School Notes: School of Architecture
November/December 2006

New endowments honor architecture faculty

Alumni have established two new funds this year in honor of School of Architecture faculty. The Alexander Purves Fund, established by colleagues, students, and friends of Professor Purves, supports the undergraduate major at the School of Architecture and recognizes the professor's dedication and years of teaching at the school and at Yale College. Professor Emeritus Alexander Purves ’58, ’65MArch, has taught at Yale since 1976.

Pei-Tse "Loli" Wu ’89 and his wife Vivian Kuan have established the Professor King-Lui Wu Teaching Fund, in memory of Loli's father, to preserve his spirit and his commitment to the school by recognizing and encouraging outstanding teaching. Friends, colleagues, and former students have joined Loli with their gifts to remember Professor Wu, who for more than 40 years was one of our most distinguished and beloved teachers.

Talking about architecture

A symposium held at the school in October examined how contemporary builders and designers are rethinking the design/construction process, especially as it relates to fabrication, detailing, and, ultimately, the organization of labor. "Building (in) the Future: Recasting Labor in Architecture" brought together designers, engineers, fabricators, contractors, construction managers, and technical consultants to discuss how those who produce architecture today make different artifacts, have different contractual relationships, and boast different claims to design authority from those in the past. Six topics -- such as Craft and Design, Information Sharing, and The Big Picture: Architecture as an Expanded Field -- were evaluated from each aspect of the production/labor organization process while the discussion tackled issues that are often unspoken in an industry trying to keep up with rapid technological change. Symposium co-organizer Phil Bernstein ’83, a lecturer in architectural practice at Yale, is convinced that architecture will either "grab onto and take control of new means of production, or see itself become even more irrelevant than it currently is."

Exhibition reveals trends in prefab homes

An exhibition organized by the Walker Center for the Arts, on view at the school through February 2, 2007, shows how contemporary prefabricated homes that incorporate a wide range of materials, processes, and scales have challenged many of the preconceptions about prefab homes as cheap cookie-cutter structures of last resort. From kit homes made of corrugated metal and glass, to an environmentally sustainable model designed for Sunset magazine, to examples of mass customization that offer material and layout choices, the exhibition demonstrates the variety and design potential for prefabrication.