Last week’s Powered by PechaKucha Event, Reveal: The Work Behind Our Professors, uncovered the oeuvre of Waterloo Architecture professors in bite-sized presentations of “20 images x 20 seconds.” Professors presented recent, current, and upcoming work that ranged from urbanism to structures to exhibitions and beyond (think fiction, building science, art, and military huts). Below, in the spirit of conciseness embodied in the PechaKucha, you will find a one-sentence summary, along with one image, of each of the eleven presentations. Enjoy these brief encounters and consider starting a conversation if they pique your curiosity.
Marie-Paule Macdonald: Ladder Labyrinth
A competition entry for the Quartier des Spectacles in Montréal incorporates Guy Debord’s critique of the society of the spectacle by demarcating routes of protest; ecological, social, and sound axes; laneways; and festivals, all while using an anti-branding strategy (with dAb, a collaboration with Waterloo Architecture alumni from blackLAB architects inc. and other team members).
Terri Meyer Boake: I am writing books
A multi-year study of diagrid structures from across the globe resulted in Diagrid Structures: Systems / Connections / Details, a book that considers the design, scale, and constructability, among other factors, of diagonal steel grid structures (to be followed by more books – Architecturally Exposed Structural Steel: Specifications, Connections, Details in 2015 and Complex Steel Structures: Non-Orthogonal Geometries in Building with Steel in 2016).
Maya Przybylski: From Metaphor to Model: Expanding Ecologically Informed Design
A shift from landscape urbanism, which uses metaphors of complexity in understandings of site, to ecological urbanism, which uses tools of ecological science in addition to computation and design, is demonstrated in an ongoing project for the “white belt” of suburban and indeterminate land inside the Greenbelt of Southern Ontario.
Mona El Khafif: City 1:1
Initiatives at various scales, such as (OP)space, the iLounge (below), 10 Mile Garden, and Fort Mason design competition, deploy design as a strategy to engage urban issues.
ILounge, instan, interim, interaction. Zero1 Biennial and Northern Sparks 2012. Credits: Mona El Khafif and Marcella Del Signore with students from URBANlab.
Rick Haldenby: Agency
The rich built heritage and design accomplishments within Waterloo region will be highlighted in an extensive series of exhibitions this summer called BUILDING WATERLOO REGION, including Ex Industria at Design at Riverside and Architectural Excellence: Idea and Execution at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, among many others.
Donald McKay: The Chess Game
“THE CHESS GAME is a story of lost work, and the questions that arise around such loss.”
Ryszard Sliwka: Untimely Fabrications
Works at three scales (S, M, L/XL) encompass the practice of painting; a study of Temple Works, a former Victorian Flax factory in Leeds (1838-43); and investigations into “the extreme pressure placed on landscape, infrastructure and density in the GTA.”
Andrew Levitt: New Studio
The use of technology combined with compassion, which is a major area of current scientific research, can result in formidable design accomplishments, as demonstrated by the Sanergy project in Kenya – “as the heart opens, the mind follows.”
John Straube: Building Science: Making Buildings Better
“Particularly geeky and attractive” test huts in locations around the globe, as well as a sophisticated lab climate chamber, assist in generating new knowledge that can be used in the evidence-based design of better buildings.
Philip Beesley: Epiphyte Chamber
Away installing his newest work in Berlin, Philip sent in a video of Epiphyte Chamber, part of the Hylozoic Series that was recently announced the Jury Winner of the Architizer A+ Awards in the Architecture +Art Plus Category.
Robert Jan van Pelt: The Last Shall be the First: Reflections on the Soldier’s Hut and the Inmate’s Barrack
The architectural history of the military hut is traced through its transformation and transition into the prefabricated inmate’s barrack in the concentration camps of WWII.
Photograph by Hans Citroen.
