Are you an architect & interested in urban design and strategic planning?
The European Postgraduate Masters in Urbanism (EMU) is a joint program that aims to produce highly qualified, university trained urban designers, physical planners and researchers. The EMU program brings together the strengths and richness of different design approaches and methods, and the long traditions and experiences in urban planning and design of each of the participating universities.
The master course is design oriented and affirms the role of design in the knowledge process, while integrating different levels of scale. Learning by doing, research by design, and the project as knowledge producer constitute the key concerns and standpoints of this European postgraduate master’s degree.
More info after the break.
IE Master in Architectural Design
This innovative post-graduate program is aimed at professionals who wish to play a leading role in cross functional teams engaged in architectural and urban design.
It covers five areas:
·Architectural Design
·Building and Energy Technologies
·Urban Studies
·Contemporary Culture
·Architectural Management
The program is designed to last one year, with rotations between Madrid and Barcelona and provide its students with exposure to the cultural and urbanistic design paradigms which characterize both cities. It is infused with the entrepreneurial and leadership spirit that defines the IE Business School programs. The curriculum integrates hands on design and theory in an environment that invites open experimentation and professional relationships.
In addition to the core curriculum, the IE Master in Architectural Design Academic Advisors offer an international network of professionals and contributors that ensures the program figures prominently within the context of current international architectural debates. More after the break.
Hands On Urbanism: “Cities in the 21st Century” at IHP
Urban planning and design as programs of study emerged at professional and graduate schools in the early to mid 20th century, but did not become an option for undergraduate students until the 1970s. Today, urban studies associated with every social science have become a part of regular discourse in colleges and universities throughout the United States. As Andrew Wade, professor for the International Honors Program (IHP) points out – “Urban studies programs are sprawling faster than the cities they critique. The qualifier “urban” has become ubiquitous: where once stood geography, politics, and ecology now stand urban geography, urban politics, and urban ecology.”
As urbanism becomes a larger part of our colloquial vocabulary – describing more specifically the way cities emerge, develop, thrive, and collapse or endure – it has become clear that “cities are a source of problems and solutions for contemporary life” that require a deep level of exploration and understanding. The “Cities in the 21st Century” study abroad program offered by the IHP is a unique opportunity that incorporates a hands on and observational approach to an urban planning education. In an essay via Urban Omnibus, instructor Andrew Wade shares his and his students’ experiences in the program. Read on after the break for more.
AD Architecture School Guide: Birmingham City University’s BIAD
What are Live Projects? A UK term, it refers to collaborations between architecture schools and real clients on real projects. In the US, for example, these are merely referred to as industry collaborations. Clients are widely variant, from municipal governments and youth organizations, as well as galleries and community-based gardens.
There are many iterations of this teaching model in the UK so the issue is, how to determine a good fit for prospective students? One issue that is increasingly at the fore of students’ minds is how to balance idealism with practical skills. At Birmingham City University’sBIAD (Birmingham Institute of Art and Design), the program is structured precisely to help students achieve that balance.
AA Istanbul Visiting School 2013: Vertical Interventions
In its third year, the AA Istanbul Visiting School, Vertical Interventions, in collaboration with Istanbul Technical University, will continue to rediscover verticality through novel generative design techniques and large-scale physical prototypes. Abstracted as a fusion of various sub-systems, each subsystem of the tower will be investigated in relation to their various performance criteria. The correlations between the separate sets of performance criteria and evaluation methods will be analyzed, leading to the generation of unified design alternatives for a vertical system typology. In addition to the custom-made digital design and evaluation tools supporting the core methodology, Vertical Interventions will also highlight the fabrication and assembly of a large scale working prototype integrating the performative characteristics of each system in examination.
As in 2012, the design agendas of AA Athens and AA Istanbul Visiting Schools will directly create feedback on one another, allowing participation in either one or both Programmes.
AA Athens Visiting School 2013: CIPHER CITY – Recharged
Following the initial challenge of amplifying connectivity, adjustability and interaction for its Correlations cycle, AA Athens Visiting School scales up its design intentions in order to investigate links among discrete individual architectural systems in its 2013 version, Recharged.
Recharged with interconnectivity on different levels, the theme of investigation will revolve around the design of semi-independent design prototypes acting together to form elaborate unified results. The driving force in Cipher City: Recharged is the synergistic effect behind complex form-making systems where interactive design patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple rules.
AD Architecture School Guide: RMIT University
Opportunity. Challenge. Innovation. These words form the backbone of RMIT University (Melbourne Institute of Technology University) in Australia. Too often, architecture schools become enamored of the aesthetics in the field to the detriment of all else. Not so at RMIT. Here, the approach is an ideal combination of meaningful research with design solutions. The architecture program achieves this by teaching design skills based in their practical application and framed by social idealism and cross-disciplinary training.
Forget the Rankings, the Best US Architecture Schools for 2013 Are…
Every year, when DesignIntelligence’s latest rankings of the Best US Architecture Schools comes out, most of the anticipation is centered around one question: who’s number 1?
But despite our laser-focus on the rankings, the report is actually much more. It is also a survey of hundreds of design educators and professionals, an invaluable insight into the current state of architecture and architecture education today.
So with this in mind, and with the rankings aside, which universities are really producing students best equipped (and most marketable, in this competitive market) for the architecture profession today? When you look at the data, only two Universities stand out from the pack.
Read more to find out which two Universities are best preparing students in 2013, after the break…
2013 United States Best Architecture Schools
UPDATE: The lists have been updated from showing the Top 5 Schools in each category, to the Top 20.
James Cramer and the Greenway Group have released the 14th edition of DesignIntelligence, a compilation of different rankings for accredited architecture schools in the United States. The report attempts to create a level playing ground upon which to rank the universities by polling thousands of students, talking to deans and administrators, interviewing successful designers in private practices, and visiting each university campus. While the findings may raise some debate, overall, the report creates a dialogue as to how, and to what extent, higher education responds to the changing demands of our profession.
Although design education is generally well respected, several of the educators, students and practitioners interviewed this year were critical of its current state, believing that it is simply not good enough. As Cramer describes, “Respect for design education is high – and can grow further. This will require that there be a deep understanding of the dimensions of the trends in the design profession. When schools and practitioners are in harmony on these dimensions of change, they can reinforce and enhance each other. In this there is art and science. Leadership is at issue. The big shifts can be signs of new strength in a time of flux.”
A closer look after the break… (more…)
Germany’s Leuphana launches Online-University with Urban ThinkTank
Germany’s Leuphana University Lüneburg is venturing into global online learning with the launch of the Leuphana Digital School, a “cost-and-barrier-free” academic platform that offers collaborative web-based learning led by distinguished scholars and experts.
So-called social learning systems are radically changing the field of academic education and setting new standards for the communication of knowledge. Internationally distinguished scientists from the Columbia University New York, the Arizona State University, the London School of Economics, the Goldsmiths University of London, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the ETH Zurich, the Collegium Helveticum and the University of Zurich, the Sun Yat-Sen University Guangzhou and the City University Hong Kong, as well as leading experts from politics, media and economy will be advising students participating in Leuphana’s online-University, starting with the prototype course: “ThinkTank – Ideal City of the 21st Century”. (more…)
AD Architecture School Guide: Center for Architecture Science and Ecology (CASE) at Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute
What makes a good architecture school? Clearly there is no single factor that comprises a good, or even a great, architecture school. Different aspects are important to different people. Students often cite access to well-known faculty members—otherwise known as “starchitects”—as an important feature. Professors and instructors mention their school’s outreach programs, pioneering studios, technologically innovative labs, and exchange programs. All of these are valid and important.
Of course, these factors must be weighed against practical considerations that include tuition, the cost of housing, and other expenses. Why? Because in Western Europe and North America, tuition can be measured in the tens of thousands. What’s more, in the U.S., student loans aren’t forgivable which means your survivors can inherit up to US $90,000 worth of debt. And if the current economy has taught us one thing, it is that it’s cyclic.
So before investing all that money, it’s important to determine how a school will help you succeed. What are the practical and critical skills the school’s curriculum will impart to ensure a) your professional success, and b) your personal success (that means your overall quality of life). Because upon graduation, the goal is to gain skills to support yourself well while doing what you enjoy.
Read our CASE profile after the break
AD Architecture School Guide: Forensic Architecture at University of London
When people think architecture school they think of training that teaches them how to make things: build spaces or develop sites for, primarily, human use. Over the years, this concept has expanded to encompass social activism. In the States, for example, there are programs like Architecture for Humanity, Project Row Houses, and Make It Right that address issues of poverty, displacement, and housing. Human Rights, however, extends beyond creating spaces for the economically disadvantages or impoverished. In fact, the term Human Rights often conjures up people’s rights within the context of conflict. Most people, however, do not think of architecture as encompassing the lack or destruction of structures.
Read about the Forensic Architecture program at the U. of London after the break
AD Architecture School Guide: University of Kentucky College of Design
Early in August, we introduced Sherin Wing’s latest exciting series she’s writing for ArchDaily: The AD Architecture School Guide. In case you missed it, you can check Sherin’s review of the University of Utah here. And don’t forget to follow her on Twitter if you want to provide any feedback.
At the University of Kentucky College of Design or UK/CoD, the School of Architecture has taken the goals of engagement, service, and education as an opportunity to transform not just the physical landscape but the economy and social structure of the Commonwealth as well. It is, frankly, an exciting program. And as exemplified by the The River Cities Project, practical skills are combined with pedagogy to enrich and improve the lives of all people: students, faculty and the Commonwealth of Kentucky. If that seems like a tall order, read on because this is definitely a program that succeeds. (more…)
Dutch Architect Wiel Arets Named Dean of IIT’s College of Architecture
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Provost Alan Cramb announced today the appointment of Wiel Arets as the new dean of the IIT College of Architecture. Born in the Netherlands, Arets, an internationally acclaimed architect, educator, industrial designer, theorist, and urbanist, is known for his academic progressive research and hybrid design solutions. He is currently the professor of building planning and design at the Berlin University of the Arts. His architecture and design practice, Wiel Arets Architects, has multiple studios throughout Europe and its work has been nominated for the European Union’s celebrated ‘Mies van der Rohe Award’ on numerous occasions.
Arets, who was dean of the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam from 1995-2002, will join IIT this fall and will lead an academic program originally shaped by the vision and work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Considered by many to be one of the founders of modern architecture and design, Mies chaired the IIT architecture program from 1938-1958 and designed the IIT Main Campus, home to many of his iconic structures including S.R. Crown Hall.
Continue reading for more.
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Presenting the AD Architecture School Guide: University of Utah
It’s pretty easy to check out what the top architecture schools are, parsed by country. Just try Google and you’ll find a list of Top 10 Architecture schools in___. There is, most obviously, our own ArchDaily list of the Best Architecture Schools in the US. Another search yielded this site which ranked the Top 10 schools based on a vote and parsed by continent. In other words, it’s pretty easy to find school rankings.
What’s less easy is to actually 1) get accepted to one of these schools, and 2) figuring out a way to afford them. Besides which, it may not be appealing to attend one of those really famous schools because after all, they can be very large, intimidating, and even factory-like, depending upon how big the classes are. What many people are seeking is a balance between the quality of the faculty, class size, location of the school, and cost.
If this sounds like someone you know (or maybe it’s you), we’re here to help. In fact, if you’re attending a school that you think is great and deserves some acknowledgement, tweet me @xiaying.
In the meantime, there are a lot of schools that are running some very innovative architecture programs all over the world. And we will be looking at some of them to help people make what can be a pivotal life decision. In fact, what school you attend often shapes who you are to no small degree—at least at first.
(Read our first featured School after the break)
AASH11 Workshop – “City on the Sea”
70.8% of the earth’s surface is water and Shanghai is approaching a point of overflow. Future development will require the inhabitation of this surface area. In addition to a fascinating physical property caused by the surface tension of water, the meniscus is a strikingly relevant metaphor for the urban predicament of contemporary. As an urban metaphor, the meniscus is associated with periphery, threshold, development, and tension.
Non-Linear Parametric Workshop 11 – “Scale Fail: Pavilion to Product”
This was an unprecedented year for Tsinghua University’s Non-Linear Parametric Workshop with close to 200 students attending. Students of the Advanced Design Unit taught by Daniel Gillen, Xu Feng with assistance by Andrew Haas investigated parametric software, thought processes and strategy with a specific focus on versioning.
The tutors’ sequenced information provided to students to encourage a scientific level of variable testing and analysis. The nine-day workshop was organized into three parts, beginning with abstract versioning, followed by a pavilion, and concluding with a product.
Architectural Association DLAB, Blue
The Architectural Association announces the 2013 edition of the DLAB, the intensive computation and fabrication oriented workshop. The workshop continues the experimentation of last year’s edition, which resulted on the Fallen Star installation.
DLAB experiments with the integration of algorithmic and generative design methodologies as well as with large scale digital fabrication tools. Continuing its color based agenda DLAB will immerse in blue for its 2013 cycle as a way to investigate natural growth processes in relation to innovative concepts of architectural tectonics and fabrication. Blue will become the inspiration for diving into the depths of emergence, differentiation and complexity which are found at various scales in nature. We will carefully interweave these concepts with interaction and participatory design in order to create full-scale working prototypes. The programme will be formulated as a two-phase process. During the initial phase participants will benefit from the unique atmosphere and facilities of AA’s London home. The second phase will shift to AA Hooke Park campus and revolve around the fabrication and assembly of a full-scale architectural intervention which will unify the design goals of DLAB.
Some of the most prominent features which the participants will be exposed to during DLAB include:
DLAB | Green 02 workshop at the Architectural Association
AA DLab experiments thoroughly on the possibilities of digital design tools and rapid prototyping techniques as highly integrated systems of design development. It is an intensive computation and fabrication oriented workshop that is structured around a general theme in each consecutive edition.
Starting from 2012, DLab will be launched as a series where one of the most potent vehicles for emphasis in architecture, color, will take a twist and exist beyond the field of visual compositions and sensations, becoming the common denominator for the generation of diverse computational proposals. In 2012, DLab takes on the color of Green as the shade of meaning and the design vessel for a number of rigorous experiments carried out using algorithmic design methodologies and digital fabrication techniques. Associated with the concepts of regeneration, emergence, and growth through its broad existence in nature, Green will serve as the inspiration for observing natural and biological structures of differing scales, followed by their abstraction and interpretation into elaborated design proposals. In this setup, Green surpasses being a representational/graphic instrument and stimulates creative processes of meaning, interpretation, and realization.
Update: Transitional Shelter Project in Haiti / MICA
When we last heard from David Lopez and his students at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) they were in the process of constructing a prototype of the Transitional Shelter for Disaster Relief in Haiti. The project started in a Design|Build studio in the Spring of 2011. Acquiring funds to prototype the design became a challenge. Students spent the summer and fall of 2011 completing the design and reaching out to organizations for donations and materials. WorldwideShelters.org and Whiting Turner Contracting Company gave critical donations that made it possible to begin construction.
Follow us after the break to catch up on the status of the project. (more…)
Pro Bono Work in Exchange for Loan Relief?
Just as NPR reported yesterday that the Nation’s student loan debt has exceeded one trillion dollars, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) called for Congress to pass legislation that will allow architecture school graduates loan debt assistance through pro bono work. This news comes as both President Obama this past weekend and likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney yesterday urged Congress to head off a scheduled increase in student loan interest rates this July.
Continue reading for more. (more…)
