Faculty News

Led by Cari Varner and Michael Zebrowski, the Carl Small Town Center has received a $175,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to research and document the suburbanization of the landscape of Mississippi. Parts of Mississippi has rapidly transformed from a state of small towns, composed of local building typology, to one of sprawling suburbia. To facilitate this rapid suburbanization of the US and now Mississippi, building methodologies have left behind the traditional craft of construction, site design and quality of labor and materials, while simultaneously replacing these with priorities of speed and the value-engineered budget. Excessively large homes consume disproportionate amounts of energy through construction and maintenance at both the household level and through conversion of greenfields to a landscape of sprawl.

To help jumpstart research and inquiry, as well as involve students, Cari and Michael, along with Matthew Battin and Juan Heredia led a 2nd year design studio this past Fall. Students explored the single-family home’s building construction and pattern language, while developing a house for a subdivision in Starkville. This Spring public awareness and advertisement strategies will be developed to disseminate the research to one of the largest audiences involved, the consumer. We have presented at the 2008 Planners Network Conference, and have been accepted at the International Conference on the Beginning Design Student and the National Conference of the Popular Culture and are constructing a booth for the 2009 Mississippi Home & Product Extravaganza.

Michael Berk:

--Sep 2007: GreenMobile® was the Winner US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) LifeCycle Building Challenge International competition (Professional Unbuilt category)
--Feb 2008: Invited to speak in the Rural Studio Spring Lecture Series at Auburn University w/ honorarium
--April 2008: Invited to speak in the Spring 08 Hearst Lecture Series at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo w/ honorarium
--Sep 2008: GreenMobile® research published in GreenBuilder print magazine (pg 30-31) September 2008 issue (largest publication in the building industry)
--Nov 2008: Invited speaker at the US Forest Products Society's Green Building Materials 08 conference at UMASS
--Nov 2008: Invited featured speaker at the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) workshop on Low Energy Design and solar energy design (w/ honorarium)
--Dec 2008: Paper published in the US Forest Products Society's Durability of Wood-Framed Housing . . . (2007 national conference proceedings.)
--Dec 2008: Awarded grant of $55,000. from the US Department of Energy (DOE) for GreenMobile® research development prototyping.
--Jan 2009: Invited speaker at the upcoming (February) US EPA 2009 Southeastern LifeCycle Construction Conference in Atlanta.

Larry Barrow:
 
GRANT
OMNOVA Solutions, Inc. Foundation - The Global Housing Dilemma - Opportunities for Product Design and Lean Manufacturing Principles in a Modular Housing Company in NE
Mississippi. Ram Rajagopalan – LEANSixSigma Manager / Allan Marshal – Director of Technology and New Product Development - ($20,000).
 
BOOK
(With Larry and Shaima Al Arayedh) - VDM - Verlag Dr. Mueller publisher –  entitled: The Global Housing Crisis - An Industrial Design and Fabrication Opportunity in Architecture
 
Edina Lancz
Acquisition Editor
VDM Verlag Dr. Mueller e.k.
Dudweiler Landstr. 125 a
D - 66123 Saarbruecken
http://www.vdm-verlag.de/
Amtsgericht Saarbrücken HRA 9707
 
INVITED REVIEWER
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON - The Graduate School - Seattle, Washington. Review Committee for the Master of Science in Architecture degree program. Invited External Reviewer as Expert in Field of Design Computing, Technology and CADCAM in architecture at the invitation of David Canfield-Budde, Ph.D. and Dean Daniel Friedman; Program Review - January 17-18, 2008.
 
PRESENTATIONS
Performance PODS – A Modular Housing System.  Mississippi Technology Alliance – Northeast Director - Bradley Prewitt – at the invitation of Chase Kasper of the Mississippi State University – Office of Technology Commercialization.  24 November, 2008.
 
(With David Lawrence) Performance PODS – A Modular Housing System. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) - Washington, DC with Dana Pres, P.E. and Michael Freedberg, AIA at the invitation of Kevin Neary - Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research – HUD - (trip funded by Dr. Kirk Schulz of the MSU ORED) - 12 November, 2008.
 
BIM – The BIG Picture. An invited presentation at the Mississippi State University, College of Architecture, Art and Design - Building Construction Science Program - Advisory Council meeting at the invitation of Dean Jim West - October 10, 2008.
 
(With David Wright) DIGITAL DESIGN / BIM - The BIG Picture. Understanding the Emerging Digital Design-Make Process. An invited presentation given at the American Institute of Architects – Mississippi monthly meeting in Jackson, MS – at the invitation of the Director, Joe Blake - September 18, 2008.
 
CONFERENCES
The 2008 ACADIA (Association for Computer-Aided-Design in Architecture) annual international conference entitled – Skin + Silicon, at The University of Minnesota – Minneapolis,
MN.  Steering Committee member and newly elected incoming Treasurer.15-19 October 2008. 
 
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) annual national convention in Boston, MA. BIM research and modular housing pre-fab panel material research and supplier meetings. May 12 - 17, 2008.
 
SERVICE PROJECTS
Chickasaw County History Museum – Houston, MS; Feasibility Consulting - Design Concepts in concert with colleague Justin Taylor and Graduate Assistant – Olutosin Kusa at the
invitation of Thomas Rowlett and - Museum Advisory Council Committee Chair - Lamar Beaty for the Chickasaw County Historical & Genealogical Society, Inc. -  (In-Kind donation = $10,000).

New Faculty: Greg Watson, Associate Professor of Architecture, received his BA in Psychology from Columbia University and his M.Arch degree from Washington University in Saint Louis. He pursued graduate studies in studio arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design. One of his paintings, Gate House, recently placed second in a national competition entitled “Strange Cities”. The piece is currently on exhibit at Gallery 27 in New York City and will move on to be exhibited at the Paul Alexander Gallery in Boston. Watson teaches design studio and basic drawing. Tommy Goodman, Lecturer and Project Architect in the School of Architecture, received his Bachelor of Architecture from Auburn University in 1974. He teaches in the design studio and works in the Carl Small Town Center. Cari Varner, Community Development Research Associate, received her BS in Design and Environmental Analysis from Cornell University in 2001 and a Master of Science and Master of Urban Planning from the University of Michigan in 2005. She teaches in the design studio and works in the Carl Small Town Center. Chris Cosper, Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture received his BArch from Mississippi State University in 1994 and his Master of Arts in English from MSU in 1996. He teaches design studio and Active Building Systems.

Professors David Lewis and Rachel McCann, and Visiting Assistant Professor Wanda Dye received a 2006-2007 ACSA Creative Achievement Award for their first-year architecture design studio. The award honors a creative achievement in teaching that advances architectural education. The studio, entitled “Seize Your Education,” was a semester-long, self-paced investigation of spatial qualities augmented by exercises in color, materials, and representation. The studio emphasized in-depth development of ideas, supportive research, peer critique, and individual responsibility for the scope and direction of work. The studio was also taught by adjuncts Ryan Ashford and Betsy Badía-Hewett, and Visiting Assistant Professor Rebecca Katkin.

Associate Dean Jane Britt Greenwood, AIA has been awarded a grant from the Earthwatch Institute to develop an “Armenian Pattern Language” that can be used to guide the future growth and development of the Armenian city of Gyumri while preserving the vernacular quality of the architecture in the city’s Kumayri Historic District. This research will become an educational model and planning tool for elected officials, architects, planners, and citizens of Armenia in developing and implementing design guidelines, master plans, and other documents aimed at managing economic and physical growth while helping identify, protect, and preserve the vernacular quality of an architectural and cultural heritage. Interviews with Professor Greenwood on this research can be found at http://armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&AID=2097&lng=eng&IID=1126&PHPSESSID=db01697a6b5ba3f4f8dc1c4c57a4f4a8 and
http://www.hetq.am/eng/culture/0704-armenia.html. More information on the expeditions can be found at http://www.earthwatch.org/site/pp.asp?c=dsJSK6PFJnH&b=2461639.

The Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC) has named Assistant Professor Anijo Mathew the 2006-2007 ARCC New Researcher of the Year. The New Researcher award is intended to acknowledge and reward emerging figures in architectural and environmental design research that demonstrate innovation in thinking, dedication in scholarship, contributions to the academy, and leadership. Professor Mathew received the award for his work on interactive architecture and rural "smart" spaces. The award includes recognition at a national level, a plaque and monetary award, as well as an honorarium to present his research at the annual ARCC conference. Description of the award can be found at http://www.arccweb.org/ARCCNewRA.pdf and the ARCC annual conference at http://www.uoregon.edu/~arcc2007/

The Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has awarded Professor Michael Berk’s GreenMobile™ project $5.8 million under the Alternative Housing Pilot Program (AHPP). The pilot program aims to expand the types of housing FEMA provides disaster-affected communities by identifying, developing and evaluating alternatives to FEMA travel trailers and mobile homes. This program will also provide housing to people with on-going housing needs due to the 2005 hurricanes in the Gulf Coast. The states of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas all submitted projects that ranked as the most competitive to receive grant funding, with the projects providing a high degree of confidence in achieving their goal. For more information on the AHPP please visit the following web sites: http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=32426, http://www.governorbarbour.com/Recovery/alternativehousing.htm

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