Architecture News
SFNOMA Summer Architecture Workshop: Lifting Career Ceilings for Diverse Youth
Posted on Wednesday, September 1, 2010, by Jim Norrena
Alum Rommel Taylor (BArch 1999) and SFNOMA instructor [photo: Jim Norrena]
SFNOMA may sound like the newest fashionable neighborhood in San Francisco, or even a new museum, but it stands for the San Francisco Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects, whose first Summer Architecture Workshop 2010, targeting middle-school students, took place on CCA’s San Francisco campus July 15–17.
The two-and-a-half-day workshop was targeted at young learners who've expressed a particular interest in architecture and who have completed sixth, seventh, or eighth grades. The cost of the workshop was $30 and scholarships were available. While the aim of the workshop was to provide students with hands-on studio experience, it also specifically addressed a current shortfall of interest in architectural careers expressed by youth in under-resourced communities.
So what better place than right here at CCA to tap into a seemingly bottomless well of enthusiasm for architecture? After all, the college offers a nationally recognized and celebrated Architecture Program—one that features leading professionals as faculty and award-winning, socially conscious artists and designers as students. (See Related below).
Given access to CCA’s architectural community, which included short lectures by practicing architects, young learners witnessed the specialized skills necessary in this challenging field, including the interdisciplinarity and breadth of knowledge that is required to succeed in this field. Students were challenged to develop a small site-specific project that emphasized basic understanding of three-dimensional composition, materiality, and proportion. Projects conveyed the process of critical thinking and creative making that are required of this career.
Workshop attendees received the added benefit of flying under the wing of alum Rommel Taylor (BArch 1999), who works as a project architect and project manager for the San Francisco Department of Public Works Bureau of Architecture and who, with the support of his teaching partners, led the successful Summer Architecture Workshop 2010:
Ifeoma Ebo, Architecture for Humanity
Prescott Reavis, Anshen + Allen
Tiana Robinson, U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)
Deanna Van Buren, FOURM design+build+educate
Taylor was delighted to answer questions regarding the program (which is intended to be expanded into a two-week intensive studio experience that covers the breadth of architectural inquiry):
Is it just a coincidence you’re an alum of CCA’s Architecture Program?
“I don’t think it is a coincidence at all.” Taylor confided. “David Meckel recruited me in 1997 to lead a team of CCA students to work with elementary school kids in the annual LEAP Sandcastle competition. I have been hooked working with young people ever since.”
Describe the level of diversity representation when you attended CCA. What’s it like now?
I do remember that CCA had a fairly robust diversity recruitment program. The Center for Art and Public Life was just coming online as I was on my way out. I have been an invited critic at various points since I graduated and cotaught two semesters with Yim Lim as part of the Diversity Studies Program.
All in all, I think CCA has been purposeful in increasing diversity in both the student population and faculty. The college is definitely headed in the right direction.
Do you see yourself as a role model to these young students?
I certainly do. I had role models as I was growing up—not directly in the field of architecture, but more in terms of encouragement to pursue my dreams. Children need positive role models, encouragement, and security in order to truly blossom. Some of us had lots of that, while other children only had one person in their life who helped guide and inspire them. I hope that some of these children will look back and say that I had some positive impact on their lives, whether they become architects or pursue other professions.
Which faculty members inspired you in terms of the work you do today?
Yim Lim has been and continues to be an incredible mentor to me. I learned that rigor without compassion is empty; architecture is not a narcissistic pursuit, but a profound service to society; and creativity has the two-fold benefit of satisfying the individual and addressing the needs of the world.
Others include Lisa Findley, who has also been a great supporter. She taught me architecture is a big profession with many ways in which I can engage it and use my skills. And Linda Yaven taught me the value and power of teaching and that creative/critical thinking is worth more than any singular artistic idea.
Last, although I never sat under his instruction, is David Meckel. At the time I attended CCA, he was the Dean of the School of Architecture, and to put it simply, he was 100 percent dedicated to helping students succeed.
Before I formally started the Architecture Program, David introduced me to Michael Willis, principal of MWA, a prominent architecture practice here in San Francisco. Michael, too, has been a source of inspiration because of his success as an architect. He also was the first African American architect I had met at the time. Not only has David supported me academically and professionally, but also he planted a seed of volunteerism and community service in my mind. I probably should name my first born son after him!
What is the greatest impediment these students face? Access? Affordability? Training?
All are factors; however, knowledge of the possibility of a career in a creative profession, other than music or acting, is the biggest issue. It is profoundly annoying to hear architecture referred to as an “alternative career option” when speaking to young persons in under-resourced communities. Architecture is a career option. Period.
As I told our students and parents at our orientation, I knew at an early age I wanted to be an architect, even without real-life role models to emulate. My image of an architect was Mike Brady from The Brady Bunch! Seriously. I liked the show as a kid and thought it was pretty cool that he designed buildings.
I didn’t know there were African American architects until I was in high school, and I had never met one until my sophomore year at CCA. Despite having neither real external references nor any confirmation architecture was a career option, I still pursued it. There is a power in seeing yourself reflected in a profession—and an even greater power in simply knowing the possibility exists.
Natural curiosity, a bit of talent, and lots of commitment is all a child needs once the possibility is evident.
How can CCA get the work out about its diversity scholarship programs?
I think collaboration with other organizations that specifically work with populations that could take advantage of the diversity scholarship opportunities offered by CCA would be an a great next step.
The NOMA, which has chapters throughout the United States, established an initiative in 2008 called Project Pipeline with the goal of proactively reaching out to young people in under-represented and under-resourced communities. Project Pipeline is an initiative established for all local chapters to implement. Each NOMA chapter is charged with developing programs for young people to engage them in the architecture profession. Partnerships with local organizations like SFNOMA and other community-based organizations would support CCA’s diversity scholarship programs.
How can CCA reach youth in under-resourced communities who are interested in other disciplines?
I think encouraging college students to look up from their desks and computers to volunteer time to mentor young people would have a major impact. Having graduated from the Architecture Program I understand the rigors of the coursework. Nevertheless, it is important to connect with and inspire the next generation.
I think CCA already has some great formal mechanisms in which students can get involved. It is a matter of the students being encouraged to do so. Developing stronger partnerships with community-based organizations to promote the Pre-College Program, Summer Atelier, and YASP would also have a significant positive impact.
Are programs such as SFNOMA making a difference?
This is the first time SFNOMA has partnered with CCA. I certainly hope this is the first in a series of ongoing future collaborations. Only time will tell if the work we are doing here will have a lasting impact on the profession. I believe it will!
Did your students appreciate the experience? Do you suspect any will pursue careers in architecture?
We had a great group of kids for our inaugural camp. I think they all had a good experience that was both challenging and fun. They were really into developing their ideas and representing them in drawings and models. A few of the students seemed to be very interested in architecture . . . but they are young, so who knows!
More importantly, I hope they become more conscientious citizens with good critical and creative thinking skills.
To view additional images, visit the CCA Snapshots page on Flickr.
Related
Architecture Program Raises the Bar at 2010 AIA SF Design Awards
Architecture Students' Open-Source Approach to Pac Rim Studio an Ecological and Humanitarian Tour de Force
CCA Diversity Conference Highlights Community-Based Social Justice as Key
CCA Architecture Faculty Honored with Two ACSA Awards
More Architecture news
ShareCategories: Alumni Architecture Center for Art and Public Life Diversity Faculty
San Francisco to Shanghai: CCA's StitchLink Studio Course Visits Sister City on the Other Side of the Pacific Rim
Posted on Wednesday, August 25, 2010, by Samantha Braman
The group at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai with the Expo Mascot
You've surely heard the term "sister cities," but what does it actually mean? And here's an even tougher one: Name even one of San Francisco's sisters.
The designation is actually an official one, meaning that the two geographically and politically distinct cities in question have entered into a formal agreement committing to the promotion of cultural and commercial ties. And San Francisco's 18 siblings include Bangalore, Barcelona, and Shanghai. This last was the focus of the spring 2010 edition of the CCA StitchLink Studio, which every year focuses on some element of world architectural design that is progressive, current, and future-focused, but also conscious of the historical and cultural context of the place in question.
In spring 2010 Lisa Findley, professor and chair of the Bachelor of Architecture Program, along with Architecture associate professor Peter Anderson, led 12 undergraduate and three graduate students through an investigation of the thriving and architecturally rich metropolis of Shanghai. They focused on specific areas where new buildings and urban development bleed into older structures and patterns of living. Such zones are too often dismissed as poorly designed, unsustainable, and unproductive; the goal of this course was for each student to narrow in on one site in particular and examine opportunities for new-wave architecture and design to subtly yet effectively negotiate new and old cultural, spatial, and aesthetic values.
Given the "sister city" premise, Anderson and Findley sought to narrow the scope of the studio by identifying a set of urban problems common to both San Francisco and Shanghai. They focused on the fact that both cities have significant opportunities to fight increasingly untenable traffic by taking advantage of water transportation possibilities, and that water transportation nodes such as ferry landings can be significant "stitches" between water and land, old and new, tradition and the future. Over the past 100 years, both cities have abandoned ferry service in favor of private vehicles, but now both are rethinking this move. The studio investigated possible water-bus and ferry opportunities in the Bay Area, and in Shanghai the students looked at sites along the east-west-running Suzhou Creek, designing ferry landings that tied back into their neighborhoods in terms of form and cultural function.
During their 10-day trip to China in March, the group worked diligently on their project sites, but they also took time to walk the streets of Shanghai's downtown. Destinations included the French Concession, the high-rise haven of Pudong, the Old City, and Xintiandi (this last is a car-free eating, shopping, and entertainment district). They visited the offices of architects working in the city (including BArch 1995 alum John Leung, who runs his own successful firm), attended an event for Chinese students who would be headed to CCA in the fall, and sampled traditional regional cuisine. Their three-day, two-night venture outside the city brought them to numerous ancient water towns, including Zhouzhuang, an old canal city with a history of nearly 1,700 years; Suzhou, known for its gardens and canals; and Tongli, a very traditional village nearly void of Westernized urban influences.
Reported Findley and Anderson: "Tongli is a small place that is only lightly influenced by contemporary tourism, and a good opportunity to see multiple approaches to preserving traditional culture and architecture while at the same time making it available to outside visitors."
2010 is not only the 30th anniversary of Shanghai and San Francisco's sistership, but it is also the year of Shanghai's much-anticipated World Expo, a great opportunity for the students to see a variety of architecture and design. Anderson has a long-standing connection to Tongji University in Shanghai, home of one of the top two architecture programs in China, and Findley spent a portion of her 2008–9 sabbatical in Shanghai and the surrounding water towns. Both faculty members are thus very familiar with this rich and varied region.
"It is a sophisticated, complex, and exciting global city with a fascinating history and uncountable layers," they say. "Given China's obvious global importance in this century, an introduction to at least one region is, to our minds, critical for our students. The portion of the trip that was outside the city, where we came into contact with more traditional village atmospheres and other windows into a broader range of historical and contemporary Chinese culture, was also crucial."
Findley and Anderson like to think of architecture as a four-dimensional, embedded practice—meaning that it takes place in space and unfolds over time and through experience. It exists within specific contexts: physical (city, landscape, climate), cultural, historical, social, purposeful, and so on.
"Traveling with an architect's eye and mind is not a natural thing. It isn't merely a matter of wandering around and taking in the sights. It requires slowing down, and a kind of systematic seeing. Traveling while in architecture school is a great way to begin to learn this discipline, since the teachers are there solely to direct and focus your attention, offering important techniques for absorbing the lessons to be learned from a place.
"This is one of the best studio experiences we have ever had. The students were intelligent, talented, and motivated. They worked very hard and produced very strong projects. They were a joy to travel with, and it was particularly notable how they saw themselves as a group with a shared purpose, watching out for one another and being very inclusive in group activities. We were particularly pleased that the graduate and undergraduate students mixed so seamlessly."
Categories: Architecture Diversity Faculty Featured International Students
Biology Meets Architecture: San Francisco Workshop Radically Rethinks Building Envelopes
Posted on Thursday, August 19, 2010, by Samantha Braman
Sixty participants from 20 countries around the world descended on CCA's San Francisco campus from July 12 through July 21, 2010, for the Biodynamic Structures workshop. A collaboration between CCA's Architecture Program and the London-based Architectural Association (AA) Visiting School, the workshop offered enrollees the opportunity to investigate new tools, modeling techniques, and technologies of architectural design. In particular they explored how the fields of material science, biology, biomimetics, and robotics might become primary technical and creative sources for design explorations.
The participants were a remarkable mix of students, academic faculty, and design professionals. Participants and instructors came from American schools such as the UCLA, MIT, Pratt, and Harvard as well as top institutions and design offices in Europe, Asia, South America, Mexico, and Canada.
The 10-day workshop began with a series of hands-on technical courses and lectures led by top thinkers and practitioners in the key fields, including Dr. George Jeronimidis, director of the Center for Biomimetics at the University of Reading, England, and Michael Weinstock, noted author and director of the Emergent Technologies Program at the AA School of Architecture in London.
The ideas they introduced were then explored in an intensive six-day project-based design exercise. The participants self-organized into 11 groups, each devoted to a different design idea. "We asked them to explore the future of the building that they were working in: CCA's main San Francisco campus building," says Jason Kelly Johnson, CCA assistant professor and codirector of the workshop. "We asked them to radically rethink its skin and propose new envelopes that could dynamically change in response to both environmental needs and the shifting needs of its users. The result was a diverse and fascinating set of projects that blurred the boundaries between architecture, biology, robotics, and beyond—almost a new paradigm of biodynamic architecture.
"One group project focused on the vascular system of plants and explored how a pneumatically driven 'breathing' facade might use sensors and actuators to expand and contract based on the microclimatic needs of its context. Another group researched how a plant uses its stomata, or small pores in its leaves, for gas and water vapor exchange, then looked into how a dynamic shade canopy modeled on stomata might respond in real time to variable light, heat, and humidity levels."
CCA's collaboration with the AA Visiting School emerged out of a mutual interest in pushing the boundaries of architectural design through explorations in advanced computation and the allied sciences. Johnson and his fellow CCA Architecture professor and workshop codirector Andrew Kudless have had a long-term dialogue with their colleagues in London, and the workshop structure offered an ideal opportunity to continue and enrich these discussions. The other codirectors of the workshop were Christina Doumpioti and Evan Greenberg, both tutors from the AA in London. Kudless reports that CCA is planning to host the collaborative summer workshop for another two years; also in the works is a plan to encapsulate all of the research and workshop projects into a book and traveling exhibition.
Johnson has an extensive background in biodynamic structures. He was featured in the 2009 Princeton Architectural Press book Interactive Architecture, which catalogued architects and designers working at the intersection of dynamic structures and interactive technologies. "The book makes a compelling argument for considering architecture at the crossroads of biology interaction design, material science, robotics, fabrication, and various sustainable applications," says Johnson. "Architecture is just beginning to engage issues surrounding energy sensing, systems control, and cognizance in buildings, cities, and landscapes. We are increasingly looking for technology to be seamlessly integrated into architecture rather than simply applied to it. Architects are extremely interested in understanding how to actually imbue material assemblies with the capability to respond instinctively to their environments, to adapt and learn from their own actions and the actions of their neighbors. Imagine entire buildings that react and move in continuous negotiation with the energy dynamics and cycles of their surroundings!"
Related
AA/CCA Biodynamic Structures website
CCA Architecture MEDIAlab website
More photos
Categories: Architecture Faculty Featured
Territory: Architecture Beyond Environment
Posted on Thursday, August 19, 2010, by Lindsey Westbrook
Territory: Architecture Beyond Environment
Wiley, 2010
Paperback, 136 pages, $40
For this special guest-edited edition of the internationally acclaimed Architectural Design series, David Gissen assembled a group of designers, historians, theorists, and geographers to examine how buildings might produce new analyses, forms, and experiences of nature. The journal contains essays and designs by several CCA faculty, including Javier Arbona, Ila Berman, Nataly Gattegno, Jason Johnson, Byron Kuth, Elizabeth Ranieri, Mitchell Schwarzer, and Craig Scott.
Categories: Architecture Bookshelf Faculty
Aortic Arc Installation Permanently Graces CCA's San Francisco Campus
Posted on Friday, August 13, 2010, by Lindsey Westbrook
CCA's San Francisco campus is home to a beautiful new permanent installation that canopies the atrium space near the Helzel Boardroom. Aortic Arc, as it has been named by its creators, just received a merit award in the 2010 AIACC Awards Program in the Small Projects Category.
Hanging within the double-height space, the piece functions as a light scope, spatial definer, and viewing portal. The title comes from its formal resemblance to a portion of the human heart and the fact that it leaps over an existing structural beam. The 546 unique HDPE panels are linked together by more than 4,000 pop rivets and suspended from three upper stainless-steel rings (two circular, one elliptical) that hold each other in tension. A singular large parabolic ring functions as a "hoop skirt" below.
The panelized system was developed using the software program Generative Components and a customized Rhino script that turned raw data into a drawing file to drive a CNC milling machine that generated all the parts. HDPE plastic, the same material used to make milk jugs, was selected for the panels due to its low cost, resistance to solar degradation, recyclability, low embodied energy, and high tensile capability.
The technical and artistic challenges posed by the project were unique and did not allow for a conventional approach. Collaborating closely with the designers, the engineers employed nonlinear analysis tools and parametric BIM technology to model and predict the final minimum energy form of the piece, which behaves structurally as a hybrid between a cable-net and a membrane.
Many individuals, including CCA faculty member Mark L. Donohue and four alumni, helped realize the piece:
Architect: Visible Research Office
Mark L. Donohue, AIA: Principal (and CCA associate professor of Architecture)
Americo A. Diaz-Obregon: Project Architect (and CCA BArch 2006 alum)
Charles Lee: Project Designer, Renderings (and CCA MArch 2008 alum)
Chris Chalmers: Component Design and Scripting (and CCA MArch 2009 alum)
Jason Chang: Component Design and Scripting
(and CCA MArch 2009 alum)
Structural Engineer: Buro Happold
Greg Otto: Principal
Gary Lau: Associate Principal
Tom Reiner: Project Engineer, Nonlinear Analysis
Ian Carter: Project Engineer, Nonlinear Analysis
Ron Elad: Project Coordinator
Yukie Hirashima: Complex Geometry Modeling
Krista Flascha: Technical Designer
(Many thanks to Americo A. Diaz-Obregon for this story and photos)
Categories: Alumni Architecture Awards and Accolades Faculty Featured Sustainability
Architecture Program Raises the Bar at AIA SF 2010 Design Awards
Posted on Tuesday, August 3, 2010, by Jim Norrena
Team California's REFRACT House received AIA SF's Special Achievement award
Representatives from all sides of CCA’s Architecture Program took in so many awards—11 at last count—at the American Institute of Architects, San Francisco Chapter (AIA San Francisco) 2010 Design Awards, it was nothing short of a concrete victory! While the special awards gala, which took place May 6, honored and recognized more than 25 architecture and design firms, CCA's Architecture community spent much of the evening basking in the spotlight.
Boasted Director of Architecture Ila Berman: “We cleaned up at the AIA SF Awards, winning almost a dozen awards for CCA Architecture faculty and students!” Her enthusiasm on behalf of her team and for the college community at large speaks volumes for her dedication and leadership.
AIA SF, the third largest of the 300 chapters that comprise the American Institute of Architects, is the Bay Area’s premier destination for architecture and design. The annual awards celebrate the best in Bay Area architecture and urban design and recognize achievement in a broad range of architectural work. The ceremony also serves to inform the public of the breadth and value of architectural practice. Awarded projects are featured in California Home + Design magazine, a reputable industry publication with an 11-county circulation spanning from Southern to Northern California.
The Design Awards gala took place May 6 from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Green Room at the San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center. Of the nine award categories, members of the CCA Architecture community—representing faculty, students, alumni, and the Trustees—were collectively acknowledged in no fewer than five categories(*) for their outstanding contributions to the built environment.
- Energy + Sustainability*
- Excellence in Architecture
- Historic Preservation and Innovation in Rehabilitation
- Integrated Project Delivery
- Interior Architecture*
- Special Achievement*
- Unbuilt Design*
- Urban Design in the Bay Area
- Young Architects and Associates*
Each category was divided into three subcategories: Honor, Merit, and Citation. The Special Achievement category honored REFRACT House, Team California's entry in last year's national Solar Decathlon competition that saw CCA and Santa Clara University students join forces, and which resulted in a first-place win in the Architecture category, second place in Engineering, and third overall in the competition. Read more about CCA and the Solar Decathlon.
Additionally, entrants are considered for inclusion in AIA SF’s San Francisco Living: Home Tours weekend (presented September 11–12 as part of an exclusive program of the Architecture and the City Festival). The Home Tours is the “first tour series of its kind in the Bay Area to promote a wide variety of architectural styles, neighborhoods, and residences—all from the architect's point of view.” Awardees are also featured in other top, national design publications. (Learn more about the AIA SF Design Awards jurors and sponsors.)
Alum Charles Lee (MArch 2008) was awarded in the Young Architects and Associates category that recognizes “individuals of all ages who have shown exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the profession in an early stage of their architectural career.”
Lee expressed his appreciation and gratitude the “old-fashioned” way—on his blog: “Thank you! To my wife, friends, and colleagues in their support. I was also thrilled my thesis professor and friend, Neal Schwartz, and Architecture won an Honor award for Unbuilt Design. It was great to see so many CCA alum and faculty win so many awards . . . . Congrats to everyone at Iwamotoscott, REFRACT House, et cetera.”
All winning projects will be on display at the Architecture and the City Festival, being held at 3A Gallery in San Francisco this September. Be sure to view the accompanying feature slideshow to preview images and get summary information about each specific project.
And the winners are . . .
ENERGY + SUSTAINABILITY
Merit Award
Peter Anderson
Harvard Yard Child Care Center
Anderson Anderson Architecture
INTERIOR DESIGN
Citation Award
Zoe Prillinger
Honighaus
Ogrydziak / Prillinger Architects
Honor Award
E. B. Min
L Residence
Min | Day
Merit Award
Liz Ranieri; CCA Trustee Byron Kuth
Russian Hill Penthouse
Kuth|Ranieri Architects, LLP
SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT
REFRACT HOUSE
Team California: California College of the Arts and Santa Clara University
UNBUILT DESIGN
Citation Award
E. B. Min
Community CROPS Food Center
Min | Day
Citation Award
Student Charles Ma, architect
Faculty MArch Studio 3: Lalo Zylberberg and John Barone
Mission Cultural & Athletic Center
MArch thesis events
Honor Award
Neal Schwartz
Crook | Cup | Bow | Twist
Schwartz and Architecture
Honor Award
Craig Scott
Edgar Street Tower
IwamotoScott Architecture
Learn more
Merit Award
Eco-Triptych
(Architecture students: Sustainable Skyscraper Studio) Sean Canty, Ryan Golenburg, Cassiano Bonjardim (BArch 2009
(Faculty) Charles Bloszies, Margaret Ikeda, and Jesper Gottlieb
YOUNG ARCHITECTS + ASSOCIATES
Charles Lee (MArch 2008)
About AIA SF
AIA San Francisco represents more than 2,300 members in San Francisco and Marin County. Our mission is to improve the quality of life in the Bay Area by promoting architecture and design. We further this goal through community involvement, education, advocacy, public outreach, member service, and professional excellence.
Categories: Alumni Architecture Awards and Accolades Faculty Featured Sustainability
CCA City/Space/Share Pilot Project to be Exhibited at 3rd ZER01 San Jose Biennial
Posted on Monday, August 2, 2010, by Samantha Braman
(OP)space, 2010
Dr. Mona El Khafif, associate professor of Architecture and coordinator of URBANlab, together with adjunct professor Kory Bieg, have spent the past spring and summer working with 11 undergraduate and graduate Architecture students on what they call City/Space/Share (2010). This URBANlab project-based initiative aims to reallocate and transform vacant city spaces—from storefronts to outdoor areas to metered parking spots—via a temporary, moveable, interactive architectural installation. The aim is to increase public interface, boost urban regeneration, and create a more unified urban community. The project will be exhibited/tested at the 2010 01SJ Biennial, a multidisciplinary event of visual, performing, and public art and interactive digital media, to be held September 16–19 in San Jose, California. The participating students will be on-site during the biennial events as artists in residence.
"The goal of the course was to design an installation that conforms to, and is based on, the needs of the community," says El Khafif. "The design needed to demonstrate how flexible architecture combined with a Zipcar-style, short-term rental model could contribute to the cultural and economic development of a neighborhood. The apparatus had to be a small-scale, transportable, and customizable, and it had to encourage interest, awareness, and traffic.
"This project re-envisions empty storefronts as assets rather than liabilities and breaks the cycle of vacancy and decline that cannot be addressed by larger, necessarily risk-averse commercial interests and occupants. Once a permanent tenant for a storefront is attracted, the installation is easily dismantled and moved to another storefront. The definitive features of the design are its flexibility and performance as well its ability to operate as a generic urban strategy. We think of it as an architectural catalyst for social sustainability. I emphasized this last factor as essential when I proposed the project to the biennial committee, and it was a key reason why they to selected to work with us on it."
Students collaborated with ZER01, the art and technology network that organizes the biennial, to research the area's demographics, and they discussed ideas with local community members. The first half of the semester was dedicated to the development of individual proposals. After spring break, a jury of CCA faculty, visiting architects, and ZER01 curators selected one design to be created and exhibited. The remainder of the studio course was dedicated to working as a team on strategies for fabrication and material development; further development of the San Jose "hardware" (architectural objective), "software" (programmatic concept and proposal), "orgware" (organizational strategy), and "brandware" (communication marketing strategy); and generating ideas for how the concept could be applied to other Bay Area neighborhoods. The current summer continuation of the course is devoted to the actual fabrication and execution of the design.
The authors of the selected design are Alexa Getting (MArch 2012) and Lauren Tichy (MArch 2011). The design consists of hinged hexagonal sections that move like the leaves of an expandable table to easily conform to users' needs and the available space; it can be transformed into a workspace, a bar, a stage, a small retail store, or a home theater. It is called (OP)space, which stands for OPportunities, OPen, and OPerable. (OP)space further stands for (OP)lab, (OP)scene, (OP)taste, (OP)shop, and (OP)exhibit, five overarching themes the project targeted as community needs. Since Getting and Tichy first proposed their concept it has been further developed by the class as a "brandscape," or type of architecture that will support a brand.
(OP)space is on view through August 27 at SPUR in San Jose as part of the exhibition Here and Now. During the 3rd SJ01 Biennial, (OP)space will be installed at WORKS Gallery. Other exhibited/tested works on view there will include a "bike kitchen," a fashion show, and a DJ lounge. On September 17, (OP)space will be in the AbsoluteZER0 street festival in a structure built specifically to facilitate programming inside the confines of a metered parking space—demonstrating just one of the many ways unused city space can be reclaimed and utilized through sustainable architecture and structures.
The participating students from the spring semester and summer are: Matt Adams, Josh Campos, Alexa Getting, Brittany Glover, Richard Lyttle, Pia Manalis, Carlos Martinez, Jeronimo Roldan, Lauren Tichy, Fabiola Vargas, Mike Vargas, Rachael Yu, and Maryam Zahedi. The fabrication is supported by Justin Mason, cofounder of the Overlay Group and alumnus of the CCA MArch program and Very Public Arts. Very Public Arts is a project of Community Initiatives of SF.
Also participating in the Biennial are two Fine Arts graduate students, who will be presenting their own major, commissioned projects. Nancy Nowacek is a current student and Imen Yeh graduated in spring 2010. Read more about Nancy Nowacek's project and Imen Yeh's project at the Biennial website.
Categories: Architecture Featured
On Sale Now: California College of the Arts Studio Series
Posted on Monday, July 12, 2010, by Jim Norrena
Select CCA Architecture Studio Series titles listed here can be purchased through William Stout Architectural Books. Select individual titles for specific ordering information.
5X2
CCA & University of California Berkeley College of Environmental Design
Executive Editor Balz Mueller and associate editor Mark Donohue
Paperback, 174 pages, $25
Leading architects from two countries, Switzerland and the United States, were brought together in five interviews to discuss research and the role it plays in the building process. The book 5x2 documents their international exchange revealing salient issues in contemporary practice. In the process, their discourse provides a blueprint for a new pedagogical model that values an engagement through dialog by those that shape the field, engaging students and practitioners in conversations about contemporary issues. These conversations confront the similarities and differences in education, design, and construction in the two countries in an effort to better understand how architecture is made.
Architecture for a Hybrid Landscape: Proposals for the California Delta
Edited by Katherine Rinne
Paperback, 112 pages, $25
Water and land are intimately linked in the California Delta. It is a charged landscape, full of tension both historically and literally, and heavily altered by human interventions. The Delta is also crucial to California’s water infrastructure. Students in Katherine Rinne's spring 2007 Architecture for a Hybrid Landscape studio course were asked to design a hypothetical new California Water Research and Interpretive Center facility on a specific California Delta site. This book showcases their innovative designs, essays, artworks, and photographs.
MXDF Architecture Studio: Una Propuesta Urbana para Xochimilco
CCA with University of California Berkeley & Universidad Iberoamericana
Editor Sandra Vivanco, Rene Davids, Isaac Broid, et al.
Hardcover, 91 pages, $25
The MXDF studio, the first of a series of international architectural laboratories, focuses on the Xochimilco area of Mexico City—well known for its extended series of canals which is all that remains of the ancient system of lakes stretching for most of the valley of Anahuac in the middle of which Tenochtitlan, the impressive capital of the Aztecs, was located.
Thirty-two California students and faculty traveled south producing and documenting 20 archeological pieces to serve as the “permanent collection” for a museum proposal.
Later, 43 Mexican students and faculty visited the Bay Area to review their projects. This book records their collective efforts, culminating in an exhibition at the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco.
Propositions: Thesis Research in Architecture 2007-2009
Editors Neal Schwartz and Geneviève L’Heureux
Paperback, 128 pages, $25
From Old Delhi to Jerusalem, Alameda to Philadelphia, students and faculty in the Architecture Program at California College of the Arts offer creative propositions for the potential of architecture in locations around the world. This full-color book features some of the most intriguing thesis projects to come out of the program in the last two years.
The work expands and deepens contemporary architectural practice: Frankenstein’s monster becomes a model for revitalizing a defunct naval air base; a jacket is transformed into a deployable hammock for urban living; an airport terminal is distilled down to the text on its walls and remains navigable; a decaying waterfront area in Istanbul is revitalized via reconsidered transit infrastructures. These projects and many more give a glimpse of what these promising minds will bring to the future of architecture.
Vertical Places; The Tall Building in the World City
Edited by Neal Schwartz
Paperback, 62 pages, $20
This volume is one is a series spawned by the design research of the Advanced Studios at California College of the Arts (CCA), developed under former chair Rodolphe el-Khoury. Vertical Places: The Tall Building in the World City not only takes on the complexity of the design of the tall building but also that of the tall building within the context of rapidly growing world cities—such as Beijing, Dubai, Mexico City, and Singapore. The work presented here was led by a small group of expert practitioners from Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP, San Francisco, and supported by the teaching experience of the Bay Area firm of GDeS Architecture and Planning.
Categories: Architecture Bookshelf Students
Mariah Nielson: Preserving the Legacy of J. B. Blunk
Posted on Thursday, July 1, 2010, by Samantha Braman
Hidden among the trees atop Inverness ridge, overlooking Tomales Bay in a little-trafficked corner of west Marin County, is a secluded artist's haven. You may be familiar with the place, but you may not know it as the former home of the prominent sculptor and woodworker J. B. Blunk. Today it is the site of the J. B. Blunk Residency program, founded and directed by Blunk's daughter—and CCA alumna—Mariah Nielson (BArch 2005).
The house and studio were designed and built by Blunk in 1959. The pastoral isolation provided (and enforced) by the location allows resident artists to focus entirely on their work. Inspired by the setting and completely uninterrupted, they are free to study and create anything from painting to installation art, creative writing, sculpture, and video.
"After completing a residency, we hope our artists will bring a renewed passion and fresh approaches to their teaching, exhibitions, and creative practice," says Nielson. "Spending two months in such a rural and stimulating environment gives us pause and reminds us of our values and intentions."
The program is a partnership with the Lucid Art Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes and supports grants for art projects. Since 2008, 11 artists in residence, six of them CCA alumni, have called the Blunk house home for two months and then contributed their work to a year-end exhibition. (The first annual exhibition took place in Los Angeles at Reform Gallery, and the second was at Triple Base Gallery in San Francisco, which happens to be run by CCA alumni Dina Pugh and Joyce Grimm).
In addition to running the program and continuing to work on maintaining her father's home and studio, Nielson is also a curator at the San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design, where her exhibition FourSite: 4 Materials | 4 Artists | 4 Sites is on view through September 18. It features four artists using four different materials (paper, fiber, metal, and wood) to create immersive installations. Other recent projects include the design of a new home for her mother in Helena, Montana, which involved a renovation of an 1893 apartment building.
Nielson was constantly inspired by, and immersed in, her father's work while she was growing up. Prior to attending CCA she worked in Paris for a year as an assistant to the film set designer Pierre-Francois Limbosch, and that experience solidified her ambition to pursue architecture. After obtaining her degree at CCA, she worked for several different Bay Area architecture firms, including Sagan Piechota and SOM.
In 2006, however, five years after her father passed away, Nielson decided to leave architecture and follow up full-time on Blunk's request that she convert his Inverness home into a place for artists to practice and spread the spirit of creativity. J. B. Blunk was very invested in sustainability, and his works often incorporated salvaged materials that revealed their natural origins. One of his best-known works locally is The Planet (1969), made of a redwood burl 13 feet in diameter, installed at the Oakland Museum of California.
The program encourages its residents to also be mindful of the natural world. "Our goal is to provide a serene environment for creative exploration that is inspired by living in nature," says Nielson. "Many of the artists who apply are already well established. We require applicants to have an MFA, because we want them to have demonstrated a particular level of commitment to their practice. We welcome passionate artists with an interest in place, material exploration, and discipline."
Nielson looks back very fondly on her time at CCA. "It was a very, very difficult decision for me to leave architecture," she says. "I was sure it would be my lifelong career. I miss the late nights in the studio and the excitement of beginning a new semester, when the particular project we would be developing for the next four months would be announced. I enjoyed meeting and becoming friends with furniture designers, fashion designers, painters, graphic designers. The cross-disciplinary aspect of the education was invaluable."
The program hosts four cycles of artists every year: two months each in the spring, summer, fall, and winter. The current J. B. Blunk artists in residence are Jay Nelson and Rachel Kaye; both are CCA alumni (Painting/Drawing 2004) and both are represented by Triple Base.
If you are interested in applying for a J. B. Blunk Residency in 2011, the deadline to submit your application is August 13. Visit jbblunkresidency.org/ for more information and an application.
Visit the blog at jbblunkresidency.blogspot.com
Categories: Alumni Architecture Featured Painting Drawing
Architecture Students' Open-Source Approach to Pac Rim Studio an Ecological and Humanitarian Tour de Force
Posted on Wednesday, June 30, 2010, by Jim Norrena
Can a single academic course change the world? Perhaps it can. California College of the Arts offers a seminar course as part of its Master of Architecture curriculum—Creative Integrated Project Management—that proves it is, indeed, possible.
In spring 2010, the graduate seminar, taught by Architecture faculty member Peter Anderson, involved CCA students in a creative project management collaboration with Architecture for Humanity, which enlisted participation from six additional academic institutions to join in the community partnership learning project Pac Rim Studio: the 2010 Architecture for Humanity Education Outreach Program, for which Anderson also served as a studio lead.
The project was spearheaded by Architecture for Humanity’s Nathaniel Corum, head of education outreach and codirector of the Pac Rim Studio (with cofounder, executive director, and board member Cameron Sinclair). Corum collaborated with professors and at least one student group at each of the seven participating academic institutions to develop region-specific ocean-related projects, then cross-pollinated the ideas among the student groups.
The goal behind the logistical aspects of the Pac Rim Studio was to build a more sustainable future using the power of design. Tactics included offering a global network of professionals who offer construction and other development services.
The studio allowed students to engage in collaborative, project-based learning that targeted communities in need from countries and cities located around the edge of the Pacific Ocean (aka the Pacific Rim), namely Pacific Islanders, migrant workers, tropical agricultural workers, and university students.
The Pac Rim Studio also honors the Plastiki Pacific voyage, an ongoing experiment in ocean travel based on the question: "Can a fully recyclable performing vessel be engineered almost entirely out of reclaimed plastic bottles, cross the Pacific whilst demonstrating real-world solutions?”
Inspired by the Plastiki, the Pac Rim Studio is a multicountry, trans-Pacific studio that challenges architecture students from California to Asia to design and plan various open-source prototypes to provide essential needs infrastructure, including post-disaster recovery operations, for developing countries in the Pacific Rim.
Participation in Pac Rim Studio afforded a collaborative component that significantly influenced how architecture students think about environmental issues and fostered community engagement throughout far-reaching locations. Through seminar readings, presentations, and field trips, CCA students became familiar with the structures and vocabularies of integrated project delivery and building information modeling, which resulted in a valuable project management and a significant contribution to global humanitarian relief actions.
The CCA student seminar was responsible for creative project management, which involved coordination with Architecture for Humanity program and web staff to facilitate running the multicountry studio and suggesting and implementing new functionality for the Open Architecture Network (OAN), the shared platform used to host the Pac Rim Studio briefs—project overviews that addressed reef bleaching to plastics in the oceans to low-lying coral reef–constructed nations to tropical agriculture.
The Pac Rim Studio offered six courses from which architecture students from partnering schools must challenge themselves to devise a project that addresses a real-world community issue, as reported by Pacific Rim denizens. (Watch videos of the following projects.)
- Design an Island
- Design/Build a School
- Design Weaving Centers
- Design a Farm Community
- Design Coastal Access
- Design Like You Give a Damn 2
Pac Rim Studio partners include California College of the Arts (Master of Architecture Program), Adventure Ecology—Plastiki Expedition, University of Auckland—School of Architecture and Planning, Unitec—Centre for Maori Architecture—New Zealand, University of California at Berkeley—Department of Architecture, University of Sydney—faculty of Architecture, Design, and Planning, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa—School of Architecture. The project is sponsored by Ocean Voyages Institute, Project Kaisei, and Floating Island International.
According to the OAN: “The studio will share the insight and knowledge of a diverse and committed team of socially responsible designers and supporting organizations (see below). Students will work toward design solutions for several major Pacific Ocean crises, which will then become ‘open-sourced’ for anyone to replicate through the Creative Commons licensing on the Open Architecture Network.”
“Several of the college’s students designed awareness campaigns and information-distribution models to call attention to the challenges faced by ocean systems,” Corum stated. “From quantifying waste in the oceans to 'Sponsor an Island,' the student projects showed an intense level of concern for the aquatic environment. . . . Students learned that organization and orchestration are key elements to design practice—especially when the projects are concurrent or international or both.”
CCA Architecture student Rachael Yu chose to address ocean waste: “The Pac Rim project underscores CCA's mission to reach out to other institutions and connect students with professionals. The project is timely in its address of methods of collaboration and environmental concerns. The gyer that is polluting the ocean is a result of generations of not being aware, and it is our generation's task to take notice and do something. I think CCA and most of the student population is ever-increasingly aware of the waste we produce.”
Yu added, “Integrated project delivery highlights the sometimes invisible or forgotten structure in place that helps everyone communicate and understand their role and responsibility to the project and team. IPD is kind of like a return to civility and honor, but with tech frosting and a new brand.”
Rodrigo Lima, also a student in CCA’s Master of Architecture Program, created an active Google Earth layer that works in conjunction with Google Maps to allow users to easily locate and identify Architecture for Humanity projects around the globe.
“I hope to start my own firm one-day,” Lima shared. “And I definitely foresee some of the lessons I have learned about how one can manage a project playing a large role in how I start and run my own practice in the future. I find this project really important to me because it is architecture without being just architecture. There are so many more logistical, political, social, and ecological issues that go into making our built environment what it is today, and this project not only talks about those realms, but also actually provides us the opportunity to influence and rethink some of these influencers.”
Architecture alumni Lauren Tichy and Andrew Stolz collaborated on a virtual gyre they coined Pac-Rim Press, whose goal is "to provide a base to be able to publicize and fundraise for any project through the design and sale of varying collateral media."
They also presented the "Sponsor a Project!" campaign that creates opportunities for soliciting financial support and engagement within the OAN interface. Within the theme is the "Sponsor an Island" project, whose case study was modeled on California's popular Adopt-a-Highway Program.
"The purchase of a metal water bottle or reusable shopping bag with Pac-Rim Studio imagery on it not only promotes responsible world citizenry through the use of reusable material, but also puts your ideas into the world for varied degrees of exposure," advises Tichy. Download an overview (PDF)
Other students included Riessa Burgess, Monica Cook, Anthony Diaz, Sasha Heuer, Channelle Hurst, Brandon Jenkins, Adam Katz, Jinney Kho, Mike Medeiros, and Ginny Uyesugi.
When asked how the Pac Rim Studio fit into the CCA curriculum, Lima didn’t skip a beat: “The nature of the dynamic rethinking and multidisciplinary working process of Pac Rim Studio (e.g., architects doing data managements, communications, interface design, computer programming) is quintessentially CCA. I think it would be difficult to imagine a course like this one being held at another institution. It is mindful of the environment; it approaches problems in a questioning, intelligent, and alternative way than the norm; and very much in the making culture of this school. We are realizing these ideas and implementing them in the real world.”
While one course may not literally change the world, global-scale change is clearly possible by altering a single way of thinking.
About Architecture for Humanity
Architecture for Humanity is a nonprofit design service firm founded in 1999. By tapping a network of more than 40,000 professionals who lend time and expertise, we help those who could not otherwise be able to afford design, construction and development services, in the communities where they are most critically needed.
Today, we are proud to say we have become a resource for community groups and aid agencies in search of professional design services, local architects—and the most critical element, construction funding. The network that began with a simple competition now includes thousands of architects, designers and others. We remain a pro bono organization of design and construction professionals based on grassroots funding. For more information, please visit the Architecture for Humanity website.
Related
Pac-Rim Press
Plastiki images on Flickr
Plastiki videos on Flickr
The Trash Vortex
Categories: Alumni Architecture Faculty Featured International Sustainability
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