Nordic Cool 2013 at the Kennedy Center February 19th - March 17th

Nordic Cool 2013, a month-long international festival of theater, dance, music, visual arts, literature, design, cuisine, and film to highlight the diverse cultures of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden as well as the territories of Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Áland Islands.

The foyer of the Kennedy Center houses the installation by Finish artist, Kaarina Kaikkonen who uses a thousand dress shirts donated by people from the DC area to construct a large-scale, site-specific hanging that takes the shape of a boat.

Throughout the Center there are exhibitions presenting a range of design, craft, and industrial products from throughout the Nordic region.

Invented in Sweden, plywood is one of the oldest mass-produced products in the world. This installation, created by famed Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta, features large-scale plywood sculptures.

 surprisingly small display of furniture and product design

2013 Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction Technology

photo courtesy of the Society of Women Engineers

The 10th Henry C. Turner prize for Innovation in Construction Technology was presented to the Society of Women Engineers on February 5th 2013 at the National Building Museum.

The Henry C.Turner Prize is named for the founder of Turner Construction Company. The prize recognizes an invention, an innovative methodology, and/or exceptional leadership by an individual or team of individuals in construction technology. This includes construction techniques, innovations and practices, construction and project management, and engineering design. The prize carries a cash award of $25,000 and is sponsored by the Turner Construction Company who established an endowment to support the prize in 2001.

The Society of Women Engineers was selected for giving women engineers a unique place and voice within the engineering industry for over 60 years. The Society currently serves more than 22,000 members and is a proponent of strengthening science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education for women.

I attended the ceremony and heard Betty Shanahan, executive director and CEO of SWE, deliver a lecture titled “Diversity Fueling Innovation,” in which she discussed strategies for recruitment, retention and promotion of women and other under-represented populations in STEM professions.

Here are excerpts from her PP presentation:

 

The following slides contain links to encourage students to pursue careers in engineering.

Here is the video of Betty Shanahan, executive director and CEO of the Society of Women Engineers accepting the Turner Prize 2013 and her lecture, in its entirety.

  

NBM - City Vision Program Wk 2

The CityVision program uses design as a framework to teach middle and high school students how to become active participants in shaping their communities. Students take part in fieldwork and mentoring at the NBM to identify needs and propose solutions to help local neighborhoods.
The program goals for students are to:

• Develop problem solving and critical thinking skills
• Learn technical skills, including sketching and architectural drawing, photography, scale, and model building
• Practice negotiation and collaboration while working as a team
• Sharpen public speaking and communication skills
• Explore careers in architecture, engineering, construction and design

30 Yr 7 students from Stuart-Hobson Middle School in DC are currently taking part in the program one day a week from February through May.

Students take part in a series of design challenges before tackling the redesign of a local site.

Here they are learning about urban planning and the classification of different buildings and spaces into 5 general areas; Commercial, Residential, Industrial, Institutional and Public Space.

Each group is asked to complete their colour coded board by matching the correct image to the correct board.
Students debate buildings and areas that may straddle two different categories ie sports facilities that charge admission, but all images are roughly divided.

   

Individuals in each group then draw a visual representation of an element for their board.
Here a student designs a monument as part of Public Space.

A large canvas floor plan is laid out and students from each group decide where to place their element and to explain their decision. One student chose to place his police station near a grocery store because, "they always get held up".

This urban planning exercise again generates much debate with students arguing for more services around residential areas and for industrial elements to be further away.

Students are asked to reflect on buildings in their own neighbourhoods as they leave for the day and to record the types of buildings in a colour coded plan in their sketchbooks.

NBM - City Vision Program Wk 2

 

30 Yr 7 students from Stuart-Hobson Middle School in DC arrived at the NBM for their second week of the City Vision Program. 

The first week involved dividing the students into 4 groups followed by a building design challenge making structures using spaghetti and marshmallows. 

At the end of the session students were given homework sheets to complete before returning the next week. All worksheets provide background and research relevant to the next project and are organized in students' sketchbooks.

Homework this week involved researching different careers in the area of design and architecture and researching information on the Amazon rainforests.

Design Challenge 2 - Welcome to the Jungle
Each group were asked to come up with designs for a planned facility for scientists in the Amazon rainforest.
They needed to:

• Provide a safe place to live and work for 5 scientists
• Provide access to food and drinking water
• Not damage the rainforest ecosystem

students take on different roles; drawing plans, elevations and working on their pitch to the client.

They had 45 minutes to pool their research, gathered as homework, and just over an hour to make their plans and prepare their presentation. If time permits students could attempt a model of their design. Each group then pitched their design to a guest judge who determined the best solution.

a multi level structure disguised as a tree and divided into living quarters and laboratories

the winning design incorporated rope swings, the use of indigenous and sustainable materials and making use of previously cleared land

explaining the small laboratory on a boat moored close to the base camp.

                                

National Building Museum - Outreach Programs

The National Building Museum, as seen from the 4th floor, continues to impress.

Education programs at the Museum run throughout the year. In fact there doesn't seem to be a day in the calendar when groups of students aren't booked in.
Teens and young adults, 12 to 18, are catered for through outreach programs, specifically for students from the Washington, D.C. metro area. These in-depth, multi-week education programs teach middle and high school students to use the built environment as a classroom for developing skills in critical and creative thinking, problem solving, analysis, evaluation, and teamwork.

The Museum currently offers three programs, CityVision  a semester-long program, Investigating Where We Live (IWWL) a four-week summer program and the Design Apprenticeship Program (DAP) which builds upon the two other outreach programs.

I've been able to observe a current CityVision program which began three weeks ago and runs through until May. A group of 30, Yr 7 students from the same school meet once a week at the Museum to take part. Students had to apply through their schools to attend and all seem enthusiastic participants.

The group is led by Museum education staff and Museum volunteers. 

Coral: Rekindling Venus

January 26th the Embassy of Australia invited me to a screening of a new work by Australian media artist Lynette Wallworth, titled Coral: Rekindling Venus. The film was also in official selection at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. The work was designed to be screened in the round and there was no better place to see it than the Einstein Planetarium at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Lynette introduced the film and described it as an immersive experience which invites you to lose yourself in the extraordinary world of coral reef communities. You did feel as if you were sometimes lying on the sea floor and sometimes free floating in the water, with a haunting soundtrack featuring Gurrumul Yunupingu and Antony and the Johnsons.

"My intent is to leave the audience with a sense of wonder for the complexity of the coral community and a deep-felt longing to see it survive. What is apparent when you watch the film is the remarkable survival mechanisms already at play in the community of coral reefs, mechanisms that will be put to the test in the coming years. We might see ourselves as two different communities interconnected in our own survival." 

For more on the film including an Interactive Coral Map and to play the track "Rise" by Antony and the Johnsons go to:

http://coralrekindlingvenus.com/

National Building Museum - Green Community Teaching Kit

In the following video Timothy Wright, the National Curricula Coordinator at the National Building Museum explains the Green Community Kit and offers a guide for teachers interested in incorporating the kit into their teaching of the built environment.

With support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Building Museum is able to provide a limited number of Green Community Teaching Kits to US teachers at no cost.

for more go to:
http://www.nbm.org/schools-educators/educators/green-community-teaching-kit.html