ATTENTION

Briefing Booklet Now Available!!

The conference will be held in Room 163 of the Campus Center at the heart of the UMass-Amherst campus. Registration packets will be available beginning at 1:30 pm on Thursday, and from 7:30 a.m. onwards on Friday, outside of Room 163.

Parking is available for free on Thursday after 5 pm in the Campus Center Garage. In your registration packet will be a voucher for a full day of parking in the Campus Center garage on Friday for a discounted rate of $5.

A map of the campus is available here: http://parking.umass.edu/general/map/index.jsp

The reception on Thursday begins at 6 pm; the keynote lecture and panel presentations will begin at 7. Coffee, bagels and pastries will be served starting at 7:45 a.m. Friday outside of Room 163. Lunch will also be provided for all participants.

Finally, we have some places on a bus tour of area housing developments which will leave from the old Trolley Stop on North Pleasant Street (just outside Hasbrouck Laboratory) promptly at 2 pm on Thursday and will return by 4:30. Please RSVP Diana Daly immediately if you are interested
(dsdaly@art.umass.edu)

University of Massachusetts Architecture + Design Program to hold Conference on Innovative Design of Affordable Housing

The Architecture + Design Program at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst will hold a conference, “Housing Within Reach:  Innovations in Affordable Housing Design,” February 16 and 17, 2006.  The conference will bring together national figures in the design and development of affordable housing together with statewide and local experts and activists to examine such as issues as design innovations, zoning issues, new materials and technologies that shape housing costs.

The conference represents the inaugural year of the new Massachusetts Architecture Symposium, which will be held annually at UMass.  It is a product of the new Master of Architecture program, which was recently approved by the Board of Higher Education and represents the first and only professional architecture degree program at a public university in New England.   The program is currently a candidate for accreditation with the National Architecture Accrediting Board.  “Our program is committed to instilling values of community service into professional education,” said Max Page, Associate Professor of Architecture and History and the organizer of the conference. “We thought a focus on one of the most pressing of social needs would be a good way to launch this annual symposium.”

The conference will bring to Amherst important figures in affordable housing design including architect Michael Pyatok, who will offer a keynote address Thursday evening, David Brown, the curator of the HOME House Project, and Larry Sass of MIT.  The conference will also feature the expertise of University of Massachusetts faculty, such as architectural historian Tim Rohan and building and wood technology professor Paul Fisette, and Massachusetts housing experts, including Constance Kruger of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership.

A unique aspect of this conference is that The Cowls Companies has offered to provide a plot of land on which a model home, affordable to middle-income residents of Amherst, will be built according to designs of UMass architecture students. The conference will feed directly into the spring 2006 design studios led by UMass faculty.

The conference will be held on the evening of February 16, and all day on February 17, 2006 at the Marcel Breuer-designed Campus Center at UMass-Amherst.  Registration information, a detailed conference program, directions, and information about accommodations is available at http://www.umass.edu/bmatwt/housing/.  Fees for the conference are $25 for students, $60 for the general public, and $120 for professional architects seeking continuing education credits.  This conference is underwritten by The Cowls Companies, the Western Massachusetts chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Forest Products Society, and the Office of Research at UMass.

Conference Contact: Max Page or David Damery

Sponsors: