Every February, the National Building Museum and the National Engineers Week Foundation stage the Engineering Family Day to demonstrate how professional engineers turn an idea into reality.
This year they had a turn out of nearly 9,000, thanks to no snow but dreary Saturday weather.
There were opportunities to explore aerodynamics, build a suspension bridge, construct a structure to help protect from a tsunami, build a trebuchet, study popcorn science and make slime to learn the properties of a semi-solid. There was also lots of Lego.
New Nordic--Architecture and Identity is an exhibition from the Louisiana Museum of Modern
Art located outside Copenhagen, Denmark and is the first in a series of exhibits that investigate architecture's relationship with culture and identity.
New Nordic sets out to explore whether or not certain specifically ‘Nordic' features appear in architecture and, if so, how these manifest. Two segments of the larger exhibit is on display at the Kennedy Center during Nordic Cool 2013.
Five Nordic Houses/Pavilions
The
museum invited five Nordic architects to each build a small dwelling
which best suits the style and needs of the architect's home country:
Studio Granda of Iceland, Johan Celsing of Sweden, Jarmund/Vigsnæs of
Norway, Lassila Hirvilammi of Finland, and Lundgaard & Tranberg of
Denmark.
Each house is an expression of the architect's regional identity and experiences.
Iceland
Iceland - Studio Granda interview with architects Steve Christer and Margret Hardardottir
The New Nordic--Architecture and Identity exhibition
Louisiana Museum of Modern
Art Copenhagen, Denmark, Dec 2012
Norway
Norway
Norway - architect interview - Jarmund/Vigsnæs
Sweden
Sweden - architect interview - Johan Celsing
What is Nordic? -- Nordic Dioramas
Is there a Nordic identity? Can one, despite the tendency of globalization to erase national and cultural differences, still understand identity as something associated with a particular place? How has the Nordic identity developed alongside the development of the rest of the world? In an attempt to answer these questions, the Nordic Dioramas installation begins with another question: "What does Nordic mean to you?" Several cultural personalities from the Nordic countries and territories provide their answers in these small dioramas to be displayed during the festival in the Atrium.
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
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.
