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Colleagues, Below you'll find a call for papers and projects for the University of Utah's architectural journal Dialectic. Please distribute the call to any faculty members you feel would be interested. Regards, Luke Leither ------ Luke Leither Art and Architecture Librarian J. Willard Marriott Library 295 S 1500 E SLC, UT 84112 Ph: 801/587-8452 ________________________________ Call for Papers and Projects DIALECTIC, a refereed journal of the School of Architecture, CA+P, University of Utah Dream of Building or the Reality of Dreaming Checking the Pulse: Design Build Practices Deadline: June 1, 2014 Requirements: Abstract (350 words) Short CV In Spring 2013, the School of Architecture at the University of Utah regarded its association with the Design Build studio in Bluff, Utah as a great accomplishment. Bluff is part of the emergent wave of design build studios in the United States tied to the critically acclaimed Auburn University Rural Studio established by Samuel Mockbee in 1999. Alternatively praised for promoting socially responsible architecture and criticized for aestheticizing poverty, these studios have attracted almost universal interest from faculty and students of architecture programs. In the past decade and a half, 100 out of 123 NAAB accredited architecture schools participated in some variety of the studio, and one out of every six students passed through design build education during their tenure in architecture schools. The third issue of Dialectic focuses on the history, theory and practice of design build studio and non-profit design industry. Surely, these studios work on the margins. They are realized in geographies and neighborhoods off the cultural grid. They take students away from the grounding certainties of home and school. They transport participants to a world incompatible with the accepted norms of their educational institutions. They confront them with the limitations of high tech spectacles born of tourist economy for the vast majority of the world that lie at the heart of disciplinary imagination. They force participants to investigate the ordinary, the understated, and the invisible, born of necessity. Most of these programs invent projects paid for with soft funds and produce clients. They do so in communities too poor to be of interest to the real estate industry and too voiceless to be heard by their councilors. They teach design’s reliance on skilled labor. In an article on the power of Rural Studio, Jeremy Till and Sarah Wigglesworth note that it is only from this spatial, material, social, constructional, economical, and pedagogical marginality that one can clearly see the center and recognize its closures, blindness, and restrictions. At the same time, the body-centric pedagogy of design build studios is susceptible to incredible shortsightedness. It is in danger of reproducing power relations within the society: among the educated and the uneducated, the enfranchised and the subjugated, the resourceful and their reverse. Dialectic 3 calls for papers to explore this two edged sword and think through the strengths and challenges to the resurfacing of construction as part of architectural pedagogy. At a sublime scale, what does it tell us about the direction the discipline is headed? We invite abstracts on the history and prehistory of these design build studios. Contributors are encouraged to evaluate both its powerful and toothless practices, and reflect on the value of this enterprise. Suggestions for photo essays are welcome as well as time lines that list the history of design build movement in any part of the world. It is not without significance that this wave of interest in the concrete, hands on, collaborative, site specific, low tech, time- and money-bound approach to architectural education has risen in concurrence with growing commitment to the abstract, automated, independent, screen-specific, high tech, and computation-led (rather than served), screen-centric approach to architectural education. Are these models two sides of the same architectural currency? Can they inform each other and create a dialectically related new definition of architecture and architect’s responsibilities in the 21st century? Does this marginal practice have the strength to hold up a mirror to the center? Or will it be subsumed under the homogenizing tendencies of normative architectural practice? How does design build education and not-for-profit building construction define and refine the social responsibilities of the profession? Do we have examples where high-tech solutions have created humane environments for culturally (also read economically, politically, and educationally) marginal communities? Finally, since these practices create a market for their goods in defiance to the logic of the mainstream marketplace, they impose very trying demands on the time, finances, and logistics of the schools, faculty and organizations committed to them. Are there strategies and tactics that can ensure their sustainability and secure their future? Contributors are welcome to suggest other pertinent issues tied to the non-profit architecture and design build education. The editors value critical statements and alternative practices. An abstract of 350 words and a short CV are welcomed by the editors Shundana Yusaf [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Ole W. Fischer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> by June 1st, 2014. Accepted authors will be notified by June 15th. Photo essays with 8-10 images, time lines, and full papers of 2500-4000 words must be submitted by August 15, 2014 (including visual material, endnotes, and permissions for illustrations) to undergo an external peer-review process. This issue of Dialectic is expected to be out in print by March 2015. ////////////////////// DIALECTIC a refereed journal of theSchool of Architecture, CA+P, University of Utah ISSN: 978-0-615-64167-6 Available though the University of Utah Press and selected architecture & art bookshops ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~