Adam Marcus On Architecture and Other Things
News Log
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.
Exhibition of Student Work
The projects from last semester’s Patterns & Structure class will be displayed in the upcoming exhibition of Barnard + Columbia Architecture student work. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, January 20 from 6-8pm on the fourth floor of Barnard’s Diana Center.
Fall Semester Wrap-up
“Patterns & Structure,” the class I taught this semester at Barnard/Columbia, finished with a great final review on December 9. The final project involved designing and fabricating a speculative rainscreen system that critically addresses the role of pattern in architectural design, and the students had some fantastic models and drawings to support their ideas. I hope to post some images of the work soon, but in the meantime check out the class Tumblr blog for progress images. Many thanks to Peter Zuspan, Andrea Flamenco, Karen Fairbanks, and Kadambari Baxi for coming to the review and offering such great feedback.
Patterns & Structure
The class I’m teaching this semester at Columbia—Patterns & Structure—started last week and is off to a running start. It’s a hybrid seminar/design workshop that will investigate the role of pattern in contemporary architecture, focusing specifically on digital design and fabrication techniques in both the recognition and generation of pattern systems. Check out the class blog for some great initial pattern research, and stay tuned throughout the semester for updates.
Patterning / Fall 2010
I’ll be teaching once again this fall at the undergraduate architecture department at Columbia/Barnard. The course will in many ways be a continuation of last semester’s Positioning Parametric Design class and will focus specifically on pattern recognition and generation in contemporary architectural practice. More details to follow…
AIA New York State Design Award Citation
The Toni Stabile Student Center, a Marble Fairbanks project at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism that I managed from start to finish, has won a citation from the 2010 AIA New York State Design Awards jury.
Stabile Center at Center for Architecture
I’ll be presenting the Toni Stabile Student Center at the 2010 Design Awards Symposium at the Center for Architecture on Saturday, June 19 at 11:00am. The project, an honor award winner in the Architecture category, is also featured in the Design Awards 2010 exhibition, up until July 3.
Viva Ugly and Ordinary Cont’d
My interview with Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi (published last month in Museo XIV) has been noted recently in Archinect, things magazine, and m.e.t.r.o.n.o.m. Thanks to all for the mentions and for validating my longtime hunch that there are more Venturi Scott Brown partisans out there than meet the eye.
Spring Semester Wrap-Up
“Positioning Parametric Design,” the combined seminar and design workshop I taught this semester at Columbia/Barnard, wrapped up with a very productive final review and exhibition earlier this month. The students broke in the undergraduate department’s new laser cutter and developed some great projects… check out the collective class blog for images and more. Many thanks to Joe Vidich, Hye-Young Chung, and David Benjamin for coming to the final review and offering such great feedback to the students.
Viva Ugly and Ordinary
The new volume of Museo is live, and among other fine pieces it features my interview with Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. Bob and Denise are the architects who architects love to hate most, but the discipline still has much to learn from these two iconoclasts. It pleases me greatly to have had the opportunity to meet with them, talk about their long and eventful careers, and unpack some of the popular misconceptions regarding their work. Many thanks again to Bob and Denise for the great conversation.
