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SCHOOL CALENDAR | LECTURE SERIES | PASSPORT | FEATURED WORK

Students enrolled in any undergraduate architecture program throughout the world were invited to submit a 500-word essay proposal for the 2008 Berkeley Prize. From the pool of essay proposals received, 25 were selected as semifinalists and were asked to submit a 3,000-word essay. Of the 25 semifinalists, 7 students from 7 different countries were selected as finalists, including fourth-year student Nicole Graycar.

On May 2, it was announced that Nicole won the Berkeley Prize 2008 Travel Fellowship--an international competition for foreign travel funds focusing on the the social art of architecture. Nicole will travel to Lesotho in Southern Africa for three weeks in August to build houses with Habitat for Humanity in an extremely rural area with no running water or electricity.

The theme of Carnegie Mellon's Carnival this spring was "Extra Extra Read All About It!" A number of motivated architecture students worked together to build the "Youbooth!" The concept of the Youbooth was to "broadcast yourself." The booth allowed people to come and express themselves through the use of 300 foam letter blocks. Students used the recently added digital fabrication lab to cut out all the pieces in the most efficient manner. An innovative design allowed for visitors of all ages to enjoy the booth in a variety of ways. The booth was well liked among judges, and earned 3rd place in the Blitz Booth Competition. Within the coming weeks the booth will be reconstructed for permanent use in the library of the Margaret Morrison Children's School.

Following the Fourth-Year Design Exhibition, student winners were announced at the Henry Hornbostel Lecture given by James Timberlake of KieranTimberlake Associates. Congratulations to all of the winners!

John Knox Shear Award ($9,000)
Xianghua Wu

Louis F. Valentour Traveling Scholarship ($7,500)
Natale Cozzolongo

Burdett Assistantship ($7,500)
Christian Wagner

Luther S. Lashmit ($7,500)
Blake Lam

Richard M. Gensert ($3,500)
Andrew Werner

Jan P. Junge Award ($3,500)
Lauren Connell

Pittsburgh-based design firm evolve environment::architecture was one of three firms recognized in the national AIA Committee on Design (COD) Ideas Competition. Cosponsored by Ford, the "Branding the American House" competition challenged designers across the country to examine the parallels between automotive and architectural design, especially in relation to the singular production of a house versus the mass production of automobiles.

evolve's solution, titled /extended stay/, is a proposal for an extendable domestic environment that can be transported and "shaped" on-site with the family's fuel cell vehicle. Firm principal Christine Mondor says that the design takes cues from the automotive production process as the home's systems become opportunities for product development made affordable through mass customization. Products include XpandHarvest, an expandable building enclosure system with translucent solar electric technology for /distributed power generation/; FreeE Generators that capture incidental /kinetic power/ where routine movement occurs; eFeedback for spatially integrated communication of energy use so occupants can /adjust consumption habits/; and the HydroFeed system which cleanses domestic waste water to /close loops on site/.

Two Architecture students, Zack Hartle and Gabriel Cuellar were integral to the design process. evolve hopes to be able to continue to involve students in similar future efforts. The team will receive the third place award in early April at the AIA COD Design Parallels conference in Detroit. Learn more.

Faculty member Lee Calisti, founder of Lee Calisti architecture+design, was recently featured in Housetrends Magazine. Calisti has extensively studied alternatives to cookie-cutter development houses that have arisen since the mid twentieth century. His family home in Greensburg is a perfect example of affordable and livable sustainable architecture. This unique private residence has won an Award of Merit from the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Pennsylvania. Read all about Calisti's design process in the online version of Pittsburgh Housetrends.

Another current project for Lee Calisti architecture+design is a concept design and feasibility study for the Discovery and Interactive Science Center (DISC) in Greensburg, PA. DISC¹s mission is to be a hands-on science center with permanent exhibits designed to engage, educate, and entertain people of all ages. The project appears in the April 9th Pop City newsletter.

School of Architecture Wood and Metal Shop Director, Scott Smith, was invited to participate in Adirondack III: Transformation and Reinvention, a national exhibition sponsored by The Center for Turning and Furniture Design at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. His chair, which responds with contemporary sensibilities to the ioonic Adirondack design, is on exhibit now and featured in the catalog Adirondack III: Transformation/Reinvention. The exhibition runs until May 3rd at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Museum, 1st floor Sutton Hall. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 12-4pm and until 9pm on Thursdays. Admission is free.

Ferguson Jacobs Prize in Architecture Anne Riggs Lewis Altenhof Award Giacomo Tinari Perkins Eastman Shanghai Summer Internship Jared Friedman Karen Myres & Arthur Lubetz Internship Fund Shawn Mlynek (School of Music)

Adam Aviles' winning firetower design "offers a clear diagram that expresses the power of fire and concrete block in a straight-forward way." In the concrete block competition, the winning team created "a sophisticated system that is both expressive and functional."

A distinguished jury of local architects and professors met to review, discuss, and decide on the winners of the 2008 National Concrete Masonry Association Competition in the second-year studios of the Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture. The competition featured two student design projects that ran concurrently during the first 5 weeks of the spring studio. The first was a "Fire Tower" featuring masonry, and the second was a "Block System" in concrete that students fabricated in styrofoam using a CNC router in the School's new digital fabrication lab. The two projects allowed the students to focus on masonry at both the scale of the overall building, and at the details of the masonry block system. Judging was both quantitative and qualitative, evaluating both projects on the basis of aesthetic quality, program, innovative use of concrete, functional use of concrete, and constructibility. The jury was made up of local architects, faculty members, and a representative of NCMA. Jury members: Dutch Macdonald, AIA, Maya Design; Ron Dulaney, Bolin, Cywinski, Jackson; Lee Calisti, AIA, LeeCalisti Design; Professor Jeremy Ficca, AIA; Kurt Rosander, CEMEX Co. The competition was moderated by Second-Year Coordinator, Kai Gutschow, PhD. NCMA Competition Project One: Firetower Featuring Masonry Grand Prize ($500): Adam Aviles Runner Up ($250): Karen Branick Honorable Mentions for Design ($50 each): Kaitlin Miciunas, Matthew Huber NCMA Competition Project Two: Block System in Concrete Grand Prize ($650): Karen Branick, Daniel Hudock, Ranjit Korah, Mekha Abraham, and Lindsay Mannion Runner Up ($300): Kaitlin Miciunas, Giacomo Tinari, Elizabeth Duray, and Bum Yeol Kim Honorable Mention ($200): Patrick Amorosa, Sam Carter, Max Arocena, Katherine Kokoska, and Jarrod Coleman

The Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture invites applications from educators and practitioners to teach design studio and electives in the undergraduate, five-year accredited Bachelor of Architecture program. We seek dynamic and innovative faculty who can contribute to a curriculum that provides both the focused specializations of architectural practice, and the broader interdisciplinary connections of architectural education within a College of Fine Arts and larger research university. Review of applications will begin on January 15, 2008.

View the official posting [PDF] 

The winners of the School of Architecture Steel Deck Competition were announced at the Valerie Mulvin lecture on Tuesday, February 12. This annual competition is sponsored by Epic Metals Corporation.

1st place: Craig Rosman and Misha Varshavsky 2nd place: Ryan Bottini and Rachelle Roll 3rd place: Niko Triulzi and Jeff Choi View the winning projects

The School of Architecture is celebrating the opening of the Digital Fabrication Lab on Monday February 11 with a reception and an exhibit of work by Lab Director, Jeremy Ficca. Funded through the generous support of Provost Kamlet, the lab consists of a range of additive and subtractive prototyping tools utilized for lasercutting, 3D printing, vacuum forming and CNC milling. DFab is located on the C-Level basement of Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall. Over the past decade, advanced design experimentation has played a groundbreaking role in teaching the potential of digital design, manufacturing and communication technologies in the conception, design and development of new architectural and urban projects. The new Digital Fabrication Lab offers students an opportunity to explore this important new area of architectural work in the context of Carnegie Mellon's renowned teaching environment and culture of architectural innovation and experimentation.

View the invitation [PDF]

The School of Architecture invites the public to attend its Spring 2008 Lecture Series, which includes Paul Lewis, Lars Lerup, Lisa Iwamoto, Stefan Behnish, Thomas Auer, and James Timberlake. For an up-to-date schedule, please visit www.arc.cmu.edu/lectureseries.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008 7:00PM
McConomy Auditorium, Carnegie Mellon University Center

The Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture invites the public to the first lecture in the 2008 Jill Watson Distinguished Lecture Series. Kazuyo Sejima is an architect who, with Ryue Nishizawa, founded the Tokyo based firm SANAA (Sejima + Nishizawa and Associates) in 1995. Sejima studied architecture at the Japan Women's University before collaborating with architect Toyo Ito. She launched her own practice in 1987 and was named 'Young Architect of the Year' in Japan in 1992. Sejima teaches as a Visiting Professor both at Tama Art University and Keio University in Tokyo and with Nishizawa, holds the Jean Labatut Professorship at the School of Architecture at Princeton University, USA.

Recent international work includes the Stadstheater 'De Kunstlinie' in Almere, the Netherlands; the Toledo Museum of Art's Glass Pavilion in Toledo, Ohio; the extension of the Institute Valencia d'Art Modern in Valencia, Spain; the Zollverein School of Management and Design in Essen, Germany; the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; and a satellite of the Louvre in Lens, France. In Japan, SANAA's work includes the S-House in Okayama; the N-Museum in Wakayama; the M-House in Tokyo; the K-Building and the Koga Park Cafe in Ibaraki; the O-Museum in Nagano; the Issey Miyake by Naoki Takizawa Tokyo and the Christian Dior Building, both in Tokyo; the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art and Kanazawa Onishi Civic Center in Onishi.

The Jill Watson Distinguished Lecture Series honors Jill Watson's commitment to an interdisciplinary philosophy as an artist and celebrates her accomplishments and reputation as an architect. Jill Watson was a Carnegie Mellon University alumna, adjunct faculty member in the School of Architecture and acclaimed Pittsburgh architect who died in the TWA Flight 800 plane crash on July 17, 1996.

Each year the festival brings both emerging and recognized artists, designers, musicians, architects and performers to campus to share their insights with the students and the general public through a diverse offering of lectures, performances, workshops and exhibitions with interdisciplinary artistic innovators.

This event made possible by the Jill Watson Family.

View and print the poster [PDF] 

Faculty members Vivian Loftness, Gerry Mattern, and Nina Baird received a grant from the Green Building Alliance to develope a sustainable, affordable, low-temperature water system to heat and cool a neighborhood of buildings. The grant requires that private companies at least match GBA funds, so the total funding is an impressive $96,344. One of the private company partners, Tom Harley, AIA, received his Masters in Architecture from Carnegie Mellon in 1979.

Read more about Green Building Alliance Grants in the Pittsburgh Business Times.
View the project description.

Carnegie Mellon University's Advanced Building Systems Integration Consortium (ABSIC) celebrates its 20th anniversary and the Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace (IW) celebrates its 10th anniversary with a conference Dec. 11-12. The two-day conference will focus on the future of energy generation and the built environment, with a special emphasis on energy conservation, renewable energy and its impact on health and productivity. The conference is being held in Phipps Conservatory Dec. 11 and at the IW Dec. 12.

"Both ABSIC and the IW have received support from more than 70 companies and governmental agencies worldwide," said Architecture Professor Volker Hartkopf. "The IW has proven to be a phenomenal change agent, spawning energy and environmentally effective buildings globally in China, Korea, France, Germany and in North America. The IW continues to be an inspiration for our students as well."

Formed in 1987, the ABSIC is the first private-public partnership in the building industry that brings together academia, industry and government to address the enormous impact buildings have on the environment. In fact, buildings are responsible for up to 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the IW Web site. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon and other organizations team with industry and government to ensure that their research is put into practice and that models like the IW, a "living laboratory," can be realized.

ABSIC's members include the U.S. departments of energy and defense, Public Works and Government Services Canada, Electricite de France and LTG Aktiengesellschaft, among others. The IW, an office space atop Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall on Carnegie Mellon's campus, is a working model of green building technology that is constantly being updated with new technological developments. The IW shows ABSIC's emphasis on economic feasibility and also that green living can be comfortable.

A project of the IW, Building as a Power Plant, will be discussed at the conference. The proposed project is a six-story, 65,000-square-foot building that will power itself through a variety of methods and renewable energy sources.

Listen to Hartkopf explain ABSIC, the IW and the impact the building industry has on the environment.

Carnegie Mellon University Architecture Professor Volker Hartkopf has been named chair of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Sustainable Building Construction Initiative (SBCI). The SBCI (http://www.unepsbci.org/) works with governments and companies worldwide to adopt sustainable building practices.

"I am pleased to have been asked to chair the UNEP Think Tank and shall work hard with my colleagues to develop well-informed policy instruments, which can generate positive solutions to our resource and environmental challenges," said Hartkopf, director of the university's Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD). "Together we want to enable future generations to live a life in dignity with health and within an ever-improving environment."

Since 1972, Hartkopf has pursued socially and environmentally responsible solutions to major challenges. Hartkopf's projects range from hurricane-proof refugee camp redevelopment in Bangladesh and earthquake-resistant housing and schools in Peru, to breakthrough commercial buildings in Europe, China and the United States and master planning efforts in Wolfsburg, Germany.

Through his development and application projects, Hartkopf has demonstrated ways to reduce buildings' resource consumption while improving the human quality of life within those buildings and surrounding communities. Hartkopf believes sustainable building can be economical and yield political benefits. To disseminate his message, Hartkopf is working with industry, governments and colleagues around the world to encourage each school to advance sustainable building practices.

Hartkopf and faculty, students and staff from the CBPD and the Advanced Building Systems Integration Consortium, are developing IW2: The Building as Power Plant (BAPP), a six-story, 64,175-square-foot office building proposed for the university campus. The BAPP team expects the building will generate more energy than it consumes in the form of non-renewable resources. More information and sketches of the BAPP can be found at http://www.arc.cmu.edu/bapp/index.html.

The BAPP project is a further development of The Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace (IW), inaugurated in December 1997. The IW is the first living laboratory in the building industry, worldwide, and is constantly monitored and assessed by students, staff and faculty.

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