Institute Brochure

1 8 0 V A R I C K S T R E E T, S U I T E 4 1 0 NEW YORK, NY 10014

W W W. I N S T I T U T E - N Y. O R G

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Bruce Becker, Chairman & Treasurer Greg Lynn Kevin Kennon, Executive Director Julia Suna Choi, Assistant Director

FELLOWS Andrew Blum Katherine Chia Jonas Coersmeier Marc Hacker Kate Ives Pablo Jendretzki Franklin Lee Henry Meyerberg Jack Phillips Galia Solomonoff Robert Young

A F F I L I AT I O N S Hampshire College Mt. Holyoke College Amherst College NYU Gallatin School

FIVE COLLEGE ARCHITECTURAL STUDIES PROGRAM Karen Koehler, Co-Director Thom Long, Co-Director Katie Irwin, Global Education Office (GEO) Director

THE INSTITUTE FOR AND

ARCHITEC TURE

URBAN STUDIES

W W W. I N S T I T U T E - N Y. O R G 180 VARICK STREET SUITE 410 NEW YORK, NY 10014 t. 212.219.1171 f. 212.219.1458

CONTENTS

I N T R O D U C T I O N PA S T

IAUS 1967 - 1984

P R E S E N T

IAUS 2003 - PRESENT



PROGRAM



COURSES



SEMESTERS



RESOURCES



FACILITIES



ADMISSIONS



HOUSING



SELECTED STUDENT WORK



SHANE NEUFELD



JESSE SEEGERS



GRIFFIN FRAZEN



AMBER KNEE



F U T U R E

IAUS STATEMENT

C O N TA C T

INTRODUCTION The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, IAUS or Institute for short, is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the study of architecture in the city. It offers intensive individualized design tutorials to students who are interested in architecture at all scales of its expression. Particular emphasis is placed on architecture as a cultural activity, how architecture intersects other disciplines, how advanced technology is used to create new environments, how new ways of living, work and play transform our buildings and how collaboration creates a new paradigm of practice.

IAUS

1967-1984

The Institute of Architecture and Urban Studies was founded in 1967 as a non-profit independent agency concerned with research, education, and development in architecture and urbanism. It began as a core group of young architects seeking alternatives to traditional forms of education and practice. The IAUS developed its curriculum in collaboration with a group of liberal arts colleges and universities and began its undergraduate education program in 1973. The program was open to students from a consortium of distinguished liberal arts colleges and provided an architectural component as a supplement to traditional liberal arts studies. Five schools and twelve students participated in the Institute’s first academic year (1974), rising to sixteen colleges and 35 students in 1978. The program was organized around a rigorous structure in the history and theory of architecture and an intensive design tutorial taught by the Institute’s fellows. Like Princeton, Columbia, Yale and Cooper Union, where architecture is taught at the undergraduate level as a concentration, the Institute implemented the same level of discourse, yet was not accredited. In 1977 began the design/study options to give students, those already enrolled in a six-year professional degree program, the opportunity to participate in the academic program. Since the Institute was not a degree-granting institution, credit for the program was provided by the student’s own institution. Peter Eisenman was appointed as the Institute’s first Executive Director followed by Anthony Vidler (1982), Mario Gandelsonas (1983) and Stephen Peterson (1984). In 1985 the Institute ceased to exist.

The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies c. 1978 From left to right: Diana Agrest, Peter Eisenman, Mario Gandelsonas & Anthony Vidler

IAUS

2003-PRESENT

It has become clear, especially after September 11, 2001 that there is a renewal of awareness as to the critical impact of built form, how it is experienced, mediated, remembered and imagined on the quality of our daily lives. There is a need for an independent multidisciplinary think tank to question, provoke, debate, experiment, explore, and rethink the future of the metropolis.

The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies c. 2005 From left to right: Henry Meyerberg, Thom Long, Mike Davis and Kivi Sotamaa

The Institute re-opened after being closed for nearly 20 years in 2003 due in large part to the 9/11 renewed awareness of the critical impact of built form—how it is experienced, mediated, remembered and imaged—on our daily lives. At the same time, this new awakening in the power and role of architecture exposed a need for an independent, multidisciplinary think-tank, or pedagogical “free speech zone”, in which to question, provoke, debate, experiment, explore and rethink the future of the metropolis at all scales. There are those who argue that we live in a “Post-Theoretical” Era. This is not to say theory is dead, but rather that there is a growing sentiment that theory cannot be divorced from practice. A group of young architects Stan Allen, Liz Diller, Jesse Reiser, Greg Lynn, Julie Bargmann and Kevin Kennon have come together because of a shared belief in the essential value of the inter-relationship between theory and practice. With diverse backgrounds in urban design, landscape design, environmental land reclamation, commercial and institutional architecture, art, and new media, these six architects believe the current moribund architecture culture necessitates a new Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies.

The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies c. 2003 From left to right: Kevin Kennon and Greg Lynn

Our goal is to keep alive the improvisational spirit that made the Institute at its apogee a mecca for then young architects and critics like Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas, Aldo Rossi, Charles Gwathmey, Frank Gehry, Diana Agrest, Mario Gandelsonas, Rafael Moneo, Robert Stern, Bernard Tschumi, Michael Graves, Richard Meier, Kenneth Frampton, Manfredo Tafuri and Anthony Vidler, among others. Yet this is a new Institute for a new generation and a new time. While the original Institute helped shape much of the autonomous theoretical discourse that dominated architectural culture in the last 30 years of the 20th century, the new Institute will be more engaged with the pragmatic issues of today. The new Institute will concentrate on applied theory and research by utilizing new technology, and a cross-disciplinary approach. Investigations into methods and materials, will guide new discoveries and illuminate the conditions of the built environment, mediated events and social networks that influence the way we live, work and play in the city of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

PROGRAM

The Institute program is comprehensive, rigorous and designed to be tailored to individual students with varying backgrounds and experience. The semester focuses on history, analysis, theory and applied theory in architecture and urban design. Our goal is to engage and excite students within the context of a humanistic and social pedagogy, realizing that some of the participants may choose fields of development outside architecture once they have graduated. Students are given a site within New York to research, document, investigate and transform. The sites are individually chosen from the Institute after reading their personal statement and giving careful consideration to their goals for the program. Each student is given a specific individualized study program. Emphasis is placed on developing project sites within New York City, allowing students to experience and interact with existing conditions into which their project is located and found. Research shall play a major role in developing projects and formulating ideas; multi-media projects and representations are encouraged. The semester long program is broken down into two phases:

Phase I: Research and Documentation Phase II: Investigation and Transformation

Criticism shall be rigorous and constructive and follow academically established architectural “review” format. The core of the program is the design studio. It is also the physical core of the Institute’s space. Students shall have individual desks but different groups of students shall share a singular large studio space in the effort of establishing an environment condusive for open discussions. The Institute seeks to provoke collegial thought and debate about the future of New York, bridge the academic and professional divide, and broaden our insular architecture culture to include other disciplines: art, new media, landscape design, literature, urban planning, economics and anthropology.

COURSES

Design Study Intro (DSI) The studio will develop the participant’s conceptual and technical abilities in design, representation and applied technologies. The studio meets three afternoons a week offering desk critiques and reviews as well as discussions on given text on architectural history and theory as well as urban design tactics and strategies. Independent work is expected from the participants 5 days a week during standard office hours. The intensive studio setting offers students the ability to explore issues of architectural and urban design in a personalized studio format.

Summer Program (SP) An intensive eight week semester in career discovery, research, analysis and design open to local high school juniors, seniors and all college undergraduates. Students shall meet two afternoons a week with their design instructor. Emphasis shall be placed on developing project sites within the city of New York, allowing students to experience and interact with existing conditions into which their project is inserted.

Design Tutorial These tutorials shall provide the participant with design and digital tools that integrates 2D and 3D design principles with digital media and software applications. The studio shall develop the participant’s ability to visualize design problems, explore, test and adapt solutions through a variety of media from drawing, to physical models to digital animation and video. The class shall offer an integrated format of technological and design tools and cover concepts from basic geometrical constructs of points, lines and planes to the more complex arrangements of volumes and space.

SEMESTERS

FA L L From Early September to Mid December, approximately 13 weeks of classes with allowance for Thanksgiving holidays.

S P R I N G From Early February to Mid May, approximately 13 weeks of classes with allowance for Spring Break.

SUMMER From Early June to Early August, approximately 8 weeks of classes with allowance for July 4th holiday.

RESOURCES

Students will have complete access to all the major learning institutions situated in New York City. A bulletin board in the studio provides students with information to lectures, symposiums, discussions and events in and around the city. Student will have unlimited/ limited access to the following institutions:

New York Public Library

Columbia University

Architectural League of NY

Avery Library

Center for Architecture

NYU

The Van Alen Institute

Bobst Library

Urban Book Center

Cooper Union

Cooper-Hewitt Museum

Cooper Union Library

Museum of Modern Art

Parsons New School of Design

New Museum

Parsons Library

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pratt University

NY Skyscraper Museum

Pratt Library

NY Transit Museum

New York Institute of Technology

Museum of the City of New York

Studio X

and many more throughout Manhattan....

FA C I L I T I E S

A studio space is provided for the students with individual work stations for each student with access to network printers, scanners, the internet and the Institute Library. Each work station consists of a desk, chair, work lamp and a computer station supplied with the latest in 2D and 3D architectural/graphic software:

ADMISSION

Admission is open to all college level or post-graduate students interested in furthering their academic experience through a system of individual study. Students will be given a course of study in architectural design and research to develop based from their statement of interest. Students will be given instruction in state of the art modeling and animation software. No prior computer graphic skills is required. Tuition for the Fall/Spring Semesters is $5,750. Tuition for the Summer Semester is $3,750. Students interested in applying for the program must submit a resume, statement of interest and goals for the program in either digital (via e-mail) or hard-copy format (via mail). Application materials should be sent to the Admissions Department of the Institute: mail:

Admissions The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies 180 Varick Street Suite 410 New York, NY 10014

email:

[email protected]

All application materials will not be returned.

HOUSING

Students may look for their own housing but a housing option is available to Fall/Spring Semester students at the Octagon, a landmark historic building located on Roosevelt Island, Manhattan. More information on the Octagon can be found on the website:

www.octagonnyc.com.

SELECTED STUDENT WORK

SHANE NEUFELD

SUMMER 2004 S I T E : U N I T É D ’ H A B I TAT I O N

CONVENTIONAL UNIT RELATIONSHIP

PLANS

3D ANALYTICAL MODELS

SECTIONS

SKETCH 01

PERSPECTIVES

NEW MODULAR DESIGN

SKETCH 02

PERSPECTIVE

PERSPECTIVE

JESSE SEEGERS

FA L L 2 0 0 6 SITE: SAINT-PIERRE DE FIRMINY CHURCH

GRIFFIN FRAZEN

SPRING 2008 S I T E : C E N T R A L PA R K

AMBER KNEE

FA L L 2 0 0 8 SITE: 2 COLUMBUS CIRCLE

SUPPORTED CIRCULATION ENCLOSED CIRCULATION PAST PRESENT FUTURE

IAUS FUTURE

The new Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies is dedicated to improving the quality of education, debate, thought and action about rethinking the metropolis through architecture, media and urbanism. Unlike other associations such as the Architectural League, the Van Alen Institute, Harvard's "Career Discovery", or Columbia's  New York/ Paris  Program in Architecture, the Institute  expands, redefines and re-thinks many of the features of the old Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in its dedication to being first and foremost a school for the study of progressive architecture, new media and urban studies. Secondly, it has a distinct point of view, namely to support and promote greater understanding  by rethinking the traditional role that architecture, urban design and planning play in how we experience and imagine the city. For too long architects have neglected both the social and material consequences of the built environment by retreating into formalistic, theoretical or purely aesthetic exercises. The digital revolution has provided a new way for architecture to be realized by engaging and reflecting more precisely the diversity of how we live, work and play in the 21st century.

C O N TA C T

Kevin Kennon Director [email protected]

Julia Suna Choi Assistant Director [email protected]

The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies 180 Varick Street Suite 410 New York, NY 10014 www.institute-ny.org

W W W. I N S T I T U T E - N Y. O R G