Archinect - School of Architecture and Urban Planning/UWMilwaukee

UWMilwaukee and the Race to Zero

2016-04-19T15:11:13-04:00

A team of students from UW-Milwaukee (Jonathan Nelson, Laura Valdivia, Nasim Shareghi) and UW-Madison (Robert Schaffer, Jacob Moffat, Daniel Baker, Drew Dillmann, Nicholas Scharping) placed second in the U.S. Department of Energy's Race to Zero student design competition.

Under the guidance of Prof. Mark Keane (UWMilwaukee) and Dr. Michael Cheadle (UW-Madison), Team Forward, named after Wisconsin’s state motto, participated in the Urban Single-Family Detached Housing category of the competition. The annual design challenge asks college students to develop sustainable homes so energy-efficient that renewable power can offset most or all of the annual energy consumption and is based on real-world scenarios, where builders develop high-performance homes or update existing designs.

"Forward House", the team's entry, is located in Milwaukee, WI, in a neighborhood blighted by foreclosure in the 30th Street corridor. A return to a classic Wisconsin craftsman style with a Milwaukee flair will...

Swiss Town adopts Urban Design Guidelines by UWMilwaukee Prof. Ray Isaacs and Judith Rütsche

2016-04-11T12:41:00-04:00

Like many cities in Switzerland, Rorschach—on the shore of Lake Constance—recognizes the need for urban planning and design strategies that increase urban density, enhance the urban character of the city, and improve the quality of life for residents.

When developers expressed interest building in the Löwenstrasse West Area, the City commissioned Professor Ray Isaacs (UWMilwaukee Department of Architecture; Designer, ERR-AG) and Judith Rütsche (MS, UW-Madison; Director of Planning, Basler & Hofmann) to make recommendations for development. Isaacs and Rütsche proposed that they develop an urban design vision and urban design guidelines that would coordinate not only the future buildings within the area, but also improvements in the urban infrastructure, including connectivity, pedestrian networks, public open space, rainwater management, and integration with surrounding neighborhoods.

The Löwenstrasse West Area lies between the entry to the City to the West and the entry to Downtown D...

Crash study at UWMilwaukee aims to make roads safer for bikes and pedestrians

2016-03-25T16:30:00-04:00

Writer: Angela McManaman

It was an early-August evening in rural Wisconsin. An SUV traveling north along a two-lane road veered over the center line. Before landing in a ditch, the car hit a light pole, speed-limit sign and a 13-year-old pedestrian, who died at the scene.

The police report, like about 500 others over the past three years, landed on Bob Schneider’s desk at UW-Milwaukee’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Schneider studies severe or fatal bicycle and pedestrian crashes, collecting data that he uses to guide and encourage city planners, developers and policymakers to make roads safer. A professor of urban planning, he also chairs the Transportation Research Board’s Committee on Pedestrians, a subgroup of The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The need for this type of work, Schneider said, has never been greater.

“Statewide traffic fatalities were up in 2015 for everyone,” he said, “drivers, motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians. This is...

UWMilwaukee's Prototyping Lab Preps Future Architects for the Real World

2016-02-23T15:40:00-05:00

by Kathy Quirk

The practice of architecture is moving into a new, increasingly digital dimension, and the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is moving with it.

“The relationship between architecture and construction is basically changing because of advances in digital technology coming from construction and manufacturing,” explained Gil Snyder, associate professor of architecture. “Those changes are now part of architectural practice and design.”

Much of that new technology is housed in the school’s Rapid Prototyping Lab, which allows students to reproduce exact copies of historic building details, fine tune ideas for wall-fastening systems and test them in three dimensions, or check out how varied design configurations for a building panel might minimize the impact of pollution on an exterior wall.

“We are part of the trend of going downstream, getting our students involved in how things work earlier in the design process,” Snyder said.

Th...

"Restraining Order": First Place AIA Chicago Award recipient

2015-08-25T17:05:51-04:00

UW Milwaukee students Dan Causier and Matt Moulis received the top Benn-Johnck Award at the Chicago Student Awards in Architecture from AIA Chicago recently, for their project "Restraining Order". The project was completed with the guidance of Brian Johnsen and Sebastian Schmaling, Professors-in-Practice at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning. One juror said "It’s simple and elegant. Very well-thought-out design concept. It evokes a peaceful urban setting."

I'm delighted that they agreed to share information and images of their project!

"In this project we explored the compelling and radical extremes associated with the life-long religious devotion of the Capuchins and their social mission. Simplicity, humility, quietness - these became the watchwords for the success of our investigation.

Our approach was to organize the building around a series of programmatically distinct spaces held within the common ‘infrastructure’ of a presence-bearing monolithic mass, separating these ...

Restraining Order: an Urban Monastery for Capuchin Monks

2015-06-22T08:18:44-04:00

“Again we decree that the monasteries which are to be built shall be built as humbly as possible, from mud and twigs, or from rock and clay where twigs cannot be had easily… We also decree (…) that absolutely all vanity, superfluity and precious things of gold, silver, silk or velvet shall be banished from our churches…“ Capuchin Statutes of Albacina (1529)

This guest post by Brian Johnsen and Sebastian Schmaling [johnsenschmaling.com], Professors in Practice at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, documents the work produced in the fall of 2014 by a group of 15 graduate students at the School of Architecture & Urban Planning. The studio, “Restraining Order,” focused on the design of a monastery complex for Capuchin Franciscan friars in Milwaukee’s central city. The title alludes to the radical simplicity, austerity, and restraint governing the life of a Capuchin friar – a life dedicated to serving those in need: the poor, the sick, and the socially marginalized. The 500-year-old ...

"Let's Negotiate! "

2015-05-14T16:13:00-04:00

I love thesis day! I love watching the presentations, the energy and excitement as students suddenly look and feel like the professionals they will soon be, so I decided to take the opportunity to ask a graduating student to share his project....

Robert Guertin | University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee | Masters of Architecture | Advisers_ Assistant Prof. Filip Tejchman, Associate Profs. Chris Cornelius and Kyle Talbott.

"Let's Negotiate!” A diaphanous spatial condition, exploiting concepts of: superuse, building codes, and what we refer to as the "back of house" space.

These are all active agents in what constitute infrastructural interventions. They ultimately create a commentary on how we perceive architectural typologies by critiquing architectural thoughts of representation, and challenge the notion of appropriate response in regards to building codes.

This project is situated in downtown Chicago, in an alley off one of the densest and populated intersections within the Loop. The exis...

From Waste to Wonder

2015-04-17T14:41:07-04:00

The latest From Waste to Wonder studio project, conducted by Asst. Prof. Nikole Bouchard, is a three-part exercise that challenges students to identify, locate, quantify and create with various types of waste, this time at a Landscape Urbanism scale.

Students were asked to identify a type of local waste(s) that they wished to investigate, to identify, locate and quantify these obsolete items via research-driven maps, infographics, diagrams, indexical photographs, interviews, videos, etc.

As they researched, they were to consider remediation strategies for materials, conditions and sites such as elements (Earth, Wind, Water and Fire/Fuel), demolition debris, vacant lots, post-industrial landscapes, toxic terrain, underutilized/abandoned Infrastructures, organic waste / compost, abandoned quarries and mines, and to develop design proposals.

Milwaukee's Inner Harbor Project

2015-04-02T17:51:00-04:00

Milwaukee’s future is inextricably tied to the Inner Harbor and the estuary on which is was built. Our port city is full of economic potential, untapped ecological resilience and the pure urban drama inherent in a working waterfront.

If Milwaukee is to transform its industrial identity into that of an international hub for ecology progressive water technologies, the Inner Harbor should be a demonstration to the world of possibilities inherent in that economic and ecological vision.

The Inner Harbor project, led by Prof. Jim Wasley, is a unique effort for UW Milwaukee's School of Architecture and Urban Planning. While we have always been involved with issues of growth and change within the City, this is a concerted effort to focus the School’s talents on one problem. The project consists of a school-wide effort to advance public discussion and generate ideas for re-imagining the Inner Harbor, It has sponsored national and international speakers including Herbert Dreiseitl, Peter Busby,...

Frozen Form-Finding

2015-03-25T13:27:00-04:00

Professors Antonio Furgiuele and Whitney Moon embraced the Wisconsin winter by conducting a workshop in sub-zero temperatures last month!

‘Frozen Form-Finding’ was a hands-on UW MIlwaukee SARUP workshop that allowed participants to advance the field of experimental structures, form-finding, material play, and space making—with necessary help provided by Milwaukee’s freezing temperatures.

‘Frozen Form-Finding’ explored ice shell structures, inspired by Swiss designer Heinz
Isler and his work from the early 1960s. Through the symmetric relationship of tension and compression, students designed a series of fabric structures.

These were hung ‘upside down’ in tension and water applied, allowing them to freeze.

Once rigid, the ice forms were positioned ‘right side up’, converting forces into compression.

Additional investigations in ice molding and formwork were encouraged. Structures were executed at full scale, inhabitable, beautifully experimental, and installed in the
SARUP courtyard.

This al...

Amin Mojtahedi: [draw]

2015-03-17T13:42:46-04:00

I was recently shown drawings by SARUP student Amin Mojtahedi, and am delighted that he shared them.

Amin explains "I draw and I move freely between different architectural compositions, artistic genres, or even research ideas without feeling committed to, competitive with, or critical of a certain style or school of thought. Besides, I think there is a strong correlation between happiness and engagement in some kind of creative work. All this is what makes me enjoy ‘exploring by drawing’ so very much!"

Amin is a PhD(c), M.Arch, Grad School Fellow, and instructor/TA here in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning. He is also a researcher and designer in Workshop Architects with a focus on the architecture of social learning in higher education environments and workplaces. In addition to his work on the pre-design, programming, design, and evaluation of these places, Amin's publications include writings on: place theories, pattern language, the experience of international student...

SARUP through a lens

2015-03-10T15:35:57-04:00

We were recently intrigued at the sight of students following people around the school, filming their movements and patterns. Of course, we had to investigate to see what was going on, after seeing the students' obvious enjoyment of the project! Assistant Prof. Jasmine Benyamin readily shared what her students created in studio ARCH 615/815, Cinematic Architecture. Here is a description of the project adapted from the project brief:

A recurring theme in the writings of Bernard Tschumi is the association of “spaces” with “events.” Tschumi consistently argues that space and event – while they may be mutually exclusive terms – are nevertheless interdependent. Spaces are always qualified by the events that occur in them, and events are always shaped by the spaces they occupy.

Using the SARUP building as a central character, students were asked to undergo a process of de-familiarization and re-familiarization through shadowing typical users of the space and using video as their narrative...

Waste to Wonder: student work

2015-03-03T21:03:00-05:00

Assistant Professor Nikole Bouchard has given her students the challenge to reconsider waste in our lives.

Waste is generally a concealed and ill-understood amalgamation of items, most often hidden from view, whille on the other hand, reflecting our society. How do we engage with an infrastructure that is more-or-less shrouded and inaccessible, yet completely interlaced in our daily routines? Given our lack of contact with waste infrastructure, how can research and design mediate our interface with waste and inspire innovative ways for us to turn our trash into treasure?
Students were encouraged to research the life cycle of items, produce precedent analyses, maps, diagrams, infographics and assembly drawings to discover imaginative ways to work with Waste.,

No Item was off-limits, as a result, there have been some interesting goings-on in studio....

Thanks to the students in this studio for sharing their work:

Rachel Momenee, Bradley Pokrzewinski, Kyle Resheske, Brandon Sather, Ryan Sh...

SARUP students give back to the community

2015-02-24T21:51:36-05:00

In 2000, Community Design Solutions, SARUP's outreach arm, was founded by UW-Milwaukee as a provider of preliminary design and planning services to underserved Wisconsin communities, and as a promoter of research and instruction concerning public interest planning and architecture.

With the guidance of Director Carolyn Esswein, student teams collaborate and work in communities who have challenges in improving the quality of their urban environment.

This past year, CDS' implemented project, Home Gr/Own’s new Ezekiel Gillespie Park was inaugurated in September, with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Alderman, Russell Stamper, and members of the community joined together for the grand opening. The project has been nominated for the Milwaukee Awards for Neighborhood Development Innovation.

CDS further assisted the City of Port Washington with a re-visioning effort for their historic downtown. The City encouraged development along the edge of Lake Michigan, but needed assistance in developin...

Deck the halls!

2015-02-17T15:57:00-05:00

SARUP’s building has lately been festooned with installations created in the studio conducted by 2014-2015 Research Fellow Antonio Furgiuele, in collaboration with Assistant Prof. Whitney Moon. The first project by students in "Tectonics & Compositional Order: Assemblies of Space", is titled “Excess to Surplus". This project explores the inventive reuse of an everyday material through the lenses of excess and obsolescence.

Working exclusively with discarded phone books, students worked in teams to transform them through a series of focused studies and manipulations, with their potential being exploited in a way to generate a site-responsive and spatial system.

Students first devised a module, and then repeated this to generate a material system. As they did so, they were asked to consider variety and differentiation, the relationship of the part to the whole, and how a secondary material could be added to enhance the system’s performance. Teams selected a specific site within the SAR...

Urban Edge Award Studio visits India

2015-02-11T22:03:15-05:00

Last month, students in SARUP's Urban Edge Award Studio received grants to travel to India for two weeks. Directed by Prof. Manu Sobti, the UWM team visited numerous sites in the cities of Delhi and Agra before their arrival in Chandigarh.

There they were joined by seven students from the Chandigarh College of Architecture (CCA). Together, these students participated in a workshop let by Prof. Sobti and Sangeeta Bagga-Mehta (CCA).

Over the course of this workshop, two 'edge' sites in Chandigarh were analyzed - one positioned within the formal confines of the city (Badheri) and the other on its periphery (Kansal).

The sites of study are urban conditions that are made and un-made over successive generations responding to complex cultural, economic, political, environmental, and physical transformations, which induce building morphologies and instigate place definitions.

Urban design propositions were prepared and presented to the Chief Architect and Urban Development Director of the ci...

Mary Miss Visits

2015-02-08T21:01:25-05:00

Internationally recognized artist Mary Miss is working with SARUP's Urban Design Community Redevelopment studio this semester.

Mary combines art + architecture with an emphasis on sustainable infrastructure. Her past work includes a temporary memorial at Ground Zero, 1,000 Steps on Broadway, Water Wall at Olympic Park in Beijing, and the original design for the river walk in the Third Ward. Her current City as Living Lab (CaLL) initiative includes projects in Long Island City and Indianapolis.

Taught by Carolyn Esswein and Jim Piwoni, the first project in the studio is focusing on redeveloping the 5th and 6th Street Corridors in Walker’s Point, in Milwaukee. Mary walked the site with students and challenged them to notice the interesting details of water meters attached to buildings, light poles as opportunities for art, and to investigate how building facades can create opportunities for engaging pedestrians. Mary presented her lecture, ‘City as Living Laboratory’ to students and...