Events / Lectures

Spring 2006 Lectures – digital.materials

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digital.material is a series of talks organized by the Clemson University School of Architecture Digital Design Shop (cusa.dds). The talks will expand the dialogue and research currently underway in the School of Architecture in the areas of digital design/fabrication and materials. “Digital Material” brings to Clemson four award winning practices that explore the increasingly blurred boundary between the digital and the material. The process based approach of this group examines contemporary fabrication and manufacturing processes of so called traditional materials (glass, concrete, wood, metal) through digital means in order to remake and transform these known materials into the unexpected. For more information contact Doug Hecker at dhecker@clemson.edu or visit the cusa.dds website at http://www.clemson.edu/caah/architecture/dds/

Karl Daubman, Ply Architecture
Tuesday March 28th 5pm 111 Lee Hall
For more information: http://www.plyarch.com/

Craig Scott ,IS.Ar Iwamoto Scott Architecture
Friday, April 7th 5pm 111 Lee Hall
For more information: http://iwamotoscott.com/

Jeremy Ficca, Ficca Architecture
Thursday, April 20th 5pm 111 Lee Hall

Marta Male + Pedro Sousa, ReD Research and Design
Friday, April 28th 5pm 111 Lee Hall
For more information: http://www.re-d.com/

 

Spring 2005 CAF Lecture Series – Materials/Processes

All lectures begin at 5:00 p.m. and are held in room 111 Lee Hall at the Clemson Campus. All lectures are free and open to the public. Reception will follow. For more information, please contact Martha Skinner at marthas@clemson.edu

Dan Hoffman, Hyper-Craft. January 31, 2005

Shane Coen, The Bold Landscape: Urban and Rural Gestures. February 7, 2005

Brian Carter, Between Earth and Sky – the work and way of working of Eero Saarinen. February 21, 2005

Paola Antonelli, Extreme Crafts: Technology and Inspiration in Contemporary Design. March 14, 2005

Monica Ponce de Leon, Figuring Configurations. April 18, 2005

MATERIALS/PROCESSES

Material as a noun is 'substance or substances' by which something is created. It is 'an idea or information' to be developed, substantiated, materialized. It is the "tools or apparatus for the performance of a given task", a device, a function, a medium. As an adjective Material is "of, relating to, or composed of matter", "being both relevant and consequential", in philosophical terms it refers to 'reasoning' rather than 'form'.

Process is the activities, procedures - what is performed to achieve an outcome, to achieve a result. It involves changes, evolution, transformation, translation… It is the operational in the making of something. It is "progress; passage: the process of time; events now in process".

How does process affect the definition of material, the choice of the 'information or matter' that we work with, that we manipulate and transform? How does material inform, direct, or influence process, the way we work, the way we think? What we discover, what we define? What is the overlap or interconnectivity between these two terms or even the tension between them? What are our processes, what are the materials that we use, exploit or disregard?

Dan Hoffman, Professor, College of Architecture & Environmental Design Arizona State University
Hyper-Craft
January 31, 2005

Dan Hoffman was educated at the Cooper Union and worked in the office of Edward Barnes in New York. He was head of the Cranbrook Department of Architecture from 1986-1996 and Director of the Cranbrook Architecture Office from 1995-1998. At Cranbrook Hoffman and his students were engaged in a variety of studies and projects related to material process in the building arts. Their speculative work was noted for its use of site-specific installations and is documented in Architecture Studio published by Rizzoli. Hoffman and his students were also involved in the design and construction of various permanent structures on the Cranbrook campus. In Arizona Hoffman is examining the tectonic possibilities of found and fabricated building materials such as small diameter round wood and fiber reinforced concrete. His current projects include the design of a prototype Hogan for the Navajo and a camp in the pine forests of Arizona.

Shane Coen, Partner, Coen + Partners, Landscape Architecture Urban Design Planning
The Bold Landscape: Urban and Rural Gestures
February 7, 2005

Coen + Partners advocate innovative site design responding to interactions between people and their daily environments creating interfaces between cultural and natural systems with lasting social and ecological impacts. Designed spaces can articulate and highlight physical relationships in ways that bring meaning and beauty to man-altered environments. Coen + Partner’s designed environments range from small intimate residential courtyards to planned communities for one hundred families. At all scales, through a process of collaboration, contextual exploration, and questioning, their projects result in site interventions that are place and people specific while being grounded in a respectful environmental framework.

Recent collaborations include the Oak Ridge Country Club and the Tulane University Center both with Vincent James Associates Architects, the Minneapolis Central Library with Cesar Pelli and Associates, and Mayo Woodlands with Salmela Architecture & Design. 

Coen’s work has been featured in numerous design publications. In 2003 Coen + Partners was awarded a Progressive Architecture citation for the Mayo Woodlands community in Rochester, Minnesota. This award represents only the third time a landscape architecture studio has won this prestigious architecture award in its fifty-year history.

Brian Carter, Dean, School of Architecture and Planning University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Between Earth and Sky – the work and way of working of Eero Saarinen
February 21, 2005

Professor Brian Carter received his professional diploma in architecture from the Nottingham School of Architecture in England and a Master’s Degree in Architecture from the University of Toronto. He is a licensed architect in the United Kingdom and worked in practice, most recently with Arup Associates in London where he was the designer of a number of award-winning projects. Carter is also the author of a number of books including one on the buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Johnson Wax, published by Phaidon Press (1998) and another on the work of Patkau Architects published by Tuns Press (1994). He has contributed to architectural journals internationally. Recently he worked on a multi-disciplinary team that collaborated on the design of a new training center for Iveco in Turin (completed 2000) and a production building for Ferrari at Maranello (completed 2002). His scholarly work focuses on design research through practice and the consideration of modernism in contemporary architecture.

While professor of architecture at the University of Michigan he taught design, construction and criticism and was chair of the architecture program from 1994 - 2001. He has curated several exhibitions including ones on the work of the engineer Peter Rice, Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen and Albert Kahn, which have been shown in Europe and North America. In 1995 he initiated the Michigan Architecture Papers, for which he received the 2001 ACSA Creative Achievement Award. He was a Pietro Belluschi Distinguished Visiting Professor in Architectural Design at the University of Oregon in 2002. Brian Carter is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Paola Antonelli, Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern Art
Extreme Crafts: Technology and Inspiration in Contemporary Design
March 14, 2005

Paola Antonelli joined The Museum of Modern Art in 1994 and is a Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design. Her first exhibition for MoMA, Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design (1995), was followed by Thresholds: Contemporary Design from the Netherlands (1996), Achille Castiglioni: Design! (1997- 98), and Projects 66: Campana/Ingo Maurer (1999), Open Ends and Matter (September 2000 – February 2001), and Workspheres (2/8-4/22/2001), which was devoted to the design of the workplace of the near future. Her most recent exhibition, Humble Masterpieces, devoted to ordinary objects of extraordinary brilliance, which was on view until September 27, 2004.
In 2003, MoMA published her Objects of Design, a book dedicated to the design objects in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art. She has been a Contributing Editor for Domus magazine (1987-91) and the Design Editor of Abitare (1992-94). She has also contributed to several publications, among them Metropolis, the Harvard Design Magazine, I.D. magazine, Paper, Harper’s Bazaar, and Nest, as well as to the BBC series Building Sights and the NPR series Studio 360.

The recipient of a Master’s degree in Architecture from the Polytechnic of Milan in 1990, Paola Antonelli has curated several architecture and design exhibitions in Italy, France, and Japan. From 1991 to 1993, Paola Antonelli was a Lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she taught design history and theory. She has lectured on design and architecture in Europe and the United States and has served on several international architecture and design juries. She is currently teaching a lecture course entitled The State of Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Paola Antonelli’s goal is to insistently promote design’s understanding, until its positive influence on the world is fully acknowledged. She is currently working on the exhibition Safe: Design Takes on Risk, scheduled for October 2005; on two books, about everyday objects and about foods from all over the world as examples of outstanding design; and on trying to get a Boeing 747 into the collection of The Museum of Modern Art.

Monica Ponce de Leon, Principal, Office dA
Figuring Configurations
April 18, 2005

Monica Ponce de Leon is a principal in the design firm Office dA, whose current projects include the Tongxian Arts Center in Beijing, an Intergenerational Housing Center for the City of Chicago, dynamic low-cost housing for the Elemental program in Chile and a main library for the Rhode Island School of Design. Other projects include Mantra Restaurant in Boston, the Interfaith Spiritual Center at Northeastern University, and an installation at the Museum of Modern Art for the exhibition “Fabrications”. Office dA’s work has been widely published and exhibited, and has won numerous honors, including seven Progressive Architecture Awards and the Harleston Parker Award from the Boston Society of Architects. In 2002, Ponce de Leon received the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture.

Ponce de Leon is Associate Professor of Architecture and coordinator of the second year studios in architecture at Harvard. She teaches seminars, lectures and advanced studio options. Ponce de Leon has previously taught at Northeastern University and the School of Architecture at the University of Miami, and has been a visiting professor at SCI-Arc and RISD. She received the BArch from the University of Miami and the MAUD from the GSD at Harvard.

Spring 2004 CAF Lecture Series – PRACTICES

Todd May , What is a Practice, Anyway? January 12, 2004
Paola Antonelli , The State of Design. January 26, 2004
Architecture Research Office , Designing Practice. February 16, 2004
Mesh Architectures , Double program, Open source. March 8, 2004
Vito Acconci ,Untitled. April 5, 2004

Todd May , What is a Practice, Anyway?
January 12, 2004

Todd May is a Professor of Philosophy at Clemson University. He is the author of two previous books published by Penn State Press, The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism (1994) and Between Genealogy and Epistemology: Psychology, Politics, and Knowledge in the Thought of Michel Foucault (1993).

Todd May argues both that a moral defense of poststructuralism is necessary and that it is possible. First, he develops a metaethical view of moral theorizing that treats it as a social practice rather than a transcendentally derived guarantee for right action. He then articulates and defends antirepresentationalism, a principle central to poststructuralism. Finally, May offers a version of consequentialism that is consonant both with the principle of antirepresentationalism and with other poststructuralist commitments. In conclusion, he distinguishes morality from an aesthetics of living and shows the role the latter plays for those who embrace anti-representationalism. Todd has written about practices and will offer to the series a philosophical talk on this subject.

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Paola Antonelli , The State of Design
January 26, 2004

The state of design is strong. Design can greatly benefit not only people and businesses, but also the world at large. It can influence policy and research, without ever reneging its poietic, non-ideological nature and without renouncing beauty. It can translate technological revolutions into human format, while providing feedback to scientists and politicians. It can act as a bridge between the abstraction of research and the complexity of the real world.

Designers are advocating and sometimes obtaining roles that are more and more integral to the evolution of our society. Among those in charge of shaping the future of the world, they are the most benign, responsible, and visionary. Yet, design as a discipline still suffers from a general lack of understanding of both its deeds and of its possibilities. Only by learning how to clearly communicate these values will designers be able to come into their own full potential.

Paola Antonelli joined The Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1994 and is a Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design. Her first exhibition for MoMA, Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design (1995), was followed by Thresholds: Contemporary Design from the Netherlands (1996), Achille Castiglioni: Design! (1997- 98), and Projects 66: Campana/Ingo Maurer (1999), Open Ends and Matter (September 2000 - February 2001). Her most recent exhibition, Workspheres (2/8-4/22/2001) was devoted to the design of the workplace of the near future.

The recipient of a Master's degree in Architecture from the Polytechnic of Milan in 1990, Paola Antonelli has curated several architecture and design exhibitions in Italy, France, and Japan. She has been a Contributing Editor for Domus magazine (1987-91) and the Design Editor of Abitare (1992-94). She has also contributed to several publications, among them Metropolis, the Harvard Design Review, I.D. magazine, Paper, Metropolitan Home, Harper's Bazaar and Nest and to the BBC series Building Sights and the NPR series Studio 360.

From 1991 to 1993, Paola Antonelli was a Lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she taught design history and theory. She has lectured on design and architecture in Europe and the United States and has served on several international architecture and design juries. She is currently teaching a lecture course entitled The State of Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Paola Antonelli's goal is to insistently promote design's understanding, until its positive influence on the world is fully acknowledged. She is currently working on the exhibition Safe: Design Takes on Risk, scheduled for 2005; on a book about foods from all over the world as examples of outstanding design; on a book about MoMA's design collection; and on trying to get a Boeing 747 into the collection of The Museum of Modern Art.

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Architecture Research Office , Designing Practice
February 16, 2004

Architecture Research Office was established in 1993 by Stephen Cassell and Adam Yarinsky. An intense focus on design and a research-driven process are the common threads running through the firm's work. Each project begins with an assessment of its physical, social and economic conditions, as well as with an involved client. Every undertaking is a process of inquiry; research and analysis frame experiments in material and construction. Drawings, models, study and reflection are the tools that shape each design. ARO's close involvement with the construction process and collaboration with artisans, contractors and engineers assure the finished quality of the project. This is an art that weaves together both context and content; every design transcends its stated requirements. Efficiency, intelligence and beauty are the means and the ends of each project. The firm has received numerous awards and has been published widely and exhibited widely. Last year ARO published a book on their work with the support of the Graham Foundation.

Stephen Cassell received his undergraduate degree in architecture from Princeton University and his Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Harvard School of Design. In 1998 he received a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts to study the relationship between computer aided design and craft. Together with Adam Yarinsky they practiced in Steven Holl's office before forming their own practice. Together they were New York Foundation for the Arts Fellows in Architecture in 2000. In the Fall of 2001 Stephen Cassell held the Harry S. Shure Professorship at the University of Virginia. This semester both partners are teaching a graduate design studio at Princeton University. Currently, Cassell is on the Board of Directors of the American Center for Design

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Mesh Architectures, Double program, Open source
March 8, 2004

MESH was founded in 1997 as a hybrid architectural practice to design both architectural spaces and web sites with a focused objective of forging new relationships between people and their environments in the age of the network and database. The firm strives to integrate material and digital environments, where network spaces are extensions of physical space.

Eric Liftin earned a master's degree from Columbia University in 1994, and a BA in literature from Yale in 1990. He worked at New York architecture firms Bernard Tschumi Architects, Butler Rogers Baskett, and Resolution:4 Architecture. When commercial interest in the web began, in 1995, he helped to design the first Firefly web site then joined the startup company in 1996 as an interface architect. After founding MESH in 1997, Liftin became one of the first fellows at Harvard's Berkman Center for the Internet Society. From his early involvement in the web, Liftin has focused on capturing the discovery and excitement of urban dynamics, the mixing of people and information facilitated by databases. Liftin founded MESH to explore the relationship between architectural space and the new information network technology. There is unprecedented opportunity to modulate the flow of information through our environments, and it is the firm's charge to employ expertise in both digital and material design to create exciting spaces.

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Vito Acconci, Untitled
April 5, 2004

Vito Acconci's early work was fiction and poetry; his last poems reduced words to indices of the writer's and reader's travel across the page. In the late 60's and early 70's, his first artworks used performance, photos, film and video as instruments of self-analysis and person-to-person relationships. His audio and video installations of the mid-70's turned an exhibition-space into a community meeting-place. His architectural games of the early 80's made performative spaces for viewers, whose activity resulted in the construction and deconstruction of house prototypes. In the mid-80's the work crossed over into architecture, landscape and industrial design; in 1988 he started Acconci Studio, a theoretical-design and building workshop. Their method is, on the one hand, to make a new space by turning an old one inside-out and upside-down; and,on the other hand, to insert within a site a capsule that grows out of itself and morphs itself. Their tendency is toward left-over sites and outlands, where hypotheses might be buildable and testable. They treat architecture as an occasion for activity; they make spaces fluid, changeable, portable. They have recently completed an artificial island in Graz and an adjustable gallery in New York; they are working on a clothing store in Tokyo, a collapsible modular lounge in New York, a spiraling-ramped house in Calamata.

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