News & Events

Thursday 19 February 2015  

Student Lecture Series: MASS Design Group
Upcoming Exhibition: Three Views of Oman
Menschel Exhibition on view through Feb 21
Featured Opportunities
Student Opportunity: Summer Internship at SOM
Open Calls and Opportunities
Faculty and Alumni News

TOMORROW
CITIES OF THE DEAD
Lecture and Discussion
Feb 20 at 6:30pm
Rose Aud
41 Cooper Square
NYC
Held in conjunction with the exhibition Cities of the Dead: The Ancestral Cemeteries of Kyrgyzstan (on view through February 28), this event will be comprised of a talk by photographer and Cooper Union School of Art professor Margaret Morton on her in-depth study of this culture and tradition. Architect and a historian Nasser Rabbat, the Aga Khan Professor and director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT, will also give a talk entitled The Commemoration of Death in Islam. A discussion between Morton and Rabbat will follow.

Free and open to the public

Presented by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, the School of Art and The Architectural League of New York

 

 

Margaret Morton, Baitik Environs, 2006


TONIGHT
BEYOND THE BUILDING
Lecture by Michael Murphy
Feb 19 at 6:30pm
RM 315
Foundation Bldg
Can architecture improve our health? Can architecture be used to radically improve people's lives? Conversely, can architecture injure the population it houses? Can architecture kill? Put differently, what is the role of architecture beyond the building itself?

MASS Design Group is an architecture and design organization committed to stretching the boundaries of what we expect our built environment to provide. We have seen architecture restrict people's access to essential services, but in the process of working on buildings as far afield as Rwanda, the Dominican Republic of the Congo, and Haiti, we've also seen design and the process of building generate systemic change, break the cycle of poverty, and radically improve people's health, livelihoods, and lives. This lecture will discuss our work, our process, and the opportunities through which architects and designers can apply their skills for impact.

Michael Murphy is the executive director of MASS Design Group, which he co-founded with Alan Ricks in 2010.

OMAN

THREE VIEWS OF OMAN
The Photography of Wilfred Thesiger, Charles Butt and Edward Grazda 
1945-2006
Mar 11 at 6:30pm
Houghton Gallery
7 E 7th Street, 2nd fl
NYC

Presented by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture

"Three Views of Oman is a great example of the dialogue of cultures. Rather than repeating the Orientalist approach that has weakened so many Western studies of Arabic societies, this exhibition builds a new bridge between two civilizations with different histories but shared values."
- Radwan Ziadeh, George Washington University

Collected here for the first time is a history of Oman in images. One of the most developed and stable countries in the Arab world and among the earliest adherents to Ibadi Islam, the sultanate sits along the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. From early days of world trade through the port of Muscat to contemporary engagement with international diplomacy and the West, Oman has always evoked beauty and mystery in equal measure. The Three Views of Oman exhibition reveals the country as its contours emerged over the past seventy years in an intimate portrait through the eyes of the West, as captured in images by English explorer Wilfred Thesiger in the 1940s, British Army major Charles Butt in the 1970s, and award-winning American documentary photographer Edward Grazda in the first decade of this century. The exhibition chronicles the rapid social and physical changes in Oman, as well as the changing nature of photography itself over 60 years. These original photographs have traveled to Oxford and London, England; Grenada, Spain and other destinations; this will be the only presentation in New York City.

Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Friday 2pm-7pm, Saturday and Sunday 12pm-7pm
Exhibition on view: March 11 - April 25, 2015
Public Reception: Wednesday, March 11 at 6:30pm
Panel Discussion: The Sultanate of Oman: Geography, Religion and Culture | Thursday, March 12 at 6:30pm


Image: People at Tawi Harian Well, Ramlat al-Wahiba Wilfred Thesiger, 1949

menschel

2015 MENSCHEL EXHIBITION
On view
Extended through Feb 21
5th - 7th Floors
Foundation Bldg
7 E 7th Street
This year's Menschel Exhibition reflects the work of eleven Benjamin Menschel Fellows from the largest pool of proposals to date.

Visitors to this year's exhibition will be invited to travel imaginatively to different continents. Alyssa Davis, of the Albert Nerken School of Engineering, takes you to Ghana, for example, to encounter the work of craft persons who struggle in the contradictions of global trade. Another two projects consider the islands of the Caribbean. Sam Friedberg and Andrea Recalde of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture explore the archeology of the ancient Tainos of Puerto Rico in search of the continuing traditions of agriculture and its symbolization. By jarring contrast, Maria Rodriguez-Jimenez of the School of Art and Pedro Galindo-Landeira, of the school of architecture explore the politics of "the fence," separating Guantanamo from the rest of Cuba. Two more projects focus on the world of Spain and Morocco as they meet across a Strait-in their present turmoil of migration and refugees [Emmanuela Soria Ruiz & Pedram Sazesh of the School of Art], and in their quiet, beautiful legacy of architecture using the tile work called "zellij" [Maja Hjertén Knutson & Phong Kiwi Nguyen of the school of architecture.] Finally, Arta Perezic and Nicholas Pacula, two students of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture tell the story of their travels down the Mississippi River recording the river's industrialized fate. There are six installations in all.

learn more ...

Download a PDF of the poster


FEATURED OPPORTUNITIES

LAKEFRONT KIOSK COMPETITION
Chicago Architecture Biennial
Submissions due
Mar 23, 2015
The Chicago Architecture Biennial announces the Lakefront Kiosk Competition, organized in partnership with the Chicago Park District and the City of Chicago. In keeping with the mission of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Lakefront Kiosk Competition is an opportunity to support innovative architectural work and to use the city-more specifically, the iconic shoreline of Lake Michigan-as a laboratory for architectural experimentation.

 

DEADLINE EXTENDED
TEMPORARY OUTDOOR STRUCTURES
2015 Ideas City Festival
Deadline Extended!
Feb 20, 2015
On the occasion of IDEAS CITY 2015, the biennial Festival created to explore the future city and to effect change-Storefront for Art and Architecture, along with the New Museum and the New York City Department of Transportation, is launching a Competition for the design and construction of an outdoor structure-a work of "Street Architecture" that facilitates new forms of collective gathering and engagement with the city.

For IDEAS CITY 2015, Storefront for Art and Architecture is soliciting designs for a work of mobile architecture suited for hosting daring feats of oratory. The proposal will be a platform for conversation and debate; the exploration of ideas, dreams, and themes; the proclamation of manifestos; acts of intellectual communion; and declarations of dissent.

SOM
2015 SUMMER INTERNSHIP AT SOM
Student Opportunity
Deadline
Mar 20, 2015
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) is pleased to announce that the application process for our 2015 Summer Internship Program is now open.

SOM is seeking the best emerging talent to join them this summer in their Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC and London offices. Selected candidates will get hands-on project experience in architecture, interiors, structural engineering, sustainable engineering and urban design. In order to be considered, current students who are returning to study in the Fall of 2015 should apply by March 20, 2015. Details and requirements can be found here.

Decisions will be announced the week of March 30, 2015 and the internship program will run from June 8 - August 14, 2015.

For questions, please feel free to contact career.assistance@som.com

calls

OPEN CALLS & OPPORTUNITIES 
NEW! 
 

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | The Arctic Design Group at the University of Virginia School of Architecture will be hosting the symposium Arctic States. As part of the symposium, they are requesting submissions of recent/unpublished design/research on the Arctic and related topics by students and emerging scholars from undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and post-doctoral level. Scholars from non-design disciplines are also strongly encouraged to apply. Deadline: March 8, 2015  learn more ...
 

ONGOING 
 

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS | The Buckminster Fuller Institute announces the launch of the 2015 cycle of The Fuller Challenge through the public invitation to recommend a project that demonstrates a design strategy with significant potential to solve some of humanity's most pressing problems. BFI is looking for visionary social and environmental solutions from across the globe for "socially responsible design's highest award" and a cash prize of $100,000. To recommend a project that demonstrates excellence in comprehensive problem solving and anticipatory design, please enter the project name and contact information via this link:  RECOMMEND A PROJECT


 

OPEN CALL: ARTIST IN RESIDENCE | Arts Letters and Numbers is welcoming creative thinkers to invest their time in individual, focused and exploratory work at our facilities Upstate, New York in Averill Park near Albany. Our wood and metal shop at the Mill and our Residence next door are now open and active year-round. There are a limited number of private bedrooms and studio spaces available so we encourage residency candidates to apply to the program at least two weeks prior to your intended arrival. Residency durations may be 1 week to 3 months. Deadline: Rolling Basis  learn more ...

 

STUDENT DESIGN COMPETITION | The 2014-2015 cycle of the I Like Design Competition's theme is the design of the 21-Century Hotel Lobby. This year's student winner will receive a paid internship at Studio3877 in Washington, D.C., for the summer of 2015 and paid housing for the duration. They also win a trip to NeoCon in June and coverage in both print and online features with Interiors & Sources. Students of all creative disciplines are welcome to participate but must be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate degree program at a U.S. college or university. Deadline: February 23, 2015 learn more ...


 

STUDENT DESIGN COMPETITION | The 2nd Annual Globus Cork Floor Design Competition is open to Design and Architecture students in the US. Students and student groups can submit cork flooring design concepts online here to a judging committee of prominent designers and architects who will select design finalists and a winner. The winning design will highlight the unique creative possibilities of sustainable cork tiles. The winning floor will be created and photographed by Globus Cork. Registration Deadline: February 28, 2015 learn more ...  

 

JAE: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the publication of Rem Koolhaas /OMA's S,M,L,XL, this special issue of the Journal of Architectural Education will serve as a platform to revisit, expose, and otherwise reevaluate the book's ineluctable influence(s) on the practice and writing of architecture. For this issue, we seek contributions that will shed new critical light on the influence of S,M,L,XL through multiple vantage points. Deadline: March 1, 2015  learn more ... 

 

STUDENT COMPETITION | The Illuminating Engineering Society New York City (IESNYC) is celebrating the 15th year of the Student Lighting Competition. This year's theme, RESIDUAL SPARKS challenges students to build a 3-dimensional study on how light is interwoven with time and memory. What we have seen is imprinted in memory, and affects how we view the world. The lights of our childhood become the inspiration for new technologies. Memories serve as sparks for bright new creations that can pay homage or serve to challenge an original concept. Deadline: March 3, 2015  learn more ... 


 

DESIGN COMPETITION: GOWANUS | The two-component competition asks participants to first map and present conditions relevant to the Gowanus area in a Gowanus Atlas and second to use that analysis as the basis for their design of an Urban Field Station that is open to the public. The Atlas, a collective mapping of the watershed surrounding the canal, will be a planning tool and local resource supported by the Field Station to facilitate the community's grassroots collaboration in the continuing evolution of the neighborhood. Registration Deadline: March 6, 2015  learn more ...

 

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | ARQ, edited since 1981 at the Universidad Catolica de Chile School of Architecture, is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to architectural matters. Its themed, bilingual issues are published three times a year (April, August and December) in both printed and electronic domains. ARQ is accepting contributions to be published in ARQ90, on August 2015, themed: Steel Architecture. Deadline: March 9, 2015 learn more ...

 

DESIGN COMPETITION | The Dencity Competition is a call for ideas for improving slum conditions worldwide over the coming decades. Shelter is pleased to invite architects, planners, students, engineers, designers, thinkers, NGOs and organizations from all over the world to take part in the first annual Dencity Competition. The intent of this competition is twofold: to foster new ideas on how to better handle the growing density of unplanned cities and to spread awareness of this massive problem. Contestants should consider how design can empower communities and allow for a self sufficient future. Register by March 15, 2015  learn more ...
 

RSA-US STUDENT DESIGN AWARDS | RSA-US Student Design Awards (SDA-US) is an awards program to inspire collaborative, multidisciplinary design-led social change which connects design students and faculty with industry needs. This program is open only to undergraduate students currently enrolled in colleges and universities in the United States. Deadline: March 18, 2015   learn more ... 

DESIGN COMPETITION | ARCH+ Journal announces the international competition "PLANETARY URBANISM - CRITIQUE OF THE PRESENT in the Medium of Information Design" open to all architects, designers, artists and students in the fields of architecture and art. The competition is in the context of the UN-HABITAT III Conference awarded by the Journal ARCH+ with the support of the Federal Foreign Office, Germany consulted by the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). Register by April 30, 2015.  learn more ...
news

FACULTY AND STAFF NEWS
FILM SCREENING AND LECTURE | Diana Agrest's film "The Making of an Avant Garde: The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies 1967-84" was screened at Cornell University Architecture, Art, Planning, in Ithaca, NY, and she delivered the Edgar A. Tafel Lecture on February 18, 2015. learn more ...

CONFERENCE | A day-long conference celebrating the scholarship and 75th birthday of William W. Clark was held Tuesday, February 10, 2015 at the CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY on February 10, 2015. learn more ...


ALUMNI NEWS* 

Maurice Cox (AR '83) | news | "Duggan appoints Maurice Cox of New Orleans as city planning director," Crain's Business News, February 15, 2015

David Heymann (AR '84) | author | "A Building, Not a Colt Revolver," Places Journal, February 2015

*Please submit your news to archbulletin@cooper.edu

                                                                                         

Follow The Cooper Union on   Find us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter View our videos on YouTube