On Tuesday, April 13 at 6:30 pm, the ACSA held its Annual Business Meeting via Zoom. Faculty at all ACSA member schools were invited to join us. The meeting is an opportunity for the board of directors to update the membership on ACSA’s activities and to hold some structured conversations on change happening in architectural education.
Business Meeting Agenda
1. Call to Order
2. Introduction of ACSA Board of Directors and Newly Elected Members
3. New Member School Registration
4. Breakout Sessions Moderated by ACSA Directors
a. President’s Report b. Vice President’s Report c. Treasurer’s Report
5. Confirm Member School Registration, First Notice for New Business
6. Breakout Sessions Moderated by ACSA Directors
7. New Business
Questions? Need to confirm or change your Faculty Councilor (full member schools only)? Please contact the ACSA office at info@acsa-arch.org.
Carpenter will lecture on “Light in the Public Realm.” This lecture will focus on a 40-year trajectory of work that brings agency to the presence of light, allowing it to reveal the properties and presence of nature within our built environment.
James Carpenter has worked at the intersection of art, engineering and the built environment for 50 years, advancing a distinctive vision based on the use of natural light and glass as the foundational elements of the built environment. Carpenter founded the cross-disciplinary design firm James Carpenter Design Associates in 1979 to support the application of these aesthetic principles to large-scale building projects.
Carpenter has been recognized with numerous national and international awards, including an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture in 2008 and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. He holds a degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and was a Loeb Fellow of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.
The lecture will be livestreamed. The link will be live on March 29.
For disability-related accommodations for the College of Architecture and Design’s virtual events, please contact the college’s event coordinator, Jennifer Flatford, at jflatford@utk.edu or 865-974-6714, at least two weeks in advance of the event.
In 2021, AGC Glass North America partnered with the UT College of Architecture and Design to fund lectures by renowned design professionals whose work emphasizes the use of glass. The AGC Glass Lectures are part of the college’s lecture series to supplement the education of students and elevate the profession in the community. Read more information about the college’s full lecture series.
As architects and urban professionals engaged in the stewardship of the built environment, we are challenged to reconsider the future of architecture, cities, and the pedagogies with which we endeavor to understand the spatial dimensions of humanity’s wellbeing. Are our building sciences adequate to address the calamities of future pandemics, economic inequity, and other social pathologies? Emboldened by an unflinching belief in technological prowess, have we forgotten the time-tested passive methods of keeping buildings healthy and economical? Are we developing our cities turning a blind eye to the systemic racial and gender injustices that plague our cities? Have we undermined the power of empathy in user-conscious space-making?
The Spring Panel Series 2021 at the Catholic University of America Architecture plans to develop a critical conversation on post-pandemic thinking on spatiality (Feb. 22), urbanity (Mar. 15), and pedagogy (APR. 12). Adnan Morshed, professor at the School of Architecture and Planning, CUA, will moderate the panels that include academics, architects, urban planners.
Architecture professor’s firm named Emerging Voices competition winner
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Low Design Office (LOWDO), an architecture and integrated design firm co-founded by DK Osseo-Asare, assistant professor of architecture and engineering design at Penn State, has been named a winner of the Architectural League of New York’s Emerging Voices 21 competition.
Established in 1982, the Emerging Voices award spotlights individuals and firms based in the United States, Canada and Mexico with distinct design voices and the potential to influence the disciplines of architecture, landscape design and urbanism.
Based in Austin, Texas, and Tema, Ghana, LOWDO explores the links between sustainability, technology and geopolitics. The firm’s projects search to find optimal balance between design and resource consumption — to achieve the “most” with the “least.”
LOWDO has earned numerous international accolades in recent years and was named one of the 50 best emerging architecture practices in the world Domus magazine in 2020. The firm was featured in Architect magazine’s “Next Progressives” list in 2019, was a finalist for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program that same year and was recognized as an emerging architecture firm in the December 2017/January 2018 issues of Architectural Review.
Osseo-Asare and Ryan Bollom, LOWDO co-founders and principals, started the practice in 2006 while they were students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The firm was created around the idea that transformative innovation in creative fields “most often originates when the creator must overcome limited means and resources to provide meaning in their work.”
LOWDO will be featured in the Emerging Voices lecture series at 6 p.m. on March 18. More information about the event, which is free and open to the public but requires advanced registration, can be found on the Architecture League’s website.
Please join us for the new SCIAME Lecture Series, titled And/Or. “Geographies of Absence and Loss” will featureMaram Masarwiand Ahlam Shibli, hosted by Sean Anderson, for a discussion of art and architecture.
Free and open to the public – Please register for this Zoom event here.
In this online series, curators Viren Brahmbhatt, Ali C. Höcek, and Martin Stigsgaard argue that the traditional format of a single lecturer speaking to an audience sets up a binary opposite all of its own — speaker/listener, which simply reinforces the power structure between those who “possess” knowledge and those who “consume” it. In its place, the &/Or Online Dialogues will present two speakers in conversation with each other, moderated by a third. The series features prominent artists, activists, and architects from across the globe who will discuss their work and the unique political and environmental challenges they confront.
Maram Masarwi is currently a lecturer and researcher at Tel Aviv University and the head of the Education Department at Al Qasemi College of Education. Masarwi holds a PhD from the Department of Social Work at Hebrew University. Her dissertation addressed “gender differences in bereavement and trauma among Palestinian parents who lost their children in the Al-Aqsa Intifada.” Masarwi was a postdoctoral Fellow at the Europe in the Middle East-The Middle East in Europe (EUME), Forum of Transregional Studies at the Free University of Berlin. Her areas of research have included Palestinian archives, memory and commemoration in Palestinian society, loss and bereavement in Palestinian society, and gender and nationalism in the Middle East. Among her resent publications are The Bereavement of Martyred Palestinian Children: Gendered, Religious and National Perspectives (2019) and “Dialectic of the National Identities in Palestinian Society and Israeli Society: Nationalism and Binationalism,” in The Arab and Jewish Questions, Geographies of Engagement in Palestine and Beyond (2020).
Ahlam Shibli was born in 1970, in Palestine. Through a documentary aesthetic, her photographic work addresses the contradictory implications of the notion of home; it deals with its loss of and the fight against that loss, as well as with the restrictions and limitations that the idea of home imposes on individuals and communities marked by repressive identity politics.
Shibli’s work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions internationally. Her work includes the photographic series Staring (2016–2017), photographed in both al-Khalil/Hebron (Palestine) and Kassel (Germany). Her series Heimat (2016–2017) refers to expellees and refugees of German descent and the so-called guest workers, or Gastarbeiter, from the Mediterranean region, both of whom migrated to Kassel and the surrounding area as a result of the Second World War. Occupation (2016–2017), another series of photographs, is based on the destruction of Palestinian livelihoods in al-Khalil/Hebron and the occupied territories by the Israeli colonial regime and the actions of Zionist settlers. Ramallah Archive (2014) points to ways of reorganizing collective and individual existence encountered in files and photographic negatives found in the Ramallah Municipality Archive. Death (2011–2012) shows the efforts of Palestinian society to preserve the presence of those who have lost their lives fighting against the Israeli occupation. Eastern LGBT (2004/2006) illustrates the bodies of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from Oriental societies as a contested primary home. These and other of Shibli’s works have been extensively exhibited and published, including the monographs, Ahlam Shibli (2020) and Ahlam Shibli: Phantom Home (2013).
Sean Anderson is Associate Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art. A Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, he has practiced as an architect and taught in Afghanistan, Australia, India, Italy, Morocco, Sri Lanka and the U.A.E. His second book, In-Visible Colonies: Modern Architecture and its Representation in Colonial Eritrea (2015), was nominated for an AIFC Book Prize in Non-Fiction. In 2020, he co-curated the exhibition On Muzharul Islam: Surfacing Intention at the Dhaka Art Summit. At MoMA, he has organized the exhibitions Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter (2016-17), Thinking Machines: Art and Design in the Computer Age, 1959-89 (2017-2018), as well as collaborative collection displays including Surrounds (2019), Inner and Outer Space (2019-2020),and Building Citizens (Present). Sean manages the Young Architects Program (YAP) and the Issues in Contemporary Architecture series. His next exhibition, co-organized with Mabel O. Wilson, Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America, opens on February 20, 2021.
Please join us for the new SCIAME Lecture Series, titled And/Or. “Architecture and Geographies of Difference” will feature Balkrishna Doshi and Barry Bergdoll for a discussion of art and architecture.
Free and open to the public – Please register for this Zoom event here.
In this online series, curators Viren Brahmbhatt,Ali C. Höcek, andMartin Stigsgaard argue that the traditional format of a single lecturer speaking to an audience sets up a binary opposite all of its own — speaker/listener, which simply reinforces the power structure between those who “possess” knowledge and those who “consume” it. In its place, the &/Or Online Dialogues will present two speakers in conversation with each other, moderated by a third. The series features prominent artists, activists, and architects from across the globe who will discuss their work and the unique political and environmental challenges they confront.
Balkrishna Doshi (B.V. Doshi), the first from India to be awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize (2018), is one of the pioneers of modernist architecture in India. In a career spanning about seven decades, Doshi completed more than 100 projects, many of which were public institutions based in India: schools, libraries, art centers, and low-cost housing. His understated buildings adapted the principles he learned from working with Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn to the needs of people while considering India’s traditions, lifestyles, and environment. Doshi is an important figure in Indian architecture and noted for his contribution to the evolution of architectural discourse in India.
His more noteworthy designs include the IIM Bangalore, IIM Udaipur, NIFT Delhi, Amdavad ni Gufa, CEPT University, and the Aranya Low-Cost Housing development in Indore which was awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. He has also been awarded the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan — two of the four highest civilian awards conferred by the Government of India.
Barry Bergdoll is the Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History at Columbia University and the former Chief Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2007-2014). A specialist in the history of modern architecture, he has curated exhibitions at MoMA, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Musée d’Orsay, and other venues, including Mies in Berlin (2001), Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity (2009-2010), Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront (2010), Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955-1980 (2015) and Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive (2017). In addition to the catalogues for those exhibitions he is the author of numerous books and articles including most recently of Marcel Breuer: Building Global Institutions (2017; with Jonathan Massey), European Architecture 1750-1890 (2000), and Karl Friedrich Schinkel: An Architecture for Prussia (1994).
A former President of the Society of Architectural Historians, Bergdoll is the President of the Board of the Center for Architecture, New York.
Illinois School Of Architecture Announces New Cesar Pelli Distinguished Lecture Series
The Illinois School of Architecture is pleased to announce the establishment of the César Pelli Distinguished Lecture Series. The Pelli Lecture Series has been made possible through the generous estate gift of world-renowned architect and celebrated Illinois Architecture alumnus César Pelli. Pelli received his Master of Science in Architecture degree in 1954 from the University of Illinois and went on to design some of the world’s most iconic buildings, most notably the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.
Rafael Pelli reflected on his father’s fond memories of the University of Illinois campus, “Coming to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from Argentina was a seminal moment in my father’s life and career. I remember walking on campus with him while our firm was working on the BIF [Gies College of Business Instructional Facility] project. He remembered his time here very fondly and was very appreciative of the support the University gave to a young man away from his country and family for the first time with no money or connections. The Dean of Students helped him with housing and some teaching work. The Director of the School of Architecture introduced him to an acquaintance in Eero Saarinen’s office for a summer job interview, and he later spent 10 years with the firm. He was struck by the communal aspect of University life, so different than his school experience in Argentina, and my parents always remembered the joy of spending evenings in the Illini Union. He was forever grateful for the opportunity to start a new life at UIUC.”
The Illinois School of Architecture will welcome internationally recognized architect Toshiko Mori as the inaugural César Pelli Visiting Lecturer. Toshiko Mori, founder of the New York-based Toshiko Mori Architect firm and the think tank Vision Arc, will kick off the César Pelli Distinguished Lecture Series on March 3. Mori, a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Design and the Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, is well known for her research-based approach to design. Visiting lecturers, like Mori, will engage students in multi-day co-teaching efforts of graduate studio learning and discussion sessions with faculty and students.
“We are extremely fortunate to have Toshiko Mori as our inaugural Pelli Lecturer,” shared Francisco Rodríguez-Suárez, director of the Illinois School of Architecture. “Aside from knowing César personally, Toshiko is well respected both as a professor and a practitioner. Our academic community will benefit immensely from the various events in which we will share her ideas and experience. This is exactly the kind of energy I wish to imbue within the ethos of our School.”
Other upcoming distinguished visiting lecturers include Mark Raymond, Illinois School of Architecture’s Plym Distinguished Professor and prominent Illinois Architecture alumna Trina Sandschafer. Raymond, director of the Graduate School of Architecture (GSA) in Johannesburg, will lead a joint studio between students in Urbana and Africa, and Sandschafer will co-teach an urban housing studio in Chicago with Christina Bollo. You can register for the Toshiko Mori lecture and other upcoming Cesar Pelli Lectures by visiting arch.illinois.edu/about-us/events.
Social Justice Advocate and Urban Designer Destiny Thomas to Deliver Causier Lecture at UW-Milwaukee
MILWAUKEE – Destiny Thomas, a noted anthropologist, entrepreneur and social justice advocate, will deliver the 2021 Charles Causier Memorial Lecture at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at UW-Milwaukee.
Thomas’ talk, titled “Un-planning Cities: reparative design and atonement in the built environment,” will be take place online on Friday, March 5, at 2 p.m. Please register for the Department of Urban Planning’s annual keynote lecture at this UWM webpage.
Thomas, founder and CEO of the Thrivance Group, is recognized as a national thought leader in designing more equitable cities. Her perspectives help challenge the status quo of professional practices and envision a more equitable and just future.
Thomas’ ideas are particularly relevant for Milwaukee, often ranked as one of the nation’s most segregated urban areas, and in light of protests over racial and social inequality during the last year in southeastern Wisconsin and around rest of the country.
An anthropologist planner from Oakland, California, Thomas has a combined 15 years of experience in nonprofit management and project management in government agencies, including the California Department of Transportation and the City of Los Angeles. Thomas has led advancements in racial equity initiatives in California for more than a decade. She focuses on urban planning, policy writing and organizational development in communities most affected by racial inequities.
“Thomas challenges urban planners and other urbanists to examine their own role in creating racial injustice, particularly in the built environment,” said Robert Schneider, an associate professor of urban planning at UWM. The department recruited Thomas specifically for her emphasis on equity issues associated with planning.
Land-use and infrastructure patterns in southeastern Wisconsin play a role in erecting barriers and denying equal opportunities for residents, particularly those living in the central city, Schneider said. Actions by policymakers, residents, stakeholders and urban planners can contribute to segregated neighborhoods, limited opportunities to access jobs and health care via public transit and streets that prioritize high-speed traffic over local resident interaction and foot traffic for businesses.
Thomas’ interests include: harm-reductive planning, implementing the dignity-infused community engagement methodology, anti-displacement studies, healing environmental and infrastructural trauma, and bolstering agency and voice in marginalized communities within municipal planning processes. She launched the Thrivance Group in 2020 to address these issues. As a culturally rooted, trauma-informed enterprise, Thrivance works to build capacity for those values within municipal agencies, direct service providers and advocacy organizations.
“Milwaukee is an important place to begin the work of improving urban spaces for all, especially the groups Dr. Thomas identifies as marginalized,” Schneider said. “We welcome her to help open our minds to policies and practices that better advance equity and justice in the built environment.”
Thomas was featured on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in July 2020 for her work. Thomas and the Thrivance Group also host the Unurbanist Assembly, a 23-hour, digital event in which more than 8,000 people last year participated in a virtual teach-in that focused on anti-racist frameworks in urban planning, public health and social services sectors. The next Unurbanist Assembly is scheduled to take place in June.
Schneider is available for interviews ahead of the Causier lecture by contacting him at rjschnei@uwm.edu. Thomas also is available for interviews and can be contacted through Schneider.
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