How do you celebrate the centennial of one of the most outstanding heroes of the 20th century? August 4 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Raoul Wallenberg. To mark this important year, the United States conferred a Congressional Medal of Honor on Wallenberg in April. The Swedish government has organized an international traveling exhibition, titled "To Me There's No Other Choice," which will be on view in the Michigan Union in February 2013. In conjunction with the exhibition, a lecture by Ingrid Carlburg, who has recently published a new biography on Wallenberg, will be sponsored by Taubman College. The dates will be posted here as they become available.

Read about the extraordinary life of this 20thcentury hero in Michigan Today.

POWER will inaugurate the first of our new series of conferences exploring Present Predicaments in urban planning and architecture next Friday, Oct. 7, 2011, at Rackham Auditorium. Doors open at 8 a.m. Breakfast and lunch will be served.

This conference will bring together an interdisciplinary group of thinkers and practitioners to explore the relationship between planning, architecture and the power structures that shape our environments. The conference will bring designers, architects, planners, writers and theoreticians, together with developers, government officials, as well as planning and design advocates. Guided by members of our faculty, our speakers will provoke debates and explore questions such as who does architecture and urban planning represent, who do they empower? What forces enable planning and architecture to impact culture and serve as catalyst for change?

The conference is organized around the following topic sessions to be addressed by speakers and a faculty respondent(s):

Power Alliances:
The landscape of alliances is an increasingly malleable yet encompassing one. The organization of practice is readily modified beyond the conventional framework of patrons and designers, while the roles of the state, institutions, and corporations consistently shift, merge, and divide in an extraordinary capacity. This session examines architecture's engagement with authority and capital, and its potential as an active agency. Exploring the challenges and risks as well as the productivity and efficacy in the deployment of power, the panel attempts to elicit views on the utility of alliance and the necessity of a measured autonomy. In an era of scarcity and transformation, can architecture shape the responsible form of power?
Faculty moderator and respondents: Lecturers Nahyun Hwang and David Eugin Moon
Speakers: Jay Berman; Gordon Gill; Brandon Harwick / Scott Walzak; Jeffrey Inaba; David Nieh; Julie Snow; Dan Wood

Powerful Advocacy:
Architecture and urban planning are always looking for friends. As fields of study they are interdisciplinary and as professions they are collaborative. The public endorsement, financial backing, and facilitation that comes from academic institutions, government agencies, non-profit organizations and the media are pivotal in architects' and planners' ability to effect change. Unpacking these various modes of support reveals complexities in their form, their motivations, their ideologies, and their beneficiaries. What are the most effective venues for advocacy and who is the target audience? Who benefits the most: individuals, institutions, or disciplines-at-large? What sorts of design are worthy of promotion? Through a consideration of the implications inherent in speaking for, investing in, and educating others, this session explores advocacy as a means of empowerment.
Faculty moderator and respondent: Lecturer Ellie Abrons
Speakers: Katharine DeShaw; Aaron Dworkin; Jason Schupbach; Leslie Shepherd; Matthew Yglesias

Power Points:
In the wake of the political developments of the Arab Spring, it is difficult to dispute the fact that information is power. And yet lurking behind information's innocuous veneer - a façade that projects the unbiased imparting of knowledge - is the reality of its social construction. Information is only ever as reliable as the filters through which we receive it – its vehicles of delivery and formats of dissemination. Contemplating architecture's role in the filtering and prioritizing of information, Rem Koolhaas writes: "It [architecture] embodies the lingering hope – or the vague memory of hope – that shape, form, coherence could be imposed on the violent surf of information that washes over us daily. Maybe architecture doesn't have to be stupid after all. Liberated from the obligation to construct, it can become a way of thinking about anything – a discipline that represents relationships, proportions, connections, effects, the diagram of everything." The panel will consider various formats for the dissemination of architectural and urban information. It will put formats (polemical journals, mainstream magazines, newspapers, zines, blogs, research installations, exhibitions, monographs, pamphlets…) into dialogue with the kinds of discourse they sustain (criticism, theory, polemical debate, information design…) and the institutions that support them (research laboratories, think tanks, academic institutions, publishing houses…), and question the respective agency of each. Does power reside in the factuality and intelligibility of information itself, or in the ability to spin it, frame it, filter it, and disseminate it?
Faculty moderator and respondent: Assistant Professor Amy Kulper
Speakers: Cynthia Davidson; Keller Easterling; Roger Sherman; Michael Sorkin

Planning for Empowerment:
As the world continues to weather profound economic crisis, the gap between the haves and the have-nots has become ever wider. Particularly in cities which contain a disproportionate number of low-income people, this situation has made planning for social justice increasingly challenging. This session considers various ways to help remove barriers preventing the empowerment of those who have little or no power. Possible ways to do this include creating deliberate strategies to carry out progressive policies in municipal and state governments, or enabling, through planning and design services, community-based efforts to improve specific neighborhoods. Other useful approaches may include facilitating the efforts of working-class entrepreneurs such as street vendors and small-shop owners, or designing affordable solutions to problems such as lack of access to housing, transportation, jobs, or other critical needs. This session will consider the possibilities, offer examples of previous efforts, and discuss impediments to future success.
Faculty Moderator and Respondent: Professor June M. Thomas
Speakers: Pierre Clavel, Norman Krumholz, Alfonso Morales, Douglas Gauthier

Design Empowerment:
Rather than being purely reactionary, effective grassroots tactics are characterized by their cunning ability to exploit the intrinsic assets of a group in order to infiltrate and influence dominating structures. With great tact, they creatively transform parallel strengths into targeted authority and empower their base to produce change. How is contemporary design practice, abundant with its own depth of knowledge and particular expertise – its own strength – empowered to challenge today's dominating structures? What are the relevant discourses, roles, and manifestations that designers employ? What must designers now understand of external structures to effectively target their intrinsic abilities? Who, in turn, do these focused abilities benefit, create, profit? And what is lost in the process of narrow targeting? This session invites a wide array of design practitioners to discuss their specific tact(ics) when seeking to empower through design.
Faculty moderator and respondent: Assistant Professor Anca Trandafirescu
Speakers: Tobias Armborst; Sarah Dunn; Edouard Francois; Hilary Hoeber; Kim Karlsrud / Daniel Phillips; Marion Weiss

To see more event information and to register: taubmancollege.umich.edu/power

Catie Newell, architecture lecturer and 2009-2010 Oberdick Fellow – as well as former Oberdick and Muschenheim Fellows Jason Kelly Johnson and Nataly Gattegno (2008-2009) – were awarded the 2011 Architectural League Prize. Newell is a founding partner of Alibi Studio based in Detroit. Her work captures spaces and material effects, focusing on the development of new atmospheres through the exploration of textures, volumes, and the effects of light, or lack thereof. Newell's most recent work and research is reflected in the installations completed in 2010: "Weatherizing," and "Salvaged Landscape." This work emphasized material and assembly logic research within the potent context of Detroit. In 2006, she was awarded the SOM Prize for Architecture, Design and Urban Design with her project "Weather Permitting." "Salvaged Landscape" was also recently featured as a backdrop image in Esquire magazine, May 2011.

Johnson and Gattegno are partners of Future Cities Lab, is an experimental design and research office based in San Francisco and Athens, Greece. They were awarded a 2008-2009 Taubman College Research Through Making grant to pursue some of their research.

The League Prize exhibition opening and first evening of lectures by winners of the 30th annual Architectural League Prize will be held June 15, 2011, at Sheila C. Johnson Design Center Parsons The New School for Design. For more, visit the Architectural League of New York.

Taubman College has a history rich in awards and recognition of academic, service and leadership excellence. The following awards were presented this spring and at graduation May 1, 2011.

Doctoral Honors and Awards

Presented by Architecture Program Chair John McMorrough.

ARCC/King Student Medal
Jennifer Lynn Chamberlin, Ph.D.
Named in honor of the late Jonathan King, co-founder and first president of the Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC), this award is given to one student per ARCC member school. Selection is based upon criteria that acknowledge innovation, integrity, and scholarship in architectural and/or environmental design research.

Doctoral Student Award
Kush Upenda Patel, M.S.
This award is given in recognition of outstanding contributions to the Ph.D. Program in Architecture.

Master of Science Student Award
Micah Aaron Berkowitz Rutenberg, M.S.
This award is given in recognition of outstanding contributions to the Master of Science degree programs.

Distinguished Dissertation Award
LaDale C. Winling, PH.D.

Master of Urban Planning

Presented by Urban and Regional Program Chair Richard K. Norton

Academic Achievement
Gretchen Ann Miller Johnson

Service to the Community
Robert Arthur Albert Linn

Service to Taubman College and the Urban & Regional Planning Program
Oana Druta

American Institute of Certified Planners Award
Kevin Burns McCoy

Master of Architecture

Presented by Architecture Program Chair John McMorrough

AIA Henry Adams Medal & Certificate
Theresa Ann Broderick – Medal
Kyle Sturgeon – AIA Henry Adams Certificate
In each recognized school of architecture in the United States, the American Institute of Architects annually awards an engraved medal to the M.Arch. degree candidate with the highest scholastic standing. A certificate is awarded to the degree candidate with the second highest standing. The faculty determines the awards.

Marian Sarah Parker Memorial Award
Lisa Sauvé
Sarah Drake Parker initiated this endowment, shared with the College of Engineering, in memory of her daughter, Marian Sarah Parker, C.E. 1895, the first woman to graduate with an engineering degree from the University of Michigan. As a member of Purdy & Henderson, Parker became a specialist in the design of the steel-framed skyscraper and helped to design such revolutionary buildings as New York's Flat Iron Building and the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The award is made annually to the outstanding woman senior in engineering and to the outstanding woman M.Arch. degree candidate.

Alpha Rho Chi Medal
Kyle Sturgeon
Alpha Rho Chi, a national professional fraternity for students of architecture and the allied arts, awards its medal annually, in April, upon recommendations of the architecture faculty in each school of architecture. The purpose is to recognize the M.Arch. degree candidate who has shown leadership and given service to the school and whose personality and attitude give promise of real professional worth.

Thesis Project Honors: Ryan Donaghy; Christopher Holzwart; William Liow; Jessica Mattson; Andrew Powers; Melinda Rouse; Alivia Stalnaker; Kyle Sturgeon; Katie Grace Wirtz

Architecture Undergraduate

Presented by Architecture Program Chair John McMorrough

Raoul Wallenberg Competition Awards
All seniors at Taubman College participate in the Wallenberg Studios, named for 20th century hero Raoul Wallenberg, a 1935 graduate of our college. The studio culminates in a review by outside critics who select the best work. Student winners are awarded generous scholarships to support international travel.

Wallenberg Award winners presented to undergraduate
For more about the Wallenberg Studios and Awards

$6,000 Honor Awards:
Simon Rolka, Newell Studio
Grant Weaver, Newell Studio
Ian Sinclair, Mankouche Studio

$1,500 Honorable Mention:
Jacqueline Kow, Moran Studio
Timothy Harmon, Shieh Studio

George G. Booth Traveling Fellowship

The Booth Fellowship was first awarded in 1924. It is offered annually by the University of Michigan, Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and provides the opportunity for recent alumni/ae to research some special aspect of architecture that requires international travel.

2011 Booth Traveling Fellow
Mary O'Malley, M.Arch.'10

Saarinen-Swanson Essay Contest

Presented by Associate Dean Jean Wineman

Established in 1994, the Saarinen Swanson Essay Competition writing fund at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning encourages strong writing as a medium to foster critical thinking and exposition among future professionals in architecture and planning. The competition seeks 1000-1500 word essays addressing contemporary critical discourse in Design and/or Urbanism. Essays will be judged anonymously. The fund secures $8000 per year; while the distribution of the fund will be at the discretion of the jury, a top prize does not exceed $2000 to encourage multiple winners.

Winners:
Master of Urban Planning student Scott Kalafatis, "Adaptation Challenges and Planning Opportunities"
Master of Urban Planning student Jacob Anderson, "Defending Planning Action and Promoting Change"
Doctoral student Michael McCulloch, "Aesthetic of Care and the Empty City"
Undergraduate architecture student Julie Chau, "Defining Architecture: Discovering Possibility"

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) has recognized the work of Taubman College associate and assistant professors and founding partners of the professional practice RVTR Geoffrey Thün and Kathy Velikov with a 2011 Innovation in Architecture Award of Excellence for the Practice of Architecture. The biannual prize was awarded to Team North / RVTR Inc. for the North House Responsive Envelope System. The award will be presented at the AIBC/RAIC Awards in Vancouver BC, May 24-27, 2011.
 
North House is a prototype prefabricated solar powered home designed for northern climates (42°-55° latitude) that advances responsive envelope design through the pairing of hybrid integrated active and passive envelope systems with interactive controls. In combining these technologies, the prototype delivers a net energy-producing dwelling that sponsors new relationships between occupants, their surrounding environment and building systems. Design research was undertaken by an interdisciplinary, inter-institutional team engaging faculty and graduate students from the University of Waterloo, Ryerson University, and Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Art and Technology, working through intensive collaboration with professional and industry partners. Negotiations are currently being finalized to install the North House Project on a permanent site in Cambridge ON where it will continue to undergo long term post- occupancy testing of its systems, and function as a locus for building public awareness around the potential of high performance residential design.
 
Jury Comments:
 
"This is a unique house which integrates the latest in building technologies making it specifically designed for northern climates.  It combines such things as solar energy, systems automation and natural light diffusion to produce an  energy – positive home.  The ceiling system is also quite innovative and provides a compelling atmosphere within this unique house.  This type of experimental home is very much in line with work being conducted at the National Research Council and would warrant possible collaboration in the future."
 
"This is “aggressive design research” at its very best!  The university and the architects should be congratulated in creating a true “living laboratory” to help us better understand what it means to dwell in the Canadian north."
 
For more Information, on the RAIC Awards Program, click here.

The Future of History Conference at University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, April 1-2, 2011 features theorists, designers, practitioners and historians in discussion and debate on the role of history in the design of the built environment. The presentations and panel discussions by the international roster of speakers are free and open to the public.
 
The conference will be held at the University of Michigan Rackham Amphitheatre. Conference presentations, Friday, April 1, 4:30 p.m. - 7:45 p.m., are concentrated on the theme, Discipline, with discussions on practice and history. Day two of the conference, Sat., April 2, 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., will include discussions on operative, globalization, environment and pedagogy.
 
Future of History is the fourth and final conference in a series of events (previous conferences including Future of Design, Fall 2009; Future of Urbanism, Winter 2010; and Future of Technology, Fall 2010) that brings together international experts to provide insight and debate on initiatives past, present and future. Conference presentations and conversations can found on the Taubman College YouTube channel.
 
To register and for more information, visit: www.taubmancollege.umich.edu/futureofhistory.
 
Future of History speakers (in presentation order): Penelope Dean, Mark Foster Gage, Eric Howeler, Timothy Hyde, Pier Vittorio Aureli, Ana Miljački, Simon Sadler, Peter Zellner, Esra Akcan, Susan Buck-Morss, Arindam Dutta, , Ijlal Muzaffar, Dell Upton, Vandana Baweja, Nicholas de Monchaux, Edward Eigen, Ellen Grimes, Janette Kim, Eve Blau, Wes Jones, Derek Collins, William Menking, and George Baird

The 2011 Architecture Student Show, themed, "Fresh," was held March 20-27, 2011, in the CMYK Gallery with the awards ceremony at 4:30 p.m. on March 25, 2011. Program Chair John McMorrough welcomed current and prospective students, honoring those receiving awards. Taubman College Alumni Society Board of Governors judged student work, as did AIA Huron Valley, that week. The awards ceremony was part of the college's Preview Weekend activities.

AIA Huron Valley Honor Awards

Presented by Paul Dannels, M.Arch '87, BS '85.  Structural Design. Besides Dannels, jurors included Tamara Burns, B.S.'83; Aaron Vermeulen, M.Arch.'00; Linc Poley; Betsy Baird, M.Arch.'85.

Awards presented to:

• Vittorio Lovato UG1
  Studio: Sean Vance
• Stephanie Choate /Jon Swendris UG3
  Studio: Jesse LeCavalier
• Branden Clements
  Graduate Thresholds studio / Malcolm McCullough

Alumni Society Board of Governors Awards

Undergraduate awards presented by Joseph Valerio FAIA, B.Arch.'70, Principal, Valerio Dewalt Train, Chicago . Jurors included Valerio, Craig Hamilton, Daimian Hines, and Mireille Roddier.

Awards presented to:

Undergraduate UG1

• Honorable Mention: Alex Blugerman
  Studio: Joel Schmidt
• Honorable Mention: Jacob Wimmer
  Studio: Tony Patterson
• First place: Andrew Frame
  Studio: Anya Sirota

Undergraduate UG3

• Honorable Mention: Kevin Swanson
  Studio: Thom Moran
• First place: Ashley TerHorst
  Studio: Rosalyne Shieh

Graduate Awards

Graduate awards presented by A. James Simeo, AIA, LEED AP, NCARB, B.S.'83, Principal, CO Architects, Los Angeles. Jurors included Simeo, Randall Ott, Windom Kimsey and Josh Bard.

Awards presented to:

Threshold Studio

• Honoree: Tarlton Long
  Studio: Malcolm McCullough
• Honoree: Dora Chan
  Studio: Kathy Velikov

Comprehensive Studio

• Honorees: Anthony Hrusovsky, Beatrice Lau, Will Liow, Amy Rydleski
  Studio: Neal Robinson
• Honorees: Parke MacDowell, Amy McNamara, Sarah Petri
  Studio: Geoff Thun

3G2

• Honoree: Joseph Filippelli
  Studio: Maria Arquero
• Honoree: Chris Bennett
  Studio: Borum

Willeke Portfolio Awards

Willeke Portfolio Awards presented by Marc L'Italien, FAIA, B.S.'84, Principal, Esherick Homsey Dodge & Davis, San Francisco. Jurors included L'Italien, Tom Sherry, Janet Attarian and Sean Vance.

Willeke Portfolio Award Winners

• 1st Place - Lauren Jones UG4 in Nahyun Hwang's Studio, $12,000
• 2nd Place - Ian Sinclair UG4 in Steven Mankouche's Studio, $5,000

Honorable Mention to:

• Angela Schmidt UG4 in Rosalyne Shieh's Studio
• Jon Swendris UG4 in Thom Moran's Studio
• Joyce Tseng UG4 in Irene Hwang's Studio
• Andrew Frame UG2 in Tony Patterson's Studio
• Patrick Ethen UG4 in Nahyun Hwang's studio

See the Presentation (PDF 1.4MB)

Taubman College Associate Professor Geoffrey Thün, Taubman College Assistant Professor Kathy Velikov, Ryerson University (Toronto) Graduate Program Director in Architecture and Associate Professor Colin Ripley, and Ryerson University (Toronto) School of Computer Science Professor Alex Fernworn were awarded a 2011 Research Creation Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada to advance The Stratus Project. The grant totals $186,000 and is intended to fund personnel, materials, equipment, and research costs for project development over a three year project cycle culminating in an international exhibition of the work that will be hosted for its initial installation at the Centre de Design at UQAM in Montreal Canada. Thün, Velikov & Ripley are partners in RVTR Inc., and undertake both professional and academic research pursuits across national and disciplinary formats of collaboration.
 
The Stratus Project is an ongoing body of research that develops kinetic, environment-responsive envelope systems. The first prototype utilizes smart surfaces, responsive technologies and fabrication methods as well as a distributed network of analog to digital processing and environmental inputs to modify localized ambient atmospheric conditions in real-time response to occupant presence and environmental sensing. The ambitions of the project are to engage the concept of adaptation beyond sense and response regimes to develop a stream of instrumental interiors, or ‘second skins’ that sense, adjust and mediate air conditions, including the development of intelligent sensing that would enable custom configuration of spatial volumes and user preferences over time.
 
The Stratus Project received initial seed funding for its initiation and development at the University of Michigan through both the Taubman College Research Through Making program, and the OVPR Small Project Support program. The project was exhibited for the first time at the Taubman College Architecture Gallery in January 2011. It has since been presented at the Adaptive Architecture Conference at the Building Centre in London UK March 3-5 2011, and was recently selected for publication in the forthcoming issue of Bracket by a blind jury including Benjamin Bratton, Philippe Rahm, Julia Czerniak, Charles Renfro, Jeffrey Inaba and Geoff Manaugh.
 
Thün and Velikov are appreciative of U-M’s commitment to the initiation of innovative projects through its small project funding programs which have been critical to the success of this project in the broader funding stream. Initiation of the work and the production of early demonstrable outputs facilitates committee review at subsequent agencies to understand project potentials clearly- beyond the descriptive format that typically attends proposals for new work, particularly in the area of emerging technologies for spatial and architectural applications. An interdisciplinary team of U-M Students and recent grads were involved in the development of the Stratus Project and the work will continue to involve researchers and students from multiple disciplines over the next three years.
 
To view a short film about the stratus project click here.

 The 2011 Annual Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC) Spring Research Conference will feature 68 presentations of current research in architecture, representing 57 universities and research centers from 21 countries. In light of the rise of ethical awareness, social networking, sustainability and the green movement, changes in manufacturing and marketing, changing energy codes, shifting populations and globalization, the ARCC Spring Research Conference aims to reflect on the impact of these contemporary issues on current architectural processes. The conference will take place from April 20-24, 2011, at Lawrence Technological University in Detroit.
 
 
The participating faculty and students include:
 
Associate Dean and Professor of Architecture Jean Wineman: “Spatial Layout and the Promotion of Innovation in Organizations”
 
Associate Professor Geoffrey Thün and Assistant Professor Kathy Velikov: “Constructing Knowledge through Action Research and Prototypes Testbeds: Prioritizing Making in Architectural Research”
 
Associate Professor of Architecture Mojtaba Navvab and Architecture Ph.D. Student Sentagi Utami: “Utilizing Virtual Reality for Simulating the Auditory Perception In Architectural Designed Spaces"
 
Assistant Professor of Architecture Sean Vance: “Resolving Tectonic Form Generations through Analogue and Digital Human Simulations of Physical Impairments”
 
Architecture Lecturer Matthew Schulte, Assistant Professor Steven Mankouche, Lecturer Joshua Bard and Lecturer Tsz Yan Ng: “Digital Steam Bending: Re-thinking History Through Digital Craft”
 
Architecture Ph.D. Student Chanikarn Yimprayoon and Associate Professor Mojtaba Navvab: “Impact of weather data sets on photovoltaic system output availability, variability and uncertainty”
  
Architecture Ph.D. Student Matthew Heins: “Infrastructure as a Paradigm in Architectural Studies”
 
 
The ARCC is an international association of architectural research centers committed to the expansion of the research culture and a supporting infrastructure in architecture and related design disciplines. For more information:  arcc2011.ltu.edu
 

Experiments in dance, photography, and architecture come together to create this multimedia environment, reflecting the shared vision of Monica Ponce de Leon, architect; Ernestine Ruben, photographer; and Peter Sparling, dancer, choreographer, and video artist, with a score by Erik Santos.  The supple, sensual environment they created together features a video synthesis of photographic imaging and the choreography of actual bodies projected onto the skins of a multilayered, membrane-like structure, providing a walk-through body, an interactive site for live dance, music and poetry, and a luminous web for visitors to explore.
 
Dean Ponce de Leon collaborated in the exhibit with:  Peter Sparling, UM Thurnau Professor of Dance, and an active independent dance artist, choreographer, and “screendance” creator; Ernestine Ruben, an internationally recognized photographer particularly well known for her experimental works based on the human form; and Eric Santos a composer, Associate Professor in the UM School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, and Director of Electronic Music Studio at UM.
 
The exhibit is open at the University of Michigan Museum of Art March 22-May 15, 2011. An “Artists’ Talk and Reception,” March 21, 5 p.m.,  in the Helmut Stern Auditorium, allows for a discussion with the artists about the creative process and collaboration that resulted in this installation.
Acknowledgements in the making of the exhibit:
Maciej P Kaczynski design and fabrication collaborator
Tom Bray video installation
Mark Meier scripting and advanced computation
Amy Cova dancer

Student Project leaders: Lauren Bebry and Matt Nickel.

Faculty collaborators: Catie Newell, Jen Harmon, Patrick Jones and Wes McGee.

Student collaborators: Bruce Findling, Ben Hagenhofer-Daniell, Andrew McCarthy, Daniel Nissimov, Greg Perkins, Sarah Petri, Geoff Salvatore, Derek Sloane, Andrew Stern, Jenny Wang, Brenna Williams, Conor Wood, with assistance from the following students: Kate Douthat, Jonathan Erdmann, Michael Senkow, Lauren Vasey, and Zeechan Vira.
 
This exhibition is made possible in part by the University of Michigan Office of the Provost. Additional support has been provided by UM's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, Office of the Vice President for Research, and Digital Media Commons at the James and Anne Duderstadt Center.

Taubman College faculty will participate in a conference addressing the topic, “Cultivating talent and innovation to transform post-industrial cities,” at the RUST BELT TO ARTIST BELT III Conference, April 6-7, 2011, in Detroit at Taubman Center for Design Education. Detroit and its "rust belt" peers have the people, resources and ideas to emerge as global centers for the design, artistic and creative power necessary to invigorate communities suffering from a down-turned era of manufacturing.
 
The Rust Belt to Artist Belt Conference explores the ways these cities are being shaped and reinvented by the diverse skill sets of artists, designers and other creative entrepreneurs. The conference will create the foundation for a sustained dialogue connecting these creative practitioners to creative sector business owners, advanced manufacturers and prototypers.
 
Faculty members speaking include:
- Assistant Professor John Marshall: Lab Culture: Hands On Think Tanks For Cities, Wednesday, April 6. 4 p.m.
- Associate Professor Geoffrey Thun: Rethinking Sustainability: Artist And Designer-Led Approaches, Wednesday, April 6, 4 p.m.
-Lecturer Catie Newell: Moderator of Alt Development: Feral & Viual Spaces to Fuel Creativity, Thursday, April 7, 10:30 a.m.
- Dean Monica Ponce de Leon: Catalysts For The Creative Economy: Universities, Colleges And The Post-Industrial City, Thursday, April 7, 1 p.m.
- Associate Professor Karl Daubmann: Edgy Practices: Creatives Making Their Mark, Thursday, April 7, 2 p.m.
 
The conference was conceived in 2007 by the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC) in Cleveland. In 2010, CPAC awarded the conference to Detroit. The initial development of the conference series was made possible through the generous support and guidance of Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC) and the Ford Foundation. For more on the conference: www.rustbelttoartistbelt.com.

Assistant Professor Anca Trandafirescu, with the assistance of Associate Professor Glenn Wilcox and Le Nguyen B.S. '09, was recognized for HOT AIR by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) with the Faculty Design Honorable Mention.
HOT AIR is the temporary installation of a large inflatable, inhabitable monument in honor of the twentieth anniversary of the overthrow of the Romanian government. The project's name refers to both the unusually warm temperatures in Romania during that week in December 1989, which helped to bring citizens out into the streets to rally against the government; and also to the large amount of rhetoric surrounding these events.
ACSA annually honors faculty who have demonstrated excellence by providing a venue for work that advances the reflective nature of practice and teaching by recognizing and encouraging outstanding work in architecture and related environmental design fields as a theoretical endeavor.
HOT AIR was exhibited Nov. 3-7, 2009, in Timisoara, Romania, and was also on display in Ann Arbor in spring 2010 as part of TedX.
Trandafirescu and Wilcox will accept the Faculty Design Honorable Mention at the 99th ACSA Annual Meeting, March 3-6, 2011, in Montréal, Québec.
ACSA awarded three top prizes and six honorable mentions this year. HOT AIR, along with the other award-winning projects, will be published in the digital 2011 Architectural Education Awards Book.
To read more about HOT AIR – and to view photos and video – visit the 2009 news post.

In the Detroit Free Press, Taubman College Professor of Urban Planning Christopher Leinberger suggested that adding the Pistons to the mix of Detroit's three casinos, live theaters and nightclubs, as well as its athletic home base for the Tigers, Lions and Red Wings, could help downtown Detroit "bolster its status as an urban adult entertainment destination."

Although it remains unclear as to where a new arena would be built, Leinberger offered that building professional sports arenas downtown, versus the suburbs, tends to benefit both the cities themselves as well as attendance at games.

While the Free Press stated, "no one sees a new sports arena as the magic bullet that will restore downtown Detroit to its heyday," Leinberger noted that downtown's Detroit's adult entertainment industry combined with the city's love for sports provides for "a very unique combination that very few other cities have" and, consequently, "all sorts of spin-off economic development."
 
Visit the Free Press' website to read the full article.

University of Michigan researcher Harry Giles has developed a bio-composite-based solar control system for building envelopes. Entitled SITumbra, short for structurally integrated transparent umbra 
(or shade), the passive solar device is a kind of 3D blind system that mitigates solar heat gain during summer yet allows for direct sunlight penetration during winter. The structured shading device is
ideal for retrofits as well as new construction, and is comprised by recyclable and renewable materials.

SITumbra is featured in the Aug. 1, 2010 issue of Architectural Lighting magazine, in the Research/Technology section.

Time Magazine’s The Detroit Blog and ModelD (Detroit) recognized the five architecture fellows, Catie Newell, Ellie Abrons, Meredith Miller, Thomas Moran and Rosalyne Shieh, from the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning that purchased a foreclosed house in Detroit – 13178 Moran – from a city auction for $500. The five fellows purchased the home to design projects full scale.
 
The Time Magazine Detroit blog posted "Bringing a Dead House Back to Life" on April 26, 2010. The blog recognizes an inspiring report of what one project can mean for the architecture, the architects working on it, and a city block.
 
ModelD (Detroit), a publication part of Issue Media Group, posted the article "University of Michigan’s Five Fellows turn foreclosed house into architecture project" on April 27, 2010. This article emphasizes research opportunities existence in Detroit neighborhoods and they can coexist for good.
 
Detroit's station, WDET 101.9 FM, interviewed three fellows, Ellie Abrons, Catie Newell and Rosalyne Shieh, on the The Craig Fahle Show, April 4, 2010.
 
Listen to the architecture fellows talk about their project and experience.

The Architect's Newspaper also wrote a piece about the project titled "Domestic Intervention." It was published May 20, 2010 and features many photographs of the house. Portions of this story were reposted by Architizer.com here.
 
Additionally, the Wayne State student newspaper posted a picture story about the project here, MLive.com covered it here, and FastCompany.com reported on it here.
 
For more information about Five Fellows: Full Scale, click here.

Chris Leingberger, a Taubman College Professor of Practice in Urban and Regional Planning and Director of the Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Development, provided a response to David Brooks' recent column in The New York Times.
 
Leinberger parallels Brooks' summarization of a prediction from a book called The Next Hundred Milllion; American in 2050 with his own personal research on urban downtown revivals and self-sufficient suburban villages. He links these areas to the public need for walkable urban places—as "upward of 70 percent of this demand will take place in the suburbs while the rest will be the redevelopment of center cities," according to Leinberger.
 
Leinberger argues that "transportation drivese development" and that we must "build the second half of the American transportation system—rail and bus transit and bikes and walking—while repairing our exiisting roadway system" in order to create walkable urban places for the people.
 
Leinberger's response, "Remake Transportation Policy to Meet Market Demand," was published online on April 6, 2010, in The New Republic.

Joanna Hong and Tobias Wacker wanted to create an urban space for young professionals and graduate students ever since they themselves were graduate students at Taubman College.
 
Hong, M.U.P. 2009, and Wacker, M.U.P. 2008, created that space with their new café called lab—referred to on their website as “a coffee + tea + yogurt experience”—in downtown Ann Arbor.
 
lab is a modern space designed by Taubman College faculty members and principals of PLY Architecture, Craig Borum and Karl Daubmann. Alex Timmer, a Taubman College alumnus (B.S. 2009) and designer at PLY Architecture also worked on the project. Tony Belcure was the general contractor for the project and a key member of the collaboration.

lab opened March 23, 2010, and is located at 505 E. Liberty St. in McKinley Towne Centre in downtown Ann Arbor. Tentative hours are currently 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

An international roster of speakers addressed some of the most critical issues facing our cities and their environs during the “Future of Urbanism” conference, hosted by the University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning on March 19 and 20, 2010.
 
Each participant had 15 minutes to present their views on one of six topics related to the future of urbanism: Urban and Regional Ecologies; Just Cities; MEGACITY / shrinking city; New Publics / New  Public Spaces; Urban Imaginary; and Cities as Theaters for Conflict.
 
Following each session, presenters convened in panels to address the specific topics.

Place: Rackham Auditorium, 915 E. Washington St. Ann Arbor, Mich.

 For more information and to see a list of speakers, click here.

More than 160 Taubman College students are participating in the college’s spring break externship program, March 1-5, 2010. Students in architecture (undergraduate and graduate), urban planning, and urban design programs have been placed with firms and organizations in 26 cities to observe and get hands-on experience to further their understanding of their intended profession.

A sample of cities and host firms/organizations involved includes:
Ann Arbor – JJR
Atlanta – Urban Collage
Boston – Sasaki Associates
Boston - Howeler + Yoon Architecture
Boston - Moshe Safdie and Associates
Chicago – HOK
Detroit – SmithGroup
Los Angeles – City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning
Los Angeles - ROTO Architects
New York City – Perkins Eastman
New York City - Acconci Studio
New York City - Architecture Research Office
New York City - Asymptote Architecture
New York City - G Tects
New York City - Marble Fairbanks Architects
New York City - SHoP Architects
New York City - Smith Miller + Hawkinson Architects
Philadelphia – MGA Partners
Philadelphia - Kieran Timberlake
San Francisco – Perkins + Will
Seattle – Miller Hull Partnership
Washington DC – Cannon Design

This is the program’s 18th year in existence. For more information about the program, visit here.

Taubman College Professor of Practice Christopher Leinberger, who specializes in real estate development, was featured in the New York Times' article, "In Des Moines, Downtown Revival Is a Team Effort," on Feb. 16, 2010.
 
Offering that the city of Des Moines "was one of a growing number of cities that recognize the potential of downtown development, as well as the urgency of changing economic and political strategies to encourage it," Leinberger expressed encouraging advice focusing on the coming together of a city in order to build and sustain a place of contentment.
 
Similar to successful, downtown-booming cities such as Salt Lake City, Denver, Dallas, Seattle and Chicago, Des Moines is, according to Leinberger, rightfully adopting development plans based on persuading residents and employers to cluster homes, jobs, school and stores rather than spreading them out.
 
As a city able to find and utilize a nonpartisan formula with which to make development decisions on taxes, infrastructure, parks and housing that support downtown construction.
 
Leinberger offered positive reinforcement to Des Moines developers, regarding the city's expanding downtown as a "team effort."
 
"Des Moines is one of those places that recognized that to pull off being a special place they can be proud of, people have to work together," said Leinberger.
 
To view the article, visit the New York Times'  website.

University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning professor Robert Fishman participates in a Detroit NPR WDET interview panel discussion with Robin Boyle, Wayne State University Urban Planning Chair, and Megan Owens, Transit Riders United.
 
The panel discusses the future of transit in Detroit by looking at the history of the evolution of transportation.
 
The interview is hosted by Craig Fahle on the Craig Fahle Show. (Interview occurs 7/8 of the way through the audio.)
 
 
 
 

Disciplinary Transgressions
Comment by Monica Ponce de Leon
The Architectural Record
 
The field of architecture is poised to undergo dramatic changes. Beginning in the 1990s, we saw the emergence of the “star” architect as a cultural force, along with the consolidation of architecture as an agent for physical and economic change in cities across the world. The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing were a culmination of this era, and a demonstration of the potential power of architecture. However, this model of practice has already shown its limits, its weaknesses, and its flaws. It is safe to say that a new generation of practitioners will not be able to follow in the footsteps of its predecessors—and more importantly, that it should not.

Most of us are aware that technological advances paired with economic forces are significantly altering the construction of buildings and the practice of architecture. Conventional techniques will no longer suffice if architecture is to remain a viable venture. In addition, architecture’s role in the construction of culture has become globally associated with elite societies, and as a result, has remained outside of recent and dramatic cultural shifts.

It is not surprising that in the new economy, architecture has been one of the professions most badly hit. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, architects’ unemployment rate for 2008 more than doubled from the previous year. With more than 50,000 architecture students in schools across the country, this figure should give us pause. At the same time, it is evident that architecture is being left out of the most critical issues on the national agenda, despite the fact that historically our field has proven to have the tools and expertise to address these very pressing problems (such as the environment, housing, and infrastructure, just to name a few). This has precisely coincided with a golden era of architecture in which we have demonstrated extraordinary abilities with an unprecedented sophistication in the use of digital technology. And thus, we must wonder if our concern for very narrow and mostly formal problems has led to our failure to engage the world.

The time has come to examine these issues and to begin to chart a course for the future of the discipline. This will require new approaches to cultural engagement, and for architecture to rewrite its own rules. These changes need to begin “at home” with our own cultural institutions—namely architecture schools. After all, at pivotal points in the history of our field, the academy has given us critical perspectives with which to measure and evaluate the impact of architecture upon the world. Academia provides a lens independent of the demands of the profession, and as such it has the potential to advance the field in extraordinary ways. But so far pedagogy is not living up to this potential: Our teaching methodologies and the predominant model of studio instruction has remained virtually unchanged for more than 100 years.. More importantly, in the last 20 years architecture has stagnated in the midst of architectural research that focused too closely on topics that proved to have little consequence.

The conundrum of academic specialization is not exclusive to our discipline, of course. Our current environmental, economic, and societal crises have exposed the limits of conventional notions of specialization as a mode of research and scholarship in every field. Many disciplines are beginning to recognize this, and are moving toward an interdisciplinary model of research and education. In no other area does this become more poignant than in the environmental arena. In this first decade of the 21st century, it has become painfully clear that by looking at technological advances in isolation during the 20th century, we missed their broader impact. Efficient production methods led to the global proliferation of goods, and it is now unambiguous that unbridled consumption has had disastrous consequences for our planet. This is certainly true for architecture as well. In the last century, as we exalted the benefits of new materials and methods of construction in terms of efficiency and economy, we overlooked how they impacted natural resources. For most of the 20th century, we promoted the comfort and convenience of the suburbs, while ignoring their effects upon a larger network of natural ecosystems. We have become rapidly aware that environmental degradation has no easy solution, and that the responsibility lies amid many fields. Transgressing the boundaries of academic disciplines may be the only way to address the complex challenges of our time.

Because of its history and its own nature, architecture is best suited to develop an academic model that works across disciplines. After all, unlike most other fields, architecture is an intricate area of study that indeed encompasses distinct branches of learning in the sciences and the humanities. It is not surprising that several schools of architecture mention interdisciplinarity in their mission statements. However, for most of them, this is limited to relationships between architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, and urban planning. Instead, I believe that the discipline of architecture should re-examine its place within a larger body of knowledge and develop a new pedagogy as a means of advancing the profession. Only through new teaching methods that work across disciplines will we be able to allow future generations to look at design holistically, and in this way write a new chapter in the public mission of architecture.

These issues are particularly pertinent today not only because of the dose of reality the new economy has afforded us, but also because I believe architecture finds itself in the midst of deep-seated changes at its core. Educated in the 1980s, I experienced firsthand how digital technology altered the way that buildings are conceived and represented. In addition, this digital revolution fundamentally changed how we practiced, including our relationship to consultants and builders. For 20 years we argued that the new technology was simply a “tool,” but the sobering fact remains that these tools (like any tool) have had a major impact on our design process at all levels. During this first digital revolution the reaction of the field was to strengthen disciplinary boundaries and to demonstrate what we are capable of. Much of our fascination with formal problems has been the result of this encounter with new technology. It is safe to say that during this period architecture looked inward, and technical concerns came to be understood as somehow independent of social engagement, almost with obstinacy.

Today, with accelerated advances in digital fabrication technologies and their widespread application, I believe that we find ourselves in the midst of a second digital revolution. Not unlike the 1980s, as we argue over the significance of these “tools,” digital fabrication is fundamentally changing construction methods and transforming the building industry. This second time around, however, we have a remarkable opportunity to take a more critical stance toward technology and articulate its potential for social engagement, or else we risk perpetuating the divides that threaten to limit the relevance of architecture to the actual circumstances of the building industry—as the current economic downturn has demonstrated.

Other fields are wrestling with these very same issues. Not only will architecture be best served by entering into a conversation with these disciplines, but architecture will best serve and participate in the construction of culture. Much of what lies at the core of our discipline is already playing a central role in the redefinition of other fields. It is telling that design is now an integral part of the curriculum at top business schools across the country. Engineering departments have developed coursework around notions of creative practices, while schools of social work and public policy have aligned social activism with entrepreneurship and design thinking. The value of design has increased in all aspects of society, at the same time that the pertinence of architecture has decreased. By remaining hermetic and, dare I say, self-absorbed, we run the risk of relegating to other fields the cultural power of design as an agent for social change.

Monica Ponce de Leon, founding partner at Boston-based architecture firm Office dA, is dean at the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan, and former director of the Digital Lab at Harvard University.

University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning Professor Robert Fishman is featured in the PBS documentary and online series Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City, which highlights his paper entitled “1808—1908—2008: National Planning for America.”

The PBS documentary, directed by critically-acclaimed filmmaker Aaron Woolf (King Corn), explores how new thinking about transportation can potentially “rebuild Detroit and America.”

Detroit is identified in the documentary as the “crucible in which the nation’s ability to move toward a modern 21st century transportation infrastructure is put to the test.” The documentary shows how the auto industry, which created the transportation system that is now fraught with so many problems, is also the industry that puts Detroit in “perhaps the best position to transform itself for the transportation of the future.”

In his paper, Fishman’s argument for the idea of American national planning is stressed. He writes, “National planning in this country is widely believed to be an un-American activity…[yet] I would argue that no other nation has been so profoundly planned as the United States.”

Fishman’s research highlights the “two great ‘campaigns’ of national planning” that, according to Fishman, have drastically revolutionized America: “the 1808 ‘Gallatin Plan’ of roads and canals whose themes guided long-term federal policy through the 19th century” as well as “Theodore Roosevelt’s 1908 set of conservation and transportation initiatives that guided the 20th century.”

Raising questions of the value and power in our tradition of national planning and what we can do to shape the future with our achievements of the past—particularly of 1808 and 1908—Fishman identifies important issues on the subject of revitalization, including our nation’s past “inevitable constraints” with planning, and how despite these difficulties, the United States succeeded in crafting “national plans whose visions have had the galvanizing power to coordinate action over the long term.”

Fishman has authored several influential books on the history of cities and urbanism including Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia and Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier. His most recent work is on exurbs.

The 90-minute documentary, Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City, will air on Feb. 8 at 10:00 p.m. on PBS in Michigan. Here is more information on the Blueprint America initiative and other local listings.

Blueprint America, created and produced by WNET.ORG and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Surdna Foundation, is a national multi-platform initiative examining the state of America’s infrastructure.

Read Professor Fishman’s paper, “1808—1908—2008: National Planning for America,” on PBS's Blueprint America site.

Taubman College admissions deadlines and details:
 

• Bachelor of Science in Architecture: February 1st for application submissions; March 10th for portfolio deadlines
• M.Sc in Architecture Design research track: February 1st

 
For dual degrees, look in the specific programs of interest.
Deadlines passed:

•  
• Master of Urban Planning: January 5th recommended with rolling admissions policy
• Master of Architecture: January 15th
• Master of Urban Design: January 15th
• Ph.d. Urban Planning: January 15th

• Ph.D. in Architecture: December 15th
• M.Sc. in Architecture traditional track: December 15th