Sat Feb 7h, 1pm @ Greene Gallery:

“ON TECTONICS”_

This forthcoming Saturday, February 7th, 2015, the Rensselaer Positions Series will host its first event of the spring, “On Tectonics,” in the Greene Gallery. RPI alumni and faculty member Demetrios Comodromos will join architecture students Victoria Bell (B.Arch.) and Joseph Daniele (B.Arch.) for a set of presentations regarding tectonic matters within the field of architecture. The presentations will be followed by a round-table discussion among all in attendance.

“On Tectonics” poses the following questions:

The increasingly rapid developments in digital design, fabrication, and material technologies will continue to radically transform the means by which ideas are tectonically realized in built form. How might architects navigate the windfall of emerging tectonic methodologies so to advance architectural agendas and concepts? In what ways might advancements in architectural technology and method at once inform social and cultural constructs as well as engage the formidable environmental challenges of today – from local to global building considerations?

About the Participants

Demetrios Comodromos received his Bachelor of Architecture from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2002, and a Masters in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University in 2004 and since 2010 has been a registered and nationally accredited Architect. Since leaving Rensselaer, Demetrios has worked for internationally reknown practices such as, SHoP Architects, and Joeb Moore + Partners Architects. In 2008, he co-founded with Reese Campbell their award-winning practice, Method Design Architecture + Urbanism.

Method Design is an integrated design shop that focuses on the notion of provocation to activate spatial, material and social dynamics as a network of action and reaction. Equally comfortable with component design and full-scale urban planning, Method Design applies a design approach that simultaneously draws upon and challenges the context of each project in the development of a new experiential condition. Method is situated in New York City with additional offices in Copenhagen, Denmark and Athens, Greece, and has used their broad experience in design, planning and construction to translate to a variety of projects, roles and new models of collaboration in architectural production. Their projects include redesign and renovations (for apartments, commercial spaces), to new residential construction, to commercial, to emergency civil and community planning, to urban design. Their work is built in diverse contexts such as the Northeast /New England, the Gulf Coast, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean and Western Africa, and has been recognized both internationally (Staten Kunsfond, Denmark) and within the United States by the AIA (2011 Honor Award, DPR House Citation Award Woodruff House).

Victoria Bell is a fourth year Bachelor of Architecture student at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture. This spring Victoria is in Professor Fleet Hower’s vertical studio titled Naval Agendas: A new Master-plan for the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Joseph Daniele is a fifth year (Final Project) Bachelor of Architecture student at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture. His final project thesis is titled the “Architectural Uncanny of the Anthropocene,” with Professor Chris Perry as adviser.

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All Positions Series events are free and open to the public.