ARC Outreach

Different from currently ongoing themes such as sustainability, performance and formal innovation, this symposium focuses on a wider narrative which sets architecture back in its creative position through engagement with two themes evoked by Italo Calvino in his Six Memos for the New Millennium: Exactitude (as a first symposium) and Multiplicity (as a second symposium planned for 2022). 

The following three questions were the focus of the Exactitude symposium:

1. In which ways can the creative process of architecture respond to the contemporary demand for greater exactitude on phenomenal, formal, spatial, and tectonic levels while also meeting its ethical obligations and exercising its imaginative capacities?
2. How do recent developments in the field activate the architect’s imagination to invent new images, concepts, and ideas? Is it still possible for the architect to be defined as an individual artist, with his or her “signature style,” when the medium involves so many layers of technology and collaborative work?
3. Ultimately, could today’s challenges contribute to the development of a new language of architecture, one that would combine the poetic imagination, meaningful action, and a sustained pattern for practice that is relevant, artistic, and tangible?

The Exactitude symposium was scheduled over a two-day period with four and five-hour scheduled lectures and presentations, respectively.  Apart from organizers and academics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the first day of the symposium included lecture presentations by Chris Benfey, Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Mark Wigley, Eric Höweler and Francesca Hughes. Similarly, the second day day included lecture presentations by Alicia Imperiale, Antoine Picon, Sunil Bald, Teresa Stoppani, LOT-EK, Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano with Thomas de Monchaux, and Cynthia Davidson. Participation was open to public and participants had an opportunity to engage with questions and to participate in panel discussions. 

Conference/Event: Symposium

Event Date: 2020

Organizing Team: Pari Riahi, Michael Davis and Laure Katsaros

Over the course of an intensive two-week January term design session, students met with many local professionals, including architects, landscape architects, policy makers from local municipalities, specifiers, builders, and building scientists, to understand the opportunities and challenges of developing small, energy efficient alternatives to conventional housing. Ultimately, through a collaborative process, the students decided to design an approximately 300 square foot micro-house that could serve as an Accessory Dwelling Unit. Simultaneously, they articulated a series of ambitious priorities for the project including net-zero energy, net-zero carbon, affordability, accessibility, social and climate equity, and health.

The proposed design deemed the “HyggeHaus,” is a modest and efficient studio-style dwelling unit, inspired by the popular Danish concept, Hggye, which refers to coziness and comfort. Accordingly, the students intend for the design to enable a feeling of contentment in a rather small space. To enhance the unit's potential impact and appeal, the students designed this studio to be a basic module that could, in theory, be expanded to an either one or two bedroom dwelling unit to meet different or changing occupant needs. Designed around relatively conventional wood stud framing and wood trusses with both cavity and outboard insulation, the HyggeHaus is net-zero energy and employs recycled and low carbon materials throughout. In lieu of a conventional concrete foundation, the house will sit on foundation screws for low impact.  It also features an innovative prefab construction system that will allow it to be repeatably shipped, assembled, and disassembled. 
 

Innovation can begin with conjecture, with a searching for more effective solutions, or with an application to currently unknown or unarticulated needs. Innovation scholarship examines the personal intellectual habits that support new ideas, such as openness and exploratory behavior, as well as the circumstances behind the places in which creativity flourishes, such as support for cross-disciplinary fertilization and access to resources. The 2019 BTES conference explored the role of technology education and curriculum in cultivating these intellectual habits in our students (and ourselves) and in creating the organizational spaces in which the future of practice will be shaped. Sessions presented exemplary proposals of research and pedagogical applications that explore innovative practices and integrative thinking in the academy and profession.

• https://scholarworks.umass.edu/btes/vol2019/iss1/56/

Conference/Event: Conference

Event Date: 2019

Organizing Team: Caryn Brause, Peggi Clouston, Naomi Darling

Associate Professor Ray Mann's Spring 2019 Graduate Studio 2 partnered with the Kestrel Land Trust to brainstorm possible renovations strategies for their newly acquired property on Bay Road in south Amherst.  Known as the Epstein House, the sound, but rambling former residence needs a substantial makeover to become the new headquarters for the dynamic conservation non-profit. The structure sits in a bucolic, wooded setting overlooking a magnificent pond with direct views of the Holyoke Range. Over the course of five weeks, the eight students analyzed the site, measured and modeled the building, and explored ideas about how the building might be retrofitted or altered while also creating a new identity that would not only improve space usage but reflect the organization's values. Sustainably-based strategies included creating work spaces with good access to natural light, ventilation and views; indoor/outdoor spaces for both visitation and work; shaping outdoor spaces for a welcoming arrival, gardens, and accessible pathways around the site.
 
Landscape Architecture Lecturer Jane Thurber provided expertise for the challenging site, and Boston-based alumna Rachel Beesen (M.Arch '17) offered many helpful insights as well.  The Kestrel Land Trust members were highly impressed by the students’ accomplishments, and the ideas and work generated will substantively help them in their next stage of fund-raising.

• https://www.umass.edu/architecture/news/studio-partners-local-organization

Conference/Event: Collaboration

Event Date: 2019

Organizing Team: Ray Mann, Kestrel Land Trust, and students: Brenden Baitch, Stephen Fink, Nate Kraus-Malett, Tara Pearce, Morgan Sawyer, Connor Slover, Elain Tang, Andrew Weuling.