Click here to contribute some news and happenings (and/or questions), or e-mail risdarchitecture@gmail.com.
Prof. Enrique Martinez opens his blog to submissions / collaborators:
“Form is now accepting submissions. This blog wants to be a participatory forum about the topic of form in art, architecture, design and everyday life and I look forward to including in it your images and thoughts.
Interested? Send me just one image (jpeg, 1MB max.) and a small text (250 words max.) of anything human-made that you consider formally extraordinary, explaining your reasons or making a statement about it. It could be your work or the work of others; contemporary, futuristic or part of the past; high or low, simple or complex; buildings, spaces, objects, experiments, everyday things, artworks, designs…just one image and a small text, so that we keep it brief for many people to participate.
Send your material to form@muchieast.com with your name, contact information and a few words about who you are, what you do and why are you interested in form.”
Also see his blog about OBJECTS.
Collected sources compiled by Yu Morishita.
Someone started a class blog for ADP this year, to foster dialogue across the floor, so join if you haven’t yet. The critics for the class are Enrique Martinez, John Hartmann, Junichi Satoh, Olga Mesa, Peter Tagiuri, and Tulay Atak. E-mail Joseph Combs for more blog information.
SKIN DEEP studio BLOG -“We are looking at the enclosure of buildings, from within and from without. We will be helped along our way by the Danish window & skylight manufacturer Velux, providing us technical expertise and support all semester. Check them out here.”
Click the link above to read a bit of writing on sustainability and material practices by Roselle Curwen (M.Arch 2009) on MATTER PRACTICES. Another snippet can be found here.
RC ON MATTER PRACTICES
(written by Roselle Curwen, M.Arch 2009)
“At an Art and Design School where materials are being explored and used in many ways I would have to say that very little fall under the 3 principles of development; including, no waste, environmentally considered in every stage, and valuable.
In the architecture department most of the materials I use and see are not ecologically responsible, cardboard can be recycled and is a recycled product, although most of the time I see scraps of it in the trash can, not in the recycling can. The laser cutter, exacto blades, scissors, glues are all made of composite materials, cooked materials which are not responsible. Therefore, everything we use in the architecture department is cooked.
Architecture has so many pre-existing ideas of what a topography model is and what material it has to be made of. No one goes beyond what they don’t know and explore another material, we use what we are familiar with. As long as this investigation of alternative, valuable materials is not done then the cycle of using foam core, chip board, cardboard, or any other sheet material will always be used. Perhaps that is the problem; maybe there are not enough sheet materials out there that are eco friendly and responsible.
In addition to the models as a mode of representation in architecture, there is digital drawing. We spend lots of money on ink and paper, which all ends up in the trash at the end of the semester as we clean out our desks. In the computer lab there is a recycle trash which is full of paper at the end of the day. It surprises me how people just toss paper, why not use it for sketching ideas or notes? Printing and drawings are great ways of communicating ideas but, we need to be more responsible with the end life of our drawings.
As the architecture department is full of composite and hybrid materials, I would have to guess that most other departments use them the same way, I would assume the jewelry department to be one that saves all their scrapes. I especially appreciate RISD as a campus informing us to recycle and using recycled materials, containers at the food locales around campus. Providing (selling) stainless steel water canisters instead of plastic bottles. RISD is really trying to make an impact and do their part by reaching out to the students as well.
I think it is important that we start looking at the materials we buy to use as designers and even within our personal lives at the life associated with the material, buy local, and be more ecologically responsible.”
(original context & another entry on the ARCH DEPT.)
Advanced Studio. Critic: Anastasia Congdon.
“The cells in the skin of the human body have the capacity to transform sunlight into vitamin D, an essential nutrient to our thriving and growing. Without it our skeletal system deteriorates, and bones become weak. Certain plants have the ability to ‘breathe’ light as we breathe air. Photosynthesis is a metabolic pathway that uses light to translate carbon dioxide into nourishing organic compounds, releasing oxygen as waste. The class will look at the capacity of the skin of a building to harness light and nourish life within, resulting in case studies for a new building typology: the vertical farm.”
DESIGN PRINCIPLES is the first semester core studio for Architecture and Landscape Architecture Students, B.ARCH and M.ARCH are taught together. You can read what John Maeda has to say about it here.
