From the Archive: Fall 2024
ARCH 571 // Architecture and Urbanism
Professor: Yuan Liao + Scott Wall
As urban centers expand, the boundary between city and suburb emerges as a vital transitional zone where density, function, and lifestyle intersect. This graduate design studio explores the design of multifunctional, adaptive spaces that bridge urban and suburban realms, addressing evolving needs for work, leisure, and community engagement. Through an emphasis on transformable structures and innovative uses of flexible materials, students have crafted proposals that integrate indoor and outdoor environments, fostering resilience and adaptability. The final designs present architectural solutions that respond to the dynamic demands of urbanization, offering functional, inclusive, and visually engaging spaces that enhance the vitality of these crucial interfaces.
From the Archive: Fall 2025
ARCH 571 // Architecture and Urbanism
Professor: Maged Guerguis
Many cities contain underdeveloped areas—vacant lots, neglected edges, and forgotten corners—that hold the potential for renewed purposes. This project examines how these neglected spaces can be reactivated to support urban life, using strategic intervention to transform disconnection into opportunity. Rather than treating residual land as leftover, the work positions it as a catalyst for new forms of movement, gathering, and public experience. By reframing what the city typically ignores, the project investigates how architecture can create continuity by generating value from the urban landscape.
We are proud to recognize Professors @lizteston (School of Interior Architecture) and @cattydanzhang (School of Architecture) and their multimedia exhibition The Weather Holds, recently featured at the @designtofestival Festival in Toronto. Through physical and digital artifacts, the work explores the atmosphere as an architectural medium, examining how air, water, and microclimatic processes shape spatial experience and public interiority. Their research-driven approach highlights innovative ways of thinking about space, material, and environment. Learn more about their exhibit here: /event/the-weather-holds/
With contributions from their research assistants: Emily Lavoll @emlavoll and Daniel Beshoy @besho97_daniel (School of Architecture)
More about the rediscovery of Albert Kahn project #1473 & see LINK in story. Stay tuned to see where this goes!
#marginaldistricts, #albertkahn, #engagedteaching, #utk #architecture #urbandesign #preservation #adaptivereuse #knoxville
/story/news/local/2025/11/17/knoxville-warehouse-is-the-work-of-famous-architect-albert-kahn/87229236007/
/university-of-tennessee-architecture-group-identifies-97-year-old-kahn-designed-structure-in-knoxville/
Experiments and Provocations 💭
At the advanced levels of the B.Arch and M.Arch programs, our goal is to take risks and avoid defaults. We make space at final reviews for students to direct the discourse. During the discussions, architecture students challenge and are challenged by guest reviewers. The best moments are often surprising, humorous, and joyful as much as they are rigorous and serious.
Started this mapping while teaching the first half of the UTK Tokyo Architecture Program: Daily documentation of the furniture configuration in our 5F studio at @shibaurahouse covering six days.
The centerpiece of the room is a circular table designed by the building’s architect, Sejima Kazuyo, which is made up of 7 equal segments. The humble table is more than furniture: it’s a device that conditions our daily social practice: Every morning the students configure the segments and every evening they reset the table to its original, idealized circular form. The form of the table is decided by the students, indexing their desires and organic social dynamic. Our daily interaction with the furniture places us in dialogue with with Sejima’s architectural intention: The geometric discipline and precision of the building anatomy provide a quiet backdrop that calls attention to the messiness of the everyday rituals inside, rather than the building itself.
@utkcoad@utk_arch #kazuyosejima #tokyo #tokyoarchitecture #japanesearchitect #mapping #architecture #studyabroad #studyabroadlife #designstudio
M.Arch student Jordan Metzler will lecture today in the A+A Atrium at 11:30 about his travel and research. His study of transitional architectures and identity is supported by a generous travel grant from the Aydelott foundation. Over the summer, Jordan traveled to four sites to conduct his research: Ger Mongolia (pictured), Quinta Monroy Housing in Chile, the Tempelhof Airport in Berlin and the Jatiya Sangsad complex in Dhaka.
Our second year undergrads recently returned from their annual trip to Chicago—exploring The Loop’s layered history, from the Great Fire to today’s skyline. Highlights from the trip include visits to the Chicago Architecture Biennial, The Art Institute, and a stunning boat tour of the city. Experiences like this go beyond the classroom, shaping stronger, more thoughtful designers through real-world experience.
With the beginning of the Fall 2025 term just around the corner, we're excited to resume our popular Get Lectured series — presenting the latest poster designs of upcoming public lectures and events at architecture schools across the country and from around the world.
Kicking things off is the University of Tennessee, Knoxville College of Architecture and Design @utkcoad , with a packed calendar this Fall semester. Speaker highlights to mark in your calendar include Behnaz Farahi (Aug 25), Catty Dan Zhang (Sep 8), Hilary Sample (Sep 23), Jack Murphy (Oct 20), Malkit Shoshan (Oct 27), and Sara Zewde (Nov 10).
The Souths: Counternarratives Towards Counterlandscapes Symposium, presented by the School of Landscape Architecture @utklandarch , is another major event coming up at the College on October 18 and 19.
For details and the complete list of lectures, visit the UT College of Architecture and Design events page.
Lecture poster design by Becca Lofchie Studio @becca._.l .
Stay tuned for more Get Lectured posts in the coming weeks!
Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your poster and details to [email protected].
#archinect #architecture #archinectgetlectured #architectureacademia #architectureschool #architectureevent #lectureposter #posterdesign #graphicdesign
A huge congratulations to our graduate students on completing their final MAP and MLP thesis projects—a true milestone in their academic and professional journeys.
These final presentations stand not merely as academic requirements, but as moments of synthesis—where theory meets application, and ideas are rendered into propositions with spatial, social, and systemic resonance. The depth and clarity with which each student articulated their vision affirms the capability provoke meaningful dialogue.
Fifth-year B.arch students have just completed their *final* final reviews, marking the culmination of five years of speculation, experimentation, and collaboration. These reviews see each student deploying their individual creative practice.
Their projects — many of which have been nominated for the Distinguished Design Award — reflect an understanding of architecture's expanding role in shaping communities, responding to global challenges, and envisioning possible futures.
Two Integration Studios taught by Tricia Stuth and Ted Shelton of @curb.studio speculate on the potential of point access block zoning in Tennessee. This recent installment of their Housing in America studio series will be exhibited tomorrow evening. “At Home in the City!” seeks lots in Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville that can be opportunistically developed.
Exhibit: Friday, May 2, 5–8 p.m.
McNutt Burkes Building, 309 N. Central Street, Knoxville, TN
This event is co-hosted with @yes_knox , a group of local Knoxvillians passionate about creating neighborhoods with more housing, better transportation options, and stronger community.
