Archinect - Iowa State University B.Arch.

Fallow: Reconstructed Space Exhibit . May 4

2013-04-28T12:38:54-04:00

Please join us at the Black's Heritage Farm for the exhibition of Fallow: Reconstructed Space.

Fallow has been a semester long effort by students to investigate production of a support system for the re-occupation of a dormant seed-drying chamber located south of Ames, Iowa. Temporary research assemblies within the chamber develop an experiential space through an ethno-specific logic. The investigation crafts a deeper understanding of fundamental human conditions pertaining to identity, farm labor, and the construction of experiential space.

https://www.facebook.com/events/612428265451451/?fref=ts

NAAB Accreditation

2013-04-25T22:18:00-04:00

This semester, Iowa State's B.Arch. and M.Arch. programs were reviewed for NAAB accreditation. For a few months, the College of Design was packed with models, drawings, and presentation boards.

Second year projects emphasized exploration through drawing.

Machines from the second years.

Publications by the faculty were on display.

A Miami Hotel option studio project.

A mapping from an independent study.

CODA projects dealt with the ISU cemetery.

A huge gathering of models in the center of the atrium.

At the end of the process, the accreditation team went over the objectives and explained where the pros and cons of what they saw. They were impressed by the work and especially by the engagement with physical models. However, we did not pass the requirements for "comprehensive design," because life safety and accessibility were not handled sufficiently. Presumably, in many of the comprehensive projects, door swings and fire stairs were not designed correctly, and ADA-c...

Hansen Competition and Lecture + David Leatherbarrow

2013-03-04T09:38:00-05:00

Every spring, the ISU Department of Architecture puts together a great event: the Richard F. Hansen Prize Competition and Lecture. This year, our guest of honor was author, scholar, and chair of the architecture department at University of Pennsylvania, David Leatherbarrow, who was a member of the competition jury and gave a lecture that evening about Sverre Fehn titled "The Architect's Shadow."

The competition is between third year students, who present their projects from last semester. In recent years, the studios have been set up to focus on landscapes. This year, the project was set in central Iowa on a rural site. The program is a healing center for healers: a retreat where medical professionals etc. go to rest and escape from the stress of their work.

The jury.

The first team presented a strategy of mimicking the topography to create spatial sequences, surfaces for occupation and solar panels, and building enclosure.

The second project was like a monastery, with a c...

CSI Competition: Comprehensive Studios

2013-01-20T11:23:00-05:00

During finals week in December, twelve teams (two from each studio) competed at Iowa State for the CSI Prize. Participants were all grad students and undergrads in the last year of their education. Jurors were members of the Construction Specifications Institute or practitioners from Des Moines. This is considered an important competition, because it includes the work of all architecture students in their last required studio.

The program was to design a music performance hall, the type of music varied based on studio and team. The original prompt called for jazz, although many designed it for experimental music as well. Here are some photos taken by Mitchell Squire, the faculty coordinator of the event.

Steven and Dave present a project derived from an "instrument" that they constructed.

Joey, Reed, and Qing present a House of Experimental Music.

A grad student team, Mike and Adam, with a formally expressive combination of a tower and the protruding auditorium.

Blake an...

Small Updates

2012-11-21T19:32:58-05:00

We are in search of a new chair. http://www.acsa-arch.org/careers/current-opportunities/job-details/2012/11/20/chair-of-architecture-department
Accreditation review is happening next semester.
Iowa State's undergraduate architecture program is ranked number 9 for the second year in a row!

Of course, it's hard to say what these rankings really mean, and why exactly practitioners seem to vote in favor of these schools. More info from Architectural Record: http://archrecord.construction.com/features/Americas_Best_Architecture_Schools/2012/Architecture-Education-Now/Americas-Top-Architecture-Schools-2013-2.asp

Final Year: Boston Comprehensive Studio

2012-10-07T13:50:00-04:00

Our class is entering the fifth and final year of the B.Arch. degree. In fall that means we undertake comprehensive studio. This year we are designing a jazz and experimental music hall. It will contain a 1200-seat main hall and a 300-seat experimental hall.

Two weeks ago we took a field trip to Boston, which will be the site of the project.

The Big Dig/Greenway is a long urban park that used to be a multi-level highway. We were completely surprised by how nice it was in real life. The Google Earth view of the Big Dig gave us the impression that it would be an empty, dead space. Seeing it in person, it was an active, open, pleasant space that was one of our absolute favorite parts of Boston. Native Bostonians, how do the locals feel about this project?

Quincy Market, a good place to walk around, shop, and get food.

This information pavilion is really cool, especially how the roof form drains into a kind of fountain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zF...

Friday at Iowa State: Michael Benedikt, Rome Show, Premiere

2012-09-04T13:54:45-04:00

Friday will be a big day for the Architecture Department at Iowa State. The event is called "Premiere," a celebration of the new academic year for the department. Design theorist Michael Benedikt will provide a lecture, "The True, The Good, The Beautiful," which will provide "an illustrated examination of how Plato's triumvirate of ultimate values plays itself out in contemporary architecture—or could."

Following will be the opening of the 2012 Architecture Rome Show, which will recap the experiences we had last fall in Europe.

Some promotional images for the show:

Steven Holl's second building in Iowa City

2012-06-26T22:40:00-04:00

The University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, has always been Iowa State's bitter rival. Even though Iowa State has an architecture program and U Iowa does not, the University of Iowa boasts work by Charles Gwathmey, Frank Gehry, and Steven Holl. Imagine our jealousy at discovering that Steven Holl has been commissioned for yet another building in Iowa City.

Ironically, his existing building in Iowa City—with library, office, lecture, and studio space for art students—was nearly destroyed in a devastating flood in 2008. The committee originally intended to place the building on a different site that would be above the floodplain. But Holl fell in love with its current site, situated over a pond next to a limestone cliff, placing the building squarely in the floodplain.

On a fieldtrip in 2009.

You can see the high-water mark on the cor-ten at the left.

The rough state of the interior in 2009.

Repairs for the project were completed recently, and I was able to go inside for...

Scarpa Weekend

2012-06-13T21:09:00-04:00

February 9-11 was a three-day weekend packed with Scarpa. Two of my roommates and I went north to San Vito d'Altivole, Verona, and Venice to see if the real thing is as good as the legends say. A lot of pain and effort was required. It was a cold winter, and we spent quite a bit of time in unheated train stations and unheated train cars. While we were in town, we ducked into a café every hour or so just to warm up. Ultimately, though, the pain was worth it. The projects were amazing. Scarpa's ability with detail and material articulation was so far beyond any of our skills that we were in awe at every project.

Stop 1: Brion Cemetery

The Brion Cemetery was a trial to get to. For those who are interested, here are some basic directions:

Take a train to Castelfranco Veneto.
Find the tourist information office, which is located within the castle walls. They don't open until 10:00 am, I believe. There they will tell you which bus to take to get to the Brion Cemetery.
...

Reverse culture shock

2012-05-02T11:47:00-04:00

Due to the technological marvels of our time, it is now possible to travel from Rome, Italy to Cedar Rapids, Iowa in less than 24 hours. Some things are going to take getting used to again:

Border control that takes more than 30 seconds to get through
Seven-hour time shift
Lame architecture
Neglected public space
Driving everywhere
Serious customer service
Getting really full at a restaurant
Ice in my drink
Free refills
Clothes dryers
Wooded landscapes
Lawns
Garages
Huge, empty highways
A 95% decrease in population density
Quiet
Clean air
Living more than a 15-minute walk from amazing feats of ancient architecture
Green money
Indoor drinking fountains
Wallet in the back pocket
Etc.

My neighborhood in Iowa.

My neighborhood in Rome.

Iowa State Rome Show

2012-04-18T16:26:36-04:00

Architects in Rome:

Iowa State University's Rome Program invites you to come to our studio and see what we've done this semester. It will be open on Tuesday, April 24 from 6 pm to 9 pm and Wednesday, April 25 from 9 am to 6 pm. We are located at Piazza delle Cinque Scole 23, very close to Largo Argentina. There will be food and drink.

This semester, our studio projects focused on the idea of Casa della Città (House of the City), a hypothetical organization in Rome dedicated to promotion of the city, its culture, and its history. The Casa della Città is located at three sites of three different scales: the Crypta Balbi, Vicolo della Moretta, and Via dei Fori Imperiali. There will also be work from our drawing course and films and posters from our ARCH URB LIFE course.

Forum Boarium, Primavalle

2012-01-19T16:55:00-05:00

On January 20, we toured the Forum Boarium, which is located next to the round Temple of Hercules and the Mouth of Truth, and Primavalle, a distant suburb in northwest Rome that was made up largely of people displaced from the city center by government visions of the city. Our tour guide was Ferro Trabalzi, who has taught at Iowa State and in Rome, and whose own family was one that was pushed out of historical Rome by visionary urban planning.

As Ferro explained during our tour, the Forum Boarium area was heavily inhabited. Piranesi's drawing of the Temple of Hercules shows that it was a church in a residential neighborhood. Before the fascist interventions, ancient architecture was integrated into community life.

Now the Temple of Hercules is "cleaned up," isolated, and no longer part of the life of the neighborhood (which has been primarily moved out of the area). Where there was a dense neighborhood, there now is open space with large streets, lawns, and cars.

After...

Rome, Week One: Forum Romanum + Palatine Hill

2012-01-14T08:47:00-05:00

In spring of fourth year, Iowa State architecture students have the option to study in Rome for the semester. This year, 35 architecture students and 2 landscape architecture students have chosen to take advantage of this opportunity.

As part of our first week of classes, we've been introduced to Rome through a series of walking tours that have taken us through the Roman Forum, the Palatine Hill, the Forum Boarium, and the suburb Primavalle.

January 12: Forum Romanum and Palatine Hill with Jan Gadeyne

Jan Gadeyne is an archaeologist and historian, and an expert on Ancient Rome. The walk through the Forum and Palatine Hill lasted 3 hours and introduced us to many of the essential architectural monuments of early Roman history.Jan introducing us to materials of the Forum.

"As you can see, we are inside of a kickass building."

Forum viewed from the Palatine Hill.

After this, I plan to make a post on our tour of Forum Boarium and Primavalle.

—Justin

Final reviews

2012-01-09T19:13:00-05:00

This is the opening post for Iowa State's first school blog in a long time. This blog is currently authored by fourth years in Iowa State's five-year B.Arch. program.

Here are some images from final reviews, which happened in December.

Second year's project was a boathouse for a small boat like a kayak and then an attached "houseboat"—a house that's also a boat that can dock to the boathouse.

Third year architects teamed up with landscape architects to design a project in Kansas City.

Fourth year (our year) designed a museum in Columbus, Indiana.

Fourth year landscape architects.

We'll try to post some more detailed images and description of the projects in the coming weeks.

Justin