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University of Nebraska–Lincoln

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University of Nebraska Students Helps Rural Community Seeking Affordable Housing Solutions-

Across Nebraska, many communities are facing a housing crisis. A shortage of affordable rental properties for low-income families and skyrocketing housing construction prices make homeownership a lofty goal for many. In particular, the housing crunch has caused economic hardships for the rural, tourist town of Valentine, Nebraska. This semester, one of the College of Architecture’s Collaborate Studios, led by Assistant Professor Nate Bicak and Associate Professor Steve Hardy, is partnering with Valentine city officials and Hoppe Homes to design proposals for rural housing.

“There just aren’t enough houses available,” said Bicak. “They have a lot of old housing stock and new construction costs are out of range for many potential buyers. That means when people come for jobs in the community, in various kinds of positions, a lot of times they’ll shop for residences, in towns that might be 20 minutes, or 20 miles away. Obviously, the city doesn’t see this as a viable long-term solution.”

The shortage is pushing the costs of low- to middle-income housing up and affecting the affordability of housing in the area. That lack of availability means people are forced to settle for housing that may be above their financial means. So, Valentine city officials and stakeholders are looking at housing options aimed at combating the problem in the community.

As part of the exploration process, the studio, consisting of teams of fourth year architecture and interior design plus construction management graduate students, studied issues such as increasing housing density in Valentine, affordability, sustainability, construction methods and understanding user groups for a holistic picture of the housing situation. Normally, a studio site visit would initiate the semester. However, as studio instructors Bicak and Hardy explain, the COVID pandemic presented some obstacles and some opportunities. With travel restrictions, the students were not able to visit Valentine for their initial community engagement meeting. Instead, Hardy traveled to Valentine to arrange a virtual meeting for the students and Valentine residents. He set up seven laptop stations so Valentine residents could visit with the students via Zoom and discuss the housing issues locals are facing. Hardy explains this studio was not just designed to be a design exploration studio but also a community engagement studio.

“We’re engaged with the community and the developer, in terms of helping them establish the project parameters while giving the students something to relate and react to when developing their design concepts. Hopefully, our ideas will spur momentum in this community and offer solutions they can act on to help solve the housing shortage in Valentine.”

The scope of the student designs ranged from neighborhood development, to architectural multiplexing and detailed interior space creation. The students developed four prototypical designs for four different in-fill lot conditions for stakeholders to examine. Community engagement projects like this are about raising awareness and exploring affordable housing solutions.

“Traditionally, building developers tend to do one of two things, they build a duplex, or a 14 to 28 unit multi-plex,” Hardy said. “We are challenging our students and the community to think about all the possibilities in between, from row houses, to mansion apartments, to four- to six-plexes. We ask them to think about generating small pocket neighborhoods and neighborhood concepts with different types of housing. I think getting to have conversations with the students, community stakeholders, and housing developers can be a testing ground for those ideas.”

Travel issues aside, the pandemic did present some unexpected opportunities. After getting used to Zoom technology and meeting online to discuss progress and ideas, the instructors noticed they were meeting more frequently with their community partners than they would if the pandemic was not occurring.

“Normally, we may have seen the mayor and the developer once in this process. Now I think that it’s been like three or four times that those two have met with the students,” said Bicak. “Post pandemic, we’re probably going to use online technologies like this more often, not as a replacement for in-person meetings but a supplement to, removing traditional location-based barriers for our students and enabling more remote community engagements.”

Working on projects that have a potential to impact the community are highly sought-after studios for students. It gives them an opportunity to apply their theoretical work to real life situations.

“It is always exciting when there is a chance that your design will be selected for implementation,” said fourth-year interior design student Magrieta Coolidge-Van Duren. “The opportunity to design lower-income housing that falls within a budget but doesn’t cut corners on curb appeal and amenities is an important challenge that will likely be a well of knowledge that we will be able to draw upon throughout our careers.”

After the semester ends, the student concepts will be used to forward the conversation about affordable housing solutions in the Valentine community by developers and stakeholders.

“We are using the student designs in an affordable housing project proposal for an allocation of tax credits from the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority that would bring 15 new rental housing units and utilize unused, existing lots in the community,” said Jake Hoppe, vice president of development and finance at Hoppe Homes. “The design was inspired by work that the students did in exploring a row-home concept, that enables more density on a single site, but provides for a sense of privacy as well. The housing will be versatile, with options for families and seniors, and will be affordable for people making 40 – 50 percent median income in Cherry County. We will look to incorporate other elements of the student designs as well.”

American University of Sharjah

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Associate Professor Juan Roldan curated the exhibition ‘Identity, Context and Placemaking in the Gulf’ which took place at Dubai’s Design District during the Design Week d3 Architecture Festival 2020. In partnership with the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Gulf Chapter, the exhibition and online talks presented a constellation of architectural works, from the large-scale urban infrastructure to small landscape acupuncture interventions, that portrayed a diverse and complex architectural landscape of the Middle East. The Department of Architecture student and alumni work included Nada Khalaf and Mariam Jacob with Ahmed Noeman and Jace Fernandes, under the mentorship of Assistant Professor Marisa Oliver with the project ‘Transpire’ at Al-Wathba Wetland Reserve in Abu Dhabi; Mariama Kah with the project in Associate Professor Faysal Tabbarah’s studio‘Spiritual Construct’ in Sharjah; Nohair Elmessalami, and Hussien Hijazi with the project ‘Khawaneej Music Schoool’ in Dubai in Assistant Professor George Newlands’ design studio; and Saagarika Dias ‘Tectonic Tangrams’ project located in the salt lakes near Abu Dhabi in Professor George Katodrytis’ design studio.

Assistant Professor Tania Ursumarzo exhibited her installation, Desert Ribbons, at the Dubai Design District as part of the Dubai Design Week Festival 2020. Desert Ribbons is an urban public seating design using camel leather. Through its form, materials, and structure, the project explores the human body while referencing regional natural expressions such as the desert camel and the topography of the desert dunes.

The Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF) announced the winners of the eighth edition of The Christo and Jeanne-Claude Award 2020. The winning submission titled Haweia – an Arabic term meaning ‘identity’- was designed by students Sara Mohamed, Laura Al Dhahi and Sahil Rattha Singh mentored by Associate Professor Jason Carlow.

Recent successes by architecture students of American University of Sharjah (AUS) include: the Inspirelli Awards Grand Prize First Prize winners Mariam Jacob and Nada Khalaf for the project ‘Enhancing food production in Marrakech’; the Cool Abu Dhabi International Design Competition winning proposals ‘Sa’af Al-Nakheel’ by Amna AlHashimi, and ‘Arqoob’ by Fatma Oualha and with one honorable mention to ‘Yamaa’ by Shamsa Al Maeeni. For the second year in a row, AUS students’ research received top honors in the 2020 Global Undergraduate Awards in the category of Architecture and Design. Aishwarya Sriram won this award for the project ‘Bee-Ball Deathtrap’, developed in the studio of Assistant Professor Gregory Spaw. Other awards included Dhruva Lakshminarayana as the winner of the Art History and Theory Regional category for an essay in Associate Professor John Montague’s theory class; and Samrakshana Suresh, as the winner of the Visual Arts Regional category for a project developed in the elective class of Professor George Katodrytis.

 

Kennesaw State University

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Ed Akins II selected as Interim Chair of Architecture

The College of Architecture and Construction Management is proud to announce Associate Professor Ed Akins II as the Interim Chair for the Department of Architecture. Professor Akins will assume this role on July 1, 2020 at which time Dr. Rizzuto will return to full-time teaching. The department is at a critical point in its development as we prepare for an upcoming NAAB accreditation visit while balancing the temporary transition to remote learning due to COVID-19. Continuity in strong leadership is needed and Professor Akins is well-capable of providing such.

Ed Akins II, AIA, LEED AP, graduated with a Master of Architecture Degree in 1996 from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has worked locally with Atlanta communities to achieve LCI grants and with the Architecture firms Thompson Ventulett Stainback and Smith Dalia Architects.

From 2002 to 2009, he taught at the Georgia Institute of Technology and at Kennesaw State University (KSU).  In 2009, he began full-time instruction within the Architecture department at KSU and is currently an Associate Professor and Coordinator of Integrative studios.

Ed was a lead partner for the Atlanta Sustainable Building Ordinance (ASBO) in 2009 and the moderator for Atlanta’s AIA+ARCH2030 Sessions in 2011. He has received multiple certificates of service from AIA and was the recipient of the Emerging Professional Award in 2007 from AIA Georgia, the Emerging Voices Award in 2008 (from AIA Atlanta’s YAF chapter), and the recipient of AIA Atlanta’s John A. Busby Medal in 2010.  In 2018, he was awarded the R.C. Paul Excellence in Sustainability Award for his outstanding efforts toward promoting environmental sustainability in the educational and operational practices of the Kennesaw State University (KSU) campus community.

Ed has served as Co-Chair and Chair on the President’s Commission for Sustainability at KSU and has taught Ecological Urbanism within the USG European Council Paris program.  He was chosen as KSU Sustainability Fellow for the 2016-2017 Academic year and was chosen to attend the 2017 EAO Workshop in Germany focused on the topic “Sustainability – Challenges for the World of Tomorrow.”  Ed is currently an active board member of the Architecture Design Center (ADC) of Atlanta and is a registered Architect, practicing in the Atlanta area.

He continues to involve students in the process of design inquiry seeking ecologically sensitive building design and technologies that respond to the needs of human comfort and site priorities. His passion to infuse practice within the explorative environment of academia produces a dynamic and fruitful environment for student and faculty growth.

Please join me in welcoming Professor Akins as Interim Chair.

Kathryn Bedette, AIA to serve as Associate Dean for Student Success and Accreditation

Kathryn Bedette, AIA, is an award-winning architect in the State of Georgia and an Associate Professor of Architecture at Kennesaw State University.  Professor Bedette has extensive experience coordinating across the curriculum of KSU’s Bachelor of Architecture degree program, having coordinated First-, Second- and Fifth-Year Architecture Studios, as well as the program’s Architecture History and Theory course sequence.  She also served as the Architecture Department’s first Academic Engagement Coordinator.  Her professional experience includes a broad range of institutional projects as well as adaptive reuse office, retail and high-rise mixed-use projects and her design studios have prioritized the cultivation a meaningful and responsible built environment by foregrounding interrelationships between architectural technologies and program in design advocacy and posthumanist design.

Kathryn has an accomplished record of advocating for the profession of architecture and the built environment through her work as Advocacy Chair on the AIA Georgia Board of Directors and served as the 2018 President of AIA Georgia.  As President, she led a successful national campaign to create a new leadership development pipeline that encourages a range of ethnically diverse women to pursue national AIA leadership positions.  She has also made a positive impact on the profession in multiple national professional service leadership roles and currently serves as the NCARB Architect Licensing Advisor for Georgia and as a Subject Matter Expert for ArchiPrep, the AIA’s ARE study platform.

Professor Bedette was awarded the 2003 Emerging Voices Award from the Young Architects Forum of AIA Atlanta for her built design work and the 2016 AIA Atlanta James Gant Fausett, FAIA, Service to the Profession Award for her advocacy accomplishments.  In 2018, Kathryn was named one of Engineering Georgia’s  “100 Influential Women to Know” and her work and scholarship have been exhibited in multiple venues and presented internationally.  Professor Bedette earned her B.S. in Architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she studied abroad at the Ecole d’Architecture Paris-Tolbiac, and her Master of Architecture from Arizona State University, where she studied abroad at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany.

Bedette will serve the college by focusing administrative efforts on all things related to student success. Her immediate focus will be on establishing the CoACM Center for Student Success which will house all academic advising services and provide workshops and training on student related issues and aid in developing meaningful pathways to graduation. Bedette will also be the point of contact for all accreditation and assessment processes.

Please join me in welcoming Professor Bedette to this role.

KENNESAW, Ga. — Kennesaw State University President Pamela Whitten and Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Kathy Schwaig have named Andrew Phillip Payne as dean of the College of Architecture and Construction Management, effective January 1.

As dean, Payne will provide academic and scholarly leadership for the College of Architecture and Construction Management. He will also work with faculty and staff to advance the goals of the College and its reputation at the local, state, and national level. Reporting to the Provost, Payne will lead external funding efforts and further relationships within the architecture and construction management professional communities.

“With this position, we sought someone who could bring a bold vision for the College and a commitment to fostering an inclusive learning environment for our students, all of which have been demonstrated by Dr. Payne,” Whitten said. “We believe his extensive industry experience and strong research background will galvanize our mission of becoming a top R2 institution, and we are excited to have him join the University.”

Payne currently serves as chair and professor at Indiana State University’s Department of Built Environment, positions he has held since August 2013. At Indiana State, Payne worked extensively with the Department of Built Environment’s assessment and accreditation process, earning recognition for his university service and community engagement in the classroom with the 2019 College of Technology Faculty Service Award. With more than 12 years of professional experience in architectural design firms across the Southeast, Payne has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences and has contributed to several written bodies of work.

Prior to joining Indiana State, he served as an architecture professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design, teaching and serving as a graduate and undergraduate coordinator while researching building materials and construction.

“I am pleased to have Dr. Payne lend his leadership and experience as dean of our College of Architecture and Construction Management,” Schwaig said. “We were impressed by his student-first approach to academe, which will undoubtedly make a profound impact on our students’ educational journeys and eventual careers in and around the built environment.”

Payne earned a Bachelor of Environment Design, Master of Architecture and Ph.D. in Design from North Carolina State University’s College of Design. His academic research centers around visually impaired pedestrians’ ability to navigate their environments. Payne also specializes in campus planning and design, human use of space and accessibility. He is an honorary member of construction management honors fraternity Sigma Lambda Chi and has received the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) National Educator Honor Award.

“Kennesaw State’s College of Architecture and Construction Management is well known across the region for the quality of its graduates, and I am overjoyed to play a role in supporting our faculty and staff in bolstering this first-class educational experience for our students,” Payne said. “The built environment is ever-growing and the demand for professional architects and construction managers remains unquenched. It is my goal to ensure KSU is at the forefront of meeting that demand.”

Promotions:

Professor Tim Frank has been tenured and promoted to Associate Professor of Architecture. Professor Frank currently teaches Architecture Studio, Design Communication II, and Thesis Research in addition to working as Design Communication Coordinator. He teaches a responsibility to serve both society and the environment and believes that architectural education should prepare students for a practice where social, environmental, and material factors are work hand-in-hand within a cohesive building domain. In addition to his work at Kennesaw State, he also owns a nationally recognized interdisciplinary architecture studio in Atlanta. He has also had work published in several publications such as the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Journal of Technology, Architecture, and Design.

Professor Arief Setiawan has been tenured and promoted to Associate Professor of Architecture. He teaches in the areas of design and architecture: history, theory, and criticism (HTC), teaching Architecture Studio I and II, Introduction to Architecture, and courses in architecture history. He serves as the coordinator of the First-Year Design, developing a design pedagogy based on the notion of thinking through making. He integrated the First-Year course and studio through Learning Community: Fundamental in Design Thinking. Professor Setiawan has been researching design pedagogy and HTC focusing on the questions of modernity and identity, which he has presented and published in conferences. He helped lead the Architour program taking students around the country to experience masterful work in architecture and urbanism. He hopes to expand and develop further his teaching and research.

Dalhousie University

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On behalf of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Faculty of Architecture and Planning Dalhousie University

We are happy to invite you to the inaugural Robert H. Winters lecture series Resistance as Practice: Acts of Anti-Racism through Architecture and Planning! This series is hosted by the Dalhousie University Faculty of Architecture and Planning’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. On November 18th at 7pm AST/8pm EST we will host a lecture by Dr. Craig Wilkins, an architect, artist, activist and accomplished scholar of race and hip-hop architecture. Please see the attached announcements for more details on Dr. Wilkins and the other events in the series and register through Eventbrite link below.

The series will extend into the spring of 2021, and feature architects, planners, scholars, and activists whose work focuses on anti-racism on scales local to Halifax, in other Canadian contexts, and internationally. Other speakers and panelists will include Mindy Fullilove, Frank Palermo, Jennifer Llewelyn, Ingrid Waldron, and more.

We are organizing this event at a critical moment for architects, planners and other disciplines grappling with difficult histories and professional cultures. This means questioning how designed spaces are embedded with power structures that stratify our society, and how practitioners are implicated in this. Just as importantly, we must acknowledge that this is not a new conversation or area of analysis: racialized communities have developed their own planning and design practices in cities when they have not been heard by the faces of power. This lecture series builds on the ongoing powerful response to racialized violence by presenting the work of practitioners, academics and activists who have pursued these acts of anti-racism as a central focus of their work.

We hope that you’ll join us!

Evenbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/dr-craig-wilkins-on-resistance-as-practice-robert-h-winters-series-tickets-125501250619

In Solidarity,

Dalhousie Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee – Faculty of Architecture & Planning

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

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University of Tennessee Exhibit Celebrates Influence of Roman Architect, Piranesi

Beginning in January 2021, an exhibit at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, celebrates and conveys the influence of the respected Roman architect, Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

The exhibit, Learning from Piranesi: Architectural Representation and Tectonics, will be on display at the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture Jan. 20-Feb. 17, 2021.

The exhibit celebrates the 300th birth anniversary of Piranesi. Born in Venice and contributing to architecture around the world, Piranesi (1720-78) was an architect, delineator and theorist. His work has influenced generations of architects and painters during his own time and centuries later.

Piranesi produced as many as 4 million etchings from 1,000 copper plates. The exhibit is organized around these etchings and focuses on Piranesi’s many studies of ancient Roman construction techniques published in several of his major collected works.

The exhibit also includes works from Jacques Callot (1592-1635), Salvator Rosa (1615-1673) and Giuseppe Vasi (1710-1782) as well as contemporaneous works of former fellows of the American Academy of Rome and of future architects.

The exhibit was curated by George Dodds, Alvin and Sally Beaman Professor of Architecture at the UT College of Architecture and Design, and designed by Louis Gauci, principal of Louis Emmanuel Gauci Architecture & Design.

Due to health and safety restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic, Ewing Gallery has instituted visitation protocols. Visitors should review the information before arriving at the gallery and contact Ewing Gallery for updates before traveling to Knoxville.

2020 ACSA Fall Business Meeting

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2020 ACSA Fall Business Meeting

November 18, 2020 | 6:30-8:00 pm ET

 

On Wednesday, November 18 at 6:30 pm, the ACSA held its Fall Business Meeting via Zoom. The meeting was 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. Member School Call Outs
3. ACSA Report

a. Strategic Initiatives Update
b. 2020 Budget and Enrollment Survey Results
c. The Value of ACSA Membership

4. Breakout Sessions Moderated by ACSA Directors

a. Learning Outcomes in Degree Programs
b. Learning Culture and Student Voices
c. Curricular Change
d. Faculty Recruitment and Retention

5. Report Outs

Questions? Need to confirm or change your Faculty Councilor (full member schools only)? Please contact the ACSA office at info@acsa-arch.org.

Read the Breakout Notes

University of Calgary

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School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape Info Sessions and Competition

The School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (SAPL) offers two post-professional degrees for practitioners seeking to build on their education. Information sessions are being offered in October for those interesting in finding out more. http://sapl.ucalgary.ca/future-students

SAPL has also launched an international competition – early bird registration rates are being offered until October 31. More details at https://www.cbdxcitiesforall.com/

 

Doctor of Design Info Session for any practicing design professional interested in a doctoral degree to build recognized expertise in a specific topic area
October 14, 2020 at 9:00am MST and October 28, 2020 at 9:00am MST

The climate crisis, rising social inequality, and the digital revolution of smart cities, computational design, and robotic fabrication are rewriting the way cities are being designed, built, and operated. This creates enormous opportunities for architects, planners, and landscape architects to expand their practice, increase their value to clients, and make a bigger and more positive impact in the world. Mid-career professionals have the experience to identify and capitalize on these opportunities but often need a framework to help bring these ideas to life.

SAPL’s Doctor of Design (DDes) program is a place for motivated professionals to develop their particular response to these opportunities and get them ‘project-ready’ for integration into practice.

Join this information session to explore the program with Dr. John Brown, PhD, SAPL dean, and Barry Wylant, program director.

REGISTER for October 14 Session

REGISTER for October 28 Session

For more information about our info sessions, see https://sapl.ucalgary.ca/future-students

 

MEDes Info Session for anyone interested in a research-based master’s degree
October 21, 2020 at 2:00pm MST

The Master of Environmental Design is a research-based master’s degree tailored to recent graduates of professional architecture, planning, or landscape architecture programs — those who want to develop an area of specialization early in their career. As a research-intensive, thesis-based degree, emerging professionals are enabled to extend their education beyond the basic professional degree to explore an area of expertise or practice specialization that will build their CV, increase their value to prospective employers, and accelerate their career objectives.

Learn about this unique 16-month program from Josh Taron, Associate Dean (Research + Innovation) and Barry Wylant, Graduate Programs Director.

REGISTER for October 21 Session

For more information about our info sessions, see https://sapl.ucalgary.ca/future-students

 

CBDX: CITIES FOR ALL International Competition

What does a city for all look like? How does it operate, function and come into being?

SAPL has launched an international competition during a critical time, when a worldwide pandemic, social and political turmoil and the long-term threats of environmental degradation and climate change insist that we reconsider our approach to design.

Early registration is open until October 31. The competition offers $6,000 in prizes selected by a prestigious jury to be announced in November. Selected entries will be exhibited and published in 2021.

REGISTER for CBDX: CITIES FOR ALL Competition

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

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UNL Architecture Students Win Grand Prize In International Competition

Former master of architecture students Hannah Christy and Craig Findlay were named the student grand prize winners of Architizer’s prestigious 2020 One Drawing Challenge for their project titled “Concrete Atla(nti)s.” Out of 404 total international submissions, spring graduates Christy and Findlay were selected by a jury as the student competition winners.

“We feel extremely grateful Architizer has recognized our work in the 2020 One Drawing Challenge. Working on this project with my studio partner Craig Findlay, and our professor Brian Kelly, was an absolute joy,” said Christy. “Brian constantly encouraged us as a team to push ourselves by challenging countless conceptual avenues and unconventional representation techniques. Overall, it was such a positive experience, and we are beyond thankful for this outcome.”

Their entry originated from Associate Professor Brian M. Kelly’s Studio Copy Right design research studio during the fall of 2019. Other College of Architecture finalists include Audrey Lanik and Di Zai Awng for their project “Elevated” and Ian Jones for his project “Tower of Tangier’s.” All of these submissions were supervised by Kelly.

“Mentoring Hannah and Craig through this project was a very rewarding experience for me, and this recognition is a testament to their talent and hard work,” said Kelly.

Christy and Findlay offer insight to their project’s meaning and inspiration.

“Representing our capacity to maintain archaic infrastructure in an overwhelming environment overflowing with waste, occupied by a population complacent to unrest, this drawing is as complex as the topics it alludes to. It is set in one of the 72 decommissioned Atlas-F missile silos scattered across the United States. This drawing critiques the haphazard mismanagement of reusable commodities of varying scales ranging from abandoned infrastructure to recyclable materials. Through the convention of a section, this drawing shows the activities in the depth of the repurposed missile silo.”

This is the second year in a row Kelly’s architecture students have represented the college as finalists in this competition. Nate Gradoville competed last year with his project titled “Seed Lottery.”

“This prestigious award is indicative of the strength and passion possessed by former graduate architecture students Hannah Christy and Craig Findlay and Professor Kelly’s continued dedication to mentorship,” said Architecture Program Director David Karle.

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