School of Architecture’s EX-CHANGE Exhibition and Publication Celebrates Student Work that Addresses Future Challenges
27 SEPTEMBER 2022
ARCHITECTURE | NEWS WRITING | WRITING
While working at Carnegie Mellon University, I wrote this feature about the School of Architecture’s EX-CHANGE exhibition and publication for the College of Fine Arts Magazine.
Students in Professor Joshua Bard’s Digital Fabrication course explored the intersection of computation and paper folding to make minimal, lightweight pendant designs. The course encourages hands-on exploration and iteration in the context of digital fabrication. Students posed with their laser-cut Yupo Paper Pendant Lamps during their project review. Photo Credit: Josh Jordan
The School of Architecture (SoA) welcomed head Omar Khan in 2020. Under his leadership, the school embarked on a strategic planning process, titled Pedagogies 2020, to review its mission, values and programs. Through this process, the school is developing an actionable vision that can address some of the significant challenges facing architecture and the built environment in the 21st century.
The SoA frames its pedagogy in relation to what it has identified as the future’s three pressing challenges: artificial intelligence, social justice and climate change. The school’s EX-CHANGE, an annual exhibition and publication celebrating student work from first year to doctorate, offers a comprehensive look at how students are addressing these three challenges head on. Inaugurated in 2017, EX-CHANGE represents an ongoing opportunity to shine new light on the SoA’s programs and to position the work within larger questions of research and practice.
The 2022 EX-CHANGE celebrated student work through an exhibition in the College of Fine Arts Great Hall featuring a salon-style gallery of projects connecting to a custom-built display in the Great Hall and to the second floor architecture studios. The exhibition, designed by means+methods, led by Aviva Rubin (B.Arch 2007) and Carolynn Karp, was accompanied by a catalog designed by Group Project, Jimmy Luu and Ryan Menefee (DC 2008, HNZ 2009).
From 4:30–8:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9, the SoA hosted a welcome back celebration featuring tours of the exhibition, remarks by the design teams and a chance to pick up a copy of the catalog. The 2022 EX-CHANGE publication is available in both print and digital editions. To receive a printed catalog, please complete this form.
“The design for the exhibition explores how form and surface can bend, fold and stretch, embracing the multiplicity of voices, authors and approaches to architecture across the SoA,” said means+methods’ Rubin and Karp. “Works have been organized by thematic focus, allowing for different and new relationships to form across various levels and programs within the school. Using a light structural system, the student works thread through and around a permeable armature, which is both defined and agile. The result is a ribbon, drawn in three dimensions through space.”
Every year, EX-CHANGE provides a team of students with an unparalleled opportunity to work alongside alumni and professionals in the development of a unique exhibition and publication that reflects on the school’s work. The SoA gratefully acknowledges our 2022 sponsors who have helped make this project possible: Strada | Design With People In Mind®, PWWG Architects, Desmone Architects, GBBN and Akhil Badjatia.