SENIOR
ARCHITECTURE LECTURER RECEIVES 2001 AMERICAN
ARCHITECTURE AWARD FOR THREE PROJECTS
|
The
Tenri Cultural Institute
Open
Loft
Vertical
House
|
New
York, NY-- Karen Fairbanks, senior lecturer
and director of Barnard's architecture program,
has been recognized by the 2001 American Architecture
Awards Committee with awards for three separate
projects.
The
Jury for Awards, which recognize innovation
in design, were held in Vilnius, Lithuania.
A group of distinguished Lithuanian design practitioners
and journalists selected 45 projects from among
hundreds for the award. Of the 45 projects submitted,
three from Fairbanks' firm, Marble Fairbanks
Architects, were chosen. Her three projects
were the Tenri Cultural Institute, Open Loft,
and Vertical House.
The Tenri Cultural Institute located
in New York, NY is a Japanese Cultural Institute
equipped with classrooms for teaching Japanese,
a guest apartment, meeting lounge, gallery,
and a performance space. The two story gallery
and performance space is adjacent to administrative
and faculty offices on one side and classrooms
on another. The gallery is exposed to the street,
the performance space can be subdivided from
the gallery with a curtain, and the classrooms
open to a more private atrium in the back.
Open
Loft is a residence located in the trendy
SoHo neighborhood in New York, NY. This project
called for flexible living, work, and play spaces
for a family of four. Movable translucent glass
panels allow spaces to be visually connected
or separated from each other. The skylight and
the glass bulkhead bring light into the middle
and back of the loft through a series of shared
transparent and translucent surfaces. This shared
light modulates the layers of the interior and
allows for varying perceptions of depth within
the loft.
Shading
devices allow the changing light conditions
to be manipulated and controlled for multiple
effects. The visual split horizon in the mezzanine
links views of the city simultaneously with
views of the sky. The roof deck extends the
living spaces outside and provides expansive
views of the city.
The Vertical House is a two-unit residence
of a townhouse located on the upper west side
of Manhattan which combined to form a three
story space with a roof terrace. This house
was designed as a highly flexible live/work
space with areas that could have both domestic
and work functions.
The
three levels are connected by open tread steel
stairs which are cantilevered from a party wall
and placed adjacent to a clear glass floor creating
a strong sense of vertical continuity between
floors. When desired, this continuity can be
altered by an operable door which intersects
the stairs and fabric screens which diffuse
the view from the glass floor. These alternations
allow the lower level to function as either
a private living or more public working space.
The
American Architecture Awards
The
Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and
Design founded The American Architecture Awards
in 1998 as a way in which to draw significant
international attention to new buildings and
planning projects being built and designed in
the United States by the most talented architects.
A skill and talent in architecture is what Karen
Fairbanks sees in Barnard and Columbia architecture
students. The students in the architecture program
"are expected to engage in a rigorous dialogue
with faculty and peers about issues the studio
projects raise. The students are asked to explore
multiple representational strategies for communicating
their ideas. They are challenged to see architecture
fully embedded in social, spatial, and material
practices that work within, around, and between.
The invention and creativity of the architecture
students develops out of their willingness to
engage in a process that is unfamiliar territory
and bring their intellectual curiosity and rigor
to it. Our students are eager and challenging
and dedicated to the exploration and process
of design," says Fairbanks.
In Barnard's architecture program, which serves
both undergraduates from the entire University
community, the classroom lessons correlates
to the experience of working in an architecture
firm. Fairbanks herself is co-owner of an architectural
firm, as well as a member of the Barnard faculty.
"The design process in the architecture studio
relies on intense collaboration and production
- this is true in both practice and teaching.
I have been fortunate to have been teaching
in the undergraduate program for the past 13
years. That experience is completely intertwined
with my years of practice and the production
of my firm."
Some of the internationally built and designed
spaces include: an urban renewal project in
Kitakyushi, Japan; a University Campus in Luanda,
Angola; a new Jill Sander Milan Showroom, Milan,
Italy; a ABN-AMRO Bank Headquarters in Amsterdam,
Netherlands; and a new Terminal at Changi Airport
in Singapore.
Other
winning projects from U.S. based firms include
a Fisheries Research Center in Alaska and a
new Master Plan for the Illinois Institute of
Technology. The winning projects will be on
line starting in July at http://www.chi-athenaeum.org
and an exhibition will open at the Chicago Athenaeum
in Chicago in the fall, with a catalogue published
by the museum, then tour internationally.
Marble
Fairbanks Architects is also the winner of the
Chicago Public School Design Competition for
an elementary school on Chicago's Southside.
The winning project was selected from four short-listed
finalists. The competition was open to all architects
and drew more than 100 international entries.
The winning project will be exhibited until
September 3rd at the Chicago Architecture Foundation
in Chicago, Illinois.
Contact:
Rajiah Williamson, 212-854-2037
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