Professors Martha Bohm and Christopher Romano led the Sustainable Futures interdisciplinary service learning abroad program from May 20th to July 30th in Monteverde, Costa Rica.  Students from two US universities participated, and faculty from UB, University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin, and University of Oregon taught coursework.  The students worked on the design for a waste water treatment plant in the town of Santa Elena and for a large scale, sports complex in the village of Los Llanos.  In addition, on June 22nd, Professor Bohm and Program Coordinator Anibal Torres organized a half day “Forum on the Future of Sustainable Design” in Monteverde.  Invited guests included landscape architect Alberto Negrini, architect Pietro Stagno, and director of the Federal Association of Engineers and Architects” Olman Vargas Zeledon.” http://www.sustainablefutures.org

Assistant Professor Georg Rafailidis and Clinical Assistant Professor Stephanie Davidson were awarded an honorary mention at the 2012 R+D (Research + Development) Award by ARCHITECT, the magazine of the American Instutute of Architects AIA, for their research on Phase Change Materials (http://www.architectmagazine.com/research/2012-rd-awards-honorable-mention-thermometric-fac.aspx). The project Found Space Tiles, ceramic tiles by Stephanie Davidson and Georg Rafailidis has been selected to be shown by Material (matera.nl) in the exhibition Architect@Work in Shanghai China, September 2012. The project Bulged Penny Rounds, ceramic tiles, has been selected in the exhibition Think: Material at IIDEX in Toronto, Canada, September 2012. Work by Stephanie Davidson and Georg Rafailidis was featured in the recent issue (#27) on haptics of Intérieurs Magazine (http://www.magazineinterieurs.com/).

A project by Assistant Professor Dennis Maher was featured in a one-person exhibition at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT. In “The House of the Unmaker,” Maher transported furnishings and objects from his own house and re-framed them through a new construction in the gallery. The exhibition publication includes an essay by Peggy Deamer (Yale School of Architecture). Maher also exhibited work as one of two jury-selected featured artists at the Echo Art Fair in Buffalo. In addition, sets designed and built by Dennis Maher are featured in the new short film Dissent, by Italian director Helmut Dosantos.  Dissent recently screened at the AOF International Film Festival in Los Angeles. Dennis Maher also has begun his residency as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s Artist-in-Residence. Maher is working with local tradespeople in the home renovation industry in order to re-imagine living environments as material, social, and psychological constructs. Information about the project can be read at http://www.albrightknox.org/education/artist-in-residence-program/dennis-maher/

In addition, Dennis Maher and Adjunct Professor Nerea Feliz led a summer study abroad program in Barcelona Spain. Students made use of new studio space in the Gothic quarter of the city by working on a large scale collective city drawing, and proposing its transformation into a vertical Rambla construction.