NEWSLETTER - November 3, 2023 |
|
|
Sepehr Vaez Afshar, a Master of Science in Architecture student in the Historic Preservation program at Texas Tech University, won a Student Scholarship Award from The Association for Preservation Technology International (APTI), in recognition of his innovative research in historic preservation using data science technologies. Afshar presented his research at the APT 2023 conference, held on October 9th-14th in Seattle, Washington. Sepehr's efforts were recognized by APTI through the Student Scholarships Program, an initiative dating back to 1986. As part of this prestigious scholarship, students from diverse historic preservation/conservation backgrounds are encouraged to present research or projects that address various facets of preservation technology.
Sepehr’s research, entitled "Revolutionizing Historic Preservation: Analyzing Henry Trost's Buildings Using Data Science Technologies," integrated historic preservation principles with advanced technology, revolutionizing the study of historical structures. Using Octoparse, a web data extracting software, Sepehr collected and analyzed data on 275 buildings by architect Henry Trost and analyzed them with RapidMiner Studio to discern Trost's design nuances. With this data, through the Processing software, Sepehr showcased dynamic visualizations, allowing an immersive exploration of Trost's architectural progression in El Paso, thereby setting a pioneering standard for future research methodologies in the domain.
Sepehr began his research during the course "Computer Applications to Architecture," taught by Associate Professor Kuhn Park, and was completed under the guidance from his advisor, Assistant Professor Dr. Mahyar Hadighi and mentorship from Professor Michael Tomlan from Cornell University. The Huckabee College of Architecture also provided supplemental funding.
|
|
|
Sarvin Eshaghi, a student in the Master of Science in Architecture program with a focus on Historic Preservation at Texas Tech University, won a Student Scholarship Award from The Association for Preservation Technology International (APTI). Eshaghi presented her pioneering research, which combines historic preservation with gamification, at the APT 2023 conference, held on October 9th-14th in Seattle, Washington.
Eshaghi's presentation, titled "The Use of Gamification to Enhance Understanding of Historic District Design Guidelines: The Case of Manhattan Heights, El Paso," explored the challenges of dense, text-heavy design guidelines from the mid-20th century that protected historic American communities. To make these guidelines more accessible, she harnessed the power of gamification. Using the Twine platform, Eshaghi developed an immersive, interactive application that transformed traditional guidelines into a multimedia experience. By integrating interactive videos, texts, and visuals, and embedding quizzes for reinforcement, she ensured a deeper understanding of the work.
Eshaghi’s research began in the "Systems of Architectural Inquiry" course led by Professor Dr. Saif Haq and was further developed under the supervision of her advisor, Assistant Professor Dr. Mahyar Hadighi, and the mentorship of Thomas C. Jester. The Huckabee College of Architecture provided additional financial support to attend the conference.
|
|
|
Modesto (Moe) Melendez III, a student in the Master of Science in Architecture program at Texas Tech, received a Getty Foundation Grant at the Association for Preservation Technology International (APTi) conference in Seattle, WA. Melendez presented his thesis research entitled “Efficacy of Short-Form Media as a Teaching Tool in Historic Preservation."
His presentation focused on the analysis of using said storytelling as a teaching tool and development of an effective delivery method to teach property owners of historic homes the basics of not only maintaining a historic property, but the importance of preservation overall. The ultimate goal of Moe’s research is to create short-form content in manageable bits of information that can be ingested on the go or in quick techniques which will leave room to expand further and garner interest to influence homeowners to learn of the importance of historic preservation.
Modesto's thesis advisor and co-author for the APT poster presentation, which was based on his thesis, is Dr. Mahyar Hadighi.
|
|
|
Students from the ARCH 5302 Product Design course recently presented their sculpture at a ribbon cutting ceremony in partnership with Covenant Health System at the Joe Arrington Cancer Research and Treatment Center on October 20th, 2023. The project, designed by Derek Williams and Cristian Solis, and fabricated with six other HCOA graduate students, Corinne Tendorf, Harmony Smith, Jonathan Perez, Kevin Carreon, Jade Le, and Abril Cordero provides a cheerful ambiance in the new garden space for all the patients and caregivers.
|
|
|
Chad Plunket, HCOA instructor and director of the Charles Adams Studio Project, led the course and students through the design, fabrication and installation of the sculpture. All eight students presented their designs to the board members of the cancer center, who selected four designs. Students then partnered up in teams in two, and then re-presented the designs to the board the following week. The final design was then chosen by the board, to be fabricated during the remainder of the spring semester. The students met each week and worked on the sculpture through CASP’s Metal Work Studio in downtown Lubbock. The project team would like to give special thanks to CASP, Harrison Brooks, Jon Whitfill, Rev Limit Customs, Quality Coating and all of those who assisted in the fabrication and installation process.
|
Pictured from left to right: Jonathan Perez, Corrine Tendorf, Chad Plunket, Harmony Smith, Derek Williams, Jade Le, and Jon Whitfull.
Photos courtesy of Derek Williams.
|
|
|
Assistant Professor Dr. Mahyar Hadighi recently received the 2023 Partners in Documentation Award from the Historic Preservation Education Foundation. This award is for Dr. Hadighi’s project titled "Ship on the Desert: Then and Now." Dr. Hadighi and his students will document "Ship on the Desert," a mid-century modern residence in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, with HCOA’s state-of-the-art technology. This collaboration is in partnership with El Paso Community Foundation and Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
|
|
|
Assistant Professor Nero Chenxuan He recently designed a digital landscape which was presented on a large LED screen in Harajuku, Tokyo, creating a synthetic garden through a quasi-autonomous design process collaborating with programmed computer interfaces. The project emphasizes collaboration between human and non-human design agencies, celebrating design with cultural influences to produce curated results through automated optimized limitless possibilities. The digital landscape has become a local attraction.
Rooted in the interplay between humanity and nature, the courtyard garden holds a distinctive place in Asian cultures. Garden designers must blend unwavering foresight with adaptability to navigate the evolution of manageable and elusive components and embrace emerging realities. This interplay of conceptualization and revelation aligns with the innovative concept for the autostereoscopic 3D display—a realm bound yet full of unforeseen potential. Thus, a digital urban landscape experiment takes shape.
|
|
|
Assistant Professor Nero Chenxuan He recently hosted his first gallery exhibition "Phygital Fabrication" at CASP work studios, where he presented a collection of his research on quasi-autonomous design.
Phygital (the blending of physical plus digital experiences) fabrication following the quasi-autonomous process combines the traditional handcrafted tie-dye fabric of the artisan with the designer’s digitally fabricated recreation in animated format. It untangles the emerging need for a critical understanding of phygital design and phygital material by exploring its most definitive qualities in the context of a quasi-autonomous collaboration between human agency and the computer. Nero He’s research explores this through the digital reinterpretation of traditional handicrafts belonging to the ethnic Chinese minority Bai from the northwestern province of Yunnan. A phygital fabrication workflow challenges experience-based standardized exchange between physical fabrication and digital simulation, consciously inheriting indigenous design as a deliberate collaboration with non-human agencies. It also reflects how designers seek new positions around digital design tools and describes a workflow not wholly defined but nonetheless integral to contemporary design practice.
Nero He has been developing workflows in phygital constructions and automavisions. He is interested in creating quasi-autonomous procedures to synergize human and non-human design agencies. His work is the byproduct of a non-rectilinear process, which has no finite result.
To learn more about Nero He’s work, click the link: http://www.he-x-agon.com.
|
|
|
Associate Professor Dr. Piyush Khairnar will deliver a talk on November 17th, 2023, at the 7th Annual International Graduate Student Symposium hosted by the students of the PhD Program in Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology. As part of a workshop at the conference, Dr. Khairnar will engage with student participants and will go over the specifics of academic research publications.
The workshop is meant to allow emerging graduate-level researchers to understand the complex process of publishing in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The workshop will also focus on general procedures for successfully publishing a dissertation in academic settings for Master's and Doctoral level students.
The symposium, entitled, “IN BETWEEN: Architecture and Development of the Urban Landscape.” explores the multifaceted relationship between architecture and urban fabric in the contemporary North American urban landscape. It seeks to examine why architects play a crucial role in shaping the urban landscape, the critical areas of focus for architecture in the development of increasingly complex cities, emerging architectural strategies as responses to new challenges, the status of the North American urban landscape, its achievements thus far, and it's potential for further progress.
More information about the event can be found at https://www.iit-igss.com/.
|
|
|
Associate Professors Ersela Kripa and Stephen Mueller recently published an edited issue of the Journal of Architectural Education titled “Deserts” in collaboration with Francesco Marullo at the UIC Undergraduate Research Experience at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The “Deserts” theme collects geographically diverse works of scholars, architects, activists, and preservationists who have lived and worked in the deserts of the world.
The volume is organized as a non-linear constellation of ecological, cultural, logistical, and critical interpretations that consider the desert as not only a condition against the logic of occupation and displacement, violence and extraction, and precariousness and erosion, but also as an enduring place of cultures, rituals, poetics, mythologies, imaginaries, alliances, and forms of living that call the desert home, thriving and resisting entropic tendencies: lessons for an alternative understanding and a radically different future.
The JAE is the leading peer-reviewed blind-refereed scholarly journal in the field and has been the primary venue for research on architectural education since 1947.
The article can be found here: https://www.jaeonline.org/issue-article/deserts/.
|
|
|
Assistant Professor Dr. Asma Mehan presented a paper at the VI International Conference on Architecture and Gender (ICAG 2023) held at the School of Architecture, Universitat Politécnica de València, Spain, on October 3rd - 6th. Her work, titled "Perishable Traces: Reconstructing the Histories of Iranian Women Architects," offers a methodical account, aiming to rectify gaps in the conventional architectural discourse that often marginalizes or overlooks non-mainstream narratives. ICAG 2023, with its international reach, served as a significant venue for academics and professionals to delve deep into the intricate relationship between architecture and gender.
|
|
|
Assistant Professor Dr. Asma Mehan recently published an article titled "The Role of Digital Technologies in Building Resilient Communities," in Bhumi, The Planning Research Journal, Volume: 10 Issue: 1, a collaboration between the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, and La Trobe University, Australia. The current edition centers on the theme "Resilient Urbanism" and offers readers a spectrum of in-depth articles on topics like migration patterns, decision-making in urban development, and the role of artistic activism in shaping urban spaces.
Check out the article at this link: https://bhumi.sljol.info/articles/10.4038/bhumi.v10i1.92.
|
|
|
Associate Professor Dr. Sina Mostafavi and Assistant Professor Dr. Asma Mehan's project titled FABRICITY XR – Phygital Mapping of Spatial Justice is selected to be exhibited in the ACADIA / CAADRIA Joint Exhibition. Selected projects will be featured both during the ACADIA 2023 conference in Denver and at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Architecture, representing CAADRIA (The Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia). This event will emphasize the ACADIA’s 2023 theme, "Habits of the Anthropocene."
|
|
|
Associate Professor Dr. Sina Mostafavi will chair a paper session titled "LEARNED ASSEMBLIES" at the upcoming ACADIA (Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture) Conference 2023 in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Mostafavi will also introduce the event's sponsors as a Development Officer on the ACADIA Board of Directors, emphasizing the conference's commitment to connecting academia and industry. After serving as a Board of Directors for 2022 and 2023, Dr. Mostafavi has been re-elected for another two-year term by ACADIA members, extending his role as a Board Director from 2024 and 2025.
|
|
|
The Huckabee College of Architecture was presented with the Presidential Departmental Excellence in Safety Award for 2022 at a ceremony hosted on October 30th, 2023, by President Lawrence Schovanec and the Department of Environmental Health & Safety at Texas Tech.
We’re immensely proud of the team of HCOA staff and faculty who made this possible and would like to give special acknowledgement to facilities director, Jeff Hoover; unit manager, Hinton Vick; and executive director, Lesley Washington for their efforts.
We are grateful to President Schovanec and the entire selection committee for their honorable recognition!
|
|
|
Photo courtesy of Chris Burns.
|
|
|
THR3E Design held their annual "US AGAINST THEM" BBQ Cook-Off on October 20th, 2023, in Houston, Texas. With the help of their cook-off teams, sponsors, judges, and industry partners, they were able to raise $15,000 and present scholarship funds to the HCOA, the University of Houston College of Architecture, and the Work Texas group!
The THR3E Design firm is lead by several HCOA alumni including founding principal, Frank Marquez, and principal, Ruben DeLaO.
We are immensely grateful to THR3E Design for their continued support of student scholarship at the HCOA, and extend our heartfelt congratulations to the winners of this year's cook-off!
|
|
|
The HCOA advising team was featured in the October newsletter for the Raider Success Hub at the Office of Student Success & Recruitment. HCOA advising was highlighted for being one of the few advising units on campus whose entire team regularly utilizes the Raider Success Hub to efficiently manage students' appointments and success. The advising team is made up of academic advisor, Vondee Langehennig; senior academic advisor, Amy Peterman; senior academic advisor, Carmen Sikes; student success specialist, Aaron Smith; and unit manager, Sarah Hatley.
Raider Success Hub is a one-stop-shop for advisor availability and appointments, as well as managing students' success and advising notes. Our advising team works diligently to create an easy place for students to schedule appointments with their respective advisors or success specialist. As advanced registration season for spring and summer of 2024 approaches, the advising team is working hard to ensure students are prepped and ready.
|
|
|
Peer mentoring for first generation architecture students is now available at the Huckabee College of Architecture on Mondays from 9:00 - 10:30 AM CST. Meet with First-Gen peer mentor for architecture, Calvin Strempel, in The Corner on November 6th. Please take advantage of this opportunity to meet with him!
|
|
|
NEXT WEEK: Join the Architecture Library for a series of collaging activities November 6th-9th. A wide array of materials will be provided to students for use during the events including an extensive selection of book covers, magazines, small canvases, and more. Oscar Natividad will also lead a one-hour Photoshop Collaging Workshop on November 7th at 3:00 PM CST!
For more information, please contact Lindsey Jackson at Lindsey.Jackson@ttu.edu.
We look forward to seeing you there!
|
|
|
Donations are critical to the advancement of our program. With your contributions, we can fund our merit-based scholarships, recruit extraordinary faculty, fund research endeavors and improve our facilities. No gift is too small to make an impact on our students, faculty, and staff. If you're interested in giving, the Texas Tech University Office of Institutional Advancement has a convenient web portal for making secure, online donations to one of the established Huckabee College of Architecture funds. Click here to donate.
|
|
|
If you're not already, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook for the latest updates from the HCOA and be sure to like and share our content within your own networks! Do you have news or updates to share? Email architecture@ttu.edu for a possible feature in the next newsletter!
|
Follow us on social media:
|
| |
Manage your preferences | Opt Out using TrueRemove™
Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future emails.
View this email online.
|
2500 Broadway | Lubbock, TX 79409 US
|
|
|
This email was sent to .
To continue receiving our emails, add us to your address book.
|
| |
|
|