Fall 2009 | Spring 2009 | Fall 2008

Fall 2009

September 2009
Chair Candidate Presentations Schedule Announced

The Department of Architecture's faculty/chair search committee has announced its schedule of presentations by the candidates for the position of department chair. The presentations will take place from 1–2:15 p.m. in 104 Wurster Hall. All college faculty, staff, and students are welcome to attend. See the CED news story for biographical information about the candidates.

September 16 | Dianne Harris
September 21 | Michael Bell
October 19 | Tom Buresh

Spring 2009

March 2009
The Department of Architecture is proud to announce the following student accomplishments.

M.Arch student Harini Rajaraman (working with Associate Professor Mark Anderson) has been shortlisted for the Wildlife Design Competition, organized by Holbeck Urban Village, Leeds, England. Their design, The Butterfly Pillow, was one of eight entries chosen for further consideration by judges Pippa Hale (Director of the Northern Art Prize) and Geoff Ward (Chair of RIBA Yorkshire). The competition sought habitat designs to sustain dwindling populations of local house sparrows, swifts, insects, otter, butterflies, bees, and bats. The Butterfly Pillow is a multi-layered haven for butterflies that responds to local climatic conditions. The competition is an effort to prove that "development of new homes for humans doesn't have to mean eviction for animals." The winner will be announced on May 28, 2009.

Harini Rajaraman, Butterfly Pillow

"Water Border," a paper and design proposal by M.Arch/MCP student Adriana Navarro, was accepted for publication in Unspoken Borders: Ecologies of Inequality (University of Pennsylvania, 2009) as part of the Unspoken Borders 2009 conference, "Ecologies of Inequality and the Future of Design in Race + Space + Politics." The conference, which took place at the University of Pennsylvania April 3-4, 2009, examined "the systems, infrastructure and design processes that create or perpetuate the socio-economic and environmental stratification of our society." Navarro's proposal focused on the hydro-politics of the U.S.-Mexico border, suggesting a re-envisioning of the border fence as an infrastructural water storage and treatment plant for the City of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. The publication, available May 2009, includes articles and design proposals from professionals in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, and city planning on a range of topics related to race, class, and culture.

Adriana Navarro, Water Border

Joe Pang (M.Arch 2009) was awarded first prize in the 2x8:SHIFT 2009 competition organized by the American Institute of Architects, Los Angeles Chapter. The 2x8 Program, launched in 2002, recognizes and supports exemplary student work from architecture and design schools throughout California. Joe's project, "Algae Air Purification System," was selected by Assistant Professors Paz Gutierrez and Ron Rael to represent UC Berkeley's Department of Architecture and was developed during the Fall 2008 seminar on Material Bio-Intelligence (Gutierrez). It probed the issue of internal air decontamination through active building envelopes, and included research on natural detoxification strategies associated with mechanical systems implementing solar and humidity parametric analysis. An exhibition of the 2x8:SHIFT entries opens March 26, 2009, at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood in conjunction with WESTWEEK and runs through April 30, 2009.

Joe Pang, Algae Air Purification System

The thesis of M.Arch/MCP student Natalia Echeverri was shortlisted for exhibition at the Fourth International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, which will take place September 24, 2009, through January 10, 2010. Hers was among 44 selected out of 160 submitted projects. Natalia was a 2008 Branner Traveling Fellow. See her blog, Neoliberal Fragments, for more information about her travel/thesis research.

Natalia Echeverri, Rotterdam Biennale

January 7, 2009
Two New Historians Coming to the Department of Architecture
The Department of Architecture is pleased to announce that both Margaret Crawford and Greg Castillo have accepted our offers for faculty positions in architectural history, and both will be here in Fall 2009. Margaret Crawford is currently at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, as a professor of urban design and planning theory. She teaches courses in the history and theory of urban development, planning, and design. Her research focuses on the evolution, uses and meanings of urban space. Greg Castillo is currently a senior lecturer in architectural history and theory in the faculty of architecture at the University of Sidney, Australia. Castillo is one of the most recognized historians of German modern architecture. Read the full CED news story.

January 3, 2009
Kite Aerial Photography on MAKE: television
The PBS series MAKE TV features Cris Benton, Professor of Architecture, and his work in aerial kite photography. The episode shows Benton and students in his Architecture 140 class at the Wurster Hall Mechanical Room. Benton and his son Charlie Benton were also featured on Current TV.

Fall 2008

November 3, 2008
Ronald Rael Publishes EARTH ARCHITECTURE (Princeton Architectural Press)
Currently it is estimated that one half of the world's population—approximately three billion people on six continents—lives or works in buildings constructed of earth. And while the vast legacy of traditional and vernacular earthen construction has been widely discussed, little attention has been paid to the contemporary tradition of earth architecture. Assistant Professor Ronald Rael, founder of Eartharchitecture.org, a clearing house of information on the subject, provides a history of building with earth in the modern era, focusing particularly on projects constructed in the last few decades that use rammed earth, mud brick, compressed earth, cob, and several other interesting techniques.EARTH ARCHITECTURE presents a selection of more than 40 projects that exemplify new, creative uses of the oldest building material on the planet.

October 20, 2008
Davids, Medlin, Win Central Glass Architectural Design Competition
René Davids, Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, and Taylor Medlin, Master of Architecture Option 2 student, have won First Prize (out of 733 international entries) in the 43rd Central Glass Architectural Design Competition: "Architecture Coexisting with World Heritage Sites," co-sponsored by Shinkenchiku-sha and judged by Toyo Ito of Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects, Riken Yamamoto of Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop, and Kengo Kuma Kengo of Kuma & Associates, among other distinguished jurors. Read the full CED news story.