merry christmas

Journal of Architectural Education - Beyond Precedent

Category: Calls For Papers

Posted by: Saundra Weddle and Marc J Neveu

Deadline: 16 August 2010

Description:
Although the National Architectural Accreditation Board (NAAB) requires that students understand historical traditions and global culture, it does not mandate the method of instruction. Still, many schools offer a suite of architectural history lectures that are often perceived as distinct from studio topics. The relegation of history, theory and criticism to a supporting role is furthered by the outdated notion that history courses serve primarily to provide a buffet of precedent studies focusing on form and technique. Such an approach, born of historical methods and pedagogies that emphasize stylistic and typological diagnosis, fails to recognize the depth of historical inquiry, changes within the discipline of history itself and increasingly diverse design pedagogies. Is it possible to propose more complex relationships between history and design? Indeed, many architecture faculty, historians and designers alike, are engaged in the project of interrogating and reconceiving history's significance to design, and vice versa. Historians question the content, role and outcomes of their courses, examining ways in which the discipline can serve as a nexus between theory, criticism and practice, and investigating opportunities for deploying design pedagogies in their classrooms. Design faculty consider ways that historical methods and analysis can inform the design process so that students understand how history’s narratives are literally and figuratively constructed, and that they are not simply a collection of objective truths to react to. As concerns about representation and fabrication become central, critical engagement with histories of architecture and allied disciplines can situate the design process and architecture itself in broader and deeper contexts. That the role of history in architecture curricula is a subject of debate is nothing new; and yet, the shape of that debate appears to be shifting. This theme issue of the JAE focuses on neither the discipline of history per se, nor the history of history education in architectural schools. Rather, it takes as its premise the notion that the relationship between history and design should be activated. The journal invites text based (scholarship of design) and design based (design as scholarship) submissions that propose and analyze progressive methods and goals for integrating architectural history in the professional architecture curriculum and in practice. The submission deadline for all manuscripts for this theme issue is August 16, 2010, 5 pm US Eastern Time Zone. Accepted articles will be published in issue 64:2 (March 2011).For author instructions, please consult http://www.jaeonline.org/submission_guidelines.html.

Posted on: 3 December 2009

Expires on: 16 August 2010

direct link: http://www.sah.org/index.php?src=directory&view=opportunities&query=&xsearch_id=opportunities_search1&xsearch[0]=&xsearch[2]=&xsearch[1]=&xsearch[3]=&refno=8497&srctype=opportunities_detail

playtime

hi!

for those of us in 435 this morning... what a great lecture! for those of you not enrolled or missed, here is what Garth lectured on this morning (and 1 minute into the afternoon).

the major topic of the lecture was deconstructivism. he didn't approach the lecture as many other guest have by reciting architects, their buildings and the relevance (although that did come a bit at the end) but instead explored the theories and ideologies behind de-construction itself.
(items in quotations are from Garth's lecture/slides)

'how can intellectual or physical processes that take things apart, liberate (or improve) putting them together?'

'is discarding tradition and standards of excellence (i.e. repression) necessary to find freedom and innovation?... or are boundaries necessary to navigate, discover and verify where, what and how these freedoms provide value?

do guidelines and parameters provide guidance and serve as the gutter-guards to our architectural explorations? or do they limit the dimensions of our educational foundation? by encouraging certain ways of thinking or doing, are other ways, by default, discouraged?

additionally, do rules and standards prevent anywhere from being populated by any building designed by anyone? would a strict set of guidelines guarantee success in design?

he ended the lecture by interrogating our traditional idea of 'play'. i've thought about the value of play in regards to primary education, but never had applied the concept to our architectural education.

'the art, humor, adventure and comedic dimensions of deconstructivist work is inherently critical, proactive and trans formative... without knowing for what purpose or end'

would our studio projects and exercises be more beneficial if we weren't aware of the NAAB standards that we were fulfilling? what is the point of fully exploring a thought if the primary purpose of the exercise is to have stellar line weights? a foundation of basic skills is beneficial, however could the student or professional with the worst line weights benefit from misinterpreting their drawings and finding new layers of understanding?

'does canonizing (industrializing) deconstruction, ironically discard or diminish the promise of play'

by giving 'play', architectural or otherwise, a name, does it pervert the initial purpose of the act? freedom of outcome is one of the beauties of play.

i know that my thoughts have been mostly in question form, but i am hoping to not only extract and dicuss thoughts from you guys, but also from myself.

Interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27taylor.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

Its about grad school. A suggestion of a new way to conduct school. Reminded me of our conversation the other night. I personally appreciate his second point.

Beer and Poetry 4-24-09

Here are the notes from tonight's meeting. The notes were taken fast so they might be a bit hard to follow and the indentations are fairly arbitrary, but they hopefully, they'll still help everyone generate some good ideas.

• Architectural thesis - must be related to a piece of architecture
• Can't imagine Justin dressed as Carl Lastrito - would like to but not necessarily would theoretical v.s. physical
• Jon Healy's intro to module 1
• questioning convention
• discuss rather than lecture
• module - forum for event of conversation
• growing flexible community
• critical ideas into tangible form
• marries text and graphics
• issue 1 debate of student community - Beer and Poetry
• ideas as well as process
• accessible at many levels
• effect place an solicit interaction
• content not accepted or rejected but challenged
• since we're piggy backing on module it's important to see how it's concieved
• natural way - pure conversation
• we're taking organic thought and putting our own spin on it
• in or der to revamp we have to know how it started
• taking idea of architecture outside of built environment in to the application of diagramming and analyzing everything abou the world around us
• why try and define architecture and not just do it?
• have to know what you're doing before you do it
• have to understand why objects do what they do, i.e. why does the t.v. sit that way and what is it doing.
• architecture school changes our perseption, and what do we decide what is the built environment
• is the built environment anything synthetic/ man-made
• why industrial design is concentrated architecture
• counter: Architecture creates anthropomorphic space
• there is a hierarchy of space, is architecture inhabital space?
• just because it's on the floor doesn't make it architecture, but it can supplement architecture
• why do waste so much time trying define architecture - student of design
• learn how to speak and think a different way
• it's a language and way of thinking
  
• terms start to seep into everyday space
• architecture school helps us to consider environment versus self
• do we consider our selves part of the environment, but when we design we have to consider how space effects everyone
• interesting to see how you're body effects your design. Would Frank Lloyd Wright still be famous if he was two inches taller? (he designed based on his height)
• we're coming from a different point of than anyone else experiencing architecture,
• does architecture remove us from the rest of society
• can we truly design for the people we're trying to design for based on the people we design for?
• first year of architecture school takes us away from people, we don't know how relate our ideas in the same way we used to
• not just that way in architecture, it's in any field
• that's part of learning to be a good architect it's about being able to do work that can be related to other people
• dependent on person though, because not everyone can relate to ideas between culture. e.g. translation from french to english can mean the same thing
• e.g. writer who are educated inthe art of writing if they want it to have a certain dynamic they should be able to....
• because architecture is about desigining space you'd think that people who are the same sizes would experience space similarly
• architecture has to communicate to people without you communicating to them
• school viewpoint: we're presenting to our critic/client
• real world, the building has to speak for itself
• do we have the capabilities to approach a building the same way other people can
• we're desiging for the way the world should exist - architecture is a critique on how people living
• designing for the future versus designing for present
• e.g. clients can't see why architects want do things but architects can present that to them in a way that makes it clear
• are architects too concerned with diagram
• if coleen's bench was a piece that was perfectly folded from wall what would that matter in the end?
• normal person - something feel wrong; architect - pointing out inconsistency
• architecture = mentor who can know what creates good experience
• if bench were actually folding from the wall you might experience it differently
• message does not have to be explained but would it be persieved anyway?
• a rose isn't a rose isn't a rose at the end of the day - they're not all the same
• we're contesting this, things that are similar aren't the same
• form follows function and function also follows form, instead of just form and function there is perception of form and function, those things change based on perception
• percieve form and funtion two different ways
• architecture is perception - i don't want to build houses for other architects, I want to build houses for everyone
• we have different perception of world than most other people
• we're more cultivated with perception - not disconnectd
• is that unhealthy?
• unhealthy is our relationship to other people, only because we are so seperate from rest of campus
• if you're an author - you're designing a story - it's design- in essence we are all designers
• we're designing things that can be carried to other fields
• not much of learning happens in architecure school
• less a school of thinking a more of school of how to think
• how do we approach thinking about it
• alot of people in other field don't hit that step
• another level of cognition
• why are we doing this? is there some moral goal behind everything?
• architecture challenge it and change what is built
• what is the greater purpose of what we're doing?
• lawyer and police office has specific jobs, architect can be broken down to "we build buildings" but it's more than that
• it's not personal, how do we develop skill to be able to design for everyone well
• if we have to design a set of stairs, everyone does percieve it the same way, but there reaction is not necessarily individual.
• e.g. danial libskind's jagged edges, everyone is thinking something different when they walk around it, but everyone is walking around it
• everything thinks there own thing while reacting the same way, but architect is trying to direct thought?
• so are we trying to get people to think similar thing?
• what if you put three different stair cases in same room, forcing thought pattern to be "which do I take" are we predicting what they'll think and desiging for it? it's about creating the question
• then do we go into design asking what the question is to be asked?
• with each piece we create we are creating a question, individual designers are creating there own question
• asking question what is your question
• why are you an architecture major:
• architecture is dead poet's society
• can it help explain of arbitraryness, why do we keep coming back to what is architecture?
• Marisa: Architecture had the least definition; she didn't know what she wanted to do and architecture has allowed her to do many things including travel. Travel places and know that she gets them.
  
• people who are dependent on architecture aside from
• Difference between defining and creating
• Relationships towards architecture
• How are people connected?
• Who is the audience?
• How are people actually affected?
• Is this even a point that is relevant to talk about?
• What is a more directed topic?
• Who was not a pre-admitant to architecture?
• Jenny/Andrea/Matt/Donny
• Money
• Landscape architecture/engineering/philosophy/spanish
• Marisa-didn't know what to choose; multidisciplinary; sociology/archeology it was the most ambigious/least defined/ father suggested/ did it for a semester/quit
  
• Emma-didn't know what to do; had a hunch to choose; when she was in the building;
  
• Chris-did art his whole life; didn't want to stick with it; balance between art and practicality; right feeling
• Justin-liked buildings since first grade; when he decided; never accepted anything else; just liked buildings; the concept of buildings; fuck you; "outside or inside?"; designed baseball stadiums; by the time in 8th grade, i designed baseball stadiums; community parks; making them better; how can take what is there and make them better;
  
• Jess pauly- started as "i like lines." wrote college essay on that. lee waldrep asked her what will noteable about you; replied "i like lines", the way "i started thinking about architecture" teacher in fourth grade; did line designs; dittos; connect every point to another point; during class when other people were reading; I would be making my own line designs; and i went up showed her one day; she was flipping bat shit crazy; she said that you must have been an aztec architect in a past life; what do i want to do; her ideas are very ideas about massing; and forms; and its about fucking aztecs
• Matthew- journey project- nomad- feel like I grew up without a home- interested in international affairs; mass displaced people; i didn't want people to go through what I went through; i want to design refugee housing
• Andrea- practical art; draw and create; and actually use; art is typically a one trick pony; practical and functional and practical; socially innovative; are actually designing how people live
  
• Dave O- project in seventh grade that got him thinkign about it; study an architect and a bridge; chose gaudi; younger- hated everything around me; hated government, religion- this and that; architecture is my way of making a statement; (architecture is a way of hating everything?) architecture is my way of getting a say in things; architecture is my way of designing a way of part of society; i hated all popular things; even more than jenny!; *competition about who people hate life around them more* **winner: whoever hated the most when they were the youngest** typical suburban agnst
• Donny- extension of Dave's. similar childhoods. Communism was awesome wahoo---i didn't know shit. When i was in highschool i was a math and science kid, i was going to be a chemical engineer, i did a semester of engineering and i decided i hated it. The reason i decide i hated it is because i realized that you are either right or wrong. i love how you can say I don't buy that, I like being able to say that it is right or wrong, i like that I can tell people whatever I want whenever I want.
• (I LOVE SILENCE- transition in conversation) --correction **silence** Perhaps post fight club rules
  
• Dave R- when i was a little kid, i loved geography and Sim City- those two were possibly my favorite things in the world. Giving me the power to design a whole community and be in control of everything was just always perpetually interesting to me. just so many things you have to think about on different levels. Also, being able to put definition of space around me was big. I also settle on it when I was in 8th grade, and I was good. But now, if course, I'm having more doubts.
  
• who played the Sims and who played Sim City? because there is a difference...i always moved the showers when people were in them!
  
• emma admits she hated legos. the crowd is shocked.
• Who here has seen star wars *everyone raised hands except for jenny*
• Jenny- Despite not seeing star wars; my whole life- i did both dance and art, my parents are art people, put in that at a young age; did that in school; liked math and science, contradicting issues; could balance until college; in college when deciding what to do; never felt fulfilled when only doing one of the two; had trouble deciding between one or the two; didn't know architecture was a possibly; when architecture became a possible it became a happy harmony; i have to do the hardest thing; i have to do all of me; architecture forces me to do that; i guess i'm masochistic
  
• Math and science aren't as separate from art; scientific and mathmatic way; which is very rigorous;
  
• Jesse Wolfe- didn't know about architecture until my neighbor moved from pennsylvania in fifth grade;she knew she wanted to do architecture (doing engineering now); introduced me to architecture; played roller coaster tycoon;sims and legos and after rain storms it would be the best time to make tunnels in the mud; had a tree house; set since middle school; last minute decision though between engineering and architecture
  
• Carolina- I hate this question; never actually chose it; came late to me; i kind of got into the major in the summer because i heard it was harder to get in later; didn't want to commit; don't know if I still want to commit; i'm scared of commitment; committed to architecture because it committed to me; not completely random; liked art;politically limited to a country;
  

http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2009/04/19/style/t/index.html?hp#pagewanted=4&pageName=19emotional&

Also, here is a great article. check it out.

Since we didn't get to meet up yesterday, I think we have to be certain that we will meet next friday so that we do not let this get away from us. With that said, I have an idea about what our "theme" of the night could be. I think that it would be great if everyone read an article or two of the published modules and write/think/formulate a critique to it. I think this will address a bunch of issues, a few are: make us more familiar with module, understand what type of articles are publish-worthy, how they address their audience, see what articles are pretentious- if so why, etc.

I've read a few good articles in there that I overlooked before that I think could help us also get the ball rolling on where we want to take this.

Let me know what you guys think.

dave

fresh update...

marg and i found the pilot issue. check dave o's desk for copies.