INTRODUCTION

The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, IAUS or Institute for short, is a 501

(c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the study of architecture in the

city. It offers intensive individualized design tutorials to students who are interested in

architecture at all scales of its expression. Particular emphasis is placed on

architecture as a cultural activity, how architecture intersects other disciplines, how

advanced technology is used to create new environments, how new ways of living,

work and play transform our buildings and how collaboration creates a new paradigm

of practice.

IAUS (1967-1984)

IAUS (1967-1984)

HISTORY

The IAUS developed its curriculum in collaboration with a group of liberal arts colleges and universities and began its

undergraduate education program in 1973. The program was open to students from a consortium of distinguished liberal

arts colleges and provided an architectural component as a supplement to traditional liberal arts studies. Five schools and

twelve students participated in the Institute’s first academic year (1974), rising to sixteen colleges and 35 students in 1978.

The program was organized around a rigorous sequence in the history and theory of architecture and an intensive design

tutorial taught by the Institute’s fellows. Like Princeton, Columbia, Yale and Cooper Union, where architecture is taught at

the undergraduate level as a concentration, the Institute is not accredited.

In 1977 began the design/study options to give students enrolled in a six-year professional degree program the opportunity

to participate in the academic program. Since the Institute was not a degree-granting institution, credit for the program was

provided by the student’s own institution.

IAUS (1967-1984)

The old Institute was founded in 1967 as a non-

profit independent agency concerned with

research, education and development in

architecture and urbanism. It began as a core group

of young architects seeking alternatives to

traditional forms of education and practice. Peter

Eisenman was appointed as the Institute’s first

Executive Director followed by Anthony Vidler

(1982), Mario Gandelsonas (1983) and Stephen

Petersen (1984).

In 1985 the Institute for Architecture and Urban

Studies ceased to exist.The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies c. 1978(from Left to Right) Diana Agrest, Peter Eisenman, Mario Gandelsonas, Anthony Vidler

IAUS (2003-present)

IAUS (2003-present)

The Institute re-opened after being closed for

nearly 20 years in 2003 due in a large part in the

9/11 renewal awareness in the critical impact of

built form—how it is experienced, mediated,

remembered and imaged—on our daily lives. At

the same time, this new awakening in the power

and role of architecture exposed a need for an

independent, multidisciplinary think-tank, or

pedagogical “free speech zone”, in which to

question, provoke, debate, experiment, explore

and rethink the future of the metropolis at all

scales.

IAUS (2003-present)

While there are other architecture organizations in New York like the Architecture League, and the Van Alen Institute,

they are primarily places for exhibitions and lectures. They provided little in the way of debate, criticism, multidisciplinary

experimentation, progressive education, improvisation and applied theory. While schools of architecture like Columbia,

Cooper Union, and Pratt have better success at creating greater intellectual friction and stimulation than the above

mentioned private organizations, they are to a great degree hampered by the requirements of professional accreditation.

Over the past 30 years there has been one independent organization that combined all the qualities of critical

experimentation, and multi-disciplinary education- The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (1968-84).

IAUS (2003-present)

The Institute’s goal is to keep alive the improvisational spirit that made the Institute at its apogee a mecca for than young

architects and critics like Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas, Aldo Rossi, Charles Gwarthmey, Frank Gehry, Diana Agrest,

Mario Gandelsons, Rafael Moneo, Robert Stern, Bernard Tschumi, Michael Graves, Richard Meier, Kenneth Frampton,

Manfredo Tafuri and Anthony Vidler, among others. Yet this is a new Institute for a new generation and a new time.

While the original Institute helped shape much of the autonomous theoretical discourse that dominated architectural

culture in the last 30 years of the 20th century, the new Institute will concentrate more on applied theory and research

utilizing new technology, cross-disciplines, materials and methods to discover and illuminate the conditions (and pre-

conditions) of the built environment, mediated events and social networks that influence the way we live, work and play

in the city of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

CURRICULUM

SEMESTERS

FALL SEMESTER

From early September to mid-December, approximately thirteen weeks of

classes with allowance for Thanksgiving holiday.

SPRING SEMESTER

From early February to mid-May, approximately thirteen weeks of classes

with allowance for Spring break.

SUMMER SEMESTER

From early June to early August, approximately eight weeks of classes with

allowance for July 4th holiday.

COURSES

DESIGN STUDY INTRO (DSI)

A one semester design and research oriented program open to undergraduate students from undergraduate

university programs in the United States as well as international students studying abroad. One intensive semester

design program, Spring or Fall.

This is a comprehensive and rigorous program designed to be tailored to individual students with varying

backgrounds and experience. The semester focuses on history, analysis, theory and applied theory in architecture

and urban design.

The semester long program is divided into two phases:

Phase I : Research and Documentation

Phase II : Investigation and Transformation

COURSES

SUMMER PROGRAM (SP)

An intensive eight week semester in career discovery, research, analysis and design open to local high school

juniors, seniors and all college undergraduates both foreign and domestic.

COURSE STRUCTURE

Our goal is to engage and excite students within the context of humanistic pedagogy, realizing that some of the

participants may choose fields of development outside architecture once graduated.

The core of the education program shall be the design studio. It shall also be the physical core of the Institute’s

space. Students shall have individual desks but different group of students shall share a singular large room.

Kevin Kennon, Greg Lynn, et. al. (not pictured) critiquing student work.

COURSE STRUCTURE

DESK CRITIQUES

Students shall meet two afternoons a week with their design instructor and advisors. The desk critiques will be

treated as a “working” session, the instructors and advisors will guide and help students develop their ideas and

concepts into an architectural proposal.

Emphasis shall be placed on developing project sites within the city of New York, allowing students to experience

and interact with existing conditions into which their project is inserted. Research shall play a major role in

developing projects, and formulating ideas, multi-media projects and representations encouraged.

COURSE STRUCTURE

DESIGN TUTORIALS

Tutorials in the latest and innovative 2D and 3D software the architectural field uses today will be given over the

course of the semester. These tutorials shall provide the participant with design and digital tools that integrates

2D and 3D design principles with digital media and software applications. The studio shall develop the participant’s

ability to visualize design problems, explore, test and adapt solutions through a variety of media from drawing, to

physical models to digital animation and video. The class shall offer an integrated format of technological and

design tools as well as cover from basic geometrical constructs of points-lines and planes to the more complex

arrangements of volumes and space.

COURSE STRUCTURE

DIGITAL PIN-UPS

Students shall meet one afternoon a week with all of the Institute faculty to formally present their work in a digital

presentation. Criticism shall be rigorous and constructive and follow established architectural “review” format.

COURSE STRUCTURE

MID-TERM + FINAL REVIEWS

There is a scheduled Mid-Term Review and Final Review where invited members of the architectural community,

as well as a select few outside of architecture, apart from the Institute’s faculty and administration are invited to

view and critique the work produced by the students. The invited members of the jury provides students with a

fresh perspective of the student’s cumulative work.

ORGANIZATION

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Kevin Kennon, Executive Director

Greg Lynn

Bruce Becker, Chairman & Treasurer

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

Stan Allen Elizabeth Diller Greg Lynn

Julie Bargmann Jesse Reiser Kevin Kennon

BOARD OF ADVISORS

Diana Agrest Peter Eisenman Francois DeMenil Lynne Breslin

Mario Gandelsonas Christine Boyer Ben Van Berkel David Friend

Ralph Lerner Charles Gwathmey Enrique Norten Kurt Anderson

Sanford Kwinter Beatriz Colomina Bernard Tschumi Toyo Ito

Sarah Whiting Wes Jones Galia Solomonoff Frank Gehry

Alejandro Zaera Polo John S. Johnson III Fabian Marcaccio Mark Tribe

Glenn S. Arden, General Counsel

ORGANIZATION

ADMINISTRATION

Kevin Kennon, Executive Director

Julia Suna Choi, Assistant Director

Nicole Gitau, Accounting Administrator

Fumio Hirakawa, Advisor

Anika Hedberg, Advisor

FELLOWS

Andrew Blum Katharine Ives Jack Phillips

Kathy Chia Pablo Jendretzki Galia Solomonoff

Jonas Coersmeier Franklin Lee Robert Young

Marc Hacker Henry Meyerberg

INSTITUTE

ADMISSIONS

The Institute does not award degrees and is not NCARB accredited. All credits

are awarded by the student’s own institution.

FEES

The cost of tuition is $5,750 for the Fall/Spring semester and $3,750 for the

Summer semester.

AWARDS

There are no awards at this time.

FINANCIAL AID

There is no financial aid at this time.

HOUSING

Student housing is available at The

Octagon, a landmark historic building on

Roosevelt Island, Manhattan.

More information on the Octagon can be

found on the website:

www.octagonnyc.com.

Cost of housing is $5,000 per semester.

FACILITIES

Individual work stations for each student with access to network printers, scanners and internet. A computer is supplied to

each student with the latest in necessary software:

- Autocad - Adobe Photoshop - Microsoft Word

- Rhino - Adobe Illustrator - Microsoft Powerpoint

- 3D Studio Max - Adobe InDesign - Microsoft Excel

- Maya - Adobe Lightroom - Google Earth

SUGGESTED READING

- A Thousand Years of Non-Linear History by Manuel De Landa

- Delirious New York by Rem Koolhaas

- Collage City by Colin Rowe & Fred Koetter

- Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity by Gregory Bateson

- Techniques and Technologies in Morphogenetic Design by Michael Hensel et.al.

- The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard

- Species of Spaces by George Perec

- Modern Architecture: A Critical History by Kenneth Frampton

- Diagram Diaries by Peter Eisenman

- Index Architecture by Bernard Tschumi

- A History of Architecture by Sir Bannister Fletcher

- The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History by Spiro Kostoff

- The City Assembled: The Elements Of Urban Form Through History by Spiro Kostoff

- Folding in Architecture by Greg Lynn

- Folding Architecture: Spatial, Structural and Organization Diagrams by Sophia Vyzoviti

- The Projective Cast: Architecture and Its Three Geometries by Robin Evans

- A Thousand Plateaus by Deleuze & Guattari

- Architecture and the City by Aldo Rossi

- Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

RESOURCES

Students will have complete access to all the major

learning institutions situated in New York City.

- New York Public Library

- Center for Architecture

- Avery Library

- Bobst Library

- Cooper Union Library

- Parsons Library

- Pratt Library

- Urban Book Center

- all of Manhattan

EVENTS

VARIOUS INSTITUTIONS HOLD EVENTS, LECTURES

AND FORUMS FOR THE PUBLIC

The Architectural League of New York

The Van Alen Institute

Center for Architecture

Columbia University

The Cooper Union

Pratt University

Parsons New School of Design

New York Institute of Technology

Museum of Modern Art

New Museum

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Studio X

Cooper-Hewitt Museum

PUBLICATIONS

Opposition 5 published the Summer of 1976

The first copy of Oppositions, a journal of ideas and

criticism in architecture, appeared in 1974. October,

a quarterly publication devoted to contemporary

art is still being published.

The Institute is developing a new journal devoted to

architecture, media and the city. Since the demise

of Assemblage, ANY, Progressive Architecture and

now Architecture Magazine, there is a need for a

new independent journal. The mission of the

journal is to publish original articles and projects

from around the world as well as identify and focus

on the work of emerging architects, designers and

Institute sponsored events and projects.

AFFILATIONS

HAMPSHIRE COLLEGEKatie Irwin, Director of the Global Education Office (GEO) for the Five Colleges

Thom Long, Director of the Five College Architectural Studies Program

Karen Koehler, Hampshire College Advisor

AMHERST COLLEGECarol C. Clarke, Amherst College Advisor

MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGEMike Davis, Mt. Holyoke College Advisor

NYU - GALLATIN SCHOOLJohn Lang, NYU Gallatin School Advisor

CONCLUSION

FUTURE

The new Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies is dedicated to improving the quality of

education, debate, thought and action about rethinking the metropolis through architecture,

media and urbanism. Unlike other associations as the Architectural League, and the Van Allen

Institute, Harvard's "Career Discovery", or Columbia's New York/Paris Program in Architecture,

the Institute expands, re-defines and re-thinks many of the features of the old Institute for

Architecture and Urban Studies in its dedication to being first and foremost a school for the study

of progressive architecture, new media and urban studies. Secondly, it has a distinct point of

view, namely to support and promote greater understanding by rethinking the traditional role

that architecture, urban design and planning play in how we experience and imagine the city. For

too long architects have neglected both the social and material consequences of the built

environment by retreating into formalistic, theoretical or purely aesthetic exercises. The digital

revolution has provided a new way for architecture to be realized by engaging and reflecting

more precisely the diversity of how we live, work and play in the 21st century.

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