Roberts and ECOPOESIS Awarded Al-Balad Artist Residency

In 2020, Leslie Carol Roberts and The Ecopoesis Project were invited to be part of the Al Balad arts residency program in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It is the first international artists’ residency hosted by Saudi Arabia. Both Saudi and international artists were selected for the residencies, which take place over six weeks.

Al Balad is Jeddah’s historic district, known for its traditional architecture, the hallmarks of which are coral construction and intricate wooden doors and windows. The old town is known for its traditional architecture and houses paneled with intricate wooden windows and doors. Former houses have been turned into heritage sites, such as the Rubat Al Khuniji, a 207-year-old guesthouse where the residents will work.

Roberts, with her Ecopoesis collaborators Adam Marcus and Christopher Falliers, proposed the installation of a small dome as a tool for activating space and intimate conversations about the realities and feelings—grief, fear, melancholy, wonder, humility—around the climate emergency and individual and collective creative responses. The dome will be draped with fabrics, using local materials and aesthetics, to further integrate the structure into its environment. Events will be programmed for the dome, including food sharing and recordings of environmental sound and short personal essays about local ecologies.

While the Covid-19 pandemic has delayed project implementation, the residency program launched online in November 2020 and plans to be in place in late 2021.

Buoyant Ecologies Students Selected for 2020 ACSA / AIA COTE Top Ten

Bachelor of Architecture students Jingyi Emma Luo and Cera Yeo from the fall 2019 Buoyant Blueprint studio have been announced as winners of the AIA COTE Top Ten for Students Design Competition.

The American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA COTE), in partnership with Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), selected the recipients of the national awards. The competition recognizes ten exceptional studio projects that demonstrate designs moving towards carbon-neutral operation through creative and innovative integration of design strategies such as daylighting, passive heating and cooling, materials, water, energy generation, and sustainable systems. The program challenged students to submit projects that use a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems, and technology to provide architectural solutions that protect and enhance the environment.

Jurors included Elgin Cleckley (University of Virginia), Carly Coulson (COULSON), Michael Horan (Clemson University), Tom Kundig (Olson Kundig), and Adrian Parr (University of Texas at Arlington).

The Buoyant Blueprint advanced Integrated Building Design studio, led by CCA faculty Margaret Ikeda, and Evan Jones, is part of an ongoing research partnership between CCA, Autodesk's Technology Center San Francisco, Kreysler & Associates, and the Benthic Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. The research is focused on developing innovative material approaches to resilient waterfront structures.

The selected project, Waterline by Jingyi Emma Luo and Cera Yeo, proposes a strategy for architectural adaptation to climate change for low-lying islands. Sited in the Maldives, the project integrates a mangrove nursery and advanced water recycling systems into a phased plan for a self-sustaining floating community. From the jury citation: "Waterline is a powerful sustainable design solution with cultural foundation. The project details provide a level of excitement and thoughtfulness, which is stunning at first glance that never loses that level of interest throughout the details. The well-executed renderings and details present a realistic design that creates a fantastical sense of place and compelling construction technology.”

Buoyant Ecologies Students Named Finalists in Kiribati Floating Houses Competition

Two teams of Bachelor of Architecture students from the fall 2019 Buoyant Ecologies Blueprint studio have been named as finalists in the Kiribati Floating Houses Competition. The competition invited participants to speculate on forms of floating housing for Kiribati, an island nation located in the central Pacific Ocean that is increasingly vulnerable to climate change and sea level rise.

The Buoyant Ecologies Blueprint advanced Integrated Building Design studio, led by CCA faculty Margaret Ikeda, and Evan Jones, is part of an ongoing research partnership between CCA, Autodesk's Technology Center San Francisco, Kreysler & Associates, and the Benthic Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. The research is focused on developing innovative material approaches to resilient waterfront structures.

The two CCA student teams selected as finalists are: City^2, by Jiaqi Cao, Jiaqi Deng, and Yuchen Li; and Kiribati Floating Community, by Jingyi Emma Luo and Cera Yeo. Congratulations to the students on this achievement!

Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab Wins ACSA Faculty Design Award

The Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab, a project designed by AEL directors Adam Marcus, Margaret Ikeda, and Evan Jones in collaboration with partners at the Benthic Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and Kreysler & Associates, has been recognized by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) with a Faculty Design Award as part of the 2020 Architectural Education Awards program. The Float Lab is a pilot for a floating breakwater, recently launched in San Francisco Bay for a three-year deployment as a floating research laboratory developing new material approaches to resilience and climate adaptation.

Each year, ACSA honors architectural educators for exemplary work in areas such as building design, community collaborations, scholarship, and service. Award winners inspire and challenge students, contribute to the profession’s knowledge base, and extend their work beyond the borders of academy into practice and the public sector. The Faculty Design Awards provide a venue for work that advances the reflective nature of practice and teaching by recognizing and encouraging outstanding work in architecture and related environmental design fields as a critical endeavor.

Jurors for this year’s Faculty Design Awards were Rania Ghosn (MIT Architecture), Courtney Crosson (University of Arizona), and Jennifer Bonner (Harvard University).

Previous recognition of the Float Lab includes a 2019 AIA Innovation Award, an Editor’s Choice in the 2019 Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Awards, the 2019 CCA Impact Award, the 2019-2020 GSAPP Incubator Prize, a 2018 Architect magazine R+D Award, and selection for the Buckminster Fuller Institute’s Catalyst Program in 2017.

Link: 2020 Architectural Education Award Winners

Public Sediment for Alameda Creek Recognized by ASLA with 2019 Honor Award

The Public Sediment team (which includes AEL directors Adam Marcus, Margaret Ikeda, and Evan Jones) has won a 2019 Honor Award in Analysis and Planning from the American Society of Landscape Architects. The project was developed within the framework of the Resilient By Design Bay Area Challenge, a year-long research and design initiative exploring new design approaches to sea level rise and climate change, and recently received $31.4 million of implementation funding from the State of California.

The team’s proposal is based on the premise that sea level rise adaptation must happen upstream. Low sediment supply and bayland drowning represents a slow but devastating scale of loss that threatens ecosystems, recreational landscapes, and places hundreds of thousands of residents and the region’s critical drinking water, energy, and transportation systems at risk. To creatively adapt to this challenge, the team has focused on bringing back sediment to the Bay. The Architectural Ecologies Lab led the development of a central component of the proposal, the Living Levee. The Living Levee is a multibenefit strategy for revetment design that integrates ecological principles within an interlocking concrete module that helps limit erosion and support the surrounding ecosystem. 

The Public Sediment team is led by SCAPE Landscape Architecture and includes Arcadis, The Dredge Research Collaborative, TS Studio, UC Davis Department of Human Ecology and Design, Cy Keener, and Architectural Ecologies Lab. See this link for more info on the project.

Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab Recognized by Architect's Newspaper Best of Design Awards

The Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab, a project designed by AEL directors Adam Marcus, Margaret Ikeda, and Evan Jones in collaboration with partners at the Benthic Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and Kreysler & Associates, has been recognized by the Architect’s Newspaper as an Editor’s Choice in the 2019 Best of Design Awards, for the Research category. The Float Lab is a pilot for a floating breakwater, recently launched in San Francisco Bay for a three-year deployment as a floating research laboratory developing new material approaches to resilience and climate adaptation.

Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab Wins AIA Innovation Award

The Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab, a project designed by AEL directors Adam Marcus, Margaret Ikeda, and Evan Jones in collaboration with partners at the Benthic Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and Kreysler & Associates, has been recognized by the American Institute of Architects with a 2019 Innovation Award. The Float Lab is a pilot for a floating breakwater, recently launched in San Francisco Bay for a three-year deployment as a floating research laboratory developing new material approaches to resilience and climate adaptation.

The AIA Innovation Awards recognize the exemplary use and implementation of innovative technologies and progressive practices among architects and designers, collaborators, and clients. Recipients include the most technologically advanced and forward-thinking projects by architects practicing internationally.

Jurors for this years awards program included Anthony Hauck (Hypar AEC), Phillip Bernstein, FAIA, (Yale University School of Architecture), Desiree Mackey (GEI Consultants), Sera Maloney (The Foth Companies), and Natasha Luthra (Jacobs).

In their award statement, the jury referred to the Float Lab as “a terrific project that combines pedagogy, sustainability, design technology, practice, and fabrication. This is the future architecture should be building—integration with and enhancement of the natural environment."

Link: Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab wins 2019 AIA Innovation Award

Buoyant Ecologies Project Wins 2019 Impact Award

The Buoyant Ecologies project, led by AEL directors Adam Marcus, Margaret Ikeda, and Evan Jones, was recently awarded a $25,000 Impact Award by the Center for Impact at CCA. This year’s theme of the annual competition—"Invention and Innovation in Creative Re-use, Upcycling, and/or Sustainable Materials"—sought solutions from the CCA community that address climate change through inventing environmentally friendly materials or by transforming consumer behavior. The 2019 Impact Award is generously supported by Thurlow Washam, the Center for Cultural Innovation, and the Center for Impact’s ImpactFund.

“The Impact Award recognizes the ingenuity and vision that emanates from thinkers and makers in the CCA community,” says JD Beltran, director of the Center for Impact. “The 25,000 USD grants serve as seed money to incubate projects that hold the promise of long-term impact in addressing social and environmental problems.”

The Buoyant Ecologies project synthesizes architectural design, marine ecology, and digital fabrication to develop resilient waterfront structures that simultaneously enhance biodiversity and mitigate coastal erosion. The team will test 3D-printed prototypes for ecological substrates—using calcium carbonate and advanced composites—on the newly deployed Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab, a scientific laboratory anchored off Oakland’s Middle Harbor Shoreline Park. Building on five years of research, the team is working in collaboration with the Benthic Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, manufacturer Kreysler & Associates, and the Port of Oakland.

“This project began as pure speculation—the notion that floating buildings could provide ecological benefit—and has grown into a robust, multi­disciplinary research initiative,” explain the project leaders.

In addition to Ikeda, Jones, and Marcus, the winning Buoyant Ecologies team consists of CCA adjunct professors Alex Schofield and CCA Architecture students Vishnu Balunsat, Sean Cunningham, Joshua Eufinger, Viviani Isnata, Mithila Jagtap, Cassady Kenney, Cristian Laurent, Peter Pham, and Maria Ulloa.

Jurors for the 2019 Impact Award included Kristen DiStefano, associate director of Atelier Ten; George Henry Hines, founder and CEO of GHH Innovations; Deborah Munk, director of the Artist in Residence (AIR) Program at Recology; CCA associate professor Tim Smith, CCA MBA in Design Strategy program; and Mawuli Tugbenyoh, former commission liaison to the mayor of San Francisco.

Buoyant Ecologies Students Win Merit Award from AIA Los Angeles

Master of Architecture students Marwan Bamasood and Eric Soifer from the fall 2018 Buoyant Ecologies Maldives studio have been selected for a 2x8: Echange Merit Award and $2,500 scholarship by the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles chapter for their project Suitcase Archipelago.

The 2x8: Exchange is a three-pronged program that provides students the opportunity to submit their work for the competition, be a part of the student exhibition, as well as provide scholarship opportunities. Now in its 13th iteration, the competition received participation from 16 schools throughout the state to participate in the annual show. Each school selects two students to represent the program in the competition. The winning student projects are on exhibition at the Helms Design Center in Culver City through June 7.

The Buoyant Ecologies Maldives advanced Integrated Building Design studio, led by CCA faculty Margaret Ikeda, and Evan Jones, is part of an ongoing research partnership between CCA, Autodesk's Pier 9 Workshop, Kreysler & Associates, and the Benthic Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. The research is focused on developing innovative material approaches to resilient waterfront structures.

Suitcase Archipelago proposes an expandable and adaptable floating community for the Maldives that considers the culture of its residents in the design of a kit of reconfigurable parts that allow for a variety of architectural scenarios. From the jury citation: "The strongest asset of this project is the programmatic thinking and the systematic approach to how the components of this resort interconnect and how they approached sustainability, which is otherwise a byproduct or a waste, and turning into a positive by creating a consumable product for the resort. There was a really big depth of thinking beyond just the esthetic and the architecture.”

Buoyant Ecologies Students Selected for ACSA / AIA COTE Top Ten

Bachelor of Architecture students Viviani Isnata and Maria Ulloa from the fall 2018 Buoyant Ecologies Maldives studio have been announced as winners of the AIA COTE Top Ten / Innovation 2030 Student Design Competition.

The American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA COTE), in partnership with Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), selected the recipients of the national awards. The competition recognizes ten exceptional studio projects that demonstrate designs moving towards carbon-neutral operation through creative and innovative integration of design strategies such as daylighting, passive heating and cooling, materials, water, energy generation, and sustainable systems. The program challenged students to submit projects that use a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems, and technology to provide architectural solutions that protect and enhance the environment.

Jurors included David Dowell (El Dorado Inc.), Bradford Grant (Howard University), Matthew Noblett (Behnisch Architekten/Partners), and Mary Demro (Montana State University).

The Buoyant Ecologies Maldives advanced Integrated Building Design studio, led by CCA faculty Margaret Ikeda, and Evan Jones, is part of an ongoing research partnership between CCA, Autodesk's Pier 9 Workshop, Kreysler & Associates, and the Benthic Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. The research is focused on developing innovative material approaches to resilient waterfront structures. This award marks the sixth CCA student project from the Buoyant Ecologies studio sequence to be recognized by the AIA/ACSA COTE Top Ten.

The selected project, Shore of a Hundred Islands by Viviani Isnata and Maria Ulloa, proposes a self-sustaining, buoyant community that blurs the line between land and water. The floating buildings provide habitats for both humans and non-human species such as marine invertebrates and plants. The buildings integrate a modular system of floating wetlands that treats wastewater and benefits the surrounding ecosystem. From the jury citation: "Shore of a Hundred Islands presents an imaginative approach towards the growing issue of rising sea levels. It demonstrates a compelling intersection of traditional form and modern function while also giving careful consideration to aquatic ecology. Within strict programmatic and environmental constraints, the design provides solutions to cultivating both community and privacy.

Public Sediment Awarded Grant from NFWF and NOAA

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)  and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminisrtation (NOAA) recently awarded a coastal adaptation grant to the Public Sediment project, a collaborative endeavor led by SCAPE Landscape Architecture that includes AEL directors Adam Marcus, Margaret Ikeda, and Evan Jones. The grant is in partnership with the California State Coastal Conservancy.

The National Coastal Resilience Fund program supports identified priority regions to enhance fish and wildlife habitats and improve the resilience of coastal communities. In total, $28.9 million of funding were distributed across 35 grants. One of the grants was awarded to the California State Coastal Conservancy for “Gravel Beach and Berm Design for Shorebird Habitat, Erosion Control and Flood Protection” in California, known in the Public Sediment project as the Pebble Dune. The funding will support continued design work on the Public Sediment project, developed through the Resilient By Design Competition, and enhance flood protection infrastructure, wetlands restoration, and public access to 1,300 acres of shoreline.

The Public Sediment team is led by SCAPE Landscape Architecture and includes Arcadis, The Dredge Research Collaborative, TS Studio, UC Davis Department of Human Ecology and Design, Cy Keener, and Architectural Ecologies Lab. See this link for more info on the project.

Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab wins 2018 R+D Award

The Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab, a project led by CCA AEL directors Adam Marcus, Margaret Ikeda, and Evan Jones, has been selected for a 2018 R+D Award by Architect Magazine. The project builds upon four years of applied research into ecologically productive materials for waterfront structures, and it was developed in collaboration with marine ecologists at the Benthic Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) manufacturers at Kreysler & Associates. The Float Lab is a prototype for a floating breakwater that incorporates an ecologically optimized FRP substrate on the underside, which is designed to encourage the growth of diverse marine invertebrate habitats. The accumulation of marine life is optimized such that the resulting biomass helps to attenuate waves and potentially mitigate coastal erosion.

The jury for this year's R+D Awards consisted of Jackilin Hah Bloom and Florencia Pita of Pita & Bloom, Tom Chung of Leers Weinzapfel Associates, and Randy Deutsch of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In the award citation, juror Deutsch remarked "The research that this team took was in-depth, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and collaborative. That and how they displayed the results over time was over-the-top impressive.” 

The Float Lab recently received a permit from the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission for a three-year deployment at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, located in the Port of Oakland. The prototype will be launched later this fall. 

Buoyant Ecologies Students Win National Student Design Competition

Master of Architecture students Clare Hačko and Nicholas Scribner from the fall 2017 Buoyant Ecologies Maldives studio have been announced as winners of the AIA COTE Top Ten / Innovation 2030 Student Design Competition.

The American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA COTE), in partnership with Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), selected the recipients of the national awards. The competition recognizes ten exceptional studio projects that demonstrate designs moving towards carbon-neutral operation through creative and innovative integration of design strategies such as daylighting, passive heating and cooling, materials, water, energy generation, and sustainable systems. The program challenged students to submit projects that use a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems, and technology to provide architectural solutions that protect and enhance the environment.

Jurors included Karin Bjorkman (Nola | Van Puersem Architects), Justin Brown, (MASS Design Group), Chris Chatto (ZGF Architects), Thomas Fisher (University of Minnesota), and Jeanne Gang & Juliane Wolf (Studio Gang).

The Buoyant Ecologies Maldives advanced Integrated Building Design studio, led by CCA faculty Margaret Ikeda, and Evan Jones, is part of an ongoing research partnership between CCA, Autodesk's Pier 9 Workshop, Kreysler & Associates, and the Benthic Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. The research is focused on developing innovative material approaches to resilient waterfront structures.

The selected project, Dis/Placement by Clare Hacko and Nicholas Scribner, proposes a floating community of fiber-reinforced polymer composite structures for the Maldives. The floating buildings integrate an innovative and dynamic bladder system that collects rainwater and provides ballast support for the structures. From the jury citation: "This interesting study brings attention to climate change and rising sea levels by imagining a floating community in the Maldives. The students understood how to work with a different ground planes and included an exploration of what it would be like if you could see a building from below. Above ocean the design is a simple modern style, while underwater “bladders” create ballast and an ocean microecosystem."

Two Buoyant Ecologies Students Recognized by AIA

Master of Architecture students Madeline Cunningham and Taylor Metcalf from the fall 2016 Buoyant Ecologies studio have been announced as winners of the AIA COTE Top Ten for Students awards.

The American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA COTE), in partnership with Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), selected the recipients of the national awards. The competition challenged students to submit projects that use a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems, and technology to provide architectural solutions that protect and enhance the environment.

The Buoyant Ecologies advanced Integrated Building Design studio, led by CCA faculty Adam Marcus, Margaret Ikeda, and Evan Jones, is part of an ongoing research partnership between CCA, Autodesk's Pier 9 Workshop, Kreysler & Associates, and the Benthic Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. The research is focused on developing innovative material approaches to resilient waterfront structures in the San Francisco Bay. 

The selected project, SubOrdinate by Madeline Cunningham and Taylor Metcalf, proposes a new ecological research and education center for Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in the Port of Oakland. From the jury citation: "This innovative project pushes thinking in resilient design by taking a new approach to sea level rise: not by fighting it, but working with it. The attitude is animal-centric and non-confrontational and shows how architecture can adapt to an environment rather than control it. The students also consider the longevity of the project by showing a 100-year progression. The exploration of improving the relationship between nature and built environment is a complicated topic that is resolved impressively."

Four Buoyant Ecologies Students Win National Recognition

Master of Architecture students Rafael Berges, Jared Clifton, Vaama Joshi, and Shirin Monshipouri from the fall 2015 Buoyant Ecologies studio have been announced as winners of the AIA COTE Top Ten for Students awards.

The American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA COTE), in partnership with Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), selected the recipients of the national awards. The competition challenged students to submit projects that use a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems, and technology to provide architectural solutions that protect and enhance the environment.

The Buoyant Ecologies advanced Integrated Building Design studio, led by CCA faculty Adam Marcus, Margaret Ikeda, and Evan Jones, is part of an ongoing research partnership between CCA, Autodesk's Pier 9 Workshop, Kreysler & Associates, and the Benthic Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. The research is focused on developing innovative material approaches to resilient waterfront structures in the San Francisco Bay. 

The selected projects, Augmented Tides by Rafael Berges and Jared Clifton, and Inverted Ecologies by Vaama Joshi and Shirin Monshipouri, propose new ecological research and education centers for Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in the Port of Oakland. Augmented Tides proposes a system of "tidal columns": a field of floating platforms that foster a variety of tidal wetland habitats above and below the water, always in flux with changing water levels. Inverted Ecologies proposes a large subterranean space, capped with a highly performative vaulted structure that incorporates plantings, aquaculture, and water recycling infrastructure as educational features of the building.