Initiatives open house spring 2014

INITIATIVESGraduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation

Cover_Initiatives_Sp14.indd 1 3/26/14 1:34 PM

1 INITIATIVES

1.0 STUDIO X

Studio-X is GSAPP’s global network of advanced research laboratories for exploring the future of cities.

With locations in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Mumbai, New York, and Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Tokyo, it is the first truly global network for re-al-time exchange of projects, people, and ideas between regional leadership cit-ies in which the best minds from Columbia University can think together with the best minds in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia.

Studio-X is a new platform for incubating a whole new kind of conversation about the future of the built environment – intense collaborative workshop by day, en-ergizing event space by night. Each Studio-X location generates a remarkable density of activity and is equally important. But the real energy of the network comes from the activities generated between the nodes.

Initiatives

Initiatives_Sp14.indd 1 3/26/14 1:32 PM

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY GSAPP 2

2.0 DEAN’S STATEMENT

In this time of unprecedented global transformation, which has generated so many urgent challenges but also whole new forms of creativity, archi-tecture’s unique ability to address both the most direct practical problems facing global society and the highest ambitions for that society becomes all the more important.

As the field devoted to representing the greatest aspirations of society, architec-ture (including urban design, urban planning, historic preservation, and real estate development) is a key lens through which to see, understand, and participate in our evolving world. Architecture is a form of optimism. More than simply sup-porting the basic rhythms of everyday life, it tries to envision a better life, turning practical dilemmas into the most expressive opportunities, whether at the scale of a vast city, a building, a single interior, or a small piece of furniture.


3 INITIATIVES

Yet the world we serve is changing so rapidly that whole new forms of creativity, expertise and responsibility are needed. China, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Latin America, South Asia, and Africa are acting as the key laboratories for the future of the built environment, generating whole new ways of thinking and urgent questions to address. The change is so fast, the scale so large, and the cul-tural and historical questions so deep that schools of architecture have to evolve. Almost all urban transformations today involve complex dynamic interplays be-tween unique combinations of global forces. In such a world, it is critical that we learn to exchange ideas in new ways while at the same time immersing ourselves in the local conditions, knowledge, history, and expertise in each region to de-velop a new level of debate and global responsibility. While GSAPP has long been very active on the ground in all these regions -- the most active in the most places -- a new level of engagement is urgently necessarily and will lead to wide ranging transformations in the field. Schools need to become students.

In recent years, GSAPP has adopted the label “Studio-X” to refer to its most advanced leadership laboratories for the future of the built environment that have to evolve at the same rapid speed as the urban environment itself. The label tries to capture the sense that we have to be ready to face many unknown questions that will arise and need to be engaged urgently, creatively, and responsibly with a range of different partners. A Studio-X offers a protective space for private and collegial exchange of ideas still in formation and a public gallery/lecture space, website and publication program for the exhibition, communication and discus-sion of the thoughts and designs that result from this exchange. Such laborato-

THE BASIC CONCEPT IS EXTREMELY SIMPLE:AN OPEN SPACE OF

COLLABORATIVE WORKAND GLOBAL EXCHANGE

OF IDEAS

In recent years, GSAPP has used the label “Studio-X” to refer to its most advanced laboratories for exploring the future of cities. The label conveys the sense that a whole new platform for research and debate is needed to face the array of urgent questions that will face the next generation of designers.

of the world. The first Studio-X was set up as a pilot project in downtown Manhattan just over three years ago. It estab-lished a decisive reputation for innovation through its dense program of research projects, exhibitions, competitions, workshops, publications, performances, and debates attracting exciting minds from all fields. Equally dynamic Studio-X spaces in downtown Beijing, Amman, Mumbai,

and Rio de Janeiro followed while plans for Moscow and Tokyo are being completed.

Studio-X is not a typical univer-sity branch aiming to export leadership education and research around the globe. On the opposite, our colleagues around the world are the leaders in a cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary, and cross-continental exchange within and between diverse regions. Those regions undergoing the most radical transformation

Studio-X is a place for new forms of creativity in theface of the most pressing problems. A place to invent, test and celebrate new ideas. A lively hub of the most excit-ing discussions. An incubator of energetic thinking in the heart of the city. An interface for direct exchanges between colleagues from around the world. A dynamic space that evolves at the same speed as the urban environment itself.

The global network of Studio-X spaces that we are building is a new kind ofinternational workshop in which the best minds from Columbia University can think together with the best minds in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia.

have the most to teach us about the future of cities.

The continuous flow of exciting ideas and people between these sister Studio-X spaces turns the simple idea of an open collaborative studio into an unprecedented global network aimed at the brightest possible future.

Each Studio-X is located in the liveliest part of the historic downtown of a leadership city at the heart of a major region



ries will be located around the world in a dynamic interactive network dedicated equally to practical problems in the city and to emergent thinking.

The vision of the Studio-X global network is to establish a unique exchange of ideas and people between key regional leadership cities around the rapidly evolv-ing globe, including Beijing, New York, Amman, Rio-Sao Paolo, Mumbai, Istanbul , and Johannesburg. The aim of this exchange is a global partnership able to offer support to the highest possible level of reflection on the new realities and active, intelligent, and productive engagement with those realities. Typically located in the historic downtown of a global city, each Studio-X acts as an open platform for collaborative research and debate with a publication gallery, an exhibition gal-lery, a lecture space and an open studio workspace. During the day, the Studio-X is an active workshop, with combinations of ever-shifting teams of local experts and visitors from the region or globe working on designs, reports, exhibitions, books, competitions, films, magazines. etc. During the evening, the Studio-X acts a hub of social exchange and intense debate with a lively program of exhibitions and events. It is a hot spot in the city, buzzing with social energy, invention, and dedication to a better future.

Each Studio-X is electronically linked in real time to every other Studio-X around the world and ideas, people, and projects are continuously shared between them. The global Studio-X platforms are deeply integrated into the curriculum and re-search structure of all the programs at GSAPP, with students and teachers having multiple opportunities to spend time working in or with any Studio-X in the global

ANYONE ENTERING THE SPACE CAN LOOK AT WHAT IS

HAPPENING IN THE OTHER STUDIO-X SPACES AROUND THE WORLD, JOIN IN THOSE

ACTIVITIES DIRECTLY THROUGH VIDEO

CONFERENCING, OR REPLAY AND REACT TO THE RECENT

EVENTS IN THE OTHER SPACES

Each Studio-X is organized around the traditional setting of the design studio found in architecture schools all over the world: a simple open loft-like space that fosters collaborative

conferencing; a kitchen/coffee shop; and offices for the staff or visiting scholars/designers.

Each Studio-X is a cultural center that supports close personal interactions between people that might not normally be together. At the same time, the space is equipped with the latest technology to take advantage of Columbia’s expertise in digital design and data visualization to draw on the widest array of global resources and communicate ideas to the widest possible audience.

The local director of each Studio-X acts as the curator of a continuous array of projects, workshops, lectures, semi-nars, symposia, exhibitions, and performances with a small staff helping to tie the daily

operations of the space to the surrounding city. In key moments, all the Studio-X spaces would be linked in a single real-time global workshop allowing unprecedented bursts of creativity.

exploration, an empty room that welcomes new people and new ideas.

The organization of the open space keeps changing as an array of tables, chairs, computers, and screens is rearranged depending on which teams are using it and which events are taking place.

This central workspace is supplemented by: a book gallery and reading room that displays unique research publications from around the different Studio-X locations not found in a typical bookstore; an interactive video interface showing what is happening in the other Studio-X spaces in real time; a gallery space displaying unique exhibitions curated locally or between Studio-X spaces; a space for public lectures; a meeting room for more private discussions or video-


5 INITIATIVES

network. Equally, students, teachers and experts from each platform around the world can work in or with any of the other platforms. The traditional hierarchical model of a leadership school concentrating expertise in a single place, synthesiz-ing it and transmitting a singular approach to the major questions facing us gives way to the model of a distributed horizontal network that can incubate new evolv-ing forms of intelligence for a new evolving world.

It is the ambition of the GSAPP to establish the most decisive global network of teaching, research and communication about the built environment. Such a global think tank must be based on the deep conviction that those parts of the world that are changing the most have the most to teach us. Older centers of power and wisdom must learn from the newer centers, which in turn learn from each other. No one city or region has any monopoly on the wisdom our shared world needs. Future thinking must be collaborative. Architecture can act as the key lens on our world rather than the usual global frameworks (economy, public policy, ecology, etc.) to leverage the inherent optimism of the field into new kinds of visionary and practical understanding. The ability of architecture to reflect, magnify, com-municate, and celebrate our highest aspirations must be turned into a powerful global tool.

The Studio-X global network is a massive undertaking that will take some years to complete. After the opening of the pilot Studio-X in downtown Manhattan in 2008, Studio-X Beijing and the Amman Lab were launched in March 2009 and have already become lively engaged sites. The Studio-X spaces in Brazil were

A new platform for incubating a whole new kind of conversation about the future of the built environment – intense collaborative workshop by day, energizing event

space by night.

BOOKGALLERY

GLOBALINTERFACE GALLERY

LECTURESPACE

WORK SPACE

MEETINGROOM OFFICES

COFFEEBAR



laucnhed in March 2011, India in February 2011, and Istanbul in November 2013. And in March 2014 the newly launched Studio-X in Johannesburg. With the addi-tion of each hub in the network, this radical experiment in redefining the role, re-sponsibility, and capacity of globally collaborative modes of education, research and action, increases its bandwidth exponentially. A new kind of collective brain is emerging.

3.0 ABOUT STUDIO-X

In recent years, GSAPP has used the label “Studio-X” to refer to its most advanced laboratories for exploring the future of cities.

The label conveys the sense that a whole new platform for research and debate is needed to face the array of urgent questions that will face the next generation of designers.

Studio-X is a place for new forms of creativity in the face of the most pressing problems. A place to invent, test and celebrate new ideas. A lively hub of the most exciting discussions. An incubator of energetic thinking in the heart of the city. An interface for direct exchanges between colleagues from around the world. A dynamic space that evolves at the same speed as the urban environment itself.

The global network of Studio-X spaces that we are building is a new kind of in-ternational workshop in which the best minds from Columbia University can think

The first truly global network for real-time exchange of projects, people and ideas between regional leadership cities – maximum bandwidth for research, education,

communication, and practical engagements.

BEIJING AMMANNEW YORK MUMBAI RIO MOSCOW ISTANBUL JOHANNESBURG


7 INITIATIVES

together with the best minds in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Each Studio-X is located in the liveliest part of the historic downtown of a leadership city at the heart of a major region of the world. The first Studio-X was set up as a pilot project in downtown Manhattan six years ago. It established a decisive reputation for innovation through its dense program of research projects, exhibitions, competitions, workshops, publications, perfor-mances, and debates attracting exciting minds from all fields. Equally dynamic Studio-X spaces in downtown Beijing, Amman and Mumbai followed. A beauti-ful Studio-X space in the heart of Rio de Janeiro was established followed by Istanbul and Johannesburg. Studio-X is not a typical university branch aiming to export leadership education and research around the globe. On the opposite, our colleagues around the world are the leaders in a cross-cultural, cross-dis-ciplinary, and cross-continental exchange within and between diverse regions. Those regions undergoing the most radical transformation have the most to teach us about the future of cities. The continuous flow of exciting ideas and people between these sister Studio-X spaces turns the simple idea of an open collabora-tive studio into an unprecedented global network aimed at the brightest possible future.

Each Studio-X is organized around the traditional setting of the design studio found in architecture schools all over the world: a simple open loft-like space that fosters collaborative exploration, an empty room that welcomes new people and new ideas.

Each node in the network is equally important.

Each generates a remarkable density of activity.

But the real energy of the network comes from the activities

generated between the nodes.

The Studio-X Global Network acts as the scaffolding for an ever-changing exploratory ecology.



Each Studio-X is organized around the traditional setting of the design studio found in architecture schools all over the world: a simple open loft-like space that fosters collaborative exploration, an empty room that welcomes new people and new ideas.

The organization of the open space keeps changing as an array of tables, chairs, computers, and screens is rearranged depending on which teams are using it and which events are taking place.

This central workspace is supplemented by: a book gallery and reading room that displays unique research publications from around the different Studio-X loca-tions not found in a typical bookstore; an interactive video interface showing what is happening in the other Studio-X spaces in real time; a gallery space displaying unique exhibitions curated locally or between Studio-X spaces; a space for public lectures; a meeting room for more private discussions or video-conferencing; a kitchen/coffee shop; and offices for the staff or visiting scholars/designers.

Each Studio-X is a cultural center that supports close personal interactions be-tween people that might not normally be together. At the same time, the space is equipped with the latest technology to take advantage of Columbia’s exper-tise in digital design and data visualization to draw on the widest array of global resources and communicate ideas to the widest possible audience. The local

Each node in the network is equally important.

Each generates a remarkable density of activity.

But the real energy of the network comes from the activities

generated between the nodes.

The Studio-X Global Network acts as the scaffolding for an ever-changing exploratory ecology.


9 INITIATIVES

director of each Studio-X acts as the curator of a continuous array of projects, workshops, lectures, seminars, symposia, exhibitions, and performances with a small staff helping to tie the daily operations of the space to the surrounding city. In key moments, all the Studio-X spaces would be linked in a single real-time global workshop allowing unprecedented bursts of creativity.

4.0 MISSION

Each Studio-X is a new kind of cultural space in the city bringing together the worlds of architecture, design, art, planning, preservation, construction, media, business, education, and research.

A special relationship with local artists: visual, multi-media, installation, perfor-mance, music, literature

Not tied to any existing institution

A neutral space in the heart of the city

Fostering a whole new kind of conversation about the future of our cities, coun-

STUDIO-X NEW YORKOpened in 2008

180 Varick Street, Suite 1610New York, New York 10014U.S.A.Office: +1.212.989.2398Email: [email protected]: @StudioXNYC

GSAPP’s Studio-X New York was established in New York in summer 2008 in a lower Manhattan industrial building in a neighborhood largely occupied by creative industries. It quickly became a major node of activity in the city. During the day, an ever–changing array of people work in collaborative teams on exhibitions, reports, books, magazines, competitions, seminars, and workshops. In the evening there is a great density of events, with lectures, debates, launches, performances, and exhibition openings.

‘“We want to reach a wider audience,” says Manaugh. Twilley likewise affirms Studio-X’s para-academic trajectory: “In the past, architecture schools have not always been the best place to have conversations, at least not in the places where those conversations need to happen.”’ Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley, Studio-X New YorkCo-Directors 2011 – present February 14, 2012 METROPOLIS

Geoff Manaugh Co-Director Nicola Twilley Co-Director



tries, regions, and the globe

Incubating and supporting new forms of creativity

Not a school, think-tank, gallery, performance space, communication center, or office–but elements of all

Studio-X is an open flexible work area with exhibition space, book gallery, lecture space, meeting space, some offices and a serious espresso machine

During the day: a collaborative workspace, with diverse teams from the city, the region, and the globe working on designs, research, art works, reports, books, magazines, exhibitions, media, websites...

During the evening: a space of passionate discussion, with lectures, debates, seminars, meetings, book launches, music performances, exhibition openings…

A hot spot, buzzing with social energy, invention, and dedication to a better future

A space for fresh explorative thinking

Welcoming all groups from the most radical artists to the largest corporations


11 INITIATIVES

A cultural space that belongs to the city, representing its most passionate, urgent needs and celebrating its unique strengths

Deep friendship and collaboration with local schools, cultural organizations, think tanks, business, government, and foundations

Concentrating and communicating the wisdom of the city, the country and the continent

Celebrating local issues and expertise within a global network of similar Studio-X creative spaces

Leadership cities in leadership regions exchanging ideas in an unprecedented synergy of expertise and inventiveness

The first truly networked global think-tank devoted to real-time engagement with the future of the world’s built environment

New bridges of creativity between continents

Allowing the world to learn from the world



5.0 AMMAN

GSAPP’s Amman Lab, with studio workshop, seminar room, offices and exhibi-tion space, opened within the Columbia University Middle East Research Center (CUMERC) in March 2009 and has already acted as the site for studies of city planning processes, engaged historic preservation projects, architectural design studios in the historic downtown, and urban planning studios in the poorer neigh-borhoods in East Amman. GSAPP teams are collaborating with the city to restore a historic house that will act as the downtown Studio-X Amman.

6.0 BEIJING

Studio-X Beijing is a global research center established by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) in March 2009 in a large factory building in a new art zone near the historical center of the city. As a subsidiary of the Columbia Global Center in Beijing, Studio-X Beijing acts as a design laboratory where visiting students from New York, as well as scholars, design professionals or students from local institutions collaborate on research along with business, industrial, and government leaders devoted to the built environment.

STUDIO-X BEIJINGOpened in 2009

A103, 46 Fangjia Hutong,Andingmen Inner Street,Dongcheng DistrictBeijing, China, 100007Office: +86.10.64028682 Email: [email protected]

GSAPP’s Studio-X Beijing opened in March 2009 in a large factory building in a new art zone near the historical center of the city. The site is host to visiting studios, workshops, symposia, exhibitions and events that attract audiences between 100 and 300 people. A series of high profile and high energy activities in the unique old town hutong space have established Studio-X Beijing’s reputation as a place for the exchange of ideas and experimental thinking about the future of cities. Multiple NGO and grassroots events sponsored by Studio-X Beijing facilitate engagement with the local community and major collaborations are now beginning in the space, linking artists and architects, developers and preservationists, including work with the Urban China Initiative. As Studio-X Beijing continues to develop, it will evolve into an active research center addressing key challenges including sustainability within rapidly urbanizing China.

“It’s true that Beijing is built on an inhuman scale. There’s no street, no sense of urban space. Here it is almost a case of ‘create your own world.’ ...I want to cultivate and promote a kind of collective architectural thinking and debate that is urgently needed in China today.” Li Hu, Studio-X BeijingDirector 2009 – present

September 22, 2010 ARTINFO

Li Hu Director


13 INITIATIVES

The form of the studio is “X”, it can be used for lectures, symposiums, exhibitions and others, as a space where ideas and knowledge are exchanged; it can also be used as event space by cultural institutions, providing a link between the studio and the city.

7.0 MUMBAI

Curating ConversationsThe Studio-X Global Network Initiative is a global network of advanced research laboratories for exploring the future of cities launched in 2008 by Mark Wigley, Dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

Mumbai. A dense, dynamic sprawl in perpetual flux. The beautiful dichotomy. Urban chaos. It is true that those regions undergoing the most radical transfor-mation have the most to teach us about the future of the city. One in a series of spaces generating intense collaboration, dense activity and phenomenal creativ-ity, Studio X Mumbai sits poised to be understood as an incubator of ideas, an empty container in the broadest spectrum of the definition, an ephemeral void which demands to be inundated with the ideas, thoughts & aspirations of the city of Mumbai and of course India at large.

STUDIOSEXHIBITIONS

EVENTSRESEARCHSYMPOSIA

WORKSHOPSPUBLICATIONS

MEDIAVISITING SCHOLARS

AVERY HALL – COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

The classical university modela hyper-concentrated think tank attracting brilliant people and ideas from all regions of the world is taken to its limit to develop the most radical and influential experiments in leadership thinking about the gobal environment.

STUDIO-X GLOBAL NETWORK

The 21st century university modela distributed global network of open-source platforms in all regions of the world incubating new forms of leadership through continuous collaborative international exchangeof people and ideas.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY GSAPP 1414 INITIATIVES

Uninhibited in its cross disciplinary approach, The Studio X network moderates the exchange of ideas on culture, art, education, real estate development, music, literature, philosophy, film and of course architecture & design. Located in the heart of downtown Fort district overlooking the rooftops & monuments of Mum-bai, Studio X constantly sets out to define & redefine itself in relation to the intel-lectual & physical fabric of the city. It represents the new marketplace of thought globally connected yet extremely regionally specific for Mumbai, where ideas are ‘negotiated’ & a variety of relationships are formed and fostered redefining the role, responsibility, and capacity of globally collaborative modes of education, research, response and action.

Although deeply integrated into the curriculum, research structures & knowledge base of Columbia’s GSAPP, its a radical experiment aimed at questioning the traditional methodologies used for imparting & collecting knowledge therefore utilizing a host of alternative tools to traverse the notional question, “What is the future of the city?”.

One such tool is that of creating conversations to orchestrate innovative scenar-ios for interaction. I would consider the conversation itself a ‘collaborative meth-odology’. It provokes its users to participate and engage the process by inverting the nature by which knowledge is typically disseminated and consumed. Its spon-taneity, unpredictability, impermanence and equality reveal certain connections, which may have been hidden or subverted in reference to normal organizational

STUDIOSEXHIBITIONS

EVENTSRESEARCHSYMPOSIA

WORKSHOPSPUBLICATIONS

MEDIAVISITING SCHOLARS

AVERY HALL – COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

The classical university modela hyper-concentrated think tank attracting brilliant people and ideas from all regions of the world is taken to its limit to develop the most radical and influential experiments in leadership thinking about the gobal environment.

STUDIO-X GLOBAL NETWORK

The 21st century university modela distributed global network of open-source platforms in all regions of the world incubating new forms of leadership through continuous collaborative international exchangeof people and ideas.

15 INITIATIVES

hierarchies that exist within the community.The relationship of curator and consumer is also as integral to motivating and sustaining the conversation. As opposed to traditional unidirectional methods of imparting knowledge, I believe the curator and consumer share a more egalitarian relationship within the context of Studio X. The threshold between both in this scenario although undefined & ambiguous is much more fluid and inclusive in ref-erence to the discourse generated. This in turn reflects an alternate approach to the process of curating. The curator no longer controls or moderates all aspects of the exchange but accepts the notion that the subject may be an ‘unknown’ or ‘variable’ and this lack of control and knowledge actually provides a more trans-parent engagement with knowledge generated.

Since its launch in February 2011 & uninhibited in its cross disciplinary approach, The Studio X network moderates the exchange of ideas and has been initiating it’s directive of engaging the past, present & future conditions of the city through a host of innovative and varied programming. Developing dialogues through events on contemporary architectural work & practice to public art, sociological research within urban centers to technology and the future of Design, we have present-ed over 16 events/lectures/exhibitions in collaboration with eminent thinkers & groups such as PUKAR, Penguin Books India Ltd, SLUMLAB, ArtOxygen and



the Mohile Parikh Center, The UrbanVision. URBZ, DROOG Design, Gautam Bha-tia, The People Tree Arts Trust, ARTES Foundation, CelebrateIndia, Christopher Benninger Architects, The Asia Society, SoftGrid UK, The Dialogue Group & the 1%-ers art collective & revered Architects, critics & educators like Sen Kapadia & BV Doshi.

Our future events will connect us to Public Art Groups, Architectural practices, Design think tanks & the most provocative minds of Urban India engaging in sub-jects such as ecology & sustainability, contemporary design methodologies, Ur-ban Research & development & the critical review of current Architectural Practice within Mumbai, India & abroad.

The potential of the working studio and a prolifically assembled archival frame-work of material on the city, we plan to offer new and innovative tools for engag-ing our users and propose to further promote the idea of a new cultural space or “working laboratory on the city”, inviting organizations, institutions & individuals to participate in the process and join the conversation.












17 INITIATIVES

8.0 NEW YORK

GSAPP’s Studio-X New York was established in New York in summer 2008 in a lower Manhattan industrial building in a neighborhood largely occupied by cre-ative industries. It has quickly become a major node of activity in the city. During the day, an ever-changing array of people work in collaborative teams on exhi-bitions, reports, books, magazines, competitions, seminars, workshops, etc. In the evening there is a great density of events, with lectures, debates, launches, performances, and exhibition openings.

9.0 BRAZIL

Over the last ten years, Brazil has experienced significant urban development and economic growth, impacting Brazilian society at all levels. In this context, the case of Rio de Janeiro is especially emblematic, as the recent opportuni-ties brought by offshore pre-salt oil discoveries, the preparations for the Olympic Games, and the success of new public safety policies have put the city back on track after decades of decline.

Since March 2011, Studio-X Rio has been investigating this condition from its home in a three-storey building at Praça Tiradentes, a square in the city’s down-town area. The space brings together professionals, academics, locals, decision makers, students, institutions, artists, and entrepreneurs to confront our most pressing urban challenges, from the very complex to the very simple, from the most tangible to the most abstract.



As with the rest of the Studio-X network, Studio-X Rio does not have a defined mode of operation, but rather is dedicated to exploring possibilities and formats that spark new ideas and new thinking. We are particularly interested in how cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary, and cross-continental exchanges can affect and contribute to each other in the face of the urban transformations of the city and the country.

10.0 ISTANBUL

Studio-X Istanbul opened in November 2013 in a two-storey building at Salıpazarı, in Istanbul’s downtown area. We develop free events such as lectures, work-shops, seminars and exhibitions that foster discussion on the built environment and research projects that generate new forms of sharing the urban public space.

The Studio-X Istanbul Research Guide, permanently under construction, is in-tended to be a tool for unpacking the city, the possibilities and conflicts associ-ated to its development, and to walk through its physical, virtual and imagined spaces.

11.0 JOHANNESBURG

Studio-X Johannesburg will further deepen Columbia University’s longstanding relationship with South Africa and foster new collaborations with partners from


19 INITIATIVES

across the African continent.

Our aim is to create a creative public platform that will explore alternative imagi-naries of the city, with particular focus on the future of global connection, indi-vidual and collective acts of agency and productive collaboration. In the face of the official narratives of apocalyptic urbanization and global crisis, Studio-X Johannesburg will cultivate encounters amongst researchers, urbanists, theorists, filmmakers, artists, activists, architects and policy makers, to explore and give expression to the creative and emergent urban visions and practices of the future.

12.0 TOKYO LAB

Tokyo Lab is a hub for architectural activity located at Shibaura House, a space designed by Kazuyo Sejima in a lively neighborhood of the city.

Since 2011, it has hosted creative events with local and international architects, coders and hackers, as well as numerous parties and gatherings.

13.0 EXPERIMENTS IN MOTION

Experiments in Motion is a research initiative conducted by the Columbia Uni-versity Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in partner-ship with Audi of America to develop and test new paradigms in the relationship between motion, mobility and design. The program will draw from global thought



leaders from around the university, architecture and design professionals, and an expanded network of urban mobility experts from New York City and Audi. Part of the Audi Urban Future Initiative, the program is curated by Therrien Barley.

As part of the Audi Urban Future Research, Experiments in Motion represents the U.S. pilot of a series of locally driven, interdisciplinary research and student programs with the world’s leading institutions and schools, tapping into the vast potential of academic intelligence and emerging talent.

“As urban environments continue to evolve, transportation needs to evolve in parallel. Audi aims to not only engage the discussion, but to actively contribute to the knowledge and insights of our global experts,” says Johan de Nysschen, president of Audi of America. “We look forward working very closely with Co-lumbia University, one of the most prestigious and visionary institutions in the country, on this important project and topic.” “The history of cities is unthinkable without considering the emergence and development of new forms of mobility,” says Mark Wigley, Dean of GSAPP.

“Experiments in Motion is the beginning of a new dialogue on mobility and rep-resents a radical new way of collaboration between a corporation and a research institution. We are thrilled to partner with Mark Wigley and GSAPP, one of the most visionary schools of thought globally,” said Scott Keogh, chief marketing officer, Audi of America


21 INITIATIVES

EXPERIMENT #1: PARADIGMS IN MOTIONOur understandings of mobility must be caught up to the speed of the today’s cities. Paradigms in Motion will investigate new understandings of motion and mobility through a three month think tank consisting of interdisciplinary thought leaders from Columbia University, architecture and design professionals from New York City, and experts from Audi’s internal and external networks. Their find-ings will be released in the spring of 2012 and will provide hypotheses that will inform the architecture designed in the second experiment.

EXPERIMENT #2: DESIGN IN MOTIONNew paradigms of mobility in the city require new kinds of architects. Design in Motion will build on the think tanks’ hypotheses by assembling three teams of graduate students and professors at GSAPP who will envision architectural designs that will create new relationships between New York City and the citi-zens moving through it. Half way through the semester, the students will test their design proposals by traveling to three of the fastest growing cities in the world. Design in Motion will be documented through a custom digital interface that will allow the students to communicate with each other and the public throughout the design process. The final designs will be presented in May of 2012 and will become the starting point for the third experiment.

EXPERIMENT #3: PARTICIPATION IN MOTIONNo vision of the city can be realized without public support. Participation in Mo-tion will be a public interface for the collected intelligence of the previous experi-ments and will open the documents, designs, and theories of the project to public discussion. In partnership with the New Museum and Columbia’s Studio-X event and studio space in downtown New York City, the program will be open to the public through a series of events and formats.

The city of the future demands a new type of automotive manufacturer, a new type of architect, and new type of citizen. Experiments in Motion connects the disruptive potential of the university with Audi in order to change the way the



corporation not only operates but thinks. Likewise, Experiments in Motion aligns with GSAPP and its commitment to provide the conditions for a new type of ar-chitect to emerge. This conversation between the corporation, the university and the public will generate new forms of public participation to motivate new types of citizenship.

“As a project that is directly concerned with innovations – new paradigms of mo-tion, new methods of teaching, new forms of participation – it is crucial to have two partner institutions willing to work together in new ways,” say Christopher Barley and Troy Conrad Therrien of design practice Thierren Barley, responsible for the curatorial concept of Experiments in Motion. “Although the project is still fresh, Audi and Columbia have already begun to pose novel questions through their continuing partnership.”

Experiments in Motion is curated by Therrien Barley, an emerging design and cu-ratorial practice in New York, in partnership with Audi of America, following their involvement in Audi Urban Future Project: New York in May 2011.

14.0 C-BIP

The Columbia Building Intelligence Project (C-BIP) is a three-year pilot project designed to explore new forms of technology-enabled collaboration within and between the various sectors of the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. The project grows out of an interest in using emerging technologies and the increasing trends toward more integrated forms of practice to address the chronic adversarial atmosphere that has inhibited the progress of our industry for many years. In addition, C-BIP works with the premise that we cannot change the future of our industry without transforming the education of our future leaders, which begins with a renewed engagement between academia and industry.

C-BIP is comprised of local and international Think Tanks along with Integrated Design Studios (IDS) and research seminars at the Graduate School of Architec-ture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. The Think Tanks occur in



the fall, spring and summer and bring together leading industry experts including architects, engineers, builders, owners, fabricators, research scientists, software developers and educators in an open dialogue about current projects, working processes and research that form the cutting edge of industry practices. Each year, one of the Think Tanks is in New York and is more directly related to the work of the IDS allowing an exchange of ideas between students, faculty and the Think Tank participants. Acknowledging that one cannot talk about the dynamics of the AEC industry without acknowledging the deep impact that global exchange is having on everything from working methods to material supply chains, the other two Think Tanks take place in major regional centers around the world to better understand how the discussion shifts in different cultural and economic contexts. The Think Tanks uncover key questions and issues that establish a broad founda-tion to position and evolve the IDS and other support classes each year.

The Integrated Design Studio is the heart of The Columbia Building Intelligence Project. Based on the objective of developing a new studio model that responds to the increasing complexity of contemporary design problems, the studio breaks with the traditional model of architectural education in which 12 students are guided by a single studio teacher for a single semester. Instead, through the new organizational structure developed for The Columbia Building Intelligence Proj-ect, three studios work together in a highly collaborative manner that encourages the sharing of information, the open exchange of ideas and a deep understand-ing of the need for collective teamwork. The students produce design work that is shared and combined through structured parametric modeling that allows the individual work of each student to contribute to a collective solution. The Inte-grated Design Studio’s approach of distributed and coordinated design is partly modeled on new forms of digital coordination and concurrent design practices pioneered by large companies like Boeing but also on less hierarchical work-ing protocols like open source product development. The IDS takes place in the fourth semester of the Master of Architecture Program, when students are moving from their core studios to their advanced studios, bringing enough background to make informed contributions and having enough time to integrate their new findings into future work at the GSAPP with the goal of establishing a new studio model for the future of architectural education.

Initiatives_Sp14.indd 23 3/26/14 1:32 PMInitiatives_Sp14.indd 24 3/26/14 1:32 PM

Initiatives_Sp14.indd 24 3/26/14 1:32 PMInitiatives_Sp14.indd 24 3/26/14 1:32 PM

Cover_Initiatives_Sp14.indd 2 3/26/14 1:34 PM

Initiatives open house spring 2014

Documents

Transcript of Initiatives open house spring 2014