Lina Bo Bardi, Study for furniture design at Milan Triennale (detail), ca. 1946. Courtesy of Instituto Bardi / Casa de Vidro “Drawing, with its slow and intimate gestures, was her way of dwelling in the world. Drawing was one of her solitary anchors in a constantly transforming existence. Drawing conveyed, at the tip of her hands, a representational purpose and also a somewhat magical realism spell.” —Zeuler R. Lima, introduction to Lina Bo Bardi, Drawings In need of some color during these cold winter days? Lina Bo Bardi Draws is open now at the Heinz Architectural Center and brings together nearly 100 drawings by one of the most inspirational twentieth-century architects.  This whimsical exhibit is open now through March 29, 2020, so, just enough...

Image credit: Wladek Fuchs, University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture Thanks to everyone who voted, the Reality Capture Workshop has won the AIA National People’s Choice Award for Innovation! Case Technologies’ Reality Capture Workshop is a long-term collaborative project to create a complete digital documentation of a historical city and a methodology for the information dissemination.  The project is a partnership between Case Technologies, the University of Detroit Mercy, and Civil and Environmental Consultants, among others. Located in the city of Volterra, Italy, the main purpose of Reality Capture is to provide an International educational and research experience in which students and professionals learn to use innovative technologies and collaboratively produce three-dimensional computer models of the ancient city of Volterra, its...

Images of the ACE Mentorship Program, photo credit Anastasia Dubnicay.  Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Architecture Design Challenge, photo credit Louise Sturgess.  CMU Saturday Sequence Program, photo credit Paul Moscoso Pittsburgh is a city that embodies an interconnected web of makers and learners of all ages, truly living up to its title as one of America’s City of Learning. No matter your age, each citizen of the world has knowledge and expertise about their environment and can have agency to effect change in their communities. Pittsburgh’s Architecture Learning Network is one partnership in the city where eight non-profits have joined forces to support architecture educational programs in the region. The result is an architecture-learning pathway that helps youth prepare for...

Plaster ReCast app in use, photo by Bryan Conley Augmented reality app Plaster ReCast has launched for play-testing in Carnegie Museum of Art’s (CMOA) Hall of Architecture. The Hall is the world’s third-largest architectural plaster cast collection, which includes monumental replicas of portions of buildings and fragments from across the Western world. When it opened in 1907, the Hall of Architecture brought portions of important monuments to the public and allowed them to be viewed in 3-D.  Plaster ReCast brings new life to these objects and connects them not just to their geographical context but also gives historical context to their selection.  Plaster casts were also used regularly in architectural education because the models allowed architects see true proportions in 3-D. Carnegie Museum of Art’s collection survives today as...

Image credit: Wladek Fuchs, University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture Case Technologies’ Reality Capture Workshop is a long-term collaborative project to create a complete digital documentation of a historical city and a methodology for the information dissemination.  The project is a partnership between Case Technologies, the University of Detroit Mercy, and Civil and Environmental Consultants, among others. Located in the city of Volterra, Italy, the main purpose of Reality Capture is to provide an International educational and research experience in which students and professionals learn to use innovative technologies and collaboratively produce three-dimensional computer models of the ancient city of Volterra, its archaeological remains and some of its treasured artwork. A jury selected by AIA National recently called the project “extraordinary...

DESIGN + INNOVATION: Certificate of Merit PROJECT NAME: Penn51 Façade CLIENT: 11 to 3 LLC ARCHITECTURE FIRM: mossArchitects DESIGN TEAM: Andrew Moss, AIA; Darren Lloyd, Rebecca Murden ENGINEERS: Conway Engineering CONTRACTORS: P2 Contracting, LLC PHOTOGRAPHERS: Anthony Musmanno INTENT: The Penn51 project, one of many 1-3 story building facades along the Bloomfield and Garfield commercial corridor, is nestled in the center of the Penn Avenue business district; an area that has been the focus of revitalization, with a strong emphasis on the arts. The design solution seeks to reinterpret the facade as a folded skin that simplifies and unifies its previously disconnected property while adding an artful reinterpretation and visual activity to the busy commercial avenue. The design aims to connect...

Image courtesy Harper Collins Sarah Williams Goldhagen’s new book, written for the general public more so than the design community, is timely, important and worth a careful read by design professionals. Her fundamental claim is summarized in the preface: “What the new paradigm of embodied or situated cognition reveals is that the built environment and its design matters far, far more than anybody, even architects, ever thought that it did.” (p. xiv) Her book is timely because in the last couple years we’ve seen new checklists and scorecards for ‘wellness’ design (14 Patterns of Biophilic Design, The Well Building Standard, Fitwell — to name a few).  Wellness design appears to be a trendy term for what has traditionally been called...

ARCHITECTURE: Honor Award PROJECT NAME: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Knoxville Branch CLIENT: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh ARCHITECTURE FIRM: GBBN Architects DESIGN TEAM: Anne Chen, AIA; Amanda Markovic; Julian Sandoval ENGINEERS: Sci-Tek Consultants, Inc.; WBCM; WNA Engineering, Inc. CONTRACTORS: Shannon Construction Co. PHOTOGRAPHERS: Massery Photography, Inc. DESCRIPTION: Formally described as a bunker, this project transforms a brutalist 1962 building into an inviting destination for a diverse community. The deeply recessed entrances were moved forward to provide ample glazing that facilitates views to the street and daylight to the interior. Small additions at the front and side of the original building maximize the interior plan, providing a dedicated area for teens and expanded children’s area with an outdoor deck. JURY COMMENTS: With...

“While it seems safe to assume that the design of U.S. homes will undergo fairly significant changes over the coming decade, it’s equally likely that these changes will be determined by fundamental economic and demographic developments….” writes Kermit Baker and Jennifer Riskus, the authors of  “The Coming Decade for Residential Design,” an article in AIA ARCHITECT looking at how home design will change in the near future. The article highlights the results of the AIA’s Home Design Trends Survey. COLUMNS wanted to see how the survey and the trends compared to the local residential architectural trends, so we turned to AIA Pittsburgh’s CRAN (Custom Residential Architects Network) and had some local members respond to the national information. Local architects Mary Cerrone,...

This past June at Convention, AIA National announced two strategic partnerships to enhance and connect architects in today’s technology-driven world. One such partnership with Houzz, the world’s leading online platform for remodeling and design, is hoped to develop technology initiatives to engage architects and increase the public awareness of how good design can enhance our lives. Next week, this partnership comes to our community, as AIA Pittsburgh’s CRAN welcomes Houzz Community Team member Michael Stein for a Houzz presentation ‘Technology for Storytelling: How to reach new clients and engage a global community’. For architects and other design professionals, technology tools extend far beyond space planning and drafting. Today, technology is used to communicate more effectively with clients, tell engaging stories...