sAturdAy, mArCh 5, 2011 - 12:30Pm - 2:00Pm - Association of

where do you stand 99thACSAANNUALMEEtING

Co-Chairs Anne Cormier Annie Pedret Alberto Pérez-Gómez

MarCh 3-6, 2011 | Montréal, Canada abstraCt book

Copyright © 2011 Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Inc., except where otherwise restricted. All rights reserved. No material may be reproduced without permission of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.

Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture1735 New York Ave., NWWashington, DC 20006www.acsa-arch.org

Where Do You Stand - Montréal, Québec, Canada - 3

ACknowledGementsACSA wishes to thank the conference co-chairs, Anne Cormier, Université de Montréal, Annie Pedret, University of Illinois Chicago, and Alberto Perez-Gomez, McGill University, as well as the topic chairs, reviewers, and authors for their hard work in organizing the Annual Meeting.

After text: Post-Linguistic PArAdigms for ArchitectureJon Yoder, Syracuse University

Architecture As A Performing ArtMarcia Feuerstein, Virginia TechGraY read, Florida International University

Architecture in An Age of uncertAintyBenJaMin Flowers, Georgia Institute of Technology

Architecture’s exPAnded territorieslola sheppard, University of WaterlooMason white, University of Toronto

Architecture’s resPonsive extensionsKathY VeliKoV, University of Michigan

BAck in the Box: diAstoLic Architecture of decLine, dystoPiA, And deAthdonald Kunze, Pennsylvania State Universitycharles daVid Bertolini, Louisiana State University

BeLow the rAdAr: informAL settLements And disciPLinAry reversALsFernando lara, University of Texas at Austin

the city is deAd - Long Live the city: deveLoPing future modeLs of the cityudo Greinacher, University of Cincinnati

criticAL contextuALism or, others?GeorGes adaMczYK, Université de Montréal

criticAL infrAstructurALism: design/theory/PrActiceclare lYster, University of Illinois at Chicago

criticAL PedAgogies: ArchitecturAL educAtion After 1968colin ripleY, Ryerson UniversityMarco polo, Ryerson University

defending ABstrAction: exPerimentAL cinemA And the ArchitecturAL ProjectThomas Forget, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

energy As A sPAtiAL Projectrania Ghosn, Harvard University

from AristotLe to skAteBoArders: roLes of hermeneutics in ArchitectureruMiKo handa, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

hyBridized PrActices: Both the AnALog And the digitALFrancis lYn, Florida Atlantic Universityron dulaneY, Jr., West Virginia University

oPen sessiondeBorah Fausch, University of Illinois at ChicagoroBert cowherd, Wentworth Institute of Technology

ornAment, identity And memorys. Faisal hassan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

the Quest for Perfection: reAL, suPer-reAL, or surreAL?illYa azaroFF, City University of New YorkGreGorY Marinic, Universidad de Monterrey

suBverting methods of digitAL designchristopher BeorKreM, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

technoLogy And humAn desireBradleY horn, City College of New YorkJason oliVer Vollen, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

textiLes reconstructedMaGdalena GarMaz, Auburn University

wAtercolin ripleY, Ryerson University

where do you stAnd? whAt if i Am on the move?ariJit sen, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

toPiC And session ChAirs

anne corMier, Université de Montréalannie pedret, University of Illinois ChicagoalBerto pérez-GóMez, McGill University

ConferenCe Co-ChAirs

4 - 99th ACSA Annual Meeting

Contents

fridAy, mArch 04, 201111:30Am - 1:00Pm

5 architecture’s responsiVe extensions

6 critical pedaGoGies: architectural education aFter 1968

7 deFendinG aBstraction: experiMental cineMa and the architectural proJect:

fridAy, mArch 04, 20112:30Pm - 4:00Pm

8 architecture as a perForMinG art (1)

9 water

11 where do You stand? what iF i aM on the MoVe? (1)

fridAy, mArch 04, 20114:30Pm - 6:00Pm

12 architecture’s expanded territories

13 architecture as a perForMinG art (2)

14 where do You stand? what iF i aM on the MoVe? (2)

sAturdAy, mArch 05, 20119:00Am - 10:30 Am

15 enerGY as a spatial proJect

17 open (1)

18 technoloGY and huMan desire (1)

sAturdAy, mArch 05, 201111:00Am - 12:30Pm

19 architecture in an aGe oF un- certaintY

20 open (2)

21 technoloGY and huMan desire (2)

sAturdAy, mArch 05, 20112:00Pm - 3:30Pm

22 aFter text: post-linGuistic paradiGMs For architecture

23 hYBridized practices: Both the analoG and the diGital

24 open (3)

25 ornaMent, identitY, and MeMorY

sAturdAy, mArch 05, 20114:00Pm - 5:30Pm

26 BacK in the Box: diastolic architecture oF decline, dYsto- pia, and death

27 FroM aristotle to sKateBoard- ers: roles oF herMeneutics in architecture

28 textiles reconstructed

29 the citY is dead - lonG liVe the citY: deVelopinG Future Mod- els oF the citY

sundAy, mArch 06, 20119:00Am - 10:30 Am

31 critical inFrastructuralisM: desiGn/theorY/practice

32 the Quest For perFection: real, super real, or surreal?

33 suBVertinG Methods oF diGital desiGn (1) 35 west central Fall conFerence

sundAy, mArch 06, 201111:00Am - 12:30Pm

36 Below the radar: inForMal settleMents and disciplinarY reVersals

38 critical contextualisM or, others?

40 northeast Fall conFerence

42 suBVertinG Methods oF diGital desiGn (2)

Poster PresentAtionssAturdAy, mArch 05, 201112:30Pm - 2:00Pm

43 architecture in an expanded Field, FroM interiors to landscapes

48 BuildinG BehaViors

50 desiGn research in the studio context

53 historY/theorY

55 housinG

57 Materials

58 Media inVestiGations

61 open

65 urBanisM

68 where do You stand


fridAy, mArCh 4, 2011 - 11:30Am - 01:00Pm

“urBAn nerve centre” And informAtion As Activity: cedric Price’s oxford corner house feAsiBiLity study (1966)Molly Steenson, Princeton University

Cedric Price created an architecture of information in the truest sense of the term: one that codified information, developed inven-tive interfaces, and turned buildings, sites and cities into informa-tion spaces. These buildings would never be locked down in place or time: they were in flux with recombinable modules, movable escalators and hydraulic floors— a set of frameworks and kits of parts. Such was the case with a lesser-known project of Price: the 1966 Oxford Corner House Feasibility Study, a proto-cybercafe for central London.

After seAm stress: PAtterns of PerformAnceMatt Burgermaster, New Jersey Institute of Technology

If architecture operates as a system amongst other systems, then what are its smallest, most localized nodes, what role do these constituent parts play in its larger performance, and where are they located? Such questions, when applied to the physical re-alities of a building’s constructive anatomy, consider the archi-tectural detail as a responsive point of interface and exchange with larger technological, environmental, human networks. As the most discreet node of these extended patterns, the detail is integral to a building’s responsiveness. This paper reconsiders a particular disciplinary predicament concerning the articulation of architecture’s ‘seams’ as significant to contemporary interests in such performative design models and offers a design-research project as a demonstration of its potential agency in such prac-tices.

skin deeP: mAking BuiLding skins BreAthe with smArt thermoBimetALsDoris Kim Sung, University of Southern California

Challenging the traditional presumption that building skins should be static and inanimate, this research project examines the re-placement of this convention with one that sees the prosthetic layer between man and his environment as a responsive and ac-tive skin, in this case, thermally. Using a thermobimetal (TBM), a heat-sensitive smart material, building surfaces can self-ventilate and dramatically reduce the dependency on mechanical air condi-tioning or, ultimately, the carbon footprint. The recent completion of an eight foot tall prototype demonstrated the profound poten-tial of this material, a lamination of two metal alloys with different coefficients of expansion together. The result was a surface made of multiple tiles that curled/crimped when heated and flattened when cooled. As temperature increases, the deformation allowed the skin to breathe naturally much like the pores in human skin.

the AscLePius mAchine: sPontAneous genetic mutAtion Robert Adams, University of Michigan

The Asclepius Machine, A Dossier of Spatial Pathologies in Three Acts situates design, responsive civic infrastructure and acts of design research that explore the relational mechanics between genomics, responsive systems and urbanism by dramatically al-tering the perception of disabled bodies within the public sphere. The objective of this work is to reconfigure cultural codes through producing spatial devices that cultivate an actionable, resilient and responsive design, thereby extending the operative range of architectural and human bodies in space.

Organized in three acts, this paper examines the potential of ar-chitecture’s capacity to inventively engage disability culture. Act I locates the work within the deep structure of architecture with an emphasis on mythological and archaeological formations of space. Act II establishes parallels between genetic mutations and biomechanics, exploring the spatial relationships between human and non-human actors. Act III situates public spheres and oppor-tunities for a polyvalent culture to coproduce the performance of architecture, inducing a state of extreme urban euphoria.

Disability culture is among the more resilient and tolerant forms of social organization, yet remains under-subscribed by current design practices. Even as design acknowledges the responsibil-ity to accommodate people with disabilities, it fails to invest the full spectrum of its project subjectively, responsively, aesthetically nor in terms of the city. The well intended ambitions of design to directly engage the subject of disability culture are shrouded in the mantras of universal design, design for all or access for all. In contrast, this proposal seeks to exaggerate the advantages of disability and open channels for design to generate unlikely spatial itineraries.

Architecture’s resPonsive extensionsKathY VeliKoV, University of Michigan



A tALe of two schooLsLucie Fontein, Carleton University

A critical interpretation of two purpose built Schools of Architec-ture, the Architecture Building at Carleton University designed by Carmen Corneil and Jeff Stinson (1970), and the Aronoff Center for Design and Art at the University of Cincinnati by Peter Eisen-man (1996), constitutes the basis for a discussion of architec-tural pedagogy in the post 1968 era. The architectures of the two schools represent vastly differing design philosophies that reflect both the theoretical positions of their authors and the times in which they were commissioned. This paper explores the impact that the buildings have on the education of their respective stu-dent populations.

giAncArLo de cArLo And the Question of whyLawrence Cheng, Massachusetts College of Art and Design

This paper examines the influence of the Italian architect, writer and educator, Giancarlo De Carlo (1919-2005), on architectural education. As a practitioner and occasional teacher, I propose that De Carlo’s critical thinking in the 60’s and early 70’s should again be used to evaluate, revitalize, and reorient current approaches to preparing students for a changing architecture profession. Central to De Carlo’s life long intellectual and architectural explorations was his question of “the faith in HOW and ignorance of WHY”. His legacy with the International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design is used as a reference for possible approaches to design explorations. Ecological impacts, economic uncertainties and tech-nological innovations are three basic challenges that confront the architecture profession and architectural education in the coming decades. Applying De Carlo’s critical thinking to these challenges, I suggested that educators ask how we can prepare students for a profession in transition, and what skills and values should be taught so that students can adapt to changing conditions.

sAPere Aude!Mireille Roddier, University of Michigan

The majority of North American architecture schools exist within colleges of public universities. Most of the rest belong to private universities. Very few exist as independent professional programs. In light of the historical differences between professional schools and public universities, is it relevant to hold onto the history of their ideological difference? Phrased differently: is there a great-er imperative for programs subsidized by the state to contribute back to the common interest of the public? From yet another per-spective: considering the events of May 1968 on the educational landscape of North American architecture schools, should the historical if vain struggle of French architecture students to be annexed to the university serve to remind us of the advantages made available by Academia’s acceptance of architecture as one of its disciplines? This paper aims to locate in a historical lineage some of the paradoxes found in North American education today, specifically the confusion between means and ends that derived from the welding of French critical theory to the vestiges of a bas-tardized Beaux-Arts model. In order to do so, it traces the separa-tion back to 18th century France, where the differences between the technical training of professionals and the liberal education of citizens were explicitly formulated. By reiterating the purposes of education as defined by the thinkers of the Enlightenment, this paper aims to caution against reducing the distance between the ends of architectural education and the means of getting there, and to remind us that the establishment of public instruction was an inherently political act.

criticAL PedAgogies: ArchitecturAL educAtion After 1968colin ripleY, Ryerson UniversityMarco polo, Ryerson University



fLicker: sPecuLAtions on sPAce And cinemAJonathan Bell, Roger Williams University

FLICKER: Speculations on Space and Cinema was a design studio offered as an advanced undergraduate course at Roger Williams University in the fall of 2010 in which students used cinematic formal conventions as the primary analytic and generative toolkit. The studio’s goal was for students to become conversant in the language of cinema as it can be applied to architectural design. As an investigative and thematic studio, the overall intention was to produce critical analyses of these intersections between disci-plines and add to the growing conversation on the subject.

Ideas borrowed from montage theory, narrative and experimental filmmaking, and—the essential cinematic condition—the moving frame, are capable of informing architecture. As the organizing principle of the FLICKER studio, framing architectural design as “cinematic” involves looking through the cinema lens, but often back to other formal architectural traditions that cinema, in turn, has shared or drawn upon.

The disciplines are united by common formal elements, but what combination of these qualities can render a work of architecture cinematic? Breaking the design process into constituent formal components seems the best way that analogous comparisons may be made between the separate disciplines. FLICKER explored these parallels within the context of a design studio. This paper will outline the components explored and the design projects as-signed in an effort to arrive at a cinematic architecture.

occuPying history: fiLm, fAscism, And Architecture in the work of kevin vAn BrAAk And rosseLLA BiscottiStephanie Pilat, University of Oklahoma

In Italy, monuments to fascism remain nearly everywhere you look. In some cases the markers of fascism, often some version of the fascio—the ancient roman axe from which the movement drew its name—have been removed. But in many other cases such symbols remain, as do buildings, urban spaces, and even entire towns that were designed and constructed to glorify Fascist power. In Latina, one of the Fascist new towns, for example, a building shaped like a giant M, in reference to Mussolini is still actively in use. The existence and reuse of Fascist architecture in Italy begs the question: does the political program of these projects cease to mean when a regime loses power? Can a space, building, or pool contain Fascist impulses or house political ghosts? These are some of many issues raised by the “Cities of Continuous Lines” project by the artists Kevin van Braak and Rossella Biscotti. Film is but one of their media of choice; they utilize whatever means necessary to explore their subject including photography, restora-tion and even the reconstruction of select bits of Fascist architec-ture. While the work spans media the goal is singular: Biscotti and Van Braak’s explorations repeatedly pry open the fractured space between intention and reception. For designers interested in

how abstract and experimental cinema can offer understandings of architecture that are not possible in other media, van Braak and Biscotti’s Cities of Continuous Lines project serves as a case study. Because the artists use a variety of media, it is possible to understand through comparison what types of understandings ab-stract film engenders that are not possible with other media. An examination of their work reveals what kinds of knowledge about space might be gained through explorations in abstract film that are not possible with other conceptual art forms. Moreover, a com-parative analysis begins to suggest ways in which architects and artists might be able to use non-narrative filmmaking to explore architecture and urban spaces in unconventional ways.

ProBABiListic sPAce in Architecture And the AvAnt gArde fiLms of chris mArker And stAn BrAkhAgeCharles Bertolini, Louisiana State University

This paper explores cinematic theories of movement under Gilles Deleuze’s works that claims thinking spatially artificially fixes events and things via identity through linear time. I begin with Walter Benjamin’s theory of aura and its link to architecture, fol-lowed by an explication of Gilles Deleuze’s notion of the move-ment-image and time-image from his books on cinema by exam-ining the avant-garde films by Chris Marker and Stan Brakhage. Perhaps the probabilistic spaces expressed by Marker and Bra-khage could inspire and free architecture of its dependence on static time and place. A radical rethinking of space along with a new understanding of true movement and its existence in many tangents of time provides a paradigm to begin architecture again. But, it is not the “begin anew” but rather a beginning that reoccurs as the always new. There is no lineage in the traditional sense but rather only creative events. And what could this kind of architec-ture look like?

defending ABstrAction: exPerimentAL cinemA And the ArchitecturAL ProjectthoMas ForGet, University of North Carolina at Charlotte


fridAy, mArCh 4, 2011 - 2:30Pm - 4:00Pm

sALvAged LAyers; A coLLABorAtive site sPecific PerformAnce Timothy Gray, Ball State University Melli Hoppe, Butler University

This paper documents and reflects on the activities of a collab-orative, interdisciplinary studio which challenged students to ex-plore issues of craft, making and place through a series of full scale built interventions in a historic theatre. The project, which was a collaboration between a group of theatre students and a group of architecture students from separate Universities, culminated in a two night performance at the Irving Theatre in Indianapolis in the spring of 2010.

By positioning this project as a cross disciplinary collaboration it gave students the opportunity to explore ways in which the differ-ent disciplines could creatively engage one another while simulta-neously grounding their activities in the specific circumstance of the site. This paper will discuss the goals, the process and the performance, and reflect on the learning outcomes from this rigor-ous semester.

stAging: synthesizing the humAn contriButionPeter Goché, Iowa State University

This presentation will consider the role of staging as an observatory practice that seeks to comprehend the experiential nature of lived space. I will discuss making a scene; the production of gestures and, thereby, spatial comprehension as part of a whole research methodology to which I refer as staging. The value of this work for the field of architecture is arrived at using observation/staging as the primary mode of study.

In the engagement of a specific environment, our experience as oc-cupants begins with an impulse to scrutinize everything. In this al-most instantaneous assessment, we enter into a dialogue with the humanity of place; an intercourse with time, deep time; and thus, are immersed in the visual and perceptual challenges of the inher-ited landscape and its cultural inscriptions. The tangible buildup of routine spatial engagements produces what Joan Simon calls a so-cio-graph , a support system for the metaphysical occupation of its environment. The ordinary quality of this type of material surround yields a deeply reflective engagement that assist in maintaining an ontological wakefulness, or, in the words of Victor Turner, “a quiet celebration of ordinary experience.”

The following inquiries are the manifestation of a desire to compre-hend the experiential nature of lived space. As phenomenological staging, their content is temporary, incomplete and, thereby, uni-versal. They are an interpretation of a lived experience and thus provoke dialogue. The act of producing such a material survey serves as an agent for anticipating its architectural potential. Like ethnographic studies, their purpose is to unfold a cultural view of the world. As such, each effort is the embodiment of a performance agenda that has to do with authenticating our comprehension of the corresponding items of experience through memory, anecdote and ritual.

Architecture As A Performing Art (1)Marcia Feuerstein, Virginia TechGraY read, Florida International University



home sPun: wAter hArvesting PrefAB urBAn housingLaura Garofalo, University At Buffalo, SUNY Omar Khan, University At Buffalo, SUNY

Home Spun is an urban housing prototype capable of harvesting water from precipitation and using it for heating, cooling and do-mestic consumption. It is composed of small (400sqft footprint), prefabricated two level houses that can be tightly clustered on ex-isting building lots. These dwellings impose minimal stress on a city’s services infrastructure while also reducing strain on the urban combined sewage and storm water disposal system. Using a vari-ety of technologies including lightweight tape winding fabrication, parameterized parts that can be mass customized, thermally active surfaces, and integrated water processing through living machines, this easily deployable multi-dwelling housing type is designed spe-cifically to address redevelopment of North American Rust Belt city downtowns. These sites provide unique challenges for new devel-opment including nonadjacent urban infill sites, limited services in-frastructure and depleted populations. Home Spun proposes an al-ternative form of collective living that would be attractive to young professionals seeking community based sustainable living.

urBAn wAter re-introduction of sustAinABLe wAter cycLes through urBAn AgricuLtureGundula Proksch, University of Washington

With water scarcity and food insecurity increasing globally, water is quickly turning into the most valuable commodity on the planet. Despite severe catastrophes cased by heat waves, droughts and desertification; global water problems have not yet penetrated into general consciousness. For too long water has been seen as an in-exhaustible resource with unlimited renewable capacity, but in fact it is a finite resource.

This study looks at the imbalance between the pressures on cit-ies to provide their inhabitants with fresh water in contrast to the industrial agriculture’s wasteful water use. The simultaneous con-sideration of both systems, the current urban water management and agricultural practices opens new, often unrealized potentials. Emerging urban agricultural projects have the potential to oper-ate as green infrastructure, which contributes to low impact water management as well as pioneers water efficient farming methods, even on the industrial scale.

This investigation centers on three case studies located in regions faced with different degrees of water challenges in the United States. It focuses on how these projects utilize integrated ap-proaches to urban water management and food production. In the temperate climate of New York City, rooftop farming projects like Brooklyn Grange mitigate storm water and reduce the load on the existing water treatment infrastructure. The Eco Laboratory in Se-attle by Weber Thompson promotes a net-zero water system, which integrates plant irrigation and hydroponic food production in a re-gion that experiences dry spells during the summer months. Peri-urban farm operations, such as the Sea Mist Farm in Salinas, CA, recycle urban wastewater for irrigation on a larger scale.

While there are important and numerous social and economic ben-efits of urban agriculture, such as local food production, education, job training, employment creation, and contribution to social eq-uity and justice, the foci of this investigation are the environmental benefits of these interrelated infrastructures. Besides their primary “tasks” of storm water mitigation, conservation of water resources, and reclamation of wastewater, respectively, the projects initiate an interconnected series of positive environmental effects and benefits for the water cycle. These benefits include the improvement and protection of water quality, urban water bodies, estuaries, wildlife, reduced exploitation of water sources, reduced pollution of ecosys-tems, reduced use of (chemical) fertilizers, and the restoration of impaired groundwater sources and aquifers, to name a few.

Through its two-fold agenda of establishing low impact urban water management and supporting water efficient, sustainable agricul-tural methods, this study’s proposed integration of infrastructures has the powerful ability to reconnect the urban environment to its natural water cycle and the urban dwellers closer to their source of food. The main message to the allied fields of architecture and planning is to stop managing and engineering water out of our urban environments, and instead design places and mechanisms through which the powerful self-regulating natural water cycle can re-establish itself.

wAter, wAter everywhereJen Maigret, University of Michigan Maria Arquero de Alarcon, University of Michigan

This research presents a methodological approach to pervious, multi-scalar, hydrophilic design strategies that critically re-imagine the future of the constructed environment in the Great Lakes Ba-sin through the lens of water. This approach explicitly develops a methodology with the capacity to transcend disciplinary bound-aries through an emphasis on transparency and precision relative to the establishment of design parameters that can be adopted and adapted by others. The work presented represents a research trajectory emerging from the analysis of watershed data primarily collected and manipulated through the use of GIS techniques and analyses. Additionally, by visualizing the complex storm water reg-ulatory landscape and its operative structure, the potential agency embedded within policy gains clarity relative to the evolving role of construction technologies and material studies. Through the devel-opment of storm water cartographies of the largest liquid freshwa-ter reserve in the world, this paper elaborates on the premise that the reconsideration of daily practices of design and construction of the built environment hold a key to establishing alternate futures to the scenario of infrastructure failure and water quality decline. Fur-thermore, this approach positions design as the catalyst that syn-thesizes performance criteria with tactile intelligence and thereby models a pro-active methodology that contributes to ecological sys-tems whose boundaries extend far beyond the building envelope.

wAtercolin ripleY, Ryerson University


when the fAke rePLAces the reAL: how A modeL chAnged A riverKristi Dykema Cheramie, Louisiana State University

For 27 out of 31 days in January 1937, rain poured into the North-east. The ground, still frozen with snow and ice, mixed with unusu-ally warm, wet weather and sent record amounts of water sheeting into the Ohio River. The effect was almost instantaneous; river-side towns immediately reported that water levels were quickly approaching, then quickly passing flood stage level. Among the many places affected, 70% of Louisville, Kentucky and 90% of Jef-fersonville, Indiana were inundated as water crests reached as high as 20-28 feet above flood stage. It was catastrophic.

And it confirmed peoples’ fear that waters of the Mississippi River were, in fact, threatening the American way of life as much as lend-ing to its success.

As the Army Corps of Engineers watched the straw (i.e. inescap-ably vast amounts of water) break the proverbial camel’s back, the decision was made to fund a new approach. The result was the Mississippi River Basin Model, a 22-acre working hydraulic model of the Mississippi River Basin. The model is a true marvel; its terrain is constructed almost entirely from molded concrete: riverbeds, sheer cliffs, flat plains, tributaries, oxbow lakes, and rolling hills. Hydraulic pumps and metal gates rise above the concrete, acting as purveyors of weather and water. It is a river system that can be turned on and, ironically, it can also, quite simply (and danger-ously), be turned off.

At its core, the model acknowledges the river as the central de-fining characteristic of the landscape, not human occupation. Hi-erarchically, the model positions settlements, highways, railroads – all man-made constructions – at the behest of the river. The model was constructed around the idea that the land we occupy was shaped first and foremost by the river system, a force that is continuously acting on many points in concert, a series of inter-connected reactions tied to a central network more expansive and potent than perhaps previously realized. This ideological shift was a tremendous concession of power on the part of the Army Corps of Engineers who had previously felt quite strongly that the river could be pressed into complete submission in order to maximize the available occupiable land.

But, despite the notable achievement of having accomplished the construction of such a model, what has this fake river done to our relationship with the very real one it seeks to mimic? This paper explores the disconnect that occurs when a model becomes the substitute for the “real thing,” when the copy, which cannot hope to replicate the true complexity of its source, becomes the fulcrum around which decision are made. By necessity of function, the model endorses (which is to say that it cannot function without) dangerous abstractions of real material, an omnipotent officiant of natural systems, and an unrealistic ability to isolate elements from the larger network of natural systems.

In short, what are the implications of having reduced the com-plexity of an entire river system to an object (however vast and landscape-like) that essentially amounts to surface, water, and an on/off switch?

wAter continued




“ ‘unrooting’ the AmericAn dreAm: exiLing the eth-nosPAce in the urBAn frActALity of miAmi ”Armando Montilla, Clemson University

This paper will analyze the effect of the fractal condition in the ur-ban fabric in Miami, and how this has created a sense of ‘dispersed island-making’ in the way ethic (Latino and others) communities distribute themselves around the city. The history of Miami as a ‘spectacle enclave’ from its historic origins, to the Metropolarity (Soja, 2000) of Immigration in the very southernmost tip of the US that it has become today, creates an interesting ground of study on how immigrant groups build communities in the midst of sprawl. In the web of this gridded fractal tissue, same Real-Estate tools that in the past have allowed for construction-boom in the shores, have created for recent migrants the opportunity to realize the ‘American Dream’, towards the ownership of a single-family house, and thus establishing large ethnic enclaves, visually diluted through the suburban morphology. In the light of most recent economic turmoil, which has propelled Miami-Dade County to be the third most-affected city in foreclosures rates in the nation, the ‘American Dream’ has been in many cases ‘unrooted’ (1), creating new upheaval in how ethnic/immigrants communities in this city are able to construct urbanity and shape the multicultural city.

eAst, But not too fAr eAst: Architecture And PoLiti-cAL trAveL in BuchArest, romAniAAndreea Mihalache, Virginia Tech

Once a tragic event such as political repression, war or revolution is left behind, the place where it occurred often surpasses its local condition and grows into a global symbol. Having its starting point in the investigation of the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania, a building begun in the 1980s as the center of the com-munist power, this paper argues that a particular type of tourism – political travel – re-writes the imaginary map of a place and re-structures the relations between center and periphery experi-enced by the everyday inhabitants of the city.

After the fall of communism, the “House of the People” as it was formerly known, while appropriated by the new governments, also became a popular tourist destination in the Romanian capital. The paper suggests that in the aftermath of a conflict, architectures associated with a historical event become destinations for politi-cal travel that re-writes the history of the place. The interaction of the travelers with these cityscapes spawns new interpretations of the built space whose significance is constantly shifting, and, at the same time, chronologies, facts and events are rearranged and reinvested with new meanings. The corporeality of the archi-tectural body becomes secondary to the primacy of its imaginary body in the memory of those who interact with it. The role of hu-man mobility and cultural exchanges is instrumental in re-defining the status of these architectures whose place in the collective memory negotiates between local and global, past and present, forgetting and remembering, identity and stereotype.

infrAstructurAL cArtogrAPhy: drAwing the sPAce of fLowsClare Lyster, University of Illinois at Chicago

Representing the city other than through its figure-ground condi-tion poses a challenge, for architects. This is why Louis Kahn’s traffic flow-map of Philadelphia is still such a popular precedent in explaining how dynamic processes, not static form can determine urban space. Given that much of our contemporary culture is “on the move”, it is surprising we cannot draw upon more examples that visualize how mobility systems shape the city.

We can contemplate how the flow of people, money, goods and data impacts space (and place) through new drawing techniques that visualize these flows. This paper describes one such tech-nique. “Infrastructural Cartography” is the mapping of contem-porary global networks to generate a new reading of space and place in the age of globalization delivered here through a series of maps that index the exigencies of material shipments of the FedEx Corporation.

“Infrastructural Cartography” is not just a means to graphically index network space for the maps have implications beyond just the visual communication of information. More importantly, the maps are instruments that afford alternative perspectives to a discussion of space under the lens of “globalization”. The paper contemplates how a close reading of the maps of FedEx highlights some of the real consequences of network systems on contempo-rary spatial practice. In summary, the paper identifies a method to represent the extensive mobility that constitutes our contempo-rary condition with a view to explaining architecture’s fallout with the material flows of the post-Fordist era.

shArjAh: seAscAPe urBAnism in A khALiji Port citySamia Rab, American University of Sharjah

This paper questions the predominance of land and its physical attributes in discourse on architecture and urbanism. It examines the urban construction of Sharjah along the Persian Gulf (called Al Khalij in this paper). It illustrates the shaping forces of human mobility across the oceans and identifies three elements of urban continuity (sahil, saht, and souq). These elements relate, respec-tively, to the oceanic ecology, the politics of linking the desert to the port, and the physical manifestation of links to a global econ-omy. Subverting the grounded constructs of “place-making” and “landscape urbanism”, this paper presents the case of Sharjah as an example of “seascape” urbanism facilitating and administering interactions between the desert and the ocean.

where do you stAnd? whAt if i Am on the move? (1)ariJit sen, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee



LA defense: from AxiAL hierArchy to oPen systemNicholas Roberts, Woodbury University

This essay examines the La Défense district of Paris, the larg-est dedicated business center in Europe, a community of 100,000 workers and 20,000 residents, where 90% of commuters arrive by public transit. The origins of the project in utopian schemes of the early 20th century and the rapid development of the post-war years are reviewed. Using the writings of Shadrach Woods and Alison Smithson as references, the essay discusses the shift in design thinking that took place in the late 1960’s as the project evolved from a Beaux-Arts inspired sculptural composition to an open and flexible field condition. The essay concludes by testing the resulting design against its ability to accommodate the 2006 master plan, and its success in meeting Woods and Smithson’s goals of accommodating change and providing a framework for habitat and human association.

on vs. ABoutNeyran Turan, Rice University

For more than two decades, architecture has been expanding, amassing and absorbing; and at the same speed, it has been contracting and specializing. Situated within a much broader dis-cussion of architecture’s relation to new scales of contexts and areas of knowledge, two complimentary paradigms have emerged in relation to contemporary architecture and urbanism. First has been the paradigm of Endless Space—the accumulation of unlim-ited flows, field conditions, soft systems, and ever-larger territo-rial expansions. Parallel to this formation of Endless Space has been the proliferation of Bounded Form—urban islands of detach-ment, exception and fantasy, where general laws of exteriorities are suspended. Appearing as a simple story of large-scale, the dichotomy between the Endless and the Bounded marks a latent battle regarding the disciplinary positioning of architecture. While the Endless Space celebrates the interdisciplinarity of architecture softening its disciplinary boundaries and underscores an immer-sive attitude within external forces, it suggests an architecture that is engaged. On the other hand, the emphasis on Bounded Form marks the singularity of architecture, i.e. architecture as a self-contained aesthetic object not irreducible to the conditions that generate it. At the midst of the expansionist tendencies of the Endless and the introverted inclination of the Bounded, our current situation is an opportunity that might inspire a renewed understanding of disciplinary positioning for architecture. In this context, the paper aims to postulate alternative theoretical trajec-tories through the articulation of the notion of Megaformal for its potential for a renewed discussion of the politics of form.

soft sites, four cAse studies on the middLe BrAnchFred Scharmen, Morgan State University Eric Leshinsky, Morgan State University

What follows is an investigation into an urban region of Baltimore in four parts. This is an area that is vast, complex and integral to the city’s history, yet it resides both geographically and conceptu-ally at its fringes. This is an area that is passed through on the way to other places, an area that most Baltimore residents do not know by name and have never visited. At the same time, this area has long existed at the confluence of various interlocking urban development plans, the latest of which are now determin-ing where the future of Baltimore will happen. This paper is an effort to resurrect the histories of 4 sites in the Middle Branch Basin: Swann Park, Reed Bird Island, Port Covington and Mason-ville Cove, all located at the intersections of industry, infrastruc-ture and commerce. These sites could all be seen as castoffs, the residue of larger projects built around them. Closer examination reveals a more complicated reality - these sits are in fact mir-rors of their surroundings, visible evidence of the shifting political, economic, environmental and cultural interests that compete to determine the creation of new space and development.

sPheres, domes, Limits, interfAces: the trAnsgressive Architecture of BiosPhere 2Meredith Miller, University of Michigan

This paper recuperates certain conceptual and logistical aspects of the Biosphere II, a large-scale ecological experiment that emerged from the intersection of science, architecture, engineer-ing, and performance art. As both operators and subjects of the experiment, eight researchers occupied a sealed megastructure, within which a carefully selected array of reconstructed biomes formed the building blocks of an interdependent machine for hu-man life-support. Imbued with residual practices of 1960s and 1970s counterculture in the southwestern United States—a scene in which many of the key “bionauts” participated—the project of-fers insights into modes of materializing a new environmental con-sciousness.

Centering on the design of the complex and fraught implementa-tion of the two closures (1991-1992; 1994), the paper will trace the ideological underpinnings that offer connections to current disciplinary questions of site, territory and environmental perfor-mance.

Architecture’s exPAnded territorieslola sheppard, University of WaterlooMason white, University of Toronto



the theAter in the city—An ArchitecturAL mirror gAme in sABBionetAAnn Marie Borys, University of Washington

In the Renaissance, perspective projection was developed first in the city, and then adopted for use in performance space. The aim of this paper is to show how the theater at Sabbioneta, built at the end of the Renaissance, is a performance space that engages the urban context by optimizing the technology of perspective projec-tion in new ways. Here architect Vincenzo Scamozzi surpasses the limitations of Serlio’s perspective stage scenes to weave a more complex possibility for the role of the theater in the city. As if in a camera obscura, the spectators enter into a room in which the ideal city outside is projected onto the stage, while elements of the theatrical space are projected outside onto the facades. The ambiguities between urban space and performance space are al-lowed to echo. Scamozzi’s theater as a camera obscura projects the ideal city of Sabbioneta directly into the theater, a city within a city, with a consequential perception of performance space ampli-fied outward from stage, to theater, to street and city.

turned tABLes: the PuBLic As PerformerBeth Weinstein, University of Arizona

The theatrical experience begins long before the curtain rises. It begins with the participatory performance along the trajectory to the door of the performance space. These spaces before the ac-tual hall are the architects’ opportunity to construct a heightened and engaged sensory experience, to provoke a sharp, distanced awareness or create a vertiginous immersive experience. As such, the sites examined in this essay are the building approach, thresh-old, foyer space, and performance hall entry.

To discuss these two antipodes of public-as-performer I will focus on built projects by Ateliers Jean Nouvel and Diller Scofidio + Ren-fro, given their overt interest in vision and visuality, and specta-tor-spectacle relationships that can be seen throughout their work and particularly their designs for pre-performance spectacles. My intention is to unpack these works in which pre-performance spac-es heighten the audience experience, visually, viscerally and hap-tically, and turn the tables, engaging the audience intentionally or inadvertently in the making of their theater experience.

Architecture As A Performing Art (2)Marcia Feuerstein, Virginia TechGraY read, Florida International University



where do you stAnd? whAt if i Am on the move? (2)ariJit sen, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Architecture on the move: towArds A theory of rePLAcingJennifer Johung, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Without fully celebrating our nomadic release from territorial borders or longing nostalgically for a return to tightly localized communities, what does it mean, now in light of our multiple movements and temporary situations, to draw a spatial boundary? Who gets to choose to be spatially situated, for however long, and who has that situation chosen for them? How might we be in one place, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, where we could we find ourselves lingering with others? And how does this one place become a home? If to be in one place is to be still, perhaps to belong and to find home however momentarily or accidentally, then how can we situate ourselves while also on the move, both towards and away from each other?

This paper examines contemporary modular and mobile architectural constructions that attend to the movements of their inhabitants across the globe. Andrea Zittel constructs compact living units that can fold in and out like sides of a box for spatial variation and transportation. Lot-ek reforms a shipping container into a Mobile Dwelling Unit, but also imagines it capable of docking in and out of pre-established harbors located around the world. As bodies come together and apart, across a series of sites and over a course of time, so too do the component parts of these kinds of nomadic habitations. Easy to transport and quick to assemble, modular structures must, however, address both chosen and forced dislocation, responding not only to those who are continuously on the move, but also to those who are seeking temporary refuge. With that in mind, the paper turns to Japanese architect Shigeru Ban’s modular paper tube architecture that provides immediate emergency relief to victims of natural disasters and political upheaval.

forced nomAdism And “frozen trAnsience”: romA moBiLities in rome todAyKaren Bermann, Iowa State University

When we speak of the mobility of the Roma (“gypsies”) of Europe today, we do not speak of culture, of their ancestral relationship to place, home, and movement. Today we speak of “forced nomadism” and “frozen transience”. I describe one Roma group in Rome, Italy in search of a place to live that is continuously evicted and resettled around the city by the authorities, and another that is fixed in place in temporary emergency housing in a govern-ment-built camp. These two conditions are not as different as they might seem. Both exist in a sort of suspended time, in which words like “temporary” and “emergency” have no real meaning, and both occur on the distant fringes of the city. They are closely related tactics in the government strategy of “degypsification” of the city. Both involve mobility as a weapon of disempowerment.

In 2008 I worked with a Roma rights organiza-tion and Italian architects, studying conditions of habitation in several Roma settlements in Rome. Students from Iowa State University’s architecture study abroad program participated in the project.

*The term is Zygmunt Bauman’s.

movement hAs stAnces too; or the terriBLy true tALe of An emigre, A moBiLe home And how (the) movement got fixedDora Epstein Jones, SCI-Arc

A case study of the Wolfson House by Marcel Breuer (1949), “Movement Has Stances Too” refutes the idea of movement as a supposedly neutral dynamic between stances. Instead, through an interpretive layering of different modes of movement present in the Wolfson House, from the vehicular movement of the travel trailer to Breuer’s own status as an emigre to the idea of a Modern Movement, this paper seeks to understand movement as a lively entity that has greatly affected architectural culture in the modern era. In so doing, this paper will also propose a re-telling of the common narrative of architecture’s redefinitions in the immediate postwar period, embracing the jump, the cut and other formations of profound difference.

the BP deePwAter horizon disAster: zomBie housing for nomAds Stephen Verderber, Clemson University

The provision of emergency housing in the aftermath of natural and human-made disasters continues to be a source of considerable debate and controversy. The massive earthquake in Haiti and the BP Horizon environmental disaster of 2010 were but the most recent examples of a chronic disconnect between post-disaster housing provisions and the actual needs of relief workers and returning evacuees. This discussion centers on the BP Horizon Disaster—an oil exploration platform explosion that occurred in five thousand feet of water off the coast of Louisiana. Eleven rig workers were killed and it triggered the largest environmental disaster in American history. The modular housing units provided by the disaster’s perpetrator for cleanup workers, many of whom were nomads in search of temporary employment, is critically examined as an exponent of zombie housing—faceless, generic living quarters deployed amid a broader context of equally bleak worker encampments. One such encampment, the “barge housing” for 500+ workers hastily assembled in Port Fouchon, Louisiana, is critiqued in some detail. The unfortunate reality of the continuing diminished role of architects in the design and deployment of post-disaster living accommodations for transitory constituencies is examined.


sAturdAy, mArCh 5, 2011 - 9:00Am - 10:30Am

Architects’ PreciPitAte cLAim of emissions infLuence Nathan Richardson, Oklahoma State University

As the significance of energy and environmental issues are gain-ing prominence of an historic nature, it is no surprise that many actors in the economy are striving to define their spatial relation-ship to a potential solution. This is particularly evident as one considers the design and construction industry. A multiplicity of sources cite buildings and their associated energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions as accounting for about half of the total anthropogenic factors of climate change. Accordingly, many in the design profession are presenting themselves as the central agents of change in order to avoid what some say is a “doomsday scenario” by the middle of the twenty-first century. While these impassioned efforts are admirable, this paper seeks to add grav-ity and specificity to just that portion of carbon-dioxide emissions and energy consumption that actually falls within the architect’s sphere of action. What precisely is within the architectural profes-sion’s purview, and by extension, what is its’ potential role in curb-ing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions? While the commercial sector is no small opportunity for impact, it is the residential sector that belies the claims made by many that archi-tects should or even can be the central figures in addressing these complex issues. While one could argue that the residential build-ing sector accounts for nearly 25% of emissions and by extension, architects have a commensurate opportunity to revise current trends, even a cursory look at the evidence exposes the sophism embedded in such a claim. This paper pegs the architects’ influ-ence over residential energy and emissions closer to 2.8%. This analysis presumes a fairly traditional conception of practice and is not intended to serve as an abdication of responsibility for those practicing architecture; more importantly, it aims to serve as a base from which to derive new models of practice that expand the profession’s sphere of influence.

digitAL mAchines teAch BAsic PrinciPLes of BALAnce in eco-friendLy design Justin Taylor, Mississippi State University

Architects and designers have always impacted the ecosystem. Today, however, we are acutely conscious of the fragile balance within and around systems. Scientist, engineers, designers and artists study how these systems adapt and change behavior, evolve and adjust to balance the existing natural systems. It im-perative that designers understand this process at its most basic level. While it is possible to create virtual systems and use them for teaching, there is value for students in creating the equivalent of a physical ecosystem that uses manual manipulation.

A simple prototyping board can be used with a variety of sensory and motor functions. Groups of students are given tasks in the system to complete. Some tasks are simple but are essential to the system’s ultimate survival. Some tasks are complex and oth-ers are decorative. The tasks are divided so that each group must utilize another group’s function. The system functions with solar

chargers, miniature wind turbines, and batteries. Each of these components is separated into distinct parts with limitations placed on the function of each part. This process extends simple mechan-ics into the decision-making process and places emphasis on how the smallest of changes can influence the system as a whole.

It is imperative that today’s teaching methods reinforce a com-mitment to our ecosystem. Equally important as a part of that study, it is imperative that designers recognize the complexities that both nature and technology bring to future design. Creating a digital environment is one tool instructors can use to insure stu-dents understand the choices they must make with each design.

shifting infrAstructures Marianna de Cola, University of Waterloo Lola Sheppard, University of Waterloo

The history of Newfoundland is intimately tied to its relationship with the sea, to island status and its consequent cultural isolation, to its reliance on fishing and more recently oil. But it is also one of tides - of prosperity and loss, migration and resettlement, of occupation and erasure.

This research is an investigation into the nature of mutable land-scapes – shifting settlements, resources and infrastructures. It is recognized that the needs of each community, and the resources of each environment, are diverse in type and supply. The spatial-ization of an energy infrastructure has the opportunity to link the ecological, political, cultural, and historical constituents in con-temporary society. It has the potential to be a dynamic system that forces a presence in the everyday lives of a cultural habitat. This investigation poses the possibility that a contemporary en-ergy infrastructure, usually hidden from the cultural landscape, may become a physically and culturally pronounced manifestation of a layered historical narrative.

This thesis does not try to tame, resolve, or control the sea. It rec-ognizes the unpredictability and power of the world’s oceans and merely tries to understand and utilize it. The sea is always itself, ordered by its own cycles of tides, currents and ecologies. One can only synchronize with its might and understand the relation-ships between land and sea. This work investigates the idea of the ‘fathom’. In understanding the measures of a place that one can understand historical narratives and subsequently project future possibilities.

EnErgy as a spatial projEctrania Ghosn, Harvard University


tomorrow’s house: soLAr energy And the suBurBAn territoriAL Project, 1938-1947 Daniel Barber, Harvard University

This paper addresses the role of solar house heating in the specu-lative experimentation characteristic of the architectural discourse in the period surrounding World War II. Engaged in discussions of technology, economy, and suburban expansion, architects devel-oped a number of ideas and methods intending to manage both the demand for post-war housing and the emergence of new life-styles in the anticipated post-war future. Solar energy was an important component of these speculative practices, and came to be seen as a necessary ingredient to the provision of housing after the war. As such, it represents a vision of an alternative dis-position to the organization of post-war suburbia, one that was, on the one hand, dependent on road infrastructure and the social transformations familiar to the history of suburban growth, and that was, on the other hand, indicative of a brief moment when a self-reliant and independent imperative was seen to structure relationships between housing, energy, and infrastructure. The paper explores these developments through publications, exhibi-tions, and proposals intending to propose structures for a post-war future, and ultimately asks how speculative design practices relate to the processes of social and environmental change.

energy As sPAtiAL Project continued



sAturdAy, mArCh 5, 2011 - 9:00Am - 10:30Pm

BuiLt environments LABorAtory: PedAgogicAL refLections on inter-disciPLinAry studio teAchingGundula Proksch, University of Washington Ken Yocom, University of Washington

Current practice in the allied design and planning professions re-quires interdisciplinary collaborations to address the rising issues surrounding environmental quality, social equity, and economy in our contemporary built environment. Academic colleges and de-partments have responded, developing educational programs that transcend the boundaries of traditional disciplinary training. One such program, developed in the College of Built Environments, at the University of Washington, recently introduced a new form of interdisciplinary studios called BE Labs (Built Environments Labo-ratories) that offer the opportunity for students and faculty to col-laborate across departments, gain tactile interdisciplinary experi-ence, and develop a pedagogy for multidisciplinary design and planning curricula.

The work presented in this article describes the structure, process, outcomes, and most importantly, lessons learned, from develop-ing and teaching the BE Lab “Vertical Farming and Sustainable Site Design”, conducted in the Winter term of 2010 with three faculty and eighteen students with backgrounds in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning, Anthropology, Biology, and History. Building upon the complex and often contentious re-development process of an approximately 30-acre public housing project in downtown Seattle, the program for the course devel-oped as a design research collaboration between the students, faculty, and practitioners actively engaged in the project that sup-ported interdisciplinary objectives while promoting a transdisci-plinary approach to professional education.

The pedagogical strategies integrated into the course structure focused on revealing distinctions between the disciplines, build-ing upon common concepts, and bridging educational and pro-fessional practices. These strategies were observed, tracked, and recorded by the faculty during the term with several primary phe-nomena emerging. These include the different perspectives of the disciplines on the built environment, their divergent methods to research and its integration in the (design) studio, and distinctive approaches to teamwork and peer-learning.

Integrating an interdisciplinary pedagogy into the curricula of de-sign and planning disciplines presents challenges, but more im-portantly opens the door to opportunities for students, faculty and professionals to transcend educational structures for developing the hybrid approaches necessary for addressing the issues that face our contemporary built environment.

Keywords: interdisciplinary design studio, architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, studio pedagogy, design research collaboration, transdisciplinary approach, built environment

the ALeAtoric studio: emBrAcing chAnce And risk in first-yeAr designFran Leadon, City College of New York

Aleatory, derived from the Latin root alea (meaning dice, chance, or risk), has been explored as a compositional variable within modern music, most notably in the 1950s by Pierre Boulez. Alea-toric music depends on constraints, allowing chance and risk to occur only within a strict structure, with limited outcomes. When applied to first-year architecture studio instruction, aleatoric op-erations become critical pedagogical tools, teaching students how to formulate productive, fluid decision-making processes that em-brace chance and risk through a series of collaborative projects emphasizing spatial complexity, research, precedent, and craft.

whAt’s next for ArchitecturAL history? sustAinABiLity And the ArchitecturAL history surveyVandana Baweja, University of Florida

In this paper, I will address the challenges of incorporating the discourse of sustainability into the architectural history curriculum and how sustainability in the survey can be related to sustainabili-ty education in the design studio. I argue that the inclusion of sus-tainability in the architectural survey will necessitate revisionist architectural histories that are written through an environmental paradigm and are able to establish a dialogue with sustainability education in the design studio. These revisionist histories will oc-cupy the disciplinary territory that is produced at the intersection of architectural and environmental histories.

opEn (1)deBorah Fausch, University of Illinois at Chicago



technoLogy And humAn desire (1)BradleY horn, City College of New YorkJason oliVer Vollen, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

discreet mAchines of desire: from edwArd BernAys to roBert oPPenheimerDavid Gersten, Cooper Union

This essay looks at two formulations of Technology and Desire. One locates our desire for technology, as an expression of a funda-mental human will for agency and ‘extension’ though instrumental innovation. This formulation locates technology as an outward ex-pression of our will to instrumentally articulate our external en-vironment. A second formulation of the question arises from a simple re-consideration of the direction of instrumental extension. We can ask: is the direction of technological extension always out-ward, always toward our external geographies? These two formu-lations are approached with a review of the basic instruments of the capital markets as well as specifically focusing on the inven-tions of two seminal figures of the 20th century.

emPty figuresMichael Silver, Mike Silver, Architects

Materialism is false. In order for it to seem true we must deny certain facts about perception, and subjectivity. Both an ‘old ma-terialism’ and ‘new materialism’ impose unnecessary limits on the expressive power of architecture and its potential as an elucidat-ing medium. Since buildings have a capacity to question the terms that underwrite their production a critique of matter becomes pos-sible by design. In this essay I try to show how new mapping technologies bring to the fore problems similar to those quantum mechanics encounters in the process of studying subatomic phe-nomena. (The more closely an object is looked at the less solid it appears.) Any work that confronts the problem of measurement and asks questions about reality, change and the role design can play in the world must in some deal way with the fact of con-sciousness.

enActing trAnscendence: design then And nowKristina Luce, University of Michigan

Representing something more significant than the use of the com-puter as a media emulator (computer cum drawing board), com-putational design makes use of the logics and proceedurality inher-ent within the computation as a medium. As a result of the rapidly increasing influence of such design methods, and their suggestive power to redefine how the discipline of architecture is framed, the adoption of computational design seems radical and sudden. In contradistinction, several medieval sources, which document ma-sonic traditions and methods of design, reveal a slow process of adoption for drawing (that period’s advanced technique). The use of drawing eventually led to a redefined design act and catalyzed the emergence of the architect as a role distinct from the builder, but this new role took several hundred years to emerge. Given the fundamental differences between these periods of shift, are we to dismiss the possibility of finding our present predicament

reflected in history’s mirror? Is this simply a matter modernity’s acceleration and the relentless of change making the pre-modern irrelevant to our moment?

This paper argues that such suppositions, though common, are incorrect. As an alternative it presents our current situation as a technological sense-making enterprise that rivals that of the Re-naissance. As was the case with drawing, this new understanding similarly attempts to realign design to our best conceptions of how the universe creates, and like the portal between the Medieval and the Renaissance, crossing today’s divide has required similarly ex-tensive and extended cultural work. The real difference between that period and this one is merely the order in which the techno-logical and cultural changes have occurred. Drawing’s techniques preceded its cultural acceptance, while the cultural stage for com-putation has long been set. As a result, computation’s power to change our current architectural situation is better understood as part of a long series of shifts. The rise of computational design only seems sudden because we have generally accepted the new-ness of these techniques rather than contextualizing them as part of a centuries long cultural shift. By working between the period of drawing’s adoption and the period of computation’s adoption, this paper presents both moments demonstrating how the shifts parallel each other, while demarcating the essential differences in each period’s definition of the transcendent.



fAster Better cheAPer: AsPiring Architects tAke A stAB At the moduLAr BuiLding industryMargarette Leite, Portland State University

In a world where the largest growing sector of the population is the poor, and the shrinking population is our traditional client base, how do we as a profession tap into a larger market? That is the practical question. More importantly, what can we as ar-chitects do to benefit that largest growing sector in a world of continually shrinking resources?

Many architects, and aspiring architects, are using the current cri-sis as a means to rethink their roles, redefining themselves as the very agents of change that can help alleviate the economic distress that this current financial condition has wrought on the 90% of the world’s population that never interacts with architects. How can we as educators inspire and support these aspirations? How can we build into the academic culture a sense of urgency and an appreciation for what design talent can do in the area of the mundane, everyday environment in which the majority of the world’s population must grow and thrive? How do we connect with marketplaces that have the greatest potential to affect larger numbers of people, like the modular building industry? For many universities the answer comes one studio at a time.

Students and faculty at Portland State University are taking on the ubiquitous portable classroom as a design project of worth in a sincere attempt to make a place for architects and for design thinking in the for-profit marketplace of the modular building in-dustry and as a means for addressing larger issues that affect the greater good.

mArgins reinvigorAting the coreBrook Muller, University of Oregon

While each generation of architects and architectural educators characterize the profession and discipline as in crisis, there is widespread agreement that the challenges we are experiencing currently – economic, environmental and otherwise - are unprec-edented and monumental. How do we respond to these circum-stances in architectural education? What are some alternative directions for the academy relative to transformations in the pro-fession and society at large? How do we acknowledge changes in the way architects work and the nature of the work to be done? In this paper I discuss briefly some contemporary concerns impact-ing the profession, and then describe three curricular initiatives my school has undertaken in the past two years that are intended in their modest way to shift curricular emphases in order to en-gage students in these challenges directly. I conclude by endors-ing fluid, integrated curricular networks realized in part through reconsideration and redistribution of core content.

money-tecture…or how Architecture is exPLoited By cAPitALismWilliam Mangold, IV, Pratt Institute

As we consider what is most meaningful in our lives, certainly our experience of architecture—our city streets, the places we call home, our edifices of culture—ranks high on the list of things we value. However, our relationship to architecture is complicated by the economics of capitalist production and consumption. This essay will explore some of those complications, as interpreted through a Marxist lens, and argue that capitalism exploits archi-tecture in a number of ways. Exploitation happens in the com-modification of buildings and services, as well through deeper, systemic forms such as gentrification and urban development. Education and socially reproduced desire also contribute to the erosion of value, leaving us with only a shell of what could be a rich and fulfilling experience of the built environment. Within this unhappy picture are a few bright spots and possible directions through which architecture could be redeemed.

on enterPrising Architecture in the midst of economic uncertAintyNathan Richardson, Oklahoma State University

Our present age of uncertainty has and will continue to shape and mold the built environment in both predictable and yet unknown ways. As a result of the drastic change in capital flows and the decreased risk tolerance of debt and equity markets, the scope and nature of practice appears to exist in a state of change. One can’t separate the impact of the current economic crisis on our built environment from its effect on the profession that is largely responsible for shaping it. This paper presents a brief survey and analysis of a long-standing yet largely unexplored form of prac-tice: the integration of architecture and real estate development. It is more common and widespread than one would suspect, if only exposed to the routine content of architectural education and practice. The relationship between real estate and architectural practice is due more substantive consideration by those in the profession; the nature of our current economy and the uncertainty of architectural practice make such an exploration more relevant than ever. The primary and secondary research that follows first, presents current and past practitioners simultaneously engaged in real estate and architecture, second, organizes these precedents into four distinct models of practice, and third, evaluates the po-tential tradeoffs associated with each model. This research pro-vides those who have contemplated the role of real estate exper-tise and activities in their design firm an opportunity to consider the implications and decide where they stand.

Architecture in An Age of uncertAintyBenJaMin Flowers, Georgia Institute of Technology



An Architect’s emBrAce: renovAting the sAcred house through rhetoricGul Kale, McGill University

In this paper, I will examine how the deeds of an Ottoman chief architect to renovate an ancient sacred building were grounded on an ethical understanding of architecture through exploiting a rhetorical argument. Such architectural ideas are these in which many meaningful stances of individuals in architectural history are grounded. Their meditative roles allow a better grasp of the ongo-ing impact of architectural traditions and subsequent transforma-tions in the modern period. Considering a city like Istanbul, which witnessed many architectural transformations through moderniza-tion attempts, it is crucial to understand the traditional roots of architectural renovations. The example we find in Cafer’s book on architecture (1614) may shed light on to how an architect in histo-ry acted during decision-making processes at his time and defined where he was standing in the middle of a crisis. Cafer’s writings expound how the preservation issues were more than a decision on the use of the right type of stone or keeping the authentic color. It was grounded on an elucidation of the past to act on. Thus, this inquiry will unfold how the architect, Mehmed Agha responded to the prevailing debates of his era with a quest for common good and took side with the scholars to support the sacred house with an embrace rather than allowing her to decay. Vacillating between his desire to make the most beautiful ornaments that were appro-priate to the divine nature of the sacred house, and an uncertainty about his limits to act upon such a sacred place while preserving its origins, the architect had to make a choice and demonstrate his wisdom under tremendous pressure.

misPrision of Precedent: design As creAtive misreAdingDavid Rifkind, Florida International University

Literary critic Harold Bloom’s concept of “misprision,” though dif-ficult to translate into architectural terms, offers valuable insights into one way architects critically engage other designers’ works through a process of creative misreading. Bloom stakes out a the-ory that governs both criticism and production. Misprision offers critics and historians another tool with which to explain the influ-ence of one architect on another. The concept’s pedagogical value includes a broadened understanding of the roles precedent studies play in the design studio.

chAnge over time: the irwin miLLer house in the Pho-togrAPhy of BALthAzAr korABJohn Comazzi, University of Minnesota

This paper begins with the premise that architecture is assembled through photography, as photographers necessarily play a crucial role in the documentation, dissemination, critical assessment and historical analysis of architecture. Though commonly assumed to traffic in factual reflections of reality, photographers – by the very nature of their devices – more accurately extract selections from reality and produce images that inevitably record less (though, sometimes more) than the thing itself. It is crucial to keep in mind, then, that while designers, educators, historians and con-sumers of architecture often ascribe a calculated objectivity to the photographs thereof, it is undeniable that photographic im-ages of designed environments (be they buildings, landscapes, cities, etc.) are always inflected by the sensibilities and practices that photographers bring to bear on their subjects. For when it comes to architecture, the material, spatial, temporal and cultural realities are so complex and interrelated, photographers have no choice but to make choices; choices that are never neutral and are made to negotiate between the actual characteristics of a par-ticular context and the aspirations for a meaningfully-constructed representation.

With this in mind, this paper will examine a single case study; the design and representation of the J. Irwin Miller House in Colum-bus, Indiana (1953-57) through the architecture photography of Balthazar Korab – one of the most prolific and celebrated photog-raphers of mid-century Modern architecture.

oPen (2)deBorah Fausch, University of Illinois at Chicago



comPuting the PArAnoid criticALAntonio Furgiuele, City College of New York + Pratt Institute

Computing the Paranoid Critical aims to envision a counterproject within the use of the computation that is able to arrive at a trans-gressive limit by rethinking surrealist practices. Reasserting the computers strengthen not to quantify performance, by translating local types of information in to form, but to perform on real and imagined narratives that allow for the production of a participatory space of critical conjecture.

Within computation the collapse of the means of design, repre-sentation and production within a single seemingly smooth space of the image has become increasingly ubiquitous within the dis-course, an architectural automatism.

Instead of focusing on increasing the smoothness of this method-ology a new framework is proposed and privileging of a different set of initial semantically rooted questions by increasing moments of friction within computation, utilizing the discursive possibilities of Salvatore Dali’s Paranoid Critical Method.

Fundamental to the use of this method is the layering of lucid appropriated references producing an interpretive ambiguity al-lowing for the subject to project her desires; with a goal to define a critical distance between the technological world and its repre-sentations by operating on and through them.

This method produces a new linkage between a meaningful tem-poral space of computation as it delivers cuts, punctures, folds, fissures, to our real and imagined histories, that are able to be filled in by an embodied set of new and seemingly critical narra-tives.

in seArch of BeAuty ALwAysSusan Molesky, Dalhousie University

Without doubt, architecture has had its most exciting develop-ment in more than a century. The technological development of parametric modeling has exponentially advanced the capacity of the creation of complex form and responsive systems. One can’t help but to examine these forms with awe. The new modeling programs seductively provide a delirious sense of wonder. A great man once distinguished three stages of wonder. First, there is the attraction to the object, phenomenon or system. Next, its quali-ties, organization and geometries are studied via empirical per-ceptions. Third, intellectual tools of understanding emerge along with the confidence of repeatability. It can be argued that the new modeling systems of technology, currently engross us within the first stage. The development of artistry beyond systems which seduce us in their intricate complexities, require closure of these stages through the realm of cultural beliefs. This paper offers some thoughts on inexplicable realms of closures for the loop, Stage 3–1, and the potential means of fusion.

PersPective shiftCathrine Veikos, University of Pennsylvania

Mathematical and technological advances are inscribed in and by architectural drawings. The effects of these advances have con-sequences for architecture as well, not least because of the shifts they produce in architectural representation. Drawing parallels between painting and architectural representation, and their at-tendant techniques, I examine the technique of perspective, first in Renaissance paintings, and then in the context of computation and digital techniques. I do not call for an end to perspective but for a perspective shift that will engender the representation of new content. Has there been a shift? If so, what are its implications in the realm of cultural production? While most evaluations of the effects of computation emphasize the imposition of mathematics on artistic intuition, human volition and agency, Erwin Panofsky reminds us that as perspective subjects the artistic phenomena to mathematically exact rules, it simultaneously makes it contigent on human subjectivity—creating an extension of the domain of the self as it systematizes the external world. Perhaps to perceive a shift, we must also alter our position, to shift perspective from a focus on the view of form itself, to a temporally-extended view of the representation of its process of formation, or on the behav-ior and effects of its constituent surfaces, extending ourselves to engage the space of our own perception. From this perspective, computation has the effect of increasing, rather than decreasing, the power of human agency over the creation and control of archi-tectural representations and ideations.

technoLogy And humAn desire (2)BradleY horn, City College of New YorkJason oliVer Vollen, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute


sAturdAy, mArCh 5, 2011 - 2:00Pm - 3:30Pm

Architectures of BeneficiAL disturBAnceBrook Muller, University of Oregon

Recent work by select and innovative practitioners suggests the promise of an ecological approach to architecture in a post-lin-guistic world. Despite this hopeful phenomenon, architects often rely on uncritical assumptions about how ecosystems function and how humans can most constructively affect them. Unquestioned acceptance of particular ecological models, for example “equi-librium” models of ecosystems, limits the ability of architects to produce transformative work. This paper explores a range of eco-logical models that architects can work with, and considers the op-portunities and limitations that might be associated with the adop-tion of one model over another. Ultimately, an architectural design process that explores and embeds multiple ecological models is seen as the most active means of acknowledging the provisional stature of their grounding.

reALism under construction Maria Gonzalez-Pendas, Columbia University

This essay is an attempt to open up to the debate on the need for a renewed theoretical body for architecture, specifically for an architecture of engagement, criticism, projection, and reality. It offers the construction of Realism as a theoretical and critical paradigm for architecture, built from the stance here proposed of architecture understood in post-linguistic terms. Although claims of truth and projects aimed at reaching out to, learning from, giv-ing service to, being, penetrating, and sometimes transforming a given “real” run the gamut of modern architectural history, the “real” remains largely an uncontested and unexplored belief — a myth — that architects and architectural scholars have found hard to crack. By fleshing out the architectural realism proposed by Italian critic Manfredo Tafuri in his writings on the vicissitudes of modern architecture, which he developed from the 1960s to the mid-1980s and precisely on the basis of his assumption of the lin-guistic nature of architecture, I point to Tafuri’s other road to criti-cism. To reveal Tafuri’s realism implies reading him less in terms of the “negative thought” of his contemporary Massimo Cacciari than of cultural theories of Marxist interwar thinkers. More specifi-cally, and in order to bring Tafuri beyond the linguistic paradigm in which he operated, I here read him alongside Bertolt Brecht’s theater and theories, at the core of which is a practice of realism. This interpretation of Tafuri is a way to revisit the linguistic-based critical/post-critical debate, to question it at its basis in order to move beyond it, as it points to a theory for thinking about archi-tecture as much in terms of projection and commitment, as in terms of criticism and realism.

the Productive force of mAteriALity: three views of A generAtive deviceMark Weston, University of South Florida Shannon Bassett, University of South Florida Levent Kara, University of South Florida

Three researchers in theory, materials, and urbanism discuss three differing approaches to a collaborative studio assignment. The discussion centers on the use of materiality as a productive force for the generation of architecture. In one view, the constructs exist as a meta-syntax, or placeholder for textural, structural, or formal conceptions of architectural space. In another, the initial work is considered as a means of crafting a context upon which to build an architectural narrative. In the final view, the material de-vices are seen as design mediators for crafting a translation from buildings to landscape and to the urban surface.

scientism: the Breeding ground for current ArchitecturAL trends - or - towArds An ArchitecturAL monocuLtureAmy Catania Kulper, University of Michigan

This paper proffers scientism as the prevalent post-linguistic para-digm in architectural discourse. Scientism is the conviction that scientific logics and values are critical in answering the most press-ing questions facing us today. In the discipline of architecture, the rhetoric of scientism perpetuates the form/content division of the linguistic paradigm in the guise of a technique/content disparity. Digital technology, the mandates of sustainability, and the culture of interdisciplinary exchange are complicit in the rise of scientism in architecture. In order to subvert an impending monoculture, the author argues for an applied metaphysics, or the ontology of epistemology, that would facilitate a more seamless relationship between the procedures, tools and practices of the sciences and the exigencies of spatial experience. In order to have a rigorous discussion about what comes next, we need to eschew the allure of scientism and the seduction of technique that as we speak, are busy anticipating the next trend that looks alarmingly like the last trend. Is the discipline of architecture busy whittling itself down into a discursive monoculture, a mere shadow of its former self, or can we resist this vocational impulse and recover the subject of architecture in all of its ungainly diversity?

After text: Post-Linguistic PArAdigms for ArchitectureJon Yoder, Syracuse University



ArchitecturAL frActures: comPutAtion And form in the work of Le corBusier And john hejdukZachary Porter, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Historically, architects have concerned themselves with the devel-opment of form through the process of drawing. However, recent research in architectural computing has focused on generative de-sign paradigms that threaten to dissolve the role of representa-tion altogether. The tension between these opposing methods of developing form—directly through the act of drawing and ab-stractly through computational systems—brings to the surface a fracture that exists at the very core of architectural production. While many architectural critics have focused on the conflict be-tween analog and digital methods, this paper attempts to steer the conversation towards the fracture between computational and formal modes of thinking. Through the analysis of two seminal architects—Le Corbusier and John Hejduk—the paper presents an unlikely context for the emerging critical discussion on architec-tural process.

drAwing towArds A more creAtive Architecture, mediAting Between the digitAL And the AnALogJacob Brillhart, University of Miami

As modern brain scientists continually research the dual nature of the brain, we gain critical insight into the machinations of the mind. Continued research into the characteristics of left and right brain activity bears particular consideration for us as architects as we pursue designs using new technologies. This paper examines the actual processes of design with and without the computer, and how each tool engages the brain intuitively, creatively, or ratio-nally. The text ultimately argues for a hybridized practice of digital and analog design, but only one where the tools at hand are de-ployed with regard to timing, strength, and appropriateness. The case for either analog or digital media is made using the research of neuroscience, observation of the impact of the computer on the design process, and the nuances of architects who embrace both in their work.

Relative to the hundreds of years in which we have been tradition-ally practicing architecture, computer technology is still so new and unvetted. Observation of creative output in the last 30 years has revealed that the computer’s shortcuts unintentionally create a digital vacuum in terms of scale; diminish our understanding; and weaken our editing processes. Meanwhile, the computer im-poses a natural leveling effect from designing in the left brain, defaulting to image-making representations via the plotter.

With foresight, we can regain control of the design process by learning to balance the benefits of both digital and analog modes and engaging each at an appropriate stage in design develop-ment. In turn, we may also ensure that hand drawing does not become the forgotten tool of the imagination.

stress-crAfting: interweAving digitAL dexterity And mAnuAL inteLLigenceRobert Corser, University of Washington

In discussions of parametric design and digital fabrication, terms like ‘automation,’ ‘rationalization’ and ‘optimization,’ with their as-sociations of objectivity, are often applied to processes that, in their procedural and physical realities, are far messier and more subjective than advertised. While the rhetoric of parametric de-sign tends toward valorizing increasingly streamlined processes, in practice the use of advanced digital tools often (perhaps rightly) remains embedded in more ad hoc, improvisational and open-ended approaches. Rather than perpetuating the myth of digital seamlessness in design, this paper argues for a more pragmatic and exploratory hybridity of digital and analog modes as employed for both the design and the fabrication of an experimental line of flat-pack furniture.

The Induced-Stress Joinery Project explores the potential for stress-activation of thin wood surface structures made by chan-neling the internal forces generated during assembly into useful configurations that shape three dimensional curvature, hold joints securely together, and produce structural stability –all without mechanical fasteners or adhesives. The goal of this research is to develop innovative joinery for functional and compelling furniture designs that can be easily constructed by end users. These proj-ects are the result of a design process provisionally called ‘stress-crafting’ that employs parametrics, digital analysis and physical modeling in hybrid ways. The core of this approach is to shape flows of forces, lines of interaction, and three-dimensional curves by iteratively adjusting the profiles of cutting patterns based on both analog and digital feedback.

Examples from the development of the stress-crafting process il-lustrate how digital analysis can reveal hidden flows and concen-trations of forces that are crucial to structural performance but are nearly impossible to evaluate adequately in any other medium. Other examples illustrate how the manipulation of small functional prototypes embodies aspects of the physical dynamics of manual assembly that cannot be well represented or understood in a digi-tal model. Finally, illustrations of the use of parametric modeling to control flexible dimensions in the digital model show how vari-ous factors can be combined in a process of free play, adaptation and adjustment. Taken together these three discrete procedures: analysis, prototyping and parametric variation, form the core of stress-crafting.

While the rhetoric of digital design typically favors integrated pro-cesses that promise a direct, streamlined relationship between design and fabrication, these examples indicate that interweav-ing them as discrete elements of a digital/analog hybrid might be more productive. And while some might dismiss as inefficient the necessity of transitioning from one mode of representation to another, it is precisely the variety of representational modes and the iteration of design studies in different media that allows for surprise and discovery.

hyBridized PrActices: Both the AnALog And the digitALFrancis lYn, Florida Atlantic Universityron dulaneY, Jr., West Virginia University



Body BuiLding: PAuL Pfeiffer’s vitruviAn figureNora Wendl, Portland State University

The body has always been material and muse for the making of cities, buildings, and the landscapes between. Whether one delves into the myth, history, theory, or practice of architecture, from the foundational story of the Corinthian maid to the physicochemical en-vironments of Decosterd & Rahm, bodies precede building. And, in an inevitable turn, architecture forms bodies—both our perception of these bodies, and the physical nature of them.

This essay focuses on Vitruvian Figure (2008), a collaboration be-tween contemporary artist Paul Pfeiffer and architecture firm Popu-lous. On view during the Biennale of Sydney 2008, Vitruvian Figure takes as its explicit subject the Olympic stadium with the highest audience capacity ever constructed, Stadium Australia, designed by Populous (then Bligh Lobb Sports Architecture) and built for the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney, Australia. Returning to this Olympic stadium, Pfeiffer and the architects collaborate to produce drawings and a model that re-design the stadium to accommodate one million spectators: a monstrous revision that simultaneously reprises Vit-ruvius’ ancient texts (and those he borrowed from), while it draws upon modes of inhabiting contemporary stadia in order to portend the problematic future of public space and the uncertain role of the body within it.

foLLowing the BerLin wALLElizabeth Golden, University of Washington

A 25-mile long stretch of empty space straddled by two walls and patrolled by armed guards was the quintessential icon of the Cold War, a key component of the Iron Curtain. If any one man-made entity represented a division of people and ideologies, it was the Berlin Wall. After its destruction in 1989, it became a powerful sym-bol of liberation and unity. Since then, the open wound left by the Berlin Wall’s removal has inspired intense political debate.

The Berlin Wall was, in fact, more than one wall. It was a series of defense fortifications comprised of walls, fences, and an empty space, commonly called the no man’s land or Todesstreifen, a death strip that defined an inner-city border zone running between East and West Berlin. Today, in many parts of the city, especially in the highly developed areas near the Brandenburg Gate and the Reich-stag, traces of the Wall have been all but erased. No uncomfortable reminders have been left behind to tell the story of Berlin’s division. In contrast, grassy fields marked by broken pieces of the border fortifications can also be found; vacant spaces in the city remain open for interpretation and experimentation. As a tool of the East German regime, the Berlin Wall’s sole purpose was to restrict and to confine; it stood for a singular political ideology. This paper will examine how this former dividing line, once dead and limited, has evolved since 1989 to become a palimpsest for multiple meanings and uses. By allowing for diverse interpretations of the space once occupied by the Wall, totalitarian thought is ultimately negated, and new developments, such as parks, bike trails, and memorials, all contribute to the reading of the former border area as something both negative and positive, both barrier and open space, making it a place of simultaneous forgetting and remembering.

modernity without modernityBrendan Moran, Syracuse University

Any attempt to theorize or narrate the emergence of a so-called second modernity necessarily raises questions regarding a field’s “science problem,” i.e., how scientific is its own understanding of its disciplinary truth. For architecture, such considerations impli-cate the truth value of design, for our self-reflexivity regarding design as a scientific practice is in large part the measure of how modern we take it to be. Borrowing an insight from recent sci-ence studies, the paper suggests that aspects of what others have singled out as the inventiveness of scientific experiments might be a productive gauge for understanding architectural modernity and the modernity of design. Such thinking implicates the role of design within the social reproduction of architects, however, and thereby raises questions about whether a second modernity has already been achieved or even begun at the level of education.

oPen (3)roBert cowherd, Wentworth Institute of Technology



Architecture And sexuALity: detAiLs of constructionsNicholas Pettit, Miami University

We behave in certain ways because of the cues society gives us, informing the manner in which we act in certain social settings. Hu-man sexuality and its expression in society also adhere to societal cues to maintain perceptions of the self within community. Sexual-ity is often perceived through assumptions we make concerning certain behaviors. By exploring the history of Queerness, ethnog-raphies regarding sexuality within specific geographic areas of the Americas, and individual experiences of queer space/community in the United States, a synthesis of this research begins to delineate an understanding of how cultures perceive and assume identities and behaviors that are a product of their environment. While each environment is created by social and cultural mores, there is also an actual physical surrounding of natural and built space. Does built space begin to inform a certain set of behaviors based on the mores established by social and cultural influences? Built space, architec-ture, is defined by edges or boundaries expressed by the details of its construction. This leads to the question- does the actual con-struction of physical space influence the perception of behavior in that space? The physical construction of a building creates a cer-tain outward appearance or façade to its context, often times to maintain the contextual narrative. Within heteronormative society, this is analogous to the façade that many homosexuals, and some heteronormative persons assume to maintain an acceptable iden-tity within the context of the dominance of heteronormativity. This paper will further explore the idea of a building façade as a perfor-mative gesture expressed through its construction that influences the character of human behavior in built space.

excAvAting minutiA: identity, memory And interstitiAL sPAce in sAn frAnciscoTanu Sankalia, University of San Francisco

The objective of this article is to stimulate a discussion of urban and architectural identity and memory in general and with spe-cific reference to San Francisco. Walter Benjamin’s numerous writ-ings on cities, and other interpretations of his work, are used as critical and theoretical inspiration to draw out a set of concepts that can then be used in the documentation, analysis and interpre-tation of interstitial space, or “slots, in San Francisco. This study demonstrates that characteristics of urban identity and memory exist beyond obvious architectural objects and urban features, and can be mined from the historic urban fabric through critical historical practice eschewing neo-modernist erasure or neo-tra-ditionalist replication. It promises, instead, an incipience of ar-chitectural forms as other signifiers of architectural identity and memory drawn from an interpretation of Benjamin’s cityscapes.

mAPPing, memory And frAgmented rePresentAtionGregor Kalas, University of Tennessee-Knoxville

The archeological fragment as an architectural paradigm brings the theoretical centrality of memory to discussions of ornament. This paper analyzes the ancient pieces of the marble plan of Rome pro-duced just after 203 CE for the emperor Septimius Severus. After looking at these surviving slabs of a map, I propose that the frag-mented representation in ruins can offer a role for memory in archi-tectural decoration that is not wholly embedded in the past. Pieces of the marble plan operated strategically in the graphic production of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, whose prints allow for a discussion of the potential for the future recuperation of memories through the artist’s graphic exploration of fragmented maps.

Fragments of an ancient map allowed Piranesi to represent places in the city of Rome where memories of prehistory could be juxtaposed to fictionalized images of subsequent ancient grandeur. Implausible records of the unseen past could be hinted at but never fully repre-sented for Piranesi. In fact, his fragmented prints depicting ruins of ancient marble plans emphasized overblown scale and impossible temporal discontinuities as emblems of memories that could not be captured through empirical procedures of documentation. The fragmented maps in Piranesi’s prints allowed him to argue that the ornamental features of city plans operated as meaningful memories whose significance was oddly imprecise, but which utilized the past as a vehicle toward unencumbered modern invention.

ornAmentAL excess: rhythmic memory And the digitAL nouveAuEric Goldemberg, Florida International University

This presentation collapses 100 years between the intense deploy-ment of ornament during the Art Nouveau period and the contem-porary flourishing of ornamental production through digital design and fabrication, speculating on the renewed potential for ornamental systems to generate novel architectural tectonics and spatial effects. There is a complex and historical interrelation between ornament and techniques of architectural design and production that connects the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. Ornament is considered here as the ultimate product of systems of excess, a locus for fecund architectural exploration.

Ornament, rhythmic awareness and new modes of craft triggered the concept of “Digital Nouveau 1910-2010”, a continuum of pulsat-ing geometries that brings together design sensibilities of two differ-ent, but intricately connected eras. The focus of Digital Nouveau is to highlight the shifting terrain of craft and ornament. The comparison seeks a critical analysis and integration of a continuum of design production.

Contemporary digital practices and Art Nouveau share an interest in the spatial and aesthetic capacities of rhythmic affect coupled with ornamental form. Digital Nouveau focuses on the rhythmic capacity of ornamental systems to introduce a new perceptual paradigm in architecture, a new sensibility: Through these interpretations of the ornament, we are assisting to the renaissance of an aesthetic based both on the mimicry of nature and the ability to put together a new spatiality where the human hand has been replaced by a digital ex-tension on a new field of operation.

ornAment, identity, And memorys. Faisal hassan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology



immured: the uncAnny soLidity of sectionPaul Emmons, Virginia Tech

The Renaissance origins of the section drawing reveal that it is not a Cartesian plane, but a psychological expression of profound depth through analysis of shadow, secret, solidity and the uncanny.

modern Architecture And AsceticismDidem Ekici, University of Nottingham

With the latest economic recession, many critics and architects have called for a return to the discipline of form, criticizing the exuberance of architecture in recent decades. In their call for a new modesty, they tap into a discourse of architectural asceticism that runs throughout the twentieth century as epitomized in Mies van der Rohe’s famous dictum “Less is more.” Architectural asceticism first emerged as a reaction to the remaking of architecture in the image of commodity at the dawn of industrial capitalism. Architects and critics called for shedding the excesses of the so-called historical “style-architecture” of the nineteenth-century. This desire to strip architecture down to its bones intensified with the impact of economic contraction fol-lowed by the catastrophe of the First World War. Architects used the postwar poverty to promote an austere aesthetics and cost-efficient architecture. This paper analyzes the concept of poverty in archi-tectural texts in relation to the modern architectural aesthetics and program at the beginning of the twentieth century.

on the BAttLe for the AfterLives of Post-mortem ArchitectureDennis Maher, University At Buffalo, SUNY

The contested nature of urban life and death is poignantly evident today in Buffalo, New York, site of a feud between two cities sepa-rated by 900 miles for the fate of St. Gerard’s church, a one hun-dred year-old work of neo-classical architecture. St. Gerard’s has sat empty in a downtrodden east-side neighborhood of Buffalo since 2008, when the archdiocese of the city sanctioned the shuttering of thirty of Buffalo’s less attended churches. The parish of Mary Our Queen in Norcross, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta, is vying to disassemble the existing stone edifice block by block, transport the remains southward, and re-erect the structure for a growing congre-gation of southern Catholics. The case of St. Gerard’s is particularly noteworthy for the way that the proposed transposition has been publicly framed in terms of life and death of place, and for the asso-ciated consequences for decaying Rust Belt architecture. Mary Our Queen parish in Norcross has seized upon the popular mythology of the dying city in order to craft a new mythology of a rejuvenated cor-pus, positioning the Atlanta suburb as the preferred, post-mortem site for receiving the journeying body of the church. Consequently, the revivifying story conveniently absolves the stakeholders from confronting architecture’s more deathly dimensions, including agen-cies of decay, destruction, disuse and disrepair that may persist in the Rust Belt for some time and that have yet to be embraced for

their inherent, creative potential. Through an insistent focus upon restored life, the proposed movement of the church eliminates alter-native afterlives for the building, some of which might be imagined by embracing the concept of urban death and looking to the field of mortuary studies. Here, relationships may be cultivated between treatments of the dead city and the post-mortem treatment of bod-ies. Instead of sanctioning a rite of passage from the realm of the dead to that of the living, we might reflect upon possible approaches to architecture’s post-mortem remnants.

Postmortem: BuiLding destructionKazi Ashraf, University of Hawaii at Manoa

If a building ends with construction, some begins anew with its de-struction. This paper is a narrative on ritualized destruction, how various practices and performances of de-construction convey a sig-nificance contrary to the immediate or literal phenomenon of de-struction. If tectonics (techne/poeisis) is about appearing and mak-ing appear, destruction is about the presencing of an absence; it is not simply an antimony but making appear of an otherwise. Such phenomena may be approached by a number of terms: sacrifice, death, dismemberment, disappearance, “un-building,” or “anarchi-tecture” (Gordon Matta-Clark). Destruction means a second chance, or in theological term, a resurrection, or in ascetical sense, an al-chemical transformation, leaving one body for another.

BAck in the Box: diAstoLic Architecture of decLine, dystoPiA, And deAthdonald Kunze, Pennsylvania State Universitycharles daVid Bertolini, Louisiana State University



douBLe oPerAtiveJeffrey Hogrefe, Pratt Institute

Double Operative:--The Architecture Writing Program: Language/Making is a transdisciplinary collaboration of the School of Architec-ture and the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Pratt Institute. The program, which locates its ground in the interstitial space be-tween a seminar and a studio, aims to achieve coherent, individual authorial voice for architecture students who are enrolled in an undergraduate five-year professional program. At the time of the post-critical studio, when architecture has refocused its attention to the discipline, language-making practices produce a rich and supple architecture that responds to very real pressures of ecology and ethics. The practice of language-making looks to literature, film, theory, criticism and philosophy as material with which to make and name space. Through mapping as a critical practice, students learn how to write into their design projects as if writing were drawing; writing is clearer in crafting experience and engaging and informing the performance of the body in architecture. Writing is generative; it moves ideas forward, maps future possibilities and delineates the performance of a body moving in space as it experiences the senses, so as to locate a critical material practice that engages the economies of the body in a global space--the invaluable project of the liberal arts. Language moves back and forth between stu-dio and seminar in a feedback loop that leads to a metalanguage, which has the potential for transforming studio education and re-imagining the teaching of liberal arts in demanding professional programs.

osciLLAting Between Art And eQuiPment: A hermeneutics of sustAinABiLityKaren Cordes Spence, Drury University

By definition, hermeneutics and sustainability work from a holis-tic view of the world, understanding inherent connections between people, building and environment. Such a holistic position will be discussed in this exploration through an investigation of the works of David Leatherbarrow and Martin Heidegger, both of whom advance a number of critical concepts that link an individual to her surround-ings. Specifically, several concepts presented by these two thinkers can be shown to have striking similarities and can operate together to extend the understandings of each other. Leatherbarrow and Heidegger view art and equipment as able to capture attention and perform functions simultaneously, moving observers between these differing interpretations to become aware of the many interconnec-tions at play. These orientations are not fixed but oscillate between aesthetics and purpose, extending beyond the building. This paper examines these connections by interpreting the sustainable water collection systems of Lake|Flato’s World Birding Center and Polk Stanley Rowland Curzon Porter’s Heifer International Headquarters. These water collection systems can be seen to engage users with a built form that not only shifts between intrigue and function but moves between built form and environment. While the World Bird-ing Center and the Heifer International Headquarters have different

oscillations, both work to invite contemplation that promotes the connections of art and equipment as well as building and world.

Putting the “hermes” BAck in hermeneutics: designing with the heLP of heidegger’s gods.Randall Teal, University of Idaho

Hans Georg-Gadamer thought that hermeneutics loses its potency as an art of interpretation when it becomes merely a technique for eliminating misunderstanding. As an alternative to such a limited vision of hermeneutics Gadamer suggested that comprehension of hermeneutics as a genuine art of interpretation might be aided by re-visiting the ontology of the Homeric Greeks.

Taking up Gadamer’s suggestion, in this article I explore the rela-tion between hermeneutics and the Homeric gods, asking how the peculiar manner of understanding that is seen in the interplay be-tween Pre-Socratic mortals and their gods might enrich our con-ception of hermeneutics generally and hermeneutics’ unreasoned aspects specifically. And in turn, how might we develop similar capacities for a-rational understanding in order to sharpen our interpretive abilities and thus deepen our involvements with, and understandings of the world.

Ultimately, the goal of this exploration is to reveal sensibilities and methodologies that might be useful in helping us think about architectural design and architectural education. Particularly, how unreasoned understanding might augment more familiar tech-niques, methods, and processes, enabling better, or more com-plete, responses to the specific demands and unique circumstanc-es that every design problem represents.

towArd PArticiPAtory interPretAtion: cuLturAL geogrAPhies of ArchitectureAngela Person, University of Oklahoma

Spanish architect Ricardo Sánchez Lempreave posits that “ar-chitecture really belongs to another metadiscipline: Geography.” At first glance, this may seem a peculiar assertion: geography and architecture do not often find themselves formally linked by scholars or practitioners working within either discipline. Over the past three decades, however, participatory understandings of ar-chitectural space have begun to congeal within the discipline of cultural geography. Integration of the participatory-ethnographic methodologies currently being developed by architectural geogra-phers can enrich architecture as a discipline, allowing architects to engage more fully with the affective nature of their work. To en-gender interdisciplinary dialogue, this paper highlights the meth-odologies mobilized by geographers whose hermeneutic research explores architectural meaning through a variety of geographic lenses and concludes by suggesting how these lenses might be applied through a single-building study of the Commons commu-nity center in the of Columbus, Indiana.

from AristotLe to skAteBoArders: roLes of hermeneutics in ArchitectureruMiKo handa, University of Nebraska-Lincoln



negLected vALues: teAching textiLe tectonics with non-western design PrecedentsSuzanne Frasier, Morgan State University

A new design course, entitled Textile Tectonics, has been con-ceived to promote the use of fibers and textiles from an explicitly multi-disciplinary perspective in the undergraduate architecture design studio. The course uses techniques from the tradition of arts and crafts, the discipline of fine art, and the fashion industry to supplement design problems relating to industrial design, archi-tecture, and structural engineering. Furthermore, the course de-liberately introduces design precedents drawn from non-Western sources in order to expand the avenues of design exploration for each project.

This discussion examines the often-neglected value of fiber and fabric projects in architectural education; the cultural nuances of non-western design precedents; and the utility of conventional — but seldom used — tools and techniques for academic design projects.

re-envisioning the knotBruce Wrightsman, Montana State University

Architect and theorist Gottfried Semper wanted to renew archi-tecture from the ‘bottom up’ through abstract observation and active creation. In the techniques of basket construction he found inspiration through its woven systems and their composite rela-tionship of material, form and technique. This composite relation-ship allowed thin lightweight materials to expand beyond their sin-gular limitations and collectively work in concert to create strong lightweight formal structures. It is the joint or knot, which Semper asserts as the earliest and most significant tectonic element . The physical act of joining has been a mode of production from the earliest nomadic tent structures with woven textile skin to modern wood framed construction systems today. The interpretation and understanding of the joint remains essential to architecture; i.e. how structural members are attached to one another to act as a composite system addressing forces and loads. In the Neil Astle house built in Omaha, Nebraska, the construct of the textile has been transformed into a modern structural tectonic assemblage.

In the Neil Astle house built in Omaha, Nebraska, the concept of weaving transformed the traditional wood framing of separate bearing and spanning components into a more holistically woven structural system. The house is based on a logic of interlocking 2x2 wood members nailed together to generate walls, floor and roof components which join together to form an expressive rigid knot like connection.

resPonding with the drAPe: efficiency And

exuBerAnce in environmentALLy resPonsive fABric reinforced comPosite PAneLs Laura Garofalo, University At Buffalo, SUNY David Hill, North Carolina State University

Though textile composites present significant economic, ecological, and manufacturing challenges, both synthetic and natural fibers and resins offer promising possibilities for architecture, particularly in mass-produced, panelized applications. They are versatile mate-rials with high strength-to-weight ratios that are suitable for struc-tural applications, and their lightness significantly reduces shipping costs and accelerates on-site construction . Textile composites can also be used to produce panels that conflate structure and enclo-sure with finished skin/surface.

We have focused on woven textile composites as an ideal mate-rial to produce wall panel systems that are lightweight, waterproof, self-supporting, and rapidly deployable. The panels are designed to channel water, admit natural ventilation, and avoid or permit insolation—depending on climatic conditions—to achieve thermal comfort. To focus our explorations, we established external envi-ronmental performance constraints, and we used digital modeling and analysis software, rapid prototyping, and physical mock-ups to develop alternative schemes that could meet our performance requirements. Specifically, we have developed three systems that explore the combined processes of loom-based weaving and textile forming to produce variable panel adaptations [fig.1]. Each itera-tion that we explored through these methods revealed limitations and new potentials relative to the panel’s environmental perfor-mance, aggregation, and manufacture. The process has also chal-lenged our understanding of the affordances of the composite shell and its fiber reinforcing matrix.

soft fABric(Ation)s: Between the digitAL And the mAteriALIgor Siddiqui, University of Texas at Austin

The paper examines soft materials in relation to digital design and fabrication techniques. Textiles play an increasingly significant role in linking the digital and the material in contemporary architec-ture, in particular for their tendency to resist formal predetermina-tion. As such, of central interest are practices that explore, rather than repress, the gap between the digital and the material and that acknowledge material agency as a central factor not only in the outcome, but also as an active participant in the process of archi-tectural formation.

Recent works by three California-based practices are considered as case studies that provide a critical context for an ongoing se-ries of soft constructions explored by our design studio in Austin, Texas. Three full-scale prototypes, fabricated from rip-stop nylon, wool felt, and cast urethane rubber, are discussed in relation to tex-tiles’ potential to reveal and inform emerging relationships between computational and material processes in contemporary design.

textiLes reconstructedMaGdalena GarMaz, Auburn University



A modeL to understAnd urBAn resistAnce to chAnge: structurAL inertiAGeorge Hallowell, III, North Carolina State University

A potentially significant, yet little investigated factor in under-standing urban morphogenesis is structural inertia—the tendency of an urban area to resist change due to its existing physical, eco-nomic, social, and cultural fabric. In the 1970s, the geographer Richard Morrill argued that the most crucial influence on the future location of people and activities is their current location. The im-mense investment in built form and human resources in the exist-ing urban environment fundamentally resists change. Further, the stabilizing elements in the physical environment, including build-ings, utilities, roads, and land ownership, decay slowly. Social and cultural cement and our sense of neighborhood, also binds our so-ciety together. Economically and psychologically, the individual’s investment in her home, her business, and her associations tends to render her immobile. Explaining the resilience we observe in cities compels us to investigate structural inertia. For example, knowledge of inertial forces in Detroit could aid in explaining its persistence even though 90% of its housing stock has fallen below new building costs.

This paper will present a new model to help understand and pre-dict the resilience of economically or physically devastated cities, as well as the normal urban growth patterns we see around us every day. Starting with the notions of reliability, accountability, and reproducibility in the 1984 work of the organizational ecolo-gists Hannan and Freeman, we develop a theoretical model for understanding the structural inertia of cities. The ultimate step in developing this model will be to operationalize it in the study of specific urban settings.

suPer”seeding” A terrestriAL roomJohn Folan, Carnegie Mellon University

While there is a vast explosion in the number of people living in urban regions world wide, there are still once vital urban contexts with diminished or diminishing populations. In some cases, the population that once occupied the urban core has moved to an-other part of the same metropolitan region – to areas of lesser population density. In other cases the population has migrated away from the metropolitan region altogether – seeking alterna-tive condition relative to economic opportunity, social condition, or desirable geomorphic proximity (place). Regardless of the specific condition, population loss forces municipalities to explore surro-gate roles for the disinvested physical environment. Most focus on reinvestment and revitalization schemes that promise the con-veniences of suburban utopia while capitalizing on the idea of ur-banity; others focus on the elimination of infrastructure through the vacation of territories that are no longer viable. This paper explores a third condition, one unique the Essential American City, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While the Monongahela Valley has suffered from population loss characteristic of the American Rust Belt, the geomorphic condition has enabled this topographic city

to maintain a hybrid form of decentralized urban/suburban iden-tity and form out of necessity; one that suggests expectations of the urban/suburban condition might be altered in the context of population loss. With a specific focus on research developed in the Homewood Neighborhood of Pittsburgh and the outlying Borough of Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, the role of deconstruction, lot reap-portionment, land consolidation, and infrastructure realignment are utilized to demonstrate a unique, neighborhood based urban form specific to place. The paper discuses the different roles of the landscape and the built environment in maintaining a sense of place, a respect for heritage, and a clear view of appropriate prospect in the context of shrinking population.

the urBAn QuAntA: LocALity And mArginALity in the cityLora Dikova, Miami University

The city today, being modern and developing, or aging and de-teriorating, is suffering from one and the same illness – name-ly, the separation between its micro and macro sub-structures. Issues like zoning, fitting into the ‘Grid’, craving for the “Ra-diant City” proved to be inappropriate in the long run. Cities are complex dynamic structures and any ur-ban intervention should allow for that diversity of prob-abilities to happen in the best range of scenarios. This study, rooted in the interdisciplinary crossings between de-sign concepts and theoretical frameworks in mathematics and physics, approaches this very gap between the local and marginal. Using mathematical tools of n-dimensionality and de-sign manipulations, the research proposes meth-ods for quantification of the city tissue by allowing for the transformation of a building into urban substructure. The design for the historical museum of Sofia proposes an urban sample of quantified elements which is examined and approached not as being a sum of independent urban structures, but as related urban subdivisions of single structure, the latter evolving and devel-oping, creating possibilities for more complex subdivisions of its own. Local and marginal, micro and macro elements change places as the building infrastructure evolves into urban infrastructure. The meaning and function of the urban elements shift from local to marginal and vice versa, suggesting a new understanding of the urban micro and macro metabolism.

the city is deAd - Long Live the city: deveLoPing future modeLs of the cityudo Greinacher, University of Cincinnati


town And country; sPecuLAtions on A hyBridMichael McClure, University of Louisiana - Lafayette Ursula Emery McClure, Louisiana State University

In the contemporary realm, nature in the urban environment can be more than merely a park or an incidental condition. Nature can be an active agent working to filter and store water, manage storm water run-off, create biodiversity, reduce heat island ef-fect, clean air, reconnect urbanisms to their historical and present productive landscapes, and produce food. Increased technology and construction developments provide for unique opportuni-ties to create hybridized urban environments that minimize the consumption of arable land while still providing exterior nature for the habitants. As cities grow and the reduction of arable land threatens our food production and suppresses biodiversity, it is necessary to conceive of alternate and more communal ways of providing access and contact with nature. Our relationship with nature must change. It is no longer something we can consume without replenishing. We must become both stewards of its care and subsidize its existence. We can no longer assume nature will be present for us to enjoy and experience. This paper will discuss 2 research projects by emerymcclure architecture that investigate a complex layering of urban density, housing, infrastructure, and constructed nature and the speculation of a more harmonious, nurturing relationship between urbanity and nature.

The two projects, NOkat, and nuova OSTIA antica, to be pre-sented investigate these issues (in New Orleans and Rome) at multiples scales from the macro to the micro. Each project looks at models of synthesized urban occupations centered on active natural agents; at the scale of a city block, at the scale of an urban neighborhood, and at the scale of an urban satellite community. They also develop specific housing typologies that integrate natu-ral systems. From linked backyards that manage runoff to spillway systems that support crop production and urban recreation, these projects all envision new tectonics where nature and buildings work as integrated infrastructure to become active agents for the greater good.

the city is deAd - Long Live the city: deveLoPing future modeLs of the city continued



sundAy, mArCh 6, 2011 - 9:00Am - 10:30Am

Architecture of infrAstructures: methodoLogies for exPAnding A disciPLineAnnaLisa Meyboom, University of British Columbia

The architect as a grand thinker and overall orchestrator of the city is an appealing role, claiming both literal and metaphorical territory for the architect in the pursuit of a better-designed envi-ronment. Whether architects want to take on the mundanity and subtlety of infrastructure may be a different question: infrastruc-ture is technically challenging and although it is a prime deter-miner of the city’s form, in many cases its presence is ubiqui-tous and goes unnoticed by the general public - not the formal gymnastics so celebrated by architectural publications today. The character of infrastructure design could be said to be better suited to the engineer, who habitually works anonymously in the name of public service and safety on highly technical issues. However, there is a strong argument for the involvement of architects with-in infrastructure design: architects (and landscape architects are included in this designation) are trained to analyze challenging social and cultural problems and to resolve these with the highly technical media of engineering, while at the same time creating a beautiful environment. This is exactly why architects are needed in infrastructure design: infrastructure has very technical chal-lenges and a socially critical role. In order for architects to take on this role fully, the profession itself and the education system for the profession needs to show leadership and re-imagine itself to deal with this change in scale and the technical aspects (i.e. engi-neering) of infrastructure. The most direct way of effecting change is perhaps to demonstrate the results when such a methodology is used. Projects demonstrating an architectural methodology can show that the benefit to public space and then can further be cri-tiqued. Exemplary projects, however, are slow in coming to frui-tion. This type of demonstration can be accelerated by the work of architects involved in research in the area. Collaboration brings further opportunities and also accelerates the process. It is not only architects that see a lack of design quality and lost potential in our infrastructure - but it may be only architects who have the training and talent to remedy it.

Lirr Long isLAnd rAdicALLy rezoned - A regenerAtive vision for A Living isLAndTobias Holler, New York Institute of Technology

This paper presents the author’s design research on suburban sus-tainability, developed over the past year through a series of com-petition entries, most notably the Long Island Index’ ‘Build a Bet-ter Burb’ ideas competition to retrofit Long Island’s downtowns. The ‘Build a Better Burb’ entry was developed by the author in collaboration with Ana Serra, Katelyn Mulry and Sven Peters and was selected as one of 23 finalists from over 200 submissions. It also won first prize in the D3 Natural Systems international design competition 2010.

Current paradigms of sustainability such as efficiency and con-servation are merely slowing down but not preventing the pro-

cess of resource depletion and environmental degradation. A more ambitious approach is required: Regenerative Design integrates processes that are conducive to renewing sources of energy and materials, creating closed loop systems that fulfill the needs of society while preserving the integrity of nature. Regenerative De-sign is the biomimicry of ecosystems aiming to create optimized, holistic frameworks for systems that are absolutely waste-free.

Applying these principles on a regional level in the US will result in a fundamental restructuring of our predominantly suburban terri-tories. We have studied Long Island, NY for its potential to become a Regenerative Region.

Long Island’s most unique and defining condition is that of con-tainment and the island itself – a spatial entity unable to expand beyond its own footprint. By conceptually capitalizing on this ‘in-sular’ condition we developed our Living Island proposal, applying closed loop principles on a macro scale: water, energy and waste neutral and 100% local food production.

By drawing on the metabolism of the island to provide a regen-erative natural environment and to create synergies between the various resource streams the current administrative structure is eliminated in favor of a ‘proximity-to-mass-transit’ based subdi-vision: By appropriating a geometric organization found in na-ture and defined by the Voronoi diagram the subdivision pattern is generated by the locations of the existing Long Island Railroad train stations. The perimeter of each polygon will be re-naturalized overtime as residents move into the newly developed downtowns.

Ultimately this will create a continuous restorative fabric for rec-reation, agriculture, and ecological corridors for habitat, a 50/50 balance between nature and man-made. The variations in existing density and frequency of train stations create an organic and su-premely functional land use pattern – the Smart Cells.

To obtain the area needed we capitalize on the densification po-tential of the downtowns. Four urban typologies are developed to revitalize and repopulate vacant and lifeless areas.

PoLyvALent infrAstructuresMatthew Johnson, University of Houston

“Polyvalent Infrastructures” addresses the need for architects to once again engage with the making of infrastructure. The essay argues that infrastructure has historically tended to be singular and monofunctional. A new agenda for infrastructure would rei-magine it as polyvalent and ecological, binding together a variety of urban programs and flows, from traffic to information to land-scape to habitable buildings. Such a shift would leverage archi-tects’ natural interdisciplinarity in positive ways, toward the mak-ing of new and integrative urban space.

criticAL infrAstructurALism: design/theory/PrActiceclare lYster, University of Illinois at Chicago



s/eriALurreAL (re)PresentAtion, or, A ŽiŽekiAn ‘sus-tAinABiLity’ for ArchitectsRobert Svetz, Syracuse University

This paper looks at the work of theorist and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek, particularly the discussion of “The Architectural Parallax” from his recently published Living in the End of Times (2010), in relationship to both architectural theory’s critical/post-critical divide and a speculative return of/to the early modernist practices of musical Serialism and photographic Surrealism.

trAns-form: An ALternAtive to formAL Perfection in ArchitectureDoug Jackson, California Polytechnic State University

This paper focuses on the problem of architectural form within contemporary digital age culture. Current efforts within the archi-tectural discipline to relate to cultural changes initiated by digital technologies have focused largely on the potential afforded by such technologies to facilitate the generation and evaluation ar-chitectural form through multiple iterations. However, these new iterative design processes continue to adhere to a traditional ap-proach to architectural design—one that aspires to the develop-ment of a singular, “perfect” formal embodiment that best satis-fies the design criteria in question. Meanwhile, the relevance of such a singular formal embodiment is now being challenged by the cultural and technological changes that have resulted from the ascendance of the digital paradigm. Specifically, cultural in-terests have shifted away from the notion of singular, immuta-ble, and “perfect” form and toward the ability to reconstitute the same digitized information content into multiple different forms or embodiments. Such interests are widely demonstrated in the in-creased individual participation in the customization and creation of information content as well as environmental experience made possible by new technologies and social networks.

Consequently, this paper will examine the possibility for an alter-native, trans-formable architecture that is less focused on design as an act of formal perfection, and instead responds more directly to contemporary culture’s growing interests in formal multiplic-ity, customization, and individual authorship. It will illustrate this alternative approach to architectural form with a selection of work produced by the author.

the Quest for Perfection: reAL, suPer reAL, or surreAL?illYa azaroFF, City University of New YorkGreGorY Marinic, Universidad de Monterrey



mAteriAL resistAnce / ProcedurAL resistAnceJeremy Ficca, Carnegie Mellon University

Digital fabrication technologies are increasingly utilized to real-ize novel form and to achieve greater efficiency within the con-struction process. They have been heralded as processes that redefine traditional systems of communication while empowering those with access to the virtual building information. Herein lies the paradox of contemporary design and construction. While use of software in the design process may in the past have distanced the designer from the messiness of physical reality, emerging connections between software and hardware tools are increas-ingly extending the hand and intent of the designer deeper into the process of fabrication. Digital design and material processing have reinvigorated a material discourse and currently offer potent connections to architecture’s physical presence. Within the acad-emy, the promise of such processes is a material awakening or, as Richard Sennett refers to, a material consciousness whereby one develops an interest in physical things one can change. This active engagement of materiality prompts a reassessment of vir-tual design data that, for the young architect, are often devoid of material characteristics. The result is a materiality infused with the characteristics of its digital processing. Here the presence of the digital is evident through geometric complexity, control and fidelity rather than a singular formal or aesthetic representation of digitally derived form.

Since its inception, the architectural design process has relied upon various forms of representations, simulations or proxies. The sheer size and complexity of buildings does not allow the degree of full-scale studies common in other design disciplines. The design of a product, such as a chair typically affords a degree of imme-diacy and direct material investigation not found in architecture. The evolution of the Eames shell chairs, beginning with plywood, evolving into sheet metal and culminating with fiberglass speak to the feedback loop afforded through direct material engagement and testing. While mockups or material studies may be execut-ed prior to construction, they generally have served as a test of prototypical conditions or occasionally a limited palate of options. Their execution is necessary to the process of construction but typically has not served as the catalyst for design advancement. As abstractions, material proxies may represent a limited range of material characteristics, but they often serve as a rendering of form rather than a tool to elicit fundamental material properties. As is the case with virtual design data, their utilization relies upon one’s ability to project materiality into an otherwise inert form.

A robotic fabrication project served as an immersive opportuni-ty for students to encounter material and procedural resistance throughout the design and fabrication process. The pedagogical potential of the project lie in the ability to serve as a counterpoint to design studios in which the material proxy is an abstraction de-vice. In the context of this project, a meaningful process provided students with the immediacy of material engagement, stripped bare of the proxy. The fabrication is the result of a complex series of negotiations of will, resistance and constraint.

PArAmetric ArmAtures for hAndworkRobert Corser, University of Washington

Digital fabrication has emerged as a highly visible example of what some would call the “digital revolution” in architecture, with prom-ises of direct linkages between digital design and physical produc-tion, or as William Massie puts it, “the ability to move directly from information to work.” Similarly, the rhetoric associated with most digital fabrication projects explicitly or implicitly heralds a bright future of precision, ease, economy and flexibility. What most digi-tal fabrication projects obscure is the necessary and often messy reliance on manual processing in the actual realization of built examples. This paper problematizes the seeming seamlessness of digital fabrication, and presents two research projects that seek to foreground a necessary and productive interplay between digital and manual processes.

Digitally controlled machines are wonderfully adept at cutting or shaping individual components with precision and repeatability. But these components still require vast inputs of manual labor in post-processing including cleaning, finishing, fastening or clip-ping elements into sub-assemblies, transportation, arrangement and final assembly on site. Few high profile digital fabrication projects reveal the importance (and difficulty) of these manual interventions, preferring instead to reinforce the primacy of the machine as the main agent of production. While few digital fabri-cation projects acknowledge the necessary intervention of manual labor, fewer still are aimed precisely at generating a useful and re-warding collaboration between the intelligence of the machine and that of the hand. This paper aims to enrich the current discourse on architectural production by recasting the relationships between digital design and fabrication on the one hand, and manual as-sembly and construction on the other.

Central to both projects detailed in this paper is an operating prin-ciple that deploys parametric design and digital fabrication not to directly fabricate components themselves, but rather, to create intelligent jigs that can be used to organize pieces of wood and bricks in unique, efficient and expressive forms. Also key to this approach is the primacy of choreographed activities that engag-ingly exploit manual dexterity. Rather than over-emphasize a dia-lectical opposition between hand and machine however, we might follow the logic of David Pye, who concludes that it is more useful to draw a distinction between two modes of workmanship: the “workmanship of risk” (often, but not exclusively, associated with the hand) and the “workmanship of certainty” (often associated with the machine). In the spirit of this more subtle distinction, the projects presented here argue for the cultivation of a more conscious interweaving of risk and certainty in design and fabrica-tion processes.

suBverting methods of digitAL design (1)christopher BeorKreM, University of North Carolina at Charlotte


mAking As A form of exPLorAtionAnselmo Canfora, University of Virginia Jeff Ponitz, University of Virginia David Malda, University of Virginia

This paper focuses on how a cohort of faculty and students at the University of Virginia School of Architecture are working towards a critical synthesis of conventional tools and techniques with digi-tal technologies of representation and fabrication. This effort is driven by a desire to achieve a balanced and constructive meth-odology in service of a substantive, well-informed design process. Pedagogical, curricular and professional frameworks are discussed in this paper as a way of critically reflecting on concurrent inter-rogations and experiments. Three projects, at varying stages of development, scale and scope, are used to reflect on an emerging set of interests and expertise while contemplating new ways of working that emphasize interdependency between conventional and emerging tools and techniques. The work described in this paper includes academic exercises and a project that combines the effort of students, faculty, practitioners and woodworkers to discuss a collaboration supporting constructive and exploratory form-making enterprises.

suBverting methods of digitAL design (1) continued




Business with PLeAsure: northwest ArkAnsAs’s diffuse metroPoLis Jesse LeCavalier

In June 2006, the Economics and Security Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly visited one of the fastest growing metro-politan regions in the United States, home to three of the country’s largest corporations and a major hub of global trade. The region is experimenting with radical forms of transportation, new forms of commercial development, and significantly affecting the American cultural landscape. Yet its population density is barely 150 people per square mile (compared to, for example, Chicago’s 12,649). The area is Northwest Arkansas; home to Tyson Foods, J.B. Hunt, and of course, Walmart, one of the country’s top-earning corpora-tions ($405 billion in FY 2009) and its largest private employer (with a workforce of 1.4 million people, second only to the U.S. Government). NATO delegates visited the area because they saw it as a “positive example of local economic development through global business activity.” (“NATO Group Tours Arkansas Wal-Mart Boom.” Associated Press, June 27, 2006.) Because of its inter-national position, Northwest Arkansas—otherwise known as the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers Metropolitan Statistical Area—is arguably a global city. However, diffuse, remote, and until recent-ly, demographically homogeneous, the region shares few of the characteristics associated with such a category. While accounts like Marjorie Rosen’s _Boom*Town: How Walmart Transformed an All-American City into an International Community_ and Bethany Moreton’s _To Serve God and Walmart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise_ address certain aspects of the region, their focus is not specifically urban. With this paper I hope to contribute to the closing of this gap. I will first examine the role Walmart has played in the development of the region—both locally and glob-ally—by examining its contradictory conditions of centrality and dispersion, its intertwined relationship with local governance, and the corporate confluence that continues to spur the area’s growth. In the second part, I will identify some of the design possibilities apparent in this urban form by focusing on its latent radicalities in mobility, programming, and cultural production, each linked to specific spatial conditions at infrastructural, architectural, and re-gional levels. I will conclude by speculating about the implications of this form of metropolis, especially in relationship to the prevail-ing notion of global city. I will suggest that, rather than destroying possibilities for collectivity and vitality, such forms of urbanity of-fer new avenues of exploration and invention.

Note: This paper forms part of a larger project on Walmart, terri-tory, and logistics currently in progress at the ETH Zurich.

uP in the AirEd Mitchell, Yale University

“How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you’re carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life... All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks. “ – “Up in the Air,” 2009

Urban design’s longest standing rhetoric originates in Colin Rowe’s anti-doctrinaire methodologies. His observations on Lockhart, Texas established the nine square grid as a rule based system to accommodate difference and identity within a physical frame-work. Later methods, derived from Picasso’s cubist experimenta-tion, aimed to erode as much of the referent as allowable, whether guitar or urban set piece, while retaining the overall gestalt. The city in its fragmentary abstraction maintained the whole while al-lowing for invention and deviation.

Urban designers emerged as a profession with Mayor Lindsay’s 1966 Task Force for Urban Design. The Urban Design Group, fi-nanced by the real estate industry, abandoned the Master Plan for customized, design enclaves. The Group’s practical aspirations, like more theoretical projects, rejected the restrictive, quasi-sci-entific aspirations of a universal modernism. The Group’s tech-niques hatched at the bargaining table were less critically. Cutting a deal, at its most radical, allows the urban enclave to establish its own rules and to pursue its incessant drive towards spectacular visual and sensorial affect.

The UDG’s agent was the developer, the real estate lawyer, the community group and preservationists – all with pedigrees es-tablished in property, legal interpretation, citizenship and history with a dynamic mayor at the head of the bargaining table. The negotiator in Rowe’s UD program is more elusive, but participates in a “gentleman’s agreement” on a transcendent, culturally coher-ent identity that maintained disciplinary and urban coherence in the face of the loss of traditional forms of subjectivity and the city. Here the negotiation between fragments is governed by a fictitious prince.

The erosion of architectural discipline and planning within urban design means that all is in negotiation. The city breaks down its orders, its codes and its discourse in its specifics. Its rules are up for grabs and its identity up in the air. Gilles Deleuze would sug-gest that contemporary space and, therefore a global urbanism, is an open system, a rhizome in which subjectivity is formed in the fold, in negotiation with and of its teaming, temporal milieu, the city. Earlier projects by Hejduk and Koolhaas suggested that the city is the locus for negotiating deals and identities.

Our urbanisms are airports, casinos and theme parks, our identi-ties in suspension, our spaces an organized automatism of in-formation populated with clichés, prompting violence from those excluded from its systems and symbolic violence from its critics. “You can’t negotiate with a madman,” is both a threat and a prom-ise when there is nothing left to lose.

west centrAL fALL conferencepenelope dean, University of Illionis, Chicago


sundAy, mArCh 6, 2011 - 11:00Am - 12:30Pm

Architecture without (mALe) Architects: femALe entrePreneurs in rurAL BAngLAdesh Adnan Morshed, Catholic University of America

Walter Benjamin’s claim that “the hero is the true subject of mod-ernism” offers double insights into the gendered premises of mod-ernist architectural canon: the hero of modern architecture is a male, who creates architecture of masculine ambition. Probing the intertwining discourses of gender disparity and what Bernard Rudofsky has called “architecture without architects,” this paper seeks to cut across the twin subtexts of architectural historiog-raphy. In particular, the paper studies the ways in which poor rural women in Bangladesh—marginal entrepreneurs and recipi-ents of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Grameen Bank’s microcredit for housing—employ the language of architecture to empower themselves. The binary opposition of vernacular and modern is diffused in their rudimentary dwelling units, exemplars of a “hy-per-tradition” that draws on the spatial knowledge of the rural vernacular, yet is mass-produced through the technical efficiency of the conveyor belt. Propelled by the new practices of financial management, and articulated as an ultra-expedited and feminized extension of rural morphology, the hyper-tradition reveals Gra-meen Bank’s contribution to women’s empowerment. Because almost ninety-eight percent of the recipients of Grameen Bank’s housing loan are destitute women, who play crucial decision-mak-ing roles in the production of domestic space, the Grameen houses explain how tradition morphs into a crucial site for fashioning the downtrodden woman’s identity based on a desire to outgrow so-cial anonymity. As the 1998 Economic Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen demonstrates, economists, social scientists, and non-govern-mental organizations invested in advancing women’s issues have rightly emphasized the role of non-legislative social campaigns in fighting the root causes of women’s exclusion from the discourses of power. But what they have typically missed pointing out is the enormity of the ways in which the production of domestic space might have broad ramifications for women’s empowerment. As the Grameen house demonstrates, architecture becomes a crucial addition to the list of social and economic variables that enhance both women’s welfare and their ability to represent themselves. If the pursuit of women’s agency is a protracted social battle, then that battle could well be fought in making the house as an exten-sion of the empowered female self.

informAL educAtion: hAiti 2010 Nadia Anderson, Iowa State University

Design Across Boundaries is a group of architecture students and faculty at Iowa State University working with the village of La Croix, Haiti to develop social infrastructure that will foster self-sufficiency and long-term sustainability. Following the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the group began working with a Haitian-run community organization in La Croix to develop a sports com-plex that will attract young people, particularly teenagers, and keep them working and living in the community rather than mi-grating to larger cities in hope of work that does not exist.

Prior to traveling to Haiti during the summer of 2010, the group developed a prototype design for the center using shipping con-tainers, a readily available material resource. While on site, they worked with community members to determine how the project will function within the social life of the community as well as what local material practices can be employed in building the project. After returning to campus, the group has been developing proto-type details and a construction sequence that will be executed by volunteer groups in partnership with local residents.

This project, conducted outside the regular architecture curricu-lum, has created an opportunity for learning-by-doing through community engagement and material investigation that synthe-sizes many of the diverse aspects of architectural education. It has also provided a mechanism for engaging critical contempo-rary issues including disaster resilient design, informal material practices, and social sustainability. As such, it offers a model for architectural education and practice in the twenty-first century.

muLtiscALAr sPAtiAL strAtegy Bethan Llewellyn Yen, Catholic University of America

The reconsideration of urban informality as collective form: sug-gesting both a critical framework for analysis and a potential for proposition.

The urgency for the reconsideration of urban informality coincides with daunting statistics that reveal over 300 million people live in squalid, unsafe, and un-serviced informal settlements and with-out significant change the number of slum dwellers will double by 2025 (United Nations 2003). Many of the recent upgrading efforts, which attempt to meet the challenges of urban growth, focus on key political, institutional, financial, and social networks; however, often these efforts fail to engage the spatial and are unable to reach scale. The ambition for a multi-scalar spatial strategy is to suggest a framework for questioning settlements that provides a much-needed alternate perspective for approach-ing the informal. To move beyond standard projective applica-tions, this research relies upon a reciprocal investigation; where informal settlements, considered as collective forms, are utilized to drive forward the possibilities for upgrading. Suggesting settle-ments’ topographic form can be understood as composed of both materially dynamic architecture and urban scale systems, which support the processes of transformation. The study identifies generative elements inherent to the informal fabric and proposes a theoretical modification. Ultimately offering a way of question-ing urban informality, allowing the structure to be identified and valued, the urban process to be respected and pushed forward, and the dynamism of place to be utilized, suggesting a method for radically reframing the informal fabric, and potentially an alter-nate spatial strategy.

BeLow the rAdAr: informAL settLements And disciPLinAry reversALsFernando lara, University of Texas at Austin


Poverty And its discontents: environmentAL imPActs And the PossiBiLities for Action in informAL settLements” Sergio Palleroni, Portland State University

Today, activity in the development field is primarily focused on capacity building and the nuts and bolts of economic development and physical infrastructure. Though these concerns represents an expanded awareness of the complex challenges of creating sig-nificant and lasting change in the condition of the world’s poor-est residents, it does not yet fully address a growing concern in the development community; that the poor are by far the most vulnerable to environmental degradation and disaster, an inescap-able condition as the world’s environment continues to degrade. A lack of resilience, the direct outcome of the poor’s economic and social marginalization, limits both the capacity of these communi-ties to survive and recover from natural disaster. Improving the resilience of these communities is at the heart of a growing debate in both the medical and international relief communities on what constitutes lasting solutions, and is an important focus of discus-sion as the reconstruction of Haiti and other recent disasters are addressed. Informed by this debate, a few programs in architec-tural education worldwide are attempting to address these issues by looking at the root causes of the vulnerability of these commu-nities, and how a perspective on the health and well being of the community can expand on traditional notions of sustainability and social engagement now widely rooted in architectural educa-tion. This paper explores both the vulnerability of these communi-ties, and the challenges they offer in educating architects through the work of programs that have began to address this expanded notion of sustainability.

BeLow the rAdAr: informAL settLements And disciPLinAry reversALs continued




Accretive Architecture: suPeruse + BeyondHans Curtis Herrmann, Mississippi State University

Architectural education is moving toward hard science solutions, seeking to partition sustainable design concerns into discreetly addressed problems. The consequence is the perceived notion that Sustainable Practice is somehow different from Good Prac-tice, and is therefore, likely to produce only a limited form of ar-chitecture. This common perception among students also implies a limited working palette, defined predominantly by technological application. Architecture is arguably a transformation-based disci-pline entailing, at its root, a building-upon or accretion of previous needs, ideas, and energy flows. Our current practices and pace of development, even with optimal technological developments, will not sustain our future generations beyond 2100.1. Given these conditions it seems critical that sustainable design must not regis-ter with students as a limited architectural pursuit nor an optional appliqué. Architecture of accretion as a pedagogy and practice seeks to offer an expanded definition of sustainable design by engaging the existing constructed field as an active host for de-velopment. Through the merging of existing and new construction an attempt to blur the partitions of sustainable design thinking is sought. This vain of sustainable practice attempts to coalesce physical, theoretical and ecological layers of development and thicken the built environment.

The various design projects outlined herein call to question these issues and reveal the greater context of sustainable practice. This form of praxis examines means of developing an appreciation for the generative potential of pre-existing forms, structures and ma-terials by which students may find a foothold for progressive de-sign. The methodology and theoretical framework invites one to perceive buildings as more than singular objects, and rather as a collection of parts, the ground included, held temporarily in place until a new state of being is required. Designing with equal parts context and invention the pedagogy seeks a kind of “architec-tural accretion”, defined here as a re-allocation and coalescence of formerly useful parts/materials to newly useful states of being. Accretion should only be understood as a working method, not an aesthetic device. Existing generative elements are referred to loosely as “sites” and may be a parcel of land, building fragment or material remnant. They should be understood as latent and persistent elements of the working field open to investment.

A key distinction in how this is not simply adaptive re-use is that accretion is not a parasitic paradigm; it is not aimed to destroy one thing to profit another. Instead, it is saving what is valid and redistributing what is no longer viable. Practitioners learn to hunt for points of intervention as opposed to waiting to be fed abstract building sites. This act opens the definition to include more ag-gressive notions of scavengry and exploitation, while removing the stigma of sustainable design as a burdensome, less interpre-tive expression. Positioned amidst this session topic, will be a series of works created by various young architecture students investigating and helping to define the “architecture of accretion”.

in PLAce & timeFederica Goffi, Carleton University

Architectural conservation is a form of invention and imagination concerned with the dilemma of how to maintain a building’s iden-tity while allowing changes over time. Questioning the nature of architectural conservation beyond our dominant western under-standing as a practice of preservation ‘as is’, or restoration ‘as was’ is key in understanding change as a design issue.

In contemporary perception, architecture and conservation ap-pear disjointed. Conservation is born like Eve out of architecture’s body. Preservation defined itself, as a legitimate concern for the conservation of historic buildings, unproblematically replaced in toto with modernist instant buildings, regardless of historicized, cultural and geographical context.1 At the same time, an ortho-dox application of basic conservation principles significantly lim-its the possibility for creative interventions onto a wide spectrum of historic buildings, from ‘mnemic buildings’ to “unexceptional buildings”, denying a possibility for change in adapting to varying conditions pertaining to their use.2

Norwegian Architect Sverre Fehn (1924-2009) poignantly ob-served that: “The religion of the present day is the denial of death. So, objects are not allowed to die either, but are preserved. Ruins should not be ruined further, but should keep their present condi-tion to the end of the world. If you go to a museum today you will see that every object made of iron is covered and enormous sums of money are spent on ventilation systems for the sake of preser-vation. Nothing should fall into pieces or die.” 3 Historic buildings are “not allowed to die” or change, but rather are treated as mu-seum objects, based on the assumption that material preservation as-is, is a necessary and sufficient condition for a preservation of essence.

The objective of our inquiry into the notion of re-making mnemic buildings however is not a provocation, but rather, it is seeks to define a meaningful alternative cosmologic paradigm of a rejoined theory and practice of architectural-conservation, when strict ne-cessity causes us to question the future of such a building. What in fact seems to be conspicuously lacking is a theoretical framework to help us question the issue of change as a possible creative en-deavor, when a mnemic building is concerned, entailing conserva-tion of memory within changes.

Are there other ways to re-imagine the future of a mnemic build-ing, besides restoration of a body image as was, or preserva-tion as is? Can we entertain the notion that a building might be significantly altered and yet maintain its identity? Can we learn and adapt to a new body image and if so, how? Is it possible to conceive of conservation as a form of invention allowing for the making of memory through the unfolding of time, revealing the possibility for an imagination of conservation?

criticAL contextuALism or, others?GeorGes adaMczYK, Université de Montréal


trAditionAL trAnsLAtions: the universAL oPtimizing the hAndcrAftedElizabeth Golden, University of Washington

Despite being energy efficient and “environmentally friendly,” many buildings designed today continue to ignore their immediate context, and instead rely solely on hardware, technical equipment, and LEED checklists to mediate their connection with the local en-vironment. Against this backdrop, a small but growing movement of architects around the world are beginning to critically reexam-ine context in terms of locally accessible building materials, avail-able human resources, and construction methods native to the areas where they are working. Projects such as those by Amateur Architects in China, Ziegert Roswag Seiler in Abu Dhabi, and FARE Studio in Burkina Faso, all make the case for an advanced form of critical regionalist work; one that extends Kenneth Frampton’s definition from a strategy that “mediate(s) the impact of universal civilization with elements derived indirectly from the peculiarities of a particular place” to one that proposes an “authentic dialogue” between local tradition and universal technology.

Contemporary methods of analysis and computer simulation, ma-terial testing, and collaborative on-site training – made possible by air travel – are strategically utilized to provide these architects with the profound understanding of context required for engaging in a direct and mutual exchange. Two projects presented in this essay – one in Northern India, and the other in Bangladesh – will exemplify this position, and demonstrate that the knowledge emerging from this dialogue results in the development of a new type of optimized technology, which is neither imposed from the outside nor is solely the product of local culture. Both projects reveal a site sensitive architecture that “determine(s) more con-sciously the necessary links obtaining between place and produc-tion, between the “what” and the “how.”’

criticAL contextuALism or, others? continued




suBurBAniA: monterrey, urBAn/suBurBAn dichoto-mies in northeAstern mexicoGregory Marinic, University of Monterrey Ziad Qureshi, University of Monterrey

Analysis of contemporary urban and suburban space reveals ten-dencies for separation and competition between these realms. De-velopment within either environment may be characterized by its direct response to internal social and economic pressures, as well as a more subliminal external reaction to the other. Monterrey, the third largest city in Mexico, is located in the northeastern state of Nuevo Leon and characterized by its unplanned urban sprawl that is both typical and endemic to North America. Yet, the city provides a provocative context for identifying an emerging hybrid-ization of North American and Latin American metropolitan trends occurring throughout the Western Hemisphere. This research in-vestigation endeavours to examine, analyze, and illustrate parallel urban and suburban identities operating within the metropolitan context of Monterrey.

In an attempt to regain its lost primacy, several contemporary projects conceived for central Monterrey demonstrate the indirect encroachment of suburban influences on the design of central ur-ban spaces. Exemplars of this phenomenon include the Peotonal Alfonso Reyes (1975), a large-scale pedestrian retail promenade; the Macroplaza (1984), the second largest public plaza in the world; and Centrika (2008), a mixed-use urban reclamation proj-ect. Equally, in the suburban realm, an artificially-imposed ‘urban-ism’ is expressed through recent interventions including upscale high-rise residential towers and city-style shopping malls located at the metropolitan periphery. In Monterrey, an emergence of blended ‘urban/suburban’ spaces is challenged by the reluctant political and social relationship between these two worlds, as well as the bifurcated identity of each.

Monterrey manifests a divergent, but tenuously connected, re-sponse to the urban desires and perceived suburban needs of a contemporary metropolis in the Developing World. In this research study, significant urban design themes including public space, housing, retail, public amenities, social services, and security will be investigated through the lens of Monterrey. These focus areas shall be further illuminated by various social, spatial, material, and formal conditions impacting the development of subURBA-NIA—Monterrey’s real world ‘fantasyland’ that is simultaneously both urban and suburban.

inside ford’s gArden city: sociAL And sPAtiAL Logics of A hyBrid suBurBAnityMichael McCulloch, University of Michigan

Today’s design discourse on suburbs seeks to reform and hybrid-ize them through retrofitting, through the infusion of workplaces and commerce into bedroom communities. In this context hybrid suburbanisms of the past hold important lessons and must be re-visited critically. Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City concept of 1902 is a predecessor to the hybridity we seek today. It aspired to pair the “bright homes and gardens” of the country (or suburb) with the “high wages” and “social opportunity” of the city. This paper will analyze Ford’s industrial boomtown of Highland Park MI circa 1915 as a case study, through the lense of Howard’s Garden City, to understand the logics of a place where the suburban aspira-tion for green open space mixes with a powerful center of work and commerce. It will argue that the social dynamics of such an environment are more complex and fraught with tension than the idealized Garden City vision suggests. Variations in mobility, eth-nic and class exclusivity and corporate control and resistance play out in ways that are particular to this suburban form.

This research will analyze the formal conditions and the social inhabitation of space across Highland Park and in three sub-case studies: the context of the plant, the immigrant boarding house district and the middle class suburban fabric. In the interaction of these three the complexity of Ford’s Garden City emerges. Analy-sis of Sanborn maps and property atlases, demographic and tran-sit data and excerpts from the The Highland Parker and Ford News will provide evidence of the social and spatial logics. The voices of the corporation, the workers and the designers of plant and sub-division will ground the paper in lived experience.

Scholarship that observes Ford’s industrial boomtown within the rubric of the Garden City can shed new light on both. It can further the understanding of Howard’s Garden City in Robert Fishman’s Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century by testing Howard’s think-ing within a nontraditional, highly capitalist context. This will also engage scholarship on Detroit’s industrial modernization such as in Olivier Zunz’s The Changing Face of Inequality, by pairing spa-tial analysis with the existing social analysis. Finally, this paper will speak more broadly to to our discourse on suburban futures. The desire to marry the openness of the “country” with the opportuni-ties and social vitality of the “town” remains with us. In joining these however, as this case study will suggest, the potential frac-tiousness of metropolitan life is laid bare.

northeAst fALL conferencedariel coBB, University of Hartford


Let it die. who reALLy gives A dAmn AnywAy?Onezieme Mouton, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Small towns are dying all over the place. Yours is nothing special. Everyone’s moving to the city anyway.

It’s not the 20th century flee to the suburbs for a “better” lifestyle due to affluence and the automobile. It’s large-scale economics squishing the life-blood from Main street. While the urban centers of city’s rebuild themselves into “centers” once again, the small-town center suffers from a lack of funding, organization, experi-ence, education, and just a general overall, “What in the world can we do?”

There is a solution. Slowing down the death of the small-town center is not it. Nor is it in yielding everything to the sprawl of subdivision developments and big box chain stores on the out-skirts of town. The answer lies in a holistic approach to urban design and planning where a myriad of networks and layers be-tween businesses, municipalities, and citizens are organized and managed through the small-town savior; a.k.a., The Non-Profit Organization.

It isn’t hard to find appreciation for small towns amongst its citi-zenry. Everyone wants to do something, but feels overwhelmed and marginalized as an individual. Municipalities are doing all that they can to balance budgets and maintain sewers and roads. Busi-nesses are willing to help, but aren’t interested in paying more to the municipalities. The non-profit organization is the vehicle for collaboration between these three entities, and motivating a com-munity.

This paper will present the in-progress case studies of three small towns, at different stages of their redevelopment, that have “flipped” their downtowns through its citizens organizing themselves into non-profit organizations and taking action. At the heart of all the transformations is a revitalization of the his-toric theatre in its downtown. This, combined with the nurturing of other arts, the creation of residential units, and the focus on a “boutique economy” of shops and cafes in the downtown, is the recipe for success.

Starting is the hardest part. Where does one begin without fund-ing, support, or expertise? Courage and perseverance from an inexperienced citizenry who care deeply for their town goes a long way. See how education, motivation, and cooperation become contagious as the ball gets rolling. A small town’s cultural identity takes center stage as its perspective shifts from dying to rebirth.

northeAst fALL conference continued




decon | recon: design strAtegies for rePurPosing mAteriALsTimothy Hemsath, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lindsey Ellsworth, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

The deconstruction (DeCon) and repurposing (ReCon) of existing structures and materials are worthwhile and relevant endeavors given the potential for such procedures to be more economically and environmentally sustainable than conventional construction methods. Conventional construction methods often utilize virgin materials for production of architecture requiring extensive en-ergy to harvest, process and manufacture the materials for use. Today we must face the fact that we exist in a carbon sensitive economy, and demand design approaches that reduce architec-ture’s impact on the environment. Our pedagogical goal was to develop a project framework to enable flexible ReCon design methodologies with potential to mitigate carbon consumption. To explore this goal, Architecture and Interior Design students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have engaged in a series of design studios and research projects that have looked for novel and innovative approaches for the DeCon and ReCon of materials and assemblies. The students used computation techniques such as parametric models, material prototypes, design speculations, and digital fabrications derived from the existing materials. The DeCon|Recon pedagogy sought to subvert material constraints and enable creative exploration of economical, novel and material efficient design methodologies for repurposing materials.

design gAmes: rethinking ArchitecturAL design softwAreAaron Westre, University of Minnesota

This paper describes a course entitled Design Games created and taught by the author at the University of Minnesota’s School of Ar-chitecture. The course asks students to design and build software that combines the engaging qualities of video games with the pro-ductive qualities of existing digital design tools. The structure of the course is discussed – including assigned projects, methods of instruction, and the software development platform used. Next, four exceptional student projects produced in the course are de-scribed in terms of game play and design products. Finally, conclu-sions about the challenges encountered and reasons for success in the course are presented.

unusuAL encounters: the use of sPeciAL effects tooLs As design generAtorsAndrzej Zarzycki, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Design, and creativity in general, is as much an intellectual or deliberate act as an intuitive and imaginative process. While most designers naturally recognize this characterization, the digital tools used for design reflect the difference between these two modes of creativity rather than mitigate it. The tools are a col-

lection of narrow and fragmented capabilities, rather than a uni-fied platform for creativity. Consequently, designers are presented with a wide range of tools that often serve a very limited set of problems and stop short of carrying creative ideas throughout the life of a project.

In an architectural context, the challenge designers and educators face is how to integrate conceptual design tools with architec-tural building information (production) software. Interesting early designs are not always feasible architectural structures, while straightforward and buildable structures often fail to capture cli-ents’ imagination.

This paper looks specifically at the applicability of special effects software in architectural design. Dynamics-based tools such as inverse kinematics, soft/rigid dynamics, cloth simulations, and particles can and should be used to develop an architectural form. The dynamics-based tools not only introduce generative qual-ity into design by facilitating explorative and “accidental” form making, but also can validate design decisions through the use of simulations and the introduction of physically based parameters, such as shear or tension forces, into design. From an academic perspective, dynamics-based tools enhance the conceptual or vis-ceral understanding of architecture through interactive shaping of a form. Furthermore, these interactive simulations translate into a visually inspired, virtual hands-on experience for students and interns by helping them to develop an intuitive knowledge of ar-chitecture.

While the translations between the generative and “implemen-tive” types of software are cumbersome and sporadic, when suc-cessful, they stimulate students’ creativity and often result in new ideas. This paper traces a number of such examples that cross the generative-to-implementive divide in a design classroom setting.

suBverting methods of digitAL design (2)christopher BeorKreM, University of North Carolina at Charlotte



ALL for one | one for ALLHans Curtis Herrmann, Mississippi State University

Architecture, Urban Design, Construction, Landscape Architecture, Ecology and Interior Design are merging into a single expanded field regardless of a conscious / unconscious choice. The world is changing with or without our acknowledgment, and to prepare stu-dents for the active embrace of this changing venue our foundation design teaching strategies are shifting and evolving to offer a way for students to discovering lessons beyond those overly objectified and outlined in the project statements so familiar to our discipline.

“What exists is not things made but things in the making” “Once made, they are dead, and an infinite number of alternative con-ceptual decompositions can be used in defining them. But put yourself in the making by a stroke of intuitive sympathy with the thing and, the whole range of possible decompositions com-ing at once into your possession, you are no longer troubled with the question which of them is the more absolute true.” -William James

The foundation studios at [University Name]are variegated, afford-ing novice students the opportunity to indulge in work that is all their own, while also offering a counterpoint in the form of the studio work presented here. We believe by creating a discourse and project set offering contradictory design ideologies, our stu-dents will uncover the eventuality of a much larger audience for their work. This message is sometimes implicit and not necessar-ily couched in the sustainability discourse. Our offerings are not intended to bring name or archetype to the fore they are designed rather to offer difference in thinking and production.

The intent of this 6 credit-hour first year design studio, and oth-ers like it at [University Name], is to offer students an initiation to design focused on systems thinking and context-based reflexive making. Given our ever increasing understanding of environmental interconnectivity, our entering students are positioned to engage in projects that emphasize the interrelation of architecture with our environment / site / place / earth. The overall goal of the pedagogy is to form a foundation learning experience that brings priority to a student’s ability to form work with and within large systems. The ideology is fundamentally different from the typically self-referential and self-gratifying design methods typically employed in foundation design. By embracing systems-thinking early, students may pro-duce work in more accountable and maybe even sustainable ways.

This project series unfolded over 8 weeks with a blend of numer-ous individualized and group oriented design efforts. Students first built structures to accommodate storage vessels that were forced to negotiate not only structural challenges, but also spatial dilem-mas caused by a shared site and context. As predetermined forms evolved alongside each other, accidental spatial and structural reli-ance emerged. These opportunities were capitalized on by the ad-dition of program elements born of the possible condition not the premeditated. Actions brought reactions and the Hive, as it became known, grew to accept all forms of space and intent refereed only by community and committee.

BuiLding BLocksJennifer Shields, University of North Carolina at Charlotte Bryan Shields, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Friedrich Froebel, the father of the Kindergarten movement, cre-ated a series of 20 “gifts” to foster a child’s creativity. Each suc-cessive gift represented an instance in the sequencing of a child’s development. The contemporary Montessori Program encourages children to develop their observation skills by performing a vari-ety of self-directed activities, after Froebel. These activities are focused on the use of the five senses, kinetic movement, spatial refinement, motor skill coordination, and concrete knowledge that later leads to abstraction. Understanding the value of multi-sen-sory experience, flexibility, and abstraction in architectural design as corollaries to these foundational concepts, we consider this methodology in the design of a kindergarten.

The objective is to explore the interactive potential of architecture, design that is responsive to both its context and the user. The form is not static, designed for a particular moment, but able to evolve. This spatial interaction is inherent in Froebel’s second gift, consist-ing of a sphere, a cube, and a cylinder. Learning is accomplished by way of comparison. This suggests a method for understanding the toy and its constraints before designing its classroom. The position is that a building should not remain static, but evolve and learn over time.

Analysis

Friedrich Froebel believed that a child must first learn concepts through abstraction before engaging the physical reality.

The student begins Assignment 1 by diagramming the influences of particular Froebel Gifts and Occupations in a work of Abstract Art. The goal of the diagram set is to isolate each layer of the painting in order to develop a spatial hierarchy.

This exercise is based on Brosterman’s theory that the Abstract Art movement began in the “Child’s Garden.” The artists that pio-neered these movements were some of the earliest students in Froebel’s Kindergarten curriculum. The subsequent phase of the assignment is to construct the three- dimensional inspiration/ab-straction for the painting the student selected.

Interpretation

The student begins Assignment 2 by elaborating on their vocabu-lary of “Gift” concepts in the construction of a toy. The methods of abstraction discovered during Analysis are intended to provide a sense of order for the movement plays that the 1:1 object fa-cilitates.

The toy is evaluated based on the following criteria: It can be adapted to multiple uses in construction; As the child’s ability in-

Architecture in An exPAnded fieLd, from interiors to LAndscAPes


creases, the toy responds to the growing needs and the variety of form grows; The toy is governed by a set of rules that determine its use in construction; The toy allows for subconscious growth in the grasp of number, combination and partition.

Intervention

From the lessons the students have learned from the toy, it is now time to jump to the scale of a building. With the same concepts that guided the students through Assignment 2 [static versus ac-tive, sequencing, etc.] the student is asked to design a Montessori School within the ruins of the Tobacco Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY. The change in scale from Interpretation to Intervention is intended to test the movement plays [abstraction + discovery] in translation from object to site scale.

chicAgo institute for LAnd generAtionStewart Roger Hicks, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Allison Newmeyer, University of Illinois

The history of Chicago is the history of defining, layering and growing land in the southwest region of lake Michigan. From natu-ral nuisance to debris re-distribution to desirable commodity, the changing relationship to new land defines a particular brand of Chicago urbanism. Mistakenly, recent developments have lost sight of this and this proposal recovers, extends and ultimately exports this lineage of urbanism.

The narrative begins with the site of the former spire as a symbol of this misdirected energy and puts it in service of this particu-larly Chicago condition. Instead of reaching towards the sky, the project enables Chicago to reach for new horizons. The Chicago Institute for Land Generation is established to produce and over-see the process.

Chicago begins the Accumulation Administration housed in the Land Institute to deal with the excess of land that plagues the city. The local government forms a new position, an Accumulation Officer as an elected official. Their responsibility is to control the influx of material salvaged from the demolition of buildings within the city and turn it into new, usable land.

Once banished to make way for the picturesque natural “other” that now garnishes the river, this proposal brings a new industry and production economy to the shoreline of Chicago. The product of this new economy will be land that is outside the current politi-cal boundary of the city and un-tethered to any region or terri-tory. It is the foundation for new societies and political scenarios to begin.

defining contemPorAry sPAceAileen Iverson, New York Institute of Technology

Contemporary space, Schrodinger’s-Cat-style, is defined through our inhabitation of it - simultaneously composed of parts real and imagined, we actively take part in the construction of our context. This is the digital era’s paradigmatic shift, a loose, subjective, fluc-tuating reality.

Coinciding with or perhaps foreshadowing this is postmodern plu-ralism in which singular truth is replaced by many simultaneous and not mutually exclusive truths. The ability for multiple versions of fact to be substantiated is a product of the 24-hour news cycle as well as amateur reporting (blogging, tweeting, texting, etc,) en-couraged by the ubiquitous nature of the world wide web, digital recording devices, and greater visibility between diverse cultures. War becomes a video game and news is broadcast from comedians and neighbors.

Therefore space, context, reality is understood as subjective and includes the superimposition of private thoughts on concrete struc-ture. This contemporary space slips between image, text, symbol, and form effortlessly and continually.

Aiding this perception are digital processes and our increasing in-terface with them; in the space of limitless surface these systems generate an understanding of space as infinite and boundary as temporary. Further, with the broadcasting of private lives and the fracturing of objective reality, the nature of space and our rela-tionship to it combines notions of inner and outer. This seamless transition erases the meaning of virtual and real. If what is real can be defined as shared experience (witnessed by more than one individual), then gaming and social networking is as real as public park. The increasing popularity of the former may soon supplant as public space making physical space obsolete.

Related to this is the dissolving of boundaries/ sharing of intel-lectual territories seen in professional practice. Today architects, artists, filmmakers, businessmen, politicians, etc. borrow the tools and methods of each other’s disciplines. These shared tools are than reconfigured, advanced, adjusted and redistributed in a nearly open-source model evolving both the tools and the practices they inform. Architecture, art, video game, advertisement, politics, entertainment, performance – each, through the transference of methodologies occupies, explores, and co-opts the limits of profes-sional territories until perhaps what remains is not a solid definition of profession but hybrid intellectual territory.

Professionally contemporary man is a composite (the new renais-sance man?): reporter-surgeon-activist-gamer or artist-investor-NGO, etc. and the space that he occupies is one of his own creation and choice. Boundaries, where they still exist, do so as a limitation in access (to education, funding, and bandwidth, etc.).

Form making, and through it the articulation and study of space (the province of architects) is equal parts design and ordering of physical materials responding to natural context and the design of surrounding political climate whether it be “Green”, peacekeeping, public memorial, mass housing etc. Today’s architecture is both context and form achieved as a realization of both its architect-filmmaker-politician-physicist and its occupant-writer-pilot-broker.

sAturdAy, mArCh 5, 2011 - 12:30Pm - 2:00PmArchitecture in An exPAnded fieLd, from interiors to LAndscAPes continued


engAging fieLd-work: skeLetons in the desertGlenn Nowak, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Garrett Sullivan, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

This poster illustrates concepts that address topics being explored in the paper session, Diastolic Architecture of Decline, Dystopia, and Death. However, instead of casting a shadow of demise over some of today’s examples of architecture in distress, the poster opens a dialogue of new opportunities that have forced their way into consideratino by way of evolving social and economic trends. Members of the Hospitality Design studio present analysis of one of the cities hit hardest by the global economic recession. The observations suggest that the design field must expand to include a theory of practice that addresses not only new sites or retrofits but a built environment that has been stalled in a state of con-struction...

in seArch of trAditionAL sustAinABLe green BuiLt environmentKhosrow Bozorgi, University of Oklahoma

In recent decades architects and planners have been concerned about energy constraints and global warming. Designers are fac-ing the biggest challenge of their professional careers overwhelm-ing their planning approaches to dealing with building technology. This research project is going to focus on the adaptability of a his-torical model that can establish new architectural principles, help-ing the development of a green approach towards architectural design. Such principles are environmentally adaptive and sus-tainable while seeking design solutions in a semi-arid landscape. The goal is to investigate the fundamental principles of natural vernacular air circulation along with the study of the notion of the indoor-outdoor relationship in the court architecture of the desert and find ways to integrate such criteria into the planning and de-sign of modern buildings.

Iranian architectural tradition has accrued over the past thousand years a rich legacy of eternally valid responses to the perennial dictates of man and nature. These environmentally adaptive and sustainable principles are the legacy of correct, wholesome and balanced building design. The genius of such principles are based upon human scale, the body’s golden mean proportions, the ver-nacular use of appropriate construction materials, eliciting in the viewer a profound sense of the archetypal meanings of spiritual transcendence and cosmic unity. In the studying of such tradi-tional sustainable urban settings, the impact of climate, which is an important factor of diversity, is clearly conspicuous.

The physicality and the related traditional architectural elements of sustainability such as wind-catchers, cisterns, and covered ba-zaars are best communicated in a visual format; hence this proj-ect explores digitally the uniqueness of architectural characteris-tics of a number of buildings. This research involves an extensive photographic survey of several historical sites, yet each individual captured frame has to be surveyed and digitally drawn to explore the following overarching fundamental principles of design: sym-bolic vision; environmental adaptation; the paradise garden para-digm; positive space system; human scale; and geometry.

rethinking urBAn LAndscAPesThaddeus Zarse, Tulane University Victor Jones, University of Southern California

New Orleans’ City Park— one of the nation’s largest and oldest urban parks— is undergoing extensive redevelopment after Hur-ricane Katrina. To embrace new cultures and sub-cultures, City Park has allotted a generous portion of open space to a new skat-ing facility for use by both skateboarders and roller skaters alike.

To foster awareness and raise funds for this new facility, students and faculty members were selected to provide imaging and ideas for the new proposal. This group then teamed up with City Park and the New Orleans skateboarding and roller derby communities to create a versatile and authentic facility.

The desire for a skatepark in New Orleans has existed within the skating community for many years--- both pre-Katrina and post-Katrina. This new skating facility has the potential to be one of the premiere parks in the nation, attracting multi-generational users and tourists to the city and the park, as well as facilitating City Park’s participation in the growing multi-billion dollar national skateboarding industry. By addressing the local skating commu-nity’s needs and desires as well as gleaning inspiration from parks nationwide, the City Park skate facility has the potential to be competitive with some of the most successful skateparks and pla-zas across the nation.

More importantly, the design proposal seeks to rethink the left-over urban spaces that are abandoned or underused in many ur-ban areas. While City Park made green space available for this program, the design team chose to engage the space below a freeway overpass for the skating area. This long, linear swath of concrete provides a charged urban backdrop for skaters, replete with acoustic, rain and sun protection. The skate park redefines this otherwise underused space as a valuable and hyper-urban setting for skating activities.

Throughout this design process, faculty and students grappled with the real-world exigencies of budget constraints, permitting, community outreach and client communication. This project is slated to start construction in 2011, and because of it’s connection to the real-world, bears the stamp of a creative yet useful design solution.




scottsdALe sustAinABiLity AtLAsKen McCown, University of Tennessee-Knoxville

The City of Scottsdale is a paradigm of American growth in the West. A post-war infrastructure of freeways (and trains and air-planes), industrial agriculture, coal and nuclear energy and a le-viathan of a water project support the city, and allow it to thrive. These systems of support arose from investments for the future and are now functionally challenged by changing trends in energy and regional climate. Drought, increasing temperatures, energy demand, greenhouse gas restrictions and ‘Peak Oil’ provoke a ne-cessity to transform the city and its relationship to its region.

To make this transformation, it is necessary to see the vital sys-tems that support the city: water, energy, agriculture, transpor-tation, ecosystems and pollution/waste. The mapping and inven-tory of the systems can reveal the relationships the city has to its region. The root of ‘infra’ in infrastructure means ‘unseen.’ Maps and diagrams can help planners and citizens understand the re-gional infrastructure. This information is also important to design-ers of architecture, urban design and landscape architecture proj-ects to understand what the critical sustainability issues are for their designs to respond to. This report inventories the systems to expose the regional infrastructure of Scottsdale. It is a platform to support future analysis and planning endeavors by the city and regional planners. It is also a tool meant to be disseminated to the public citizen, so that they may understand their relationship to resources and collaborate with their representative planners.

The authors structure the report as an atlas of each system, showing the extent and footprint in terms of geography and quan-tity. Where possible, the authors communicate the system from both the ‘supply’ side (resource) and the ‘demand’ side (use). The report exposes where weaknesses may be in the resource when faced with the impacts of projected trends. Due to the scale of systems and the resource footprint of populations, changes in behavior towards resource use may profoundly impact the quality and quantity of the resource. The authors use the ‘demand’ side of the report to articulate where efficiencies can have the greatest impact - ‘go after the big slice of the pie.’

soLAr Picnic tABLe design & ArchitectureSoolyeon Cho, The Catholic University of America Lindsey Dickes, The Catholic University of America

Solar energy is one of the leading providers of renewable energy and has been integrated extensively into the field of architecture. Both environmentally and economically, solar energy technolo-gies have contributed greatly to the development of sustainable architecture. For these reasons, a competition was launched to increase interest in solar energy as it applies to architecture, cre-ate social awareness, and make solar energy technology more accessible. The Solar-Powered Picnic Table Competition was a challenge presented to all students at The Catholic University of

America (CUA) in Washington, DC. The competition gave students an opportunity to use their creativity and ingenuity to design an innovative, sustainable prototype that would be highly visible by the local community.

The intention of the competition was to have teams of students design a picnic table that was to be powered by the energy of the sun. Individuals would then be able to plug in to the table and use the harvested solar energy to charge their personal electronics, such as laptops, cell phones, or IPods. The winning design was to be manufactured and installed on the CUA campus.

The design of the winning entry was based on aesthetic desires and carefully calculated and highly influential technical consider-ations. The design of both the architecture and engineering uni-fied to create a holistic and thoughtful design. The material prop-erties, equipment specifications, and energy requirements were a large influence on the architectural design.

The composition of the solar table is designed to reflect optimal sun angles. The dynamic angles, minimal form, and cantilevered structure work together to create an energetic and engaging piece. The table is constructed using three materials; aluminum, pressure treated wood, and Plexiglas. An oblique rectangular tow-er supports the solar canopy above and connects to the wooden table and benches.

The design of the tower was carefully detailed in order to fully develop the main conceptual idea that the table itself would be educational and could be used as a teaching tool for users to edu-cate themselves about energy. The tower has aluminum sides and Plexiglas on its front and rear. The use of Plexiglas provides for a transparent view into the tower, making visible the inner workings of the engineered solar energy system. This design feature gives users an opportunity to learn about solar energy technology and its components. Each piece of equipment is clearly labeled and or-ganized to demonstrate how each piece works together to harvest energy from the sun. In addition, the table teaches users about energy consumption through the use of a custom program that displays information about the solar energy system on a user-friendly computer display screen.

The intention in the design was that the table would encourage people to develop a greater interest in solar energy, create more social awareness about energy consumption, and show how the successful integration of solar energy into architecture can be in-spirational.

The table is set to be installed on November 1, 2010 and will be fully functional and ready for use on November 12, 2010.


the exPerience LAndscAPeColin Ripley, Ryerson University Kathy Velikov, University of Michigan Geoffrey Thun, University of Michigan

In his 1999 book The experience economy: work is theatre & ev-ery business a stage, Joseph Pine identified a new source of value to complement the traditional sources: commodities, (manufac-tured) goods, and services. Pine anticipated – and the past de-cade has seen ample evidence that he was correct – that this fourth value source, the experience, would play a greater part in business dealings in the coming years.

This design/research exploration seeks to identify and suggest ways in which an existing productive agricultural landscape can be re-imagined as an experience landscape. This is accomplished through the insertion into the landscape of a facility for music performance, making use of a mature existing network of cultural tourism and performing arts in the region. The design of landscape and building are considered in a complementary and overlapping fashion, with the boundary between the two often obscured.

The project is designed as three linked experience landscapes, each of which is augmented through the insertion of a comple-mentary built piece.

Orchard: One of the primary agricultural products in this region is tree fruits, particularly apples. On the site, an orchard spans from the parking lot to the entry to the performance area. By accommodating parking under the trees, the orchard reconfig-ures the logistics landscape of the parking lot into a landscape of experience. At the opposite end of the orchard, the first of the architectural insertions is located: a restaurant, intended to help develop a nascent local food movement and allowing dining in good weather under the trees.

Field: The second of the linked landscapes on the site is the field. This open space, in which plant species will be allowed to grow and develop in a quasi-natural manner, is intended to act as a space for informal dining (picnics) or for an intermission drink. The field is flanked by the ancillary structures needed for the per-formance venue (ticketing, washrooms), which are in tern “hid-den” beneath a grassy cover. A trellis covers the walkway between these facilities and the field, providing shade as well as a further experience of the flora of the region. The field is given bounding and enclosure by the active cornfields of neighbouring farms.

Bowl: The third linked landscape is the bowl, or primary perfor-mance space, formed by augmenting the existing topographies of the site. Passage into the bowl is constricted, both by design features and by the neighbouring corn fields, in order to maintain an experience of anticipation. Inserted into this landscape is a stage large enough for a major orchestra, as well as a stage cover of significant scale. Coming full circle, a small secondary stage for chamber music has been designed behind the main stage, bounded by the orchard, and with evocative views of neighbour-ing farms.

References Pine, B. J., & Gilmore, J. H. (1999). The experience economy: Work is theatre & every business a stage. Boston: Harvard Busi-ness School Press.



cArBon Accounting for BuiLding structuresKathrina Simonen, University of Washington

Ambitious targets for reduction of the carbon impact of the built environment cannot be met by increasing energy efficiency alone, thus significant effort must be placed on understanding and re-ducing the carbon (& similarly energy) embodied in the materials and act of construction. Focusing on embedded carbon and building structures is a natural first-step in integrating comprehensive envi-ronmental performance data in the complex design and construc-tion process.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a respected method of assessing and quantifying the environmental impact of materials, products and systems that optimally includes impacts over the entire life of a product from ‘cradle to grave’. The analysis behind a comprehen-sive LCA is complex and nuanced and thus difficult to translate to the rapid design and construction process. Practitioners frustrated with the capabilities with limited resources to contextualize the data or established standards by which to conform.

Structural engineering is an ideal discipline to integrate LCA based carbon accounting into design practice because the palette of mate-rials used is typically limited (enabling a simpler look at a complex challenge), engineers have a developed culture of material/cost ef-ficiency that translates to environmental efficiency and structural engineers with an interest in reducing the environmental impact of their built work have already identified carbon accounting as an appropriate focus of their efforts1,2 Three case studies of LCA in practice are highlighted: two proprietary carbon accounting ‘tools’ created by structural engineers and a project in which integrated design efforts resulted in innovative specifications for low carbon concrete. Information was obtained through interviews with the engineering teams. A detailed peer review of analysis methods has not been performed. Consistent with all three applications the fol-lowing issues were identified:

1. The lack of a comprehensive US Life Cycle Inventory Database limits application in practice. 2. Designers and builders are unsatisfied with industry aggregates often presented in LCA analysis . 3. LCA standards need refinement and translation to design and construction practice.

Current green rating systems such as LEED and the Living Building Challenge do not provide opportunities for assessing the environ-mental impact of structural systems. Even though structural steel and concrete are the largest two contributors of GHG emissions3 for commercial building construction, there is no agreed upon meth-od for evaluating or reporting the embodied carbon/energy of a structural solution. Without this, it is not possible to set targets for industry-wide improvements or integrate structural environmental efficiency into green rating systems. This case study analysis is the result of preliminary research aimed at providing resources to prac-titioners that advance ourability to make quantifiable reductions to the environmental impact of construction.

design for environmentALLy resPonsive BuiLding

enveLoPes Karen Kensek, University of Southern California Mohamed Sheikh, University of Southern California Jeffrey Vaglio, University of Southern California

Parametric or algorithmic based software tools, especially when used in conjunction with performance based simulation tools, give designers the opportunity to explore architecture in ways not imag-ined by architects constrained by 2d depictions or 3d models that only contain geometric data. A short stroll through leading schools of architecture will show the current obsession with algorithmic or code based parametric design. Depending often on expertise or interest of faculty, this may or may not be divorced from environ-mental concerns. Parametric design is considered exciting, ener-gized by several of the brightest minds in academia and the profes-sion, and it may indeed be that parametricism is the latest global “style” within architecture and urbanism (Schumacher, 2009). One should not understate the enthusiasm that students are demon-strating and the pervasiveness of this trend.

The increasing use of parametric design and digital tools in aca-demia and practice is in part due to the capabilities of producing great variability in design. It could be asserted that these paramet-ric tools can liberate designers to choose whether or not to produce complex forms when implementing these new methods. Often, however, these form generation tools are divorced from environ-mental concerns, a missed opportunity. This poster showcases case studies from an introductory seminar in performance driven design using Grasshopper and Rhino to develop environmentally responsive building envelopes and adaptive building skins.

The building envelope is the interface between the natural exterior environment and the controlled interior environment of occupied spaces. In high-performance facades there may be multiple levels of response that vary around the exterior façade. These may in-clude different U-values, coatings, frit patterns, shading devices, or glass make-ups on each side and at different heights. The in-creased level of variation across the façade does not have to be random, but can instead be accurately controlled by environmental data. Digital parametric and algorithmic based design can help designers not only generate form driven solutions, but also use real world constraints such as solar geometry and energy simulations to develop powerful, innovative designs.

In additional to increasing awareness about the relationship be-tween the façade and the apparent movement of the sun, this course also transformed the students’ perspectives towards a logic-first mentality, linking data and performance rationale as drivers of form. This new paradigm requires that architectural students con-sider design as a process instead of a product. For the responsive building envelopes, it was critical that before the intelligent skins could be responsive, the logic of the design had to be constructed. The form becomes secondary to the process, and the student en-gages with the development and construction of a process tool. When faced with this task, the student is challenged to determine what is useful and develop a stronger understanding of what geom-etry controls are driving the final form. These tools do not limit the designer; instead they free him/her in creating form driven ideas paired with performance specifications that may eventually provide sustainable solutions for an energy starved world.


BuiLding BehAviors


hoLLygrove growers mArketCarey Clouse, Tulane University Cordula Roser-Gray, Tulane University

Architecture faculty and students have built the Hollygrove Growers Pavilion as a way of jump-starting the development of the entire Hollygrove Green Growers and Urban Farm master plan. Led by several faculty members, the team worked to design and build a structure that provides a shaded space for teaching while also serv-ing as an example of environmentally conscious architecture. The pavilion collects rainwater for use in the training gardens, incorpo-rates recycled content building materials, and focuses on minimiz-ing construction waste.

Located in the heart of New Orleans, the Carrollton-Hollygrove Neighborhood is in desperate need of extensive re-development in the post-Katrina era. One urgent issue is the development of infrastructure and resources that support a healthy food system and benefit the community through the availability of fresh foods, beautiful neighborhoods and the promotion of a vibrant local econ-omy. To implement some of these important incentives, the Car-rollton-Hollygrove Community Development Corporation (CHCDC) and the New Orleans Food and Farm Network (FFN) have partnered with students and faculty to create the Hollygrove Growers Market & Farm (HGM&F), a storefront retail center in Hollygrove offering locally-grown, affordable fresh produce and a ‘green jobs’ certifica-tion programs in urban agriculture.

Because this project features a real-world client and an active neighborhood community partner, the sustainability features at the Hollygrove Growers Pavilion needed to be realistic, economical, and program-driven. The design team took on this challenge and ex-ecuted the project with an equally sensitive sustainability aesthetic. Sustainability features are highlighted through design--- both to educate visitors about various systems and also to call attention to this driving design intention.

Overall, the Hollygrove Growers Pavilion showcases a holistic, real-world sustainable design sensitivity that ranges from water catch-ment and retention to green job training grounds. The breadth of the project serves as a reminder that sustainable architecture must engage more than mere systems or products; the Hollygrove Growers Pavilion addresses materiality, technology, smart space planning, a solar site response, food security, green job training, community economic development and the resurrection of an oth-erwise blighted lot.

zero energy house LeArning centerStanley Russell, University of South Florida Mark Weston, University of South Florida

The Zero Energy House Learning Center [ZEHLC] is an affordable, environmentally friendly, zero energy house [ZEH] prototype, that will function as a ZEH technology learning center for students, fac-ulty, and the general public on the [University name] campus. The building will be powered by on site clean renewable energy sources such as PV power and hydrogen fuel cells. The building will be

attached to the grid and will send power back to the grid during peak load periods and draw from the grid during periods of low production. The annual net energy usage of the building will be zero or better.

To be implemented on a large scale ZEH must be affordable for people earning a moderate income. Fabricating homes in a con-trolled, factory environment minimizes preparation time, reduces material waste, and construction costs while maximizing economy, quality control, efficiency and safety during the construction pro-cess. The ZEHLC concept emphasizes the viability of relocation, ex-pandability, flexibility and recyclability to keep pace with the evolv-ing American housing market.

The ZEHLC makes a strong indoor-outdoor connection with care-fully placed fenestration and movable wall systems that allow the house to transform from a closed system, during periods of ex-treme temperature, to an open system that invites natural ventila-tion during the milder months. Movable interior partitions between the sleeping/office area and the living area allow the entire space to be opened or partitioned to support the flexible, hybrid design approach. The HVAC system will conserve energy by responding to individual zones and seasonal temperature and relative humidity fluctuations.

The ZEHLC incorporates a parasol-like outer structure that shades the roof, walls and courtyard minimizing heat gain through the building envelope. Retractable shading devices reduce structural uplift loads on the parasol structure from hurricane winds. To ease the impact of perennial water shortages the parasol feeds rainwater to a water feature and cistern where it is stored for site irrigation. The parasol framework and its separation from the building enve-lope facilitate efficient, safe and economical upgrade and mainte-nance of the PV array and solar thermal systems.

A mechanical equipment module is accessible from the exterior of the house for ease of access, replacement and maintenance. The ZEHLC will is instrumented and mechanical systems will be con-tinuously monitored for energy performance. The building uses a combined system of photovoltaic panels for electric generation and solar thermal concentrating panels that optimize the high efficiency of thermal conversion in Florida. A heat pump tied to the solar thermal system will provide cooling, heating and water heating to the house. Humidity will be controlled with a dehumidification de-vice that works on the refrigeration cycle and a liquid desiccant wa-terfall. An energy recovery ventilator will exchange air from inside the house with external air allowing fresh air to enter the house in a controlled manner when the house is closed.

This poster illustrates the construction and deployment method-ology, architectural design features and mechanical systems of a Zero Energy House prototype for a hot and humid climate.

sAturdAy, mArCh 5, 2011 - 12:30Pm - 2:00PmBuiLding BehAviors continued


AsyLum / refuge / sAnctuAry - BuiLding As cureElizabeth Danze, University of Texas At Austin

“the treatment of the insane is conducted not only in but by the asylum” William Dean Fairless, 1861

In The Architecture of Happiness writer Alain de Botton states, “Belief in the significance of architecture is premised on the notion that we are for better or worse, different people in different places and on the conviction that it is architecture’s task to render vivid to us who we might ideally be.”

This graduate design studio examined two disparate arenas: that of architecture—the outer, material world of tangible places—and that of psychology—the inner world, the realm of the human mind. Connections between the two can be poetically elusive and obscure. Specific historic and contemporary case studies of archi-tectural environments designed for treating the mentally ill reveal insight into our fundamental ideas of what architecture is, and can be, and what our understanding of mental illness and health is, or could be. Architecture is both container of and medium for health, creating a therapeutic environment that participates in the healing process. Introspection and reflection are both subject of and method for design.

Through a series of readings and exercises that examined specific, fundamental issues of mental health, the studio undertook de-sign exercises at a range of scales. Students worked closely with practicing members of the psychiatric and psychoanalytic com-munity on each project. The psychotherapists presented patient case studies to the students, met with them in the context of their office or hospital, and participated in design presentations.

The first short project was to design a place in which therapy (an analysis) takes place. Major concerns were issues of separation and levels of controlled access and contact between the interior and exterior. A short second project examined the potential of water as the medium for therapeutic healing. Issues of publicity and privacy, boundary and threshold, as well as bodily sensation and spatial phenomena were examined. Students also explored the marriage of the experiential and physical to the psychological.

These short exercises contributed to the final project, which in-vestigated the contemporary incarnation of the asylum, where the mentally ill are cared for in a wellness/treatment center. Students defined the relationship between the institution and the individ-ual; the therapist and the patient; and the city and the building. They addressed concepts of access and confinement—the explicit or implicit ability to cross a physical or notional boundary—and separation—a physical or conceptual boundary between elements that emphasizes their differences.

The exploration of how current approaches to psychiatric treat-ment and contemporary architectural expression affect our under-standing of mental illness and its impact on culture continues. As we look forward, we ask: What is architecture’s future role in the dialogue between patient and society and how will buildings both manifest and nurture our ideal selves?

energyDonna Kacmar, University of Houston

Before students can understand how to make an energy efficient building they must understand why that is important to pursue. This course asked students to examine energy, what it is and the how many ways is it provided, distributed, and consumed within the world, the nation and a state. Once an understanding of the scope and units of measurement of energy was established the students could then explore the impacts of the act of building on our energy systems and begin to realize the responsibility build-ing designers must accept for their impact on all of our resource systems.

future-use Architecture: designing AdAPtABiLityPeter Wiederspahn, Northeastern University

This studio focused on “future-use architecture” that anticipates both current and possible subsequent uses. Future-use architec-ture is organized to transform efficiently to meet unknown future spatial, structural, and energy needs. The program for this studio is systems, their integration, and their adaptability. There are five primary phases in the life of a building that determine its over-all performance: design, construction, operation, transformation, and demolition. The least energy-intensive of these phases is also the one that has the greatest impact on a building’s life-cycle performance: design. A design process that rigorously integrates future-use strategies can anticipate and choreograph a building’s efficient adaptability without surrendering its architectural integ-rity or cultural significance.

PRECEDENTS

To establish a hypothesis of future-use thinking, the studio starts with a pre-design phase of precedent analysis of buildings that have changed uses over time while the architecture has remained constant. This analysis yields some consistent configuration at-tributes: the structural configuration optimizes the span-to-depth ratio for each construction type to provide the most open space; the building footprint is narrow enough and the facades are open enough to let daylight reach all points of the interior; the building systems are integrated and perform more than one role to maxi-mize efficiency; the architectural expression is derived from the integrated performative systems.

STUDIO SEQUENCE REVERSED

The students first create proto-systems derived from the inherent formal and performative advantages of their precedents. These elemental systems are then aggregated into integrated system-armatures that not only define form, structure, and space, but also embody strategies for responding to general climatic con-ditions that are so pertinent to energy performance. This pro-duces prototypical buildings that already embody fundamental


design reseArch in the studio context


responses to the site. The students are then asked to invent ways that their prototypes can adapt to new conditions, such as adding intermediate floor levels or changing from large open spaces to small cellular spaces, while maintaining the primary architectonic form. This creates mutable prototypes that can transform over time. The students’ work possesses “design maturity” before it addresses a specific site.

Only half way through the semester are the students given a site. At this point, they are confronted with integrating their idealized prototypes with a myriad of conflicting conditions on an existing site. The students must merge the mature prototype with the local site factors. Finally, the students are asked to solve for two differ-ent uses to occupy the same future-use architecture at different points in time. Not all parts of future-use architecture are trans-formable. Some parts are logically fixed, such as vertical structure and circulation cores, while some parts are tactically flexible to conform to the needs of an unknown future. In future-use archi-tecture, use-specificity is superseded by use-flexibility. This is a challenge to the legacy of modern and contemporary architecture where “program” is a primary determinant of architectural form and typological classification. In future-use architecture, form that transforms over time becomes performance, and type de-scribes not what use a building houses but how a building acts.

in Present tense: comPLex memBrAne systemsRoberto Quevedo, Universidad Francisco Marroquin

Today the design of membrane structures in architecture can go beyond the familiar and homogenous single structures of the past. Through the use of new technological tools such as digital fabrica-tion and software, highly complex membrane systems can be de-signed for projects of different scales and uses. Furthermore, the combination of cable networks and membrane components allow for systems of differentiated elements to be arrayed on complex curvature surfaces, a topic of interest in some of today ́s architec-tural languages.

This 4th. year studio in a five-year program is focused on ex-ploring differentiated membrane systems as roofing systems and shading devices. The participants generated a series of physical prototypes and produced different compositions of intricate ele-ments iterated in space. Some systems introduced compressive elements and made use of tensegrity properties to span larger spaces, while allowing the membrane components to retain their shape within these structural networks.

The constant production of physical prototypes and their digital representation in different software allowed for further structur-al and geometrical analysis. Particle animations of rain water on the membranes helped re-shape some of the designs for specific goals and needs.

The final project consisted in the design of an Ecological Visitor Center using what was previously studied in the research phase. The site was located in a rain forest and therefore issues of eco-logical sustainability of light-weight structures were addressed. The visual impact of these structures was analyzed in order to ad-

dress the architecture of the project as part of the landscape. Both the geometry of the membrane systems and the repetitive nature of large arrays of textile components allowed for an adequate in-tegration to the density of the forest, while keeping at a minimum the impact on the soil.

In the end the objective was to integrate contemporary issues of architectural design and technology in the context of nature in order to develop new architectural proposals in sensitive contexts. Through the use of analogue and digital design techniques, the design process became a laboratory for testing some of today ́s design conditions in architecture.

LiQuid mAss/ soLid voidErnest Ng, Mississippi State University

Essentiality in Architectural design through conceptual embodi-ment of the cave and the cage

This poster presents a return to essentiality in architectural de-sign and discourse, a revival of architectural dignity and integ-rity in the discourse of architecture as an art of space-making. This is a series of students’ works from an academic exercise at the foundation level architectural design studio, exploring design composition through the understanding and manipulation of two archetypal construction systems- solid construction (stereotomy) and filigree construction (tectonic). The exercise attempts to in-vestigate the idea of essentiality in architectural design through embodiment of the relationship between the two terms in spatial manipulation and formal studies.

The terms solid construction and filigree construction which are often used in architectural theory today, can be loosely traced to the differentiation of the development of architectural forms from two separate origins: “earthworks” and “roofworks.” The term “earthworks” refers to a construction system primarily based on solid structural technique of compression and stacking and thus, the stereotomic forms from within the solid mass. The concept of this spatial system stems from the solidity and heaviness of the structure and the three-dimensional space evolves from a seem-ing carving from within the mass, hence defined as “the cave.”

In contrast, the term “roofworks” refers to a construction system based on a framing structural technique of both compression and tension, and the tectonic forms from the boundary defined by the linear members. The concept for of this spatial system is deter-mined by the continuous connection between the linear structure, usually maintaining a quality of lightness, and the three-dimen-sional space exist as a visible void built upon the structure, hence defined as “the cage.”

This exercise introduces foundation level students to explore es-sentiality in architectural design through modeling technique based on the two archetypal construction system. The stereotomy through the casting of plaster, and tectonic through the building of the formwork for the casting process. In this case, the two con-struction system merges into a continuous symbiotic relationship where the positive of one becomes the negative of the other.

sAturdAy, mArCh 5, 2011 - 12:30Pm - 2:00Pmdesign reseArch in the studio context continued


merging Architect And AcousticiAnGlenn NP Nowak, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Josh Moser, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

This poster presents a focused area within a larger studio context. While studying the complexities of theatres, architecture students were integrated with students and faculty from such diverse aca-demic backgrounds as performing arts (theatre, music, dance, etc.), hospitality/hotel administration, and acoustical engineering among others. The integration of undergraduate and graduate students in addition to collaborations between disciplines afforded an experience in the studio that closely resembles the kind of team-work that is manifest in the professional world. From sci-entific analysis to modes of representation, the poster describes a facet of an entire studio’s collaboration and the opportunities of organized research afforded by architecture studios that expand beyond the traditional discipline or departmental boundaries.

urBAn connections_internAtionAL PersPectiveGregory Marinic, Universidad de Monterrey Ziad Qureshi, Universidad de Monterrey

The context of architecture is a social and political, as well as a cultural, phenomenon. This design studio explored the rich sub-ject of the historical world exposition and engaged the context of the contemporary expo by developing a critical understanding of architecture and urbanism from both global and local perspec-tives. The course began with a research-based analysis of the world exposition and explored the parallel development of archi-tectural theory, urbanism, identity, technology, and design from 1851 through the 21st century. Research combined with careful analysis of local urban conditions to created the foundation for producing detailed urban designs for hypothetical exposition pro-posals positioned in emerging global cities.

The approach in the studio was multi-scalar, culminating in the de-sign of an urban design strategy and national pavilion building for the expo itself. Traditional territorial relationships and subjective boundaries in the design disciplines and between cultures were blurred. Research and collaborative research was primary com-ponent in the design investigation, which encompassed cultural studies, national identity, international relations, political history, sociology, technology, sustainability, and branding identity.

In the strictest sense, terms such as nation, people, and ethnos refer to a group of humans, while the development of the con-cepts of a ‘nation’, ‘nationhood’, and ‘nationality’ are related to both ethnic groupings and ethnicity, as well as to political con-notations. Thus, the nation-state refers to geographic territories, governmental administration, sovereignty, and statehood. States that consider themselves as a cultural nation act as nation-states. Many contemporary nations fall into this category and legitimize their existence as homelands of an ethnically, linguistically, and/or religiously defined people. Since this form of national organiza-

tion is most typical, the words nation, country, and state are often used synonymously. Cultural nations that are defined by ethnic/cultural/linguistic terms do not require defined national bound-aries or independent political sovereignty to exist. Throughout history, prominent examples of such nationhood include gypsies, Kurds, Jews, Palestinians, and the Muong.

The objective of the cultural study shown here was multi-faceted. Students were engaged in various information collecting tasks to-ward understanding a cultural context from afar. Research con-sidered the impact of language, ethnicity, and language on nation-al identity, and contrasted national diasporas, nation-states, and multi-cultural nations. Teams performed cultural analysis as it related to the character of a national entity and investigated geo-graphic conditions and how such features impact and backdrop a cultural context. Sustainable materials were identified in their relation to a local context, climate, and culture. The research shown here comparatively illustrates common conditions found in Quebec City, Perth, and Vienna.

sAturdAy, mArCh 5, 2011 - 12:30Pm - 2:00Pmdesign reseArch in the studio context continued


ActivAting history_A comPArAtive comPiLAtionGregory Marinic, Universidad de Monterrey Ziad Qureshi, Universidad de Monterrey

This presentation explores the world exposition and its impact on architecture and urbanism from critical and historical perspec-tives. As a visual compilation, it attempts to link three Parisian precedent studies that were investigated by students in an un-dergraduate history seminar. Beginning with an analysis of the origins of the world exposition and tracing the parallel develop-ment of architectural theory, technology, and design from 1851 through the twenty-first century, theory and practice were equally considered, as well as issues of political, cultural, and ethnic iden-tity. With particular focus on the world exposition as a dynamic global phenomenon, the seminar combined lectures, discussions, and presentations that explored the world’s fair over time and across cultures.

Paris, the City of Light, is defined by its history and by its World Exhibitions, particularly the universal expositions of 1867, 1878 and 1889. The Paris events not only revolutionized France, but also the rest of the world through their global significance. This exploration attempted to creatively research, analyze and inter-pret the exhibitions and their most significant aspects by provid-ing a visualized perspective on historical events and their legacy.

Contemporary Paris exists as a hybrid product characterized by imperial and post-revolutionary legacies. This timeline discusses the growth of the city since the beginning of the reign of Napoleon III--a leading figures in its modernization. The sequence shown here illustrates events preceding the world exhibitions and their impact on subsequent advances in society and technology. During the development of this compilation, images and text were paired to reveal how perceptions of the city and the world beyond have changed over time. Each zone within the diagram reflects its own graphic character and particularity. Correspondingly, significant technological contributions of each exposition are illustrated, such as the development of the telephone, electricity, steam car and elevator. Perhaps the ‘human zoo’ represents the darkest memory of the exhibitions of 1878 and 1889, depicted in a curved strip of photos and text in the upper band of the visualization. Data on the duration of each exposition, individual participant nations, and attendances are also included. 21st century Paris is displayed at the top of the compilation, underscoring how the physical legacy of world expositions remains powerful even today.

The intent of this compilation is to activate history in an integra-tive manner. Thus, its organizational concept is based on a flu-idly centralized configuration. Circles and rings suggest continu-ity, growth, and movement, while change-over-time and the life cycle are symbolically linked to internal and external pressures. In conclusion, we believe that it is necessary to promote alternative ways to present history with sensible conviction, by interrogating the past to reveal synergies with the present. We have attempted to ground our own understanding of contemporary potentialities of the world exposition by examining and visualizing past legacies.

imAge mAniPuLAtion: the PortrAyAL of women Archi-tects By the mediA. Puerto rico 1945-1980Norma Isa Figueroa, University of Texas at Arlington

The profession of architecture in PR was a masculine field during the decades of 1960 and 1970 even though women had joined the practice as early as the mid 1940’s. The aim of this work is to present the way that society, and the profession of architecture, constructed an ideology of the practicing architect as male, and how that is reflected in the few articles published by the press about women architects. The theoretical work of Roland Barthes was utilized in the analysis of images, articles and advertisements published in the press and professional architectural magazines in PR from 1945 to 1980.

One of these articles, published in 1945, is dedicated to the first woman architect in the Island. A graduate from Cornell University, Gertie Besosa is not only portrayed as a feminist, by venturing in a man’s field, but also as a free spirited bohemian and, most importantly for the press, as a homemaker. The article presents three photos that disclose a day in the life of Besosa: working at the drawing table, smoking and chatting in the living room, and in the kitchen wearing an apron while stirring the symbolic pan on the stove. The text spoke of the professional achievements of the architect as well as her physical beauty: independent and profes-sional, but still a domestic caretaker. With this article, the media, manipulating representation, tried to normalize the image of the few professional women, who at the time, were joining the work force in the Island.

Another article presented in the poster was published in 1979 by the three local newspapers in San Juan. It announces the start of construction of the main building at the Inter American University in Cupey. The building was designed by Istra Hernández, a mem-ber of the first graduating class of the School of Architecture at the University of Puerto Rico. With a shovel in her hand, Hernández was the only woman who posed for the commemorative photo, but when it was published, she was cropped out of the picture. In the lower right hand corner of the published picture you can still see her shovel, and in the upper right, her safety helmet. The two other newspapers that published the news further cropped the image to show only the faces of the men who, along with architect Hernández, posed for the picture. As a woman, she did not belong in the construction section of the newspaper.

The relationship developed between domesticity and women ar-chitects, evident in the images presented, shows that the profes-sion, as well as society, divided work and space according to sex. The poster’s theme dwells on the History of the Profession and tries to shed some light on how gender relations have limited and, at the same time, given shape to the identity of our professionals.


history/theory


Looking for mr. wright, ...And finding him on fAceBookWayne Charney, Kansas State University

Social networking has been much maligned as a medium that di-verts students’ attention away from the serious, sustained pursuit of knowledge and encourages, instead, mind-numbing, superficial quests for relationships - for the perfect “Mister (or Miss) Right.” This poster will demonstrate that social networking sites such as Facebook have tremendous latent educational value if utilized in a directed and carefully orchestrated manner within the context of a small-class, semester-long project. This poster will describe a class assignment in which upper-level architecture students, enrolled in a seminar class devoted to the life and times of the renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, were asked to create individual Facebook pages linked to the architect’s fan page (created by the instructor) and to all the other students’ pages in a closed-network wherein they “friended” only each other. Each student donned the persona (or avatar) of one of the architect’s family members, clients, associates, or apprentices. The over-arching objective of this class project prompted students to dis-cover the true nature and character of one of the most enigmatic and enormously complicated design geniuses of all time – not through the architect himself (or any of his works by themselves) but through the personal relationships Wright had forged with other people throughout his 92-year-long lifetime. Students were regularly asked to post a variety of different informational bits about their avatar and Mr. Wright – personal information, pho-tographs, YouTube videos, Internet links, and the like – on both their own and each others’ Facebook pages in order to reconstruct the complex web of relationships Wright had built and thus “find” the man behind the most iconic celebrity of modern architecture. This poster will: (1) outline the inherent suitability of Facebook as a robust and flexible medium that perfectly leverages the digital dexterity of the so-called Net Generation as they delve into com-plex historical problems and personalities; (2) depict the concep-tion, design, and construction of the class project; (3) illustrate samples of the end products that students created and how they were interconnected to each other in meaningful ways; (4) high-light the strengths and deficiencies of the project; and, (5) most importantly, demonstrate the very potent and impressive educa-tional value that such a “social-networking” project holds. In the final analysis, social networking sites, such as Facebook, will be shown to redeem themselves as valuable pedagogical media when focused on a common educational pursuit. Furthermore, such vir-tual social networking projects convincingly manifest their very real and profound power in allowing students to come to terms collaboratively with complex, multifaceted problems especially whenever the medium’s hyper-linking versatility is perfectly at-tuned to the sorts of intertwined findings and labyrinthine solu-tions that such complicated challenges demand. The end result is a vibrant and endlessly interconnected repository of useful infor-mation that is simultaneously engaging and revelatory in nature. If the ACSA venue permits logging on to the Internet through a wireless connection using a laptop, real-time demonstrations and explorations of this Facebook project will accompany the poster.

sAturdAy, mArCh 5, 2011 - 12:30Pm - 2:00Pmhistory/theory continued


cuLturAL reconsiderAtion: senior cohousingAwilda C Rodriguez, Oklahoma State University Jeanne Homer, Oklahoma State University

We have a population that is aging, but there are few housing and lifestyle options for seniors. One option for active seniors involves their staying in their own residences, primarily relying on their children for critical care. Another common option for a senior who might be growing less independent is a nursing home with vari-ous levels of caretaking. Cohousing offers an interesting alterna-tive in which seniors can simultaneously have independence and a supportive community. Begun in Denmark, its roots are found in traditional ideas of village: a place where people know and rely on each other. Cohousing engenders a culture in which people want to care about one another, and where they democratically share responsibilities, resources, skills, conversation, and meals. As ar-chitects, how can we promote this idea of community?

We presented this problem to fourth year architecture students. It was important to first consider what design and cultural factors contribute to an apparent lack of community in our current hous-ing options. Designing cohousing requires a cultural reconsider-ation of community. Basic elements defining private and public realms were familiar, like providing individual units with a com-mon house and common exterior space. Other ideas were less familiar, such as placing parking only at the perimeter of the site, designing small individual units with small kitchens, and locating units so that they had a view of the common house and entries within close proximity to adjacent units. Within all of these less familiar ideas and subtleties lie the heart of the cohousing ideas of encouraging spontaneous interaction and community building. Things that are normally done in the name of convenience for se-niors, reduction of walking distance within the site, for example, can ultimately negatively impact community by isolating resi-dents. Students learned that designing for seniors goes beyond meeting ADA requirements; it was about bigger ideas of acces-sibility to interaction and independence.

To emphasize the idea of working in an interactive way, the class reached out to its own community. Members of a local group who were initiating their own senior cohousing development served as clients and met several times with the students. We reviewed the research and projects of Charles Durrett, an architect of over 50 cohousing communities and author of several books on cohous-ing, and had him speak with our students. One interesting result of this interaction was that as students presented to our class “clients”, they quickly realized the impact of their decisions con-cerning both graphic and architectural communication. Suddenly, they needed to address comments like, “the space seems cold,” or “I don’t like Modern.” These comments were valid and poignant, highlighting essentials of making place. In the end what resulted was an exchange that led to an elevated understanding of our cul-ture and increased sensitivity to the experience of others.

PArticiPAtory informAL settLement uPgrAding methods: BuiLding informAtion modeLing As An inte-grAted tooLDuygu Yenerim, Texas A&M University

In this poster presentation, I would like to introduce my research topic. This presentation only includes the problem definition, aim and methodology of this research. This research is expected to be completed in 2013.

Informal settlements, defined as substandard housing with lack of adequate infrastructure, sanitation, living space and security, are one of the major challenges for developing cities in terms of their unpredictable growth (UN-Habitat, 2003). The approaches to improve these settlements span from the ones in which infor-mal settlers participate to the ones in which dwellers are ignored (Turner, 1977). Scholars, practitioners and politicians argue that participatory on site housing interventions are a better alterna-tive to the non-affordable, nonsustainable method of constructing apartment blocks after forced eviction (Beardsley & Werthmann, 2008; Bredenoord, et. al, 2010; UN-Habitat, 2003). This approach stands up for the collaboration between settlement stakeholders: government officials, sponsors, architects, engineers, and infor-mal settlers.

Although this participatory approach is sustainable, affordable and energy efficient, current interventions, including the closest ex-ample along the U.S.–Mexico border, the Colonias, still face tough hurdles. This is mostly because the available information through Geographic Information Systems (GIS) covers social, economic and physical data on a broader scale and this database is used for broad-decision-making regarding the intervention (Abbott, 2002a; 2002b; Lo & Yeung, 2007; McCall, 2003; Olowu, 2003; Sliuzas, 2003). It lacks comprehensive information on design pat-terns and parameters of individual informal houses and is unable to manage collaboration between stakeholders (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2003).

If there had been a 3D model of an existing informal settlement, (1) it would have information on design patterns, elements, con-struction, cost and carbon emission and (2) through providing detailed information and data on existing houses, stakeholders would be better able to comprehend informal settlement develop-ment and communicate within (Eastman et. al, 2008; Krygiel & Nies, 2008). Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a recent tool which can provide this 3D building information model on informal houses. 2

Therefore, when integrated, BIM and GIS can complement each other and provide a comprehensive database to solve the prob-lem with the informal settlements upgrading. The purpose of this study is (1) to explore the BIM tool and its capabilities in participa-tory informal settlement upgrading prcesses in architectural scale, (2) to provide sets of information on design patterns, elements, construction, cost and carbon emission, and (3) to provide co-operation and communication among stakeholders. This study is an open-ended explanatory one that delays the development of hypothesis until the required data has been collected.


housing


This study uses combined data collection methods: physical sur-veys, observations and 3D building information modeling of exist-ing houses in the Colonias in South Texas and face to face semi-structured interviews with stakeholders.

Therefore, the expected outcome will be beneficial for government officials to gain knowledge on various issues on existing informal houses and it will set up a communication platform for participa-tory self-help upgrading process with sponsors, designer team, and informal settlers.

sAturdAy, mArCh 5, 2011 - 12:30Pm - 2:00Pmhousing continued

hArvesting informAtionEmanuel Jannasch, Dalhousie University

Computer driven tools such as 3-axis routers and multi axis beam processors can impart large amounts of formal or geometric in-formation to a wooden work-piece, but neither recognizes the in-ternal structure of wood or responds to its external form. The router favors homogenous sheet-goods such as mdf that entail energy to disintegrate the grown materials, and further energy to reconstitute the fiber into homogeneous sheets. Such processes demand the most homogenous fiber supply possible: fast-growing single-aged monocultures dependent on mechanical and chemical inputs. The beam processor also favors rectilinear workpieces, preferably clear straight-grained timber of the kind typically ex-tracted from old growth forests.

Harvesting Information takes a different approach to computer assisted lumbering and construction. We are teaching our ma-chines to recognize and capture the external forms and the in-ternal sophistication of grown timber. The elements we are pro-ducing: crucks, compass-wood, knees, and so on are familiar to pre-industrial builders of ships and roofs but scarcely seen today. Yet they represent high-value components extracted from wood generally regarded as combustible at best. They allow foresters cultivating complex and diverse forests to be compensated for their effort. Tectonic forms found as close as possible to the grown forms they inhabit minimize waste both of material and of energy. Because we inherently know a great deal about the geometry of the finished pieces, we can build with them in a virtual environ-ment. Designers can also seek the pieces needed for a particular project in a digital inventory of trees - and parts of trees. Typically this is raw material unsuited for the commodity market.

This poster doesn’t show the kinds of structure that can be built with our components, but curvilinear and angular components clearly have their place in contemporary design. The wooden boat frame is shown as a suggestion both of the future we envision and of the past we would like to rebuild both in architecture and in forestry. What the poster does illustrate are three phases of our project.

1) Image based recognition of the formal and structural potential in standing and felled trees.

2) The milling of complex elements from complex stock.

3) Developing a geometrical inventory of standing, felled, and fin-ished pieces.

Some computer-aided woodwork is energy intensive and demands high-input low-diversity forests, and can accurately be character-ized as hyper-industrial. Harvesting Information supports a truly post-industrial culture of wood. Enriching the work of foresters and enriching the communication between woodlot, building site, and drawing board suggests societal as well as ecological benefits.

nAturAL constructionFei Wang, China Academy of Art Wu Peng, China Academy of Art

Natural Construction is a 5-week long workshop for 4th year un-dergraduate study, which aims to understand natural material, potential materiality, corporeal perception and on-site full scale constructing as a team. This group is focus on bamboo, which is accessible from local material suppliers, with various material op-tions. The 2 teams work on different waving strategies of bamboo construction.


mAteriALs


AnAmorPhic xiAngshAnFei Wang, China Academy of Art

This 2-week long 1st year studio exercise is the critique of per-spective and anti-perspective through anamorphosis. Students work as a group of 3 to make an anamorphic installation in school in a specific space to have a dialogue with the space. It is to train student’s perception of space, rather just from drawing. Students will work on site all the time, with full-scale constructing, rather than scaled drawings. Even students can make 3d model to simu-late the situation, but it cannot replace eye’s perception at all. The illusionistic projects will attract viewers to see, walk around and feel, and more importantly, to think and be challenged the understanding of representation. It is about temporality and the transformation between 2D, 3D and 4D.

Augmented reALity in ArchitectureAaron Paul Brakke, University Piloto of Colombia

Being that architecture is developed and communicated through various forms and scales of media, an architect must embrace mediated reality and seek to exploit technology. Relying on tra-ditional techniques rarely allows a client to understand a design’s intent, especially amidst the visually saturated environment that has been constructed. Augmented Reality is a viable answer which permits the general public to engage with architecture before a brick is laid.

CONTEXT

What action have architects taken in terms of drawing and rep-resentation to respond to the visually saturated environment? Architects continue to operate in the visual domain through the utilization of traditional descriptive representational techniques; plans, elevations, sections, and perspectives. The design and rep-resentation methodology has not progressed beyond the proposal Durand formulated nearly 200 years ago.

Hardware and software offer great potential to revolutionize how architecture is visualized. While one may argue that the use of the computer has been advantageous in the transformation of the traditional design and construction procedures and has served as an expediting agent in the drafting process, it has led to less beneficial representation strategies.

Rendering images that are ‘more real than life itself’ has benefits(the capability to more accurately reference the real), yet the benefits yielded are far less substantial than the consequenc-es (the difficulty of differentiating between real and virtual which leads to a lack of orientation and the loss of faith in the real).

MEDIATED REALITY

Denying mediated reality would be futile. Architects must recog-nize that matter has ceased to be defined solely as mass and energy. As Virilio remarked, ´information´ is the added variable to the equation. Embracing matter as mass, energy and informa-

tion in architecture means thinking much further out of the box than currently illustrated. Exploiting networks of information will allow the ‘architecting’ of a new future. The dimensions of time and space will continue to unfold into enhanced experiences with the implementation of augmented reality. The future will not only ¨look¨ different, it will be different when we have and utilize the 6th Sense.

WHAT IS AUGMENTED REALITY AND WHAT DOES IT OFFER

Augmented Reality is a branch of Mediated Reality. Wikipedia de-fines Augmented Reality as a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated sensory input such as sound or graphics. As a result, the technology functions by en-hancing one’s current perception of reality.

Utilizing Augmented Reality allows a client to interact and engage with the architectural design process in ways that do not cur-rently exist. The client could view a virtual project superimposed over the physical site – from all angles. Augmented Reality also is capable of allowing the client a way of physically walking through spaces yet to be physically constructed.

Augmented Reality is not meant as another reality or a separated reality, it is a bridge between the the real and the virtual which can enable the architect to re-connect with the modern client in the contemporary context of visual saturation.

informAtionAL discontinuities: toPoLogy, geometry, construction documents And the suBjectSkender Luarasi, University of Massachusetts

The integration of digital technology in the design and fabrication processes has engendered different kinds of communication and information flow among the subjects involved in the process of architectural production: There is not simply more information, but also more complex, heterogeneous and discontinuous infor-mation. The architect may design with topological in-formations, complex geometries and effects by using a variety of parametric and geometric modeling technologies. On the other hand, a con-sultant or contractor may work with different kinds of knowledge, geometries, schedules, sketches and sometimes even verbal in-formation. While BIM attempts to unify building information pro-cessing, its premise relies on the supposition that the subjects involved in the process of architectural production share the same media or technological platform. However, this is not the case in most of architectural production, where some subjects oper-ate on more advanced platforms then others. This technological difference relates and depends not so much on the ability to ac-quire and use a particular technological platform, but rather on the different forms and conditions of labor, production and build-ing culture in different societies and disciplines. These technologi-cal, disciplinary and cultural differences produce discontinuities of information flow. I have taken the in-progress project of a house


mediA investigAtions


under construction as a case study to notate these informational discontinuities and how they play out during the design and con-struction process. The presentation shows how digital media can be used to process, synthesize and materialize these discontinui-ties into spatial and material values.

This is a 2000 square feet house I am designing, and is current-ly under construction in Tirana, Albania. The project is an ad-equate example of the discontinuous modalities of information, since there is not a direct information flow from the digital design technology to the construction technology. The topological and geometrical design information is not transferred to a digital fab-rication platform, but rather de-coded into a series of “templates” that describe different building components and processes. Some of these processes are analog and some of them automated but none of them are computer numerically controlled. The poster attempts to visually document different kinds of information tra-jectories, their discontinuous nature, and how digital processes have been used to synthesize and produce relationships among these discontinuities. The concrete formwork is the primary build-ing process that has triggered a whole series of different kinds of information modalities, because the process itself consists of sev-eral sub-processes that are defined by different kinds of labor and skill. The geometry of the roof is described and decoded into pla-nar and curved patches/components, and the curved components are described with contours that represent the shape of the wood formwork profiles (see poster for more visual documentation).

The discursive value of this project lies in the dialectic between advanced design technology and low tech construction processes; between digital design processing and pre-digital construction template and documentation, between coded drawing information and its verbal transmission among the subjects involved in the process. The project implies that informational discontinuities are immanent to any architectural production.

PLAcemAking: coLLAge As A tooL for PhenomenoLogi-cAL AnALysisJennifer Shields, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Collage, as an art form unique to the modern era, emphasizes pro-cess over product: an assembly of various fragments of materials, combined in such a way that the composition has a new meaning not inherent in any of the individual fragments. Collage materials and techniques vary – from the papiers collés of the Cubists to the photomontages of the Dada and Surrealism movements – but collage-making is bound by a common methodology. The neces-sary bodily engagement with this process is clearly analogous to the architectural design methodology of the Phenomenologists, advocating an embodied, aggregated multi-sensory experience.

As a result of cultural and technological shifts in the Information Age, architecture has drifted towards internally focused, compo-sitional exercises, yet places are lived rather than observed. We perceive human artifacts as an amalgam of sensory phenomena understood through personal experience and memory, not com-pletely and objectively through a formal evaluation. The process

of creating place is inherently a creative and haptic pursuit. The act of making must then play a critical role in the understanding of place. Just as a sense of place is only fully created and compre-hended through bodily engagement and the activation of multiple senses, physical collage can provide the medium to both elicit and embody a multi-sensory experience. Collage not only reveals the multi-sensory qualities of place, helping us to understand the built environment – through this understanding, we can build with a consciousness and intentionality to create place.

The collage-making process serves as a venue for analysis of built work through the lens of multiple scales, offering a greater under-standing of the qualities inherent in place. As an alternative to the typical precedent analysis that is focused on formal aspects of a building, this approach to analysis encourages the evaluation of a built artifact from the perspective of the inhabitant, encourag-ing a design methodology that considers the visceral experience of a project.

Evaluation of the built environment at multiple scales is critical to a more complete understanding of precedent, as well as to a more fully informed design process. The course culminates in the Comprehensive Catalogue, a case study investigating the qualities of collage inherent in built works of architecture. Within a cata-logue of six collages, each serves as an analysis of place viewed through one of six scalar lenses.

A deeper awareness of architectural precedent and acquisition of new skills in representational techniques has the potential to in-fluence architectural proposals in both academic and professional design settings. The process of carefully constructing collages as a physical expression of a bodily, haptic architectural experience creates a more profound awareness of the characteristics that contribute to a meaningful experience of place. A sense of place offers potentialities to understand ourselves as individuals, here and now, within a greater spatial and temporal framework.

temPorAL mAtricesRoberto Rovira, Florida International University

The representation of time and transformation that is essential to the understanding of site in the context of changing landscapes is explored in the following examples. Temporal variations in pro-gram, users, and environments juxtapose a site’s dynamic quali-ties and seasonality through the static medium of a two dimen-sional drawing.

Text is kept to a minimum and the method of representation at-tempts to reduce complex systems to their essentials, using varia-tions in transparency—readily possible through digital means—to repeat components and convey otherwise complex time-based qualities.

The visual matrices are based on extensive research, inventory and documentation aimed at capturing a site’s multiple variables.

A key to the design process, representation in these examples

sAturdAy, mArCh 5, 2011 - 12:30Pm - 2:00PmmediA investigAtions continued


acts as both a means to understand a site’s inherent qualities, as much as a tool with which to propose design ideas that capitalize on a site’s dynamics.

the Light insideFei Wang, China Academy of Art

This research draws from observation. The final project is the rep-resentation of spatiality, temporality, narrative, perception and imagination. The student draw obliquely through a short circular path through a building/room/courtyard by the reference of his/her own eyes, then add/subtract what he/she could can/cannot perceive and perform again and again.

The final outcome is a cylindrical shaped lamp limited within the dimension of 11” in diameter and 11” high. Within the limit, it might have many layers, either transparent or translucent, with different thickness. The light source(s) and layers are placed and calculated perfectly and precisely, to understand projections in architectural representation and convey their architectural per-ception.

sAturdAy, mArCh 5, 2011 - 12:30Pm - 2:00PmmediA investigAtions continued


Bim BoP And Bim con!fAB : ProfessionAL symPosiAKaren M. Kensek, University of Southern California Shih-Hsin Eve Lin, University of Southern California

The ACSA Mission Statement defines its goal “to advance architec-tural education through support of member schools, their faculty, and students.” Unstated, but also important, are outreach pro-grams to a more numerous constituency, past students who have graduated and are now members of the architecture profession. Continuing education should not only be in the realm of the AIA or other professional interest groups, but also part of the ACSA. Faculty members, who are often members of the ACSA, can also provide workshops, give classes, and organize symposia that ad-vance education not only to their current students but also former students. This poster summarizes presentations on two symposia on the subject of building information modeling (BIM) plus sus-tainable design and BIM + construction and fabrication. These free symposia drew about 200-300 participants for two days of lectures. It was important to the organizer that a range of soft-ware solutions be presented, and the firm sizes ranged from very small to very large. Although also very interesting, the software representatives’ presentations are not summarized as part of this poster.

The BIM BOP conference in July 2008 brought together architects, educators, and students to explore the current status of the in-tersection of BIM and sustainable design. Almost all participants agreed with the statement that they use building information modeling and that they encourage sustainable design. By invit-ing large and small firms, using a variety of software, the sym-posium traced specific examples of how these two items could be used synergistically. The event was organized into two parts: software representatives gave an overview of their products on the first afternoon of the event, and on the second day, archi-tecture professionals discussed how they use BIM to help design sustainable buildings. Summaries of the architects’ presentations are given. BIM CON!FAB 2009 specifically explored the issues of BIM in construction and fabrication and encouraged the present-ers to give team presentations that included both the architect and construction professional. This two day event was organized into two parts: software representatives gave an overview of their products; and on the second part of the first day and the second day, architecture professionals discussed individual case studies to demonstrate how they utilize BIM during the design, construction, and fabrication process. The architects’, engineers’, and construction professionals’ presentations are summarized on this poster. Although useful in their own right, the symposia also provide numerous connections between the faculty and the pro-fession that were used later in the regular academic semester. For example, many of the firms were later visited by students for case studies, and professionals came to classes to give guest lectures. It is critical the schools and ACSA foster collaborative educational opportunities such as these.

concePt - form - AssemBLyJeremy Lindsey, Judson University

In an architectural inquiry, can a form generate a concept or must concept generate form? Is it possible for both to be advanced in parallel so that one reinforces the other? If such a design ideology is achieved could it not then act as an organizing device or com-mon denominator for the multiple dimensions of design assembly and its evolution over time? These presented projects are repre-sentative of this cognitive pursuit and fell within a semester-long study of the interplay between form and concept. These works specifically look at this idea at a minute level found intrinsically in architectural connections.

Architecture is significantly concerned with transitions and the inherent accompanying connections within. A most significant transition is the one found in between elements, or more specifi-cally, between building materials. What makes these transitions and their connections so significant is that they can be found, observed and, many times, tactilely experienced by even the most disengaged passerby. It is the preponderance of these encounters that elevates these connections to the realm of the significant. Herein lies the heart of this project.

In this exploration of concept and how it relates to architectural form, program and experience, it is possible to see the need for conceptual integrity to not only make an idea translate, but to also provide a compositional unity within dialogue – from local to global. These works did explore the continuity of conceptual integrity, but specifically in the most tactile area of local dialogue.

To further these inquiries, a series of terms acted as catalysts for a conceptual manipulation and composition of a co-planar ele-ment (h1:w3:d0.33). This co-planar element represents all that is common within any given architectural problem or product. These projects developed – through subtraction, addition, manipulation and transformation – a solution that took the given co-planar el-ement from the prosaic to the poetic, or from the mundane to the expressive. Each manipulated co-planar element also acts as an “operator,” achieving a functionality also common to architec-tural and programmatic needs, as it upheld the given concept. Throughout this endeavor, continual evaluation of the conceptual integrity, as it is represented in all areas of each design, was nec-essary – from generating ideas to the very specific, yet very sig-nificant, connection between different materials.

Can a form embody an idea primarily understood through se-mantics and emotion? Can form remain consistent – or at least congruent – in its description of a concept? From understandable object to obligatory structural directives to the minuscule transi-tions of material?

The above projects show these possibilities.


oPen


dissecting the ProgrAmmed LAndscAPeFrank Richard Jacobus, University of Idaho

How do we decipher or decode our commercialized landscapes? Landscapes that have undergone a form of reification that chal-lenges our perceptions as to what is natural or inevitable about the space that we inhabit? To what extent has the public realm, even if only in the form of streets and highway, been suffocated by commodification? What are the short and long term effects on human beings and our environment of spatial realms constructed primarily for profit and speculation? (LU Reader, pg 024) How do these realms affect our perceptions of space, our sensibilities, and our actions?

To probe these questions I deliver a problem each spring to the students in my 4th year Architectural Programming class entitled Dissecting the Programmed Landscape. This project is a com-parative analysis of two 1/4 mile landscapes in Moscow, Idaho that uses mapping as a vehicle of discovery and mechanism for communication. In the project brief I ask that the students think of their maps (the 2-dimensional sheet of paper), not merely as a representation of an existing landscape but as a new landscape within which new spatial rules can be established. The objective of the mapping problem is that the students become aware of the programmed, experiential, social, political, and cultural elements embedded within the landscape.

One of the inherent values in the Landscape Dissection project lies in the discovery of the complex spatial realm that architects encounter with almost every building project. These landscapes are realms that can easily be taken for granted and just as eas-ily accepted without critical exploration. The results are building projects that don’t attempt to think critically and potentially chal-lenge the status quo, and instead continue to reinforce the cultural myths from which these sites have gained physical manifestation. Dissecting the Programmed Landscape is a project that attempts to demythologize the contemporary commercialized landscape to help define new territories for exploration.

doctorAL educAtion in ArchitectureDouglas Noble, University of Southern California Karen Kensek, University of Southern California

Doctoral education is becoming an integral part of the architecture programs worldwide. At ACSA 2011, we hope to use the poster session as an opportunity to meet doctoral students and educa-tors so that we might learn of their research interests, curricular goals, and educational concerns.

The number of North American universities granting a Ph.D. in Ar-chitecture more than doubled between 1998 and 2008. The Ph.D. degree is becoming more widely accepted as a valued credential for full-time faculty at major universities. New avenues for re-search funding are reinforcing the value of scientific research in academia and in the profession. With programs at several univer-sities commencing in the mid-1960’s, we first see the beginnings of the public debates about degree content, structure, curricula,

and purpose. Moore (1984) found only five doctoral programs op-erating in the 1960’s. By the early 1980’s, he found 13 doctoral programs “functioning with considerable enthusiasm.” There were only 15 programs when AlSayyad and Brown conducted their sur-vey in 1991, and little had changed when Wineman conducted a follow-up survey in 1998. The number of doctoral-granting pro-grams in North America is now more than 30. It is believed that there were less than 200 graduates in the first 20 years of formal architecture Ph.D.’s. By 1984, there were an estimated 300 stu-dents enrolled, and the growth spike was already being observed. In 2011, there are well over 600 students in mainstream pro-grams, and almost 100 are graduating each year. Doctoral stu-dents and faculty in architecture originally had limited research funding sources and few appropriate publication opportunities. Since 1980, the number of organizations, conferences, and pub-lications has increased dramatically. While some doctoral pro-grams focus on only one or two research areas, a few of the larger programs support a fair variety. By their nature, Ph.D. programs cannot be comprehensive, and even the largest of the doctoral programs still provide a framework of topic areas and faculty in-terest. Foremost among the changes noticed by respondents to our survey was the substantial increase in interest and funding for sustainability and energy topics. We also received reports of increased interest in interdisciplinary studies, globalization, modern architecture, and digital media. Global representation has always been a feature of North American doctoral programs in architecture. In the 1990’s, it was widely believed that interna-tional students routinely outnumbered domestic students in many programs. While international enthusiasm for American higher education remains quite strong, there are growing numbers of students and programs in non-American settings. European and Asian programs are attracting more and more students who are choosing to stay in their home countries.

informAtion As digitAL ArchitectureMathew Jacob Battin, Urban Density Lab

Shifting architecture to be information focused could drastically change the way buildings are designed. A designer could work a project from both ends, evaluating variables, rather than design-ing systems to be evaluated. Information is at the heart of the notion of digital, however it seems that the term “digital” when coupled with “architecture” is almost completely conceived of from the position of form. There is some irony in this, when, as a culture we refer to the “digital age” as being primarily about information. Ask what the most significant piece of software for architecture was in the last 20 years? AutoCAD is a re-occurring theme, followed by various permutations around form-based soft-ware as a tool for conception, visualization and manufacture. A broader view of software with systemic implications would lead to the consideration of a tool with base potential, ubiquitous neces-sity, multi-role use, and ability to pre-determine project viability. These systemic indicators would point to the digital spreadsheet, used to manipulate project budgets, tabulate building programs, and implemented in countless ways to sum, count and quantify information by everyone including the owner, architect and con-tractor. Within the broader business world, the spreadsheet has

sAturdAy, mArCh 5, 2011 - 12:30Pm - 2:00PmoPen continued


conditioned an intellectual shift, fueled by profits gained as com-panies embrace managing a world of plausibility.

Information in Architecture

For centuries architects have represented design intent through graphic and verbal communication, evolving into what is now the construction drawing. Despite changes in technology, architects’ primary product is the design of information for the evaluation and construction of a building. Currently in a period of transi-tion, the professional landscape is made up of practitioners with a wide range of computational skills. Arguably the building industry, despite having embraced computational tools has repressed new forms of representation. This minimal change over the last 40 years has allowed an architect, contractor, or tradesperson with no computational aptitude to communicate effectively. Production teams have seen increased productivity assembling, coordinat-ing and transferring drawings between the client and contractor through the implementation of technology. The ability to reuse previous work with little or no changes provides exponential time-savings. Rather than leaving a vacuum to be absorbed by im-proved designs or with new clients, architects have seen increas-ing demands for information from the client and contractor. The efficiencies that have allowed this increase of information transfer have not been balanced between graphic and tabulated data. New technology has allowed architects to translate more information, at a higher quality, using the efficiency gains to bridge the infor-mation gap. BIM suggests a hybrid condition will emerge, as com-munication of information develops through traditional formats as well as through “soft architectures” based on data structure.

teAching comPutAtionAL thinking with Processing Nicholas Senske, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Why is it important for architects to be able to think like computer scientists? At first glance, the two fields might seem unrelated. After all, buildings don’t appear to have much in common with software. However, some educational researchers argue that the concepts underlying computer science— as well as the problem-solving and design methods computer scientists use—are funda-mental knowledge that every professional should learn. This idea is known as computational thinking .

An example of computational thinking comes from the field of biology – one of many fields transformed through the integration of algorithmic processes. Today, a biologist might study muta-tion rates by creating an algorithm to statistically analyze a large dataset of DNA. While computer science is not the biologist’s pro-fession, it is part of her toolkit, and its approaches help shape her thinking. The same skills and outlook can benefit architects. Procedural and information-based methods promise to shape the future of design, but only if architectural educators can find a way to introduce computational thinking.

This poster describes projects from a pilot course at the University

of X with the objective of teaching students computational think-ing. The course used the programming language Processing as its primary form of representation. Processing is a general, flexible language intended for artists and designers, and so it is particu-larly well suited as a first introduction to programming with no prerequisites . Students used the language to explore computer science topics using visual media. For example, a unit on simu-lation involved learning about the principal of type inheritance: using a general type to generate specific, relational subtypes. A student might investigate this idea by modeling something simple (like a school of fish), but it is a concept also found in architectural precedents and building information modeling (BIM).

The goal of the course is not to learn Processing or to generate form, but rather to learn how to think like a programmer. Un-derstanding topics like iteration and problem decomposition are necessary in order to write programs, but these are also general design concepts that predate and exist apart from computation. Thus, computational thinking can help architects use computers better, as well as affect them even when they are not in front of one.

There is evidence that this occurred with the pilot course. In later semesters, some students reported that working with Process-ing helped them appreciate and utilize their conventional soft-ware better. Others mentioned that it made it easier for them to advance in other computing courses such as scripting or physical computing. Still others used what they learned to generate more sophisticated ideas within their studio projects. This suggests that introducing computational thinking early in the curriculum, in a course similar to the pilot, can be beneficial. Tools and tech-niques may change, but the fundamentals of computer science – which directly relate to design and computing – remain constant.

urBAn chicken cooPsCarey Clouse, Tulane University Zachary Lamb, Tulane University

During the Fall Semester of 2010, twelve first-year architecture students with no prior agricultural or construction experience de-signed and built mobile chicken coops using salvaged shopping carts. Over the course of two separate work days, the teams of two students learned the basic principles and requirements of chicken coop design, developed initial design schemes, mocked-up their designs on salvaged carts, and then built coops to be donated to a local urban agriculture non-profit organization.

Why a chicken coop?

With the resurgence of the food security movement, raising chick-ens for household use in urban environments has become increas-ingly popular. Caring for chickens is relatively simple. They are ideal as urban livestock since they require relatively little space and demand little attention aside from daily feeding. They eat scraps, pick through compost, and feed on insects and worms that



naturally occur in every yard. While most hens should be released into a run during the day and only spend their nights in the cart, their droppings would collect on the ground under the cart, form-ing a diurnal chicken tractor.

Because hens lay nearly one egg per day, and their eggs are a great affordable source of protein, they are valuable additions to households and cities. This investment of $1.50 per bird and on-going feeding with free scraps could produce more than 400 eggs over the course of one bird’s lifetime. Eggs from locally-raised, organically-fed chickens reared on an urban house lot, vacant lot, or community garden can be sold at a premium to generate in-come or could be consumed as an affordable, healthy, local food.

Why a shopping cart?

Abandoned shopping carts have become ubiquitous detritus in the urban realm; littering underused parking lots, streets, and even fragile urban ecosystems. The shopping cart is given special sta-tus in the urban and suburban landscape because of its status as the ultimate vehicle of consumer culture. The cart is a part of a special class of urban material culture that is perceived to have no inherent value, but is only valuable in its enabling capacity. By separating the shopping cart from its familiar function, the CART COOP invites a wholesale re-examination of the material culture of the contemporary capitalist city.

Depending on size and modifications, each cart coop could house 1-4 chickens. As a flock grows, the farmer can simply add more carts to accommodate more hens. Their sturdy mesh sides pro-vide protection from predators, plentiful ventilation, and positive drainage when the unit is hosed down.

The robust structure, human scale, durable materials, and ease of mobility make the shopping cart an ideal chassis on which to build a coop. While varying in both measurements and capacity, most carts share the same basic DNA in their fundamental components and shape. This standardization allows for the carts to become an adaptable modular unit for chicken coop construction; one avail-able to any person of any means, in any city in the U.S.

wALL - ProPhyLActicMo Zell, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Marc Roehrle, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Walls are typical thought of as separating elements. They are di-visive in nature while mediating between two didactic conditions. Sometimes the resultant is the wall, other times the wall is cre-ated to highlight these differences. Separation is easily achieved, connectivity less so. Since the time of Laugier’s cave, architects, through multiple means, have explored the phenomenal eradica-tion of the wall. Either through material continuation and/or mini-mizing the impact of the threshold, the distinction between one side of the wall and the other was attempted to be minimalized.

In William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, the charac-ter Wall acts not as a separating agent but rather as a mechanism of joining. He facilitates the surreptitious courting of the two for-bidden lovers Pyramus and Thisby. Rather than being divisive in nature – to sunder, Wall unites them.

This project, as does Shakespeare’s Wall, challenges these divi-sive preconceptions of walls and inverts their spatial legibility. In today’s political climate, air travel has been isolated behind veils of security. What was once a dignified luxury has now become akin to the transportation of cattle. The intention of our Wall is to allow individuals on either side of it to reconnect one last time, physically, while still preserving physical separation - security. Mo-bile communication technology has allowed us to connect oritori-ally, but we lament the loss of physical contact. This wall acts as a prophylactic that will ameliorate this physical separation.



“new Productionism” At riverA crossing: suBurBAn retrofitting for A new economyJune Williamson, City College of New York Anne Vaterlaus, City College of New York

In the wake of the Great Recession, the dominant socio-econom-ic paradigm of consumerism is beginning to decline. The United States is shifting gears—creakily, painfully, but of necessity—to de-velop a new economy more rooted in production, thrift, and use-value. From the ashes of consumerism, a “new productionism” is emergent.

Our appetite for goods and services in the old consumer economy spurred rapid low-density urbanization and building that stripped, leveled, and disturbed acre upon acre of arable land to service each new market-driven paradigm—from Fordist mass production, to the military-industrial complex of the cold war, to warehousing and high-volume retailing supplied by cheap global imports.

On this poster we map a remarkable process of successive change on one large parcel of land in Pico Rivera, an east-side inner sub-urb of Los Angeles. We propose a new vision of suburban retrofit-ting for the site, one rooted in a “new productionism” economy of localized food production and processing, green technology and renewable energy R & D, and education and jobs training—a new, diverse set of uses accommodated in mixed-use redevelopment that promises to be more resilient than the previous short-lived re-developments of the site. A primary driver for the proposed retrofit is transit: east-west light rail is currently planned and we propose to add a north-south “suburb to suburb” connector.

The parcel, approximately 160-acres, is adjacent to the Rio Hondo, a tributary of the Los Angeles River. In the 19th century and be-fore, the San Gabriel Valley was agricultural; many crops thrived in the rich alluvial soil. When 20th century suburbanization began rivers were channeled, boulevards and streetcar lines were con-structed, and farmland was subdivided for housing. Our parcel, however, remained farmland until 1957, when it was developed into a Ford Assembly plant. During 20+ years of production, a total of 1.4 million automobiles were assembled. After the plant closed in 1980 an aerospace company purchased it for a classified military project that at its peak employed 13,000; the project was later revealed to be the B-2 Spirit (Stealth) Bomber. When that factory closed, in 2000, Pico Rivera provided incentives to entice commercial redevelopment. A third of the site became Pico Rivera Towne Center, a big box power center, while the remainder is a warehousing complex; Pico Rivera recently adopted the highest sales tax rate in the state of California.

The future? We speculate about a more resilient, productive retro-fit for this suburban site and others like it. Redevelopment, re-in-habitation and re-greening strategies for new production are wide-ly applicable to a rapidly increasing supply of distressed suburban commercial properties in an era of uncertain oil supply and rising concern over GHG emissions. We propose linking riparian corridors and floodplains with transit nodes and vegetated transit corridors. This will improve human access to functional open space, such as community gardens, and will encourage recreational use of exist-ing bike trails. Our research suggests a new vision for re-imagin-ing productive, equitable suburban landscapes where innovation is directed towards a combination of economic and environmental recovery.

form And design: Lessons from urBAn cuLtureSuzanne Frasier, Morgan State University Dionne Hines, Morgan State University Sanjit Roy, Morgan State University

“[Architecture] must embody the difficult unity of inclusion rather than the easy unit of exclusion.” Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. 2nd ed. (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1977), 16.

Paths and edges frame urban design through the influence of ur-ban culture on urban form. Paths guide and connect: they em-phasize the physical and the metaphysical, nurture anticipation and discovery, and expose prejudice and neglect. Paths are linear, serpentine and concentric; they link moments of congregation. Exclusion turns paths into edges. Edges are crude with discerning expectation; they divide and recede. Culture is behavior towards oneself and the environment: it is explicit and implicit. Form is an interdependent mass of paths, edges and culture. Form responds to existing and perceived conditions. Design concedes to the sensibilities of each. Design is an extension of form. It is an aesthetic and programmatic response to site, environment and function. Design is the impetus and the result of culture; it exhibits form, space, connection and division. Manhattan’s High Line connects Chelsea to the Meatpacking District via a physical and metaphysical path linking visitors to the elevated rail culture of yore. Utility and artistic sensibility shape form and design. The Julliard School is an edge along the path of 65th street. Its Brutalist architecture disengages the pedestrian and discourages congregation: project housing is located one block to the west. Exclusion influences form and design. Urban forms link pockets of sanctuary. Open and compact, these vestibules of space at-tract activities of multiple intensities. Visitors congregate in pairs, groups or exist in solitude.

Paths and edges are manifestations of culture; they highlight complexity in form and design.

gLoBAL disAster immigrAtion: the future form of detroitConstance Bodurow, Lawrence Technological University Jordan Martin, Lawrence Technological University Aaron Olko

Today society is faced with the ongoing threats of the consequenc-es for the way society has abused the natural environment. There are threats of vast forest fires, effects to the micro climate, water availability, sea level rise, major tropical cyclones, droughts, and permafrost. So, what if these disasters were to occur individually or even simultaneously, what parts of the world would be effected and what parts will be safe inhabitable zones? How will the natural environment change and influence the future of urban form? How will countries deal with these issues, and have they started to?

Based on a study by both Met Office and The Earth Institute at Columbia University each of these disasters where studied, ana-


urBAnism


lyzed, and mapped to determine who would be affected based on each disaster and a compiled calculation of all disasters. At a global scale only ‘21.5%’ of the land on earth would be safe zones for inhabitation! In the United States of America only ’39.6%’ of the land would be safe zones for inhabitation, which forms a ‘spine’ between the border of the United States and Canada!

How will the disaster impact a new future urban form of the in-habitable zones? Can this study prove Detroit which is located within the habitable safe zone ‘will not’ be a shrinking city, but rather a city of future growth? What existing conditions in Detroit will be the driver for the future urban form of the city? Can the highways be an asset and act as a catalyst for Detroit to prioritize future growth?

The potential for immediate, exponential growth along the spine of the US – Canada border raises questions about the feasibility of existing urban areas to tolerate this impact. Cities such as To-ronto, Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and specifically Detroit, will have a tipping point where the burgeoning population growth will begin to act against the density it was designed to support.

In this project we look at a small area in the Southwest neigh-bourhood of the City of Detroit, directly adjacent to the central business district, named Corktown. This area was examined to identify vacant land (such as industrial brownfields and various residential parcels) to immediately facilitate exponential growth, as well as existing assets (such as built forms of cultural signifi-cance, as well as blue, green, and gray infrastructure) which may act as catalysts or platforms for future growth.

Using a method of automated growth simulations based on the parameters of existing assets and vacant parcels, we have devel-oped a strategy to withstand the tipping point and properly com-mensurate population growth. This strategy which appropriates high density in particular pockets based on the above parameters retains some existing conditions and polarizes positive urban at-tributes and negative urban attributes.

Lirr Long isLAnd rAdicALLy rezoned - A regenerAtive vision for A Living isLAndTobias Holler, New York Institute of Technology Katelyn Mulry, New York Institute of Technology Sven Peters, Atelier Sven Peters Ana Serra, Buro Happold

This proposed poster presents the author’s design research on suburban sustainability developed over the past two years and tested through a series of collaborative competition entries.

The submission was awarded first place in an international archi-tectural design competition investigating nature-based influences in design and was selected a finalist for an ideas competition to retrofit suburban downtowns.

Current paradigms of sustainability such as efficiency and conser-vation are merely slowing down but not preventing the process of resource depletion and environmental degradation. A more ambitious approach is required: Regenerative Design integrates processes that are conducive to renewing sources of energy and materials, creating closed loop systems that fulfill the needs of society while preserving the integrity of nature. Regenerative De-sign is the biomimicry of ecosystems aiming to create optimized, holistic frameworks for systems that are absolutely waste free.

Applying these principles on a regional level in the US will result in a fundamental restructuring of our predominantly suburban terri-tories. We have studied Long Island, NY for its potential to become a Regenerative Region.

Long Island’s most unique and defining condition is that of con-tainment and the island itself – a spatial entity unable to expand beyond its own footprint. By conceptually capitalizing on this ‘in-sular’ condition we developed our Living Island proposal, applying closed loop principles on a macro scale: water, energy and waste neutral and 100% local food production.

By drawing on the metabolism of the island to provide a regen-erative natural environment and to create synergies between the various resource streams the current administrative structure is eliminated in favor of a ‘proximity-to-mass-transit’ based subdivi-sion: By appropriating a geometric organization found in nature and defined by the Voronoi diagram the subdivision pattern is generated by the locations of the existing Long Island Railroad train stations. The perimeter of each polygon will be re-naturalized overtime as residents move into the newly developed downtowns.

Ultimately this will create a continuous restorative fabric for rec-reation, agriculture, and ecological corridors for habitat, a 50/50 balance between nature and man-made. The variations in exist-ing density and frequency of train stations create an organic and supremely functional land use pattern – the Smart Cells.

To obtain the area needed we capitalize on the densification po-tential of the downtowns. Four urban typologies are developed to revitalize and repopulate vacant and lifeless areas.

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the food thAt food-cArts feedJonathan H Chesley, University of Oregon

How can we transform cities into resilient and adaptable urban land-scapes that are able to sustain themselves during this, and ensuing economic, ecological and social climates? To build this durability, cities must become self-reliant for their resources: energy, water and food along with varieties of processing and production must be manifested at the local level.

This research is focused on Portland’s food-cart culture and struc-ture. It examines what role they play towards invigorating local and informal networks of food growth, production and consumption at the magnitude of household, block and neighborhood. It brings to light the ways in which food-cart owners, source, purchase, trans-port, prepare and exchange food. From this data, a series of maps were drawn demonstrating the relationships between food-carts and food-cart clusters (referred to as pods) and the greater urban forms of Portland; roads, buildings, farms, commerce, production, culture, etc…

The pods not only have an effect on the greater urban fabric of the city but also create distinct spatial experiences in their locales. Three typologies arise from these physical arrangements: the store-front, the food-courtyard and the corner market. Here we see the trans-scalar capacity of food-carts in their ability to construct local-ized hubs of activity as well as thriving connective urban tissue.

The interest behind this research is to inspire individuals to take direct action in the animation of productive cities that incorporate a holistic ethic of resource use. How can the carts be only one ex-ample of how small scale, interwoven productive units contribute to the stimulation of robust cycles in cities, directly cultivating vibrant, imaginative, playful and self-sustaining urban environments.

This research is focused on Portland’s food-cart culture and struc-ture. It examines what role they play towards invigorating local and informal networks of food growth, production and consumption at the magnitude of household, block and neighborhood. It brings to light the ways in which food-cart owners, source, purchase, trans-port, prepare and exchange food. From this data, a series of maps were drawn demonstrating the relationships between food-carts and food-cart clusters (referred to as pods) and the greater urban forms of Portland; roads, buildings, farms, commerce, production, culture, etc…

The pods not only have an effect on the greater urban fabric of the city but also create distinct spatial experiences in their locales. Three typologies arise from these physical arrangements: the store-front, the food-courtyard and the corner market. Here we see the trans-scalar capacity of food-carts in their ability to construct local-ized hubs of activity as well as thriving connective urban tissue.

The interest behind this research is to inspire individuals to take direct action in the animation of productive cities that incorporate a holistic ethic of resource use. How can the carts be only one ex-ample of how small scale, interwoven productive units contribute to the stimulation of robust cycles in cities, directly cultivating vibrant, imaginative, playful and self-sustaining urban environments.

the roLe of urBAn AgricuLture in the design And PLAnning of cities And communitiesJoongsub Kim, Lawrence Technological University

Detroit reportedly has tens of thousands of vacant properties (i.e., vacant land and buildings), that present social, economic, envi-ronmental and health threats to residents and visitors. Vacant properties present both opportunities and challenges. Detroit has been hit very hard by the current recession. There is almost no significant activity in the construction or building industry. Fore-closures and unemployment rates in Detroit are among the high-est in the nation. In response to this grim picture, an urban agri-culture movement has emerged as a sign of hope and as part of an affordable and sustainable revitalization strategy.

This project was conducted at a community outreach program of architecture school where the author teaches. The goal of this pi-lot project is to conduct an applied design research on how urban agriculture can be applied in the design and planning of cities or communities. We were inspired by Participatory Action Research (PAR), where residents play a significant role in conducting design research in collaboration with fellow stakeholders. Our studio col-laborated with several underserved urban Detroit communities. The project presented here is based on the outcomes of our study on one test site. We used a bottom-up, grassroots, community-based, collaborative approach to conducting applied research and design study. The process aimed to promote the residents’ sense of ownership about the project so it can be sustained for the long term even after our team is gone.

Our team and residents began by studying local assets. Based on the outcomes of the local asset study, we identified the three areas in the study community, each of which is defined as a po-tentially strong node (e.g., community service center, large scale urban farming center for creating jobs, and cultural center), and has a number of opportunities and unique characteristics. We then studied how to strengthen these nodes built on what is already in place. We also studied types of urban agriculture and supporting uses (e.g., retail, housing, etc.) that can reinforce each node and we explored meaningful ways to connect the three nodes. We also identified the types of vacant land and buildings throughout the community in terms of their size, location, and condition. We then investigated what types of urban agriculture, housing, retail, and community amenities are appropriate in what areas in the com-munity. The result of this collaborative project is an urban agri-culture-based, mixed use, dense residential community. It offers various types of urban agriculture, productive and creative land-scapes, and several types of retail and housing to attract diverse population groups. The proposed community consists of sever-al residential districts within walking distance of “green zones,” which include urban agriculture and open spaces. These residen-tial districts and green zones are linked with greenways. Although our student team planned and designed the community, our group and the community co-own the project outcomes and process.

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ArchitecturAL tooLingRoland Hudson, Dalhousie University

This poster presents a series of projects united under the broad banner of architectural tool making and spanning physical and computational realms while engaging with a range of media. Proj-ects shown originate from the author’s recent activity in research, consultancy and education. The poster aims to discuss some of the principles involved in making design tools and examine these through the examples given. The aim is to illustrate that good de-sign is dependent on critique, choice and development of appro-priate tools, underpinning this is the need for architectural tools that can be customised and the skills to customise. In the devel-opment of tools three factors are crucial; the ability to generalise about a function, the ability to develop a response to that demand and the need to test proposals.

The evolution of mankind is dependent on the use of tools and the development of the opposable thumb. It is useful when consider-ing the question “why make a tool?” to examine the emergence of very first basic tools such as the hammer or the arrow head and what drove their development. The tools that first appeared were the result of functional analysis, undertaken by user, of the task at hand. This subconscious analysis involved recognition or identification of a repeated task (generalisation) and would have motivated the individual to find anything durable to hand that could perform this function repeatedly. The immediate test in this primitive example would be application of the found object to cut-ting, battering or spearing this would result in some objects being discarded and others with better performance sought. Later the tool would be exposed to further tests such as portability, durabil-ity and ability to perform other related functions, all contributing to design refinement. From this basic analysis the three core com-ponents in the tool making process emerge as a cyclic sequence; generalise, develop and test. Crucially, generalise, develop and test as a sequence can be argued to be at the heart of any strin-gent research pursuit.

Similarly the same loop can be understood as a design process. Many of the tools associated with architecture and construction are being replaced with machines for computation and manufac-ture. Increasingly the tools we are presented with do not fit our purpose as they are borrowed from other disciplines and too often we allow the tools to dictate our mode of operation. The tools presented in this poster are developed by applying a combination of iterative tool refinement with design research rigour that ques-tions the appropriateness of available tools.

This work focuses on tools that link computation and manufac-turing and enable the capture and transfer of knowledge. These enable generic design procedures, integrate design and construc-tion and provide interactive learning environments. The last tool presented combines computation with physical parts to provide a fully integrated design and physical production device designed specifically for architectural purposes. This is part of a new re-search direction focused on developing an integrated kit of physi-cal and computational parts that includes procedures and meth-ods for modelling buildings, machine control and machine design.

emBrAcing fLux for muLtiPLe AgendAsJennifer Lee Michaliszyn, Wentworth Institute of Technology Patty Heyda, Washington University

Post-modernism may have ushered in responses (nostalgic as they may have been) to Modernism’s lack of diversity, but as Charles Waldheim points out, these post-modern practices “could not be sustained given the advent of mobile markets, automobile culture and the de-centralization of cultural norms.” 1 Today we stand on fragmented ground. Our physical and suburban landscapes have been eroded physically and socially as economic practices move at different scales and speeds. Aesthetic agendas are now domi-nated by economic ones; the suburban big-box store (what many might recognize as Home Depots, K-Marts, grocery stores) rep-resent just one of the typological by-products this contemporary condition. These ubiquitous structures line arterial strip-roads all across our built landscapes with their sea of impervious parking, degraded -or non-existent- public realm and massive footprints that physically divide communities. Today, as market demands wildly fluxuate, many of these boxes lose business and eventually lose viability. Increasingly they are left abandoned as scars on the landscape.

Likewise, demographic and sociological trends continue to change the ways people come together for worship services. The 2000 seat minimum church (or “mega-church”) has become increas-ingly common in the last decade or two in certain denominations. Sometimes criticized for having introduced a consumerist ethic to church-going, it is arguable that many new suburban mega-church structures have borrowed the building and planning con-ventions of familiar suburban building types (the enclosed mall, the strip-mall, the big-box store), as well as their accompanying expansive parking lots.

This project redeems the abandoned big box store by renewing the building type of the church -allowing for large or small con-gregations- and reconnecting it with its surrounding, the com-munity and local ecosystems. Both the big box and the church are re-invented through layering, aesthetically, environmentally, programmatically, socially and culturally.

The re-invented church introduces –and complicates- the idea of a public realm by multiplying realms within the single large interior space of the big box structure: At different times the hall serves as a large indoor public space, a flexible congregation area, a large community market hall, a meeting space, gym or play-scape for children.

The project is both generic and specific. It inhabits the formu-laic shells lining our peripheral landscapes. But particularities of program, together with local conditions of light, vegetation and materiality of surfaces –combine in ways that perform multiple ways and at several scales. Public space is re-introduced into the degraded landscape bringing new meaning to both the church and suburban strip, celebrating the generic for its many possibilities of diversity, mixing congregations and communities, time and space.


where do you stAnd


fLAtPAck emergency sheLterRobert Arens, California Polytechnic State University

Introduction: National and international headlines regularly point to the alarming frequency of natural disasters. Even a glance at statistics compiled by international agencies reveals the extreme costs in human life and the enormous social and economic toll of these disasters. Worse still, the frequency of natural disasters has been spiking dramatically in the 20th century, a trend that is likely to continue. To add to the problem, sheltering provided for the temporary housing of disaster victims is very basic (Port-au-Prince relied mainly on tarps) and is pressed into service for months and even years beyond its intended use. The reason for this is a persis-tent lack of economic and material resources for long-term build-ing efforts.

Although many innovative designs for emergency shelters have been proposed in the last several years, few have actually made it to the field. Our interdisciplinary team of faculty and students from the disciplines of architecture, structural engineering and material engineering saw the development of a rapidly-deployed emergency shelter with its equal emphasis on design, assembly and production as the perfect opportunity to apply the concept of versioning, a strategy that utilizes digital tools to combine form finding, the assemblage of materials and the means of fabrication in a single feedback loop that informs multiple iterations.

Project Goals: Given the realities of emergency shelters, namely that temporary shelters are often pressed into service as perma-nent housing in settings where the resources to replace it are lim-ited, the team crafted the following set of goals for the shelter de-sign: 1) efficiency, 2) lightness, 3) packability, 4) constructability, 5) adaptability and 6) re-usability. These goals address both short-term considerations of producing and providing a viable shelter, as well as longer-term considerations of the shelter’s re-use in other locations or re-purposing in terms of permanent housing.

The Versioning Process: Applying the principle of versioning, the team used digital fabrication and full-scale prototypes to expand the possibilities of design and create a true integration of the pro-cess of construction. This poster briefly discusses early versions and their evolution into the current version that uses plywood as its primary structural material. All parts are designed to be modu-lar, particularly the floor which is designed to hold all components and serve double duty as the shipping crate for the shelter. The de-sign was developed in Rhino and fabricated at full-scale using CNC technology. The precision of digital fabrication allowed friction-fit connections that reduce the reliance on hardware, lower cost, and allow simple field construction with few tools. The cladding for this prototype is recycled corrugated polypropylene in varying thick-nesses and translucencies.

Recognizing the grim reality that post-disaster rebuilding efforts are inhibited by the lack of resources, simple materials in rela-tively generic shapes were used in this project. Although there are lighter, more innovative materials available, plywood and polypro-pylene were chosen for their durability and re-usability. The idea is that as the shelters become obsolete these components can serve as the basic building materials that jumpstart rebuilding efforts.

Productive LAndscAPes: Looking At urBAn AgricuL-turAL infiLL soLutions in the shrinking city of new orLeAnsCarey Clouse, Tulane University

Covenant Farms is an urban farming initiative currently underway in downtown New Orleans. The project identifies abandoned and under-used land in the city’s post-Katrina landscape that is well-suited for food production. These lots, paired with a set of graphic tools (farming components, gardening strategies and farm layout plans) were developed by the applicant (an architecture faculty member) in partnership with the New Orleans Food and Farm Net-work. This work is just one strategy for turning some of the city’s 30,000 blighted lots into productive greenspace--- while simulta-neously helping to bridge the gap between food and table in one of the city’s central food deserts.

Beyond resurrecting abandoned lots and encouraging productive food landscapes in New Orleans, Covenant Farms introduces at-risk youth to urban farming through the work of hands-on gar-dening and a paired curriculum focused on food justice. With nearly a dozen different lots in downtown New Orleans currently under cultivation, students have cleared, planted, cultivated and harvested edibles. The gardening expertise these young people learn at Covenant Farms is now considered part of the life skills training that leads to self-sufficiency for each individual.

Covenant Farms relies on the combined expertise of a youth ad-vocacy group (Covenant House New Orleans), a local food justice and gardening group (the New Orleans Food and Farm Network), and the design services of architecture faculty and students. This team has collaborated over the last year to address the design opportunities inherent to shrinking cities and the identification of optimal vacant and blighted landscapes for food production. These ongoing efforts, both built and in the planning stages, have become catalysts for change, transforming vacant landscapes into urban agriculture.

Now in its second year, Covenant Farms showcases the partner-ships that are possible between architecture schools and their host communities. This project highlights the power of architectural design to affect positive change beyond the scale of the building, and to engage the powerful social, economic and environmental issues confronting cities in a meaningful way. Moreover, this project serves as a prototype for urban farming initiatives in other cities, replete with an open-source toolkit of best practices and design ideas.

sAturdAy, mArCh 5, 2011 - 12:30Pm - 2:00Pmwhere do you stAnd continued


the stAnd for _______ initiAtiveMichael Carroll, Southern Polytechnic State University

Inspired by the work of Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer, the poster posits a series of responses to the central question of the 99th Annual Meeting of the ACSA: Where Do You Stand?

The Stand for __________ Initiative solicits conference partici-pants to take a stand through broadcasting their position through filling in the blank of the following directive:

Stand for __________

Inspired from a series of quick e-mail exchanges between myself and an array of theoreticians, activists, architects and designers in the field, here is a list responses to get the discussion started:

Stand for Queers Stand for Infrastructure Stand for Nurbs Stand for Ideas Stand for Fundamentals Stand for Pragmatism Stand for Exuberance Stand for Difference Stand for Haiti Stand for Less Stand for Polymer Stand for Maximalism Stand for Distortion Stand for Algorithms Stand for Community Stand for Trees Stand for Performalism Stand for Things Stand for Post-humanism

The poster is meant to provoke discussion and play between the various groups of the conference. If things get heated, limited printing of some or all t-shirt designs may be warranted!

wAsted sPAce: BuiLding BoArds And Agri-mediAnsEdwin E. Akins, II, Southern Polytechnic State University

To break from the bonds of formalized references, idealized and engrained within architectural teachings of the Beaux Arts, we (practitioners and educators) must begin intense re-appropriation of the ruins of our surroundings. More importantly, we must be able to recognize what structures constitute a ruin from the myriad of architectural explorations and utilitarian constructions that con-tribute to our junk landscape. To do so, one must understand the intent of architectural practice as one in which meaning, function, purpose, and usefulness are explored as interconnected concepts (See also, Ludwig Wittgenstein: Tractatus Logico-Philisophicus). Within this zeitgeist, it can be reasonably assumed that those who seek to replace or act upon the non-purposeful ruins of our society do so as a reaction to and within defiance of structures that tend towards isolation within one of the two following conditions:

1. Naïve functionalism (pure pragmatism); the Cartesian re-ductive doctrine of checklists and scientific analogies to create utilitarian “architecture” 2. Aesthetics (pure art); the prioritization of visual order and the sublime to create objects of idealized visual interest.

In like manner, therefore, the architecture of these responsive acts may be seen as a search for the usefulness of buildings and struc-tures. Seeking, instead, “…the morphology of architecture [that] relates to the proper sequence of operations, an order that insists that the point of origin lies in the demand of some functional need or appetite to be matched in its counter-form in building. In the fine arts, form is born out of previous form. This is not so with architecture, for which form is born out of use, shaped by use, energized by use, and (Alberti’s phrase) ‘embellished by use’” As such, “architecture is incontestably one of the practical arts, whose obligation is to serve ends other than itself. We have therefore had to look again at the complex nature of an art that can place itself at the service of causes that lie far outside its own discipline.” [SOURCE: Wilson, Colin St. John. “The Ethics of Architecture”]

Following this path towards an architecture of re-appropriation, it seems logical to find more meaning in the utilitarian and provision within that which has been wasted through the rapid urbanization (or suburbanization) or our landscapes. Form without meaning is, to architecture, as advertisement without substantiation, is to merchandise. Both result in a complete distrust in the author and both lay ruin to the space between the object and the user.

This poster displays a provocative search for purposeful uses in residual landscapes, and is intended to signify that it is possible to arrive at designed solutions for our social and architecturally abandoned environments. The poster captures two projects, Agri-Medians and Building-Boards, as hypothetical futures for margin-alized spaces and settlements. Agri-medians, were born out of daily observations and an awareness of the constant upkeep and expenditure of city resources on residual tracts of land within road networks wherein the homeless often reside. Building-Boards, ex-plore the beneficial relationship that is possible between corporate advertising dollars and homeless rehabilitation.

sAturdAy, mArCh 5, 2011 - 12:30Pm - 2:00Pmwhere do you stAnd continued


AbstrACts from the AssoCiAtion of ColleGiAte sChools of ArChiteCture 99th AnnuAl meetinG in montréAl, CAnAdA

Address 1735 new york Avenue, nw wAshinGton, dC 20006 tel 202.785.2324 fAx 202.628.0448 web www.ACsA-ArCh.orG

sAturdAy, mArCh 5, 2011 - 12:30Pm - 2:00Pm - Association of

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