2018 Intersections Symposium

MASS Design’s Michael Murphy will facilitate an interactive discussion of two projects presented by two architects, which provide very different examples of addressing social resilience and design in communities. Brief presentations and handouts will allow the audience to engage in the conversation. Social resilience addresses changes resulting from environmental, social or political stresses and it engages stakeholders in the process. Learn how resilient design can help communities and add to your firm’s knowledge base and reputation.

Innovative solutions to social issues in the built environment were the result of these two projects from architects, Whitney Moon and Michelle Laboy. Students at the Univ. of Wisconsin explored pneumatic technology, mobility, sociability, and environmental responsibility and designed, prototyped, and fabricated a nomadic inflatable structure in answer to community need. Our second project in Boston focused on urban resilience for the homeowner by addressing the existing urban fabric of repetitive, residential buildings that architects have historically neither designed nor studied. Through a data-model developed from publicly available information, an online tool was created to simulate comfort, energy use, response to natural hazards, etc. It is available to the public and will improve the resilience of individuals and their communities.

Enhance your knowledge of ways you can use technology to advance your design solutions by developing your knowledge of prototyping, biomimicry, and the use of public data to inform projects. All will differentiate your practice and address public health, safety and welfare.

Noted architect, Billie Faircloth, AIA, Kieran Timberlake, will lead an interactive discussion of two projects presented by two architects, Cordula Roser Gray, AIA, Tulane School of Architecture, and Vera Parlac, University of Calgary. Brief presentations and handouts will allow the audience to engage in the conversation as they learn how technology can aid innovative solutions through the use of data, sensors, materials, biomimicry, modeling, structural innovations and more. The projects address design issues, while engaging citizens and other stakeholders, and showcases cutting edge research in adaptive building systems, material sciences, environmental, urban ecology, adaptation and embedded technologies, particularly as they relate to climate change, resiliency and sustainability.

DataField (shown below), developed in New Orleans, post-Katrina, addresses strategies for resilient communities that face challenges and opportunities to live with water. These strategies include urban hydrology management, citizen-engaged science, visualization strategies, data and sensors, and urban prototyping. Our second example (above) comes from the results of several senior research studios focused on material technologies, kinetics, synthetic biology and robotics in architectural systems and how technology can empower architecture to connect spaces, users and environment as one path to resilience. New construction materials and methods will be showcased along with benefits of research and technology in designing for the future.