The Aydelott Travel Award, the largest individual travel fellowship for architecture in the country, was established by Alfred Lewis Aydelott, FAIA (1916-2008) and his wife, Hope Galloway Aydelott (1920-2010) to help architecture students at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; Auburn University; Mississippi State University; and the University of Tennessee to develop effective analytical skills. Each year one student from each of the participating schools is selected to travel to any four sites in the world to study and analyze an architectural topic of their choice. The author was awarded this $20,000 travel award in the spring of 2017.
The author’s winning submission is entitled "Comparing Contemporary Cathedrals of Culture", which focuses on four contemporary European performing arts venues. The four venues chosen for study are:
- Berlin Philharmonic by Hans Scharoun
- Elbphilharmonie by Herzog and de Meuron
- Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Center by Henning Larsen Architects
- Oslo Opera House by Snohetta
The 112-page essay studies various aspects of these sites, including their history, site, visitor's experience, performer's experience, acoustics, material use, and social/economic responsibility.
More information about the Aydelott Award, as well as a full copy of the research is available on the Aydelott website
Structure: Joe Farruggia
Collaborators: Xavier Vendrell, Steve Long, Auburn University Rural Studio, Olivia Backer, Carlie Chastain, Anna Daley, Chelsea Elcott, Mary English, Jake LaBarre, Jenny Lomas, Ben Malaier, Janine Mwenja, Tim Astor, John Sydnor, Alex Therrien, Grant Wright.
In 2005, Auburn University's Rural Studio began the 20K home, which is a research project that focuses on designing small homes that are affordable for people living under government subsidy. All labor and building materials are procured locally, which ideally helps fuel the local economy. The lumber industry is a major force within Alabama. In turn, the principal material of the 20K is pine. It is the structure of the house, which is hidden in its rough state, covered with siding and finished materials, not intended to be seen.
This installation is composed of the exact same lumber in both quantity and dimension used to build Dave's Home, a previous 20K iteration. Construction lumber is rough with imperfections in both its appearance and dimension. Its very nature is somewhat irregular, imprecise, and generally hidden. The beauty resides in the unique way the lumber is arranged. The lumber was not cut or manipulated, using only screws to connect the pieces.
Rural Studio is always concerned about responsible uses of resources. After the exhibition, the lumber will go back to Hale County to be used to build a new 20K home.
Ideation of the exhibition came through scale modeling and on site manipulation of excess lumber at the Auburn Rural Studio. The author contributed to two iterations of the scale models, currently held in the Birmingham Museum of Art archives.
Additional information about this exhibit can be found HERE
All images property of the author
Team: Tim Astor, Berke Kalemoglu, Aeon McNeal
UPDATE: Through collaboration with local architecture firm GMC and the American Society of Landscape Architects, [PARK]ing Birmingham was recently adapted into an urban installation during the national event, [PARK]ing Day 2019. The design was re-contextualized by current Auburn University Urban Studio students as the anchors to a block-long urban street-park on 20th Street in Downtown Birmingham, AL during September 18th-20th.
In today’s society interactivity, communication, and transportation are in a state of flux. Everything from the way businesses operate to how people get around town is changing. As a city with a rising working population and major recent infrastructure investments which have catalyzed previously under-served neighborhoods, is a new permanent 30-year solution for 20th Street in downtown Birmingham really needed right now? This was the question posed to the Birmingham City Council by our design team at Auburn Urban Studio. Responding to an RFP distributed by the city, we were challenged to redesign 20th Street in the heart of a rising downtown. Our proposal, [PARK]ing Birmingham, challenged the scope of the RFP by outlining smaller, more focused interventions along 20th Street, as well as other key areas of the greater downtown neighborhood to help define a city-wide design identity. Our proposal creates a consistent design vocabulary that works in tandem with the existing streetscape to allow flexibility towards the future of Birmingham, as well as cities as a whole. By inviting community members together in small design charettes, we plan to design and implement parklets throughout the downtown area. These parklets would form a new design language that would become the connective tissue that brings together the previously isolated and expanding neighborhood. These smaller interventions would also allow limited city funds to be allocated to more pressing design solutions, specifically the redesign of Linn Park at the civic heart of the city and the redesign of the 20th Street viaduct into a light-filled gateway to downtown. By thinking of the word “park” as a verb, rather than a noun, the proposal creates a consistent city identity connected by shared communal spaces.
Assistant to Matthew Hall and Obstructures South
All images used with permission from Matthew Hall and Obstructures South
Obstructures has been engaged in research on the work of Swedish architect Bernt Nyberg and his relationship with Sigurd Lewerentz culminating in the first exhibition of his work at Skissernas Museum in Lund Sweden. The exhibit consists of two timelines: one that outlines the major work documented in its original state and new photography showing the current state of the work, which in most cases is decaying, demolished or detrimentally altered. Adjacent the timeline is a freestanding installation describing the nature of the work done with Lewerentz.
The exhibit displays images on translucent film backlit with low-voltage LED lighting. This allows the light level of the gallery to be reduced for the display of archival films. Nyberg produced multiple films of Lewerentz’s work and some of his own. These unedited films are displayed along with a large project of the slow light change on the interior walls at Nyberg’s Funeral Chapel in Höör. Designed to be lightweight and portable, this exhibit is set to travel to various institutions to bring Nyberg’s work to an international audience.
The exhibit and accompanying publication is sponsored by the Skissernas Museum, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Design and Conservation, The Swedish Center for Architecture and Design, The Peter and Birgitta Celsing Foundation, The Dreyers Fund and The Auburn University College of Architecture, Design and Construction.
Further information about the exhibit can be found HERE
Assistant to Matthew Hall
Provided documentary plan drawings and helped develop exhibition layout
All images used with permission by Matthew Hall and Obstructures South
During a career that spanned more than sixty years, the Swedish architect Sigurd Lewerentz challenged the very language of architecture—from his early sublime classicism to the raw, honest, archaic forms of his later buildings which culminated in his masterpiece in Klippan, The Church of Saint Peter. This exhibition celebrates Lewerentz’s accomplishments at St Petri through archival drawings, images, and fragments of process, placing it within the lineage of his greater body of work.
The exhibition also serves to introduce the work of architect Bernt Nyberg through his films of St Petri and interviews with Lewerentz, giving voice and image to an architect who never lectured and rarely spoke about his work. Initially meeting on the construction site of St Petri, the two architects developed a close relationship which resulted in multiple collaborative competition entries and exercised significant influence on the direction of Nyberg’s later architecture.
To accompany the exhibition, a new publication on the building and its architect investigates the structure’s continued validity in a contemporary context. Through invited essays from architects and scholars around the globe, this book serves as a manual for the exhibition and provides numerous answers to the question: “Why is this building important?”
Additional information about this exhibit can be found HERE
OMNIPLAN, Stream and Austin Commercial have teamed up to create a CASA Playhouse that is a kid-sized version of one of the biggest projects in construction in Dallas right now.
For those that spent their formative adult years working in Dallas – specifically Downtown and Uptown – The Quadrangle holds a special place in their hearts. It’s also currently getting a major makeover. The team of Stream Realty, OMNIPLAN Architects, and Austin Commercial was tasked with reimagining the space into something more fitting of modern times: A family friendly workplace filled with restaurants, retail shops, and commercial real estate space. When OMNIPLAN sat down to imagine what the city needs, they drew inspiration from Bryant Park in New York. They wanted to create an outdoor space that was open air and engaging. They came up with five buildings and a greenspace that creates a “campsite experience”, one that’s just as much about gathering and connecting as it is offering a dedicated spot for families to gather.
When it came time to pitch initial ideas for the 2023 Parade of Playhouses, OMNIPLAN hosted a design charrette where everyone in the firm was invited to bring their thoughts, sketches and pitches. It’s an opportunity for designers to think like a kid, but one presenter had the ultimate edge: She was a kid. Andy Fast is the lead designer on the project and his daughter, Ella, was his co-creator. Not only that, she was also onsite to help pitch their idea – a Kid Quad, a miniature version of the very project the firm is currently undertaking.
The design of the playhouse seeks to become a kid-sized version of one of The Quad buildings: A sleek continuous black exterior mimicking standing seam metal, a faceted climbing wall, a suspended cargo net, and an elevated ‘crows nest’ giving kids a unique vantage point. The design also integrates skylights, monkey bars, and interior hiding spaces to encourage physical exploration of the playhouse for endless summer fun!
If you’d like to see Omniplan’s Kid Quad in person, check it out at NorthPark Center July 14 through the 30. Raffle tickets are $5 each and everything benefits Dallas CASA. More information about the event can be found here
The 27th annual Dallas Court Appointed Special Advocates Parade of Playhouses presented imaginative children’s playhouses designed and built by volunteer partners in the AEC industry to benefit abused and neglected children. For this fun-filled community event, generous architects, builders, organizations, corporations and individuals design, build and donate extraordinary children’s playhouses to help raise funds so that Dallas CASA can provide more volunteer advocates to help children who have been abused or neglected have safe, permanent homes where they can thrive. During the 17-day event, raffle tickets for the opportunity to win a playhouse are sold and all proceeds from raffle ticket sales and sponsorships benefit the children served by Dallas CASA.
The OMNIPLAN / Andreas Construction team collaborated on a design that strives to deliver multiple open-ended play opportunities rooted in a formal geometric clarity. A Montessori-like approach, the playhouse consists of four cubes of primary colors, creating multiple internal and outdoor play zones for children to explore. Additional elements such as cubic furniture and musical tone blocks encourage children to let their imagination decide what the playhouse could be.
The author served as Design Coordinator and Project Lead, spearheading the project from design charrette through delivery.
More information on the event can be found HERE
The annual Gingertown Dallas, hosted by NorthPark Center, is one of the biggest gingerbread house events in North Texas with all proceeds benefiting Children’s Craniofacial Association. Originally founded in 2006 by David M. Schwarz Architects, Gingertown is a unique holiday initiative which brings together talent from local design, engineering and construction firms for a live Gingerbread build competition to help spread joy and hope during the holidays.
2021’s theme, Christmas at the North Pole, welcomed guests to NorthPark Center as they enjoyed their last minute Christmas shopping. OMNIPLAN’s submission, The 100 Grand Hotel, a whimsical lodging inspired by a fantastical meeting of Wes Anderson and Willy Wonka, took Gingerbread to a whole new level. The final edible delight measured in at nearly 24” tall and over 20 lbs.
2022’s Moonbase took gingerbread out of this world with the Licorice Launchpad and the Mars Bar & Grill. Leading the design effort, our design pushed the outer limits and endeavored to sky above all others, landing a Launchpad that towered over 30” high and utilized cutting edge lasercutting construction methods.
In addition to my architectural works, one of my creative outlets is to create custom furniture and decorative art. Using a variety of woodworking and digital fabrication techniques, I have created multiple custom pieces, some examples of which can be seen here.
