No. 13 COLLECTIVE by DATUM

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COLLECTIVE

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ABOUT US: DATUM COLLECTIVE is a journal of A/architecture founded and edited by students at Iowa State University. The publications seeks to manifest and catalogue DATUM’s community of discussion and act as a platform for further inquiry and critique. It is organized around a central theme that DATUM feels has been misrepresented, neglected, or needs further examinations. DATUM would like to thank Iowa State University Department of Architecture for their continuous support and invigorating enthusiasm for the journal and community. datumcollective.org

instagram: datum_isu

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COLLECTIVE BY SAMARTH VACHHRAJANI

Embracing the impacts of COVID-19 and finally being able to return to an alternative yet not too different “normal,” we all have had the heightened need for community that most of us did not have throughout the isolating pandemic. As we emerge from the shadows of what is falsely and politically claimed as the end of an epidemic, many have, within the social, professional, and academic discourses, highlighted the need to pivot from our old habits and learn from our COLLECTIVE experience of isolation, uncertainty, and fragility of our beloved field of Architecture. It is true that we all, in varying capacities, have a love-hate relationship with the field. Love because we recognize the role and impact we can have in our environments and the potential to do good through our acquired skills. Hate because despite this opportunity to do “good,” we find ourselves feeling disappointed by the pressures of market-driven work that only forces us to participate knowingly in an exploitative industry. As students and emerging architects and designers, we often find ourselves both tired of confirming to such pressures of the field and excited to challenge old habits which have been unchallenged for too long. Habits that have led to many kinds of disastrous impacts that we are to COLLECTIVELY accept blame. So, this year, for our theme, we wanted to acknowledge this conflicting nature of our thoughts as we came back, only to find ourselves practicing the old habits. What surfaced through our discussions is that this cognitive dissonance was a COLLECTIVE experience. We realized that there was power in such mutual acknowledgments and that there was more to be done instead of conforming to old habits. We also had to accept that while printed matter may not provide a resolution, it might protect us and our experiences from being erased. Hence Datum No. 13, COLLECTIVE, is an experiment in leaving behind a trace of jointed and disjointed experiences through cataloging candid conversations about our field.

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WHAT SURFACED THROUGH OUR DISCUSSIONS IS THAT THIS COGNITIVE DISSONANCE WAS A COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE. WE REALIZED THAT THERE WAS POWER IN SUCH MUTUAL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND THAT THERE WAS MORE TO BE DONE INSTEAD OF CONFORMING TO OLD HABITS.

exploitation is more productive than continuing to read a footnote, under a microscope hoping it will turn into a novel. We are all so polite on camera, but off-camera, the petty deluge of gossip resumes.” We mention this to recognize that what has been carried out under the guise of “gossip” has more potential to break open the realities and bring to the front, through COLLECTIVE force the demand for change. Hence Datum No. 13 is as much about the journal itself as it is an attempt to form our COLLECTIVE that finds the confidence to make such demands within and outside our academic affiliation.

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Personal experience, more than anything else, has aligned many of us towards such common ideas. Experiences of exploitation have become a new thread through which many of us have begun to document and maintain an oral archive. Preserving experiences and centering the importance of forming a COLLECTIVE, instead of speculating about it, is the intention behind the pages of this issue. Dank Lloyd Wright, one of the most followed architecture meme accounts on Instagram, who identifies as an emerging theorist, and the current director of the center for Ants, in their article, “We Could All Be Less Complicit” for E-Flux, writes on the topic of workplace exploitation, “This process of COLLECTIVELY authoring an oral history of Architectural

by Brenna Fransen

COLLECTIVE, though in its nature is assumed to be public, it is such secretive networks of oral experiences or ambiguity that allow those who hold power in our industry and exploit can be afraid. What has been for so long impossible is being made possible by a kind of “call-out culture” that publicly announces exploitations, whose swindlers benefit from silence. But recognition or making exploitation public only cannot be the end. We hope that through the following pages, we can convince you that we have to do more and form alternative COLLECTIVE models of practice that respects the human capacity and our COLLECTIVE reliance on external structures that pressure our lives. As we introduce this issue of Datum, we write significantly about the current nature of our industry, as these have been the recurring conversations that shaped this issue. Whether explicitly written or implicitly whispered, the variety of public revelations of exploitations that have surfaced over the past year has had a significant impact on the thoughts of our group. In the journal, Mae Murphy has sought to imagine and speculate alternative futures. Through architectural visualization of ecofeminist futures, she looks into witchcraft practices. COLLECTIVE has to be an ongoing effort while also looking at the future. Our recorded conversations with exhibition designers and curators at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale asks questions about the future of exhibitions and the role of the COLLECTIVE in curatorial practices. Other contributors to this issue have looked at the history of cities and practices, such as the pieces

WHISPERED, THE VARIETY OF PUBLIC REVELATIONS OF EXPLOITATIONS THAT HAVE SURFACED OVER THE PAST YEAR HAS HAD A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON THE THOUGHTS OF OUR GROUP.

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WHETHER EXPLICITLY WRITTEN OR IMPLICITLY

by Connor Shanahan and Alessandro Rognoni, which recognize that COLLECTIVE has a history and forgotten practices need attention as we gaze to the future. Our conversations with Shelby Doyle, Anna Aversing, and Olivia Valentine ask necessary questions to our readers, reflecting on the sexist legacies of our design and architecture fields and how we intend to put in the work to undo such practices. The journal also documents our conversation with Danielle Willkens, who shared with us their work on working with communities and preservation work to provide accurate accounts of the racist past of the United States of America through the intersections of technology, archives, and historic preservation work. The journal ends with a catalog of work from some of our members that bring multiple COLLECTIVE dimensions into architectural studio projects. As we carefully constructed the journal, it was intended to be both a thematic issue and an issue that is truly collective - an accumulation of diverse voices, ideas, projects, and interests that our group brings to our regular discourses, every Thursday at 6 PM. We hope that you will be inspired through the pages of this issue and that you will join us in working towards dismantling the “lone genius” culture and regimes of exploitation that we have fostered for very long and begin to practice with us (as we have humbly, and consciously attempted as our first step in this issue) to acknowledge full plural authorship of work transparently. - Samarth Vachhrajani

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(2.17.22) Hybrid collage created by Datum members using Miro, projections, and hand collaging.

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CONTENTS

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Where is…

Shooting at the Verge

The Future of Exhibitions Interview

Exhibiting Architecture: Who Curates?

Practicing Paper : A Call for Paper Architecture

Danielle Willkens Interview

San Lorenzo: Rome as Found

The Fortress: Visualizing Ecofeminist Futures Through Witchcraft

International Women’s Day Interview

Dining

Encounters of Exuberance

OVERLOAD

Collective Credits/Bios

WHERE IS... SAMARTH VACHHRAJANI, MAE MURPHY, ARDEN STAPELLA These articles were published as part of an exchange with BNIEUWS at TU Delft in their March 2022 issue “Where?” As we were invited to write for Bnieuws, at the TU Delft on the topic of ‘Where’, as a collective we found ourselves speculating on the situational qualities of questions of ‘where’. ‘Where’ provides the possibility to question a specific site or geography whether physical or metaphysical, both important for architecture and its makers. Where, unlike the questions of who and what, being to situate us on the continuum of history and the future. It allows us to self-position ourselves and ask where

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we stand as an individual and as an industry, and clear the fields of vision that are intentionally blocked out. Where, engages us in a critical self-positioning, asking where do we stand in current times as the world is in constant shift, with the pandemic, excessive environmental damage, and political conflicts. Below you will read some takes that depart from the questions of “ Where is..” and speculate the essential questions of CARE, COLLECTIVE, and BEAUTY.

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by Tim Zhang

SAMARTH VACHHRAJANI Care is not experienced or practiced within the industry, as academic practices have heavily relied on criticizing over time, leaving that as the only “productive” option for learning, designing, and making architecture. A practice that is so collective, requiring collaboration across disciplines, care can be an instrumental method of selfpositioning and situating ourselves in current times. Datum Issue 12 was titled CARE, mainly focused on exploring how care can be a form of practice in the architecture academy and industry. Since then, we have focused on calling ourselves, not just Datum, but DATUM COLLECTIVE. This was to recognize the collective nature of our work, and also that care is a collective and communal practice (not just domestic / singular).

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Bell Hooks famously writes in her book, All about love, that we don’t care as much as we critique. This rings true for most architectural academic practices, that are deeply rooted in critique-oriented pedagogies. These are riven with many kinds of subjectivities, especially in the fields of design where there is never a right answer. It begs the question, where is care in architectural practices? Care as a pedagogical tool, allows for a different method of approaching learning, and understanding architecture, that is rooted in cultivating the inquisitiveness we all hold. Care provides a method to extend our understanding beyond, and utilize it as an ethical framework of practice in the industry.

WHERE IS?

CARE

WHERE IS?

COLLECTIVE MAE MURPHY

Where do collectives dwell in architecture? Where can we find mutual support in such a competitive field? Where can minorities find solidarity without ostracization and displacement? Where are the unions? The term collective can be defined as ‘belonging or relating to all members of a group’. Recently the Datum group adopted the term to our identity. The presence of this word has started conversations questioning the role of solidarity and collectives in the architecture and design industry in and out of academic settings. In school we have the unique opportunity to surround ourselves with resources and people in the same shoes as us: hundreds of architecture students house in one building, a support system for people learning about architecture and the conditions we are trained to withstand. When we seek employment opportunities often only one or two new hires join a firm. We are spread thin, therefore, weakening the collective unit. Datum, Bnieuws, and other student-led organizations are outlets to connect

students with professionals and to collectively question the role of the architect. Perhaps this cross-continent connection is the beginning of a new collective between radical students. The collective power of uniting together proves to be a route for change. The newly formed Architectural Workers United (AWU) group and New York SHoP Architects’ attempt at unionization are examples of collectives joining together to change traditional working conditions. Unfortunately, SHoP architects were unable to form a union within the 130 person office. While we do not know the exact reason the union failed, we can acknowledge the spark it ignited within the industry and the power created when joining together. We cannot let this movement die. Collective is where we can make the change.

ARDEN STAPELLA The architect informs space, rendering our consciousness of the noetic in the medium of the phenomenal. The observer perceives its likeness. This is where beauty is manifest, in the awareness that this communion facilitates. Architecture is an expression of the structure and pattern that is craved by the perceiver. They experience the world around them, persuaded by the elements selected, apprehending the forms provided by the architect. We are given a formal context in which to be intelligible. The beauty is beheld when it enters into awareness. Without this reciprocitybeing and thought - beauty cannot exist. In architecture, the assemblage of building elements transcends its physical constituency through perception. Walls and columns become objects of evocation, erected by memory, formed by emotion. The observer becomes the architect, and this version of the building becomes reality.

WHERE IS?

BEAUTY

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SHOOTING AT THE VERGE ALESSANDRO ROGNONI

Exchange with BNIEUWS @ TU Delft

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Urban cinematic realism is a phenomenon that we share globally. This is because all cities, in different ways, have experienced the same processes of expansion and sprawling, offering a chance for filmmakers around the world to portray the romantic, traumatic and dramatic conditions of the urban periphery. Along the Urbanised Tevere Cabiria and her blind date stand in the middle of a barren grass field, romantically leaning to one another, laughing and strolling on arid ground. From where the camera stands, this wasteland is seen before and beyond them. Further, in the background, the horizon is shielded by buildings, with deep balconies casting shadows on their concrete façades. Those who have watched “Nights of Cabiria” might remember the

rest of the first scene. The mysterious man, revealing himself as an impostor, snatches the purse out of Cabiria’s hands before throwing her in the river Tevere. Later she would be rescued by the inhabitants of the wasteland or, in other words, the southern outskirts of post-war Rome. Those who have watched will also know the rest of the story: Cabiria, an irrepressible, fiercely independent sex worker moves through the sea of Rome’s humanity, relying on her own indomitable spirit to stay standing. A great film for exercising one’s perception of post-war Italy. However, nothing more than the first scene is needed to understand the condition of the Italian capital in the 1950s. The space between us and

Cabiria, and between her and buildings in the background, is one left behind by undisciplined

COLLECTIVE

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BEFORE HIS MOVE, THE SEVERE AND ERADICATIVE FORCES OF FASCIST URBANISM HAD RESHAPED THE HISTORIC CENTRE, OPENING IT UP TO SERVE AS GROUND FOR PUBLIC (AND MILITARY) PARADES.

In a city at its first intense encounter with modernity, Fellini found an eccentric social sphere made of

DATUM NO.13

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In truth, the Rome that director Federico Fellini portrayed in 1957 was already far different from the one he had encountered twenty years earlier, when he first arrived there at the age of 19. Before his move, the severe and eradicative forces of fascist urbanism had reshaped the historic centre, opening it up to serve as ground for public (and military) parades.

C I N E M AT I C

urbanisation, and by the abusive forces that dictated the way Rome was expanded from its consolidated centre, and made into a developmental city. A city that, at least until the 70’s, repeatedly presented a new version of itself in its periphery.

REALISM

artists, comedians and writers; a society of intellectual silliness against the political purity of the regime. After the War, following the country’s economic boom and the advent of celebrity tourism in Rome, this community quickly mutated into the mundane, cosmopolitan society of fun and decadence of the 1960’s “Dolce Vita”. At the same time, economic growth and transformation brought thousands from the countryside to the city, seeking jobs. Many independent entrepreneurs, by moving within the cracks of a recovering economy, took advantage of the inability of the government to accommodate these new tenants. Large plots of dismissed rural land, running along highways projecting from the city centre, were bought by private investors and subsequently illegally parcelled to get the most profit out of available soil. With construction taking place, the city expanded irregularly, leaving large areas of unused wasteland in between residential developments. Fellini positioned himself (and his camera) in relation to this empty space. To him, things suddenly

COLLECTIVE

became clearer: first, the historic centre as a stage for bourgeoisie mundanity and aristocratic decay, where interior and exterior merge into one theatrical set. And then the urban periphery, the site of confrontation with the modern city, and the modern character, seeking for happiness. Thanks to his work, we realise that the act of filming becomes historically relevant to the development of cities in their urban periphery, particularly as an act of positioning. But it is by looking beyond him that we discover how, in the last few decades, the connection between filmmakers and urban sprawl has been a recurring one.

DATUM NO.13

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ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR: Alessandro Rognoni is an architecture student from Italy. He enjoys writing, especially about images, to him, it is the key to understanding the bizarreness of our environment. He values a sense of humor above everything.

COLLECTIVE

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Detlef Weiz, Monika Platzer, Martino Stierli and, Maroje Mrduljaš

A DISCUSSION WITH:

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Image by Mae Murphy

DATUM members had the opportunity to visit and participate at the 17th International Venice Architecture Biennale or La Biennale Di Venezia. As a part of the ISU panel discussion, Datum was able to have a conversation with Global Curators and Exhibition Designers. The Theme for the panel discussion was “The Future of Exhibitions.” Edited by Vladimir Kulić (Associate Professor, Architecture, Iowa State University)

COLLECTIVE

Detl ef We i z w o r k e d a s a f reelanc e scenographer in B erl i n s i n c e 1 9 9 8 a n d f ounded t h e i n t e r d i s c i p lin a r y plat f orm f o r c u l t u r a l ta sks chez we i t z in 2002 and dev elop s a n d d e s i g n s a r t and t he m e e x h i b i t i o n s . D e tle f W eiz re c e i v e d t h e 2 0 1 1 Go ld Des ign A w a r d o f t h e F e d e r a l R e p u b l i c o f G e r ma n y. Moni ka P l a t z e r i s a c ur a to r f or arc h i v e s a n d c o l l e c tio n at t he A r c h i t e k t u r z e ntr u m W ien. U n d e r t h e a u sp ic e s of t he A u s t r i a n M i n i s t ry fo r Cult ure, t h e C a n a d i a n Ce n tr e f or A rc h i t e c t u r e , a n d th e G et t y Research I n s titu te , s he cur a t e d ( w i t h E v e Bla u , Diet er B o g n e r ) a n e x h i b itio n ent it led S h a p i n g t h e Gr e a t Cit y , M o d e r n A r c h i t e c t ur e in Centr a l E u r o p e 1 8 9 0 - 1 9 3 7 . Mar ti no S t i e r l i i s T h e Ph ilip J ohns on C h i e f C u r a t o r o f A rchit ec t u r e a n d D e s i g n a t The M u s e u m o f M o d e r n Ar t, a role h e a s s u m e d i n Ma r c h 2015. M r . S t i e r l i o v e r se e s t he wi d e - r a n g i n g p r o g r a m of special e x h i b i tio n s, ins t allati o n s , a n d a c q u i sitio n s of the Department of A rc h i t e c t u r e a n d D e sig n . Mar oj e Mrduljaš, b a se d in Zagr e b , h o l d s a P hD in archit ec t u r e . H e i s w o r k in g a t t he con j u n c t i o n o f t e a c h in g , res earch i n g , d e s i gn in g , writ ing, editing, c u r atin g , and filmmaking. Ma r o je cont ribu t e d to n u m er o u s ex hibit io n p r o j e c t s i n l e ad in g ins t it ut i o n s i n c l u d i n g M o M A NY, MSU Z a g r e b , S A M Ba se l, Venice A r c h i t e c t u r e B i e nn a le .

DATUM: How do you see the culture of star architects changing in the conversations within curatorial and exhibition design practices? How do you see full collective authorship acknowledged and brought up transparently in curatorial work, dismantling the star-architect myth?

DETLEF: It is such an interesting question because I was never interested in star architects. For our exhibit design at the Bauhaus Museum in Dessau, we created a model that we called “the relationship” model. On the one hand, we had the teachers, who were indeed the stars, but on the other hand, we had the not-so-well-known students and some teachers who had a special relationship. In that exhibition we tried to show how this exchange was mutual, exerting influence on both sides. So, the idea of a singular genius was thoroughly questioned. I think when you start with an exhibition about someone – especially someone who famous, you have to investigate the people around them and include them as well. MONIKA: We are not interested in star architects anymore. It’s interesting that it was in Venice in 1980 that the first exhibition that produced a star architect occurred. It was then followed by other exhibitions. But that was a long time ago. For us in Vienna, the star architect for us would be Hans Hollein. We have his archive, and we question it. I am interested in his political role, in his role as a creator of exhibitions, how he did that and how he networked with it. And it is a really fascinating question, what instruments he used to become a star architect. MAROJE: We did a similar thing in 2014 at the Venice Biennale in an collateral exhibition that I co-curated. It was called “Lifting the Curtain,” but the subtitle of the exhibition - “Central European Architectural Networks,” is even more important. It was about the reinterpretation of the architectural history of the 20th century where we traced the links, the interactions between the architects, and how the knowledge was conveyed through different channels: magazines, exhibitions, etc. So, it was more interesting for us to trace how knowledge was transferred from one person to the other and what kind of media was in use than to focus on a certain person or “star architect.” If you speak about groundbreaking architects like Hans Hollien, you try to place them into the context and explain why they really made a certain contribution to the architectural culture. What was their real impact on the following generations and so on?

DATUM NO.13 MARTINO: I think the show on contemporary Chinese architecture that just opened last week at the MoMA may help explain what I am interested in. I have never done a monographic show at the museum, and I probably will not. Our position is different from that of the Architekturzentrum, where I think you can use strict monographic shows very strategically to push to the foreground the representatives of underrepresented groups that otherwise would not get the stage. The approach I prefer is thematic. So, the contemporary China show represents eight contemporary architects. Most of them are not very well known in the West. The show is titled “Reuse, Renew, Recycle.” It is about the idea of ecological and social sustainability, foregrounding architects who are opposed to “mega-events” by these so-called star architects that have built in China for the past ten or twenty years. So, it is a double critique of star architects. First, those mentioned in the China show are not star architects, they are relatively unknown, but they also take a stand against what I think we as a generation, feel is not a helpful approach to the question of “what architecture contributes to society?” I am all in favor of thematic shows that are discursive and focused on a problem and are illustrated with positions that I find interesting. DATUM: You all talked about agency, but we’d like to reframe the question in terms of accessibility. Accessibility has not always been a top priority for exhibitions, both in terms of physical access and in terms of being understood by younger audiences or communities without art or design background. In terms of future exhibitions, how do you envision accessibility expanding beyond just physical accessibility and education, and creating exhibitions accessible to wider audiences? MONIKA: I have a very diplomatic answer to that. We work with our education team and strongly advocate for what you just said. And we try to bring them into the projects as much as possible. We invite them to the curatorial team sessions all the time. We discuss our concept with them, and we get their feedback. As you said, one audience does not exist, and you cannot address just one audience. And I am a strong advocate for that - every exhibition, every audience. I think exhibitions are stronger and better when you stick to the content we want to convey and addressed.

MAROJE: It is also important to discuss the relationship between the exhibition and the publication. Publications are an essential part of many exhibitions. Sometimes you do not have a proper book, but in most cases, if it is a more ambitious project, you do have one. I think that the publications could be more accessible to communicate faster and maybe more directly. And if you have more academic ambitions and visions, or if the issue is more complex, then the role of the book or the publication, which will stay after the exhibition, could go more in-depth. So, you always play on these possibilities of a double medium: a certain type of content and a certain type of mediation of that content is reserved for the exhibition and the other for the publication. Of course, this is the most generic and standard approach. There may also a website or an Instagram feed, and so on. So, there are many levels to the project and its accessibility.

MARTINO: I think it is a set of questions that we could discuss for hours, but it is a very important thing. I want to give an intentional answer. I think institutions such as the Architekturzentrum, which is specifically addressing architecture all the time, have a different audience than the Museum of Modern Art. For us, we have the advantage and disadvantage of dealing with a mass audience, and we are competing with other art centers. For me, this is extremely enriching and helpful because it means that I have to present to a wide audience. You have to be approachable and attractive to somebody who does not really care about architecture, but it is a great chance for us to actually spark interest in people who would never

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“IT IS MORE INTERESTING TO SOMEHOW TRACE HOW THE KNOWLEDGE HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED FROM ONE PERSON TO THE OTHER. WHAT KIND OF MEDIA HAS BEEN USED IN THIS PROCESS THAN TO FOCUS ON A CERTAIN PERSON OR ‘STAR ARCHITECT.’ ”

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go to an architecture museum. At the same time, of course, there is also the ambition to create or produce or add in a meaningful way to a state-of-the-art scholarship. So, our exhibitions certainly depend on this double motivation: they need to be attractive to a large audience, but they also need to produce new knowledge. At the same time, we have to take care of physical accessibility, which may restrict very experimental approaches, but we act in a public sphere, and we need to deal with all these competing needs and interests. And you know, that is a challenge, but it is also hugely interesting. DETLEF: In Germany, we have very developed rules regarding accessibility and inclusion, and they can sometimes be very demanding. But we always look for the room to facilitate inclusion without making it into an obvious add-on. We always try to integrate access for different groups. For example, if there is a display for blind visitors, then it should also be something amazing to touch for every visitor. We try not to single out any groups by creating displays that are just for them, and I think it is very important to open this kind of field, to make it accessible for almost every visitor. That is a question of good design.

Image of Detlef Weiz & Monika Platzer by Mae Murphy

COLLECTIVE

DATUM: What is the future of intersectionality, feminism, and ecofeminism within curatorial practices and centering feminist practices into architecture exhibitions?

MONIKA: That is what interests us at the moment. Not just for exhibitions, but also how we can inscribe it in collections. And also rephrasing the name of the role of the architects. We did an exhibition where the architect acts as a caretaker. So, what does it mean by caretakers?

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EXHIBITING ARCHITECTURE: WHO CURATES?

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JOHNATHAN KAYE, PAVAAN JOSHI, BERIT NUETZMANN, SAMARTH VACHHRAJANI This exhibition was curated as part of Vladimir Kulić’s Fall 2021 seminar “Exhibiting Architecture”. The 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale theme asked: How will we live together? Held during the COVID-19 pandemic and amongst a global reckoning of power and institutional inclusivity, the Biennale, curated by Hashim Sarkis, sought to demonstrate a modern thesis for living through curator-selected

exhibition halls and nation-state sponsored pavilions. To be included in the Biennale, practitioners responded to this thematic question with work demonstrating intellectual merit and contemporary relevancy. With few projects selected, inclusion is considered an honor and privilege within the discipline of architecture. A research installation critiquing this inclusion, Who Curates evaluates the geographic and institutional origins of represented practitioners.

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Practitioners’ profile images are situated on the city in which they practice and operate in tandem with a list of their names and nations to offer a complex global portrait.

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Three globes and a large-scale map reveal the inherent gaps in representation of non-Western countries at the Biennale. The

use of these geographically undistorted spheres and Buckminster Fuller’s minimally distorted 1954 Dymaxion Map produces a heightened sense of our imbalanced planetary habitation and its official Biennale representation.

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A curatorial project, the Biennale seeks to speculate the concepts of “living together” and “we.” Yet by shifting the individualist paradigm of the field to a collective one, the geographical and positional composition of the exhibits begins to provide a new narrative.

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Globe I Unrepresented Countries

Globe II Represented Countries

Globe III Institutional Origins

By “erasing” countries which were included at the Biennale and representing the unrepresented, attention is refocused toward geographies often under-spoken and unspoken for in architecture.

By rendering the globe as an empty field populated by represented nations (which host pop-up or permanent exhibitions), inherent geographic and perspectival limitations are elevated.

By identifying the educational institutions of practitioners, nodes of thinking and professional origins become identifiable by frequency of represented graduate beyond nationality and modern practice.

Gra phi cs Edi ted by Ti m Zha ng

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“Mu s e um o f D i s a pp e a ri n g B ui l din g s” Br od s ky + U t kin , 1984

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Art by Tim

Zhang

CONNOR SHANAHAN

PRACTICING PAPER: A CALL FOR PAPER ARCHITECTS

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Under the control of the Soviet Union in the late 20th century, architects and creatives were desperately searching for an escape to express and explore their ideas. Government restrictions on aesthetic qualities, building materials, and a lack of skilled labor resulted in little creative freedom and advancement in Soviet architecture.1 As a result, collectives of opposition emerged across the Soviet Union in the 1980s, one of which was the paper architecture movement. This collective, comprised of young Soviet architects, used conceptual and provocative drawings as a way to contest the oppression they experienced in society.

Their work provided a new form of

o der Br

dsky

in international competitions. “At that time,” Brodsky explains, “it was just easier to live like this than to work in

“

What is paper architecture, and how did it emerge?

xan

architectural criticism that spanned architectural knowledge and continues to evoke a plethora of emotions today, even without any knowledge of its context. Two of these members in particular, Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin, explored the human experience under Soviet architecture and its oppressive toll on society. Brodsky and Utkin were miserable working in the packed, restrictive offices that were common during the time and consequently gathered with like-minded designers to participate

BY THE TIME THIS COLLECTIVE LOST THE STRENGTH IT HAD STARTED WITH, IT HAD GROWN INTO A MOVEMENT.

“

It was my first semester in architecture school. The whole studio was eagerly awaiting the moment we could finally design our first architecture project instead of producing countless drawings of image tracings and pattern explorations. But what I failed to realize is the immense value in creating abstract, conceptual work. The term “paper” architecture is often used to describe these conceptual, nonviable designs and reemerged during the 1980s following the work of a collective of young architects in the Soviet Union. As I continue to grapple with the concept of paper architecture today as a student and an emerging design professional, countless questions have emerged in my attempt to understand paper architecture in a contemporary context.

any of these state architectural offices with two thousand other people.”2 By the time this collective lost the strength it had started with, it had grown into a movement. The method of using fantastical imagery to bring pressing issues to the forefront of architectural discourse pioneered by these collectives has since evolved in response to societal, cultural, and economic events and technological advancements.

COLLECTIVE

Where do “paper” ideas stand in architecture today? The graphic language of paper architecture is universal and understood across geographies and cultures. For this reason, extremely complicated and technical issues can be understood through imagery and emotion rather than formulas and jargon, proving artists and architects to be all the more essential for our collective wellbeing and survival. Thinking back to the origins of paper architecture and the level of technology that existed at the time, we are now better equipped to actually construct concepts that previously would have been labeled as paper architecture. Ideas that once would be complete fantasies are much closer to reality than they have been before. The climate crisis, extreme political divides, and racial injustices are just some of the pressing issues of our time that require collectives of architects, designers, and thinkers to re-imagine how we can live together. And we are perhaps best fit to rise to the call. However, the growth and adoption of new technology, especially in architecture, is a double-edged sword. While we can more easily create ideas that previously only existed conceptually, relying too heavily on technology can easily create shallow designs. Society’s consumption of social media has trained eyes to be drawn to aesthetic, “sharable” moments and images. While technology holds copious potential to examine the alternate realities paper architecture explores, it can

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just as easily be used to create shallow, meaningless reflections. In a modern concept known as “renderporn,” computer-generated renderings are used to create images with the sole purpose of being aesthetic.3 The result is countless images circulating the internet of “Instagram-able” moments. At what point do drawings and renders meant to challenge societal issues lose purpose and instead just become pretty pictures? There’s nothing wrong with creating aesthetic, expressive drawings. They can be very convincing when presenting projects and conveying a space’s experience. However, when the goal of the image is to question a topic or theme, the creator walks a fine line between relying too heavily on technology and creating images with a purpose. On the other end of these romanticized, perfected images exist imagery that exaggerates situations of desperation and conflict around the world. Architects, often unfamiliar with the complexities and realities of these situations, use this imagery as a call to intervene and “save” those in need. Technology allows architects and designers to quickly imagine how they can unrestrictedly interfere in these environments, colonizing these communities with foreign designs out of touch with the actual needs of local communities and cultures. We cannot “architect” our way out of every single issue. Truly surveying the intricacies and causes of evocative images or headlines that we may stumble upon can help clarify if an architectural intervention is even necessary at all and can prevent the exploitation of these communities.

“HOW

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PRESSURES

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EMPLOYMENT

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THE OF

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THE PROFESSIONAL WORLD

IMPACT

STUDENT WORK?”

By:

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How do the pressures of employment and the professional world impact students’ work?

in society. That’s what architects and designers are best at, after all.

From a student’s perspective, the pressures of the professional world can be limiting in exploring the new realities that paper architecture manifests. As I work on projects, I often find myself trying to think two steps ahead. How does what I’m working on show I would be a valuable designer? What drawings do I need to do to make employers like this concept? These questions are the side effect of my learning and the competitive nature of creative industries. I realize the need for realistic architectural projects in curriculum, but does it come at a cost? Extreme catastrophes facing society require radical solutions. But as students become more focused on designing architecture that can be built, what happens to the architecture that needs to be built in order to equip future generations with the infrastructure and buildings they need to survive?

Citations 1. Nesbitt, Lois E, and Ronald Feldman. Brodsky & Utkin: The Complete Works. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2015. 2. Dana Beros, Ana. We Can’t Predict What Will Suddenly Inspire Us. Other. Oris Magazine 71, June 29, 2011. 3. Wiener, Anna. “The Strange, Soothing World of Instagram’s Computer-Generated Interiors.” The New Yorker, May 6, 2021. https:// www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbitholes/the-strange-soothing-worldof-instagrams-computer-generatedinteriors.

As I have tried to answer some of my questions relating the profession of architecture to the concept of paper architecture, it seems as if more questions arose. And as a designer, this is what I am used to: continual possibilities and questions emerging. So, while I am not even remotely close to having a polished understanding of how “paper” ideas can integrate into practice today, I will continue to appreciate any opportunities to explore radical projects and challenge and comment on what I experience

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“ Hi l l W i th A H ol e” Br ods k y + U tk i n, 1987- 1990

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ANNA AVERSING, SHELBY DOYLE, + OLIVIA VALENTINE

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A DISCUSSION WITH:

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Photo by R un Li n

Datum International Women’s Day Interview March 9th, 2022. Interviewed and hosted by the Datum team.

COLLECTIVE ABOUT: Anna Aversing

Anna Aversing is Associate Professor of Practice in Architecture at Iowa State University. Aversing has a Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture, Science from Iowa State University. She is a licensed architect and has worked in the professional field for several years at firms including Foster + Partners, Wight & Company, Gensler, and Neumann Monson Architects.

ABOUT: Shelby Doyle

Shelby Doyle is Associate Professor of Architecture and Stan G. Thurston Professor in Design Build at Iowa State University. Doyle has a Bachelor of Architecture, Science from University of Virginia and Master of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She is a licensed architect and has experience as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture and Research Fellow Costal Sustainability Studio at Louisiana State University, Mekong Summer Program Instructor at the University of Houston, Adjust Professor at The New School Instructor of Parsons School of Design Strategies, a Research Fellow of the Fulbright Program in Cambodia, and Design Staff at CookFox Architects.

ABOUT: Olivia Valentine

Olivia Valentine is an interdisciplinary visual artist working primarily in textile construction, drawing, and photography, and in collaboration with composers, architects, and designers. Recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition at the Des Moines Art Center and group exhibitions at the Museum of Arts and Design (New York), the Hunterdon Museum (USA), and The American Academy in Rome (Italy). She is the recipient of a Fulbright Grant, The Brandford Elliott Award for Excellence in Fiber Art and was a 2020 Iowa Arts Fellow. Olivia received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She is an Assistant Professor of Art and Visual Culture at Iowa State University.

DATUM: What does collective mean to you and how has it impacted your careers? Where do collectives dwell in architecture and design? In textiles and digital fabrication and the professional field. And where can we find mutual support for mentors and solidarity in this kind of design route?

SHELBY: I think if anything my career has taught me that we all work in collective. It takes a lot of people to do anything, to install a show, to build a building, to run a class, and I think the further away we get from the myth of the creative genius the better we do. I think that is a healthier way to work. One challenge of that though is that the world still rewards individuals financially, commercially, and in the way we talk about achievements. I like to think that architecture is shifting and we can talk about and recognize collective work more successfully. It seems that at times we don’t have mechanisms for recognizing and seeing the collective. There’s a lot of invisible work that happens and I think the pandemic really opened that up and made it impossible to ignore. We were reminded that there are millions of people necessary for the supply chain to function. Who is making the things that are delivered to our doors or that we use to construct building? Things are coming from factories full of people who labor on buildings that you never meet and that could be happening in Pella, Iowa or Shanghai, China. These things that are made are

DATUM NO.13 then are moved and lifted and transferred by people via boats and trucks. All that must work out for anything to be constructed. I think that one of the hardest things is that the collective can at times seem illegible and one of the challenges we have a designer is to make the collective visible. ANNA: So who is the collective? SHELBY: You can make common cause a broad range of people, so what does that mean for architecture? ANNA: Just speaking about my career and looking back on what I’ve done, I didn’t really talk about it through the lens of feminism or what that means to me or the collective. But I know that I have always been grateful for my mentors. I don’t know that I knew they were my mentors when I had them in college and then my career. I would not be here in this room today if I did not have those people and support. And that’s one of the things I want to do every time I speak about myself, or I do a presentation like this. I would like to include photos or lists of names. In architecture there is this sense that you got to do everything by yourself, you got to know everything as soon as you graduate, and you have to prove. It’s all about the self. And that is just never the case, it is always the collective. Whether that is when you’re a student or in practice, it is always about collaboration and learning from your peers and the people around you. When you put together a portfolio and you go to a job interview it is almost like still this unspoken thing that you must have to lie about that you did all by yourself. Being here tonight and being invited to this panel it has made me question these things and share the others that helped me along the way. OLIVIA: Going back to Shelby, I think about the conference presentation we did a few years ago, where we did a call and response between our fields and some of the issues that we have laid out here. Given my place in the fiber arts, there are feminist practices that have come directly from this area of practice. One of the examples that I often use is Judy Chicago and the way that she, in her project called the Dinner Party, cites every single person who participated in that project, and set a stage for inclusive representation strategies. I have a few collaborative practices that are more explicit in their approach to collaborative work, in particular my shared practice with Paula Matthusen, a composer and sound artist. We are in the process of putting our second album out. We do not have a hierarchy and the way that we put our names on the albums except for alphabetical. And we’ve had some weird like receptions to this, to have to like to continuously insist on and define our work as co-equal collaborators. The intellectual framing of the project has also been questioned because we don’t put primary authorship on anything. I will talk more about this in the future, but, I have been questioned on that front, even in reviews out in the press. The possibility that I, as a textile artist, may have an impact or a voice within something that is ultimately a musical output is disconcerting and complicated for some listeners. But thinking about hierarchies and hierarchical relationships and feminist practices of undermining those hierarchies has ultimately become foundational for me. This was not something I was expecting entering our project – it was just, like, let’s try this out, let’s see if our work can work with each other and what might happen. But it’s become a bigger part of that. Certainly, to be frank, I left architecture school, in part, because at the time didn’t like working with other people. And then after I was done and out in the world, I realized I am not going to be able to get anything done without working with other people. And I kind of enjoy this too, it is great to have multiple voices. I can remember there was a graphic designer I worked with for years and every year we would do an annual project together. It was just great fun to be able to sort of get together. He was also a visual artist in addition to being a graphic designer. And I feel like that was my route into collaborating. DATUM: I also think about the term collective for datum and talking about this topic is a way of exposing these unseen practices and traditionally more feminist roles. They are written out of history, they are not talked about as much. And so, by talking about these histories and exposing these roles that women had in collective movements, I think is very powerful. DATUM: This fits in the conversation of individual versus being collective. I’ve realized that, wanting to keep things individual has been to maintain dominance over things. For example, naming buildings and wanting to keep buildings a certain form has also been about dominance and it is to acknowledge against a collective effort, and authorship.

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“WHETHER THAT IS WHEN YOU’RE A STUDENT OR IN PRACTICE, IT IS ALWAYS ABOUT C O L L A B O R AT I O N AND LEARNING FROM YOUR PEERS AND THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU”

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DATUM: So a lot of what we talked about tonight was architecture and feminism. Was that something that you knew about going into your education that you were interested in or was that something that you discovered while you were in your education?

SHELBY: Absolutely no. I grew up playing lots of sports you know this was right after Title IX and I really thought that everything was fine. These problems have been taken care of by past generations. My mother sued the bank where she worked for equal pay. Both my grandmothers had masters degrees. And so it seemed like this work is done, equality is here – which I realize is very naïve. I thought that I inherited the future from them, and I was like I’m not a feminist, I’m an architect. And I think there’s a lot of things in life that keep reminding me that I could not separate work from bodily experiences, whatever that is, from human issues.

DATUM NO.13 There are enough times where I was the only woman in the room. One of the firms that I worked at in New York had nine male principals and that felt like a constant reminder that I was going to age out and disappear once I turned 40. There were very few women that I saw that were of a certain age and so, it seemed like: you can do this if you behave, if you’re an intern, if you do that work and stay in that lane. I showed work from grad school and in two of those classes I was one of only two women in the class and that was from 2009 which is not that long ago. And things have certainly improved but you can see the numbers in licensure has stalled out at about 20% and it is this cycle we have been asking for 20 years ‘where did all the women go?’ I think there’s a larger number of cultural issues you’re pointing out with macho cultures, abusive work practices, having to put up with so much that people find other forms of design expression and other fields to spend their time – they take their labor away from architecture and direct it somewhere else. So, I think that comes back to: Can we change a culture and a narrative? I did not plan on being a feminist I was very much like ‘I’m not a feminist, I’m just doing design work’ and so it really emerged from asking questions like why this has not improved especially with tech and computation and coding and a culture that is bad at acknowledging that technologies emerged from collective labor, from textiles, from jacquard looms, and these really exciting histories. And I was like why didn’t I learn that in school? That is way cooler than Steve Jobs running around in a black turtleneck. I’d call myself a late breaking feminist because I started from a place where I thought things were ok and figured out later that they aren’t. ANNA: Yeah, the same for me. One of the things I didn’t realize that once I got into practice, I thought everything would be better and this was part of the reason. When I started I couldn’t see myself in a high position because there were no lead women. And I do not know exactly how to change that. Shelby: Just keep aging and showing up ANNA: Yeah ha-ha, aging and showing up. SHELBY: That’s what I’ve decided, just continue to exist. ANNA: We have this opportunity to ask where does this drop off happen and where is that difference? Is this everywhere? Just in the United States? Sometimes it is exhausting and also hard because there are not many other women professors, so I get asked to do more things. But we must show up and be a representative. OLIVIA: My experiences are different in part, because I grew up in an almost aggressively feminist household, and I may or may not have parents who are of a slightly

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DATUM NO.13 different generation from Shelby and Anna. My folks were relatively outspoken in our community. My mother was social worker and my father was engaged with women’s rights. Sometimes their views now feel a bit dated, but, there were certain things that my family pursued things that were very progressive at the time. I grew up during a moment where ‘take your daughters to work day’ was just getting started. I also went to my father’s office (he was a general contractor), which was all men except the secretaries and bookkeepers, to job sites that were also all men. So, I was aware of all of the gender issues in the field, starting out, but I did ultimately make decisions in my education that were different, that were outside of architecture and its specificities. I left architecture school after two years and moved into fine arts. I was able to go to programs where certainly my faculty were equal across gender lines. There are women and men, but often, more women. And that generally in my field, there are a lot more women. One thing that’s interesting, that came out very clearly to me my first year teaching here at ISU in 2017. I teach a class called Sources and Methods of Visual Art in my department. It’s required for my third-year students who are majors. I take them on a field trip to Chicago. We saw a show of recent acquisitions of female abstract painters by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. And I have a student, a very earnest male student in class, raise his hand when we returned from the trip. He said, ‘Olivia, why do we need shows like this?’ This classroom may have been 75% female. I was like, ‘well, your favorite professors may be women. Most of your professors, maybe women, most of the students in this classroom may be women, but most paintings held by institutions are made by men.’ And so this is in some ways in my field is at the very highest ranks and levels of things. Who’s represented in museum collections, is where the equity work is still happening. This is where some of these things, our own biases are being sussed out. Um, but that said, I work in a field where, um, specifically in textiles where a male professor or artist can consider gender diversity. And where we also talk now also about being field of white women and are trying to make changes to this perception and reality. I just put together a national award committee together and I am excited that we have a broad range of racial, gender and cultural representations on the committee and in our awards nominators. Um, but it’s been, it’s been a big discussion in all my professional organizations, and I’m glad that we’ve been able to use that way, but it has also caused huge rifts between generations. Some of the older generations have felt that they must step away from the field, in part, because of a lot of the discussions that were happening and a lot of the things that was happening, are about women working in the mid 20th century, as one of the places where they could work and do research at the time was in textiles. And so women did a lot of that work, in spite of the cultural issues we can see clearly now. A lot of the work from that time getting looked at under a microscope right now, which is a good thing, though figuring out though how to balance, critique and honoring the work that was happening is important. DATUM: How do you navigate the pressures that come with having to represent women architects? SHELBY: I think this is the challenge. I mean you want there to be such diversity and not just representation of one person, since there are so many ways to be. I think it can be tough because I think one of the challenges of representation is that you are always standing in for something beyond yourself. And sometimes that’s effective and sometimes not. I think it’s also about just not asking people to represent anything beyond themselves. It can be exhausting like what Anna said to represent so much. It is not fun to be reduced to one identity.

COLLECTIVE

SHELBY: I think the other pressure is that chased a lot of credentialing in order to prove credibility but that doesn’t necessary help. About a week after getting licensed I was at the AIA Iowa and I’m standing there with a male colleague, and someone comes up and talked to him about how great he is and I was literally standing there with AIA and professor on my name tag, and they were like ‘and what do you do?’ Even wearing your resume is not enough sometimes. So, I would encourage all of you to not assume about people. Do not assume the white dude is in charge. Do not assume the loudest person in the room has the most to say.

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ANNA: They are coming from a good place, but it is not enough. I often feel like I am not equipped to represent all women. Even when making this presentation it reminds me that all these things, I have done for myself in my career and experiences I have been through as being a woman in architecture, this is my career, this is my success, and it is separate from being a woman in architecture. I hate that this question is still a thing, but it is still very much a topic we must grapple with.

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Gabriela Robles-Munoz, Erica Halstead, + Morgan Bennett

ROME AS FOUND

SAN LORENZO

Throughout the history of urban development of the city of Rome, much of the focus has been on what lies inside the Aurelian wall. Our site, the San Lorenzo neighborhood, lies just outside of this wall. Its exclusion and separation from what is considered to be the archaeological heart of the city may lead some to overlook its rich history. When we began to research the area, we were interested in the many levels of history present in this neighborhood. In ancient times, it served as agricultural land, which was cut off from the city of Rome, accessible only through a few key ports. The middle ages brought about the first stage of urban development, as people started to move away from the city center. The modern era solidified San Lorenzo as a workingclass, urban neighborhood, and the contemporary era has brought about a new level of integration, with San Lorenzo becoming one of the liveliest neighborhoods for young people in Rome. This evolution of function and character is a consequence of the layering of history.

These levels of history have become our main conceptual focus: We, in the contemporary era, are actively participating in the ongoing creation of the archaeological history of Rome. Our desire to merge our contemporary intervention with the existing layers of history requires a delicate, nonintrusive approach to the site. By working with the natural slope, we are able to carve out space below the ground, push our forms into place, and merge the built with the existing. This creates the newest layer of archaeology. Our design approach, both in form and program, emphasizes how we in the contemporary era are engaging with and creating new levels of archaeological history. As we move through time, the properties of the places we exist in reflect themselves upon our current reality. Archaeology and history are beings that grow endlessly. The ground is an archive of our past, and we are just the topsoil.

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COLLECTIVE

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THE FORTRESS: VISUALIZING ECOFEMINIST FUTURES THROUGH WITCHCRAFT MAE MURPHY

Ar tb

y y Ma e Murph

Research presented at the Iowa Women’s and Gender Studies Conference, Mobilizing the Intersections of Power and Justice, Spring 2022 Architects not only dwell in practicality and construction details but are also concerned with feminism and other social impacts. In the contemporary world, we find ourselves in a hyper-capitalist system; the understanding of feminism as a practice of care and autonomy is severely undervalued. This design research explores the extent to which architects can use imagination to create radical spaces of feminist practices. This project imagines spaces for ecofeminist witch practices through visualizing an alternative future of the intersection between architecture and feminism. The

analysis of witches is an example of an alternative feminist future. Due to the inevitable collapse of capitalism and in reaction to the oppression of people who identify as women, witches will gain the freedom to create ecofeminist communities within the landscape. The imaginative ecofeminist community fosters a space for people to learn about natural healing methods, knowledge of ecology, and safe explorations into magical and non-traditional means of living. Historically, witches thrived in the pre-capitalistic society and will once again reclaim the land after capitalism falls in the future. The practice of wicca spirituality is present today, and the imagined fortress of witches is a dignified

COLLECTIVE

space to dedicate to these practices. Witchcraft can be a very individualistic and a communal process. Spaces within the fortress allow for personal journeys and mutual support. Rituals and daily practices are encouraged for people within the spaces along with care for the garden landscape.

“We struggle to break capital’s plan for women, which is an essential moment of the divisions within the working class, through which capital has been able to maintain its power.” -Silvia Federici, Wages Against Housework

DATUM NO.13

“

Within the ruins of capitalist buildings gardens are maintained and taken care of by people living within this community. The innate knowledge of ecology and plants

is critical for the witches to live off of the land. Paths are created for routes between spaces and connections between buildings. The gardens have several designed landscapes. Each space with a different autonomous remedy in mind. The garden of dreams holds lemon balm, lavender, peppermint and chamomile. The garden of menstruation has safflower, ginger, and white peony. The garden of miscarriage has espina colorada, cedron and floripon. In the center, the community hearth serves as a gathering place for rituals within the plants. This project provides a different outlook on the impacts of the built environment and is significant to developing concepts for reimagining feminist landscapes. By creating drawings such as these shown today, I have begun to imagine what a post-capitalist world looks like for witches. As a trained designer and architecture student,

images and collages, and drawings are how I communicate in this world. The intersection between architecture and feminism occurs in many realms, and witches is an interesting way for designers to draw spaces for these kinds of people and practices. Research is developed through an architectural lens in ARCH 403 Lazy Landscapes studio with Iowa State

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professors Cruz Garcia and Nathalie Frankowski. Visual drawings such as architectural landscape maps, plans, sections, and collages are used to explore research. Readings included Silvia Federici ‘Caliban and the Witch’, ‘Wages against Housework,’ ‘In Praise of Laziness’ by Mladen Stilinović, and ‘Laziness as the Truth of Mankind’ by Kazimir Malevich, and ‘Ecofeminist Philosophy’ by Karen J. Warren.

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X X X X X X NO.13 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

DANIELLE WILLKENS

C ol l age by C onnor Shanahan

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A DISCUSSION WITH:

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Interviewed + hosted by the Datum Collective on 3.03.22

COLLECTIVE ABOUT: Danielle Willkens

Danielle Willkens is an assistant professor of architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology; Willkens was a fall 2021 Mellon History Teaching Fellow in Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, pursuing the project “From Plantation to Protest: Visualizing Cultural Landscapes of Conflict in the American South.” She is working on a Historic Structures Report for the Edmund Pettus Bridge National Historic Landmark in Selma. Willkens is the author of Architecture for Teens: A Beginner’s Book for Aspiring Architects (Rockridge Press, 2021). She was the 2015 recipient of the Society of Architectural Historians’ H. Allen Brooks Travelling Fellowship. Her research into transatlantic design exchange has been supported by the Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation, the International Center for Jefferson Studies, and an American Philosophical Society Franklin Research Grant. She is an Associate of the American Institute of Architects, a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, and a LEED Accredited Professional for Building Design and Construction; she also holds a Federal Aviation Administration Remote Pilot Certificate. She serves on the Atlanta Preservation Center Board of Trustees.

DATUM: We were interested in your work in the different communities you have engaged with, and the preservation projects you have worked on. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got engaged in the different communities you were in and the process of working with communities on preservation projects?

DANIELLE: I think we see a lot with the public history, so how do architecture and architectural research come outside of its bubble and then interface with the public, to try to make more advocates for the built environment and start to make an argument for how preservation is sustainable. It is often seen as extremely expensive and often elitist, but in reality, it can be something that anchors a community. If you are preserving a certain space or area, it shows invested value in a place; there is a whole embodied energy to that area, so how do we maintain that?

DATUM: You are also looking at sustainable tourism. Can you speak to what that means and what you think that looks like in practice?

DANIELLE: I was very lucky to have a traveling fellowship a few years ago through the Society of Architectural Historians. A lot of it was driven by when I worked at Monticello part-time, Jefferson’s residence in Virginia, as a graduate student. I saw all the things that come along with public history, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and had done work in a few other sites related to that. Tourism is such a big economic generator for many sites, and when we look at the built environment as the nucleus of why that tourism happens, it can often be quite detrimental to communities and areas. So how do you start to understand it from a production standpoint that’s hopefully also equitable? I was able to go to a couple of different sites in Iceland in 2016 when there were more Americans in Iceland than Icelanders. Cultural consumerism was peaking, and it is just an amazing place, but people rarely do things outside the main, capital area. So, I was studying what happens

Within communities, your research, or design work, has to move at the speed of trust. You have to build trust within a community; and for a marginalized community, there is absolutely no reason for that trust to exist. So, it takes a lot of time to establish and maintain that trust, and I think that investment is really important.

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and it is not just a quick day trips where you get your selfie and leave. And what does that mean for others communities or people trying to be entrepreneurial? Prior to our last administration, when Cuba was more open to Americans, I was in the country for three months. The main tourist agency in Cuba is the Army, so when sanctions cut off independent tourism and focused it on centralized tourism, it actually just gave money to the wrong people. Independent tourism and a free-flowing economy meant that entrepreneurs could make money from Air BN&Bs, and paladares, which is typically a restaurant in somebody’s house. Finally, I was in Japan for about four months in Spring 2017, and that was when they were ramping up for the 2020 Olympics. They were thinking ahead - how were they going to showcase themselves in this new sense, a big reopening since 1964 when Japan first hosted the Olympics and they first time the nation welcomed more incoming tourists than outgoing tourists. Tourism is a huge thing, in terms of the footprint of places. We ask these questions about whether we should limit the numbers, but when you do that, or you impose a tourist tax, you automatically change who can go to these places, making them kind of elite; and where does that money go? This is something we are looking at in Atlanta with the Civil Rights Network. How you cultivate a heritage trail that benefits businesses, like the sandwich shop next door, and is not just feeding federal sites such as the National Park Service. These are design questions and policy questions. And I think I am curious to see after COVID if there will be a boom in tourism when people feel like they can travel, or want to travel? In some ways, COVID might have helped sites that were struggling with some of these issues. And then other places where they are trying to position themselves to become a tourist network have just collapsed. So, it is always a balance when it comes to sustainable tourism. DATUM: A little bit of a follow up to that, some of us are in a studio now that’s focusing around the Highline in New York City, which is an adaptive reuse project. Our project specifically looks at how tourism has affected the Chelsea area because of tourism. Can you talk about how different projects like these can benefit or not benefit certain communities? DANIELLE: Projects like Highline in New York are a resource parasite. When you look at the budget numbers for the New York City Park Service, what they spend on the Highline versus other community parks, it is astronomically more expensive. And I think the question lingers: is it worth keeping these services for tourists and then raising prices for the community in that area? That is where you get the distinction between displacement and gentrification. Raising prices could be good, but displacement due to gentrification is bad. There can be ways to fight gentrification with land trusts and some other supplements that can help keep residents and business in place when rents and taxes rise. However, if somebody’s property value goes up, that means that they can perhaps go somewhere else and make a pretty good amount on their property, which is not necessarily a bad thing. However, if you want to keep people in place, and not completely change the demographics, and make it impossible for a local worker to afford, I think that the displacement issue is completely unaccounted for. They did not touch it for the Highline. A couple of agencies are trying ten-year plans that basically say, all right, we know this intervention is going raise values, and actually part of the park system has to show that the parks are going to make money. We do not make parks just because we think they are good ideas and we are nice people; cities have to say, okay, this is going to raise our property values, so that means our taxes will go up. There is an entire economic model to it. A few developers and architects have been proactive, exploring a 10-year window of when things are going to change, and attempting to build a safety net for people to stay in place: their taxes are not going to skyrocket and the rent is not going to suddenly triple. In Washington, D.C., a new park is coming to the riverfront of the Anacostia, and they are employing this model. So, it will be interesting to watch and see if it works. They are being very proactive about knowing how the park will change the demographics and economics of the area. In Atlanta, we did the opposite. If anybody has heard this, we have the BeltLine; fundamentally a great idea. This loop will encircle Atlanta as a bike path, and there are adjacent restaurants and residences; a connective pedestrian network in a car-centric city. It was a graduate student’s idea from Georgia Tech that they then built, which is pretty stunning. It is about halfway done at this point and early in the planning, there was a proposal to integrate a form of this anticipatory economic model, but the city

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“TOURISM IS A HUGE THING,

IN TERMS OF FOOTPRINTS OF PLACES [...] WHEN YOU IMPOSE

A TOURIST TAX YOU CHANGE WHO

CAN

THESE

PLACES, MAKING THEM KIND OF ELITE ; AND WHERE DOES THAT MONEY GO?”

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DATUM NO.13

city essentially said - we do not really care if it is going raise prices and make people move out of their homes and have to deal with longer commutes, especially in a place that does not have a great transportation system. How does a development project add investment, and build productive tourism, but simultaneously protect the people and businesses already there? There are barely any locals in Venice anymore because they have basically turned it into a citywide Airbnb. Owners could make more money, but there is now a minimal amount of local nightlife or culture. DANIELLE: I think for things to be successful, there is a lot of diplomacy that has to exist. I am thinking of some of the work that’s going on the westside of Atlanta, which is basically an area that was cut off by the highway, so it is an example of redlining. Microsoft is coming in, so there is this big investment now on the verge in this area that has been under resourced. Three years ago when I moved to Atlanta, you could buy a smaller house here – about 800 square feet – for about $30,000. Now, even if the home is just a tear-down because it is in such bad shape, it is selling for about $300,000 with the anticipation of what is going to come in area. We are working with a neighborhood association and have talked to them about what they want, and the city has been involved with getting plans in place that date through the early 2000s. So, there has been this sequence of plans for, but there has been no significant action to preserve the area and its historical character. There has been a little bit of movement recently, which is good, but it is slow in terms of infrastructure, parks, and reinvestment. We were working with some of the developers who were engaged; and there are some nonprofits in the area. But at the same time, with some of those nonprofits, we have to be careful. Some of those have become primary landholders, and this tends to happen in underserved communities. In some ways, those organizations become part of the problem because they are not forwarding sustainable development that prioritizes the existing community. There are also foundations that raise questions about how you can take money from a group when you do not agree with all of their policies; but at the same time, those funds are helping to rehabilitate homes. There is a lot of gray area with Community work. Someone I work with very closely who is a property owner in the area is absolutely spectacular: trained as an architect, born and raised in Atlanta, has come back to the city and is now a pastor and an advocate. But, he talks about how unhealthy communities doing unhealthy things, and we can see community groups that do not get along or talk to each other. So, if I go do work at one property, and one of the other community groups hears that, they will be a little bit annoyed with us until we manage mediation. We are working in the same area, all moving towards the same goals to make it better, yet a resource-starved area often becomes a contentious place.

DATUM: We are hearing you talk about working with this idea of trust, which I thought was really interesting. We are curious, how do you define “COLLECTIVE,” given the background of your work? And this could be collective in a good sense that there is a collective of people in a community working to better their spaces versus collective corporations or negligent governments. What kind of broad understanding of “COLLECTIVE” can you draw from your work?

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DATUM: We are curious as you are talking about all your work and experience; you have been around to all these different places. How has being in Iceland, Cuba, Japan, and now Atlanta shifted your work in all these different places?.

DANIELLE: You invest in a place. You get to know the place and anchor yourself to what extent you can. And you always have to ask, how can you use what training or tools you have to be of benefit? I think it is very much about a calibration to the area; and most of my work is a thread. It is a sort of a series of living sites since things are not static and telling those historical stories or narrative about what we cannot see is important. How do we draw those out? I have always been a really big tech geek - I really love technology and technological tools – but I also love archives, which may seem a bit at odds. But I really like how we put these things together to span the past and envision the future, and I work with kids a lot so know the power of visualization. To get somebody interested in history or a place, giving them an essay is not always going to do the work - how do we make representations more inventive, and what are the kinds of ways in which we can interact with a place to get people excited about it?

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hungry.

lights

on.

where

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rice.

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dat

ON.

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fry

heat

whatcha

season

looking

dishes.

at!? food

MUSIC BY RUN LIN

DINING

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The unheard sounds of a dining experience are revealed and cared for.

An exploration of the cycle of cooking and dining in the form of acoustic and visual expression in relation to the body and architectural space.

service

*death

stare*

increasing.

food?

Featuring multiple handmade instruments inspired by and primarily made of typical dining ware giving life and a “voice” to the static objects.

speed

up!

pay

more!

HUNGRY! COLLECTIVE

sound.

here

music.

food

axxhole!

NOT

it’s...

satisfied.

cominggg rc e

ughhh.

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a th S

*munch*

what

out..

raw.

......

can

cooked.

*munch*

ooooh

shxt’s

nasty!!!

with

this

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ooo!

woooh!

that

feels

GOOD! COLLECTIVE

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ENCOUNTERS OF EXUBERANCE BRENNA FRANSEN LUKE MCDONELL JIHOON KIM FENGXUE XIA

Encounters of Exuberance is an extension of Mitchell Squires’ ARCH 403 Studio: “Factories of Future Feelings, Archives

of Tomorrow’s

Pasts that Never Were”. The explorations of this publication follow the e-FLUX Arch x Guggenheim 2020 topic of

survivance. “At

face value, the term “survivance” invokes, but suggests something more than mere survival or subsistence. Deconstructed, sur-vivance divulges a bursting forth of life. Sur: above and beyond, rhyming in intent with hyper, meta, super. Vivance: the French take on the Latin root for vitality, vigor, and vivaciousness. Thus, survivance: hyper vitality, super vigor. Surviving as thriving. Thriving as surviving.”.

Desire is threatened by the felt necessity to view all encounters for their inherent gains, making it difficult to distinguish between deceitful desires and desires that belong to our authentic selves. The lifelessness which exists from these false constructions inhibits any attempts of thriving. We began our journey exploring the objects and artifacts of our own desires and relationships, questioning the authenticity of the real, hyper-real, and fake. Asking ourselves to unapologetically practice desires with no economic, social, or political capital to be gained. Through the course of the project, we explored these ideas through our own case studies, diorama imagery, interactive games, and the final conceptualization of a performance, all of which explore ideas of identity and what our role is in collective and individual desires.

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Still from “Encounters of Exuberance: Performance” (2021).

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OVERLOAD GABRIELLA SAHOLT

OVERLOAD is a screen inspired by projectors and photo technology meant to induce sensory overload through visual stimuli. But what is screen and what is overload? A definition of screen for this project was developed as the entomology of the screen was researched. The cinematic sense of a screen sparked interest. In this definition, the screen receives light to communicate a scene or idea that is tugging, or trying to evoke emotion and feeling from the recipients. The screen becomes a membrane of communication between the lens that focuses the light and the observers who receive the message projected. Sensory overload is when there is more stimulation of one or more senses in one’s environment than the brain can process. This can be induced by loud sounds, flashing imagery, or a number of other triggers. When someone is experiencing sensory overload, they may experience symptoms of irritability, discomfort, difficulty focusing, the urge to cover their eyes or ears and so on. The form of OVERLOAD takes inspiration from the inside of DLP projectors and is built to induce sensory overload of the visual sense. The square grid of panels, or “pixels,” mimics the millions of micro-mirrors within the lens of the DLP projector.

Each 11.75-inch square pixel will have a different visual stimulus playing on it in attempts to overload the observer with visual stimuli (see next page). To further the number of stimuli, each pixel has the ability to rotate on an axis much like the micro-mirrors. As each pixel has different visual stimuli playing, hopping from pixel to pixel, the entire screen will jitter and twitch in all different directions. To immerse the viewer in the experience, the screen spans 15 feet wide and 10 feet tall. These dimensions were determined by calculations to cover the full peripheral field of a viewer standing four feet away from the screen. When standing in front of the screen, it requires the observer to take in the stimuli since it surrounds their entire visual range. As observers approach to view the OVERLOAD, sensors within the proposed screen will capture their reactions and collage them into the stimuli. Eventually, the chaotic stimuli will be completely replaced with a collage of the observers. Time will continue to pass and the screen will continue to collage the collection of faces until the initial stimuli is forgotten and the collective will be a message of its own. The screen acts as a constant conversation between the images it presents and the light it captures.

DATUM NO.13

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COLLECTIVE BIOS BRENNA FRANSEN

MAE MURPHY

Brenna is a fifth-year student studying architecture and Environmental Studies. She loves to design and create across disciplines and has recently picked up an interest in ceramics. Additionally, Brenna worked at a greenhouse for four years and loves sharing plantlets with her friends!

Mae is a fifth-year architecture student with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. She is an advocate for women and femme rights in design and hopes to continue that passion in the professional field. Fun fact, she is a trained seamstress and loves to sew!

SAMARTH VA CHHRAJANI

RUN LIN

Samarth is a fifth-year architecture student, who is interested in the study of South Asia and the material manifestations of ideology and politics there. He loves writing, reading and traveling when possible. Throughout his time at the college of design, Samarth has participated in events, publications and exhibitions.

Run is a fifth-year architecture student born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. Run came to the US at the age of 16. He is passionate about art, film, architecture, culinary art, fashion, and lots more. Run’s work is dedicated in interdisciplinary design and how each subject comes together and complements each other.

ARDEN STAPELLA

CONNOR SHANAHAN

Arden is a third-year architecture student pursuing a minor in philosophy. Arden is interested in the collective pursuit of designers to create work that is beautiful, as well as meaningful. She is also interested in art history, and enjoys creating in the forms of stained glass, knitting, and embroidery.

Connor is a third-year architecture student with a minor in Spanish. He uses collective as a tool to express and share new perspectives with those around him and to better understand who he designs for. In his free time, he enjoys creating mixed media drawings and playing card games.

DANIEL LEIRA

MIRCEA NASTASE

Daniel is a third-year architecture student from Spain. He is interested in modern architectural history as well as historic preservation. He loves photoshop collage and conceptual design.

Mircea is a third-year architecture student who advocates for inclusivity in design and social/cultural justice. He is minoring in digital media and enjoys pushing the boundary on visual representation. In his free time, he enjoys watching anime, collecting Funko-POPS, and collaging.

JAMILETH SARCENO

SOPHIA MAGUIÑA

Jamileth is a third-year architecture student. She uses collective to expand her understanding of those around her to enhance the collaborative nature of her work.

Sophia is a third-year Peruvian architecture student who loves to travel. Her favorite place she has visited during her international travels is Easter Island, Chile, and she plans to extend her travels further in the future and use the inspiration in her work. Being part of the BIPOC community, she collectively advocates for women and people of color and stands up for equality in the workplace.

TIMOTHY ZHANG

GABRIELLA SAHOLT

Timothy is a third-year architecture student with a minor in Urban Studies. He enjoys hiking, bouldering, kayaking and camping. In his free time, he likes to paint and make pottery. He is a BUILD mentor and deeply advocates for his fellow BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ students.

Gabriella is a second-year architecture student with a minor in Urban Studies and has an interest in graphic design, fashion, and photography.

SP E CIAL T HANKS DATUM is a medium for critical academic discourse through the exchange of bold design and progressive ideas. As a student-run publication, we are grateful to the Iowa State Student Organizations and Department of Architecture for their continual support. We would also like to thank previous donors for providing the funds to get us to where we are today. Donors have no influence on, or involvement with the work selected for the publication.

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IN LIGHT OF THE COLLECTIVE THEME, WE WOULD LIKE TO GIVE THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED; LARGE AND SMALL.

Aaron Koopal Aidan Andrews Alessandro Rognoni Andrew Moon Anna Aversing Arden Stapella Berit Nuetzmann Braeden Green Brenna Fransen Connor Shanahan Cruz Garcia Daniel Leira Danielle Willkens Darren Douglas David Reid Deborah Hauptmann Detlef Weiz Erica Halstead Fengxue Xia Firat Erdim Gabriela Robles-Munoz Gabriella Saholt Jamileth Sarceno Jihoon Kim Jonathan Kaye Jose Lopez-Villalobos

Ka Heun Hyun Lauren Wadle Luke McDonell Mae Murphy Maroje Mrduljaš Martino Stierli Mircea Nastase Mitchell Squire Monika Platzer Morgan Bennett Nathalie Frankowski Olivia Valentine Pavaan Joshi Run Lin Ryan Kodama Samarth Vachhrajani Shelby Doyle Sophia Maguiña Sophie Lee Taylor Burnside Timothy Zhang Tuyen Le Vladimir Kulić’ Zhaoyue Chen Zoe Stenseth

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COLLECTIVE

D AT U M N O . 1 3

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I O W A S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y

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JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE

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