This morning Mike McKay and Liz Swanson McKay, Professors of Architecture at the University of Kentucky, gave a lecture titled “Pointing” for Architecture Immersion Day. Liz Swanson was on faculty at GSA in 2003, Architecture’s inaugural year, and both Liz and Mike were on faculty in 2004 when I attended GSA for Architecture along with Mark Richards (Architecture DA) and Erin Ruhl (RA), so it was exciting to see what they have been doing since I last saw them. On Opening Day in 2004 they told my class and our parents that at the end of the three week program we would see the world in an entirely new way, and they were absolutely right. Because of that, it was particularly interesting to me that they titled their lecture “Pointing”, stating that the way they view the world has drastically changed since the birth of their daughter, and that they learn so much from watching her point and discover the world around her. Liz added, both seriously and in jest, “Before our daughter was born, I’d never really studied clover, or grass.”

As UK Professors, Mike and Liz formed a satellite architecture studio in New Orleans, which Mark Richards and Erin Ruhl enrolled in last semester. They focused their lecture on a few projects that came out of their Kentucky New Orleans Architecture Studio. After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, they felt called to be a part of the rebuilding of the city, and they and their students worked together on several projects.

One project they showed was a new design for a family-owned restaurant and community hub that had been destroyed by the hurricane. Because of Katrina, architects and designers have to plan for future flooding by either elevating the buildings they design, or by making them floodable—of these options, the UK students chose the latter. Should more flooding occur, the building would only need to be hosed down. Another project they presented was actually designed by Mark Richards and Erin Ruhl—their installation was a bench, posting area for rebuilding updates, and community meeting place all in one. Even more amazing than the finished project was the fact that it was built entirely out of materials reclaimed from a deconstructed house that had formerly inhabited the site where their project now resides. It was also really great to see professors so invested in their students’ work.

The last project Mike and Liz presented, “Point Cloud”, was an installation they created after observing the pile of furniture and debris in what used to be Mike’s family’s living room (Mike is originally from New Orleans). They created a computer model of the debris that broke this mass down into points. They then strung silver beads on what looked like fishing line and installed it by hanging it from the ceiling of a gallery, thus recreating the form of the pile of debris with silver beads.

The Architecture Smorgs today were:

Surrealist Games: What is Architecture?—taught by Liz Swanson

Exquisite Corpse—taught by Steven Ward and Donna Sink

Found Objects Installation—taught by Mark Richards and Erin Ruhl

Egg Drop—taught by Jeff Rawlins

In other news, the Dance students had two classes taught by Christepher Gilbert—the first was a Modern Dance Masterclass and the second was a Choreography Workshop.

Until tomorrow, this is GSA ’08 intern Laura Lamping Greenwell signing off.