Archinect - SAID Happenings

Public Interest Design Institute, Day 2

2012-11-15T16:50:14-05:00

The following are project narratives from the second day of the Public Interest Design Institute in Cincinnati. Take the SEED Pledge today!

Design Thinking
Ramsey Ford, Design Director and Co-founder of Design Impact

Ford discussed an ongoing project for improving the Sarai cooking system, which aims to reduce carbon emissions and create safe cooking environments. The current Sarai cook stove reduces particulate matter and carbon monoxide in indoor environments compared to traditional cook stoves, but the product’s reach hasn’t been wide. Engaging with technical experts from partner ARTI and users of the stoves, a Design Impact fellow is working on a redesign that will work better, sell more, and have a greater impact.

Ford described the design process of Design Impact, which begins with establishing goals and self reflection, and stressed the importance of integrating user insight, technical knowledge, and visual communication in the design process. Showing a t...

Public Interest Design Institute, Day 1

2012-11-15T14:38:00-05:00

The Public Interest Design Institute (PIDI) came to Cincinnati this past weekend, bringing nearly 50 professionals, faculty, and students together for training in public interest design focused on the Social Economic Environmental Design (SEED) metric. SEED serves as a network, design process, and evaluation standard. Each presenter at PIDI engaged in projects that embodied the SEED process; a brief narrative of each follows.

Rural Poverty: Bayview Rural Village
Maurice Cox, Director of Tulane City Center

Working with a multidisciplinary team and local community members, Maurice Cox led a renewal of the Bayview Rural Village. A plan for a maximum security prison to be located in the heart of their village mobilized community leaders to transform a collection of rundown rental homes without indoor plumbing into a dignified rural village. Starting with an EPA grant to address drinking water issues, Cox began with quick wins like trash cleanup to get the community to...

Lecture Video Archive

2012-11-13T11:41:00-05:00

Catch up on video from a selection of our lectures over the last couple years:

J. Kent Fitzsimons: More Than Access - Seeing Motion Otherwise in Architecture

Vern Yip, Designing Spaces for the World of Television (audio begins 13:00)

Lisa Iwamoto, IwamotoScott Architecture (audio begins 7:00)

Adam Yarinsky, Architecture Research Office (audio begins 13:00)

Shashi Caan, Shashi Caan Collective

E.B. Min and Jeffrey Day, Min/Day (audio begins 9:30)

Patrick Tighe, Patrick Tighe Architecture (audio begins 12:00)

John Nastasi, Nastasi Architects (audio begins 10:00)

Dan Rockhill, Rockhill and Associates / Studio 804 (audio begins 38:00)

Design Build Symposium: John Folan, John Quale, Sergio Palleroni (audio begins 5:30)

Stickdorn and Service Design Workshop

Surface Conversations, Part 2

2012-11-08T13:33:28-05:00

The final day of Surface Conversations was concluded with panels featuring distinguished architectural academics and practitioners. Participants for the first panel included:

TF: Tony Fry, Professor and convener of Design Futures Program, Queensland College of Art; author of many books including Design as Politics

TM: Thom Mayne, FAIA, founder of morphosis; designed UC’s Campus Recreation Center

ES: Erik Sueberkrop, FAIA, founding principal of STUDIOS Architecture, UC alumnus; designed UC’s CARE/Crawley Building

JW: Jane Weinzapfel, FAIA, principal and co-founder of Leers Weinzapfel Associates; designed UC’s University Pavilion

BY: Buzz Yudell, FAIA, founding principal Moore Ruble Yudell; designed UC’s Steger Student Life Center

Reflections/Forecasts: Panel Two

(questions from moderators are paraphrased; answers are not a complete summary, but rather a sampling of some key ideas and discussions)

Discuss urbanism within the Occupy movement.

TF: Fun fa...

Surface Conversations, Part 1

2012-11-06T14:59:28-05:00

The final day of Surface Conversations was concluded with panels featuring distinguished architectural academics and practitioners. Participants for the first panel included:

RA: Robert Aish, associated researcher, Autodesk; co-founder of Smart Geometry Group

PE: Peter Eisenman, FAIA; designed UC’s Aronoff Center (DAAP)

RG: Ray Gastil, Chair in Design Innovation at Penn State Landscape Architecture; former city planning director in Manhattan and Seattle

AL: Andrea P. Leers, FAIA, principal and co-founder of LEERS Weinzapfel Associates; designed UC’s University Pavilion

KM: Karen M’Closkey, faculty at UPenn, co-founder of PEG Office of Landscape + Architecture; author of upcoming book on landscapes of Hargreaves Associates

Brief introduction by Eisenman

Eisenman declares that he “doesn’t do” surface and elevation – he’s more concerned with plan. Surface is a narrative, but plan is something that you don’t directly see. Elevation versus plan also comes down ...

Facade Innovations

2012-11-06T11:11:00-05:00

Recap of presentation on 10/25, part of Surface Conversations

Erik Verboon from Buro Happold

http://www.burohappold.com/

façade engineering
- facades account for 15-25% of construction costs
- architect as master builder --> conductor
- differentiate between off the shelf cladding/curtain wall versus façade engineering
- integrated design – façade and other engineering services offered

King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, Snohetta – surface as armor
- cultural interdependency in time and space – pebbles in sand
- architectural intents: free form, reflective, uniformity, and unique
- construction realities: sand, birds, clean surface, scheduling, budget
- stainless steel tubes wrapped in a pattern resembling a thumbprint
- intersection of thumbprints creates unique seam on each pebble
- steel tubes flattened in front of windows; transition piece bridges gap
- outer skin reduced inner skin temperature
- automated geometry rationalization/gen...

Mitigating Complexity

2012-11-01T17:04:00-04:00

Recap of lecture on 10/17/12 - watch video here

Hagy Belzberg: Mitigating Complexity

http://www.belzbergarchitects.com

mitigating complexity – varying programs, clients, budgets that architects must balance

Howser Landscape Installation AWOL

- a host of a local public tv show has a house in the desert, but is paranoid & wanted a fence in the desert to prevent people from coming onto his property
- ship hulls cantilevered out of ground – radiate so much heat that no one would want to come near; performance patterning

Skyline Residence
- part of the set for Crazy Stupid Love
- environmental performance – building is balanced with prevailing winds
- sun shields – environmental patterning, passive architecture
- movies projected onto guest house; viewed from green roof over garage

Walt Disney Concert Hall
- design 12,000 sf inside building
- acoustical isolation critical in many spaces
- restaurant, café, retail, members lounge
- han...

A Cultural Practice

2012-10-16T14:53:00-04:00

Recap of lecture on 10/15/12 - watch video here

Walter Hood: A Cultural Practice

http://wjhooddesign.com/

Practice/Process
- practice: 1 writer + 2 architects + 1 landscape architect + 1 product designer
- mundane/everyday – commemorative – community design
- process: periods of determination within an otherwise rigid design process allow for dreaming, reimagining the world – likened to jazz improvisation

Bio line
- installation at Art Institute of Chicago, where Hood enrolled in MFA program
- parasitic sculpture – aluminum sculpture over air ducts in Sullivan Galleries allows plants to grow from ceiling, referencing Sullivan’s natural ornament

Canned Spinach
- temporary exhibit at Oakland Museum of California
- observes city’s past as center of vegetable and fruit canning with Del Monte

Baisley Park

- Jamaica Queens – institutionalized community garden
- ownership and education through planting own food
- opening with 50 Cen...

Go West Project

2012-10-09T11:51:40-04:00

Recap of lecture on 10/03/12 - watch video here: part 1 / part 2

Daan Roggeveen: Go West Project

www.gowestproject.com

“Twenty years ago Mr Sun was a simple Chinese farmer. Today he owns a block of flats in the centre of a city of millions. And he didn’t move an inch.”

– How the City Moved to Mr Sun

Introduction

- usually presents with journalist Michiel Hulshof
- Go West Project combines research, architecture, and media

Chongquing
- population of 33 million, same as the entire country of Austria
- 700 construction workers living in a makeshift village on site; developed both residential and service areas – workers don’t need to leave site
- workers earn 5x as much in city as in countryside – better life for children in country

Chinese cities vs. world cities
- average 9.6 million vs. 6.7 million population
- average universities vs. top universities
- cultural desert vs. cultural oasis
- developing vs. expensive

Mr Sun and Sh...

R/E/W Robots; Energy; Weather

2012-10-02T10:22:00-04:00

Recap of lecture on 09/26/12 - watch video here

Victoria Meyers: Robots, Energy, Weather

http://www.hanrahanmeyers.com/

general

urban and landscape design have taken over discussions of architecture

structural change in communication changes the way we see architecture

George Dyson - robots are taking over; ex. Google

internet and social media have reduced scale of the world

social networks, internet, and Google Earth have changed the concept of design

new international style will emerge from green design

weather - always look back to Vitruvius for siting of cities within climate

projects focus on porosity

Battery Park City North Neighborhood (BPC)

woven fabric, renewable energy and energy conservation as theme park

80% open green roofs

Bloomberg's PlanNYC has adopted some of BPC's sustainable strategies

start projects with isometric massing drawings, watercolors, physical models

green streets earn certification for water retention

...