Carnegie Mellon Architecture is proud to announce the 2024 awardees for the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Faculty Grants Program. A total of $100,000 has been awarded to 16 project and teaching grant proposals. The Faculty Grants Program will award a total of $400,000 over four years and is open to all full time faculty at the school. The proposals were evaluated by a committee comprised of school head Omar Khan; associate heads Joshua Bard, Mary-Lou Arscott and Kai Gutschow; Erica Cochran Hameen, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Theodossis Issaias, Special Faculty; Jenn Joy Wilson, Assistant Dean for Research Development and Sponsored Projects; and Aaron Martin, Associate Director, Institutional Partnerships, College of Fine Arts.
The Faculty Grants Program, established in 2023 by PJ Dick Trumbull Lindy Group, supports faculty research and teaching innovations that address the school’s three pedagogical challenges: climate change, social justice and artificial intelligence. The proposals were assessed on their impact in furthering a faculty member’s research and teaching, their contribution to interrogating the school’s challenges, and their viability to garner further research support, make an impact on the discipline and expand the pedagogy of the school.
Learn more about the awardees’ project and teaching proposals below.
Project Grants
Project grants support projects that address the school’s three pedagogical challenges: climate change, social justice and artificial intelligence. The grants support the diverse work of Carnegie Mellon Architecture’s faculty in creative practice, professional practice, artistic practice, funded research, participatory design, design build, curation, scholarship, critical and digital humanities, and more. The intention of the PJ Dick Project Grants Program is to provide support for a variety of projects including faculty seed funds to start a project with the aim of getting external support, to continue work on a project that may not have the option for sponsored research, and to support organizing symposia and conferences at the school.
Incremental House. Credit: Jeremy Ficca
Farm to Prototype: Constructing Biogenic Robustness through Hempcrete Prototypes
Jeremy Ficca, Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
This proposal seeks support for the construction and testing of a series of full-scale hempcrete architectural assemblies. It seeks to apply and test ongoing research into carbon sequestering and biogenic methods of construction through a series of prototypical architectural conditions. Particular emphasis will be directed to monolithic, lower-tech methods of construction that utilize the unique affordances of hemp-lime material composites. The prototypes will be instrumental in testing methods of site-formed and prefabricated unitized hempcrete elements to develop a language of construction that addresses the unique hybridity of hempcrete construction that bridges stereotomic and tectonic methodologies.
Chiang Mai University and Carnegie Mellon Architecture students with Grandmother Boon Reaung. Credit: Tommy CheeMou Yang
Village in the City, City in the Village: The Twelve Villages of San Pu Loei
Tommy CheeMou Yang, Visiting Special Faculty, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
In collaboration with: Brian McGrath, Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, Parsons at the New School; Chiranthanin (Phuwa) Kitika, Associate Professor of Architecture, Chiang Mai University; Jeng Pheera Paenkhumyat, Architect and Adjunct Professor of Architecture, Chiang Mai University; Vernelle A. A. Noel, Lucian and Rita Caste Assistant Professor in Architecture, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
Chiang Mai, the capital city of the historically remote mountain valley Kingdom of Lanna in Northern Thailand, is experiencing unprecedented urban development. Lanna means “one million rice fields” and due to its cultural and natural riches, the city was formerly a culturally diverse regional trading center but is now easily reached by an international airport. This ease of access has especially threatened the village-based rice fields that give the historical Kingdom its name. This project proposal is part of a network of relationship building that has been supported by the Frank-Ratchye Studio for Creative Inquiry, Urban Systems Lab and Tishman Environmental Center. The project proposal explores how years of trust building, fieldwork and spatial ethnographies nurture a shift in architectural and urban design towards an action-based socio-ecological pedagogy rooted in the collective lived wisdom of communities our disciplinary knowledge has carefully erased.
In collaboration with Chiang Mai University, the proposal expands a relationship between designers, students and local villagers to focus on the current urbanization of a municipality of agricultural villages in San Pu Loei. This research has three main objectives: 1) to foster a community empowered design research praxis through design, 2) develop a design build project in San Pu Loei working with craftsfolks from Thailand, and 3) investigate how craft practices of Chiang Mai’s urban villagers inform socio-ecological justice tactics in the development of a new theoretical framework through a current book proposal, Compoundologies. These stories are proposals for a future Chiang Mai Valley rooted in kinship and commons making.
The Extended Field unpublished studio project from “Obsolescence – Exploring Praxis, Material Cultures and Labor in South Asia.” Work from an Advanced Synthesis Option Studio by Sarosh Anklesaria at the School of Architecture, Carnegie Mellon University, Spring 2023. Credit: Shray Tripathi
Contestations of Modernity: Origins, Obsolescence and Liberatory futures for a City Museum
Sarosh Anklesaria, Assistant Teaching Professor, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
In collaboration with: Lily Chi, Associate Professor, Cornell University
This proposal is for a book that offers readings in Design Ethics on questions of broad contemporary import: that of participatory publics in an era of neoliberal development and hardline politics, of design and its spatial agency, of the legacies and futures of modernism in the global south, and of the care and repair of buildings and cities in an age of climate crises. As a prompt for this inquiry, it uses a relatively obscure project by Le Corbusier and B. V. Doshi, the Sanskar Kendra/City Museum, at multiple scales, times and disciplinary lenses. From the ambitions of its inception to the discourses for its prospective demise, from construction details to publics imagined and excluded, architecture’s role in projects of city and nation building is mapped through historiography, design analysis, urban sociology, museum programming and heritage discourse. The readings aim at opening up imaginations for the building far from hagiographic discourses that often underpin debates of modern buildings and their vulnerable futures. More broadly, the editors seek to question the normalization of architecture-as-spectacle in design culture and media. The story of Sanskar Kendra offers concrete illustration of architectural agency as a constructed enterprise with social, political and ethical reverberations. The book also uses work from design studios at Cornell and Carnegie Mellon universities as an invitation to consider alternative, liberatory futures – other ways of worldmaking. The collection would have broad international appeal to students and scholars in architecture, conservation, urban design, sociology and South Asian studies.
Sweetgrass basket weaving. Credit: Vernelle A. A. Noel
Craft Practices and Computation in Three Cultures: Pittsburgh, South Carolina and Thailand
Vernelle A. A. Noel, Lucian and Rita Caste Assistant Professor in Architecture, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
In collaboration with: Tommy CheeMou Yang, Visiting Special Faculty, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
This project is an ethnographic study, computational investigation and design exploration of craft practices in three different locations: willow, wire and textile weaving in Pittsburgh; the Gullah tradition of sweetgrass basket weaving in South Carolina; and joinery, umbrella-making and weaving in Thailand. Starting from a Situated Computations framework, this research project has three main components: 1) examining craft through computational modes of inquiry, 2) comparing these craft practices across cultures, and 3) examining how situated socio-cultural practices can inform computational ideas and develop new theoretical frameworks. Investigations in Pittsburgh will include conducting ethnographic work and engaging in workshops with craftspeople and artists. Investigations in South Carolina include conducting ethnographic fieldwork, visiting sites where sweetgrass is grown and is at risk, and participating in workshops to learn the craft. Investigations in Chiang Mai, Thailand will also include ethnographic work and workshops. Firstly, the project lead will study these sites to understand how these craft communities of practices are affected by and deal with changes in the landscape and environment connected with climate change. Second, the project lead will develop new understandings that can inform approaches, critique and development of technological systems including artificial intelligence. Third, this project is grounded in social justice by making visible the histories, knowledges and contributions of communities that have been left out of discourses in design and computation. Outcomes will include papers, presentations, exhibitions of the research and artifacts, and conducting workshops to explore computational approaches to these crafts.
Lighting system diagram. Credit: Niloofar Nikookar
Leveraging AI for Equitable Lighting: Smart and Adaptive Solutions for Healthy Environments
Azadeh O. Sawyer, Assistant Professor in Building Technology, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
In collaboration with: Niloofar Nikookar, PhD Candidate in Building Performance & Diagnostics, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
Lighting design in indoor spaces traditionally remains static and unresponsive to external and internal conditions, neglecting the wellbeing of occupants and their preferences. Our research centers on the concept of “light equity,” emphasizing that lighting systems should not only provide circadian lighting for occupant wellbeing but also adapt to external and internal factors affecting human mood and perception. Historically, lighting practices have primarily prioritized task performance, disregarding their impact on human wellbeing and resulting in disparities in access to quality lighting in various office settings. This project aims to address these disparities by developing a user-centric smart lighting system that collaborates with the architectural façade to enhance mood and perception while ensuring equitable access to quality lighting in everyday spaces. Securing seed funding is critical to our research, enabling us to collect necessary data and conduct preliminary studies essential for the project's success. This seed funding will be a steppingstone towards applying for a larger NSF grant, which will provide the resources required to further develop and implement our user-centric architecturally derived smart lighting system. The project has several key objectives, including a comprehensive investigation of how specific lighting attributes, such as Correlated Color Temperature (CCT), brightness and façade systems impact human perception and wellbeing in office environments that combine natural and electric lighting. Additionally, we will develop an adaptive lighting system that works with the façade system and is tailored to individual needs and preferences.
The Second Life. Credit: Vicki Achnani
The Second Life: From Waste to Oasis_ A Greenhouse Design-Build Project Using Bamboo as the Primary Material
Vicki Achnani, Associate Studio Professor, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
In these unprecedented times, our communities need us more than ever, particularly in light of social unrest and the aftermath of the pandemic. The current methods of architectural practice, characterized by the incessant use of carbon-intensive materials, which account for 40% of global emissions, and working in isolation in a studio without user input, clearly indicate that education for the next generation of architects must actively incorporate carbon-conscious construction. Additionally, it should provide opportunities to establish trusting and constructive relationships with the people they design for. Our era behooves that we make our communities resilient, foster alternative local economies, and challenge architectural education to promote circularity and upcycling.
This year-long studio project is carefully curated with the aforementioned aspects in mind by utilizing bamboo that has been repurposed from the previous NOMAS Spring Carnival Pavilion installed on campus. The project aims to set a cogent case of low-carbon practices through a full-scale intervention in the neighborhood, thereby supporting an underserved community. Constructing a greenhouse for the locals, the project exposes students to the delicacies of participatory design. Establishing a new classroom that deviates from the conventions, the students are provided with a comprehensive understanding of the site's subtleties, the intrinsic properties of the materials, and the intricacies of the design-build process.
The project is a milieu that demonstrates the potential of the waste economy and low-carbon material while addressing the pressing issues of climate change and social justice and aims to serve as a catalyst.
The process of designing, prototyping, participatory design, systems detailing and responding to a real brief on-site is a meticulous endeavor that extends the sphere of architectural education. Working with bamboo, repurposing materials, direct engagement with the community, and making architectural education more impactful, tacit and responsive to societal needs are important steps that align well with the new pedagogy of the School of Architecture.
Care pavilion, London Design Biennale 2023; Drawing by Jiayin Chi, and community materials by KTK-BELT inc.
Sharing the Entangled Stories of the Anthropocene: Multispecies Conflicts/Multispecies Futures Globally and Locally
Priyanka Bista, Joseph F. Thomas Visiting Professor, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
In collaboration with: Ankitha Vasudev, Alumni (B.Arch ‘2023), Carnegie Mellon Architecture
This project emerges from the teaching and research work of the project lead over the last two years. This application is for the dissemination/sharing of stories globally as a storybook of methodologies, and locally as a series of stories shared as an exhibit.
Sharing stories of multispecies design methodologies globally: The first output will be an illustrated storybook of design methodologies that emerged from students' work in the Spring 2023 Advanced Synthesis Option Studio (ASOS). Particularly grounded in the story of two fishing communities, the storybook “Malaha Fishing Cats and the Malaha Fisherfolks” by Ankitha Vasudev begins to unpack and understand the conflicted and entangled lives of the two stakeholders with an effort to find resolutions and solutions towards multispecies futures.
Sharing multispecies stories in Koshi Tappu and Kathmandu: The second output will bring the work the project lead has been doing with CMU students back to the field to share some of the relevant stories. In addition, over the last two years, the project lead has also been working with the local community while documenting the complex, entangled and intertwined stories. This gathering will be a moment to share not only the work of students but also the communities themselves in either October/December 2024 (schedule will be based on the weather and community availability).
Regarding the three challenges, this work intersects climate change issues (ecological challenges) with social justice challenges. The Anthropocene is predominantly known as an era witnessing the greatest biodiversity loss. However, it is also an era that is negatively impacting and violently excluding the most marginalized human communities, often under the guise of biodiversity conservation mechanisms. The work of the project lead has focused on responding to this very breach through the Vertical University project and supporting local communities to conserve their biodiversity-rich landscapes.
Sustainable Design for Uncertain Futures. Credit: Joshua Lee
Sustainable Design for Uncertain Futures Book Production and Website Enhancement Support
Joshua Lee, Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
In collaboration with: Joseph Murray, PhD Candidate in Architecture–Engineering–Construction Management, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
Lifecycle change processes in most buildings are very costly and characterized by material waste, energy inefficiencies and lost productive potential. All buildings change and when they do the full costs are often externalized to communities in many ways: embodied skill and material energy is lost when buildings are demolished; toxic materials are released into the environment and present hazards to workers during the renovation process; and dramatic alternating cycles of disinvestment and reinvestment are often traumatic for communities and compound income inequalities. The effects are exacerbating the problems of climate change and social injustice. In the project lead’s course, “Protean Systems: Sustainable Design for Uncertain Futures,” students are introduced to a wide range of time-based strategies through key readings and case studies. To extend this work beyond the classroom, additional support is requested to complete an in-progress book and an engaging website with edited video excerpts and interactive diagrams. The book presents an introduction to 16 time-based strategies with case studies and a series of dialogues among an exceptional assemblage of theorists aligned with each strategy. The website will serve as both a promotional gateway to the book and present the information in an accessible format through video excerpts of the dialogues and interactive “explorable explanations.” The aim of this book and website is to provide academics and practitioners with strategies that can be used in combination throughout the building project lifecycle to help designers align their work with the appropriate forces of change.
J230124 U.S. Copyright Office. Stereo copyrighted by Keystone View Co. (No. 5006) Library of Congress, Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-62098
(de)Mass(ing) Timber: Geometric and Tectonic Strategies for Material Resource Reduction in Timber Construction
Matthew Huber, Special Faculty, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
In collaboration with: Juney Lee, T. David Fitz-Gibbon Assistant Professor of Architecture, Carnegie Mellon Architecture; Azadeh O. Sawyer, Assistant Professor in Building Technology, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
Mass timber, boosted by industry marketing, is heralded as the construction industry’s emerging savior from climate catastrophe. Yet little is understood about the implications of widespread adoption: are Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools accurately accounting for logging industry emissions and the sequestration potential of forests in carbon calculations? What is the impact of forest fires and climate fluctuations on the timber industry's capacity? How will increases in production impact ecologies and land use? The World Resources Institute identifies growing timber demand as a critical pressure on land use and global carbon, challenging the optimism projected by mass timber manufacturers. Answering these questions is not within the scope of this proposal, but they inform a desire to critique mass timber in favor of lighter weight solutions.
Emerging from the work of Frie Otto and others, and greatly increasing with the advent of widely available digital tools, computational structural design and optimization have become a rich field of study in architecture schools. However, the vast majority of these studies look at techniques such as gridshells or other three-dimensional systems suitable for pavilions or roofs that aren’t applicable to typical floors in multi-story construction, the target use for mass timber. We propose studying a typical structural bay as a use case for lightweight timber assemblies using form-finding techniques to critically reform mass timber assemblies with reduced resource intensiveness as a way of mitigating impacts on climate and ecology. We see this proposal as a seed grant to identify three pathways of tectonic/geometric strategies that can be further elaborated at full scale with future funding and industry partnerships. Emerging technologies, such as AI-driven generative design and optimization, AR enhanced construction, and other computational processes will be essential to developing the work.
Credit: Juney Lee
Regenerative Structures Laboratory: Seed Funding for Pilot Prototype
Juney Lee, T. David Fitz-Gibbon Assistant Professor of Architecture, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
This proposal seeks to establish the “Regenerative Structures Laboratory” at Carnegie Mellon Architecture. In order to address the greater challenges of climate change, this cutting-edge lab aims to propel the construction industry from a sustainable (minimizing harmful impact of future construction) to a more regenerative (maximizing positive impact to offset emissions from both past and future construction) design paradigm. The transdisciplinary research at the lab across the areas of 1) artificial-intelligence-driven computational structural design; 2) regenerative, renewable and circular materials; and 3) sustainable construction methods, are united by an effort to design and materialize building structures – the largest contributor to a building’s embodied energy – more responsibly through emerging digital technologies that are scalable and accessible to a broader range of social and economic contexts.
The funding will be utilized for the construction of the lab’s first 1-to-1 built “Pilot” prototype, serving as a proof-of-concept demonstrator to showcase large-scale structural application of regenerative materials and validate the lab’s initial research hypotheses. The grant will primarily fund a dedicated 3D printer, which will play a crucial role in the development of the prototype as well as become a versatile and vital resource for all future research activities within the lab. Successful completion of the prototype will not only help launch the lab, but also pave the way for future funding opportunities from PJ Dick and other industry partners. The subsequent publications and dissemination of research results through various media streams will establish Carnegie Mellon Architecture and PJ Dick as emerging leaders in revolutionizing the construction industry in the greater Pittsburgh area and beyond.
Teaching Grants
Carnegie Mellon Architecture is committed to the mission-defining challenges of climate change, social justice and artificial intelligence. The PJ Dick Teaching Grants Program recognizes that the future of architecture and its related industries start with the education of the profession’s next generation of practitioners through innovative pedagogies. The teaching grants are focused on supporting changes to existing courses and development of new courses that focus on the three challenges.
Arctic Town by Ralph Erskine (1958)
Urbanism and Social Production of Space
Jongwan Kwon, Assistant Teaching Professor, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
Teaching Assistant TBD | Beginning Fall 2024 (recurring annually) | 50-75 students
This course introduces contemporary urbanism, offering a comprehensive exploration of how cities and urban systems are made, remade and even unmade. It approaches contemporary urbanism through urban theory, research and practice to investigate the relationship between a set of intentions and consequences. It reflects the multidimensional nature of the externalities that determine the complex processes of urbanization and draws discussions on the fields of architecture, planning, landscape architecture and social science.
With a general focus on physical, social, environmental, technological, political and economic forces that influence city-making and urban life, the course tackles and leads discussions centered around the key issues that are shaping the crises of climate change, artificial intelligence and social justice within urban and global contexts. The course introduces urban theory readings and design and research projects regarding these challenges and features guest lectures and workshops covering topics like climate resilience and sustainable communities, open data mapping and surveillance, and gender and subculture.
As a mandatory course for B.Arch and B.A. students, it will serve as the primary urban studies course in the undergraduate curriculum. Its purpose is to enhance students’ deeper awareness and comprehension of contemporary social, technological and environmental challenges. Additionally, the course aims to cultivate theoretical and critical design thinking that students can apply to their studio projects and thesis development.
AI Workflow Diagram, IMAGE DEEP:/ reImagine Studio 2023. Credit: Kui Yang Yang
Image Deep: /Contested Matter
Dana Cupkova, Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
Linxiaoyi Wan, Spring 2024 RA/TA | Beginning Spring 2024 (three-year sequence) | 10-12 students
Advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning (DL) are reshaping the future of the design discipline, challenging conventional authorship and the use of architectural precedent. These tools rapidly generate entire architectural proposals, creating images and sketches solely through natural language, referencing vast digital archives. This studio will explore expanding AI's role in the design process beyond mere visual inspiration. By connecting AI and material research with natural elements and bio-cement, we will construct analog material models to guide AI workflows and explore alternative pathways, distinct from text-to-image models' predefined aesthetics. This process will rely on preparation and tools supported by the PJ Dick Innovation Fund. Our approach rejects the notion that AI is merely a service to architectural labor; instead, it demands a deeper understanding of technology's impact on society. We will address AI ethics, data ownership and biases in relation to geopolitics and human conditions.
This studio merges two lines of inquiry using image-based spatial models, focusing on extracting embedded information from images for direct translation into 3D models through depth map modeling. Additionally, we will conduct material research to develop custom physical material prototypes to inform AI workflows. This studio is conducted in collaboration with the Department of Material Science for experiments with bio-cement. The studio design approach will encourage rethinking housing models within specific social, ecological and geopolitical contexts, emphasizing material sustainability and equitable labor systems.
“Fortune” magazine cover, June 1952. From “Imagining the Modern: Architecture and Urbanism of the Pittsburgh Renaissance” el Samahy, Grimley, Kubo eds., Monacelli Press, 2019.
The Pittsburgh Sequence
Francesca Torello, Special Faculty, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
In collaboration with: Jongwan Kwon, Assistant Teaching Professor, Carnegie Mellon Architecture; Stefan Gruber, Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
Teaching Assistant(s) TBD | Beginning Spring 2024 (recurring annually in rotation) | Various student enrollment targets for undergraduate and MUD students
Rather than a single course, this proposal refers to the development of a Pittsburgh sequence of courses. This will include the first year course “Exploring Pittsburgh” in spring 2024, a component on Pittsburgh urbanism integrated into third year, and an urban history elective provisionally called “Pittsburgh Through the Archives,” an urban history class that includes hands-on research on the city.
The Farmhouse by Austrian studio Precht
Mixed Use in Pittsburgh's “Climate Haven”
Jared Abraham, Associate Studio Professor, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
In collaboration with: Gerard Damiani, Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon Architecture; Alison Kwok, Professor & Director NetZED Laboratory, UO School of Architecture & Environment (consultant); Atelier Ten, Environmental Design Consultant (consultant)
Beginning Fall 2024 (recurring annually) | 10-12 students
Of the three stated challenges the school has identified, this proposal will most directly address Social Justice and Climate Change. The U.S. is currently facing an unprecedented housing crisis, and the ever-worsening effects of global climate change combined with a forthcoming climate migration demand sustainable and equitable housing solutions now more than ever. This course proposes a mixed-use project in the “Climate Haven” of Pittsburgh that will develop innovations in Workforce Housing Typologies with the inclusion of Civic Space and Commercial Development.
“Data Dump” ASOS 2023 mid review. Credit: Daragh Byrne
Data Dump: Unmaking Intelligent Spaces
Daragh Byrne, Associate Teaching Professor, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
Beginning Fall 2024 (potential future iterations in 2025 and beyond) | 10-15 students (B.Arch, M.Arch mix), perhaps more if MSCD included
“Data Dump” is a three-year sequence of Advanced Synthesis Option (ASO) studios. Each year will use emerging frameworks in design research to unpack, examine and reinterpret the wasteful, material and resource intensive cycles of innovation found within modern technology. Within this studio, students are first asked to understand global material flows exporting harms and the consequences of those decisions on local and global contexts. Subsequently, through precedent research about urban mining to recover e-waste, we will take apart and tear down e-waste — technically, materially and conceptually — and reconfigure it to present alternatives.
2023 was a foundational year where we developed resources, including book sprints of precedents and zines articulating issues, as well as initial experiments that will enable the next two years of the studio. In 2024, we turn our attention to Waste Machines, a new pedagogical framework for working with reusing and reforming e-waste to materialize concerns around AI’s wasteful and extractive, but all too often, hidden concerns. This work intersects with the school’s commitment to pedagogy that advances discourse and training in both sustainable practices and intelligences.
Expected curricular impacts include: 1) Strengthen student understanding of, skills with, and engagement in design research (and specifically with unmaking, data-phys, graspable AI); 2) Enhance student understanding of issues at the intersection of sustainability and technology; 3) Strengthen student understanding of the seen and unseen harms of technology, and specifically AI; 4) Provide hands-on skills with the production of DIY machines for fabrication and material experimentation; and 5) Develop students’ technical skills and working knowledge of unmaking intelligent devices.
Lukasa (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lukasa. Accessed November 1, 2023.
Unsettling Ground: Architecture is Dead
Tuliza Sindi, Ann Kalla Visiting Professor in Architecture, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
In collaboration with: Dr. Lwazi Lushaba, Politics Department Postgraduate Committee, political studies, University of Cape Town (co-instructor); Dr. Brenna Bhandar, Director of Research, law professor, SOAS University of London (co-instructor); Dr. Lyla June, human ecology and indigenous pedagogy, Dream Warriors (co-instructor); Meryem-Bahia Arfaoui, Filmmaker, geopolitics and chronopolitics (co-instructor). Where coordination of schedules will be challenging, practitioners and thinkers of equal stature will substitute the proposed.
Beginning Fall 2024 (recurring annually) | 10 students (onsite) with global audience through online access
U.S. architect and critic Justin Shubow’s 2015 article, “Architecture Continues to Implode: More Insiders Admit the Profession is Failing,” makes a strong case for why the architecture profession could be heading toward an impending doom. Shubow highlights the hubris of architects, and their detachment from and disdain for society as some of the profession’s threats and suggests that the most concerning threat to the profession is not what can replace us, but rather, the profession’s inability to entertain predictions of its demise as a plausible outcome.
Modern architectural practice is continually losing agency in the trajectory, definition and application of spatial meaning and practice because its ideological framework has been less about the production of space and more about the production of property (or currency) and unjust power frameworks alongside the economics, law, geopolitics, philosophy and sociology disciplines (in part, due to its messy ongoing enmeshment with colonialism, capitalism and industrialism).
This hybrid model course aims to temporarily retire the knowledge system of modern spatial practice to introduce a more expanded knowledge framework that includes indigenous systems and technologies through transdisciplinary methods. An array of practitioners across varying disciplines will derive methodologies that can equip future spatial practitioners on how to suspend speculating spatially from captive grounds (or captive meanings, practices and knowledges), to derive futures that can offset current crises-laden spatial inevitabilities that breed and exacerbate social and spatial injustice for all living beings and ecosystems.
The course will be made available online. Annual workshops, seminars, publications and projects will be galvanized around its contents, and those outputs will be situated in a larger body of ongoing research around the course’s themes and ambitions of deriving urgent, new, restorative and just methods and modes of spatial practice. The course will act as a supplementary course that any studio can plug into and use as a resource pool for spatial theorization and practice derivation.