11 am- 12 pm Heroism and Hubris: Boston’s Concrete Modernism

Often problematically labeled as “Brutalist,” the concrete architecture that transformed Boston during 1960s and 1970s was conceived with ambitious social ideals by some of the world’s most influential designers, including Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer, I. M. Pei, Josep Lluis Sert, Paul Rudolph and many others. The book Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston tells the story of a city, a material, and a movement, and how these intersected in the postwar era to make Boston an epicenter of concrete architecture worldwide. At a moment when concrete buildings across the nation are in danger of demolition, Heroic surveys the aspirations of this earlier period and considers anew its legacies—both troubled and inspired. Author Mark Pasnik will unpack the complex social and architectural questions surrounding concrete modernism in Boston and show how a “New Boston” arose from civic investment in the city coupled with revolutionary thinking.

12 pm – 4 pm Boston City Hall + Government Center Tour

One of the most underappreciated buildings in Boston, Kallmann McKinnell and Wood’s Boston City Hall dominates I.M. Pei’s Government Center Plaza. The building’s competition-winning design late in Boston’s urban renewal era would launch the long and successful career of a fledging design firm and influence a generation of international architects and yet, much of the general public considers the building ugly and “brutalist”. On this walking tour, step inside this brick and concrete masterpiece, consider how the building massing and fenestration express the organization of city government, and hear the stories of the design and the ideas behind a bold and provocative urban statement.

11 am- 12 pm Heroism and Hubris: Boston’s Concrete Modernism

Often problematically labeled as “Brutalist,” the concrete architecture that transformed Boston during 1960s and 1970s was conceived with ambitious social ideals by some of the world’s most influential designers, including Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer, I. M. Pei, Josep Lluis Sert, Paul Rudolph and many others. The book Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston tells the story of a city, a material, and a movement, and how these intersected in the postwar era to make Boston an epicenter of concrete architecture worldwide. At a moment when concrete buildings across the nation are in danger of demolition, Heroic surveys the aspirations of this earlier period and considers anew its legacies—both troubled and inspired. Author Mark Pasnik will unpack the complex social and architectural questions surrounding concrete modernism in Boston and show how a “New Boston” arose from civic investment in the city coupled with revolutionary thinking.

12 pm – 4 pm Christian Science Center Tour

This walking tour will explore an extraordinary urban campus master planned in the late 1960s by I.M. Pei and Partners and Cossutta Associated Architects. Home to a Romanesque revival church, classical revival basilica “addition” and an extraordinary collection of modernist architecture fronting a 700-foot long reflecting pool — all comprising the Mother Church of the Church of Christ, Scientist – the first religion in the world founded by a woman, Mary Baker Eddy. The complex has been compared to Bernini’s piazza for Saint Peter’s in Rome. The 1896-1906 Mother Church boasts the largest pipe organ in the western hemisphere, and the complex includes the visually dazzling and acoustically amazing Mapparium, a stained-glass globe, depicting the world’s geopolitical boundaries in the 1930s, that visitors can walk through.

12 pm – 1 pm Not Licensed Yet; But Still Rockin’ it!

The Designery at YouthBuild Boston is making positive and tangible impact in the community through Architecture and design. Through five critical initiatives and programs, this organization is allowing pre-licensed architecture and design graduates to utilize their design skills in order to create meaningful and real-world benefit for the community. These benefits include, but are not limited to, urban beautification, increase social equity, and connection corporate resources to other non-profit agencies. Join this session lead by AIAS Alumni Alex Ho.

1 pm – 3 pm Showing Shadow with Sue Yang

How many times have you heard “Do not represent light in yellow, Draw the shadow!” Shadow is the giver of life in any realistic architectural rendering and charcoal is the medium that can give you the results you’re looking for. Experiment and practice with this messy but effective art tool to help bring your drawings to a new level.

11 am- 4 pm

Attendees of this firm tour will visit the following firm(s):

• Bergmeyer Associates, Inc.
• Payette
• EYP
• Harriman Associates

11 am – 2 pm Faneuil Hall + Long Wharf Tour

Since its construction in 1742 as a gift from Peter Faneuil to colonial Boston, Faneuil Hall has been one of the city’s most important meeting places. Significantly enlarged by Charles Bulfinch in 1805-06, this red brick landmark has stood the test of time. In 1826, Faneuil Hall would witness an ambitious urban renewal project, turning a decrepit waterfront of shanties into the granite-clad Quincy Market complex. The market was outmoded by the mid-20th century and the complex was transformed in 1976-78 into the nation’s first festival marketplace. Stroll the market buildings, and learn about the nation’s founding at the Boston National Historical Park Visitor Center at Faneuil Hall; be sure to ascend the stairs to the great hall on the second floor of Faneuil Hall to see a stunning example of Georgian architecture and the site of many important meetings.

2 pm – 4 pm How to Produce a Profitable Architecture Portfolio with Elen Zurabyan and Alison Laas

Moving forward in your career, you will likely encounter competition at every step. What are you doing to separate yourself from your competition? How can you stand out and make incredible impressions on your audience whether they be a potential employer or academic committee? Learn what attributes are necessary for producing an architecture portfolio that profits your future and your career. Whether you are just getting started with your design or well on your way, these foundational aspects will aid in the production of an architecture portfolio that exudes your unique qualities and accurately represents you and your capabilities in a compelling manner. After learning how to identify these aspects, we will work collaboratively to improve everyone’s portfolio. So, if you have a portfolio, then you will want to bring it (no matter where you are in the process)!

11 am – 1 pm On the Outskirts of Architecture

Explore architectural potential in spite of academic reservations about serious adaptive reuse projects. Many architectural schools avoid exposure of students to the rich possibilities of adaptive reuse because of its non-canonical category-bashing in relation to architectural history, the complexity and variety of design approaches for individual projects, and the spectra of historicism.

1 pm – 4 pm Customs House Tour

Towering 495 feet above downtown Boston, the classically styled Custom House tower is Boston’s oldest skyscraper, thanks to its status as a former federal building; the government was not subject to Boston’s 125-foot height restriction. The original building was a domed Greek Revival structure fronted by two forbidding porticos, erected at the water’s edge in 1837-47 to the designs of Ammi B. Young. Clad entirely with Rockport granite, the steel-framed tower designed by Peabody & Stearns and completed in 1915 features four carved eagles, 16 feet tall. Surmounted by the tower the renovated building retained an adaptation of the original dome and a spectacular rotunda which displays one of the few Great Seals of the United States not in a government structure. Now home to a Marriott Hotel, the tower offers spectacular views of downtown Boston from its open-air deck. The intricate mechanism of the tower’s four-sided clock includes a pendulum weighing only 150 pounds, but the clock’s minute hands are 11½ feet long.

11 am – 1 pm Defining the Future of Place: Collaborative + Interdisciplinary Design with Fred Merrill 

Join Sasaki in a discussion focused on collaborative and interdisciplinary design. With nationally and internationally recognized projects and professionals in the disciplines of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Interior Design, Planning, Data Visualization, Graphic Design, and Civil Engineering, we believe deeply that collaborative design produces the best work on multiple levels. Our panel will include professionals from many of our disciplines and will provide in-depth insight to the the challenges, benefits, and incredible successes of working in equilibrium. We see this not just as a working style, but as one of the fundamentals of innovation and would like the future generation of design to join our conversation.

1 pm – 2 pm Break

2 pm – 3 pm Over, Under, Around, and Through: Additions to Historic Buildings with Josh Aisenberg and Josh Lacasse

How we treat our most cherished historic buildings reflects our core values as a culture. Join Ann Beha Architects in a session that presents an approach for designing additions to historic buildings. Using the National Park Service’s Standards and Guidelines for the Treatment of Historic Properties as a framework, we will explore the sensitive design of additions through case studies on four academic campuses: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, and Washington University in St. Louis.

3 pm – 4 pm Design That Heals with David Saladik

Design That Heals is a 25-minute film documenting the creation process of Haiti’s first permanent cholera treatment center in the aftermath of the 2010 outbreak. This film and the concept of designing with the intent to create positive community impact will be further discussed by MASS COO Alan Ricks and director David Saladik, at the conclusion of the film.

11 am- 4 pm

Attendees of this firm tour will visit the following firms:

• Touloukian Touloukian Inc.
• Leers Weinzapfel Associates
• CannonDesign
• CBT

11 am – 12:30 pm Designing your Future: NCARB

Join NCARB for a presentation about your career in architecture, licensure, and beyond. Topics will include: The entities involved in the licensure process, how to progress successfully through the AXP, brief overview of the ARE, the value of the NCARB certificate, and recent changes to NCARB programs. The presentation will also cover tips to making a successful transition from school to work and pursuing licensure once employed. Following the presentation there will be a question and answer session.

12:30 pm – 2 pm What Happens Next: Life After Architecture School

Working at a firm, going to grad school, pursuing alternative career paths…any one of these options could be your future. Join the AIA Center for Emerging Professionals for a panel discussion with recent architecture graduates about what steps they’ve taken since school and where they see themselves headed. Moderated by Boston architecture leader Emily Grandstaff-Rice, FAIA, the panelists will share what you can do now to prepare for the “real world.”

2 pm – 4 pm Massachusetts State House Tour

Crowning the summit of Beacon Hill, Charles Bulfinch’s Massachusetts State House is considered a masterpiece of Federal style architecture and, indeed, it established Bulfinch as America’s leading architectural practitioner. Although the building has been vastly expanded and significantly altered throughout its 219-year history, much of the Bulfinch wing remains intact. Originally clad with wood shingles, the dome was subsequently sheathed in copper by Paul Revere and Sons and, in 1861, gilded. At the pinnacle of the golden dome is a pine cone, which symbolized the wealth of pine throughout the Commonwealth’s northern forests, on land that would eventually became the State of Maine. Explore this historic building overlooking Boston Common and Downtown and hear the stories of the politicians that occupied the halls of the State House.

11 am – 12 pm Making an Impact: Grassroots, Community + Crowd Funding with Alex Alaimo and Daniel Horn

Future Architects will be at the center of creating strong communities. Grassroots organization is becoming an ever more important means for the architect to serve local communities with their services. The session features the experience of ORLI explaining why and how to start an organization, outlining the process of creating community connections, creating a team by brokering relationships among peers and allies, and exploring future techniques. Additionally, new developments in crowdfunding will be discussed including equity crowdfunding where contributions can be made from the public in exchange for an ownership stake in potential projects.

12 pm – 1 pm Break

1 pm – 3 pm Architecture and Society with Jay Weber

The built environment shapes and is shaped by political, economic, cultural, and social forces. The presentation will offer a framework for understanding architecture’s place in this wider context as a starting point for discussion. Participants will be invited to to reflect on their own understanding of the subject and on how communities can be more informed and aware of their built environments, and take a more active role in the formation of that environment.

3 pm – 4 pm Timber City with Tom Chung

Climate Change and Resiliency is at the forefront of Sustainability Discussions. How can Architects lead the way in building responsibly for our environment and how can advanced timber structures and mass timber in particular address issues of climate change and resiliency? By a case study of the Design Building at UMass Amherst, we will demonstrate the design process and the collaboration it took between the design team and the client to bring this vision of a mass timber structure to reality. Issues of design research, schedule, code approvals, and budget will be discussed to demonstrate the totality of the design and construction process; a focus will be the iterative design process between architect, landscape architect, and structural design engineer in designing the central commons highlighted by a zipper truss which supports a fully intensive green roof courtyard above.

11 am – 12:30 pm The Rose Fellowship: Career in Social Impact with Alexis Smith, Allan Co and Sam Beall

The Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship is the premier career path for architects in the public interest design field. The fellowship pairs early-career architectural designers with local community development organizations, for three year positions in which they facilitate an inclusive approach to development to create green, sustainable, and affordable communities. Fellows also join a growing network of passionate and talented public interest designers who are continuously changing what is possible in through design in community development and underserved communities. In this session you’ll meet three fellows working in diverse settings across the northeast and will learn about the opportunities, challenges and day-to-day life of the Rose Fellowship experience. You’ll hear how to turn a passion for more just, inclusive, sustainable, and equitable communities through architecture into a career, as well as gain insight into the fellowship application process.

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm Break

1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Designing Socioeconomically Diverse Communities with Allan Co

A diverse & inclusive environment can foster local talent that is often overlooked, leveraging citizens’ strengths to facilitate socio-economic resilience. But often, in an effort to create inspiring, dynamic places, modern architecture & urban design neglects citizens who are already marginalized: Space is predominantly designed the majority, while the economically disadvantaged, minorities, and women are often overlooked. Why is it important that designers push for inclusion in the built environment? How can we leverage community engagement to achieve this goal? How can design foster equality while still elevating space to create an inspiring built environment? This session focuses on inclusion and the engagement tools designers can use to create space that goes beyond the walls of the building to build social capital & resilience through diversity. Using project case studies, we will look at community engagement processes as well as outcomes achieved in completed projects.

2:30 pm – 4 pm Designing for Aging and Inclusivity with Sam Beall and Alexis Smith

Architects too often only design for an able bodied user, neglecting to consider the wide range of abilities future users may have. In this session, we’ll focus on ways for students to broaden their perspectives and create designs that are inclusive of multiple user groups, specifically those who are aging. We’ll use various tools to simulate the impacts of aging, giving students a firsthand understanding of the challenges that come with aging. By 2030, 21% of the U.S. population will be over the age of 65 [currently 15%], and will find it increasingly difficult to maneuver through the buildings that we design. It’s critical that young designers understand how to accommodate the needs of older adults to ensure that they are able to continue to remain comfortable in the places where they live, work, and socialize. While the focus is on aging, the goal is inclusivity for all age groups: after all, a stroller has similar needs to a wheelchair!

11 am – 12 pm The Future of Your Career with Sam Coats + the Gensler Team

This full day session will include a lecture, workshop and lunch by technology and design experts from Gensler, a global architecture, design, and planning firm. During this session students will explore how current technologies are changing the way we work, deliver projects and interact with the built environment. Students will walk away from this interactive session with new knowledge of cutting edge industry trends that can help inform their design process, while preparing them for a career in design.

12 pm – 1 pm The Future of Media in Practice

1 pm – 2:30 pm The Future of Project Delivery

2:30 pm – 4 pm The Classroom of the Future

11 am – 12 pm New Urban Mechanics with the New Urban Mechanics Team

The New Urban Mechanics team will discuss human-centered design from the perspective of government, and how designers, architects, researchers, and students can form meaningful partnerships with public entities. Through these connections many ideas become plausible: city streets are improved, educational outcomes are enhanced, and there is a great increase in civic participation. There is a wide range of ideas and projects across this firm’s network that aim to stimulate positive changes in our environment and they are necessary for the betterment of our future generations.

12 pm -1 pm Break

1 pm – 2:30 pm Virtual and Augmented Reality in Architecture with Jeffrey Jacobson

Drawings, renderings, and scale models are not adequate by themselves because each person imagines the design differently. With traditional tools these differing personal perceptions result in constant re-explanations and sometimes expensive misunderstandings. With immersive visualization, Virtual Reality, designers communicate their exact intention, putting the audience virtually IN the building – before the first brick is laid. This focuses the design process and safely accelerates planning. Similarly, Augmented or Mixed reality adds information to an existing structure in an understandable way. Jeffrey Jacobson, Ph. D has been on the cutting edge of Virtual Reality and immersive visualization for twenty-three years, mastering each new generation of the technology. Focusing his work on large scale projection-based displays, CAVEs, and domes, however his true focus is on the psychology of learning and action in immersive visualizations.

2:30 pm – 4 pm Disruption and Decentralization: The Next Generation Architect with Alex Alaimo, Frank Mruk, and Darius Sollohub

The next generation will be critical to shaping the future of the profession and the future role of architects. The unique traits of the incoming generation, combined with an age of technology enabled decentralization can lead to new avenues for architects and will influence future of practice. Breakthroughs in the areas of social impact, advocacy and community engagement will be available as future career paths of architects. Participants will be presented with an inspirational and thoughtful frame of how they can make a unique difference in the future of the profession. The panel will explore ideas on the decentralization of practice and present the opportunities for architects pulling from other professions that have embraced decentralization. Using examples from the technology startup world such as WeWork, Uber and AirBNB. He will speculate on the future of practice and how it can evolve.

11 am – 12 pm New Urban Mechanics with the New Urban Mechanics Team

The New Urban Mechanics team will discuss human-centered design from the perspective of government, and how designers, architects, researchers, and students can form meaningful partnerships with public entities. Through these connections many ideas become plausible: city streets are improved, educational outcomes are enhanced, and there is a great increase in civic participation. There is a wide range of ideas and projects across this firm’s network that aim to stimulate positive changes in our environment and they are necessary for the betterment of our future generations.

12 pm – 12:30 pm Break

12:30 pm -2:30 pm Becoming Whole: Regeneration with Bill Reed

Regeneration relates to the processes of life. Every place – our cities, watersheds, and wilderness ecologies – are alive; and each is a unique living entity. Cities and their ecosystems are ‘organisms’ that can regenerate if we work with them as whole living systems – consisting of a unity between people and place. Regenerative Development and Design is, at its fullest expression, a co-evolutionary process that explicitly transforms the current dualistic relationship between humans and “nature” into a whole (healthy) and mutually beneficial inter-relationship. At the core of this practice is the acknowledgement that as life evolves, humans must develop their individual and group abilities to collaboratively evolve in an emerging dance of reciprocity with life in each unique place on the planet. You will leave the presentation understanding the nature of working with whole system patterns to help see the uniqueness of each community, understanding the nature of development as a continuous process of sustaining life, and understanding how ‘compromise’ as a conceptual framework is ineffective and ultimately deleterious to planetary health. You will also experience the nature of working with living systems thinking – a meaningful and developmental approach to design and planning – by working with dynamic frameworks at a personal, group, and larger systems levels.

2:30 pm – 4 pm The Power of Modeling Performance with CannonDesign

Today, more clients, peers and educators are asking ‘How does your design perform?’ As an industry, it is undeniable that we have an obligation to reduce the energy use of our buildings. Determining the energy performance of buildings was once a time-consuming and difficult endeavor but today new and agile software technologies are emerging that allow for quick feedback during highly iterative design sessions. Join two of Connon Design’s leaders in a session, focusing on the integration, usage and outcomes of performance-based modeling in an integrated architecture and engineering practice. You will leave this presentation with the understanding of the key metrics for high performance buildings and how they can be graphically represented in a way that is easy for design teams and clients to read, you will also learn the appropriate application of building performance modelling at various points in the design process to evaluate passive and active energy conservation strategies and how they impact building orientation, form and composition.

11 am- 4 pm

Attendees of this firm tour will visit the following firms:

• Gensler
• Cambridge Seven Associates

Cambridge Tour: Harvard

This walking tour explores a campus that needs no introduction. Founded in 1630, Harvard College (now University) is arguably the most famous and distinguished academic institution in America. Although some international visitors arrive thinking that Harvard is a Boston institution, they are surprised to learn that it was founded and remains in the neighboring City of Cambridge. Within the storied Harvard Yard and the surrounding campus is an extensive and impressive collection of architecture ranging from pre-Revolutionary colonial to Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s recently-completed Harvard Art Museums and Le Corbusier’s only North American commission. Experience bustling Harvard Square, visit the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, and peek into Gund Hall, the Graduate School of Design’s Architecture Studios.

Cambridge Tour: MIT

Situated on the banks of the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s campus showcases some of Boston’s most prominent architectural projects. During this tour through the mile-long campus, work by three Pritzker Prize-winning architects can be seen. Enter Eero Saarinen’s exquisite MIT Chapel and explore the winding internal “student street” interconnecting different portions of Frank Gehry’s freewheeling Stata Center. Other stops will include I.M Pei’s Wiesner Building, Green Building and Landau Building, Fumihiko Maki’s Media Lab, Alvar Aalto’s Baker House, Eero Saarinen’s Kresge Auditorium, Steven Holl and Perry Dean Rogers’ Simmons Hall dormitory. The route will provide great views of the Boston skyline along the river. Bring some comfortable sneakers and expect to walk about four miles.

Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum Tour

Erected in 1902, the home and private collection of society doyenne Isabella Stewart Gardner is now a museum inside the walls of her home known as “Fenway Court” and, according to the terms of her will, everything is left in place exactly as she intended. Plain on the exterior, the house features a fantastic Venetian interior, including a landscaped courtyard overlooked by various stairs and balconies, all capped with an glass and steel roof. Now also famous as the museum home to the largest art theft in world history, the institution keeps empty frames hanging on the walls as a constant reminder of what was taken. A major renovation and addition designed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop tested the legal and philosophical limits of Mrs. Gardner’s gift of trust; it was determined in the end that there was flexibility to alter portions of he building and site., Enter the new wing and experience the glass tunnel connecting it to the mansion as you make your way to see and marvel at some of the most famous paintings in the world.

Trinity Church

Opened in 1877, Boston’s Trinity Church stands proudly as the centerpiece of Copley Square. The congregation, founded in 1733, started construction on the current Trinity Church in the then developing Back Bay district in 1872. The grand edifice was opened in 1877. Designed by Henry Hobson Richardson. Rising from 4500 wooden piles driven into the soft Back Bay landfill this incredible structure has been hailed as on the of the masterpieces of American Architecture. It is the only building that has been on the AIA’s list of top ten buildings since 1885. Take a tour of this magnificent building that is home to over twenty thousand square feet of murals.

Blackspectacles: Super Simple Podcast with Marc Teer

Black Spectacles is bringing its Super Simple podcast to the AIAS FORUM. Super Simple is focused on discovering how architects are using technology to empower world-class design. In this special live, in-person event at FORUM, Black Spectacles Founder Marc Teer will be sitting down with Andrea Love, the Director of Building Science at Payette about their 2016 AIA Technology in Architectural Practice (TAP) award-winning Glazing and Winter Comfort Tool. The tool aims to be simple and intuitive so that architects and engineers can design façades that provide the desired levels of transparency, comfort and energy performance at an ideal cost. Join Marc and Andrea to hear first hand how Payette is using design software and technology – like this new tool – to empower their designs and learn how you can do the same.

Shaking Foundations – The Art re(Turn) in Architecture with Zenovia Toloudi

Borrowing his father’s metaphor, Pedro Gadanho characterizes the architectural profession as “cannibalistic,” being destroyed from within: a system of consumption in which young unpaid interns grow to either hate or replicate it. Current systems in architecture education reinforce this condition, leading to further division in the community. Creativity and experimentation are discouraged in contemporary corporate culture where the focus is on bottom-line profits. Architectural education and practice remain competitive and wedded to the rich-client/genius architect model resulting in a lack of equal opportunities for all. This session critiques and challenges this model, by taking an alternative approach. It is based on an artistic/architectural pedagogical model developed by Zenovia Toloudi and practice of Studio Z: Through specific examples and methods that “attack” architectural education/practice from its foundations to early professional years, the session showcases how architecture can become more experimental, more creative and more relevant to contemporary life through art. In particular, how the artistic approach can contribute to reconfigure the core essence of architecture whereby creating a new tradition.

11 am – 12 pm Designing the Urban Night: It Takes a City…of Illuminators with Todd Lee

Lighting as an engine for city growth and excitement. Visual tour of Boston/Cambridge initiatives as well as examples from around the world. Successes – and a few failures. The need to support life-style patterns of the burgeoning urban population of Millennials, students and younger city residents, plus the needs of “empty nesters” returning to live in the city. “Celebrations” vs. General Illumination. What transforms dull and undesirable gathering locations into places you want to be at night? Why government and civic boosters are eager for better lighting. What IS “better”? The ability to “attract”. Competition for being THE place to live/work, among all the choices in the world. The critical role of architects/urban designers as visionaries, change-makers, place identifiers.

12 pm – 2:30 Back Bay Churches Tour

Filling-in Boston’s stagnant tidal flats known as the “Back Bay” became the city’s most ambitious public works project, requiring 30 years to complete, but the result is an elegant street pattern influenced by Parisian boulevards and a virtual catalogue of 19th-century architectural styles. The neighborhood was also planned to include a number of churches, many of which relocated from older neighborhoods. Across Copley Square stands the New Old South Church, almost as remarkable for its urban design contribution to the streets as for its beautiful northern Italian Gothic decoration and details. A walk down Newbury Street reveals another national landmark, Richard Upjohn’s gothic-revival Church of the Covenant. Extensively remodeled in 1894 by Louis Comfort Tiffany, the sanctuary features a total of 42 Tiffany stained glass windows and an immense, one-of-a-kind electrified chandelier fabricated for the 1893 Columbian Exposition.

11 am – 2:30 pm Archi-Jesture Jams: Urban Sketching

Join Savannah College of Art and Design Professor Hsu-Jen Huang for “Archi-Gesture Jams,” a learning opportunity that supports students’ practicing/ developing their quick- sketch drawing abilities. Attending “Jams” helps promote personal confidence in sketch methods having multiple applications across all design disciplines.

11 am – 12:30 pm Design Entrepreneurship with Charles J Cimino

This session explores the options for design firm ownership in traditional and non-traditional design practice settings. Presentation is housed within a scenario of securing a design project commission and using it to fund the start-up of the firm. Particular attention is paid to design markets in the global economy and the use of design as a strategic business/planning tool. Creativity will be examined as a concept that is present across the entire business environment. Key business planning skills will be developed in the areas of mission statement, start-up financing, market niche and ongoing business operations requirements. Focus is on the mobilization of resources needed to turn a plan into reality and strategic planning needed to succeed. Participants will be introduced to an actual design project and simultaneously follow the steps for establishing a firm concurrent with the development of the design.

12:30 pm – 1 pm Break

1 pm – 2:30 pm Millennials in Architecture: Design and Disruption with Darius Sollohub

Until the January 2013 issue of Architect, the architectural academy and profession had paid scant attention to Millennials. Suddenly, the journal predicted “drastic changes to pedagogy, licensure and firm management,” all necessary to absorb the generation’s influence. I have been researching Millennials and other generations since 2011 and am in the final stages of completing my book: Millennials in Architecture: Design and Disruption. In January of 2016, I conducted an online poll that drew 450 respondents. Solicited through AIAS and AIA, 300 self-declared Millennials and 150 more from other generations answered questions about architectural practice and education. The results both reinforce the generalized findings on Millennials, yet deviate in some key areas. I would welcome sharing the results within the context of my research and that of others at the upcoming AIAS FORUM in Boston.

11 am – 2:30 pm Freedom Trail + North End Tour

Boston’s Freedom Trail is a 2.5-mile long path connecting 16 sites significant to the history of the United States. The trail was originally conceived in 1951 by local journalist William Schofield. Boston mayor John Hynes supported Schofield’s idea and, by 1953 40,000 people were walking the trail annually. Today, upwards of 4 million visitors travel the Freedom Trail. From Faneuil Hall, the trail traverses the historic Blackstone Block, passing by the Union Oyster House, America’s oldest restaurant, and turns up Hanover Street to cross over the Rose Kennedy Greenway into the vibrant and dense North End, Boston’s “Little Italy.” It is here at the Old North Church that, on April 18, 1775, the sexton hung two lanterns in the spire to signal to patriot Paul Revere that the British troops would be traveling inland “by sea,” launching his famous ride. Discover a unique neighborhood that served as a new home to generations of immigrants and now serves up plates of Italian delicacies.

11 am – 12 pm Carlo Scarpa: Unknown and Unbuilt with Anne-Catrin Schultz

Carlo Scarpa’s work has recently received a significant increase in interest and enthusiasm. Many of us are familiar with master pieces such as the Brion Cemetery or the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona while knowing very little about his smaller or unbuilt projects. This talk will discuss the “unknown” Scarpa, architectural examples and built and unbuilt projects that reflect his interest in cultural context, architectural narrative and playful experimentation.

12 pm – 12:30 pm Break 

12:30 pm – 2:30 pm Aleppo: Rebuilding the City with Weldon Pries

Of major importance for architects and urban designers is the search for meaning and involvement in the present unfolding tragic civil war in Syria and the unimaginable loss of life and habitation, the displacement of inhabitants and refugees, and the destruction of cities and archaeological treasures. This presentation will focus on the “World Heritage” city of Aleppo, Syria, a city in your present time as architecture students – a city of tragedy and hope for rebuilding. Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited “world cities” and a city of great importance for the history of civilizations and human culture as well as for urban design and architecture. The two major cities in Syria — Aleppo and Damascus, are among the world’s most wonderful, magnificent, and historic cities, and these are cities that many Westerners don’t know very much about. They have always been cities of great diversity of civilizations, people, races and religions, architecture and urban fabric. Up to the present time, they have also been very real and dynamic urban cities and this pluralism is most significant in the future culture of cities globally. The presentation will focus on the city of ALEPPO and designs of memory, symbolic identity, and rebirth, as well as on designs for re-settlement projects for refugees and their communities. Students will understand the role of world refugee and city rebuilding designs and the narratives of peoples’ lives and their experiences of major losses due to war. Included in the presentation are drawings of city architectural documentation and student design projects of re-settlement and for rebuilding Aleppo — that focus on the role of architecture in the humanitarian response to the Syrian crisis.

11 am – 2:30 pm Landscape Architecture Toolbox with Mark Klopfer

This workshop begins with an overview of planting design theory that examines representation of landscape elements and the abstraction of plant materials into typologies. Rather than learning specific plants and their names, this workshop seeks to deploy these plant and landscape typologies to develop a landscape design for an intimately scaled space during the workshop. The non-digital representation of landscape will also be a focus of the session.

11 am – 2:30 pm On the Grid: Retail, History and the Back Bay with Rachel Zsembery

Sometimes the past and the present come together in a way that reveals a beautiful new future. Originally the home of the Boston Society of Natural History when it opened in 1863, this 40,000-square-foot Neoclassical structure was only the second building to be erected in Boston’s then newly-created Back Bay. In selecting a new home in Boston to showcase their evolving lifestyle brand, RH (formerly known as Restoration Hardware) chose to restore and enhance this storied architectural landmark situated in Boston’s premier shopping district. After stripping away decades of structural modifications, auxiliary mezzanine levels, elevators, and stairs that significantly subdivided the interior, the building now presents a unique customer shopping experience through a series of grand gallery spaces designed to showcase a wide spectrum of RH product. As part of a walking tour through the Back Bay and the RH Gallery, we will explore how the Back Bay has evolved and embraced change over time while preserving many remaining examples of 19th century urban Architecture as well as the current landscape of consumer experience design.

11 am – 2:30 pm Charlestown and Bunker Hill Tour

At the confluence of the Charles and Mystic Rivers lies Charlestown. The oldest neighborhood in Boston, it is here that the battle of Bunker hill was fought. Laid out in 1629, Charlestown was originally a separate town and the first capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Annexed by an ever expanding Boston in 1874, Charlestown began its evolution into a residential neighborhood of Boston. Constantly changing with an influx of immigrants, this tiny part of Boston played a huge role in the history of the city. Walk along historic streets filled with architecture from the 1790’s to the present day. See the monument to the Battle of Bunker Hill and the historic Charlestown Navy Yard which contains the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned war ship in the world.

11 am – 12 pm The Art of Glass with Christina Lanzl

Our “age of glass” has left its statement and legacy as an International style by marking our contemporary building facades and the urban skylines. The light-filled areas of transit in contemporary public buildings include atriums and lobbies, stairwells and passageways. New processes in glass fabrication and fused glass have greatly expanded the possibilities. Consequently, glass can also be a great tool for place making, particularly when architects collaborate with artists. The processes of extraordinary architectural glass production are investigated through case studies highlighting collaborations of noted architects with artists, such as Foster+Partners with Brian Clarke. Other featured artists and fabrication studios may include James Carpenter, Dale Chihuly, Alexander Beleschenko, Doug and Mike Starn, and Mayer of Munich.

12 pm – 2:30 Diablo Glass: The Exploration of Forum + Technique with Sean Clarke

This workshop will be taking place at the Diablo Glass School where conversations pertaining to properties of glass and tools used to produce different effects, textures, shapes, colors, patterns, layers and movement effects will be discussed. Watch demonstrations of how the first window glass was made and how Dale Chihuly makes the parts of his astounding pieces today. Browse around the school to see the intricate, colorful designs and works produced at the school.

11 am – 12 pm After Revolution: Home and Ownership in Qing Cun, China with Jennifer Lee Michaliszyn

The communist revolution in China established the People’s Republic of China in 1947. All private property was collectivized and redistributed. Residential structures were divided up, and new occupants were assigned to live with the original families if those families had not been themselves relocated. Later, citizens were able to lease the property from the government, particularly for industrial and commercial purposes, with some leases extending for up to 50 or 100 years. Now, some of the original leases are expiring. Further, surviving property owners or their families still possess pre-revolution deeds of ownership. Almost 70 years after the revolution, there are starting to be some forms of partial recognition of private property ownership, or of those original deeds. Meanwhile, generations of families that were relocated have lived in some houses for decades, and consider those structures to be their home, and their needs must also be considered. This presentation explores how these changes are playing out in one specific site, Qing Cun old town, a traditional canal town located just outside of Shanghai.

12 pm – 2:30 pm Bayanihan! Community Resilience in Developing Countries with Alex Alaimo, Daneil Horn, Leonel Ponce and Eric Olsen

While resilience is becoming paramount in an age of coastal development and rising waters, Bayanihan is our way to improve the lives of those in need. Operation Resilient Long Island (ORLI) was started by students after Hurricane Sandy; similar efforts continue in the Philippines today. Bayanihan is a Filipino term that refers to the spirit of the community that needs to be leveraged for the education of the local population to safely design and construct. The interactive workshop is intended to educate participants of the fundamentals of resilience and to have them apply these basics in either a design charrette or strategy charrette- demonstrating resilient techniques for developing countries. ORLI hopes to learn and leverage the strong Bayanihan spirit of the community to grow a lasting, resilient culture with safe structures appropriate to local culture, character, and vernacular.

11 am – 12 pm

Collaboration for Communication: The “Sharing Stories” Initiative with Veronica Ayala and Lourdes Monje

As a college campus grows, a residential community is left with less to keep. Come find out how Temple University AIAS and Philly BRIC (Building Relationships in Communities) are using design to effectively resolve university/resident conflicts in an urban setting. We recognize architecture’s role in reasserting public spaces as a necessary stage for dialogue and engagement. By using storytelling to activate participation, and gathering communities through common interests to encourage interaction, we consequently abolish the false narratives that keep us apart. The “Sharing Stories” project is the first of its kind in the North Philadelphia area. It seeks to fully engage citizens in all parts of the design-build process. The end product, then, is a space designed to create unity, social inclusiveness, and a reflection of the collaborative nature of the process; a place designed by everyone, for everyone, to create and strengthen the bonds in our neighborhood.

12 pm – 2:30 pm Building and Construction: Methods of the Past, Present and Future with Eric Schimelpfenig

Eric Schimelpfenig of SketchUp will give a fun and informative talk on where building construction technology is heading. He’ll be talking about how 3D printing is changing the way we fabricate along with software advances in CNC milling. He’ll show how advances in hand held tools all the way up to AI controlled earth movers are changing the way that we design and build.

11 am – 12 pm Cultural Incubator with Kordae Henry & Rose Florian

What power lies in an image? If we’re pretending that image is a representation of reality, either that of the present or that of an idealized future, then that image has the power to inspire us, limit us, lift us and oppress us; it has the power to shape not only how we see ourselves in the present, but to define the limits of what we can reach in the future. JUST NØT THE SAME is an effort to expand our visual understanding of both this existing and idealized reality. If architects are seeking to design an experiential and functional world that real people live in, then we believe we must learn to visualize the world as it is and embrace that this is the world that we need. Visibility and visualization is just one step. JUST NØT THE SAME is a digital catalog comprised of the misrepresented and the under-acknowledged, the otherized populations that are so absent in traditional design imagery. We are not just seeking to provide a service; we are here to evolve the practice.

12 pm – 12:30 pm Break

12:30 pm – 2 pm East Boston Tour

Across the Harbor, lies an entire community, that at one point, never existed. Immerse yourself in the culture and growing community of East Boston, with expansive views of downtown and interactive public art. Experience first hand how landfill effects a population and engage with topics of resiliency to the rising see levels.

11 am – 12 pm Healthcare Boring! with Kirsten Staloch and Southern Ellis

Innovation is rising in healthcare and continues to grab new ideas and projects every day. We are representing the next generation of healthcare architects to introduce how healthcare architecture includes a variety of trends that can be applied across project sectors. Kirsten and Southern are on the AIA AAH Next Generation committee and will speak about healthcare work across all borders that bring to the surface lessons participants can apply to their work. Working within social issues today focuses on human perspective needs and health with a wellness mindset. This presentation will review human factors used in healthcare projects that can be applied to any design project including new technologies and knowledge sharing portals. It is an introduction to the resources used in the healthcare sector that change the way we design within the present challenges and predicting future outcomes.

12 pm – 2:30 pm Growing Buildings

With the biggest construction boom in Boston’s recent history, slowing down, we are experiencing a radically different cityscape. From one neighborhood to the next, new architecture mingles with the existing fabric in ways never before thoughts possible. Explore one of Boston’s fastest growing neighborhoods, to experience this change first-hand.

11 am – 12:30 pm The Human Brain, The Social Sciences, The Built Environment with Ingrid Strong

As we know, architecture impacts much of the human condition. And societies impact architectural work. But, in what ways? What makes a space beautiful? Memorable? Meaningful? How do we register the impact of our environment? Current findings in neurobiology and the social sciences are rapidly advancing our understanding of human behavior and human response. We possess a clearer picture of how we see, feel, remember, hear and understand our world. Some of these findings are surprising; some confirm our own intuitive experiences. We will review current theories in neurobiology, psychology, sociology, anthropology and philosophy to explore connections. From personal dwelling to the scale of cities, this session will investigate the implications of this new research for the design field. Using lecture, discussion and in-class exercises, this educational session will begin to use this new information as a fundamental framework from which to begin the design process.

12:30 pm – 1 pm Break

1 pm – 2:30 pm Advanced 3D Representation – A Design Life of its Own with David Munson

By dissecting completed 3D projects we will uncover a design process which leads us to consider the inherent characteristics of new digital media beyond the boundaries of the established design disciplines. Workflows with a tight integration between virtual and physical representation will be described in detail. Lastly, the question of realism vs. stylized representation and what that means for architects will be explored.

11 am – 12 pm Session

12 pm – 12:30 Break

12:30 pm – 2:30 pm Responsive Design Then + Now with Kim Poliquin

The intent of the presentation is to engage young architects in an exploration of visionary approaches to a responsive architecture that can adapt to an ever-changing environment. We will review the ideas of former visionaries of the last century — including the biomorphic and elastic spacial concept theories of Frederick Kiesler, the wild 2d visions of innovation inspired Archigram and the investigations in Evolutionary Architecture by Diploma Unit 11 — along with CURRENT interpretations of which will include nationally recognized work from our competitions and research projects we are working on in partnerships with other organizations. We will also examine examples of how new technologies such as open source technology, data-interpolating analysis, generative software, point cloud technology and 3d print technology — are reshaping the built world so that it can respond to the ever changing environment as visionaries predict.

11 am – 2:30 pm Museum of Science Tour

Straddling the Charles River Dam and offering great river views, the Boston Museum of Science lies between Boston and Cambridge. Originally founded in 1830 as the Boston Museum of Natural History and occupying a number of sites, the name was changed after World War II and construction of the existing museum was finished in 1951. The sprawling modern museum now boasts over 700 interactive exhibits that show science through the ages, with glimpses into the future. The institution features a planetarium and IMAX theater and is also the longtime home of the largest Van de Graaf electrostatic generator in the world, capable of creating lightning storms inside the building.

11 am – 12:30 pm Tectonic Shifts with Mark Klopfer

Since its founding on a small peninsula extending into marshland, the City of Boston has found its most expedient way to expand is by reclaiming land from the sea. This overview of Boston’s growing footprint looks at how technology enabled ever-larger projects, how each reclaimed section of the city nicely catalogues the architectural and landscape ideas of their times, and looks ahead to Boston’s next threat–sea level rise and the need to address resiliency before much of the past three centuries of earthwork is wiped away. You will leave this session understanding the history of land filling and city making techniques, considering design strategies that promote the resiliency of coastal cities against storm surges and rising sea levels, and you will have examined how climate change creates life safety hazards at the scale of the city.

12:30 pm – 3 pm Southend Urbanism Tour

Throughout the eighteenth century, Boston’s South End existed only as “The Neck,” a narrow natural causeway flanked by tidal flats. After 1800, Charles Bulfinch designed an ordered grid of streets and gardens. A modified version of his plan was revived, and by the 1870s, many streets of rowhouses were completed. Although the South End enjoyed a period of social prestige, competition with the Back Bay and the bad timing of an economic downturn transitioned the neighborhood into a working-class area. Today, the South End contains the largest intact district of Victorian rowhouses in the United States. Learn about the urban planning behind this neighborhood of parks and rowhouses. Discover the 20th-century pioneers and the 21st-century resurgence of this area, following decades of decline, crime and urban renewal projects.

1 pm – 2:30 pm Entrepreneurship in Architecture with Charles Tseckares

As creative and skilled as they may be, many architects do not know how to run a successful practice. Statistics show that there are more start up architectural practices (and more failures) than in any other profession. Many new architectural firms fail because the founders do not have the requisite discipline and do not understand the business-related aspects of their profession, such as marketing, finance and business management. This program will discuss the beginning of an architectural practice and what practical steps should be taken for its success.

1:30 pm – 3 pm Session 

11 am – 2 pm Timecapsule of Domesticity with Richard Griswold

The Beacon Street home of Catherine Gibson, constructed in 1859, was in many ways average — but it is a kind of average which has now vanished. While the entire Back Bay neighborhood has been a protected historic district since 1966, the insides of the neighboring row houses have been largely altered and modernized beyond recognition. Charles Hammond Gibson Jr, the grandson of Catherine left the house mostly intact when he died in 1954, offering visitors a vivid account of this earlier time and place. Our in-depth architectural tour of the house will place it in historical context, and reveal evidence of how the Gibsons lived — outnumbered by their live-in staff — with their tastes reflected in their surroundings. Key parts of the 19th century technology that provided light and thermal comfort will also be explored. The house is a short walk from the site of FORUM. Space is limited to a maximum of 24 students.

12 pm – 3 pm Bulfinch Triangle Tour with Jack Glassman

By 1800, Boston was now a bustling city running out of land. Charles Bulfinch, while chairing Boston’s board of selectmen, partnered with a mill owners’ association in 1804 to fill an existing mill pond and lay out a 50-acre grid of streets now known as the Bulfinch Triangle. Filling operations begun in 1807 were not completed until the 1830s, coinciding with the arrival of the railroads at this new terminus and prompting the establishment of such travel-related businesses as hotels, taverns and stables. The Bulfinch Triangle remains one of Boston’s most intact collections of late 19th- and early 20th-century commercial architecture, while experiencing an unprecedented construction boom. The mixed-use development of residences and commercial buildings that Bulfinch envisioned over 200 years ago is finally taking shape. Tour the district by foot, observing notable examples of adaptive use, rehabilitation and new construction. Highlighting the robust, brick-meets-Beaux Arts architecture of the influential firm Codman & Despradelle, the tour will include a flatiron-style building converted into a boutique hotel, a biscuit company converted into housing, and the new Converse Inc. world headquarters.

11 am – 12:30 pm Mapping Urbanism with Kelly Hutzell

In addition to the standard list of architectural drawings, the formation of architecture and urban design are conceived of through a variety of mapping, and information design through an examination of contemporary architecture and urban design publications and digital media. At the same time, it seeks to educate students to become engaged citizens of the world, reflective and informed about the complex issues of urbanism. The presentation will chronologically examine the drawings and diagrams of seminal texts on the city: Image of the City, X-Urbanism: Architecture and the American City, the Harvard Design School Project on the City books, and Cities without Ground to name a few. In addition, we will examine several new digital media projects which yield innovative and informative visualizations about the world around us.

12:30 pm – 1 pm Break

1 pm – 3 pm The Process of Student Architecture Publications with Jeffery Dike

The importance of the student publication in a design community cannot be understated. Publications have the ability to showcase the rich design culture of their school to the community and have proven to be extremely effective in exposing new ideas. This lecture and workshop will leave you will a comprehensive understanding of what it takes to create an effective, striking publication that will ultimately get your project attention.

1 pm – 3 pm The Transformative Effect of Light + Shadow in Watercolor with Peter Bass

A watercolor painting demonstration with local artist Peter Bass, illustrating how sunlight at different times of day changes the way we see the world. A visual study of how the optical effects of glare, silhouette and distance simplify and color the urban landscape, and how to convert these images into a painting.

11 am – 12 pm Moving the Masses: Civic Design + Public Transit with Brian Gregory

Cities are currently enjoying a surge in population and density, and increased investment in transit is a critical component of preserving mobility and livability. Stations, the moments where the larger system becomes manifest in the urban fabric, present a unique opportunity for design excellence and public space making and at a civic scale. Recent examples such as Denver’s Union Station (SOM), New York City’s Fulton Center Station (Grimshaw), and Portland’s Aerial Tram (AGPS) illustrate how transit can transcend the purely performative to become a celebrated civic space. Like their earlier Victorian counterparts, these heroic designs function as gateways to and icons within their respective cities. This session will analyze the impact of design on the aforementioned cases, and extrapolate how similar strategies can be applied to Boston to not only facilitate future growth and livability, but simultaneously raise the bar for design excellence in the civic realm.

12 pm – 3 pm South Station + Greenway Tour

One of the gateways of Boston, South Station has been a bustling passenger terminal for the last 100 years. Designed in 1899 by the preeminent Boston firm Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the building evolved as modes of transportation and needs changed, and the station now awaits its next iteration, which currently includes a proposed 53-story tower above the train tracks. Learn about one of the busiest passenger stations in the United States, the history of railroads in Boston, and the dynamic evolution of this building. Reflect on the changing cityscape as well, including the major transformation created by Boston’s “Big Dig” and the related construction of the Rose Kennedy Greenway, which begins right in front of South Station.

11 am – 3 pm Through the Lens with Bruce Martin

The art of photography is difficult to master; it requires one to utilize more than just the camera and natural lightingconditions. Join us in exploring how professional photographers today, layer multiple photos to achieve optimal light and color for their composition, with this interactive workshop that combines the classroom and the city.

11 am – 1 pm Flooded Cities: Rapid Response to Climate Change with Kennan Lagreze

Can coastal cities accommodate their shifting coastlines and contexts? As sea level rises new challenges face our public spaces, infrastructures, and architecture. How can our cities adapt and what will the elements of our cities—blocks, parks, buildings—look like? This workshop will examine three scales in which designers can approach resiliency—the region, the city, and the building. Each scale yields a series of strategy for action which, when combined with other scales, creates a more nuanced approach to resiliency. Existing examples will be presented followed by a group discussion about how they can inform our design process.

1 pm – 3 pm Harborwalk Tour

After centuries of mercantile and industrial use, Boston Harbor would eventually become largely inaccessible to the public. That situation changed in the late 20th century with the creation of the Harborwalk initiative. Supported by Chapter 91, the Massachusetts Public Waterfront Act, and by the City of Boston’s Harborwalk master plan, this system of waterfront paths, walkways and overlooks allows visitors to stroll along the harbor and take in breathtaking views. Scramble around and through buildings that were modified to allow for this path in the Fort Point District. Walk through the giant arch at Rowe’s Wharf that serves as a gateway to the city and a restored connection to the harbor.

11 pm – 12:30 pm Session

12:30 – 1 pm Break

1 pm – 3 pm FormIt 360: Concept Designs in BIM

Have you always wanted to use Revit for studio design work, but found it too constraining for early concept designs? This class will cover FormIt 360, a relatively new product by Autodesk. FormIt 360 is a fast, fun and easy to learn 3D concept design tool. It may seem familiar to other tools you have learned. However, FormIt 360 goes many steps further by connecting seamlessly to Revit, Insight 360 for energy analysis, Dynamo for computational design, and even lets you work on a tablet!

11 am – 1 pm Community Build: Lessons in Making with Sam Batchelor

MassArt Community Build is a program that gives students an opportunity to lead and execute a project by embedding curricular work within the architectural profession. One of the program’s key concepts is to encourage human interaction in the built environment. How can this be done? This presentation will provide you with an overview of the studio’s working methods and past projects, followed by a series of interactive exercises to illustrate these principles.

1 pm – 1:30 pm Break

1:30 pm – 3 pm Inclusive Design as Consequential Innovation with Valerie Fletcher

Nearly 20 years ago two architects, one in the US and one in the UK, who’d both acquired functional limitations due to polio, developed an idea about people at the center of the design process. Ron Mace and Selwyn Goldsmith were clear. Universal/inclusive design was not baseline accessibility about people with disabilities but rather a transformational and dynamic design strategy for our time that built on a floor of access. They saw human diversity of ability, age, and culture as definitive of life today and called for concerted leadership to invest in design that makes this new reality work. The demographic facts have only gotten starker. The concepts are more familiar but sustainable visionary practice is, at best, scattered. Fletcher will offer a strategy to spur holistic action for inclusive design that’s practical but energizing, that demands engagement by clients, designers, and users. And she’ll illustrate success with global examples of methods and results.

11 am – 12 pm Roundtable Dialogue

Freedom by Design empowers all architecture students to experience the big bad world through design solutions! But where does our potential lie and where is it headed? As students we have the power to change the face of our world. From lending a helping hand to reimagining the future, YOU can do it all! Join a discussion that outlines the ignition, process and progress towards a Transformation!

12 pm – 12:30 pm Break

12:30 pm – 1:30 Pecha Kucha 

1:30 pm – 3 pm Charette

11 am – 12:30 pm Designing a New Kind of Museum with Sam Aquillano

At Design Museum Foundation we believe design can change the world. Done well, it can elevate our quality of life, make business more competitive, and protect our environment. Design awareness, education, and expertise are more important now than ever before as design continues to impact communities, organizations, and markets around the world. We’re redefining what it means to be a museum in the 21st century – we are online, nomadic, and accessible to all through a collection of exhibits, events, and content. Design is everywhere. So are we. Our mission: bring the transformative power of design everywhere, to inspire a world full of creative problem solvers by producing inspiring exhibitions and events, educating everyone from kids to CEOs in design thinking, and transforming cities and communities through innovative public demonstration projects.

1 pm – 3 pm Intro to Parametric Design with William Toohey III

To begin, students will receive a brief overview of parametric design in architecture and its relevance today. The remainder of the workshop will be geared towards working in the plugin “Dynamo” for Autodesk Revit in order to generate simple geometries through a parametric process.

11 am – 3 pm Negotiations in the Design of Cities with James Kostaras

This “hands on”, interactive workshop introduces students to the practice of negotiation and mediation in the context of urban design. Participants will consider the role of architects as mediators and consensus- builders who must reconcile conflicting visions about how the city should be designed and built. In the planning and design of cities, architects must be adept at negotiating agreement among many competing stakeholders. Participants will learn some basic negotiation skills as they pertain to professional practice and explore the design process as a medium through which to build consensus. The ability to be effective consensus builders depends on a mastery of negotiation skills and an understanding of negotiation theory. The presentation will be organized around two “hands on” simulated exercises.

12 pm – 1 pm Architecture: A Profession with Neither Agency nor Relevance with Stephen Sun

Architectural education is failing the profession, the discipline, and, most importantly, you: the student. When I graduated from Sci-Arc and found myself mired in the 2008 financial crisis, I had difficulties understanding why architects were so undervalued and had become increasingly irrelevant. I spent five years attempting to answer this problem through the lens of education, engineering, public policy, economic development and planning, nonprofit joint ventures, entrepreneurial projects, real estate development, private equity markets, and even a 4th grade classroom. Through these diverse experiences, I have perhaps found a few methods through which architects can validate ourselves and, ultimately, return agency to the profession. Attend if you wish to understand why the profession and discipline is failing, what your architectural education may lack, how to avoid falling into the trap of unpaid internships, and clues as to what will happen to architecture in the coming years.

1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Advocacy and Resiliency with Elizabeth Widaski

Our aim is to involve a freshman, a second or third year, a grad student, an emerging professional, and a seasoned professional in a conversation about resilience coupled with their views on the profession. Where is it now? Where is it heading? Does it need to change course? At the session, we will provide attendees with a handout containing our set of questions as a tool in direct translation to the local panel we will be urging them to conduct.

1 pm – 1:30 pm Break

1:30 pm – 3 pm Session 

10 am – 4 pm Let’s Spoon! with Kyle Sturgeon

The Boston Architectural College invites Section Cut to engage workshop attendees in a concept-to-production workflow utilizing both digital and hand making tools. Armed with these skills, we’ll craft novel, functional, and beautiful hand held objects. Each attendee will be assigned a ‘character’ to translate into a design iteration of a spoon. At the BAC Fab Lab, students will receive saftey training for both digital fabrication and hand-crafting processes. Participants will sketch and iterate their designs, translate outputs digitally to a CNC cut file, and refine their creations with shop equipment and hand sanding. This workshop will arm participants with the knowledge and confidence to continue their academic careers as makers.