The Re:POST Symposium is scheduled for Tuesday, March 17, 2015 beginning at 1:00 pm and asks, how does academic design and research disseminate into ongoing professional exploration? Over the course of the afternoon, three panels will explore, through presentations and discussions, opportunities regarding post-thesis development beyond the date of defence. The presenters and respondents come from diverse backgrounds and have transitioned from thesis research into various forms of practice. This week, we’ll be introducing the practitioners contributing to this year’s Re:POST Symposium.
Reminder: graduates students, don’t forget to sign up to present your work to this panel during the workshop portion of the symposium.
PANEL 1 pairs Dan Adams of Landing Studio in Boston and Fionn Byrne of Office of Pedonic Operations in Toronto who both interrogate the intersection of technology and ecology. Their projects and research extend across scales exploring conditions of post-industrial landscapes, urban infrastructures, and public installations.
Presenter: Dan Adams
Thesis: Dan received a Bachelor of Science in Architecture at the University of Michigan in 2002. In 2005, he earned his Masters of Architecture at Harvard University, where he received the AIA Medal and Kelly Thesis Prize, as well as the Druker Research Fellowship for ongoing research about global production and transport of salt and the unique integration of this industry with communities and ecology. His thesis, “Landing, Industry in the Structure of Places” was a study and series of design proposals for negotiating the intersection of global industries with urban environments, and has served as part of the conceptual foundation for Landing Studio. The site of this study was Chelsea, Massachusetts. After graduating, Dan extended the work of his thesis in Chelsea into a project to convert a petroleum tank farm into a shared salt dock and public park called the P.O.R.T. In 2013, the dock commenced salt distribution operations. In 2014, the public park was opened. In Fall 2015, a new operations headquarters building and second park will be completed within the terminal.
Practice: Dan is a founding partner of Landing Studio. Landing Studio is an architecture, design, and research practice whose work continues to explore the intersection of global industry with urban contexts. Since 2005, Landing Studio has developed projects with port facilities and highways in Boston and New York through the design of shared industrial/public park landscapes, light installations, festivals, exhibitions, tours, and industrial/community operations agreements. Landing Studio’s research includes the study of port facilities, ocean transport, mining operations, and industrial ecologies around the world.
In 2006-2007, Dan co-taught design studios at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design on the topic of mixed maritime industrial and urban development in the port of Belfast, N. Ireland. In 2010, he began as a Lecturer at Northeastern University School of Architecture and in 2011 became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Landscape.
Respondent: Fionn Byrne
Thesis: Fionn completed a Bachelor of Physical Education and Health at the University of Toronto before graduating from the Master of Landscape Architecture program in 2006. His research and design interests depart from the convergence of technology and ecology; he is most intrigued by how velocity and information interacts with biological systems.
Practice: Fionn previously worked for the Planning Group at HOK in Toronto and is currently Director of the Office of Pedonic Operations. His writing is found published in Bracket 2: Goes Soft and explores the increasingly overt interplay between military operations and the environmental crisis. In his own words, Fionn says, “My thesis asked many questions. After the thesis, I spent four years narrowing down that question. At this moment in my career, I am starting to be satisfied with the question and can think about finding answers.” Currently, the Office of Pedonic Operations is pursuing research into the Oil Sands with funding from the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation. Fionn is an adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture as well as a sessional instructor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto.
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