The Development, Design and Construction Committee of The Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce presents:

The panel discussion will feature:
Moderated by Louis Katsos, Jekmar Associates, Inc., Professor Adjunct, The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture

This event is sponsored by The Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce and The Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, in association with the Albanian-American Chamber of Commerce, The American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce, Cyprus-US Chamber of Commerce Jamaican-American Chamber of Commerce and the Russian- American Chamber of Commerce as a benefit for The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union.

Reception and Informal Conversation With the Panelists to Follow 

Mark Goulthorpe is an Associate Professor at MIT Department of Architecture, teaching digital design and fabrication and leading the new Design Stream in the SMArchS program. His current research centers on robotic fabrication and a variety of composite fabrication methodologies, as well as a new iteration of the dynamically reconfigurable HypoSurface. Goulthorpe is the author of Autoplastic to Alloplastic published by Hyx/Pompidou and The Possibility of (an) Architecture published by Routledge. There are many published essays and articles by Goulthorpe and on the work of dECOi and HypoSurface in journals.

Architecture can now become voluptuous -and that does not mean that at it jettisons the line or embraces the curve. Re-think architecture as a bottom-heavy construct, barely escaping  symmetry, succumbing to gravity and being legibly informed by its forces. Shaped by a counter-aesthetic theory that aspires to re-conceptualise antiquated notions of 'kallos' revolving around metrics and proportions, and contemporary aesthetics of reduction and hype-rarticulation, Voluptuous Architecture negotiates surface and massing, austerity and lavishness, the complex and the monolithic , the beautiful , the weird and the grotesque. 

On the one hand, cities can be the epitome of sustainability, reaping the benefits of proximity, efficiency, and innovation.  On the other hand, they can be graveyards of dreams and sources of contamination. In Cities In Crisis: Ecological Transformations, six lectures at The Cooper Union, Dr. Steward Pickett, past President of the Ecological Society of America and a plant ecologist with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, will present an integrated view of cities from an ecological perspective and explore the frontiers of promoting the transformation of a more sustainable urban trajectory.

  

VENTURES: MATERIAL AND MEANING

 

Theo Stewart-Stand will present works and discuss his small design company, Cockroach and Company, which focuses on developing environmentally progressive design through the use of innovative materials and processes. Works include an ultra-efficient lamp that reflects light on two sides.

 

Yarminiah Rosa creates works through her enterprise, Purpose, an accessory line dedicated to transforming ordinary objects into absolutely gorgeous accessories. Purpose hopes to empower its supporters with its message of creativity, motivation, and its will to make something out of nothing. 

 

Isaac Nichols will show an emerging series of functional objects that emphasize an expressive handmade aesthetic.

 

Sponsored by Career Center and Alumni Affairs

LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED  

 

For an archive of posters of past presentations, please go here.