Archinect - University at Buffalo: School of Architecture and Planning

Professor Beth Tauke Gives "TED Talk"

2013-05-14T13:00:07-04:00

Enjoy Beth Tauke, associate professor of architecture and associate dean for academic affairs in the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, “TED Talk” from TEDxUniversityatBuffalo. Professor Tauke, winner of the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, introduces a paradigm with the human body as the most important site for design in the 21st century. Tauke discusses innovations both external and internal to the body, including medical technology, communication, and entertainment.

UB School of Architecture and Planning's 43rd Commencement

2013-05-08T09:25:09-04:00

The community is invited to the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning’s 43rd commencement on Friday, May 10, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. in the Center for the Arts Mainstage Theatre. The Commencement address and ceremony is open to the public. No tickets are required to attend.

Bill McKibben, author, educator and environmentalist, will address graduates and receive the Dean's Medal. McKibben is the author of a dozen books about the environment, beginning with The End of Nature in 1989, which is regarded as the first book for a general audience on climate change. He is a founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, which has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries since 2009. Time Magazine called him 'the planet's best green journalist' and the Boston Globe said in 2010 that he was 'probably the country's most important environmentalist.' Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College, he holds honorary degrees from a dozen colleges, including the Unive...

Master's Thesis - [INTER]ACT: Embodied Interaction in Post-Architectural Space

2013-04-17T20:59:00-04:00

[INTER]ACT: Embodied Interaction in Post-Architectural Space
Kathy Yuen
M.Arch/MFA Thesis
University at Buffalo
School of Architecture and Planning
Committee: Mark Shepard, Nick Bruscia, and Dave Pape

How can concrete, embodied interaction with digitally augmented artifacts be used to reveal the data-scape that we occupy and influence the configuration of virtual and physical space?

Today, we have grown increasingly virtually connected to each other through the expansion of internet accessibility and proliferation of social media. As a result, we—and by extension—our spaces have become increasingly digitally augmented as we constantly maintain our virtual presence, in parallel to our relationships in physical space. The interactions that take place by means of the conventional interface of the screen, keyboard, and mouse can often limit and isolate the user from the physical environment occupied as they enter cyberspace. At the same time, each interaction generates new da...

Master's Thesis - Making a Mark: Personal Customization in Suburban Housing

2013-04-10T13:29:58-04:00

Making a Mark: Personal Customization in Suburban Housing
Monica Groele
M. Arch. Thesis
University at Buffalo
School of Architecture and Planning
Committee: Dr. Korydon Smith and Dr. E. Sue Weidemann

Since the end of the Second World War, the dominant form of housing in the United States has been the single-family detached dwelling in the suburbs. Such communities have been barraged by criticism for being aesthetically homogeneous and reinforcing of “traditional” family roles, behaviors, and values. Despite outside criticism, however, many residents describe positive experiences of living in these communities. Previous studies have found that the homogeneity and simplicity of the houses allows the residents to make improvements and customizations that address their own living styles, needs, and preferences.

Building upon Jungian psychology and American studies theories, and using qualitative and quantitative methods, this thesis examines two Buffalo-area neighborh...

Master's Thesis: Drawing a _(blank)_

2013-04-08T12:15:00-04:00

Drawing a (blank)
Scott Archambault
M. Arch. Thesis
University at Buffalo
School of Architecture and Planning
Committee: Annette LeCuyer, Nicholas Bruscia, and Gregory Delaney

How can architectural representation be re-imagined to allow for ambiguity and multiple possible outcomes from a single drawing?

Architectural representation is often concerned with eliminating difference and producing a single built outcome. This eliminates the possibility of an unintended result, making the built result specific only to the drawing. If the performative nature of drawing is instead concerned with providing ambiguity to allow for productive difference, the drawing may become a generator of multiple possible outcomes. Each outcome, then, becomes more situationally specific to the builder, author, context, and drawing while creating a new understanding of authorship within architectural discourse.

...

Master's Thesis: Visual Perception through the Diffusion of Light

2013-04-01T20:44:30-04:00

This is the first in a series of posts highlighting thesis projects that are being completed by University at Buffalo Master of Architecture students.

Visual Perception through the Diffusion of Light
Timothy Ung
M. Arch. Thesis
University at Buffalo
School of Architecture and Planning
Committee: Kenneth MacKay, Beth Tauke, and Jean Lamarche

Human perception of the visual world is limited through the homogeneity of design
and the standardization of materials. After constructing a lighting apparatus made of
steel and thousands of transparent thread, a small amount of light will be directed
onto the apparatus and reflected and refracted multiple times, spreading light over
a large area. However, visual perception of the light reflecting and refracting through
the apparatus will change according to an observer’s location in relation to the
apparatus. Ultimately, the goal of this thesis is to engage one’s perception of the
visual world using properties of transparent ...

University at Buffalo Spring 2013 Public Program Series

2013-01-16T17:37:00-05:00

The University at Buffalo's School of Architecture and Planning recently announced its public program series for spring 2013. Be sure to check out all of the lectures and exhibitions that the school has planned. All events are scheduled to be held at 5:30pm in 301 Crosby Hall unless otherwise noted.

For more information and updates, please visit www.ap.buffalo.edu.

Fall 2012 Public Program Series

2012-10-31T11:04:09-04:00

Be sure to check out the remaining lectures and exhibitions in the Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning's public program series for fall 2012.

For more information, please visit www.ap.buffalo.edu

Dare to Dodge

2012-10-25T21:39:16-04:00

Don't miss out on what promises to be the competition of the year:

UB ArchGSA's Second Annual Architecture and Planning Dodgeball Tournament

Highlights from last year's "friendly" competition can be viewed at:

http://archinect.com/blog/article/40487156/dodgeball-the-sport-where-there-is-no-fourth-wall

Do You Dare to Dodge?

Elevator B: A "Buzz-Worthy" New Home for Some of Buffalo's Smallest Citizens

2012-08-02T14:01:00-04:00

On Saturday June 23, 2012, Buffalo's SiloCity was the destination for lovers of architecture and bees alike. The official opening of “Elevator B” culminated months of planning, designing, and construction for a small group of Master of Architecture students from the University at Buffalo. The hard work of design team members Courtney Creenan, Kyle Mastalinski, Daniel Nead, Scott Selin, and Lisa Stern can clearly be seen in the details of the 22 foot tall honey-comb steel structure that now calls Buffalo’s SiloCity home.

Designed in response to a design competition sponsored by Rick Smith and Rigidized Metals and curated by the University at Buffalo’s Department of Architecture’s Ecological Practices Research Group, Elevator B is an architectural response to a need to relocate a group of bees that were residing in a building in the SiloCity complex. The free-standing, 22 foot tall steel structure is constructed of standard steel angle and tube sections in a honeycomb design...

Survivalist Architecture: Dwelling on Waste (Part II)

2012-07-05T15:32:00-04:00

M. Arch Thesis - Matthieu Bain + Andrew Perkins

(Part I: http://archinect.com/blog/article/39333739/survivalist-architecture-dwelling-on-waste)

It’s said that “all good architecture leaks,” which makes the home we bought and moved into in October 2011 (for $800) something of a masterpiece.

Substantial water damage. Layers of moldy carpet atop layers of rotting wood atop mammoth-sized slugs. We sought a house that was deteriorated far beyond usual standards of comfort: one whose very deficiencies foster creative solutions. From the chaos we separate cotton from plastic, metal from paper, and glass from polyester and vinyl.

We liberate waste objects – those materials which seem to have no other destiny than decay or landfill. Abandoned houses, curbside trash mounds, vacant lots where storefronts once sat, and construction dumpsters provide an endless supply of building material. From this, we attempt to not only achieve a space that can sustain us, but one which ...

HIVE CITY Update: And the Winner Is...

2012-05-30T15:18:00-04:00

Prior to the completion of the spring semester, members of the Ecological Practices Research Group faculty at the University at Buffalo in conjunction with competition sponsor Rick Smith and Rigidized Metals announced the winning proposal for their HIVE CITY bee habitat design competition. Out of two finalist teams, a group of 3-1/2 year Master of Architecture students and their proposal entitled Bee Tower won the right to have their design fabricated and constructed on a predetermined site in Buffalo's SiloCity, which is an emerging development led by Smith that includes a vast area of land that contains three formerly-abandoned grain elevators, as well as several other historic structures. Members of the winning project team include:

Courtney Creenan, M. Arch + MUP, 2012

Kyle Mastalinski, M. Arch + MUP, 2013

Danie...

SPACE: 2012 Freshman Studio

2012-04-16T21:40:00-04:00

Contributed By: Ana Misenas, Freshman Architecture Student

During the fall semester, we (the freshman studio) developed our projects conceptually. We created space based on the relationship between the occupier and the tectonics of the structure. This (spring) semester, we worked methodically and developed/recreated a space. At first, we investigated the complexity of an architectural space and continued by generating potential designs through numerous techniques. One technique was to target a feeling that we obtained while inside the space in order to understand how particular features emit a specific feeling.

Photo By Ana Misenas

“LURID - [While] exploring, it seemed that the more grotesque and broken it got, it simultaneously became more beautiful and intriguing.”

We then created the interior space as a solid (as if it were filled with concrete) - Inspired by Rachel Whiteread.

So...

HIVE CITY: A Habitat Design Competition

2012-03-25T09:53:00-04:00

Contributed By: Megan Basnak, M.Arch Student

“The bee is more honored than other animals, not because she labors, but because she labors for others.” This quotation, stated by Saint John Chrysostom during the first century reflects the timeless appreciation that has long been held for nature’s worker species, the bee. It is this same respect and appreciation that has encouraged the Ecological Practices Research Group faculty at the University at Buffalo to organize a design competition dedicated to the design of a new home for a thriving bee colony that needs to be relocated.

The competition, sponsored by Rick Smith and Rigidized Metals asked students to design a new habitat for a bee colony that is currently located in a building in Buffalo’s SiloCity, an emerging development led by Smith, located on a vast area of land containing three formerly-abandoned grain elevators, among other historic structures. Students were asked to propose designs sited in this up-and-coming a...

Capturing Photorealism in Architectural Renders – Lighting Conditions

2012-03-09T13:11:00-05:00

Contributed By: Timothy Ung, M.Arch Student

While helping architect Kenneth S. Mackay digitize his hand-drawn project, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Buffalo, New York, I was intrigued by the proposal for a cone-shaped window to flood the space with even amounts of light. During various times of the day, light would enter from the exterior and reflect off of the rounded surface of the cone and into the space, spreading even amounts of light to the other side of the church.

With the help of a junior in the school of architecture at SUNY at Buffalo, Aaron Taube, the hand-drawn project was modeled in Rhinoceros. To analyze the lighting levels across the floor of the church, I brought the digital model into Ecotect and analyzed the daylight levels. The average daylight level in the room was 5 at approximately 30 inches off of the ground.

Ecotect Analysis showing the Daylight Factor 30 inches off of the ground

Next, I rendered the project in V-Ray without having s...

Dodgeball: The Sport Where There is No Fourth Wall

2012-03-06T15:43:23-05:00

Contributed By: Courtney Creenan, M.Arch Student

Being in architecture school is all about slaving away at your desk all day and
throughout the night, right? Although this might be the norm, the University
at Buffalo Architecture Graduate Student Association organized and hosted a
school-wide, interdepartmental dodgeball tournament February 18, 2012. The very
idea of dodgeball and being able to vent some energy generated so much
interest, some teams had to be turned away. The tournament was a series of games
between 20 teams comprised of undergraduate and graduate level architecture and urban planning students, staff, and faculty.

The tournament sought to foster more interconnectivity between classes and
programs, spur team building, and yes, get students away from their computers
to exercise for an afternoon.

Due to the great success of the event, the GSA sees this as an event
to keep in their regular line-up of activities that occur throughout the semester...

Building Matters: An Investigation into the Use of Permanent Formwork

2012-02-27T19:08:00-05:00

Contributed By: Allison Adderley, M.Arch Student

In conjunction with Faculty Members Christopher Romano and Jean LaMarche

Formwork has often been defined as a temporary building element, typically neglected and rarely interpreted by architects as anything more than a byproduct of construction. However, by reconceptualizing its role as a permanent building component, its construction performance now can be evaluated in parallel with its architectural function. This research reinterprets standard casting conventions as a means of rethinking design parameters, one that considers form and formwork during and after construction as equals in terms of architectural significance.

The separation of the act of construction from the way in which we experience architecture has resulted in a detachment from the fundamental connection to the human act of making. At some point, a division was created, one that drew a line between architect as “thinker” and the builder as “maker.” Se...

Survivalist Architecture: Dwelling on Waste

2012-02-25T15:48:00-05:00

Contributed By: Matthieu Bain and Andrew Perkins

Master of Architecture Thesis

How can the remains of a declining city be harvested and utilized to resuscitate space and sustain life?

In October, we purchased a house from the Buffalo Foreclosure auction for $800 and moved in almost immediately amongst the clutter and without running water, electricity, or heat. The project since has been about how to survive on the remains of this declining city, hence the appropriate title: Dwelling on Waste. We’ve had to address a number of basic concerns: heat, water, security, cooking...only using the discards and forgotten items of the people around us. As the weather warms and as we nail down main structural/leakage/comfort problems, these scavenged materials will begin to lend themselves to more generous spaces and applications. The following covers the events that led up to this, the beginning of our story...

How can the remains of a declining city be harvested and util...

PUBLIC|PRIVATE : UB Inclusive Design Research Group

2012-02-21T20:00:00-05:00

Contributed By: Courtney Creenan, M.Arch + M.UP Student

Getting inside Buffalo, New York’s grain elevators has been on many a University at Buffalo architecture student’s to-do list. This past fall, students in the Inclusive Design Research Group were able to not only tour the facilities, but work inside the Marine A Grain Elevator, which is now a part of the newly incorporated Silo City complex.

The studio focused on a topic often overlooked in the architecture field: the public bathroom. Students had to design innovative, responsible, inclusive, and clever responses to potential event spaces proposed along with their public bathroom design. Some projects challenged current bathroom practices and stigmas. Others integrated the event space programming into the bathroom to create more atmospheric experiences than normally found in a typical bathroom through the use of repurposed materials, lighting affects, and acoustics.

Although many projects were very detailed in...

Canvassing the Campus with Architect Barbie

2012-02-13T21:23:00-05:00

The idea for Architect Barbie emerged out of a 2007 exhibition at the University of Michigan’s Architecture School, curated by Professor Despina Stratigakos, for which students and faculty designed prototypes for the doll as a way to explore and playfully critique stereotypes of architects. Kelly Hayes McAlonie and Dr. Stratigakos, colleagues at the University at Buffalo, joined forces in 2010 to lobby Mattel to produce the doll. Architect Barbie debuted at the 2011 AIA conference in New Orleans. She was Mattel’s 2011 Career of the Year and was named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the Hot Toys of the Year in December. University at Buffalo Master of Architecture students are photographing Architect Barbie around campus as a tribute to her original advocates.

Starting Out the Day in Studio...

Checking in on the Renovation of Hayes Hall...

Preparing to Work in the Materi...

Thermal Interrelation: An Architectural Thesis

2012-02-10T16:30:00-05:00

Contributed by: Robert Garlow, M.Arch Student

[ How can a better understanding of a material’s reaction to thermal energy allow us to design an architecture that participates and mediates amidst the presence of bodies and/or environmental stimuli? ]

Historically, our attempts to suppress a material’s reaction to external stimuli (e.g., sealing, painting, etc.) has led to a limited pallet of conventional construction materials, chosen because of their predictability. Rather than focusing on the material as an artifact and an end in itself, I am proposing a study of material’s latent phenomena, properties and behaviors and how recognition of and attention to a material’s specific response could reshape the way we think about and use it.

By reversing our attention from suppressing a material’s inherent qualities, and instead focusing on a way to exploit that response, we can generate new applications for ordinary materials and design with a new sensitivity in which the inter...

Contain [ar] chitecture

2012-02-07T16:16:00-05:00

Contributed by: Robert Garlow, M.Arch Student

Studio Abstract:
Vertical Constructions is a graduate studio in the Material Culture Graduate Research Group that explores the design and construction of vertical structures. It concentrates on 3 primary objectives: 1) on the differences between stereotomic (mass) and tectonic (stick) construction systems and the processes involved in their successful design and construction; 2) on the theoretical ideas of these materials and their constructed assemblies and the spaces they generate (including Kenneth Framptons cosmological interpretation of Gottfried Sempers Four Elements of Architecture which relates stereotomic mass with the earth and tectonic assemblies with the sky, as well as Gaston Bachlards phenomenological understanding of the spaces of the cellar and attic, the lower associated with darkness and fear and the upper with lightness and comfort); and 3) and planning and performing the work necessary in the construction of each...

Curated Excess - ARC 501

2012-01-15T16:27:00-05:00

Contributed By: Gabrielle Printz

This studio, led by Joyce Hwang, asked first year graduate students to consider the collection conceptually, spatially, and in relation to a culture of excess. Walter Benjamin describes the process of assembling the material collection in his 1916 essay “On Language as Such and on the Language of Man”:

The most profound enchantment for the collector is the locking of individual items within a magic circle in which they are fixed as the final thrill, the thrill of acquisition, passes over them . . . The period, the region, the craftsmanship, the former ownership—for a true collector the whole background of an item adds up to a magic encyclopedia.

The collection is thus defined by its wholeness or completeness, an assemblage of material goods that, together, defines a new, more whole entity. Considering this fundamental concept, students were asked to curate and define a set of found artifacts, classifying and contextualizing them in refer...

Material : Culture :: Culture : Material

2012-01-03T09:36:27-05:00

Contributed By: Scott Archambault

The Material Culture research group explores the relationship of people, materials, and ideas and their manifestation into the artifact of the built environment. The idea of Material Culture is that every material has a culture that inevitably surrounds it. As members of the group, we seek to both challenge and explore this culture of norms to construct (or in some cases discover) a built environment.

But what if the words were reversed? What if the culture was in fact the material used in designing space? Today, we live in a culture of foreclosed-on homes, abandoned houses, and financial meltdown. The Continual House seeks to use these problems to create a new housing typology which eliminates the need for mortgage payments, instead directing those same funds to a continuous construction, addition, or transformation on an initial rudimentary space.

This process begins with the deliberate misuse of an existing building system or mater...

A Celebration...of Furniture: Joinery in the Construction of Furniture Class

2012-01-01T18:48:20-05:00

This past fall semester, 13 students embarked on an explorative journey in the world of furniture design and construction with Materials and Methods Shop Director Dick Yencer and his assistant Wade Georgi. Throughout the semester, students were instructed on how to properly use various tools in the shop, including both wood and metal-working tools. With these skills, students were challenged to design and build their own pieces of furniture, taking into consideration their own personal definitions of what furniture really is and what it means in relation to the surrounding world.

A variety of construction methods and materials were used by students and as a result, a wide variety of pieces were produced including a dining room table, shelving system, and coffee table just to name a few. A final celebration was held on December 14 in the Materials and Methods Shop showcasing to the UB community each student's personal masterpiece. Below are images showing everything that made t...