Archinect - News

Pratt SoA Dean Quilian Riano outlines plan to address space challenges with proposed new building

2024-05-30T14:43:00-04:00

In a new letter to faculty members at the Pratt School of Architecture, second-year Dean Quilian Riano has outlined the need for some $71 million worth of deferred maintenance and other upgrades to the 155-year-old Higgins Hall in keeping with the new Local Law 97 mandate for net zero operating capacity by 2050. This includes $57 million for maintenance and upgrades, plus an additional $14 million to increase the electrical capacity.

Local Law 97 requires new energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions limits, with a goal of a 40% reduction by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050. Additionally, Higgins Hall has maxed out its Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and electrical capacity.

As a result, Riano said, the school must expand into a new building to accommodate its growing student body. A Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) will now be issued to developers. This process will explore leveraging Pratt Institute’s air rights to build housing, including affordable housing, and deliver ...

Vote now for your favorite Spring '24 architecture school lecture poster

2024-05-28T19:46:00-04:00

As the Spring 2024 academic term has wrapped up, let's take another look at the best architecture school lecture poster designs we have presented in our popular Get Lectured series. And as always, we'll let the Archinect audience pick their favorite graphic creations.

In our last reader poll for the Fall 2023 term, the David R. Ravin School of Architecture at UNC Charlotte poster won the top prize, followed by the Pratt Institute School of Architecture poster in second place and UCLA's School of Architecture and Urban Design design coming in third.

Check out the 29 posters we've featured throughout the Spring '24 term.

Voting closes on Tuesday, June 4, at noon Pacific Time. The lecture posters with the most votes will be announced on Wednesday, June 5. Have fun!

Want to share your school's latest lecture series and be included in the next Fall 2024 series? Send us your poster design and event details.

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A $2.91 million gift will help realize Tulane School of Architecture's new Center on Climate Change and Urbanism

2024-05-23T08:01:00-04:00

The Tulane School of Architecture has received an anonymous $2.91 million gift to help establish a new Center on Climate Change and Urbanism.

The cornerstone donation will be put towards supporting five years of research initiatives as well as new faculty and fellowship positions for an emerging cohort of climate-focused scholars housed within the School of Architecture community.

Dean Iñaki Alday says it will concurrently "provide our students with hands-on learning opportunities that prepare them not only to excel as architects and design professionals but also to grapple with a crisis that will increasingly dominate the 21st century."

Tulane reiterates that New Orleans and the Gulf Coast will continue to be the main focus of the school’s climate-related activities. The university's Roger Thayer Stone Center for Lati...

Cornell AAP appoints architect and urban planner Jose Castillo as Department of Architecture Chair

2024-05-22T18:00:00-04:00

Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP) has announced architect, urban planner, and academic Jose Castillo as its next Department of Architecture Chair. Castillo, the co-founder of the Mexico City-based studio a|911, has taught previously at UPenn, Tulane University, the University of New Mexico, and Harvard GSD and joins the faculty in Ithaca as a full Professor beginning this summer before the start of the fall academic term.

"Professor Castillo's expertise spans design research, practice, and pedagogy, inspiring imagination and actualizing transformation from the architectural to urban scale," AAP Dean J. Meejin Yoon said in a statement. "Connecting the many forces that shape our cities and built environments, Castillo's multidisciplinary approach to real-world challenges from climate change to infrastructure to social housing brings a breadth of knowledge and experience, as well as a global, humanistic perspective, to the department and college."

C...

Innovative mass timber Wangen Tower opens in southern Germany

2024-05-22T17:16:00-04:00

University of Stuttgart professor Achim Menges has shared details of a new research-led observation tower project called Wangen Tower after its realization earlier this month at the regional garden showcase Landesgartenschau Wangen im Allgäu in southern Germany.

The project is a collaboration between the university's Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) and Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) at the university.

Image: © ICD/ITKE/IntCDC University of Stuttgart (Photo: Nina Baisch)

Image: © Roland Halbe

Menges’ eight-member team worked with Prof. Dr. Jan Knippers and Gregor Neubauer to produce the prototype using CNC milling techniques and curved CLT panels. The result is a durable, high-performance structure made from locally sourced renewable materials as well as the first-ever built example of a multi-level building made using self-shaped structural timber components.

Image: © ICD/ITKE/IntCDC University of Stuttgart (Photo: Christoph Mo...

Lizard tails are effective at producing building collapse prevention strategies, Spanish scientists find

2024-05-20T19:30:00-04:00

A group of researchers from the Polytechnic University of Valencia say they have discovered a means for protecting buildings from structural collapse. In a new set of building science experiments conducted in June 2023, they carefully studied animal neurobiology.

El País tells us: “The team of scientists and engineers has devised a hierarchy-based collapse isolation system, the key to which lies in the implementation of structural fuses, which allow the building to be segmented in the event of a failure. According to Adam, this design philosophy is similar to fuse-based protection of electrical networks. His technique has been validated by a test on a real building — 15 by 12 meters in plan, with two 2.6-meter-high floors — using prefabricated reinforced concrete. It is the first solution of its kind to be tested and verified at full scale.”

The Endure project recently made the cover of the journal Nature. Engineering professor Antoni Cladera (who did not participate in the study) t...

The New School announces Joel Towers as its next President

2024-05-20T17:53:00-04:00

The New School has announced current Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design and the former Executive Dean of the Parsons School of Design Joel Towers as its tenth President. Towers’ appointment was announced today by Board of Trustees Chair Linda E. Rappaport, who also led the search committee and stated that it comes at a “pivotal moment” in the institution’s 105-year history.

“During his 20 years at The New School, President-elect Towers has prioritized excellence in teaching and learning, with a deep commitment to our students and a passion for the mission of The New School,” she wrote in the announcement. “He brings a track record of success in sound financial stewardship and consensus-building, as well as a clear understanding of both the complexities and possibilities for our storied and unique academic institution. He has demonstrated the vision, experience and commitment required to lead us in realizing the ambitions and strengths of our university.”

Towers, who co...

Marywood University creates first-ever Bachelor of Virtual Architecture program

2024-05-16T13:01:00-04:00

Marywood University in Pennsylvania has announced the first-ever undergraduate degree-granting academic program dedicated to training students in virtual architecture. The new Bachelor of Virtual Architecture (BVA) program is tailored to learners interested in careers building immersive environments. Students will learn through a combination of studios and coursework with skills-based outcomes augmented by instruction in the liberal arts, building science, and architectural design.

Image courtesy Marywood University

The school says: "The Virtual Architecture program will prepare students to design immersive architectural environments for films, video games, and other forms of virtual and extended realities. This interdisciplinary degree will share coursework with our two existing, professional degree programs in Architecture and Interior Architecture. Building on synergies with these existing programs, the Virtual Architecture program will specialize in environments, interactions, t...

Heatherwick's 'Humanise' campaign inspires 'joyful' architecture degree at UK university

2024-05-15T18:01:00-04:00

The UK’s Loughborough University has accepted Thomas Heatherwick's challenge to ‘humanize’ and create ‘joyful’ architecture with a new academic offering: A master's degree aiming to give students the opportunity to take part in a burgeoning movement created to solve a global “urban crisis” over the next decade. The 115-year-old university will become the first to affiliate itself with the Humanise campaign academically with new supplementary course content exclusive to its new Master of Architecture & Design program.

Courses will leverage research into architecture, neuroscience, and human psychology in accord with Heatherwick’s philosophy of design, which was recently the subject of a new treatise of the same title. The program's official launch is slated for the fall of 2025 and includes a series of lectures and workshops exploring the idea of emotion as a function of design, an announcement from the university read Tuesday.

Dr Robert Schmidt III of the School of Architecture, Bui...

Ennead and Dattner share first SPARC Kips Bay images ahead of 2031 completion

2024-05-13T17:01:00-04:00

Ennead and Dattner have shared preliminary project visuals to accompany the latest announcement of their winning bid to deliver the Science Park and Research Campus (or SPARC) Kips Bay to the East Side of Manhattan.

The project for the New York City Economic Development Corporation will culminate with a new 700,000-square-foot academic building to be used by three separate CUNY schools and a new high school for STEM careers. Close to two million square feet of educational spaces are being planned overall, and the project development will be complete with a new pedestrian bridge that fosters a connection to the East River waterfront.

Preliminary project visual. Image courtesy Ennead Architects + Dattner Architects

Ennead Partner Thomas J. Wong (the project's Design Lead) shared: “We bring a commitment to civic space, along with deep experience creating leading healthcare and education facilities to our work for SPARC Kips Bay, where, together with Dattner, we will develop an innovati...

HWKN to design new Keith Haring Wing expansion for Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard

2024-05-09T15:48:00-04:00

The Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS) at Bard College in New York is about to begin work on a new expansion of its CCS Bard Library and Archives, thanks to a $3 million gift from the Keith Haring Foundation. The funds will help advance the HWKN Architecture-led $10 million capital project towards a late 2025 completion.

Image courtesy of HWKN Architecture

The project was announced as a 6,000-square-foot expansion and will help house the CCS Library and Archives and related Hessel Museum collection, both of which have been added to by recent donations from the art dealer Gavin Brown and former MoMA chief curator Robert Storr. HWKN says their design is “aimed at enhancing the educational and community aspects of this unique venue.”

Image courtesy of HWKN Architecture

Work will begin later this summer and result in a new wing with a 30-person classroom and space for 30,000 volumes adjacent to six new offices for academic departments and 6,000 feet of below-library storage. C.T. Male As...

A University of Arkansas researcher's quest to create stronger and lighter structures using kirigami-based design

2024-05-08T12:28:00-04:00

By making a series of cuts and folds in a sheet of paper, Baker found she could produce two planes connected by a complex set of thin strips. Without the need for any adhesive like glue or tape, this pattern created a surface that was thick but lightweight. Baker named her creation Spin-Valence. Structural tests later showed that an individual tile made this way, and rendered in steel, can bear more than a thousand times its own weight.

MIT Technology Review highlights the digital fabrication work of Emily Baker, an architect and assistant professor at the University of Arkansas' Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. Baker began her research into lightweight and sturdy Spin-Valence structures as an architecture graduate student at the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

A concept for a shade structure in rural Arkansas following this design principle by Baker and collaborators Vincent Edwards, Edmund Harriss, Isabel Moreira de Oliveira, Eduardo Sosa, and Reilly Dickens-Hoffman also recently won the 2024 Forge Prize for innovation in steel architecture.

Explore academic job opportunities at 6 architecture schools

2024-05-03T11:41:00-04:00

Our latest weekly curated jobs roundup from the Archinect Job board highlights six architecture schools seeking fellows, faculty, and facilities staff.

Preparing for a new job? Be sure to follow our Archinect Tips series to improve your portfolio, resume, and interviewing skills and increase your chances of getting that next job.

Teaching Positions

University of Oregon seeks a Studio Instructor in Design Media and Visiting Faculty/ Professor of Practice - Department of Architecture, Design – Open Pool in Eugene, OR

Studio Instructor in Design Media details: "We particularly invite applications from candidates who have the potential to deliver visionary design studio and design media teaching that is informed by an active creative practice and by broad engagement with current discourses on design processes, design media (drawing, modeling, fabrication), introductory design studio pedagogy, and design studio teaching. Candidates should be positioned to support a diverse student body t...

BIG teams up with University of Kansas students and faculty to deliver the new Makers’ KUbe design

2024-04-22T15:24:00-04:00

BIG in partnership with BNIM and the University of Kansas have unveiled plans for a new six-story creative academic space that will help consolidate formerly separate learning environments for students in the School of Architecture & Design. Comprising a diagrid frame, the Makers’ KUbe is a 50,000-square-foot mass timber cube structure connecting the school’s renovated Marvin Hall and Chalmers Hall buildings from 1908 and 1978, respectively.

Mahbub Rashid, the new Dean of the University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design, said: "BIG’s willingness to both listen to us and push us has conceived a project that celebrates our history and embodies the ambitious optimism that animates our academic mission."

Image by Kilograph

As Rashid mentioned, the design is the product of a collaborative effort that brought together students, faculty, and board members in order to create a hub-like embodiment of KU’s four primary principles: "to become an emblem of creativity; to create a connec...

SCI-Arc's immersive 2024 Spring Show exhibition to feature a colorful assortment of new student work

2024-04-18T12:58:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by SCI-Arc, an Archinect Partner School

SCI-Arc, an Archinect Partner School, is hosting its annual Spring Show exhibition later this month that will feature the work of undergraduate and graduate students from all school programs. The show takes place on its LA Arts District campus, beginning with the opening reception at 6 PM on Saturday, April 27th.

The annual exhibition is meant to highlight students' work and the diversity of SCI-Arc’s course offerings via four immersive monochromatic rooms, each with different textures covering its surfaces. The curator of this year’s Spring Show, postgraduate Fiction and Entertainment program faculty Alexey Marfin, tells Archinect: "The spaces operate on two scales: The bold statement seen from afar, but also the fine material detail seen on closer inspection."

"The exhibition will be centered around an experience...

Esteemed academic and architect Janice Shimizu has passed away at 54

2024-04-17T13:54:00-04:00

Archinect is remembering the life and legacy of Ball State University architecture professor Janice Shimizu, who has passed away at the age of 54.

Janice won many hearts and minds throughout an estimable career in academia and the professional realm, sentiments that were repeated by the many people with whom she became familiar through her involvement in the Japanese-Canadian community in and around her native Manitoba.

She earned a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree from the University of Manitoba before completing her graduate studies at SCI-Arc, later entering professional practice with Thom Mayne and Morphosis in Los Angeles and, in 2004, founding the now widely-recognized studio Shimizu + Coggeshall Architects (S+Ca) with husband Josh Coggeshall.

Revisit our 2017 Archinect Sessions conversation with Janice Shimizu below.

Donna Sink has shared the following thoughts with Archinect: “Janice was not only deeply respected but deeply loved by her colleagues and by hundreds o...

Aki Ishida appointed director of the Sam Fox School College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design

2024-04-15T13:16:00-04:00

Washington University in St. Louis has announced the appointment of Aki Ishida as the next director of the Sam Fox School College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design. The current associate professor and interim associate director of Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture will take over duties effective July 1st. Her appointment follows the departure of Heather Woofter, who left St. Louis to become the new Dean at the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture last summer.

"Aki is an accomplished architect and designer, a respected scholar and a dedicated teacher and mentor. She is fascinated by the ways social conditions can shape the built environment, and she has a long history of collaborating with artists, engineers and health-care professionals, among others. I am confident Aki will be an inspiring leader who will connect deeply with our community and advance the strategic goals of the school and university. We are proud to welcome her t...

10 libraries, schools, and learning environments we liked this week

2024-04-13T08:00:00-04:00

In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.

Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Learning Spaces.

Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles.

↑ Fariborz Maseeh Hall at Portland State University in Portland, OR, by Hacker Architects; Photo: Pete Eckert

↑ Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library in New York, NY, by Mecanoo and Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners; Photo: Max Touhey

↑ The Wizard of Oz | KINCANG Modern Pre-School in Shaoxing, China, by LYCS Architecture

↑ Flathead Valley Community College, Wachholz College Center in Kalispell, MT, by Cushing Terrell; Photo: Longview Studios

↑ Greenwich Village School Green Roof—PS41 in New York, NY, by MBB Architects; Photo: Charles de Vaivre

↑ Pinghe Bibliotheater in Shanghai, China, by OPEN Architecture

↑ Hi...

Get Lectured: East Los Angeles College, Spring '24

2024-04-10T13:45:00-04:00

The Department of Architecture at East Los Angeles College (ELAC) has shared its late semester schedule of public speaking events as part of our Get Lectured rundown for the Spring 2024 term.

Events this semester begin on Tuesday, April 16, with an appearance from Carmen Suero, the Principal of Good Project Company. Suero is followed next on May 7 by urban planning expert Jonathan Pacheco Bell of the group Embedded Planning. The semester concludes on May 14 with a lecture from Güvenç Özel of Ozel Office.

Each event takes place online at 12 pm and can be accessed via Zoom. View the lecture poster for meeting room details.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

KPF presents Detroit's new University of Michigan Center for Innovation design

2024-04-05T15:15:00-04:00

A new project in Detroit from Kohn Pedersen Fox will deliver the University of Michigan's Center for Innovation (UMCI), a six-story academic research and teaching facility that is expected to open by the spring of 2027.

Construction has already commenced for the $250 million development, which will be delivered at 200,000 square feet in advance of two other “incubator” and residential structures that will follow at a later date on the four-acre site. The university says the UMCI will serve a host of purposes and is primarily intended for workforce development and different graduate degree programs.

Atrium view. Image credit: Kohn Pedersen Fox

KPF Design Principal Hana Kassem describes: “The UMCI is a catalyst for positive change and, as such, presents itself along Grand River Avenue as a ‘gateway for innovation. It proudly bears the University of Michigan spirit focusing on progress and inclusivity which is embodied in its dynamic forward-leaning form and the portal that cuts through...

University of Oregon opens fellowship for design and spatial justice

2024-04-03T12:19:00-04:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Curator of the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for Visiting Faculty Fellowships in Design for Spatial Justice at the University of Oregon, an Archinect Partner School.

The roles, based in Eugene and Portland, call for individuals to teach six courses per year on the topics of environmental, social, and spatial justice in design. “We particularly encourage applications from candidates who are interested in teaching questions in spatial justice at the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, indigenousness, sexuality, and economic inequality and who are interested in teaching innovation design/research methods with a focus on architectural design studio,” the university says about the fellowship opportunities.

Russian attacks destroy acclaimed Ukrainian design academy in Kyiv

2024-03-30T08:00:00-04:00

Various Ukrainian news outlets are reporting the recent near-total destruction of the Mykhailo Boichuk State Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design in Kyiv from a Russian missile attack in the morning hours of Monday, March 25th.

"During this morning's attack on Kyiv, as a result of falling fragments of a missile launched by the Russian Federation, the central part of the building at the Kyiv State Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design named after Mykhailo Boichuk was destroyed, particularly the sports hall, congress hall and exhibition center. The premises of the departments and the auditorium of the institution suffered significant damage," a press update from the country's Ministry of Culture and Information Policy reads.

Image: Helen Osadch via Facebook

News reports indicated that only two people were injured during the attack, which was part of a larger aerial assault on the capital's Pecherskyi and Solomianskyi districts. (You can read more about the att...

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa architecture students use AI and 3D modeling to preserve Lahaina heritage structures lost in August wildfires

2024-03-29T12:51:00-04:00

A new course being taught to undergraduate students this semester at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Architecture is helping preservationists on Maui document lost heritage structures using the same AI-augmented 3D modeling technology that was previously incorporated into the rebuilding of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Co-taught by Dean William Chapman, Associate Professor Hyoung-June Park, and visiting Assistant Professor Kyung Hoon Hyun of South Korea’s Hanyang University, ARCH 490: Rebuilding Lahaina in Mixed Reality offers students the chance to aid in the recovery efforts by creating digital versions of lost buildings such as the Baldwin House, Wo Hing Society Hall, and Old Lahaina Courthouse.

"We want students to expand their creativity to think of more than simply rebuilding what was destroyed, but also what they can do with this new 3D model that they created," Hyun explained to Hawaii Public Radio recently. "They can add values or communal experiences within ...

Harvard is searching for a Loeb Fellowship Curator

2024-03-27T11:22:00-04:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for an Architect at the US Bureau of Reclamation, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for Curator of the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University.

The role, based in the Harvard Graduate School of Design, calls for an individual to provide “vision and overall direction to the Loeb Fellowship program for mid-career professionals in design-related disciplines.” In addition to acting as principal spokesperson for the program, the curator will be expected to contribute to the wider GSD offering. Among the requirements for the role are a Bachelor’s degree and “proven curatorial, staff and program management, and/or development leadership in an educational/design setting including architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, urban design or related field.”

Why the r...

Featured teaching, leadership & fellowship opportunities at 6 architecture schools

2024-03-21T13:19:00-04:00

The latest curated jobs roundup from Archinect Jobs highlights six architecture schools offering a variety of teaching and academic leadership positions, in addition to fellowships.

Preparing for a new job? Be sure to follow our Archinect Tips series to improve your portfolio, resume, and interviewing skills and increase your chances of getting that next job.

Teaching Positions

University of Virginia seeks an Assistant Professor in Architecture (Tenure Track) in Charlottesville, VA
"We invite accomplished designer-practitioners with research and design experience across scales and typologies to develop their creative practice, research, and pedagogy at UVA. Successful candidates will join us as disciplinary leaders educating the next generation of architects."

University of Toronto seeks an Assistant Professor, Architectural Design in Toronto, ON
"Candidates must have earned a Master’s degree in Architecture or a related area, with a demonstrated record of excellence in research and/...

Architects for Gaza launches Gaza Global University for afflicted Palestinian students

2024-03-18T18:07:00-04:00

The UK-based group Architects for Gaza, appealing to the educational needs of displaced Palestinian architecture students in the occupied territory, has just announced the creation of a new learning platform called Gaza Global University.

The announcement was made earlier this month via Instagram. The group says: "We know that to rebuild Gaza requires rebuilding its institutions, its culture, its life — and importantly for those of us not situated in Gaza — it requires a rebuilding of all our worlds. We see Gaza Global University as a radical pedagogical project rooted in hope and shared humanity."

According to the group's website, the objectives for developing the initiative include:

Establishing links with academic institutions internationally to offer online tutorials and lectures free of charge Gazan students in any part of the world, who are students of architecture, and related courses, such as design and urbanism.
Offering technological assistance for remote communication at...

ETH Zurich’s 3D printed sculpture oscillates between ‘opaque boundary’ and ‘transparent curtain’

2024-03-14T12:06:00-04:00

ETH Zurich has unveiled a 6.5-foot-tall lightweight shell fabricated from 3D printing.

Named 'Fluid Forms,' and created by the institution’s Digital Building Technologies group, the structure seeks to showcase “an innovative robotic additive manufacturing method that enables the printing of doubly curved thin shells more efficiently.”

Video courtesy Ιoanna.M/YouTube

The design of Fluid Forms was inspired by the Costa minimal surface, which belongs to a family of shapes that minimize area for a given boundary, resulting in a geometry with strong structural properties. In contrast to horizontal plane printing, the fabrication process sees the print paths align to principal curvature directions, which, according to the team, reduces the need for external support and enhances the precision and surface quality of the curved surface.

Image credit: Dominik Vogel

“The print path orientation is controlled through a vector-field optimization method that has been fi...

Pratt Institute launches new Center for Climate Adaptation aimed at researching resiliency solutions for island cities

2024-03-13T14:28:00-04:00

Pratt Institute has announced the creation of the new Center for Climate Adaptation (CCA). The initiative is part of its alignment with The New York Climate Exchange, a consortium of research institutions that will use Governor’s Island as its hub for climate change investigations and education. David Erdman, an associate professor in the Graduate Architecture and Urban Design (GAUD) program, will lead the center as its first Director.

Pratt says the new CCA is aimed partially at protecting global island cities such as New York and Singapore. The focus expands on the United Nations Archipelago Agenda and will include experts taken from every subfield of architecture and urban design. Pace University and Singapore University of Technology and Design have signed on as academic partners in the initiative as well.

The school's President, Frances Bronet, stated: “The Center combines our deep engagement with the local community and global networks, and our collaborative approach to critic...

Le Corbusier protégé and longtime Knowlton School professor José Oubrerie dies aged 91

2024-03-12T19:42:00-04:00

José Oubrerie, a French architect with ties to many leading modernists, has died at the age of 91.

The longtime Knowlton School professor was noted for his academic accomplishments and for being one of the last surviving members of Le Corbusier’s studio. He inspired many generations of students to long careers in architecture, departing with his own being both highly decorated and admired within the broader community of professional design.

"He showed a direction for architecture during a time of great confusion," friend Steven Holl wrote in a tribute published to his firm’s website yesterday. "Now at a time where architecture seems to have drifted into commercial activity with firms of hundreds of people, he reminded us that in the office of Le Corbusier, at the end, there were only six employees including José. His dedication to architecture came with a jolly sense of humor and enormous bank of stories, which shall be passed down by many as dedicated as he was."

Oubrerie and Holl...

Taubman College announces Antje Steinmuller as new Architecture Chair

2024-03-08T11:25:00-05:00

The University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning has announced Antje Steinmuller as the next chair of the college’s architecture program. Steinmuller is expected to begin her three-year appointment on July 15th and is described by the college as “the leader best poised to strengthen the research and practice, teaching and learning that make Michigan a leader in architectural education.”

Steinmuller is currently an associate professor at the California College of the Arts (CCA), where she has taught for the past 17 years. She currently chairs the Bachelor of Architecture program and co-directs the Urban Works Agency, CCA’s urbanism research lab, where her research explores the role of design at the intersection of citizen-led and city-regulated processes in the production of urban space.

Related on Archinect: University of Michigan researchers detail new 3D printed upcycled sawdust material for formwork. Image courtesy Tharanesh Varadharajan, Zachary Ke...