Archinect - Visual Communication & Design Thinking

University of Miami School of Architecture 2018-19 Tecnoglass Lecture Series

2018-09-18T10:57:56-04:00

The University of Miami School of Architecture presents its 2018 - 2019 Lecture Series, sponsored by Tecnoglass. This year's theme, Impact, explores practices and works that have a significant effect on the built environment, whether with large infrastructural interventions or small but potentially transformative contributions.

The series contains lecturers from around the world including:

09/19

J.Meejin Yoon

Höweler + Yoon

10/03

Livia Tani

Ateliers Jean Nouvel

10/24

Lars Lerup

Rice University

10/31

Lyndon Neri

Neri & Hu Design & Research

01/30

Michael Maltzan

Michael Maltzan Architecture (MMA)

02/20

Lisa Iwamoto

IwamotoScott Architecture

03/06

Jürgen Mayer H.

J. Mayer H. Architecture

Design Research

03/27

Fernando Romero

fr-ee

UMSoA 2017-2018 Lecture Series: Housing

2017-08-28T15:32:32-04:00

The University of Miami School of Architecture presents its 2017 - 2018 Lecture Series, sponsored by Tecnoglass. This year's theme, Housing, builds upon last year's theme, Water, as topics that are currently affecting the way we look at the city of Miami. The series contains lecturers from around the world including Charlotte von Moos (Switzerland), Momoyo Kaijima (Japan), Alexia Leon (Peru) and others. Lectures begin on September 13th at 6:30pm, and are open to the public.

09/13

Charlotte von Moos
Sauter von Moos

Switzerland

09/20

Alexia Leon

Leonmarcial Arquitectos

Peru

10/11

Mimi Hoang

nArchitects

USA

10/18

Liu Xiaodu

Urbanus

China

11/09

Franco Micucci

+ma

Venezuela

02/07

Momoyo Kajima

Atelier Bow Wow

Japan

03/07

Yolande Daniels

Studio SUMO

USA

04/04

Nasarine Seraji

Atelier Seraji

France

04/11

Spela Videcnik

OFIS

Slovenia

Waterfront Atlas: Kunlé Adeyemi lecture at the University of Miami School of Architecture

2017-03-22T23:45:00-04:00

“Cities are man’s greatest achievements, and also man’s deadliest inventions”, stated Kunlé Adeyemi in his evening lecture at the University of Miami School of Architecture. The Nigerian born, Netherlands based architect was on hand addressing a full house as part of the 2016-2017 Tecnoglass Lecture series. With this year’s topic being “water”, it was only a natural choice for Adeyemi to speak as he has received critical acclaim for his research into the urbanization of coastal cities in Africa.

Instead of spending the evening speaking about his past projects at OMA or the work being done at his firm, NLE, Adeyemi started the evening talking about methodologies and the driving forces of his practice. His interests lie in the opportunities that individual communities can provide to resolve global challenges which he presents as two procedures. The first being the idea of “Sustainable Development”, defined by the World Commission on Environment as “Development that meets the needs ...

Slow Ride: A Multi-Sensory Installation for U-Serve

2016-03-30T22:34:00-04:00

March 30th marked the second annual U-Serve event at the University of Miami School of Architecture. U-Serve began in 2015 as an effort for the UMSoA to give back to the community. The inaugural U-Serve involved a smartphone-driven architectural inventory of East Little Havana, with about 800 labor hours donated to the City of Miami by the School and more than 400 properties inventoried. This year, the focus was to bring attention to the development of The Underline, a proposed urban linear park that would run underneath the Miami Metrorail. Pop up installations were set up at specific train stops where commuters could stop and interact with students and faculty and learn more about the project.

Slow Ride was one of three installations that were created for the day. Slow Ride is a multi sensory experience composed of everyday materials to affect sight, smell, and hearing of the passerby. The installation was located at busy transit point, underneath the Coconut Grove metro-stop ...

U.Miami Architecture Students Embed Medical Furniture with Responsive Tech

2015-12-08T19:58:00-05:00

In a previous post, I wrote about a new focus of embedded technologies but today I got to see the work first hand in action. My colleague Dr. Juhong Park who leads the digital design initiatives at the school invited me to take part in his upper level studio's final review. The goal of the class was to have students create pieces of furniture that could provide some type of medical assistance. The caveat being that all the proposals needed to be infused with a responsive design.

In a short afternoon presentation, the relatively small group of eight students presented drawings, videos, and mock-ups of their semester's work. Some students choose different ailments and conditions to work with that ranged from chronic back pain, ADHD, to lung diseases. Others worked on logistical issues that patients go through, for example the movement of disabled patients between prone and active positions.

The review was treated as a gallery type show, with the jurors witnessing each proposal ...

U.Miami Graduate Students use Wintercroft Masks as didactic tools for architecture

2015-10-31T19:00:23-04:00

Last Halloween I was introduced to Wintercroft Masks; low-poly masks made from recycled paper products created by designer Steve Wintercroft. His designs are abstractions of animals, human faces, mythical creatures and others which are turned into geometric disguises. Designs are purchased in the form of templates and instructions by the designer allowing buyers to build their own rather than purchasing a pre-built mask. The masks are flexible enough that they can be customized and made from a variety of materials. After building one, I wondered how it would fare as an academic exercise.

Currently, I am teaching a small group of graduate students who have chosen to pursue a career in architecture and come from a variety of different backgrounds. My course focuses on visual communication through a series of design thinking exercises. The Wintercroft mask was a perfect challenge for them, as it allowed them to explore the complexity of the mask with Rhino software while helping d...

Groundbreaking - Thomas P Murphy Design Studio Building at UM SoA

2015-10-22T14:57:44-04:00

Yesterday marked the ground breaking ceremony for a new building on the University of Miami School of Architecture campus. This will be the first new building in the past ten years, and plans to hold larger studio spaces, review spaces, student lounge, and a new state of the art digital fabrication lab. The building would not be possible without the generous donation of Thomas P Murphy, CEO and Chairman of Coastal Construction which is a building construction company notable in the Miami area. The building itself is designed by another Miami area institution, Arquitectonica. Many were on hand to be a part of this event. The studio space is set to open in 2017.

New Courses on Embedded Technology are featured at the UM SOA

2015-10-18T18:19:00-04:00

In 2013 Rodolphe el-Khoury gave a lecture at TEDxToronto where he discussed the relevance of embedded technology and architecture and dubbed it “The Internet of Things”. Now entering his second year as the Dean of the University Of Miami School Of Architecture, el-Khoury is implementing new initiatives and courses that follow this idea.

One such enterprise has been the development of RAD-UM, a spinoff of the Responsive Architecture at Daniels (University of Toronto) Lab. The lab’s day to day operations are headed up by a research associate, Christopher Chung, and composed of different faculty members between the Architecture & Engineering departments. Part think-tank and part innovative prototyping center, the lab has already become a valuable resource allowing students to engage in parametric software and programming language. They’ve also developed interesting projects such as an interactive coffee table for the eMerge Americas 2015 Conference, and a portable college fair boot...

Enrique Norten lectures at the University of Miami School of Architecture

2015-09-10T23:45:58-04:00

This past Wednesday, Enrique Norten of TEN Arquitectos kicked off the lecture series season at the University Of Miami School Of Architecture. Once again sponsored by Tecnoglass, this year's focus is on Miami and the Tropical World. Dean Rodolphe el-Khoury explains to the audience that academic term theme celebrates the rapidly evolving city of Miami and how it responds to its locale. He describes three important elements of Miami and the Tropical World:

1. How the location of the tropics deals with modern and vernacular traditions, and how these traditions are rediscovered / repurposed

2. The longitudinal comparison of cities along the "tropical belt" (tropics and subtropics zones) and the shared challenges these cities face such as climate change, sea level rise, etc...

3. Looking at development and the influence that international architects bring on these cities.

The third point relates directly to Norten, in which el-Khoury describes as not a Mexican architect or American arch...

Miami and The Tropical World - Upcoming Lecture at the University of Miami

2015-08-26T15:52:20-04:00

A new year is upon us here at the University of Miami School of Architecture, and to start things off, Patrik Schumacher is the first on the list for this year's UMSoA Currents lecture series. UMSoA Currents is a forum for the diversity of voices and interests in the field. Previous guests have included architects, critics and real estate developers, including those involved in the transformation of Miami into a world-class metropolis. Lectures in the Currents series are regularly scheduled onMondays in Glasgow Hall at 6:30 p.m.

Schumacher is a company director and senior designer at Zaha Hadid Architects, which is designing the 1000 Museum residences in Miami. His lecture is titled The Rationality of Parametricism. His lecture will deal with the arguement that parametricism is architecture’s answer to post-Fordism, the only contemporary style that addresses the challenges and utilizes the opportunities of our computationally empowered civilization. In 2008, he coined the phras...

U.Miami holds Final Reviews in the Design District

2015-04-29T14:06:02-04:00

For the first time, that at least I can remember or have known, the University of Miami School of Architecture held its Upper Level Reviews and Graduate Thesis Reviews off campus to the Miami Design District. Occupying the historic Moore Building, reviews were spread out over a two day period which was made possible by the area's developer, Craig Robbins of Dacra.

(photo by Chuck Bohl)

The Graduate Students in Architecture and those in the school's Real Estate program used the space on Day 1, holding two reviews at a time in the grand lobby space of the building. Some of the topics that stood out were:

Deserted Death: Reintroducing Death to the Public Realm and Reclaiming Ritual in Crematoria. by Brenna Johnson
VIT(ALL): A Reinvention of The Gas Station. by Shalinie Persaud
Returning to Vernacular: A Critical Regionalist's Approach to Miami's 21st Centrury Housing. by James Harris
In-Between Infrastructure. by Ekaterina Koroleva (the Thesis Prize winner)

(photo by Chuck Bohl)

Day 2 con...

Final Reviews are here!

2015-04-24T19:42:36-04:00

Final reviews began this week here at the SoA. Mine just finished, and here is the evidence, or I should say "Aftermath" of a long, but successful semester. More photos to come later.

R & R Studios Lecture & Call to Order Exhibit at the University of Miami School of Architecture

2015-04-08T22:49:00-04:00

The Tecnoglass Lecture Series, “Call to Order”, continued this Wednesday with a presentation by local Miami architecture firm R & R Studio. The studio is helmed by husband and wife team Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt, and operates a small but influential practice near Miami’s Design District. Behar is the only presenter from the series who is also a member of the faculty at the University Of Miami School Of Architecture. A popular professor, he gave a lecture to crowded audience of faculty, students, and alumni who returned to the school for the event. The lecture was followed by the opening of the Call to Order Gallery Exhibit.

Behar’s lecture, entitled Building Stories, is a review of the office’s work and its connection to art, public space, history, site, scale, and freedom. A majority of the work represents itself in a style of magical realism, a concept that may have subconsciously evolved from the duo’s upbringing in Latin America. The first project of the evening k...

Bernard Khoury lectures at the University of Miami School of Architecture

2015-04-01T16:22:00-04:00

This week Bernard Khoury gave a lecture at the University of Miami School of Architecture as part of their ‘Currents’ lecture series. ‘Currents’ casts a wide net of different speakers with varying topics, but usually focused on work being done in the present. Dean Rodolphe el-Khoury gave a warm welcome to the lecture hall, introducing Bernard as a fellow Lebanese architect and Rhode Island School of Design Alumnus, and that in their native Beirut; Bernard has achieved a status of a “rock star” or “national treasure”.

Khoury (Bernard) began his lecture with a brief history of his life and his personal connections to war-torn Beirut. From 1975 – 1990 is engaged in a period of violence and upheaval, with various parts of the city suffering vast amounts destruction. The work he presents, whether academic, professional, or as visual art, is a reaction to the events that occurred and the ill-fated reconstruction plans that never materialized for the city. His academic project, “Evolv...

University of Miami students and faculty engage with the community

2015-03-26T14:31:17-04:00

The University of Miami School of Architecture has had a long standing tradition of community engagement. Design studios have often revolved around a local focus or need in several of Miami’s impoverished neighborhoods such as Homestead, The West Grove, Allapattah, and Opa-Locka. Although this engagement have been very successful, winning many grants and producing built work, it’s exposure has been limited to only a few singular courses. This academic year, Dean Rodolphe el-Khoury and Professor Sonia Chao (Director of the Center for Urban & Community Design) decided to expand on this work by creating an event that would allow all students and faculty in the School of Architecture to participate.

The event is called UServe, where participants would dedicate a few hours from normal class time to providing community engagement and volunteer work. The location for this event was in Miami’s famous Little Havana neighborhood, specifically East Little Havana. This region has a culture...

Univ.of Miami students build Models for MoMa Exhibit

2015-03-05T20:57:00-05:00

You may have wondered what our background image in our blog page might have been. Obviously the topography and material give away that it is clearly a model of some kind. This photograph is just a sample of one of the several models students here at the UMSoA have been constructing for an exhibit to be held the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Prof. Jean Francois Lejeune was approached by Barry Bergdoll, Curator, Department of Architecture and Design at MoMA, for the creation of select buildings found in Latin America and constructed between 1955 and 1980. Lejeune, along with another faculty member Raphael Tapanes, led the students in a class that combined the elements of historical analysis and building analysis in an attempt for students to fully understand the act of constructing these buildings. It was not uncommon that the students had to recreate the construction drawings and digital models from copies of the original plans. Many hours were spent in the creation of ...

The School of Architecture is about to get a whole lot bigger!

2015-02-25T15:17:20-05:00

Happy hump day everyone! I have the pleasure to announce that local construction company, Coastal Construction, is supporting the University of Miami School of Architecture by pledging $3.5 million to construct a state-of-the-art design studio. The new building, currently being hailed as the Thomas P. Murphy Design Studio Building, will be LEED-certified and to include two studios, each of which can accommodate about 60 students. A fabrication lab and modern workstations, a lounge, computer lab, presentation areas, an auditorium space and offices. The official press release states that, "Tom Murphy, Jr., president and CEO of Coastal Construction, is passionate about supporting education in architecture", and that the donation comes in as a part of the overall University of Miami campaign known as Momentum 2.

Currently, the design of the building comes from one of Miami's home grown firms, Arquitectonica. Attached are two small renderings of the future building; I will do my be...

Drone's Beach - Brillhart Architecture MoMA PS1 YAP Proposal

2015-02-20T00:55:00-05:00

Photo by Brillhart Architecture - Model Shop

It's easy to forget that blog posts tend to be informal opinion based writing pieces that sometimes edge closely to the realm of narcissism. If this were a crime, I would most definitely be guilty. True, most of the work you find here on this blog is set specific to courses I teach and studies my students are working on, but I would like to think that I have also dedicated some writing to the interesting occurrences here at the University. Today I would like to focus on someone else’s work, a colleague of mine here named Jacob Brillhart.

Brillhart has been a faculty member at Miami for almost 10 years now, and during that span has managed to create a balance between academic life and private practice. His firm has won a variety of awards from local and state AIA chapters all the while carrying a full time credit teaching load at the school. You may be familiar with his work if you read the New York Times or the Architects Newspaper, as ...

Building Analysis - Second Year Design Studio

2015-02-06T21:49:00-05:00

For those that have been following the story so far, this blog was meant to chronicle just one first year graduate student class. Originally, the purpose was to highlight ways of communication and problem solving in a visual media. It has expanded to this professor's take on life at the School of Architecture including school wide events. This semester I have been tasked with instructing second year students in design studio, with the focus on structures. I've taught the class before, and as we do every year, students are to engage different structural elements through the process of model making.

My reinforcement within my group is to build a model with the same amount of detail they would find in real life. Anyone can build a model, and most times students force the model together without any sense of construction. Thanks to the advent of Krazy Glue, they forget to include supports, beams, joists, etc..

The 5 sections then get together to review the work. Some professors c...

"A Call to Order" Lecture Series Continues this Spring

2015-01-20T08:20:37-05:00

The University of Miami School of Architecture continues its lecture series, "A Call to Order" this Spring. This series is made possible in part from TECNOGLASS, whose mission is glass transformation and distribution through high manufacturing technology, completely satisfying and fulfilling our customers expectations in quality and service, maintaining our competitiveness through empowerment, and thus contributing to the companies permanent growth and prosperity, adequately and fairly compensating the members of our organization, their families, stockholders and society in general.

Kicking things off will be a lecture by the award winning firm, Machado & Silvetti followed by a symposium a week later titled Young Ancients. Young Ancients, a symposium in the TECNOGLASS Series at the University of Miami School of Architecture, brings together a group of young architects who are re-investing in history, typology and urban morphology. The emerging sensibility rehearses the Neo-Rational...

Design/Build at UMiami Completed - Coffee Kiosk

2014-12-20T13:44:00-05:00

I've been reporting on various activities occurring on campus, one of which being the progress of the Design/Build Studio. The 5th installation developed by the School of Architecture is now complete and ready for use. Last week was the "soft opening", and it is now installed in the school's courtyard where it will be fully operational starting in the Spring Semester 2015.

(Process models on display during the review/soft opening)

(Students and guests enjoying coffee at the reception)

(Ready for the next semester)

One Semester's Worth of Exploration: Final Jury

2014-12-16T19:15:32-05:00

(This is only a fraction of the work from the semester long project)

This semester has drawn to a close, with the final review happening yesterday afternoon. Over the course of the semester, the students were engaged in masqueraded mini-design exercises that secretly showed them how to draw, sketch, use 3-D software, some adobe software, while gaining experience using our laser cutter and CNC machines. The goal of the course was visual communication and how to express their ideas, but also the analytic exploration that got them to those ideas.

(Opening remarks for the jury)

Their final review was made up of all the work that was accomplished during the past 3.5 months, from sketches on trace to finished plywood cut models. All of it was on display for the jurors to understand. Students began the course documenting a mechanical object that had at least two moving parts, using only what they saw and what they could feel. They took an "old fashioned" approach by shunning rulers and m...

UMiami Students collaborate with Artist Theo Jansen during ArtBasel

2014-12-11T14:28:00-05:00

(Large Strandbeest used in demonstrations)

This year marked the 13th edition of ArtBasel Miami Beach. One of the great things about being in Miami during the "winter", is that the city explodes into a frenetic pace of artistic energy. Almost all neighberhoods, no matter how different, are affected one way or another by spotlight the art world shines upon Miami during the week long seven days.

(Pieces of the disassembled Strandbeest made to look like a dig site)

The University of Miami School of Architecture has always tried to have students become more active in the events surrounding ArtBasel. However, because reviews fall on the same week, it has been tough to reconcile between the calendar events and the student's educational concerns.

(Theo Jansen in his on-site workshop on Miami Beach)

One opportunity arose this past week, when a group of a students were able to collaborate with Dutch artist Theo Jansen on his Strandbeest Exhibition. Sponsored by the Peabody Essex Museum and...

Design/Build at the University of Miami School of Architecture

2014-11-18T15:45:00-05:00

The Design/Build studio has been developed and led by Prof. Rocco Ceo, and the Billy E. Miller Design-Build Visiting Critic Jim Adamson. Over the past 5 years the studio has created projects for community use, such as non-profit groups and the state park system. This year's project is staying closer to home. Ceo is leading a group of undergraduates and graduate students in a transportable coffee kiosk that will sit in the School of Architecture's courtyard. Although the campus of the architecture school has a great view of the University's lake, it is quite distance from most dinning halls and food court options. The kiosk would be managed by students and serve coffee and drinks throughout the course of the semesters. The kiosk will also be mobile in case it needs to relocate or be stored away. With only 5 weeks left in the semester, it is now crunch time for these design builders and we hope to bring you some more updates soon.

Below is a video of one of the past projects: An...

Abstracting Motion: Mockups & Process Renderings

2014-11-12T14:01:36-05:00

With only a few weeks left in the semester, the students are hard at work developing their proposals. Below are a few small scale mockups that we are using to figure out where the designs need to be calibrated, trimmed, and re-worked before putting them through the CNC machine.

(Above, Version 1.0 of this proposal. It has since gone through some major upgrades)

(Version 2.0 shows off a smoother and sleek approach)

( 3 Components made up to form 1 larger piece.)

( A study of two models, with the second version in the image below)

Vicente Guallart & 2A+P/A at the University of Miami: Lecture Recaps

2014-11-11T20:45:00-05:00

Three interesting architects came to lecture at the University of Miami School of Architecture last week: Vicente Guallart who is the chief architect of Barcelona City and of his own practice Guallart Architects, and Gianfranco Bombaci and Matteo Costanzo of 2A+P/A.

Guallart gave a lecture about Barcelona becoming a "Smart City", that is, a city that is infused with technology. In his position as chief architect, it his responsibility to develop new strategies and long term strategic planning for the future growth of Barcelona. His argument is that his vision for sustainability goes beyond putting solar panels on roof, but creating a digital infrastructure where vehicles and urban elements (street lamps) would communicate with each other and having a Wi Fi cloud over the entire city limits.

Bombaci and Costanzo are principals of an Italian firm, based in Rome, and collaborators with previous lecturer Matteo Ghidoni. 2A+P/A , whose name is based on a riser/run formula taught in ...

Early Progress Rendering

2014-11-06T09:54:40-05:00

An early rendering for one of the abstracted motion forms. This seat is an abstraction of the of a wine opener's movements. A small scale mock-up model done in MDF for Monday awaits. Rendering and model completed in Rhino.

Abstracting motion in static drawings

2014-11-03T17:59:43-05:00

It's been quite sometime since I've been able to put up a real update. Currently, my students are engaged in developing their skills in the realm of 3D software (SketchUp and Rhino). They have been given small assignments that relate back to their first assignment, the documentation of the mechanical object. In these exercises they were tasked with using the computer to figure out connections and abstracting geometries from objects in photographs. I've instructed them that they need to be part detective in order to figure these things out.

Which brings us to our second major assignment. Using the compositions they've developed by hand, they are now tasked to document the motion of their mechanical objects. Turning, twisting, folding, spreading, rolling, are adjectives that they need to translate into visual cues. From there, the students will abstract these motions into what will appear to be, at first glance, a "random" shape.

These shapes will then be refined in Rhino ...

Studio Snapshot: What's going on in studio?

2014-10-21T17:44:20-04:00

As my students rigorously attack their SketchUp and Rhino tutorials, I decided to take a break and see what everyone else is doing around campus. The UM SoA isn't housed under one giant roof or in a warehouse like you see many other schools. In case you didn't know, the school is housed in several post war buildings that were retrofitted from dorm apartments. Most of the buildings interconnect through a series of bridges and walkways, with main portion of the campus fronting a courtyard. Here are some studio snapshots, which brings me to ask others....what's going on in your studios?

Why use one computer when you can use two?

You'll see lots of models at this point in the semester; some made by hand, others from the 3d printer or laser cutter (in the background)

And what studio is complete without coffee?One of the more interesting studios this semester is the design/build studio. Students here are still going through ideas. They only have 1 semester to design and finish construc...

Matteo Ghidoni lectures on "Devices in the City"

2014-10-10T16:18:00-04:00

The University of Miami School of Architecture lecture series Call To Order continued this past Wednesday when Matteo Ghidoni of Salottobuono addressed a crowd of faculty and students at Glasgow Hall. This was the second lecture in the series, with the first being Nader Tehrani of Nadaaa. Dean Rodolphe el-Khoury introduced Ghidoni who proceeded to give his lecture called, “Devices in the City”.

The lecture gave a brief overview of projects that fit into the narrative of Call To Order: a reappearance of a larger engagement with history, precedent and typology in the work of many architects practicing around the world. He described Salottobuono as a research based collaborative that began in 2005. His first project referenced was an analysis of Palladio’s Four Books of Architecture, which he re-classified, The Four Books of Mistakes. Ghidoni questions the methods of Palladio’s interpretation of Vitruvius’ writings on architecture. He claims that the text is too obscure, filled w...