LECTURES AND EVENTS

Tuesday, March 28, 2017
John Hejduk Works / Jan Palach Memorial

Through an exhibition and an installation, The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture proudly celebrates the work of 1950 Cooper Union graduate, architect and Dean Emeritus, John Q. Hejduk.

The exhibition  Hélène Binet - John Hejduk Works will present seven of Hejduk's built works as photographed by Hélène Binet, a renowned London-based photographer who was Hejduk's photographer of record. Binet's photographs of both permanent and temporary structures will be presented, including the Berlin Tower, Wall House 2, The Collapse of Time, Security and Object/Subject. The exhibition will also include a chronology of the numerous realizations of Hejduk's design for the Jan Palach Memorial, which was permanently installed in Prague in 2016. Comprised of two structures - House of the Suicide and House of the Mother of the Suicide - this work honors the Czech activist and dissident Jan Palach, whose self-immolation in protest of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 served as a galvanizing force against the communist government then in power.

As a companion to the interior installation, the School of Architecture will install  the  Jan Palach Memorial on the plaza outside The Cooper Union's Foundation Building. These structures, first constructed at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta in 1990, represent an architectural manifestation of a powerful socio-political act, the ultimate personal sacrifice at a critical moment in the ongoing global struggle for individual freedom against autocracy and centralized control.

This exhibition is free and open to the public. 

Image:  Jan Palach Memorial. Atlanta, 1990. Photo by  Hélène Binet.

Glass | Wood: Erieta Attali on Kengo Kuma
 

Erieta Attali, PhD is a Landscape & Architectural photographer with photographic work expanding from Eurasia to Australia and the Americas. After studying Photography at Goldsmiths, University of London under the supervision of Ian Jeffrey, she continued as research fellow at the School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, Columbia University in NYC with the support of Fulbright Foundation and Waseda University in Tokyo with the support of Japan Foundation. She completed her PhD at the School of Architecture and Design, RMIT University in Melbourne. 

Attali together with Kengo Kuma have published the photography monograph titled Glass | Wood, Erieta Attali on Kengo Kuma by Hatje Cantz Verlag, Berlin, 2015.

Open to current students, faculty, and staff. 

Current Work: Kengo Kuma
Moderated by Kenneth Frampton

Kengo Kuma strives to create buildings that are sensitive to context. For him, architecture is most successful when it upholds interrelationships inherent in the natural environment. Kuma employs natural materials in designs that merge the regional vernacular with a sublime minimalism often resulting in an effect of dematerialization. "Rather than pursuing one's original style as an architect, you actually visit the place and follow what grows out of it," in Kuma's words.

This lecture is co-sponsored with The Architectural League of New York.

Tickets are free for Cooper Union students and faculty with valid ID, and League members.

Image: Kengo Kuma & Associates, Nagaoka City Hall "Aore", Niigata, Japan, 2012. Photo: Erieta Attali

TEDx: Cooper Union

The TEDxCooperUnion 2017 team consists of a group of undergraduate and graduate students, all of whom have ambitions to change and inspire action in the local and global community. Art, Architecture, and Engineering are seen as three main aspects of life that provide stability and structure to the community. The team consists of students of various backgrounds, cultures, and ambitions, allowing for a wide variety of work to be done efficiently and communicated clearly. TEDxCooperUnion hopes to bring about unity, camaraderie, and change with the TED talk, by allowing both the school and the community to understand and recognize changes, and to teach and to inspire people to do something in their communities.

Tickets for the event can be ordered here

Robert Silman: Being Heroic? 
Introduced by Nader Tehrani

Robert Silman is President Emeritus of Silman, the structural engineering firm he founded in 1966.  His many awards include the Louise du Pont Crowninshield Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Association for Preservation Technology International's Harley J. McKee Award, the AIA New York Chapter Award, and the the prestigious Anton Tedesco Medal in 2005 from the IABSE.

Mr. Silman has particular expertise in historic preservation, as evidenced by his work on Carnegie Hall, Fallingwater and The Museum of Immigration at Ellis Island, including knowledge of construction systems in the United States dating back to our earliest building types. He is also an international leader in the promotion of sustainable design. On the basis of his outstanding professional qualifications, the Secretary of the Interior appointed Mr. Silman to the Advisory Board for the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, for which he is past-Chairman, representing the fields of engineering and preservation education.

This lecture is sponsored by The Steel Institute of New York with support from The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture and The Albert Nerken School of Engineering. 

This event is free and open to the public. CEU and PDH Credit is Pending. 

Image:  Klarman Hall, image courtesy of Cornell University Marketing Group

Current Work: Nader Tehrani | Schools of Thought
Introduced by Anthony Vidler and Moderated by Florian Idenburg

Nader Tehrani is the principal of  NADAAA, a practice he founded in 2011 with Katherine Faulkner and Daniel Gallagher. The firm grew out of Office dA, a practice he formed in 1986 with Rodolphe El Khoury, which later expanded to include Monica Ponce de Leon in 1991. With offices in New York and Boston, NADAAA is dedicated to "the advancement of design innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and an intensive dialogue with the construction industry." Tehrani is the current Dean of the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union. 

Anthony Vidler is professor of architecture at The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union, where he served as dean from 2002-2013.

Florian Idenburg is Founding Partner of  SO-IL and Associate Professor in Practice of Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

This lecture is co-sponsored with The Architectural League of New York.

Tickets are free for Cooper Union students and faculty with valid ID, and League members.

Image: NADAA. Daniels Faculty of Landscape, Architecture, and Design, University of Toronto. Ontario, Canada. Photo: Peter MacCallum.

William O'Brien Jr.: Room for Artifacts
Lecture and Book-signing

William O'Brien Jr.'s book,  Room for Artifacts, contains a collection of sixteen architectural artifacts designed by WOJR-a mask, a church, a labyrinth, a dwelling, a bust, and a series of totems, among others. The artifacts are presented three times throughout the book-in conceptual drawings, architectural drawings, and images. Certain characteristics recur, such as symmetry, frontality, figurality, proportionality, and the play between flatness and depth, underscoring WOJR's preoccupation with the fundamental aspects of architectural form that are rich in historical precedent. Room for Artifacts offers a new way to explore the role of architectural representation in a contemporary context, looking at how architects can invoke aspects of ideologies from architects of the past while establishing a progressive agenda for a forward-looking body of work.

Book signing will take place following the lecture  in the 3rd Floor Lobby.

This event is open to current Cooper Union students, faculty, and staff.

Image:  Mask House, Visualization, Courtesy of WOJR

Hanif Kara: Designing Interdisciplinary Attitudes

Today's fertile atmosphere provides a novel condition for the specific relationship between Architects and Structural Engineers as both try, breathlessly, to keep up with the pace of change driven by technological advancement, economic and ecological challenges. The combination of the brute forces of computation and intuition have encouraged new innovations in processes and methods of design allowing a freer movement between disciplines and binding design as well as fabrication and construction more coherently. Professor Kara will try to share the impact of these expanded opportunities through a series of built projects .The presentation will show examples of "design research" that can be realized as projects from the use of new materials through to bespoke computation and inversion of the most familiar processes that have been routinized at the expense of creativity and innovation. The presentation will speculate about the need to banish the perception of the polarizing characterization of the Architect and Engineer that is prevalent in practice, by adapting a new behavior of interaction, deep appreciation of the design disciplines that the presenter has labelled as "The Pink Noise Of Design Engineering"

Hanif Kara is a London-based structural engineer and Professor of Architectural Technology at Harvard GSD. Since co-founding Adams Kara Taylor (now AKT II), his particular 'design-led' approach and interest in innovative forms, material uses and complex analysis methods have allowed him to work on unique, award-winning projects with leading designers. The practice has won over 300 design awards.

This lecture is sponsored by The Ornamental Metal Institute of New York with support from The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture and The Albert Nerken School of Engineering. 

This event is free and open to the public. CEU and PDH Credit is Pending.  

Image: Coca-Cola Beatbox, Courtesy of AKTII

OPEN CALLS & OPPORTUNITIES
NEW

PROJECT CALL FOR STUDENTS | CAUKIN Studio Fiji The project's aim is to provide the local communities with resources and facilities while at the same time adding value to the volunteers' practical and travel learning experience. In February 2016, Cyclone Winston caused destruction throughout Fiji, leaving the country in ruins. We intend to design a Community Centre and a Kindergarten in the villages of Vivili and Naweni respectively. Deadline: March 31, 2017.   Learn More... 

STUDENT INVITATION | The 2017 Waterfront Conference  will examine the various ways we measure how strong, healthy, and open our waterfronts and waterways are and address how we might prepare to tackle the challenges ahead in the next decade and beyond. The  2017 Arcadis Waterfront Scholars  program brings together a diverse group of students for a day of learning and networking on the waterfront. Deadline: April 14, 2017.  Learn More...

OPEN CALL | CUP Fellowship for Change in Design  is a new initiative to support the development of a pipeline of talented individuals from historically under-represented communities into the design fields, and to dismantle the systemic biases that stand in the way of their advancement as leaders in these fields. Deadline: May 1, 2017.  Learn More... 

CALL FOR COMPETITORS | The Driverless Future Challenge invites competitors to actively create solutions and products that harness the power of autonomous transportation in New York City. Competitors are free to select any facet of driverless technology, from zoomed-out city-scale solutions, to small interventions within the urban fabric. Deadline: May 19, 2017. Learn More...

CALL FOR STUDENT WORK | Gigantic Forehead  is interested in showcasing interior design and architecture student work in magazine form and online.  Learn More... 
DEADLINE APPROACHING  

CALL FOR ALTERNATIVE PROPOSALS | #WeWontBuildYourWall: ADPSR calls for architects, designers, and contractors to submit alternative proposals to the federal government's solicitation for "more comprehensive long-term strategies related to the border wall." Deadline: March 31, 2017. Learn More...

CALL FOR PROPOSALS | The 2017 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Launched in 2007, the Fuller Challenge has helped initiate the whole systems approach to understanding and intervening in complex and interrelated crises for wide-scale social and environmental impact. To express your interest in entering the 2017 Fuller Challenge, email [email protected] or sign up for their newsletter, Trimtab, to stay updated on cycle announcements. Before entering, read the 2017 Call for Proposals. Deadline: March 31, 2017. Learn More...

STUDENT COMPETITION | Office of the Future Design Contest encourages eligible U.S. graduate and undergraduate students majoring in architecture or interior design within the New York, New Jersey, and Philadephia area to use their innovative ideas to create their own vision of the "Office of the Future". Deadline: March 31, 2017. Learn More...

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | Kalejdohill: Design a Story Submit an imaginary story that takes place on Kvarnbacken, the hill close to the Jakobsberg train station in Stockholm. Illustrate your story on one A2 page, describing where it takes place and what went on. Show us how you imagine that place in the future, the buildings and the people that inhabit it. Send your submissions to [email protected]. Deadline: April 1, 2017. Learn More...

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | Fresh Meat IX: The Fake and the Radical The formulation and production of architecture is constantly leveled against its past, present, and future authorities, that forever rewrite the rulebook. Fresh Meat Journal invites submissions regarding forms that hide, react, reject, conceal, and distort the rules of the day. Deadline: April 1, 2017. Learn More...

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS | Spazio Artisti Art and Architecture Residency is located in Pozzuoli, a city and commune of the Metropolitan City of Naples. The focus of the residency is to explore the relationship between the city and its province and the tension between two sides of Mediterranean modernity as it appears in the working class "province" and the bourgeois center (Napoli). Deadline: April 6, 2017. Learn More...

ONGOING

FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY | Forefront Fellowship 2017: Design for Arrival explores how urban design, development and technology can strengthen historic and emerging immigrant communities in New York City. Deadline: April 14, 2017. Learn More...

CALL FOR FELLOWS | Het Nieuwe Instituut announces an open call for three research fellows to work in residence from September 2017 to February 2018. The fellowship will be developed through independent research; individual support and interaction with the Research & Development department. Research offering departures from established modes of thinking in the disciplines of architecture, design, and digital culture are encouraged. Deadline: April 16, 2017.  Learn More... 

CALL FOR STUDENT APPLICANTS | 2017 Bentley Institute Student Design Competition recognizes student leadership in the exploration and application of software in three categories: Reality Modeling, Structural Engineering Design and Innovation in Use of Reality Modeling for Infrastructure. Deadline: April 14, 2017. Learn More... 

OPEN CALL | Socrates Sculture Park 2017 Broadway Billboard Series: Your Image Here All Artists, designers, art students, architects, emerging or retired, are welcome to submit a proposal on the topic of democracy and American identity to be placed on a billboard at Socrates Sculpture Park. Proposals Deadline: April 15, 2017.  Learn More... 

CALL FOR PROPOSALS | The Deborah J. Norden Fund Students of architecture, architectural history, and urban studies are invited to propose research projects for up to $5,000 in travel grants. Deadline: April 23, 2017. Learn More... 

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | Take Shape: Loft, a nonfiction publication at the intersection of politics and architecture, is seeking submissions exploring how lofts function for their residents and in the broader context of affordable housing within a city. How are spaces that are classified as lofts treated differently form other forms of illegal dwelling and low-income housing? Deadline: April 31, 2017. Learn More...

CALL FOR PAPERS | Thresholds 46: SCATTER! The MIT Department of Architecture's peer-reviewed journal will be edited with the aim to examine the history and future of the circulation, distribution and dissemination of architectural knowledge. Deadline: May 1, 2017.  Learn More...

STUDENT JOURNAL AWARD | Douglas Haskell Award for Student Journals This award was founded to encourage student journalism on architecture, planning, or related subjects, and to foster regard for intelligent criticism among future professionals. Any journal (online or print) published by a school of architecture, landscape architecture or planning in the United States that is edited by students is eligible. The publication must have been produced in the current or previous school year. Deadline: May 1, 2017. Learn More...

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | Eleven Magazine: Rome 2017 Competition, 21st Century River Rennaissance is an international ideas and design challenge that seeks to address Rome's current issues by asking the international creative community to consolidate the Tiber river into a new model of Roman life for this millennium. Deadline: May 11, 2017. Learn More...

IDEAS COMPETITION | arch out loud: Human Trafficking Tenancingo Square Mediascape Encompassing both labor and sex, human trafficking denies basic freedoms and degrades life to mere commodification. arch out loud challenges designers to reimagine the town square of Tenancingo, Mexico in response to the prevalent issues of sex trafficking existing in the area. Register by: April 18, 2017. Deadline: May 15, 2017.  Learn More...

CALL FOR PROPOSALS | KADK: Drawing Millions of Plans Conference invites scholars and practitioners to submit proposals for papers and/or to submit actual drawings. The conference will consist of academic and work-based sessions, with the latter including presentations of submitted drawings. We ask for an abstract of maximum 500 words. Please submit proposals by email to  [email protected]. Deadline: May 15, 2017. Learn More...

APPLICATIONS OPEN | The Walter A. Hunt, Jr. Scholarship promotes and encourages the study of architecture by New York City public high school students through a two-year scholarship to supplement tuition and related costs during their freshman and sophomore years at a NAAB-accredited school of architecture in the U.S. Deadline: May 15, 2017. Learn More...

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | Elevate Your Pitch 2017 is sponsored by Schindler and administered by the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS). This elevator pitch competition presents students with a great opportunity to pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges for a chance to win recognition and earn one of three cash prizes. Submissions should be innovative in nature and should try to solve a unique problem. Deadline: May 26, 2017.  Learn More... 

CALL FOR DESIGN IDEAS | The LA+ IMAGINATION Open international Design Ideas Competition asks you to design a new island. You can locate it anywhere in the world, program it any way you want, and give it any form and purpose you can imagine. Deadline: June 2, 2017.  Learn More... 

CALL FOR STUDENT APPLICANTS | Houzz Scholarship Program's goal is to support the next generation of students studying architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and construction management. We are looking for the best, brightest, and more innovative students in residential design and construction. Deadline: June 30, 2017.   Learn more...

FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY | Storefront for Art and Architecture seeks an individual for a one-year fully funded fellowship position to research and develop a global project related to architecture, design, and technology. The Program and Strategy Fellow will primarily support Architecture Conflicts, a high priority project of Storefront.    Learn More...  

FACULTY AND STAFF NEWS  
Nader Tehrani, Arch dean/fac | Article | "John Hejduk's work portrayed in new light at Cooper Union exhibition," THE ARCHITECTS' NEWSPAPER, March 22, 2017 | Article | "NADAAA overhauls brick house in Washington DC with ample glazing and a plywood interior," DEZEEN, March 15, 2017

John Hejduk, AR '50, Arch dean/fac emeritus (deceased) | Article | "John Hejduk's work portrayed in new light at Cooper Union exhibition," THE ARCHITECTS' NEWSPAPER, March 22, 2017 exhibition," THE ARCHITECTS' NEWSPAPER, March 22, 2017

Anthony Vidler, Arch fac | Lecture | "Agonistics: Spaces of Democracy, Resistance, and Pluralism", Princeton University School of Architecture, March 3, 2017, Princeton, NJ

Sue Ferguson Gussow, Arch fac | Solo Exhibition | Susan Ferguson Gussow: Recent Work, Front Art Space, April 8-17, 2017, NYC

Steven Hillyer, AR '90 | Article | "John Hejduk's work portrayed in new light at Cooper Union exhibition," THE ARCHITECTS' NEWSPAPER, March 22, 2017

ALUMNI NEWS
Daniel Libeskind, AR '70 | Lecture | University of South Florida College of the Arts, April 13, 2017, Tampa, FL

Elizabeth Diller, AR '79 | Lecture | "Recent Work: Diller Scofidio + Renfro," Dean's Lecture Series, Princeton University School of Architecture, April 10, 2017, Princeton, NJ

Bruce Nelligan, AR '80 | Moderator | Rehabilitating New York's Historic Schools, Center for Architecture, March 27, 2017, NYC

Murray Legge, AR '90 | Article | "The Water's Edge," TEXAS ARCHITECT, March/April 2017

Catherine Seavitt, AR '94 | Participant | Design against Denial: Tactics to Build Resistance and Recover Knowledge as Empowerment, MLA Symposium, The City College of New York, Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, New York, New York, 8 April, 2017. 

Dionisio Cortes Ortega, AR '09 | Curator | Susan Ferguson Gussow: Recent Work, Front Art Space, April 8-22, 2017, NYC

                                                                                         

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