new york NEW YORK

“Every architect can find common ground in Charles Jencks’s ‘Evolutionary Tree to the Year 2000.’ Originally published in Jencks’s 1971 book Architecture 2000, the soft, blobby diagram has become a comfortable space of mediation where fundamentally conflicting architectural traditions may happily coexist encased in pulsating attractor basins. . . .”

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*image: Charles Jencks’s revision of the “Evolutionary Tree for the Year 2000,” as published in Architectural Review (July 2000).

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san francisco CALIFORNIA

Thom FAULDERS speaks on his recent option studios at the California College of the Arts (CCA), the technological proficiency of today’s students, searching for the places where architecture and technology or biotechnology meet, a new “flattening” or evenness of precedent, and much more.

[CLICK FOR THOM FAULDERS INTERVIEW]

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*image by and courtesy the author. Overall projects view, “Non-Stop Architecture,” Advanced Studio, Spring 2012, California College of the Arts (CCA). Associate Professor Thom Faulders, instructor.

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troy NEW YORK

“We are a generation of architects interested not in geometry, but in pattern. We create languages but have none we can call our own. Our explorations in computation have flattened history. . . .”

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*image courtesy the author.

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los angeles CALIFORNIA

“It may seem anachronistic to bring up the word craft today, especially within the context of contemporary technology and its related modes of production, but there are striking parallels between this medieval concept and digitally driven architectural practice. . . .”

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*image: Ramiro DIAZ-GRANADOS / Amorphis, “Go Figure.”

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los angeles CALIFORNIA

“Abigail Coover and Nathan Hume asked me to write an essay, or something about my ‘current teachings as well as thoughts on the state of architectural education today,’ as a contribution to the catalogue for this exhibition of juried student work. . . .”

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toronto CANADA

“The professionally accredited architecture degree needs an opt-out clause. Given the rapidly changing demands and potentials of the profession, it is time to reflect on a system whose ultimate goal is to prepare a host of students for a world that really doesn’t need that many people to design new buildings. Fewer graduates are ultimately getting licensed and, strangely enough, this is viewed as some sort of failure. . . .”

* image: “Project BlackBox,” a machine for creating heat-responsive polymer panels. Designed and built by AltN Research.

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troy NEW YORK

“As digital technology and cultural change speed up the timeline and compress the pedagogical content of a typical academic semester, a rigorous analytical process often remains the foundation of design logic for the experimental synthesis of projects, scenarios, and actual proposals. Just as the casting and recasting of contemporary culture occur at an increasingly rapid pace, so the dismantling and reconstruction of the design process continue to be primary subject matter in undergraduate core design studios.”

* Z. FINE, “Surface Active Matrix,” Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Jeremy CARVALHO, instructor.

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los angeles CALIFORNIA

Jason PAYNE speaks on his recent studios and seminars at UCLA A.UD; history, precedent, and “contamination”; the “affect” project and the return to formalism; and much more.

[CLICK FOR JASON PAYNE INTERVIEW]

* image courtesy the author. “Space Oddities: or, Variations on the Disco Ball,” Technology Seminar, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Assistant Professor Jason PAYNE, instructor.

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troy NEW YORK

“Architects typically produce drawings and other artifacts—words, inscriptions, models, full-scale mock-ups, and so on—that allow buildings to be realized by others, at a distance from their authors. This has not always been the case. Gothic building, for example, was a constructive practice of geometric rules and traditions where master craftsmen operated to some extent as architect and builder simultaneously. In this situation, drawings were not the primary mediator between design and construction; discussions regarding the final form of a building continued throughout the construction process. . . .”

*Fig. 1: Robin Evans, “Projection and its analogues: The Arrested Image,” 1995.

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los angeles CALIFORNIA

Dwayne OYLER on his recent studios at SCI-Arc, the benefits of a hands-on approach, the expanded role of academia today, the role of (professional) practice in architecture education, and much more.

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*image: Jie YANG, concept model. Fourth-year Undergraduate studio, Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). Dwayne OYLER, instructor.

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