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Nonya Grenader, professor in the practice, Rice Architecture, and principal, Nonya Grenader Architects, presents the noon talk “Collaborations,” Wednesday, October 14, at 12:00 p.m. via Zoom, as part of the Rice Architecture Fall 2020 Lecture Series. To register, link in bio. At a time when we are physically distanced, working together has never been more essential. In selected past projects (from professional, teaching and community-based designs), a spirit of collaboration has enlarged and enriched all experiences. Rice Architecture Fall 2020 Lectures are part of an initiative to acknowledge, understand, and act on systemic racism in the built environment. Invited designers, scholars, and activists will speak on the relationship between race, architecture, and, by extension, related questions of social equity, environmental justice, and gender parity. The aim of the lecture series is to foreground these issues in the school’s curriculum while more broadly fostering solidarity and action in architecture. Grenader’s talk “Collaborations” is free and open to the public. Please be sure to register online to receive the link to join. For more information on all lectures and to register to attend, visit arch.rice.edu/latest/events and ricedesignalliance.org. This lecture series is made possible through the generous support of the Betty R. and George F. Pierce Jr., FAIA, Fund and the William B. Coleman, Jr. Colloquium Fund for Architecture.

In Dawn Finley’s 501 studio in fall 2019, students were asked to design a branch library for East Downtown, Houston. In Adam Berman’s project, he proposes that libraries are full of contradictions. From expansive reading rooms to compressed stacks, analog to digital technologies, commercial to domestic building types, libraries present a fascinating merging of opposing entities. In his library design, he was interested in using architectural moves to clarify these inherent contradictions in order to present a building that is both readable and highly functional. The site in East Downtown Houston exists between a historic residential neighborhood and a rapidly gentrifying commercial thoroughfare. The pitched roof typology of the residential buildings became an important starting reference. From this initial point, he performed a series of operations in order to create patterns that engage the contradictory qualities inherent in the library type.

Rice Architecture is Hiring! Wortham Fellowship Positions for 2021-2023 Rice Architecture invites applications and nominations for two Wortham Fellowship positions for 2021-2023. The Wortham Fellowship was established twenty-five years ago to give promising and outstanding candidates the opportunity to teach and conduct research. This two-year teaching fellowship is specifically targeted at individuals who are beginning or advancing a career of practice and teaching. For more info, link in bio.

Construction begins this semester on AUXILARY ADU, an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) in Houston’s First Ward that will be built in partnership with Avenue CDC, a non-profit that provides affordable housing. The project — a collaboration between Rice Architecture Construct, led by Assistant Professor Andrew Colopy and Professor in the Practice Danny Samuels, and the Center for Environmental Studies — was awarded $50,000 in funding by Rice’s Energy and Environmental Initiative. The design is based on Kati Gullick (M.Arch. '21) and Madeleine Pelzel’s (B.Arch. '20) project from Andrew Colopy’s ARCH 601 Totalization Studio, which sought to develop net-positive energy ADU prototypes. AUXILIARY ADU aims to create a sense of community with existing neighbors and to prove the viability of accessory dwelling units as a model for both greater density and reduced energy use throughout Houston. The AUXILIARY ADU consists of two parts – a living/dining/kitchen space and a sleeping/bath space connected by a covered exterior deck, and recalls the vernacular Texas “dog-trot.” The intention of the project demonstrates how ADU’s can mutually address housing affordability and energy decarbonization. The two halves—conditioned interpedently and as-needed—dramatically cut energy consumption. This past summer, Kati Gullick and fellow grad student Alex Oetzel (M.Arch. '21) have been refining construction documents in preparation for the Rice Architecture construction course with help from Totalization consultant Pat Arnett and Greg Koch from Robert Silman Associates and Ben Wylie from Wylie Consulting Engineers. A team of 12 students will be working this semester on the foundations and shell of the house. The project’s construction will continue into next semester and is expected to be completed summer 2021. Follow Construct (@rice.construct) on Instagram for weekly updates. #

Tune in tomorrow, Tuesday, Oct. 6, at 9:45 am CST for Houston Matters on News 88.7, when host Craig Cohen will interview Assistant Professor Brittany Utting about Rice Architecture’s Fall 2020 Lecture Series - Race, Social Justice, and Allyship and other initiatives related to this topic. Rice Architecture Fall 2020 Lectures are part of an initiative to acknowledge, understand, and act on systemic racism in the built environment. Learn more at arch.rice.edu.

Bonjour from Rice Architecture Paris! We’ve been lucky enough to be studying in the City of Light for a month now. Our studio’s project this semester focuses on adaptive reuse, so we’ve gone on walking tours with professors Françoise Fromonot and Jim Njoo to look at buildings that have changed in function or form over time, from the Centre National du Danse to the Eiffel Tower and the French Communist Party Headquarters by Oscar Niemeyer. Our studio group also recently went to Claude Monet’s home and garden in Giverny. We’ll share more as our studio progresses and we explore more of the architecture of Paris. À bientôt!

Please join Rice Architecture at the virtual Chicago Architecture + Design College Day tomorrow from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. CST. It’s a free event open to high school and college students, parents, teachers and counselors interested in learning more about architecture and design careers. It's a great opportunity to learn more about Rice Architecture, discuss portfolios, and ask questions. For more info, link in bio.

Kadambari Baxi, professor of professional practice in architecture, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, presents the lecture “ACTIVISM: Climate, Labor, Memorial” on Wednesday, October 7, at 6:00 p.m. via Zoom, as part of the Rice Architecture Fall 2020 Lecture Series. To register, link in bio. This lecture includes excerpts from recent projects where concerns for human rights, climate justice, and uncounted war victims spur different forms of architectural activism. Using diverse representational techniques to connect dispersed sites and unseen problematics, the projects offer ways to view architecture from within many other domains and highlight what is often outside its frame. By assembling issues of labor exploitation on construction sites, indefinite wars and memorial architecture, climate action in global territories, the projects collectively outline a new agenda for activism in architecture. Rice Architecture Fall 2020 Lectures are part of an initiative to acknowledge, understand, and act on systemic racism in the built environment. Invited designers, scholars, and activists will speak on the relationship between race, architecture, and, by extension, related questions of social equity, environmental justice, and gender parity. The aim of the lecture series is to foreground these issues in the school’s curriculum while more broadly fostering solidarity and action in architecture. Baxi’s talk “ACTIVISM: Climate, Labor, Memorial” is free and open to the public. Please be sure to register online to receive the link to join. For more information on all lectures and to register to attend, visit arch.rice.edu/latest/events and ricedesignalliance.org. This lecture series is made possible through the generous support of the Betty R. and George F. Pierce Jr., FAIA, Fund and the William B. Coleman, Jr. Colloquium Fund for Architecture. All Fall 2020 evening lectures are eligible for one AIA/CES Learning Unit. Rice Design Alliance is an AIA/CES Registered Provider of quality educational programs. Watch the lecture, download the pdf, and submit for credit. Allyship

Congratulations to Rice Architecture student Isabella de la Iglesia (B.A. ‘23) who was named winner of the 2020 Greene Prize for Undergraduate Student Essay. In her winning research paper “Urban Albedo and the Impact of White Rooftops in Greater Houston, Texas and the State of Texas,” de la Iglesia draws from local studies to conclude that the practice of painting rooftops white in the Houston area would reduce heat stored in the city’s atmosphere. Curious to investigate how climate science might inform meaningful architectural strategies, de la Iglesia took a course taught by Sylvia Dee, Assistant Professor in Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences in spring 2020. While developing her final paper, de la Iglesia was inspired by a classmate’s comment in a discussion on albedo regarding the impact of using lighter surfaces to reduce heat gain in the atmosphere. This seemingly straightforward concept with clear architectural implications provided the basis for de la Iglesia’s research on urban albedo. Dee submitted the final paper for the Greene Prize, where it stood out to the selection committee for its novel approach, sophisticated application and effective communication of an idea. De la Iglesia credits her upbringing with instilling an appreciation for the environment, and intends for her studies on climate change to be a continued focus in her work. Congrats Isabella! Photo by Takudzwa Tapfuma (@takudzwatapfuma)

The final episode of the September Series—a collaboration between Tête-à-Tête and PLAT Journal—features a conversation with Brittany Utting and Daniel Jacobs of HOME-OFFICE. Pictured above is their recent project, PALM-HOUSE, opening this November in NYC. To listen, link in bio.

Associate Professor Reto Geiser’s book, “Giedion and America: Repositioning the History of Modern Architecture” (gta Verlag/ETH Zürich, 2018) was recently reviewed by Jasmine Benyamin (@jbenyamin43) in JAE Online. According to Benyamin, Geiser’s book builds on works surrounding the prolific modernist historian Sigfried Giedion “by tackling Giedion’s American forays much like a stage director, choreographing a play in four acts.” Along the way, she notes, Geiser’s meticulous research offers new perspectives into the “protagonists” that shaped Giedion’s life and career, his fraught relationship with America, and an enduring collaboration with translator Mary Jaqueline Tyrwhitt. (Benyamin even suspects that Giedion would approve of the book’s graphic design and structure). “Geiser’s research also proves that the designation of Giedion as “historian” paints only a partial picture…Viewing Giedion more precisely, then, as a contemporary critic, Geiser goes a long way to prove that Giedion was committed to situating the cultural and social underpinnings of his own era.” Read the full review, link in bio.

In Carlos Jiménez’s 503 Studio in Fall 2019, students were asked to design an immigration center in Houston’s Museum District. For her proposal, Estefania Barajas explores dualities: outside and inside, the visitor and the local; the introverted walk and the public street. These relationships characterize the experience of the building. A central garden separates four timber volumes strung together by a series of bridges, introducing the visitor to constant change in perspective. Throughout the building, a strict and very simple grid system presents an infrastructure that allows the building to change over time, providing the flexibility to make new linkages, networks, and opportunities. Model photo by @nashb