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.