Stoa: Volume 0

UNIVERSITY of NOTRE DAME SCHOOL of ARCHITECTURE

Volume 0

Student Magazine

August 2020

UNIVERSITY of NOTRE DAME SCHOOL of ARCHITECTURE

Volume 0

Student Magazine

August 2020

Stoa—the student-led, student-designed, and studentedited magazine of the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture—serves as a platform for showcasing student experiences, design research, and writing. By bringing the unique Notre Dame student perspective to broad architectural themes, Stoa acts as a catalyst for mindful exposition and theory for contributors and readers alike. Above all, the magazine cultivates a community for intellectual growth by connecting students, alumni, and faculty, as well as fostering a dialogue with the wider academic and architectural world.

The Garden

Beyond the School of Architecture

The Garden is a place where the variety of the greater natural world is sampled and carefully arranged to be studied and enjoyed. In this section, we seek to welcome you into the magazine with a diverse selection of architecture-related news in the broader Notre Dame community, academia, and various fields of practice.

Les Ateliers

Studio and class

The French word for an artist’s studio or workshop, l’atelier, is now a symbol of the respect for artisanship, the spirit of group production, and the pursuit of high-quality products in the modern design world. To convey the ambiance of les ateliers, we aim to not only present the thoughtful work produced in studios and classes, but also to capture the nurturing, collaborative, and diligent dynamic in our studio spaces.

Le Salon

Interview and discussion

Le Salon is a place for a cup of tea and lively interaction with people: lectures, interviews, conversations, discussions, and panels with guests, alumni, peers, and neighbors. Meetings occur for the pure joy of sharing thoughts. Intellectual discussions are served, and genuine curiosity is encouraged.

Le Poché

Refined, structural writing and research

Poché in architectural plans and sections refers to the solid space between walls that is crucial for the understanding of architectural composition. While the French word poché originally means “smeared,” we are, on the other hand, quite curious and serious about this structural yet often invisible part of architecture. In this section we aim to unfold how the solid plans of the architectures and spaces are laid out through design research, continuous contemplation, and intensive studies.

Il Bosco

Raw, lively expressions

Il Bosco is the Italian word for “the woods.” The bosco is often the most mysterious and wild part of the Italian villa typology. It is raw, it is often unrefined, but it is full of fresh air, excitement, and energy. Here, we encourage the impulsive expression in response to various inspirations. It is where new ideas keep budding out like green leaves in the spring.

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This issue of Stoa takes elements from the Pantheon in Rome, Italy, and composes them as visual highlights throughout the various sections. The original measured drawings come from Les Edifices Antiques by Antoine Desgodetz. We hope the elements guide you through the writings and drawings in this magazine, just as they guide one through the theatre of life in the built environment.

By digitizing the engravings and incorporating them into our visual design with a youthful twist, we wish to share with you our passion for artisanal quality and the infinite possibility of architectural details.

Text by Xinyuan Sam Zhuang Digitized by Yun Xing and Sharon Yehnert

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Contents The Garden Luminarts Fellowship RAMSA Summer Charrette Minor in Real Estate

2 3 4

Les Ateliers Brandevoort Studio, Spring 2007 Mati Studio, Fall 2019 Graphics I, Fall 2019

5 16 33

Le Salon Letter from Dean Emeritus Lykoudis Interview with Dean Polyzoides A Library Tour

40 44 54

Le PochĂŠ A Brief Etymology of Charrette

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Il Bosco First-Year Students International Students Sketch and Drawing Feature

68 72 74

Acknowledgments Sources

86 88

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The Architecture Fellowship of the Luminarts Cultural Foundation Taylor Schmidt, Fifth-Year Student My name is Taylor Schmidt, and I am 5th year architecture student from the Chicagoland area. The Architecture Fellowship of the Luminarts Cultural Foundation—which was first brought to my attention while I was working in Chicago two years ago—is awarded in conjunction with the Chicago- Midwest Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. The submission process includes a resume, a portfolio, and a career statement. In the statement, you need to outline your objectives in the realm of architecture, discuss how becoming a Fellow would support those objectives, and demonstrate how you envision your talents impacting the greater Chicago community. To be eligible, you must live or work within 150 miles of the Chicago loop and be between the age of 18-30; the age range is intentional as one of the focuses of the Luminarts Foundation focuses on cultivating Chicago’s vibrant art communities by supporting exemplary young artists. The fellows of the foundation include singers, dancers, musicians, and painters among others.

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In my Career Statement, I touched on my self-directed, ongoing research project about the Prussian Architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel. I am interested in how his design process was altered due to the architectural travels he embarked on. Schinkel was able to leave a lasting impression on the city of Berlin; his built work still influences the cityscape today. Understanding how a great architect was able to learn from the past, bring depth to his city’s landscape, and add new light to the architecture of his city is forever relevant.

I look to make a similar contribution to the architecture of Chicago. As a fellow, I am able to apply for further grants that facilitate my research endeavors,with the promise that I will contribute to the greater Chicago community.

The Garden

Robert A. M. Stern Architects Virtual Summer Design Charrette Nick Oddo, Fifth-Year Student Due to the cancellation of their summer internship program, Robert A.M. Stern Architects revised their summer plans to take the form of the RAMSA Summer Design Charrette: a two-week long theoretical design project stationed along the Hudson River.

The proposed design challenge was coined the Hudson River Arts Community, boasting river frontage views, a flat design surface, and easy access by car, train, and ferry. Fifteen interns—including myself, Eddie Faicco (‘21), and Mickey Parks (‘21)—were divided into four teams, each tasked with designing a masterplan for the arts community. The following week we were tasked with creating an individual design of one of four building typologies: cottage, community center, school dormitory, and studio space.

Throughout the two-week design process, we had daily team meetings with two task managers from the firm, as well as mid-week

check-ins with the partners of the firm. On both Fridays, a firm-wide Zoom seminar was held for presentation of our masterplan designs and individual designs respectively with a panel of jurists consisting of Bob Stern and the partners. Outside of the design charrette, daily training and info sessions were held to provide the interns with more exposure to the office environment and workflow.

Navigating the uncertain environment of virtual work and communication was made easier with Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Outlook, and collaborative program elements through AutoCad, Revit, Rhino, and SketchUp. Interns were compensated in stipend form for their efforts, rather than hourly. All in all, the charrette proved to be challenging but rewarding, offering a brief insight into the firm’s staff, functionality, and process while providing its interns with valuable knowledge and work experience in this new distanced environment.

Hudson River Arts Community Proposal, Nick Oddo

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The Minor in Real Estate Macartan Commers, Fifth-Year Student One of the main reasons I made the decision to attend Notre Dame four years ago was that I knew I would be able to receive a well-rounded education. I had not yet decided to go all in on the architecture program; in fact, I really did not know much at all about it before visiting campus in the spring of 2016. I had numerous academic interests coming into college, which is the case for most of the bright and talented students here, and I have been able to further these interests in a number of ways over the years.

Our major is synonymous with long hours of work that leave little time for pursuits outside of architecture. However, if you are willing to load up your schedule a little bit and take a few extra credits each semester, it is actually quite easy to pick up a minor or a concentration. There are also other creative ways to do this, such as using required classes to your benefit. I took the six credits of Italian that the School of Architecture requires, added a few Italian language and culture classes, and turned it into a minor.

Just because a course doesn’t exist at our school, it doesn’t mean that you can’t seek out different ways to further your education. The Minor in Real Estate was only offered at the start of the 2019 fall semester—not during my first three years here. I have, however, been able to participate in real estate-related activities since my first year. I joined the Real Estate Club early on and was able to participate in a case competition in the spring of my first year that included a final presentation in Chicago.

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Notre Dame has now not only created the Minor in Real Estate, but also the Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate, which offers a multitude of ways to get involved in the industry. I am looking forward to taking more real estate-focused classes in the upcoming academic year. I will also be serving as an officer for the Real Estate Club of Notre Dame—another great on-campus resource for all things real estate in both the classroom and the professional world.

I was fortunate enough to spend a summer abroad in New Zealand to take an asset management class offered by the Civil Engineering Department and to do a research internship at the University of Auckland. This three-week course is one of many interdisciplinary course options that count toward the real estate minor. I was able to study both the architectural history of the country as well as understand the underlying impacts and considerations of its infrastructure.

There are a variety of opportunities, beyond the many that the School of Architecture offers, that contribute to the holistic education needed for success in the profession. I encourage students still early on in their college experience to explore how the many offerings of our great university can enhance their educational experience.

Les Ateliers

Brandevoort Studio Third Year, Spring 2007

Project Brief Brandevoort, once a dismal farmland, is now a city of 17,000 inhabitants located in the south-west of Helmond, Netherlands. When Helmond first acquired the area in 1995, a ministry committee saw its potential for urban and economic development and decided to build a new city. After many design entries that sought to transform the area into a modern city, the project was ultimately awarded to “new town traditionalists” Rob Krier and Christoph Kohl in 1996 for their vision that emulated a typical Dutch city in the Brabant style. Krier and Kohl designed the master plan of Brandevoort from scratch, but the ministry invited local architects to create the edifices of the buildings to generate growth and jobs. The architects’ designs strayed from the traditional language and the results were so poor that potential buyers of the homes lost interest.

And so, in the Spring of 2007, as Brandevoort was under construction, Professor Ettore Mazzola, along with his studio class, was invited by Krier and Kohl to design two lots of the new city to more accurately align with the rules of the design tradition.

The studio project aimed to create a consistent architectural scheme with the traditional aesthetics and functionality that is typical of the region. Prof. Mazzola and his students spent three days researching and documenting on-site in Brabant, Helmond, Eindhoven, Thorn, Hilvarenbeek, Heusden, and—of course—Brandevoort. As they continued to examine the flaws of the original proposal, the team wished to generate designs of classical harmony. Communication between the studio and the community was essential throughout the project; Prof.

Mazzola believes that a successful city should be built by its citizens, not the architects.

Buildings of residences and shops, therefore, were all designed with consideration of human needs. In just four weeks, the project— including forty-one townhouses of Lot 18 and forty-three of Lot 22—achieved great success after a final review with Krier, Kohl, and two invited local designers: Erik Aarts and Frank Altpeter. The development committee later granted construction approval to these student designs, which Krier and Kohl adopted and further developed into their full remodeling project. At this point in time, the construction phase of Lot 18 has been completed.

Text by Leighton Douglass, Joan Ngai, and Xiaoyu Rayne Zhu

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Professor

Ettore M. Mazzola

Inviter and Developer

Rob Krier Christoph Kohl

Students

Joanna D. Bea Tricia M. Bertke Noemie A. Brand Laura C. Bresnahan Christopher R. De Chiaro Krista L. Dumkrieger Melissa Grisales Christopher P. Huffer Kevin J. Kelly Chun-Li Lin Thien-An Nguyen-Vu Kaitlin M. O’brien Jonathan M. Olvera Christopher C. Reidy Rebecca A. Sigman Laura A. Van-Batenburg-Stafford

Brandevoort Studio Les Ateliers

Master Plan, Painted by Krista Dumkrieger

Block 22 Aerial, Painted by Christopher DeChiaro

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Kevin Kelly

Design Technique For the Brandevoort Studio project, understanding the local context and placement of a building within that context are extremely important, as for most Notre Dame studio projects. Part of the studio travel included visiting local towns and villages to better study traditional brick details, dormer elements, glazing to masonry ratios, and entry door details. A valuable take away from the Notre Dame education is that students are encouraged to create buildings that fit into the local environment. Our studio’s designs applied the precedent research from our

on-site observations, which allowed (in my opinion) for a successful project.

The watercolor renderings and elevations the studio produced provided a rich and illustrative background to aid the presentation of our designs. The rendering style that the University promotes helps to create drawings that are artistic and evocative at the same time.

This rendering style was also appropriate for detailing and rendering the extensive brick patterns that the studio utilized to elevate our designs.

Block 18 completed, View along the Hertogsveld

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Brandevoort Studio Les Ateliers

Block 18 Aerial View, Painted by Thien-An Nguyen-Vu

Block 18 Lots 4-6 8-12 12-14 Elevation, Plan, Section, and Detail, Kevin Kelly

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Kevin Kelly

Project Specifics I thoroughly appreciated the fact that this studio project had “real” clients and was an opportunity for us, as students, to have our designs actually built. It provided insight into what students could expect after graduation, especially with respect to development constraints, working and designing in teams, and presenting to clients. Even though the focus of our junior year is ‘Rome’, this project still followed the same strategy as our other studio projects that year (and during all our years at Notre Dame) – studying local context and precedent, multiple iteration of design and development, refinement of those options, and creation of presentation material. This is a process that has followed me into the

professional world; I’m grateful for the Notre Dame curriculum that promoted the process in the first place.

I encourage students that work on studio projects with real clients to listen to the clients and stakeholders, and to understand how one’s preconceived notion of what a community or town needs may not be correct.

I found myself surprised by how residents were using ‘shared’ spaces such as the streets, entry stoops, and interior courtyards as both private, semi-private, and public spaces. It wasn’t until I spent extensive time in other cities that I realized this is the urban norm.

Perspective of Block 18, Painted by Jonanthan Olvera

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Brandevoort Studio Les Ateliers

Kevin Kelly

Beyond the Project Looking back, this project was one of the closest experiences I had during my studies at Notre Dame to the architecture profession. I applaud Professor Mazzola for providing this experience to my fellow classmates and me.

Sketches and Notes, Kevin Kelly

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Lee Lin This summer, Stoa Magazine was able to connect with alumnus Lee Lin (‘09). During our conversation, Lin shared his memory of the 2007 Brandevoort studio project, as well as his experience of practice in the greater architecture field over the years.

Project Review

Reflection on the Notre Dame Education

Arriving in Brandevoort after months of study in Rome, Lin was particularly intrigued by the change to an architecture style with a more vertical nature, and enjoyed visiting the surrounding towns and studying the traditional architecture of the region. He claims that being on-site facilitated a study of how people live their lives, which then inspired a design approach that was based on not only purely aesthetic effects, but also end-user lifestyle considerations.

Lin believes that while methodological trainings are important, it is the aesthetic sense he gradually gained over the years in Notre Dame—the understanding of the proportion, the meaning of beauty, the principle behind the ratio, the history of classical architecture, the classical training on the nature of beauty— that he is able to carry with him to the practice.

During the design process, Lin focused on mediating the verticality of the Dutch buildings, the narrow spaces, and the comfort of interior spaces. He opened up the building plans across floors, and played with different staircases to integrate the floors more smoothly for the residences.

The buildings at the corner of Block 22, which Lin helped to develop, were one four-story single-family townhouse and two three-story single-family townhouses. The townhouses have more elaborate street facing façades with street access, simpler garden facing façades finished with stucco, and basic openings that give focus to the inside garden, letting the lifestyle and the interior of the block speak for themselves.

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“At Notre Dame, what we have is truly invaluable,” Lin says. “During the year in Rome, the way that the professors really understood this rational beauty with a reason or a story behind every shape was fascinating and inspiring. As an aspiring modernist in college, I found it challenging, but, in reality, the training helped, and was extremely useful in my career. I wanted, so eagerly, to learn CAD and SketchUp; I wanted to be an expert of 3ds Max, but I now realized that at the end of the day, the Natural Sense of Beauty programmed and infused in you is what can guide you through your career.”

Brandevoort Studio Les Ateliers

Perspective of Block 22 Interior, Painted by Laura Van Batenburg

Block 22 Lots 9-10-11, Lee Lin

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Lee Lin

Block 22 Lots 9-10-11 Elevation and Sections, Lee Lin

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Brandevoort Studio Les Ateliers

Lee Lin

Tips for Students: Presentation Lin says that architecture schools provide students with the opportunity to practice their communication skills—essential skills for any career. He thinks that the unique architecture critique culture, where students are asked to present their projects in front of a group of jurors, provides architecture students real practice of communication skills over years.

With his experience in project managing and business development at various architecture firms including MAD, ATKINS, and BLINK, Lin offers current students some personal tips and tricks on presentation.

Start off strong; grab the audiences’ interests at the beginning.

Don’t start slow; an architecture presentation is not a movie that is two hours long and takes years to make. You need to grab their attention from the first second.

Find what drives the audience, the end-users, and the people. What do they care about?

The client or developer can hire any designer in the world to make an aesthetically beautiful design. Thus, oftentimes, how you make that connection with the person—the audience of the presentation—makes a big difference. You have to study first: What is the essence of the project? Who are the targeted customers? What is the project direction?

Find and establish some “connecting points” with the end-users and the audience.

Talk about the building, but not only about the building. Aesthetic decisions are pretty subjective, but when it comes to lifestyle— how people live, how people interact—the design decisions become more substantial. A project needs those substantial touch points.

In architecture schools and architecture practices, there is a rich amount of design thinking on form and beauty that goes into the projects, but to make a compelling presentation, the architects need to translate the design thinking to the language that the audience understands: you can use relatable factors such as travel, everyday experience— something that is clear and understandable to everyone.

Sketch and Notes, Lee Lin

Text by Xinyuan Sam Zhuang

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View with Greek Flag from the Parthenon, Photo by Austin Proehl

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Les Ateliers

Mati Studio Fifth-Year Studio, Fall 2019

Project Brief The seaside town of Mati was settled shortly after the Second World War in the late 1940s and 50s within a densely forested area of the Attic peninsula. The town was ravaged by wildfires in the summer of 2018; the fires that spread took over 100 lives and all but destroyed the town.

This fifth-year design studio focused on developing a master plan that would use lessons learned in California and other places that embrace principles of fire-resistant urbanism, architecture and landscape. Looking forward, the students would explore a vision that would contribute to the visualization of Mati’s renewal by providing a sense of place, resilience and accessibility.

The studio began in August of 2019 with an initial visit to document the site. The team of nine students also traveled to two exemplary Greek towns of Nafplion and Spetses to observe and experience first-hand the traditional regional urbanism and architecture. The team also held a series of workshops with local residents and professionals during the second site visit.

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Proposed Master Plan of Mati, Greece

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Mati Studio Les Ateliers

During the semester, the design team took two trips to Greece to better understand the site and its community. When assembling site information about transportation, utilities, site features and other critical data, the studio participants looked to local residents, officials and business owners to accurately present the community’s needs and views. When engaging with fire safety and prevention, retail and other socio-economic issues, the studio sought engineers, architects and other professionals for their expertise. In the end, the studio participants prepared two schematic designs to be presented to the community: a realistic achievable five-year plan and a more aspirational, long-term seventy-five-year plan.

The major aspects of the master plan included fire defense zones for the vulnerable north and west sides of the town, a new fire station with a lookout tower and cisterns for water capture and fire defense. It also included fire-resistant urbanism along the major streets to provide fire barriers and development of high quality visible accesses to the coast along with piers to provide landing for possible evacuations, as well as summertime swimming opportunities.

The project has been noted in the Greek and international press, having being mentioned in several national Greek newspapers and CNN Greece. The Prime Minister has given his support through the Technical Chamber of Greece. Financial support has also been provided by HRH, the Prince of Wales, Richard Driehaus and the School’s Advisory Council.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the planned spring presentations to the Technical Chamber of Greece and the residents of Mati were postponed and are now being rescheduled. In addition, the project will be submitted to the Greek press and other public outlets to broaden the discussion on urbanism and architecture. The hope is that the major points of the proposal will be adopted by the planning agencies of the national and regional authorities.

There are three goals with respect to the project: 1. To develop a master plan for the town that is guided by principles of resilience to wildfires and to the extent that it is applicable, to other consequences of climate change.

2. To develop solutions with respect to architecture and urbanism that mitigate these disasters and also create beautiful places that allow for human flourishing.

3. To develop a “sense of place” that incorporates landscape features and architecture that support the master plan.

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Professor

Michael Lykoudis

Students

Jillian Ahern Katarzyna Baczynska William Marsh Diana NeacĹ&#x;u Austin Proehl Andrew Seago Zhuofei Tang Alessandra Turi Amali Wijesekera

Guest Jurors

Stephanie Bothwell Tiffany Gulick Leon Krier Meghan O’Hara Giorgos Panetsos Thomas Norman Rajkovich

Visiting Critic

Stefanos Polyzoides

Mati Studio Les Ateliers

Dean Emeritus Lykoudis and Dean Polyzoides with Mati Studio Participants

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Austin Proehl When thinking back on my education at Notre Dame, I see a few semesters that mark key transitions in my learning. Our time in Rome was an obvious one, but the one that had the most impact on my academic career was the Fall 2019 Mati project with Dean Michael Lykoudis. What felt like a whirlwind of a semester at the time turned out to be not only the perfect setup for my undergraduate thesis, but also a deep dive into disaster relief urbanism and problem solving as a team.

I started the semester with a two week trip to Greece—the first with Dean Lykoudis and my studio group and the second on my own to research a little more on Ancient Greece.

Coming off of a summer studying High Classical and Georgian design in England, I found Greece to be a place that helped me to see the beauty in the vernacular. I learned how the culture and the people have helped shape a perfect marriage between their classical past and the present, and I had a first-hand encounter with the devastation of Mati, Greece. These experiences helped steer me and the rest of the students to produce both individual and group projects that could help restore the life and culture lost in the fires.

My project was a natural healing resort with a lighthouse to stand as a beacon of hope for the town. My research of ancient Greek precedents, along with the Mediterranean coastal vernacular, influenced my design to integrate it into the cliffside site while giving just enough classical touches to show the hierarchy of spaces. The research I conducted would later influence the design of my undergraduate thesis and continues to be a source of interest and inspiration in my professional career. The guidance of Michael Lykoudis and the interactions with the people of Mati helped me discover different sides of how architecture and urbanism help shape culture.

This opportunity, generously made possible

by Notre Dame, will continue to influence me in the years to come.

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Mati Studio Les Ateliers

Coastal Elevation

West Elevation Coastal Elevation and West Elevation, Austin Proehl

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Zhuofei Tang Project Specific The purpose of this project was to reimagine Mati, Greece, in both the urban setting and architectural language, after a destructive wildfire. During our studio trips to Greece I was especially intrigued by the concept of polykatoikia, which means apartment buildings in Greek. One thing we often saw was that after a destructive event the casualties are left to oblivion when time passes. What could we do to remind us of the lives that are lost due to this tragedy? For my project, I used the form of polykatoikia, along with the garden sequence/promenade that are in front, to create an overall sequence of inhabitable monumentality—an ode to the dead. My program included a series of apartment buildings that lined the streets, a garden to bring back greenery, a memorial chapel, and two water towers to terminate the whole sequence and serve as beacons to mark the sea access for further evacuation use.

My favorite part of the studio was the interaction with Professor Lykoudis. His way of teaching is not the kind of kindergarten babysitting, grinding everything up and

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feeding them to you spoon by spoon, but more of a conceptual way of guiding you through a journey of serendipity. If the Rome year was the year of enlightenment (yes, to me, 1st and 2nd year were just blindly nudging everything in the dark), then my fifth year was the year for a great leap forward marked by the Greece Studio. Designing in Rome was about strict authenticity for both the envelope, the structure of the building, and the ornamentation: for example, my villa project used a purely classical lexicon, yet the Greece project had more leeway, due to the form of polykatoikia being extremely eclectic. I had the chance to play with the articulation of façade through the juxtaposition of classical languages and stripping them down to pure geometric form.

This studio was a retrospective of all the things we learned from the ND SoA classical way of teaching. Of course, what we’ve experienced in the past five years was just skimming through the world of classicism, but it was enough to put us into another scope, another way of looking at and thinking of architecture and classicism as a whole.

Mati Studio

Beyond the Project

One thing I always did when looking at history and precedents was to look only at the form and shape of the precedents, without understanding them. This kind of superficial study creates a conglomeration of classical masterpieces. A design might look quite classical and elegant, but there's no originality or excitement to it. My advice is try to look at the precedents in a more mannerist way, to understand it fully and then to play with it, to be more daring and make something new. I was very into 1900’s architecture, so I referenced Aldolf Loos and all the coeval architects a lot; my memorial chapel idea came from our studio visit to the Mycenaean treasure, from the heel climbing experience, and from the monumentality of the triangular geometric shape (pyramid, Zumthor’s chapel, etc.).

As I said before, this project was the second enlightenment throughout my years in ND SoA: my 1st and 2nd years were dumbfounded, 3rd year was la dolce vita, 4th year was mediocre, and 5th year was my 2nd enlightenment or… industrial revolution? I am now a lot more daring in terms of playing with architectural tectonics and languages, and the way I look at precedents has changed completely.

Without participating in this studio, my thesis would have looked completely different; I might have just been smudging on the paper and calling it a day, still thinking I was doing “classical design” while actually just being a copycat. Professor Lykoudis is one of the few people I truly admire with all my heart: he is the most potent yet humble person I know. It was truly a blessing to be in his studio.

Les Ateliers

Design Technique

Aerial View, Zhuofei Tang

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Jillian Ahern At the SoA, I always felt that the teaching of traditional urbanism was slightly idealized, from our studies of organic Roman piazze and street networking to L’Enfant’s geometrical plan for Washington, D.C. In a modern world where profit-driven real estate development seems to conquer the field and vehicular traffic dominates the street, I was concerned that I would never be able to make a larger impact in a community with my education focusing on classically-based architecture and pedestrian-oriented urbanistic practices. However, with Dean Lykoudis’s studio in Mati, I was able to witness the damage that was caused by poor city planning. When we met with civilians, their primary concern was that we would eradicate the quaint nature of their beloved town, referred to as “paradise.”

Assuming that we would completely change Mati by inserting modern structures and large commercial rows without consideration of the surrounding context, they begged us to not change much. It occurred to me that as a studio we were truly capable of maintaining the quaint nature loved by the civilians, while also drastically changing the street networks to allow for continuity and emergency egress, adding in attractive community buildings to create density that assimilate into the street sections, and creating a more enjoyable and functional waterfront for the residents and visitors alike. Being able to apply skills from my four years of architecture education to a serious cause like this was probably one of the most rewarding parts of my education, and this studio showed me the possibilities that we have to change the built environment around us.

East Elevation

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Mati Studio Les Ateliers

Professor Lykoudis with Students and Visiting Critic

n, Jillian Ahern

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Amali Wijesekera Would you walk us through your design?

What is the program of the buildings you have?

In July of 2018, the town of Mati was ravaged by fires that broke out and swept through coastal Attica, destroying much of the town. The purpose of this studio was to contribute to the visualization of Mati's renewal. As a studio we traveled to visit Mati and document damage on two separate occasions; once before starting to design, and another time during the middle of the process to obtain additional information. The master plan process focused on strengthening the existing street network, addressing the issue of vegetation (a major vehicle for the spread of the fire), and providing adequate access to the sea as a means of egress. Initial master plan development focused on growth of Mati after 5, 25, and 75 years.

In addition to the overall visualization for the town, each student in the studio developed a certain element within the master plan. Each architectural element would appear within the plan at specific phases of the master plans development. The portion of the project I worked on centered around the idea of a public pool built into the sea that could be used as a dock or a means of egress in case of emergency. To go with this pool element, I developed a public pool complex, consisting of three separate buildings that could be built into the coastline. Functions within these buildings include pool administration, lockers, EMT services, and a cafe looking out to the sea.

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Why did you choose this specific studio?

This studio was a pretty unique opportunity that I initially chose because of the realness and potential impact this project could bring for the future of Mati. The people of Mati had gone through a devastating tragedy, and we were privileged enough to be able to meet with the residents themselves to hear what they wanted for the city. Being able to sit down and discuss what the residents wished the future of Mati to look like was such an incredible opportunity for a studio project.

How important was looking into history and precedents for informing your design process?

For our understanding of Mati, the team looked toward coastal town precedents when considering the master plan. In particular, as a team we had the opportunity to visit the beautiful town of Nafplio and the island of Spetses, where we drew inspiration from their pathways to the sea. Mati currently lacks a safe coastal pathway, so these precedents provided architecturally dignified options for egress to the sea.

What role did this project play in your wider learning experience at the University of Notre Dame?

This project provided me with better insight into the realm of urban design and master planning with respect to time and growth of a city. In particular, thinking about how a design may interact with its context years into the future was an important takeaway from me because it reminded me of Notre Dame’s emphasis in teaching students how to design pleasant livable cities that can withstand the test of time.

Mati Studio

This project was a totally new experience for me because it required a lot of team communication and collaboration. Over my student architectural career I have gotten to collaborate with other students on design ideas, but never to this extent. We were constantly meeting as a group to deliberate over schemes, breaking up into smaller groups to evaluate certain

aspects of the design, and overall learning to be responsive to the ideas of others. As a studio our idea of what the future of Mati would look like was constantly evolving, which made the final results all the more interesting. To be honest, sometimes it was really frustrating; we as a team did not always agree on every move that was made, and sometimes we spent hours deliberating over our decisions, but these struggles just proved that all of us were passionate and cared for this project.

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What was your working process like as a student architect? How did you incorporate the process into the group project with others?

East Elevation, Amali Wijesekera

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Title Page, Diana NeacĹ&#x;u

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Mati Studio

During the Fall of 2019, I was in the Mati Greece studio, led by Dean Lykoudis. A tragic forest fire had decimated the beach town of Mati a year beforehand, and the school received external funds to come up with a masterplan for the rebuilding of the town. To prepare for the studio, we visited Greece in early August in order to study the architectural character of the area and document the site where we would be developing the masterplan.

For precedent research, we visited Athens, Mycenae, and the two beautiful beach towns called Nafplio and Spetses, which gave us many ideas to adopt into our masterplan for Mati.

This was the most “real� project many of us had done so far in school, because we ended up going back to Mati over fall break and speaking to the residents in a town

hall. Balancing things such as keeping the pine-ridden character of the town, increasing fire safety and adding various escape routes, and maintaining lot lines was more to consider than we had originally thought. During the second part of the semester, after completing the masterplan, each one of us picked either a civic or commercial/type building to design that would enhance the character of the town. The projects ranged from hotels along the beach to marketplaces by a main square to a town hall. I, along with my classmate Kasia, decided to design two wineries along the western edge of the town, since vineyards work as good fire barriers from the pine forests in the mountains. It was a lot of fun to design an exciting new type of building, and a great experience in general to explore the architecture in a different region.

Les Ateliers

Diana NeacĹ&#x;u

Greek Coast, Photo by Austin Proehl

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Graphics I First-Year Studio, Fall 2019

The first-year drawing class at Notre Dame is every undergraduate’s gateway into the world of architecture school.

As a shared experience and an introduction to hand-created graphics, it has helped to shape hundreds of students that have passed through the program. For the incoming Class of 2025, the first dip into the pool of architecture will be led by Professor Giuseppe Mazzone. In this class, students will learn how to watercolor for the first time, a hallmark rendering technique of the school, or otherwise deepen their prowess in the medium. They will also learn the basics of sketching, one of the most crucial skills for an architect to have. Learning to see—and learning to put what is seen into a drawing—is a skill that many admire, but few have; under the tutelage of Professor Mazzone, pupils will develop this critical ability. Additionally, the students will attempt to master the new medium of graphite on Mylar: covering Mylar with graphite and erasing it to create the desired image in stunning contrast.

Graphics I is a stepping stone between high school and university, between pure art and full-fledged design, and between natural talent and hard-won skills. As the new students take their first steps into the Walsh Family Hall of Architecture, they will have begun a paradigm shift into their new reality as architecture students at Notre Dame. Someday, their houses, buildings, and towers will dot the towns, cities, and skylines of the world. And it all begins with one drawing class, with one line of a pencil.

Text by Michael Bursch

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What was your biggest take-away in this class? What are some useful graphic techniques you have learned?

In hindsight, what recommendations would you give to this year’s incoming first-year architecture students?

My biggest take-away was learning watercolor.

I have worked with many mediums, but watercolor was not one of them, so I was happy to learn all the watercolor techniques.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes! That is how you learn, especially with things like watercolor and techniques in his class.

What was your favorite part throughout this specific course?

I personally loved how artistic the class was. I always looked forward to going to the classes.

How will this course benefit your architectural studies in the future?

It taught me the basics, so it will benefit me in every project I do!

What was your favorite project? How was it like to work on this project?

I liked the botanical study and the charcoal project. It was less of an assignment and more for fun because I enjoyed working on it.

What graphic techniques did you employ to this final project?

For the charcoal, I used a lot of deciphering light, shadow and contrast. The botanical study was an amazing way to practice and layer with watercolor.

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Ashley Straub

What role did this course play in your wider learning experience at the University of Notre Dame? How did it fit into the ND SoA curriculum, and how will it inform your later projects?

It helped with time management. It's not a short class and requires work outside for sure.

This helped me prepare for design studios and later projects that take up a considerable amount of time.

Did you maintain a better understanding of design graphics?

Yes! Did this refine your understanding of traditional architecture? What do you think of watercolor renderings in architecture designs?

Definitely. I think that the handmade architecture renderings in watercolor are one of a kind and superior to CAD or SketchUp generated designs. (That's all my opinion.) I feel like it is more a piece of art.

Have you been working on similar projects or practicing the design techniques?

Over the summer I have practiced watercolor and did some design projects.

Previous page: Flowers, graphite on Mylar, Ashley Straub

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Portrait, Watercolor, David DeBacker

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Graphics I

What was your biggest take-away in this class? What are some useful graphic techniques you have learned?

In hindsight, what recommendations would you give to this year’s incoming first-year architecture students?

My biggest take-away had to do with how much my time management differs between architecture projects and other academic assignments. I quickly realized that I needed to allot myself much more time than I initially thought. The most useful techniques have to do with watercolor. Flat washes in particular have proven to be especially valuable.

Learning flat washes is the worst, but they’re so incredibly important and useful. You’re gonna feel like the bead is too big but I promise it's not.

What was your favorite part throughout this specific course?

Professor Mazzone brought in a 10 lb. chocolate bar one day and hacked it apart for us with a hammer and chisel.

How will this course benefit your architectural studies in the future?

I feel like the foundation of watercolor skills in the class will be exceptionally helpful for subsequent projects.

What was your favorite project? How was it like to work on this project?

My favorite project was the summative assignment at the end of the semester. It was stressful because of my perfectionism, but working on the final project was freeing because of the flexibility of subject matter and media Professor Mazzone gave us.

Les Ateliers

David DeBacker

What role did this course play in your wider learning experience at the University of Notre Dame? How did it fit into the ND SoA curriculum, and how will it inform your later projects?

As a foundational class in drawing techniques, I felt like it was a strong base for the curriculum and that it introduced me to the school as a whole. I hope to build on the skills I learned in this class and apply them to future work.

Did you maintain a better understanding of design graphics?

I’d say so.

Did this refine your understanding of traditional architecture? What do you think of watercolor renderings in architecture designs?

Our assignments weren’t particularly focused on buildings. However, I quickly saw how the techniques of the class were applied to more complex renderings and architectural drawings.

What graphic techniques did you employ to this final project?

Have you been working on similar projects or practicing the design techniques?

I used different watercolor techniques like flat washes, layering, wet-on-wet mixing, etc.

I feel like I’ve definitely improved my skills and built on what I’ve learned from Giuseppe’s teaching. It definitely came in handy in our drafting class with Professor Mellor.

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Jordan Fredricksen My biggest takeaway from Design Graphics was learning how to be patient. Each skill that you learnt in the class was different from the next. Some skills came easily to me, while others took a lot more time and brain power.

There were times where I would get frustrated with a watercolor wash, or hate my line work, but Giuseppe and the TAs were there to praise what I did correctly as well as teach me what I did wrong.

My favorite part of the course was the final project. For the final project we each got to choose a subject and render it with watercolor. This allowed each student to use the skills they had learned throughout the

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semester and put in their personal style into the assignment. I have always been fascinated by boats and water, so I fittingly painted a sailboat. Before Design Graphics, the way I saw color was limited to what was in a crayon box. When I looked at the clouds, they were white; when I looked at the water, it was blue.

However, through Giuseppe’s lessons I could see hue, value, and saturation, broadening the way I perceived the environment around me.

When it came time to begin my sailboat, the water was purple and gray, not blue. The color wheel assignments and the mediocre grades on various shade assignments paid off in the end, resulting in a beautiful, bright sailboat.

Graphics I Les Ateliers

A Sail Boat, Watercolor, Jordan Fredricksen

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Dean Emeritus Michael Lykoudis Letters to the Students of the Notre Dame School of Architecture Dear Students, The editors of the new publication, Stoa, have asked me to say a few words to the students of our School. As I reflect on the past 18 years as head of the School and many more as a member of its faculty and administration, it seems that as things seem to change, many things--namely issues of character--remain the same through time and place. No matter what our challenges, no matter what our new horizons, the basics remain simple. Courage, persistence, hard work and goodness towards all, will make the world a better place, and provide the best chance for your individual and collective success.

The current culture of selfishness, intolerance, consumption and waste has imprisoned our world in a multitude of conflicts where resolution seems ever more distant and the stakes are ever so much higher than in any other time. To break out of this cycle, perhaps it is better that we think of our careers as campaigns to make the world habitable, meaningful, just, peaceful and beautiful through our daily lives and our vocations. Perhaps through these struggles we may return to being, once again, a truly free people.

This is the subject of my talk, delivered to the class of 2020 during this year’s graduating student award and recognition event. While it was written for them, I hope that all of you might find it useful as you begin to chart the course of your lives: These are historical times. During spring break the world turned on its head and we were all faced with tremendous uncertainty. Most of you were away from your projects and the logistics of returning to campus and taking on finishing your thesis were daunting. The faculty were also faced with a tremendous shift in how they were going to teach their classes and finish the semester. The University extended the spring break, our IT team developed a virtual desktop and despite a few bumps and scrapes, the School was online within a few days of classes beginning.

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Le Salon During the past 8 weeks we have talked in many a Zoom meeting like this one. One of the major points of our discussion was that you would have to reach down to where you never imagined and raise the strength and courage to not only persevere, but to excel with limited resources and uncertainty at almost every level. Some of you returned home on the other side of the planet separated from your classmates and classes by many time zones. Others of you returned home in the continental US not having your supplies or your books and drawings.

Still others did not know how you would eventually get home.

The thesis reviews this year were a test for all of us, but primarily for you. Your expectations and aspirations for your work did not lessen because of the crisis. As the week of reviews unfolded, that you did not lower the proverbial bar became abundantly clear. You used the limitations imposed on you to do even better than you would have done otherwise. Every project had a clear parti. Every project had a layered development of composition at the level of plan, section, elevation, etc.. Every project was well rendered. I think that after teaching here for nearly 30 years, I have never seen such consistency in a class and such solid design work.

You should be very proud of your accomplishment and know that this is what happens when one reaches for that strength and confidence that they did not know they had. It is in times of uncertainty and challenge that we discover the most about ourselves and our abilities. I wish I could say that this was the worst that you would have to endure in your life. We are indeed entering a time of great entropy. Our ability to stay focused, agile and flexible will be key in maintaining our psychological and physical health to succeed not only professionally but as people contributing to a new way of thinking about the world.

We are not put on this earth merely to succeed as professionals and blaze spectacular careers. We have a duty to contribute something profound with our lives. We have long spoken about all the issues that ail the world: poverty, climate degradation, lack of justice and the role that cities and their

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Dean Emeritus Michael Lykoudis Letters to the Students of the Notre Dame School of Architecture buildings have in facilitating a better world. Despite this pandemic, humans are social creatures; we depend on each other and will need to do so ever so much in the near and distant future. We are today as we are every day at the crossroads of how we will live together and how we build.

Someone sent me this quote a few years ago by Ernest Hemingway: “Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come will depend on what you do today.�

Indeed this adage is true. The Coronavirus pandemic has not only shown us our biological vulnerabilities but exposed the potential collateral effects on other issues that will not disappear with the pandemic. Rather than fall to the background some issues will become front and center and you will have to be on the front lines to help with solutions.

Shelter and equal access to shelter will continue to be one of the most important elements that we humans will depend on.

As unpredictable climate conditions further develop, resilient, safe and beautiful shelter will become necessary.

Shelter that provides a background fabric for an accessible and beautiful public realm that reflects local and regional identity will be essential to resolve adaptation and mitigation to the new realities of weather patterns, changing biodiversity, immunology, equal access to resources such as energy and water and a host of other conditions and challenges.

When we speak of beauty we all know and have seen that which is beautiful. But often in our world we lose sight of the fact that beauty is not a luxury to be added after the fact. Around the world hamlets, villages, towns and cities are seen as beautiful not only for their artistic skill but because they are a result of a way of building and people living together that balances many needs all at once. First, they are built from the nature around them, they are structured in a way that allows people of all ages to live together with

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Le Salon pedestrian proximity to life’s daily needs and they are made by crafts that have evolved over millennia and give meaning to lives. Above all they also reflect that culture’s reverence for its past, present and future, as well as a respect for the peoples around them and for the flora and fauna of a region.

Your education at Notre Dame has focused on a beauty far greater than that which is privately owned in the eye of the beholder. The beauty you have seen stretches over centuries and oceans, and is in the shared building traditions of the world. You have much to offer this new world we are entering and it will not only be your “job” to do so, it will be your duty.

As such it will not be easy; in fact, it will be hard. You must never complain about what you have suffered, you just must go on, just like you did these past few months. Generations before you have endured the unimaginable and many people around this earth continue to endure that same pain.

You have been given gifts that can help humanity find its way to a beautiful place. It is your duty to be soldiers committed to that effort. Be soldiers committed to reverence, and protect everything living and non-living on the planet.

Be soldiers committed to building shelter and communities where all people can circulate freely and plan their lives.

Be soldiers that will help heal the earth with conservation and investment after years of consumption and waste.

You will know how to do it. You did it these last few weeks.

With few resources and much uncertainty, you designed and presented some of the best work the School has seen. This prepared you for what is ahead. And like the sailors that see the coming storm as a chance to prove their worth, you too should look at the future with eagerness and good will, with strength and conviction and in the knowledge that your success will be measured by how much of a force for good you will be.

Good luck and Godspeed.

Illustrations by Tristan Huo

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Interview

Dean Stefanos Polyzoides

In the same way this demonstration issue introduces the personality, philosophies, goals, and values of the new Stoa magazine, our interview with Stefanos Polyzoides presents the new Dean of the School of Architecture to its community. We spoke to Dean Polyzoides about his personal life, his public role, and his plans for the future. This interview follows the Dean through his childhood in Greece, accompanies him through his years of learning and activism at Princeton, explores the genesis of New Urbanism and its wider implications, and arrives at the University of Notre Dame, where we ask, simply: “Why here? Why now?�

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Interview with Dean Polyzoides

Childhood in Athens Stoa Magazine (SM): To start, we’d like to ask about your experience growing up. How did the built environment in your hometown influence you as an architect? Did you have any particularly favorite buildings or spaces?

process of education and subsequent architectural practice resulted in the building of a very beautiful neoclassical city of two- and three-story townhouses, public squares, civic buildings, and commercial districts, covering over five or six square miles. When the civil war started, the people pouring into Athens had no place to stay. So the way that was invented to actually regenerate the economy and house them was to tear down the townhouses and to build six- and seven-story apartment buildings in their place. Within twenty years, this magnificent traditional city was completely flattened: all the new buildings were built on the same streets and blocks, and designed by mostly civil engineers in a stripped-down, undistinguished modernist style.

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Beginnings

Stefanos Polyzoides (SP): The Second World War and occupation of Greece took place between 1941 and 1945, and then from 1945 to 1949 there was a very brutal civil war. By 1950, with 80% unemployment, the entire country was just completely destroyed. Over that brutal decade, there were more than 300,000 people who died of war-inflicted violence in a country I was a ten-year-old kid in 1955. I attended of 7 million. The civil war started in Athens, the only American school in the city, and there and as the communists were driven out of were no classes on Saturdays. Every weekend, the capital city, they continued their fight in I stood on the balcony of the second story of the mountains and the countryside. With the my house and looked out across the street at conflict intensifying, more and more people the house of my music teacher. My mother had from the provinces decided to seek the safety sent me to her to learn how to play the piano. of the capital city. After the end of a decade Every time I visited her to have a lesson, I came of war, with widespread hunger and poverty through this beautiful neoclassical door into a everywhere, people continued to move to well-formed hallway with patterned black and Athens in search of work. In about fifteen years, white marble floors, the population grew magnificent marble from 1.25 million to “I spent every Saturday stairs, incredible iron 2.5 million. This is railings, and at least the place I grew up in. watching this magnificent a twenty-foot ceiling. stone mountain just coming The second floor The first king of living room at the Greece was German: down floor by floor...” top of the stairs was King Otto, the son large, ornate, and of Ludwig the Mad formally furnished. In its furthest corner was of Bavaria, who was an extraordinary patron the grand piano used for the lessons. The place of architecture. Otto arrived in Greece in 1829 seemed like a museum to me. Not too long and, in the next ten years, engaged the three after I began my lessons, the house was sold greatest German architects of the 19th century: and shuttered; some months later the process Schinkel, von Klenze, and von Gärtner. of its demolition began. I spent every Saturday These architects ended up visiting Greece watching this magnificent stone mountain just and designing half a dozen spectacular civic coming down floor by floor, eventually all the projects, very few of which were built, but they way down to the ground. invited back to Germany a whole generation of Greek students to study architecture who And then, people began to build a eventually returned to Athens to practice. building of an entirely different kind: first This went on for three generations. This Stoa

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the foundations, and then, the thin concrete Corbusian frame of a high- rise Maison Domino. The robust neoclassical house was replaced by a characterless building, three times as big. Once in a while, my father would say at the dinner table, “I can’t stand these matchboxes. I can’t stand these matchboxes that pretend to be architecture.” At age ten, standing at that balcony, I began to think to myself, “Why would they do this? What can I do about it?” I had figured out there was something wrong about this shocking metamorphosis. I didn’t know exactly what, but I decided to find out.

education was not on most people’s minds.

Students were so angry that they refused to go to class. They demanded that the more traditional form of education then, in effect, be replaced. Students made their own courses and ran their own studios. And in the end, who suffered? The students, of course. Because architecture cannot be learned without serious instruction. It is rare to learn how to become an architect by oneself.

I was very lucky that there were three or four brilliant professors in the school who resisted the downward spiral of destruction of the program. Michael Graves was one of Every day, being bussed to school on the them. I was a teaching assistant assigned to edge of the city, I would watch the traditional him. Every Monday, I would go to his office city being demolished, and receive a little and a new, ugly, and piece of paper with “It was then that I dedicated chaotic city being the names of books my life to reclaiming the idea built. It was not very to check out from the of architecture as design in clear to a kid of my Art Library. One day age what exactly balance between the building, his note had three was going on; it names written on the city, and nature.” took me ten, maybe it, “Ledoux, Boullée, fifteen more years of Durand.” The three schooling, and then at least ten more years as great French architects—Classicists—of the an architect, to realize what a cultural crime late eighteenth century. I had no idea what had been perpetrated in Athens between 1945 these three words meant, and I did not ask any and 1975. It was then that I dedicated my life to questions. I found the books and took them reclaiming the idea of architecture as design in to the checkout desk. Before the librarian balance between building, the city, and nature. stamped the return date on the little card at the back of each book, I noticed that the last time the books had been checked out was Architecture School Experience in 1921. For fifty-plus years, they had not circulated. No professor or student had been SM: How would you describe your time in interested in the ideas and projects of these architecture school? most prominent classical architects. That should tell you everything about when the SP: I was in school at Princeton between resurgence of traditionalism emerged in this 1965 and 1972, during the Vietnam War. The country.

School of Architecture was badly shaken by the political activism of its students. Most of us I had a couple of very interesting teachers, felt the deepest despair and pessimism about Hanno Weber and Lance Brown, who anything possibly being done about the deep introduced me to the concept of the traditional injustices and violence reigning around us, city. They looked at it from the point of view of particularly after 1968, when Martin Luther housing and preservation. Additionally, they King and Robert Kennedy were killed. It was were resistant to the crimes that were then a tragic and extraordinary time and, therefore, being committed towards poor and mostly Af-

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Interview with Dean Polyzoides The academic opportunities we are all afforded change over time. Your education will not be like mine. What we have in common, though, is that aspiring architects must discern which are the two, three, or four architectural seeds: the kind of inspiration that will launch their architectural and professional lives, and then follow in their course.

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rican-American people by directing freeways and urban renewal demolition through their neighborhoods. In the process of living during these politically extreme times, many Princeton architecture students became heavily radicalized. The school passively supported a group of us to set up a participatory design workshop, “The People’s Workshop”, in what was then the Black ghetto of the city of New Brunswick, New Jersey. We did a number of interesting housing, day care, and clinical projects while there; we worked with the deeply suffering people in this neighborhood.

While we learned a lot and were able to understand what it meant for architecture to be in the service of all people, this educational experiment did not last long. After our class graduated in 1972, the School and the University abandoned the People’s Workshop and the students turned to more conventional education pursuits. I’m telling you all of this because every education, even a deeply flawed one, if taken to heart, can provide a significant direction to a student’s life.

Forming New Urbanism Founding the Congress for the New Urbanism SM: What led you to co-found the Congress for the New Urbanism, and how were you able to start such a movement?

SP: What is the way to ensure that something that you believe in strongly can remain a force beyond your lifetime? It is While my studio instruction was disastrous, generating institutions by working together course offerings were rich and inspiring. with your peers. When History and theory an institution is were taught in four “The idea of architecture as formed, its influence memorable courses the design of autonomous spreads immediately by the last generation beyond its framers: its of classically-trained and fashionable objects importance is beyond architects and was an aesthetic, social, narrow individual historians: Stillwell, interests, its ideals Bucher, Coffin, environmental, and and programs are and Egbert. Their economic dead end.” adopted by many in teachings resonated the world, and its with my experiences influence becomes a force beyond that of growing up in a homeland so central to the any individual. definition and evolution of world architecture.

That was my introduction to the activist side During the trajectory of my professional of planning and urbanism. And then there was life—with the pain that followed the final my contact with Michael Graves who, after destruction of the neighborhood I grew up in his white modernist period, began to teach a and the outrage I felt at the injustices of Urban contextual version of architecture based on Renewal as I experienced them in the US precedent and urban disposition. These three (portions of South Bend are still demolished experiences became the seeds that drove my and not yet reconstructed)—I needed to find life as an architect forward. a reformist outlet. In the 1980’s and while

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teaching at USC, it had already become clear to me that the idea of architecture as the design of autonomous and fashionable objects was an aesthetic, social, environmental, and economic dead end.

Architecture had to be something more profound. Based on the diverse cultures of humanity, and the many places where people had settled in the world, architecture had to become the building block for constructing the human habitat as a whole, for structuring human life on earth by assembling towns and cities and establishing their relationship with nature. The Congress for New Urbanism was born under this generational awareness.

in writing, and then dedicated ourselves to like-minded practices, often using the charrette as the favorite process for engaging the public.

Like all vital ideas, New Urbanism was adopted first by dozens of colleagues, then by hundreds, then thousands, and finally by too many people to count. Thirty years after the founding of the CNU, urbanism is firmly established as a discipline and a key ingredient of design and at all scales. Here’s the question for all of you: What is vital to your generation at this moment in time? What needs to be done about it in the next 10 or 20 years? How does our society get there faster and more consequentially?

As architects and as citizens, how do we build a better city, a better country, and a regenerated nature? That is what your generation will eventually have to address for the rest of us. By building the institutions that focus on your common concerns, you will also be able to spread the ideas that can address these concerns decisively.

My partner and wife Liz Moule and I sought out like-minded colleagues and set out to establish the terms of a new professional engagement with the world. There were initially four more founders: Liz Plater-Zyberk, Andres Duany, Peter Calthorpe, and Dan Solomon.

Together, we established the basic terms and scope of a regenerated discipline of urbanism: the region, the neighborhood, the district and corridor, the block, the lot, and the building.

Bringing “New” Urbanist We argued that the role of architecture Perspectives to Notre Dame was generating an urban fabric of common buildings and an occasional monument, SM: Why is New Urbanism called ‘New’ making the public realm among them, and Urbanism? controlling settlement patterns to regenerate cities and stop sprawl. Almost immediately, SP: I think the answer is both substantive our example and direction attracted a small and political. ‘Urbanism’ refers to a process group of like-minded and detailed form professionals.

All of urbanization that “What is vital to your together, we then has existed for a long imagined urbanism time now. It is rooted generation at this moment as operating along in a tradition of more in time? What needs to be a complex transect than 2,500 years from nature to of designing and done about it in the next 10 metropolitan centers. building livable and or 20 years? How does our We established durable cities in high a relationship balance with nature. society get there faster and with many other The New Urbanism more consequentially?” professions critical is ‘New’ because it to the form, function, is immersed in the and management of cities. We eventually social and technical dimensions of the society put together a charter, established it further we live in, and accommodates its life in every

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Interview with Dean Polyzoides

The word ‘new’ was also chosen to attract the attention of our colleagues and have them approach it with a heightened degree of curiosity, and in order to shake the intellectual ground that the architectural opposition was standing on. We used the word ‘new’ to mean constantly renewed, although its current more common use is to mean ‘from scratch.’

SM: Should we be referring to our architecture as ‘New’ Architecture as well?

SP: My experience has been that through a classical education, one can learn how to design buildings and places in the most integrated and inventive way possible. Deep awareness of the history, theory, technology, environmental and social dimensions of architecture results in a form of invention that interprets received knowledge and transforms it into notable new objects and places. Contextual specificity further enhances the uniqueness of that architecture.

In that sense, the words ‘new’ and ‘architecture’ are rightfully paired here in describing new traditional projects. It just happens to be a definition of newness different from that used by others, in that it thrives on cultural continuity and place definition.

Using the word ‘traditional’ is just a moniker for describing the kind of architecture that is focused on our discipline’s original purposes: structuring human life through the design of buildings, using these buildings to constantly reconfigure the form of cities, and deploying cities to secure life in balance with nature, of which we are a part.

Social Responsibilities of an Architect

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detail: its means of mobility, its informational and utility networks, its social conventions, its diverse cultures, and its functional needs.

Every last aspect of our contemporary existence is served by this New Urbanism.

While it would be familiar to Haussmann or Vauban, in its details, it is unique to us.

Listening to the Community SM: Would you expand upon the idea of listening to your community and how that ties in to the principles of New Urbanism? How do you build as an architect, and how should we, as students, practice designing for varying communities now so that we’re ready as professionals?

SP: You have to see yourselves as architects who are thoughtful, first and foremost. Understanding that your work is not about your interests alone, but also affects the lives of all others that come into contact with it. You have to think of yourselves as constantly acting in the service of our society and of humanity. You need to get to know our society in its diversity and complexity, and have a clear sense on how you are going to best operate within it.

To be an excellent listener, you need to have the skill to decipher the words that you are hearing in all of their varieties. If you’re working with a general audience, or a particular one, say, a Black community in Ohio, a Japanese-American community in Hawaii, a Latino community in California, or a White community in rural Louisiana, you will be engaged with people that have different understandings, express different needs, and use different words to describe them. You must be completely prepared to listen to what they are all telling you before you can exercise your design and planning ideas on their behalf. This is a matter of both skill and empathy. Almost like an old-fashioned family doctor, you must understand what they are telling you in order to imagine and then dispense remedies. The words you are hearing should also be balanced by what people don’t know. It is a major responsibility of an architect or an urbanist to dispense information and knowledge about how the built environment affects people’s lives, advising them on how they can seek ways to improve the state of their family, their Stoa

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neighborhood, and their city. Architects are in the business of designing buildings and places, and, through them, nurturing the ways in which people can improve their lot without giving up their culture or their interests.

Whatever an architect’s formal interests are, whether one is a classicist or a modernist, practice is not about imposing normative preconceptions upon a diverse society.

Understanding the circumstances and settings of each project is a good place to begin.

Over the centuries, culture, climate, resources, needs, expectations have combined to deliver buildings and places of great variety and beauty. A classical City Hall is not the same in Paris, New York, or Los Angeles. A residential street is not the same in Santa Barbara, Santa Fe, or Savannah. We need to become expert at discovering the subtle differences that render our world a marvel of complexity and variety again, as it was before 1945.

Understanding Boundaries SM: What’s the limit of the architect, and what’s the responsibility? We have all these social responsibilities, but we also have to collaborate with other people; is there a boundary that we should recognize?

SP: I will give you some examples of boundaries that the work of architects needs to operate within. Sometimes our architecture can be loud, but at other times it should remain quiet. Sometimes we need to lead, and at other times we need to follow. Sometimes we need to interpret cultures we are unfamiliar with, and other times not.

‘Loud’ and ‘Quiet’: On occasion an architect can claim that they know they are justified to be proposing a grand and appropriate building.

At other times, they can do a building and whisper, ‘I’m doing this so quietly, I don’t want anybody to know,’ not because what has been done is questionable, but because it does not need to be known as the work of a particular

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author. A city can be like a lake on a beautiful calm day. Often, throwing a pebble into it can disturb its perfectly clear waters.

‘Leading’ and ‘Following’: During charrettes, there always has to be one person who acts as a leader. This kind of leading has nothing to do with exercising power over others. All complex design, both urban and architectural, is about establishing and projecting ideas with uncertain prospects for ultimate success. In the very constrained week-long schedule of a charrette, all kinds of ideas of uncertain consequences must be discussed and, sometimes, tested. ‘Leading’ and ‘following’ become two faces of the same coin: resolving team design opportunities and conflicts in the most time-efficient way.

Sometimes, a leader imposes a point of view, or a direction. At other times, the best idea or point of view comes from an unexpected source; for example, a traffic engineer suggesting a brilliant solution for designing a street and block that generates a terminated vista site as the location of a major new public building. At that point, the leader becomes a follower, accepting the best point of view on a given subject, whoever may have been its source.

‘Importing’ and ‘Exporting’: In an open and interconnected world, ideas travel more rapidly than there is time to consider their validity or their longevity. How ideas emanating in one nation are applied to another has long been the subject of debate. In an ideal world, every culture everywhere may get the opportunity to self-regulate and to generate an environment appropriate to its needs and ambitions. Throughout history, this has not been a very common occurrence. In the rough and tumble of political and economic domination, architectural ideas have typically been imposed as a sign of progress or prosperity. For instance, in the case of colonial powers building all over their possessions, there are ways that delivered models of livability and new identity which have proven resilient beyond political independence, as in

Interview with Dean Polyzoides

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the work of Lutyens in Delhi. And then, there are in school in order to discover your place is the thoughtless importation of the culture in this discipline and profession. One of the of commercial exploitation by individuals, tragedies of architecture, unlike medicine or institutions, and states in the developing world, law, is that its body of precedent is not being such as China. They are inviting development taught in the overwhelming majority of US in a homogenizing, globalizing aesthetic that schools. What we are focusing on in our school erases their particular cultural identity. The is learning about our history and theory, in lesson in all of this is that we should not be both its theoretical and empirical dimensions. crossing the boundary Learning about one where self-promotion in terms of the other “There are some things that and the opportunity is the most balanced to impose our way of discovering architects should never limit work become more architecture and themselves on: the ambition to eventually becoming important than the work itself and its learn, the humbleness to talk to an expert academic ability to enable and and professional others and consider their view practitioner of it. represent the lives of your clients and In the process, it is at all times, the obligation to their community. important to teach, the passion to serve, and very Then, there are some become immersed in the urgency to undo injustice.” its totality—history, things that architects should never limit theory, technology, themselves on: the economy, sociology, ambition to learn, the humbleness to talk to psychology, and so on—to touch all kinds of others and consider their views at all times, enlightening perspectives and knowledge that the obligation to teach, the passion to serve, help you frame your design work. and the urgency to undo injustice.

There is a tendency in Academia to limit Unfortunately in our profession, we often one’s research to abstract subjects and, by have it in reverse, with obligations taking extension, to focus on matters that are not second place to self-promotion and starchitecimmediately relevant. A thesis on the design ture. It is vitally important for your generation of corners in the work of Mies Van de Rohe to try to practice and serve in a more generous is not exactly important, in a world burdened and giving way. with crises of all kinds. In your own inquiries, you should be focusing on subjects that are by far more immediately relevant: Ones that The Balance Between move the world in a direction that provides Thinking and Doing intelligent relief from burdens, and doing so with the utmost respect for the imaginative SM: In a previous interview, you rethinking of old ideas and the bold mentioned that you wished to encourage the entertaining of new ones.

SoA to engage more with real-world practices, as well as various schools and departments Being asked to act as an expert architect, within Notre Dame. Could you tell us more one has to be at home in the presence of a about the balance between architecture as blank sheet of paper or a hyper-complicated a tangible practice and architecture as an urban setting. There is no doubt about it: to be abstracted theoretical study? a good architect, your mind must be balanced SP: I’m not advocating the practical over between thinking and doing. Absolutely the theoretical, or the other way around. You balanced. At the same time, we must insist

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that as practicing architects, academics, entrepreneurs, politicians, or as students of architecture, we act with integrity and effectiveness. Ideating, writing, designing, and building are miracles happening every day in and around our lives. I often pause while writing a few cogent pages or producing a beautiful quick architectural sketch and think, ‘My God, where did that come from?� Often I marvel when in the presence of a completed building: I remember it having emerged from the seed of a tiny drawing, or a set of small-size construction documents, then having been realized by an extraordinary degree of physical skill by a legion of craftspeople. We must both design on paper and enable a particular and elegant process of construction.

On Reading and Books SM: What books influenced you the most? Would you recommend a few books for students to read?

SP: Our engagement with books is not about which three of them may have changed our lives. The key question is how one chooses to navigate the infinite seas of knowledge effectively. A long time ago, Liz Moule and I decided to start collecting and reading two kinds of books. First: those that we knew would enrich our knowledge and understanding of architecture and urbanism as we have defined it already and pursued for decades.

Second: others that we imagined could enrich our understanding beyond the limits of what we already know. We started gathering this latter set of books, through the recommendations of colleagues and friends, and through traveling all over the U.S. and the world. Every book in both collections in our 8,000-volume library is now essential to our understanding of ourselves. We have not read them all cover to cover, but we know exactly why they are in our possession. There is a good reason why they are all resting comfortably on the shelves, ready to be consulted as the opportunity arises. For an architect, knowing where to

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look for book evidence of ideas or drawings is by far more important than fetishizing the importance of any singular book source.

I am looking forward to following Ingrid Rowland’s class on Vitruvius this semester. I have read Vitruvius, but it was a long time ago.

I am curious to understand how relevant his writings are to me today. Every time I walk through Rome, I feel like I am seeing it for the first time. Every time I hold a significant book in my hands, it feels like I have never read it before.

In both cases, it is because it is we who are constantly changing in our capacity to fully appreciate what cities, buildings, and books are imparting to us. So, please, seek a reason for collecting and reading the kinds of books that are both central to and beyond your interests, and never imagine that you have exhausted the ways in which they may someday change the course of your life as an architect.

Coming to Notre Dame Why Now? Why Here?

SM: You have experience in a wide range of practices and in different aspects of academia; how do all these lead you to ND? Why now? Why specifically the University of Notre Dame?

SP: Our School is a place where the faculty members are in general agreement about what they teach, how they teach it, and what they expect their students to be eventually capable of doing with these lessons once they find themselves practicing in the world. You are a part of this unique school. Its ideology is firm, but allows its students the freedom and time

Interview with Dean Polyzoides of chaos and nature is under assault almost everywhere on the planet. A very small group of American architecture schools, with Notre Dame in the lead, stand resolute against this worldwide urban and environmental crisis.

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to understand it and to embrace it. You are being taught under a classical curriculum that instructs you in the trajectory of architecture from the beginning of time to today. It imparts respect for all traditions, classical and vernacular, Western and those of the rest of the world. There is an expectation here that school graduates will be eventually engaged in the service of people and societies worldwide, and with the same dedication as the teaching that was imparted to them here.

I’m seventy-four years old, and I sought the deanship not as a new career, but as a way to join in on the struggle to save the world by design. That can only be done through education—not so much through practice, which is highly constrained by the limitations of each commission. I am deeply honored and very excited to have been given the opportunity to lead the school. My goals at the point of departure are three: to safeguard the accomplishments of the school over the last generation; to seek the renewal of its pedagogy, as there is no tradition without renewal; to introduce the program refinements that can elevate the school to the pinnacle of American architectural education.

This is not the way that architecture is being taught in most of the rest of the country and the world. In the post-war era, little by little, teaching architecture based on the Classical tradition was diminished and eventually abandoned. It was replaced by a method that encouraged students to engage in a perpetual search for new forms—unprecedented forms based on high technology, the total rejection of precedent, and the maximizing of personal expression. The essential links between architectural, urban, and ecological design were The more effectively we direct our program also severed, each topical area eventually within the school, the more we will be able to becoming a separate university department, develop our knowledge, moral purposes as a offering its subject matter in isolated and community, and our focus on servicing the incomplete ways. This is the reason why needs of our society. One of the great goals architecture has become so disconnected from to accomplish under my leadership would its historical role as be to energize the the carrier of meaning “I sought the deanship not as faculty to work more for institutions, cooperatively in a new career, but as a way communities, and support of a number states, and is now of new academic to join in on the struggle to typically present initiatives: recasting save the world by design.” in the same sleek the graduate program, form everywhere. making Rome a more Independent of climate, culture, or location, important center of learning and a true Global the building traditions of the world have been Gateway, finding ways to study the architecturdevastated one design and one development al, urban, and environmental endowment and at a time. Fashion rules, meaning is barely deep history of our country more extensively. decipherable, and permanence and resilience Institutions and their initiatives are forever. are eclipsed in the interest of short-term fame and fortune. Conserving nature, assembling For me, a personal ambition is to see beautiful cities, and designing buildings the school continue for thirty more years on that represent common values have virtually the path it set for itself thirty years ago, as a disappeared for thirty years now. As a result, commitment to an evolving academic ideal, place and cultural identity are in deep not a closed pedagogy. We must produce recession. The world’s cities are in a state leaders, not just competent practitioners. continued on page 56

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A Library Tour i

Architects before we were architects Featuring: The complete work of Le Corbusier and Alvar Alto

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Architects after we became architects “We read about those architects because they are contemporary, because we are practicing together.”

Featuring: The Elemental by Alejandro Aravena, books by/about Louis Khan, Robert Venturi, Post Modernism Architects, Aldo Rossi...

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Landscape Architecture “Because you can not know the city without knowing nature.”

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China, Japan, India, Malaysia, and other places

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The Middle East — Morocco, Egypt, Israel...

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Spain

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Urbanism

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France, Italy, and Greece “...the place where I grew up, and which I care about in special emotional ways, because it is deeply familiar to me.”

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Western Europe, Northern Europe, and Southern Europe

“Everywhere you go, you should be buying a book.

You should think about what that book means to you after your visit, and go back and see it, after one year, two years, and try to understand what that means to you with new eyes.”

—Dean Polyzoides

The Arc The Hale

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chitectural Library of Liz Moule & Stefanos Polyzoides at the Hale Solar Lab, in Pasadena California Lab is a solar observatory designed by Kaufmann, Coate and Johnson in 1927

Drawing by Xinyuan Sam Zhuang

Every generation brings about its own understanding and its own way of doing things. Your way of imparting the classical tradition to your students, when your time comes to lead this school, will be different than that of all of us that preceded you. That is not only because of changes in judgment or taste. It is also because rapid changes in the social, political, and economic context—the cradle of our profession—always result in the rethinking of architectural form and the way it relates to society.

Finally, the most important priority for me during my term as Dean is the idea of turning the school outwards and trying to attract others to see its pedagogy as being an appropriate model for them, and for American architectural education in general— to help them discern the value of the Notre Dame model as an antidote to ‘Inventing an Architecture every Monday,’ per Mies van der Rohe’s aphorism, which unfortunately is the dominant conventional mode of architectural education in our country today.

Advice for Young Architects SM: What are the most important lessons you hope students will have learned after five years of education at Notre Dame?

SP: You can not imagine that having a license and working in an office is going to fulfill your life’s ambitions as an architect. You need to think of your future as involving many different kinds of learning steps through a great variety of experiences.

The most important dimension of this life’s journey is the ability to assess where one is headed at any point in time: who one is, what one is doing, and how one is moving through the many distractions of daily life, without losing sight of the ends one has set out to accomplish.

We are dedicated to your education, because we are fervently hoping that you will exceed us in focus, in discipline, and in ac-

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complishments, both as practicing architects and as academics. More than everything else, please don’t be passive learners. Challenging questions to your faculty can elicit the kind of responses from them that often elevate all learning. Very soon, you are going to be teachers yourselves, so you need to learn the secrets of continuing to constantly question and widen your intellectual and emotional horizons.

The Role of the University in South Bend: Challenges and Solutions SM: What do you see as the School of Architecture’s duty to the greater city of South Bend, given that there are a number of social issues present that are deeply rooted in the built environment and the architecture of the city?”

SP: A great University must always be measured by the state of the city that it makes its home in, not only the character of its campus. A first-class institution needs to be surrounded by the kind of city that illustrates the virtue of academic inquiry in search of human betterment.

Considering the current needs of South Bend, both in its neighborhoods and in its downtown, it is important for the University to consider a more direct role in shaping its economic, social, and physical future.

How does a university engage? Certainly not by intervening unilaterally. But by quietly and modestly inviting the community as partners to discuss their needs, plan alternative futures in common, and execute all kinds of initiatives on three fronts: the projects that structure the lives of all citizens, the institutions that maintain them, and the projects that improve their health and prosperity. As caring architects and urbanists, we should be engaged with such a process, and see to it that the city benefits from our presence and from our skills. We know how to convene

Interview with Dean Polyzoides Getting Through the Pandemic SM: You are beginning as Dean in a difficult time. Would you like to share some inspirational advice for students studying architecture during a pandemic?

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people, how to design and build places up for the benefit of everybody. This is a fantastic opportunity for us to share, illustrating that architecture must be measured today, not only by its aesthetic character and quality, but also by its contributions to the life of others.

How could this process unfold? It could be SP: One other reason why I decided to done through courses and research universitycome to South Bend was that I was convinced wide, or through a development corporation. that the University is a caring and well-orgaIt could be done in a combination of the nized institution, a place where personal and two, or through the direct intervention of community ambitions can be channeled in individual schools and departments. This the service of cherished human values while could be enacted through an indirect studio, producing some serious good in the world. I a direct one, like a never thought that I building-a-housewas going to be the over-the-summer We have to design, build, and ‘Coronavirus Dean,’ studio, or a charrette. we all need to manage in a way that lifts all but Introducing ideas be acting upon the boats, not only the usual ones. challenges and opthat are missing in the neighborhoods portunities that life like middle density serves us up every housing, or mixed use buildings that restore day. I actually do enjoy challenges, and I think the urban character of downtown and the you should enjoy challenges as well, because neighborhoods, devastated through the urban life has been, and will always be, full of them. I renewal process of the 1960s and 70s, and not think that challenges demand discipline; they yet recovered. These are all possibilities. This demand affection and support for each other. could become a model that can be applied not only in South Bend, but also in the rest of They require energy and creativity to Indiana, and maybe in the Midwest as well. overcome adversity. If we appear on campus all together, pledging to care for each other, Thirty years after the beginning of New wearing masks when we gather, distancing Urbanism, we are well prepared to do this ourselves as necessary, washing our hands kind of outreach work. We can engage with often, and taking notes of our health and the needs of South Bend and do a great deal reporting it every morning, then we can remain of good. The question is: who is the job for? together for the fall semester and finish it as we The answer is, for everybody, but particularly started it. We are going to end up stronger, get for the middle class, and for the long-sufferto know each other better, protect each other’s ing, under-resourced communities of color health, and extend our University’s reputation. that have endured decades of poverty and lack In the process, we are going to become better of public services due to a variety of reasons, human beings and a part of a better School of including discrimination and racism. We have Architecture. to design, build, and manage in a way that lifts all boats, not only the usual ones.

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Illustration by Eric Jean-Luc Kerke

“A huge stampede emptied the room; everyone went out its chassis, in the middle of the bends; those who wanted to insist on finishing a detail, were jostled, carried away. In less than five minutes, everyone’s chassis were stacked in the car, and the two bearded fellows, the last new from the workshop, harnessed themselves like beasts, ran at a run; while the flow others roared and pushed from behind. This was a lock failure, the two courses crossed in a torrential crash, the invaded, flooded street of this screaming rush.”1 —L’Œuvre, Émile Zola

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Le Poché

A Brief Etymology of Charrette

by Michael Bursch, Hope Halvey, and Angelica Ketcham

The Cart It is the day of deadline, and the students of the École des Beaux-Arts’ architecture school are dashing through the busy Parisian streets from their dark, dusty ateliers to get their projects in on time. They are en charrette, pulling a small two-wheeled cart—usually used for coal or other light haulage—filled with architectural drawings. The newest students, les nouveaux, are pulling the carts as fast as they can, forcing Parisian pedestrians out of the way by shouting, “Charrette au cul!” (“The cart is coming down the street!”) Meanwhile, the older students, les anciens, are standing on the charrette, trying to put the final touches onto their plates before they arrive at the École, where the guard at the Salle Melpomene will bring the drawings into the lofty, elegant exhibition hall for the jury to critique.2 This frantic dash to the Salle Melpomene— or “Melpo”— soon becomes a beloved element of studio culture. April 3, 1927 marks the first race of the École’s “Charrette Club,” in which the various ateliers compete to see whose workshop can most swiftly pull a cart along the designated Parisian route. Strict rules emerge, dictating how many students can participate and the allowable dimensions of

the cart. Like the deadline day charrette, this one is pulled by the workshop’s nouveaux, whose youth—as the anciens reason—gives them the advantages of speed and agility. The club races remain a celebrated part of the École until its architecture program dissolves, and are emblematic of the jovial, enthusiastic culture that will perpetuate far into the future of architecture studios.

The Culture The École des Beaux-Arts raised the standards for architectural education during the 19th and early-20th centuries. It attracted scholars from around the world, including American architects Charles Follen McKim, Louis Sullivan, and Henry Hobson Richardson, whose work in cities such as Boston, New York, and Chicago reflected both the design and planning principles taught at the Ecole.

The architecture school at the École des Beaux-Arts was highly competitive. Twice a year, the École held an entrance exam that filled a limited number of open slots. Once

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“At that moment Claude, who was backing up, was almost run over by a small handcart, that two very bearded fellows led at a gallop. It was from this cart that the big night of work got its name; and for the past eight days, students, stifled by the low paid jobs of the 112 outside, repeated the cry: ‘Oh! that I am en charrette!’ As soon as it appeared, a clamor burst.

It was a quarter to nine, one had just enough time to get to school.”

—L’Œuvre, Émile Zola

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A Brief Etymology of Charrette Le Poché

admitted, it was the students’ responsibility to initiate their own learning and manage their time. They chose an atelier (a studio of around 25 students run by a patron, or professor), submitted only two design projects of their choosing per semester, and attended courses that merely required the passing of a final examination. The École charged no tuition3; however, students were responsible for paying their housing, studio, and other dues to their patron. Students ranged in experience in each atelier. Based on experience, a hierarchy was built; at the top were the massier: these students had been at the École the longest, and therefore were the “managers” of the ateliers. They collected dues for the professor, maintained the organization of the studio, and sometimes even accepted new students into the atelier. The next group was the anciens, or the students who had been at the École for multiple years; and the lowest group was the nouveaux, the newest students. These three groups lived symbiotically; les anciens and les massier, for example, would give advice to the nouveaux, and the nouveaux would draft and render parts of anciens’ projects as needed.

The school provided design projects to the students, called concours. Some concours were less complex, so all students were able to

work on a design and submit a project. Other projects, such as the Grand Prix de Rome, were more extensive; only anciens and massiers submitted their work, and if they won, they graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts and were awarded a spot at the French Academy in Rome.4 Regardless of the type of concours, deadlines usually occurred on a Friday. Once the projects were submitted, a jury would judge the projects behind closed doors.5 The days leading up to the Friday deadlines were characterized by fervor and zeal as design students rushed to complete their projects on time; just like architecture students today, it was common practice to work all the way up to the time limit. Working to finish a project before its deadline felt awfully familiar to the architecture students at the École: the rush, the stress, and the camaraderie that came with putting a project together paralleled the experience of feverishly carting their projects across Paris. Therefore, the moments Emile describes that led up to deadline day also began to be called ‘charrette,’ in tandem with the literal charrette run that topped off the project experience.

Up until the École des Beaux-Arts closed their architecture school in 1968, students

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“Charrettes provide a forum for ideas and offer a unique, extraordinary advantage: They provide designers both initial input and on-going feedback on their work by clients and the community. While affording client institutions full access to the creative process, including the ability to direct it through constructive and time-effective criticism.”

—Moule & Polyzoides, The Charrette Process

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A Brief Etymology of Charrette Le Poché

used charrette to refer to their final push to complete a project. This rush of activity remains a standard for architects and architecture students alike; between extra working hours and sleepless nights, the days leading up to a project deadline are the most exciting, yet exhausting, part of the design world. However, as the world advanced and the profession of architecture sought re-definition, the term “charrette” also evolved.

The Design Method The name architect has its roots in the word for “master builders.” This definition stems from the Ancient Greek word for architect— “arkhitekton”— broken down into “arkhi-” (meaning “chief” or “master”), and “tekton” (meaning “builder” or “carpenter”). Therefore, architects were responsible for both the design and the construction of a building. However, during the second industrial revolution at the end of the 20th century, the world saw an expansion in building technology and construction methods. This led to greater specialization in the construction field, redefining

the role of the architect as a “cog in the wheel” for the creation of large-scale projects.6 A greater specialization of roles—such as the landscape architect, structural engineer, and construction manager—meant that collaboration and communication between different professions were becoming a crucial part of developing a successful project. The nature of the charrette, too, evolved; rather than being characterized by the struggle of sleepless, stressful nights leading up to a deadline, it was transformed to emphasize the camaraderie and collaboration that the students at the École experienced during the final stretch of a concours.

Today in the professional world of architecture, a charrette is considered a “coming together” of all stakeholders on a project.7 This meeting is done in a timely manner that solves as many problems as possible by synthesizing various professional and personal perspectives of different people. Dean Polyzoides’ firm, for example, has adopted the charrette to bring together planners, architects, engineers, public officials, and citizens alike over the course of a week in order to address problems in all aspects of design.8 As a result, this time-limited, collaborative effort at the beginning of a project

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“And afterwards…what has happened to the rendering ‘charrettes’ now that the rapidograph, and then the computer, have replaced the parallel bar and the graphos?”9 —Christophe Samoyault-Muller, “La Grande Masse des Beaux-Arts”

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further utilizes the fast-paced, creative explosion of the Beaux-Arts charrette.

The Modern Academic Application In many universities today, the traditional definition still holds true; schools such as Rice University10 and the University of Virginia11 call the last week before the deadline charrette.

According to Muller, the more traditional of today’s universities “continue to focus the study of architecture on the principle of a workshop project, and on the showdown of edits between students—making it so that the ‘charrette’ is still dreaded, but paradoxically loved.”

Here at the University of Notre Dame, a charrette is often known among its students as a quick sketch of ideas done at the beginning of each assigned project, and at various stages of its progression.12 In the future, Notre Dame’s School of Architecture hopes to implement the charrette to carry out service projects around the Midwest. This “multi-day, multi-disciplinary” design process will include faculty, staff, and students, and will be conducted at the end of each semester.13

In the end, a charrette not only exemplifies and pays homage to the fast-paced, creative side of the field of architecture, but it also is a reminder of the collaboration and problem-solving skills that are required in order to succeed in large-scale projects.

Editor’s Note: In presenting the etymology of charrette, we endeavor to show how the rich layers of its meaning are aligned with the objectives of our en charrette effort to bring you this demo issue of our magazine Stoa. This demo issue acts as a symbolic “cart” to carry the projects and ideas of students, but also embodies the more modern definition: a movement towards greater collaboration, communication, and creation within and beyond the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture. ­­ —Xinyuan Sam Zhuang

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Sydney Heim, BArch

Julia Cutajar, BArch

My name is Sydney, and I’m heading into my first year at the Notre Dame as an architecture student! I’ve known since middle school that I wanted to pursue a career in architecture. The thing that attracted me most to the Notre Dame program was the sense of community inherently present at the university.

When I visited Walsh Family Hall, I couldn’t help but smile as I bore witness to the vibrant culture amongst the architecture students. It was something I knew I wanted to be a part of. And, of course, the Rome Studies Program was just the cherry on top. I’ve always wanted to travel the world and witness firsthand the beauty of a foreign country. Notre Dame gave me the opportunity to do something that I’d only dreamed of. I hope to gain an exemplary education (which I have no doubt I will, being where I am) as well as develop bonds and learn skills that will stay with me long after I leave the Notre Dame School of Architecture studi0.

I am Julia Cutajar from Oyster Bay, New York. I have known I wanted to be an architect for a while now. Whether it be playing with Lincoln Logs when I was younger or remaking furniture, I have always had the desire to create. Over the years, math and art were some of my favorite classes, and architecture will allow me to perfectly combine these passions.

I chose Notre Dame because I was drawn to its powerful message of being a force for good in the world. Notre Dame has an unparalleled community and network that I know will help me make an impact in the future. As for the architecture program, I am looking forward to being a part of a tight-knit community to learn and collaborate with. The opportunity to travel to Rome is such a unique experience that will be priceless in terms of knowledge and lifelong memories.

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Mary Frances Leihy, MArch Architecture, for me, has always been a beautiful composition and a mysterious balance of the subjects that fascinate me the most. You can probably imagine my intrigue when I discovered Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture, and the significance of an architect being scholarly and practically knowledgeable about twelve subjects. My undergraduate liberal arts education began to reveal how these subjects can be used to benefit our neighbors through a beautiful, well-built environment. As a graduate student, I am looking forward to refining my practical skills, design technique, and overall understanding of Architecture with the great contemporaries here at Notre Dame. But if you catch me in the hallway, I’ll probably just say that I’m here for spritz o’clock at the Piazza Navona. Without further ado, cheers to my fellow seekers of knowledge and beauty!

Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, Mary Frances Leihy

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Margaret Jones, MArch From a young age, I’ve always been interested in architecture, even if pursuing it as a career wasn’t always the obvious choice for me. I credit this innate fascination with the built environment to my upbringing in Jefferson City—the capital city of Missouri.

This charming small town is full of beautiful and historical buildings that I encountered on a daily basis growing up. The most influential of these was the great capitol building, which was located right across the street from where I attended grade school. With its colossal Corinthian columns and its mighty dome, it’s no wonder that when I ultimately did choose to study architecture, I naturally favored a classical and traditional approach.

The architecture program that I attended for my undergraduate degree had a classical emphasis and used traditional design methods and theories to instruct its students. While there, I gained a lot of invaluable experiences that showed me that the built environment didn’t have to be solely functional; it could also be beautiful, much like the beloved city where I grew up.

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Rome, Margaret Jones

With this idea in mind, I knew that, upon graduating, I wanted to further my education by earning a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture. I admired this program specifically because I felt that it shared my passion for creating beautiful and functional spaces that promote the common good on both the public and private levels. I am super thankful to be here and am greatly looking forward to the lessons that I will learn and the people that I will meet over my next few years studying architecture here at Notre Dame!

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Vera Sofia Leon, BArch

Connor Tinson, BArch

Hi! My name is Vera Sofia Leon and I am from Dominican Republic! I have always been an artistic person, but I was interested in studying architecture after realizing that all I did while playing the Sims 4 was build houses and structures. I really love contemporary architecture and am in awe of projects by architects like Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid.

I actually attended an architecture summer program in Notre Dame last year. I always knew I wanted to make projects that were beneficial to society and I think that Notre Dame’s values are going to take me there. I love that ND takes a more traditional approach towards teaching its students regarding hand drawn projects.

However, I am also really interested in taking that knowledge to computer programs like AutoCAD and SketchUp. I am very excited for these next 5 years!

With my father being an architect, I have been exposed to this profession since birth.

However, I actually became interested in architecture on a family trip to Rome five years ago. While we were standing in the Pantheon–a building that has lasted through multiple ruling regimes and, with that, many religions—I realized that buildings are the cornerstones of life in a community and can be re-purposed to be used for different functions than initially designed.

My dad is a Notre Dame alum, so ND is in my blood and has been my dream school for as long as I can remember. Two summers ago, I attended the Career Discovery in Architecture program at ND to see if I was actually interested in the field. While there, not only did I fall in love with architecture, but I also fell in love with ND. I felt at home and like ND was no longer just the place my dad went to and loved or the place I loved to watch football games at. I even used the Pantheon as inspiration for my final project of the program—to design a new architecture building on campus. I am looking forward to not only developing in the architecture and real estate fields, but also learning how to make a positive impact through my work. I also cannot wait to go back to Rome and learn in the place where my passion for this field first started.

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My name is Chuxi Xiong. I am a third-year architecture student. I was born and raised in Wuhan, a city in central China. As the city lies at the confluence of the Yangtze river and its largest tributary, the Han River, Wuhan has been a busy port since Han dynasty. After the government of Qing dynasty signed the Treaties of Tianjin and the Convention of Peking, Wuhan was stipulated as a trading port and lent the area along the Yangtze River to become the British, German, Russian, French and Japanese Concessions. Thus, the architecture in this area is quite different from the rest of the city, and I really like this part of my hometown. I th think the buildings there display the Western architectural styles of the 19 century in a quite comprehensive way and are in great contrast with the Chinese traditional towers and modern skyscrapers in my city. For me, these buildings are the witnesses of the development of my hometown. The existence of these exotic architectures tells the economic, religious, and cultural change in that period.

Chuxi Xiong

Church of Alexander Nevsky, Wuhan, China, Chuxi Xiong

My name is Chuxi Xiong. I am a third-year architecture student. I was born and raised in Wuhan, a city in central China. As the city lies at the confluence of the Yangtze river and its largest tributary, the Han River, Wuhan has been a busy port since the Han dynasty. After the government of the Qing dynasty signed the Treaties of Tianjin and the Convention of Peking, Wuhan was stipulated as a trading port, and the area along the Yangtze River was lent to the British, German, Russian, French and Japanese as concessions. Thus, the architecture in this area is quite different from the rest of the city, and I really like this part of my hometown. I think the buildings there display the Western architectural styles of the 19th century in a quite comprehensive way and greatly contrast the traditional Chinese towers and modern skyscrapers in my city. For me, these buildings are the witnesses of the development of my hometown. The existence Church of Alexander Nevsky of these exotic architectures tells the economic, religious, and cultural change in that period.

INTERNATIONAL STUDEN Dazhimen Railway Station

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Diana Neacşu

Elisa Vieira Pliopas

I was born in Romania. Although I have lived in the United States since I was 7 years old, I still visit my family in Suceava, Romania most summers and Christmases. My first year at Notre Dame, I received grants from the Nanovic Institute to study the Byzantine churches of the Suceava region for my spring and summer breaks. My thesis, a children’s village replacing a previous orphanage, is located there as well. Suceava is a city of 176,000 people in northern Romania and is the capital of the county of Suceava. I would describe the traditional architecture of the region as unique and stunning. It is a mix of Austrian neoclassical and Byzantine style. This can be seen, for example, in the articulation of the windows juxtaposed with traditional tin roofs. Sadly, not many traditional houses remain due to the construction of communist apartment blocks in the mid 20th century.

Suceava is a very walkable city, and I love being able to walk to the main piazza, parks, and markets for entertainment when staying with my grandparents. I look forward to going back whenever I can.

I have lived most of my life in São Paulo, Brazil, a place which is known for its modernist and contemporary architecture.

One aspect that I have always loved about Brazilian architecture is how it can be very simple but, at the same, create a very welcoming environment. A lot of the spaces engage the built environment with nature, which transform the otherwise grey and unornamented buildings into more occupiable and pleasant spaces.

NTS

“ Never a day

without a line.”

— Apelles. 4th Century B.C.

A drawing is a testament to one’s humanity. When a soul feels inspired or wishes to reflect the wonder of the world, only a paper and pencil can tell us what it sees. It requires courage to start and finish a drawing, be it a momentary sketch or a well-composed rendering. The movement of a stylus is a dance, revealing a mosaic of hand cut stones or the trusses of a great cathedral. If successful, the design can become a beacon, calling forth the hearts and minds of wandering travelers, tossed about in the sea of life. The lines reveal a splendor, radiating symbols of hope or a destination.

When a drawing is done well, it commands a legion of warriors to victory or pinpoints the area for a surgical incision.

As artists and architects, we lead by defining the components of beauty, strength, and utility. The worlds we create can reflect heaven, or paradises promised by the ancients. Drawings are a humanistic thing. They reflect who we are, where we are from, and our aspirations for society. Our culture builds upon itself by the guidance of master architects, artists, and craftsmen. We can continue this legacy in many ways, but let us remember that it all stems from one action alone, so: draw!

Text by Eric Jean-Luc Kerke The following sketches and drawings were produced by members of Stoa’s summer student team.

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St. Mary’s Lake Esteban Salazar, 07/01/2020

Laterano Joseph M. Faccibene, 2018

South Bend Skyscraper Esteban Salazar, 07/04/2020

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Model in Studio Christian Johnson, 02/15/2020

Tempietto Christian Johnson, 02/08/2020

San Carlo Joseph M. Faccibene, 2018

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Parthenon Michael Bursch, 12/15/2019

Chartres Michael Bursch, 01/04/2020

Eiffel Tower Michael Bursch, 01/01/2020

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Gothic Tower Plan James Lengen, 06/18/2020

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Gothic Tow James Lengen

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wer Section n, 06/18/2020

Rose Window James Lengen, 06/15/2020

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Metal Yun Xing, 03/15/2019

Flora Yun Xing, 04/25/2019

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Jardin des Tuileres Sam Xinyuan Zhuang, 07/11/2019

Lincoln Memorial Esteban Salazar, 05/20/2020

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Place de Vosges Sam Xinyuan Zhuang, 06/26/2019

Adams and Aeolic Eric J. Kerke, 07/05/2020

Ryerson Mansion Angelica Ketcham, 04/12/2020

Elks Memorial Angelica Ketcham, 05/28/2020

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Carrousel Entrance to Le Lourve Eric J. Kerke, 10/09/2018

French Pavilion Eric J. Kerke, 10/10/2018

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Achilles Sharon Yehnert, 03/09/2020

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Veiled Ves Sharon Yehner

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stal Virgin rt, 04/12/2020

David Sharon Yehnert, 04/04/2020

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Stoa Magazine Demo Issue

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Executive Team

Christian Johnson, Director of Design Angelica Ketcham, Executive Editor Xinyuan Sam Zhuang, Executive Editor

Textual Team

Michael Bursch, Writer/Editor Hope Halvey, Writer/Editor Joan Ngai, Writer/Editor Esteban Salazar, Editor Ethan Scott, Editor Xiaoyu Rayne Zhu, Writer/Editor

Design Team

Tristan Huo, Illustrator Eric Jean-Luc Kerke, Illustrator/Designer Yun Xing, Designer Sharon Yehnert, Designer

Advisory Board

David Lewis, Advisor Giuseppe Mazzone, Consultant Sean Nohelty, Consultant

Contributors

Victoria Cardozo BriAna Davison Leighton Douglass Joseph Faccibene Jack Harrington James Lengen Mary Grace Lewis Matthew Loumeau Jessica Most Taylor Schmidt

Special Thanks to

Selena Anders Carol Kraus Krupali Krusche Lee Lin Cecilia Lucero Michael Lykoudis Caroline Maloney Jennifer Parker William Pesson Stefanos Polyzoides Jonathan Weatherill Morgan Wilson Mary Beth Zachariades Yale Perspecta 51 Editors

Dante Furioso

Samantha Jaff

Shayari de Silva

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A Brief Etymology of Charrette (pages 62-69) 1

2

3

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Zola, É. (2010). III. In E. Zola (Author), His Masterpiece: L’Œuvre: 112-113. (Boston: MobileReference.com), https://beq.ebooksgratuits.com/vents/zola-14.pdf Samoyault - Muller, Christophe. “La Grande Masse des Beaux-Arts.” Le fil d’Actu - Grande Masse des Beaux-Arts, September 2014, https://www.grandemasse.org/?c=actu&p=alors_charrette_et_charrett_club.

Drexler, Arthur, and Richard Chafee. “The Teaching of Architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.” Essay In The Architecture of the École des Beaux-Arts, 85–93. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1977.

4

Ibid

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Cret, Paul P. “The École des Beaux-Arts and Architectural Education.” Journal of the American Society of Architectural Historians 1, no. 2 (1941): 3-15, doi:10.2307/901128.

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Kevin L. Burr Ed.D. & Chad B. Jones M. S. (2010) The Role of the Architect: Changes of the Past, Practices of the Present, and Indications of the Future, International Journal of Construction Education and Research, 6:2: 122-138, doi: 10.1080/15578771.2010.482878 https://www-tandfonline-com.proxy.library.nd.edu/doi/ pdf/10.1080/15578771.2010.482878?needAccess=true

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National Charrette Institute. “About Us”. (n.d.). Retrieved July 12, 2020, from https://www.canr.msu.

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Urbanists, A. (2000). Moule & Polyzoides. Retrieved July 12, 2020, from https://www.mparchitects.com/site/ thoughts/charrette-process’’

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Samoyault - Muller, Christophe. “La Grande Masse des Beaux-Arts.” Le fil d’Actu - Grande Masse des Beaux-Arts, September 2014. https://www.grandemasse.org/?c=actu&p=alors_charrette_et_charrett_club.

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Kemmer, S. (2010). The Rice University Neologisms Database. Retrieved July 12, 2020, from https://web.archive.org/web/20180916151329/https:// neologisms.rice.edu/index.php?a=term&d=1&t=11504

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Maital, S. (2016). “Innovate Your Innovation Process: 100 Proven Tools”. New Jersey: World Scientific Pub. https://books.google.com/books?id=2-exDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA103#v=onepage&q&f=false

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General Student consensus

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Polyzoides, Stefanos. Interview by Charrette Editorial Team. Email. 24 July 2020.

Selected Elements from Les Edifices Antiques

by Antoine Desgodetz Cover

Corinthian Capital from Des Petits Autels du Pantheon, a Rome, p. 58, pl. XXI

ii

Planche, p. 4-5, pl. I

iv

North Arrow from Planche, p. 4, pl. I

32 44, 47, 52, 57

Panel Detail from Du Portique du Pantheon, a Rome, p. 38, pl. XII Tomb Detail from Du Temple du Bacchus, a Rome, p. 73, pl. 5

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Entablature from Du Dedans du Pantheon, a Rome, p. 43, pl. XIV

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Pilaster Base from Du Portique du Pantheon, a Rome, p. 34, pl. X

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Pointed Pediment from Des Petits Autels du Pantheon, a Rome, p. 56, pl. XX

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Segmental Pediment from Des Petits Autels du Pantheon, a Rome, p. 56, pl. XX

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