N E W S D I G E S T O F T H E M I T S C H O O L O F A R C H I T E C T U R E + P L A N N I N G

At the World Economic Forum this year, I chaired a Global

Action Committee on Infrastructure and Urban Development, an

international team of experts charged with the task of finding

new approaches to urban planning.

The challenge is nothing less than urgent. More than half

the world’s population currently lives in cities and by 2050 that

number will have grown to two-thirds or more. Over the next

twenty years, China and India alone will need to build entirely

new cities to accommodate 600 million more people. And with

more than 1000 megacities—cities with populations of more

than ten million—currently financed or under construction in

30 countries, it’s no wonder urbanism is the hottest of topics

right now.

Because of our school’s expertise in this area—we have a

long history in urbanism, going all the way back to Kevin Lynch—

we are increasingly being approached for help in addressing this

topic. Our faculty have recently traveled to Moscow, Mexico,

Rome and China to consult on urban growth; we have just com-

pleted a study for an innovation park in Shanghai; and the

President of Mexico has unveiled a massive urban regeneration

scheme that was developed by SA+P’s Dennis Frenchman and

Carlo Ratti.

The current focus on urbanism provides us all with a catalyst

for devising bold new models of growth. In Davos, our Global

Action Committee launched a long-term effort to do exactly that

by creating an open-source online format for compiling case stud-

ies in urban dynamics, in hopes of generating a flood of good ideas

for addressing our future. You can find details in the story that

follows the foldout in this issue. We invite you to join the effort.

An exhibit of eleven projects by The Freelon Group, Architects was on view for four months this spring in SA+P’s Wolk Gallery. Located in Durham NC, the 55-person firm—founded in 1990 by Professor of the Practice Philip Freelon (MArch‘77)—special-izes in the design of museums and cultural cen-ters, educational and research facilities. They have received over 42 design awards from the AIA and an Outstanding Firm Award from the AIA’s North Carolina chapter. The projects represented in the show included five museums, two libraries, an air-port parking structure, a research laboratory, a university classroom building and an elegant glass-top coffee table. Highlights included the National Center for Civil & Human Rights in Atlanta, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore and the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. Each of the projects was introduced with a simple massing model to establish the semi-nal idea, and drawings, photos, models and text further clarified the designs and the pro-cess leading to completion. The entire instal-lation, which largely reconfigured the gallery, was custom-designed and fabricated by The Freelon Group.

An extensive online tour of the exhibit (free-lon.com/mit) features a thoughtful descrip-tion of the show and the process of putting it together, along with detailed descriptions of each of the projects, each accompanied by a dozen or more images and a 360º virtual tour. Also online, a video interview with Freelon and with some visitors at the opening reception (tinyurl.com/ck4aggo). Currently a Professor of the Practice in SA+P’s Department of Architecture, Freelon leads the team of Freelon Adjaye Bond/Smith Group on the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC. In December 2011, he was appointed by President Obama to the seven-member US Commission on Fine Arts. He is a Fellow of the AIA and a recipient of the AIA Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture.

For more information, contact The Freelon Group at info@freelon.com.

REACH: ARCHITECTURE OF THE FREELON GROUP AN ELEGANT EXHIBIT FROM AN ALUMNUS / PROFESSOR AND HIS COLLEAGUES

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(A) District of Columbia Public Library, Anacostia Neighborhood Library: facade detail, intersection of pavilion and perforated green roof.

(B) Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture: main stair.

(C) The entire installation, which largely reconfigured the gallery, was custom-designed and fabricated by The Freelon Group.

(D) Each of the projects was introduced with a simple massing model to establish the seminal idea, and drawings, photos, models and text further clarified the designs and the process leading to completion.

(E)A scale model of the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture, Charlotte NC.

Photo: Mark Herboth Photography

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The lobby gallery of SA+P’s new Media Lab Complex was the site of an exhibit this spring exploring video works by artists working at the intersection of art and political activism. Founded in 2005, and since exhibited around the world, The Disobedience Archive is an atlas of activist approaches developed by artists and filmmakers after the fall of the Soviet bloc that are currently proliferating on a global scale. Using ‘tactical media’ such as low-cost video and free web access, the DIY techniques offer unprecedented access to those who feel they’ve been damaged by mainstream culture. The core of the collection focuses on social struggles in Italy, Germany, Argentina, Israel and Palestine, post-9/11 America and other insurrections around the world. But the archive has always been considered a long-term work-in-progress, intended to expand over time, and for this installation it was enlarged to include political and artistic action in Boston. Originally scheduled through February, then extended through April 15, the installation was curated by SA+P’s Gediminas Urbonas, and his partner Nomeda Urbonas, working with critic and curator Marco Scotini, director of the Visual Arts Department at Nuova Accademia de Belle Arti Milano and curator of Milan’s Gianni Colombo Archive. It was developed in tandem with last fall’s lecture series in the Art, Culture and Technology Program—Zones of Emergency: Artistic Interventions—directed by Ute Meta Bauer, then director of the ACT program. That series investigated creative responses to con-flict and crisis to explore how artistic interven-tions can disrupt, subvert or transform existing conditions in critical ways. The exhibit was produced in collaboration with students from two ACT seminars—both taught by Urbonas—that offered students occasion to research, debate and create art-works that examine the notion of disobedi-ence as it relates to history and politics in the Boston area. For this exhibit, the MIT Museum also loaned digital scans of original protest post-ers from their general collection, documenting actions at MIT during the Vietnam Era. After closing at MIT, The Disobedience Archive is traveling to BildMuseet in Umeo, Sweden. MORE: SAP.MIT.EDU/PLAN

ART AND POLITICAL ACTIVISMTHE DISOBEDIENCE ARCHIVE COMES TO SA+P

In December, two SA+P alumni conducted a workshop in Istanbul that brought together 24 young architects, planners and engineers—half from Armenia, half from Turkey—for a week-long series of lectures, discussions and site visits focused on environmental sustainability. While the primary aim of the workshop was professional development, the organizers hope to create a cross-border network of faculty, students and young professionals that will fos-ter human bonds and enhance understanding between the two estranged countries. Turkey and Armenia have a long history of painful disagreement—their border has been closed for years and they have no diplomatic relations—but when Turkish native Birgul Colak (PhD ’01, Architecture) and Armenian Alen Amirkhanian (MCP ‘97) re-established their friendship after graduating from MIT, they came up with a promising idea. Amirkhanian had become a lecturer on sus-tainable urbanism at the American University of Armenia and Colak was an associate profes-sor of computational design at Istanbul’s Yildiz Technical University. Tapping the expertise of their Turkish and Armenian faculty colleagues, as well as prac-titioners in the field, the two set out to create a joint program on energy efficiency and clean energy in urban design and construction. The workshop was so successful that Colak and Amirkhanian hope to develop a series of such projects bringing students and young professionals together from both countries to work on joint projects in sustainability. Future projects may take place in Armenia, in Turkey, or in other countries. MORE: SAP.MIT.EDU/PLAN

Alums Bring Turks and Armenians Together for Joint InitiativeProfessional Workshops Focus on Environmental Sustainability

A New Center for Art, Science & Technology The Mellon Foundation Grants MIT $1.5M in Funding

(Top and Above Right)The installation at MIT took the form of a garden ‘corridor’ arranged on an axis that alluded to the spatial and urban forms—from community gardens to tent cities—that have characterized activism in Boston.

During the workshop, participants visited buildings that were designed using green architecture standards, including the Siemens and Wilo headquarters near Istanbul and the newly built Nanotechnology Center at the Sabanci University, all of which have received LEED-Gold certification from the US Green Building Council.

The new center builds upon the momentum generated by last spring’s Festival of Art, Science and Technology, directed by SA+P’s Tod Machover and featuring architectural installa-tions by our faculty and students. Pictured below, Night of Numbers, a dynamic lighting installation that told the story of MIT’s past with projected numbers and phrases which hold historical significance to the Institute; festival visitors were challenged to identify the meanings.

MIT has received a four-year $1.5M grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support a new Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST). A joint initiative of SA+P with the Office of the Provost and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (SHASS), the Center is designed to advance MIT’s leadership in inte-grating exploration in the arts with scientific and technological inquiry, providing a model for incorporating the arts into research and curricula in other universities. The proposal for the Center was co-sponsored by Dean Adèle Naudé Santos with Associate Provost Philip Khoury and SHASS Dean Deborah Fitzgerald; Evan Ziporyn, Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Music, will serve as the inaugural director, working closely Leila Kinney, Executive Director of Arts Initiatives at MIT. The grant will support the development of research, exhibitions and cross-disciplinary courses that span the arts, science and tech-nology. It will also supplement MIT’s existing Visiting Artists program, embedding artists’ residencies in the curriculum, and will provide a platform for faculty, students and research staff to collaborate with the artists on artwork and/or technologies for artistic expression. To disseminate the work internationally, the deans and associate provost will fund a bien-nial symposium on art, science and technology, the first of which will take place during the 2013-14 academic year. MORE: SAP.MIT.EDU/PLAN

Photos: John Kennard @ 2011

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(Above Left)Student work in the exhibit included Sleeping with Stallman by Giacomo Castagnola. Consisting of a soft platform hosting three sound compilations and three reading sections, the installation investigated the notion of ‘sleeping in public’ as a form of social critique; in the 1990s, Richard Stallman lived and slept in his office at MIT as an act of civic disobedience.

At the end of the fall semester, students of the class Zones of Emergency: Art as Intervention—Creative Responses to Conflict & Crisis gathered at The Cube in the Media Lab complex to present their concepts for gifts to be sent to Minami Sanriku, a village in Japan devastated by the earthquake and the tsunami that followed last year. Ninety-five percent of Minami Sanriku’s buildings were leveled by the disaster, with about half the town’s residents missing, but the exhibition created an atmosphere in stark contrast to the damage. Costumes, toys and balloons filled the space, and the sounds of children enjoying themselves. The class—offered by the Art, Culture and Technology program—created two projects to bestow as gifts to the people of Minami Sanriku. Attempting to answer the question How do we confront and address such global disasters from afar?, the students tried to delve into a deeper understanding of the nature of global disasters and to offer creative responses. Realizing their roles as outsiders and how little they could actually do from so far, the students sought to find ways to make their gifts relevant and purposeful to the people of Minami Sanriku, trying to promote the rebuild-ing of community by generating a dialogue between the tragedy and the future of the village. (See photos.) Students and representatives from the class visited Minami Sanriku during spring break in March to present the gifts.

Reported and written by Darren BennettMUCH MORE: SAP.MIT.EDU/PLAN

Confronting Global Disasters from Afar Creative Responses to Devastation

A team of ten MIT students—seven of them from SA+P—won two awards in the first Better Buildings Case Competition sponsored by the US Department of Energy. The compe-tition challenged students to develop practical solutions to increase the energy efficiency of buildings across the country. Nineteen schools took part in the contest, each assigned two case scenarios to address, and the results—announced at the White House in March by Energy Secretary Steven Chu—revealed that MIT had won both its cases, the only team to do so. The MIT team won the Most Innovative Proposal Award for a package of tools that the District of Columbia should apply to ensure that the Walter Reed Army Medical Center site will achieve and maintain the District’s goals for energy and water efficiency. They proposed a build-own-and-operate service model to provide energy, manage the distribu-tion system and interface with customers. The proposed financing for the system would come from the provider or a lender and be based on revenue rather than using public funds. The team also won the Best Proposal Award for recommending a process to address the classic multi-tenant office building retro-fit scenario, where the challenges of limited capital and split incentives between owners and tenants must be solved in order to imple-ment energy efficiency projects. Their proposal included engaging and negotiating with ten-ants in a realistic, multiphase project; imple-menting energy efficiency upgrades; aligning new tenants as leases turn over; and launching a ‘Go for Green’ program. MORE: SAP.MIT.EDU/PLAN

Student Team Wins Two Awards in DOE CompetitionContest Focused on Energy Efficiency in Buildings

(Above Left)There is a Village was presented as a play kit for children, encouraging participation in storytelling and drama as a way of dealing with the trauma; unfolding into a stage-like landscape, the box contained props such as costumes, puppets, toys and two sample stories.

(Above Right)A Ritual for Memory was presented in a fine wooden box resembling that of a tea set but holding instead a balloon, a satchel of seeds and string—props to be used in a ceremony to replant the ravaged landscape and mark the new plantings with balloons floating above.

(Below)The MIT team included (L to R) Neheet Trivedi, Zachary Mallow and Patrick Flynn from Sloan, and Elena Alschuler, Kate Goldstein, Brendan McEwen, Nikhil Nadkarni and Nan Zhao from SA+P. Not pictured: Christopher Jones, Wesley Look and faculty advisor Harvey Michaels, all from SA+P.

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Since the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown in Japan last year, a number of efforts have been undertaken at SA+P to help with reconstruction efforts—part of the MIT Japan 3/11 Initiative to facilitate the study and implementation of disaster-resilient planning. So far, the Initiative has been focused pri-marily on the short- and long-term needs of Minami Sanriku, a hilly coastal town that was one of the hardest hit by the disaster. Some 6000 survivors have been placed in temporary housing but without a central place to gather, overcoming their isolation and depression is difficult. Until the refugees are relocated, com-munity centers are urgently needed to facili-tate social interaction. Last summer, a team of students and faculty visited Minami Sanriku to document the wide-spread damage and identify reconstruction opportunities. Following the intensive two-and-a-half day site mapping, the group took part in a three-week workshop during which they developed schematic designs. Last fall, summer workshop leader Shun Kanda returned to build the first of the cen-ters, working with a team that included several MArch alums and design lecturer Joel Lamere. Built in an alley between two rows of hous-ing—admittedly humble, but a good start—the center provides a gathering space for the site’s 630 residents. Meanwhile, in a related effort last fall, Jim Wescoat—Kanda’s co-leader in the summer workshop—conducted his annual seminar on

THE MIT JAPAN 3/11 INITIATIVEA SERIES OF FOCUSED EFFORTS IN DISASTER RESILIENCY

disaster resilient design, originally conceived during the period of the Haiti earthquake, BP oil spill and Indus River flooding and expanded this time to include Japan. In the spring, Kanda conducted another studio focused on the railroad line that lies between the wasted lowland of Minami Sanriku and the higher ground that has been designated for rebuilding. That studio was coordinated with a spring workshop, taught by Kent Larson and Ryan Chin of the Media Lab, focused on the development of new resilient cities that could be scaled to other towns in India, China and Latin America. Another workshop, taught by Jegan Vincent de Paul in the Art, Culture + Technology Program, continued last fall’s explo-ration of creative response to conflict and crisis. (See story on preceding page.) In late spring, Kanda returned to Japan to build two more community centers on lots donated by private owners near temporary housing sites. And this summer, he will offer his annual four-week Japan Design Workshop, in which he hopes to continue to build on the work begun in the spring. Design workshops, symposia and com-munity work will continue in the fall and the spring of 2013, and beyond, to produce alter-native visions for resettlement and innovative models for the building of new communities. MUCH MORE: SAP.MIT.EDU/PLAN

(Below Left) A model by MArch student Kyle Altman created in Kanda’s spring studio, Scaling New Ground; the studio explored options for using the ruined railroad line above Minami Sanriku for an alternative mobility system, clustered housing, mixed-use development and green space.

(Below Right)Last summer, a 29-member team of faculty and students in architecture, planning, landscape architecture and engineering used rapid-assessment methods adapted for site analysis from the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, to identify several potential sites for future community centers.

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Finding one’s way around a large unfamiliar building can sometimes present a major chal-lenge, but researchers at the Media Lab have come up with a pair of new approaches to solv-ing wayfinding problems. Guiding Light, an augmented reality app, literally points people in the right direction. The system consists of a badge with magnetic sensors and a software app that can project arrows onto the floor to guide people to their destination, making use of a projector built into their smartphone. Like a compass, the system relies on fluctu-ations in magnetic fields—in this case created by the presence of steel in the building’s walls and floors—and like a compass the arrows change direction as the badge senses shifts in orientation. By projecting arrows onto the floor, the system precludes the need constantly to refer to a map. And if visitors point their phone at an office door, the phone could project the occupant’s name, job title and photo. The other project, currently deployed in the Lab’s new building, is more ambitious and com-plex. The Glass Infrastructure is a place-based information system that uses 30 touch-screens strategically placed throughout the complex to help people not only find their way but also to learn about the research being pursued in the Lab. Currently, at major Lab events, invited guests are issued badges with RFID inlays at a kiosk near the Lab’s entrance. They then cre-ate personal profiles that include their name and company, their tag ID and headshots taken by a camera built into the kiosk; they also cre-

ate a login name and a password for use once the visit is over. As they explore the building, they can approach any of the touch screens and call up a map to help them find a specific research group or to learn about any of the more than 350 research projects currently underway. But if they approach a touch screen while wearing their RFID badge, the screen will pick up their tag ID, save whatever information they call up on the screen and associate it with their pro-file. At the end of their visit, then, a digital his-tory has been made showing where they went and what information they accessed through the screens. After leaving the lab, they can access these digital bread crumbs remotely by logging in to the Lab's website, using the login name and password they set up at the kiosk, to learn more about the research. And on subsequent visits, assuming they’re wearing their RFID tags, any interactions they have will be added to their existing data. Based on their digital profile, the system can also make suggestions about whom they might want to meet and where those people might be found. And if more than one person with a badge stands in front of a monitor, the names and photos of all badge-holders will be displayed on the screen along with informa-tion about what research they've expressed interest in, in hopes of getting people talking amongst themselves about the work they’ve encountered. MORE: SAP.MIT.EDU/PLAN

THE GUIDING LIGHT AND THE GLASS INFRASTRUCTURE NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN WAY FINDING

(Above)Guiding Light literally points people in the right direction. By projecting arrows onto the floor, the system precludes the need constantly to refer to a map; and if visitors point their phone at a door, the phone could project the occupant’s name, job title and photo.

(Below)The Glass Infrastructure is a place-based information system that uses 30 touch-screens strategically placed throughout the complex to help people not only find their way but also to learn about the research being pursued in the Lab.

Photo: © AndyRyan

Photos: Speech+Mobility Group © 2012 MIT Media Lab, photographer Paula Aguilera

Department head Nader Tehrani was honored by AIANY with a 2012 Design Award for Unbuilt Work, a category that generally covers the most creative projects. Sited in an olive grove and vineyard, his entry, Dortoir Familial, merges with the landscape, extending natural flora over the roof, and seeks to leverage the sloping terrain for producing sustainable systems. Tehrani was also represented in Korea’s Gwangju Design Biennale last fall with Gwangju Urban Folly, an installation sited in a cluttered road crossing edged by a row of trees; lodged in the space between ground and sky, the pavilion consists of a precisely geomet-ric formwork filled with randomly intersect-ing steel rods, creating a floating mass that is ‘encrypted within the logic of the [tree] branches’. Tehrani and Meejin Yoon were both award-ed top prizes in the 2011 Annual Design Review of Architect, the magazine of the AIA. The jury chose 20 winners in six categories, representing some of the best work that American architects completed at home and abroad last year. Tehrani won the top award in Grow cat-egory for the Georgia Institute of Technol-ogy’s Hinman Research Building in Atlanta, the most recent in a growing string of prizes for that project. The $8.5M restoration and rehabilitation project was designed to bring

SEVERAL MEMBERS OF SA+P’S ARCHITECTURE FACULTY HAVE RECEIVED

DISTINCTIVE RECOGNITION LATELY.

graduate architectural studies—which had been scattered in multiple buildings across the campus—under one roof. With her husband/partner Eric Höwel-er, Yoon won one of three top awards in the Bond category for the SkyCourts Exhibition Hall at the International Intangible Cultural Heritage Exposition in Chengdu, China. The 67,000-square-foot building’s façades range from 36 feet to 49 feet tall, and push in and pull out to create a varied perimeter that reflects the site’s non-orthogonal boundaries. Höweler + Yoon Architecture also recently marked the opening of BSA Space, new home to the Boston Society of Architects and Bos-ton’s leading cultural institution on architecture and design. Sited on Boston’s waterfront, the 15,000-square-foot facility hosts exhibits and other programs that foster exchange between design and construction, the profession and the public, and encourage collaboration across the city and the world. The $2.2M facility showcases the inner workings of the BSA to the general public through glass walls; in addition to watching the staff at work, visitors can meander through the galleries exploring exhibits on various aspects of design while enjoying the view out towards the Financial District and the Seaport. The exhibition space was inaugurated by a show presenting a legacy of projects in Bos-ton over the past fifty years that envisioned increased access to the city. The exhibit includ-ed Sheila Kennedy’s Interim Bridges Proj-ect, created with Frano Violich and Matthew Vanderbourg—a proposal for three temporary

ARCHITECTS ON PARADE

PRIZES, COMMISSIONS, EXHIBITS, AWARDS

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structures to be built as public pathways across the trench of the Big Dig excavation. It also included a visionary proposal cre-ated by Jan Wampler and a team of young designers to build an exposition site that would act as a full-scale laboratory to test solutions for expanding coastal cities; and three recent projects that contribute to Boston’s expanding cultural sphere, including the widely-praised Cambridge Public Library by alumni William Rawn (MArch’79) and Ann Beha (MArch’75) and the Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion by Utile, featuring structural work by Lecturer Joel Lamere. Sheila Kennedy and the KVA Matx Team are among the winners in a competition spon-sored by the International BauAustellung that will result in 30 hectares of built living, work and leisure space in Hamburg, Germany; the buildings are intended to provide a model response to the challenges of our time in terms of sustainable construction and community liv-

ing. Their entry, the SOFT HOUSE—beginning construction this summer—is a set of live/work row house units that integrate architecture, mobile textiles and clean energy infrastructure to demonstrate a new model for low carbon construction and an ecologically responsive lifestyle. Kennedy also recently marked the opening of her firm’s new building at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, dedicated April 5 at a ceremony featuring Supreme Court Jus-tice Sonia Sotomayor. The 40,000 sf building features roof-top gardens and green roofs, a state-of-the-art courtroom and a 350-seat auditorium. And finallly, Ana Miljacki and William O’Brien Jr. were honored at the ACSA conven-tion held at MIT this spring. Miljacki received an award from ACSA’s Journal of Architec-tural Education for the Best Scholarly Article submitted to the journal in 2011. And O’Brien won honorable mention in the Faculty Design Awards for Twins: Houses in Five Parts—his proposal for two vacation homes for two broth-ers and their families on one plot of land in upstate New York. O’Brien is also a winner of the 2012 Rome Prize in Architecture. In September he will begin an eleven-month fellowship at the American Academy in Rome where he will be exploring architectural precedents as a way to reconsider form in architecture today. Giv-en his background in music theory, he is also anticipating rich cross-disciplinary interactions with musicians, writers, artists, historians and others from different fields of study. MORE: SAP.MIT.EDU/PLAN

(A) William O’Brien Jr.’s design proposal for two vacation homes for two brothers and their families. (Image: Courtesy William O’Brien Jr.)

(B) The signature piece of Höweler + Yoon’s BSA space is a ceiling/stair feature that announces the BSA to the public from the street. (Photo © Andy Ryan)

(C) Though the exterior makes it seem monolithic, Höweler + Yoon’s SkyCourts Exhibition Hall is in fact quite porous inside, taking its cue from traditional Chinese courtyard houses. (Photo: Courtesy

Höweler + Yoon Architecture)

(D)Tehrani’s Dortoir Familial provides protected and private space simul-taneously. (Image: Courtesy NADAAA)

(E) The focal point of Tehrani’s Hinman Research Building is a 50-foot-tall high-bay shed with a suspended mezzanine known as ‘The Crib,’ intended to reinforce the studio cul-ture and encourage collaboration.(Photo: Jonathan Hillyer)

(F)In Kennedy’s SOFT HOUSE, a Smart Curtain travels along an overhead track, providing warmth and lighting. (Image: Courtesy

KVA MATx)

(G)Kennedy’s SOFT HOUSE is distin-guished by a textile membrane that generates energy with integrated photovoltaic cells while also serving as a sunshade. (Image: Courtesy

KVA MATx)

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Students from SA+P traveled to Israel in January for a ten-day collaborative work-shop with Tel Aviv University's Laboratory for Contemporary Urban Design (TAU LCUD). The workshop was one part of a semester-long studio, under the direction of SA+P’s Eran Ben-Joseph and TAU’s Tali Hatuka, focusing on Kiryat Gat, a mid-sized town in the south of Israel built in the 1950s. The city was chosen as a ‘laboratory’ for re-designing outmoded planned towns of that era with the aim of cre-ating new planning models that could reshape the future of similar cities across the world. Like most of the post-war New Towns, the city followed a zoning model of the era that made a clear distinction between residential and industrial/commercial areas, an arrange-ment that is out of step with a 21st century lifestyle in which people work, live and spend their leisure time in the same environment. To tackle the design and planning chal-lenges of the city, the team of students focused on four themes—the ‘mobile city’, which looked at transport and accessibility; the ‘mediated city’, dealing with technological infrastructure; the ‘compact city’, which reconsidered the use of urban space and population growth; and the ‘natural city’, which integrated environmental features into the urban landscape. The industrial core is central to Kiryat Gat’s future growth. It presents a unique devel-opment opportunity with its diverse collec-

tion of factories, workshops, warehouses and office buildings. Thanks to national government incentives, international firms such as Intel and HP have recently built production facilities there, forming the beginnings of a new high tech cluster. While the area still resembles the indus-trial parks of yesteryear, with isolated cam-puses and few publicly accessible amenities, cleaner manufacturing processes have opened the door for a new model of industrial devel-opment. In a future Kiryat Gat, housing, retail and research facilities could be introduced into industrial settings to create innovation clusters with a high degree of knowledge spillover. Innovation, of course, can happen in a lab or a factory floor but it multiplies when ideas flow between both settings. In the past, these facili-ties have been situated in disparate locales, due to land costs or siting limitations, but Kiryat Gat has an opportunity to challenge this convention by becoming the first to co-locate housing, manufacturing and R&D. Based on smart industries, improved trans-portation, new forms of housing and the use of the city's natural surroundings, the team's action plan is designed to help Kiryat Gat emerge as a new, technologically-advanced planned city—a prototype that could be applied to similar communities around the world.

REINVENTING PLANNED CITIESRETHINKING 50'S ERA ‘NEW TOWNS’

(Right)Despite Kiryat Gat’s existing conditions, students suggested it could achieve a balanced urban metabolism through a strategic plan for industry and production whereby all excess outputs from one industry would be used as inputs for another.

(Below)Each of the studio themes guided more specific design and planning suggestions that included developing a park system that supports both ecology and research (top) and new forms of infill housing (bottom), as well as introducing new models for industrial mixed-use and catalyzing transit-oriented development.

Images: MIT/TAU Kiryat Gat Studio

This year’s World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, featured five professors from SA+P—nearly half of MIT’s entire contingent of twelve academics—delivering presentations that spanned an extraordinary range of topics, illustrating the remarkable reach and diversity of our faculty, a scope of particular note con-sidering that SA+P is the smallest of MIT’s five schools. The Future of Urban Development. Most prominently at the Forum, Dean Adèle Naudé Santos announced a long-term, cross-industry effort to offer new urban development models and, to launch the project, she distributed a compilation of six case studies in which a com-munity overcame seemingly insurmountable challenges. Titled Urban Anthologies: Learning from Our Cities, the booklet was coordinated and produced by the Senseable City Lab, a research center directed by SA+P’s Carlo Ratti. (You can download a PDF at senseable.mit.edu/wef/.) The ultimate aim is to gather a collection of case studies that will continue to grow online in an open-source format, so suc-cess stories can be posted for all to see. Advances in Neuroscience. In a ses-sion on recent breakthroughs in science, the Media Lab’s Ed Boyden presented his pio-neering work on the potential of controlling neurons with light to remedy brain disorders. By installing photosynthetic and photosensory proteins from plants and other species into specific cells—which can then be controlled by light while their neighbors remain unre-sponsive—researchers can now activate and silence different cells to see which are involved with specific behaviors. The research aims to identify the precise neurological circuits that can best contribute to the remedy of specific diseases, then use those circuits as targets for drugs or for neurosurgeons to implant elec-trodes to improve symptoms.

The Potential of Social Media to Transform Society. The Media Lab’s Sandy Pentland conducted a session on how science and the idea of Natural Law can help us rein-vent society to be more stable, more fair and more efficient. While our culture is currently based on a model of human nature that empha-sizes competition, he said, scientific evidence suggests that pre-agricultural societies—based on private exchanges within trusted social net-works—were both egalitarian and efficient. As we increasingly use digital social networks to reinvent our society, Pentland asserted, we have the chance to shape these new technologies around a different version of human nature. By encouraging interactions within trusted rela-tionships, rather than nameless markets, we can build a system that is more stable and fair than today’s market-based systems. The Future of Digital Fabrication. Neil Gershenfeld, director of the Center for Bits and Atoms, made one of his famous Fab Labs available at Davos this year, providing meeting participants with a hands-on introduction to per-sonal fabrication. A spinoff from CBA's research on digital fabrication—ultimately aimed at developing molecular assemblers that can make almost anything—Fab Labs have spread around the globe, providing widespread access to mod-ern means for invention. At the Davos Fab Lab, participants were offered daily tutorials on vinyl cutting, laser cutting, 3D scanning, 3D modeling, 3D printing, molding and casting, electronics production and microcontroller programming. Following the Forum, the lab was donated to a facility for children of migrant salt pan workers in Kutch, Gujarat, India. MORE: SAP.MIT.EDU/PLAN

SA+P AT THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUMA SCORE OF PRESENTATIONS REFLECTING REMARKABLE REACH AND DIVERSITY

(Left to Right)During the Forum, Santos took part in sessions on the implica-tions of accelerated urbanization, transformational models for infrastructure and urban development, and how to drive sustainable economic growth from London’s Olympic Games.

Gershenfeld gave presentations on the science of digital fabrication, the disruptive impact of early information technologies and the experience of the Fab Lab team now running in Barcelona; in a session on digital governance, he also explored policy implications with a team of CEOs.

In a session with Mexican President Felipe Calderón, Ratti unveiled the design for a large urban regeneration scheme in the center of Guadalajara, a project he developed with SA+P’s Dennis Frenchman.

While in Davos, Boyden took part in a session exploring how neuro-engineering could create a new science of creativity, and in another exploring how cognitive, emotional and social factors affect decision making. He also moderated a discussion on ‘good versus evil’, examining what drives an individual to choose between the paths of evildoer, hero or bystander.

While in Davos, Pentland spoke at sessions on building creative cities; on how technology is changing the future; and on sustainable transportation. He also mediated CEO discussions on big data and on personal data and privacy.

Photo: Judith M. Daniels, SA+P Photo: Jean-Baptiste Labrune Photo: Shutterstock Photo: MIT News Office Photo: Sam Ogden

With the help of its generous alumni, the MIT Center for Real Estate and the Master of Science in Real Estate Program (MSRED) settled into their new location this spring over-looking Mass Ave in the heart of the School of Architecture + Planning. The new facilities—about 8500 square feet on the third floor of Building 9—put the Center in closer proximity to the departments of architecture and of urban studies and plan-ning, and to SA+P’s dean’s office, helping to further the integration of the MSRED program with graduate education in architecture, city and regional planning, engineering, transpor-tation and logistics, and the Sloan School of Management. The new center includes a 1200 sf state-of-the-art lecture hall, three meeting rooms, a conference room, a spacious reception area, seven offices (with views!) and a 500 sf student lounge with lunch facilities and lockers that offers an outlook on Mass Ave with a glimpse of the river and Boston beyond. It also features an Appreciation Wall displaying the names of alumni donors who helped to bring the plan to fruition, supported by the Class of 2009 in memory of their classmate Ricardo Solorzano.

To help fund the relocation, the Center received a generous gift of $1M from MIT alumnus Hamid Moghadam (’77, SM’78), a cornerstone pledge that led to many more gifts from alumni of the Center’s MSRED program, ultimately exceeding the matching challenge. Architects for the space were Mimi Love, Chris Genter (SMArchS’98) and Silvia Illia-Sheldahl of Utile, Inc., of Boston; fundraising efforts were spearheaded by former Managing Director Marion Cunningham and Center Chairman Tony Ciochetti; design and construc-tion was overseen by MSRED Lecturer Peter Roth (MArch/MSRED’85).

A NEW DEVELOPMENT IN REAL ESTATEMIT CENTER MOVES INTO ITS NEW DIGS

(A)The masters program receives between 130-150 applications each year and typically accepts about 30 applicants. The class of 2012 included students from Mexico, China, Canada, Turkey, Korea, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and the US; the new student lounge provided them with lunch facilities and lockers and a glimpse of the river and Boston beyond.

(B)Currently, over 800 alumni of the master's program are employed in organizations around the world pursuing careers in project manage-ment, acquisitions, finance, asset management, investment manage-ment and more; the new conference room offers students and alums a place to meet.

(C)Each year the Center’s Professional Development Institute offers more than 15 short courses on the MIT campus; the new state-of-the-art lecture hall provides an intimate setting for their study.

(D)The program accepts a small number of dual degree students who apply to the program from other departments at MIT; the new facili-ties put them in closer proximity to the departments of architecture and of urban studies and planning, as well as the rest of the Institute.

(E)Since its founding in 1983, the Center has partnered with organizations in every sector of the global real estate industry; the new reception area provides a gra-cious welcome to them and to all the Center’s visitors.

All Photos © John Horner

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Alice H. Amsden, the Barton L. Weller Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, died suddenly on March 15 at her home in Cambridge. She was 68. A prolific scholar, Amsden wrote exten-sively about the process of industrialization in emerging economies, particularly in Asia. Her work frequently emphasized the importance of the state as a creator of economic growth, and challenged the idea that globalization had pro-duced generally uniform conditions in which emerging economies could find a one-size-fits-all path to prosperity. “She will be sorely missed,” said Amy Glasmeier, head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. “Upon hearing the news, one student said to me, ‘she was a titan’ in the field of development. While others took the conventional way, Alice took another path. She was fearless. By any measure, Alice was one of the most, if not the most, accomplished hetero-dox economists in the world.” Amsden wrote or co-authored seven books, and dozens of journal articles, essays and chap-ters in edited volumes. One of her best-known books was The Rise of ‘The Rest’: Challenges to the West from Late-Industrializing Economies, published by Oxford University Press in 2001. In it, she examined the way Asian countries such as South Korea and Taiwan had helped produce growth through state-promoted indus-trialization. By contrast, Amsden observed, some Latin American countries had accommo-dated a greater degree of overseas investment, leaving more economic decisions in the hands of multinational firms, not state actors. Amsden was born in New York City, received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University in 1965, and her PhD from the London School of Economics in 1971. She began her career as an economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and before joining MIT in 1994, taught at the University of California at Los Angeles, Barnard College, Harvard Business School, and The New School. At MIT, she held the Ellen Swallow Richards Institute Chair from 1994 until 1999, when she was named the Weller Professor. MORE: SAP.MIT.EDU/PLAN

Alice Amsden, 1944–2012‘A Titan’ in the Field of Economic Development

Lois Craig, Associate Dean of SA+P in the 1980s and early 90s, died March 23 in Chicago after a long illness. She was 82. A trusted and valued advisor to many archi-tecture students and graduates during her years at MIT, Craig was highly regarded for her intellectual contributions to her field and her understanding of administrative issues, as well as for her wisdom, humanity and grace. In nominating her to the AIA in 1989, the Boston Society of Architects said that Craig had made ‘an unusually comprehensive contribution to our profession, to the art and science of archi-tecture and to the public.’ Before coming to MIT in 1978, Craig was director of the Federal Architecture Project at the National Endowment for the Arts, the US government’s effort to improve federal building programs. In that pioneering role she contrib-uted to the development of new designer-selec-tion procedures, new legislation governing public building and the first comprehensive his-tory of federal government architecture. The Federal Presence: Architecture, Politics and National Design—developed with the staff of the Federal Architecture Project—was pub-lished by the MIT Press in1978. Previously, she served as professional staff for the National Urban Coalition, Housing and Urban Growth Division, interpreting the impact of legislation, court decision, govern-ment programs and local initiatives on land use and housing opportunities. Before that, she was research director for the communications divi-sion of Urban America, Inc., and Senior Editor at CITY Magazine. Until her retirement in 1995, Craig was deeply involved in developing The Boston Suburbs Project, a repository of nearly 7000 slides, maps and texts document-ing the city’s surrounding towns. Craig was born in Quincy IL and attended Oberlin College and New York University, where she received a BA in Political Science in1953. She pursued graduate studies in art and art history at American University and received a Loeb Fellowship in Advanced Environmental Studies from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Craig lived in Washington, Boston, Champaign, Iowa City and Chicago, in addition to maintaining an apartment in Paris. MORE: SAP.MIT.EDU/PLAN

Lois Craig, 1929–2012A Trusted and Valued Advisor and Colleague

The annual meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) was convened at MIT this spring, culminating a series of events associated with the organiza-tion’s centennial celebration. The annual meeting is the largest archi-tectural education conference in the world, featuring over 100 scholarly presentations, keynote and invited sessions, and drawing approximately 500 attendees. Co-chaired by SA+P’s Mark Goulthorpe, associate professor of architecture and founder of dECOi atelier, an architectural/design prac-tice, and Amy Murphy, associate professor and vice dean at USC’s School of Architecture, the conference examined the history of the disci-pline since its inception and speculated on its future, especially in terms of the impact of digital technology. Keynote addresses, panel sessions and papers addressed all areas of architectural discipline—historical, theoretical, technical, environmental, professional, cultural, et.al.—exploring what new role(s) the architect might play in this period of radical technological change. As the centerpiece of its centennial, ACSA launched a major new book at the meeting entitled Architecture School: Three Centuries of Educating Architects in North America (MIT Press, 2012), the first comprehensive history of North American architecture education. Edited by Joan Ockman, educator, historian, writer and editor, Architecture School opens with six chronological essays, each devoted to a major period of development from pre-1860 to the present. This overview is followed by a ‘lexicon’ containing shorter articles on more than two dozen topics that have figured centrally in the history of architecture education, from compe-titions and design pedagogy to research, struc-tures, studio culture and travel. The book also features a foreword by co-chairs Goulthorpe and Murphy, a general intro-duction by the editor and several appendices, including newly prepared charts, maps and a substantial bibliography.

SA+P Hosts Collegiate Architecture Schools The Culminating Event of ACSA’s Centennial Celebration

Architecture alumnus Robert R. Taylor (1892), the nation’s first professionally-trained African American architect and the first African-American graduate of MIT, is the subject of an important new monograph from New South Books, released in January. Researched and written by architectural historian Ellen Weiss, Professor Emerita at Tulane University’s School of Architecture and Planning, Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee inter-weaves Taylor’s life with his life’s work—the campus of Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. Richly illustrated, with a foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the book tells the story of how a black boy born in North Carolina shortly after the Civil War earned a professional archi-tecture degree at MIT, then used his design and administrative skills to further Booker T. Washington’s agenda of community solidarity, racial pride and progress. The book also considers such issues as architectural education for African Americans at the turn of the twentieth century, the white donors who funded Tuskegee’s buildings, other Tuskegee architects and Taylor’s buildings elsewhere. Individual narratives of Taylor’s Tuskegee buildings conclude the volume. According to Gary Van Zante, Curator of Architecture and Design at the MIT Museum, ‘Weiss’s elegantly written book is a lucid study of Taylor’s work…. Weiss deftly inter-weaves the story of the Tuskegee campus with an examination of Taylor's pedagogy and the plight of black architects in the early twentieth century.’ Richard K. Dozier, Dean of Tuskegee’s Robert R. Taylor School of Architecture & Construction Science, says that ‘Weiss has painstakingly developed a long-overdue and well-documented historical account of…a true American architectural pioneer…. Her book provides a wealth of little-known factual infor-mation about Taylor and a scholarly historical analysis of his many contributions in archi-tectural education and professional practice.’ MORE: SAP.MIT.EDU/PLAN

An Important New Book on Alumnus Robert TaylorThe Nation’s First Professionally-Trained African American Architect

Craig wrote frequently for professional journals on employment and housing issues, and on architecture and urban design, and served as advisor to a range of design projects and programs. An honorary member of the AIA, she received an NEA Design Achievement Award in 1988 for her contribution to the Massachusetts Governor’s Design Awards Program.

(Top)As chronicled in a new book from the MIT Press, architecture education in North America has a unique history spanning almost three hundred years but the first formal program was not established until 1865, at MIT.

(Bottom)In honor of Taylor’s achievements, ‘vividly conveyed’ in Ellen Weiss’ new book, SA+P has established the Robert R. Taylor (1892) Fellowship in the School of Architecture + Planning, currently held by award-winning landscape architect and urban designer Walter J. Hood, Jr.

In addition to her many academic publications, Amsden also wrote frequently for general interest publications such as The New York Times, The Nation, Dissent, Boston Review and Technology Review. In 2002, she was a co-winner of Tufts University’s Leontief Prize in recognition of important ‘contributions to economic theory that … support just and sustainable societies.’

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THROUGH AUGUST 6Imaginary Beings: Mythologies of the Not Yet. Eighteen new works for the human body by Neri Oxman, director of the Mediated Matter Group at the Media Lab, inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’ Book of Imaginary Beings. Centre Pompidou, Paris.

THROUGH SEPTEMBER 2HearSay House. A deconstruction of the historic meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986; conceived by professor Gediminas Urbonas and his partner Nomeda Urbonas, the project focuses on the idea of false neutrality and Iceland’s role in ending the Cold War. At several locations including the Reykjavik Art Museum and Höf!i House, Reykjavik.

ONGOINGThe MoMA Media Lounge. A modular, flexible structure designed by Renée Green, acting director of SA+P’s Program in Art, Culture and Technology, to present the Museum’s extensive collection of video- and audio-based works—the first public platform of its kind in a New York museum. Museum of Modern Art, New York.

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(Cover)Detail of spiral stair from Nader Tehrani’s award-winning Hinman Research Building at the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Architecture. (Photo: Jonathan Hillyer)

JUNE 11—JULY 20Professional Development Institute, MIT Center for Real Estate. A series of six short courses for real estate professionals looking to situate themselves on the leading edge of the profession. MIT Campus, Cambridge.

THROUGH JULY 29The Future Archive. Historical material from SA+P’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies, including recent creative efforts demonstrat-ing how artists, designers and architects are responding to that groundbreaking oeuvre in their current work. Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.), Berlin.