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WINTER 2012
Awards Banquet - April 11th,2012
6:00pm - Loft
2012 Projects Review Exhibition
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 - 7:00pm
Opening Reception:
Tuesday, April 17 at 6:30 pm
6:00pm - Loft
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 - 7:00pm
Opening Reception:
Tuesday, April 17 at 6:30 pm
Hours: Tues-Thurs 12-8 pm, Fri 12-5 pm, Sat 10 am-5 pm, Sun 1:30 - 4:30 pm.
The annual Projects Review exhibition celebrates exemplary student work of the
University of Waterloo School of Architecture, featuring projects drawn from the
undergraduate Design Studios and Masters Thesis program between May 2011 and
April 2012. The selected undergraduate work includes both final design projects
and preparatory design exercises from the first to fourth year of the Bachelor
of Architectural Studies program as well as outstanding Graduate thesis work
drawn from the professional Master of Architecture program.
The exhibition provides the school community and the public the opportunity to
see the architectural imagination, creative design solutions and drawing and
modelling techniques explored by students in the architecture program.
Cambridge Galleries' exhibitions are free and open to the public.
MICHAEL STACEY LECTURE
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 - 7:00pm
ARRISCRAFT LECTURE SERIES – Michael Stacey, Wednesday March 28, 7:00pm
The first speaker in WATERLOO ARCHITECTURE'S Arriscraft Lecture Series 2012 season is MICHAEL STACEY, Chair in Architecture and Director of the Architecture and Tectonics Research Group at the University of Nottingham, Director of Michael Stacey Architects, and Research Professor with the University of Waterloo.
Michael Stacey's professional life combines practice, research, writing and teaching. His portfolio of projects and products demonstrates a commitment to design excellence, which has been recognised by national and international awards, including twice winning the Shapemakers Award for the innovative use of aluminium, a Bureau International du Beton Award and an Award form the Campaign for the Preservation of Rural England. Key projects include: East Corydon Station, Thames Water Tower, Enschede Integrated Transport Interchange, Art House in Chelsea, Expertex Textile Centrum and Ballingdon Bridge. He is the author of a wide range of publications and books including Component Design, 2001, Digital Fabrication, 2004 and Concrete: a studio design guide, 2011. For the International Aluminium Institute he authored the exemplar case study architecture of the Future Builds with Aluminium website, http://greenbuilding.world-aluminium.org/. Themes within his research include: architecture as a discipline, digital fabrication, form finding, offsite manufacture, façade systems, tectonics, durability, emergent materials, zero carbon architecture and human ecology.
Concrete Poetry: Tectonics, Ecology and Architecture
The lecture is based on Professor Michael Stacey's experience as a practicing architect and research undertaken specifically in the preparation of Concrete: a studio design guide, RIBA Publishing, 2011. The section on Sverre Fehn is based on field research conducted with architecture students from the University of Nottingham, which included a measure survey of Hamar Museum. This research will feed into to a new book Concrete Poetry: Fehn, Lewerentz and Utzon.
ROLF SEIFERT LECTURE
Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 6:30pm
Rolf Seifert was a born Canadian citizen in Heidelberg, Germany in 1962, relocating to Canada with his family at the age of two, growing up in Pickering and in West Hill, at the east end of Toronto.
He studied architecture in both Toronto and Karlsruhe, Germany, completing a Bachelor of Architecture degree at the University of Toronto in 1986. He worked at David Fujiwara Architect in Toronto from 1986 to 1989 involved with small and medium sized projects, including the Chiat-Day advertising agency offices in Toronto, in collaboration with Frank Gehry Associates. During this period he also worked on exhibition design projects for the Royal Ontario Museum. In 1989 he became a registered member of the Ontario Association of Architects, after which he spent a year travelling throughout Europe and North Africa. In 1990 joined the firm Szyszkowitz-Kowalski Architects in Austria, where he worked as design architect responsible for a number of well-published housing projects and competitions, and went on to manage the firm's office in Graz until 2003.
He became an Austrian citizen and established his own practice in Graz in 2004, involved with residential, industrial and small to large-scale commercial projects in Austria and Germany. A hallmark of the practice is the use of finely detailed solid natural materials and the orchestration of light and simple form. The practice has recently completed renovations and additions to a large historic department store in the old centre of Graz, during which the entire building was reconstructed, including restoration and reproduction of historic elements of the original building fabric. Research in he practice has focused on alternative wood construction systems for residential building, innovative use of materials and experimental furniture and lighting design. The work of the practice has been recognized with the Austrian Architect's Association Award, the Austrian Wood Council Award and the Austrian Brick Association Award. Rolf Seifert has frequently lectured, given tours and acted as guest critic, throughout Europe and is currently on the Board of Directors of the Association of Architects for Styria and Carinthia. Parallel to his work in Austria he is now teaching as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Waterloo.
MICHAEL GREEN LECTURE
Thursday, March 1, 2012 - 7:00pm
Michael Green is a founding partner of Vancouver's McFarlane|Green|Biggar Architecture and Design. Prior to MGB he was a senior associate at Architectura and previous, an associate with the office of Cesar Pelli. He is a graduate of Cornell University.
COME UP TO MY ROOM
January 27 - 29, 2012
Several of the chairs from Arch 365, under the direction of Professor Elizabeth English, will be part of the annual Come Up To My Room event. Several graduates will also be exhibiting. Please join in and support our student work!
Each year since 2008, CUTMR curators travel to the University of Waterloo School of Architecture to select 3-5 chairs from the school’s innovative Chair Project, a course led by Professor Elizabeth English. Combining design and structural analysis, an idea (spurred by the students’ selection of a luminary to guide their project) and its physical manifestation, each of these transformable chairs are hand-made by third year architecture students working collaboratively with a classmate.
We are pleased to announce the chairs that will be in this year’s show:
A chair for Robert Service by Fraser Plaxton & Kunaal Mohan
Jackson Pollock chair by Piper Bernbaum & Meaghan Murray
Leon Trotsky chair by Gwendolyn Lovsted & Benjamin van Nostrand
Zimoun chair by Jaewoo Chon & Antariksh Tandon
more information and schedule of events
BOAKE + VAN PELT - BOOK LAUNCH
Thursday, February 9, 2012 - 6:30pm
Come join with us in celebrating the launch of two books by UWSA Faculty Members! Lecture to be followed by a reception in the Atrium.
AT THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS:
A Concentration Camp Diary
edited by Robert Jan van Pelt
David Koker was born in Amsterdam in 1921 and was transported to the Vught concentration camp in 1943. Unlike Anne Frank, who had received a diary as a birthday present, David had no book in which to write. During the first month of his imprisonment he wrote his entries on whatever scraps of paper he was able to find. Later he used the exercise books supplied for the children who, after a short sojourn in Vught, were sent on to German-occupied Poland to be murdered. With the help of civilian workers overseeing the prisoner workshops, David was able to send almost a year's worth of entries to Amsterdam. In June 1944 David was deported to Auschwitz. Sent on in August to the Langenbielau camp in Silesia, he was included in a prisoner transport to Dachau in February 1945. He did not survive this journey.
Robert Jan van Pelt was born and educated in the Netherlands. He is university professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada, where he teaches in the School of Architecture. He has published widely on the history of Auschwitz, the Holocaust, and Holocaust denial.
David Koker's diary is a rare and notable account of the life of a Jewish prisoner in a German concentration camp. First brought to public attention when the Dutch historian Jacob Presser— Koker's history teacher in high school— quoted from it in The Destruction of the Dutch Jews, the diary became a part of the Dutch literary canon when it was published in 1977 as Dagboek geschreven in Vught (Diary Written in Vught). Weaving poetry with powerful insights into the emotional life of a camp prisoner, At the Edge of the Abyss is remarkable for its combination of historical significance and penetrating eloquence. During his time in the Vught concentration camp, the twenty-one-year-old David recorded his observations, thoughts, and feelings almost daily. He mercilessly probed the abyss that opened around him and, at times, within himself. David's diary covers almost a year, charting his life in Vught as it developed and revealing his spiritual evolution as a writer and poet. While imprisoned, David was able to smuggle some 73,000 words out of the camp to his best friend Karel van het Reve. With an informative introduction, annotations, and a biographical appendix by Robert Jan van Pelt, At the Edge of the Abyss offers an immediate and wholly original look into the life of a concentration camp prisoner.
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/95282/life-inside-the-camps/
UNDERSTANDING STEEL DESIGN: An Architectural Design Manual
Text and photos: Terri Meyer Boake | Technical Illustrations: Vincent Hui
Hundreds of steel structures have been observed, analyzed and appraised for this book, published by Birkhäuser, informed by many years of experience in teaching. Referencing buildings from around the world by firms like Foster, Gehry, Murphy/Jahn, Andreu, Libeskind, Pelli, ARUP and many others, best practices in steel design are explained, using exclusive in-depth construction photographs by the author. These are complemented by technical illustrations created to look more closely at systems and details, as well as drawings supplied by fabricators that allow greater insight into a method of working with current digital drawing tools.
Understanding Steel Design treats all the classic themes, problems and solutions of materials and construction methods, supporting structure and shell, elements and connections, fire prevention and sustainability. Particular attention is paid to the interplay with other materials such as glass and wood, to requirements for Architecturally Exposed Steel Structures and to innovative systems for load-bearing structures (diagrids), in an overall approach to understand how to design and build with steel from the perspective of its architectural applications.
Understanding Steel Design additional information
LAPOINTE MAGNE ET ASSOCIÉS (1992- 2012)
January 26 - May 5, 2012
La Maison de l'architecture du Québec est heureuse de présenter LAPOINTE MAGNE ET ASSOCIÉS (1992- 2012) vus par Marie-Paule Macdonald : Dialogues avec la ville en transformation
VERNISSAGE JEUDI 26 JANVIER 2012 18H Cette exposition monographique doublée de sa publication poursuit sa série des MONOGRAPHIES MAQ par laquelle la Maison de l'architecture du Québec veut analyser en profondeur le travail d'architectes québécois marquants des années 1995-2015, et mieux les situer et comprendre dans le contexte international.
La Maison de l'Architecture du Quebec 181,
rue Saint-Antoine Ouest Montréal, QC 2HZ 1H2
FALL 2011
ROME SHOW 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011 - 6:00pm
The annual showing of 4A student work for the Rome term IN ROME will take place at the Studio in Trestevare. Piazza San Appollonia 3. Rome.
PATHS TO PRACTICE
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Paths to Practice is a day long event hosted by the School of Architecture and Co-operative Education to bring together students, professionals, faculty, and co-operative education in exploration of current Architectural practice and employment opportunities.
FALL OPEN HOUSE
Saturday, November 5, 2011
This event is for all students that may be interested in applying for acceptance into our Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Pre Professional Program for Fall 2012 admission.
NUIT BLANCHE 2011 - TORONTO
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Current students and graduates of UWSA are hosting 4 installations at this year's Scotiabank Nuit Blanche that is being held in Toronto, Ontario starting at 7pm on Saturday, October 1. Click on the thumbnails below for additional images and information.
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TESTtubes |
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AirSHIP
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Through the Gorilla Glass |
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Film, Vinyl, Paper Alan Webb, Christine Leu |
TWENTY + CHANGE OPENING AND EXHIBITION
September 30 - October 16, 2011
PUBLIC OPENING:
Friday, September 30, 2011, from 6pm - 10pm
Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
Part of the Visual Arts at Harbourfront Centre Fall Exhibitions 2011
Twenty + Change is a biennial exhibition and publication series dedicated to promoting emerging Canadian designers working in architecture, landscape architecture and urban design who are pushing the boundaries of their discipline. This year UWSA is represented by the firms of McMinn + Janzen Studio, PARTISANS and Great Lake Studio.
FUTURE PUBLIC ENVIRONMENT CHARRETTE
September 29 - 30, 2011
WATERLOO ARCHITECTURE with Centre for Situated Technologies, SUNY Buffalo and Waterloo Knowledge Integration
"Megacities are our future. But these vast systems are not carefully
designed superstructures. They are aggregations of building developments
that spread like weeds over already stressed infrastructures. Megacities
offer the greatest challenges, and also the greatest challenges for
humankind in the 21-century. With the appropriate infrastructures supporting
them, combined technologies could form qualitatively new kinds of engagement
between buildings and the urban environment. Might a next generation of
functional vertical gardens could be colonized by microorganisms and
life-like chemistries that assist with the lifecycles of buildings, able to
process waste and make biofuels using local resources? Could structural
bones of the building could be kept in place and pruned as fit for purpose
frameworks, re-wrapped with living facades? Perhaps architecture need not be
limited by inert surfaces that create a barrier between people and the
environment but can directly engage through active interfaces that act as
vast synthetic soils. These could be maintained under surveillance by
'smart' microfluidics monitoring systems and robotic 'gardeners'. Perhaps
these future systems could even offer its inhabitants positive emotional
experiences with feeling similar to the experience of 'being close to
nature'.
The grand vision of achieving positive human development in the 21 century
will require effective coordination between disciplines, institutions,
cultures and geographical regions. The pressing concerns that affect us all
are many and varied - and require humanity to perform at its very best if we
are to secure a long term partnership with this unstable earth that is our
home. "
-Dr. Rachel Armstrong, Global TED Fellow, University of Greenwich
Students from Waterloo Architecture, SUNY Buffalo Architecture and
University of Waterloo's Knowledge Integration will join in a design
charrette entitled Future Public Environment on Thursday and Friday,
September 29 and 30 at the School of Architecture, Cambridge ON. The session
will develop visions of future cities, sketching possibilities for urban
spaces, building envelopes, and interior environments. Supported by loft
space, samples shared by lead participants, and a computational render-farm
within Waterloo Architecture, students will develop models and drawings that
attempt to search for emerging qualities in future public environments. Lead
participants include Rachel Armstrong (TED/Greenwich), Rob Gorbet (KI,
Waterloo) Jordan Geiger (CAST, SUNY Buffalo) Mark Cichy (Mark Cichy
Associates) and Philip Beesley (Waterloo Architecture). Interactive
electronics may be included, drawing on work in progress from the PBAI
studio and the CAST centre, and artificial-life chemistry will be
demonstrated with Dr. Rachel Armstrong's research.
We want to investigate how concepts of interactivity and responsiveness can
suggest new ways of thinking the relationship between the building and its
environment at the scale and potential future spaces of megacities. Instead
of upholding the traditional autonomy of architectural artefacts, we ask how
ideas of interfacing and mechanized behaviour can allow reconception of core
architectural terms such as context, shelter, and functional programmes for
architecture. Turbulent forces impel new thinking of sustainable solutions
for our built environment. How do these challenge the way we think and
design space? How can we challenge our understanding of sustainability to
become part of the intellectual thinking and culture of architecture? What
new forms and roles of density and public interaction could appear?
Accompanying the event are two public presentations: a lecture on Thursday
mid-day with Dr. Rachel Armstrong, and a panel discussion at 6:30 pm on
Friday, September 30th in the main auditorium of the school, hosted by the
Design at Riverside Gallery. Curator Esther E. Shipman will introduce the
panelists Rachel Armstrong, Rob Gorbet and Philip Beesley , joined by
moderator Omar Khan, lead of the Situated Technologies group and Director of
the School of Architecture, SUNY Buffalo.
The results of the session will be published online. The session is hosted
by the Future Public Environment Master's Studio with Waterloo students
Marta Kubacki, Eisa Lee, Miriam Ho, and Krystal O'Shea.
Location:
School of Architecture, University of Waterloo at Cambridge
7 Melville Street, Cambridge ON
Third Floor Loft Gallery
PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE
Thursday, Sept. 29th
9:30 am: introductions and charrette launch
10:00 am 12 noon: collective and individual design explorations
12:30-2:00 pm: Dr. Rachel Armstrong lecture, School Auditorium
1:30 pm through evening: design explorations continue
Friday, Sept. 30th
9:30 am-6 pm: design explorations and group presentations
6:30 pm: Panel discussion, Rob Gorbet, Rachel Armstrong, Philip Beesley,
with Omar Khan, moderator, School Auditorium
How to Participate
The event is open to architectural designers with wide skills interested in
contributing to an open-ended exercise of creating collective visions for
the future. No special experience is required. Facility in digital
modelling, drawing and writing are assets. There is no charge for
participating in the charrette, but we will ask for commitment for the full
duration beginning Thursday morning 29 Sept, 9:30 am through to Friday
evening 30 Sept. If you are interested in participating, please send a
brief note to Philip Beesley, pbeesley@uwaterloo.ca. Space will be limited
to twenty participants.
Participant links:
http://www.ted.com/speakers/rachel_armstrong.html
http://www.ki.uwaterloo.ca/GorbetRob.htm
http://www.philipbeesleyarchitect.com/
http://www.ap.buffalo.edu/architecture/people/geiger.asp
http://www.markcichy.com/about/
http://www.ap.buffalo.edu/architecture/people/khan.asp
THOMAS SEEBOHM GRAND RIVER RUN
Sunday, September 25, 2011
In honour of Professor Thomas Seebohm's active spirit and pursuit of excellence in body and mind we would like to announce this year's Thomas Seebohm Grand River Run. A minimum required sponsorship of $50 will be raised by each participant with proceeds going towards the Seebohm Memorial Scholarship Fund. The event is open to all UW students, faculty and staff as well as members of the Cambridge/KW community.
Cyclists in the 2008 Grand River Run - photo taken by Scott Proudfoot
The event starts at the School of Architecture at 9 am.
9-10am - registration, stretching session, breakfast and speeches
10am - start off
12:30pm - BBQ lunch on the terrace!
Participants may choose to walk, run or cycle.
Cyclists - 42 km (to Paris and back)
Runners - 21km
Walkers - 10 km
Sponsorship forms and general information is now available at the Architecture Main Office. To register a $10 registration fee is required (cash only). This money will go towards the purchase of your event T-shirt, food and funds to run the event.
Volunteers are still needed to run the stations along the route. Please sign up on the sheets posted around the school.
Further questions or online queries should be sent to the Fitness Coordinator!
For additional information, please visit our Facebook page!