ARC 500: Four Workshops on Architectural Problems (Asst. Prof. Kyle Miller)
“Architecture Itself” is an occasion to draw out and highlight core issues within the discipline of architecture. Conceived of as a series of intensive design workshops, this course will problematize [the] fundamental elements of architecture - not doors, windows, walls, balconies and toilets, but form, space, and order. In scrutinizing architecture’s interrelationships, the output of these design workshops will make explicit links between formal composition (part-to-whole), spatial relationships (typology), aesthetic qualities (affects and effects), tectonics (assembly and detail), and, ultimately, the continuity of architectural discourse across generations (precedent).
Rather than widen the gap between competing identities of architecture - autonomous versus contingent, or self-sufficient versus reliant - these workshops will seek to answer two questions: “What is architecture?” and “What can architecture do?” And rather than searching for justification for architecture by defining its relationship to politics, economics, social good, etc. these events will elucidate how architecture performs within its own critical context, operating on itself to strengthen its disciplinary legibility and define its cultural efficacy. In doing so, this series is comfortable with bracketing out extra-disciplinary territories and identifying architecture itself as the primary problem of architecture.
Jennifer Bonner
Born in Alabama, Jennifer Bonner received a Bachelor of Architecture from Auburn University and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design where she was awarded the James Templeton Kelley Prize for her project Assemblage of Twins. Her undergraduate thesis project, Cedar Pavilion, was designed and constructed at the Rural Studio for the citizens of Perry County, Alabama and received an AR Award for Emerging Architecture in 2005.
Bonner is an Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech in Atlanta and has previously taught graduate studios, seminars, and workshops at Woodbury University, Auburn University, the Architectural Association, and Lund University. Her professional experience includes work at Foster+Partners and David Chipperfield Architects in London. While at Foster’s she lived in Istanbul, Turkey and coordinated the construction of a cultural building in Astana, Kazakhstan. Bonner has a forthcoming essay contribution for an Actar publication that claims digital anonymity as a new paradigm emerging in the realm of fabrication.
Her design and research work has been published and exhibited in several international publications and institutions. Jennifer Bonner is also registered as LEED Accredited Professional.
