t r a c e

Treehugger | exhibition

2010-05-10T18:00:00.001-04:00

[photo credit]

The students of Jason Turnidge's Operative Detailing class with be presenting Treehugger, an inflatable and interactive event space in the shape of a giant torus, tomorrow evening from 5 - 7pm. For more information, please visit the event page on Facebook.

CAED Names New Dean

2010-05-08T06:33:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, the university announced via Flashline,

"'Douglas L. Steidl, FAIA, of Peninsula, Ohio, will become dean of Kent State University’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design, effective July 1,' announced Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Robert G. Frank. Steidl replaces James Dalton, who will return to a faculty position following the completion of a two-year appointment as dean of the college."

Read the full announcment at the university website here.

Spring Design Lecture Series

2010-02-04T00:56:00.003-05:00

The Kent State University College of Architecture and Environmental Design presents the 2010 Spring Design Lecture Series.

All lectures are free and open to the public.

Download the poster here.
View the entire series here.

Get on your soapbox.

2010-01-27T19:39:00.009-05:00

Call for submissions.

Here’s the experiment:

If you were given the chance to say, make, or draw anything you wanted, what would it be? How would you choose to express yourself? What if there were no limits, but the outline of a square and a blank sheet of paper? Would you be offensive? secretive? philosophical? simple?

Use this space to create anything you want. (think PostSecret) We want you to compositionally stay inside this box, but urge you to think outside of it.

Hand in submissions to Carolyn Isaacson, Julie Whyte, or Micah McKelvey (Florence), or email scanned submissions to tracekent@gmail.com.

Where did all the third-years go?

2010-01-08T19:22:00.002-05:00

Wondering where all the third-year architecture and interior design students went? T r a c e has asked students to share their personal web logs to provide an intimate look into the CAED Florence Program as well as help prepare future students for the upcoming experience.

Check out their personal blogs below (and send them care packages while you're at it.)

Erin
Gabe
Amber
Micah

Computer Lab Conundrum

2009-12-02T16:14:00.003-05:00

by julie whyte, 4th year b.s. architecture

Disbelief. Anger. Determination. This can’t be happening. How could they do this to us? What can we do? These were my initial reactions upon hearing the dreaded news that the May 4th Initiative would be taking over the first floor Architecture/ Interior Design computer lab.

This reaction may seem extreme to some, but we as Architecture and Interior Design students know how imperative the computer lab is to our education. AutoCAD, Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, Autodesk Maya, Virtual Environment, Photoshop CS3, Ecotect- these are just a handful of computer programs that the computer lab provides for students that allow them to complete class work. Although some students may have these programs on their own computers, many students cannot afford to equip their computers with all these expensive programs. Many students’ computers have trouble running the new version of Revit (Revit Architecture 2010). To top it off, my computer can barely open Internet Explorer. As a result, running Revit and Photoshop is clearly out of the question. While the computer lab may be just a lab to some, we as students know that it is so much more.

The Kent Stater recently ran an article conveying the facts about the whole ordeal. Laura Davis, ex-associate provost of Kent State, is spear-heading this project. After e-mailing her several times in the attempt to yield some answers (and most likely ensuring the placement of my name on a blacklist somewhere), I was assured that arrangements would me made well in advance to move our computer lab to a different location.

This was of some comfort, but this “solution” is still not addressing the fundamental problem. The College of Architecture is already distributed between three different buildings. The adjacency of the computer lab, digital commons, and the graduate studio creates one of the few scenarios where the space encourages social interactions. Aren’t we taught that communication and collaboration are essential to our careers as designers? Yet, the 4th years are isolated in Tri-Towers, 3rd years and I.D. students confined to the Gym Annex, and 1st and 2nd years sectioned off in Taylor Hall. The computer lab and digital commons area present a rare situation where students of different years can interact with one another. In addition to the social benefits, the digital commons contains the printers and scanners that are necessary to be in adjacency with the computer lab for the sake of efficiency. If the computer lab is eliminated from this conglomeration, the digital commons becomes utterly obsolete.

I realize there is no easy solution here. Mike Turk, 4th year Architecture major and the College of Architecture’s Senator for the Undergraduate Student Senate, has worked towards finding an alternate solution. He came up with the idea of utilizing the office space in Taylor Hall facing the hill rather than digging the Visitor’s Center deeper into the core of Taylor Hall and knocking out the computer lab. The May 4th Task Force was responsive to this design alternative, but the May 4th Initiative (the organization that has the power in this scenario) was not. But, since a lack of funds is stalling project’s implementation, we are given a window of opportunity. One of my initial questions is still pertinent. What can we do? We are designers, after all. Isn’t it our task to be problem-solvers? How can we stop one of the best amenities in our College from being inextricably torn away from us? And, if we can’t stop this demolition of our space, what collaborative measures are going to be taken by the College of Architecture and the May 4th Initiative to ensure that we still have access to the facilities that we need?

Belief in the City

2009-12-01T23:46:00.005-05:00

carolyn isaacson, 1st year b.s. architecture

In the morning the glass walls gleam and reflect the pink sunrise. Seamless steel beams reach up and up, looking like the arms of eager school children squealing to answer the question first. Each rooftop holds up the sky with broad shoulders or piercing spires. These are towers of inspiration and evidence of the sheer imagination that is born in nature but only successfully recreated on the streets of a versatile city. City streets hold an immensity that is as all-consuming as the relief of cold fresh air. The infinite amount of movement is invigorating. People begin to ready themselves for the day ahead; boarding trains and buses, mounting bikes and walking along sidewalks, getting to the places they need to be. The order of this transfer of people from vehicle to building is awe-inspiring, everything running so smoothly. All the while connections are made between every one of these moving persons. Between the businessman and the Starbucks barista. Between the concierge and the hotel guest. Even between the train motorman and the CTA rider. These are the links that make my belief in the city unbreakably strong. People are meant to be close to one another. The city is proof of that. Without these ties between every person in a city, no fresh ideas are created. Ideas are the product of deep thinking culminated by groups of people, the likes of which can be easily found in cities. An urban setting is a haven for innovation. Cities are saturated with new buildings, technologies, policies, and people. The constant need for these new things is a reflection of the survival tactics that are fundamental to urban dwellers. Open-mindedness is the key to the versatility unique to the city. When people live and breathe in such close proximity to one another, each person must adapt a sense of tolerance and receptiveness to the thoughts and beliefs of those with whom they make even the slightest connection. The city draws people to interact with one another as a means to build a solid and original future. Nothing can parallel the masses of glass, steel, and concrete that encompass the city and define humanity's most successful step in creating indivisible connections.

Volume 4 / Issue 1

2009-12-01T19:19:00.005-05:00

The first issue of Volume 4 is out now! Find it posted around the college, on your studio desk, and here.

Get ready for round two of t r a c e at the beginning of next semester! To contribute, email us! tracekent@gmail.com

Guess Where Kent?

2009-12-01T19:10:00.005-05:00

Announcing a competition for the break! The first student to email us a description of the location pictured in the photograph below will be awarded a gracious gift from the t r a c e team. Precision counts.

Send your entry to tracekent@gmail.com with your mailing address and phone number.

Dreamscapes

2009-11-20T09:07:00.002-05:00

micah mckelvey, editor, 3rd year b.s. architecture

I was running and out of breath.

Looking behind me, I expected to see something. Nothing was there except for a city street; bland in its globalised urbanity, busily occupied with the outcomes of capitalism, but completely devoid of people. It was as if I had been deposited into an already unfolding event or even one that had just concluded, woken up from a coma that my body did not share. The how, the why, and the where, I did not know. Suddenly I felt the need to stop. I looked down at gum smashed on the pavement by a million hurried shoes, evidence of a city bustle that currently did not exist.

That's when I noticed it. Powerful, cold, and imposing; a presence of terrible subtlety, like the sting after a backhand slap to the face. I slowly raised my head to peer at the mass before me. There were no shadows, the sky was overcast, but had there been, its shadow would have cast me in a dark blanket long ago. The facade was unapologetically brutal in its windowless concrete surface, tiered upward like a Japanese pagoda that extended infinitely toward the horizon in both directions. It was clear it didn't belong, strong but concurrently vague. And while pondering who could have built this imposing complex I thought I saw the faintest flicker. Then the realization struck me. Was I running away from some unknown thing, or being drawn to this unusual interruption in the city fabric?

Noticing two strangely typical doors just to my left, I proceeded to enter this fortress not knowing what to expect inside but having an alien desire to find out what existed beyond. I approached without inhibitions. Passing through the exterior barrier revealed a vast room obstructed by a labyrinth of planes; surfaces that made up walls and floors as if here gravity wasn't a force worth acknowledging. It was dark, but a mysterious glow from an unseen source provided sufficient light for seeing. As I passed further into the structure's depths I could not help but think the walls were rearranging themselves based on my position, somehow guiding me through the labyrinth. Yet it couldn't have been so; there was nothing mechanical about it. Instead the space seemed much more organic, as if the planes were grown there; stretching out like ivy, adopting and adapting to their surroundings. Here I suddenly looked behind me without provocation and found a wall blocking where I had just come from, cutting me off from the city outside. What is this place? Someone, or something was watching my every move. I felt it. The eyes of unknown origin evaluating and picking apart my actions caused me to proceed slowly, cautiously.

I then found myself in what seemed as the heart of the building. It was darker still, but I found myself in a room whose ceiling was beyond sight, concrete walls straining upward until they vanished in a dark abyss. It seemed the building was alive and I was exploring its arteries, infiltrating it not like a virus, but like a medicinal treatment. Somehow it needed me. As I thought this I felt something in turn infiltrate me, overtaking me, putting visions and strange knowledge in my head. The building was coming alive and presenting itself as a being, a creature both living and breathing. I began to panic and attempted to fight it off. As I snapped around in a rage, in the distance I saw a silhouette in the likeness of a man. Too far to properly perceive, but too close for comfort.

I ran.

Any direction that I could to get out of this place. To be back in the city and away from this thing that was drawing me in. I was a lab rat in a large experiment and I needed to get out. Before the walls seemed in a perpetual state of flux, almost transparent. Now they were cold and fixed and as solid as the concrete facade outside. Dashing through the labyrinth, I noticed an increasing amount of light. The way out must be close. I felt the building coming off me, with each passing plane I gained more and more control and was closer and closer to freedom. Finally, beautiful daylight. I kept running across the empty street, on to the littered sidewalk beyond. Returned to the vacant city I took a deep breath and felt a sense of relief.

I turned around to look again at the terrifying fortress, but nothing was there except the city, as one would expect.

From the Dean's Desk

2009-11-20T08:59:00.004-05:00

Jim Dalton, FAIA

Welcome back for another year. I appreciate the opportunity the t r a c e team has extended to me in order to communicate both recent and anticipated improvements for the College of Architecture and Environmental Design. Each is with a commitment to improving the learning environment for our student body.

1) As we venture on moving the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC) to Playhouse Square, we expect to strengthen all aspects of the CUDC’s missions: service, research, and education. The CUDC houses our graduate urban design program, half of our graduate architecture program, and our urban research and outreach activities. When complete, the facility will have one large seminar space seating up to 36 students, one classroom, a library, two exhibit spaces, open office space for up to 12 faculty and staff, student studios, and a work room. We are currently negotiating for model shop space. These improvements greatly enhance our ability to focus on strengthening ties to city officials and is an exciting endeavor to both our graduate programs and our commitment to the city of Cleveland.

2) The university has implemented a new budget model, Responsibility Centered Management. Each college is now responsible for generating and managing its own resources. I support this budget approach because it aligns responsibility with authority. Although we are only five months into this model, I believe students will experience the benefit of budget decisions made on their behalf.

3) Conducting a year-long study of student advising approaches, the university has concluded advising should be decentralized to each college. As a result, our advising staff has been reorganized and located in 202C Taylor Hall. Our advisors are Sandra Buckey, Benjamin Stenson, and Trinidy Jeter. I trust each of you will be proactive in using this office for your benefit.

4) The Morbito Library expansion is complete and I have observed increased student use of this facility. The additional shelf space, seating, computer access, and staff work area are welcome additions.

5) Professors Adil Sharag-Eldin and Pamela Evans have implemented a research facility in the Gym Annex. As we increase our building research initiatives, I anticipate a growing need for faculty/student research labs.

6) This summer the studios and library in Taylor Hall were abated of asbestos. This is the first step in upgrading Taylor’s studios. As funds become available, we intend to install new energy efficient lighting, remove and replace the flooring, and complete painting the studios.

The future of the college looks bright. Over the past 15 years our college undergraduate and graduate programs have grown in size and complexity. The college has more than 800 students located in Taylor Hall, The Gym Annex, Tri-Towers, Cleveland, and Florence, Italy. In a way, we are victims of our own success. It is my contention that one of the largest educational difficulties we face is the lack of contiguous student space. Significant learning often occurs through informal student encounters, discussions, and crits with one another. With each year separated from the rest, these impromptu encounters are greatly diminished. In other words, my biggest goal as Dean is to put together a strategy for a new college building.

For this to be successful, we will need the absolute commitment of students, alumni, faculty, staff, and administration to earn this very expensive honor through our actions. We must be viewed as deserving both within and outside the university. We need to take care of and improve the facilities we currently have. We need to win design competitions, increase our funded research output, and keep the extremely high record of success on the Architecture Registration Exams. We must also continue our history of recruiting the best academically prepared students in the university for each of our programs. If we are successful, we will all benefit.

My best to each of you for a very fruitful remainder of the semester.

Jim Dalton, FAIA
Dean, College of Architecture and Environmental Design

CAED News & Announcements

2009-11-08T21:15:00.005-05:00

Call for Student Participation in College Committees - The following CAED committees need student participants. Please contact Sarah Crombie (scrombie@kent.edu) in the Dean's office if you would like to participate. Note: the college has several committees with student participants, however, students for the committees are nominated by the faculty.

Graduate Committee (two graduate students)
College Curriculum Committee (one interior design and one architecture student)
International Studies Committee (two students who have participated in the program)
Library Committee (two CAED students)
Lecture Committee (two to four CAED students)
Student Recruitment Committee (up to six CAED students)

Request for photographs for new college poster - The AIAS is currently creating a new poster for the bulletin space opposite the elevator on the 2nd floor of Taylor Hall. The poster aims to mix current photographs with images from the past and should have representation from all the different years and majors (projects, studio, and other college related activities). Please send your pictures to Taylor Alston (talston@kent.edu).

ARCS Design Competition - The results are in for the Representation of Design I T-shirt design competition, judged by CAED faculty and ARCS peers:

Tie for 4th place - Rachael Gruic and Libby Haas
Tie for 3rd place - Brittany Lowe and Matthew Hickin
2nd Place - Ronald Garsteck
1st Place - Roberto Quiroz

Roberto's design will be on T-shirts for students in the ARCS program and will be seen worn around campus soon! Congratulations to all!

Danny Wills Makes BLDGBLOG

2009-08-20T15:47:00.004-04:00

Proving that Kent State is a launching pad for many of its students, Danny Wills, a former CAED student and Trace-r, was recently featured on Bldgblog, a highly acclaimed and influential online architecture journal.

Catch the post here.

Danny currently lives in New York studying architecture at The Cooper Union.

Reflections on a Semester Abroad

2009-06-01T18:34:00.002-04:00

The following probably sounds cliché, but it’s absolutely true. Even just looking back at the beginning of my semester here in Florence, I can tell that who I was four months ago and who I am now has drastically shifted. I feel like I have grown in a way that only living abroad can accomplish. I came to Italy with many expectations for this semester. I expected to have a wonderful time, travel everywhere, and learn a great deal about art and architecture. Although I hoped for all ofthese things, I did not anticipate how much this semester would actually change me as a person. It is difficult to describe what I mean on a holistic level, so I’ll try to explain what I mean one piece at a time.

From an architecture standpoint, I believe that this semester abroad is absolutely crucial. Not only is there a wealth of architecture in Florence and other areas of Italy, living in Italy for a semester gives you the opportunity to see other surrounding countries fairly easily and cheaply. Just over Spring Break, I was able to travel to Prague, Czech Republic; Vienna, Austria; and Munich, Germany and see architecture by Coop Himmelb(l)au, Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel, Adolf Loos, Frank Gehry, Joseph Olbrich, Otto Wagner, and more.

From an academic standpoint, the professors teaching for the Kent State Florence program are excellent. Studio alone has been a great experience this semester. Not only is my project this semester my favorite thus far, I also don’t feel like I’ve been spending my entire semester stuck in studio. This semester has been laid-back to allow for traveling, but we’ve also been getting a great deal accomplished in our studies. As far as other classes, they have not only been extremely educational, but they have been fascinating. Nothing else compares to standing inside a work of architecture or in front of a painting while you are learning about it. Along with the classes being rewarding and fascinating, the professor-student relationship in Florence is like nothing I have ever experienced. Perhaps it goes along with the fact that professors in general are more laid-back, but it seems that they treat students on a more individual basis rather than like just another number. This could be one of the many cultural discrepancies between the United States and Italy, but my professors this semester have treated everyone more like colleagues than students. I have no quarrel with how these things are done in Kent, but it was a nice change to experience an overall more relaxed atmosphere.

This semester has affected me personally as well. I grew up in Kent, so living in Florence was my first chance to truly be away from home and I discovered that even the small moments of daily life add up to something profound. Being engulfed in a foreign country that has an entirely different way of doing everything than what I am used to somehow changes you. Part of this included learning enough Italian to get by as well as learning the area. More than these components though, I had to adjust my perception of how I think things should be. Parts of the Italian culture can be difficult for me as an American to understand, but it was necessary to be open-minded and accept the fact that Italian culture is what it is. Nothing I can do will change that, so it was necessary instead to change myself in order to truly thrive within this situation.

These components are why I say that this semester has changed me. But, I think that a better way to put it is that this semester has evolved me. I am still me, but now my horizons have been expanded well beyond what they were and I feel much better equipped to deal with any sort of situation that may arise. Once you have lived and studied abroad for a semester, just about anything else seems feasible and simple by comparison.

Although I hope that my words have shed some light on Kent State’s incredible study-abroad program, I know that they are not enough to fully explain what this experience has been like. The most effective words that I can say are that this semester is something that you must experience for yourself. So my advice to first and second years is the following: study abroad in Italy. Let the experience evolve you and make you grow. Don’t turn your head from the countless opportunities that you will encounter. Let this semester abroad be an opportunity to shape and refine who you are. One thing that I can say for certain is that you will not regret it.

ISSUE 3 OUT.....ALREADY!

2009-05-19T18:44:00.008-04:00

The final issue issue of t r a c e for the 08 - 09 academic year was emailed to everyone on the CAED listserv. But if you didn't receive that email, you can catch the latest issue here.

Thanks for your interest and be ready for another issue next semester!

Have a safe summer.

BLOGS AND THE RISE OF THE GLOBAL CHEAP VITAMIN

2009-05-08T18:26:00.007-04:00

Our small texting devices, our little free blog – our intimate daily technologies that embed these personal/ social opportunities are surfacing as literally healthy. Blogs specifically are rising as a solution to increase our general wellbeing, and are rapidly being applied (especially in a world full of stress, angst, and inaccessible/ expensive healthcare). Could these daily devices (blogs, for instance) be thought of as vitamins that strengthen certain parts of our bodies? It is a playful analogy; these little technologies as inexpensive accessible over-the-counter vitamins (for example, blogs, wii-fit), compared to the expensive “antibiotics” counterparts (blogs replace shrinks, wii-fits are considered over gym memberships and personal trainers).

Such “antibiotics” /devices are not mere substitutes for the unaffordable. These sorts of small/ personal- scale technologies should not be thought of as just “tools,” for technology is a “medium and engine for social relations”; it generates new spaces for us to meet, gather, talk, vent, cry, love, cope, soothe, and befriend. In other words, technological change informs “what we believe we are supposed to do,” our adaption, or amendments to living.

BLOG AS A THERAPUTIC DEVICE

Journaling has established itself as a therapeutic medium; several studies show it can lead to significant improvements in an author’s physical health, psychological well-being, psychological functioning, and overall functioning. (Baker & Moore 81). While chronicling thoughts, emotions, dreams, fears, opinions, rants and anxieties is not novel, technology embeds a living audience into the blogging medium. Immediately there is a receiver, a listener, a global readership.

AOL surveyed 600 bloggers July 2005 to find the true intent of bloggers; how blogs are actually used. Results showed hardly any signs of users like “wannabe journalists” (16% blog because of interests in journalism, and just 8% blog to share political views). The leading role of blogging is not a news outlet, not a gossip corner, but rather it is emotional, intimate, and open: the survey revealed that nearly 50% blog as a self-therapy (Peterson 28).

Interestingly, the poll showed, when faced with hard or stressful times, 31% of bloggers will turn to writing in their blog or reading blogs with similar issues. Surprisingly, turning to family and friends scored only one percent more bloggers, at 32%. Blogs today have become so powerful, so healing; their breadths of comfort to those who use them are comparable to the blogger’s own personal confidants. Blogs may also be seen as a viable substitution for psychologists or counselors (the results show that only 5% of bloggers would prefer a professional in such times). Blogs have been described as a “typing-cure”, (essentially) free accessible global therapy.

How incredible. Free accessible global therapy.

SURFACING AS A CLINICAL COMPLIMENT

If this is the case, can blogs bloom as a clinical resource? Does this everyday technology really have healing powers, the therapeutic potentials for patients?

Christina Vernon Ayers, The Cleveland Clinic Director for the Office for a Healthy Environment, explains a depressing truth: that many times there are “back doors” in hospitals for certain patients, like those with the visible baldness of cancer, who do not want to be seen at any cost. Physical signs of sickness prevent them from reaching out, and destroy their chances of finding support, advice, or confidant. Blogs may have a strong appeal to cancer patients in this regard, for those sorts of patients that apt to hide themselves because of hair loss, deformity, visible sickness. Blogs can become "…a bit like a neighborhood pub or coffee shop. It's a little like a salon, where I can participate in a hundred ongoing conversations with people who don't care what I look like or sound like, but who care how I think and communicate" (Jones 33). Blogging can be a sort of safe / protected medium for sensitive patients, since the blog inherently has a “high intimacy with low vulnerability” (Bennedett 1).

There is no doubt that patient-blogging is growing in size, popularity and power. Current trends have promptly integrated blogs into recovery/ therapy programs; like Blog for Hope, and CarePages – even if it is simply because "It takes more than medicine to heal. We must meet our most elemental needs for personal connections and community, too, and the Internet is rapidly evolving to meet those needs" (Dr. Sharon Langshur; co-founder of CarePages). Perhaps it is not too farfetched to argue, that a free blog, a ten cent text message, holds a surprising weight in clinical recovery. Today’s small intimate technologies have capacities to globally combat isolation, depression, restlessness, stress, and loneliness. The world is discovering that those “over-the-counter” technologies (for example, texting, blogging, wii-fits) are not only upgrading our wellbeing as a community, but these daily influencers that we take once, twice, three times a day, are actually the producers of communities. “Communities are defined as shared, close, and intimate, while societies are defined as separate, distanced, and anonymous” (Jones 18). It is both adventurous and romantic, that today we have new forms of community, that they can be assembled swiftly, created immediately. The ability for modern technology to create 24 hour community, a sort of pre-assembled community where one can slide between online and offline, is a clear asset for the rapidity and unpredictability of disease.

The blogosphere has actually evolved into a therapeutic space for those who have the most challenges (appearance-boundaries, mobility, intensive treatments, etc) with occupying space. Without a doubt, the blog will rise as a powerful “spatial – vitamin”, not just to the sick, lonely, handicapped, immobile but the blogosphere can be anyone’s “spatial – vitamin” -- the cheap (if not free) amazing supplements to increase each of our social stamina, our emotive wellness and cerebral fitness. In a country where healthcare is slipping out of the reach of the young, becoming a burden to the elderly, and becoming expensive for our parents, the blog will surely rise and contour as (an already-labeled) “typing cure”, perhaps the truest form of a miracle drug we had ever seen: the free global chemical-less vitamin.

References:

Bennett, Jessica. (2008.) My Shrink Says … Blog! [Electronic version]. Newsweek. Retrieved April 9, 2009.

(C. Vernon Ayers, personal communication, March 2, 2009).

(E. McDaniel, personal communication, April 14 2009).

Baker, James R., & Moore, Susan M. (2008). Distress, Coping

Baker, James R., & Moore, Susan M. (2008). Distress, Coping, and Blogging: Comparing New Myspace Users by Their Intention to Blog. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 11(1). Retrieved April 8, 2009 from Electronic Journal Finder.

Jones, Steven G., (1994). Understanding Community in the Information Age. In S. Jones (Ed), Cybersociety, Computer-Mediated Communication and Community (10-35).Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Langshur, Sharon. (2008). Online Healthcare Gets Personal, Health 2.0 and the Healing Power of Supportive Communities. CarePages.com. Retrieved April 12, 2009.

Lenhart, Amanda & Fox, Susannah. (2006). Bloggers, A Portrait of the Internet’s New Storytellers. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved April 12, 2009.

Peterson, Tommy. (2005). The Typing Cure [Electronic version]. ComputerWorld. October Issue. Retrieved April 9, 2009 from Electronic Journal Finder.

Saffo, Paul. (1993). Hot New Medium: Text [Electronic version]. Wired Magazine, Issue 1.02. Retrieved April 10 2009, from <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.02/1.2_saffo.html>.

(A NOTE TO EVERYBODY)

2009-05-08T17:19:00.004-04:00

So you go to Kent State for Architecture. You go to the school with sub-par facilities. You go to the school where our permanent studio situation (3 poorly designed spaces around the campus) is what most schools do when they’re renovating their main architecture building. You go to the school where plotting at Kinko’s is a pretty reasonable economic choice. You go to the school where you pay for the person to click the button so that you can print something or lasercut something. Then you get to pay for the time you spend watching. You go to the school where not having a wood shop is so out of the question, it isn’t even thought of as a deficiency. You go to the school where an acceptable method of getting into the studio you want is to just wait until all of the sections are full and then have Jane force-add you. You go to the school that has absolutely no pinup space. You go to the school where the lecture series is typically a surprise. You go to the school where it’s not uncommon to only have TA’s for studio until you get to third year…and you go to a school where tenured professors are typically the ones not to take (with few exceptions) and their research is a mystery (also with few exceptions).

So the CAED lacks some things.

Now that that’s over with…

Just think of what a wonderful opportunity it is to be here. You can do whatever you want. My years at Kent have made me realize that the strength of this education lies in personal accountability. Complaining does nothing. Speaking up is rarely productive. But it’s easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission. Do things.

Lecture series sucks? Make it happen. Find money, get money, get people, make posters, do it. The school will never help you so don’t cry about it; just get it done (this was seemingly so, until this year). Think the print room hours suck? The school won’t change them; make friends with the employees and facilitate favors when you’re in a pinch. Woodshop? Take sculpture so you can use the fine arts building’s. Or bring in your own saw. This whole mess becomes guerilla studio. After all: you want to be here. You like architecture. What more do you need? The guidance of a few who care, friends who want to help, and your own ambitious can take you to some amazing places. For a school with a long list of physical deficiencies and little to no legitimate leadership in the last decade, we’ve sent students to Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Penn, The Cooper Union, RISD, Sci-Arc, IIT, OSU, Washington St. Louis, Pratt, USC…and quite a few of our graduates work for some legitimate firms that aren’t in Akron, Pittsburgh or Cleveland. Kent prepares you. You can get “out.”

In a way, we as students can feel abused by the bureaucracy, and it can be tough to deal with the self-esteem-cutting bullshit that we encounter from faculty and fellow students. It seems that everybody talks down about what we do, what we can’t do, and what we produce. Reviewers come in and are generally positive, but our environment breeds this “I’m not good enough” sentiment. The only people who seem to be proud of KSU architecture are the ‘golf’ type: male, graduated in the 90’s, working as project managers for second-rate healthcare firms and are ‘almost done’ with the ARE after 15 years of working in the field. Not quite the progressive outlook I hope for.

This is where we come in. Kent’s been in a transition period as long as I’ve been here, so let’s take it where we want it to go. We need to quit it with our sense of mediocrity and stand up for our school. We need to be accountable for the education we receive. Kent is a great school for architecture, not because we’re a number on a list, but because we, the students, are hardworking, smart, competitive students who love architecture. Apply to big schools. Apply to big firms. Go out on a limb and explore architecture in the manner you see fit. Never before, has it been truer that you can be anything you want to be and nobody is holding you back.

On your mark.

Get set.

Go.

CRAIG SCOTT LECTURE

2009-03-30T23:18:00.005-04:00

Craig Scott of Iwamotoscott Architecture to lecture on the Kent Campus this Thursday.

The lecture is scheduled to begin at 7:15pm in the Michael Schwartz Auditorium and is free and open to the public.

ISAR was recently selected as a finalist for the MoMA/PS1 young architects design competition.

Click here to link to the firm's website for more information.

VOLUME 3 / ISSUE 2 OUT NOW!

2009-03-13T16:34:00.002-04:00

t r a c e volume 3 issue 2 out now!

Find it on your studio desk or to view online click here.

IDSC PHILANTHROPIC WORK ON EXTREME MAKEOVER

2009-03-12T20:30:00.006-04:00

On a rainy Saturday in October, 50 KSU Interior Design students participated in ABC’s Extreme Makeover, Home Edition in Pittsburgh PA. The participants volunteered their time cleaning up the home site after the construction had finished.

Extreme Makeover, Home Edition with host Ty Pennington surprise families with complete home makeovers. This episode featured a family’s home that was in poor condition; one side was covered with a tarp because of severe water damage and the other side had been destroyed by a tornado that hit earlier that year. With the help of Pennington, Designers, Builders Montgomery & Rust, and all the volunteers the family had a newly designed and built home when they returned from their Walt Disney Vacation.

KSU Interior Design students were offered the opportunity to participate through the campus organization IDSC (Interior Design Student Collaborative). IDSC is an umbrella organization for the national Interior Design Organizations ASID and IIDA. The opportunity to help out the crew of Extreme Makeover was open to all IDSC members. Volunteers were asked to unload accessories from the home and also cleanup the job site once the home was built.

“We knew the house would already be finished – so it wasn’t about seeing Ty Pennington – it was about volunteering our time to help in a neighboring community,” said participant.

IDSC members are familiar with helping out in their community, as the organization does a lot of philanthropic work through programs like Habitat for Humanity, Walk for Diabetes, and the annual KSU Beaux Arts Ball. Members volunteer for Habitat for Humanity throughout the year on Saturdays – however this year working around Saturday classes proved difficult, and no Habitat events were planned. In the fall, all ISDC members are encouraged to walk in the Walk for Diabetes.

“This event is very close to our hearts, in 1997 a student from our program passed away of the disease,” Julie Edwards, Philanthropist Chair of IDSC states.

In addition to the Walk for Diabetes and Habitat for Humanity IDSC members also collect ingredients and meal components for Thanksgiving Dinners and donates them to families in need in the Kent area. This past Thanksgiving, participating members provided five families with Thanksgiving meals.

Finally, the Beaux Arts Ball is organized every fall semester, by the Architecture, Interior Design, and Fashion students. The money is used to raise money for all three organizations and fund any events that occur throughout the year. Both the Architecture and Interior Design students create and set up installment pieces and , while the Fashion students put on a fashion show during the Ball.

Belonging to IDSC means more than belonging to an Interior Design Student Organization, it means giving back to the community through volunteer activities. The Extreme Makeover event was just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ with the philanthropic work through IDSC. IDSC president Kristen Kanotz comments on the experience -

“Even though the weather was cold and rainy – it was a great experience. It brought 50 of us all together from different years in the ID program; it was so nice to spend time with people we don’t get to see regularly.”

This episode of Extreme Makeover was aired Sunday, January 4 2009 at 9pm on ABC.

INVOLVE

2009-03-12T12:41:00.000-04:00

You found this issue of t r a c e on your studio desk, and now you are trying to discern what this magazine is all about. To reduce it to a simple set of ideas, it offers connectivity between the layers of our college; it acts as a forum for your opinions and as a creative outlet for inspiring thought. However, t r a c e is not the only channel for these, rather, it is just one part of a wider network of on campus organizations. Unfortunately, t r a c e and other organizations within the College of Architecture and Environmental Design have difficulty getting motivated and passionate people involved. At times we hide behind our workload and use it as an excuse not to involve ourselves in many of the student operated organizations. But if no one helps, who will?

Think of this small article as an opportunity, a call to arms even, to involve yourself in a meaningful way with your major. For those who currently feel apathetic or only view the College of Architecture and Environmental Design as being made up of studio work and our required course load, I ask you to rethink this logic and see all that this college has to offer. Within CAED student organizations such as AIAS (American Institute of Architecture Students), CASU (College of Architecture Student Union), SAGE (Student Association for a Greener Environment), t r a c e, and the Lecture Series Committee exist to link the students and the college. These organizations are currently seeking to increase membership, because as past experiences have proven, decreasing interest results in the death of a vital organization. Outside of CAED there are even more ways to represent the college in the larger scope of Kent State University such as Habitat for Humanity, being a First Year Experience instructor, Undergraduate Student Government, Relay for Life, United Way, starting an intramural sport, etc.

Becoming involved can take hold of you and a domino effect begins to occur where suddenly you realize that you are not just part of one or more organizations but rather a network of people. I hope to act as an advocate for all organizations and will assist anyone in finding a creative outlet. My e-mail is eresenic@kent.edu, feel free to contact me with any questions you have.

INDIETECTURE

2009-03-04T23:49:00.004-05:00

Last spring I saw a great show - two hip, young, up-and-comings from New York came in to Kent to perform. When bands come into your town, as the host band, it’s customary to make the touring band feel at home; you go to some record stores, you hit up the dive diners, you show them your gear, and you tell all of your friends about the show, so that there will be a good showing. Swap 7”’s. Provide PBR and a floor/couch to crash on.

For many [young] musicians, this is what it’s about. Most indie-rockers are completely qualified to hold office jobs, wear white collars, and work for ‘the man’, but the ones on the road will tell you: “Life’s not all about money, it’s about friendship, tours, and stories.”[1] After the show last spring, I talked to the travelers about the essence of being on the road. “You wouldn’t believe how many bands there are that are touring the country making just pennies a day with no chance of going anywhere…just for the love of music,” David Benjamin tells me.

Except that David Benjamin isn’t an indie-rocker [anymore]. He’s an architect. His “band” [with Soo-In Yang] is called The Living. They did not sleep on my floor. However, they are from New York [Columbia, Pratt] and we did show them around our studio [and look at the projects/gear we were working on/with]. We also swapped works [I think they got a t-shirt and the poster we’d designed, we received their Life Size books], shared a drink [not PBR], and throughout the day had hyped the show [lecture] to our friends.

From dabbling in both, I can attest: Architecture is closer to indie rock than one might think. What’s more interesting is that the similarities aren’t just skin deep. We’re not like indie rockers because architects are style conscious hipsters, but rather because as architects [and especially architecture students], we’re youthfully idealistic and have a refreshing apprehension for the corporate world that drives the industry. However, unlike our musical counterparts, we lack some steadfastness in maintaining our idealism in a tough industry. When it comes down to it, it’s easy to “sell out” and become one of them.

This is exactly why we should take note. Although lead holders aren’t exactly guitar picks, there are some pretty direct ways that we can look to the indie community for inspiration as youthful designers.

Reason 1: Indie Rockers hold concept and product in equally high regard.

Musicians in the indie community are interested in two main things: expressing themselves through music and sharing this expression with others. As designers, we have similar interests: creating and producing (the product, as the way in which we share our creations). Too often, architecture becomes a choice between concept and buidlability. As we work through problems, it’s easy to bend to one side or the other. If we’re working with tricky forms, we don’t worry about how the building might actually come together (precast concrete of course!). If we’re focusing on the fidelity of a wall detail, then our grand formal moves simplify into Revit-friendly forms. As designers, we should be dually focused on what our design means and how this meaning will be communicated. The Living, for example, use “flash projects” to exercise both creativity and production. By their definition, flash projects take a question and a set sum of money and develop a working prototype. In this sense, the flash project is similar to the musician’s demo - concept quickly developed into a tangible result for the sake of distribution.

Reason 2: The Indie Rock community operates on a DIY ethic.

As a musician with a low budget and high expectations, the best way to produce something is to do it yourself - with a bit of internet-savvy elbow grease and borrowed guidance. If you need a specific sound, borrow the gear you need. If you don’t know the best way to record a cello, call the one guy from the one band and ask how he did it on his album. DIY isn’t as much about doing everything yourself, as it is being personally accountable for what your produce. If you want it, then you do it. As designers, the best way to make our designs well rounded is to learn about the many aspects that go into a design. As students, now is the time to practice, or else in five years, you’ll wished you spent more time ‘building your chops.’ If you’re not good at structures, use your resources (books, teachers, colleagues) to get better. If you don’t know a program, find somebody who does and ask them to teach you. Likewise, promote cooperation by offering your services; you may end up on the liner notes.

Reason 3: The Indie-rock community is propelled by a humility, honesty, and respect.

Regardless of the band, after any set, the other bands on the bill will shake hands, and profusely compliment the performance. Indie-metal-heads will tell folk-guitarists how rad their set was and honestly mean it. For a split second, after any show, personal opinion is set aside and the focus is instead on celebrating the lifestyle and the art of music. The result of this isn’t only the feel-good nature of the moment, but that it brings different artists together and achieves a greater good. Bands will swap shows in hometowns, which leads to swapping music, talking shop, and generally making new friends. While critique exists, it’s always in the positive vain and delivered with tact and with a stylistically open mind. The way to succeed in the indie community is through being friendly and showing respect to everybody else.

Then there’s architecture. Even our closest studio friends aren’t immune to the snarky comments we unleash in the back row of a review. Too often, our Northeast Ohio Sense-Of-Eternal-Mediocraty takes over and it’s easier to cut down everybody than pull anybody up. We can be cut-throat in the worst way, emulating our professors and jurors instead of being compassionate and helpful towards our colleagues. Sure, maybe comic sans is pretty third grade but the best way to handle this is through tact and honesty. If your bandmate was playing out of tune, you’d tell them – it makes everybody sound better.

[1]Sean Gardner of Winter Makes Sailors notes in “It’s Not About You” – www.myspace.com/wintermakessailors

VIRTUAL SPACE

2009-03-04T19:55:00.002-05:00

In a time where our reality constantly feels as though it’s turning into a video game, it may be normal for one to question what constitutes their existence in the 21st century. With this in mind, insinuating that in the digital age many of us reside in a form of virtual space more often than in “real space” may not be as far-fetched as might be first perceived. Not only do many of us engage in conventional thoughts of virtual reality such as video games, we also enter other forms of intangible space as well. These spaces, often caused by a collision of new and pre-existing forms of media with the physical world, will increasingly define our existence and possibly even redefine what it is to be human.

Of the multitude of “media spaces,”[1] most apparent of these for the young scholar are social networking sites. In digital platforms such as Facebook, it may seem as though a user is simply viewing online profiles, but while snooping around for the latest gossip, the user subjects themselves to a series of spaces that are constituted by an array of words, pixels, and friend requests; a space that is defined by the human interaction that occupies it. When one uses the phone, that person loses their physical body and is reduced to a voice lingering in the abyss. As well, listening to digitally reproduced music (a Mozart concerto over headphones, perhaps), interacting with an in-car GPS system, watching television, and surfing the web are all additional forms of virtual reality.

We can also see examples of media space in immersive online gaming environments such as Second Life. SL is an online virtual world that enables users from across the globe to interact with one another. Unlike other popular social networking models such as Myspace and Facebook, Second Life places people, represented by avatars, into a virtual environment that in many aspects attempts at representing real life. Still, the possibilities in Second Life verge on endless due to the fact that, as part of its platform, it easily adapts to the needs and wants of its users. Because of this, the computer program is generating a great deal of commotion among analysts, scholars, etc. for the potential and implications of the game.

So in these new conditions, where does so-called tangible space end and virtual space begin? It’s apparent the distinctions are becoming increasingly blurred. The consequences this virtual phenomenon brings with it are central to the way we live. As Tor Lindstrand has commented, “…The profound effect that we live our lives in an accelerating rate through media is something that clearly changes our perspective and understanding of the reality around us.”[2] In these situations the space we occupy is not comprised of the physical and tangible elements that surround us. Instead, we find ourselves in a paradox of place; an absurdity of our indication of position as one or more sensations acts as a deceit to the truth of our current condition. It is true that many of us live life through interactive media that, in some respects, places an obscure threshold between the individual and real life.

Moreover, the way in which we interact with real space is influenced by our connection to these virtual spaces. Take for instance wi-fi signal. As CityofSound recently examined[3], areas in which signal is strong, one can find a collection of illuminated faces toiling on unknown projects. Spaces where signal is weak or non-existent are considered undesirable, sometimes regardless of their physical spatial qualities.

In essence, our presence is constantly divided between two dimensions; one foot in the “real” world and one in the virtual. So what does this mean for the future of architecture and society as a whole? Will the succession of our lives into the virtual continually increase until we experience life in a wholly illusory environment? While life in the digital age continues to progress into unknown realms, experimentation in the world without limits becomes more and more legitimate and less ‘unrealistic’. In essence, our definitions of real and virtual could reverse, where what architecture now considers fantasy becomes the truer manifestation of human interaction and life as a whole.

For instance, in Second Life an enclosure is not meant for shelter from environmental elements; there is no rain. Rather, architecture here serves a much more abstracted role in the lives of the users of the game. In any virtual reality the “rules” of architecture no longer apply. Therefore, architectural dialogue has an entirely new dictionary. Of course, designing for the virtual is nothing new at all. Lebbeus Woods recently released a set of conceptual sketches done for the movie Alien III.[4] Although the movie Woods was commissioned for was never realized, his design for a decaying world of the future dealt with conditions of an entirely different environment that is legitimized by the possibility that it could one day be our own.

In a world increasingly defined by degrees of virtualized space, considering the implications of virtual architecture, and at a broader scale virtual life, becomes more and more relevant. No one in the millennial generation can deny that our lives are experienced in both reality and a computer often simultaneously. If this is where we exist, then shouldn’t our spaces be informed by that juxtaposition as well? Whatever the case, it seems as though the newest frontier lies not beyond our atmosphere or even this solar system, but within the capacities of our technology and the little illuminated screens directly in front of us.

[1] Doesinger, Space Between People, p. 16
[2] Doesinger, p. 137
[3] http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2008/11/wi-fi-structure.html
[4] http://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/alien-past/

ZOKA ZOLA TO LECTURE

2009-02-16T16:02:00.006-05:00

The College of Architecture and Environmental Design to host Zoka Zola of Zoka Zola Architecture + Urban Design in Chicago.

Please click here to view a promotional flier for the event.

The lecture is scheduled to be held on Feburary 19th, 2009 in Cartwright Auditorium at 7:30pm on the Kent State Univeristy Campus.

DEAR ARCHITECTS

2008-12-05T18:25:00.001-05:00

written september 2007

regarding:
http://rasmusbroennum.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/deararchitects.pdf

Dear Architects…I am sick of our shit.

“When you point to a glass cylinder and say proudly, hey my office designed that, I giggle and say it looks like a bong. You turn your head in disgust and shame. You think, obviously she does not understand. What does she know?...... And then you say now I am designing a lifestyle center, and I ask what is that, and you say it is a place that offers goods and services and retail opportunities and I say you mean like a mall and you say no. It is a lifestyle center. I say it sounds like a mall. I am from the Valley, bitch. I know malls.”

Everybody who worked at an Architecture firm whom I kept in contact with, and some that didn’t, received the article in an intra-office email sometime in August. I received it twice. At first glance it seemed basically harmless and pretty accurate. The stereotypes were painted almost perfectly. Architects wear black, own cool eyeglasses, have crazy hair, keep long hours, and obsess over architecture, regardless of the appropriateness of the situation or the company.

But at second glance, I became more aware not only of how the world perceives us as architects, but how accurate that perception is. And that realization bothered me, not because I take offense to noting an artist’s dark attire, but because it means that we’re subconsciously yet intentionally distancing ourselves from the society that we claim to represent. We’re exactly (or at least fast approaching) a category of professionals who will be only seen to the rest of the world as black-wearing fashion-forward sleep-deprived design junkies.

So what’s so bad about this? Nothing I suppose. But in my mind it’s counterproductive to what architecture as a profession seeks to do. How can we hope to sell design to a society who feels disassociated from the idea of an architect functioning on a normal social level? It certainly isn’t impossible, but intentionally distancing ourselves from our clientele isn’t something we should strive for. What’s worse, is when society adopts the idea that architects, like artists, are too far outside the social norm to acceptably function in society, our role as designers becomes less legitimate. Perhaps the reason that there’s so much Wall-Marchitecture is because we epitomize the stereotype that supports the idea that hiring an architect to design something will only result in a formally misunderstood, budget destroying mess, rather than a functional and reasonable design solution.

I suppose our dichotomous architecture brains are to blame. In school and in life, you can either be the black wearing, A-earning, program-ignoring, conceptual artist, or you can be the methods loving, firm-working, get-A’s-in-everything-but-studio pragmatician. As a community of designers, if we hope to break this stereotype, we should strive to be more aware of a multi-dimensional role in architecture. Conceptual designers should not ignore the practical and buildable aspect of design, and Functionally-Grounded designers should open their minds to new design and building concepts.

And when we interact with society let’s try to step outside our personas and leave the architecture double-speak behind. Maybe, despite our conceptually infallible interpretation of our own work, there’s not much difference between a lifestyle center and a mall, and to our peers, our “transparent beacon of sustainability” really does just look like a bong.

STRATEGY OF THE RED THING

2008-12-05T18:10:00.002-05:00

by michael abrahamson, alumnus

Even within an oeuvre like Antoine Predock’s—characterized by fragmentation and juxtaposition—the Recreation and Physical Activity Center at the Ohio State University is unusually scattershot: materials appear and disappear, glare and reflection are widespread, spaces compress and release at a dizzying pace, et cetera… but look at that red thing! That red thing is Predock’s strategic attempt at unifying a fractured mess of a building. The red thing is what matters here, not the material and spatial juxtaposition or the fragmentation of form. The red thing is an overdetermined form, like those that so captivated Freud in his dream analyses: to use an architectural vocabulary, it is a multi-functioning element par excellence. Let’s explore some of its purposes.

First of all, the red thing is culturally resonant. It can be interpreted as part of a running track—signaling the building’s function as recreation center—as a horseshoe and therefore a ghost of its neighbor Ohio Stadium, or as a fragment of Ohio State’s red “O” logo. These are clearly not the only possibilities, just the most obvious. The red thing is imageable or has imageability, to borrow Kevin Lynch’s term. One can imagine that many a visitor has had their picture taken in front of it on football Saturdays, and it serves as a beacon for patrons and partiers alike. After dark, this beacon becomes particularly dramatic as the reflectance and transparency of adjacent material applications becomes more palpable. Red and pink light splashes the streetside façade and both sides of the central circulation canyon.

The difficulty of its structural realization is also more apparent at night. Heavy steel tube sections frame the bridge in a manner reminiscent of infrastructure, creating a shadowy texture that articulates the complexity of its enterprise. Bridging two independent buildings is never a simple proposition, and Predock complicates things by continuing the bridge overtop a workout room on its west end. The aforementioned tube sections figure prominently within this space, providing a visual disconnect that alleviates the feeling of being watched for those on elliptical trainers and treadmills below. This space is canyon-like, but it’s a canyon with an infrastructural element slicing through it. The canyon is a common device in Predock’s work, but typically his color palette is as subdued as the geographic phenomena it mimics. Color—at least any color that is not an earth tone—is uncommon in his buildings. The red thing is an extraordinary circumstance.

Informed by a love for the geography of the American southwest—stone outcrops, steep gorges and the like—Predock’s formal vocabulary is peculiarly attuned to complex programs such as that of the RPAC. It is common to be able to walk on or over his buildings, and he has even used the “red thing” strategy before: in his Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College [RECORD, May 2001] and the Nelson Fine Arts Center at Arizona State, pedestrian passages are deployed in a similar fashion. At Arizona State, the thing is even red! But these previous deployments weren’t as essential to the success of their designs. The ensembles at Skidmore and ASU are less tenuous and more pile- or mountain-like. The RPAC has neither the material nor formal consistency of these other buildings; it almost requires such a dramatic gesture.

So let’s say you’ve got a problem. You’ve won a commission for a building with an intimidatingly complex program in which needs and wants are contradictory. You want a building that feels like a totality, but the client keeps telling you that they need this or that to be separate or different. At Ohio State, Predock has provided an example for how to efficiently and inexpensively produce unity within such an ensemble. The red thing is a strategy. A concept. And it works.

CASU 101 - WHAT'S NEW?

2008-12-05T18:02:00.002-05:00

by mike turk, third year

As the Fall semester comes to a close, many of us within the College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED) may wonder if anything has improved for us within the past semester. The answer to this question can be addressed by many people in many ways, but that really doesn't matter, the response that matters is yours. For myself, the answer is a simple clean no. But the next question I have is why?

CASU, which stands for College of Architecture Student Union, was originally established to address the issues presented by us students; however, the numerous and conflicting tasks require much more than one organization "fighting the system" can accomplish. This in fact has been proven over the lifecycle of CASU. But what is being done? Does anyone really care what we students think? Well, the answer to this question is yet to be determined.

With the radically changing format of programs and faculty and requirements of each division of the CAED, with us students at the brink of it all, is there anything we can do to make our voices heard within this system? What CASU exists for is conveying the information, complaints, and concerns of students to the faculty. This set-up has sadly been proven insufficient, and new measures are to be taken for the Spring semester. Speculation, speculation, lets see some facts.

The two architecture-related organizations and an Undergraduate Student Government Senator, representing CAED are the only forms of student government we have. But, the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) Kent State University chapter is limited by their national chapter by-laws to function in certain manners. So this leaves us students with CASU and the Undergraduate Student Government Senator. These forces are all that connect us with the faculty, their heavily-guarded system of decision making. But what can we do to contribute to the decision making process?

CASU has been doing some reformatting of its own. The executive board has revised the organization's constitution so that the power of the involved faculty member is limited to advisement only. The revisions insist involving the organization in the decision making of the Undergraduate Student Senator while limiting his or her power within the group and enhancing their vow never to merge with any other organization. This is to prevent monopolizing student representation within CAED. But most importantly, CASU has devised a way to engage directly with the faculty groups established in the decision making process for our college. CASU executives have been informed that student representatives at faculty meetings for various types of decisions are encouraged and welcomed. The nice part of this arrangement is that more than one student will be representing the ideas of CASU, which are a collaboration of the ideas of every student within CAED at each of these different faculty meetings. But so what?

Well the existing system simply doesn't work. CASU will not allow its members, which by the way are all CAED members, Interior Design, BA Architecture and BS Architecture students, to go unheard. The beauty in this existing system is that we as students are all way too busy to do anything about our complaints, but CASU will prove this to be false. We only ask that students within the college contribute their input at the meetings, talk amongst their peers and establish opinions about their environment here in the CAED. We put enough blood, sweat and tears into our work; CASU is here to make sure we're getting heard and changing things for the greater good.

TOP OF THE CLASS: WHERE DOES SOCIAL CLASS COME INTO PLAY IN OUR SUCCESS AS DESIGNERS?

2008-12-05T17:45:00.003-05:00

by hallie delvillian, cudc graduate student

“WHO WE THINK WE ARE”

Immediately, “class” may trigger us to organize in our minds nice even dollar amount brackets; where we slice the spectrum into clean equal thirds and assign the lower, middle, and upper. Then, we tend to put them on a ladder, of who is on top, and who is on bottom. Easy.

Class is much more complex than that. French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu gave an interesting visual of class: a flat plane where our spot on this 2 dimensional surface are factors of not only economics, but also of cultural, capital, academics, networks, attitudes, prestige, and tastes. All these things combined form how we act, how we interpret the world, and how we regulate the acts in that world. Class directly tells us “who we think we are, how we behave, and how we expect to be treated”.

EXTENTS AND REALITIES OF MAKING IT

Point- blank, it has to do with success.

Garry Stevens, an architectural sociologist best known for his controversial 1998 book The Favored Circle, believes that ultimately social background wieghs more on our success than our creative aptitude. He told us that a select few architects become successful (and famous) not out of sheer genius, or even dumb luck, but because of who they studied with; by extension, those “lucky breaks”—college acceptance, contacts, internships, first jobs, career advancement—depend to a significant degree on class and taste.

While Stevens doesn’t say that class is the only influence that gets us to the top, evidently pure talent doesn’t get us there either.

Is Steven’s right? Is the history of our pasts, our mothers and fathers, the way we learned to write, what dolls we played with, what music we’ve come to enjoy, all sum into the leading influence of our success as designers? I agree, it is a huge part, bigger than anyone likes to admit, but if it is the leading cause is debatable, as it was in 1998.

Take notice at juries of the students to most likely mingle with the stars that come to critique us; often it is those with a good amount of social class standing (remember class is not only money, but manners, taste, culture, academics and networks).

ACCESS TO BECOMING BIG

Sure, our class has a hand in our success, our networks, what firms we end up in, but success is more complex than just social class plus talent. It may be seen by now that class is really broad, and especially today, very vague. Class, although in my opinion not a factor alone that determines our success in design, influences all factors.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, studier of happiness and creativity, in his rsearch has found these factors that aid for success in any creative field, like design.

• access to the domain (the set of symbolic rules and procedures)
• access to the field (the individuals who act as the gatekeepers to the domain)
• the individual him/herself.

As mentioned before, class has an effect on all these pieces to our success. Our access to certain schools is certainly influenced by class and status, the firms that are “in our league” are dictated by our status, even access to professors/ mentors rely on a status of academics and one’s network-pool.

The factor we can control most is our individualism. Because of this, our individualism should be our most prized weapon to get to the top. Uniqueness can be channeled to grab the attention of the gatekeepers, and curb our chances and routes for success. While typically those of the upper class get noticed the most (recieve the most attention), the design field is such an incredible exception because of the individual element that defines our work and our image that we are in control of. While social background propels or retards movement in every profession, the design field is a different playing field, where announcing our personalities and attitudes about the world influence how far we make it.

(Reference: Soar, Matt. “Graphic Design is Immaterial”, September 2006.< http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/graphic-design-is-immaterial> )

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

2008-12-05T15:56:00.000-05:00

A Phoenix from the Ashes: The Rebirth of t r a c e
by julie whyte, co-editor, third year

As the first issue of t r a c e: volume 3 is coming out in December, in the middle of studio finals, some of you may be wondering: what on earth is t r a c e? For those of you who have never seen an issue of t r a c e placed on your desk before, allow me to fill you in. t r a c e was created a few years ago as Kent State’s one and only Architecture publication with the goal in mind of encouraging and increasing levels of communication within the Architecture program as well as throughout the College of Architecture and Environmental Design.

Although t r a c e held steadfast and strong for two years, a change in leadership occurred as well as a decline in staff membership. It seems that the common mentality within the student body in Architecture is “I don’t have time for anything else besides studio and classes.” Although this is a valid point, especially amidst the frenzy of studio finals, the concept of a publication that can resolve communication issues within the college is one that is vital to the college’s success.

I have noticed throughout my two and a half years in the Architecture program that communication has been a serious problem. I do not just mean communication between faculty and students, but students to students as well. With us third years holed up in the Gym Annex, fourth years on the other side of campus in Tri-Towers, and freshmen and sophomores in Taylor, miscommunication, or a complete lack of communication, is frequent as well as inevitable. Although Interior Design students share studio space with the third year and graduate Architecture students, there seems to be a divide in communication between the two groups. There may as well be a line drawn between where Architecture and Interior Design students are divided. This lack of inter-collegiate communication is frustrating and wholly counter-productive.

Fortunately, though, this is where t r a c e comes in. Anyone involved in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design can submit to t r a c e, students and faculty alike. Here is the perfect opportunity for all of you to have your voice heard. Any concerns, questions, or comments you have are welcomed to be submitted to t r a c e so that something can be done about them.

This year, t r a c e is making some changes in order to help to breach this communication gap. As well as distributing hard copies of the publication, all of our issues will be posted here on our new online home. This blog will not only serve as a means to access t r a c e electronically, but we hope that it will allow for additional input as well as ongoing discussion. Because, that’s what t r a c e should ideally be: a continual discussion in which many students give their opinions and input. We would love for t r a c e to become a catalyst for this tête-à-tête rather than a paper for people to simply read and then dispose of.

So, to all of you students out there who are working hard to endure finals: let us know what you are thinking. Share your opinion; voice your concerns. Let t r a c e become a means for you to accomplish all of this and more. Submittals may be turned in to our e-mail [tracekent@gmail.com], the aforementioned blog, as well as our facebook group. Despite t r a c e’s lack of activity in the recent past, we are back and better than ever. So, join us and become a part of this effort in breaching the great divide between members of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design.