APDesign Newsletter 9.4.12
K-STATE DAY AT THE KANSAS STATE FAIR
On Sunday, September 9, Kansas State University will sponsor K-State Day at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson, Kansas.
Each College, including APDesign, will have a student-run table. If you, or your families, happen to be at the fair that day, please be sure to stop by the APDesign table and chat with our students!
STRESS & WELLNESS WORKSHOP TONIGHT
Tonight from 6:30-8 p.m. in the Pierce Commons, we will host “Stress & Wellness” with Jane Hansen, PsyD of Counseling Services in the Pierce Commons.
Pizza will be served, courtesy of the APDesign Dean’s Office.
Come at 6:30 p.m. for pizza; the program will begin promptly at 7 p.m.
This event is co-sponsored by the K-state student chapter of Women in Design and the APDesign Dean’s Office. The event is open to ALL PEOPLE.
APDESIGN FAMILY DAY BREAKFAST
Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012 is K-State Family Day. Many of the colleges and groups on campus host Family Day activities, and APDesign is no exception.
At 9 a.m. that Saturday, APDesign will host a breakfast of donuts and coffee in the Pierce Commons. All of our faculty, staff, students and their families and friends are invited to stop by and meet the Dean for breakfast. Also, everyone is welcome to check out the Study Abroad exhibit, which will be in the Chang Gallery and the first floor east wing of Seaton Hall.
For more information on K-State Family Day, go to www.k-state.edu/familyday/.
BRYANT LECTURE FOR SEPT. 10 CANCELED
Claude Cormier’s Bryant Lecture that was scheduled for next Monday, Sept. 10, has been canceled. We will update everyone as soon as a new Bryant lecturer can be found and the lecture can be rescheduled. We apologize for the inconvenience.
MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR FAYEZ HUSSEINI
A memorial service will be held to remember IAPD Professor Fayez Husseini at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 24, at All Faiths Chapel on campus. Students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends are invited to come join in the celebration of Fayez’s life and work. We hope you will join us for this special evening.
CHARNEY CONDUCTS FACEBOOK WORKSHOP
Mick Charney, associate professor of architecture, conducted the workshop “Looking for Mr. Wright, and Finding Him on Facebook” at the 19th International Conference on Learning, Aug. 14-16, at the Institute of Education, University of London, London, UK.
Although social networking is much maligned by academics as a medium that diverts students’ attention away from the serious sustained pursuit of knowledge, Charney’s workshop demonstrated that Facebook possesses tremendous latent educational value if utilized in a carefully orchestrated manner in small-enrollment classes.
Envisioned by Mark Zuckerberg himself as “the stream of all human consciousness,” Facebook can help students come to terms with complex multifaceted historical problems through a versatile hyperlinking capability that is perfectly attuned to the digital dexterity of today’s so-called Net Geners. The result is a vibrant and endlessly interconnected repository of useful information that is simultaneously engaging and revelatory in nature.
Charney’s workshop explained how a traditional recitation seminar devoted to the life and times of Frank Lloyd Wright was deliberately redesigned to appeal to tech-savvy architecture majors. Students were asked to employ their digital skills to create avatars for Wright’s associates and then “friend” each other, thus producing a repository of useful information that all could share.
The hour-long workshop also walked attendees through the process by which those individual Facebook pages were created and embellished. Samples of the students’ work on Facebook were discussed and evaluated in terms of their educational benefits.
POLICY FOR STUDENT ABSENCE FROM CLASS
The following information is intended to clarify the use of official absence notification that is prepared by the Dean’s Office Student Services, Seaton 213.
An official absence notification will be issued for the following reasons (verified documentation will be required if an examination, quiz, project or some form of assessment took place during the absence) if requested by the student:
Illness or injury
Personal or family emergency
Severe weather delaying return to campus
Funeral of a family member or friend
Court appearance
Students are expected to immediately notify the faculty of all other absences including but not limited to:
Illness or injury requiring absence from one class session
Participation in family activities
Non-emergency/ routine doctor or dental appointments
Participation in field trips, conferences, meeting or other similar activities
Participation in non-varsity athletic activities
These are not official absences and a faculty member may determine whether the absence will be excused or unexcused.
With regard to faculty or department sponsored field trips (or similar activity), the sponsor should provide each student with a letter stating the purpose of the field trip, the date(s) and time(s) of that trip and any other pertinent information. The student is then responsible for informing each faculty member of his or her anticipated absence. Providing this letter well in advance of the scheduled field trip is highly recommended. It may be more efficient, or practical, for the sponsor to send a letter to the affected faculty and include a list of the students enrolled in that person’s class who will be going on the field trip. A similar protocol should be followed by faculty advisors of student organizations if members are going to a meeting or conference. Please keep in mind that each affected faculty member will determine if this is an excused or unexcused absence for the student. Faculty members are not required to provide make up exams.
Students who miss more than three consecutive class sessions are encouraged to meet with their respective faculty and academic advisor to determine if adjustment to the program of study or other action is appropriate or necessary. There can be serious academic consequences due to absence from class.
Understandably, this is not an exhaustive list (official or unofficial). If you have a question about any issue regarding student absence, please call, email or stop by.
(Document reviewed by the Office of Student Life and the University General Counsel 8/2010.)
ROBERT HUTCHISON LECTURE AT KCDC
Please join us at the Kansas City Design Center on Monday, September 17, for the first of our fall lectures by Robert Hutchison. Hutchison is a principal in the Seattle-based architectural firm Hutchison & Maul Architecture and affiliate assistant professor in the department of architecture at the University of Washington. There will be a reception at 5:30 p.m. followed by the lecture at 6:30 p.m. KCDC is located at 1018 Baltimore Street, Kansas City, Missouri. We look forward to seeing you at this event.
INDIA UNVEILED AT THE MAC
“India Unveiled” is opening on Saturday,September 8, at Manhattan Arts Center. This exhibition is first of its kind in Manhattan and is designed to create awareness in Manhattan community about the diverse cultures, arts, architecture and design traditions of India. A reception will be held between 4-6 p.m. on Saturday to celebrate the opening of the exhibit at the Manhattan Arts Center.
On the day of the exhibition opening, there will be an Indian market during the reception to give people an idea about the population density, spatial issues, colors, pattern, proportion, scale and many other design related issues.
The exhibition will include photographs of Indian architecture, people and culture, Indian furniture, paintings, artifacts and textiles. There will be various aspects of Indian culture that people of Manhattan will be able to understand and participate in. There will be fun activities for the kids, adults and everyone in between! This exhibition is designed to tantalize all your senses!
IAPD Professor Vibha Jani is working with 14 graduate students to design and install this exhibition along with other faculty members to bring this exhibition to Manhattan. Parts of this exhibition have traveled around the country and abroad and just recently the photographs of Indian architecture were exhibited in Italy.
DESIGN-BUILD CAMP, INTERNSHIP & GAP YEAR IN AFRICA
Nka Foundation is pleased to announce that following the successful pilot design-build residency at SangArtsVillage in Ghana, the second edition, art+architecture camps starts in September 2012.
If you are searching for a real project of real social value to put your design theory to the test and work side-by side with local people who will warm your heart and leave you smiling from ear to ear, why not join one of our design-build camps in the historic Ashanti Region or the Dagomba nation in Northern Ghana?
The challenge for each design-build camp is to use local materials together with local volunteers to generate a rest shelter over the landscape or a unit of a courtyard for rural livelihood skills empowerment that suggests a seamless relationship between art and architecture. The livelihood skills centre will consist of a media arts studio for IT and new media training. Another design-build project will focus on a pottery/ceramic studio with workspaces and a kiln for firing the earthenware (see the press release at: http://prlog.org/11946479). For example, a land architect can collaborate with land artists to create a rest shelter that integrates into the rural landscape. Along the way, we will create a LandArt Museum, a multipurpose space for exhibition, community theatre and music performances. The results of the design-build will benefit not only the local but the global community. For persons of artistry from around the world, it will be a contact point for artist-in-residence for community arts, special projects, and environmental education.
The project takes in the theoretical frame of the book, Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt by a known Egyptian architect, Hassan Fathy. In it, he puts forward that an informed person can, in fact, self-build durable, aesthetic and highly functional buildings without using expensive materials. Along this line, the design-build camps are open to all students and graduates of design, architecture, engineering, the arts, and schools. Join us! Let’s us contribute to a real need and empower choices for those who say they are economically underprivileged despite the abundance of local resources. You will gain hands-on and international experience while meeting local community design needs, an essential part of education that employers and clients value.
View the press release:
http://prlog.org/11891895 and http://prlog.org/11946479 for AbetenimArtsVillage, and http://prlog.org/11891836
Or download the design brief:
http://www.thecela.org/pdfs/nka-foundation-2012.pdf forSang Arts Village.
For additional information on our previous projects go www.nkafoundation.org. Interested? Then e-mail to info@nkafoundation.org for the application.
VIEWS AND LEGOS IN WEIGEL!
Weigel Library has a view of K-State’s two green roof projects located on the west wing of Seaton! The upper green roof, planted May 18, 2009, is on the top of the third floor breezeway with plants visible against the roof of Ahearn. The lower green roof was planted this past spring on May 8, 2012. Those plantings can be seen through the first floor windows of the breezeway to the west.
And then there’s the LEGOS! While you’re waiting to use a scanner, copier or computer, or if you just need a change of pace, construct something, anything, with the primary-colored LEGOS in Weigel. You can build your own creation or add to someone else’s design.
Take a break in Weigel. Enjoy the views and the fun!
