Sepideh Niknia, a PhD candidate from Texas Tech University's LPMD program, was awarded a travel grant to participate in the ConCave Symposium 2024 at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The symposium, held April 4th - 5th, is renowned for its focus on divergent approaches in architectural research, and provided a platform for Sepideh, an emerging researcher in the architectural domain, to showcase her work and engage with leading scholars.

You can learn more about the symposium by clicking here.

Assistant Professor Dr. Asma Mehan spoke at a webinar titled "Career Transition from PhD to ECR" on March 28th at 3:00 PM GMT and 4:00 PM CET. The event was free to the public and organized by the Association of European Planning School’s Young Academics Network and the Regional Studies Association. The webinar addressed the critical phase of transitioning from a PhD student to an early career researcher (ECR) and was designed to facilitate a comprehensive dialogue among early career and established researchers, sharing their experiences, challenges, and strategic advice for navigating this significant career juncture smoothly. A recording of the webinar is available via the RSA Lounge and YAN website.

For more details, or to register for other events with the Regional Studies Association, click the link here. 

Assistant Professor Dr. Asma Mehan and Associate Professor Dr. Sina Mostafavi published an article focused on AI and Architecture titled "Navigating AI-Enabled Modalities of Representation and Materialization in Architecture: Visual Tropes, Verbal Biases, and Geo-Specificity" in The Plan Journal. The article explores the applied and generative capacities of AI-enabled workflows and suggests fundamental approaches to enhance the creative process and confront the embedded biases and injustices within data-driven systems.  

To access the article, click the link here. 

Professor Dr. Clifton Ellis presented a paper titled “Crepuscular Thresholds: Nighttime Movements of the Enslaved in the Antebellum South” at the Nineteenth-Century Studies Association annual conference in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 14th-16th, 2024.

Dr. Ellis also presented a paper titled “Enslaved Labor and Construction in Antebellum Virginia” at the College Arts Association Annual Conference in Chicago on February 14th-17th, 2024. 

Associate Professor Dr. Sina Mostafavi presented a paper titled "FabriCity-XR: A Phygital Lattice Structure Mapping Spatial Justice – Integrated Design to AR-Enabled Assembly Workflow" as part of the Digital Technology: Community and Urbanism session at the ACSA Meeting in Vancouver. The paper was presented on behalf of co-authors Assistant Professor Dr. Asma Mehan, PhD student Edgar Montejano, and student assistants Cole Howell and Jessica Stuckemeyer. 

Dean Flueckiger’s research project, titled “The Sustainable Cabin," was recently published in Dominic Bradbury’s new book Off the Grid: Houses for Escape Across North America, (Thames & Hudson, London, 2024, pp. 80-87). This collection of the most innovative off-grid homes reveals how mindful design is redefining the possibilities for living in some of the most extraordinary natural environments on Earth. This is the third time that Flueckiger’s Sustainable Cabin has been featured in an edited volume on environmentally conscious design. 

Flueckiger’s Sustainable Cabin was a design-build studio project in which students from architecture, art, engineering, and interior design collaborated in the cabin’s design, construction, and siting. The two-year project was funded by grants from the Texas Tech University Research Enrichment Fund Grant, the Florence Marie Hall Foundation, The Pease River Foundation, Chapman Harvey Architects, and seven Lubbock-based businesses. 

Located in Crowell, TX, the Sustainable Cabin operates entirely off the conventional power grid, utilizing rainwater harvesting, waste composting, photovoltaic solar-power, and passive solar design. The project, completed in 2010, still serves as an experimental research station providing research data in sustainable design and living, and became the basis for Flueckiger’s book, How Much House?: Thoreau, Le Corbusier and the Sustainable Cabin, published by Birkhäuser in 2016. 

To access the publisher's website, click the link here.  

Bryan Ziegler, an alumnus of the HCOA class of 1999, was featured in the spring 2024 edition of Texas Techsan magazine. In 2013, Bryan founded Aqueous Engineering, a firm specializing in civil and aquatic engineering services. Aqueous Engineering has garnered recognition for its involvement in numerous high-budget, high-profile projects, including multimillion-dollar water parks and amenity pools situated atop high-rise buildings. Bryan recently finalized the design of a state-of-the-art pool located within 2929 Weslayan, a residential tower situated in downtown Houston. The project was developed in collaboration with the landscape architecture practice Studio Outside. 

To access the article, click the link here.  

Sarah Briscoe, an alumna of the HCOA class of 2004, was featured in the spring 2024 edition of Texas Techsan magazine. In 2023, Sarah began working for Garver, a multidisciplined engineering, planning, and environmental services firm, and was recently named Garver's new Houston structural practice leader. Some of her notable projects include a 40,000-square-feet instructional arts facility valued at $16 million, situated at Lone Star College in Houston, as well as the design of a two-story city hall building spanning 30,000-square-feet for Mont Belvieu, Texas, and the renovation of a 20,000-square-feet community center in addition to an 18,000-square-feet building extension at the Robert J. Dole Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Wichita, Kansas. 

To access the article, click the link here. 

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