Crit: Journal of the AIAS Spring 2012 by American Institute of Architecture Students

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Crit / Journal of the American Institute of Architecture Students / Spring 2012 / Issue 73

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Journal of the American Institute of Architecture Students

Spring 2012

Issue 73

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solutions

WE CREATE

much more than innovative materials:

solutions to bring projects to life.

Lafarge isn’t merely a producer of raw materials, but the producer of materials that make up the composition of our lives – where we live, work and play. Lafarge holds dear the safety and development of its employees, satisfaction of its customers, harmony with its communities and respect for the environment. Lafarge uses natural resources in innovative ways to help construct the building blocks that are required to enhance, protect and sustain human life. We are Lafarge – a worldwide community of over 70,000 employees whose work is bringing materials to life.

www.lafarge-na.com Photography - RIGHT: Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario. Lafarge's Agilia® self-consolidating concrete in the exterior columns and in the supports for the illuminated atrium pods, resulted in a finish of exceptional quality.

TERRAZZO is History! Harmonie Park/Paradise Valley • Detroit, Michigan

Hubert Massey

“I have a deep commitment for rediscovering historical art through the use of Terrazzo. Its rich color and unique variety of surfaces allow me to draw on the richness of the traditional Italian culture, while responding to today’s contemporary public art designs.” http://www.hubertmasseymurals.com

Designer

Photo by Brian Heath

CHANGE YOUR WORLD

Professional architects, engineers, and digital artists are pushing the boundaries of design with Autodesk® software. Now you can too. Download free* software today at autodesk.com/edcommunity.

3D model created by ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd] using Autodesk® Revit® Architecture and Autodesk® 3ds Max® software *Free products are subject to the terms and conditions of the end-user license agreement that accompanies download of the software. Autodesk, Autodesk 3ds Max, and Autodesk Revit Architecture are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or aﬃliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product oﬀerings and specifications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2009 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Journal of the American Institute of Architecture Students Comments

Features

Projects

Reviews

Spring Issue 2012 73

Letter from the Editor: Mirror, Mirror

From the Officers

Special Section: AIAS FORUM 2012

Inspired to Activate Jonathan House highlights Teddy Cruzâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unique approach to community design.

We Are the Answers Obwieke Okolo encourages students to look within when searching for solutions.

Discussing Diversity in Architecture Bryce Gamper, Michelle Morehead, and Laura Meador consider how narrow definitions of diversity limit the profession.

Special Section: AIA Colorado Emerging Professionals

$, $$, $$$ Nathan R Gulash explains how the financial realities of architecture pinch recent graduates and questions how this might impact the profession.

From the Inner City to the Outer Country Kevin Larrabee challenges architects to engage the margins.

The Generation Gap Heather Ludwig Greenfield asserts that veterans of the profession have much to teach new entrants.

Crit Writing Competition

Designing Activism Stephen Klimek argues architecture is in need of reinvention.

Local Leadership Tom Quass highlights actions architects and aspiring architects can take in their communities.

The End of the Talk is Not the End of the Talk AndrĂŠ Rodrigue continues the conversation with rainwater harvesting expert Brad Lancaster.

The Trend of Modernism Within the Discipline of Architecture Casey Nathan considers how decades of Modernist thought have homogenized architectural education.

The Craft of Vernacular Subtlety Katherine Stege finds inspiration for sustainable design in an oft-overlooked place.

Recession Architecture Adler Prioly argues that economic conditions demand adaptability.

2011 AIAS + Kawneer Crisis-ready Stadium Student Design Competition

WaterShed The University of Maryland won the 2011 Solar Decathlon 2011 with an elegant union of architecture and engineering.

AIAS University of Kansas Freedom by Design

AIAS University of Virginia Freedom by Design

2011 AIAS Honor Awards

The Submission, Amy Waldman

Last Word: Disregard the Naysayers & Become the Solution to Your Own Life

Editor-in-Chief Brett W.R. Peanasky Publisher Nick Mancusi, Assoc. AIA Associate Publisher Joshua Caulfield, IOM Graphic Design Andrea Johns Design 2011 - 2012 Crit Editorial Board Traci Baumann, University of New Mexico Kiel Fahnstrom, Bowling Green State University Lauren Myrand, University of Detroit Mercy 2011 - 2012 AIAS Board of Directors President Nick Mancusi, Assoc. AIA Vice President Laura Meador, Assoc. AIA Director, Midwest Quadrant Bryce Gamper Director, Northeast Quadrant Becky Joyce-Yannes Director, South Quadrant Brent Castro Director, West Quadrant Matthew Barstow AIA Liaison Chris Morrison, AIA Chief Executive Officer (ex officio) Joshua Caulfield, IOM Crit, a celebration of student work in the field of architecture (ISSN 0277 6863), is published by the American Institute of Architecture Students, Inc., 1735 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20006-5209 / www.aias.org / 202.626.7472 AIAS is an independent, nonprofit, student-run organization. Crit is free to all AIAS members. Previous issues of Crit may be purchased for $30 each plus shipping. Supplies of previous print issues are limited and some issues may no longer be available. Reprints and reproductions of articles are available for a minimal fee. Please contact the AIAS at 202.626.7472 or via email at mailbox@aias.org for availability. Advertising rate information is also available. Crit welcomes editorial and design submissions as well as readers’ comments. The Editor-in-Chief and the Board of Directors are committed to the publication of students work. All submissions become the property of AIAS. © 2012 American Institute of Architecture Students, Inc. Copyright is strictly reserved for all articles, drawings, and photographs published in Crit. The opinions expressed in Crit are solely those of their respective authors, and do not necessarily reflect the policies and opinions of AIAS.

crit73 spring 2012

All photographs and images are provided by the contributors of the text they accompany unless otherwise noted. Cover: TOC: p. 2: p. 8: p. 14 – 17: p. 28 – 19: p. 36 – 37: p. 54

Amy Gardner “Sun Life Complex,” David Ensorm, Rameez Munawar, Karl Sobel “Stone Sanctuary”, Caleb Fisher “Stone Sanctuary”, Caleb Fisher AIAS AIAS “Stone Sanctuary”, Caleb Fisher Amy Gardner, Aditya Gaddam, Jeff Gipson, Jim Tetro/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon

p. 55:

Jeff Gipson

Cert no. SW-COC-002582

crit73 spring 2012

SUBMIT

OPPORTUNITIES

Crit accepts submissions on a rolling basis – any time, from any person, on any topic (architecturally speaking). We do not predetermine issue topics, but create each theme after review and assessment of submitted content. Crit welcomes ideas in all stages of development: send us the seeds, and we’ll help you grow them into peer-reviewed articles worthy of publication. Submissions from AIAS members will be given priority in publication. Submissions that are not published in the upcoming issue will be held by the AIAS to be considered for publication in a future issue or another venue, such as the AIAS website. Full submission guidelines are available at www.aias.org/crit.

AIA National Convention and Design Exposition, May 17 – 19, Washington, DC ($25 student registration): http://convention.aia.org

Send your questions, comments, and submissions to the editor-in-chief at crit@aias.org.

AIAS/AARP Aging in Place: Kitchens Student Design Competition http://aarp.aias.org International Council for Caring Communities Student Design Competition: http://www.international-iccc.org Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat International Student Tall Building Design Competition: www.ctbuh.org/competition Summer [IN]STITUTE in Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley: http://www.ced. berkeley.edu/college/academics/summer-institutes

M irror , mirror

BRETT W.R. Peanasky

crit73 spring 2012

Brett W.R. Peanasky received his B.A. in Architecture from Miami University in Ohio in 2009. He served as the 2009-2010 AIAS Vice President. An aspiring urban and environmental planner and policymaker, Brett plans to pursue graduate education in city planning and law. He is currently stuck in Atlanta traffic.

The notion that we can work towards “solutions” requires two assumptions: one, that there are problems to be solved; two, that we fully understand those problems. The former is perhaps an easier idea to accept – few would argue that the world is a perfect place and aspiring architects seem especially adept at looking about themselves and finding faults. The latter assumption, however, is not as simple. Yet this is the more crucial step in addressing problems. Can we identify who and what truly caused the problems we see? Once we identify them, are we willing to make the difficult choices and potential sacrifices to address these root causes? Are we willing to change our behaviors to reach solutions?

for right-minded persons to challenge the rise of the Nazi party and perhaps even prevent the atrocities of the coming decade. But many within Germany were inhibited by decorum. In spite of disturbing actions such as unprovoked violence against foreign visitors and militarization in direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles, many foreign diplomats and government officials avoided action. They scoffed at the idea that the diminutive, unintelligent, and impetuous Hitler could become a legitimate political force in Germany. They were reluctant to publicly chastise the Nazis, let alone oppose them. The prevailing attitude of the American public was that domestic issues, namely the Great Depression, were more pressing than potential discontent abroad.

I struggled with these questions recently while reading Erik Larson’s latest, In the Garden of Beasts. This enthralling book details the lives of the American ambassador to Germany, his wife, and grown children in Berlin in 1933 and 1934. Adolf Hitler became German chancellor in January 1933, and many assumed he would be little more than a figurehead of a minor political party. Larson does not specifically address how or why Hitler rose to power; he plays a relatively minor role in the book. Rather, Larson focuses the reader’s attention on other actors – American and foreign diplomats, senior Nazi party officials, and foreign journalists. At opulent holiday balls and dinner parties they mingled and their lives intertwined; the American ambassador’s daughter was especially captivated by the romance of a new Germany and the persons she saw as its creators. Personal relationships blurred the lines between friend and foe. Lust and glitz served as blinders.

One cannot help but wonder how differently events might have transpired if a few more voices had risen above the fear and complacency that swept the world into another war. And I could not help but ask myself what I would have done had I been a citizen of Germany at that time. Would I have been more than a witness?

While reading about this particular facet of history of which I was largely ignorant, I was repeatedly struck by the fact that there existed numerous opportunities

I do not mean to say that a tyrant is rising in our midst today. No – I think our contemporary enemies are even more insidious. My purpose is to demonstrate the desperate need for knowledge and empathy in our society. Consider a more contemporary example: Apple’s recently-launched iPad 3. This comes on the heels of reports about the atrocious conditions - including deadly explosions - in the Chinese factories where smartphones, tablets, and laptops are manufactured (Google “Foxconn” if you haven’t already). Perhaps even more disturbing is the fact that Apple and other companies were well aware of these conditions – conditions that would be far outside the laws of the United States.

It is easy to place blame on Apple and their suppliers. But are they the true villains here? Certainly these companies are directly responsible for these conditions. But would these factories exist if there weren’t such a voracious appetite for inexpensive products? Are we willing to pay threefold prices for goods to ensure they are ethically and sustainably produced? Do we, as consumers, not share a major stake of the blame for not asking where and how our shiny toys are made, just as the citizens and diplomats in 1933 Berlin share blame? Can the innocent bystander face his reflection after the crime?

without it. The definition of ‘psychopath’ is one who exhibits extreme antisocial behavior, who lacks a social conscience or sense of moral responsibility to others. And we can only learn empathy if we rip ourselves from our comfort zones, if we genuinely seek to understand how others live and why they live in these ways. Further, we must not only understand these conditions but learn to recognize the true historical and economic forces that generated them.

Once we have attained knowledge – after we have peeled back the curtain and have seen how the sausage is made (and who is really pulling the levers) – we must make a critical choice. We can Architecture demands broad knowledge. ignore what we’ve seen and simply carry on. We Architectural education forces us to look at the can choose not to acknowledge the villains of the world through a wide lens; my education (and story. Or our decisions can by guided by empathy. the AIAS) took me to cities across the globe, far We can choose to be honest with ourselves and beyond the farm town in which I was raised. But as correct our behaviors. creators of the built environment, our empathy must be as deep as our knowledge is broad. Empathy Are we willing to treat ourselves as the problems is, in fact, such an essential element to a healthy to be solved? If so, perhaps we will someday be society that we have a word to describe someone satisfied with whom we see in the mirror. C

COMMENTS comments

NICK MANCUSI Nick Mancusi began his architectural studies in Boston at the Wentwor th Institute of Technology before transferring to Taliesin, The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, where he completed his B.A.S. in Architecture in 2009. Nick was one of the founding members of Taliesin’s AIAS chapter, eventually becoming its third chapter president, and served as the 20102011 West Quadrant Director. While at Taliesin, Nick was the assistant project manager of Taliesin’s award-winning designbuild Mod.Fab™ while concurrently working with his father as partner of Mancusi Builders, LLC. Nick graduated from Taliesin with his Master of Architecture in May 2011 before taking office in Washington, DC where he now serves as the 2011-2012 AIAS President. Nick is passionate about civic engagement and how architectural education and practice can inform decisions that affect the issues that face our growing planet.

LAURA MEADOR

crit73 spring 2012

Laura Meador is a 2011 graduate of Louisiana State University. A native Louisianian and adopted Texan, she moved to Washington, DC to fulfill her role as AIAS Vice President in May. As Vice President, she is dedicated to raising the standards and public awareness of architecture education and also empowering members to be leaders in their profession and communities. In her free time, she enjoys performing improvisational comedy with Comedy Sportz in Arlington, VA, catching up on her TiVo recordings, and playing fetch with her beloved cat, Caspian.

FROM THE OFFICERS

We returned to Washington, DC after AIAS FORUM inspired by your enthusiasm and passion for the profession of architecture and this organization. We would like to extend another huge thank you to the host chapters – Arizona State University, University of Arizona, and Taliesin, The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture – for their incredible programming, people, ideas, and unwavering dedication that pushed AIAS FORUM 2011: Solutions beyond what we imagined the annual gathering of architecture students could be.

The success of the conference is not defined by the number of attendees but by the experiences that were shared that will effect change. We urge you, as respected leaders in the architectural community, to take this energy back to your schools. Bring this renewed sense of relevance to your fellow students to inspire them. Use the programming from the conference as inspiration for future chapter events, to not only make your chapters more successful but also more purposeful proponents for change. Imagine the impact you can have on your schools and communities with an informed, passionate, and fully engaged AIAS FORUM was so successful because we student voice. broadened the perspective of what a collection of architecture students can accomplish. Together we What we do today looked beyond our insular capacities in exchange for In the second half of our terms in office, we ask ourselves a greater purpose. Collectively we used our minds what the AIAS can do to create more opportunities for and voices to work towards solutions for overall our members. We are working on several initiatives conditions in the natural and built environments. that we believe will not only be important to our We did what rarely happens: we accepted the organization’s internal growth, but will also strengthen problems that surround us and looked past them to our collective voice. design a future we can work toward. We recognized and celebrated our critical thinking skills and our At the beginning of the year, we began a long process eagerness to become a more powerful force in our of renewing the branding of the organization to bring schools, our profession, and our communities and more awareness to the impact students can have truly make a difference. as AIAS members. Our new branding campaign,

“Relevance Starts Here,” is meant to not only be more relevant graphically, but to remind students that they have the opportunity to become an integral part in the greater dialogue of architecture and facilitate change today – not only in their studios, but in the profession they hope to enter. These branding efforts focus heavily on conveying our message to the public through the creation of business cards, letterhead, and building-sized banners. This spring we hope to continue to find ways of making the student voice even more present with branding updates to our website, a focus on internet videos, and the rebirth of our podcasts.

named “Project Yellow”. These resources can be used in the early phases of education as a map to navigate the path to becoming an architect. We hope to continue to develop these resources in the future to ensure the success of architectural education, and ultimately, the professional community.

In addition to our efforts to promote architectural education to the public, we are engaged in preparations for the National Architectural Accreditation Board (NAAB) Accreditation Review Conference (ARC) in 2013. Every five years we have the opportunity to bring the student voice, as an equal, to discuss and propose changes to the As architecture students and emerging professionals, conditions of architectural education. Throughout our education defines who we are as individuals and the spring you will see several surveys from the AIAS what we can accomplish in the future. The passion we through which we hope you will help us compile the hold is boundless, but the pursuit of a professional voice of students as we approach the ARC. This is career in architecture can be sometimes difficult to just another example of how we can make an impact follow or understand. For this reason we have created as an organization and how we are constantly working a new series of resources that we have affectionately to provide a stronger platform within academia.

What we will do tomorrow The initiatives we pursue today are representative of the greater goals we plan to accomplish in the future. We do not only seek immediate improvement of our benefits and programs; we seek to strengthen the infrastructure that exists, to pursue greater opportunities for the future. The initiatives in which we have engaged this year will grow to become inherent parts of the AIAS mission. During our term, we have established a long-range commitment to advocacy and financial growth. We have discovered a resurgent need for greater advocacy efforts all around. In doing so, we also recognize that we are a small organization with limited financial resources that impact how we approach future endeavors.

crit73 spring 2012

The financial state of the organization is the determining factor of our ability to create new programming and

provide new benefits to our members. Our finances support our voice, allowing us to advocate for the future of our profession. This year we have committed to increasing revenue from existing sources and expanding our perspective of potential partners. Despite current economic conditions, we are optimistic that in subsequent years we will grow the financial capacity of the AIAS. We are creating a financial plan we hope to adopt in July and implement in August that will strengthen our future representation of the student voice. As we announced at AIAS FORUM, we are pursuing federal student loan forgiveness. We recognize the future of our profession can be nourished if the weight of economic burden is lifted from those pursuing the profession, especially those giving selflessly to the advancement of the built environment. Yet we also recognize that, like financial growth, advocacy is not a short-term effort toward a goal. It is a sustained,

informed, and coherent message that in time will lead Advocacy must become an inherent value we hold us closer to a change that is needed. as students; an action that can be taken at all levels – our quadrants, states, municipalities, communities, Advocacy is what we do. A desire to design a tomorrow and institutions. Advocacy means standing up to the that is better than today is inherent in our education. We challenges that we face and finding ways to make a recognize the world around us faces many challenges difference. It is recreating AIAS FORUM in Phoenix: a that affect the lives of students today and will play into dialogue about solutions. our future. In recognizing problems and addressing solutions, we can make a profound impact on the future We are honored to have had the opportunity to share of our profession and the way future generations will some our solutions for the future of the AIAS and how interact with our craft. Advocacy is just that – using our we can improve the future value of our profession. You voice, taking action, and making a difference. This starts can do the same at home by helping your communities with the efforts of our members, students of architecture. through a Freedom by Design project, engaging your peers and mentors in a dialogue to find solutions to This spring, similar to our efforts in preparation for the challenges, contributing to Crit to bring your innovative ARC, we are seeking to collect facts and opinions from ideas to a national audience, or talking with your city students to bring before Congress to make federal officials or state representatives to encourage them to student loan forgiveness a reality for a profession recognize the value of architecture students. You will that is a cornerstone of society. Your participation in be amazed by how powerful your voice is – by how the creation of content AIAS will use for this particular much of a difference you can make – by realizing that endeavor demonstrates that advocacy is not limited advocacy starts right here with your voice. Relevance to the interactions of AIAS officers on Capitol Hill. Starts Here. C

AIAS FORUM is the annual meeting of the AIAS and the global gathering of the architecture and design students. The event provides students with the opportunity to learn about important issues facing architectural education and the profession; to meet students, educators, and professionals with common interests; and to interact with some of todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading architects through keynote addresses, tours, workshops and seminars.

PARTICIPATING CHAPTERS Academy of Art University Appalachian State University Araphahoe Community College Arizona State University Auburn University Ball State University Boston Architectural College Bowling Green State University Caly Poly - Pomona Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo City College of New York Clemson University Custea College Drexel University Fairmont State University Georgia Institute of Technology University of Illinois Illinois Institute of Technology Louisiana State University Louisiana Tech University Massachusetts Colleg eof Art and Design Montana State University Morgan State University New Jersey Institute of Technology New York Institute of Technology - Manhattan New York Institute of Technology - Old Westbury NewSchool of Architecture and Design North Carolina State University North Dakota State University Northeastern University Norwich University Oklahoma State University Pennsylvania State University Roger Williams University Ryerson University San Antonio College Savannah College of Art and Design Portland State University Prarie View A&M University School of the Art Institute of Chicago Southern Illinois University Carbondale Syracuse University Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture Texas A&M University Texas Tech University Tuckegee University Universidad de Puerto Rico Universidad Politecnica de Puerto Rico University at Buffalo University of Arizona University of California - Berkley University of Colorado - Boulder University of Detroit Mercy University of Hartford University of Hawaii - Manoa University of Houston University of Kansas University of Maryland University of Massachusetts - Amherst University of Idaho University of Miami University of Minnesota University of Nebraska - Lincoln University of New Mexico University of North Carolina - Charlotte University of Oklahoma University of Oregon University of Pittsburg University of Southern California University of Tennessee - Knoxville University of Texas - Arlington University of Texas - Austin University of Texas - San Antonio University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Washington State University West Valley College Woodbury University

AIAS FORUM December 29, 2011 - January 1, 2012

Arizona has hosted AIAS FORUM

PHOENIX, AZ

times since 1957.

total membership

5,183

PROFESSIONALS AND INVITED GUESTS

host chapters !?

681

15% 41

of total membership

A I A S FORUM attendees

FORUM

AIAS

students participated in the architectural scavenger hunt in Downtown Phoenix

states represented

Graphic participated in a Rendering Workshop Skill Building

students

Practical Charettes over

participated in

Elections

100+

shools represented

Regional Tours

regional tours 20 2design charettes students

the scarcity of water the connnection of culture, identity, and social groups in urban settings

STUDENTS

BY THE NUMBERS

Scavenger Hunt

114

605

members of the Council of Presidents elected new Board Members.

* Distance travelled by University of Hawaii at Manoa is not depicted to scale. ** Chapters depicted in inforgraphic are for visual use only and in no way represent favoritism of the National Office.

Taliesen, The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture University of Arizona Arizona State University

AIAS FORUM2011: SOLUTIONS

DEC. 2011

Roundtable Discussion

discussions were held regarding

were offered.

843

tickets were sold.

Firm Crawl students participated in

the firm crawl with

diverse firms.

Architectural Education, The Future of the Profession and Civic Engagement.

AIAS FORUM Jonathan House

crit73 spring 2012

Jonathan House is co-president at AIAS Louisiana State University.

Inspired to Activate: Teddy Cruz on the role of the architect within a community

When the location for the 2011 AIAS Forum was chosen a little more than two years ago, the experience of Phoenix, Arizona promised to be a great one. The conference theme, Solutions, would serve to inspire thoughtful discussions about how architects and students can impact issues like climate change and suburbanization, while considering the prospects of graduating in an incredibly uncertain economic climate. Two years ago was a very different time than the months leading up to AIAS Forum in Phoenix, though. 2010 and 2011 witnessed the Arab Spring and Occupy movements overtake major cities around the globe. Controversial immigration policies, wealth inequality, and digital rights became commonplace topics both in academia and around the dinner table. In these conditions, it no longer seemed enough to gather other architecture students from across the continent to merely fawn over beautiful architecture by famous designers and discuss issues now commonplace centerpieces of architectural education. Much bigger issues were at hand, and all of a sudden what we as future architects needed at this juncture was a place to discuss our role in these shifting cultural ideologies.

demeanor, came from a place of legitimate concern. Cruzâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to make a career out of inciting positive change in the neighborhoods of Tijuana and southern California through adaptive architecture is inspiring. Not many architects go to the length he has to become an activist within his community, with his success largely fueled by his admirable ability to translate fairly radical community planning concepts into a language that can be easily understood by people of all levels of income and education. Most importantly, the design solutions he employs could apply to struggling neighborhoods around the country, driving home the significance of the problem and the need for architects to lead these solutions wherever we are.

Teddy Cruz represents a reinvented typology of architect â&#x20AC;&#x201C; one who doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait for clients to come looking for design solutions, but shows entire communities the opportunities they have for successful growth and development. By taking advantage of circumstances in which local cultures can thrive through design (despite living in a time when good design is thought to come at a premium) the myth that it is acceptable to homogenize low-cost architectural projects can finally come to an end. All have a right to No better speaker could have been chosen to plant betterment through design and designers who care to the seed for this discussion than architect Teddy Cruz. execute these strategies; Cruz makes it clear that it is up Taking the stage the second night, he began his lecture to us, the upcoming generation of architects, to live up with bold diagrams and images expressing the stark to that standard. AIAS Forum provided the opportunity realities of wealth inequality in the United States and for students of architecture to encourage one another to South America. These statements could have been take this lesson to heart and become a new generation of politically polarizing if presented by a less humble leaders in not only the architectural community, but in the individual, but his approach to the issues, as well as his communities each of us call home. C

so · lu · tion

(noun): an action or process of solving a problem; an answer to a problem, specifically a set of values of the variables that satisfies an equation. — Merriam-Webster English dictionary

WE ARE THE ANSWERS

As architects and creators of the built environment, we are faced with a task that can seem daunting at times: finding solutions to some of the world’s most challenging and complex design problems. At AIAS FORUM 2011 in Phoenix, our organization came together to discuss solutions to problems that students face on a daily basis. As I sat in the Council of Presidents meeting, presided over by President Nick Mancusi, I came to two very important realizations.

This leads me to my second realization: we are the answers to every problem, question, and query we face as students and leaders in our schools. One thing that never fails to amaze me every year I attend AIAS FORUM is the time and dedication that our board of directors puts towards providing us with the tools we need to make change. Despite their best efforts, nothing will come to be without an effort from every leader to effect this change. Sitting in general session, surrounded by hundreds of students just like me, made me so aware of our potential for greatness. I’m not talking about the cliché sort of, “you can do anything you put your mind to” greatness – no. We, as leaders of a generation of forward thinkers and innovators, the likes of which the world has never seen before, have the potential to bring tangible change to our environments. Gone should be the days when students in colleges and universities accept the policies and decisions made by institutions as absolute truths. There is no reason why faculty meetings on any college campus with an AIAS chapter shouldn’t have a student presence.

The first seems fairly obvious, but I feel it still needs to be acknowledged: though our challenge is to find applicable solutions to the qualms and queries of our society, it is imperative that we not lose sight of the very essence of those problems. It seems strange to think that the problems we attempt to solve are just as important as, if not more important than, the solutions we hope to find, but this is a phenomenon we see even in our studios every day. How often do we find ourselves slaving away on our studio projects in an attempt to find design solutions for a given prompt? And how often do we realize, after all is said and done, that we’ve lost sight of the problem we initially sought to solve? How can we expect to truly resolve any problem We must realize the importance of ourselves. Without us, if we don’t first acknowledge the issue at hand, and there are no institutions. Our schools are accountable second, achieve a mastery of said problem? to us and the only way we as student leaders can hope to find any sort of solutions to any of the problems we Architectural education is like no other form of higher face is by making ourselves relevant. We must work education. As a result we find ourselves facing very unique to manufacture a system in which our voice, ideas, problems, problems that in turn will require unique and and input are an absolute necessity to the powers innovative solutions. No two colleges are the same and that be. Contained within those voices and ideas are no two AIAS chapters are the same. Faced with so many the answers. The answers to everything. As we grow, different questions can we even realistically speak of prepare to graduate, enter the professional community, coming together to find an answer to all of them? In my and ultimately become citizens of the world, it’s opinion, the answer to that question is undoubtedly, “Yes”. important to remember that we as a collective and as Despite the fact that we face so many problems, there is individuals are the answers. We are the variables that one common factor and one correct answer to them all: us. satisfy the equation. C

OBIEKWE OKOLO Obiekwe Okolo is the AIAS chapter president at the University of Texas, San Antonio.

AIAS FORUM

DISCUSSING DIVERSITY IN ARCHITECTURE marked with my team discussing my perceived sexual orientation (correct in assumption) during work hours and without my knowledge. The first conversation I ever came One of the challenges that our profession must tackle across where my sexuality was discussed shattered to become more inclusive is to expand our definition of my personal view of myself as a hard worker and an diversity, not only whom we consider to be ‘diverse’ but appreciated team member; I became the “gay kid” in the trailer. I was ecstatic to head back to school, where I was whom this diversity affects. accepted. I questioned my career choice: was this the job Many in our profession would not consider me, a twenty- environment I had to look forward to? something white male, to be a contributor to ‘diversifying architecture,’ much less know that I have dealt with Nowhere I looked – in company policy, online, blogs, and discrimination. On the contrary, my first internship in the articles about diversity in our field – did I find sexuality world of architecture and design led me to a different mentioned, or any sort of experience like mine documented. notion for diversity and discrimination in our field. As a I equated that empty search to the harassment being my freshman I was excited to not only work with an architect’s own fault; I felt it wasn’t valid to report what had happened. design, but to also work on a jobsite and learn more about It was an experience that almost drove me away from how a design is realized. Though I learned much that architecture, but my passion for design was strong enough summer, my first experience with the world of architecture to encourage me to continue. was one marked by harassment and chauvinism. The charts and graphs we make to catalogue the Working with a small team in a small job trailer for long progress our profession is making in terms of gender hours, I became close with my coworkers but I kept most of and skin color are hollow at their centers. We alienate the my private life to myself. Knowing the field of construction complex relationships, experiences, and personalities of isn’t the most open-minded, I presented the façade of the the individuals who follow their love for architecture. Not straight white male I was assumed to be in an exhausting only do we dilute the term ‘diversity,’ we discredit the discrimination and prejudices that many have fought to effort to keep my differences out of the equation. overcome because their differences do not fit into the To know that you work just as hard as your team members incomplete charts that we have manufactured for our but are still considered different is challenging – and to record keeping and ‘progress’ tracking. construct a façade to keep that difference hidden is harder – but the hardest thing to deal with is when you realize The ‘old boys club’ mentality is a term I have heard many the façade hasn’t worked. The end of my internship was times and is one I have, admittedly, used to describe the Expanding our scope of diversity BRYCE GAMPER

BRYCE GAMPER

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Bryce Gamper currently serves as the 2011-2012 Midwest Quadrant Director and the acting chapter president at Lawrence Technological University. He advocates for equality and civic engagement in the profession and is an active leader in the Freedom by Design program at LTU. Bryce will complete his Bachelor of Science in Architecture in May.

history of our profession. I think it surprises people to hear a man say that in a negative connotation because my physical features automatically affiliate me with this group, but my experiences have set me outside of that group. I identify more with minority members of our profession, and I push for broader inclusion because I know where others have been and what they have been through. It is time that we challenge our definition of diversity and consider who we are excluding and what the profession is missing by doing so.

So the question remains unanswered though much speculated about: Why is it that there are so few women in architecture? Often we dismiss the issue, assuring ourselves the lack of gender equality in the profession will fix itself over time as a result of the increase in women enrolled in architecture school. Many say that when the profession has recovered from the current recession, women will be able to enter the profession at the same rate as men, and the disparity will cure itself. However this idea of a natural cure ignores the fact that the disproportionate number of white men has As architects we deal with not only the world of design, existed for the entire history of the profession, and the but also with the other fields such as construction, rate of improvement has been vastly slower than many business, and specialized trades, and some of these of the other fields that had similar discrepancies in the allied professions are perhaps not as open minded past. Engineering is often the profession associated as designers can be. Many companies, including the along with architecture for its notorious male-dominated international construction management group I worked demographic. In a study conducted by the Society of for, have sensitivity or diversity training seminars that are Women Engineers, while female engineers were only mandatory for employees, but we must question the definition for diversity at these meetings. How do you prepare someone for a new situation with someone who is ‘different’ in the scope of their view, when the scope of view you try to provide them with does not go beyond gender and skin color?

Michelle Morehead Michelle A. Morehead is the current president of the AIAS chapter at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she is a Master of Architecture candidate for May 2012. She received her Bachelor of Science in Architecture at University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2010. Michelle served as the 2010-2011 AIAS Midwest Quadrant Director and has served on various AIAS committees since 2008. She is passionate about social justice and more designedtrained professionals engaged as social advocates and civic and community leaders.

The effects of a narrow field Michelle Morehead Architecture school enrollment has been nearing equality in male to female ratios for some time. According to the 2010 Report on Accreditation from the National Architectural Accrediting Board, the gender breakdown of enrolled students is approximately 60/40, with 59% male students and 41% female students. Most schools have also made huge strides in increasing ethnic and racial diversity. Also included in the report were statistics on ethnicity in accredited programs. In Bachelor of Architecture programs, 34.7% of the students were minorities; 21.4% of students enrolled in Master of Architecture programs identified as minorities. Most notably, minorities represent a 70% of enrollment in Doctor of Architecture programs. However, the diversity of the profession does not reflect at these same rates. The rate of licensed architects or those pursuing licensure who identify as members of a minority, whether it is gender or ethnicity, is still very skewed and does not indicate any shift on the horizon. The AIA/NCARB Internship and Career Study aimed to collect information about those pursuing licensure. 49% of the 10,500 responses were completed by those aged 18-29. Of these results, 75% of the participants indicated their racial/ethnic background to be white or Caucasian. The survey notably does not measure gender information.

AIAS FORUM crit73 spring 2012

10.6% of employed engineers in 2001, this number had doubled from the 5.8% employed in 1983. This increase in females employed does not seem to be directly linked to an increase in enrollment of women in engineering, as the same data reports that from 19792011, the percent in women enrolled rose less than 8%. This data indicates that there has been an increase of opportunities for women to stay in the profession of engineering. Though the enrollment of women in architecture school is approaching 50%, women are not pursuing or attaining licensure, and those who do are not rising to the top ranks of their firms at the same rate as their male peers.

background, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity of members of the profession. As a result of this narrow definition, firms suffer from a lack of awareness of the issues related to diversity.

It is therefore not surprising that many inadvertent or non-purposeful acts of discrimination occur in the work setting every day, simply for lack of knowledge. For example, take a woman-owned firm of 10-15 people. The only women in the firm are the owner, a young associate, and the receptionist. Since the owner doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t interact with the rest of the office as frequently, the lone female architectural staff member can only interact with men in the office. This firm is celebrated Why does this imbalance continue? Many of the as woman-owned, yet the female associate could be issues that are probable contributors to the lack frequently made uncomfortable by the opinions and of gender diversity among licensed architects are casual conversations of her male colleagues. problems that affect many different demographics, not just women. It seems much more likely that Establishing the value of diversity in the future there is not so much an issue of women getting Laura Meador licensed, but a larger concern that the path to becoming an architect does not embrace, or appeal From the educational process to eventual licensure, our to, diverse types of persons. This is, of course, nearly profession depends on mentorship to be successful. impossible to prove as firms typically only measure Our generation is so heavily reliant on the older their diversity solely in terms of gender and race, generation for the vast knowledge they have about excluding data representing the socio-economic architecture; we yearn to identify with their achievements

and carry on the legacy of what it means to be ‘great’. While this method has been successful in nourishing the careers of budding architects of our past, it is pointedly counteracting the integration of diversity in architecture for two reasons.

ethnic diversity does not automatically bring different points of view to the table. If everyone in a particular group is from the same region of the same country, with the same economic background, their perspectives will probably be very similar. Our profession is one that is deeply committed to the idea of problem solving. First, the mentors from whom we are seeking information Conversing more perspectives to solve a problem will do not often share our value for diversity, and it continuously make a design solution that much more therefore loses importance as other values become successful, which is our ultimate responsibility to our more central to our careers. It is understandable that client and our communities. one would acquire values parallel to those of a mentor, though this potentially minimizes any progress made We must, as emerging professionals, advocate the by our generation. Secondly, while we do seek a understanding that to deny rights, dampen, control, mentor with whom we can identify, the most successful limit, oppress or abuse a single individual based mentorships are based on a deeper connection than on perceived differences only serves to weaken simply architecture – commonalities stemming from the profession rather than advancing it. We cannot personal experiences, gender, or other factors. The simply accomplish this by communicating within current lineup of potential mentors in our profession our network as students, but we should engage all is extremely homogenous, and as such, it is easy levels of the profession and allied disciplines in this to understand why an individual who identifies as a discussion. If we begin to encourage the greater member of a minority might not be able to envision his architectural community to understand the true or her role in the profession. intricacies of diversity, we can alleviate the pressure of discussing this ‘taboo’ subject. Only through Instead of focusing on the differences that lie between this open dialogue can we work toward a greater us, we must celebrate the diverse perspectives different appreciation of diverse, informed perspectives and people bring to projects. To only focus on gender and a more inclusive environment. C

AIA COLORADO EMERGING PROFESSIONALS

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NATHAN R GULASH

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Since joining RNL in 2008, Nathan R Gulash, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, has worked on a variety of civic projects, most notably the Research Support Facility at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. This LEED Platinum complex is a significant project for the U.S. Department of Energy and the largest Zero Energy Building of its kind. Nathan brings innovative design and strong technical and construction skills to each project, leveraging emerging technology to create highly sustainable, humanscaled spaces. He obtained a Master of Science in Architecture from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music Performance from Michigan State University.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve all seen the dollar signs next to restaurants listed in a Zagat guide for an unfamiliar city. One sign means the place is inexpensive, two means not so affordable but not expensive either, and threeâ&#x20AC;Śyou get the idea. Over the last several months, I have heard numerous news reports from NPR and other networks discussing the latest planned tuition hikes at universities across the country1 and a thought struck me: with the ever increasing cost of education, can students considering their career options today afford to choose architecture as their profession? When weighing this question, the first item that must be discussed is the educational system itself. Architectural education is a confusing and tricky business, but if you wish to become a licensed architect, you have limited options when it comes to coursework. You must earn a NAAB-accredited degree, and at the undergraduate level, three options exist. The BArch is traditionally a five-year program, most often begun directly out of high school with no prior post-secondary education. These programs are decidedly different from a four-year Bachelor of Arts (BA) or Bachelor of Science (BS) with a major in architecture, neither of which are considered professional degrees. There are currently 58 BArch

programs accredited by the NAAB2, but they continue to diminish in their number. Choosing one of these degrees allows one to study for five years and start testing immediately, if your chosen state of licensure happens to be one that supports concurrency.3 Considering that fewer people are exercising this option, it is all but mandatory that one studies through the MArch level if licensure is the goal. Options available to those that choose this path are more numerous; currently, there is a variety of MArch degrees available. Two of the available options are more popular than others. The first of these is a three-year program of study following completion of an unrelated undergraduate liberal arts degree. Incidentally, this is how I achieved my MArch, having first graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music Performance. The second option builds on prior completion of a liberal arts degree (BA or BS) with a major in architecture. At the completion of the undergraduate coursework, the accredited MArch program can typically be reduced to two years of study. However, to further confuse these options, a handful of schools still require three years of professional graduate education following a related undergraduate degree in architecture. There are other

post-professional degree options for those students with a professional BArch who wish to pursue further study. These programs most often require just one year of study.4

If you believe the universities, lack of state assistance is causing the cost of tuition to rise at such an astronomical rate. But this is a double-edged sword. As the economies of our nation and individual states continue to struggle, decreased revenues from tax Now that we are all thoroughly confused, let’s dive into collection no longer allow higher education funding the specifics of how much this might cost. Assuming at levels seen in years past. To add insult to injury, as that you make it through your undergraduate education the economy struggles, employers are not as busy in four and a half years, Finaid.org publishes that the as they need to be, and architects’ fee percentages average student leaves their undergraduate institution continue to be squeezed by clients insisting on much with around $25,000 in student loan debt.5 As outlined more for much less. studied something other than architecture, you can count on seven semesters in addition to prerequisite credits Not all that long ago, the general rule of thumb was that that may be required in the content areas in which you an architect could count on 10% of the construction may be deficient. Costhelper.com publishes that public budget in design fee. As an example, a $5 million university MArch degree programs average $6,900 per project would net the firm $500,000. Keep in mind that semester.6 Doing the math, that adds an additional this is fee and not profit – out of this, all of the expenses $27,600 to $48,300 to your loan balance. In total, the for running a business need to be paid, and only after average student will owe between $52,600 and $73,300. these obligations have been satisfied can the profits Keep in mind, this is just for tuition, not books, computers, for a particular job be tallied. Sadly, the days of the rent, food, and the lengthy list of supplies you need. If you 10% fee are long past, both because clients are no happen to study at a private university, Costhelper.com longer paying the premium they once did for quality lists the average semester cost at $18,150. If there was professional services (part of this is the fault of our a Zagat guide for architectural schools, you might find profession, as we have let the perceived value of these these institutions listed as ‘$$$$+’. services diminish) but also because of architects’

AIA Colorado Emerging Professionals

notes

1. See “Obama ‘Putting Colleges On Notice’ On High Tuition,” NPR, January 27, 2012, http:// www.npr.org/templates/story/ story.php?storyId=145950107; “State Higher Education Spending Sees Big Decline,” NPR, January 23, 2012, http:// www.npr.org/templates/story/ story.php?storyId=145628896; and “New Republic: Belt Tightening on College Costs,” NPR, January 10, 2012, 2. http://www.npr. org/2012/01/10/144953645/ new-republic-belt-tightening-oncollege-costs. 3. “Architecture Programs,” National Architectural Accrediting Board, Inc., accessed January 30 2012, http://www.naab.org/ architecture_programs.

4. “Registration Board Licensing Requirements,” National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, accessed January 30, 2012, http://ncarb.org/Gettingan-Initial-License/RegistrationBoard-Requirements.aspx. 5. “Architecture Programs” 6. “Student Loans,” FinAid Page, LLC, Accessed January 30, 2012, http://www.finaid.org/ loans.

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7. “ARE Fees Will Increase 1 October, 2009” ARE® e-news, July 2009, Accessed January 30, 2012, http://www.ncarb.org/ are/enews/2009/july/index.html.

evolving practice methodologies. Unfortunately, as the industry continues to become more specialized and technically complicated, many architects are abdicating numerous responsibilities to consultants. While scopes of work such as structural engineering and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering have always been design services that have been sub-contracted out to knowledgeable consultants, many firms hire outside experts in sustainable design and construction administration services. As more and more work is done by people outside of the firm’s core staff, more of the already limited fee flows out of an architecture firm’s coffers.

As we pay higher and higher costs for our required education, salaries for architects have remained relatively unchanged of late, due in part to many of the reasons outlined in the preceding paragraph. Employers simply can’t afford to keep up with the salary increases seen in other professions. From my admittedly small sampling, intern architects (defined as those with an accredited professional degree, but not yet licensed) can expect to earn somewhere around $40,000 per year in the Denver Metro market. Your true earning potential begins with licensure. Salary increases of 15%-30% are typical, depending on the length of time you have been an intern, job performance and responsibilities, and where you fall within a particular firms pay structure. Unfortunately, for the average architect, licensure takes years. According to NCARB’s own figures, the Intern Development Program (IDP) takes an average

of five to seven years to complete, not including an individual’s time for examination. Examination is also rather expensive. Currently, there are seven exams that must be taken, each costing $210 (these fees have increased dramatically in recent years, as well).7 If you fail an exam, you must wait six months to take it again and pay an additional $210. If you manage to pass them all the first time, the total fee of $1,470 amounts to around 5% of an intern’s take-home pay over the course of a year. If you are fortunate to have a job, some firms will reimburse you for the cost of the exams upon passage, but many do not. As the costs of examination continue to rise, many employees have seen their wages stagnate or even decrease in the last several years. Comparatively speaking, starting wages for architects are nowhere near where they were 20 years ago, and the relative cost of the education and available paths to licensure put today’s emerging professional in an uncertain position.

The AIA stresses that, as a profession, we need to educate the public on the value of the architect. But this is a classic chicken-and-egg paradox. Until fee percentages rise and the steady flow of quality work begins to keep the lights on in the offices, wages will remain stagnant. Until states are able to collect from the tax base, monies for public universities won’t be restored. Are talented people going to flock to the discipline if they struggle to see the value in it? If we struggle to see the value in our education, how can we expect the public to see the value in our profession? C

AIA Colorado Emerging Professionals

From the

Inner City

I traveled through time this past summer, in a Boeing 737 rather than a DeLorean. From one of the denser urban neighborhoods in Denver I journeyed east to my parents’ house in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, ultimately bound for central Maine. We had lived there during my early childhood and, after moving south, made yearly trips back to visit the extended family and immerse ourselves in deep lakeshore woods. Fond memories of those woods and waters remained with me, despite my aftercollege move to Colorado that diminished the frequency of visits. Other memories, though, lay dormant until I returned after a four-year absence. Given the difficulties of arranging travel from Denver to central Maine - scheduling multiple flights, catching a bus, and hiking for a ride on the far end - I had opted instead to fly to my parents’ home and drive up with my younger brother. We left late in the afternoon, I taking the first turn driving, believing as I always had that I could manage a twelve-hour overnight drive. He had to take the wheel earlier than anticipated, though; I have aged myself about twenty years after what feels like a hundred sleepless nights in studio. After around eight hours of driving and an equivalent number of coffees, the next day’s dawn caught us in southern

to the

Outer Country Maine, flying past the more populated coastal towns, another four hours of driving remaining. The sun edged above the horizon to illuminate the fields and forests along the highways, offering glimpses of the occasional farmhouse or cluster of buildings. With a grimace here and a solemn stare there, we muttered periodically, “This is kind of depressing,” without knowing exactly why. I passed it off as sleep deprivation. But the mood continued to strike us as we looked at the houses in the distance and strengthened as we drove through increasingly smaller towns, well off the highway at this point. I had to admit eventually that something about the buildings themselves seemed to pull at us, rather than mental exhaustion. Alain de Botton whispered that they were speaking to us, lamenting their age and faded beauty, while Eliade declared instead that the buildings and towns had lost their defining cosmos. The voice of one instructor proposed more simply that the buildings’ masses related to neither one another nor their immediate context, thus appearing out of place, while another offered that the elevational similarities between all sides of the buildings indicated low performance. I listened to those voices with

Kevin Larrabee Kevin Larrabee eventually settled on psychology as a course of study at Penn State, but despite a fondness for research, he opted out of that path upon graduation when he moved west to Colorado. Following a quarter-life crisis, he enrolled in an undergraduate architecture program as a means of entry into computer science; within two weeks he decided his ‘temporary’ program was a better fit. He’s not sure what he wants to do, however, after graduating.

AIA Colorado Emerging Professionals

evident, though. Vernacular approaches represent local patterns of building and planning that have evolved through the years to meet specific problems. While at times they represent tried-and-true methods uniquely adapted to local problems, at other times they are done merely out of adherence to tired traditions.

only half an ear; before architecture school, before the city, before even the suburbs, as a child driving through these same towns - the only fabric I knew at the time something about my surroundings had gnawed at me even then. Looking back on our drive these eight months later, the most salient images show aged and sagging farmhouses, whole slats missing from the walls. Wooden siding here, with once-white paint cracked off in sheets. Blank walls there, pierced only sparingly with small windows. This empty and inactive porch fronting a main street devoid of pedestrians. That house sagging on a parcel of gravel and broken pavement. My memories of Maine often show verdant hills rolling into the distance and obsidian waves cresting white under blue skies. My memories of our drive though, along with related ones from my childhood, recall a bleak world nearly colorless under blank grey skies. What gnawed at us was primarily material in nature, but we were responding to something else, I think. Something that lay behind the peeling paint, beneath the cracking pavement.

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Most simply, the small towns we drove through all have a vernacular to them, but they seemed to lack architecture. For the last few years of my education, perhaps owing to a background far removed from design, I have struggled with the term ‘architecture’, unsure exactly of what the discipline entails or offers. One thing seems

As a result, vernacular approaches might impose ill-fitting solutions upon us and our environments, encouraging ideas and methods inappropriate to the climate or even the clientele. The material defects that caught my brother’s attention and mine ran deeper than the physical fabric, which reflected other processes less readily seen. The paint and pavement, the sagging buildings, and the people-less streets are the outcomes of non-sustaining vernacular methods, from material choices that require more upkeep than residents can provide to town planning strategies that favor the car while disfavoring the pedestrian experience that keeps residents connected to one another. Driving through towns of only a few thousand, we still saw dentists and family doctors and even the occasional attorney-at-law with their shingles hung out. The surrounding residents do not have access to every medical procedure imaginable, but they have the basics covered for the preventative maintenance of their individual health. These services, however, are a limited subset of their human experience. They do not depend solely on the inner workings of their bodies for their health; their environments affect them, as well, and what constitutes their environments more than landscapes and buildings? I do not feel that architects - or, as in my case, those of us aspiring to be - are exaggerating when we describe our field as ‘vital’. But how are we vital? One of my most influential instructors prides good architects for their ability to step into a commercial project and identify spatial and programmatic relationships that might hinder a company’s performance, in the process rethinking patterns of organization and occupation and leading to radically improved workflows. Another significant instructor of mine, an absolute fountain of all green-architecture knowledge, focuses more on the performative nature of buildings. Many of the texts and other resources from these classes, though, concentrate on bigger-budget commercial and institutional projects. What about the rest of the population, whether centered in a city or dispersed throughout the countryside? Do they have environmental hindrances in their lives?

I think back on wintertime in my first Denver apartment, too, with its thermal envelope so broken that I couldn’t keep it above 40 degrees. I tried shielding the tiny room beside my bathroom off from the rest of the apartment with blankets; even with two space heaters and a shower as hot as it could run to generate steam, my fingers could barely maintain blood flow to operate mouse and keys as I worked late into the night. What of those living through much deeper winters than Denver in houses even less insulated than that apartment? Is there a way that architecture might serve them, maintaining their physical and psychological health by helping them find better, more efficient ways of maintaining their environments? Could architecture offer some sort of basic set of services analogous to the local town family doctor? What might those basics of architectural care even consist of?

planning, toward a heightened awareness of our interactions with the environment. I will not argue against the values of vernacular as localized practices. Architecture is but a complement to them – a moment of punctuated equilibrium in the more gradual overall evolutionary process when we step back to look at the greater whole, apply a rigor of thought, and say, “This isn’t working. If we do things this way…”

Instead of just seeking the next big project or the new client willing to write a blank check, perhaps we could expand our range of influence and provide services to the innermost neighborhood of the densest city and the outermost home of the remotest countryside. We could reinforce our value to society not only through exciting new designs but through services we render to communities who most need them. As doctors aspire to master treatment of the human body’s various ailments, so might architects aspire to master the treatment of Architecture seems to offer a complementary approach environmental ills, mending our built fabric. We have the to vernacular methods. Transcending traditions and skills and we have the expertise; we may need only to styles, our field’s utmost potential lies more toward deepen our exposure to – and engagement with – our a critical reflection of our strategies for building and fellow citizens. C

AIA Colorado Emerging Professionals

The Generation Gap The architecture profession has been around since the beginning of time, and since the beginning architects have seen the industry change and evolve, each generation different from the last. As I look around my office today, compiled of Baby Boomers as well as Generation X-ers and Y-ers, I can’t help but notice the differences among us. These differences range from the programs we use on projects, to the way we interact at the office, to how we approach design problems. Heather Ludwig Greenfield

crit73 spring 2012

Heather Ludwig Greenfield received her Bachelor of Environmental Design from the University of Colorado, Boulder and a Master of Architecture from the University of Colorado, Denver. Heather has six years of experience working as an architectural intern and is currently a designer for Leo A Daly in Denver. She has held a number of positions in the AIAS and AIA, including AIAS CU Boulder President and AIA Colorado Associate Director. She is currently a writer for the AIA Colorado Emerging Professionals Blog.

time. While this might look good to employers, it leaves us to wonder why we spent the last four-plus years in school learning about architectural principles when all we are used for is our computer skills. In most cases, architecture firms are hiring young professionals and throwing them into the production of a project because they can produce the work. Little effort is put on teaching them about constructability and why, as an architect, it’s just as important to have those skills as it is to know the latest software. By depriving our young professionals of For example: I’m sitting here at my desk, working in mentorship and real-world teachings we are setting up Revit while listening to a podcast on my smartphone. the future of our profession for failure. At some point we, Next to me is a woman in her early forties. She knows the interns, will step away from the computers and take a Revit enough to move things around but doesn’t do position as project manager or project architect, and we the drawing herself. She isn’t listening to an iPod – or will be asked to train those below us. If we aren’t taught Walkman, for that matter – while she’s working, and her the core principles of architecture today we will not be days are spent managing the project team on day-to- able to pass along that knowledge to the next generation. day tasks. A few desks over is a man in his late fifties. This will only create a more severe generation gap. To be honest I’m not sure he’s ever opened Revit, let alone any recent version of AutoCAD, in the last twelve To halt this cycle, I challenge each of you to find years. He spends his days in meetings – which, by someone of the Baby Boomer generation and see if default, makes him less involved with the day-to-day they would be willing to mentor you. Talk to them about work and more involved with the overall picture of the the profession of architecture, ask them to tell you project. While we all work on the same project our daily everything that they have learned - and plead for them experiences couldn’t be more different. to teach you the same way that they were taught years ago. Our profession is changing but is it changing for Of course one can say that these different work routines the better? Taller, skinnier, more organic buildings are are due to our professional experiences, but I think it cool to look at, but what do these creations teach us goes beyond how many years we’ve been working as an if we can easily design the tallest building in the world architect. At some point everyone was an intern. What’s with just the click of a mouse? As young professionals important to consider is the experience of the intern today it is our job to remember where architecture came compared to the experience of an intern twenty-five years from and not lose sight of the lessons each generation ago. Ask anyone in their fifties and they will tell you that before us has learned. I ask that you step away from they didn’t draw on computers, that they created details your computer, dust off your old sketchbook and get from scratch rather than copying and pasting them from back to the core of architecture. Draw, sketch, doodle if project to project, and that someone took the time to you must. Embrace the skills that we were once taught technically train them. Architecture was taught to the before a computer was shoved in our face. young interns in the office. Seasoned architects took the time to make sure each young professional was Our generation is entering the profession at an exciting educated in constructability and good design. Today, time. There are so many tools available for us - tools more importance is placed on what computer programs that will allow us to push the limits of what we thought you know and how efficient you are in using them. buildings could do, that allow us to be even more inventive. These tools are wonderful, powerful, and have Recent graduates come out of school with knowledge of the possibility of changing the world, but they can’t a dozen 3D modeling and rendering programs because move us forward if we have forgotten where we came that’s what they believe will get them a job. During from. Take control over your career and the future of our a job interview, knowledge in constructability, design, profession. Make knowing about the complex principles and overall architectural practice are far less important of architecture a priority. Focus less on the computer and than whether or not you can produce the work, in the more on how buildings are designed and constructed. preferred computer software, in a reasonable amount of Otherwise, aren’t we all just computer programmers? C

features features

D esigning Stephen Klimek

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Stephen Klimek is an Engagement Fellow and a MArch II candidate at the Syracuse University School of Architecture. In 2010 he chaired the AIAS Syracuse Quad Conference “Reclaiming Architecture” and is Co-Director of Storefront:Syracuse, a civic engagement initiative of the Syracuse chapter. Using Storefront:Syracuse, his graduate work is focused on designing, documenting, and representing the systems of civic engagement and their relationship to architectural practice and education. Read more at designingactivism.com

To address this question we must start by asking some fundamental questions. What is the role of architecture? What do we need architecture to be? Architecture needs to inspire, to envision alternative futures that could have otherwise not been conceived. And what does the world need today? We need big ideas; we need inspiration for a sustainable way of life, one that is environmentally friendly, economically fair, and politically just. We need to be lifted up. We need to be inspired. What is our capacity and what can we offer to society? There is an emerging call for a shift in the way we think about and practice architecture. Architects need to recognize our role in the urban ecosystem of the 21st century and actively participate in its sustainable evolution. Civic leadership is about creatively reengaging architecture with the populations we serve and embracing our social and political responsibilities. In 1968 Whitney Young, Executive Director of the National Urban League, gave a keynote address to the American Institute of Architects. In speaking about the contentious social issues of the time, Young gave the architectural profession an objective description of its role: “You are not a profession that has distinguished itself by your social and civic contributions to the cause of civil rights, and I am sure this does not come to you as any shock. You are most distinguished by your thunderous silence and your complete irrelevance.”1 How far have we come since one of the most radical years of social and political transformation in America? It should not come to us a shock that Young’s statement is as relevant today as it was forty years ago. The profession needs to seriously address its civic role. We should not talk of sustainability or engagement as forms of specialization in the field; they should be common practice. The question of engagement with communities and the public our work affects should become a set of processes in which all designers engage. Bruce Mau argues, “The practice of architecture – the practice of synthesis that generates coherent unity from massively complex and diverse inputs – just might be the operating system that we need to solve the challenges that we

face in meeting the needs of the next generation.” Mau continues, “Architecture, and the design methodologies at its core, could be central to the future of cities, governments, ecologies, and businesses…please raise your voice in the chorus of potential. Get into the discussion and leave your worries about the fence that separates you from the rest of the world behind you. Stop the complaining – and join the revolution of possibility.”2 I believe meeting this call is the task of civic leadership, a responsibility every architect must be honored to carry. At the core of Mau’s intention is relevancy. The question of relevancy is important to consider, and we may need to face some ugly truths before moving on. Mau contends, “To the degree that there are problems in architectural practice in America, they are self-inflicted. Architecture is largely irrelevant to the great mass of the world’s population because architects have chosen to be.”3 There is a need to rethink citizenship across the board and architects can lead. We cannot simply do this through the traditional role of the ‘citizen architect’; we must also reorient our practice and the philosophy on which it stands. Architects have an obligation to participate in the public realm. Design is the critical tool for transforming contemporary democracy by creating processes of communication and engagement, enabling empowerment and creating opportunity. Civic responsibility is a project for architecture – the only project that will sustain the profession and the social structures it is intended to serve. What is being called Public Interest Design cannot be thought of as an alternative career path. This call is for a proactive democratic design which breaks from the institutional barriers and walls which have isolated architecture for decades.4 Civic leadership in architecture will equip the profession with the tools to successfully match architecture and design to the problems facing the world today, big and small, local and international. The University of Texas School of Architecture asserts, “In the United States, laws, rules and regulations have been enacted regarding the practice of architecture through licensure. In return,

A ctivism architects have the responsibility to create the physical world in a way that improves conditions and makes progress towards the greater public benefit, serving the general public just as other professionals do. However, the profession has largely focused on a small part of the population and a very limited set of issues, and it is currently the wealthy, the powerful and large institutions that are involved in design decisions.”5 Architecture must expand its definitions of its practice and reconfigure the processes mandated to become an architect.

in design, healthcare, business and architecture are answering the call to serve, getting on-the-job training while making lasting contributions to struggling municipalities,” states Cary.8 But to truly reconceive citizenship and the way communities operate in society, pro bono can only be the beginning. Today this is one of the few outlets for professional practice to contribute to public concerns and social issues. The relevancy of architecture will only grow with a of series structured changes which integrate today’s pro bono into everyday, mainstream practice.

Our current legal definition of architecture limits our agency and capacity for social change. Discussing the influential role Maya Lin has had on architecture and the public imagination, John Cary, a leader in the Public Interest Design movement, believes that “we need more architects like [her] to lift us up. But there’s a problem: Lin is not considered an architect by the architecture profession itself.”6

We must admit our weaknesses. Architecture has a relationship with dozens of professions critical to an equitable society, but our architectural training does not provide us expertise in those professions per se. We need to understand how to productively engage and with those disciplines and participate in the complex urban ecosystem which defines contemporary society. In doing so, architects will learn the critical lessons of communicating with the intended beneficiaries of their work.

NOTES 1. “Whitney Young 1968 Speech to the AIA,” ArchVoices, accessed January 30, 2012, http://www. archvoices.org. 2. Bruce Mau, “You Can Do Better,” Architect, January 3, 2011, accessed January 30, 2012, http://www. architectmagazine.com/ architects/you-can-do-better. aspx. 3. Mau, “You Can Do Better.”

Architecture is a manifestation of and testament to the social values of its time. Unfortunately we often don’t see this in the current built environment. Bryan Bell and Katie Wakeford argue, “To make design relevant is to reconsider what ‘design’ issues are,” and our professional standards and regulations need to adjust accordingly.” 7 Building a discourse around public engagement as a primary mode of design needs to begin in our schools.

“By making thoughtful contributions to the physical spaces where collective experiences occur designers will produce and valorize democratic social relations,” according to Peter Aeschbacher and Michael Rios.9 People have the most impact in their role as citizens when they act as members of a community. Creating new arenas for collective action are an important step in overcoming the crisis of democracy. The civic and public Architects need to help give form to what is and imagine spaces of the city need to be considered just as carefully what can be by engaging everyone affected by a as the ‘architecture’ starchitects are touting as the future project, no matter how big or small. Scale matters. We right now. When individuals participate in their built need big ideas and big visions. It might be radical to environment they become part of a complex community. consider the proposition that architects are critical to Competing ideas for the common good is the basis of rebuilding today’s civic structure. But the power of small democratic politics, and participation in this process changes cannot be underestimated. In many cases enables empowerment.10 students and small groups are leading the way in this new field of design. Leading academic institutions such Traditional political engagement is not enough for as Syracuse University and the University of Texas are design to empower the public realm and create a new already exploring new modes of architectural education trajectory for architecture. Breaking from institutional norms and becoming a discipline defined by social rooted in ‘scholarship in action’. entrepreneurship and activism will be hard, and it should “Working pro bono — for the good — is no longer the be. But we can no longer be defined by a thunderous provenance of attorneys. Around the nation, professionals silence or complete irrelevance. C

4. Peter Aeschbacher and Michael Rios, “Claiming Public Space: The Case for Proactive, Democratic Design,” in Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism, ed. Bryan Bell Katie Wakeford (New York: Metropolis, 2008), 84-91. 5. “Background,” University of Texas – Austin School of Architecture Public Interest Design Program, accessed January 30, 2012, http://www. soa.utexas.edu/csd/PID. 6. John Cary, “Why Architecture’s Identity Problem Should Matter to the Rest of Us,” GOOD – Design, October 9, 2011, accessed January 30, 2012, http://www.good.is/post/whyarchitecture-s-identity-problemshould-matter-to-the-rest-of-us. 7. Bryan Bell and Katie Wakeford, preface to Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism, ed. Bryan Bell Katie Wakeford (New York: Metropolis, 2008), 14-17. 8. John Cary, “Pro Bono, Pro Cities,” Next American City, Summer 2011, accessed January 30, 2012, http:// americancity.org/magazine/ article/pro-bono-pro-cities. 9. Aeschbacher and Rios, “Claiming Public Space: The Case for Proactive, Democratic Design,” 84-91. 10. Aeschbacher and Rios, “Claiming Public Space: The Case for Proactive, Democratic Design,” 84-91.

features features

Local Leadership

Tom Quass

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Tom Quass is a fourth-year student at the University of Colorado Boulder, graduating this May. He has had the amazing opportunity to study with some great faculty instructors, and designed some amazing projects. He hopes to continue his education in graduate school this fall. Tom has been involved with AIAS for two years, both as a chapter leader and as a general member.

What is a nation, a state, city, or community without a leader? It is one of the basic qualities of a person; one is either a leader or a follower. When it comes to changing the face of a community, a leader can take many forms, including but not limited to an architect or a city council member. With sustainability becoming more and more important – and in the forefront of the public’s mind – architects are poised to become the go-to people to effect change in local communities. One such example is an architect starting a demonstration garden in his/her own neighborhood, which has the potential to grow into a larger community garden in time. Another is for architects to offer advice to other members of the community on how to make their homes more energy-efficient. The training that we as architecture students receive is to be valued as a skill, like a craftsman’s, because we have the ability to think in ways most cannot.

in the northern part of Boulder. There is a waiting list of approximately two years for a sixteen by sixteen ‘halfplot’ in this specific garden. The community that has taken root runs deep amongst the citizens who cultivate their own produce or a simple array of flowers. Citizens of Boulder have long been known for their environmental agenda, and this project was spurred by ordinary members of the public. Architects have the unique opportunity to further this ambition by starting similar projects, or simply educating the general public on things they can do themselves, at a grassroots level, that eventually can blossom into a cultural practice that is taught from a very young age.

Another example, albeit one of political office, is Cheri Rodgers Gerou. She is a member of the Colorado Legislature, and the only architect to currently hold Political office may not be in the sights of most citizens, political office. She was elevated to AIA Fellowship after but it may be the destination for some lucky and tenacious starting her own practice in Evergreen, Colorado. She counterparts. This can range from state legislature, brings a unique way of seeing the world to the halls the halls of Congress, or even the White House. This of politics and has helped to change public policy in will not be the destination of most of our colleagues, Colorado to improve the lives of Coloradans through but we can all offer some advice and knowledge from better building practices, which in conjunction with our training, which is a fancy way of saying ‘problem- an active lifestyle favored by native Coloradans, has solving’. Designing a piece of the built environment is led to an increased use of public transportation and like solving a giant jigsaw puzzle or a logic problem. heightened our standard of living. This is because the public will not build something that isn’t logical, more often than not. While this may come This thinking has also been employed at the University of in the form of a built work or policy changes in our Colorado Boulder, where students voted for a provision communities, many leaders effect change in smaller for all subsequent publicly-funded university buildings venues, by starting community gardens or changing the to achieve a LEED Silver rating or better. That has been way a neighborhood or group of neighbors sees their surpassed, as now most new or renovated buildings have achieved a LEED Gold or higher. Since enacted surroundings, starting a chain reaction. in the early 2000s, this policy has produced a dozen One such example of this is in Boulder, Colorado. buildings with that distinction, making the University of There are a multitude of community gardens around Colorado a national leader in environmentally-friendly this university city, but one stands out because of its design. That has spilled over into the repertoire of CU achievements. It is called Growing Gardens, and it is Environmental Design graduates, which in turn has the largest community garden in Boulder, containing aided many local, statewide, and national firms in more than one hundred plots, divided in two sections becoming more and more ‘green’. C

Stephen Klimek and Tom Quass were selected as the winners of the Crit writing competition, “Building a Nation: Architects as Civic Leaders” announced in the fall. In recognition of their efforts, Stephen and Tom will each receive a complimentary registration to AIAS FORUM 2012 in Savannah, Georgia.

THE END OF THE TALK IS NOT THE END OF THE TALK: A CHAT WITH BRAD LANCASTER

Those in attendance the last night of AIAS FORUM in Phoenix certainly remember rainwater harvesting guru, Brad Lancaster. Brad’s talk captured our attention early with his idea of ‘beneficial ruin’ and built us up with a series of intriguing case studies. He INTERVIEW BY ANDRÉ RODRIGUE André Rodrigue is in his final semester of the B.Arch program at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He recently served as the Graphics and Promotions Chair for AIAS FORUM 2011 in Phoenix and currently serves as his chapter’s past president. His thesis work focuses on the relevance of urban identity and user response to intervention of urban cores. Upon graduation, he plans to relocate to Boston. André extends a special thanks to Samantha Sais, who helped create the question format for this interview.

then crescendoed to an eerie but insightful reflection that would foreshadow his life’s work. Through this, he introduced us to a metaphor applicable to the passion we share as stewards of the built environment. I recently sat down with Brad at a local Tucson eatery to discuss his lecture and learn what he hoped had reached us that night. I admitted to Brad that I was rather surprised when he ordered the house hamburger, previously pinning him as a vegetarian. To this he replied, “I’m an ‘opportuni-vore’ – I know the owner of the restaurant, and I know the ranch that the organic, grass-fed beef comes from, so I am supporting his economy.” This idea of opportunistic solutions became the theme of our chat.

What is the most important point from your lecture that you would want students and future leaders to take with them? I’d like students to consider the idea of creating the ‘beneficial ruin’. What I find powerful about that, at least in my work, is that is it forces me to design in context. I have to take land and site as the primary considerations. We can create something that leaves conditions better than the way [they were] found, and continues to do so after we abandon them.

What is the primary motivation behind these ideas? I feel that it drives the design to use passive strategies. Although, I often find that passive strategies [alone] are lacking. Conservation is not ‘it’ for me. Beneficial ruins and passive strategies are the ‘free strategies’, so how can we design a building that we can sail in the winds of free, passive, potentials? It’s more about producing resources, or enhancing resources, as opposed to conserving them. The idea that my home can be its own power plant, or its own source of heating and cooling, or its own source of food and water, is enticing because of the potential it offers the people living in or interacting with that building.

If you were a student and you were attending your own lecture, what motivation would you take with you? I tried to resonate the theme that none of this is complicated, and none of this is difficult – it’s accessible to everyone. It’s a matter of seeing differently and recognizing what resources we have at hand. And if we can work with those resources, there’s huge potential. But maybe what would have sparked the most [interest] with me was the bit at the end, the potential of planting my body and using that as a strategy to restore degraded land and bring back a hardwood forest, all of course based on my own experiences. In addition, I was hoping people would take with them the idea that the end of the talk is not the end of the talk. I was hoping people would see that death isn’t the end of our potential, but can begin a whole new array of potentials and opportunities depending on how we do it.

How would you like to see students utilize the information you have passed along? I hope people can begin a new way of seeing. I don’t know if you all saw stormwater as a resource, as opposed to a momentary inconvenience that just goes down the drain. I didn’t see it as a resource for a long time, and I feel that I was given both a blessing and a curse. The curse was realizing that [everything] I took for granted wasn’t working; it wasn’t efficient. [I saw] that we send the free, highest-quality water away as quickly as possible so we can import water from elsewhere; that we ignore the free heating and cooling, free light, and free energy just for more expensive, imported, dirty energy. Solar power may not be available to everyone, but a south-facing window is. Just choose the right apartment! The blessing was [realizing] how simple it is to start making shifts. Let’s try and observe the ‘wastes’ in the system and think of them in a different way or tweak the way we interact with them so they become a resource . . . how do we turn a problem in to a solution? That’s why I love composting toilets!

Those may seem like the extreme to some people. It seems to be a practice that people cannot accomplish in a place that they rent or in close proximity to others. Not true. Something that I have done and friends of mine have done is a simple bucket toilet; it’s not my favorite system but it works very well. You simply have a seat over a bucket lined with plenty of sawdust to offset the nitrogen from your ‘deposits,’ and then you just need some yard space for the compost. I know a woman from Austin who lives in a very conservative mobile home park who puts all of her compost bins [from her composting toilet] under her potted plants. All of her neighbors come over to eat her greens and veggies. Nobody knows what she’s doing, and she’s been doing it for eight years! Another reason I like composting toilets, or the idea of planting my body or even collecting rainwater, is because it mentally slaps people in the face. It’s like an adventure when you present it to people and they see that it works – it gives them power. They see what is possible through simple means.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what your diploma is in, or what your position is. It’s what you ‘do’ and how you live. Nobody can refute your life. So, what I hope you all do is try and manifest whatever it is you want to see happen in the world.

Of your own work, what has been the most rewarding project, not only to you but to others? The one that has had the most impact has been the work that I’ve done in my own neighborhood. It has given me really deep roots in the community, and I feel that I have a solid, deep home. I met so many more of my neighbors as a result. Out of 900 residents, I easily know half of them, and that is what ultimately gave me a voice as I became known for the work. While I didn’t get paid monetarily, I was paid in other ways. Neighbors made meals for me, and [I was] able to see change happen and see people take it on; crime dropped and more people were interacting as they took on their own projects. When I started this work I felt like the lone ‘freak,’ and I would get depressed trying to make stuff happen. But it was so good to come home and see what I was trying to realize in the world happening there. What kept me sane was when I began to see this positive change. When the water company knocked on my door to tell me that I wasn’t using enough water, it finally hit home for me.

If you were able to give students three distinct points of advice on how to get involved or share these strategies of positive change, what would they be?

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Having done a lot of community work, there is a huge need for design and organizational work, and architecture students are ideally situated. You have a skill set that can put people’s vision into a coherent package to be shared. There should be no shortage of community organizations, schools, or individuals that need this kind of help. You can illustrate their vision and then enhance it.

Also, as architecture students, you all have the potential to make connections; how can we make and capitalize on these connections? Fight the stereotypes placed upon architects and up the assessment of the context in which you’re designing. Once you understand the relationships of onsite resources, it’s far easier to add passive and integrated design.

Finally, yours was one of the most well-received lectures I’ve ever attended. What did you personally gain from the session at AIAS FORUM 2011? I was blown away. At the end when so many people stood up and applauded, it was totally unexpected; then to hear the quality of the comments and questions was affirming, especially when given the opportunity to interact more after the talk. I was on a total high afterward and was grateful for the questions and conversation. I was able to find inspiration, as well, and to see what connected and to know what to try to develop further.

As we wrapped up the interview, I asked Brad if there were any additional thoughts he would like to share that my questions didn’t cover. He mentioned that students should check out the Living Building Challenge – a rating system similar to LEED, but with unique integration strategies that, in his opinion, set the bar much higher. Brad also shared a series of new projects currently in the works that should begin to introduce these ideas to a much larger audience. His final thought of our discussion was this: Sustainability is not something to strive for, because sustainability is nothing more than baseline survival. It should be the floor, not the ceiling. I’d rather strive for ‘regeneration’ – I don’t want to survive, I want to thrive. C

For more information about Brad Lancaster, his work, and his books, please visit [When working with community members], help them www.harvestingrainwater.com. realize greater potential than they would have originally came into the project with. That’s huge. Do so in a way that will For more information about The Living Building reduce their work, maintenance, consumption, and waste. Challenge, please visit: www.ilbi.org.

The Trend of Modernism within the Discipline of Architecture Within the discipline of architecture, Modernism has become king. Students arriving to the field are spoon-fed Bauhausian preferences for cubic austerity and discouraged from considering anything else. Upon entering the workforce, they are told a contemporist is the thing to be; and the general public knows no better. Popular architectural publications like Dwell have made the Modern aesthetic appealing to the bourgeois environmentalist and the businessman alike. Woe betides the young architect with a passionate love for Victorian farmhouses; she might as well be an interior decorator.

Casey Nathan Casey Nathan, in her senior year at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has recently returned from a semester abroad in Italy. Casey enjoys reading and writing about architecture, and is interested in human interactions with the built environment. She was a teacher’s assistant in a summer design academy for high school students this past July, and found the experience of working with a younger generation to be rewarding and inspiring.

Let me make a distinction between Modernism as it was in the 20th century and Modernism as it exists today. The Modernist aesthetic once encompassed the following dicta: form should follow function, gratuitous detail should be eliminated, structural elements and materials should be revealed and displayed honestly, and there should be emphasis on industrial and machined components. Unfortunately, the onset of late Modernism has reinterpreted and bastardized these rules, so form for form’s sake is now the standard in design. Modernism is the result of decades of evolution in architecture. But today’s architecture is the after-image of the ideal Modernism stood for, which was that a building should be rational and functional, while also beautiful and inspiring. In Towards a New Architecture, Le Corbusier said:

“But suppose the walls rise towards heaven in such a way that I am moved… they behold something which expresses a thought…by the use of inert materials and starting from conditions more or less utilitarian, you have established certain relationships which have aroused my emotions. This is Architecture.”

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The current Modernism has become a sad trend doomed for continuous reproduction. When there’s no counterculture, no protesting voice objecting to the status quo, then trends dither and become stagnant. What happened to architecture that objected to our way of life and challenged our ideals? Italian Futurism may have been purely speculative and fanciful, but at least it made people think. Sustainability is the new goal for the future, but we can’t simply slap some solar panels on a flat roof and consider the job finished. We have to be innovative, but in doing so, we must to look to the past as well as the future. The problem with allowing form to run uninhibited within architecture is that the goals of Modernism become misunderstood and misinterpreted, and architects are forced, because they must make a living, into this cycle of bland, meaningless, and cold design. We cannot

continue to circulate propaganda regarding the merits of the massive glass curtain wall as both a threshold and a boundary. This is not to say that a curtain wall lacks merit, but rather that its merit is so widely recognized that it is employed without any particularly profound concept. The doctrine of the current Modernism recognizes this object as one of a whole box full of useful tools to make orthogonal, clean lines seem less stark and more philosophical. This posturing has gone on for far too long. An example of an architect who perpetuates this design philosophy is Frank Gehry. He’s widely lauded for pioneering the use of computer-aided modeling programs as design influences. His Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain has resonated worldwide. He’s the classic example of what is wrong with Modernism these days because his buildings are designed to shock,

awe, fascinate, and draw attention simply because they aren’t ordinary. There is nothing of substance about the museum other than the fact that it “looks cool.” Shouldn’t the focus of a museum be the art that’s displayed inside, with the architecture complementing and accentuating it?

Modernism can be useful for students because it allows them to explore rule-based design, and to apply solutions to architectural “problems.” The irony of this system is that many students learn to follow stylistic rules, and end up presenting a final design that might be pleasing to look at but lacks any true creativity. This Of late, there has been a tendency in the field of is not to suggest that we should adhere to the doctrine contemporary architecture to want to apply the Modern of Postmodernism as an alternative; I do not believe aesthetic to every design, whether it is for an office, a a return to ornament is in any way expected to catch museum, or a single-family house with the same style. on. But we have to be sensitive to the needs of people Modernism isn’t appropriate in all settings, especially and of the planet, and practical when it comes to places that should be warm and inviting. It is one thing to flamboyance of form. design a museum with simple white walls and another to design someone’s home. Architectural magazines depict The Modernist might say that students have many happy couples with young children, extolling the merits opportunities to learn about historical styles through of a dwelling filled with sustainable hardwoods and high various required history classes. This is largely true, but windows that eliminate the need for artificial lighting during architectural history is often a survey of a hundred or the day. But not everyone wants to live in a glass house. more years of architecture on a global scale. Architects Architects today are so adept at re-creating the same white that are interested in retrofitting or remodeling older box with massive windows; how many times have you designs need to be familiar with more styles than seen a piece of architecture similar to the Villa Savoye, with the ones their art history classes touch upon. There a reflective pool out front and some fancy exterior lighting? is no middle ground between historical preservation And these families with their young children—where are and normative architectural studies programs, and the toys? Where are the crayon monsters littering the there should be, because renovation is a large part of white walls and countertops? Modernism creates a world sustainable design. in which families own no extraneous possessions, or unsavory, un-returnable wedding gifts, and in which the In any case, the personal styles of the heads of any cardinal sin of clutter is never committed. architectural department shouldn’t influence students’ designs in a way that limits their creativity. Many It can be argued that the cleanliness of Modernism professors allow their preferences to mold students’ allows students to examine form, so that they are able to projects and cannot differentiate between a constructive explore important concepts like materiality and tectonics. criticism and a complete overhaul of said projects. As for Yet as each new project is introduced, a pattern arises popular magazines, their pages will show what architects wherein there are certain “acceptable” design choices: produce, so if the curriculum is flawed, new architects will throw in a breathtaking light shaft here, or a glass façade never stop recycling the guidelines of Modernist design. there, or stretch out that cantilevered roof to the furthest structural limits, just to make an impact. Students are Thus, the antithesis to Modernism’s hostile takeover encouraged to push the boundaries of design within the within the world of architecture must originate in framework of the not-quite box, the L-shaped wall, and universities. There is no organized political force driving the monolithic aperture. They learn to conform to this the advancement of new architecture, and design system that will produce, with a minimal risk of failure, periodicals fester beneath the weight of the world’s a design that “works” aesthetically. Concepts can be Guggenheims. An architectural education cannot simply concocted during the wee hours of the morning before focus on Modernism. A return to form following function the final crit, when the effect of multiple sleepless nights must be embraced, and designs that suit real people elevates the mind into a near-enlightened state. must become the new standard for architecture. C

THE CRAFT OF DIMENSIONS VERNACULAR SUBTLETY: THE OF ENGLISH COTTAGE DESIGN AS A MODEL FOR SUSTAINABILITY

CLARK MANUS

While wandering the lush countryside of southern England, it is not

Clark Manus, FAIA, is the 87th President of the American Institute of Architects. His firm, Heller Manus, based in San Francisco and Shanghai, has received numerous awards for their civic and urban infill projects.

hard to identify with the romanticism of an earlier, rural life. The quaint, historic cottages that characterize the region leave the viewer longing for simpler times. However, the influence of these pre-industrial vernacular homes lies not in nostalgia of the past but in real and

Interview by Brett W.R. Peanasky, Crit Editor-in-Chief This interview took place in August 2011. For a report on the outcomes of the UIA Congress, see pg. 42.

Photo Credit: Stephany Deddo

powerful connections to the present. On a month-long, grant-funded independent research trip, I dug deep into the study of eight preindustrial vernacular homes in southern England, surveying not only their plans, use, and construction, but considering how the core values behind each house could give key insights into the current sustainability movement. This article discusses two of these houses, Poplar Cottage and Killerton Markerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cottage, selected for their relative similarity in size and difference in location. The multiplicities of vernacular surface through the description of these two pre-industrial houses show the subtleties, tradeoffs, and local connections that, if transferred, create a strong model of sustainability in current

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residential architecture.

Poplar Cottage

KATHERINE STEGE

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Katherine Stege is a senior at University of Colorado Boulder pursuing her Bachelors of Environmental Design (Architecture emphasis). After graduation, she plans to pursue an MArch degree while continuing research on the potential use of vernacular architecture as a conceptual model for current sustainable design. A Colorado Boettcher Scholar, Stege competes for CUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s NCAA nordic ski team and enjoys travel in her spare time.

A wasteland cottage in the heart of the South Downs, Poplar Cottage sits on the edge of Washington Common in West Sussex1. A plot surrounding the building contains a garden barely large enough to sustain the family. Constructed between 1630 and 1680, Poplar Cottage is a two-story 17x27 foot timber framed dwelling for a mid to lower class family which historians suggest may have belonged to a craftsman.2 Each level consists of two walled rooms; all four rooms are of roughly equal proportion. The original inhabitants may not have had any concern for aesthetics when building the house, however the cottage retains homespun charm for those who are not overly concerned with measurements and balance. The delineation of space within Poplar Cottage directly relates to the status of, and use by, its original owners. Lacking both resources and need for the formal hall that typified grander homes, the house centers on the two ground-level rooms: the kitchen/common space and the service room. The kitchen and the service room take up a similar amount of space, placing equal importance on the common kitchen area and the work area of the craftsman. The multi-functioning kitchen space also houses both doorways, further implying that the workspace was meant solely for work, and that cooking, living, dining, and gardening could functionally cohabitate together within one another. In addition, the large format and frequency of the windows provides a significant amount of daylight in the small space, in contrast to a farmhouse that required less light as inhabitants performed daily work outdoors. The amount of daylight in the interior space suggests conscious decisions by the inhabitants during construction, made with their line of work and needs for the space in mind.

The placement and type of heating also reinforces the familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hierarchical use for the cottage. The hearth located on the outside end wall of the kitchen is the only heat source for the cottage. When in use, smoke is exhausted through a smoke bay out of the gabled roof. While technically an enclosed fireplace, the smoke bay served as a transition between the earlier open hearths and later enclosed chimneys. The singular hearth and the smoke bay structure left the two upper sleeping chambers largely unheated; their inhabitants, unfortunately, would have experienced some of the smoke from the fire but less of the heat. The builders gave precedence in comfort to the common kitchen area and the service area, leaving the chambers as less desirable spaces, less important in day-to-day life, and in less need of heating and accessibility. Constructed for a family of modest means, Poplar Cottageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s material choices were most likely driven by local availability and local construction knowledge.

Since builders did not have the financial resources to vary their material palate, the surrounding hearty forest and chalk hills of South Downs determined the building materials and thus the aesthetic. Wooden materials dominate both interior and exterior; all the structure, roof enclosure, and second level floor consist entirely of wood. The timber frame construction of a typical post and beam grid and white wattle and daub squares broken up by the roughly spaced wooden structure provide Poplar Cottage with a unique characteristic. Rough wood frames with thick slats create the large window openings, and the doors consist of wooden boards and plain iron hardware. The thatch roof, gabled on one side and pitched on the other, tops the house in a lopsided but uniform thickness of vegetative material. Earthen floors made from either compacted soil or a composite of milk and locally quarried chalk round out the organic material palate. The cottage becomes a

the small space. On the ground floor, the three-cell plan consists of a hall, parlor, and so-called “lower room”; three sleeping chambers occupy the second level. Low ceilings and massive walls give the occupant a feeling of protection while the light interior colors help keep the space open and inhabitable. With exterior cob walls of compacted earth and straw and glazed windows, this construction also increases the thermal insulation and comfort within the house, capturing heat from the hearths.5 The wooden screens that separate interior rooms allow heat from the hearths to spread through the cottage. The orientation of the cottage further provides the inviting air a merchant would have desired. The long front façade lies directly on the street with the main door in the center; even upon original construction it remained just a foot or two from the road. Without any significant setback, the house seems more accessible and approachable to customers, and its

NOTES 1. Poplar Cottage was dismantled in 1982 and re-constructed at the Weald and Downland Museum in April of 1999. In the local vernacular, “wasteland cottage” refers to a near-landless cottage built on the edge or encroaching on common land. See Danae Tankard, “Poplar Cottage – a wasteland cottage from Washington, West Sussex” Weald & Downland Open Air Museum, Autumn 2007, accessed at http://www. wealddown.co.uk/Buildings/ Poplar-Cottage-%E2%80%93a-wasteland-cottage-fromWashington-West-Sussex. 2. Tankard, Poplar “Poplar Cottage – a wasteland cottage from Washington, West Sussex”. 3. Isabel Richardson. “Phase 1: Historic Development,” unpublished survey provided by the National Trust, United Kingdom, May 2011.

compilation of the landscape around it, combined in different proportions to create one built whole. Killerton Marker’s Cottage Killerton Marker’s Cottage, originally constructed around 1450 for a merchant3, sits near the edge of the small town of Broadclyst, near Exeter in Devon. Its long front façade rests directly on the street, facing town, while farmland surrounds the rest of the cottage. The cottage contains several additions; for comparison purposes, the description will focus on the house as it was in the early 1600s.4 depict the cottage as it appears today, including the 18th and 19th century additions. Marker’s Cottage consists of two levels, each of three rooms within a 16x33 foot interior footprint. Yellow lime-washed cob and rolling thatch give the cottage a characteristic charm tied deeply into the roots of Devon.

positioning bringing it closer to the public realm without discouraging boundaries upon entering the house. Additionally, this front façade receives the most sunlight and contains the most windows, providing daylight to interior work and retail rooms.

Hearth placement helps determine further hierarchy of space and use. The hall area, where most of the cooking, eating, and some work and socializing would have occurred, contains the largest hearth as well as the largest floor area. A dominant brick structure, this hearth surpasses practical applications and becomes a social ritual itself, aiding in everyday acts necessary to family life. A small fireplace in the parlor signals the importance of the social aspect of the dwelling; the parlor could have served as a place to entertain customers and develop sales. The lower room, further isolated by the cross passage between the two doors of the house, Marker’s Cottage gives off an inviting air with an emphasis goes largely unheated, as do the three chambers on the comfort of occupants as well as functionality within upstairs, again signifying their secondary importance.

4. Originally an open-hall, threecell medieval construction, the chambers and hall were ceiled over in several stages, leading to a two-story rectangular cottage with three rooms on each floor (during the 1600s). Part of the lower room was walled and converted to an outbuilding, so is not considered interior living space in the document. See Richardson, “Phase 1: Historic Development”. 5. The earliest glassed-in window at Marker’s dates from the early 1600s, and mullioned iron windows extend past the ceiling in the lower room, suggesting they pre-date the insertion of the second floor. Philip Brundson, e-mail message to author, January 6, 2012; “Lower Room,” Informational pamphlet by the National Trust, United Kingdom. 6. Each cottage in the area ‘belonged’ to a larger estate. The Killerton estate’s color was yellow, and since Marker’s belonged to that estate the limewash walls were tinted yellow.

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As with Poplar Cottage, local and available materials, techniques, and culture dictated the material choices of the original builder. Due to the composition of the subsoil and the agricultural resources in the Devon area, cob and thatch dominate the majority of house construction. Straw from surrounding farmlands mixed with subsoil from the site provides the large mass walls with soft corners, smaller window openings, and a characteristic gentle slope inward. The wooden substructure, second level flooring, doors, and interior screens would have been sourced from nearby forests. The steep, thick thatch roof provides an organic mass to protect the building; the thatch gently rolls over cutouts for the few upper windows, creating a ripple-like roof effect. Yellow lime wash covers the cob on both interior and exterior, connecting Marker’s Cottage culturally and enhancing interior daylighting.6 Local lime quarries would also have provided lime ash for the floors, which were sealed by egg whites.7 Windows contain glass, an uncommon feature in the time period.8 Organic both in material and form, the cottage embodies the land and the living style of the area.

the obvious characteristics that have garnered vernacular architecture praise in recent times for being green: the use of local materials, small utilitarian footprints, and use of passive lighting techniques. Exclusively local materials, whether Devon’s cob or the South Down’s hearty forests, minimized transport and encouraged local economy. Additionally, nearly all of these materials required little processing. These modest cottages also created multifunctional spaces emphasizing utility and enabling their occupants to live only within the area they truly needed. The use of daylighting techniques, whether enlarged windows or light colored, reflective interior washes, further enhanced the use of the small spaces.

Subtleties that arise upon examination of the two cottages, however, illustrate the multivalent nature of vernacular that forms the second connection to sustainability today. Instead of a singular idea of the ‘vernacular house,’ Poplar Cottage and Marker’s Cottage illustrate the unique specificity each addresses within relatively the same small footprint. Each cottage’s distinctive hierarchy of space relates directly to the specific work and family Sustainable Conclusions life uses; where Poplar Cottage has one room for all The first of Poplar and Marker’s cottages’ connections to social, cooking, and living purposes leaving the other a modern vernacular model of sustainability comes from room solely for the craftsman’s work, Marker’s Cottage

has multiple spaces used mainly for social or sales purposes, showing a blending of the social and work life of a merchant. Larger windows light the craftsman’s interior work area in Poplar Cottage, while Marker’s Cottage’s proximity to the street invites customers inside. The apparent hierarchy of spaces tied to the owners’ original uses also illustrates the tradeoffs families made in order to lead efficient day-to-day lives. Hearth placement identifies the most important rooms while demonstrating the sacrifices made to accommodate activities deemed less important, namely unheated and smoky sleeping chambers. Within a small footprint, each cottage renders a highly specific, multifunctional plan tailored directly to its inhabitants’ needs, while admitting tradeoffs when necessary in order to live efficiently. How the builders chose to appropriate their budgets during construction of the cottages creates a third connection to a modern vernacular model of sustainability. Unlike today, where additional funds almost undoubtedly go towards additional square footage, the builders of the cottages constructed within relatively similar areas. However, difference in the quality of material and the attention toward occupant comfort illustrates the builders’ motives. The additional financial

resources in Marker’s Cottage were spent on an extra hearth, several decorative wooden screens, glass in the windows, and higher quality materials, all factors that added significantly to the occupant’s quality of life compared to Poplar Cottage.9 Builders chose to appropriate additional funds towards the quality and comfort of their surroundings, while still residing in the smallest footprint that met their immediate needs. A careful evaluation of Poplar Cottage and Killerton Marker’s Cottage demonstrates the multiplicities of the vernacular, particularly the subtleties, tradeoffs, and local connections that create a strong model of sustainability for current residential architecture. Local, lightly processed materials within a small footprint, ample daylight, and multifunctional spaces show the initial stages of a sustainable model. Highly specific, small floor plans cater to the inhabitant’s unique needs yet demonstrate their acceptance of often suboptimal tradeoffs in order to achieve efficiency. These key principals drawn from two southern England cottages propose a model of sustainability based less on the high-tech façade and solar panel world and more on the small, culturally sensitive, organic creation that is vernacular architecture. C

7. Egg whites were commonly used to seal lime-ash floors, increasing their hardness and durability through a chemical reaction. See “Vernacular Architecture Series.” Weald and Downland Museum, Chichester, West Sussex, UK, May 2011. 8. See supra note 5, “uncommon for time period” references knowledge acquired at Weald and Downland vernacular architecture courses. 9. Several of the wooden screens separating rooms in Marker’s have unique hand paintings dated to the 16th century.

Recession Architecture Adler Prioly

The economic crisis left millions of Americans jobless. Many of them were career employees

Adler Prioly graduated with distinction in Architecture, with a concentration in Urban Studies, from Yale University. His experience in urban economic development includes New Haven, New York City, and Newark. He is committed to public service, responsible public finance, and creative solutions to developing space and a twenty-first century economy in cities. He intends to be a consultant in management or finance to local governments.

who became victims of business downsizing. To maintain employability, unemployed per-

NOTES 1. Steven Malanga, “Obsessive Housing Disorder,” City Journal 19 (2009): 1-2. 2. Jim Kemeny, “Forms of Tenure and Social Structure,” British Journal of Sociology 29 (1978): 43. 3. Malanga, “Obsessive Housing Disorder,” 3, 5-6. 4. Allan Mallach, “Tackling the Mortgage Crisis: 10 Action Steps for State Government,” Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings (May 2008): 2-3. 5. Gordon Brown, Beyond the Crash: Overcoming the First Crisis of Globalization (New York: Free Press, 2010), 85.

sons need versatile skills or training to move seamlessly between industries. But the building industry has not been as accepting of those with multiple skills because it cannot produce without the support of a strong financial sector. This economic climate has made institutions with capital more selective about which projects they finance, often requiring builders to assure investors that projects are being leased or purchased before builders can obtain more capital – if any. This marginalizes designers, removing them from the process until current stalled or shovel-ready projects are complete. For this reason, architects should consider becoming more adaptable, as the building market remains uncertain. Architects can prepare themselves to succeed, in spite of economic cycles, by developing flexible skills applicable to a range of industries and sectors. Architectural institutions can prepare their next generation of matriculates for a range of careers, while maintaining building design as the core of instruction. The federal government and private institutions share responsibility for the crisis. The federal government’s role in housing production had been limited until 1922, when Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover launched the Own Your Own Home campaign. Hoover urged builders to develop more residences and created rules to let nationally chartered banks lend more to residential properties. Annual housing starts jumped from 250,000 to nearly 600,000 by the end of the decade.1

troubled mortgages from lenders and allowed borrowers to refinance. The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) insured long-term mortgages with US Treasury notes, protecting home builders against loss. The Federal National Mortgage Association (later known as Fannie Mae) purchased those insured mortgages. The Veterans Association (VA) administered the GI Bill to assist those who served in World War II in purchasing homes. Between 1934 and 1972, the percentage of American families living in owner-occupied units increased from 44 to 63 percent.2

To expand home ownership further, the government loosened mortgage-lending standards. Changes included reducing down payment requirements, approving loans with higher payment to income ratios, and extending mortgages. Over the past two decades, housing policymakers further transformed lending practices, expanding the size of mortgages to be Home ownership grew through an alphabet soup insured and approving them for low-income families of federal agencies created in the 1930s and ‘40s. with below-standard credit histories.3 To counterbalance The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) bought the risk that the principal on the loan would not be

paid, mortgage companies often instituted adjustable interest rates. Rates usually increased after two years, shortening the timetable by which the loan had to be paid. The increase also added costs to the monthly mortgage burden families shouldered.4 Back then, the government and lenders bore the losses incurred by Own Your Own Home, the foreclosures on mortgages made through the VA, and the failure rate of loans made to low-income families in urban communities and through the FHA in the 1960s. By 2008, financial institutions had bundled thousands of mortgages, many at risk of not being paid, and sold or traded them worldwide. Credit rating agencies gave these bundles high status, making them more attractive purchases to investors than they truly were.5 One by one, as families could not repay, the bundles became worthless. Properties lost value. Property and other taxes returned below projections, creating gaps in city and state budgets. Governments were forced to make cuts, laying off employees or renegotiating salaries and benefits to close these gaps. American families

tightened spending. Businesses, uncertain of when prerecession revenue levels would return, downsized. Architects have suffered disproportionately during this crisis. According to a study conducted by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, architecture undergraduates ranked in the top ten of academic disciplines facing unemployment. At a time when the national unemployment rate decreased to 8.6%, 10.6% of architecture students remained jobless.6This high rate reflects firms’ aversion to risk. Many have opted to cut staff. Robert A.M. Stern Architects, for example, downsized from 325 in 2007 to 275 by March 2009. Some firms have cut salaries or instituted shorter work weeks.7 These setbacks have not prevented firms from exploring new business opportunities. According to the American Institute of Architects, seventy-one percent of firms surveyed have approached another about merging. Sixty percent felt that doing so would increase competitiveness.8 Other firms have expanded into emerging markets where demand for business is high; Perkins Eastman opened

6. “Employment Situation Summary,” U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, last modified December 2, 2011, accessed December 7, 2011, http://www. bls.gov/news.release/empsit. nr0.htm; and Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, “From College Major to Career,” The Wall Street Journal, November 10, 2011, accessed December 7, 2011, http://graphicsweb. wsj.com/documents/ NILF1111/#term. 7. Suzanne Stephens, “Firms Adapt to Tough Times,” Architectural Record, accessed December 24, 2011, http:// archrecord.construction.com/ news/economy/

8. Jennifer Riskus, “Pace of Billings Decline Slows in December” Architectural Record, accessed December 24, 2011, http://www.aia.org/ practicing/AIAB091733. 9. Gideon Fink Shapiro, “Differing Strategies Architecture Firms Are Using to Position Themselves Overseas,” AIArchitect, June 12, 2009, accessed December 24, 2011, http://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/ thisweek09/0612/0612b_ intlprojects.cfm.survivalguide/ 0903firmsadapt-1.asp. 10. C.J. Hughes, “For Many Unemployed Architects, School Beckons,” Architectural Record, March 2, 2009, accessed December 24, 2011, http:// archrecord.construction.com/ news/economy/survivalguide/ 090302school.asp.

an office in Ecuador in 2008.9 Many firms have been subcontractors on projects sponsored by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As the U.S. building market remains uncertain, firms have economized and sought partnerships, non-domestic business ventures, or non-traditional commissions. A poor job market has driven more architecture students and interns to pursue advanced education. The Princeton University School of Architecture saw a 50 percent increase in applications between 2008 and 2009, and the University of California Berkeley saw a 40 percent increase.10 For many students, employment prospects seem dim. The residential market has not shown consistent indications of reaching pre-recession levels of production. The commercial real estate market is bleak. According to Moody’s Analytics, almost one-third of all March 2011 commercial real estate transactions were distressed, meaning property owners were at risk of foreclosure. This was the largest proportion of distressed property sales in the history of the index.11

Today, more than ever, it seems unreliable to expect that buildings will be raised at their previous astronomical rates. For architects, this means less demand for building design. To cope with this reality, architecture students should prepare themselves for career flexibility. As one architecture journalist noted, “architects might find work in fields such as graphic design, computer modeling, store branding, facility management, surveying, and product sales.”12 Architects have been creative outside of building design in the past. As the real estate market slowly rebounds, they will be forced to in the future. Architecture students can equip themselves with a range of skills. They might consider furniture design, such as that popularized by Charles and Ray Eames. Zaha Hadid consulted on costume design for the Metapolis Ballet and on a handbag for Louis Vuitton. Alice Minsoo Chun of Studio Unité designed Solar Puff, a solar-powered inflatable foldable balloon light for families living in parts of the developing world with unreliable access to energy. As cities continue to accommodate more of the world’s population,13

opportunities to consult on spatial development and FXFOWLE. During the early 1990s recession, selfurban design also emerge. employment rose to an all-time high of nearly eight percent in 1991.14 For architects, this likely meant Achieving professional dexterity requires institutional a higher volume of submissions to competitions support. Architecture schools should prepare students and requests for proposals. Architects create more to master non-building design, such as furniture or opportunities by exposing their ideas. This only enriches industrial, or develop skills in non-traditional spaces academic instruction and professional practice. like product or spatial development. Schools might consider bulking up on complementary courses or The 2008 crisis was new in its global scope, but offering them through graduate school exchanges or housing crises themselves are not. After the 1929 university partnerships. These might include marketing, Wall Street crash, housing starts in the Own Your Own specialized business classes, urban economic Home campaign slumped more than 80 percent. development and planning, or project management One-fifth of mortgages issued by HOLC defaulted. in consultation with firms or governments. Such The failure rate on FHA-insured loans increased curricular breadth might make architecture students five-fold in the 1950s. The failure rate of mortgages more appealing across sectors and industries at a time made through the Veterans Administration doubled when flexibility and a broad knowledge base are at a over that period. By loaning to families who could not afford them and through questionable oversight, premium to protect against unemployment. many FHA-insured home mortgages in urban Many might suggest that these changes will dilute the communities failed in the 1960s.15 In 2010, a record architecture curriculum. Rather, the core architectural 2.9 million homes foreclosed.16 For better or worse, curriculum—which is valuable and unique and deserves these are cyclical occurrences. protection—can be couched within instruction that applies to a broader scope of professions and helps This history reminds us that those in the building architects promote good design that is not entirely professions are subject to the ebb and flow of financial markets and the decisions of policymakers and institutions. focused on buildings. Architects and institutions should not let this crisis go to Architects should also be prepared to take risks. Several waste. Rather, it should be used as an opportunity for notable firms opened during the 1970s recession, architects to learn and promote quality design and impart including Steven Holl Architects, Pelli Clarke Pelli, and fresh thinking in non-traditional spaces. C

11. Brian Louis and David M. Levitt, “U.S. Commercial Real Estate Prices Decline to PostCrash Low, Moody’s says,” Bloomberg News, May 23, 2011, accessed December 24, 2011, http://www.bloomberg. com/news/2011-05-23/u-scommercial-real-estate-pricesdecline-to-post-crash-lowmoody-s-says.html. 12. Hughes, “For Many Unemployed Architects, School Beckons”. 13. United Nations (U.N.) Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects (New York, 1996). 14. William Bostwick, “Is Now a Good Time to Start Your Own Studio?” Architectural Record, accessed December 24, 2011, http://archrecord.construction. com/news/economy/ survivalguide/0903studio.asp. 15. Malanga, “Obsessive Housing Disorder,” 2-5. 16. Janna Herron, “Banks Repossess 1 Million Homes in 2010,” Associated Press, January, 14, 2011.

2011 AIAS/Kawneer

Crisis-Ready Stadium CompetitioN

The 2011 AIAS/Kawneer Crisis-Ready Stadium student design competition challenged students to create designs that considered the realities of climate change, specifically hostile weather. Entrants were asked to design a stadium as a multi-functional element of the community capable of serving residents in times of crisis. This concept was founded upon the idea that aging stadiums and infrastructures in the U.S. are not prepared to weather future storms. The competition focused on sites that are exposed to extreme weather incidents, such as the Gulf Coast. The selection committee included Kelly Anderson, LEED AP, Lehman Smith McLeish Kevin Fitzgerald, AIA, Director, AIA Center for Emerging Professionals Sergio Gomez, Lehman Smith McLeish Eric Zaddock Read more about the competition and view the complete winning entries at kawneer.aias.org.

FIRST Place

“Survivor-One”

John Melby Fourth-year student, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

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Advisor: Nicholas Cascarano

The concept for the design is simple: safety. The angled columns represent the arms of the community, as they are truly responsible for holding up the metaphorical blanket of safety and the spirits of one another. The design called for a space that has two different functions, the first being an athletic stage for the Jacksonville Jaguars. This is where the light of the open space shines. The second space is that of crisis: the once light and open space becomes a powerful and strong area of safety. The facility transforms into “Survivor-Two,” providing an instant feeling of refuge in the event of a crisis situation. The ability to predict and plan ahead for storms affords time for the stocking of goods. Within a few hours, invisible infrastructure appears to aid those in need. The eight-feet thick structural angled columns become powerful safety anchors. The largest impact of wind and debris is on the south side of the site, where the building is safely underground. The stunning curtain wall system on the north side, manufactured by Kawneer, is protected by the cantilevered roof system. Dynamic views of downtown are displayed; the light and airy structural appearance provides an ideal setting for athletic events. This design allows for stunning views while maintaining structural integrity in the event of a hurricane. Survivor-One is located on the site of the present Jaguars stadium. This stadium is the largest open-air stadium in the state of Florida, a state extremely vulnerable to hurricanes. The site provides ample area for a crisis-ready stadium, fifteen feet above sea level. Built on a plate

raised another fifteen feet, Survivor-One sits a comfortable thirty feet above sea level. If the stadium is penetrated, the uninhabited lower level provides another fifteen feet of security. The southern lawn extends halfway up the roof structure, to the stormwater collection system.

Our mission is to go beyond design with our unique balance of creativity, depth, and clientcentered attitude.

What influenced or inspired your design? I am a conceptual designer. I like to break a project down to make it very simple and allow for the concept Based on the philosophy, “Prepare and prevent, don’t to answer questions throughout the process. My repair and replace,” the stadium acts as a symbol for the concept for this design is safety. But in the end, I residents of the city; a structure that will provide safety wanted a stadium that would be just that – a stadium; and security in times of need. a place where families go to have fun. I didn’t want it to look like a bunker, only showing its raw power. It What makes you interested in architecture? called out to be light and enjoyable, flexing its power As far back as I can remember I was always interested in when needed. drawing floor plans. When I was a junior in high school I got a hold of an architectural details book. I didn’t know I would like to give a special thanks to AIAS and that there was so much detail in architecture; there are Kawneer for this wonderful opportunity. I would so many layers. I was fascinated by the complexity of also like to thank Eppstein Uhen Architects, the profession, and I was immediately hooked. Russell E. LaFrombois III, Nicolas Cascarano, and UW-Milwaukee SARUP for inspiring me throughout What are your plans for the future? my college years. Lastly, I would like to thank my I plan to attend graduate school. I am currently amazing family. Without them I wouldn’t be the person an employee of Eppstein Uhen Architects. I am today. Thank you. C

SECOND Place “The Surge”

Dana Dimalanta, Miranda Mead, Brianna Silva, Remi Ziems High school students, Advanced Technologies Academy (Las Vegas, NV) Advisor: Richard Knoeppel

The Surge – a strong, wavelike, forward movement; a rush; a sweep. The shape of The Surge stadium is that of a strong wave that matches the location with its strong, aerodynamic shape. The shape, essentially a large, geodesic dome, helps direct air flow currents of up to a level five hurricane and prevents the wind from battering against the side. Pressure is evenly distributed around the entire structure, making it a wise choice for the purpose of this stadium. The glass panels that make up the dome are hurricane resistant, and for added security the main stadium is encased in a concrete shell. The exterior, with the panels open, gives the stadium the appearance of a fin, reinforcing the concept of The Surge. Our design is also very sustainable – most of the materials are recyclable, and the major components of the interior structures are pre‐fabricated shipping containers. The glass dome allows for natural heating, decreasing maintenance costs. The Surge also features a hydraulic‐operated panel system along the spine of the stadium to cool the building naturally. Kawneer products were used in order to provide a hurricane-resistant entrance to promote occupant safety during a crisis. For the glass circulation towers, a Kawneer wall system was used to protect incoming refugees during a storm from the elements. Large hurricane-resistant bay windows were used in the restaurant and offices located on the second and third floors. The power shade, along with the solar cell/photovoltaic fabric located along the top of the dome, provide solar energy for the building and further cut energy costs.

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Kawneer products ultimately helped promote our sustainable and weather-resistant design goals. Our stadium is built with many protective features, however, there are also many features of our stadium that can

be utilized during a crisis, such as the relief storage units scattered throughout and several emergency and supply vehicle access points. The Surge was designed to become an integral part of the community and the city of Tallahassee, Florida – a place of gathering, recreational activities, and proving a safe haven for the population in times of need. What makes you interested in architecture? Dana: While my grandpa was the one that originally piqued my interest in the field, it was really the work of my Architectural Design teachers, Richard Knoeppel and David Johannessohn, and the opportunities my high school’s AD program offered to its students that helped cultivate my perception of the field now – a passion and an art. Also, when you’re able to go into a classroom every day to do hands-on work, surrounded by other passionate and amazing friends, you end up feeling really motivated and enthusiastic about your studies, too. Miranda: I was in fourth grade, learning area and perimeter, and I found it so fascinating. From then on I have drawn houses. Briana: My father was the one who first interested me in architecture. He took drafting classes in high school and I always enjoyed listening to him talk about his home-related ideas. I became even more interested in architecture when I picked up a book on compact living in Japan. The minimalist style I found within has really influenced me since. What are your plans for the future? Dana: I hope to attend a college that offers extensive studio time, where I can pursue the field of architecture. I look forward to the chance to experiment with new and different forms of expression. While I’m relatively set on architecture as a career, my interests also extend into the fields of landscape and interior design.

MIRANDA: As a freshmen, I’m just trying to finish high school right now, but I want to be an architect. BRIANA: I would like to attend a university in New York or Rhode Island for interior design, preferably RISD, Pratt or NYSID. In the meantime I planned to apply for FIT and Harrington College of Design as well as Cal Poly. In addition, I plan to go to college for a degree in landscape architecture. I would like to have my own design company one day that focuses on green, compact living and brings exterior environments into homes. What influenced or inspired your design? DANA: While our structure was originally inspired by elements of the Cowboy Stadium, the concepts of weather resistance, stability, aerodynamics, and crisis relief accommodations played integral roles in shaping the development of our design. The numerous sketches we drew during the design process kept evolving to accommodate all our ideas until we agreed to a final design. Naming the structure “The Surge” ultimately reflects what we sought to represent as the nature of our stadium not only in shape, but also in the concepts the building represents. MIRANDA: We looked at stadiums and threw out many ideas until we agreed on something. We all had so much fun on this project. None of us expected to get second place. BRIANA: My partners and I knew that we wanted to do something to match the environment and we wanted something located in Florida. The Surge was meant to have an oceanic theme, as can be seen with its almost wave-like shape. We also really wanted to incorporate pre-fabricated shipping containers in our design. We wanted the stadium to look very clean-cut, and we wanted the stadium to be strong. We set on a geodesic dome, since it is the strongest structure. C

Third Place

“Sun Life Complex”

David Ensor, Rameez Munawar, Karl Sobel

Kawneer façade products provide technical durability and weather resistance. The result is a fully-integrated design that fits within the context of a hurricane-prone city, equipped to serve as an events center and disaster relief shelter.

What makes you interested in architecture? David: When I was in fifth grade my family’s home was renovated, my first memory of a fascination with the field of architecture. The architect that designed our house was open and inspired my interest.

Rameez: I first started getting into architecture

when I was in middle school. I always used to wonder how buildings were put together and how they were Advisor: Michael Ambrose designed. In high school I spent an entire summer designing an airport with SketchUp. I took a course When a hurricane strikes, chaos follows. Individuals, that dealt with architecture and started building small communities, organizations, and governments work scale models of skyscrapers. to restore order, provide relief, and rebuild. A stadium can be an integral piece in the transition from disaster Karl: I’ve always been interested in the built to normal life. Our concept for the Sun Life Complex environment, whether visiting historical buildings, tackles this design consideration with one main idea: working construction jobs, building LEGOs®, studying the integration of tourism, entertainment, and hospitality. architecture in school.

Fourth-year students, University of Maryland

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Stadiums are places for public gathering, and in crisis this quality is accentuated. The primary function of a stadium is to serve as grounds for entertainment. During crisis, the playing surface turns into sleeping space. Entertainment is shifted to the lower level, where a theater, arcade, and children’s playroom provide necessary respite for the emotionally stricken. Beyond entertainment, the stadium has a strong connection with the tourism industry. A large hotel on the southern end brings revenue to the Sun Life Complex. Hotel rooms can accommodate those who need specialized care. The hotel dining facilities provide resources to feed large amounts of people. Hospitality permeates the complex. The stadium is filled with the amenities of advanced stadiums, including direct access to public transportation and a retractable roof allowing for climate control. During times of crisis, hospitality extends to services such as childcare, an animal shelter, and medical facilities.

What are your plans for the future? David: In intend to complete my Bachelors and Masters degrees in architecture and become a registered architect.

Rameez: I have applied to graduate schools, but I haven’t yet decided where I will go. Karl: I am planning on eventually earning a professional degree and becoming an architect. What influenced or inspired your design? David: We wanted to combine the tourism aspect of Miami with the stadium entertainment.

Rameez: Designing sports facilities has always been a hobby. When I heard about this competition I couldn’t let this opportunity pass. After considering the site and city of Miami for our stadium, our group felt that attaching a hotel would be a win-win situation. I read a In order for the facility to fulfill its purpose, it must be stadium design book that helped generate ideas, and inviting in visual appearance and overall ambiance. some books about Miami architecture. The stadium is sited in Tropical Park, with views over three lakes. A large, open atrium entrance and operable Karl: Our design was all about collaboration and roof invite persons inside. The structure is designed to iteration. Many of the fundamental concepts came from withstand natural disasters, and its form and orientation conversation with our professors. A lot of the basic details allow for the disbursement of winds. Southern glazing is of the design came from existing stadiums like Reliant treated specially to account for increased sun exposure. Stadium, Lucas Oil Stadium, and the Rogers Centre. C

HONORABLE MENTION

“Aqua Haven”

Joseph Podolski, Fred Lebed, Andrew Leung Graduate student and recent graduates, Clemson University

“Hurricanes Stadium” Taylor Shumate, Bryam Wadia Fifth-year students, University of Miami

“Stone Sanctuary” Caleb Fisher

Fourth-year student, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Advisor: Nicolas Cascarano

Kawneer and AIAS Announce Annual Student Design Competition Winners Each year, Kawneer partners with AIAS to host a student design competition, developed to further an understanding of architecture and related disciplines and encourage students to think about the environmental impact of buildings. The 2011 competition challenged students to learn about building materials – specifically architectural aluminum building products and systems – in the design of a crisis-ready stadium, civic center, or arena. John Melby, a fourth year student at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, won first place and $3000 for his design, “Survivor One.” The competition asked participants to select a city and outdoor sport of their choosing and design an environmentally-responsible facility to serve the community for entertainment purposes, while also creating a space that is crisis and disaster-ready. Objectives also included developing an understanding of materials and techniques that can help earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®)

certification points. Submissions were evaluated for their ingenuity and originality, use of materials, crisis-ready solutions and their ability to address specific design elements relating to the stadium’s response to the realities of climate change and natural disasters. Dana Dimalanta, Brianna Silva, Remi Ziems and Miranda Mead from Advanced Technologies Academy, were awarded second place for their submission, “The Surge”. Rameez Munawar, Karl Sobel and David Ensor from the University of Maryland, received third place for their design, “Sun Life Complex”. Kawneer is committed to working with the next generation of architects, designers and engineers who will play an active role in the future of efficient building design. These competitions give students an opportunity to engage with their work on a more professional level, use real-world products, and share their designs with industry leaders. C

Karen Zipfel Director, Marketing, Kawneer North America

projects projects

WATERSHED Allison Wilson Allison Wilson graduated with an M.Arch from the University of Maryland in 2011 and was one of WaterShed’s student team leaders. She currently works for Ayers Saint Gross, a Baltimorebased higher education design and planning firm.

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is a biennial competition that challenges student-led university teams from around the globe to design and build houses entirely powered by the sun. Displayed for the public and tested in ten competitions, the winning entry is the one that best balances subjective challenges, such as architecture and engineering design, with objective performance contests and affordability. The University of Maryland won the Solar Decathlon 2011 with WaterShed, a 920 square foot home that illustrates solutions to issues of both nonrenewable energy use and potable water consumption in the built environment.

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WaterShed draws its inspiration from the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States. This complex ecosystem is a subtle balance between saltwater and freshwater that is negatively impacted by the built environment’s runoff. The student team sought to go beyond designing a solar-powered house and address how our buildings can be better stewards of the water cycle that connects all living things.

of hundreds of students, designed and constructed WaterShed over the course of two years. The integrated design process featured interdisciplinary coursework in which architecture, engineering, and environmental science and technology students met together to solve the design challenges at hand. Instead of papers and studio projects, the curricular deliverables were the design documents and educational outreach package that allowed WaterShed to be successfully constructed and communicated with the public. Construction occurred between March and August 2011. Wall sections and details that had previously lived only on paper became three-dimensional realities as the student team constructed and tested the house in preparation for the Solar Decathlon. The house traveled from College Park, MD to West Potomac Park in Washington, DC overnight and was reconstructed in seven days. Over ten mostly rainy days of competition, WaterShed was visited by 20,000 people and was one of only seven homes to successfully generate more energy than it consumed. In the end, WaterShed placed first in the architecture, energy balance, and hot water contests in addition to winning the overall competition.

The house is comprised of two primary ‘shed’ forms – one housing the public functions of the home and the other the private uses. These two large volumes are slid apart along a central constructed wetland feature and connected by the bathroom, the focal point of the design where water connects the built forms and the landscape. The split shed roofs slope inward toward the bathroom, directing stormwater into the constructed wetland below. In addition to storing water like a cistern, these wetlands also filter grey water produced by the washing machine, shower, and bathroom sink inside the home. By harvesting and recycling water on site for nonpotable uses such as irrigation, WaterShed minimizes its reliance and impact on municipal sewage systems.

As the student team returned to class and began their forays into the professional world, construction team leader Zachary Klipstein summed up the experience: “Knowing that our home educated thousands of people during and after the Decathlon is very rewarding. It’s important to draw from the lessons learned during the competition and apply them to projects at all scales that we might come in contact with in the future. I hope to integrate the lessons from this invaluable competition in my professional career as an architect, making responsible decisions for a more sustainable future.” C

Approximately thirty student leaders, supported by faculty and professional mentors and an extended team

For more information on WaterShed and the Solar Decathlon please visit: http://2011.solarteam.org.

projects projects

university of kansas Freedom by Design

Nick Fratta Nick Fratta served as the 2010 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2011 FBD captain at the University of Kansas and currently serves as chapter president.

Eddy Tavio

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Eddy Tavio is the 2011 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2012 FBD captain.

In the summer of 2011 the AIAS Freedom by Design chapter at the University of Kansas collaborated with various local material suppliers to design and build a ramp for the Moore family in Topeka, Kansas. The familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s son suffers from cerebral palsy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a physical disability that affects body movement and renders him incapable of accessing his own front door, a couple of feet of the ground. The project was completed over the span of a couple of months on a volunteer basis outside of the traditional studio environment. The scope of the construction exposed the Freedom by Design team to not only ADA design standards and wood framing, but also concrete pouring. The concrete slab directly adjacent to the entry point of the house needed to be extended in order to create a smooth transition between the driveway and the ramp. Furthermore, three-foot deep footings had to be dug and poured to support the switchback and appropriately anchor it below the frost line. The Moore family ramp was our first big success as an emerging Freedom by Design team that has established a tradition and commitment to service within our AIAS chapter. Currently, we are finishing construction of another accessibility project in Lawrence, Kansas where we solidified Home Depot as a Freedom by Design partner. Home Depot provided us with all the needed materials and tools to complete our latest project and also acted as our construction mentor throughout the whole process, helping younger members familiarize themselves with efficient construction techniques. We hope continue collaborating with Home Depot in the future in order to streamline the way our chapter delivers projects to clients. C

university of Virginia Freedom by Design BURGESS RICE Burgess Rice is the AIAS Chapter President at the University of Virginia.

TYLER WHITNEY Tyler Whitney is the University of Virginia Freedom by Design Team Captain.

The University of Virginia Freedom By Design team has recently connected with the Hospitality House associated with the University of Virginia Hospital. This facility, located just a few minutes from the hospital area proper, serves as a home away from home for adults and their families who frequent the hospital for extended treatments. The Hospitality House employees are on duty twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to ensure that their visitors feel as comfortable and secure as possible. During the spring of 2011, we strove to enhance the environment by renovating several of the center’s restrooms. We spent our weekends adding fresh coats of paint to the Hospitality House’s interiors, hoping that the clean, new aesthetic would brighten the visitors’ days and give them the assurance that they are staying in a well-maintained establishment. This spring, FBD at UVA will continue our relationship with Hospitality House and exercise our design skills with a larger-scale project. Several years ago, the front yard of Hospitality House was dedicated as the Alexander Sawyer Healing Garden. In honoring the

founder’s name, the garden aims to create a respite from the stresses of medical treatments. The current state of the yard consists of a sloping green with two trees and a wide span of grass, with the idea of true ‘healing garden’ not yet realized. WE hope to transform this open grassy area into a more intimate, accessible space complete with seating nooks, a variety of plantings, and an overall atmosphere of peace. Also in the works is a ramp to provide wheelchair access to the front of the building. We are currently in the design phase, having completed two design meetings last semester before submitting the final design to Hospitality House. This design has accommodated the needs of both the client and the rental property owner. We have been successful in our fundraising attempts to obtain the money needed for construction, and we are excited that our general plan has been approved without complications. We look forward to our upcoming meetings, in which we will explore how our goals for the healing garden will materialize. C

2011 AIAS Honor Awards The AIAS Honor Awards program was established to publicly recognize excellence and outstanding achievements by students and educators who have exhibited an exemplary commitment to the education and development of architecture students, both within and beyond the organization. AIAS formally recognized these recipients of the 2011 Honor Awards at AIAS FORUM in Phoenix.

Chapter Award University of Detroit Mercy The AIAS chapter at the University of Detroit Mercy stands out for what chapter leader Lauren Myrand calls “an inspired vision to unite the School of Architecture”. In the past three years, a core group of students has transformed the AIAS chapter from “an almost nonexistent organization” to “the most active group of students on the university’s campus”. Major accomplishments include fundraising efforts that covered AIAS Forum registration costs for thirtythree students, the largest-ever Michigan Beaux Arts Ball, and a university-wide art show. Most importantly, says Myrand, the chapter has become a “nourishing” and “defining” element of the school’s culture that remains strong by empowering upcoming leaders.

Chapter President Award Amanda Gann, University of Tennessee In his letter of support, current South Quad Director Brent Castro stated that Amanda is defined by her leadership and grace. “We would not have had such an impact on the membership, experienced such a successful year with the organization, [or] planned an unforgettable quad conference without her leadership and love for our chapter,” Castro said. University of Tennessee faculty members commended Amanda not only for her success in the classroom, but for her willingness to assume important roles in projects such as the school’s 2011 Solar Decathlon house. Amanda was also recognized with the 2010 AIA East Tennessee President’s Citation for Leadership.

Community Service Award

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Pumpkin Carve, Auburn University

For the 22nd year, AIAS Auburn University hosted a pumpkin carve. But this event is not merely about Halloween fun – it has become a community-wide event that attracts residents from beyond the university. Leading up to the event, architecture students travel to nearby schools to teach fifth-graders about architecture, as part of the school’s Fifth Grade Art Program. Former chapter president Kristy Swan explains, “Our goal is to share with these young students [what] architecture students are learning and doing on a daily basis, and to show them the creativity and imagination that is part of the profession.”

Special Accomplishment Award “SUPERjury,” University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee SUPERjury event brings distinguished guest critics to the school for two days of engagement sparked by studio projects. This year, fifteen studios participated thanks to the energy and dedication of chapter leaders and their faculty advisors. Students stated the event afforded the opportunity to “critically assess our strengths and assets as well as the areas that we need to improve in our curriculum”. Professor Mo Zell asserted “SUPERjury created a new public forum to disseminate and generate knowledge…[and] provided the larger community with exposure to the school’s best students, effectively raising the aspirational bar for the entire student body.”

Student Research Award “R & D into the Strengthening of Concrete Masonry Construction to Aid in the Reconstruction of Port-au-Prince, Haiti,” Ball State University A team of student researchers at Ball State University, led by professor Tony Costello, FAIA, began with a simple goal: to assist in the impressive reconstruction efforts required after the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti “in a responsible manner”. Recognizing a lack of quality construction methods before the earthquake, students focused their work on the design of affordable, mobile kilns powered by alternative fuel sources that could be used by any mason. Using readily available materials and methods, students designed masonry blocks that were 600% stronger than traditional Haitian blocks. Costello recognized that these students “have already committed themselves to being ‘socially-responsible architects’ [and are] committed to serving those traditionally underserved by our profession.”

Educator Award Brian Ambroziak, University of Tennessee College of Architecture & Design Professor Brian Ambroziak is much more than the faculty advisor for the University of Tennessee AIAS chapter – he is a transformational educator and mentor. In her letter of support, Annie Stone, fall 2010 South Quadrant Conference Chair, stated that Professor Amroziak “is devoted to helping each of us define our own artistic consciences – what moves us to draw, and the concepts and ideals we would like to convey within our work.” Director of Architecture Scott Wall explains, “To say that he educates incredibly well would do a disservice to the transformative effect that Professor Ambroziak has on the lives of our students and his faculty colleagues…For Brian, the art of education is inseparable from his humanity.”

REVIEWS reviews

The Submission Amy Waldman Farrar, Straus and Giroux (August 16, 2011)

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Reviewed by Laura Meador

I learned about The Submission in the most unlikely of places – a popular periodical to which I’ve never even held a subscription, Entertainment Weekly. In the very bottomleft corner of one of the last pages, a small book cover caught my eye. It was black, showcasing the embossed outlines of two French curves that fit within each other. The title was fully justified with the author’s name, both written in all caps in white, sans-serif font, separated only by a horizontal white line. As my mother is a librarian, I probably shouldn’t admit this, but the cover is what lured me in. It was only after reading the short description that I learned the premise of this novel: the events following a blind design competition for the memorial to commemorate the attacks of September 11th. A jury comprised of historians, academics, artists, the New York governor’s representative, and one family member of a person killed in the attacks is assembled to comb through the five thousand entries. After much debate the jury makes its selection, and the file that contains the designer’s identity is at last brought to the table. Anxiously, the file is opened. A pregnant silence looms over the room as a piece of paper with the designer’s name is passed slowly around the table. The winning submission – a geometric, highwalled garden – is the creation of a male, Yale-educated architect, Mohammed Khan. A Muslim. What I find most intriguing about this novel is that author Amy Waldman brings her personality to each of the characters without directly influencing what they do or what they believe. This is immediately evident when the piece of paper reaches the governor’s representative and the reaction is “Jesus [expletive] Christ, it’s a [expletive] Muslim”. The unabashed approach she takes to such sensitive subject matter exposes us equally to each perspective on the issue. Not only does this hurl the plot forward without getting tripped up by attempts to accommodate the political correctness of controversy, but it also takes some burden off the reader to choose a side. As the relationships become more complex, we are invited along with the characters to waiver back and forth across the line of neutrality.

This line is particularly difficult to recognize because of my immediate reaction to support the ‘home team,’ the architect. However, the characters all struggle with the potential construction of the memorial because of its designer, not the design. There must be a realization that it is not the design, but the personalities of those involved, that determine the future of the memorial. What’s in a name? Waldman uses six main characters to convey different perspectives of the memorial. Claire is the only family member on the jury, a widow of a very wealthy man who was working in the Twin Towers the day of the attack. She struggles with choosing to act by her deep moral views or her new, raw feelings after losing a husband. The chairman, Paul, was chosen for his experience as chairman in social activities and is pressured by his wife to use this opportunity as a launching point for future political involvement, thereby setting him into an indirect conflict for which he himself can offer no resolution. The journalist, Alyssa, is eager to find a hidden story and nudges the characters deeper into their inner conflicts by publishing scandalous stories loosely based on fact. Sean is the younger, less courageous brother of a fireman sent to rescue those in the disaster. He has forever been the ‘black sheep’ of his family, but by becoming an advocate for the silent voices of less fortunate families, he gains a sense of entitlement to the decisions made regarding the memorial. Asma, also Muslim, is the widow of a janitor killed in the accident – both of whom are undocumented immigrants. She speaks no English and is dependent on her neighbors to understanding the world around her. The controversy surrounding the memorial leads her on a journey to find strength as a widow and, more importantly, as a woman. Finally, the architect, Mohammed ‘Mo’ Khan, is easily the most realistic depiction of an architect I’ve seen in the media recently. He is arrogant, ambitious, and at times painful to read about as he reflects some characteristics about our profession we might sometimes hide even from ourselves. Throughout the novel, Khan struggles with being forced to defend his intentions based

on his race and religion even though he had been selected based on his design. Meeting Amy Midway through the novel, I learned that the author would be signing books at a small bookstore in DC. Being profoundly affected by her words so far, I was eager to learn about her writing process; how she came about the ‘design’ and how this clearly directed the plot. I asked her why she decided the designer would be an architect when he truly could have been a sculptural artist or landscape architect, and she did not have a true answer. She mentioned that architecture had always fascinated her and that she had many friends who were architects, and it seemed that the only personality that could withstand the trials surrounding the memorial was that of an architect. She went on to explain that the relationships among the characters – both with each other and themselves – drove the story forward, and the personality of an architect made those relationships more textured and interesting. From this I learned something very important – this author, previously a reporter for the New York Times, knew a great deal about architects, and the character created from her experiences is one who is, sometimes rightfully, impossibly stubborn, insensitive, and arrogant. This is an extreme case that is highly charged with racism, grief, and blind ambition. But it does call attention to a prevalent issue regarding the current state of the profession. Mohammed Khan should not be required to defend his design of the memorial due to his race or religion. Mohammed Khan should be required to defend his design of the memorial because he is an architect building in a sensitive climate for the loved ones left behind. Perspective The last question Amy took was regarding the title of the book, The Submission. The most obvious meaning of the title is the submission of the design by the architect.

However, I learned that ‘Muslim’ is the Arabic term for ‘one who submits to God,’ which obviously adds another layer of understanding for the reader. This is yet another example that language is a means for acquiring and offering information as a system of communication that is infinitely complex. Architects are constantly unraveling and reassembling problems to gain more information; it is our pursuit of this understanding that sets us apart. However, we can no longer merely seek information. It is pivotal that we share information in a greater way. Design is a personal act: one must be connected with a project and execute ideas with deep dedication before arriving at the best solution. But what happens after this design is finished, when architects are required to convey their ideas to other people in order to realize their designs? Our language is a vocabulary full of nuances that distance ourselves from the very people for whom we design. Our education reinforces this by assigning greater value to the theory behind the design than to who would occupy it. We speak almost exclusively in visual cues and historical references that the public does not understand. While our education is invaluable, we must also learn that if the public cannot contribute to the design of the built environment because they do not understand our language, the gap between designers and the public will continue to grow. This gap will eventually result in further exclusivity of our profession, a costly service for only the most elite, perhaps even disappearing altogether. The architect can no longer sit alone in an office, existing in a silo. The architect must actively engage with the public, nurture a culture of respect for design that is approachable, and create a mutual language by clearly articulating the subconscious thoughts that form these meaningful solutions. Perhaps the most relevant lesson of The Submission is that we must explore avenues that increase communication with the public to broaden our impact on our society and the environment, to ensure the future of our profession. C

Disregard the naysayers & become the solution to your own life!

Joshua Caulfield IOM Joshua Caulfield is the AIAS Chief Executive Officer

At AIAS FORUM in Arizona, I had the opportunity to be in the presence of an incredible group of inspired students who were ready to take on the challenges of the world; to stand together and discuss, debate, and prepare to act to find solutions. Many of your colleagues arrived unsure of what to expect, and many sought to have fun. But all of them came away with a sense of inspiration and a desire to have an impact on the world. As we return to the “real world” it is easy to let the weight of everyday negativity settle upon us and create a lethargy of the soul. I encourage you to fight those doldrums and begin taking small steps to effect change in your own life and in the lives of people around you. Newton’s First Law of Motion indicates that objects in motion or at rest stay that way until acted upon by an outside force. So too is it with our lives.

This may be a very hard idea to believe when you have spent four to seven years performing at the whim of your professors, seeking to attain grades and internships and other accolades, and then at the very height of academic achievement – graduation – you are pushed out into a world where there seems to be only strife and fear. This is the time when you feel least in control and the most vulnerable to the world. Yet this is also the time when these concepts matter the most. Beginning TODAY, spend a small time each day in quietness. If you can find an hour, great, but if it can only be fifteen minutes, then so be it. For me, it is the thirty minutes between my first and second alarms in the morning, calling me to wake. Take this time to think about the future. What one thing can you do today that would begin the process of taking your life in the direction you want to go? It may be as small as making your own lunch instead of spending $5 on a take-out lunch, or it may be as large as applying for graduate school or moving to a different state.

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Curtis Zimmerman, a well-known motivational speaker, focuses a portion of his program around the conception that you write the script of the movie that is your life. You cast the persons, you choose the genre, etc. His point is that the choices you make are yours, and the The point is that while there are so many news programs people and places and things you have in your life are and personal anecdotes and people around us who also yours. may make us feel as though there is nothing we can do, they are all wrong. Steven Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, offers a similar position that Make the choices now that begin to move you in the you have the opportunity to select how you react direction of the solution you want to see. You will find that to the challenges that life puts towards you. These even the smallest choices grow into bigger and bigger choices weigh heavily on the outcomes you achieve. opportunities. Also, you will find as you gain momentum that outside factors you never expected will show up to Nearly every “X”-step program and religion also speaks support and assist you. The single most important decision about how you can begin to change your future by you can make is to begin the change right now. Do not be acting now. Even such one-liners as “Carpe diem” and discouraged by the size of the challenges or the feeling “This is the first day of the rest of your life” come to the that your first actions are so small as to be insignificant. same point: you can always choose to take control of your life – and your future – at any point. YOU are the solution. BEGIN! C

TERRAZZO is History! Harmonie Park/Paradise Valley • Detroit, Michigan

Hubert Massey

Designer

Photo by Brian Heath

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