STUDENT LOUNGE DESIGN COMPETITION

The Architecture and Planning Student Lounge is slated for a major renovation, thanks to a gracious grant from University Cooperative Society President George Mitchell. All students in the School of Architecture are invited to participate, individually or in teams, in a competition to redesign the Student Lounge at the east end of Sutton Hall. The selection jury will consist of students and faculty in the School. There will be financial awards for the first, second, and third place winners; the winning design will be incorporated into the remodeling project, which is expected to be completed shortly after the winter semester break.

Competition details will be posted on the School's website on October 2; the deadline for submittals is October 16.

STUDENTS AND FACULTY HEAD WEST FOR CAMPGROUND-BREAKING FESTIVITIES AT EL COSMICO IN MARFA, TEXAS

In true cowboy style, a large contingent of UT-Austin School of Architecture students, faculty, and alumni hit the 400-mile trail west to Marfa, Texas, this past weekend, September 22-24, to join in collaboration and celebration for the groundbreaking of "El Cosmico," a creative experiment in sustainable lodging being launched by Austin entrepreneur Liz Lambert (the San José Hotel) and her Bunkhouse Productions.

Senior Lecturer Steve Ross, Assistant Professor Samantha Randall, and Lecturer Russell Krepart made the trip with undergraduate and graduate students from their Advanced Design Studios, 2007 Solar Decathlon Team, and Practice Theory Seminar for the extended camping extravaganza. Lambert’s new kibbutz-like community--located on 15 acres at the outskirts of the Chinati-stronghold that is Marfa--is planned to unfold in phases, with a modernized yurt and hammock village, vintage trailer residences, swimming pavilion, art studios, and community garden in the works. “The place will be sort of a laboratory for building and trying different things,” Lambert says.

UT's collaboration began when Lambert presented her ideas for El Cosmico to Steve Ross's students in the spring 2006 real estate management course, who agreed to take on the project as a case study for exploring the creative, social, and economic possibilities of collaborative dwelling. With Jack Sanders [M.Arch. '06] of JWLKR Design Build Adventure, this work culminated in the week-long confab of village-building in preparation for the groundbreaking music and BBQ event.

Randall's Advanced Design studio and 2007 Solar Decathlon Team made the trip to lend a hand in support of the sustainable principles and renewable energy vision for EL Cosmico and to meet with potential project sponsors. This included the much-anticipated field-testing of the "boundless bathing" of the Dutch Tub, a fire-heated "hot" tub, complete with a wok for cooking over the open flame. The team is in negotiations with Dutch Tub for possible conversion of the technology into a solar-thermal system for the next 2007 Solar Decathlon competition.

Krepart's Advanced Design studio is working with several sites in Marfa for their fall 2006 advanced design project and conducted site visits during the weekend. Students from all classes shared visits to the Chinati and Judd Foundations, took siestas in tree-strung hammocks, then joined in the make-shift village celebration--dancing, feasting, and hot-tubbing under the stars, deep in the Heart of Texas.

Visit: http://bunkhousemgt.typepad.com/el_cosmico/.

2007 UT SOLAR HOUSE DESIGN UNVEILED AT EVENTS ACROSS TEXAS

It was a big weekend for the new 2007 Solar Decathlon Team--after months of careful planning and creative brainstorming, UT SolarD kicked off their fall public outreach campaign as an exhibitor at the seventh annual Renewable Energy Roundup and Green Living Fair held in Fredericksburg. The three-day festival in the Hill Country of Texas is dedicated to educating the public about the benefits of sustainability and renewable energy solutions through speakers, workshops, booths, and activities. Team members and UTSOA Faculty Advisor Elizabeth Alford were on hand to publicly unveil the design for the SolarD 2007 solar-powered house, demonstrating new ideas integrating home design and the latest in energy technology while seeking public feedback about their research. UT is one of twenty universities selected to design and construct an 800-square-foot solar house for entry into the latest international Solar Decathlon competition organized by the Department of Energy, to be held in fall 2007.

Schematic design for the solar house began in January 2006. The core design values include adaptability, harvest, community, and delight. With these ideas in mind, the interdisciplinary team of students, faculty, and industry partners created a design for a market-ready dwelling that integrates human, natural, and technological systems; is adaptable by design; and is powered entirely by the sun.

“This year we have been testing various ideas involving inhabitation and solar potential and exploring new ways to live beneath the sun,” said team member and master's candidate Catherine Newsom.

Events

LECTURE

Wednesday, October 4
Kevin Harrington
Ruth Carter Stevenson Chair
The University of Texas at Austin
Goldsmith 3.120, 5:00 p.m.

EXHIBIT

September 13 - October 4
MATERIAL
Mebane Gallery, Goldsmith Hall

An exhibition of materials from the School of Architecture Materials Lab. Curated by Larry Doll, Sam Schonzeit, and Ben Arbib.

LECTURE

Monday, October 9
Stanford Anderson
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Sponsored by Escobedo Construction
Goldsmith 3.120, 5:00 p.m.

EXHIBIT

October 9-31
Eladio Dieste:
A Principled Builder
Mebane Gallery, Goldsmith Hall
Sponsored by Escobedo Construction

Photographs by Yoshihiro Asada. Curated by Stanford Anderson.

Co-sponsored by AIA Austin, all lectures and symposia will be eligible for continuing education learning credits.

EXHIBIT

September 11, 2006, through January 12, 2007
Visual Resources Collection
Sutton 3.128 (Monday-Friday, 8-5)

"Through the Eyes of an Architect:
Images from R. James Coote's Travels"

"Through the Eyes of an Architect: Images from R. James Coote's Travels" features digital prints from selected 35mm slides donated to the Visual Resources Collection (VRC) by Professor Emeritus R. James Coote. Along with almost two thousand slides from his personal collection, Professor Coote provided thorough descriptions of each image facilitating the creation of online catalog records; the entire donation is in the process of being digitized and will be available online for use by the University community.

From 1965-2000, Professor Emeritus Coote taught architectural design and architectural history courses to undergraduate and graduate students at The University of Texas at Austin.

CENTER FORUMS

The Center for American Architecture and Design hosts a Friday Forum Series from 12:00 to 1:30 in the Center's Battle Hall Conference Room (room 101).

Throughout the fall and spring semesters, faculty, visitors, and graduate students at the School of Architecture offer their latest work up for freewheeling discussion and debate, with subjects varying from architectural practice, design, design theory, to the arts, planning, and the politics and economics of development.

The idea is for faculty and students to meet in an informal atmosphere to debate and freely discuss topics "hot" on the minds of the speakers. Visit the Center website (http://www.utexas.edu/architecture/center/lunch_forums/) for updates. The remaining fall 2006 schedule includes:

• September 29, Juan Miró, "Sustainability or the Art of Common Sense"
• October 13, Ulrich Dangel
• October 27, TBA
• November 10, Simon Atkinson
• December 1, Timothy Parker

The Friday Forum is also webcast live from http://www.utexas.edu/architecture/center/lunch_forums/, and you are invited to call in live with questions or comments during the discussion at 512-471-9890.

CITY FORUMS

City Forum is an urban issues speaker series hosted by the School's Community and Regional Planning Program. The bi-monthly program features discussions of contemporary urban issues with national and local perspectives. During fall of 2006, the program will be held on selected Fridays from 12:00 noon until 1:30 p.m. in the Texas Union Board of Directors Room, 4.118 (on Guadalupe Street between 22nd and 24th Streets).

• September 29, Sonya Lopez Principal Planner for the City of Austin, and Ming Zhang, Professor of Community & Regional Planning, "Catching the Train: Transit Oriented Development in Austin"

Austin's first commuter rail line is scheduled to open in 2008. The opening of this rail line will open up unique opportunities for dense, mixed-use development around planned stations. The city had established Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Ordinances to coordinate transportation and land use decisions in order to provide a variety of new housing and mobility options. This process raises a number of fascinating planning questions such as: "What is the market for the types of development proposed in the TOD ordinance?" "Will the development of TODs lessen auto use by residents?" "Will the planned developments offer new mobility and affordable housing opportunities for low income households?"

The City Forum schedule is available at: http://www.utcityforum.org. For more information on the City Forum Speaker Series or to be added to the email list, contact Sungmin Lee at sungminlee@mail.utexas.edu.

FALL 2006 FILM SERIES

Nik Nikolov and Studio Cinemarchitecture, in association with the UT-Austin School of Architecture, present the fall 2006 film series. All screenings will take place on Wednesdays in GOL 3.120, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Upcoming films include:

October 18
ESCAPIST FUTURISM: MOONRAKER (1979)
dir. Lewis Gilbert, prod. design by Ken Adam
Agent 007 (Roger Moore) blasts into orbit in this action-packed adventure that takes him to Venice, Rio de Janeiro, and outer space! When Bond investigates the hijacking of an American space shuttle, he and beautiful CIA agent Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles) are soon locked in a life-or-death struggle against Hugo Drax (Michel Lonsdale), a power-mad industrialist whose horrific scheme may destroy all human life on Earth.

November 1
FUTURE HOMES: GATTACA (1979)
dir. Andrew Niccol, prod. design by Jan Roelfs
A young man, born in the 90s, is vulnerable to emotions he's not supposed to feel in the 21st century, where perfection is made possible by genetic science. Sci-fi thriller about an all-too-human man who dares to defy the system.

November 15
NEOBOURGEOIS SPACE: PLAYTIME (1967)
dir. Jacques Tati, prod. design by Eugène Roman
The celebrated Jacques Tati directs and stars in this brilliantly eccentric ode to humanity. Tati plays Monsieur Hulot, a Parisian who's befuddled by the changes he witnesses in his beloved city, which has grown increasingly touristy. As Hulot roams the uncomfortably modern Paris with a group of American tourists, his story epitomizes the struggle of modern man to maintain a soul in the face of an impersonal world.

November 29
AMBIVALENT URBANISM: EPISODE I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
dir. George Lucas
In this "Star Wars" prequel, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and a young Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) must protect the Queen of Naboo (Natalie Portman) from the evil clutches of Darth Sidious and Senator Palpatine. Along the way, they meet a prepubescent Anakin Skywalker, who shows intimations of a great gift.

TBA
IDEAL DOMESTICITY: THE WOMEN (1939)
dir. George Cukor, prod. design by Cedric Gibbons
An all-female cast in this catty tale about battling and bonding that was edgy for its time -- and is considered the ultimate women's movie of the 1930s. Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, and other Hollywood leading ladies are among the array of husband-snatchers, snitches, and lovelorn ladies who argue and gossip about each other at astonishing breakneck speed throughout the film.

FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP

Richard Cleary (Associate Professor and Page Southerland Page Fellow in Architecture) presented a paper at the annual meeting of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy in Southfield, Michigan, on September 15. He outlined how Wright's unconventional practice engaged the broader building industry in the design of objects and houses for mass production, adaptation of new technologies, and participation in advertising campaigns for building products.

Dean Fritz Steiner's and Associate Dean Kent Butler's book, Planning and Urban Design Standards, Student Edition, has just been published by Wiley & Sons. Edited from the main volume, this new student edition is designed to teach students best practices and guidelines for urban planning and design.

Created under the auspices of the American Planning Association (APA), the Planning and Urban Design Standards, Student Edition is the most comprehensive reference book on urban planning, design, and development available today. This book, an abridgement of the first edition of Planning and Urban Design Standards, edited by Megan Lewis and William Klein of APA, is intended to serve as a reference for a broad range of planning courses required in accredited planning program curricula and a useful reference for planning courses offered in architecture, landscape architecture, geography, civil engineering, environmental studies, and public administration programs. The book is comprised of contributions from more than two hundred renowned professionals and provides in-depth information on the tools and techniques used to achieve planning and design outcomes, including economic analysis, mapping, visualization, legal foundations, and real estate developments. Thousands of illustrations, examples of custom work by today's leading planners, and insider information make this work the new standard in the field.

For more information, see: http://soa.utexas.edu/puds/.