University of Pennsylvania School of Design boasts one of the Top 10 Graduate Architecture Schools in the United States. This month their Spring Lecture Series, More and More, is hosting Qingyun Ma (M.Arch), dean of the USC School of Architecture. This event is free and open to the public and PennDesign is a registered provider of continuing education programming for the American Institute of Architects.

Qingyun Ma has been called one of “the 27 most influential designers making an impact on business today.” Ma is considered to be among the most exciting contemporary Chinese architects, first receiving international attention as coordinator of Rem Koolhaas’ first Harvard Project on Cities and subsequent book, The Great Leap Forward.

His work has been exhibited around the world, earning him honors including a Design Vanguard award from Architectural Record, Phaidon’s Emerging Design Talents designation and a New Trends of Architecture designation by the Euro-Asia Foundation.

Wednesday, March 16
Qingyun Ma
MORE AND MORE – 2011 Spring Lecture Series
6:00pm – 7:30pm, Meyerson Hall, B3

Other events this month for the Architecture Department:

Tuesday, March 22
Urbanism II
6pm, Meyerson Lower Gallery

Thursday, March 24
Armand Grüntuch & Almut Ernst, Grüntuch Ernst
6:30pm, Meyerson B3

Monday, March 28
Karim Rashid
IPD, sponsored by the IPD Lecture Fund and Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer
6pm, Meyerson B1

© Courtesy of Interface Studio Architects

Architects: Interface Studio Architects
Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA
Client: Templetown Realty (Jonathan Weiss)
Major Funding: Private development
Concept/Lead Architect(s)/Designer(s): Interface Studio Architects
Structural Engineers: Larsen and Landis
Electrical/Mechanical Engineers: n/a
Additional Consultants: MaGrann Associates – LEED
Project area: 80,000 sq. ft.
Project year: 2009 – 2010
Photographs: Interface Studio Architects, Sam Oberter

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© Courtesy of Interface Studio Architects

Architects: Interface Studio Architects
Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA
Client: Postgreen Homes
Major Funding: Private development
Concept/Lead Architect(s)/Designer(s): Interface Studio Architects
Structural Engineers: Larsen and Landis
Contractor/Manufacturer: Manor Hill Construction / Hybrid Construction
Additional Consultants: MaGrann Associates – LEED
Project area: 1,150 sq. ft.
Project year: 2008-2010
Photographs: Interface Studio Architects, Sam Oberter

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Surface Deposit is the first Philadelphia exhibition of Lead Pencil Studio, a Seattle-based collaboration between Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo. Extending from a traditional training in architecture, Lead Pencil Studio works across multiple disciplines to explore spatial conditions, material, and form through large-scale installations.

Surface Deposit is an exhibition of fragmented sculptural assemblages based on the analysis and research of digital data collected by a 3-dimensional laser over several months during the summer of 2010. Incorporating various materials, including remnants from Tyler School of Art’s former campus in Elkins Park, PA, Lead Pencil Studio will explore notions of accumulation through elements of architecture that are not inherent to a structure’s original design. Their practice is self-described as “architecture in reverse…our projects are everything about architecture with none of its function…spaces with no greater purpose than to be perceived and question the certainty posited by the man-made world.”

The exhibition will be open until February 26. More information can be found here.

© Paul Warchol

Morris Arboretum’s Tree Adventure exhibit Out on a Limb, designed by Metcalfe Architecture & Design, was the 2010 AIA Philadelphia Design Excellence Gold Medal Winner, 2010 AIA Pennsylvania Architectural Excellence Award, 2010 “Best of Philly” Award, and the 2010 American Association of Museums Excellence in Exhibition Design Award. Suspended 50 feet above the forest floor this network of walkways (450-feet in length) provides a bird’s eye view of the forest, complete with a giant Bird’s Nest, Squirrel Scramble rope, and many vista platforms.

Follow the break for photographs, drawings, and renderings of Out on a Limb.

Architects: Metcalfe Architecture & Design
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Consultant: Forever Young Treehouse, Inc
Structural Engineers: CVM Engineering
Construction Managers: CVM Construction
Civil Engineers: Hunt Engineering Company
Lighting Designers: Grenald Waldron Associates
Exhibit Designers: Sparks Exhibits and Environments
Photographs: Paul Warchol

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© Lara Swimmer Photography

Urban Outfitters Corporate Campus, designed by Meyer Scherer & Rockcastle transformed four dilapidated historic buildings in Philadelphia’s Navy Yard, into an award winning adaptive reuse headquarters.  The Anthropologie, Free People, and Urban Outfitters retail brands’ design studios and offices are housed within each building. A campus commons and services’ offices are efficiently shared among the different divisions of the company.  This project received a 2010 AIA Honor Award for Architecture.

Follow the break for a video discussing the site and design featuring Urban Outfitters, Inc company founder Dick Hayne. More photographs, drawings, and project description after the break as well.

Architects: Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd.
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Principal-in-Charge: Jeffrey Scherer, FAIA
Project Manager: Josh Stowers, AIA, LEED AP
Interior Designer: Leanne Larson, CID, IIDA, LEED AP
Client: Urban Outfitters, Inc
Total construction cost: $100 million
Project Area: 285,000 sqf
Project Year: 2006
Photographer: Lara Swimmer Photography

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Swedish architects We Are You received third prize for an international competition for the new Bicycling Center in Philadelphia.

More images and architect’s description after the break. read more »

This workshop will introduce participants to the cultural, technological, and tectonic domain of parametric design and digital fabrication in a fast-paced and hands-on learning environment. Over the course of two days, the workshop will involve iterative prototyping and associative design strategies capable of incorporating and embracing an array of material and fabrication constraints. Participants will explore and construct highly articulated material assemblies through computer-aided manufacturing, mold making, and casting.

This workshop is the result of a collaborative effort between Studio Mode and Point.B Design and will provide participants with direct access to a full suite of manual tools for wood, metal, and plastics fabrication in addition to a 3-Axis CNC Mill. Instruction will be provided in the construction of molds, the proper handling of materials and casting, file preparation for working with the mill, as well as a series of parametric design strategies with supporting content.

For more details on the workshop, please click here.

© Todd Mason / Barry Halkin Photography

Architects: Qb Design
Location: Philadelphia, USA
General Contractor: McCoubrey Overholser, Inc.
Stair Fabrication: Bill Curran Design
Cabinetry: James Van Etten
Green Roof: David Brothers
Structural Engineer: The Kachele Group
Project Area: 279 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Todd Mason / Barry Halkin Photography

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