Carnegie Mellon University

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April 17, 2018

School of Architecture Senior Exhibition, "Clearance," Opens April 19 at Miller Gallery

By Margaret Cox

Margaret Cox
Pam Wigley
  • College of Fine Arts
  • 412-268-1047

The Miller Gallery and School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University jointly present "Clearance," April 19-25 in the Miller Gallery. The exhibition includes final thesis works, independent projects and Masters of Urban Design projects from 15 students in CMU's School of Architecture.

The exhibition features a reception from 6 - 8 p.m. Friday, April 20, and two days of undergraduate project reviews from 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., April 20-21. There are also Masters of Urban Development project reviews from 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 24.The exhibit, reception and reviews are free and open to the public.

"In this exhibition, the thesis students from the School of Architecture's Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Urban Design programs interrogate value — social, cultural, economic, ecologic — as it pertains to contemporary spatial practice," the students wrote in the exhibit program."

"'Clearance' provides a space for this necessary discussion, emphasizing the importance of a transhistorical conception of space as both the producer and the product of culture. It seizes the latencies such a view offers in shaping a situated understanding of the contemporary built environment. Further, the exhibition offers a clearance of processes, ideas and practices drawn from this education. It gives a public face to the candid adaptation of architectural skills as a form of critical practice, cultivating a space for their expanded use in the new present," the students added.

"The S18 thesis/IP studio has operated with energy, creativity and criticality to produce 15 distinct architectural propositions in response to today's deeply divided world," said Mary-Lou Arscott, studio professor and associate head of the School of Architecture. "The results of these speculations are terrifically engaging and give rise to both profound and provocative conclusions."

The Exhibitors + Their Projects:

B.Arch: Nickie Cheung - Contesting Vacancy: Exploring the Multiplicity of Space in Wilkinsburg, PA | Sinan Goral - Mycelium as a Remediator of the Anthropocentric Condition: Rethinking the Brute Force Implications of Progressive-Assembly with Organic Self-Assembly | Nadia Islam - Transcending Bounds: Addressing issues of marginalization within and of the Muslim community through mosque design | KelliLaurel Mijares - Subverting Borders: Examining Barriers in Urban Space | Ivy Faye Monroe - Art Capital: Mapping Postwar New York City Art Culture | Cesar Neri - Mexico 44: Speculative Futures of the Chiapas Highlands | Trent Wimbiscus - Life at the Crossroads: Emergent Landscapes and the Cultural Politics of Automobility | Kyle Wing - Oikonomikos / Polis: The new politics of living | Francis Yang - Existential Schema: Exploring the qualitative design method

MUD: Ernest Bellamy - patch-works | Tamara Cartwright - Hotel to Home: Commoning the Princess Hotel | Yidan Gong - Commoning Gejiaying Village Amidst Metropolitan Wuhan | Paul Moscoso Riofrio - Public accessibility in contested spaces: Imaging a spatially and programmatically diverse approach to the waterfront in the Suburbio of Guayaquil, Ecuador | Chun(Pure) Zheng - Mobile Street Encroachment: Shared Living Space in Lilong, Shanghai | Lu Zhu - Incremental Community

For more information about the exhibition, visit the Miller Gallery website. For further details on the April 20 reception and to RSVP, visit the event Facebook page.