Archinect - News

ACADIA's 'Robotic Softness' workshop experiments with Xbox Kinect and robo-weaving

2016-11-08T20:07:00-05:00

The Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) conference 2016, hosted by the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban planning at the University of Michigan, is a preeminent platform to discuss design philosophies and acknowledge new realms of work done by individuals or organizations among the architectural community. The Institute for Computational Design at the University of Stuttgart's contribution to the field of computational design and architecture has been immense, and the workshop gave us valuable insight into the technology and know-how being developed at the there.

Through the seven ACADIA’s workshops, we participated in “Robotic Softness: Behavioral Fabrication Process of Woven Structures,” led by Lauren Vasey, a Research Associate from the ICD and Giulio Brugnaro, a graduate of the ITECH Master’s Program at the University of Stuttgart who is currently also pursuing his PHD at The Bartlett School of Architecture. The three day workshop was structured...

ACADIA's 'Floating Megalith' workshop challenges architecture's obsession with surface over volume

2016-11-04T14:24:00-04:00

Last Wednesday afternoon, traffic briefly stopped at the main entrance to the University of Michigan’s North Campus as 12 of us hauled a stark white blob the size of a jet ski up hills and across intersections. Curious and confused onlookers watched us as we carried what must have seemed like an unidentifiable object towards the small pond located behind the School of Music. Despite the cold and the rain, the workshop group prepared the form for its maiden voyage, and watched as its water ballast was filled, allowing the foam blob to slowly position itself into a floating megalith. Throughout this trek the workshop’s leader, MIT Assistant Professor Brandon Clifford, walked alongside answering questions. For Brandon, this procession towards the water was not just a familiar aspect of his research in megalithic constructions, but instead an essential element of the history and significance of volumetric design.

Two days earlier, Brandon began his ACADIA workshop session by telling the ...

"Practice Sessions:" a way for students to practice practice

2016-02-04T12:25:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

A practice session is different than the real thing, the big game, the final performance. All the pressures and impingements of the real thing are present—its rules, constraints, and mandate to perform—but it’s also just practice. It happens again and again, and the awareness of that repetition, of any one session being just another in an extensible chain that stretches backward and forward, grants certain permissions: risks can be taken, roles can be rehearsed and reassigned, embarrassments are quickly forgotten, inhibitions fall away. Over time, practice makes the difficult look easy and the accumulated glitches and idiosyncrasies of each session allow for unanticipated discoveries. Practice sessions are real, and then some.

Over the next five years, ten architectural practices will be invited to Taubman College to run a Practice Session. Each session centers on an immersive four-day design charet...

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...