Syracuse University Assistant Professor Kyle Miller and collaborators Kelly Bair (University of Illinois Chicago), Kristy Balliet (SCI-Arc), and Adam Fure (University of Michigan) will exhibit and present Possible Mediums, and be joined in discussion by award winning architect and chairperson of the Department of Graduate Architecture and Urban Design at Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture, David Erdman.

The Possible Mediums project began five years ago when the four of us, all teaching and working in the American Midwest, came together to promote novel design trends emerging at our schools and across the country. In our view, the conventional mediums of architectural production are rapidly changing. Comics and toys are showing up alongside perspectives and models. Orthographic drawings are crafting optical tricks while digital drawings are exploding into vibrant vector fields. From plaster casts of fat characters to geodesic kites, designers are actively expanding architecture’s mediums in order to captivate new audiences. To mobilize this exciting wave of speculative architecture, we created the Possible Mediums project as a diverse set of academic and social events. 

The Possible Mediums book is the next format to support, extend, and celebrate the diversity of contemporary architectural design. Possible Mediums presents a collection of sixteen speculative design mediums by emerging architects. Each chapter defines an active medium in contemporary architecture through descriptions, drawings, and objects. Possible Mediums arranges projects according to shared technical and aesthetic traits, creating a vibrant taxonomy of design. Descriptive texts explain the working principles behind each medium and introduce design concepts intended to inspire students and professionals alike. Through its many contributors, Possible Mediums establishes design as a collective endeavor propelled by the open exchange of ideas and techniques. Possible Mediums is not a systematic theory, a manifesto, or a banal survey; it is a projection of architecture and knowledge to come.