Archinect - News

What will the future of architectural education look like?

2020-10-15T14:47:00-04:00

It's safe to say that nobody knows what the future of architectural education will be. These days it's hard to know what next month will bring us. Few people would argue, however, that academia is ripe for change, as are many facets of modern life that have not evolved at the pace the world has changed in recent decades.

To address this necessary change, we invite you to join us for a special discussion this upcoming Monday, from 1-2 pm EST / 10-11 am PST, featuring a distinguished panel of leaders of architectural education. Deans from across the country will be addressing, head-on, the change they hope to see, and the challenges they currently face to make that change.

To RSVP for this virtual panel, please click the "reserve" button at this link. Space is limited and registration is required to attend.

The Panelists

Hernán Díaz Alonso has been the director of the Southern California Institute of Architecture since 2015, where is held the position of distinguished faculty membe...

Princeton SoA students publish open letter demanding racial justice

2020-07-20T13:20:00-04:00

Students of the Princeton University School of Architecture have published a letter advocating for widespread changes to how the school operates in order to pursue an anti-racist agenda.

The open letter, published as an Op-Ed in The Daily Princetonian, offers a nine point plan for beginning to move the institution in the right direction. The letter, which is signed by over 80 current students and nearly 200 alumni, seeks to have the university divest from campus policing initiatives, recruit Black students, faculty, and speakers, provide administrative and financial support for Black students, center Black voices in the school's curriculum, "dismantle white supremacy in studio," ban inequitable labor practices at the school, implement anti-racism training for professors, staff, and students, deepen university and community relationships with the Black community, all the while pursuing these goals with a focus on transparency and accountability.

Previously on Archinect: "Princeton'...

Princeton's Monica Ponce de Leon: To overcome injustice in architecture, licensure should be "eliminated or radically transformed"

2020-06-11T17:28:00-04:00

Princeton University School of Architecture Dean Monica Ponce de Leon has issued a statement on behalf of the school offering solidarity with the growing protest movement seeking social and economic justice for Black people in America.

In a letter sent out to the Princeton SoA community, Ponce de Leon explains that "it is essential for us to acknowledge that the discipline of architecture and its institutions have always been complicit in social, economic, health, and environmental discrimination."

Previously on Archinect: "AIA, NOMA, and other organizations issue statements of solidarity with Black community." Courtesy of Wikimedia User Rosa Pineda.

She adds, "Without this acknowledgement, we will be powerless to impact the grotesque structural injustice that Black Americans and other groups have been subjected to for far too long."

Going further, Dean Ponce de Leon points to architecture's lengthy, complicated, and expensive educational and training system—and particularly, archi...

"The Architectural Imagination" Venice Biennale participants revealed

2016-03-02T15:56:00-05:00

Twelve firms, including Greg Lynn Form, MOS Architects, Preston Scott Cohen Inc., and Zago Architecture have been selected by curators Cynthia Davidson and Mónica Ponce de León to create speculative architectural presentations for the 2016 U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The presentations will be based on four real-world Detroit sites: Dequindre Cut/Eastern Market at 1923 Division Street, Mexicantown at 6370 Vernor Highway, the US Post Office at 1401 West Fort Street, and the Packard Plant at East Grand Boulevard and Concord Avenue.

According to a press release, the idea behind the exhibition is to demonstrate "the creativity and resourcefulness of architecture to address the social and environmental issues of the 21st century" and will have applications beyond the specific sites featured. As previously mentioned at Archinect, at the exhibition twenty photographs of Detroit submitted via a contest designed to tell a larger narrative about the city will be available in postcard ...

Winning "My Detroit" postcard photos for the 2016 U.S. Venice Biennale Pavilion revealed

2016-02-25T21:03:00-05:00

The 2016 U.S. Venice Biennale Pavilion is one step closer to becoming a reality with today's reveal of the 'My Detroit' postcard photo competition winners...[Out of 463 entries, the winning photos] were considered as unique individual depictions of Detroit that could also collectively tell a larger story about the present-day city. The photographs will then be printed as postcards and distributed to visitors when the Biennale opens in May.

See more of the photos over on Bustler.

U.S. Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale, "The Architectural Imagination", now open for submissions

2015-07-17T14:51:00-04:00

Start sharpening those pencils – the US Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale is now open for submissions. The Pavilion's theme of "The Architectural Imagination", curated by Monica Ponce de Leon and Cynthia Davidson, is looking for projects sited particularly in Detroit, while still having global potentials. The curators will commission a total of 12 domestic practices to be exhibited at the Biennale's US pavilion, as well as include them in a special "cataLog" issue of Log journal.

The US Pavilion's website's landing page features a photograph of Diego Rivera's "Detroit Industry" fresco (1932-33), referring to the curators' agenda to consider Detroit from its legacy as "a center of American imagination, not only for the products it made but also for its modern architecture and modern lifestyle, which captivated audiences worldwide."

In order to be considered, applicants must either themselves be an architect with US citizenship, or include one on their team, as well as have at least ...

Monica Ponce de Leon and Cynthia Davidson will curate US Pavilion at 2016 Venice Biennale

2015-06-18T15:26:00-04:00

The U.S. pavilion's exhibition, "The Architectural Imagination", will focus on Detroit as a case study for architectural interventions worldwide, with keen interest in "creativity and resourcefulness", according to a press release issued from the University of Michigan. Co-curators Cynthia Davidson, editor of Log journal, and Monica Ponce de Leon, dean of Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, will select architectural projects that address the pressing issues of 21st century cities, and engage with specific sites in Detroit.

Taubman was selected to organize the U.S. pavilion by the Department of State, and "The Architectural Imagination" theme was the result of an open competition led by The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, official managers of the U.S.'s role at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale.

By the time the Biennale actually takes place, Ponce de Leon will no longer be at Taubman – effective January 1, 2016, she will serve as dean at Princeton's arch...

Monica Ponce de Leon appointed as new dean of Princeton Architecture

2015-05-27T19:51:00-04:00

Monica Ponce de Leon has been appointed as the next dean of Princeton University School of Architecture, effective January 1, 2016. Since 2008, Ponce de Leon has served as dean of the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor where she is heavily involved in The Digital Fabrication Lab, aka FABLab. In her educational approach, Ponce de Leon is a leading figure in applying robotic technology in building fabrication and is a proponent in strengthening studio as the central and all-pervasive educational device.

Before Taubman, she served as a professor for 12 years at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design as well as Director of the Digital Lab. She co-founded the firm Office dA in 1991 and then began her own design practice, MPdL Studio, in 2011.

Throughout her career, Ponce de Leon has received several awards including the prestigious National Design Award in Architecture from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian National Design Mus...

Editor's Picks #394

2014-11-21T12:30:00-05:00

The latest edition of Working out of the Box: featured Hendo Hoverboard inventor and co-founder of Arx Pax , Greg Henderson. You can hear the full interview with Greg with his wife Jill, co-founder of Arx Pax, as part of episode 4 of Archinect Sessions here. Click here to subscribe.

Meanwhile, the latest Showcase: - No.4 High School Fangshan Campus is located in Beijing and designed by local firm OPEN Architecture.

News
On episode 5 of Archinect Sessions co-host/NJIT grad Ken Koense took issue with NJIT's statement against Kean University's upcoming Michael Graves School of Architecture. Listen to Koense's take on NJIT's statement, or download the whole episode here.

Sebastian Mlekicki argued "Including NJIT there are already 7 NCARB accredited architecture schools in a 25 mile radius of NJIT, and there here have been less students signing up for architecture in NJ all together. How is adding another program economically feasible?".

On a visit to Cleveland, Monica Ponce de Leon made...

U of M architecture dean encourages minority high school students to storm barriers in a field dominated by white males

2014-11-17T13:29:00-05:00

Monica Ponce de Leon, a leading American architect proud of being a Hispanic woman in a field long dominated by white men, wants to change the face of her profession. [...] agreed to conduct a class earlier that day for juniors from John Hay High School - the vast majority of whom were black. Ponce de Leon, dean of the Taubman College of Architecture and Planning [...], wanted to inspire the students to enter a field in which the vast majority of practitioners don't look like them.