy Hemsath, Clarence Waters and Nate Krug, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Nancy Kwallek, University of Texas at Austin. “Lighting Across the [Design] Curriculum” supports lighting as critical to all aspects of design, and especially promotes early engagement of lighting issues in student design education. The program is comprised of seven interactive modules (applicable to architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture as well as to architectural engineering), content, examples, definitions, and educator resources are provided, supplemented with animations, audio, and other interactive features. ACSA colleagues are invited to start using the site, accessible at http://tedore.net/Nuckolls/about/
Department Chair John Weigand was invited to join the AIA Ohio Board of Directors as representative of the four accredited Ohio schools. In this role, Weigand will be asked to keep the board apprised of activities within the schools and to help to better connect the profession with education. Professor Weigand’s article ““Rethinking Professional Identity in Interior Design.” is published in Meanings of Designed Spaces, edited by Tiiu Vaikla-Poldma. New York: Fairchild Books, 2013.
John Blake, DesignBuild Studio Coordinator for the Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine, was quoted in the January 2013 issue of AIArchitect. The feature article, “Urban Reinvestment and Development Efforts” refers to several of the department design build initiatives in the Over-the-Rhine community. The DesignBuild studio has a semester long residency program and recently received accolades in the national competition for the C. Peter Magrath University Community Engagement Award.
The Department of Architecture and Interior Design was recognized with a “Presidential Citation in Recognition of Exceptional Service to the Profession and Society” at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Ohio awards conference in Cleveland. The department received the award for the Ghana Design-Build Studio created by Associate Professor Emerita Gail Della Piana, and currently facilitated by J. E. Elliott.
Alumni Chuck Armstrong, Director of Design for Corgan, and Mike Hemme, BA ‘04, of the Corgan Mission Critical studio hosted a weeklong design workshop in Dallas, TX for the second year graduate studio. As part of the Traveling Studio experience facilitated by Graduate Director Craig Hinrichs, the studio designed a series of buildings for retail, residential and office use on a 2-acre site in the West End Historic District of Dallas.
Already have an account?
I’m new here
Click here to add your own text Click here to add your own text Click here to add your own text Click here to add your own text
We use cookies and other tracking technologies for performance, analytics, marketing, and more customized site experiences. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our terms. Learn more about these in our Privacy Policy. ACSA reserves the right to delete content and suspend user accounts that it determines to be inappropriate.
Study Architecture 
ProPEL 
