Like many before me, I am seeking advice for grad schools. I have combed these forums but have yet to piece together the answers. Any advice is appreciated. All name-dropping and research suggestions encouraged.
My interests:
imagination, speculation, creative misunderstanding storytelling through architecture; cascading layers of metaphor (as in literature) para-architectural landscapes, the folly (Nikola-Lenivets/Archstoyanie in Russia) the utopian, the surreal (Edward James’ Las Pozas, Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti) the hermetic, the esoteric (Anselm Kiefer’s La Ribaute) the architecture of death and transcendence (mausoleums, temples, crypts, Turrell’s Roden Crater) architecture of the uncanny (Hejduk) the intersection of architecture with art, literature, anthropology, mythology, the humanities elemental materials: stone, brick, wood, metal Terunobu Fujimori’s ‘Red School’ ideals neo-archaic forms, primal geometries playgrounds
I am specifically NOT interested in:
the digital avant-garde parametric modeling biomorphic forms (not the Hadid strain at least; love the Goetheanum, and certain organicists like Makovecz) laser cut and CNC-cut forms heavily photoshopped hollywood-style renderings (happy people, dusky skies, flying birds, shiny cars… for me it comes too close to the commercial, capitalist language of advertising; I am not anti-computer; I view it as a useful tool, but I think it is good to have a wider gap between representation and reality, and a healthy separation from the commercial world.)
I am looking for a school:
that above all, is a place where I will have the freedom to pursue my own ideas… that has a diverse faculty; many conflicting schools of thought; a range of guest critics and lecturers that has a thesis component; the longer the better (see freedom farm below) that is artsy, theoretical, yet also some emphasis on the build-able that has a strong interdisciplinary instinct (art, landscape, literature, humanities, history) that values the handmade concept model that has good facilities for making (wood, metal, concrete, etc) that has opportunities to build at full scale that is in a city with some significant architecture that is highly challenging
I don’t care much about:
networks, employers, good career prospects, etc
But:
I want a professional degree. I want to practice. More importantly I want to be independent. I may want to teach part-time in academia.
Other important things:
I inhabit the fringe wherever I go. Though I will do my time at a prestigious firm to cut my teeth designing at a large scale in an urban context, my real interest lies in the small and remote (cabins, mountain huts, small houses, studios, apiaries, follies, pavilions, abandoned industrial landscapes). I often admire the scrappy, pragmatic work of the vernacular builder over the pristine perfection of the architect.
I am ambitious, but not a careerist. To borrow from Herzog, I see architecture school (and my future work) as a “Conquest of the Useless.” This is not meant as an insult, but rather an assertion of idealism.
I want to build. I am a carpenter. I am improving my metalwork and masonry skills right now, out here at this artist residency where I have been encamped since August, building a large scale project.
The freedom farm:
My ultimate intention is to create a landscape of architectural follies; a place for collaboration and experimentation; a remote studio. This may take the form of an artist residency with an inclination toward built forms in the landscape, from the para-architectural to sculpture to land art. Again, I think of Archstoyanie (if you know of other examples, please let me know.) I envision clusters of built forms constituting small ‘cities’ that gesture to each other across the landscape, perhaps with salvaged buildings moved to the site, stitched together by new interventions.
I am also curious about the tradition of design-build studios at architecture schools, but somehow from what I have seen so far, I find this unsatisfying.
I would like to formulate my thesis around this intent.
Profile:
Architecture undergrad at Dalhousie in Canada (2015). Previous careers in IT, carpentry, mineral exploration, etc. Canadian and EU citizen.
Questions:
Why are all the living/practicing/contemporary architects I admire from everywhere but North America?
Who is the American Fujimori? Who is the American Zumthor?
Is there an architectural counterculture alive today? Does it exist in academia? Which are the radical schools? Is the new avant-garde exclusively digital?
Are there no experimental architecture festivals (like Archstoyanie or Hello Wood) in North America other than Burning Man?
Are there any particular faculty you think I should know about? Any readings you recommend? Particular programs? I know Anthony Vidler teaches at Cooper Union. Dana Buntrock at UC Berkeley.
I am wide open to suggestions or conversations. Thanks very much.
placebeyondthesplines
Oct 10, 15 11:17 pm
We should have some kind of Best Of collection of forum posts at the end of the year. I nominate this one for Most Exhaustingly Pretentious.
no_form
Oct 11, 15 1:35 am
2nd that
citizen
Oct 11, 15 2:12 am
Just for sheer volume of typing this deserves some kind of recognition...
jungo
Oct 11, 15 5:16 am
This hurt to read.
TED
Oct 11, 15 8:21 am
Ouch!
Try Amazon.com. Certain they can find a good fit.
@glitteringNuts You appear to be a student looking for service provider but will always be the complainer or person who give it 2 stars because it was less that you paid for. Education-consumer, 1st class.
Students create their own place in the world - so get off your soap box, open your eyes and find only 1 thing/ =1 person that is interesting about a school. you build the school
Donna Sink
Oct 11, 15 8:49 am
I don't say this lightly: You should look for a wealthy spouse.
Non Sequitur
Oct 11, 15 10:31 am
Wow...
placebeyondthesplines
Oct 11, 15 8:21 pm
@citizen
Balkins is always going to make that a tough category.
citizen
Oct 11, 15 8:53 pm
LOL, place... so is Quondam.
Josh Mings
Oct 12, 15 4:49 pm
I feel like we should all marry wealthy spouses in this profession.
I went on a few dates with a surgeon once. She cut after the third date.
citizen
Oct 12, 15 5:34 pm
Where'd she cut you, Josh? No place important, I hope ;o)
curtkram
Oct 12, 15 5:42 pm
what kind of surgeon?
plastic surgeon trying to mold you into the perfect guy? nip tuck while you're not paying attention?
3tk
Oct 12, 15 6:03 pm
Isn't there an old PJ saying about becoming an architect that pursues what they want: born wealthy, marry wealth or... nope, only 2 paths?
alrightalright
Oct 15, 15 1:54 pm
to actually answer your question:
unfortunately, to the demise of the profession, there are very few places left that embody what you describe: cooper and risd come to mind immediately. essentially, schools that are embedded or closely associated with an art school are what you should look for
Donna Sink
Oct 15, 15 4:14 pm
I just saw a lecture by Brian MacKay-Lyons. The work is wonderful and somewhat immutable, as much so as a piece of architecture can be, I suppose.
He has built what you're looking for: on a big piece of land in Nova Scotia, he's cleared a bunch of it and built a lot of new buildings over the years, sometimes bringing in historic structures and rehabbing them, building guest housing for students who come and do his Ghost Lab studio, gathering energies and craftsmanship and events in one place. Maybe you should go do a Ghost Lab?
Donna, the OP is actually a DAL graduate where MacKay-Lyons teaches. It would be the first record of a miracle for the OP not to know about him and Ghost Labs.
DeTwan
Oct 15, 15 4:50 pm
He makes structures that are more representative of art than place. Perhaps this is where all the ppl that want to be architects, and are having their mid life crisis can go and 'become an architect" for a small sum. Seems like a genius idea!
null pointer
Oct 15, 15 5:29 pm
i have an answer but i'd out myself with it. goddammit.
there is a place out there.
Donna Sink
Oct 15, 15 6:13 pm
Oh gosh, thanks Non Seq. I was posting and in the back of my mind thinking "But surely s/he has heard of Ghost Lab already" but didn't bother re-reading the post to verify if BM-L had been mentioned. Thanks for the fix.
archiwutm8
Oct 16, 15 4:37 am
Central Saint Martin's, nuff said. You'd fit in too.
Stephanie Braconnier
Oct 16, 15 10:09 am
Ha. You can't walk three steps around the faculty of arch. in Halifax without hearing about BML and his magnificence (considering he built the damn school).
Bench
Oct 16, 15 1:14 pm
Also - the 'real' Ghost Lab ended a few years back (2009-2010?). He replaced it with a one-off week-long lecture forum/series at his farm and in Lunenburg in 2011, and I believe that was supposed to be something of a cap to it. Don't think anything has happened since.
Donna Sink
Oct 16, 15 1:27 pm
(Stephanie: my sense at the lecture was that it's no surprise BML and Richard Serra are friends - they both have that monumentally large "YES I CAN!!" ego of many men of their generation [granted, BML would be at the very end of Serra's generation, but nonetheless, it's the whole Action Art/AbEx excessive manliness attitude that they share]. Am I right?)
JLC-1
Oct 16, 15 1:41 pm
to the OP, not a grad school, but fits the bill in most of your categories, the architecture school of the catholic university in valparaiso, chile. http://www.ead.pucv.cl/
boy in a well
Oct 17, 15 12:22 am
princeton or yale, bitch.
what?
bowling_ball
Oct 17, 15 1:02 am
Yup, Valparaiso as mentioned above.
Stephanie Braconnier
Oct 19, 15 10:48 am
Action Art/AbEx excessive manliness attitude
Oh, oh. Totally.
Which has also, by the way, infiltrated the entire academic architectural staff at Dal. I think there is not a one of them who hasn't either interned for or is currently working for BML. At one point 4 out of 5 studios were being run by current / former BML employees.
The over-saturation of his presence tended to really put me off his whole approach, but some students seriously worshipped the guy.
vado retro
Oct 19, 15 11:06 am
And after completing my half Windsor knot and straightening my collar I looked for a suitable rod from which to hang myself...
Like many before me, I am seeking advice for grad schools. I have combed these forums but have yet to piece together the answers. Any advice is appreciated. All name-dropping and research suggestions encouraged.
My interests:
imagination, speculation, creative misunderstanding
storytelling through architecture; cascading layers of metaphor (as in literature)
para-architectural landscapes, the folly (Nikola-Lenivets/Archstoyanie in Russia)
the utopian, the surreal (Edward James’ Las Pozas, Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti)
the hermetic, the esoteric (Anselm Kiefer’s La Ribaute)
the architecture of death and transcendence (mausoleums, temples, crypts, Turrell’s Roden Crater)
architecture of the uncanny (Hejduk)
the intersection of architecture with art, literature, anthropology, mythology, the humanities
elemental materials: stone, brick, wood, metal
Terunobu Fujimori’s ‘Red School’ ideals
neo-archaic forms, primal geometries
playgrounds
I am specifically NOT interested in:
the digital avant-garde
parametric modeling
biomorphic forms (not the Hadid strain at least; love the Goetheanum, and certain organicists like Makovecz)
laser cut and CNC-cut forms
heavily photoshopped hollywood-style renderings (happy people, dusky skies, flying birds, shiny cars… for me it comes too close to the commercial, capitalist language of advertising; I am not anti-computer; I view it as a useful tool, but I think it is good to have a wider gap between representation and reality, and a healthy separation from the commercial world.)
I am looking for a school:
that above all, is a place where I will have the freedom to pursue my own ideas…
that has a diverse faculty; many conflicting schools of thought; a range of guest critics and lecturers
that has a thesis component; the longer the better (see freedom farm below)
that is artsy, theoretical, yet also some emphasis on the build-able
that has a strong interdisciplinary instinct (art, landscape, literature, humanities, history)
that values the handmade concept model
that has good facilities for making (wood, metal, concrete, etc)
that has opportunities to build at full scale
that is in a city with some significant architecture
that is highly challenging
I don’t care much about:
networks, employers, good career prospects, etc
But:
I want a professional degree. I want to practice. More importantly I want to be independent.
I may want to teach part-time in academia.
Other important things:
I inhabit the fringe wherever I go. Though I will do my time at a prestigious firm to cut my teeth designing at a large scale in an urban context, my real interest lies in the small and remote (cabins, mountain huts, small houses, studios, apiaries, follies, pavilions, abandoned industrial landscapes). I often admire the scrappy, pragmatic work of the vernacular builder over the pristine perfection of the architect.
I am ambitious, but not a careerist. To borrow from Herzog, I see architecture school (and my future work) as a “Conquest of the Useless.” This is not meant as an insult, but rather an assertion of idealism.
I want to build. I am a carpenter. I am improving my metalwork and masonry skills right now, out here at this artist residency where I have been encamped since August, building a large scale project.
The freedom farm:
My ultimate intention is to create a landscape of architectural follies; a place for collaboration and experimentation; a remote studio. This may take the form of an artist residency with an inclination toward built forms in the landscape, from the para-architectural to sculpture to land art. Again, I think of Archstoyanie (if you know of other examples, please let me know.) I envision clusters of built forms constituting small ‘cities’ that gesture to each other across the landscape, perhaps with salvaged buildings moved to the site, stitched together by new interventions.
I am also curious about the tradition of design-build studios at architecture schools, but somehow from what I have seen so far, I find this unsatisfying.
I would like to formulate my thesis around this intent.
Profile:
Architecture undergrad at Dalhousie in Canada (2015).
Previous careers in IT, carpentry, mineral exploration, etc.
Canadian and EU citizen.
Questions:
Why are all the living/practicing/contemporary architects I admire from everywhere but North America?
Who is the American Fujimori? Who is the American Zumthor?
Is there an architectural counterculture alive today? Does it exist in academia? Which are the radical schools? Is the new avant-garde exclusively digital?
Are there no experimental architecture festivals (like Archstoyanie or Hello Wood) in North America other than Burning Man?
Are there any particular faculty you think I should know about? Any readings you recommend? Particular programs? I know Anthony Vidler teaches at Cooper Union. Dana Buntrock at UC Berkeley.
I am wide open to suggestions or conversations. Thanks very much.
We should have some kind of Best Of collection of forum posts at the end of the year. I nominate this one for Most Exhaustingly Pretentious.
2nd that
Just for sheer volume of typing this deserves some kind of recognition...
This hurt to read.
Ouch!
Try Amazon.com. Certain they can find a good fit.
@glitteringNuts You appear to be a student looking for service provider but will always be the complainer or person who give it 2 stars because it was less that you paid for. Education-consumer, 1st class.
Students create their own place in the world - so get off your soap box, open your eyes and find only 1 thing/ =1 person that is interesting about a school. you build the school
I don't say this lightly: You should look for a wealthy spouse.
Wow...
@citizen
Balkins is always going to make that a tough category.
LOL, place... so is Quondam.
I feel like we should all marry wealthy spouses in this profession.
I went on a few dates with a surgeon once. She cut after the third date.
Where'd she cut you, Josh? No place important, I hope ;o)
what kind of surgeon?
plastic surgeon trying to mold you into the perfect guy? nip tuck while you're not paying attention?
Isn't there an old PJ saying about becoming an architect that pursues what they want: born wealthy, marry wealth or... nope, only 2 paths?
to actually answer your question:
unfortunately, to the demise of the profession, there are very few places left that embody what you describe: cooper and risd come to mind immediately. essentially, schools that are embedded or closely associated with an art school are what you should look for
I just saw a lecture by Brian MacKay-Lyons. The work is wonderful and somewhat immutable, as much so as a piece of architecture can be, I suppose.
He has built what you're looking for: on a big piece of land in Nova Scotia, he's cleared a bunch of it and built a lot of new buildings over the years, sometimes bringing in historic structures and rehabbing them, building guest housing for students who come and do his Ghost Lab studio, gathering energies and craftsmanship and events in one place. Maybe you should go do a Ghost Lab?
http://mlsarchitects.ca/ghost.htm
Donna, the OP is actually a DAL graduate where MacKay-Lyons teaches. It would be the first record of a miracle for the OP not to know about him and Ghost Labs.
He makes structures that are more representative of art than place. Perhaps this is where all the ppl that want to be architects, and are having their mid life crisis can go and 'become an architect" for a small sum. Seems like a genius idea!
i have an answer but i'd out myself with it. goddammit.
there is a place out there.
Oh gosh, thanks Non Seq. I was posting and in the back of my mind thinking "But surely s/he has heard of Ghost Lab already" but didn't bother re-reading the post to verify if BM-L had been mentioned. Thanks for the fix.
Central Saint Martin's, nuff said. You'd fit in too.
Ha. You can't walk three steps around the faculty of arch. in Halifax without hearing about BML and his magnificence (considering he built the damn school).
Also - the 'real' Ghost Lab ended a few years back (2009-2010?). He replaced it with a one-off week-long lecture forum/series at his farm and in Lunenburg in 2011, and I believe that was supposed to be something of a cap to it. Don't think anything has happened since.
(Stephanie: my sense at the lecture was that it's no surprise BML and Richard Serra are friends - they both have that monumentally large "YES I CAN!!" ego of many men of their generation [granted, BML would be at the very end of Serra's generation, but nonetheless, it's the whole Action Art/AbEx excessive manliness attitude that they share]. Am I right?)
to the OP, not a grad school, but fits the bill in most of your categories, the architecture school of the catholic university in valparaiso, chile. http://www.ead.pucv.cl/
princeton or yale, bitch.
what?
Yup, Valparaiso as mentioned above.
Action Art/AbEx excessive manliness attitude
Oh, oh. Totally.
Which has also, by the way, infiltrated the entire academic architectural staff at Dal. I think there is not a one of them who hasn't either interned for or is currently working for BML. At one point 4 out of 5 studios were being run by current / former BML employees.
The over-saturation of his presence tended to really put me off his whole approach, but some students seriously worshipped the guy.
And after completing my half Windsor knot and straightening my collar I looked for a suitable rod from which to hang myself...
http://www.archdaily.com/775162/radical-pedagogies-school-and-institute-of-architecture-of-valparaiso-1952-1972