[Editors] MIT SA+P News: April 2014

Tue Apr 1 13:32:04 EDT 2014

MacVicar Faculty Fellow

                                             Dancing Again

                                             Death of a Syrian Dream

                                             Muslim Hipsters' Backlash

                                             Garcia-Abril on Innovation

                                             Vertical Timeline of the City

                                             The Eye is a Door

SA+P NEWS: April 2014

This is a pretty big deal.

SA+P has received a $1M grant from the Mellon Foundation to help create a global teaching collaborative for architectural history.

Headed here by Mark Jarzombek, the collaborative will create free online classroom materials for teachers of architectural history at the survey level.

Scholars will produce and assemble an array of teaching materials and tools including maps, images, drawings, syllabi, teaching modules, discussion sets, etc.

Jarzombek, who recently taught A Global History of Architecture as a Massive Open Online Course, and who has authored two books on the subject, says he sees this challenge as an opportunity to transform history education at its roots by reshaping its teaching at the survey level.

You can read more about it here.

Enjoy.

__________________________________
Scott Campbell
Director of Communications 
MIT School of Architecture + Planning
77 Massachusetts Avenue 7-231
Cambridge MA  02139 
sap-info at mit.edu 

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QUOTES OF NOTE

Our responsibility at MIT is not to prepare students for practice

Nader Tehrani, talking of how an MIT education sets the stage for transforming architectural practice from the bottom up, rather than preparing students to adapt to the way things already are; "so that," he says, "you're prepared for the way things are evolving." Architect Magazine, (video).
That's not the big challenge.

Kent Larson talking about designing green buildings.  "We know how to do that," he says; "we're looking at how we can dramatically increase the liveability of cities while at the same time reduce resource consumption." Sourceable, March 19.
You don't bring people from outside to change the community. You change it from inside.

Gilad Rosenzweig (MCP'13) explaining the thinking behind his idea for a high-tech incubator in Boston's Dudley Square; set to open its doors in July, Smarter in the City will provide resources to a select group of entrepreneurs. Slice of MIT, March 21.
I've been called almost everything so I don't mind it.

Albert Saiz talking about mispronunciations of his name (properly pronounced Scythe). Saiz was discussing his research into the wage-earning advantages of speaking a second language –in the US, only about a 2% increase; in other countries, if the language is English, the differential can be as much as 20%. Freakonomics, March 5.
I just had a laugh attack.

Azra Akšamija looking at a photo from a video work that was part of her recent show in SA+P's Wolk Gallery. For the video she dressed in different costumes as an archeologist from the future; in the photo, she wears Batman-inspired glasses and a crisp airline attendant hat, her expression austere, but there were barely-visible tears of laughter in her eyes. MIT News, March 20.

NEW FEATURES ONLINE

Dean Adèle Naudè Santos to Step Down
Tenure Marked by Advances in Art, Academics and Urbanism

Introducing Ken Goldsmith
Assistant Dean for Finance and Administration

Hans Scharoun: Architect and Visionary
An Exhibit Including Rarely-Seen Watercolors From the 1940s

Wayne Vesti Andersen: 1928 - 2014
A Seminal Role in Developing the Arts at MIT

Media Lab Auditorium Named for Alexander W. Dreyfoos
Renowned Inventor, Philanthropist and Advocate for the Media Lab

NEWS FLASHES

Lareese Hall has joined the MIT Libraries as the Architecture and Art Librarian serving the Architectural Design, Computation, Building Technology, and History, Theory, and Criticism groups in the Department of Architecture; she will also handle information services related to images, including resource selection, reference and visual literacy instruction, and will coordinate the Rotch exhibits program. She can be reached at 617.258.5593.

Jonathan Krones a PhD candidate active in SA+P's building technology program, has been awarded a Schmidt-MacArthur fellowship, which supports innovative approaches to transitioning to a more sustainable economy; Krones' research evaluates the possibilities of recycling the billions of tons of industrial residual waste generated in the US each year. (See a video here.) He and his advisor, John Fernandez, will attend a weeklong workshop this summer at Cranfield University in the UK.

SELECTED PRESS CLIPS

Full Listing: http://sap.mit.edu/news_events/press_clips

A Truly Inspirational Tech Story from MIT (Ed Tech Magazine) Kelvin Doe, a 15-year-old from Sierra Leone, has built FM transmitters, generators and batteries, all with spare parts he found in the trash. This incredibly talented young man recently spent time at the Media Lab working with engineers on some of his designs.

MIT Students Win US Department of Energy Better Buildings Challenge (MIT News) A team of eight MIT undergraduate and graduate students won two awards in this year's U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Better Buildings Case Competition, out of more than 150 students from across the country.

Global firm acquires The Freelon Group (The Herald Sun) Phil Freelon's firm, involved in the design of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C., has agreed to be acquired by a global firm.

Who's More Famous Than Jesus? (The New York Times) Pantheon, a new project from the Macro Connections group in the Media Lab, has collected and analyzed data on cultural production from 4,000 B.C. to 2010.

These Smartshoes Help the Blind Navigate City Streets (Gizmodo) Designed by Anirudh Sharma, who works at the Media Lab, and Krispian Lawrence, these shoes work as haptic navigation devices that connect to your smartphone.

EXHIBITS

Sonia Almeida: Forward/Play/Pause
Through April 6, 2014, Hayden Gallery.

Hans Op de Beeck: Staging Silence (2)
Through April 6, 2014, Hayden Gallery.

Hourly Directional: Helen Mirra and Ernst Karel 
Through April 6, 2014, Reference Gallery.

List Projects: Pauline Curnier Jardin
Through May 11, 2014, Bakalar Gallery.

Hans Scharoun: Architect and Visionary
Through August 15, 2014, Wolk Gallery.

EVENTS

Many of our regular lecture series are in various stages of planning. Our full online calendar is always available here.

April 3
Architecture Lecture | Sylvia Lavin: Creative Space. 
 6:30 – 8:00 pm, 7-429

April 4
History Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art Lecture: John May: Does Drawing Have a Future?. 5:30 – 7:00 pm, 7-429

April 7
Architecture | Building Technology Lecture Series | Marci Uihlein: Discovering Structural Integration. 12:30 – 2:00 pm, 7-429

Around the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus: New Data on the Role of Markets in the "Islamic City" of the Middle Ages. 
6:00 – 7:30 pm, 3-133

ACT Lecture | Yvonne Rainer: Where's the Passion? Where's the Politics?. 7:00 – 9:00 pm, ACT Cube

April 8
Architectural Design Series: Dinner with the In-Laws | Alexander D'Hooghe and Mark Goulthorpe. 5:30 – 7:30 pm, 7-429

April 10
Scaling Infrastructure. 3:15 – 7:30 pm, E14-674

April 11
Aga Khan Conference: The Orangi Pilot Project and Legacy of Architect Perween Rehman. 6:00 – 8:00 pm, 4-270

April 14
Nationalism, Sentimentality, and Judgment: Cultivating Sympathy in the Syrian Uprising, 2011-2013. 6:00 – 7:30 pm, 3-133

April 15
Architecture Lecture | HTC Lecture Series | Ben Kafka: Recent Work.  5:30 – 7:00 pm, 7-429

April 16
Architectural Design Series: Dinner with the In-Laws | William O'Brien Jr. and J. Meejin Yoon. 5:30 – 7:30 pm, 7-429

April 17
Architecture Lecture | Sarah Whiting: Engaging Autonomy. 
5:30 – 7:30 pm, 7-429

April 18
Architecture | Computation Lecture Series | Jane Nisselson: Constructing and Filming the 'Mise-en-scape'. 
5:00 – 7:00 pm, 7-429

April 24
Architecture | Roland Snooks: Behavioral Formation'. 
5:00 – 7:00 pm, 7-429

April 25
Architecture | Computation Lecture Series | Tim Knowles: Reconnaissance and Record. 5:00 – 7:00 pm, 7-429

April 28
ACT Lecture | Elvan Zabunyan: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Translations of Memory. 7:00 – 9:00 pm, ACT Cube

April 29
Architectural Design Series: Dinner with the In-Laws | John E Fernandez and Anton Garcia-Abril. 5:30 – 7:30 pm, 7-429

May 5
The Historiography of Contemporary Architecture in the Gulf. 
7:30 – 7:30 pm, 3-133

STAY CONNECTED

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