Category Archives: General

San Diego—April 8, 2014— NewSchool of Architecture & Design (NewSchool) instructor Joseph F. Kennedy is presenting a research paper on “Catalytic Approaches to Humanitarian Design” during the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Annual Meeting April 10-12 in Miami Beach, Florida. The paper outlines recommendations on preparing a new generation of designers to address the complex needs of global communities.

Kennedy is co-founder of the organization Builders without Borders, an international network of ecological builders who advocate the use of local, affordable materials in construction. He specializes in sustainable building, ecological design, and community development, and he has taught all over the world. In his paper, Kennedy explains how designers and architects can be better prepared to meet the needs of global communities with specific challenges, such as communities displaced by war and environmental disasters and in areas with limited economic and materials resources. He provides a series of recommendations, such as:

• Create model community projects around the world as “field stations” for education, research and community development.
• Provide design students with an education that incorporates sustainable development approaches, cultural sensitivity, and world affairs.
• Place greater emphasis on interdisciplinary skills, such as visual communication and construction techniques, for future designers to work with and design for global communities

Kennedy will present his paper during the session on “Building Change: Public Interest Design as Catalyst,” which takes place from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, April 11. The topic complements the year’s ACSA Annual Meeting theme of “Globalizing Architecture: Flows and Disruptions.”

In addition to research papers, Kennedy has co-edited The Art of Natural Building and edited Building without Borders. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture and a master’s degree in International Peace Studies through the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

RAD Lab members and NewSchool graduates Jason Grauten, Philip Auchettl, and David Loewenstein will be presenting their Kickstarter-funded Quartyard project at Dwell on Design in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 22 at 2 p.m.

Construction on Quartyard in the East Village district is set to begin at the end of April, with a tentative opening at the end of July. It will feature a dog run, beer garden, 8-10 food and fashion trucks, retail shops, farmers markets, movable furniture, and public green space.

Read the full post about the RAD Lab on the Dwell on Design blog.

This week a group of NewSchool students, under the guidance of instructor Tatiana Berger, is conducting research in Portugal for an upcoming project they will complete this term on designing “a new public library for the 21st Century.” One of the many high points of the visit was meeting with world-renowned Architect Alvaro Siza. Among the architect’s many awards are the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the Wolf Prize in Arts (Architecture), and the Luso-Spanish Prize for Art and Culture.

The research project is an example of how global design studies is integrated into the NewSchool experience through lectures, visiting faculty members, industry collaborations, study abroad opportunities, and projects that are inspired by addressing global issues. Here is a picture of the class with Siza that was sent by Berger, who previous collaborated with the architect to design and build a library.

San Diego—April 3, 2014—NewSchool of Architecture & Design (NewSchool) is pleased to announce that Dr. Thomas Albright, President of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA), Professor and Conrad T. Prebys Chair, and Director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Vision at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, will deliver the keynote address at NewSchool’s 29th annual commencement ceremony June 14.

As president of ANFA, an organization NewSchool has been involved with since ANFA’s start, Albright advocates the promotion and advancement of knowledge that links neuroscience research to a growing understanding of human responses to the built environment. Albright’s scientific research has placed him at the forefront of his field and it has direct application to the work of architects and designers.

“We are extremely honored to have Dr. Thomas Albright address our graduating class because his work brings attention to the power of architecture and design to inspire, heal and impact our world through the built environment,” said NewSchool President Gregory J. Marick. “The scientific research being done by Dr. Albright and his colleagues at ANFA and the Salk Institute speaks to the future of design through the use of evidence-based approaches to create highly relevant and desired spaces and experiences.”

NewSchool’s commencement will take place, as is traditionally done each year, at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif.

Albright’s research addresses the brain bases of visual perception, visual memory and visually-guided behavior. He has received numerous honors for his work, including membership in the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Albright is the inaugural holder of the Conrad T. Prebys Endowed Chair in Vision Research at the Salk Institute. Albright earned his undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Maryland, and his Ph.D. in Psychology and Neuroscience at Princeton University where he was also a post-doctoral fellow.

NewSchool has long-standing ties to ANFA and regularly offers students the opportunity to study and research the connections of neuroscience and architecture. One of ANFA’s founders is NewSchool Professor and Dean Emeritus Gilbert Cooke. Cooke, who serves on the group’s Board of Directors, teaches classes at NewSchool and the University of California, San Diego on the topic of neuroscience and architecture.

San Diego—April 1, 2014— NewSchool of Architecture & Design (NewSchool) announces a public lecture April 16 featuring Brigitte Shim, principal of the Toronto based design firm Shim-Sutcliffe Architects. Shim and her firm’s partner are recipients of a prestigious national medal that recognizes the duo’s professional contributions as representing “the best of Canadian design to the world.” Shim’s presentation is part of NewSchool’s lecture series featuring global designers, and it will take place at the school auditorium, 1249 F Street in San Diego starting at 7 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public. Shim’s lecture, “In + Out,” explores work that straddles the artificial line between the interior and exterior. Registration required to ensure seating: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brigitte-shim-principal-shim-sutcliffe-architects-tickets-10545352433

Shim, along with her partner A. Howard Sutcliffe formed their architectural design practice Shim-Sutcliffe Architects in 1994, reflecting their shared interest and passion for the integration and interrelated scales of architecture, landscape and furniture. Shim is also an Associate Professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto since 1988, engaged in core design studios, advanced design studios as well as teaching courses in the History and Theory of Landscape Architecture.

In January 2013, Shim and Sutcliffe were both awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Order of Canada, “for their contributions as architects designing sophisticated structures that represent the best of Canadian design to the world.” In addition, Shim and Sutcliffe have received twelve Governor General’s Medals and Awards for Architecture and an American Institute of Architects National Honor Award and other professional accolades for their built work ranging from projects for non-profit groups to public and private clients.

Shim is currently the 2014 Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor at Yale University’s School of Architecture. She has also held the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professorship (2010 and 2005), the William B and Charlotte Sheperd Davenport Visiting Professorship (2008), the Henry Bishop Visiting Chair and the Visiting Bicentennial Professor in Canadian Studies (2001); an invited international visiting professorship at Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne (2002) and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (1996 and 1993) as well as the Somerville Visiting Lectureship at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Environmental Design (2013) and the Martell Distinguished Visiting Critic at the University of Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning (2006). Brigitte Shim is a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (FRAIC), an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (Hon FAIA) and an elected member of the Royal Canadian Academy (RCA).

A group of NewSchool graduate-level architecture students is traveling to Portugal this month to conduct research for a special global design studio project on creating “a new public library for the 21st Century.” The project, led by instructor Tatiana Berger, includes visits to architecturally-relevant buildings and the opportunity to meet and discuss ideas with Pritzker Prize-winning architect Alvaro Siza.

The project is an example of how global design studies is integrated into the NewSchool experience through lectures, visiting faculty members, industry collaborations, study abroad opportunities, and projects that are inspired by addressing global issues.

NewSchool Instructor Berger says she was inspired to develop the project with NewSchool students as a result of her previous collaborations with Siza to design and build a library. Siza, she says, is considered to be among the most well-known architectures in the world. Students will complete their library design concepts during the Spring Term based on the research they conduct in Portugal during the trip.

The Portugal itinerary, from March 30-April 5, includes the possibility of visiting: Leca de Palmeira Pools and Boa Nova Tea House by Alvaro Siza; Serralves Museum and Gardens and Porto School of Architecture by Alvaro Siza; Public Library in Viana de Castelo by Alvaro Siza and Multi-use Complex by Eduardo Souto de Moura; Church in Marco de Canaveses by Alvaro Siza and Recuperation of the Santa Maria de Bouro Monastery by Eduardo Souto de Moura.

For their winter term final project, architecture students from NewSchool instructors Michael Riggin, Philipp Bosshart, and Hussein Munaim’s AR202 design studio developed conceptual designs for a ranger station in San Diego’s Florida Canyon area. The popular hiking area includes three miles trails and it is located along the east side of the city’s famous Balboa Park and San Diego Zoo.

The class was divided into teams of three students and each team was assigned a different spot along the canyon to serve as their case study for the hypothetical ranger station, resulting in 52 unique projects. Models of the ranger stations were then presented during finals week, and put into place on a single site model surface that was created to replicate the façade of the canyon.

The design studio, informally titled Canyon Logic, is an example of how San Diego’s unique urban and rural geography serves as inspiration for design studio projects. For a previous design studio, Riggin had students research and visit the Borrego Springs desert, about two hours from San Diego, to design an observatory for a private lot in the desert.

San Diego—March 25, 2014— NewSchool Graduate Architecture Program Chair Kurt Hunker is scheduled to present his latest research on the critical literature of tall buildings at several events planned in Moscow this week. His presentation – “Programming for Spectacle: The Tall Building’s Next Phase?” – is the latest he has made to an international audience and it builds on more than ten years of his own research into the topic.

Hunker, whose speaking engagements include presenting at the MARKHI University (Russia-Moscow Institute of Architecture) March 27, has received extensive recognition for his research, which he has presented at international conferences such as the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat international conference in London and the International Alvar Aalto Meeting on Modern Architecture in Jyväskylä Finland. His research on the topic has also been published in eVolo: “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered: Critical Events Since 9/11.”

Hunker evaluates what has been written by architecture critics about tall buildings and their role in society. He explores how critics make connections between architecture in the new global economy and the concept of “spectacle,” or how the architecture of tall buildings reflects cultural values. In his most recent research and presentation, Hunker explores the tall building’s next phase through the concept of “spectacular programming” approaches such as vertical neighborhoods and skateboard parks that have the potential to redefine the concept of “mixed-use.”

Hunker has developed this topic for more than a decade, and at NewSchool he challenges students to explore future concepts for tall buildings. NewSchool student work has received outside recognition for a number of student projects that explored tall building concepts for the redevelopment of San Diego’s downtown area, as detailed in a news story by the U-T San Diego, “Here’s How Students Would Design San Diego’s Skyline”.

Learn about creating harmonious colors using a color wheel and the variables of color creation.

San Diego—March 10, 2014—NewSchool of Architecture & Design (NewSchool) is pleased to announce it has been granted initial accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Senior College and University Commission.

WASC accreditation indicates that NewSchool has met its rigorous standards for quality, institutional capacity, and educational effectiveness. This is the latest accreditation achieved by the school, which currently holds institutional accreditation from the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) and programmatic accreditation for its professional architecture programs through the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB).

“We are thrilled to receive this affirmation of NewSchool’s academic excellence and its ongoing commitment to high quality education for its students,” said Gregory J. Marick, president of NewSchool. “We are dedicated to being a global leader in design education and to providing an outstanding academic experience that prepares students for professional success.”

WASC is one of six regional associations that accredit public and private schools, colleges and universities in the United States. Through its review processes, WASC confirms that an institution has the resources, policies and practices in place to achieve its educational goals. As an example, WASC’s final letter to NewSchool recognized NewSchool’s focus on and understanding of student learning, success and outcomes.

The WASC visiting team commended NewSchool “for its ongoing development from being a single-purpose institution to a multi-focus architecture and design school as it adds new design programs”. NewSchool now offers product design, interior design, game art, game programming and animation programs that have been developed in collaboration with two highly-regarded design schools—Domus Academy in Milan, Italy, and Media Design School in Auckland, New Zealand. These programs contribute to the school’s unique mission to offer students a range of interdisciplinary and global experiences.