Architecture Professor Earns National Education Honor Award
March 25, 2008
Peter Aeschbacher, assistant professor of landscape architecture and architecture, has been awarded a 2008 American Institute for Architects (AIA) Education Honor Award, which recognizes excellence in course development and architectural teaching. The awards are presented jointly by the AIA and the national Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). Aeschbacher was recognized for his “Design and Democracy” project, a first-year studio in which students completed design/build installations intended to foster democratic engagement. Work by students in two of his other studios, “Domestic Inversion,” an introductory design/build course, and “Spatial Representation,” a first-semester course for architecture, landscape architecture, and art and design students, was also recognized.
The jury, which included AIA leadership, architecture professors and professionals from across the United States, recognized Aeschbacher for creating courses that encourage first-year students to critically consider the relationship between societal and architectural realms. “The vital part of the studio was to have student designers tackle a subject outside their own field—democracy as the mechanism for public decision-making—and thus to discover for themselves the limits and power of design,” Aeschbacher says.
During spring 2007, students in the “Design and Democracy” studio designed and built three full-scale projects that explored the ways design can contribute to democratic practices. They were installed throughout the University Park campus on Constitution Day, September 17, 2007. The projects included “Writers’ Block,” eight chalkboard-covered sculptural boxes that encouraged interactive engagement with free speech; the “Illicit Literature Lounge,” an alternative library of banned books installed outside Pattee Library; and “Perspectives on the Death Penalty,” an installation of large panels that, as the viewer moved by, illustrated how opposing arguments are shaped and deconstructed.
Penn State’s Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy coordinated the University’s Constitution Day activities, in addition to providing funding and feedback for the “Design and Democracy” projects throughout the design process. Additional support was provided by the College of Arts and Architecture and the Department of Architecture.
Aeschbacher notes that the studio provided a full architectural experience, from concept to design, permits, construction documents, construction and, finally, the opportunity for the designers to experience public engagement with their work. “The full range of experiences gave a taste of what students will actually encounter once they are professionals, and helped them to see at the beginning of their education what their chosen field of architecture holds in store for them.”
Contact: Amy Milgrub Marshall, alm157@psu.edu or 814.863.2104