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University at Buffalo

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Korydon Smith reports that “Building Neighborhoods that Build Social and Economic Prosperity: Manual for a Complete Neighborhood” received a Congress for New Urbanism 2013 Global Award for Excellence in Urban Design as well as a 2013 Residential Architect Design Award in the “On the Boards” category. The collaborative project focused on housing design for a hillside settlement in Kigali, Rwanda, and involved the University of Arkansas Community Design Center (Stephen Luoni, Director, and  Jeffrey Huber), Korydon Smith (Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at UB), Peter Rich (South African architect and recipient of the WAF 2009 World Building of the Year), and Tomà Berlanda (Senior Lecturer at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology). Smith, along with Rich, led a group of nine architecture students from the University of Arkansas to Rwanda in September 2011. These students and faculty, in partnership with architecture students and faculty from the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, conducted first-hand research of domestic architecture and life in rural and urban Rwanda, contributing to a semester-long design studio on urban housing in Kigali. Luoni and Huber, along with students and staff at the UACDC, furthered the work with the publishing of the aforementioned manual. The work is ongoing and involves partnerships with planning and government officials in Kigali, as Rich leads the implementation of the proposals. Likewise, Smith is currently completing a book on the work tentatively titled Translating Kigali, Rwanda: Cultural Inquires and Architectural Prospects for a Developing African City. The aforementioned awards are the second and third awards the work has garnered, adding to the 2012-2013 ACSA Collaborative Practice Award received last month.

Joyce Hwang‘s article “Living Among Pests” is published in Volume #35: Everything Under Control.  Volume is published by Archis (Netherlands), with Editor-in-Chief Arjen Oosterman, Managing Editor Brendan Cormier, and Contributing Editors Ole Bouman, Rem Koolhaas, and Mark Wigley. For more info, see: http://archis.org/publications/volume-35-everything-under-control/

 “Jordan Geiger: Very Large Organizations,” a solo exhibition, opened at WUHO Gallery in Los Angeles from April 6-28, 2013. The show tracks a contemporary phenomenon: the convergence of multiple infrastructures and global networks in the built environment. Geiger ascribes the term Very Large Organizations (VLOs) to this confluence of technological, legal, economic, material, and cultural forces. It is through this identification that Geiger makes visible the impact of large-scale systems such as global communications and supranational legal and financial constructs on the construction and inhabitation of space. By identifying these systems, Geiger also finds an embedded field of inquiry rich with opportunities for architectural engagement and action.

Geiger is also conference co-chair, together with professors Mark Shepard and Omar Khan, of the international event, “MediaCity 4: MediaCities.” The conference, exhibition and workshops are hosted for the first time in the United States, and are hosted at the University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning May 3-5, 2013. Reflecting on pluralities and globalities, on MediaCities everywhere, the event features keynotes and speakers from varied fields and countries all over the world. It opens new lines of inquiry and emergent relations between urbanity and digital media that are found in non-Western cities, in post-Capitalist cities, in cities hosting civic turbulence or crossing international boundaries. The gathering focuses on what urban-medial relations are taking shape differently in urban milieux that may have been heretofore overlooked.

Geiger’s essay, “Maximal Surface Tension: Very Large Organizations and Their Apotheosis in Songdo,” has been published in the journal SCAPEGOAT: Architecture | Landscape | Political Economy, issue 4: Currency. His project, “Emission,” has been selected for publication in the June 2013 issue of the journal MAS Context.

University at Buffalo

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Joyce Hwang was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure.

H+W Studio (Hiro Hata, Harry Warren and Mike Williams), part of the UB Regional Institute, have been hired to review the design of a new, $200 Million (US) university campus for the University of Trinidad and Tobago.

Dennis Maher and Nerea Feliz conducted the 2013 Barcelona Study Abroad Program with 12 students from June-August. The group held seminars and studios in the gothic-vaulted workshop space of Catalan landscape architect Beth Gali. Maher also conducted the workshop “Drawing the Fargo House” with Buffalo-area teachers who were invited to Maher’s residence in order to undertake a series of house-drawing experiments. In addition, a book chapter by Maher entitled, “900 Miles to Paradise and Other Afterlives of Architecture” has been published in Architecture Post Mortem (Ashgate Press), a collection of essays edited by Donald Kunze, David Bertolini, and Simone Brott.  Architecture Post Mortem surveys architecture’s encounter with death, decline, and ruination following late capitalism. Maher has also produced a limited-edition print, commissioned by organizer’s of the Echo Art Fair.  The print depicts a study for Common Cosmos, a forthcoming installation by Maher that will be sited at Cornell University.

Nick Bruscia and Chris Romano have been selected as a finalist in the TEX-FAB Skin Competition for their entry project 2XmT, a self-supporting sheet metal system that emerged out of their research collaboration with the Rigidized Metals Corporation.  They are 1 of 4 finalists moving onto the second round of the international competition and will be supported with a $1,250 stipend to develop a new physical prototype of their system which will be exhibited at the ACADIA Adaptive Architecture Conference at the University of Waterloo in October, 2013.  The winner will be announced at the conference and will build a full-scale prototype with fabrication sponsorship by Zahner Co. and exhibited in Austin, Texas for the TEX-FAB 5 event in early 2014.  http://tex-fab.net/skin-results/

Elevator B, by Courtney Creenan, Kyle Mastalinski, Dan Nead, Scott Selin, and Lisa Stern, was published in the July 2013 issue of Architectural Record (both in print and online). Elevator B was the winning project of the Hive City Design Competition, organized by the Ecological Practices Research Group.

Atlantic Cities (June 2013) published an interview with Andrew Perkins (M.Arch ’12), Stephen Zacks and Jerome Chou on the Flint Public Art Project. Perkins’ involvement with the Flint Public Art Project stems from his M. Arch thesis project conducted with Matthieu Bain, “Dwelling on Waste”: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2013/06/how-much-crazy-art-would-it-take-make-you-want-visit-flint-michigan/5920/

Ariel Resnick (graduate) with Kim Dai, Danielle Krug and Kathryn Hobert are finalists in a recent competition held by Morpholio, with the final outcome to be heard after August 20th. The competition, entitled “Inside 2013,” was assembled as a means to publicly promote the research, exploration and investigation currently happening amongst today’s emerging talent. An article features some of the work of the finalists can be seen at http://www.bustler.net/index.php/article/inside_2013_competition_finalists/. The link to the morpholio home page is http://mymorpholio.com/site.php.

University at Buffalo

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Joyce Hwang was selected to participate in the 2014 International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR), “Urban by Nature.” She will be building and installing a second iteration of “Bat Cloud” at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, Netherlands as part of the Biennale’s exhibition. Joyce also received an Awesome Without Borders grant (from the Awesome Foundation + the Harnisch Foundation) to help support this project.

University at Buffalo

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Professor Carter was the editor of the book that was  recently published by TUNS PRESS and which highlighted the work of the award winning Canadian designers Battersby Howat.

Dennis Maher‘s exhibition “Common Cosmos: 287 F-14853” has opened at Sibley Hall Dome, Cornell University.  The exhibition runs until December 20. An article in the Cornell Chronicle reviewed the exhibition: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2013/10/embedded-life-stuff-dennis-mahers-work.  Maher has published “Nightworks,” photographic works and text, in the Fall issue of MAS Context: http://www.mascontext.com/issues/19-trace-fall-13/nightworks/. Maher has also published an essay in a special issue of the peer-reviewed journal Dada/Surrealism. The essay, entitled “Luxor, Endlessness and the Continuous Key: Architecture and the Esoteric in Breton, Kiesler, and Schwaller de Lubicz” may be read at http://ir.uiowa.edu/dadasur/.

Nick Bruscia and Chris Romano completed Project 2XmT in partnership with a local metal production company, Rigidized Metals. An article about the work was published in the Buffalo News at: http://mobile.buffalonews.com/?articleRedirect=1

Dean Robert Shibley has received the American Institute of Architects New York State (AIANYS) 2013 Educator Award. The prize recognizes notable contributions and accomplishments by an architectural educator in New York State, and Shibley accepted the award at the AIANYS annual convention, held recently in Syracuse, N.Y. Since joining the School of Architecture and Planning in 1982, Shibley has served as professor in both the architecture and planning departments, with eight years as chair of architecture (1982-1990). He was appointed dean in 2011. Learn more: http://ap.buffalo.edu/news-events/latest_news.host.html/content/shared/ap/articles/news/shibley_educatoraward.detail.html

Dean Robert Shibley was recently featured in Domus, an international magazine on architecture, art and design, in a Q&A feature investigating the process behind the realization of UB’s Solar Strand. The 3,200-panel, ground-mounted solar array envisions energy in a new way, as part of a new cultural landscape. As campus architect for the University at Buffalo and chair of the artist selection committee for the Solar Strand, Shibley guided the vision and installation of the 750-kilowatt array, designed by renowned landscape architect and artist Walter Hood. Read the article here:  http://www.domusweb.it/en/interviews/2013/09/02/forms_of_energy_.html

UB architecture students, Wei Dai and Minku Jeon, were awarded second prize in the 2013 ACSA Fabric in Architecture Design Competition. The students were enrolled in ARCH 404 “Collaboration + Competition’ taught by Professor Brian Carter and Adjunct Professor Michael Williams.

University at Buffalo

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Assistant Professor Georg Rafailidis gave a lecture about his work in practice and teaching at the Academy of Art University in their Fall Events 2013 Lecture Series, Department of Architecture, San Francisco CA on November 14th. Link to lecture series poster:
http://archinect.com/news/article/84680198/get-lectured-academy-of-art-university-fall-13. The New Museum in New York lent the structure “MirrorMirror” by Davidson Rafailidis, to the Echo Art Fair at the Erie County Public Library Downtown Buffalo, NY September 7-8. Link: http://www.azuremagazine.com/article/a-dazzling-tent-that-enhances-street-fests/. The project is also covered in the Fall issue of Forward, the scholarly journal of the American Institute of Architects. The scholarly journal, Forward, is produced by the National Associates Committee to provide a voice for Associate AIA members within the Institute. “Free Zoning”, a project that won the Strip-Appeal competition to reinvent vacant strip malls, was exhibited at the 2013 Eme3 exhibition “Bottom-Up” in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

In October, Nick Bruscia and Chris Romano conducted a 2-day fabrication workshop titled, “Rigidized Metal Forming”, as part of the ACADIA Adaptive Architecture Conference in Waterloo, CA.  The workshop was located at Silo City and focused on drawing-to-production methods using thin-gauge, textured stainless steel sheets.  The event was sponsored by Rick Smith and Rigidized Metals and was attended by many B/a students.
They also presented a peer-reviewed paper titled, “Material Parameters and Digitally Informed Fabrication of Textured Metals” along with a poster exhibition of project 2XmT.

During the conference they were also invited to present project 3xLP, which was on display as one of four finalists in the TEX-FAB Skin Competition, in the Pecha Kucha event titled, “Showcase: Work in Progress”.  During the ACADIA conference, TEX-FAB announced project 3xLP as the Winner of the international SKIN Competition.  Shortlisted as one of the four finalists by the first Round jury in August, the Second Round jury: Neil Denari, James Carpenter, Mic Patterson and BIll Zahner conferred and chose project 3xLP based on its meeting all the competition criteria to the highest degree, for its clarity, and overall project development.  

Romano and Bruscia will build a fourth generation, full-scale prototype with fabrication sponsorship by Rigidized Metals and Zahner Co. for the TEX-FAB 5 event in Austin, Texas, February 2014. Both project 2XmT and project 3xLP were done in collaboration with B/a students Phil Gusmano, M.Arch 2015, and Dan Vrana, M.Arch 2015.  News about both project 2XmT and project 3xLP can be found at:
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2013/11/012.html
http://www.tex-fab.net/competitions/
http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/archives/75117
http://www.archdaily.com/447193/3xlp-winner-of-skin-digital-fabrication-competition/
http://www.bustler.net/index.php/article/3xlp_wins_skin_digital_fabrication_competition/
http://archinect.com/news/article/85857848/3xlp-wins-skin-digital-fabrication-competition
http://www.technology4change.com/page.jsp?id=293

In November, Romano and Bruscia presented a second peer-reviewed paper titled, “Analyzing Material Behavior using Cold-Formed, Textured Stainless Steel” at the 47th Annual ASA International Conference in Hong Kong, China.

University at Buffalo

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Dean Robert Shibley was a member of the conference organizing committee for the 2013 Remaking Cities Conference in Pittsburgh, PA., which convened urbanists and leaders last fall from around the world to assess and share best practices for the future of post-industrial cities. Sponsored by the Remaking Cities Institute of Carnegie Mellon University and the American Institute of Architects, the first Remaking Cities Conference was held in Pittsburgh in 1988 to address the precipitous decline of industrial cities and regions and North American and Europe in the 1980s. Shibley presented “Post-Industrialism and the Physical City,” a case study on Buffalo and its resurgence based on a legacy of historic architecture and world-class urban design and a community-driven planning framework that has facilitated investment in the urban core. The Buffalo case study, along with Germany’s Ruhr Valley, was also explored through a workshop on community-building strategies for the post-industrial city, with topics including urban design, preservation, infill development strategies, and the role of industrial legacies in urban regeneration.

Also this past fall, Shibley participated in the Legacy City Design Bruner Loeb Forum in Detroit, MI. The forum convened change agents in urban design, architecture, planning and community leadership to share best practices, learn from failed implementation and brainstorm new innovations in design and development that address the common issues of chronic population loss and excessive land vacancy in the rustbelt cities of Southeast Michigan, Northeast Ohio and Upstate New York. Shibley presented “Vacancy, Density, and New Neighborhoods,” addressing innovative strategies in infill development and urban design in Buffalo. The Bruner Loeb Forum is a partnership between the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence and the Loeb Fellowship Program that brings together distinguished practitioners from across the country to advance creative thinking about placemaking in American cities. The Legacy City Design forum was hosted by the J. Max Bond Center on Design for the Just City, The City College of New York Spitzer School of Architecture, The American Assembly at Columbia University and the Detroit Collaborative Design Center.

Research Associate Professor Bradshaw Hovey was a participant in both conferences and will co-author a book chapter on the Remaking Cities conference with Shibley. Professor Emeritus Lynda Schneekloth was also an invited participant in the Remaking Cities conference.

In December, Christopher Romano attended final reviews at both University of Detroit Mercy (second year) and Alfred State University (third year).

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