2018 ACSA Fall Conference

Disrupter: Anne Rieselbach, The Architectural League of New York

A strategy game of diplomacy, conflict and conquest. Confrontation and aggression are necessary to win. Territories on the board ignore national boundaries and as such provoke new mappings. Temporary collaborations and coalitions are sometimes needed to negotiate the new geopolitical landscape.

• In light of newly drawn borders and edges, how can architects redefine architecture? Are multiple rather than singular authors encouraged?
• How can local and global alliances be re-envisaged? How do these influence architectural outcomes?
• In an age of collaboration and community engagement are there winners and losers?
• How is risk-taking fostered/encouraged? How is it measured?
• How do ethics and morals affect risk-taking behaviors?

Disrupter: James Graham, Columbia University

A game driven by building and buying resources. Domination and wealth are the end goal. Sites in the city and their accompanying services operate as frameworks for the game. Early buying and selling habits along with (good) luck determine whether you win or lose.

• How does the economy influence design and who gets to play? In turn, how does it impact the design of public space?
• If ‘Starchitects’ dominate the architecture market, where does that leave the rest of us?
• With finite resources (economic and natural), how do architects build a practice while maintaining a soul?
• Are architects becoming developers for control or for money, or both?
• Do architects create resources through design? Is that how we should define architectural research?
• How do resource allocations impact design INSIDE not OUTSIDE the city? How do outsiders get their fair share of design?

Disrupter: Antonio Torres, University of Illinois at Chicago

A colorful low stakes game for all ages. There is no strategy, just a path with tasty treats and fun along the way. It is more interested in creating an alternative world and atmosphere than it is in rules. The simplicity belies a cruel reality: winners are pre-determined through the initial shuffle of the deck.

• Need architecture concern itself with clearly defined strategies? Are rules and fun equally important?
• Can architecture build worlds? What kinds can and should it create?
• Can architecture be for all ages? Can it be youthful?
• What are the risks and rewards in practice? Are there winners and losers?
• Can architecture and its accompanying discourses be sweet, tasty and / or colorful?

Disrupter: Jose Arnaud-Bello, Lupe Toys

A game that relies on a player’s skillful precision. Specialists extract disease and find cures. If done incorrectly, both the operator and the patient lose!

• What are the attitudes and arguments for design “generalists” vs. design “specialists”?
• How do contemporary trends play with the definitions of architect and architecture?
• How do designers experiment with assessing, making and solving problems?
• In what ways do designers address ailments of various sorts and scales?
• Can architecture save the body? The community? The city? The world? What are the arguments for and against the role of architect-as-savior?

Disrupter: David Benjamin, Columbia University

A game about bodies in space (1d+2d+3d). Cartesian rules need not apply and in fact become impossible. In response to chance directives, bodies are forced into complex geometries.

• What are the various conceptions of and approaches to design that encourage formal play and complexity?
• How is complexity manifested, manipulated and managed in both analog and digital frameworks?
• Is there such a thing as a ‘syntax’ of form?
• How can design be viewed as a language and explored in this context?

Disrupter: Jennifer Newsom, University of Minnesota

A game about taking chances. Players are presented with various life decisions (school, career, family, home, car, insurance, etc.), and rewarded for taking risks. But ultimately, it’s a gamble. Should I, or shouldn’t I?

• What are the risks (and rewards) involved with starting an architectural practice?
• How are architects today forging new paths to practice, or forming alternative practices?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of professional licensure?
• Is it possible to have both thriving professional practice and academic career?
• If architecture is subject to market forces, how can architecture anticipate and plan for economic uncertainty?
• Need personal styles match styles of practice?

Disrupter: Tamar Zinguer, The Cooper Union

A game that asks: Who did it? Where and how? An unfolding narrative of mystery and suspense, CLUE establishes the house as the central character. Actions are carried out in a sequence of rooms, corridors and secret-passages, rendering the domestic interior as a site for crimes and misdemeanors. Everyone is a suspect until proven innocent.

• Can architecture be envisaged as a sequence of questions, clues and answers? How are architectural “problems” manifest in this tripartite condition?
• How are “domesticity” and/or “interior” being re-examined in contemporary practice and/or scholarship?
• What role does architecture play as a setting for violence or subversive acts (real or fictional)? Is it possible (and advisable) to prevent or discourage said acts?
• What forms of spatial play are carried out in the formation of architectural narratives? How are these ploys communicated?