News & Events

Thursday 19 February 2015  

DEAD

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


THIS WEEK

STUDENT LECTURE SERIES
Jonas Dahlberg
Feb 26 at 6:30pm
RM 315
Foundation Bldg
Jonas Dahlberg lives and works in Stockholm. He studied architecture at Lunds Technical High School, and received his M.F.A. from the Malmö Art Academy in 2000. Since then he has worked on developing a series of videos that primarily consist of slow movements through architectural spaces. The videos are created by building miniaturised architectural sets that are filmed through experimental methods.

In addition to video and video installation, his practice includes public art works, sculptures, commissions, book projects and photography. In June 2012, Dahlberg's concept and set design for an opera production of Guiseppe Verdi's Macbeth debuted at the Grand Theatre in Geneva.

In February 2014 Dahlberg was announced the winner in the closed competition for the 22 July Memorial at Sørbråten and in Oslo, Norway. The concept for the Memorial Sørbråten proposes a wound or a cut within nature itself. It reproduces the physical experience of taking away, reflecting the abrupt and permanent loss of those who died. The cut will be a three-and-a-half-meters-wide excavation. It slices from the top of the headland at the Sørbråten site, to below the water line and extends to each side. This void in the landscape makes it impossible to reach the end of the headland.

Through his installations, be they video or otherwise, Jonas Dahlberg works with space. Architecture is addressed as a political place that influences how we understand ourselves, and how the body and mind experience the outside world.


Image: Weightless Space, video still, Jonas Dahlberg

CLOSING THIS WEEK
CITIES OF THE DEAD
The Ancestral Cemeteries of Kyrgyzstan
On view through Feb 28
Houghton Gallery
7 East 7 Street

Traveling in Kyrgyzstan, photographer Margaret Morton became captivated by the otherworldly grandeur of these cemeteries. Cities of the Dead: The Ancestral Cemeteries of Kyrgyzstan exhibits the photographs she took on several visits to the area and is an important contribution to the architectural and cultural record of this region.

 

Architecturally unique, Kyrgyzstan's dramatically sited cemeteries reveal the complex nature of the Kyrgyz people's religious and cultural identities. Elaborate Kyrgyz tombs combine earlier nomadic customs with Muslim architectural forms. After the territory was formally incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1876, enamel portraits for the deceased were attached to the Muslim monuments. Yet everything within the walls is overgrown with weeds, for it is not Kyrgyz tradition for the living to frequent the graves of the dead. 

 

On view January 27 - February 28, 2015

 

The Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery 

The Cooper Union 

7 East 7th Street, 2nd Floor 

New York, NY 10003 

Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 12-7pm

 

Presented by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union

 

Margaret Morton was awarded a NYSCA Architecture + Design independent project grant in 2007. Her Cities of the Dead project has been featured on the Architectural League of New York website as an ongoing report on sponsored NYSCA grantees.


 

 

Margaret Morton, Baitik Environs, 2006

lunch

CU@LUNCH
Talk by Nicholas Pevzner AR '05
Mar 3 at 12pm
Rm 315
Foundation Bldg
INFRASTRUCTURE'S PUBLIC LANDSCAPE: CIVIC IMAGINATION & THE END OF PUBLIC WORKS

Infrastructure alters the land on a grand scale, unifying cities and territories, and stitching together natural and cultural systems into one collective hybrid network. Infrastructural landscapes have always been political; the design of infrastructure is an act of regional cartography and territorial reorganization, formerly carried out with grand ambition on a national scale. Today, the era of pubic works is over. Amid fragmentation, conflict, and privatization, how can design help rebuild a civic narrative around infrastructure? What is the vision for the new generation of infrastructural landscapes?

Nicholas Pevzner is a lecturer in Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, and has been teaching landscape studios on the role of energy systems in landscape design, as well as courses in urban design and urban ecology. He is co-editor of Scenario Journal, an interdisciplinary digital publication that strives to bridge the conversations in design, planning, engineering, and ecology. Mr. Pevzner received a Bachelor of Architecture from The Cooper Union in 2005 and a Master of Landscape Architecture from UPenn in 2009.

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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.

 
SOM
STUDENT OPPORTUNITITIES

DEADLINE: MARCH 16, 2015

Architecture students are sought for Summer Research Experiences (Internships) in Drought Resiliency and Natural Resources Issues in the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin Region.

The research group has framed its overall research theme in the context of the "value of snow", in order to promote the integration of a wide range of socioeconomic and environmental research activities, ranging from shore zone studies of water quality and invasive species at Lake Tahoe, to the effects of habitat disturbance (e.g., mining, energy development, fire, vegetation change) on critical habitat for sensitive species in the Great Basin.

Primary Eligibility: Qualified undergraduates, who will have junior or senior status and will be a full-time student in the Fall 2015 term. We especially encourage applications from student attending primarily undergraduate and non-research institutions and from underrepresented groups. Participants must be citizens or permanent legal residents of the USA.

 For complete details and how to apply visit here.

You are encouraged to have your application materials reviewed by Robert Thill (thill@cooper.edu)
For additional questions contact career@cooper.edu

DEADLINE: MARCH 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! 

 

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION | Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the publication of Rem Koolhaas/OMA's S,M,L,XL, this special issue of JAE 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, JAE seeks 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 ...

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | The journal Nova Organa is accepting written and visual work that utilizes new and forgotten methods of fiction, critique, and philosophy in the creation of art/architecture theory and thinking. The next issue will use "The Scene" as an epigraph/theme. Deadline: April 15, 2015 learn more ...
 

DEADLINE APPROACHING 
  
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 EXTENDED: February 25, 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 ...
ONGOING 
  

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 ...


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 ...

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 ... 

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.

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
EXHIBITIONS AND FILM SCREENING | MoMA has acquired documents and drawings of Agrest and Gandelsonas, where Diana Agrest is founder and principal, for their permanent collection. The acquired projects predate her arrival to New York and they will be part of the exhibition "Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955-1980" held in The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Exhibition Gallery from March 29 to July 19, 2015. Her project, the Melrose Community Center, 286 East 156th Street, Bronx, will be exhibited as part of the "Built by Women New York City" exhibition held at the Center for Architecture, which opens on March 2, 2015. There will also be a forthcoming screening of her film "The Making of an Avant Garde: The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies 1967-84" followed by a panel discussion at the Cite de l'Architecture in Paris, France on April 17, 2015.

PUBLICATION | Diane Lewis contributed the essay "Nature after Mies" in the publication The Return of Nature: Sustaining Architecture in the Face of Sustainability (Routledge 2014) edited by Preston Scott Cohen and Erika Naginski. learn more ...

DESIGN OF THE YEAR NOMINEE | The Design Museum, London, has announced the nominees for the Designs of the Year 2015 Architecture. Nominees include David Turnbull's project the Waterbank Campus at Endana Secondary School in Laikipia, Kenya, designed by PITCHAfrica. read more ...


ALUMNI NEWS* 

Elizabeth Diller (AR '79) | contributor | "Agri-tecture," The Return of Nature: Sustaining Architecture in the Face of Sustainability edited by Preston Scott Cohen and Erika Naginski (Routledge 2014)

*Please submit your news to archbulletin@cooper.edu

                                                                                         

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