Archinect - Features

MIT M.Arch Graduate Angeline Jacques Designs a New Conceptual Framework for Glacier National Park

2020-08-13T12:40:00-04:00

Recent MIT M.Arch graduate Angeline Jacques focuses her thesis project, Mission 2066, on the state of National Parks, specifically Glacier National Park in Montana, and how our perceptions and interventions within these parks might change for the future.

According to Jacques, her thesis seeks to, "adapt and deploy a series of interventions that augment and artificialize melting glaciers. These interventions not only assist in easing the speed of change to ecologies and economies reliant on the glaciers but also provide new inhabitations of the park." Archinect connected with Jacques to discuss her thesis project as well as her experiences entering the workforce during a pandemic. As one of the lucky students able to secure a job post-graduation, she shares with us her experiences as a young designer learning how to start her professional career remotely.

Archinect's Spotlight on 2020 Thesis Projects: 2020 has been an extraordinarily challenging year for architecture graduates. Stud...

It's a Great Time to Invest in the Maintenance of Public Lands

2020-07-27T13:11:00-04:00

Last month, the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass an amended version of the Great American Outdoors Act (S.3422), legislation originally introduced in the House of Representatives under a different name by the recently departed, legendary Congressman John Lewis. The bill — which passed in the House last and will now head to the desk of the president for his signature into law — would secure $900 million annually in permanent, dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, as well as money to tackle the $12 billion backlog of deferred maintenance for our National Parks, National Forests and other public lands. According to advocacy group Preservation Action, about 43% of the backlog includes valuable historic structures, too.

What is a Park - Landscape or Infrastructure

2011-04-07T00:13:00-04:00

How can a park be designed to serve as infrastructure(s)? Thinking not in terms of metaphor alone. But rather a park as the architecture for numerous designed outcomes. Park as infrastructure, means park as platform not only designed object/scape. From a singular tool to multivalent toolkit. It is important in such discussion to think of the less immediate impact. Of social design, the design of relationships. Such a platform-as toolkit-may result from more efficient, and stack(ed) programming. Thus maximizing urban spaces, suburban spaces, available spaces, that are under-performing. In essence, we should think about the best ways to maximize our various infrastructural corridors: utility, transportation, waterways et al.