Fall 2019 MIT Architecture Orientation
Fall 2019 Department of Architecture Graduate Orientation
For all incoming Architecture Graduate Students
Phil Freelon, professor, colleague, and alumnus, dies at 66
Professor of Practice, award-winning architect, and alumnus, Phil Freelon died on July 9,2019 after a three year illness with ALS. Professor Freelon graduated from the M.Arch program in 1977 and went on to found his practice, The Freelon Group based in Durham, North Carolina. The practice became one of the largest African-American owned architecture firms, before merging with Perkins + Will in 2014. The National Museum of African American History and Culture, designed in collaboration with David Adjaye and the late Max Bond, is one of his most recently acclaimed and best known projects.
2019 Commencement & Awards
Congratulations to all of our 2018-2019 graduating students!! Special congratulations go to the following students who were the recipients of the 2019 Departmental Awards.
William Emerson Prize
For an Architecture Senior in Recognition
of Academic Excellence
MICHELLE T. XIE
Tucker-Voss Award
For a Building Technology Student in Recognition of Promise
for the Future in the General Field of Building Construction
JUSTIN DAVID LUEKER
The Politics of Ugly Buildings
In his new book, MIT’s Timothy Hyde looks at the architectural controversies that have helped shape Britain.
In 1984, when the British government was planning to build a flashy modernist addition to the National Gallery in London, Prince Charles offered a dissenting view. The proposed extension, he said, resembled “a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend.” A public controversy ensued, and eventually a more subtle addition was built.
2019 Department Research and Travel Awards
Please join us in congratulating the following students who were selected by the Department of Architecture faculty this spring for the following competitive awards, fellowships, internships, and scholarships. Awards and prizes are given at the end of each academic year in recognition of outstanding scholarship and promise. Read more about each of the awards.
Ambient plant illumination could light the way for greener buildings
Buildings of the future may be lit by collections of glowing plants and designed around an infrastructure of sunlight harvesting, water transport, and soil collecting and composting systems. That’s the vision behind an interdisciplinary collaboration between an MIT architecture professor and a professor of chemical engineering.
Renowned architect I.M. Pei ’40 dies at 102
Celebrated architect I.M. Pei ’40 died on May 16 in New York City. He was 102. Over the course of a long international career, he designed notable buildings that included museums, cultural and research centers, civic buildings, and office towers. A dedicated modernist, he received the architecture world’s highest honors for his large body of work.
Among his best-known projects are the glass pyramid entrance pavilion he designed for the Louvre Museum in Paris, and the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Huma Gupta Celebrated as Graduate Woman of Excellence
The Office of Graduate Education recently honored Huma Gupta as one of the 2019 Graduate Women of Excellence at their biennial celebration on Monday, April 29. Huma and her fellow honorees were nominated by members of the MIT community, and selected based on their leadership and service contributions, dedication to mentoring, and commitment to improving the student experience.
In Memoriam: Henry A. Millon, 1927-2018
Henry A. Millon, a scholar of Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture who served on the faculty at MIT for almost 50 years, left a lasting legacy on his scholarly field through his own work and that of the many students he taught and advised.
MIT Virtual Experience Design Lab presents Virtual Bauhaus
In celebration of the Bauhaus centennial, MIT Virtual Experience Design Lab presents the Virtual Bauhaus, a virtual reality exhibition created by the Goethe-Institute Boston in collaboration with TH Köln. Presented as part of Wunderbar Together: The Year of German- American Friendship 2018/19 – an initiative funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, implemented by the Goethe-Institute, and supported by the Federation of German Industries (BDI).
Sign-Up Here
Call for Proposals | Thresholds 48: Kin
Thresholds 48: Kin
Editors: Stratton Coffman, Dalma Földesi, Sarah Wagner
Spring 2020
Turning Points: 150 Years of Architecture at MIT
Fall 2018 marked the 150th anniversary of MIT's first architecture class, making what is now the School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) home to the oldest architectural course of study in the United States. To mark the occasion, the department is celebrating with a diverse array of educational and social programming on campus throughout the academic year. The events will culminate in a symposium and alumni open house on campus April 12–13.
Leventhal City Prize seeks to spark transformative urban design and planning approaches
New prize honors legendary developer and philanthropist Norman B. Leventhal.
Vibrant, innovative cities most often result from powerful collaborations among diverse constituencies.
To support this ideal, the MIT Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU) has announced the creation of a new interdisciplinary prize aimed at catalyzing innovative urban design and planning approaches worldwide, with a goal of improving the quality of life and environment for residents.
Unraveling the complex histories of Palestinian artwork
Before she was a PhD student searching through art history archives around the world, a young Nisa Ari attended museums with her family and tried to discern the histories behind the artwork and artifacts she saw. “It always had the appeal of detective work,” Ari says. Sometimes, when she’d walk into a new gallery, she’d challenge herself to identify artists from paintings at a distance: “That’s a Cézanne, that’s a Picasso, that’s a Léger.”
Historian, curator, and designer Ana Miljacki studies architects and their quest to make a better world
Inside Ana Miljacki’s office in MIT’s Department of Architecture, a sign hangs on the wall bearing a wry message:
UTOPIA IS HERE
JUST FOR TODAY
By itself, that sign could be a lot of things: an earnest plea to enjoy the moment, an ironic commentary on the futility of seeking perfection, or a wistful nod to the impermanence of everything.
MIT Architecture welcomes Rosalyne Shieh and Hans Tursack, 2018-2019 Fellows
The Department of Architecture welcomes Rosalyne Shieh as the Marion Mahony Emerging Practitioner Fellow, and Hans Tursack, the Pietro Belluschi Teaching Fellow, for the 2018-2019 academic year. These Fellowships support architects and designers at various stages of their teaching and research careers.
John de Monchaux, former dean of the School of Architecture and Planning, dies at 81
Architect and planner remembered as a man who brought people together through a combination of wisdom, optimism, and charm.
Jean Pierre de Monchaux, an idealistic and optimistic planner and architect who served as dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning from 1981 to 1992, passed away on April 30, after living with Parkinson’s disease for 20 years. He was 81.
MIT class designs a mass timber prototype building
The construction and operation of all kinds of buildings uses vast amounts of energy and natural resources. Researchers around the world have therefore been seeking ways to make buildings more efficient and less dependent on emissions-intensive materials.
Team led by Prof. Takehiko Nagakura digitally documents Machu Picchu using virtual and augmented reality
What if we could immerse ourselves in this UNESCO World Heritage Site through virtual reality or use augmented reality to interact with its 3-D site map?
"In order to digitally document and develop the foundations for future research, a laboratory team from the MIT Department of Architecture, led by Professor Takehiko Nagakura and PhD student Paloma Gonzales, has been working on the MISTI Global Seed Fund Machu Picchu Design Heritage project since 2016.
J. Meejin Yoon named dean of Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning
J. Meejin Yoon, professor and head of the Department of Architecture at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, has been appointed the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University. She will take up this new position on January 1, 2019. Andrew Scott, professor of architecture and urbanism, currently associate head of the department, has agreed serve as interim head starting August 15.
Alumni Celebrate 150th in NYC
Nearly 150 alumni gathered at the New Museum for Contemporary Art in New York on June 22, 2018 to celebrate 150 years of architectural education at MIT; Fall 2018 marks 150 years since the first class of architecture students. The event, jointly organized by the Department of Architecture and the Architecture Alumni Affinity Group (MITArchA), coincided with the American Institute of Architects Convention and brought together alumni with current faculty and recent graduates.
Cooling buildings worldwide
Analysis points the way to energy-efficient systems that take a location-specific approach to cooling and dehumidifying places where people live and work.
About 40 percent of all the energy consumed by buildings worldwide is used for space heating and cooling. With the warming climate as well as growing populations and rising standards of living — especially in hot, humid regions of the developing world — the level of cooling and dehumidification needed to ensure comfort and protect human health is predicted to rise precipitously, pushing up global energy demand.
A solution for urban storm flooding
Engineered green spaces can capture and purify stormwater while delivering ecosystem and recreational benefits, MIT researchers report.
Flooding, on the rise due to climate change, can devastate urban areas and result in drawn-out, costly repairs. Cities are in dire need of new strategies to manage the influx of stormwater. An interdisciplinary team of engineers and urban planners at MIT has now developed a solution: multifunctional urban stormwater wetlands and ponds that seamlessly integrate the control and cleaning of stormwater with ecological and recreational benefits.
Metropolitan Storage Warehouse is potential new location for School of Architecture and Planning
Historic building would create “design hub” for MIT, with benefits for surrounding community.
MIT has identified the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse as a potential new location for the School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P). The proposed move would let the Institute create a new hub for design research and education, allow the school to expand its full range of activities, and open new spaces for public use.
The building would need renovation, a process that would require approval from the City of Cambridge.
E-14, The Multipurpose...
2018 Awards Ceremony
Congratulations to all of our 2017-2018 Department of Architecture graduates!
Special congratulations go to the following students who were the recipients of the 2018 Departmental Awards:
William Emerson Prize
For an Architecture Senior in Recognition of Academic Excellence
KATHERINE R. WEISHAAR
Professor Leon Glicksman receives the Student Champion Award
Please join us in congratulating Professor Leon Glicksman for receiving the 2018 Student Champion Award for First Year Advising!
Given by the Undergraduate Association, this award recognizes an advisor who has gone beyond the call of duty to be present in aspects of advisees' lives beyond academics, participating in student events and activities.
Graduate Student Teams Among Winners of 18th Annual Affordable Housing Development Competition
The Affordable Housing Development Competition, organized by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, annually brings together teams of graduate students in architecture, planning, finance, and policy with affordable-housing organizations to develop comprehensive proposals to address the needs of the organizations and local communities. Two interdisciplinary student teams received prizes for their projects that respect local interests and propose comprehensive design and development strategies.
Mackenzie Muhonen (MArch ’19) awarded 2018 Kohn Pederson Fox Traveling Fellowship
Please join us in congratulating Mackenzie Muhonen (MArch ’19), one of three recipients of the 2018 Kohn Pederson Fox (KPF) Traveling Fellowship for her portfolio and proposal, "Learning from Love Motels: The Semiotics of a Civic Bedroom." Muhonen will travel to five cities in Brazil during a five-week trip this summer.
Stephanie Lee and Ellen Shakespear win second prize in the MIT Creative Arts Competition
Stephanie Lee (MArch '19) and Ellen Shakespear (MArch/MCP '19) founded Spaceus to address issues of artistic practice and community engagement in a gentrifying city. Spaceus "rethinks how artists and communities interact and come together outside of galleries and museums. We do this by finding affordable, shared studio spaces for artists in vacant storefronts. We are experimenting with new ways of engaging the broader community with art through workshops, open studios—anything we can dream of together," they explain.
Students, faculty, and alumni return to the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale
MIT faculty, students, and alumni will make significant contributions as exhibitors and curators at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Considered one of the foremost global forums for architecture and the built environment and drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world, the Architecture Biennale takes place every two years in Venice, Italy.
"Humanities through Material Engagement”: Gediminas Urbonas on Artistic Research
"The notion of ‘artistic research’ has really taken hold and captured the imagination of the art world in the past fifteen years,” explains Gediminas Urbonas, associate professor in the Art, Culture & Technology (ACT) program in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning.
MIT named No. 1 university worldwide for architecture/built environment, No. 4 for art and design
For the fourth year in a row, MIT has been named the top university in the world for “Architecture/Built Environment” in the subject rankings from QS World University Rankings for 2018. In “Art and Design,” the Institute ranked No. 4 globally.
Digital archive showcases work from the Center for Advanced Visual Studies
The collection features groundbreaking projects from pioneers working at the intersection of art, science, and technology.
Research Awards and Travel Fellowships Presentations
Recipients of the 2017 Research Awards and Travel Fellowships, including the Schlossman Research Award, the Louis C. Rosenberg Travel Fellowship, the Julian Beinart Research Award, and the Marvin E. Goody Award, present their work to the department in April 2018. More information on each award and applications is available here.
Thresholds 47: Repeat / Call for Papers
"Repetition is displacement; repetition is difference... repetition is pushing the limits of resemblance and limitation."
—Elaine Sturtevant
Future Heritage Lab Devises Creative Responses to Humanitarian Crises
Associate Professor Azra Akšamija, Art, Culture & Technology Program, MIT Department of Architecture, first visited the Al Azraq refugee camp in Jordan in 2016. “Once I saw [the camp], I couldn’t unsee it,” she says.
In Our Present Condition... ACT Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of CAVS
ACT’s year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the internationally renowned MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) began in April 2017.
Architecture faculty and alumni award recipients at Boston Society of Architects 2018 Design Awards
Architecture faculty and alumni received numerous awards at the Boston Society of Architects 2018 Design Awards, held on January 18, 2018. See the entire list of BSA honorees and more information about the awards on the BSA website.
Awards for Design Excellence:
Sheila Kennedy receives 2017 Bose Research Grant
Professor Sheila Kennedy was awarded a 2017 Bose Grant for a joint project using nanotechnology to build plants that provide lighting for buildings and cities.
Fall 2017 Studio and Thesis Reviews
Fall 2017 Studio and Thesis Reviews
Monday, December 11
4.151 Architecture Design Core 1 Studio
Liam O’Brien (coordinator), Jennifer Leung, Rachely Rotem
Long Lounge/7-429 + adjacent pin-up space
1:00 to 5:00 pm
Tuesday, December 12
4.154 Architecture Option Studios
1-6 PM
Brandon Clifford uses ancient knowledge to create contemporary architecture
Brandon Clifford has gone to Rome to look for ghosts. An assistant professor in the Department of Architecture, Clifford is in the Eternal City on a yearlong residency at the American Academy, one of approximately 30 American scholars to be awarded the Founders Rome Prize fellowship for 2017-18. His project, “Ghosts of Rome,” continues his innovative research into how ancient knowledge can engage with current technologies.
MIT Students, Faculty, and Alumni participate in 2017 ACADIA Conference: Disciplines and Disruption
Associate Professor Takehiko Nagakura and Assistant Professor Skylar Tibbits co-chaired the 2017 ACADIA Conference: Disciplines and Disruption, which took place at MIT from November 2-4, 2017.
Keller Gallery, Room 7...
Projected Architectures
Projected Architectures
Keller Gallery, Room 7-408
November 27 - December 16, 2017
Open 12 - 9 PM, Monday through Saturday
Faculty additions and promotions at the School of Architecture and Planning
Five join the SA+P faculty, while 10 are recognized for work in art, architecture, urbanism, and design.
The School of Architecture and Planning has announced that 10 faculty members have been recognized with promotions.
In addition, five new professors have joined the school in the Department of Architecture, the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and the Program in Media Arts and Sciences. Their research ranges from architectural history to disaster resilience to the design of prosthetics.
Mars city living: Designing for the Red Planet
A multidisciplinary team of MIT students and postdocs wins an international competition focused on building sustainably on Mars.
How will people live on Mars? An MIT team developed a design concept addressing this question as part of Mars City Design 2017, an international competition focused on sustainable cities on Mars to be built in the next century.
Sheila Kennedy, Adèle Naudé Santos, and Debora Mesa recognized by LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction
Two projects led by MIT faculty—a greenhouse in Massachusetts heralded as a “virtuosity of integration” and a plan to weave together working and living in a neighborhood in Cartagena, Colombia—were recognized in this year’s LafargeHolcim Awards for Sustainable Construction.
Faculty, Researchers, and Alumni Participate in the Seoul Biennale
Responding to the theme of “Imminent Commons,” a diverse contingent of MIT faculty, researchers, and alumni from the School of Architecture and Planning are participating in the first Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, which is being held from Sept. 2 through Nov. 5.
Architecture Faculty Discuss Energy Transition Through Aesthetics and Culture
Professors Rania Ghosn and Caroline Jones joined Professor Rosalind Williams of the MIT Program on Science, Technology, and Society in responding to speaker Imre Szeman, a professor of communication and culture at the University of Waterloo.
“We moderns still tend to take energy as a largely neutral aspect of social life,” Szeman said. “But the forms of energy we use, and how we use them, shape society through and through.”
Fall 2017 Information for Prospective Students
This fall, the Department of Architecture will host a series of online information sessions to enable more prospective Master of Architecture (MArch) and Master of Science (Architecture Studies, SMArchS; Building Technology, SMBT) students to learn about admissions, programs, school culture, and research at MIT. There will not be an on-site open house this fall. Please note that visiting campus does not affect admissions and we will host an open house for accepted students in Spring 2018.
Urbonas Co-Edits New Book Urging Artists' Role in Public Spaces
The book, “Public Space? Lost and Found,” published by the MIT Press, is co-edited by Urbonas, who is also director of MIT’s Program in Art, Culture, and Technology (ACT); Ann Lui, an assistant professor at the Art Institute of Chicago; and Lucas Freeman, a writer in residence at ACT.
“Art teaches us how to disrupt, in order to create a new public space,” Urbonas says. “The point of art is not scaling up answers, but to tackle painful questions, to provoke and mobilize humanity to find the answers themselves, or to create a space of possibility where the truth can be found.”
Celebrating the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, a pioneer in melding art, science, and tech
Fifty years after its founding, the vision of CAVS and founder György Kepes lives on in the Program in Art, Culture and Technology.
DesignIntelligence ranks MIT graduate architecture program among top in nation
The professional master's of architecture program at MIT has again been ranked among the top five in the nation in the latest DesignIntelligence rankings. MIT's architecture program has consistently appeared among the top 10 in this annual assessment of nationally accredited graduate programs.
In ratings of specific skills areas, MIT’s graduate architecture program ranked second in research.
MIT Urban Risk Lab map offers real-time, crowd-sourced flood reporting during Hurricane Irma
As Hurricane Irma bears down on the U.S., the MIT Urban Risk Lab has launched a free, open-source platform that will help residents and government officials track flooding in Broward County, Florida. The platform, RiskMap.us, is being piloted to enable both residents and emergency managers to obtain better information on flooding conditions in near-real time.
Blue Marble Circus on view at the 2017 Design Biennial Boston
DESIGN EARTH, the design practice of Assistant Professor Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy, is among four design firms selected as winners of the 2017 Design Biennial Boston, which seeks to support emerging architects, landscape architects, and designers from the New England area and provide a platform to test their ideas in the public realm.
Graduate Student Orientation 2017
Graduate orientation includes Institute-wide events organized by the Graduate Student Council (GSC) as well as events that are specifically for Architecture students. Incoming graduate students are encouraged to attend the GSC events that can be found here. https://gsc.mit.edu/orientation/2017/home
Monday, August 28.
Imagining new possibilities: Futurity Island
ACT is proud to announce the receipt of an Art Works Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the Futurity Island project.
PhD Candidates Jesse Feiman and Albert José-Antonio López awarded 2017 Fulbright grants
Six from MIT, including History, Theory and Criticism PhD candidates Jesse Feiman and Albert José-Antonio López, will spend the 2017-2018 academic year conducting research abroad.
Three SA+P graduate students and three recent MIT alumni have been awarded Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants to conduct independent research projects overseas during the coming academic year. In addition, a graduate student alumnus was named a Fulbright Finalist but declined the award.
Lessons from pre-industrial climate control
Graduate student Alpha Arsano wants to bring natural ventilation to the forefront of modern architecture.
Alpha Arsano is standing next to the MIT Chapel’s marble altar, admiring the view through the domed skylight above. Outside, water surrounds the cylindrical red-brick structure like a shallow moat. Inside the chapel, the brick walls ripple like waves. Tiny windows line the walls and face downward so guests can see slivers of the moat. When sunlight reflects off the water at a certain angle, it shines into the chapel and dances onto the walls.
MIT space hotel wins NASA graduate design competition
Module would serve as a commercially owned space station, featuring a luxury hotel as the primary anchor tenant and NASA as a temporary co-anchor tenant.
Illuminating the developing world’s “invisible” consumers
While on location in remote areas of Kenya, researching automation and home manufacturing for his doctoral dissertation, Kenfield Griffith PhD Computation ’12 encountered a significant lack of data.
For example, information he needed about whether people had access to indoor plumbing was scarce or nonexistent — and conducting traditional surveys to gather the data would be arduous and time consuming. But nearly all rural Kenyans, he realized, had texting-capable cell phones.
E-14, Silverman Skylin...
2017 Awards Ceremony
Congratulations to all of our 2016-2017 Department of Architecture graduates!
Special congratulations go to the following students who were the recipients of the 2017 Departmental Awards:
William Emerson Prize
to an Architecture Senior for Academic Excellence
SOFIE BELANGER
Henry Wentworth Gardner (1894) Prize
to an Architecture Senior for Academic Excellence and Achievement in Design
MARIA E. ROLDAN
SA+P community members win Graham grants
The Graham Foundation has announced over $560,000 in new grants to individuals around the world that engage original ideas in architecture. Five of this year's seventy-two funded projects were from members of the SA+P community including: Architecture's Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy; DUSP PhD candidate Suzanne Harris-Brandts; Caitlin Berrigan SMVisS ’09; Daniel Cardoso Llach SMArchS ’07, PhD ’12; and Nathan Friedman SMArchS ’15.
In Our Present Condition… Recent Work by Visual Arts Alumni Exhibit in the Dean's Gallery
When Professor György Kepes founded the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) in 1967, he provided a home at MIT for “artistic tasks that have authentic roots in our present condition.”
Room 7-429 and Adjacen...
Spring 2017 Final Reviews
Friday, May 12, 9:30 - 11:30 AM
4.032/4.S02 Undergraduate Design Studio, 9:30 - 11:30 AM
Information and Visualization
Ben Fry and James Grady, Room 3-442
Tuesday, May 16, 1:00 to 6:00 PM
4.154 Graduate Architecture Option Studios
Ground Up: Transfiguring the Abattoirs of Casablanca
Linna Choi and Tarik Oualalou, Long Lounge/7-429
Hayden Lipchitz Courty...
In No Time - a garden party
IN NO TIME:
a garden party
A night of installations, performances and outdoor screenings by Graduate Students in the Art Culture and Technology
Program at MIT. Schedule of events will be uploaded soon. Stay tuned!
Friday, May 19, 2017
Featuring works by:
Angel Chen
Jessica Sarah Rinland
Jessika Khazrik or The Society of False Witnesses
Jose Rivera
Laura Serejo Genes
Neil Sanzgiri
Nicolas Kisic Aguirre
Nolan Oswald Dennis
Pedro Zylbersztajn
Raafat Mazjoub
SKATKA
Yusef Audeh
HTC Alumni: Stanford Anderson and HTC Symposium
Professor Anderson's legacy at MIT stretched from his scholarship and teaching to program building. This symposium will be an opportunity to reflect on his efforts by means of three roundtables chared by HTC alumni and his former students. The History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art program and the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture co-host the Memorial Symposium in honor of Professor Emeritus Stanford Anderson (1934-2016).
Public Space? Lost and Found Publication + Launch
Public Space? Lost and Found explores the contemporary evolution of public space from the milieu of design and artistic thinking and practice at the civic scale. It gathers an eclectic cast of practitioners and theorists of the public domain and welcomes all readers interested in how the production of public space plays out (or could play out) under interrelated, accelerating conditions shaping the present, such as ubiquitous computing, climate change, economic austerity, and the rise of various stripes of political extremism and isolationism.
Olivia Huang and Akshita Sivakumar honored as Graduate Women of Excellence
Olivia Huang (M.Arch '18) and Akshita Sivakumar (SMArchS '17) were nominated and honored at the 2017 Graduate Women of Excellence Reception. Each honoree was nominated by a member of the MIT Community in recognition of her leadership and service, dedication to mentorship and drive to improve the student experience. Below, Olivia and Akshita answer a few questions on their work inside and outside of MIT for the Office of the Dean of Graduate Education (ODGE).
--
Olivia Huang (MArch 2018)
Brandon Clifford awarded 2017 Rome Prize
Brandon Clifford, Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture, has been awarded The Founders Rome Prize for 2017-2018 from the American Academy in Rome for his project titled "Ghosts of Rome."
'Other Masks' by William O'Brien Jr./WOJR Opens at Balts Projects in Zurich
Associate Professor William O'Brien Jr.'s exhibit 'Other Masks' is on view at Balts Projects in Zurich, Switzerland, from April 12 - May 14, 2017.
Being Material, Hosted by the MIT Center for Art, Science and Technology
‘Being Material,’ the second MIT Center for Art, Science and Technology Symposium takes place on April 21-22, 2017.The conference is convened by Professor Stefan Helmreich, Anthropology; Leila Kinney, Arts at MIT Executive Director Leila Kinney; Assistant Professor Skylar Tibbits, Architecture; CAST Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer Rebecca Uchill (PhD HTC ‘15), Architecture; and Professor Evan Ziporyn, Music and Theater Arts.
Associate Professor Kristel Smentek studies art, collectors, and commerce in new ways
The Art of the Dealers
Who doesn’t like a good story about art, international espionage, and global commerce? Consider this one. In 1765, the French government of Louis XV dispatched two emissaries to China with six large tapestries intended for the Qianlong emperor. In theory, this was a gesture of Enlightenment universalism by France’s minister of state, Henri-Leonard Bertin.
DESIGN EARTH Selected for Fifth Design Biennial Boston
Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy of DESIGN EARTH are among four designers chosen to create installations on the Rose Kennedy Greenway as part of the fifth Design Biennial Boston. “The powerful drawings and installations of these exceptional designers make visible—in a profound and terrifyingly beautiful way—the deep and damaging impact that human activity has had on the earth and the consequences of that impact for our continued inhabitation of the planet,” said juror Keith Krumwiede on DESIGN EARTH’s work.
Immigrant Experience at MIT: Faculty Azra Aksamija and Nasser Rabbat Featured in MIT Tech Transfers Series
Azra Aksamija, Associate Professor in the Program in Art, Culture and Technology, and Nasser Rabbat, Aga Khan Professor and Director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, talk to The Tech about their immigrant experience and how it informs their work and teaching as part of the Tech Transfers project, a photo series by Professor Daniel Jackson that features immigrant members of MIT.
Fast, Cheap, and Out of the Box Featured in Wired
“Imagine a structure that is quick to assemble, easy to transport and offers shelter in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Now, imagine one that can assemble itself in mid-air. This is the vision of a group of students from the Masters of Architecture Options Studio at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)," writes Alexandra Simon-Lewis for Wired Magazine on the Fall 2016 Options Studio 'Fast, Cheap and Out of the Box'.
Tozzer Anthropology Building by Kennedy Violich Awarded AIANY Design Award
The Tozzer Anthropology Building by Kennedy Violich Architecture, the architectural practice of Professor Sheila Kennedy, received an Architecture Merit award from the 2017 American Institute of Architects New York (AIANY) Design Awards. The project will be part of the Center for Architecture 2017 Design Awards Exhibition, on view April 21 through June 20, 2017.
Zain Karsan (M.Arch ‘18) receives QuarraMatter Fellowship
Zain Karsan (M.Arch ‘18) is the recipient of the 2017 QuarraMatter Fellowship. Now in its third year, the QuarraMatter Fellowship allows students to spend a summer working with Quarra Stone, a stone fabricator in Madison, Wisconsin. Two fellows work closely with fabricators at Quarra to develop and implement a large-scale stone artifact; the intent of the research is to build processes that improve accuracy in production techniques and reduce the gap between drawing, modeling, and making.
Nisa Ari Wins AMCA 2017 Rhonda A. Saad Prize
HTC PhD Candidate Nisa Ari, whose research explores the relationships between cultural politics and the development of art and art institutions in the Middle East, won the 2017 Rhonda A. Saad Prize for Best Paper in Modern and Contemporary Arab Art from the Association for Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran and Turkey.
DESIGN EARTH (Rania Ghosn/El Hadi Jazairy) receives ACSA 2017 Faculty Design Award
Pacific Aquarium, a project by DESIGN EARTH, led by Assistant Professor Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy, won the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) 2017 Faculty Design Award.
Caroline Jones and Rebecca Uchill to deliver Keynotes at Technical Landscapes Conference
On Thursday, April 6th, Caroline A Jones, MIT Professor of Art History, and Rebecca Uchill, MIT Center for Art Science & Technology Postdoctoral Fellow, along with Harvard University Professor Peter Galison, will be the opening keynote panel for the graduate student conference “Technical Landscapes: Aesthetics and the Environment in the History of
'Pure Taste' of the Antique
Kristel Smentek's presentation entitled “Bouchardon, P.-J. Mariette, and the ‘Pure Taste’ of the Antique” is part of The Getty Center's symposium "Bouchardon and His Contemporaries" and examines mid-eighteenth-century conceptions of ancient Greek art and the role of antique engraved gems in constructions of a "pure" Greek style.
Call for Papers: POLEMIC!
Announcing a Call for Papers for the MIT History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture + Art Graduate Student Conference to held on October 14, 2017
polemic… Polemic? POLEMIC!
MIT named No. 1 university worldwide for architecture, No. 2 for art and design
For the third year in a row, MIT has been named the top university in the world for “Architecture/Built Environment” in the latest subject rankings from QS World University Rankings. In “Art and Design,” the Institute ranked No. 2 globally for the second year in a row.
2016-2017 Faculty Publications
Thresholds 46: Scatter! Call for Submissions
Thresholds 46: SCATTER!
Editors: Anne Graziano and Eliyahu Keller
Energy-efficient Design Research: Assistant Professor Caitlin Mueller
Designing energy-efficient buildings can be challenging: Incorporating features that decrease the energy needed to run them often increases the energy-intensive materials required to build them, and vice versa. Now an MIT team has demonstrated a computer simulation that can help architects optimize their designs for both future operational energy and the initial energy required for making structural materials — at the same time.
Hundreds Turn Out for First “Building 7 Block Party”
Building 7 is most known for the soaring four-story lobby that greets visitors who enter the campus from Massachusetts Avenue. Not as widely recognized is that the building is home to four galleries that feature regular exhibitions of art, architecture, and design.
Art, engineering, and architecture
First year seminar inspires students to see the world with fresh eyes.
On a crisp afternoon in early September, seven MIT first year undergraduate students set out on a campus tour with their faculty advisor, John Ochsendorf, the Class of 1942 Professor in Architecture and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Their first stop was “The Big Sail,” the 33-ton steel sculpture by Alexander Calder that stands in McDermott Court.
House rules
Research shows how rebuilding Britain’s Houses of Parliament in the 1800s helped create clean-air laws.
Britain’s dazzling Houses of Parliament building, constructed from 1840 until 1870, is an international icon. But the building’s greatest legacy may be something politicians and tourists don’t think about much: the clean air around it.
Oscar Rosello (SMarchS) wins Best Poster Award at UIST 2016
Oscar Rosello, pursuing a Master degree in SMarchS Design and Computation, received Best Poster Award at the 29th ACM User Interface Software and Technology Symposium in October in Tokyo. The ACM Symposium (UIST) is the premiere forum for human-computer interface design and brings together research in virtual/augmented reality, multimedia, input/output devices, and graphical interfaces.
The Future of Urban Housing in Brazil
The School of Architecture and Planning and the Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU) at MIT have established a long-term initiative to rethink the future of affordable housing in Brazil, which faces an estimated shortage of 7 million units.
Faculty Rania Ghosn, Joel Lamere, and William O’Brien Jr. recognized for design work
Faculty Rania Ghosn, Joel Lamere, and William O’Brien Jr. were recognized for their design work in The Architect’s Newspaper and Architect magazine’s 2016 Design Awards.
HTC at Architecture and Geology Colloquium in Oxford
Faculty members Timothy Hyde and Lauren Jacobi and Alumni Lucia Allais (PhD 2008) and Martin Bressani (SMArchS 1985) will be speaking at St. Catherine’s College in Oxford England on January 14, 2017.
Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative (GAHTC) receives $1.5 million grant from Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) a $1.5 million grant in continued support for the Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative (GAHTC).
Fall 2016 Final Reviews
Monday, December 12
10:00 am to 6:00 pm, 4.154 Architecture Option Studio (G), Future Heritage, Maria Segantini and Carlo Cappai, Long Lounge/7-429
12:00 to 6:00 pm, 4.154 Architecture Option Studio (G), Architecture as Landscape, Fabrizio Barozzi and Jongwan Kwan, South Dome + South Corner
1:00 to 6:00 pm, 4.154 Architecture Option Studio (G), Fast, Cheap & Out of the Box, Skylar Tibbits, Aran Chadwick and Neil Thomas, location to be announced
Tuesday, December 13
Architecture Promotes Several Faculty, Welcomes New Members
The School of Architecture and Planning has announced that seven faculty members have been recognized by being promoted, granted tenure, or given significant new roles, and four new faculty joined their ranks. Among these are six faculty from the Department of Architecture.
Faculty and Alumni participate in ACADIA Conference
A number of alumni and faculty are participating in the annual Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) Conference, October 24-28, 2016. This year’s theme “Posthuman Frontiers: Data, Designers and Cognitive Machines” aims to discuss work at the intersection of procedural design, designed environments, and autonomous machines.
Professor and Department Head J. Meejin Yoon will receive the ACADIA 2016 Teaching Award of Excellence and deliver a keynote lecture on October 28.
Thinness / GLD Architecture
Exhibition Opening & Reception: September 30, 2016, 6:30 PM
On View September 23 - November 1, 2016
mwworks, co-founded by Eric Walter MA'99, receives Emerging Firm Award from AIA
Seattle-based mwworks, an architecture studio best known residences and strong contextual work that knits into landscape, has received the 2016 Northwest and Pacific Region Emerging Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The award recognizes emerging firms less than ten years old that are challenging traditional perceptions and methods of architecture. The AIA Northwest and Pacific Region (NWPR) includes the states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho and Hawaii, and the territory of Guam.
Fall 2016 Graduate Open House
Please join us on Thursday, October 27th for our Fall Graduate Programs Open House. Come learn about one of the top ranked architecture schools in the world!
The post-professional Master of Science in Architectural Studies (SMArchS) program session will begin at 11 AM. Schedule below:
SMArchS Open House
Long Lounge, Building 7 Room 429
DesignIntelligence ranks MIT graduate architecture program among top in nation
The professional master's of architecture program at MIT has tied for second in the nation in the latest DesignIntelligence rankings, a jump from fifth position last year. MIT's architecture program has consistently appeared among the top 10 in this annual assessment of nationally accredited graduate programs.
In ratings of specific skills areas, MIT’s graduate architecture program ranked first in computer applications, second in sustainability, and third in construction methods and materials.
SOM Prizes Awarded to MIT Alumni
Please join us in congratulating Jongwan Kwon, M.Arch '16, on receipt of the 2016 SOM Prize in Architecture, an annual $50,000 research and travel prize. Jongwan's research proposal, "After Efficiency: Logistics Infrastructure from a Regional Perspective," focuses on the impact of major international gateways (ports, airports, canals and tunnels) on their regional environments.
Joel Lamere's Grove Project receives Honorable Mention in 2016 R+D Awards from Architect Magazine
Grove, a project by Assistant Professor Joel Lamere and Cynthia Gunadi, GLD Architecture, received an Honorable Mention in Architect magazine's 2016 R+D Awards.
“Grove represents a significant advancement in architectural form-making. By combining composite-based structural analysis with inflatable vinyl forms, GLD has developed a workflow that embeds structural logic into design from the very start—and at a low cost,” writes Nate Berg.
Three students and alumni awarded 2016 Fulbright Grants
One graduate student and two recent alumni are recipients of the 2016-2017 Fulbright Grants. PhD Candidate Christianna Bonin and alumni Aurimas Bukauskas and Elizabeth Yarina will spend the coming year in Russia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand, respectively.
Program in Art, Culture and Technology receives National Endowment for the Arts grant
The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded MIT’s Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT) of the School of Architecture and Planning an NEA Art Works grant to support the digitization and online presentation of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) Special Collection.
Bob White, Höweler + Yoon, Ahmahian Winton, win 3 of 4 Northern Ave Bridge Awards
Alumnus Robert White, (M.Arch '15), J. Meejin Yoon, Professor, Department Head, and Principal of Höweler + Yoon Architecture, and Alex Anmahian, Lecturer and Principal of Anmahian Winton Architects, are three of four winners of the Northern Avenue Bridge Ideas Competition organized by the City of Boston and the Boston Society of Architects.
E-14, Silverman Skylin...
2016 Awards Ceremony
Congratulations to all of our 2015-2016 Department of Architecture graduates!
A special congratulations goes to the following students who were the recipients of the 2016 Departmental Awards:
William Emerson Prize
to an Architecture Senior for Academic Excellence
MARIANA BALLINA
Henry Wentworth Gardner (1894) Prize
to an Architecture Senior for Academic Excellence and Achievement in Design
DOHYUN LEE
Spring 2016 Department Research Awards
The department congratulates the recipients of the 2016 Schlossman Research Fellowship, Louis C. Rosenberg (1913) Travel Fellowship, the Marvin Goody Award, and the Julian Beinart Research Award. Students will present their research in Spring 2017.
Schlossman Research Fellowship
"Uncamping: Rethinking Refugee Housing”
Grisha Enikolopov
M.Arch 2017
"Design Analysis and Digital Archive of Korean Dancheong Patterns”
Hunmin Koh
SMArchS Design and Computation, 2017
MIT at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale
Faculty, researchers, graduate students, and alumni represented in 15 exhibitions and pavilions.
Architects, artists, and designers from the MIT community constitute a robust presence at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale.
Two from Architecture win Architectural League of New York honors
The Architectural League of New York has honored two members of the School of Architecture and Planning community with its annual prize for young architects and designers.
Design Earth, a collaborative practice led by MIT Assistant Professor Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy, and The Open Workshop, the practice of Neeraj Bhatia SM '07, are two of six architecture and design offices selected for the 2016 prize. The award is given to architects and designers who are no more than 10 years out of school.
Graham Foundation Grants Awarded to Professor and Alumna
Associate Professor Ana Miljacki, and alumna Zeynep Çelik Alexander, PhD '07, are among the 2016 winners of the Graham Foundation grants.
Building 7, Fourth Flo...
Spring 2016 Final Reviews
Tuesday, May 10
1:00 to 6:00 pm
4.163J/11.332J Urban Design Studio (G)
RENACIMIENTO: Reviving Mexico’s Abandoned Towns
Rafi Segal and Brent Ryan
Long Lounge/7-429 + adjacent pin-up areas
Wednesday, May 11
11:00 am to 6:00 pm
4.152 Architecture Design Core Studio II (G)
Ana Miljacki (coordinator), Cristina Parreno-Alonso, Ryan Murphy
Long Lounge/7-429 + North & South Domes
MIT Names Center for Advanced Urbanism in Honor of Visionary Developer Norman Leventhal
MIT has named its Center for Advanced Urbanism (CAU) in honor of Norman B. Leventhal '38, a visionary developer and philanthropist at the center of Boston’s postwar revival. A life member emeritus of the MIT Corporation who died last year, Mr. Leventhal was a vital member of the MIT community for three-quarters of a century.
The center was officially named the Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism today at a signing ceremony attended by Alan and Sherry Leventhal and other members of Norman Leventhal’s extended family.
Island in the Charles Video features HTC Alumni
HTC alumnus Karl Haglund PhD '97 and faculty/alumnus Mark Jarzombek PhD '86 featured in MIT Alumni Associations' s VIDEO: "Island on the Charles" as part of the MIT Centennial Celebration on the MIT Campus. The following article describes the video. Images above include only one of the island ideas.
by JULIE BARR on April 22, 2016
Announcing MITArchA!
MITArchA is the newly formed MIT Architecture Alumni affinity group, within the MIT Alumni Association. Open to all MIT Architecture Alumni, undergraduates and graduates, as well as current students and friends of the program, MITArchA is our forum to connect with each other, with current students and faculty, the School of Architecture and Planning and the Institute at Large.
J. Meejin Yoon receives 2016 ACADIA Teaching Award of Excellence
Professor and Department of Architecture head J. Meejin Yoon has been awarded the 2016 Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) Teaching Award of Excellence. The jury cited Yoon’s “innovative and critical pedagogical approach to integrating new ideas, techniques and technologies into her teaching and research. This approach is supported by excellence in academic leadership, scholarship and professional practice.”
Course 4 Participation in MIT 2016 Open House
"MIT2016: Celebrating a century in Cambridge" commemorates the Institute’s 1916 move from Boston’s Back Bay as it honors MIT’s special relationship with the City of Cambridge and looks toward the frontiers of the future. On Saturday, April 23, 2016, the entire campus will be open for a day-long participatory Open House.
New Design Minor (D-Minor) Launches in Fall 2016
The Department of Architecture will launch a new Minor in Design (D-Minor) in Fall 2016. "Undergraduates across MIT are excited about design. They’re participating in increasing numbers in classes and research projects that engage challenging, multi-disciplinary design problems. We are delighted to now offer our very creative and talented undergrads a more structured opportunity to pursue their particular design interests," says Terry Knight, Professor of Design and Computation and Design Minor Advisor.
Thresholds 44: Workspace Launch + 'The Contingent Space of Work' Exhibition Opening
Join us to toast the release of thresholds 44: workspace and the opening of the exhibition “The Contingent Space of Work” this Friday, April 15 at 5:30pm at the MIT Keller Gallery (Building 7-408).
Featuring a public talk by Shelly Ronen (of Object Solutions) and copies of thresholds available for $5
(Exhibition on view in Keller Gallery April 7 - May 6)
Long Lounge, Room 7-42...
Campus Preview Weekend — 2016
The Department of Architecture welcomes admitted freshmen and their parents to an Open House, Department Tour and an Open Studio, April 7-10. Visitors can sit in on classes and participate in other related events.
Friday, April 8
Many Presenting at the 2016 SAH Conference
Nineteen from the Department of Architecture Alumni, Faculty and Students are participating at the Annual Conference of the Scoiety of Architectural Historians. Sorted by group, each list is in event order by date and time of the panel session or roundtable, so some people are listed twice.
Nathan Brown receives SOM Foundation Fellowship
Nathan Brown, Architecture student in the Master of Science in Building Technology Program is the recipient of the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) Foundation 2016 Structural Engineering Traveling Fellowship.
Designing Places for Inventing the Future: The Campus—Then, Now, Next
The Institute will commemorate its move to Cambridge and the dedication of the Main Group with academic and celebratory programming beginning on the last day of February and concluding on Commencement and Reunion weekend. Festivities are outlined in the event schedule below and will include a special centenary exhibit at the MIT Museum, academic symposia, music and theater arts performances, and events—including an Open House—that welcome members of the MIT community, our neighbors, and friends.
David Adjaye Presents Keynote Lecture for McDermott Prize in the Arts at MIT
David Adjaye presents his keynote lecture, "Geography, History, Community: Designing to Context", as part of his McDermott Prize in the Arts at MIT Residency on Tuesday, March 29 at 5:00 PM in Lecture Hall 10-250.
Engaged Neighbors: Scholars at MIT and in Mexico Collaborate on Projects Spanning Design, Technology, and Art
MIT faculty, students, and alumni consistently find creative ways to apply their knowledge to local contexts, collaborating with partners around the globe to make the world a better place. Arguably, no MIT exchange is more fertile than the one the School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) enjoys with Mexico.
Inés Ariza selected as 2016 Quarra Matter Fellow
Matter Design and Quarra Stone have announced this week that Inés Ariza of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Shan Sutherland of the University of Michigan have been selected as the 2016 QuarraMatter Fellows.
John Myer, professor and Department head, dies at 89
The following obituary was graciously provided to us by the family of Professor Myer:
John Randolph Myer, known as Jack to his friends and family, died of natural causes on February 17th, surrounded by his family. He was 89 years old. Mr. Myer was a prominent Boston architect, founder of Arrowstreet, Inc. and was department head of MIT’s Department of Architecture from 1982-1987. With Kevin Lynch, and others, Jack Myer was instrumental in the Downtown Waterfront Renewal Plan, the Boston Architectural Center, and the Massachusetts State Archives Building.
Faculty-Student Design Collective’s Pavilion on View in Times Square
The "Heart of Hearts” pavilion, designed by Collective—LOK, opened in Father Duffy Square in Times Square, NYC on February 9th, 2016. It will remain on view through March 6, 2016.
--
Love for Times Square: MIT professor, PhD candidate design Valentine’s Day pavilion for New York City.
http://news.mit.edu/2015/love-for-times-square-art-installation-1228
Students Win Second Prize in Shanghai Railway Competition
A team of four students – David Birge, Gabriel Kozlowski, Difei Xu (SMArchS Urbanism ’15) and Barry Beagan (M.Arch ’15) received Second Prize in the invited International Student Urban Design Competition for Shanghai Railway Station Area.
Architecture Alumni Win Lawrence Anderson Award
Congratulations to Dessen Hillman (SMArchS 2014) and Erioseto Hendranata (MArch 2014) recipients of the 2015 Lawrence B. Anderson Award for their proposal, "Rediscovering Communal Spaces Through The Everyday Rituals in Indonesia.” The award will help them to study traditional cultures and their rituals across Indonesia in order to learn and uncover knowledge on communal spaces that can inform larger current architecture design discussions.
Landlines: Drawing Terrain
Landlines: Drawing Terrain is an exhibition of drawings that reflect on the capacity of line to represent a contentious surface. There are eight methods of representing islands in this exhibition; the grouping of drawings positions these methods in relation to one another. There are a total of 24 drawings and 6 animations, organized into eight sets: projecting, hatching, growing, graining, slitting, animating, dashing, and boiding.
---
MArch Student Start-up In the News
Launched last year by Master of Architecture students, Tengjia Liu, Kun Qian and Marwan Abou Dib, Micro-gallery site Tekuma is recently featured in articles, from Boston to China.
Architecture Faculty Win Boston Society of Architects (BSA) Awards
Architecture Professor of the Practice Sheila Kennedy, Lecturer Ryan Murphy, and Professor J. Meejin Yoon received awards at the Boston Society of Architects 2016 Design Awards, held January 28, 2016.
Professor Stanford Anderson, Co-founder of HTC, former Dept. Head, Dies at 81
Professor Stanford Anderson, in the History, Theory and Criticism discipline group of the Department of Architecture, died on Jan. 5. He will be missed by many in the School, as well as those touched by his 50 years at MIT. His obituary is available on the MIT News website.
Claudia Bode, M.Arch 2015, included in 2016 Wallpaper Magazine Graduate Directory
Claudia Bode, M.Arch 2015, is included in Wallpaper Magazine’s Graduate Directory for 2016. Bode’s thesis examines the challenges of the ‘Green Heart’, an agricultural area situated in the center of the Randstad, a metropolis in the western Netherlands. The region faces multiple challenges, including the need to accommodate for water as a strategy to deal with climate change, and the difficult task of operating small family dairy farms in an increasingly globalized market.
Skylar Tibbits named 2015 Innovator of the Year by R&D Magazine
Skylar Tibbits, Research Scientist and Director of the Self-Assembly Lab, was named the Innovator of the Year by R&D Magazine at the annual R&D 100 Awards. The award is presented each year to an “individual or team who has demonstrated leadership, creativity, entrepreneurial spirit and success in the pursuit of science and technology.” It is the magazine’s top individual award.
Lecture: Rewilding material and making
The arc of technological innovation in the practices of architecture and construction have continually emerged out of a ritual desire for improved mechanical advantage, control over material behaviour and enhanced complexity in design and making. Despite these advances the material world has never ceased to provide ample resistance to this attempt of control; matter remains dynamic, undomesticated, and wild. It is through this wildness that materials challenge the design ideas and intentions that we base so much of our efforts on.
DesignX Selects First Cohort
Eight student-led teams hoping to launch ventures ranging from real estate development, to urban diagnostics, to novel design solutions for schoolchildren have been selected as the inaugural cohort for DesignX, the new entrepreneurship accelerator from MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P).
Dean Sarkis Featured in Archinect One-to-One
Archinect's Paul Petrunia and Amelia Taylor-Hochberg sat down with SA+P Dean Hashim Sarkis to hear his perspective in comparing architecture education and practice.
"Our interview revolves around the same questions we ask in our Deans List series – how architecture education and practice are changing, how to address student needs, MIT’s particular take on how to cultivate exceptional architects, and the culture of the school in a global urban context."
Building 9, Fourth Flo...
Fall 2015 Final Reviews
Tuesday, December 8, 10:30 to 5:00 pm
4.153 Architecture Design Core 3 Studios: BAJA WINERY: Architecture in Times of Drought
Sheila Kennedy, Alex Anmahian, Andrew Scott
Long Lounge/ 7-429
Wednesday, December 9, 2:00 to 7:00 pm
4.151 Architecture Design Core 1 Studios
Liam O'Brien and Brandon Clifford
Long Lounge/7-429
McKnelly Megalith featured by Fast Company
An architectural exploration into ancient building techniques led students to create a 2,000 pound monument in honor of classmate Carrie McKnelly's parents who were lost in a fire.
Last May, students in Brandon Clifford's Megalithic Robotics class each designed small-scale models, but decided to create McKnelly's sculpture in full size: http://architecture.mit.edu/architectural-design/project/mcknelly-megalith
Alum Daniel Cardoso Llach publishes Builders of the Vision: Software and the Imagination of Design
Daniel Cardoso Llach (SMArchS and Ph.D. in Architecture from MIT) recently published a book titled Builders of the Vision: Software and the Imagination of Design (New York: Routledge, 2015). His investigations shed light on the social and political histories of digital design software in the years following World War II through the present.
'When Brickwork and Imagination Meet'
Professor of the Practice Sheila Kennedy and her team at Kennedy Voilich Architecture (KVA), designed an innovative entryway as part of their transformation of Harvard's Tozzer Building, which was recently awarded a Best in Class prize from the Brick Industry Association of America. The entryway evokes ancient monuments while harnessing state-of-the-art computational design.
Read more about the Tozzer Building on MIT News
Alumni-founded Pupil Labs Develops Products for Astronauts
A former SMArchS thesis project has found its way into outer space! Pupil Lab, founded by alumni Will Patera and Moritz Kassner (SMArchS Computation, ’12), created custom vision headsets for Space Application Services as part of the Mobile Procedure Viewer (mobiPV) project. The headset captures the astronaut’s field of vision and allows for real-time video to be streamed to mission control where specialists can engage astronauts in real-time consultation and without lengthy delays.
Prof. Yoon honored with Women in Architecture award
J. Meejin Yoon, a professor and head of the Department of Architecture, was honored this week with the 2015 New Generation Leader award at a ceremony held Oct. 6 by Architectural Record as part of the magazine’s second annual Women in Architecture Forum and Awards event.
Cross-Studios: Design across disciplines
Joining faculty from different discipline groups, the Cross-Studios are a new model of teaching studios in the Department of Architecture. The cross-studios allow students to experience novel and innovative research that bridges between design, history, and engineering.
Fall 2015 Open House for Master's Programs
Thank you so much for joining us for the MIT Architecture Graduate Open House! We had a wonderful time meeting you and we hope that you had a great time learning about MIT. You can find the Open House booklet with schedule and departmental information to the right under "download".
If you have any questions or missed the Open House and would like to arrange a visit, please contact arch@mit.edu.
Images:
First Issue of 3DP+ (3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing) Released
The first issue of 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing was released under the editorship of Skylar Tibbits, faculty and Director of the Self-Assembly Lab. Tibbits takes over the position from Hod Lipson of Cornell University.
Course 4 Undergraduate Program in Architecture
A new film highlights the Course 4 Undergraduate Program in Architecture. Watch the video to see the work and hear from our current Course 4 students and recent alumni, here.
"The magical thing about Course 4 is it teaches you how to take your creativity and design ideas and translate them into physical realities that are spatial, occupiable, inhabitable and have a powerful cultural resonance," said Meejin Yoon, Professor and Department Head.
New group forms for MIT Architecture Alumni
A new group has formed to offer opportunities for alumni of MIT architecture to connect and re-connect with each other, current students, and the Department of Architecture, as well as the School of Architecture and Planning and the Institute at large.
The MIT Architecture Alumni group—or MITArchA, pronounced "mit-ARK-ah", for short—was proposed and formed by alumni of the school, led by Jacob Kain MArch ’00. Official approval by the Alumni Association is pending, with a formal vote schedule for Sept. 24, 2015.
Two events will help launch MITArchA later this month:
Three Students Launch Micro-Gallery Company, Tekuma
Three MArch students, Tengjia Liu, Kun Qian and Marwan Abou Dib recently created Tekuma, to help bridge the divide between creators of art and potential clientele, with the help of the MIT Global Founders’ Skills Accelerator. Their goal is to set up physical exhibition spaces in apartments listed on rental sites that can be accessed digitally, and to facilitate the sale of exhibited artwork.
Brandon Clifford and Joel Lamere's firms featured in Design Manifestos
The architectural design firms of Professors Brandon Clifford and Joel Lamere are highlighted in interviews by Modelo and published on Design Manifestos. Design Manifestos, "Feature Interviews with Architects & Designers from Around the World."
BUST Exhibition Guest Curated by William O'Brien Jr.
BUST brings together eleven established architects and firms to reconsider the relevance of a seemingly anachronous means of evaluation for a work of architecture: the façade.
The exhibition at JAI & JAI Gallery, in Los Angeles, features works by: Andrew Kovacs, Bureau Spectacular, CODA, First Office, MILLIØNS, MOS, Norman Kelley, Pita + Bloom, PARA Project, SO-IL, WOJR.
Three faculty, alumni projects among winners of 2015 Boston Design Biennial
Assistant Professor Joel Lamere and his firm GLD, lecturer Cristina Parreño Alonso of Cristina Parreño Architecture, and Marie Law Adams MArch '06 with Landing Studio, designed three of four installations for the 2015 Design Biennial Boston.
The installations are on view on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in downtown Boston through Sept. 25, 2015.
NESEA Kate Goldstein Award Deadline Extended
NESEA will be awarding nine scholarships to students and recent graduates through the Kate Goldstein Award for Emerging Professionals in Sustainable Energy. Award recipients will receive scholarships to attend NESEA conferences or enrollment in a Masters Series online course in sustainability.
The Nomination Period for the scholarships has been extended to September 10. Take a moment today to nominate yourself or someone you know.
Recent Graduates Named Fellows
Three students from our MArch and SMArchS program have joined the faculties at Rice School of Architecture, Knowlton School of Architecture at the Ohio State University and School of the Art Institute of Chicago:
David Costanza (MArch '13, SMBT '15) joins Rice School of Architecture as First Technology Fellow
Aurimas Bukauskas (BSA ’15) wins Carroll R. Wilson Award
Aurimas Bukauskas, BSA '15, won the Carroll R. Wilson Award last Spring for his project "Whole-Section Timber and Bamboo: Naturally-Engineered High-Performance Structures". The award comes with a financial stipend of $25,000 to cover research travel costs.
Höweler + Yoon's Public Parasol in Phoenix
Höweler + Yoon's ShadowPlay opened recently in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. The project is a public parasol at an urban scale formed by an aggregation of geometric modules. Together, the modules create a hovering canopy which filters the intense Phoenix sun, casting variable shadows on the pedestrian space throughout the day. Photovoltaic panels mounted to the top surface of several cells generates the power to illuminate the parasol in the evening.
KVA's Tozzer Building Featured in Architect Magazine
Tozzer Anthropology Building by Kennedy & Violich Architecture Featured in Architect Magazine
Eva Kassens-Noor, Sheila Kennedy, Wendy Landman, Kent Larson, Carlo Ratti, Stacy Thompson: Mobility of the Future: Boston's Multi-Modal Transport Opportunities
Last winter painfully highlighted the public transportation challenges facing the Greater Boston region, as the struggles of the T became the struggles of Bostonians and Massachusetts residents to get to work and manage their daily lives.
Höweler + Yoon Architecture Featured in The Boston Globe
The architecture firm of [#J. Meejin Yoon and partner Eric Höweler is featured in an article describing the firm's diverse range of projects.
Alumni Rate Highly in RAMSA Fellowship Awards
Elizabeth Yarina is the first runner-up for the 2015 RAMSA Travel Fellowship, while alumna Kayla Manning, BSAD '11, received honorable mention.
Yarina's runner-up proposal, Littoral Urbanism: Vernacular Stilt Architecture Communities as Models for Coastal Living, "impressed the judges for its clarity."
Two from Architecture Named National Geographic Emerging Explorers of 2015
Caleb Harper, SM '14, and Research Scientist and lecturer for the Department of Architecture, Skylar Tibbits, were recently named among National Geographic's 2015 Emerging Explorers. Four were chosen from the School of Architecture + Planning, including two from the Media Lab.
Graham Foundation Grants Awarded to Student and Alumnus
Michael Kubo, PhD Candidate, and Michael Rakowitz, SMVisS '98, are among the 2015 winners of the Graham Foundation grants.
Kubo's work, HEROIC: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston, co-authored with Chris Grimley and Mark Pasnik, won in the Publication group. The piece examines the "powerful, civic-minded legacy" of Boston's architecture from 1960 until 1976.
M.Arch Student Luisel Zayas San Miguel Wins 2015 QuarraMatter Fellowship
Matter Design and Quarra Stone have announced this week that Dustin Brugmann of the University of Michigan and Luisel Zayas of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been selected as the inaugural 2015 QuarraMatter Fellows.
Prof. Kennedy's Work with Public Infrastructure Featured by CBS News
Architectural Design Professor Sheila Kennedy's work with inexpensive materials to create flexible public infrastructure, such as cardboard street lights, is featured in a CBS News video. Prof. Kennedy describes the project and its applications, and discusses the ideas behind it. In her position as visiting professor at UC Berkeley, where she is the 2014 Berkeley-Rupp Prize winner, she has developed a studio called Here There to design practical solutions for the developing world.
Prof. Yoon to Present Keynote at Eyeo Festival
The Eyeo Festival is celebrating its fifth year with talks, workshops and interactions with open source instigators and practitioners.
J. Meejin Yoon will present "Interactive Play in Public Space" as the keynote lecture on Tuesday, June 2.
John Ochsendorf featured in Nautilus Magazine Issue 24: Error
"[W]hat I most want is for us to have a debate about what is appropriate for an engineer to do when approaching a structure that’s more than a century old and where we have an obligation to think beyond our own lifetimes when we intervene," says Professor John Ochsendorf in a recent interview with Nautilus Magazine for its issue on Error. Ochsendorf, who teaches architecture and engineering, discusses the Masonry Research Group's current work testing the structural limits of the Pantheon, his past work on Incan woven suspension bridges, engineering interventions in historical buildings, amo
Marie Adams (MArch ’06) and Dan Adams, Landing Studio, Receive 2015 Architectural League Prize: Authenticity
Landing Studio, founded in 2005 by Marie Adams (MArch ’06) and Dan Adams, was named one of the six recipients of the 2015 Architectural League Young Architects and Designers Award. Landing Studio’s work focuses on the intersections of architecture, infrastructure, and landscape in industrial settings, which often dwell in uneasy alliance. Their clients and projects range from port facilities and ocean transport to demolition plans and shared industrial/public park landscapes.
SA+P receives $1 million grant from Mellon Foundation
The grant will help create a Global Architecture History Teaching Collaborative
by Scott R Campbell
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded MIT's School of Architecture + Planning (SA+P) a $1 million grant to help create a Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative.
