Adam Marcus On Architecture and Other Things
News Log
New Variable Projects Website
I’m happy to announce that the Variable Projects website has, at long last, been redesigned and updated. More projects to come soon; stay tuned.
Minnesota Public Radio
Listen to Adam on MPR discussing a project from his spring 2013 “Full Scale” studio at UMN. Graduate student Hank Butitta (M.Arch ’13) took on an ambitious project for his final semester, purchasing a used Bluebird school bus and converting it into a flexible dwelling. MPR attended the final review and featured the project on their Daily Circuit program. You can listen to the story here.
LakeForms at UMN
Futures North, along with the four other finalists in the Creative City Challenge, will be presenting our LakeForms project this coming Wednesday as part of a public showcase of the competition held at the University of Minnesota College of Design. The event will take place on Wednesday, February 27 at 5:30pm at Rapson Hall, Room 100 and will be followed by a panel discussion and reception.
January Update
The semester is underway here at Minnesota, and I have a great lineup of studios that I’m teaching this spring. I am advising 13 3rd-year M.Arch students as part of my Full Scale Masters Final Project studio, which consists of individually directed architectural projects of varied scales and programs, all of which are asked to interrogate their ideas in some way at 1:1. I’m also teaching an undergraduate BDA studio titled Modular Variations, which will use techniques of computational design and digital fabrication to explore relationships between standardization and variation. Specifically, we’ll be building upon my related research looking at designing reconfigurable molds constructed of standardized parts yet capable of producing variable components. Lastly, I am once again both coordinating our terrific graduate Catalyst program of visiting instructors & lecturers (see list here) as well as teaching one of the Catalyst studios. Taught in collaboration with the computational design powerhouse Nathan Miller of CASE, our studio will explore ways of using large quantities of data in designing prototypes for an installation for the School’s upcoming Centennial in October 2013.
Shortlisted
I’m excited to announce that LakeForms, a proposal for a temporary urban pavilion that I designed with my collaborators in Futures North, has been shortlisted in the $50K Minneapolis Creative City Challenge. In the next phase, 5 finalists will further refine the shortlisted schemes and present to a jury at a public presentation at the University of Minnesota on February 27. Stay tuned for details; check out the LakeForms Facebook page for updates. Many thanks to all those who voted and supported the project during the open voting phase!
LakeForms
I’ve recently formed a collaboration with Daniel Dean, John Kim, and Molly Reichert (we call ourselves Futures North) to submit an entry to the Art in the Plaza: Creative City Challenge design competition. The brief calls for a temporary work of public art for the plaza directly outside the Minneapolis Convention Center for summer 2013. Our team has proposed a hybrid pavilion/planting system that emerges out of the ground, and which takes its form from the topography of the city’s lakes. You can read more about the LakeForms project here. The first phase is open to public voting; please vote for our proposal at this link by January 7!
Publication: Digital Workflows in Architecture
My essay “Workflow Patterns: A Strategy for Designing Design” was recently published in Scott Marble’s Digital Workflows in Architecture: Design—Assembly—Industry
Design Intelligence Ranking
I’m excited to announce that I’ve recently been named as one of the “30 Most Admired Educators for 2013″ by Design Intelligence. It’s an honor to be included in a list of such terrific design educators. Press release from UMN College of Design here.
Publication: Vitamin Green
I’ve contributed three pieces to the sustainable design compendium Vitamin Green
Digital Provocations Symposium at UMN
Digital Provocations: Evolving Computational Approaches to Pedagogy & Practice, a symposium I have been organizing this past year, is coming up next month. The event will be from April 12-14 at the University of Minnesota School of Architecture, and features a number of fantastic invited guests, including Monica Ponce de Leon, Scott Marble, Omar Khan, Phil Bernstein, Dennis Shelden, and more. The symposium is open to the public (registration required); for lots more info, see this link.
January Update
After a great fall semester here at Minnesota (see links for my 1st year Graduate Studio and my undergraduate digital fabrication studio), I’m ramping up for a busy spring schedule. I’ll be teaching 3rd year graduate thesis studio, which is organized under the premise Information/Technology—really looking forward to it. I’m also organizing the annual week of graduate Catalyst workshops and associated lecture series, which has shaped up to be a fantastic lineup of guests. And finally, I’m organizing a symposium for April—titled “Digital Provocations: Evolving Computational Approaches to Practice and Pedagogy”—which will foreground the role of digital technologies in design education. More details to follow soon… but we have a terrific roster of guest speakers slated for what promises to be a really exciting event.
Fall Semester Kickoff
I’m teaching two exciting classes at UMN this semester, both of which have active online presences. The first-year graduate design studio (team-taught w/ Marc Swackhamer, Bob Ganser, and Nat Madson) is titled “Food and Architecture” and will approach the built environment through the lens of all things food-related. My undergraduate design workshop, part of UMN’s Bachelor of Design in Architecture program, is titled “Digital Provocations” and will focus on the role of digital technology in design and fabrication. Both are off to a great start; stay tuned for updates throughout the semester.
Upper Midwest Bound
I’m excited to announce that I’ve been appointed the Cass Gilbert Fellow at University of Minnesota’s School of Architecture for the upcoming 2011-2012 academic year. I’ll be teaching studios and organizing a symposium to be held in the spring semester—stay tuned for more details. I’m really looking forward to a great year in Minneapolis with the School’s terrific students and faculty.
Review Season
Just wrapped up a busy few weeks of final reviews at schools throughout New York and beyond. Highlights included thesis reviews at the University of Minnesota, undergraduate and graduate studios at the University at Buffalo, Peter Zuspan’s “Theories of Parts, Rhythm, & Wholes” class at Columbia, and Nicole Roberston’s Representation & Spatial Design class at Parsons. Thanks to all for the invites!
Forthcoming
I will be contributing an essay to the forthcoming book Digital Workflows in Architecture: Design, Assembly, Industry, edited by Scott Marble and to be published by Birkhauser later this year. My piece will be focusing on the role of pattern in contemporary architectural design, specifically within the work of Marble Fairbanks.
