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Wednesday, 5 March 2008 | Levent OZLER
The American Institute of Architects Announces the 2008 Recipients of Education Honor Awards
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has awarded the recipients of the 2008 AIA Education Honor Awards for excellence in course development and architectural teaching. The Education Honor Awards program, created in 1988, recognizes collegiate faculty achievements and contributions to education and the discipline of architecture. The awards will be presented to the 2008 recipients in May during the AIA National Convention in Boston.
The jury looked for evidence of exceptional and innovative courses that dealt with broad issues, particularly in cross-disciplinary collaboration and/or within the broader community, contributed to the advancement of architecture education, had the potential to benefit and/or change practice, and promoted models of excellence that could be appropriated by other educators.
The jury for the 2008 Education Honor Awards include: Jury chair Joyce Noe, FAIA, University of Hawaii School of Architecture; Dennis A. Andrejko, AIA, University at Buffalo, the State University of New York, Andrejko and Associates and AIA Board of Directors; Robert A. Ivy Jr., FAIA, Architectural Record/McGraw-Hill; Anne G. Mooney, University of Utah College of Architecture + Planning and Sparano + Mooney Architecture Inc; and Tony P. Vanky, Assoc. AIA, American Institute of Architecture Students.
The 2008 AIA Education Honors Award Recipients
The Learning Barge Project: Students Engaging the Community + Environment
Phoebe Crisman
School of Architecture, University of Virginia
In The Learning Barge Project, architecture, engineering, landscape, education, and history students create a floating field laboratory to teach visitors about renewable power generation, rainwater collection systems, and related sustainable practices. Not only are architecture students learning about ecological systems, the barge will engage 19,000 people each year through interactive K-12 school trips, teacher training, and public workshops.
Support was received from the Virginia Environmental Endowment, Lowe's Educational & Charitable Foundation, US EPA, and NCARB.
Design/habitat 2
David Hinson, FAIA and Stacy Norman, AIA
School of Architecture, Auburn University
The DESIGNhabitat 2 Initiative combines factory-based prefabrication with traditional site-built construction to create a model for disaster relief. "The resultant model is superior design at low cost for Habitat for Humanity," the jury said, and has "allowed students to investigate different modes of both processing design information and building sequencing."
Collaborative Integrative-Interdisciplinary Digital Design Studio
Thomas Fowler
College of Architecture and Environmental Design, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
The Collaborative Integrative-Interdisciplinary Digital-Design Studio ties third- and fourth-year level design and building technology courses to connect students, faculty, and professionals in community design projects with real clients and budgets. Students developed interpersonal skills and produced a variety of constructed results through short-term projects that involved multidisciplinary team collaboration.
Smart Structures-Experiments in Linking Digital and Physical Strategies
Edgar Stach, Associate Professor;
College of Architecture and Design, the University of Tennessee Knoxville
The Smart Structures-Experiments in Linking Digital and Physical Design Strategies lab brings together students and faculty from the U.S., the Netherlands, and Germany to focus on new ideas in digital design and synthetic fabrication. The work clearly shows the potential of global collaboration on a shared digital platform, melding design and manufacturing.
Collaborating universities and professors:
University of Kassel, Germany
Professor Manfred Grohmann, Dipl.-Ing. Oliver Tessmann, Dr.-Ing. Gregor Zimmermann, Dipl.-Des. Markus Schein
University of Delft, Netherlands
Professor Bige Tuncer, Professor Andrew Borgart, Dip.-Ing. Paul de Ruiter
Design & Democracy
Peter Aeschbacher
Department of Architecture, the Pennsylvania State University
In Design & Democracy, first-year students design, build, and install temporary projects that will foster engagement with their designs as commentaries on social issues. This is a great introduction for first year students to consider the relationship between societal and architectural realms, the jury noted.
An Incomplete Curriculum for Transformation
Ritu Bhatt, Assistant Professor, Renee Cheng, AIA, Head of School, Associate Professor, John Comazzi, Assistant Professor, Ozayr Saloojee, Assistant Professor
Marc Swackhamer, Assistant Professor
School of Architecture, College of Design, University of Minnesota
An Incomplete Curriculum for Transformation explores the possibilities of an "evolving curricular structure" that builds on tradition, embraces challenges, and expects change. The jury cited the holistic goals of the program-collaboration with professionals, coordinated design studios, infusion of workshops, and focus on critical thinking-as worthy of recognition. It is "ambitious and out of the box."
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