Social Media as Disaster Relief

The earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010 dealt a catastrophic blow to an already beleaguered nation.  Almost immediately after the devastating quake mobile phone technology became a critical means of registering and routing requests for specific types of relief aid via text messaging.
 
Social media have begun to develop into powerful tools in areas experiencing natural disasters, civic violence, and other emergency situations.  Using Haiti as the site for exploring the use of interactive telecommunications as a component of response efforts, students were asked to speculate on the possible architectural implications of this emerging technology. 
Responses included establishing a network of communication relay structures that would serve to both virtually and visually link key points in the city, an interactive website to aid people in locating friends and families in times of emergency, and a system that would allow community members the opportunity to voice their thoughts on post-disaster community needs.

Second Sky

In an era of active material investigation, light has become an increasingly important ingredient in the pursuit of optimal and unforeseen material effects. One notable trend has been the adoption of fiber optic principles of bending and extending light to a variety of materials--such as light pipes, acrylic tubes, and mirror ducts. These principles have been harnessed to produce responsive material effects at the scale of a detail, as well as smart day lighting and energy optimization strategies at the scale of a building. This four-day intensive design + research catalyst introduced examples of light behavior and material integration, in addition to methods for developing physical structures that utilize light as a primary ingredient. Participants designed and constructed multivalent lenses and surfaces that filter, modify, and channel light emitted by a mirror duct system called the 3M Light Guide that is being installed in the second-floor south studio space in Rapson Hall.

Stereotomic Structures Catalyst

The goal of this Catalyst "Stereotomic Structures" is to analyze, understand and apply practically some principles of stereotomy in architecture. This Catalyst Studio explores stonecutting properties, rules and reactions of self-supporting structures made of stone. The aim of this Catalyst is to create a vehicle to translate drawing into a spatial map of gravity forces depicted by objects on the space gathered by stereotomic rules.

This course emphasizes very particular constructive characteristics of masonry using skew arches as provocateurs. The lens to observe and develop architecturally these type structures takes a specific problem of stereotomy faced by stone masons in the past when arches were supported on oblique walls. The study of the skew arches focuses on how "the constructive" is the creative engine of the architecture. The goal is to understand history through architectural technology exploring different modes of practice in the discipline of architecture.