Left: David Ruy, SCI-Arc Postgraduate Programs Chair; Right: Hernan Diaz Alonso, SCI-Arc Director/CEO

Beginning this fall SCI-Arc EDGE Will Serve as a Platform for Programs Leading to M.S. and M.A. Degrees

Los Angeles, CA (August 17, 2016) ­– SCI-Arc Director Hernan Diaz Alonso today announced the appointment of architect and educator David Ruy as the postgraduate programs chair for SCI-Arc EDGE, Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture. Beginning in fall 2016, the new center led by Ruy will offer four graduate degree programs in fields including architectural technologies, entertainment and fiction, design of cities, and design theory and pedagogy.

“We’re thrilled to have David join us at SCI-Arc this fall,” says Director Hernan Diaz Alonso. “As one of the most prominent and innovative thinkers of his generation, David has been focusing on research and theoretical concepts in relation to design and new platforms throughout his entire career. We look forward to his contribution to taking SCI-Arc to new frontiers.”

SCI-Arc EDGE is a new platform for advanced studies in architecture. Its innovative postgraduate degree programs are designed to test the theoretical and practical limits of architectural innovation in order to launch new architectural careers for the twenty-first century. Each program identifies a distinct territory in the emerging milieus of the contemporary world and empowers students to become active stakeholders in the construction of the future.

“The scope of what an architect can do is expanding like never before,” says newly appointed Chair Ruy. “Everything is potentially an architectural problem. This requires training. It requires research. It requires speculation. Today, architecture is simultaneously becoming more specialized in its expertise and more diverse in its applications. It requires programs of advanced study that can be more targeted, more focused, and more innovative. Given the complexities of the contemporary world and the intense demands being made on the abilities of architects to meet problems, these programs are carefully designed to develop advanced expertise that a general professional degree cannot address.”

Two of the four postgraduate programs offered are built on the success of existing SCI-Arc programs that will be incorporated into SCI-Arc EDGE, Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture. These include the Master of Science in Architectural Technologies led by Marcelo Spina, a program driven by a consideration of technology’s relationship to architecture, and the Master of Science in the Design of Cities led by Peter Trummer, which tackles the complexities of contemporary urban design. The two new postgraduate programs offered by SCI-Arc EDGE include a unique Master of Arts in Fiction and Entertainment led by Liam Young for those that want to leverage their architectural training for the entertainment and media industries, and a Master of Science in Design Theory and Pedagogy led by Chair David Ruy aimed as a platform for training the next generation of studio instructors.

Newly appointed postgraduate programs chair David Ruy is an architect, theorist and educator with an extensive background in academia, who has served as an important voice in conversations regarding the future of architectural education. Most recently, he was co-chair of the 103rd ACSA Annual Meeting where he led a national discussion of architectural educators addressing the future of the core curriculum and its relationship to research and experimentation. He has previously been on the faculties of Columbia University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, Pratt Institute and has been a visiting professor at numerous universities in the United States and Europe. He has served as an external examiner of the DRL at the Architectural Association and is an advisor to numerous international organizations examining contemporary problems in architecture.

In parallel to his academic appointments, Ruy is co-director of Ruy Klein with Karel Klein. The practice examines contemporary problems at the intersection of architecture, nature, and technology, encompassing a wide array of influential projects that have migrated across the boundaries of architecture, art and design. The firm studies the mutual imbrications of artificial and natural regimes that are shaping an ever more synthetic world. The work of Ruy Klein has been widely published and exhibited and has been the recipient of numerous awards including the 2011 Emerging Voices Award of the Architectural League, recognizing the firm as one of the leading experimental practices in architecture today. The work is part of the permanent collection of the Frac Centre in Orléans, France. David Ruy received his Master of Architecture from Columbia University and his Bachelor of Arts from St. John’s College where he studied philosophy and mathematics.