GSAPP Conversations

Dean Amale Andraos speaks with Kersten Geers, who taught an Advanced Studio at Columbia GSAPP in the Spring 2017 semester and is co-founder of OFFICE KGDVS with David Van Severen. Their work has been exhibited internationally, including installations at the 2016 Lisbon Architecture Triennale, and most recently in an exhibition with Go Hasegawa at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Andraos and Geers discuss a shared obsession with books and the integral role that book-making plays in their professional offices and teaching. Geers echoes Aldo Rossi’s call for evaluating architecture within a cultural context, and sees books as the ideal tool for creating a place where architectural work acquires value and meaning – a device to establish a context of ideas.

“David and I think we have quite an open-minded practice, but even so you somehow cannot avoid that it is enclosed – it does have borders. And if you want to keep on living with the practice, it’s important to keep on thinking, to keep on looking, to keep on discovering. The books, and for that reason also the teaching, allow you to look further and to find these other things.”

–Kersten Geers on the integral role of making books as part of his practice with David Van Severen

Dean Amale Andraos speaks with Kate Orff about the role of climate change in the design of future cities, with a particular look at the role water plays in reframing urban infrastructure and networks. Orff directs Columbia GSAPP's Urban Design Program and is founder of the landscape architecture and urban design studio SCAPE, which focuses on resiliency and has received particular attention for the natural breakwater “oyster-tecture” developed for Staten Island.

In this eleventh episode of GSAPP Conversations, Orff joins Andraos to discuss what it means to think across scales and connect our human life with the geological time scale, how traveling international studios allow students to better address challenges shared by otherwise very different cities, and teaching the reciprocity of physical design and social context.

Dean Amale Andraos speaks with Kate Orff about the role of climate change in the design of future cities, with a particular look at the role water plays in reframing urban infrastructure and networks. Orff directs Columbia GSAPP's Urban Design Program and is founder of the landscape architecture and urban design studio SCAPE, which focuses on resiliency and has received particular attention for the natural breakwater “oyster-tecture” developed for Staten Island.

In this eleventh episode of GSAPP Conversations, Orff joins Andraos to discuss what it means to think across scales and connect our human life with the geological time scale, how traveling international studios allow students to better address challenges shared by otherwise very different cities, and teaching the reciprocity of physical design and social context.

Jorge Otero-Pailos, director of Columbia GSAPP's Historic Preservation Program, speaks with Francine Houben of Mecanoo. They focus on her firm's ongoing renovation of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington DC, originally designed by Mies van der Rohe. During the design process, Houben says she "felt two men on my shoulders ... In a kind of very subtle way, I balanced Mies and Martin Luther King and if it was conflicting, Martin Luther King won.”

Jorge Otero-Pailos, director of Columbia GSAPP's Historic Preservation Program, speaks with Francine Houben of Mecanoo. They focus on her firm's ongoing renovation of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington DC, originally designed by Mies van der Rohe. During the design process, Houben says she "felt two men on my shoulders ... In a kind of very subtle way, I balanced Mies and Martin Luther King and if it was conflicting, Martin Luther King won.”

Dean Amale Andraos speaks with Momoyo Kaijima who co-founded Atelier Bow-Wow with Yoshiharu Tsukamoto in 1992. The Tokyo-based firm is well known for it’s light, multifunctional design aesthetic combining a focus on urban conditions with the relationship between space and its inhabitants. Kaijima and Tsukamoto are teaching an Advanced Studio at Columbia GSAPP during the Spring 2017 semester, and Kaijima delivered a public lecture at the School in April 2017.

In this 9th episode of GSAPP Conversations, Kaijima talks about the relationship between research and practice as it is made visible in the books they’ve published (including Made in Tokyo), the difficulty and rewards of working in the Fukushima area following the 2011 tsunami and nuclear accident, and her interest in working across generations to develop a deeper understanding of the relationship between buildings and their inhabitants.

Dean Amale Andraos speaks with Momoyo Kaijima who co-founded Atelier Bow-Wow with Yoshiharu Tsukamoto in 1992. The Tokyo-based firm is well known for it’s light, multifunctional design aesthetic combining a focus on urban conditions with the relationship between space and its inhabitants. Kaijima and Tsukamoto are teaching an Advanced Studio at Columbia GSAPP during the Spring 2017 semester, and Kaijima delivered a public lecture at the School in April 2017.

In this 9th episode of GSAPP Conversations, Kaijima talks about the relationship between research and practice as it is made visible in the books they’ve published (including Made in Tokyo), the difficulty and rewards of working in the Fukushima area following the 2011 tsunami and nuclear accident, and her interest in working across generations to develop a deeper understanding of the relationship between buildings and their inhabitants.

James Brillon, a second-year Columbia GSAPP M.Arch student speaks with Tatiana von Preussen (M.Arch ’07), Catherine Pease, and Jessica Reynolds, the co-founders of London-based vPPR Architects. They met at Avery Hall prior to the trio’s lecture in January 2017, and discuss how the firm uses precision, geometry, light, and communal space to overcome the extreme constraints of developing housing on infill sites in dense London neighborhoods.

They offer the following advice to students about to enter the profession in a politically and socially turbulent time: “Exercise your democratic rights, protest and make your voices heard, and keep being idealistic. Because in the next few years you'll be the people who are making the decisions, and it's really important that you don’t lose sight of the idealism you have as a student.”

–vPPR

James Brillon, a second-year Columbia GSAPP M.Arch student speaks with Tatiana von Preussen (M.Arch ’07), Catherine Pease, and Jessica Reynolds, the co-founders of London-based vPPR Architects. They met at Avery Hall prior to the trio’s lecture in January 2017, and discuss how the firm uses precision, geometry, light, and communal space to overcome the extreme constraints of developing housing on infill sites in dense London neighborhoods.

They offer the following advice to students about to enter the profession in a politically and socially turbulent time: “Exercise your democratic rights, protest and make your voices heard, and keep being idealistic. Because in the next few years you'll be the people who are making the decisions, and it's really important that you don’t lose sight of the idealism you have as a student.”

–vPPR

Dean Amale Andraos speaks with Professor Hilary Sample, who directs the Core Architecture Studios at Columbia GSAPP and is the co-founder of MOS Architects with her partner Michael Meredith. They discuss the lasting influence of Ai Weiwei's Ordos 100 on the firm’s thinking, the role of representation, and how MOS Architects pursues an inclusive way of working and thinking while maintaining a purposefully small office. Sample directs GSAPP’s Housing Studio, which has a long tradition at the School and invites students to think across typologies and scales while considering a range of cultural, geographic, and environmental contexts. Sample speaks of the studio’s travel to Mexico, which coincided with the November 2016 Election, and the importance of considering New York City’s housing legacy in relation to global references.