Archinect - News

Philadelphia’s Center for Architecture and Design rebrands as DesignPhiladelphia

2024-01-31T19:51:00-05:00

Philadelphia’s Center for Architecture and Design has revealed its rebranding as DesignPhiladelphia, according to an announcement the educational nonprofit made public recently.

The name change heralds an expansion of services as an organization, which has been open to the public since 2002. AIA Philadelphia will continue as an anchor tenant, joined by the Community Design Collaborative, PhilaNOMA, Design Advocacy Group, Creative Mornings PHL, and eight new design associations as Residence Partners.

“The new name, DesignPhiladelphia, represents our commitment to inclusivity and collaboration across all design fields, including graphics, interiors, and more. Our programming: Design Education, the Festival, the Edmund N. Bacon Urban Design Awards, and the Louis I. Kahn Lecture will all continue underneath the new DesignPhiladelphia brand,” an FAQ on the Center’s website reads.

Former K-12 Architecture and Design Education programming will now be called simply Design Education progra...

A formerly closed HBCU in Detroit is reopening as a design school thanks to an industry leader

2021-10-29T14:44:00-04:00

Detroit, Michigan’s erstwhile Lewis College of Business is making history after being resurrected by one of the biggest names in footwear and apparel design.

The college operated from 1928 to 2013 before shuttering due to financial concerns and will now become the nation’s first HBCU to officially reopen, giving hope to the 104 similar institutions that were until recently a significant part of President Biden’s multi-trillion dollar Build Back Better spending plan.

The school is offering free room and board as well as comped tuition for students interested in pursuing careers in the design field. Its website is promoting a learn-by-doing approach that will help train students across multiple disciplines, including robust course offerings in STEM fields, sustainability, business, and design.

Renamed the Pensole Lewis College of Business & Design, the reimagined institution takes its name from Pensole Design Academy, a Portland, Oregon-based non-profit founded in 2010 by former Ni...

The Design Museum of London aims to bring art and design into your home with their new Digital Design Museum Calendar

2020-04-03T17:57:00-04:00

Online courses, activities, and programming have increased as the globe adjusts to this "new normal" of social distancing measures and safety precautions amid the current pandemic. However, museums across the globe have shifted their efforts towards bringing art to the homes of millions of patrons.

On April 1st, the Design Museum announced the launch of their new Digital Design Calendar of online content. According to a press statement by the museum, "new digital calendar includes lesson plans and activities for children at home with the Young Design Museum program, a series of ‘Lunch and Learn’ sessions for adults in new Learn with the DesignMuseum series and a roster of Instagram Lives with leading designers called #DesignDispatches."

Image courtesy of Design Museum

The museum has partnered with the Royal College of Art, BBC Studios, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and several others who aim to assist the museum by carrying out it's "mission to make the impact of design vi...

Have alternative design education programs curbed interest in traditional design degrees?

2019-11-29T09:36:00-05:00

The rise of the start-up, non-traditional approach to becoming a design professional has turned into a movement popular amongst self-starters, inquisitive young adults, and those wishing to make a career pivot. The "unconventional design education" has fostered an attitude intended to motivate individuals to pursue a career in design, but what does that mean exactly?

With "basic" design principles readily available thanks to e-learning platforms and social media sharing like Youtube and Instagram, should traditional design education systems be worried?

Granted, this boom of alternative design learning won't completely eradicate traditional design programs, but is there something these platforms for personal enrichment can teach academic educators and institutions?

Image courtesy of Pexels.

Meg Miller of Fast Company reported in October, "the majority of designers working today have a bachelor's degree (32%). Seventeen percent said they've engaged in online learning, and 10% have ta...

Architecture will be recognized as STEM

2018-12-27T17:56:00-05:00

In a big win for architects, the US House of Representatives passed the Senate version of H.R.2353, the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) Act on Tuesday. Architects across the country led the charge to pass this bill, highlighting its promise in discussions with their representatives.

The academic grouping known as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) has long been regarded as the antithesis to the creative fields of art, music, and architecture. But the bill recently passed by the US House of Representatives allows states to use federal money to modernize Career Technical Education (CTE) curricula, which will soon include architecture.

"After years of discussion by architects and educators, AIA is pleased that its lobbying efforts have succeeded and that the bill on Career Technical Education has passed,” says Robert Ivy, FAIA, EVP/Chief Executive Officer of the American Institute of Architects. "It will encourage a more diverse workforce, fulfill the promise of design as the synthesis of art and science, and affect fundamental change in educational curricula."

This recent news will likely have an effect on how architecture is discussed in America's middle and high schools, as well as the allocation of funds towards architectural education....

What You Don’t See

2018-09-18T19:06:00-04:00

Follow the intricate supply chains of architecture and you’ll find not just product manufacturers but also environmental polluters. Keep going and you’ll find as well the elusive networks of political influence that are underwritten by the billion-dollar construction industry.

In "What You Don't See," Brent Sturlaugson examines the supply chains of architecture to make the case that designers must expand their frameworks of action and responsibility for thinking about sustainability.

Unraveling the networks of materials, energy, power, and money that must be activated to produce a piece of plywood, Sturlaugson argues that "any full accounting of environmental, economic, or social sustainability has got to consider not merely individual buildings and sites but also the intricate product and energy supply chains that are crucial to their construction."

Does architectural education "brainwash" students? Nikos A. Salingaros thinks so

2017-06-13T13:57:00-04:00

Recently I’ve come to the reluctant conclusion that architectural education does some very specific things to its students, and in remarkably short order: 1.) It disconnects them from their bodies....2.) It brainwashes them.

In a brief article on Common Edge, the University of Texas San Antonio's Dr. Nikos A. Salingaros lists five effects he's witnessed as a teacher on students, and they include disasociation from one's body, a certain brainwashing through abstraction, and an emphasis on insularity and novelty over the actual human experience of a building. As he notes:

Contemporary architecture is obsessed, to the point of arrogance, with “innovation.” But unless you’re trained to admire and revere it for its own sake (something architecture students are routinely taught), aggressive “novelty” often triggers negative reactions from everyone else: alarm, anxiety, even physio-psychological pain. Remember the poor Vitra firemen, unwitting victims of “cutting edge” architecture? That’s just the proverbial tip of the iceberg, as far as alienation and architecture are concerned. Once upon a time, shareable stories were embedded onto and into buildings. Today architects detach their stories and apply them inst...

Only $90 for Frank Gehry's wisdom?

2017-02-21T13:32:00-05:00

Don't tell grad students carting around six-figure debt, but those who wish to learn from one of the masters of architecture can now do so for $90. MasterClass, a San Francisco-based educational video company, is now taking pre-orders for an online class taught by none other than Frank Gehry himself. Students can sign up for the class, which offers "video lessons from the instructor, interactive exercises, course materials, peer interaction, and more." Watch the trailer below to see what you'll likely learn as Frank winds his way through his model archive (and memories of nearly six decades of professional practice)...

Oregon housing design curriculum wins national award

2016-02-24T15:08:00-05:00

“The combination of the course offerings on a regular basis in subject-area courses, housing studios, design-build, as well as programs for both students and the primary faculty involved—that we feel is unique,” says UO architecture professor Michael Fifield.

The University of Oregon Department of Architecture was recognized in January as among the finest in the country for its housing design education.

UO architecture faculty members Michael Fifield, Peter Keyes, and Rob Thallon, who spearhead the UO Housing Specialization Program, received the “Housing Design Education Award-Excellence in Housing Education Course or Activity.” The accolade is given jointly by Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the American Institute of Architecture (AIA).

The three professors oversee a variety of subject-specific courses. Thallon teaches Design Build and Residential Building Construction courses, including Oregon BILDS (Building Integrated Livable Designs Sustainably); Keyes instructs a thesis studio and a Housing Design course; and Fifield, the program’s director, teaches housing design studios and subject-area courses including Housing Prototypes, Community Design, and Minimal Dwelling.

“Very few other—if any—housing programs a...