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Design Paris

Academic Programs Abroad, Students, Interior Design, Architecture, , , ,

Group of students in Paris

Design Paris, the first semester-long study abroad program hosted by the College of Art & Design based out of Paris, France, launched in the fall of 2018. This year the program expanded to encompass an interdisciplinary focus, including architecture and interior design students.

“This is not a passive learning experience,” said Robert Holton, program director and associate professor of architecture. “It’s extreme active learning that goes past the classroom. The students gain hands on experience on field excursions exploring sites, studying buildings in person.”

The design students in the program have the opportunity to study buildings and spaces from multiple vantage points. Collaborative learning opportunities include workshops working with French studies, fostering cross-cultural exchange and discourse.

“It has been a great experience combining the two disciplines of architecture and interiors in a city with an amazing culture of design; both historical and contemporary,” said Kelly Greeson, assistant professor of interior design. “This rich design culture transcends how the disciplines are normally understood and addressed within their own context.”

The Design Paris school is located in the Marais neighborhood, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the heart of the city. The city of Paris acts as a classroom in itself, as all studio instruction is supported by field visits to architectural sites throughout the city and region.

Living in France for the entire semester allows them to surpass the tourist experience and begin to understand the subtle nuances of the local culture, exploring Europe more profoundly. “The students become citizens of the city, not just tourists,” Holton said.

Students took advantage of the semester-long stay in Europe to travel to other cities as well, collectively visiting over 30 different destinations. These experiences enriched their design education, as firsthand exposure to the built environment vastly expands the learning experience.

“There is something so awe-inspiring about being able to finally visit and experience the buildings and structures you have been studying in class,” said Naomi Mareschal, BArch candidate.

“By studying abroad in Paris for the semester, I got to experience firsthand one of the most popular cities in the world, but as part of the program we also traveled outside the city limits to places such as Honfleur, Fountainbleau, and Eveux, to name a few,” said Dakota Boesch, MArch student who studied the first semester.

“The students have rather seamlessly adjusted to the exposure to both disciplines and have been able to not only recognize the rich design culture but also the rich multicultural aspects of the city,” Greeson said.

“Paris is a historic city, and so students are working in an urban setting that is very old,” Holton said. “They address the contrasts between old and new, which is a unique new experience for them as designers.”

Follow the Design Paris blog to see students’ adventures abroad.

Visit designparis.lsu.edu for more information about the program.

Tayler Harrison Interns at National Museum of African American History & Culture

Art & Design, Students, Research, Architecture, , ,
Girl by modern building

Tayler Harrison by National Museum of African American History & Culture

Fifth year architecture student Tayler Harrison had the internship of a lifetime: working at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC). The monumental museum in Washington, D.C., which opened in fall 2016, is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture.

“It was inspiring to work in the presence of the people who helped to build the museum,” Harrison said. The building itself is amazing: the physical space reflects the messages that the exhibitions convey, she noted.

“It felt like the internship was tailored to my experiences as a black design student,” she shared. “Working at the museum strengthened my interests, and now I have a clearer lens of what I want to do.”

Harrison interned with Michelle Joan Wilkinson, PhD, a NMAAHC curator and acting associate director for curatorial affairs, where she is expanding the museum’s collections in architecture and design. She co-curated two inaugural NMAAHC exhibitions: A Century in the Making: Building the National Museum of African American History and Culture and A Changing America: 1968 and Beyond. In 2018, she served as lead organizer for the museum’s three-day symposium, “Shifting the Landscape: Black Architects and Planners, 1968 to Now.” Wilkinson holds a 2020 Harvard Loeb Fellowship.

Three smiling women

Tayler (left) with mentor Dr. Wilkinson and fellow intern

During the internship Harrison had the opportunity to research and write, and visit local sites of interest such as NPR’s headquarters and the Glenstone Museum.

“The internship was such a meaningful experience,” she said. “I was able to genuinely contribute and learn more about the history of black architects in the U.S. I studied drawings of the works of black architects, such as the work of Julian Abele who was born in the late 1800s and became one of the chief designers of Duke University’s campus.”

The Smithsonian internship was an inspirational experience, working with influential people in the nation’s capital, she said. “One day Colin Powell came to a staff meeting! I felt I was in the midst of greatness,” she shared.

She also enjoyed working with other student interns with interests in different areas of study, who came to Washington, D.C. from universities across the country. She interned alongside students of art history, engineering, music, and design disciplines. “It was interesting to see the work other students are doing, and how we were all able to tell the story of the journey of African Americans through different lenses.”

Row of young women sitting on wall, legs crossed

Taylor with fellow student interns

In Washington, D.C., she also had the opportunity to observe professionals trained in architecture that are using their degrees in different ways, providing inspiration for potential career possibilities after graduation. In the future Harrison would love to go into curation, and bring together her interests in black architecture, urbanism and museum education.

Throughout her studies at LSU, Harrison has found herself drawn to the intersections of design, art, and history. “I want to use my architecture education in a way that explores art, culture, and communities,” she said. “I’m interested in curating, and am drawn to exhibit and museum design. I’m exploring urbanism now in my research, and my internship experiences are influencing the work I’m creating now in studio.”

Harrison, who is originally from New Orleans, is focusing her final project on urban design in her home city. “I’m translating what I’ve learned, and bringing it back to New Orleans,” she said. “I’m passionate to work on solving problems in my home city.”

Reflecting on her internship experience: “I’m so grateful for the opportunities I’ve had so far.”

New to LSU: Q&A with Allison Young

Art & Design, Research, Art History, Art, Faculty, Doctor of Design,

Allison YoungAllison Young is assistant professor of contemporary art history at LSU. A specialist in postcolonial and contemporary art of the Global South, she received her B.A. (2009) in Art History and Anthropology from Brandeis University, and her M.A. (2012) and Ph.D. (2017) from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Young’s research centers primarily on African and African-Diasporic artists and art histories, with focus on South African art, British art and visual culture, biennials and curatorial practice, and questions surrounding migration, transnationalism and political engagement in contemporary art.

Q: What are your research interests?

A: My research interests are broadly centered on postcolonial and transnational contemporary art—meaning the art produced within the era following colonial rule in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America or South Asia, as well as art being made today that addresses questions of cultural identity, nationalism, and social change from a global perspective.

My main area of specialization is African and African-Diasporic art. I have published most widely on late twentieth-century South African art, as well as on artists who live and work transnationally or whose work responds to experiences of diaspora, exile, and migration. These themes interest me because they challenge the traditional categories of geography and culture according to which art history was first conceived, and because migration and itinerancy have increasingly come to define the human condition today.

Q: What is your academic/professional background?

A: As an undergraduate, I took classes in so many different fields of study before landing on my double major of art history and anthropology. Working between the humanities and social sciences, I was interested in learning about the role that visual and material culture play in society, or asking what new perspectives come to light when works of art serve as our primary witnesses to history. These questions continue to drive my research today.

My background includes not only academic research, but also an ongoing engagement with contemporary art through criticism and curatorial practice. I love working directly with artists, and have held positions in museums such as the MFA Boston, the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and most recently the New Orleans Museum of Art, where I was a postdoctoral fellow for the last two years. I love seeing works of art come to life in museums, where they serve as points of exchange and connection for diverse publics. I think it’s especially important, as well, for students of art history to learn how different curatorial narratives or interpretive frameworks can radically alter one’s understanding of, or response to, a work of art.

Q: What courses are you teaching?

A: This fall, I’m teaching “Historical Survey of the Arts: Renaissance to Modern” and “Issues in Contemporary Art.” The latter class introduces some major themes and conceptual frameworks that define the study of art since 1960. In the future, I hope to offer classes that reflect my interests in global and postcolonial art histories, as well as in-depth immersions into specific mediums, movements, or theories in contemporary art.

Q: Why do you enjoy teaching art history?

A: I love teaching art history because it gives students the tools to analyze, appreciate, and understand the images that surround us in everyday life—not just in museums or art spaces, but also in advertisements, music videos and movies, or on social media. While there are certainly historical events, dates, and artistic movements that should be memorized and understood as “fact,” so much of art history is actually improvisational and responsive, so I learn a lot from my students by hearing their unique perspectives on works of art—especially when they differ from my own!

Q: What was your first impression of LSU?

A: I find Louisiana to be a fascinating place in which to learn about or practice art, cultural history, and design, and the work being undertaken across LSU reflects that. It’s obvious that students and faculty are passionate about what they do – and I very much look forward to becoming a part of the community!

New to LSU: Q&A with Robyn Reed

Art & Design, Research, Landscape Architecture, Faculty,

Assistant professor of landscape architecture Robyn Reed is a designer, educator, and advocate for the practice of landscape architecture. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Robyn is a licensed landscape architect who joins the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture after nearly twenty years in practice. Her research interests have emerged from her years in practice and focus on methods for better equipping cities and planners to integrate water into the urban fabric in more quotidian ways. Her work touches on material strategies as well as landscape theory to develop language and methods for cities to more proactively address climate change.

Q: What drew you to the field of landscape architecture?

A: I moved to Chicago in my early twenties. Chicago was the first city that made me aware of the beauty of architecture and inspired me to pursue graduate school in architecture and urban design. But in researching schools and thinking more about what I understood then architecture to be, I realized that I was much more interested in the spaces between buildings than I was in the buildings themselves. I wanted to help shape the places that belonged to the public. Around the same time I read Michael Pollan’s Second Nature in which he positions gardening as an act that bridges the nature/culture divide, an idea that really captured my attention as well. Landscape architecture seemed to speak to all my interests. And still does!

Q: What is your professional background?

A: I am a licensed landscape architect and have worked in practice for nearly twenty years. I have been very fortunate to work with some great designers and teams on projects ranging in scale from backyards in San Francisco to parks and plazas in Boston to new communities in Abu Dhabi. My favorite projects are usually the ones with the steepest learning curves. The Southworks/Lakeside Community Master Plan in Chicago remains one of the projects that influenced my thinking the most as it taught me the power of collaboration with civil engineers in developing water-receiving landscapes. The MIT Officer Collier Memorial in Cambridge was the most technically complicated and perhaps most gratifying given that we were all working towards honoring a fallen officer. And most recently, the Field House project in Rhode Island marked the beginning of working on my own. Hearing the song birds in the meadow there is really gratifying.

Q: What are your research interests?

A: I am interested in making cities more porous, in how we learn (or re-learn) to live with water. Some of this involves questioning contemporary materials and researching pavements in water-based cities. Some of this also involves questioning theoretical and pedagogical practices that have emphasized big moves rather than incremental ones. Coming from practice I see a tension in the big solutions thinking and the pragmatics of built work.

Q: What courses are you teaching?

A: I am teaching the second year graduate Water Studio, which challenges students to question approaches to water, and see how it has shaped us as much as we shape it. The course embraces the dynamic relationship of water to ground, and students develop a design vocabulary for water.

The first year graduate drawing course I teach, Landscape Representation i: Seeing by Hand, focuses on hand-drawn 2d representation. Students are introduced to a range of drawing methods and tools that will serve as a platform for studio work, digital media, and other aspects of design both here at LSU and in practice.

Q: Why do you enjoy teaching?

A: I enjoy working with students to help them learn how to bring their own experiences and knowledge to bear on their work. I have always been more interested in helping students cultivate their own voices and strengths than in having them develop a particular aesthetic.

Q: What was your first impression of LSU?

A: The live oak trees here are incredible, and what sold me on coming here. They remind me a bit of the coastal live oaks from where I grew up in Northern California and help make this new place feel a bit more like home.

LSU Architecture Team Awarded First Place in ACSA National Design Competition

Art & Design, Students, Research, Honors & Awards, Architecture

Parasite Lodge project illustration, red boats on water by structure rendered black and white.

For the second year in a row, students from LSU School of Architecture’s fifth-year comprehensive design course have been awarded first place in an Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) National Design Competition. The project titled The Parasite Lodge by BArch students Caroline Arbour, Anne Kellerman, Brooke Strevig, and Christopher Washington III, won first place in the Built2Last Resiliency in Design competition. Kris Palagi, assistant professor of architecture, was the faculty advisor.

Previously, Giovanni Coakley (BArch 2017), was selected as the winner in the WaterShed Urbanism category for the Designing Healthy Places competition.

The ACSA Built2Last Competition focused on “the opportunity to design an environmentally responsible Recreation Center that integrates a secondary purpose of post-disaster neighborhood support for community continuity through the inherent attributes of concrete applications,” according to the ACSA.

The Parasite Lodge is a recreational/disaster relief center set along the Amite River. Their work could not have been realized without the research and landscape design strategy provided by Andrew Wright in conjunction with the assistant professor Brendan Harmon’s landscape architecture Water Studio, The Hungry River, Palagi said.

This top winning project, The Parasite Lodge, is an inhabitable wall that is part of a larger infrastructure system. “The submission is conceptual on many different levels and scales. The submission is wonderfully drawn and presented with great restraint,” the juror comments said.

The Parasite Lodge siphons water away from the Amite River to perform as a mussel propagation center, according to the project description. The dual function of the Parasite Lodge as a disaster relief center and educational youth camp functions year-round in a singular shell, the retaining wall. The 400’ long concrete building can withstand strong hurricane winds and is designed to remain fully functional during a 100-year storm.

“Also performing as a year-round recreational lodge, secondary wall types and a green roof system attach to the larger mass creating areas of recreation and resiliency. Inside the 15-foot wide concrete form, voids are carved out to allow for passage, rest, and refuge within the wall. Apertures pierce through the thick concrete to allow for light and wind to comfort those residing in the wall. Traveling within the tunneled voids, users arrive at open spaces that are flooded with light and allow for visual access to the surrounding landscape previously hidden by the wall,” according to the project.

“I’m looking forward to a possible three-peat as I will be instructing this course again in the spring,” Palagi said.

LSU Students Design for Giant Pandas in China

Art & Design, Academic Programs Abroad, Students, Research, Landscape Architecture, Interior Design, Community Outreach, Architecture, Doctor of Design, ,

This fall LSU design students in assistant professor Brendan Harmon’s interdisciplinary “Giant Panda Studio” are designing a new national park for giant panda conservation and tourism in the wilds of Sichuan Province, China. The study area, the Fengtongzhai National Nature Reserve, is a biodiversity hotspot for giant pandas, golden snub-nosed monkeys, and red pandas. The students traveled to China to conduct fieldwork, and are working in partnership with Sichuan Agricultural University (SAU)’s College of Landscape Architecture to design the new park.

“After fieldwork in Fengtongzhai and geospatial data analysis, the students will model and design the spatial configuration of the new national park and its connections to a greater ecological network,” Harmon said. “They are learning how to analyze remote sensing data and model habitat corridors, urban growth, and land change.”

After applying computational methods for ecology to landscape planning, students use generative design to develop a system of landscape and architectural elements and structures for the national park that respond to the unique geomorphology, ecology, and cultural heritage of the reserve. They are designing a regional plan with habitat corridors, a master plan for the park, structures, trails, signage, furniture, and an adaptive management plan. The students are designing structures including a visitor center, breeding center, lodges, and ranger stations and a family of landscape elements including bridges, signage, and furniture. The work will be published in a report for the Chinese government.

panda on logThe landscape architecture students traveled to Sichuan Province, China for two weeks of on-site fieldwork. They participated in a collaborative studio at SAU in Chengdu, and traveled to sites including: the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Center, Fengtongzhai, Jiuzhaigou, Huanglong Valley, Mount Emei, Mount Qingcheng, and Dujiangyan. While there they considered critical regionalism, landscape ecology, island biogeography, conservation corridors, systematic conservation planning, biodiversity hotspots, adaptive management, and climate change.

“Written stories and images can’t measure to the sensory experience of seeing, smelling, hearing, and connecting with a landscape and the people and animals that reside there,” MLA candidate Nguyệt Nguyễn said. “I noted social aspects of Chinese culture, and how built and natural environments are designed differently as compared to in America.”

The studio course is an introduction to computational methods for landscape ecology and planning, Harmon said. “We cover theory and computational methods for topics such as habitat fragmentation and conservation corridors. The students learn how to model ecological patterns and simulate ecological processes using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Then they use landscape planning methods in GIS and visual programming to develop designs for a national park that respond to these ecological processes.”

young man viewing panda in wild

Conservation planning is a key aspect of the curriculum. As teams, students address one of the following topics: precedent studies, conservation corridors, terrain modeling, mapping, or regional planning. Then as a class they will draft a master plan design for the national park. They develop a schematic design for the park master plan, including a visitor center, breeding center, trail system, observation points, wildlife over/underpasses, or signage.

Nguyễn said the trip to China was a great learning experience. “I didn’t expect to experience a taste of what it must be like to be a college student in China. We lived on campus, had breakfast and lunch at the school canteen (cafeteria), and went to class in different buildings to learn Chinese language, about native plants, [and more.]

Some of the teachers and most of the students hosts are in landscape architecture. I never thought that I would meet landscape architecture students and teachers in a different country, and in Asia.”

Chinese drawings on table

During the trip the students also had the opportunity to practice traditional Chinese ink painting, attend the Sichuan opera, explore and sketch their surroundings, and observe the local markets and architecture.

“I enjoyed connecting with Sichuan Agricultural University students who hosted us,” Nguyễn said. “This trip was unique because the design of the fieldtrip – classes by professors and staying on SAU campus – created an environment for cross-cultural understanding. I also liked feeling more comfortable in speaking and understanding Chinese.”

The students thanked Professor Max Conrad and Bruce Sharky for spearheading the relationship between the LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture and Sichuan Agricultural University. “We are honored to build upon the five years of collaboration they started, with our professor Brendan Harmon,” Nguyễn said. “We’ll do our best with our design for a giant panda national park, for the animals and the people for Sichuan Province.”

Julie Chen, “Every Moment of a Book”

Art, Printmaking, Doctor of Design,

Julie Chen, book artist, presented a Alfred C. Glassell, Jr. Endowed Lecture titled “Every Moment of a Book” at the LSU College of Art & Design at 5 p.m. on Thursday, October 24, 2019, in the LSU Design Building Auditorium (room 103).

Julie Chen is an internationally known book artist who has been publishing limited edition artists’ books under the Flying Fish Press imprint for 30 years. Her books combine text and image with innovative book structures to create reading experiences that engage the reader in interactions that go far beyond the simple turning of a page. Her work can be found in numerous collections worldwide including the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland, NZ. In 2009 she was a featured artist in the PBS television series, Craft in America. She is a professor of book art at Mills College in Oakland, California.

Architecture Students Visit Rural Life Museum

Students, Architecture, ,

Architecture students took a field trip to the LSU Rural Life Museum in fall 2019, to study historic local structures. The trip, organized by the Students for Historic Preservation (SHiP), was an opportunity to increase awareness of Louisiana’s cultural history in relationship to design.

With nearly 100 students, multiple museum docents led groups of 10-15 to investigate the historical grounds, assistant professor of architecture Kris Palagi said. “The LSU Rural Life Museum is an amazing resourse for our incoming architecture students to be introduced the unique history, culture, and architecture of Louisiana.”

“Vernacular design, ironic as it may seem, can sometimes be forgotten within the context of  architecture school. With the absolute wealth of possibilities that modern materials and techniques provide, it’s easy to see why students may not always look to old farm homes and wooden barns for inspiration,” said BArch 2022 candidate Bryce Humbrecht, SHiP president.

“We are often pushed to create new, innovative, and unfamiliar things,” Humbrecht said. “This is certainly not a bad thing, however it does lead to a sort of exodus from architectural traditions. While we should be encouraged to move beyond the limitations of traditional designs, we at SHiPs believe there is, nonetheless a wealth of insight to be found in vernacular architecture.”

“Local design is the clearest reflection of a community’s tradition, culture, experience, and customs. Recognizing this fact is crucial to maintaining the locality of a place and its culture.”

First year architecture students were working on their clone projects at the time; every year, the first project freshman undertake is constructing a life-sized cardboard “clone” of themselves.

“Through this project they are introduced to many valuable core concepts of architecture,” he said. “Things like structure, logic of assembly, craft, and reaction to site. All these things are visible and evident in traditional rural architecture. Aside from a few architectural elements which serve primarily aesthetic purposes, traditional design is often utilitarian.”

Students for Historic Preservation believes that preservation extends beyond saving one building and extends to the importance of historic and cultural landscapes as living histories. As preservationists across many disciplines, SHiP acknowledges that preserving the historic and cultural landscape requires knowledge and an awareness of the relationship between people and their histories. SHiP members take group trips to historic locations such as Poverty Point, Vicksburg National Military Park, Kisatchie National Forest, the Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge, old plantations, and more.

“Exposure to the design history of southern culture is incredibly useful when creating structures that respect the locality and further said culture. This, I hope, is something that will stick with them far beyond this first project,” Humbrecht said.