photo taken by Stephen Smith for Designer Pages
A few weekends ago Tom and I had the amazing opportunity to present the Schoolhouse South Africa project at the IDNY Meetup in New York. Not only did it provide us with the perfect excuse to get out of Ithaca for a few days, but we were able to see and hear about some really inspiring work. The theme of the Meetup was Sustainable Design and the two other speakers were Robert Goodwin from Perkins + Will and Dan Kaplan from FX Fowle.
We left early Thursday morning in Tom’s car to make the long commute from Ithaca to the city. On the way we got stuck in a bit of traffic (as usual) but managed to get there just in time. The event was located in the Duravit Showroom which was definitely a unique setting. Scattered around the showroom were all sorts of sleekly designed bath furnishings. As Dan Kaplan humorously remarked at the beginning of his talk “This is the first time I’ve presented in front of a bath tub.”
photo taken by Stephen Smith for Designer Pages
The projects presented throughout the course of the night were of all different scales and located all over the world. Each project really tried to address sustainability on many different levels. A few of the skyscrapers presented by both Dan and Robert used different facade treatments on different sides of the building to maximize climate responsiveness. Communal spaces and gardens were integrated into some of the tall buildings to break up the repetition of the stacked floor plates. There were also smaller scale projects such as a community center, which not only implemented many sustainable materials and technologies but also provided education on sustainable manufacturing. Each project tried to expand the definition of sustainability beyond just a LEED rating or technical specification. After all of us presented we had a Q & A which resulted in some exciting dialogue about certain specific projects as well as larger issues in design.
Left: Hudson Valley Community College by Perkins + Will / Right: Helena Apartment Tower by FX Fowle
We want to thank Jacob Slevin, Jennifer Rector, and Ambika Ross for inviting us to such a great event. I think this was the first time that either Tom or I had presented in front of so many people. It was an awesome experience in itself that was made even better since we got to present alongside two other Cornell Grads.
From left to right: Thomas Shouler, Dan Kaplan, Robert Goodwin, Andrew Fu, and Jacob Slevin. Photo taken by Stephen Smith for Designer Pages
Clearly a fine writing here