Ala Younis is an artist who trained as an architect in Amman. Her practice involves research as well as curating, collaboration, film, and book projects. Her projects deal with collective experiences that collapse into personal ones, and how archives play on predilections and their lacunas and mishaps manipulate the imagination. Her work has been featured in shows in Amman, London, Seville, Sharjah, Dubai and New York. She has also taken part in Home Works: A Forum on Cultural Practices, Beirut; the Istanbul and Gwangju Biennials; and the New Museum Triennial, New York. Her work Plan for Greater Baghdad (2015) premiered at the 56th Venice Biennale. In 2018, she reproduced the timeline for the same project but from a female perspective, with the title Plan (fem) for Greater Baghdad. In 2013, she curated Kuwait’s first national pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale and co-founded the publishing initiative Kayfa ta. She is co-head of Berlinale’s Forum Expanded and member of the Academy of Arts of the World, Cologne.

This event is free and accessible to the public. You may register here.

This online exhibition presents, in digital form, Franco Purini: Exercises of Claustrophobia, an exhibition celebrating the work of the Italian architect Franco Purini and his generous gift of drawings to The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture Archive. Though COVID-19 restrictions currently limit entry to the physical exhibition, this digital presentation affords broad public access to Purini’s remarkable work.

In 2017, The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture first exhibited Purini's drawings in conjunction with the exhibition Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment, which highlighted the work of Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy. These concurrent presentations were united by Architectural Tropes Across Scales and Geographies, a dialogue between Purini, Ghosn, and Jazairy. A year later, as a gesture of thanks to the School of Architecture, Purini created a suite of fifteen drawings titled Exercises of Claustrophobia. These works, which Purini refers to as a small visual poem, address the tension between freedom and constraint, which from Purini’s perspective has always existed within the discipline of architecture.

Gary Bates founded Space Group (Oslo) with Gro Bonesmo in 1999. As architects and planners, Space Group quickly made it’s mark with projects such as Prostneset Ferry Terminal in Tromsø, Vestbane National Library, Filipstad Masterplan, and the Louisville 25-year Vision plan. Gary studied at Virginia Polytechnic University & State University (1985 - 1990). He began his collaboration with Rem Koolhaas in 1992 at OMA where he became a director, and from 1995-1998, a principal in charge of the Asian desk. Gary has been a guest professor at the University of Texas in Austin, the University of Kentucky, The Oslo School of Architecture, and the Berlage Institute in the Netherlands.

This event is open to Cooper Union students, faculty, and staff. A livestream will be accessible from this page on the day of the event. 

The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture is pleased to announce that Toshiko Mori AR’76 will receive the prestigious 2021 Isamu Noguchi Award, conferred annually by the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum. Mori, as well as the ceramics artist Shio Kusaka, will receive the award at the Museum’s annual benefit celebration on Tuesday, October 5, 2021. 

The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture is pleased to announce that its upcoming exhibition Vkhutemas: Laboratory of the Avant-Garde, 1920–1930 has received generous support from both the New York State Council on the Arts and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. 

Curated by Anna Bokov, Assistant Professor Adjunct, and Steven Hillyer, Director of the Architecture Archive, the exhibition integrates Bokov’s scholarship for her recent publication Avant-Garde as Method: Vkhutemas and the Pedagogy of Space, 1920–1930 (Park Books, 2020) and her teaching at The Cooper Union. 

2018 Cooper Union architecture graduates Gabriel Munnich and Yaoyi Fan recently founded Design with FRANK, a start-up based on the premise that good design shouldn’t be a luxury. To that end, their company has developed a digital tool that embeds architectural intelligence in a user-friendly way, allowing anyone to make well-designed homes that fit their exact needs. Munnich and Fan believe that, as architects, it is their responsibility to create the next generation of design tools that serve everyone’s needs while creating a better-built environment for all. 

Recently featured in designboom, Design with FRANK streamlines the traditional design process into a simple, intuitive, game-like experience that allows users to make a house by manipulating and connecting 3D blocks. Once satisfied with their design, users can interchange roof types and exterior materials to suit different climates. The software also provides a sophisticated map system via satellite imagery and vector world data that visualize the user's dream house in their chosen physical site. 

The League’s (virtual) Student Program returns on Saturday, September 25th, 2021! This program offers an inside look at the architectural profession, highlighting the varied and creative career paths open to graduates of architecture school. The day opens with a virtual panel discussion featuring: Delma Palma, Deputy Director of Architecture and Urban Planning at the New York City Housing Authority; Todd Palmer, Director of the Diversity in Design Collaborative; and Bo Liu and Andreas Kostopoulous, Associates at Diller Scofidio + Renfro. In the afternoon, each student will choose one of the following studios to tour virtually: Adjaye Associates, Body Lawson Associates (BLA), MODU, Marvel, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), sageandcoombearchitects, and Stephen Yablon Architecture. Advanced registration is required; please register through this form by Sunday, September 19th.

As part of an ongoing series of posts highlighting faculty and alumni projects featured in and associated with the Venice Biennale’s current 17th International Architecture Exhibition, the School of Architecture is pleased to feature the Veneta Porta Lignea, one of two projects by NADAAA in the Biennale. 

The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture Archive is pleased to announce that the School has been awarded $223,312 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to process, preserve, digitize, and provide web-based access to its Exhibitions Collection. For over five decades, the School’s exhibitions have bridged pedagogy and public service by enriching The Cooper Union’s curriculum and serving New York City’s local and regional design community.

The School’s exhibition program is extensive and diverse, featuring the work of celebrated and emerging architects, designers, photographers, painters, builders, and sculptors, as well as faculty and students. It includes major exhibitions, typically held twice a year either in the Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery or 41 Cooper Gallery. The School’s Third Floor Hallway Gallery hosts shorter, rotating shows focusing on work by new faculty, invited guests, and students, as well as material from the Archive’s collections. Several past exhibitions have addressed the school’s curriculum, drawing extensively from the Archive’s core Student Work Collection.

Image Credit: [UN]BUILT, 1960 – 1990 | Raimund Abraham (1991), photograph by Michael Rogol.

The School of Architecture records, archives and publishes videos of public programs to open access and accommodate asynchronous learning and research for audiences in different time zones. You may visit our Vimeo channel for access to all our video content.

If you recently missed a lecture or event you wanted to see, make sure to check out the Fall 2020 and the Spring 2021 Lecture and Events Lists. Links to earlier semester event lists are found at the bottom of their respective event pages.

For campus-wide COVID-19 updates and resources, please visit The Cooper Union's website.