Media Contact:
Rachael Lighty
rlighty@newschoolarch.edu
619.684.8775

San Diego CA, June 24, 2016 – NewSchool of Architecture & Design (NewSchool) will host its annual Graduate Showcase

(GradShow) beginning at 12 p.m. on Friday, June 24 at NewSchool’s campus, located at 1249 F Street in San Diego’s downtown design district. The yearly gathering is an exhibition showcasing thesis projects and final portfolios created by the upcoming graduating classes. The event highlights disciplines from the variety of programs offered at NewSchool, which includes architecture, construction management, design and digital media arts. Each year, more than 100 individual projects exhibit the best work from graduates and include large-scale renderings, models and digital media on display.

“NewSchool’s GradShow is a wonderful presentation showcasing our talented, soon-to-be graduates and the amazing work they’ve designed,” said Marvin Malecha, President and Chief Academic Officer of NewSchool of Architecture & Design. “This annual tradition is a great way for families, friends and even potential employers to observe unique projects, models and renderings. Our students should feel a great sense of accomplishment – this is their time and I encourage all of our graduates to relish the moment.”

GradShow begins with an Employers Only Event in the afternoon from 12 p.m. – 2 p.m. where local companies and press are invited to view the work created by the talented individuals from NewSchool. This exclusive occasion serves as a reverse job fair-like atmosphere where opportunities for engagement and dialogue between students and prospective employers are reached. Many former graduates of NewSchool have secured employment during this event and attending employers have benefited greatly as they are given the chance to explore the next generation of innovative leaders all in one convenient location. NewSchool’s GradShow will conclude from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. with a special gathering for graduates and their families, friends and members of the community.

Following GradShow, NewSchool’s 31^st Annual Commencement will take place on Saturday, June 25 at Spreckels Organ Pavilion in San Diego, Calif. The ceremony will begin at 9:30 a.m. and celebrate 128 students who have completed or will complete their degree requirements from New School’s Architecture, Interior Architecture and Design, Interior Design, Construction Management and Digital Media Arts programs.

For information on NewSchool of Architecture & Design’s Annual GradShow and Commencement, or to preview student work, coordinate coverage of the event or set up interviews with graduating students, please contact Rachael Lighty at rlighty@newschoolarch.edu.

To register for tickets for the GradShow visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/newschool-gradshow-2016-tickets-25033490845.

About NewSchool of Architecture & Design:

Located in downtown San Diego, NewSchool prepares students for career success in design fields through an emphasis on interdisciplinary and global design skills, industry collaborations and real-world projects. Programs of study include architecture, construction management, product design, media design, game development, design studies, and interior architecture & design. The school’s design environment provides inspiration for the school’s students and faculty, recognized for their work regionally and internationally. NewSchool is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission.

NewSchool’s Bachelor and Master of Architecture programs are accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). NewSchool is a member of the Laureate International Universities network – a global network of more than 80 campus-based and online universities in 28 countries. Through this network, students at NewSchool are prepared to work in a global and diverse work environment through the school’s collaborations with sister institutions in the Laureate network, including award-winning schools such as Domus Academy in Milan, Italy. For more information about Laureate International Universities, visit www.laureate.net.

San Diego CA, June 15th, 2016 – NewSchool of Architecture & Design (NewSchool) has announced that media design student Amjad Alotaibi has won a National ADDY® award, and received a silver designation during the American Advertising Awards Show hosted by the American Advertising Federation (AAF) in Anaheim, California on June 7. The awards show was part of ADMERICA, the AAF’s annual national conference.

Amjad received recognition in the Social Media category for her six-second looping stop-motion animation Vine video for the anti-smoking campaign, Truth*. The student spec ad entitled Truth: “Ash to Ashes,” which incorporated photography, animation, art/creative direction, Photoshop compositing and audio production, and previously also received two additional Silver ADDYs at the local and regional American Advertising Awards shows.

“It’s exciting to have NewSchool student work receive local, regional and national ADDY awards and be recognized by elite industry jurors on such a grand scale – it’s truly remarkable,” said Chris Clark, lead faculty member in the Media Design program at NewSchool. “Amjad’s Vine video uses stop motion animation of actual cigarette ash to creatively and effectively demonstrate the effects of smoking on the lungs.”

About American Advertising Awards (ADDYs)

Conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the American Advertising Awards, also known as the ADDYs, is the advertising industry’s biggest and most engaging competition attracting over 40,000 entries every year in local AAF Club (Ad Club) competitions. The purpose of the competition is to give recognition and reward those who exemplify a creative spirit of excellence through advertising tactics.

About NewSchool of Architecture & Design

Located in downtown San Diego, NewSchool prepares students for career success in design fields through an emphasis on interdisciplinary and global design skills, industry collaborations and real-world projects. Programs of study include architecture, construction management, product design, media design, game development, design studies, and interior architecture & design. The school’s design environment provides inspiration for the school’s students and faculty, recognized for their work regionally and internationally. NewSchool is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission.

NewSchool’s Bachelor and Master of Architecture programs are accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). NewSchool is a member of the Laureate International Universities network – a global network of more than 80 campus-based and online universities in 28 countries. Through this network, students at NewSchool are prepared to work in a global and diverse work environment through the school’s collaborations with sister institutions in the Laureate network, including award-winning schools such as Domus Academy in Milan, Italy. For more information about Laureate International Universities, visit www.laureate.net.

*This was a student spec ad and not an ad for or by the actual Truth campaign.

Media Contact:

Rachael Lighty

rlighty@newschoolarch.edu

619.684.8775

NewSchool of Architecture & Design Lecture Series to Feature the Salk Institute’s Dr. Thomas D. Albright

Dr. Albright is a renowned professor and chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Director of the Salk Institute for the Neurobiology of Vision and adjunct professor of Psychology and Neurosciences at the University of California San Diego.

On Wednesday, June 8, renowned professor and Director of the Salk Institute for Neurobiology of Vision, Dr. Thomas D. Alright, PhD, will present a lecture, Towards A Neuroscience for Architecture, as part of the NewSchool of Architecture & Design’s lecture series. The lecture will be held at 7pm in the NewSchool Auditorium and will also be available via livestreamed for online audiences.

About the Lecture:

Towards A Neuroscience for Architecture Neuroscience is a new research discipline in the armament of longstanding efforts to understand the influence of built environments over human mental function and behavior. Using a variety of powerful experimental approaches, and focusing efforts on the information processing capacities of the brain, we have begun to develop an empirical understanding of how design features influence the acquisition, organization and use of information present in the built environment. Based on this understanding, we argue that selective pressures over the course of human evolution have yielded a visual brain that has highly specific and tunable organizational properties for representing key statistics of the environment, such as commonly occurring features and conjunctions of features. Simple visual pattern types, which are commonly used in architectural and decorative design, mirror these environmental statistics. These patterns are readily seen without scrutiny, yielding a “sense of order” because they tap into existing neuronal substrates.A fuller understanding of these relationships between organizational properties of the brain and visual environmental statistics may lead to novel design principles.

About Thomas D. Albright, PhD:

Thomas D. Albright is Professor and Conrad T. Prebys Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where he joined the faculty in 1986. He is also Director of the Salk Institute Center for the Neurobiology of Vision and Adjunct Professor of Psychology and Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego. Albright is an authority on the neural basis of visual perception, memory and visually guided behavior. His laboratory seeks to understand how visual perception is affected by attention, behavioral goals, and memories of previous experiences. An important goal of this work is the development of therapies for blindness and perceptual impairments resulting from disease, trauma or developmental disorders of the brain. A second aim of Dr. Albright’s work is to use our growing knowledge of brain, perception and memory to inform design in architecture and the arts, and to leverage societal decisions and public policy. Albright received a Ph.D. in psychology and neuroscience from Princeton University. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an associate of the Neuroscience Research Program. He is past-president of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (2012-2014), a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science, Technology, and Law, and a member of the U.S. National Commission on Forensic Science.

Today a profound leader in architecture and design, Zaha Hadid, passed away. There was more inventive, provocative work yet to come from her spirit, but now it will have to come from those who have learned from and been inspired by her.

Her contributions to the global architecture and design community have been significant. She pushed our understanding of architecture and how it is made. Her formalistic conceptions inspired us. More than that, they challenged and even threatened us. Whether we shared her view or understood architecture in different terms, she made us believe in something greater. Her architecture somehow makes us more alive.

In her generous spirit, Ms. Hadid also contributed to our NewSchool community here in San Diego. In 2015, she donated two ‘napkin sketches’ to NewSchool’s Fourth Annual Napkin Sketch Auction, which was organized by and raised funds for our chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS). Her two sketches, which were demonstrative of her approach to architecture, are a blend of an aesthetic derived from new technology and an instinct for the dramatic. They had the 3rd- and 4th-highest auction prices.

As a woman in the field, she asserted leadership in a dramatic fashion. To be an architect is to choose a difficult path. To realize the work Zaha Hadid did seems almost impossible. Yet, it stands as a reminder of the power of the human will.

Thank you, Zaha Hadid, for providing a model for the significance of women contributing to the development of the profession. The sum of your work, and the office structure you established to accomplish it, will forever influence the discourse on architecture for generations. You have become a measure of our culture.

-Marvin Malecha, President and Chief Academic Officer

A Tobacco Museum building designed by NewSchool Undergraduate Architecture contributing faculty member Ramiro Losada-Amor, and his firm Losada García, is one of only 15 finalists for a “Building of the Year” Award hosted by ArchDaily/Plataform Arquitectura. For the eighth consecutive year, ArchDaily/Plataforma Arquitectura-America is hosting an architecture award where the winners are chosen by popular vote. The readers are tasked with determining what architectural designs in 2015 offered inspiration and a sense of identity.

Readers may vote once per day through Tuesday, March 22, for their top choice of the 15 finalists. Visit the online website to vote:

https://oda.plataformaarquitectura.cl/cl/2016/candidates/101601/centro-cultural-la-gota-museo-del-tabaco-losada-garcia

In late 2015, Losada-Amor and his firm were also named a “Top 10 Emerging Architecture Firm Worldwide” by Architectural Record.

Frontier, a global community and source of inspiration for young creatives, art and design students, recently hosted the Portraiture Photography Challenge and asked aspiring photographers and digital artists to photograph a subject with which the artists connected; they were then tasked with creating a portrait capturing the personality and essence of that individual.

The winning portrait, The Painted Man, was done by Auckland-based Media Design School 3D Animation student Navjin “Navve” Khosravi.

As the winner of the Frontier Portraiture Photography Challenge, Navve has received a full scholarship to take a variety of summer courses at NewSchool of Architecture & Design this July.

NewSchool’s two-week Summer Courses give creative students the opportunity to learn from experienced professionals. As part of the program, students visit museums, companies, production sites and design studios, all of which expose them to the creative and cultural environment in San Diego.

The trip to San Diego will be Navve’s first time in the U.S.

“I am super excited to be going to the U.S,” said Nawe. “I’d never even considered visiting the U.S. before and now I’m actually going there! I’m definitely going to take the 3D sculpting course and I may take the architecture course as something a little different to what I’ve been studying. There are so many options to choose from, I’m not too sure yet.”

To view The Painted Man, as well as the other finalists in Frontier’s Portraiture Photography Challenge, check out Frontier’s post about the winners.