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In UCLA's 'Fit for the Future' research studio, Julia Koerner and AUD students navigate the intersection of 3D printing, architecture, and climate change

2023-09-22T08:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by UCLA Architecture and Urban Design, an Archinect Partner School

Our infrastructure is aging, and as it does, we face dilemmas around what to do with it. Renovate? Replace? Eliminate?

Today, these age-old questions are complicated by the climate crisis: threats like rising, warming seas, and–evidenced vividly this summer–wildfires and extreme heat call for innovation in how we treat our aging buildings and cities. While architects mull these questions, they are also considering their field's contributions to the climate crisis–emissions and carbon footprints, material waste, and environmental displacement.

Dilemmas abound, but Julia Koerner sees immense opportunity around 3D printing at the scale of buildings and houses. It’s an area she has been investigating for years as a professor, architect, researcher, and designer. Koerner teaches at UCLA AUD as an Associate Adjunct Professor and directs AUD's Summer Programs; through her personal practice, JK De...

PARTISANS opens new 11,000 sf studio in Toronto

2021-01-14T13:32:00-05:00

Located in Toronto’s west end in the Geary Corridor, PARTISANS’ new studio space spans a single-level and covers 11,000 square feet, providing ample room for the practice to grow to over 100 team members. The group took a collective approach in designing the new space, pulling from their community of architects, interior designers, researchers, and other professionals.

Photo by Thomas Bollmann.

The original space was a former gear and machine factory and is located in Toronto's old industrial neighborhood, now an area with a thriving arts and music scene, along with some of Toronto's newest restaurants, bars, and breweries.

Photo by Thomas Bollmann.

In addition to four meeting rooms, and 40 desks, an additional 1,500 sq ft is dedicated to the workshop -- a space for research and in-house development, including a 3D printing room and archive and material library.

Photo by Thomas Bollmann.

Social space was an important aspect of the design, introduced to facilitate group brainstorms an...

Rethinking the global urbanism studio

2020-07-28T20:15:00-04:00

The city has changed. The city is always changing, but COVID-19 has accelerated the process. From New York and Hong Kong to Brisbane, Manaus and Copenhagen, the pandemic is reshaping the ways we think about urban space.

“In a matter of just two or three months, people have completely transformed how they negotiate the city,” said Jonathan Stitelman, visiting assistant professor of urban design in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. “COVID-19 has impacted everything from restaurants and storefronts to expectations around homes, offices and entrepreneurship.”

This summer, Stitelman is leading the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design’s annual Global Urbanism Studio, a 13-week program that allows Master of Urban Design students to study and work in major cities around the world. Stitelman, who has taught the studio with John Hoal and other faculty since 2016, had spent months organizing a partnership with Uganda Martyrs University...

The trials and tribulations of the 3D printer

2018-11-21T17:26:00-05:00

For one, there is no such thing as a 3D printer that doesn’t emit concerning microparticles into the air. Even industrial models that appear sealed, complete with fans and filters, put out measurable particulates.

Ask any architecture student, 3D printing can be one of the best and worst things about the design studio. Architectural drawings and renderings are necessary, but in order for the concept to really come to life 3D scale models have acted as catalysts for translating the vision. Physical scale models go hand in hand with architecture. However, just as architecture has developed over time so has the technology.

3D printers have changed the way architects and architecture students alike have communicated their ideas. Ranging in size and capacity, 3D printers can be found in almost every university, institute, and studio. Sci-Arc EDGE student, Laure Michelon, states printers are running "24/7. Everyday. Pretty much everyone has one. There are about 10 printers in our studio." Besides it taking up space, the trials and tribulations of getting the machine set and ready is a whole other ordeal. However, besides the tedious fabrication process, does the 3D printer pose a different kind of...

Archiculture, a documentary film that explores the architectural studio, premieres online

2014-12-18T06:10:00-05:00

Archiculture takes a thoughtful, yet critical look at the architectural studio. The 25-minute film offers a unique glimpse into the world of studio-based, design education through the eyes of a group of students finishing their final design projects. Interviews with leading professionals, historians and educators help create crucial dialog around the key issues faced by this unique teaching methodology and the built environment these future architects will create.

Read our interview with filmmakers David Krantz and Ian Harris about the film, from 9 years ago (!!!) here.