Archinect - News

RISD students team up with AARP to demonstrate the potential of ADUs to lawmakers

2024-02-15T15:25:00-05:00

Students at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) recently collaborated with the state’s local AARP on a design-research project that was meant to demonstrate the potential of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) to lawmakers currently looking at alternatives to boost housing production and care for an aging population.

The project was spearheaded by RISD faculty member Elizabeth Debs as part of the Interior Architecture department’s annual design charette challenge this past November. She says: “We look for opportunities to use design as a way to explore pressing community needs with collaborators who are experts in their fields. By working with [the] AARP, students quickly learned important strategies for aging in place as well as universal design approaches they will use throughout their careers.”

Photo by Jaime Marland, image courtesy Rhode Island School of Design.

Teams were limited to a 900-square-foot footprint for their designs, which also included considerations for primary st...

Francis Kéré, Walter Hood, Do Ho Suh to receive honorary degrees at RISD Commencement

2023-04-14T09:00:00-04:00

This spring’s commencement ceremony at the Rhode Island School of Design will feature a pair of luminaries as last year’s Pritzker Prize winner Francis Kéré will join Walter Hood for the event, which is to be held at Amica Mutual Pavilion on June 3rd.

Both designers will receive honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees alongside artist and Class of 1994 graduate Do Ho Suh. Kéré will be the keynote speaker at the event. Hood, who is not slated to give an address, also spoke at the UC Berkeley CED commencement ceremony in 2020.

The school shares: “A series of exhibitions leading up to Commencement will highlight new work produced by graduating students. Showcasing the work of grad students across 20 disciplines, Grad Show 2023 will be on view at the Rhode Island Convention Center from May 25–June 3.”

Relate on Archinect: Rhode Island School of Design’s architecture faculty gives ‘unequivocal support’ to striking workers

The announcement coincides with an ongoing labor dispute at RISD, with...

RISD announces withdrawl from U.S. News & World Report's Best College rankings

2023-02-15T15:40:00-05:00

The Rhode Island School of Design announced its decision to withdraw from the U.S. News & World Report's Best College rankings on February 13, a move that joins more institutions that are turning away from the highly-criticized process.

RISD President, Crystal Williams, explained that "principally, Rhode Island School of Design does not measure the value of our students or our academic programs based on the same factors used by U.S. News & World Report. Our educational model is predicated on three primary ways of learning: visual, material and intellectual."

Hyperallergic's Rhea Nayyar reported on the design school’s decision to abstain from the popular higher education guide, which has come under scrutiny over the last decade owing to claims of favoritism, the broader manipulation of young people along lines of prestige, and presumed career success after ...

The Bartlett names Amy Kulper as its next Director

2022-03-30T12:27:00-04:00

A new face will lead one of the UK’s most prestigious design institutions after the announcement that RISD professor Amy Kulper will be the next Director of University College London’s The Bartlett School of Architecture.

Kulper is presently the head of the Architecture department at RISD and has held numerous teaching positions throughout her career including recent stops at UCLA, SCI-Arc, and the University of Cambridge.

Kulper's extensive writing and research primarily focuses on the intersection of history, theory, and design. Her work as an academic has earned her the University of Michigan’s Donna M. Salzer Award for teaching excellence and recently included the oversight of the newly-created combined 4+2 program between Brown and RISD.

Earlier on Archinect: The Bartlett launches new diversity-focused scholarship program

As a critic and curator, she has been published several times in Log, The Architectural Review, Candide, and Architecture and Culture. Her exhibitions have be...

RISD students are helping NASA develop its Artemis mission uniforms for 2025

2022-02-04T10:44:00-05:00

A perfect fusion between fine artists, fashion designers, and rocket scientists is taking flight in New England thanks to the ambitious efforts of some of The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) nerdier undergraduates. NASA and the prestigious design school are now teaming up to outfit astronauts on the agency’s upcoming Artemis I lunar expedition.

Artnet News is reporting that students in a course offered by the school’s apparel design department are now responsible for workshopping prototypes for the high-tech gear that the 18-member crew will incorporate into their uniforms during the 30-day mission.

Designs by undergraduate senior Avantika Velho focused on utility in zero gravity. Image courtesy RISD.

The mission will place an American on the moon for the first time since the Apollo program was deactivated in 1972. Importantly, the mission will see the first time that an American woman and person of color walk on the moon in what has also been thought of by some as a potential ...

Crystal Williams is announced as the 18th RISD president

2021-12-16T16:21:00-05:00

When we began the search for RISD’s 18th president, we sought candidates with not just the experience, education and wisdom that the job requires, but also receptivity, an aesthetic sensibility, the skill to communicate in a community that trades in images and materials, and something even more intangible: a deep, abiding empathy that can bind us all together

Williams has held similar positions at Williams College, Bates, and as the first-ever Dean for Institutional Diversity at Reed College in Oregon. While at Boston University, Williams was responsible for staff training and a host of successful diversity and inclusion initiatives in addition to her role as a full-time Professor of English in the College of Arts & Sciences.

“Crystal’s creativity and her talent for helping manage complex and challenging situations related to race, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic differences have been invaluable in moving BU forward,” BU provost Jean Morrison said in a statement. “She has consistently produced programming that not only answers the issues facing us, but also helps to initiate structural change.”

Williams is a graduate of NYU and Cornell and is considered a prolific author and poet, with superlative works featured in the MOMA poetry project and the American Poetry Review, among other places. Her writing has received multiple awards an...

YouTuber documents life in architecture school

2019-08-27T18:00:00-04:00

Ever wonder what life is like in architecture school? RISD graduate, Joseph Echavarria has chronicled his entire graduate program experience, documenting everything from studio life, crits, Rhino hacks, to thesis reviews, modeling tips, and preparing for a presentation. He employs an authentic range of characters (his studio mates) and presents the uniqueness and rawness of life as an architecture student.

Joseph started his YouTube channel back in 2015 when he decided to begin logging his journey in architecture. "My main reason for starting the YouTube channel was just to have a reason to film. I’ve always wanted to make videos and I loved YouTube," Joseph told Archinect. Soon, the young student's passion for filming grew into a valuable resource for those seeking to learn more about architecture school. Many of his videos display comments from curious viewers expressing their gratitude for the consistent documentation of the college experience in architecture.

Joseph participa...

Get Lectured: RISD, Spring '17

2017-03-21T13:34:00-04:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter & Spring 2017

Archinect's Get Lectured is back in session for Spring 2017. Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss. Mark those calendars!

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Check out the Spring '17 lecture series at the Rhode Island School of Design, Department of Architecture.

Feb 23, 6:30 PM
Brett Schneider / Guy Nordenson and Associates & RISD Architecture

Feb 27, 6:30 PM
Jeanette Kuo / Karamuk*Kuo

Mar 2, 6:30 PM at RISD Auditorium
Petra Blaisse / Inside Outside, Hosted with INTAR, Textiles, RISD Museum

Mar 13, 6:30 PM
Allan Wexler / Allan Wexler Studio, Hosted with ID

Mar 16, 6:30 PM
Jarrett Walker / Jarrett Walker + Associates

April 3, 6:30 PM
Kunle Adeyemi / NLÉ

April 24, ...

Re-use, Re-Design & Re-think: RISD’s Interior Architecture department

2016-12-28T17:11:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by Department of Interior Architecture RISD

At the intersection of architecture, conservation and design, RISD’s Interior Architecture department takes an innovative approach to the reuse and transformation of existing buildings. Advanced design studios focused on adaptive reuse are central to both the undergraduate and graduate programs. And unlike the fields of interior design and decoration, interior architecture looks less at the application of surface materials than at understanding the design of buildings from the inside out.

In the studio, students use digital and manual means to research and recommend design alterations and renovations that give existing buildings new life. Studios focus on a wide range of approaches, from domestic to retail design to theater/production design to issues of preservation and conservation.

“Students in our department are engaged in a rich and expansive discipline focusing on the reuse and transformation of existing ...

Get Lectured: RISD, Spring '16

2016-03-02T14:06:00-05:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter/Spring 2016

Archinect's Get Lectured is back in session. Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Next up is the Spring '16 Architecture + Landscape Architecture lecture series from the Rhode Island School of Design, Department of Architecture.

Listed below are upcoming events.

Mar 14
Emily Abruzzo & Gerald Bodziak / Abruzzo Bodziak Architects
6.30 p.m., BEB 106
Reception preceding

Mar 24
Emanuel Admassu & Jen Wood / AD-WO
Gallery talk 6 p.m., BEB Gallery

Apr 5
Shane Coen / Coen + Partners
Landscape Architecture Haffenreffer Lecture
6:30 p.m., BEB 106

Apr 15
R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE
written and performed by Doug Jaco...

Deborah Berke about her childhood, RISD, and the desire for simplicity

2016-03-01T15:13:00-05:00

Though I'd lived minimally my whole life, I have a husband and a grown daughter, and they do have stuff. We make dinner and have dinner parties and entertain a lot. But what's stayed the same is that the spaces are really spare. We pay attention to the art that's on the wall and the books that are in the room, something I picked up from my parents. How we're in a room alone and how we're in a room with friends and family both matter. In a way, I want the rooms to be perfect containers for life.

More about Deborah Berke in the Archinect news:

RISD architecture students perform minimalist music masterpiece (for course credit)

2015-12-17T18:23:00-05:00

Their choice of Terry Riley’s piece was ideal. Goethe called architecture “frozen music.” “In C” perfectly illustrates Goethe’s corollary: “Music is liquid architecture.” [...] Interdisciplinarity is a popular buzzword on many campuses, but in most cases it remains a mere slogan. Here was a shining model for other schools [...] It prompted students like Huizhong Sun and Marco Aguirre to remind me about the architectural concepts of simultaneity and interpenetration, and of “transparency”

The performance was part of a new RISD collaborative initiative, organized by the architecture department's head, Laura Briggs. Briggs brought together David Gersten (architect) and Michael Harrison (microtonal composer) to teach "Outside the Guidelines," where they approach architecture from complementary visual and auditory perspectives.

Get Lectured: RISD, Spring '15

2015-03-10T13:28:00-04:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter-Spring 2015

Archinect's Get Lectured is back in session! Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

The next poster comes from the Rhode Island School of Design Department of Architecture and Department of Landscape Architecture.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Listed below are upcoming events only. All events take place in the Bayard Ewing Building, unless noted otherwise. Lectures take place in BEB 106 at 6:30 p.m.

LECTURES

Mar 16
Mark West / CAST

Apr 6
Iñaki Abalos + Renata Sentkiewicz / Abalos+Sentkiewicz arquitectos

Apr 9
Richard Roark / OLIN

Apr 24
Bernard Tschumi / Bernard Tschumi Architects

Apr 28
Thomas Woltz / Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

Apr 30
Lisa Iwamoto / Iwamot...

Building Design from the Inside Out: RISD’s Interior Architecture department

2014-11-25T13:06:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by the RISD Interior Architecture Department

Image: Heekyung Kim, Space for Water, MDes 2014

“Students in our department are engaged in a rich and expansive discipline focus...

Get Lectured: RISD, Spring '14

2014-03-20T13:46:00-04:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter/Spring 2014

Archinect's Get Lectured is up and running again for the Winter/Spring '14 term! As a refresher from our Fall 2013 guide, every week we'll feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current season. If you're not doing so already, be sure to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Today's poster features the Spring '14 lecture series at the Rhode Island School of Design, School of Architecture.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Listed below are upcoming lectures only. Events will take place from 6:30-8 pm at the Bayard Ewing Building, Room 106.

April 7
Vikram Pakrash

April 21
SHoP Architects

May 5
Ana Alemán + Axel Paredes / paredes+alemán arquitectos

For more event details, click here.

Pritzker Winner Wang Shu Confirmed as RISD's 2012 Commencement Speaker

2012-03-07T14:04:00-05:00

On Saturday, June 2 at 1:30PM, 197 graduate and 448 undergraduate students from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) will receive their diplomas during RISD’s 2012 Commencement celebration.

At the ceremony, RISD will present honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees on to several special guests at its 2012 Commencement ceremony. The honorary degree recipients who are being recognized for creating groundbreaking work and making a profound impact on contemporary culture are: architect and professor Wang Shu, who will also deliver the keynote address; writer-activist Rebecca Solnit; and the directors and producer of the Japanese film animation house Studio Ghibli – Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki, respectively, with Suzuki accepting the award on behalf of the studio.