FA C UL TY & S TU D E N T S
An Experimental Practice and an Innovative Presidency Associate Professor Kathy Velikov challenges the status quo as an architect, teacher, and ACADIA president By Julie Halpert
K ATHY VELIKOV VIEWS ARCHITECTURE as a tool for fostering inclusion and a diverse range of voices. Velikov, an associate professor of architecture, has spent much of her career focused on increasing diversity in her field. As the current president of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA), she has made attracting women to the organization a priority and views herself in a position to begin implementing change. “I advocate for diversity across its spectra of voices — gender, gender identity, racial, cultural, economic — as I believe that this makes for a more vital and vibrant design culture, community, and profession,” she says. Being a white cis female and an immigrant born in Bulgaria has shaped her identity “through specific forms of privilege, as well as discrimination.” Velikov, who was raised in Canada, has won numerous accolades, including the Architectural League Prize for young architects and the Canadian Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture. She started a private research-based practice called RVTR in Toronto in 2007 with three partners, including Geoffrey Thün, the associate dean for research and creative practice at Taubman College, who is her life partner as well. They specialize in using computational and materials technologies, experimenting with architectural materials and surfaces to respond to the environment and work on urban and territorial design and analysis. She and Thün now operate RVTR as a design research group within Taubman College. Velikov first came to the University of Michigan as an Oberdick Fellow in the 2006–2007 academic year, then returned as a full-time faculty member in 2009. Since RVTR was conceived of as a platform to pursue design research, teaching seemed to align with these aspirations. “It was incredibly enriching for me to be in the midst of vibrant intellectual conversation,” she says, adding that she’s “constantly inspired by the students” and the way that they see the world.
28
FALL 2020 TAUBMAN COLLEGE
