Study Architecture 
ProPEL March 14-16, 2024 | Vancouver, BC
112th Annual Meeting
DISRUPTERS ON THE EDGE
SCHEDULE: SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 2024
Below is the schedule for Saturday, March 16, 2024, featuring session descriptions. You can read the research abstracts by clicking HERE. The conference schedule is subject to change.
Obtain Continuing Education Credits (CES) / Learning Units (LU), including Health, Safety and Welfare (HSW) when applicable. Registered conference attendees will be able to submit session attended for Continuing Education Credits (CES).
Conference Registration Hours:
Saturday, March 16 at 9am-1pm
9:00am-2:00pm
Ticketed Event
5 LU Credit
SUSTAINABLE SOCIAL HOUSING: VANCOUVER APPROACHES TOUR & WORKSHOP
Bus Tour
Tour Leaders:
Karen Kubey, University of Toronto
Christina Bollo, University of Oregon
Ceara O’Leary, University of Detroit Mercy
Vancouver is home to both critical affordable housing shortages and innovative models for inclusive social and supportive housing. Join this workshop for a discussion of cutting-edge visions for social housing in Vancouver plus a tour of two recent projects showcasing design excellence in affordable supportive housing. The afternoon session will include a panel discussion featuring leading voices in the local housing conversation and highlighting key issues pressing upon the region. Featured housing approaches and designs are regionally specific and reflect local innovation, disrupting conventional housing frameworks. Presentations and discussion will likely feature representatives from the collaborative work of the Squamish Nation’s Sen̓áḵw project, the Vienna House and the Architects Against Housing Alienation collective, curators of the 2023 Canada Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. A bus/walking tour will feature two recent supportive affordable housing projects, guided by local practitioners. The tour – in a country that has the right to housing – extends the work of the AIA Right-to-Housing Working Group. This eighth annual ASCA-AIA program is organized by the AIA Housing and Community Development Knowledge Community as part of the ongoing Avenues of Exchange, which seeks to connect practitioners and academics on pressing topics in housing and community development.
9:00am-10:30am
Research Sessions
1.5 LU Credit
Pedagogy: Pedagogy in Design
Moderator: Karla Sierralta, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Excavating the University Campus: A Pedagogy of Deconstructing Architecture’s Myths
Leen Katrib, University of Kentucky
Homing Objects: From Writing to Making
Angeliki Sioli & Pierre Jennen, Delft University of Technology
Anca Matyiku, University of Cincinnati
New Faculty Teaching
Gillian Shaffer Lutsko, University of Southern California
New Faculty Teaching Award
Crafting a Collaborative Curriculum: The Design Build Initiative
Michael Hughes, William Sarnecky, Gregory Spaw, Ammar Kalo, Patrick Rhodes, Kenneth Tracy, Juan Roldán, Marcus Farr, George Newlands, Camilo Cerro, & Jason Carlow, American University of Sharjah
Daniel Chavez, Scarab Design
Emily Baker, University of Arkansas
Matt Trimble, Scenic City Nomads
Collaborative Practice Award
Professional Horizons
Hans Herrmann, Abbey Franovich, & Ashley Studdard-Hughes, Mississippi State University
Practice + Leadership Award
Urbanism: Urban Design, Planning, + Infrastructure
Moderator: Thomas Fisher, University of Minnesota
Balancing Growth and Livability Using Performance Metrics: A Solution to Housing Crisis in San Francisco
Rishabh Khaire & Peng Du, Thomas Jefferson University
Interrupted Cities and Open Futures: Architectural Scenario Planning and the Case of Amaravati
Sony Devabhaktuni, Swarthmore College
Towards a Dialectic Object (after O.M. Ungers)
Martin Haettasch, University of Texas at Austin
The Future of Green Infrastructure: Cultural Placemaking and Design Prototypes for Pedestrian and Bicycle Activities
Hyesun Jeong, University of Cincinnati
Brian Hammersley, Hammersley Architecture
Water, Water Everywhere: Water challenges in New Orleans and the possibilities of distributed infrastructures
Sean Fowler, Tulane University
AIAS CRIT Scholar
Design: Building Equity Through Design
Moderator: Marcelo López-Dinardi , Texas A&M University
Critical-Pathways
Suzanne Lettieri, Cornell University
Diversity Achievement Award – Honorable Mention
Psychoanalytic Understanding of Unsaturated Questions and the Unsaturated Field in the Design Process
Elizabeth Danze, University of Texas at Austin
A Home For Alice
John Folan & Candice Adams, University of Arkansas
Urban Design Build Studio (UDBS),University of Arkansas
Collaborative Practice Award
Society + Community: Housing: Community and Collectivity
Moderator: Ann Yoachim, Tulane University
Disrupting the Norm – Envisioning Community using Social Solidarity Economic Principles
Kate O’Connor, Ferris State University
Makenna Karst, University of Michigan
Making Space for Community – Learning from Collective Living as a Basis for Designing Policy
Antje Steinmuller, California College of the Arts
Neeraj Bhatia, California College of the Arts
Creative Achievement Award
Collective Culture and the Cooperative Housing Model in Detroit
Thomas Provost, University of Detroit Mercy
Joshua Budiongan, University of Detroit Mercy
Backyard Building: Rethinking the Single-Family Neighborhoods of New Orleans Through Prefabricated Accessory Dwelling Units + Shaping Public Policy In Croton-On-Hudson, NY.
Ethan Samuel Lewis, Hart Howerton & Tulane University
AIAS CRIT Scholar
History, Theory, Criticism: Historical Landscapes
Moderator: Jared Macken, Oklahoma State University
The Region as Model: The Tennessee Valley Authority, 1933-1953
Micah Rutenberg, University of Tennessee-Knoxville
Sistan Mapped; A History of Cartographic Representations of a Borderland Region
Samira Sarabandikachyani, University of Cincinnati
Jean Gebser’s Integral Consciousness and Modern Architecture
Liyang Ding, Marywood University
The Decreative Impulse: The Last Page of Learning from Las Vegas
Margarita McGrath, Virginia Tech
AI ENTANGLEMENTS
Presenters:
Leighton Beaman, Cornell University
Robert Stuart-Smith, University of Pennsylvania
Biayna Bogosian, Arizona State University
Benjamin Ennemoser, Texas A&M University
Nicholas Cassab Gheta, Cornell University
Shelby Doyle Iowa State University
This interactive session will address several ways AI has become integrated within design, production, and evaluation processes and the impact on architectural education across the domains of creative design exploration, visualization, environmental analysis and performance, and fabrication. The session will provide an introduction and explanation of key concepts of AI-Driven design, how AI is reshaping design practice and research, and how educators are directing AI towards issues beyond design-technology. The session will include demonstrations of work currently being conducted by the session panelist. Attendees will be asked to engage in a critical discussion of AI’s implications for the future of design education.
URBAN FOOD SYSTEMS: INCREASING MULTI-SCALAR OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLABORATION IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Presenters:
Sara Khorshidifard, Drury University
Gundula Proksch, University of Washington
Relocalize Our Food
Courtney Crosson, University of Arizona
Practice + Leadership Award Honorable Mention
Intersections of food and the built environment present significant cross-disciplinary opportunities for design, justice, and environmental sustainability at multiple scales. This session challenges the paradigm that food production occurs on the periphery of cities; instead, it advocates for becoming an integral part of urban infrastructures, just communities, high-performance buildings, and strong advanced alliances. Architects, planners, allied professionals, and activists are uniquely positioned to play a central role in (re)integrating food systems into the built environment as we collectively look for new opportunities to reduce environmental footprints, build resilience, and foster self-sufficiency in the urban realm.
Bringing your Whole Self to Work: Aligning academy and practice to meet personal and professional goals
Moderator:
Kevin Watkins, American Institute of Architects
Panelists:
Nea Maloo, Howard University
Robin Puttock, Kennesaw State University
Malini Srivastava, University of Minnesota
As pathways to architecture expand, students are not the only ones presented with increasing options and complex journeys. The mentors, teachers, administrators and leaders who guide them are also presented with the daunting task of connecting the dots to find alignment and innovation that will benefit their professional careers as well as the future of the profession. Learn from experienced panelists who are creating new models of exchange and professional identity in research, climate action and volunteer leadership. Panelists will share achievements and best practices as well as lessons of how they were able to incorporate complex networks and leadership roles into their professional lives.
11:00am-12:30pm
Research Sessions
1.5 LU Credit
Pedagogy: Sustainability in Architecture Pedagogy
Moderator: Michael Zaretsky, University of Oregon
Bridging the Gap: Sustainable Thinking in Architectural Education
Mili Kyropoulou, University of Houston
Down to Earth: Inclusive, Land-Based Pedagogy Through the Geopoetics of Earthen Construction
Jeremy Magner, University of Tennessee-Knoxville
New Faculty Teaching
Lukas Pauer, University of Toronto
New Faculty Teaching Award
Urbanism: Urban Ecology & Community
Moderator: Dongsei Kim, New York Institute of Technology
Kiosk K67: Restoring Communities
Dijana Handanovic, University of Houston
The Seventh Stopping Place: Climate Migration and the Future of the Great Lakes
Christian Nakarado, Wesleyan University
Infrastructure, America’s De Facto Urban Design
Anya Domlesky, SWA Group
IN ACTION: Urban Design Pedagogy for Co-Production
Mona El Khafif, University of Virginia
Design: Building Typology – Process and Performance
Moderator: David Turturo, Texas Tech University
The Calgary Japanese Community Centre Project: A Case Study for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Accessibility in Design
Henry Tsang, Athabasca University
Collective Comfort
Elizabeth Galvez, University of California, Berkeley
Dalia Munenzon, University of Houston
Poly Canyon Accessory
Dylan Krueger, James Madison University
Susan’s House, Design for a New Typology
Mary English, Auburn University
Xavier Vendrell, Auburn University
Faculty Design Award
Society + Community: Climate Justice and Resilience
Moderator: Alberto de Salvatierra, University of Calgary
Climate Resilience through Community Resilience: A Model for Engaged Design from Coal Country
Jeff Fugate, University of Kentucky
Brent Sturlaugson, Morgan State University
Rebekah Radtke, University of Kentucky
Baylen Campbell, Invest Appalachia
Disaster, Disruption, Desertification : Rethinking the Architecture of Activism, Relearning from a Medieval Ecological Disaster
Brendan Shea, University of Southern California
Noémie Despland-Lichtert, Texas Tech University
“What to Build and Rebuild, Whom to Protect?” Affordable Housing, Digital Technology, and Climate Adaptive Design
Brent Sturlaugson & Kamalesh Panthi, Morgan State University
IDEA Climate Justice Research – House 360 Prototypes
April Ward, Prairie View A&M University
Health: Architecture & the Human Experience
Moderator:Robin Puttock, Kennesaw State University
Spatializing Reproductive Justice
Lindsay Harkema, City College of New York
Lori Brown, Syracuse University
Bryony Roberts, Columbia University
The Global State of Design for Health Education: Reflections on an International Student Competition
Zhipeng Lu & Zonghan Lyu, Texas A&M University
Understanding Staff and Student Experiences at the Campus Health Center
Lynne Dearborn, Ashita Arora, Carissa Mysliwiec, Cristina Dekker, & Danielle Lasusa, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Decentralizing infrastructure: expanding architectural practice towards equity and health
Michelle Laboy, Amy Mueller, Daniel O’Brien, Moira Zellner, & Dean Massey, Northeastern University
Housing Connecticut: Designing Healthy and Sustainable Neighborhoods
Andrei Harwell, Alan Plattus, Anika Singh Lemar, Kate Cooney, & Elise Barker Limon, Yale University
Housing Design Education Award
ALLIES AGAINST THE CLIMATE CRISIS: HARNESSING AI AS A DESIGN TOOL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE WITHIN ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION
Moderators:
Nea Maloo, Howard University
Dustin Albright, Clemson University
Panelists:
Winifred Elysse Newman, Clemson University
Joseph Choma, Florida Atlantic University
The growing AI disruption to the architectural industry needs to be understood and leveraged toward sustainable and equitable design outcomes that critically address climate change. As AI technologies continue to experience rapid advancements over the next few years, architectural educators need to be conversant on topics of machine learning and automation, and need to be leaders in directing the application of AI tools beyond image-making and toward the design and realization of healthy, high-performing, carbon-neutral built environments. Can we endeavor to do this while maintaining and integrating our own critical and empathic perspectives? To equip future leaders in the field, this workshop brings together experts from academia and from industry for a discussion about AI, its potential role in advancing equitable, just and sustainable design, and how all of this can find a foothold within our respective curricula.
THE POST-PANDEMIC UNIVERSITY
Panlists:
Thomas Fisher, University of Minnesota
Mahesh Daas,Boston Architectural College
Marleen Davis, University of Tennessee-Knoxville
Marilys Nepomechie, Florida International University
College of Distinguished Professors leadership – Mahesh Daas, Marleen Davis, Marilys Nepomechie, and Tom Fisher – will engage in a conversation about how the COVID-19 pandemic, like pandemics in the past, has affected higher education. How has COVID-19 accelerated pre-pandemic trends toward distance learning, remote work, and digital scholarship? And how has it begun to disrupt the higher-education economic model? Since architectural education emerged out of the mid-19 th century cholera pandemic, how might our field lead in the post-pandemic future? And what does it mean for the built environment when many people have a choice about whether to interact in-person or remotely?
Future of Tenure & Promotion
Facilitators: Timothy Adekunle, University of Utah; Ian Caine, University of Texas at San Antonio; Martha Campbell, Rocky Mountain Institute; Shelby Doyle, Iowa State University; José L.S. Gámez, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; José Ibarra, University of Colorado Denver; & Shawhin Roudbari, University of Colorado Boulder
This workshop will collect feedback for a forthcoming white paper that comprehensively documents policies for tenure and promotion in architecture schools, and which is compiled by the ACSA Research & Scholarship Committee. Schools of architecture use this statement as a reference point for the development of their own tenure policies, based on local conditions. The document addresses multiple forms of scholarship, including the scholarship of design, the scholarship of engagement, and evaluating faculty practice projects.
Learning and Teaching – How do we cultivate culture?
Presenters: Julia Andor, AIAS Vice President
Join student leaders from the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) in a discussion about thriving cultures, healthy practices, and advocating for your faculty and students. Learning and Teaching Culture (formerly known as studio culture) is based on a willingness from students, faculty, and administrators to foster a sense of community, safety, belonging, and healthy boundaries. We’ll discuss elements of healthy cultures and what issues are at the forefront for today’s architecture students and faculty. This will be a collaborative session with our team of recent architecture graduates focused on diving into what it means to foster a collaborative environment.
12:30pm-2:30pm
LUNCH & Travel to UBC Campus
Lunch is on your own.
Buses will be provided to get to campus for the afternoon.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AS DISRUPTER) AND ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION (ON THE EDGE)
Presenters:
Branko Kolarevic, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Andrew Kudless, University of Houston
Matias del Campo, University of Michigan
Kyle Steinfeld, University of California, Berkeley
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, such as Midjourney and ChatGPT, into architectural education could have significant impact on the way students learn, with a potential to disrupt established pedagogic practices. These advanced technologies provide powerful tools for both design exploration and student learning and research in a variety of subjects, including history and theory. This session will explore the disruptive potential of AI tools in the context of architectural education, while addressing ethical and pedagogical considerations to ensure responsible integration and to maintain the valuable role of human expertise in teaching and learning.
UNDER THE CARPET AND ON THE FRINGES
Organizers:
Radu Remus Macovei, ETH Zürich
Goli Jalali & Young-Tack Oh, University of British Columbia
Mohamad Nahleh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
‘Under the Carpet and On the Fringes’ is an interactive session that reveals spatial and aesthetic categories that counter the Western canon. We are a collective of architects trained to look at our own architectural heritage through the lens of canonical dialectics – classical / modern, Renaissance / Baroque, tectonic / stereotomic. However, these categories fail to grasp the richness of non-Western architectural culture, oftentimes referring to precedent not clearly inscribed within the canon as hybrid, primitive, other. The session exchanges old terms for new dialectical worlds to propose new forms of architectural imagination.
Third Space:
UBC’s ‘overall winner’ of the 2023 Solar Decathlon Build Challenge
Host: Adam Rysanek, University of British Columbia
Description: Third Space was studio-conceived project, designed by students and constructed on campus by students with the support of local architects and contractors. Though the project served as UBC’s submission to the 2023 US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Build Challenge, the student team – known as Third Quadrant Design (TQD) – contested the contemporary advantage of ‘net zero energy’-focused building design. Instead, TQD designed Third Space with a ‘whole lifecycle’ approach to carbon emissions minimalism. Virtually every design decision and material used on the project was scrutinized for its impact on embodied carbon, and the building was designed to be only as energy efficient as necessary to mitigate the building’s operational carbon impact. This prompted students to seek unconventional construction solutions: helical piles in lieu of concrete, reclaimed lumber and fenestration, re-used appliances and interior finishings, recycled solar panels, and a significant amount of hempcrete. The project was declared an overall winner of the 2023 Solar Decathlon Build Competition, placing 1st in the categories of Architecture, Embodied Environmental Impact, and Occupant Experience, and 3rd overall. The project was also the inaugural winner of the Carbon Leadership Forum’s 2023 Embodied Carbon Award for Small Scale Projects in Vancouver. Third Space is now undergoing transformation into a multi-functional university space to advance UBC’s teaching, learning, and research resources on the development of truly zero carbon buildings. Explore the space and hear from Dr. Rysanek about SALA’s Comprehensive Design Studio sequence (CDS) of systemless and low embodied carbon design requirements.
5:00pm-6:00pm
Plenary
1 LU Credit
CLOSING KEYNOTE
LEADERSHIP ON THE EDGE
Kimberly Dowdell
Kimberly has devoted her entire professional career to laying the foundations for architects to create positive social change on a local, national and global scale. She has built bridges connecting diverse pillars of our society, from architectural firms and their clients to professional organizations, commercial developers, government agencies and academia. As a skilled relationship-builder, she fosters a more collaborative and inclusive approach to architecture, paving the way for a brighter future for all.
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Kimberly’s impact reaches far beyond HOK’s clients and partners, as she frequently speaks at conferences and events and mentors emerging leaders within the firm and throughout the industry. She co-chairs HOK’s Diversity Advisory Council (DAC) and co-founded HOK Impact, the firm’s social responsibility arm.
Kimberly’s expertise and leadership have earned her recognition and appointments from several prominent organizations. She currently serves as the 2024 President of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). She previously served on the board of directors of the Architects Foundation, the philanthropic partner of the AIA. She also sits on the board of the Chicago Central Area Committee (CCAC), which works to shape the city’s growth, equity and quality of place. Kimberly is also a board member of the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB), and Ingenuity Chicago, which increases access to quality arts education for all Chicago Public School students.
Kimberly is the past president of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) and a member of the National Organization of Minority Architects Council (NOMAC), the organization’s highest level of recognition. She is a past AIA Young Architects Award recipient and was recognized for her activism efforts by Architectural Record’s Women in Architecture Awards program.
Kimberly co-founded Social Economic Environmental Design, an organization that promotes sustainable development in 2005. She has been honored as a “40 Under 40” in Crain’s Chicago Business and Crain’s Detroit Business and delivered the 19th Annual Dunlop Lecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She was elected by her fellow alumni to serve on the board of trustees at Cornell University in 2022.
Mo Zell
Mo Zell is the interim dean of the College of the Arts and Architecture at UWM, principal of the design firm, bauenstudio and President of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). She created a number of programs at UWM including the SARUP externship, SUPERjury, the UWM SARUP Mobile Design Box, and Women in Design Milwaukee.
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Work of bauenstudio has been recognized with several design awards including a Boston Society of Architecture (BSA) Honor Award, a Boston Society of Landscape Architecture (BSLA) Merit Award and an Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Faculty Design Award. Bauenstudio was featured in Architecture Record as an emerging practice to watch. Mo has presented her design research and teaching scholarship in conferences and lectures across the United States, Europe, and Latin America and has been PI or co-PI on several grants including a National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) grant.
She has degrees from University of Virginia and Yale.
Mo recently completed the second edition to her book, The Architectural Drawing Course. The new edition includes projects related to installation and the process of building at full scale. Many of the projects from her innovative studio partnership with the Chipstone Foundation can be found in the revised version. The first edition sold 40,000 copies worldwide between 2008 and 2016.
6:00pm
CLOSING RECEPTION
University of British Columbia
School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
Continuing Education Credits
Obtain Continuing Education Credits (CES) / Learning Units (LU), including Health, Safety and Welfare (HSW) where applicable. Registered conference attendees will be able to submit sessions attended for Continuing Education Credits (CES). Register for the conference to gain access to all the AIA/CES credit sessions.
Conference Partners
Michelle Sturges
Conferences Manager
202-785-2324
msturges@acsa-arch.org
Eric W. Ellis
Sr. Director of Operations and Programs
202-785-2324
eellis@acsa-arch.org
