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Showcase + Reception

MONDAY MARCH 18, 2024

4pm - 6pm

Campbell Hall, UVA School of Architecture 

Program Details /// Demos + Talks

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4pm - 4.40pm 
East Wing Gallery 
Campbell Hall 1st floor East

Shiza Chaudhary, MArch '25
Ammon Embleton, MArch '24
Isaac Goodin, MArch '25
Emily Ploppert, MArch '24
Margaret Saunders, MArch '25
With Co-Directors: 
Katie MacDonald and Kyle Schumann, Before Building Laboratory

In 2023, the fourth cycle of Exhibit Columbus, the premier American architecture biennial, opened against the iconic skyline of Columbus, Indiana. UVA School of Architecture's Before Building Laboratory, led by faculty Katie MacDonald and Kyle Schumann, presented  Sylvan Scrapple, a temporary research installation which demonstrates new possibilities in robotic manufacturing, circular construction, and mass timber building systems. A team of 2 faculty and 5 student research assistants fabricated the installation throughout the summer and traveled to Columbus to install the project, tour the city’s architecture, and present at the public opening. Members of the student research assistant team, Shiza Chaudhary, Ammon Embleton, Isaac Goodin, Emily Ploppert, and Margaret Saunders will speak about the project goals, the fabrication process, and their experience on the ground in Columbus. 

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4pm - 4.40pm 
North Terrace (outside)
Campbell Hall 1st floor

Julia MacNelly, MLA '25
Lysette Velázquez, MLA '25

Join current graduate students Lysette Velázquez and Julia MacNelly for a hands-on demonstration and workshop, From Monterrey to Charlottesville: Making Adobe Blocks in Virginia, about the traditional method of adobe-making, a practice deeply rooted in Mexican heritage. The process of making adobe blocks is one that is purely physical and not automated, connecting our labor to the landscape where the soil is sourced from. Participants will learn about the essential components of adobe – earth, a hydrated lime mixture, and a fiber source -- and how these elements are combined to create a durable and sustainable building material. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage directly with the process of mixing, molding, and shaping adobe bricks. While working, we will discuss the historical significance of adobe architecture, its cultural relevance, and its role in shaping communities throughout history. Come celebrate the timeless artistry and practicality of adobe building techniques.

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5pm - 5.40pm 
FabLab Workcourt (outside)
Campbell Hall 1st floor West

Jeffery Holley, BArH '24, MArH '25, Character Home

In Plane Sight: Woodwork as a Digital Age Retreat is a hands-on demonstration that explores the timeless connection between craftsperson and tool, focusing on the traditional wood plane. This demonstration, led by Jeffery Holley, will explore the intricate relationship between the human touch and the material, showcasing the diverse finishes achievable with wood planes from the 19th and 20th centuries. Participants will learn how different woods, each with unique properties, demand a specific approach—highlighting the importance of rhythm, intuition, and the tactile experience in woodworking. The session will emphasize the crucial aspects of moisture content, illustrating how green and seasoned wood behave distinctly and the significance of knowing when to continue shaping and cease. Inspired by Henry David Thoreau's observation on the natural beauty emerging from skilled work, In Plane Sight aims to connect attendees with the artistry and mindfulness inherent in the craft of making, underscoring the enduring relevance of these tools in creating beauty by hand.

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5pm - 5.40pm 
North Terrace (outside)
Campbell Hall 1st floor

Peter Waldman, UVA Architecture
Design Build Team: Sam Beall, Jennifer Findley, and Justin Walton

This spring semester’s reconsideration of Material Realities marks a significant anniversary of a previous generational cycle of a design-build project of a memorial to an A-School student commenced in the spring of 2004. Then Dean Karen Van Lengen provided the opportunity for an ARCH 4020 studio to realize a memorial to a fellow classmate who passed away earlier that year. Eric Goodwin loved the poetics and pragmatics of the construction site, and an alumni donation suddenly made this a fast tract demonstration project of material realities as a self-activated culture of collaboration within this (Yes, we can-do it) A-School.  

In March of 2004, mockups were prepared by this studio for Phoebe Crisman’s and Sanda Iliescu’s Symposium Sites out of Mind, and the thickened edge of the North Terrace between Artifice and Nature was identified as the site between Memory and Amnesia dedicated to Approximating Stonehenge (Finding North). Allied Concrete intentionally funded this memorial of gravitas on the condition that it demonstrate innovations in Tilt-slab construction, an economical alternative to redundant formwork, to which this studio critically responded with the counterpart of light tubular scaffolding and tensioned steel cables to reframe the celestial soffit by day and by night. Join professor Peter Waldman for Eric Goodwin Memorial as Specifications for Construction — an in-situ retelling of how this project came to be. 

Program Details /// Exhibitions

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East Wing Gallery
Campbell 1st Floor East

Katie MacDonald and Kyle Schumann, Before Building Laboratory Co-Directors; Assistant Professors, Architecture
With Student Research Assistant Team:
Shiza Chaudhary, MArch '25
Ammon Embleton, MArch '24
Isaac Goodin, MArch '25
Emily Ploppert, MArch '24
Margaret Saunders, MArch '25

In 2023, as part of the fourth cycle of Exhibit Columbus, the premier American architecture biennial, UVA School of Architecture's Before Building Laboratory, led by faculty Katie MacDonald and Kyle Schumann, presented Sylvan Scrapple, a temporary research installation which demonstrates new possibilities in robotic manufacturing, circular construction, and mass timber building systems. The installation draws parallels between the use of waste in cooking and construction, while creating a wooded oasis for dining and exchange. Sharing the process and product of the Exhibit Columbus installation, this companion exhibition Scraps and Scrapple, highlights the intersection of design research and public exchange. Members of the student assistant team will share their experiences in a gallery talk as part of the Material Realities showcase.

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Naug
Campbell 1st Floor

Project Team: 

Cassandra Fraser, tranSci Lab Director, Professor, Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering, UVA
Matthew Seibert, Landscape Metrics; Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture, UVA
Berenika Boberska, Feral Studio; Mitchell Visiting Professor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago 
Ash Duhrkoop, PhD Candidate, Art History, UVA
Hugo Kamya, Professor, Simmons University; Associate Director, Center for Innovation in Clinical Social Work
Julia MacNelly, MLA ‘25, UVA
Rosana Rubio Hernández, Center for Historic Studies of Public Works and City Planning (CEHOPU/CEDEX), Madrid, Spain
Ishani Saraf, Postdoctoral Research Associate and Lecturer, A&S Engagements Program, UVA
Theodore Teichman, MLA, UVA
Devin Zuckerman, PhD Candidate, Religious Studies, UVA

Research Team:

Hitisha Kalolia, MArch ‘19, Woodbury University
Jetta Lin, MArch ‘24, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Zahid Ahmed Shariff, MArch ‘24, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Agnes To, MLA ‘25, UVA

The tranSci Lab for Real World Chemistry and Creative Communication presents excerpts from the Aperiodic Table of the Anthropocene exhibition, on display from March 15 - March 28 in Chemistry 222 at UVA. This exhibition brings together a body of individual and collaborative work from the team spanning Chemistry, Art, Art History, Social Work, Landscape Architecture, and other design fields to re-narrate material agents, subjects, and potential co-conspirators. As a roadmap for the new, strange, and often harmful material formations unique to this geological epoch of human accelerated change, the Aperiodic Table of the Anthropocene seeks to bring attention to rarely seen material trajectories – from extraction to waste, past to future. Selections shown here include narrative mappings, material samples, and creaturely intersections. During this pop-up exhibition designed for Material Realities, members of our transdisciplinary collective will be present for informal conversations about our collaborative research.

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Elmaleh Gallery
Campbell 2nd Floor

Organized by Ehsan Baharlou, Computational Tectonics Lab Director; Assistant Professor, Architecture
With Student Research Assistant Team:
Avery Edson, MArch '25
Juliana Jackson, MArch '25
Eli Sobel, MArch '24
Tabi Summers, BSArch '24
Exhibitors include:
JT Bachman, Office of Things; Assistant Professor, Architecture, UVA
Ehsan Baharlou, Computational Tectonics Lab Director; Assistant Professor, Architecture
Haley Coolbaugh, MArch '24
Karola Dierichs, Matters of Activity Synoptic Architectures; Professor of Material and Code, Weißensee School of Art and Design, Berlin
Leila Ehtesham, MLA '24
Maria-Paz Gutierrez, BIOMS; Associate Professor, Architecture, UC Berkeley
Emily Ploppert, MArch '24
Marshall Prado, Assistant Professor, Design and Structural Technology, University of Tennessee
Virginia San Fratello, Rael San Fratello; Department Chair, Design, San José State University
Eli Sobel, MArch '24

The Being Plastic/Becoming Plastic exhibition is a companion to a symposium of the same title that investigates the circular economy of plastics, featuring a cadre of artists, designers, researchers, and industry leaders who build, process, and study plastics. The exhibition highlights work that addresses the multi-scalar challenges of how to live and innovate with one of the most widely used materials of modern times.

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Salon Walls + Shelf
Campbell 2nd Floor Mezzanine

Meiling Fan, BSArch '24
Jena Lahham, BS Arch '24
Faculty Advisor: Ehsan Baharlou, Assistant Professor, Architecture

The increasing global temperatures and the continued depletion of resources such as land and water, calls upon research developments that further explore alternative, sustainable material systems of ecological design. This research project, Ceramic Hydro-Growth: A Study on 3D Ceramics for Soilless Cultivation, explores the potential for edible urban growth as composed by three primary systems; soilless cultivation, passive irrigation, and earthen materials. The assembly of these systems serve to support the sowing, growing, and harvesting of edible growth. This research challenges conventional conceptions of land-intensive farming, and reimagines alternative possibilities for urban ecological design. The final artifact is the result of a 3D printed earthenware clay vessel which is kiln fired, filled with water, and coated in a bio-ink of hydrogel and microgreen seeds.

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Salon Walls + Shelf
Campbell 2nd Floor Mezzanine

Ehsan Baharlou, Dr.-Ing Computational Tectonics Lab Director; Assistant Professor, Architecture
With Student Instructor Assistant:
Vaibav Badri (MArch '24)

Computation has a profound impact on contemporary understandings of architectural form, space, and structure. It alters how form is perceived, how it is purposed, and how it is produced. This exhibition showcases student work from Design Computation I — this course introduces students to the fundamental principles of computational design in architecture. It examines the potential of algorithmic logic to generate spatial structures through the analysis and abstraction of architectural geometry. The course comprises two phases: The first phase introduces students to the basics of visual programming and geometric logic. In the second phase, students will explore the add-ons developed for the Grasshopper plug-in, acquainting them with architectural computation logics. 

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Salon Walls + Shelf
Campbell 2nd Floor Mezzanine

Bhargavi Murthy, MArch '24

These projects “found” objects to create spatial compositions. All materials are either excess supplies from the UVA Re-Use Store on grounds or discards from the Woodshop at the school. This project is endeavor in recognizing the agency of materials by treating them akin to the “site”. Just as the site, in real life, is never a blank canvas for spatial operations to manifest, the materials we use to articulate architectural ideas are never without their own character and agency either. The consciousness we seek to extend towards the aspects of a site, as we treat various aspects we discover with care, can be extended towards our treatment of materials as well, which have their own unique qualities of “found-ness”. In attempting to draw out these qualities and create with them, this project searches for the middle-ground between the designer’s agency and the agency and the material such that their inherent properties—shape, weight, elasticity and deformation—can inspire new spatial ideas.

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Salon Walls + Shelf
Campbell 2nd Floor Mezzanine

Daniel Oberman, BSArch '24
Faculty Advisor: Ehsan Baharlou, Assistant Professor, Architecture

In 2022 the United States saw 77.6 million tons of Municipal food waste, with over a third finding its way into landfills. Food waste is the second largest contributor to this country’s municipal waste problem and the construction sector accounts for nearly 40% of energy and process-related CO2 emissions. Numerous researchers and companies have begun to investigate the possibilities of using food waste as a building material, having both structural and aesthetic qualities. In alignment with these efforts, my research begins to explore the process of turning food into a material that could have applications in the construction sector. The method involves powderizing food waste and heat casting into a mold with constant pressure and controlled heat application. By exploring these types of methods, we aim to not only mitigate the environmental impact of food waste, but also unlock its potential as a sustainable construction material. (Sources: refed.org, iea.org)

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Salon Shelf
Campbell 2nd Floor Mezzanine

JT Bachman, Assistant Professor, Architecture
With Selections of Student Work,
Class Participants:
Yiming Zhang, (BSArch ‘24)
Pandora Zhang, (BSArch ‘24)
Leila Ehtesham, (MLA ‘24)
Tilden Puckett, (BSArch ‘24)
Tabi Summers, (BSArch ‘24)
Samuel Orlando, (BSArch ‘24)
Emily Ploppert, (MArch ‘24)
Bucky Gerson, (MArch ‘24)
Hayley Coolbaugh, (MArch ‘24)
Allyson Gibson, (MLA ‘25)
Lydia Cartwright, (BSArch ‘24)
Nick Karayianis, (BSArch ‘24)

Assistant Professor of Architecture JT Bachman’s recent research explores the collection, re-processing and transformation of discarded materials into long-lasting objects and building material prototypes. His summer 2023 project titled Waste Not, Want Not served as a proof-of-concept and a first step toward a larger effort centered around the creative reimagining and repurposing of “waste.” This exhibited work are excerpts from this research — innovative designs that he and his students employed to breathe new life into discarded resources, paving the way for circular material flows and a more sustainable built environment.

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Salon Walls + Shelf
Campbell 2nd Floor Mezzanine

Leila Ehtesham, MLA '24
Eli Sobel, MArch '24
Faculty Advisor: Ehsan Baharlou, Assistant Professor, Architecture

Fringe: Hairy Tectonics is a collaboration between students Leila Ehtesham and Eli Sobel under the guidance of Professor Ehsan Baharlou at the University of Virginia.  Fringe explores the potential of human hair as a fiber replacement in fiber-reinforced composite materials. The research demonstrates that this natural and abundant material can be used to create lightweight yet structural building facade systems that also reduce and redirect waste. The inherent structural properties of hair make it an excellent sustainable alternative to other natural and synthetic fiber additives. We believe that to truly challenge the status quo when it comes to contemporary building culture, humans should be more deeply engaged in material life cycles. Perhaps there is no better place to start than with our own bodies, which happen to produce a durable and truly renewable fiber: our hair. 

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Corner Gallery
Campbell 2nd Floor

Vann Stewart, BSArch '24
Tabi Summers, BSArch '24
Faculty Advisor: Ehsan Baharlou, Assistant Professor, Architecture

This project explored several potential biopolymers as a binder and stabilizer for earthen construction. The final stabilizing composite included agricultural waste (Oyster Shell Powder) and biopolymers (cellulose and Xanthan Gum). The experiments also allowed the material to direct form finding based on the material properties as well as the fabrication process: robotic 3d printing. The composite exhibited structural capacity without cement, a prominent ingredient in most adobe construction, displaying a reduced carbon strategy to stereotomic building. 

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Corner Gallery
Campbell 2nd Floor

Monica Nichta, MLA '25

Paper is simultaneously utilitarian, ubiquitous, invisible, disposable, persistent, and foundational. In my time as a student at the A-School, I have used and printed an immense amount of paper. Reflecting on my use of and reliance on paper as a material resource and considering the hundreds of other students who also depend on this resource each year, I am fascinated by the amount of paper waste and refuse produced at the A-School. This artistic and conceptual investigation of paper explores a conversation about consumption, burden of production, material value, impermanence, inventive reuse, and creativity of thrift in the context of a transient academic setting. Embedded within these “blank” sheets of paper is unquantifiable student creativity and effort. By breaking down a discarded resource and reassembling it into a reimagined version of that same resource, how can we begin to reveal possibilities for extended representation of our paper work?

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Corner Gallery
Campbell 2nd Floor

Ammon Embleton, MArch '24